Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

OK if you are going to see Anchorman 2 you will need to leave all your political correctness at home to enjoy it. Similar to the first movie, Anchorman 2 used its creative licence to it fullest and exploited every opportunity on political incorrectness to score a laugh. Whether the original movie was a legend to warrant a subtitle of “The Legend Continues” for the sequel, in my opinion, is open to questioning. But surely this sequel has inherited all the things the original was about, and pushed the boundaries even further.

The story continued from the first one just loose enough to establish itself as an independent story. The main cast is still great. In fact the movie has some of the funniest moments you have seen this year. Steve Carell demonstrated why he is the latest comedy king with this electrifying performance as Brick. Compared to other members of the cast, he seemed effortless and just morphed into Brick effortlessly. His versatility as a comedy actor is once again on parade. I personally have never been a big fan of Will Ferrell. Not that he is not a good comedian or comedy actor, but how he tries so hard to tell people “this is funny, so please laugh”. His over the top performance Ron Burgundy made meI sometimes feel like there is a big light box in front of the screen flashing out “Laugh” to force something out of me. Since it is a movie about him, without a doubt there are lots of such moments in this film. I personally did not enjoy it that much but then I know a lot of people who are Will Farrell’s fans would utterly love it.  Paul Rudd and David Koechner delivered reasonably but still Steve Carell is the person who stole the show. James Marsden as Jack Lime was also very funny and interesting to watch. He demonstrated that he is more than just Cyclops (whom I utterly loved) and is totally transformable.

As mentioned earlier, Anchorman 2 banks in on political incorrectness to buy some cheap laugh. Cheap they might be but they are in context. I think that is what makes Anchorman 2 still stands out as a watchable comedy of the year. It is American, so it is about physicality over text, and Anchorman 2 did very well with this. The environment was in a period where women and other ethnic groups were unseen as important players in most industries, and there were a lot of such moments. Deep down you know that it is wrong, but then because of the background of the movie, you did not feel that “inappropriate” at all. Or you would simply “forgive” them. Having said that I do wonder whether this time round I am not as offended as the first movie is because I have grown older and have a higher tolerant threshold; or I have become more insensitive about these issues. I know it is a comedy so I should not be over thinking about these issues. But then I just can’t help.

Having said that, Anchorman 2 is still a very watchable and enjoyable movie. It has an insanely great cast with some of the best comedic timings in comedies. It exploits the genre with not just physicality but also framing, environment and references. Of course one should never underestimate the ridiculous cast of cameos in the movie. You really do wonder how did they manage to round up a whole bunch of who’s who in the current film industry in one go. Not only that, they were wiling to make fun of themselves, look silly and put together some of the most hilarious scenes for the movie. Just watching those scenes is worth your money.

Anchorman 2 might not be the most meaningful movie in human history. It might not be even an Oscar nominating movie. But for its purpose, it does very well indeed. If you are just looking for a good laugh without getting too serious Anchorman 2 certainly delivers. That aside, I still need to find out why I enjoyed the same political incorrectness more this time round…

Change My Race

There are many movies and TV shows about people longing to change their identities to live a different life. This kind of desire stems from the unhappiness these people have about themselves thus the idea of “what if I were somebody else?” Just having those thoughts brings along hope and escapism that real life does not offer.

Nowadays these kinds of thoughts are somewhat no longer unreachable. With advancement of plastic surgery changing life through changing face is no longer a distant dream. Girls, now even guys are flocking to the plastic surgeons for a dream self. Looks are now like items on the supermarket shelves available for pick, choose and buy.

As normal as this has become, in a recent SBS documentary by Anna Choy, something more disturbing is lurking around and coming out of the shadows. The documentary titled “Change My Race”. It is about Asian girls longing to look like westerners and ridding of their “Asian features”. In the documentary, it demonstrated how South Korean girls race for the western look and eventually all look alike. The program demonstrated how a recent Miss Korea pageant has finalists who all look exactly the same. When flipping from one headshot to another, nothing has changed except for the hairstyle and the outfit. The standard of beauty set by the west had driven these girls to throw their genetic look out of the window to become Barbie clones.

However, what is more disturbing is when the program brought us back to Australia. It followed three Asian Australian girls who went under the knife so they could look more “Australian”. As they all said, they sound Australian but they were neither fully recognised as Asian nor Australian. Some of them experienced bullying simply because they look different. They believe by looking more Australian, aka Anglo-Saxon, they would be more accepted and they would feel better about themselves. One of them did not want to alter her look but her parents forced her to do so because they want her to look pretty and by pretty Anglo Saxon. They were able to pay for her operation and want this to show how much their daughter loves them.

Having worked as an actor in Australia in the past 10 years I can certainly understand where these girl came from. Having the “Asian look” has been both a blessing and a hindrance for me. I got called in every time they wanted an Asian man but then at the same time I got called in mostly because they wanted an Asian man. My agent had worked very hard to get me out of that Asian man box and slowly we see that effort is working. However, this does not stop those Asian man calls. I do believe that after all these years I am very comfortable with how I look. I am Asian and look Asian that would never change. But at the same time I do understand where these girls came from because when I was a kid I was one of them. I have a pair of eyes that only show up with double eye-lids when I am tired. Noticing that I tried to look tired so I look like the celebrities I saw on TV and in movies. I also tried to put a peg on my nose when I went to bed so that my nose could be higher before my kiddy nose ridge sets for life. I did admire, adore and envy the good looks these people in films and TV have. My parents spent a lot of time trying to make me understand that I am who I am and if I do not appreciate myself nobody will.

I will be totally hypocritical if I criticise these girls for longing to look like “Australian” so they could fit in and feel better as an Australian. I do not blame her, or in one case her parents. I blame the stubbornness of our Australian media that after all these years we are still unable to see a real Australia on stage and on screen. In the past it was “no trained Asian or ethnic actors” but we all know in the past 10 years or so a lot of Asian and ethnic actors were trained by various drama and theatre school including NIDA. That “myth” for me was broken but the stubbornness not so much. It is still comforting that the younger generation of media practitioner are less “configured” to the idea that our society should be all Anglo-Saxon, although we probably need to wait till a major change up above before a further big step could be made.

As for these girls, I completely feel for them. I must admit changing your face to change your race is an extreme move but then who can throw the first stone when nobody in the society is qualified to do so? All I wish is that the faces of our society will continue to change so our race does not matter anymore.

