Mrs Boo on The Arts of Life

I have never been good at going to church on a regular basis. To be completely truthful, it is all pure laziness on my part (and Mr Boo’s also), although I would love to blame the devil entirely for his multiple distractions. There are always a thousand zillion excuses why we couldn’t go to church e.g. we played mahjong too late last night and could not wake up in time; the in-laws wanted us to go earlier to their place for lunch; it was raining too heavily or it was too hot to get out; it would be crowded because of an event etc. The best excuse of all? We will go NEXT WEEK.

And so the next week became the next, and the next next week became the next next next week, and so on. Before I knew it, months had passed. And without realising, a life without God takes its toll. Without God’s presence and words, we forget and become worldly and suffer as a result by being bad tempered, stressed, demoralised, upset, hopeless and even physically sick. Yet, through it all God never leaves us nor forsake us. And He keeps on calling. Then one Sunday, suddenly I would be eager to attend church, and lo and behold, God’s message for the day would be exactly what I needed to hear, with direct references to my current circumstances, just as if I am holding a private conversation with God, with no other church members present.

I have never felt this more strongly than today. Again, after an absence of more than a month from church, we returned. In the beginning of my sabbatical , period, I had been on fire for God, reading the Bible faithfully each day, and trusting in God for a miracle. Then, as quickly as it came, the fire died out, and I was left feeling depressed and lost and I got angry that God was holding out on me, that He was making me wait for far too long. I stopped reading the Bible, stopped talking to God, stopped taking the Holy Communion, and stopped going to church. I immersed myself in my worldly hobbies, reading novels, watching my Asian dramas, playing iPAD and Facebook games, but it was like a light went out and when my dog passed, I struggled to contain my grief, struggled to get out of an enormous dark cloud.

But today, God told me specifically that my miracle would come, with specific verses too. For how could a miracle be called a miracle if I had to try? A miracle is called a miracle because it is supernatural! He would never forget my needs. God told me not to spend so much time being immersed in worldly things like Twilight books (yes, that was mentioned!) and Korean dramas but instead to read his Word on Jesus so that by beholding Christ’s glory I could be totally transformed, mentally, emotionally and physically. I spent much of the service trying not to be overwhelmed, but for a time it was as if I was transported up to Heaven, and sat before my Father with a cup of tea in hand, and He was talking to me face to face, answering all my questions, and telling me that he knew ALL that was happening to me, even while I was avoiding Him. Such AMAZING GRACE.

Although I know I will continue to falter in my walk with God, I also know He will always be around to pick me up, and hold me close. And I truly look forward to more private conversations with my Lord and Father. Amen.

I was suddenly seized by an inspiration to start another blog just the other day and I did. Not the blog fiction as I first envisioned (maybe that would come later) but one based on one of my Facebook incarnations specifically talking about my travels and sharing my experiences to friends, particularly to Japan. Afterall the Mrs Boo blog seems a little too overwhelmed with so many things going on at the same time - books, dramas, movies, other rants, etc., and I think it would be good to separate my travelling stories out otherwise they may be buried underneath a mountain of information!

Unfortunately, this also means I will have less time to blog as Mrs Boo. I need to set the other one up quickly as a platform to share information since many of my friends are going to Japan this year. But I am also very excited about this new project. I intend to collate all the travel information and links in one place so that when it is my time to travel, I need only search my own blog and nowhere else! Making myself a one-stop travel centre - which I think is quite cool. For the new blog, I have also moved away from the blogsome platform to blogger - and I must say, it is infinitely more user-friendly! No wonder there are so few blogsome blogs out there, but well, I would not be moving Mrs Boo anywhere so they will not lose this blog in any case.

But I will be back soon with more reviews - I am currently watching a Taiwan-China production featuring one of my favourite Taiwanese actress, Joe Chen Qiao-En, and for all my fears about Chinese productions, this one actually looks pretty promising! (I just need to get over the thick mainland Chinese accent.) So and ya, Queen Seon Duk is also on the way too. Be Patient!

It suddenly hit me while I was showering earlier that my blog title is a little out of date and doesn’t quite make sense anymore. Ok I am still in my thirties, but in another 5 years I would be like 40, and would I have to change it to 40-Lifer Crisis, 50, 60 etc.? There will always be crisis in life anyway, and I don’t intend for this blog to be just about me moaning about the sad story of my life but rather a celebration of good things in life, things that I like and would like to share - books, movies, drama serials, travelling, MEN (ahem) etc. There will still be rants and complaints of course (how to rid them even if I wanted to), which are all still a part of life, a part of living in this world. Life is a journey, and as we continue to master the art of living well, we need to take time to appreciate the arts of life, hence my new title.

