09.06.06
Posted in General at 9:50 pm by pure ego
I bought a few DVDs from my recent trip to Ho Chi Minh. Before I continue, I know I should be ashamed. Coming from the media industry I should not be supporting the pirates by buying DVDs that has violated copyright law.
Anyway, I must say quality of such DVDs are better in China than those from Ho Chi Minh city. Out of the six I bought, four are faulty. This is versus one out of twenty from those bought in China. Well, there aren’t many shops selling DVDs in Ho Chi Minh in the first place. I was talking about it with one fellow traveller I met while I was there. I said there are not as many media piracy in Ho Chi Minh as I thought there would be. She said no way! Didn’t I see the pirated books and paintings?! Oh yes, she jolted my memory of the imitation Monet I saw in many of the art shops selling paintings. I must say most of those are of high quality reproduction - the Vietnamese make great artists.
So, coming back to my main point, I just caught ”Jasmine Women” the other day. The last ten minutes of the film had no audio. Nevertheless, I understood the whole movie. It is separated into three stories, where the daughter in each story repeats the mistake of her mother. No, Joan Chen and Zhang Ziyi did not look like a lesbian couple despite them filling most of the scenes. As usual, Zhang was fabulous with her usual outing as a nubile young play thing for licentious men. But what really hit me when I was watching the movie was, Joan Chen does not seem to need to work to support her daughter. Well, she owns a photo studio but I did not see any photographers. What’s more, the photo studio gets passed on to the next two generations and no one seemed to need to work for a living at all!
Sometimes I do wish I can be absorbed into the movies. Life seems more interesting and work is usually minimal. I guess I am more conscious of it lately because of the heavy workload in my office.
Truth is, I am more interested to be doing my own work as opposed to my office work now. I am addicted to writing screenplays after completing my first feature length script not too long ago. I am on to writing a Singapore style “Brokeback Mountain” for the fun of it. It is not exactly “Brokeback”, I guess I will explain it better when it is finished. Anyway I am not terribly original to begin with.
I wondered if a gay film will ever get enough funding to be made in Singapore. Of course that is discounting “Be With Me” since there is hardly any depth to the relationship between the two girls. I suppose if SQ 21 is getting a review in Life on Sunday Times, perhaps one day, Singapore gay film will actually make it to the big screeens here.
But, when?
Permalink
08.19.06
Posted in General, Singlehood at 12:31 pm by pure ego
It has been quite a long time since I wrote on Sayoni. During my absence here, I completed a screenplay and worked hard at my new job. Though I spent many hours writing after work and halted my social life, I did not feel the urge to ask anyone out when I finished the long script. Despite the loneliness, I preferred to spend time alone, going to the movies and gym.
So here I thought, these outings alone were great training for the years to come if I should end up alone. Anyway, I am alone and I have no urge or whatsoever to date anybody.
I preferred to do other things, thoughts of dating or being attracted to anyone isn’t on my list at all. Thus on Singapore’s national day I was excited, not because I spent my country’s 41st birthday alone, but because in the morning of August 9, I found myself on the plane heading to Saigon.
I had always been fascinated by Saigon, for her charm and of course, the beautiful Vietnamese girls featured in movies like “Good Morning Vietnam” and “The Quiet American”. I didn’t get to see any on my trip, or think that anybody would fancy me in Vietnam, till I went for a massage on my last evening there.
Read the rest of this entry »
tags: being single, gay, lesbian, love, queer, relationships, glbt
- Forum discussion: Singles Camp
- technorati: glbt, lesbian, queer, relationships, being single, love, gay,
Permalink
06.01.06
Posted in General at 9:22 am by pure ego
For those who are big on jazz/bossa nova, you are right, I got the title from a song. Not just that, but I thought the title appropriate to what I would like to share.
Recently I fell for someone, of course nothing went according to what I had wished. Through the months I realised we probably aren’t compatible. Not just the fact she’s attached, but well, I probably liked her because I was feeling down. Nevertheless I met up with her not too long ago and that feeling came back again, but I halted it.
People are mostly frivolous and rather cheap in a sense. Well, I think at least I am. I had a relationship not too long ago, oh well maybe that was eight months ago. I did not treasure it in the beginning, but we improved a lot and I thought it was going the distance. Due to unforseen circumstances we had to part. After which I had all the symptoms of a break-up, feeling empty and well, had a rebound. Like I said I didn’t do anything about the rebound because she’s attached.
My ex knew about the rebound, she was angry at first. But she calmed down and ended up encouraging me. I knew it wasn’t out of vindictiveness. She told me she couldn’t guarantee me anything so why should she be angry?