Click picture to watch "Change My Race" on SBS

Threads of Silence

Have been re-visiting the tracks of one of my favourite Australian musicians lately. There aren’t a lot of Australian musicians that I know. In the past when I was in Hong Kong I only knew of Air Supply and Kylie Minoque. Then because of the Olympics I got to know Savage Garden, Christine Anu and more Kylie Minoque. After moving to Australian, I found out Kylie Minoque is just everywhere and a number of Australians worship her like a goddess. I tried to tap myself into the whole Australian music scene, as I love music but never really got quite into it. I didn’t even know that Olivia Newton-John was Australian until quite late. There are some odd balls ones like Kid Mac that I got quite into but for the mainstream industry it remains alternative to me.

Then came along Karise Eden, a 19 year old girl whose big voice shocked the audience last year and got all four judges in The Voice turned around their chairs the moment she finished her first bar. It was a story in the making – a girl stranded in life trying to make it through something she was passionate about. She told her story with her heart through other people’s song and Australia was moved. Her first original track “I was Your Girl” still gives me chills even now. She was “a star in the making”.

Then The Voice finished and as with the glamour of its contestants no matter what position you took in the competition. It was a reality show after all. People and audiences moved on from one reality to another, and that’s the reality of it.

Karise Eden released her debut My Journey album as with all other “talent show” winners and hoped for the best. The album is basically a compilation of covers. Most of them were released previously on iTune as part of the competition process. The other original track was “You Won’t Let Me”. Another heart felt song that I still string my heart along whenever I listen to it.

Then there was silence. A long period of silence. You wonder whether the media had finished churning her inside their publicity machines and had now spit her out. I wonder would this unique musical voice be drowned by a pop culture that focuses on artificial bodily constructs and bashing eyelashes.

Then she returned to The Voice for another performance with a new original track “Threads of Silence”. To be honest I didn’t watch The Voice this year, as I did not feel the need to do so. Also I do not have that $100 iTune voucher that I got from friends last year to spending on “voting”. But then I ran into her YouTube performance when I was wondering what happened to her.

I was stunned. Completely stunned. Karise, after a year of real life photoshop has become less real in her image. In fact she was kind of distance. It did not really fit with her usual heart warming down to earth image. Her hair is now polished like silk dropping down a silver waterfall. Her face looks more brushed up with features clearly spelt by the drawing pen. But when the first note came out after a hallowing keyboard introduction, she is still that captivating singer that caught everyone’s attention last year.

The lyrics:

He said you could do anything but anything is nothing when you need a bit of helping out
You could go anywhere but anywhere is nowhere when emptiness is where you stand

Completely drew out the conflicts and dilemmas of a person who wants to strike it out by itself. We all went through this stage in our lives and some might be even going through this now, but Karise has bared her emotions on stage while we strolled along the busy streets trying to pretend that we are living a life we want. Those two lines brought out our yearning to be strong while compromising ourselves to the reality. Then she sang:

Holding the Threads of Silence that lead me to your dawn.

The issue is – is this our dawn or yours?

The song for me is haunting because I most of the time I refuse to comprise my principals but when I do need to step back for the greater good, that is exactly how I felt.

I don’t know whether that is what Karise is feeling being in the media industry. A 19 year old trying to make her way and stand tall to do something she is proud of. But how many occasions did she need to give in, that is something nobody can see beyond her glamorous visage.

I hope “Threads of Silence” does not reflect Karise current feelings but she did as Seal said in the competition, “tell stories that nobody dared to tell through her music”. I might not like her rendition of “Hallelujah” but “Threads of Silence” once again proved that Karise Eden is a gem in the Australian music industry. Hopefully one day these “Threads of Silence” could weave a successful career that she rightfully deserves.

To listen to Threads of Silence click here

Timon of Athens

Have been doing an actor training program with the Bell Shakespeare Company in Sydney recently. Since my voice training years I have developed a great interest in Shakespeare, not just from a performance point of view but also from a language point of view. For a lot of people, Shakespeare is about structure and rules and “doing it in a certain way”. However for me it is about finding out the relationship between Elizabethan and modern English so that they are understood in a day-to-day usage context.

At the end of the training, we were allocated scenes to be performed to an audience. I was allocated a scene in the less frequently performed “Timon of Athens”. I was quite glad that I was not just doing some popular scenes from some popular plays. I feel like a challenge and “Timon of Athens” was a timely arrival.

For those who are not particularly familiar with the play, “Timon of Athens” investigates the relationship between money and friends. Timon who was a wealthy man in Athens wasted his wealth on his friends meeting their needs and solving their problems only to find out that once the money was gone so did his “friends”. He was repeatedly warned by one of his acquaintance Apemantus but words were to his deaf ears. The scene I did with my scene partner was about Apemantus seeking Timon out in the wilderness and mocked him for not listening to his warning before. It was a very smart and quick wit verbal tug of war between the two characters. I enjoyed doing it a lot.

When I was reading the play and researching on the play to prepare for the scene, I felt a very strong connection with its theme.  In the scene that I was working on, Apemantus said to Timon:

Your flatterers yet wear silk, drink wine, lie soft
Hug their deceased perfumes, and have forgot
That ever Timon was

For me Shakespeare’s insight to money and relationship was spot on. Where are those “friends” when you need them most?

Although I was never as wealthy as Timon and was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth, I was trained by my parents to be caring for others whenever I can. I tried to help out my friends whenever I could if it was possible for me to do so. However, as years passed, I gradually understood that some of these people whom I once thought they were friends, are nothing more than people who came along for a ride in your life. There is an old Chinese saying: “In hard times, see true friends”, which I think carries the same wisdom as Shakespeare did in “Timon of Athens”.

Despite I never expected people to return favours when I extending my helping hand to them, I do admit that when the “Timon moment” arrives, I couldn’t help but felt disappointed. I have never become as cynical as Apemantus was when it comes to friend, but over the years I couldn’t help but getting a bit more and more cautious about who I open myself to and who I could treat as friends.

Nonetheless, when it comes to human relationships, it is still hard to avoid the fact that you could get hurt. When people look so genuine, how could you distinguish the truthful ones from the ones who are just “in for the ride”? How do you deal with situations when people stop answering or replying to your phone calls and emails when they think you are no longer of use to them? How do you handle people who suddenly flock back to you as soon as they saw there are opportunities? Timon, after his experience is determined to destroy these people and wanted to have nothing to do with them. Apemantus wanted to give the world to the beasts and rid of the men if he has the power. That might be possible when you are in ancient Athens or are living in a fantasy world, but reality is still reality, and there is nothing more real than that. We could attempt to cut people off but with modern technology people can reach us by just sending a text message. When these people contact me again would I have an iron heart to delete these people off my life? It is easy to “unfriend” someone on Facebook, but it is a lot harder when you have to deal with this in real life (come on we all know most “friends” on Facebook are not real).