If you are a more scientific and/or mathematical person, I am sorry, there is nothing for you here.

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Now onto something else. Since I restarted blogging, I have tried to do it faithfully everyday except on weekends since that’s time out with Mr Boo, and found that it is seriously time-consuming work. I have been reading blogs of so-called “celebrity bloggers” who are by default, pretty young women showing plenty of skin and posting innumerable pictures of their pretty selves. I am a fan of a couple of them, but those are actually capable of writing thought-provoking or somewhat interesting blogs as opposed to those who are just obsessed by their lives and want others to be equally obsessed as well. And then there are those blogs which have nothing but a chockful of photos with minimal words that make me go “So what is so fascinating about them?” but then again I am not a randy army boy.

Since I have neither looks nor youth nor sexual attraction on my side to lure readers, I am afraid I have got to fall back on my trusty old brain. So, writing a post, especially my kind of posts, requires seriously a lot of brainpower, and I have to start worrying things like grammar and spelling errors, and checking takes time (and still I find mistakes!). Somehow I must have totally forgotten all about it and thought that blogging would be a piece of cake banging out a few quick paragraphs on my laptop. Half an hour- tops. What crock! Most posts took me at least an hour, and some, like the Twilight review, took me almost 3 hours! That doesn’t leave a lot of time for housework, I can tell you.

The alternative of course is to camwhore like hell and post a gazillion photos but unfortunately most readers may puke. Then again, I seriously, genuinely, like writing. Being a writer has been a childhood dream of mine, so in whatever medium and platform that is presented to me, then blogging word-heavy posts it is. Words can be interesting too you know, just like in books.

*Spoilers*

Ok, it seems like I have been reviewing books non-stop (I REALLY wanted to review Queen Seon Duk and Fruits Basket Manga) but I just finished reading The Lost Symbol and thought that it would be quicker to review this while it is still fresh in my mind. It seems a bit late reviewing the book, since the hardcover came out last year amidst much hooha, but I was reluctant to fork out SGD40 to read the damn thing, so I waited until the paperback came out which is NOW and I finished the book in about 2 days. (Yes, the storyline is more complicated than Twilight, ha.)

I have to admit being a closet Dan Brown fan. Like half the world, I was introduced to him a few years ago via the controversial The DaVinci Code. Despite all the crap critical reviews he had for his writing style (like hallo?? are you expecting him to write like Thomas Hardy?), the book had me hooked from the onset. It is quite safe to say that Dan Brown is the father of religious conspiracy thrillers, and every other action writer after that jumped onto the bandwagon and just about killed the genre. Jesus was married? Done that. Jesus had children? Done that. Jesus was a Man? Done that. Jesus was REALLY a GOD? Duh. I know many religious leaders are unhappy with this development, but as a Christian and avid reader, they have no impact on my faith whatsoever and I take reading such books (including Harry Potter for goodness sake) with a large pinch of salt and enjoy the ride while it lasted (with sniggers in between).

So going back, yes, I am a Dan Brown fan. Basically I have read ALL his books (which is not a lot actually), and like his writing style and his plots (even those NOT involving Robert Langdon) do still manage to keep me engaged till the end. So like everyone else I waited eagerly for the release of The Lost Symbol, but I was wondering secretly if he could top expectations even if he tried his darnest, after all the craze generated by Hollywood movies and Tom Hanks!!! (An aside: Tom Hanks looks terrible as Robert Langdon, but thank God he has the charisma to pull it off.)

What is slightly “fresher” about The Lost Symbol is that Brown finally moved all the action away from Europe and concentrated on the US, specifically Washington D.C. Ok, some may argue that the book read like the movie National Treasure starring Nicholas Cage but I still think it is quite different (then again, I barely paid attention to that movie). Wisely, Brown has also opted to move mostly away from religious conspiracy theories this time (after all the screaming by the Catholic Church for The DaVinci Code), with the exception of some mumbo-jumbo about linking the Bible and the Ancient Mysteries at the end.

