Released Date: August 2007

Episodes: 10 (Season 1)

Genre: Drama, History, Romance, Sex (Sadly too much of it)

Rating: NC-16, can be squeezed down to a PG if extensive exclusions of sex scenes were to be taken. (Currently not airing in Singapore).

The Tudors, as from the name refers to the Tudor era in 16th century England. More specifically, the show dramaticises the life the Tudor’s most infamous king, King Henry VIII. As from history, we all know that this guy is one of the most selfish king in European history. He broke off from the Catholic Church to divorce his first wife and get a second (and consequently another 4 more). He killed good ministers (i.e. Saint Thomas More) because they don’t agree with his “religious” beliefs. And he has adultery with almost all the ladies in his court.

The Plot:

For detailed explanation of the plot, click here. In general, season 1 of the Tudors depicts King Henry having too many affairs with anyone who’s a woman in the show. He is disgrunted with his marriage to his first wife, Katherine of Aragon (Spain) because she did not produce a son for him. Technically she did, but all her children died early in childhood, and only 1 daughter survived. That is the future Queen Mary I (nicknamed Bloody Mary).

Everyone in the court is plotting for more power. Cardinal Wosley appeased and even went to the extent of bending back over to meet King Henry’s every whims and fancies so he can get more power and money through his service as Chancellor and Cardinal of England. In fact, Wosley was so outrageous to the extent of getting favours from France to support his papacy in Rome.

King Henry also flippantly appointed his friends dukes and knights, as if there is no worth in these titles. At the same time, he also goes to war with France and nearly even Spain to appease his vanity. The show portrays a really sensationalised fatuous king that is doing sex almost 24/7. But of course, they chose a good-looking young man to fill the shoes of this role. Smart move indeed.

Things I like about the Tudors:

Being a history buff, I favour historical accuracy. The Tudors, though depicting a real story, is only loosely based on the truth. However, Michael Hirst (creator of the series), has done a good job with compensating us a compelling plot. There is drama on every corner of the show, but yet it doesn’t go overboard to the standards of soap operas. The story is quick-paced and there is frequent time-hopping in the show. Of course, is it to be appreciated if they had included the year the show has jumped to. It is really confusing to see the children in the show to have looked older. Like for example, Princess Mary (King Henry’s daughter) was seen in a few episodes as a 5 year old, and in the next, almost 11 years old. The time lapse was never explained.

The rich costumes were also very attractive. Actually, in reality, the Tudor era is one of the more darker eras in English history, filled with plagues and all sort of nasties. Well… Just people that don’t bath that often (once a week if lucky :O ).

The not so pleasant things about The Tudors:

Like I’d mentioned above, the time of the show is not clear. One moment King Henry’s bastard son was an infant, and the next moment he is a 3 year old. Time is one area the show is unaccountable for. It would be appreciated if they had bothered to mention “X years later” during such transition scenes. That will clear up much confusion about the plot and characters.

Another problem with this show is that it has loads of sex scenes. It’s a really raunchy show. In fact in the first episode, there were explosive sex scenes between King Henry and Lady Blough. This continues on till the story progresses to depict King Henry and Anne Boleyn’s courtship. There was the part were there were lesser sex scenes, but there is still some left. The show is really erotic, well at times it alluded to pornography. There is full frontal nudity for women, but the line is drawn to male nudity. You do not see the phallus for sure. But yeah, I do wonder at times whether it is necessary to have so much sex scenes. Well,  we’re watching the life of King Henry VIII, England’s horniest king.

Last Notes:

So should you watch this show? Well, you should give it a try. Unlike other period shows, the dialogue for The Tudors is fairly easy to understand. The pace of this show is fast, not slow like Pride and Prejuduce (if that’s your definition of period boredom). Each episode of approximately 45mins (without advertisements) is rather heavy on content, so if you plan on watching the episodes back to back, you’re forewarned. Overall, this show gives a modern interpretation of History. Though some of plot is utter fiction, it’s still quite education for viewers and gives great insight to the psyche of History’s infamous, and famous figures.