I think generally the world has gotten enough tougher than Timon’s time with the “evolution” of our culture. However, it seems that human nature still hasn’t change much when you can still feel strong connection reading something that was written centuries ago.  After the last few months, I certainly have moved myself towards the Apemantus and Timon’s end on the human relationship scale. But would I end up being as cynical and sceptical as they are, I don’t know.

The House of Healing

In Tolkien’s “The Return of the King”, Faramir, Eowyn and Merry were all taken to the Houses of Healing in Gondor to be treated. When Aragorn arrived to tend to the wounds affected by the Black Shadows, he mentioned to Eomer and Gandalf that for Faramir and Eowyn while physical wounds could be healed by applying the leaves of athelas on them, it could be their will that eventually take them down. Faramir was tormented by the rejection of his father who would “trade Boromir’s death for his” and for Eowyn, she was “loving a shadow and a thought”. Faramir came around when he woke up but for Eowyn, she did not know whether living would be despair instead of joy as she said, “But to hope? I do not know”.

The gist of this is about the will to live and it mentioned about a total care that was required not to just heal the body but also the soul. Aragorn was hoping that Faramir would come around, and miraculous as manly as these men are, Faramir wants to live because now the king of Gondor has returned and it is his duty to live and serve. As for Eowyn, she went to battle to seek death after Aragorn left her for the Paths of the Dead, but she escaped it despite she was gravely wounded when she killed the Witch-king of Angmar. When she woke up, Aragorn asked Eomer not to leave her, as she needs the love of her brother if she was to recover.

The Houses of Healing always fascinates me whenever I read “The Return of the King” again. I even bought the extended movie DVD simply because they have put the Houses of Healing part back into the movie. What fascinates me was Tolkien’s emphasis on healing both the body and the soul even when the injuries seemed to be physical only.

In the past few months I have been lucky enough to participate in a very meaningful project – Chris O’Brien Lifehouse. It is a new cancer research and treatment institute that focuses on patient oriented total care.  Its vision was to provide cancer treatment and care in a way that patient would not feel helpless and lost. It also has a strong focus on providing emotional support to patients and their carers. It acknowledges the importance of a strong mind and a calm mental state to assist the healing process. For me it is like a House of Healing in the modern times.

I first came across the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse when I did a corporate video for them back at the end of last year. At that time we were shooting a video for the integrated medical system to be deployed at the facility. There I met the Director of Patient Experience, Marketing and Communications. She explained what the project was about and I was fascinated by the idea.

Being a person who had a family member touched by cancer when I was at a very young age I understand the journey very well. Although I did not fully understand what was happening at the beginning, I still remember how cancer suddenly turned from something belonging to soap operas to something happening at home. It suddenly became very real. I still remember mum going into the hospital for her operation and her journey to recovery through numerous chemo sessions. I remember how I sat in the long, beige and heavily sanitised corridors with her waiting for her turn to receive treatment and hoped for the best. I remember how we tried to get home as quickly as possible after treatment before her condition kicked in. I remember how helpless I was when she was dealing with the side effects of treatments day in and night out. I still remember the faces of other patients waiting in the corridors – most of them trying to put on a brave face but when the verdict of more sessions were required was handed down, how they fell apart and broke into tears. These are pictures that had never left me and would never either.

So when I heard about the vision of Lifehouse, I was completely fascinated by it. I kept in touch with this Lifehouse lady when she told us that probably Lifehouse would be recruiting the following year preparing for the opening. At that time I did not expect anything to happen as I had a pretty good full time job already. After all I have never worked in health care unless you consider a guest role on All Saints counts.

Months passed. I left my previous job for personal reasons and started looking for more contract nature kind of work. I sent my updated CV to this lady at Lifehouse informing her that I am now available for work if Lifehouse has use for my skills. A few weeks later I received a call from the HR consultant there informing me about they needed a receptionist for the front desk before the hospital opens later in the year. I thought it would be a good chance to understand the organisation so I accepted the position. Later I agreed to move to a different role because I was touched by the enthusiasm of the staff there trying to make a great vision a reality. I wanted to contribute my skills to make it happen.

It is now less than two weeks before Lifehouse opens. There are still lots of work to be done and sometimes people are stressed out. However, everyone is working hard together to bring this vision to life. I think that is what I appreciate about this organisation. I do not know how long I could stay involved in this vision, as my contract will be finishing in mid December. But I am glad that I am part of it. We might not be able cure cancer with a 100% success rate at the moment, but this modern House of Healing could make the healing process a lot more bearable than what my family and I had gone through all those years ago. That is what I believe in.

The Skin I Live In

As an actor I always remind myself to be more thick skin. You can never survive the ordeal of an acting career if you are easily hurt by people’s comments and rejections. This is particularly true when you want to be an actor in Australia while possessing a different skin tone to what most power brokers want. The journey of an acting career is never an easy one, but I think so far I managed the ups and downs of this road pretty well.

However, what I found in the recent years is that if you want to just survive a 9 to 5 job you will need to apply the thick skin principles in the acting industry too. This kind of sucks in a way that because 9 to 5 jobs are supposed to be no brainer mortgage paying activities that sustain a certain lifestyle you hope to maintain before the “big break” arrives.

I don’t usually go into details about my daytime profession in a way that I kind of want to separate it from my creative life, which I prefer to live and relish. However, from time to time I do find that I was forced by people I work with in my day job into a position that I have to put an extra layer of acting skin to just to get through the day.

The acting skin provides a strong buffer against your true self, which is at times more vulnerable and exposed when being cut. It is thicker and usually has stronger elasticity that could just bounce off attacks. It is a defence mechanism you need to survive the acting industry. For me, I was lucky enough to receive a full training in this area but had been resisting applying this into broader aspects of my personal life. However, as a person who cares about getting things done correctly, willing to work hard to achieve great results while at the same time trying treating people with respect, I find it harder and harder to receive reciprocal response from some of my work colleagues nowadays. As time passes I found it harder and harder to deal with people who have no basic respect and courtesy for others. So in order to avoid conflicts I start pulling an extra layer of acting skin and live inside it at work. Still I can’t help but asking myself the question, “ Am I living a real life or am I compromising my own principle of living it real? “

The good thing about mankind is human beings are social animals. We build upon and improve each other through social activities and companionship. However, as with all things this aspect of mankind does have its dark side. Several occasions in my work life had got me seriously re-evaluate whether I should continue to treat people truthfully and honestly at work. I know that I don’t want to go all bastardy or bitchy (not that I can’t) because I do not want to commit myself to lowly activities such as office politics and backstabbing. I am not trying to stay on the high horse either – it is just not me. So if assault were not an option I would need to up my defence. This is where the acting skin comes into play. However at the same time I would also think is it worth it? Yeah I need the job to pay the bills but this is not an acting job afterall.