Oh the plot? Robert Langdon was tricked by a psychopathic (aren’t they all??) and heavily tattooed villian Mr M into Washington to uncover/decipher the most protected Masonic secret in history, which Mr M believed will help him “apothesise”, a new word I learnt courtesy of this book which means to transform man into God. (Yep, I did say he was Mad, didn’t I?) In order to help his good friend and mentor Peter Solomon (himself a top ranking Mason), whose life was in terrible danger, Langdon embarked on a quest with Peter Solomon’s brainy and of course beautiful sister, Katherine, around Washington D.C’s most historical buildings to try to crack a series of symbolic code in order to cover “the big secret”. The Big Secret, or the final ingredient required by Madman M to turn into God turned out to be a “Lost Word (or Symbol)” of the Masons, hence the title. Of course all the action takes place over less than 12 hours so the pacing was good and there wasn’t any slack.

Brown succeeded in weaving American Founding history and Masonic history into the prominent architecture around D.C., just like what he had done for European buildings in the DaVinci Code. (No wonder all the travel agencies and tourism officials love him.) He did not make the explanations and secret codes too deep, which would otherwise mar the enjoyment of the lower IQ crowd. Basically he maintained the formula which was so successful in the DaVinci Code, giving enough mystery to propel the story and action forward, a suitably frightening and mysterious villian (but more on that later) and sufficient character interaction and development, even for secondary characters like the scary and mysterious CIA Director Inoue Sato (she’s female, American born Japanese recovering from throat cancer - I think she is even scarier than Madman M.) Where The Hunt for Atlantis failed by bombarding me with way too much incredulous action, Brown made the story exciting without relying too much on big bang blow ups and superman heroics. The reader actually worries how Langdon is going to extricate himself from dangerous situations while trying to crack the code. He is all too human, just like our school lecturer (which is what he is anyway.)

However, perhaps we have been to swept away by the DaVinci craze, but the ending, the big secret, was a complete letdown. After all the action, the plotting, the escapes, when the end comes, I am like “What the ???” It was made worse by the fact that I had guessed the identity of the villian just one third into the book, and hence when the big reveal came in the end for the characters, I was like “Ya, ya, get on with it”. The villian is so over the top he lacks any credibility, it would have been better if Inoue Sato was the villian! Then again, maybe Madman M will translate better on screen. A third Robert Langdon movie with Tom Hanks, anyone?

Ultimately, I have to ask myself: Have I become too used to Brown’s plot tricks and sleigh of hand that he cannot surprise me anymore? Is it because conspiracies are now so overdone - by him and other authors, that whatever new conspiracies or secrets that come up, I am no longer awed? If so, this is just sooooooooo sad. Still I am glad I have read this book, just that, it did not live up to my expectations. Oh well…..

Rating: 3.75 boos out of 5 (due to overwhelming expectations and the fact I guessed the identity of the villian ONE THIRD into the book)

*Major Spoilers*

I resisted for a long time. In the first place, vampires do not really rock my boat. Secondly, I thought I was too damn old to read some teenage love-dovey romance. And the incredible fuss after the movies came out, especially the Robert Pattinson (as Edward Cullen) or R-Patz mania, and later Taylor Lautner (as Jacob Black) mania, I just didn’t want to have anything to do it. And, the movies got so widely panned by critics so why waste my time?

But recently, with all the furor over the release of the third movie Eclipse, I capitulated. I was REALLY curious to find out what is SOOOOO darn great about this vampiric series, so great that it is being heralded as “The Next Harry Potter”, like seriously?! And all those crazy Twi-Hards going nuts over all things vampire, AND some of my friends (of my age group, mind you) on Facebook actually confessed to being fans. So one fine day I finally trooped down to my regular second-hand bookshop hangout (too pricey to purchase the iBooks version - it is USD46.99!!) and rented ALL 4 books - Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn (hey I am on sabbatical and hence got all the time in the world). My first impression was “Crap, the books are all so bloody thick. I am going to develop some arm muscles after this.” The bookshop lady reminded me that since this is a popular series, I could only rent them for one month (normally its two months). I thought to myself, “I should finish them within a week - maximum 2 weeks.”

I finished ALL 4 books in 5 days - that’s almost a book a day, for those of you poor in Maths. A few factors contributed to this: 1)I am generally a fast reader especially if the story is gripping, hence 2) yes, the storyline IS quite gripping, but 3) despite the heft of the books which shocked me initially, the font is rather large; and 4) the language and writing is pretty straightforward to the point of being simplistic, written mostly from the viewpoint of fatalistic heroine Bella Swan, and there is no long detailed and descriptive narratives to bog down the reader. This explains why Twilight has so many young teenage fans, basically if you are above 12, you have no problem understanding and following the story.