P.S: I watched The Tudors to see Jonathan Rhys Meyers. He makes King Henry VIII a rock star lothario.

Date Released: 27 September 2007 – 22 May 2008

Episodes: 18

Genre: Drama, Comedy, Fashion, Family, Mystery, LGBT

Rating: Previously NC-16 (Singapore), but now it is most likely banned due to LGBT content.

Last year, Mediacorp Channel 5 did a lot of publicity when airing the first season of Ugly Betty. In fact, the show was rather well-received by viewers. My friends were all hooked on the slogan “Ugly is the new beautiful”. In fact, an ex-schoolmate of mine told me that seeing the lead character, Betty Suarez with braces, she’d found the perfect role model on TV. Frankly TV isn’t the best place to look for role models. Think Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears or even Amy Winehouse… As Perez Hilton would say, “HOT MESS”! But what charmed many Singaporean viewers (mostly gals), is the unglamorous portrayal of the lead character, Betty Suarez. Betty is this young graduate from a conservative middle-class Hispanic family that is unleashed into the center of the glamorous fashion world (Mode Magazine).

Credited from Entertainment Wallpaper.com

This dramedy is unforgettable for its colourful setting. Everyone dressed in bold (sometimes bordering outrageous and outlandish) colours. If I need to find a comparison to it, I guess MIKA’s debut album, “Life in Cartoon Motion” would fit it. In fact, MIKA’s music was used in the publicity for the second season of Ugly Betty.

Ugly Betty, is not just about a simple gal (which we can all relate to) trying to find her foothold in the fashion journalism scene. It’s a bit of mystery, romance, family and current issues involved. The first season was about Betty (being sent by Bradford Meade- Daniel’s Dad) to get his life straight from all the hard partying and sex he had sunk himself into. Clearly we’ve seen a lot of public figures going through that crap in the past year. On the mystery portion, Daniel’s mother, Claire was found responsible for the death of Mode’s previous editor-in-chief, Fey Sommers (who happens to be the mistress of Bradford), and that the previously missing elder son of Bradford, Alex Meade, has had a sex-change. And is now known as Alexis Meade. There is a lot more to explain but I guess you can click here to find out more, in detail.

Personal Opinion:

I shan’t divulge much about season 2′s plot. This season is actually more serious than the previous, sometimes bordering depressing. In the last season, I felt hopeful for the romance between Betty and the nice geeky accountant, Henry. However, as we know from the cliffhanger last season, Henry’s cheating ex-girlfriend (Charlie) is pregnant with his child and he contemplates to go back to her (for the sake of the child). Sadly, in the following season, it is revealed that this Charlie is really having his child. Fortunately, the scriptwriter gave us a new character, Gio, who is this sarcastic (who actually is a really nice) guy who falls for Betty too. At least the possibility of a Betty-Gio romance eases the pain of having to see Betty suffering for her definitely won’t work out romance with Henry.

A good note is that Claire is finally free from prison, but so much has changed. I really wished she and Bradford could be back together as a couple. But the Bradford-Wilhelmina subplot was good too. I liked the Victoria Beckham cameo at their wedding. But I’m not looking forward to see Lindsay Lohan on Ugly Betty. That is one actress I don’t want to see on TV.

Basically, the douche of the story lies with the Betty-Henry romance. I don’t know if it’s the scriptwriter’s idea of making us hate Henry but really, I’d enough seeing Betty forcing herself to work out an impossible relationship with this coward. Yes… This is guy is the last guy any gal should date. In the first season, he’s all great and wonderful. But after watching how he actually impregnated a gal before marriage, I don’t like him as much as I did before. OK, I’m being stereotypical here but I thought Henry isn’t like the typical American guy that sleeps with his gal before marriage. Obviously fat hope for me. Then Betty did the most stupidest thing of all, to cohabit with him, because her father, Ignacio, is against the relationship. Really, Ignacio was right. But love is blind and you just end up doing idiotic things in the name of love.