I always maintain I would do whatever it takes to move my acting career forward as long as I am not compromising certain basic principles. The acting skin is a mechanism to help getting me there.  For other parts of my life, I would prefer to live in my own skin and be comfortable and happy in it. So it is frustrating when you feel that you are compelled to use a skill that you developed for something you love to deal with something you utterly despise and hate. Is it possible to avoid this? Yes, if you leave that environment you could continue to be true to yourself. However, in this modern society, unless you are doing something totally independent and able to make a good living out of it, you would inevitably need to deal so craps and junks.

I guess I am just moaning over a human condition that has no cure. Or perhaps I should just stop letting these kinds of situations getting to me. Maybe I am just growing old as the clock tripped over the other day so I became more sentimental about things some modern people no longer hold great values to. Whatever reason it is I think I should just have a beer and stop thinking about this.

The Bus Etiquette

Most of my friends know that I am not a big fan of driving. I drive when I need to but I would not initiate anything crazy like a road trip and volunteer to be the designated driver. Luckily I have quite a few friends enjoying doing this and I am usually happy to tag along.

As such I am on public transport a lot. Buses are my main means of travelling when I was in Hong Kong and now in Sydney. The good thing with going on a bus is that most of the time you can just sit there and get to your destination without much fuss. If you are in a traffic jam a whole bunch of people are sharing that with you on the bus so you feel less personal. Also as an actor I like to observe other people in case I can pick up something for future characterisation.

However, as with all good things there are always down sides. There were so many occasions that I was just outright annoyed by inconsiderate passengers who just have zero concern for the welfare of their fellow bus riders. I just ran into another one tonight and her inconsiderate behaviour really prompted me to think about some basic bus etiquettes.

1.    When there are empty seats, take them

There are a lot of times that some people just sit right next to me even when more than half of the bus is empty. I understand that certain people may long for companion and such, but when you squeeze into other people’s space when there are lots of space that is just bad form. Further I am not here to cater to your personal needs. I am just a fellow bus rider who wants some serenity when the bus is not busy.

2.    I am not interested in your phone conversation

With the blessing of modern technology, we stay connected with everyone all the time. However, not everyone is interested in other strangers’ businesses. There was once a girl who was biatching about her supposed to be friend to another friend on the phone. Now I know the reception on a bus might be bad or the noisy environment is not conducive for phone conversation. But that does not give you a golden pass to project you voice loudly in a confined space. Maybe you should take the sign from the universe that bad reception and noisy environments mean that you should shut the f up and hang up.

3.    Move inside when there is space

I understand that some people may want to be close to the exit door as much as possible so they could get out quickly on a crowded bus. But if there are still 1200 stops before you reach your destination, just be considerate and move inside the bus so other people can get on. It is not that claustrophobic at the rear end of the bus and to be honest, if you are claustrophobic, you should not be on a bus in the first place.

4.    Get ready before you need to get off

If you have pressed the bell and knowing that you need to get off, for God’s sake get ready for it. I understand that sometimes you might not want to soil the mint paper bag from Prada or Tiffany, but if you have that money to spend might as well spend another couple of tens to grab a cab instead of sitting right at the back, press the bell and when the door opens you take a trillion year to brush through other people to part ways like Red Sea for you. And for your information, Moses did not wear Prada.

5.    Buy pre-paid tickets or get your money ready

I really could not understand why people did not prepare themselves when they get on the bus. Pre-paid tickets are no longer like needle in a haystack anymore, so get them if you are regular bus rider. If not, I can understand that you might not know the fare if you are not a regular bus rider, I can totally get how intimidating it is with a bus fare system more complicated than the constellation chart. However, one tiny bit of courtesy is you can have some coins prepared in your hand so that you would not be salvaging and counting 5 cents from all your pockets, purse, wallet, handbag etc for a $3.20 fare.  Other people on the bus have better things to do than waiting for you to collect bus fare from your chosen charity you know?

I think tonight’s experience has gotten me babbling on for too long. I should shut up, have a shower and go to bed. Tomorrow would be another bus riding day and I am sure tomorrow it will be better.

The Big Gold Mountain

Recently I had a chance to participate in a new theatre project called “The Big Gold Mountain” Also because of this project I got a chance to visit Perth again, a city that I once considered settling in when I decided to move to Australia. The project itself was a great journey and gave me the satisfaction that I thought was lost.

I love acting and I like the stage. There is nothing better than unfolding someone else’s story live on stage in front of a live audience. Every move, every word, every gesture and every look matters. The adrenalin rush makes acting on stage so much more satisfying.

However, the satisfaction of the Big Gold Mountain was not just because it was a theatrical production. It is also a production about Chinese migrants in Australia in 1850s. Even more special was that an Australian playwright Russell Roberts, who has keen interests in this part of the Australian history, wrote this play.

When Russell first contacted me about the project, apart from the project being in Perth, I was not quite sure whether I want to be another soup shop owner again. However after I read the script Russell sent over, I know that I am in for a very special project. The rest were just logistics – getting to Perth, the accommodation (which Russell both skilfully sorted for me) and getting time off from work. I was excited when I got on the plane on Sunday to get ready for the workshop on Monday.

A quick synopsis about the play – it is about a group of Chinese migrant who came to Bendigo Creek near Melbourne in the 1850s to look for gold. They thought that was the Big Gold Mountain where gold is readily available and they could live a good life without the turmoil in China. Little did they know that something less attractive and more sinister was waiting for them. It is a story about settling in a foreign land, adapting, identity crisis, and of course inevitably racism during that period of time. My character owns a soup shop where workers, when they have money, come to visit for some home flavours to quench their thirst for home. My character also was in a serious relationship with a British woman but the family was torn apart because of racial disapproval. As a result my daughter, who is mixed kid, found it hard to fit into the society because she was neither regarded as Chinese nor British.

By reading the play you knew that Russell had done extensive research about that period of time. He is very precise about the etiquette and customs that different groups of people had at that time. This is expressed both in the play and in the staging requirements in the rehearsal room. Although I knew that I a lot of people do not like to have the playwright in the room during rehearsals, but for me the benefit of having Russell in the room was that he knows exactly what is right and what is wrong.  He managed to balance vision with theatrical and background requirements of the piece. He was determined to make it right.

