On the Street Where I Live
There goes the neighbourhood…
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Andrew
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Andrew
Toronto-Singapore Film Fest: The Films
Since I didn’t see any familiar faces at yesterday’s Toronto-Singapore Film Festival (and really didn’t expect to), I’m doing my cinematic duty with a quick report on the films I saw:
Drama Program
- Café, directed by Kelvin Sng
- Cultures collide in a late-night café, and the Japanese guy watching the proceedings seems to get it all wrong. The audience loveed the character with the heavy Singlish accent.
- Parcel, directed by Lu Lu Yang
- A young postman is haunted by a violent childhood memory. The package that he carries around turns out to be empty. I didn’t get it.
- Strings, directed by Jon Lim
- A creepy take on the ties that bind, and easily the audience favourite of the afternoon. More than a bit derivative of Ringu and Ju-on: The Grudge but hey, why mess with the classics?
- More Than Words, directed by Kelvin Sng
- A bitter-sweet gangster romance, set in the ‘70s. Kudos to the costume designer for the bell-bottom pants and platform shoes!
Documentary Program
- Past Tense, directed by Mirabelle Ang
- A lyrical piece on the narrator’s return to the lion state. A bit too arty for me.
- Singapore Rebel, directed by Martyn See
- Profiling Dr. Chee Soon Juan‘s ongoing attempts to bring true democracy to Singapore. Pretty disheartening that the government basically bankrupted this guy out of running for office…
- Singapore Ga Ga, directed by Pin Pin Tan
- Due to technical difficulties we only saw the first few minutes of this film, a look into Singapore’s more colourful local characters. Too bad. It looked very promising.
During the intermission between the two programs the audience was treated a free indigenous buffet—but sadly, no durian.
My sincere thanks and congratulations to Yeow-Tong Chia and all the volunteers who made this event happen. I’d say it was a big success!
- Café, directed by Kelvin Sng
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Andrew
Celebrate Singapore
(A platter of Singapore Slings served up at the famous Raffles Hotel…)
Apologies for this very last minute heads-up, but if anyone’s interested there’s a Singapore Short Film Festival happening this afternoon at Innis Town Hall. It starts at 12:45pm, so you still have a couple of hours to make it there!
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Andrew
Jane Creba Memorial
It’s worth making a special trip downtown to see the memorial for Jean Creba, the teenager shot and killed in an exchange of gunfire on Yonge Street this past Boxing Day. If you read the many messages there you’ll see that people are scared and angry, but more than anything else simply grieving for a fellow citizen whose life was so needlessly taken from her.
Local police are calling this the loss of Toronto’s innocence, but it’s heartening to see in this small memorial that we haven’t stopped caring about each other just yet…
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Janie
I enjoyed reading your commentary – so true – people really do care.
Made a special trip downtown to see the memorial site- wonder if they should have a permanent marker – memorial stone to mark the site? -
Andrew Currie
Hi Janie,
Thanks for your comment. A permanent marker would be nice, but I bet the folks at Foot Locker wouldn’t be interested in a permanent reminder of urban violence on or near their property.
However, this could be a great opportunity for them to start up a sports scholarship in her memory… Are you listening, Foot Locker?
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Andrew
Raid on Pacific Mall
Thanks to fellow bruncher and AC.ca lurker Ed Wong for passing on news of a raid on Pacific Mall by police last weekend. Apparently over 150,000 pirate DVDs were seized at the mall and other suburban locations.
I had taken Al Howell up to Pacific Mall for his first visit a couple of weekends ago, and even I was taken aback at the blatant peddling of pirated discs. At least three booths were lined wall to wall with DVDs stacked on spindles, with another stack of empty cases ready and waiting at the cash register.
Still, one sound bite from the CTV story is especially irritating. If police want to “send a message” to DVD bootleggers, then mission accomplished. But by buying such goods, aren’t us common folk also sending the message to the studios that their wares are overpriced?
Lord Wat is discussing. 
Lord Wat 5:49 PM on March 9, 2006 Permalink |
I have it on good authority that this is an insulin syringe specifically used for diabetic dogs.
(Though I suppose one could also fill it with crank and stick it between your toes.)
Ed Miller 6:34 PM on March 9, 2006 Permalink |
AC:
when a young lad obtaining higher education (no pun intended), I used to find model airplane glue and paper bags on the way to the bus. Strange –I never saw anyone building models out there….
Ed