Though Betty’s personal life is really a crappy mess, Amanda and Marc’s life seem to be more cheery. This time, Amanda is on the search of her real father. I liked the Gene Simmons cameo, but thank goodness he’s not the real McCoy. Not really a fan of KISS, or his viper-like tongue. But I thought that episode with him was not bad. As for Marc, he’s finally found a boyfriend, but the chap’s not too handsome. It’s genius to pair Marc with someone ordinary. Marc’s subplot kind of explored how love isn’t always about surface beauty.

As for Wilhelmina, I can only say that she’s even more evil (in a gross way) this season. I don’t like how she manipulated Bradford and Christina. Frankly, though she’s evil, she makes the show interesting. To find out what evil she’s up to this season, do catch the show. Unfortunately, it won’t be aired in Singapore.

Credited from Entertainment Wallpaper.com

Last Notes:

If you’re wondering when Mediacorp Channel 5 is going to air the second season of Ugly Betty, you can just forget about it. This show portrays LGBT in the most positive sense. Actually, you can’t really say that they are pro-gay. It’s just an honest portrayal about LGBT in the world. Main reason why they won’t air this season will most probably lie in the season’s story arc on the relationship between Marc and his boyfriend. If you’ve watched season 1, you’d know that Marc is gay (I really liked how he got Betty to pretend to be his girlfriend when his Mum popped by for a visit). Recently, the MDA has fined Starhub for airing an MV with supposed “lesbian” content. A 5 min MV and Starhub has to pay $10 000. There was also supposed outrage from MDA when Mediacorp Channel 5 aired some show that featured a happy gay couple with a child.

For fans of Desperate Housewives, don’t bother to look out for the latest season, since it too features a “happy” gay couple now. Frankly, I don’t see the rational for airing shows with explicit heterosexual sex scenes, but going hush hush because 2 men/women are holding hands or being loving. It is plain hypocritical.

However, fret not. The MDA can censor our TV programmes and deny us of great entertainment just because they are not gay-unfriendly. We can still watch banned American TV programmes via alternative resources (i.e. Internet).

Title: One Nation Under Lee

Year Released: 2008

Rated: Banned (Singapore), most likely a G (Overseas)

Genre: Documentary, Society, Singapore, Governance

I have just discovered a new documentary on Singapore society, specifically focused on our supreme leader, the Venerable Holiness, His Majesty, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew (HMMM LKY).

The documentary is detailed with every accusation allegation backed with factual prove. This documentary is as close to watching Singapore’s progress through the eyes of an actual Singaporean (who lived through the 60s to today). In fact, I recommend it to non-Singaporeans who would like to understand why Singapore is synonymous to one man, Lee Kuan Yew. And that why the official voice of Singapore in the international community does not always represent the voice of Singaporeans. For Singaporeans who are benignly unaware of how and why Singapore functions in such almost-utopian systematic simplicity.

The opening of the documentary really reminded me of The Departed. Well… HMMM LKY is definitely way WAAAY cooler than the Irish Mafia, not forgetting, more omnipotent in all aspects.

Unfortunately, the MDA has refused the airing of this documentary to the public. However, the director, Seelan Pillay has graciously distributed this documentary on the public domain (the Internet ) ! So do watch it, you won’t regret it. It’s a rather educational piece of work.

Last Notes:

This documentary is rather raw, and not very polished, perhaps due to the lack of professional experience with documentaries and movies by the director. I’m not surprised if it’s mainly a one-man job on this documentary. An encouraging note is that the substantial factual evidences, especially the media reportings that caught the various ministers’ prima donna quotes were powerful punches to add credibility to this fine work. Which was really rather slighted because of its association with the SDP (Supposedly supported the director; who else would be daring to support this work? Perhaps Mr JB Jeyaretnam). The polished (most probably caucasian) narrator of the documentary also helps smoothen the edges to this rather raw depiction of the serious side of Singapore governance. Well, perhaps the government is right about foreign talent, everything caucasian or not Singaporean just makes things better for Singapore.