Another aspect of the production that I have great respect for was the fact that Russell and John, our director, specifically requested us not to consciously put on a Chinese accent for the production. They insisted that as this is a story about Chinese migrants who had lived in Australia for different periods of time, the accent should be as natural as possible to reflect that. So it is best not to consciously putting any accent to ruin the authenticity of the characters. This is something that I applauded to. There were so many occasions that people asked me to speak like a Chinese with a specific accent, which in my whole life, had never sounded like that. With both the playwright and the director giving us this bit of creative freedom it means a lot to me and I believe the whole cast thought so too.

The workshop ended with a move reading for potential funders. So far the responses were good. I had a chance to talk to some of the potential funders at the drinks afterwards and they seemed to be very keen to tell this part of the Australian history. I sincerely hope that the project could go ahead with additional funding as this is not just because it is a potential job, but it has become something that holds dear to me and have a special place in my heart.

I wish everyone at the Big Gold Mountain Productions all the best with the project. I am very proud of you all.

Blue Jasmine

I think a lot of people would agree that it is just a matter of time that Cate Blanchett and Woody Allen would work together. The end product of this collaboration is “Blue Jasmine” with Cate Blanchett playing the lead title. Strangely enough Woody Allen is not in this movie.  Woody has stuck to his director’s chair this time and let the actors loose. The end product is a mostly bitter sometime sweet story that has a strangely strong “A Streetcar Named Desire” feel.

Jasmine played by Cate is trying to pull her life back together after the break down of her marriage to Hal (Alec Baldwin). Not being able to afford the luxurious lifestyle that she was used to she decided to move to San Francisco to start afresh. The only person she could depend on was her sister Ginger (Sally Hawkins) whom she always felt superior to. As mentioned earlier, the premise is strangely similar to Tennessee William’s “A Streetcar Named Desire”. From the moment of Jasmine arriving at that run down San Francisco neighbourhood, to her not taken to Ginger’s fiancé and group of friends, to Jasmine drinking problem and eventually mental issues, they are all strange familiar. This feeling is particularly strong if you had seen Cate playing Blanche in the Sydney Theatre Company production of “Streetcar”. There are certain scenes that you felt like they were Blanche all over again.

This doesn’t mean that “Blue Jasmine” is unoriginal or bad; it could be just a coincidence. Cate Blanchett delivered some great performances with ease. That is what I like about Cate (as with Maggie Smith). She always made acting looks so easy and comfortable. You would not doubt that Cate is Jasmine and she being the person being torn apart by past, present and future was just meticulously crafted. Woody Allen managed to thread together a complex relationship between Jasmine and Ginger, although at times I do feel that the associations were quite detached, which is true between Jasmine and Ginger as after all they were not real sister and have gone different ways when they grew up. Jasmine calculations and determination to get back to the upper class and at the same time dragging her sister along so that she could find a better life was both bitter and sweet. Although at times I do suspect that her intentions to make sure Ginger finds a better man was for Ginger not to embarrass her instead of really caring about Ginger’s life.

There are some great scenes throughout the movie, and I particularly liked Jasmine’s baby-sitting scene at the diner. Cate Blancheet without a doubt nailed that scene perfectly. It is a Woody Allen movie, so without a doubt there are lots of Woody Allen humour littering across the script, which I personally do appreciate. I do think that Woody Allen is one of the few people who could manage to make a movie funny without getting overly physical.  However, there were times that I felt Cate Blanchett style of acting did not quite fit into the Woody Allen’s universe. I am not saying that Cate did a bad job or Woody Allen did a bad job. Everything was well done from both Cate and Woody’s perspective. They both delivered great things, but there were still times that the two great styles did not fit into each other. Maybe it was Cate intense character creation in certain scenes that missed the mark of Woody’s typical emotional but still light-hearted style. For me Woody could be telling something extremely depressing but under that depressing visage he always saw a sense of humour in it. In “Blue Jasmine”’s case I personally sometimes felt that Cate’s intensity overtook the humour side. There were still great moments; I particularly think that the quarrel scene between Ginger and Chili (her fiancé) with Jasmine in the background was just spectacularly done. Everyone was trying to talk over each other but at the same time the discourse just fit into the whole scene and story perfectly.

As with most Woody Allen movies, “Blue Jasmine” came with a great soundtrack that fits into the movie’s world perfectly. It was a joy to listen to the soundtrack as the story played out on the screen.

For me “Blue Jasmine” is like a dish of mostly perfectly cooked fried rice with just a few burnt pieces. The experience might not be completely perfect but it is still an extremely tasty dish.

Jobs

Few people get a chance to leave a mark in history. In the past they were emperors, conquerors, politicians, dictators etc. As our society evolves the people we admire and recognise changed too, and so do the people we considered leaving a mark in human history. Steve Jobs, the late Apple Computer co-founder was one of them.

His passing has always been considered as an end of an era – not just for Apple but also for the whole technology industry. That’s how influential he is. So it is not surprising that some Hollywood producer jumped on and produced the biopic “Jobs” to recount his life.

To say that “Jobs” is a biopic is a bit of an over-statement. Watching the movie feels like watching a life action chronicle of Steve Jobs. You know what is happening without a doubt, but whether it is really telling a story is another story. That is not to say “Jobs” is a bad movie. I just felt that I didn’t really have a chance to know Steve Jobs as a person. In “Hilary and Jackie” I fully understand the life of Jacqueline du Pre and her rivalry with her sister. In ‘Social Network” I had a good glimpse of the controversy of Facebook and its founder. But in “Jobs” I understand what goes on with Steve Jobs’ life but I don’t understand Steve Jobs as a person or a character.

Ashton Kutcher worked hard to deliver a very promising performance. He proved that he could be more than just a romcom or comedy actor. However, due to the highly fragmented nature of the movie, you sometimes just had no idea why Ashton, or the Steve Jobs he was portraying behaved in a certain way. The movie tried to explain but then the attempts just got muddled up with all the other murky stuff in the movie. The movie felt so hollow to me that at times I could hear the noise generated by the hollowness. There were a lot of things going on and they seem cohesive chronologically but at the same time they were very independent from each other. As a person who has not read up his whole life from his biography, I did not get to know Steve Jobs better or appreciate his vision of revolutionising the computing industry better. I think that is the main shortcoming of this movie.