I think by now, the WHOLE WORLD already knows the Twilight story, EVEN if they have yet to read the books, or watch the movies. To summarise, the following books are as such:

Book 1) Twilight: 17 year old Bella Swan moves to grim rainy small town Forks to be with her father, enters high school there and is instantly attracted to a pale magnetic guy known as Edward Cullen. Behold, she discovers he is actually a 100 year-old vampire who together with his vampire family is hiding/residing in Forks. Even more surprising, Edward returns her affections - in fact, he thinks she is his soulmate by virtue of the scent of her blood. As they bathe together in first love (shocking! Edward never dated in a 100 years!), Bella, a magnet for all things bad happening, got in the way of another hostile group of vampires. One of them kidnapped her with the intention to kill, but Edward and family came to the damsel’s rescue and the day was saved.

Book 2) New Moon: Bella turns 18 and a birthday bash thrown by the Cullen family turned into a near disaster (Bella is such a klutz and you wonder why the whole world is in love with her) and Edward decided to leave Bella for good for her own good (oh such a sacrificial vampire!!). Bella falls into pieces, and spends much of the book teetering on the edge of “Mental Institution, here I come” disguised as true blue heartbreaking love. Things perk up when she touch base again with old playmate Jacob Black, who unfortunately, is also in deep unrequited love for Bella, and even worse, starts to morph into a werewolf. So great, Bella finds herself with a werewolf best friend/suitor and vampire lover. Due to her penchant for stupid dangerous stunts, Edward mistakenly thinks that Bella killed herself, becomes suicidal and goes to Italy to get the Ancient almost royal Volturi vampire family to kill him off. Bella goes to his rescue, but before they are completely safe, they have captured the keen attention of the Volturi.

Book 3) Eclipse: Bella and Edward are back together again. Bella is hounding Edward to change her into a vampire so that they can be together always and she will not be older than him (vain bitch!). Then there is the story of intense and ancient enmity between the vampires and the werewolves exacerbated by the triangle love tussle of Bella-Edward-Jacob. On top of that, there is a band of marauding vampire army killing people in neighbouring towns and coming closer to Forks, and getting Volturi, who prized secrecy above all else, all riled up. Turns out it is Victoria (her partner James tried to eat Bella and was killed by Edward in Book 1) raised an infant vampire army to try to wipe out the Cullens. In the end the werewolves and the vampires put their hostility aside to face Victoria in order to SAVE BELLA! (like she is some chosen Goddess). At the end Edward and Bella decided to get married and Edward agreed to “change” Bella into a vampire after the wedding.

Book 4) Breaking Dawn: Jacob is completely heart broken as Bella married Edward and swore to fight the vampires to death when Bella becomes a vampire (something about breaking an old treaty). Things get interesting whe Bella and Edward go for honeymoon and have kinky vampire sex (oops sorry to raise hopes up, there is nothing remotely kinky here being a book for young children!!). Things get even more interesting when Bella becomes pregnant instantly (hmm I think I should inseminate myself with vampire sperm!), goes through a rapid pregnancy, almost gets killed by her monster baby, and Edward has no choice but to change her in order to rescue her. Voila! Bella is finally a vampire, and to make things better Jacob forms a bond with her infant but rapidly growing half human-half vampire daughter, Reneesmee, and would become her son-in-law in a few years time. But it is still not happily ever after with lots of vampire sex with Edward since the Volturi arrives to get rid of the monster baby. Fortunately, Bella discovers her superpowers in time and is able to drive the Volturi away without engaging in a fight-to-the-death bloody battle. Finally, Bella saves the day, and they could live happily ever after for the next 1000 years.

For all the trees killed in printing these books, the plot is seriously not that convoluted. Much of it is concentrated on Edward and Bella’s agonising and undying love for one another, and also Jacob’s to some extent, hence the appeal to teenage girls dreaming Bella (not Cinderella) dreams. There is minimal action sequences and as mentioned before, little descriptive narrative to distract readers from the central love story. In short, it is a few thousand pages worth of mush, and a dream scape for die-hard romantics. However, through the more jaded eyes of an adult I have a few issues:

1) Bella’s psyche: Her easy acceptance of vampires and werewolves and her absolute eagerness to become a vampire is a little horrifying to say the least. As one character remarked, it was almost as if Bella was BORN to be a vampire, not a doctor or lawyer mind you, but a VAMPIRE. It seems so cavelier of her to discard her human family and friends in order to embrace her immortal family. And in many parts of the story it seems that all she wanted was to stay forever young and beautiful and be imbued be super powers. In another story, Bella could well have been a psychotic self-centred murderess.