Year Released: 2003

Rated: R21 (Singapore)

Genre: Neo-Noir, Mystery, Thriller

Oldboy was the breakthrough movie in South Korea in 2003. This movie is the second of the the trilogy of movies (The Vengence series) directed by Park Chan Wook. I got to know of this movie while surfing the net to find out more about the Korean singer/actress, Uhm Jung Hwa. She starred in the last movie of this trilogy titled “Sympathy with Lady Vengence”. What drove me to watch Oldboy was not only the taboo scenes of violence, like severing of tongue and inserting metal wires into the skin as DIY tattoos, but because the plot revolved round a simple basis, the vicious cycle hearsay and rumour development. Of course, this theme is reminiscent in Thomas Hardy’s tragic “Return of the Native”, Oldboy has taken this theme further, creating a breakthrough gore-thriller movie that puts Hollywood to shame.

Plot:

To read in detail, click here.

Basically the whole story deals with a man, Oh Dae Su, who was incarcerated in a dingy “hotel room”-like cell by an ex-schoolmate, Lee Woo Jin who believed that Dae Su was responsible for this chap’s sister’s death. Sounds very complicated right? The basis of the story revolves round how a “loose tongue” ruined the lives of so many people, especially the person with that damned tongue. Of course this damned person is Dae Su. 

Lee Woo Jin is a pervert, first he has an incestuous (but consentual) relationship with his sister, which was discovered by Dae Su. It so coincidently was Dae Su’s last day in that village and school and he unfortunately discovered them having something amorous going on in the chemistry lab. So before he left the village, he told his friend, Joo Hwan what he saw. Of course he didn’t know Woo Jin was that girl’s brother so he told Joo Hwan that he saw that gal being hanky-panky with some random guy. Important to note here is that Dae Su reminded Joo Hwan to keep this to himself and don’t spread this information around. Of course, Joo Hwan did his magic and started a vicious rumour/smear campaign on this poor girl’s reputation. He even went to the extent of claiming she is pregnant. 

The worse thing was that the poor gal started to hallucinate that she’s pregnant. And fully knowing the consequence of being “impregnated” with her brother’s child, she is overwhelmed with shame and decided to commit suicide by jumping down from a dam. 

The brother decides to take revenge for his beloved sister and “assumed” Dae Su is the one responsible for her death. So the diabolical, ridiculously expensive revenge took place in 1988. This time Dae Su has a family, and has pretty much forgotten about his old high school days. 

Amusing scenes:

When Oh Dae Su was masturbating in front of the TV as a MTV featuring women dancing. The funny thing is that the MTV looks very dated and the dancers were all dressing in leotards. It just wasn’t something worth masturbating on. But I guess that brought out the point that Dae Su was so sexually depraved.

When Mido and Dae Su have sex for the first time. It’s incredibly unromantic, nothing sexy at all. But it amuses me when Mido tries to convince herself that the ‘pain’ from having sex is worthwhile if it pleases Dae Su. Do all women behave this way?

When Dae Su chases his past-self up the stairs in his high school. The scene was shot reminiscing M.C. Escher’s Relativity. The way the stairs and ceilings converge is interesting to look at. I applaud Park Chan Wook for his creativity.

Beyond logic:

How perfectly synchronized the entire hypnotism procedure was to make Mido and Dae Su meet and “fall in love” with each other. I doubt it’s realistic in reality. 

Gore Scenes:

When Dae Su plucked the teeth off the gangster chief with pliers. I guess that was really painful.