The movie opens with Jobs introducing the iPod and you could see in that scene Ashton Kutcher was doing his best to impersonate Steve Jobs. The make up he put on and the physicality he displayed showed that he had done his homework. Then the story flashed back to where everything started. From that point onward I felt like I was watching someone turning over pages and pages of a scrapbook for me. I had a glimpse of the events but I did not have enough time to understand or appreciate the events. I understand that it could be hard to cramp all the colourful events of Jobs’ life in around 2 hours, but surely there could be ways to focus on certain events to flash out Jobs lives better. His many accomplishments seemed to have taken over his life in this movie. Maybe the producer thinks that people are interested in the events themselves not Steve Jobs, but then why bother making a biopic? They could just make a news special in a current affairs program.

That said, “Jobs” is not a totally bad movie. It was just not very satisfying as a biopic. The picture was beautifully filmed and set. There was a beautiful score accompanying the movie (although I felt a bit overdosed by the retro music that sometimes came up without much reason). However, as a biopic, I would prefer the producer to explore more about Jobs and his relationships with the people around him and know him as a person from that angle. His many accomplishments could serve as backdrops to enrich him as a visionary thus contrasting Jobs as a person. It is through that kind of balance and contrast that a person’s character can be flashed out in a more engaging manner.

I do not know whether “Jobs” is a fan service for Apple’s  or Steve Jobs’ followers. But the chunk that was bitten out from the Apple seems to be a wrong chunk in my opinion.

The Jurassic Life of Democracy

With the Australian Federal Election coming in quick in a few weeks, the two major parties are on all out assault on each other. I have long decided that I will not vote for either the Labor or the Liberals, as I did not like them a bit. However I would still exercise the power democracy bestowed on me to choose who I want to represent me.

The funny thing with this election, and maybe other countries’ elections is that a lot of time they have become such a two-horse race that you really don’t know whether you have a choice at all. The situation in Australia is similar. It is always about the Labor and the Liberals and it feels that this is all we could choose. I actively try to seek out other possibilities (sorry Greens, I do not share your vision either) so that I could fully exercise my power in this democratic system. However, the upcoming election in Australia had got me thinking – has democracy become such an old establishment that it is now fossilised and become irrelevant?

There are lots of different governing systems. Democracy provides the right for us to choose whom to represent us. However, as it was proven many times in history, mankind is not great in dealing with freedom (if you believe in the Bible, that stems from the good old Adam and Eve). Don’t get me wrong – I am all for freedom and I think freedom is essential for mankind to progress. However, mankind is also good in exploiting the freedom we have and thus making freedom its own personal tool to achieve its own personal goal.

For me democracy facilitates making good visions to come true. Those might not be visions shared by everyone but through the democratic process, the majority’s wish is granted and hopefully being respected. This is the core ideology of democracy. However, as the society grows and evolves, I slowly felt that democracy has become a toy reserved to the privileged few in the society. These privileged few possess the resource to “promote” their own agendas as visions and through the modern publicity machine, these personal agendas were communicated to the mass camouflaging as must have items on the voters’ shopping lists. Whether these personal agendas are for the benefit of the society no longer matters anymore. As a result, democracy, in my view, slowly became more and more like a creature that once roams the world but now only exists in our textbooks. It once had great impacts but now it is a museum exhibit that we check out periodically and teach our kids because they need to know about it.

Democracy might have helped to tear down individual dictatorship and tyranny, however, it has also given birth to a new breed known as collective dictatorship and tyranny. These collective dictators camouflage themselves as people’s representatives but in fact behind these thin veils of democracy is a collective desire to consume the society for their own benefits. As I watched and read media coverage about our election, I sometimes think, “seriously how could someone who despises the public school system and sent his daughters to private school understand the struggle public schools have?” Also, “how could people who got all aspects of their daily lives taken care of understand the pain of taking buses to work everyday; or maybe not having someone to be able to look after their kids when both parents are working full time just to meet ends’ needs?” These people claimed to be the representatives of Australians but how representational are they when they never experienced what average Australians are experiencing? Would visits to school change how they put together their education policies? If an education policy or budget is scheduled way beyond their current election term, could it still be considered as a commitment or it is just something to hook voters in like “ice”?

I have nothing against democracy and in fact I think democracy is something essential to keep the society evolving. What I dislike, especially in the current state of Australian politics, is that everyone seems to be thinking that they have no choices but in fact they do have choices to a certain extent. The current system seems to be facilitating the two major parties to stay in power in an oligopoly manner. However, if more people demonstrate their desire to change by voting for candidates other than these two major parties, then maybe we could slowly introduce variety and thus revive true democracy in our society.  

God bless Australia.

The Time of Our Lives

Although I am an actor based in Australia, I must admit that I don’t really watch a lot of Australian productions nowadays. For me most of the Australian productions fall into just a few broad categories:

• Reality TV
• White-wash “Australian” dramas that do not represent the modern Australian society
• Dramatised Australian true stories – and a lot of times are related to crimes
•  Comedies and satires– sometimes low taste comedies

Since moving to Australia just over a decade ago, I have only watched and follow a few Australian drama productions.

“Sea Change” was the first one I fell in love with and still watch a lot. It is my favourite show to watch when I am doing my ironing. The first season of “The Secret Lives of Us” was also great. Deborah Mailman and Claudia Karvan have made the show so watchable. “Love My Way” was another Claudia Karvan show that I followed although similar to “The Secret Lives of Us” I only liked the first season. “East West 101” was another brilliant show that I think one should not miss. It shows a more realistic Australian society and investigates more interesting issues. Since “East West 101” I haven’t been watching a lot of Australian dramas because they just don’t interest me. I will watch odd episodes from time to time here and there (especially the ones I was in) but I never follow them. Then came “The Time of Our Lives”.

When ABC first advertised it, I understood that it is another Claudia Karvan show and this raised my interests in it. I have a lot of respect for Claudia Karvan although I have never really met her (except for the forum that I went to with her as the guest but I had never spoken to her). She strikes me as a person who doesn’t like to conform to common views but works hard to break the norm. As a person who tries to fight stereotypes and “be myself” both as an actor and a person, I was naturally drawn to Claudia Karvan as an actor and producer. As such, I was determined not to miss this show – especially when it is on ABC.