Since our break up, she had been supportive, encouraging me all the way with whatever stage of life I am going through. I still remembered the time I bought my new flat, I brought her into my new home for the first time. The moment I closed the door and turned around, she was gone. I went to my bedroom and saw her standing there looking happy for me. I would speak in an alien language to her and she would reply in the same way. We communicated through the emotional tones in our voices everytime we spoke like that. It was funny. We would dance ourselves till we are tired in my room too. We did not have to see each other everyday. There was freedom and we could be ourselves as individuals.
Of course all those aren’t the only things that made me happy. Not that I am very sad having lost a great relationship, because I am really used to being single now.
We still talk quite a fair bit, I try to wish her good morning and night everyday. I wondered to myself, perhaps this is it. I’ll never love like this again. I guess I would wait for her, even though I might end up with nothing in the end.
It is silly probably. Who knows, a year from now we might not even speak anymore.
tags: lesbian, love, rebound, queer
- About: Pureego in a rare sentimental mood
- Forum discussion: Emotional Health
- technorati: queer, lesbian, love, rebound
Permalink
05.16.06
Posted in General, Relationships, Singlehood at 10:58 am by pure ego
What does it mean to be single? Single-hood to some means the in between relationships where we date and have numerous flings. While to others, it means to occupy time with friends and many social outings so as to be able to detect a potential partner for a relationship, yes just short of going out on an actual date. Then, there are the rest of us who devote most of our time meeting friends every now and then but concentrate on work and doing things alone.
Single-hood has a different meaning for me each time. The first was the fear of not being loved by anyone again. After all I had just discovered my sexuality and was lack of a direction. Then of course each time I was left single the aftermath feeling evolved. I would say age played a part too.
No prizes for guessing which kind of singles I belong to mentioned in the first paragraph of this article. Okay, if it is not obvious enough… yes I belong to the third kind.
Read the rest of this entry »
tags: glbt, queer, single, singlehood, lesbian
- About: Pureego. Single asian female seeks no-one!
- Forum discussion: Singles Camp
- technorati: lesbian, queer, glbt, singlehood, single
Permalink
04.08.06
Posted in General at 12:24 am by pure ego
Ok ok, the time is here again! Yes, it’s the 19th Singapore International Film Festival! So, is anyone out there who is excited? (Waiting and tapping finger on the table)…
All right I know the SIFF isn’t something which is terrbily exciting to everyone, but here is a little insider’s story that might help you appreciate this yearly local film event a little better…
Just not too long ago, like maybe last year? A friend told me that the SIFF might not happen this year because their main sponsor Asia Pacific Brewery, had been warned by the government not to fund the event. The reason? I think a documentary on Chee Soon Juan was made and the SIFF tried to screen it in the local short films competition non-finalist screening. That made YOU KNOW WHO very, very much unhappy. Moreover there was the Royston Tan’s fiasco a few years back when he made ‘Cut’ to poke fun at the film censorship here. Yes, ’Cut’ was screened in the festival.
Then rumours surfaced that the men dressed in white wanted to stop the event! Horrors! What will happen to the future of Singapore film-makers?! Wait, I need to take a deep breath to calm down…
Read the rest of this entry »
tags: films, gay, glbt, lesbians, queer, siff
- About: Pure Ego loves movies and would like to one day translate what she thinks on the BIG screen. Oh yes, I'll try not to be overly neurotic
- Forum discussion: Entertainment
- technorati: SIFF, films, gay, queer, lesbians, glbt
Permalink
04.03.06
Posted in General, Identity, Mature at 4:54 pm by pure ego
This is a monthly column by Pureego, an ego bursting, movie maker, Gen-X bitch who needs to rant about films, love & life every now & then.
Being born in the 1970s, I grew up with a certain set of values and a way of seeing the world shaped by my upbringing, culture, and influenced by the friends I am surrounded. In my point of view, I am considered open-minded to a lot of things. I mean come on, I am part of the Gen-X; we are the cultural liberators and innovators! We crave and are open to freedom and are not chained to the stringent values and circumstances that our baby boomers parents were subjected.
Not to mention having come a long way to being more comfortable with my sexuality, and not flinching from the countless accounts of luscious love affairs which I have heard in the community.
But I forgot about the generation Y, a group of people whom I realise has grown up and will very soon take over what my generation has carved out for them. And recently, encounters with the generation Y has left me rather flabbergasted, that I might after all be a conservative oldie! GASPS!
Read the rest of this entry »
tags: l-word, conservative, gay, lesbians, queer, gen-x
- About: Pureego is a movie loving, neurotic bitch
- Forum discussion: Mature
- technorati: Gen-X, conservative, L-Word, lesbians, queer, gay
Permalink
