THE DAYS of the Lians & Bengs...

I was very kindly invited by Claudia for a Blog Aloud Movie Review for a local movie called "The Days" on Tuesday, 7pm at GV, Vivocity.

It was a chinese movie and you would have thought that I would very likely be the last person to review a chinese show considering that I don't speak chinese. Might I clarify here that I understand chinese, just that I don't speak/read it? Anyway.. there were subtitles for those who are thinking of catching the show and are "chinese illiterate" like me.

Claudia & me! Thanks for the invitation Babe!

I found the show highly amusing. I could almost hear CJs' "tsk tsk tsk" at the back of my mind while I was watching the film. CJ was & has always been the good boy who pulled this so called "lian" out of misery a long time ago almost falling wayside towards a life of decadence and lead me down the road of "goodness". Har har har... such is a confused youth...

As much as I would hate to admit it now, I was somewhat lian back in the 90s. NOT hardcore but somewhat.

While I didn't wear clothes that had brands like Guess, Trussardi, Moschino, Valentino, Sonia Rykiel, Chantel Thomas, Jean Paul Gaultier, Versace... I did carry quite a number of different style JPG bags through out my school years back then which were given to me as gifts. Clothes wise, I always thought those many buckle/studs/obiang coloured shirts that they folded up to their shoulders were really.. OBIANG. I couldn't bring myself to wear those kind of clothes. Those giant buckles/those shiny lion head shirts/those skinny belts and those tight pants & ballet pumps. Gahhh!!! UGLY LAH!

I still wore normal clothes like Esprit/Marks & Spencer *I still do!* and various non brand clothes.. but as you can see here, the black body suit back then was pretty hot so I wore that with various skirts & under dresses.

Yes, I sported hair tails too! It was very "stylo" back then! I had one on each side of my fringe, always tucked behind my ears when it called for decency. If not those "cockroach feelers" would just hang out by the sides. Just because "I like lehhhh".

Yes, I had a Beng wanna-be boyfriend back then too which occassionally got into those crappy "I actually never really see them fight and my gang better than your gang" fights. "Stare what stare?!" and bleached his hair with cheap peroxide. *rolls eyes*

Yes, I frequented TEA PARTIES back then on Saturdays. Those were such a hot thing back then! Where did I go? Well.. places like Orchard Hotel, Fire, Sparks and the Bomb pub at Boat Quay. *GAH!!!* Go in from 2pm-530pm, always dance to TECH TECH TECHNOOOOO museeek, *point point to the sky dance / shuffle around and point finger up again - whooot whooot!!* and drink the complimentary 2 glasses of coke. Oh.. I still listen to old school techno by the way.. haha during my workouts!

However, no one believes it when I tell them that I've never stepped into Canto.. OR Zouk in my life. Even till now. Sure. I've seen it from the outside but I've never been INSIDE.

Yes, I ponteng *skipped* school ocassionally. So that we can go SIT AT McDonalds and hang out or just hang out at the bus interchange... -.-'

But all these above is really history. The show really brought out all reminiscent of those times in the 90s and more. It was highly amusing but not something that I would revisit personally at any time ever again.

I couldn't find a picture that actually SHOWED my tail but I couldn't find one that wasn't BLURRED. So here are some pictures of me back then in 1996 with a very young CJ.. and me... in my teens, count back 12 years lah! Surprisingly though, I was 55kg then but why is it.. I look the same now at 75kg??! Anyway.... I'm very sure I had tails in these pictures bc I had them for a while before I decided that it was a fashion faux pas years later. Must have tucked them behind my ears.

Back to the movie, I won't put in spoilers for the show. You should really just catch it! Its one of the most amusing and really well art directed local movies I've seen to date. They really tried to catch the essence of the times back then and they are quite successful! I almost felt transported back to the 90s.

You can go to check out full details of this show HERE at the official website. Sypnopsis, pictures, links, cast & crew and everything about the show can be found there.

After checking that website out, GO WATCH IT AT GV! I'd recommend it esp for those that are born from the late 1970s - mid 1980s as this show is something you can really relate to and/or find it very amusing to see an era that died off with the new millenium.

What happened during this Blog Aloud screening though was that firstly, they brought us in for the show then there was a Meet & Greet Session with the Director, Boi Kwang and the rest of the cast. The cast was casted from the street and had no prior acting experience but with some training and character immersions, I'd say it was a very good job well done! Looked and sounded so REAL!!

From the walk aka like got big balls cannot close leg swagger, to the language used, to the actions and facial expressions. Very well done! Esp since the cast - mostly & originally do not speak chinese type and are actually really well behaved people in real life! And they looked SO MUCH BETTER, ie more civilised in real life too!

You've got to check it out to amuse yourself at how close they managed to replicate this "era" in Singapore's history. Right down to their props and locations... well chosen and researched!

During the post screening meet the cast session, we got to take pictures! And I chose to take one with the "Small Big Boss" aka Xiao Lao Da, Jeremy Tan - Real name Anthony Kho. He really did an excellent job portraying this "boss" of his gang.

And of course, have to take a picture with the director, Boi Kwang.. *cough* although.. he held me a little tight eh!! *cough cough* nevermind.. *coughIammarriedw/kidsbtwcough*

Successful Director.. can put his arms around me to take photo *cough* and this show is actually based on a true life story.. about Boi & his brother and their Ah Beng days back in the 90s. Oh.. and the director and I are the same age!... *am feeling a little old liao*

And of course, whats a bloggers review if there were not more bloggers there to do their part.. and who else had tickets but Molemole!! She did her review HERE.

Claudia's review can be found HERE. Mr Brown sat in front of us too and he has his HERE.

The Days Facebook page can be found HERE. Go check that out.

And check out a video of the crew & some in movie songs too!! GO WATCH!!!

And this would be one of the rare times you actually see a chinese song on my blog. I've put it here because I thought it really sounded pretty nice. If you listen to chinese songs, check this out.. nice. Even for a person like me who doesn't listen to chinese songs, I think its endearing.

And lastly... we got goodie bags filled with some movie merchandise... which we got the director to sign on. Yayness for goodie bags... free treats are always good *smack the Singaporean in me...* Hur hur hur...

So there you have it people.. Go check out this show. Its really quite worth the ticket and 100 minutes you spend watching it. For this show, I'd say.. Support Local Films.. they're REALLY not as bad as you think! This one "GOT STANDARD ONE!" .... CHECK IT OUT!!!