“The Time of Our Lives” surrounds a family with a few grown up siblings. Two of them were blood brothers, one of them was adopted from Vietnam, and the other was a foster care child. The combination is interesting enough and so are the characters. There are still some quite cliché storylines but then the fact that it deals with these storylines in a day-to-day kind of manner instead of overly dramatising them, the show become a lot more convincing. Claudia Karvan played as Caroline who was a lawyer who gave up her career to build a perfect family. But she eventually had to face the fact that no matter how hard she pretended, the family was far from perfect. Her character change from the first episode up to the current episode displayed a journey of compromising with life without comprising her view of life. I think that was great.

The show also dealt with some quite heavy weight issues such as how could a foster child re-establish his relationship with his own mother? Could an adopted child from Vietnam ever fully recognise herself as an Australian, when she knows that she is Asian? How do you savage a life torn apart by you without tearing yourself apart? These are all very demanding storylines. They could not be over-played or shallowly interpreted. I think the production managed to find a great cast to tell the stories for us. Some of the names are basically who’s who in real Australian acting – Claudia Karvan, William McInnes, Justine Clark, Shane Jacobsen, Stephen Curry etc. Even the supporting cast were some of the best in Australian acting – Tina Bursill, Mick Molloy, and Pia Mianda to name a few.

What I also like about “The Time of Our Lives” is that it shows a more representative Australian society – aka it is not a white washed “Australian” society. Also actors of different ethnicities were not stereotyped in the roles they are playing. This enabled me to relate to this world a lot better than shows that only show hunky surfers and blonde babes living on the beach a lot better. Also the writing has so much more depth when it is not just about insecure people trying to sleep with insecure people to make themselves secure.

I hope ABC would continue to produce original quality dramas like “The Time of Our Lives” and I will definitely continue to sit in front of the TV every Sunday night at 8.30 to watch the show until it is finished. Even so, it is already high on my priority list as a must have TV series for my DVD collection.

The Bran Nue Radiance of the Sapphires

The recent decision of the US DVD cover change of the Australian movie "The Sapphires" has sparked a lot of debates about whether it was sexist and racist. For readers who are not the familiar with the movie, "The Sapphires" is about an Aboriginal women singing group who went to Vietnam to sing for the soldiers during the wars. It represents the courage and life of these four wonderful Aboriginal women. The movie was a hit in Australia and overseas alike. The movies represents Aboriginal cinema at its very best and also proved that when you have a good story and presented it correctly the story telling transcends ethnicity.

The decision of the US distributor to change the cover art to feature Chris O'Dowd, who is a supporting character in the movie and move the four main Aboriginal characters to the back is doing the movie a huge injustice. Changing cover arts across different regions is not something new. It has been done for years. The issue here is how it was handled. I understand that it might be a commercial decision to put Chris O'Dowd as the featured character because he might have better market pulling power than the four Aboriginal Australian actresses. However the question here is whether the move is respecting the movie itself and whether this change is compromising the integrity of the movie, and to an extent false advertising?

The fact is "The Sapphires" is not completely unknown to the American audience. Ellen Degeneres has been featuring and promoting this movie in her show in many occasions. Both Chris O'Dowd and Jessica Mauboy had made appearances on the Ellen show to talk about the movie and Ellen was very outspoken about her love for the movie. Under such circumstance it is strange the US distributor decided to make such changes. What even further baffles me was that "The Sapphires" has a strong theme of battling racism and sexism in the 60s and 70s but the cover art change is exactly exhibiting the same in 2013.

At the time of writing the original Sapphires has written a public letter protesting this and trying to lobby a boycott of the DVD. They were proud of the movie, proud of the four aboriginal actors who portrayed them but are disgusted about the cover change. They stated that the movie represents everything they fought against in their lives. Chris O'Dowd has also publicly criticised the move and claimed that this is not something he would like to see happening. The other actors have not made a public stand yet but most Australians know that both Deborah Mailman and Jessica Mauboy are very proud of their Aboriginality. They were involved in different important projects such as "Radiance", "Bran Nue Dae", "Rabbit Proof Fence", "Mabo" etc. Deborah Mailman also co-wrote the important theatrical piece "The 7 Stages of Grieving", which was Shari Sebbens' agent's day's piece when she graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) because she wanted to tell people who she is. I am sure none of the four actresses would be impressed by this DVD cover.

I do not know what were the true intentions behind this change. Is it just commercially driven? Is it out of ignorance? Or is it a combination of both? No matter what were the motives behind these changes, from different angles this is still a huge disrespect to the movie. I don't know whether any consultations were made but huge insensitivity was with no doubt on display. The fact is if this didn't happen with "The Dreamgirls" why should it happen with "The Sapphires"? This is not about the marketability between Beyonce and Jessica Mauboy but about the essence of the movies - what they are trying to tell us.

I hope the debate would trigger people to think better and deeper about these issues. I do not like to cry foul on racism and sexism every time something happened but I am a strong believer of respect and sensitivity for this is a way to achieve "world peace". By this I am not saying we need to tip toe around these issues but to take proactive steps to understand them so we are more informed and aware of our behaviours. I wish the US distributor would eventually back in but otherwise I am sure the Australian online retailers would be more than happy to step in to provide a better and more respectful service.

 

 

The Newsroom

Has been addicted to the show "The Newsroom" since its debut last year. The story is engaging, the cast is great and the premise is exciting. For those who haven't seen it or heard about it, it is a social political drama set inside the newsroom of a cable TV network. The main character Will McAvoy played by Jeff Daniels suffered a career set back because of a possibly medical induced rant at a public forum. To salvage his career and his news program the network invited someone who has completely different views about journalism to be his new executive producer. Together with a cast of young journalists who want to make their marks in different ways, sparks were flying all over the newsroom.

"The Newsroom" investigates the dilemma of modern journalism - should we produce socially responsible news programmes or are we responsible for a high rating programme only? The fact is great news programme don't necessarily be the highest rating programmes. Also how do balance your account book with your social responsibility? "The Newsroom" season one kicks of with these question and continued to attempt to find an answer throughout the season. Each day in the newsroom is a battle of ethics and pragmatism. Season two kicked off with a very interesting opening and started telling the story backward. It makes you want to find out what lead to the opening scene of this season. I heard Aaron Sorkin, who brought us "The West Wing"in the past, spent a lot of time in a cable network newsroom to research on and understand the subject  before production and it shows in the actual product he delivered to the audience.

Watching "The Newsroom" makes me think about my original thought of taking up journalism before moving to Australia. I did get accepted into the School of Journalism at a very good university. I was excited to get myself enrolled. This was because I felt like I was doing something meaningful with my life. I always believed that responsible journalism is the only way to keep the government and the society in check and I wanted to be part of it. But then I think life has other plans for me and so I ended up in Australia studying something else.