2) Bella as “The One”: I think Stephanie Meyer tried to show that Bella was the Chosen One, ala, Neo in “The Matrix” and Harry Potter - that it was her destiny to be a vampire and save the vampire day in Breaking Dawn. But almost all, if not ALL the incidents, accidents, problems were brought about by Bella herself, she was the main culprit. With the exception of the ending, she was being saved left, right, centre by everyone around her - a bad day for feminists. She had no conscious thought other than she had to be with Edward FOREVER. Without Edward, she is DEAD - she had absolutely no reason to live. Like, WAKE UP, WOMAN!

3) Undying 1,000 year love: Call me cynical, but much as I love Mr Boo, I cannot imagine living him in life for 1000 years. Won’t we be bored? Are we going to stay lovey-dovey with hot sex forever??? Especially as a vampire, we know that Bella has become more beautiful than ever - hell she can have Brad Pitt if she wants right? And when her daughter grows up fully in 7 years, they are all going to look the same always. This may be appealing to some, but hmmm, not to me.

4) Pedophiles galore: Edward may be stuck in a 17 year old body, but he is 100 years old. What did he see in Bella, honestly? Jacob and Reneesmee - although Meyer tried to explain that the present BOND is nothing sexual in nature, we know it is going down this route sooner or later. So WRONG.

5) Bella as Mother (and Edward as Father): The issue of parenthood for the hero and heroine is lightly glossed over, save for the fact that Bella was suddenly so intense and obsessed about saving her unborn child at the risk of her own life. Thereafter there was hardly any bonding between mother and child, or father and child for that matter. Unlike new mothers in real life, Bella suffered no late nights, did not have to change diapers seemingly, and was off to test her new powers and fight other vampires. So children reading this, please understand that parenthood is NOT like that and don’t go around getting pregnant.

At the end of the day, it is an entertaining read if you leave your brain at the door and go with the mad lovey dovey flow. Definitely will not appeal to boys/men since they will drown in mush within the first few chapters and there is a lack of action to sustain their interest.

I am still thinking whether to watch the movies. Just for Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautnor perhaps?

Rating (whole series): 3.5 boos out of 5 (very readable, but no lingering deep connection with the storyline. In fact I feel more affinity to a certain wizard boy!!)

Oh wow - 2 posts in 1 day - I’m getting prolific! From absolute silence for more than 2 years to this, and the reason why is because I am into my fourth month of sabbatical. Do not murmur in envy, dear readers, this is 1) a much needed break (first time off since I started work 12 years ago - leave not counted); 2) I am fed up with my work; 3) I am freaking 35 years old already, and it is time to review my life - Again. Yes, AGAIN.

Other than my beloved dog passing away, what has happened to me during these 2-3 years? My business merged with the franchisor and gave me a lot more headaches and the new partner drove me absolutely insane, which caused me to question “Is money the most important thing in life?” and “I am a business owner or just a bloody employee?” Anyway, it is too long a story and due to business confidentiality, I shall not say further. Suffice to say I am on the look-out for new opportunities, although having sat on my ass too long, I am feeling a little bit lazy. It doesn’t quite make sense to me to go back into the rat race after 5 years of being boss, I mean, honestly, I cannot imagine answering to another authority again (yes I am TYPE A aggressive).

It feels great not to work, although it can get a little boring and aimless sometimes. At this point in life, I do not have any pressure (other than from my own parents who absolutely DO NOT UNDERSTAND the concept of a sabbatical) to rush back into work. It is no longer a matter of survival, I guess, and heck I am married, and what is the point of marriage if I cannot depend on Mr Boo to feed me?? Still, it is never good to remain idle too long, the brain and muscles will atrophy, even if you do housework, and God FORBID, you may feel you are worthless in society after awhile.