When Dae Su swallowed the live octopus. Actually not a gory scene but that was a real, breathing octopus used for that shot. I heard the actor Choi Min-Sik (Oh Dae Su) prayed for the octopus before he did the nasty. Yucks… This is sashimi at its worst!

When Dae Su cut his tongue with a pair of scissors. That was nearing the end, but I guess this scene leaves me with deep impact. Not only with the gore and blood, but because it brought home the point on how “lousy tongues” can ruin people’s life. Oh Dae Su’s loose tongue caused so many lives to be lost, can you really feel sad that it’s now gone from him? But then again, was he REALLY TO BLAME for the rumour to become the tragedy it was?

Last words:

This movie may be grossly violent, but I think at worse, it’s only an M18 movie. But the best thing I like about the show is the irony. The fact that Joo Hwan should be the one suffering the shit because he was THE ONE the inevitably started the malicious rumour. Sometimes, it’s really not the source of the rumour who’s responsible, but the one that propagates it. Another irony worthy of mention is that how Dae Su had forgotten whatever that happened regarding this rumour incident in high school showed how insignificant this incident is to the person thought “responsible” for the whole crap. If I were Woo Jin, and I were to realise that this “bastard” forgot how he ruined my sister’s life, I would have felt so pathetic about my whole revenge. There is nothing more satisfying than toying with a person’s guilt in a revenge plot. However, what fun in there when your target is oblivious to your actions? As for the crappy sex scene (between Dae Su and Mido), feel free to scrap them, my beloved MDA and movie censors of Singapore.

Based on the manga by Kotomi Aoki, the story revolves around the love between twins Yori and Iku. The storyline differs from the anime version.

The story starts off when Iku mentions to her brother Yori how she should reply to a dating proposal. Yori then professes his love for her, asking her to choose, which she did. Later, as their relationship is found out, Yori is torn by his decision, realising that they do not have a future together, but unable to put their love aside. He attempts to forget about Iku by going out with someone else, but this in turn hurts her.

The story is told beautifully. There’re no ‘eeks’ feelings towards this incestuous relationship. Instead, we’re captivated by how innocently this two young people are in love with each other, we even forget for a moment that they’re twins.

The pace of the movie is quite laid-back. Long scenes of silence, with a smattering of dialogue. Huge pauses, scenes with little movement. Kinda makes it difficult to sit through for an impatient person like me. That’s why the beginning was…really kinda bland, with all the time given for the characters to develop.

We see an indecisive Yori, who can’t decide how to protect Iku from their relationship. He pulls Iku to him with his declaration of love, yet pushes her away fearing she might get hurt, then decides not to lie to himself about his feelings and chases after her again.

Iku, on the other hand, does not give a deep impression. Her character is simple…..just devotion to her twin brother. Instead, it is Tomoka, the girl whom Yori dates to forget Iku, which leaves a stronger impression. Her one-sided love towards Yori will never be reciprocated, yet she still chooses to force herself upon Yori. There is no happiness to a forced love, so what is she trying to achieve or fulfill?

The ending however, was unexpected…in the feelings that were brought out. The duo journey back to the field which holds much memories for them and find it destroyed. Iku burying the flower ring is a significant hint as to how the story will end. The field is destroyed, things that are past can’t be returned to.

Then we’re caught unawares in a light hearted moment, with the duo playing a childhood game. Suddenly the tragic moment arrives…

It is difficult to put into words why such a simple story with such simple characters is able to turn out so touching. Perhaps it’s the final scene…so much that is left unsaid, yet the scene is bursting with all the feelings that have been repressed throughout the entire show. It is really the end…

As the credits start to roll, my eyes start tearing up. Crystal Kay’s voice singing the ending theme…the sense of hopelessness, despair….yet beneath…the knowing that life must still go on…

A simple story, simple characters, simple dialogue….sit down and watch it without any expectations. Sometimes we have return to the simple things to discover how touching life can be.