Fast forward to the present I am doing nothing remotely related to journalism. I am still opinionated and full of ideologies about the world. I still debate with friends about social issues from time to time. However I have mostly become one of the working masses. While I still have a lot of respect for real journalism in Hong Kong, I am mostly disappointed with the pseudo-journalism in Australia. I do not like my news time plastered with the so called WAGS of famous men and I do not like trash tabloid TV pretending themselves as current affairs programs. I nowadays only watch ABC and SBS news because they are what I would recognise as real journalism.

When I watched "The Newsroom" I appreciate that it did not shy away from any issues. They regularly questioned their own motives - "is this a personal agenda or am I really trying to uncover the truth?" "Am I thinking what's best for my career or what's best for the society?" I personally think all real journalists should do that check on themselves regularly. This is not self-censorship but self-evaluating so that what you deliver at the news desk makes a difference to the society.

I think that was what motivated me to apply for the Journalism School back then. Now I might sound naive to still have those thoughts especially when I am not a teenager who thinks I could do anything anymore. But I do still believe in the social responsibilities of each individual. That's probably why I continue to write my blog - maybe one day it would make a difference.

A BlackBerry A Day...

The smartphone wars have been going on for quite a number of years now. Mobile phones have gone from being able to be used as a self-defence device to now sleek and multi-purposes. They have also gone from getting smaller back to getting bigger again. However one thing seems to be quite consistent is that most phones have done away with physical keyboards and replaced them with the touchscreen ones.

I have always been a fan of Apple. I gradually replaced my computer with a Mac and had joined the camp of iPods after Sony ended their production of my favourite MDs. So when iPhone was first announced, I thought I would be getting an iPhone. Like a lot of people I couldn’t wait to get my hands on an iPhone and continue with an Apple a day. However, with the iPhone having completely done away with the physical keyboard, I did not like it at all when I tried it at the shops. At first I thought it was just because of the pressure people posed on me trying in the shops. So I gave it more tries when my friends got “iPhone-ised” one by one. Still did not like it. The virtual keyboards just didn’t do it for me at all. Later when other brands of smartphones came out, I tried most of them and found out that I am really not built for virtual keyboards. At that point I thought I would just stick with my trusty traditional Sony phone. I was quite happy with it until something called Facebook comes along and hopped on to the mobile world.

As an actor, I need to meet people all the time and so one day when Facebook became a norm for everyone you meet to “friend” everyone on the spot with their smartphones, I had no choice but to join the movement. This is when I discovered the BlackBerry Bold 9700. I have always been sceptical about a QWERTY keyboard on a phone because seriously how comfortable could that be? I had tried the Nokia QWERTY phone and I did not like it at all. The buttons are so small that every time I pressed them I felt like I was having acupuncture treatments on my fingers but without the benefits. That is until I tried the one on the Bold. This was the first time I felt that “Oh such a small keyboard could be so comfy and easy to use!” I fell in love with BlackBerry – quite a number of years later than the likes of Paris Hilton and Hilary Duff. The Bold 9700 was so easy to use that I started using it for my emails and not to mention Facebook. I felt I am so in touch with the world now because I could just “Friend” people on Facebook on the fly. Life was good.

However with the Forbidden Fruit taking over with iPhone, BlackBerry has been declining in terms of market shares. This doesn’t help with Google entering the foray with the Android OS and sent their droids to companies making cheap phones to saturate the market with seemingly good-looking phones for the price of a pack of Tim Tam. BlackBerry followed up with a few products and still didn’t quite make the mark. I eventually updated my 9700 with 9900 when my trusty 9700 of 3 years died the day before Christmas last year. The 9900 running the OS7 was great with some new great additions – and man that Social Feeds app was the reason that I revived my interest in Twitter. Also the BlackBerry Maps kept me from getting lost many many times. However, with the OS7 aging and the 9900 seems to start lagging behind because of its hardware limitations, I have my eyes set on the Q10 since its announcement. I waited and waited and finally the fruit is ripe for harvest.

I plunge myself into the pool in the first week of Q10’s release in Australia. This is the first time I bought a phone at release – and bought it outright without a contract. I couldn’t wait to have a play with it.

The OS10 was very different from OS7. However, with my experience with the now ill-fated PlayBook (that I still use quite a bit), I have no problem understanding the logic of OS10. Still I do think that OS10 is not without issues from my point of view. Firstly I was disappointed that my favourite Social Feeds app was gone. Now in order to perform multiple social network updates, I need to copy and paste them in the Hub and personally I do not think it is very efficient way for business people to do that (or maybe they do not have time to tweet). The Hub was great to get all things in one place but Social Feeds is about streamlining social network updates, and personally I think it should have been kept. The other thing I was disappointed was the half-ass Live Messenger app that has so many bugs that you couldn’t even sync your Messenger contacts with the app. I deleted it two seconds later. Also the touch screen on Q10 seems to be a lot more sensitive than 9900. Sometimes screen just change and disappear even when you fingers are not actually touching the screen.

Having said that I still enjoy my Q10 a lot, especially once you start to understand the logic behind the OS built better as you use it. Some of them just make sense. BlackBerry World might not have a lot of apps on it, but I do think I have the ones I needed most already, but then I am not a big apps fan. For me I only need Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIN as additional apps. Skype is also available but my love of Skype dropped after Microsoft acquired it and forced a marriage between Skype and Live Messenger. The marriage just didn’t work. However, as time went by (two weeks now), I started to enjoy the benefits brought by a great Unit Converter app and not to mention the TripView app that gives me a piece of comfort against the ridiculously unreliable Sydney bus services. I like the OS10 screen being not particularly cluttered and have some big icons arranged properly. The Docs to Go app has encouraged to write more on the bus – which I started earlier this week and finished two other blogs. And I did downloaded Angry Birds Star Wars and Polar Slide for free. Also the integration with Drop Box makes transferring file so much easier for me now as I don’t need to email them to and fro all the time.

I think the Q10’s OS10 does have business people in mind, as it is very business technology oriented. It might not be the entertainment phone people might want it to be but I think for a person like me who doesn’t care a darn about playing games on the phone, cluttering apps on the phone, and just being part of the crowd, I think the BlackBerry Q10 really suits me a lot. I do wish that more people appreciate the effort of BlackBerry but with the smartphone market becoming more about being trendy instead of being practical, BlackBerry’s future might not be as bright as one would hope. But for me, as long as they are still making great phones like my trusty Bold 9700, Bold 9900 and Q10, I still believe a BlackBerry a day keeps my tech problems away.