To prevent the above from happening, I am:
1) Going back to school again - to be specific, I am taking Japanese language classes. Hajimemashite! Watashi wa Mrs Boo des. Dozo yoroshiku. LOL. (Oh, my attempt at self learning Korean flopped - I may take up a proper class after I mastered Japanese.)
2) Cooking more often and learning new dishes (I am quite a good cook, I must say)
3) Putting my house and affairs in order - Up till now I have not seriously spring cleaned (Damn you, Inertia!!), mostly because I have been occupied by my new iPAD (stupid Steve Jobs).
4) Going to start stock trading. Used to do that before I started my business. I just set up a new Internet trading account, so let’s see how fastidious I am. This may be a good way to earn some cash while on break - ha, if I don’t lose any money in the first place.
5) Studying the property market as an area of investment, and also GOING to start a file on renovating my new house when the development is built by end next year. Thinking about interior decor should occupy a lot of my time, no??
6) Catching up with old friends - so far I have not been very good at that - again this damn inertia - the absolute worst side effect of being on a sabbatical because you keep thinking you have all the time in the world…..! But you don’t, really. REALLY MRS BOO, get off your lazy fat ass.
7) Trying to lose all the weight that I have put on in the past 12 years, which is A LOT. I think something to the tune of 8 or 9 KG (ya I know, major crap). So far, I think I have lost about 3 kg, which means I got another 5 to go. I am not exercising, I am just eating less and slightly healthier (I put on weight when I work, strangely.)
8) And of course, blogging again. I endeavour to make my blog well read, “endeavor” being the watch word. I have seen so many people actually earning tons of money doing such stuff, and being a writer has always been my original dream, so that would be a DREAM come true. I am even thinking of starting a BLOG FICTION (but on a separate blog site), but I am still thinking about it, and willing creative juices to flow. How to make my blog a MONEY GENERATING MACHINE - that would be the mother of all questions. And I am such a technologically inept turtle. Putting up photos on this blog already takes a lot out of me, either that or blogsome is not a user friendly site. Haha.

Ok I think this should be about all for the time being. I have been typing for most part of today, and my hands are aching!!!!!! But my next 2 posts will be quite exciting: a review on the Twilight series (yes, THAT Twilight), and a review on the drama Queen Seon Duk. Until then!

*Spoilers*

Ok, another Atlantis-based fiction. Told you people that I am a sucker for history based fiction. Then again, since Dan Brown, there has been a slew of such historical fiction with supposedly “explosive” and “deadly” secrets that would shake our world and how we perceive it. Unfortunately, there are so many of them out there offering a gazillion conspiracy and earth-shaking theories that frankly, are no longer that earth-shaking anymore. In fact, they have become, DARE I SAY IT, BORING.

Andy McDermott obviously is hoping to score a Hollywood offer with his numerous and implausible action sequences. Perhaps they will translate well on screen but it gives me a headache trying to absorb all the narrative on the seriously incredible action. Like HALLO, the hero trying to jump into an A380 while it is TAKING OFF from a FERRARI (in a bid to rescue the heroine of course)?!?!? And piloting the A380 to crash into a mountain containment bunker to destroy villian and his stronghold and his biological weapon (9-11?)? And of course because he is not kamikaze by nature, he will LEAP OFF the said A380 with heroine before it crashes on a MOTORCYCLE into the ocean, and by some miracle they survive with nary a scratch. Then again it may not be so much a miracle since this is just ONE of the MANY action sequences which see the hero and heroine escape impossible situations time and again, ad nauseum. Leave your brain at the door if you read this please.

Oh, and the plot? Dr Nina Wilde, an archaeologist lost her parents in the search for the mystical Atlantis, and as the story started believed that she had found where Atlantis might be (which is great since no ONE else found it for 10000 years). Her dangerous expedition was sponsored by billionaire Kristian Frost, who in the end turned out to be a crazed Norwegian Hitler bent on taking over the world. But first she had threats from a shadowy group known as The Brotherhood (yawn) hence she needed the protection of beefy ex-SAS bodyguard Eddie Chase, who had more than 9 nine lives and could do a myraid of death defying stunts (see above). And at the end of it, predictably, they fell in love after escaping death innumerous times, BUT of course, right??

I have actually read the subsequent book of this series The Tomb of Hercules, and it wasn’t that much better, but I was desperate to get my hands on something to read, but duh! Better to spend my time blogging, no???

Rating: 2 boos out of 5 (Am I too kind? Oh well.)

Mr Boo and I watched Inception on the very day my dog was put to sleep, so you have to forgive me if this review is not very coherent. This is also my first movie review after 2 or 3 years!! Also, please note that a review for this movie is IMPOSSIBLE without revealing plotlines, so don’t read if you haven’t watch the movie.

Now, I will watch almost EVERYTHING with Leonardo DiCaprio in it. His last outing, Shutter Island, was fabulous. As the tortured hero, no other had quite the same gravitas as he does. Now, there are criticisms that his role here is almost the same as in Shutter Island i.e. dead wife, abandoned children, massive guilt trip, mental instability etc., but hey he does it so well I am seriously not complaining. Moreover Inception with its multiple awesome action scenes, qualifies more as an ACTION movie, while Shutter Island was verging on being a horror show.

At this moment, I am still pondering on how to describe the plot. Having only watched it ONCE (and I tend to watch it again), there are holes in my knowledge. (Damn you, Chris Nolan!). Suffice to say it is not a movie for children, or for the stupid - really. If you were half asleep, drunk, tired after a day’s work, basically IF YOUR MIND IS NOT WORKING AT OPTIMAL LEVEL, you will be cursing at yourself and/or the movie and trying to play catch up to the plot.

In the absolute barest nutshell (as if a nutshell can contain a Chris Nolan movie), it is based in a world where it is technically possible to steal information from people’s sub-consciousness, specifically dreams, our dear Leonardo being one of the top “Extractors” of dream information. Leonardo, in a bid to return to the States to his children (after being barred as a murder suspect of his wife who committed suicide) took up an offer from Jap businessman, Saito (Ken Watanabe) to try an “Inception”, which is planting an idea in the victim (Saito’s rival) to make the victim feel like the idea came from himself. However, because of the difficulty, if not impossibility of Inception, Leonardo as Cobb, assembled a team of partners known as “The Architect” (Ellen Page), “The Chemist” (Dileep Rao), “The Forger” (Tom Hardy), and the good looking “The Point Man” (Joseph Gordon-Levitt).

Now it seems that the plot is fairly straightforward, but man, the dream world and its multiple layers (dream within a dream within a dream) are not straightforward at all. It demands you to understand and accept a COMPLEX set of rules (I have still yet to understand everything) that the team has to abide by to succeed in their mission. Thankfully, one does not have to understand everything to enjoy this movie fest but DAMN, you would WANT to understand EVERYTHING so that you can deconstruct ALL that Nolan is trying to tell the audience - the implications, the subtext, etc.

But the action scenes are a hell of a roller coaster ride, flying from one dream world to the next and the next. You are gripping your seat as you take in the spectacular action and graphics (a city folding onto itself anyone?) while trying to solve the mystery of what Cobb is so guilty about, and why his dead wife continues to haunt his dreams and at the same time trying to find out if the movie is at the “Reality” level or the “Dream” level. Actually I think Inception may make a very good computer game (although I don’t really play computer games except those on Facebook and iPad Apps.)

There isn’t really a big shocking secret like that of The Sixth Sense, but it was still very satisfying in the lead up as we realised what Cobb was so guilty about. But the abrupt and ambiguous ending would make you question what you have understood about the movie as you leave the cinema. SO is Cobb still in limbo? Is he still dreaming? Did he have the ending that he so badly hope for???

I am still confused about the mechanics of Saito, and Cobb and the Limbo stage, so crap, I would have to arrange another viewing soon. Will I have the patience to wait until the DVD is out? Or will I capitulate and earn Mr Nolan big bucks by watching it at the cinema again (which is what he wants I’m sure!)?

I was grieving and I was tired while watching this show, and still it impressed me. Its like The Matrix all over again, and perhaps even better.

Rating: 4.5 boos out of 5 (for forcing us to watch the movie at least twice, even if it is Leonardo!!!)

Sorry I took you for granted
but you never took me for granted
Through it all -
as I studied, worked, got married
You were always there
as I travelled round the world,
Fell sick, got angry, mad
Cried bitter tears
Laugh with delirious joy
You were still there
A presence I depended on
Steady and unyielding.

Though you have left
I know you are still waiting for me
Waiting for me on the other side
Till the day we reunite again.

When you feel like
your heart will stop beating
or you cannot breathe
the mind turns black
and you are trapped in an insane prison;
Keep moving and don’t turn back.
Move till you are too exhausted
to grief, to think, to remember.
Move on and live
just like those who left first
would want you to.

Dedicated to Waggie (1995-2010).