'PS I love you' the film

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I'd been waiting for ages for this to come out on DVD and finally got it last week. I mean why watch it at the cinema when you can own a copy for just over a $1! Of course it's not as good as the book (in fact, it's nothing like the book!) but in its own right I thought it was a pretty decent film. I didn't like how Dan and Chiara were portrayed though. They seemed so stupid and Chiara was barely even needed, she didn't add anything to the film. Taking Holly's father out of the picture was a weird move too.

The DVD extras of the deleted scenes were really interesting. One of the most poignant scenes in the book is the travel agency scene (won't give too much away) and I was looking forward to seeing that in the film but it wasn't in it, however, if you see the extras you can see that they did film it but it was cut out. It's not done that well though and a bit disturbing which was probably why they took it out.

As everyone says Gerard Butler was totally right for the role of "Gerry" and totally hot in the movie, and Hilary wasn't too bad either.

I would rate it 6.5-7 / 10.

Iris Germanica Polar Night fashion show

I'm going through a bit of a fashion phase. It all started last Friday night when I watched a historical fashion documentary series called "A Stitch in Time" on ICS at 9pm. It would be on every night for a week (?) at the same time. I watched almost every episode. It is not a serious documentary and very fascinating, light-hearted and comical.

Then, a few days ago I got around to watching my "The Notebook" DVD (cried my eyes out of course) but thinking back to the doco, I found myself noticing the gorgeous clothes/dresses that Rachel McAdams wore in the film. I have to say I really don't like any of the fashion from the 80s onwards. I don't like recent styles which have consisted of big sack baggy things. I HATE them. I also hate the incessant cleavage-showing low-cut v-neck 'things'. Ugh. I despise them. Give me the gorgeous 30s, 40s, 50s fashions any day! The fitted waist, the sleeves (when was the last time you saw a female wear sleeves to a formal function?!), the flared skirt, the structured cotton instead of floppy fabrics. Not saying I don't like the 'floppy' fabrics like silk, viscose, satin, etc. But usually they are just too sacky and baggy looking. Not to mention the freakin' empire line which is great if you are pregnant, and if you are not it'll surely make you look pregnant!

There are some of the types of dresses I hate from edressme.com

About two weeks ago hubby got an email from some Shanghai expat thing about a fashion show/parade. Strange, that he got one and I didn't (considering I'm on the internet the whole time, and I was the one who went to the Shanghai expat trade fair back in September!) His thought was that because I had a Chinese surname they just kinda ignored me as they thought I was a local. Who knows if there is any truth to that?!

Anyway, so he asked if I wanted to go and I said Yes. I was quite excited to be honest as I hadn't been to one for many years, and have always enjoyed them, even the free ones.

The brand is Iris Germanica and the ticket cost was 150 RMB per person (pre-sale, or 180 at the door). It was at the Paramount building (218 Yuyuan Lu) and started at 8pm.











We got there at 7:45pm and just stood around till they finally let everyone in (through a metal detector!) at 8pm. I haven't been to a nightclub for so long I'd forgotten what they looked like. Well this was black, with couches and bar stools and trippy laser lighting everywhere. It was pretty cool and I was excited and pumped to see this collection!

The ticket included 2 drinks per person and fruit. Since we got there pretty early we got one of the best seats in the house. I ended up sitting next to a nice middle-aged man from Amsterdam (who'd been here 3 years, and who knew the designer) and chatted to him a bit during the night (well, yelling into each other's ears more like it).

About half an hour later the bar upstairs was open and everyone started to get drinks. Hubby went to get mine for me and 'met' the guy next to me at the bar and apparently they had a little chat too.

After that it all went downhill. 8:30 turned to 9, 9 turned to 9:30. EVERYONE was getting really impatient. Blank looks on people's faces, people playing games on their mobile/cell phones... As the smoke levels rose inside my tolerance levels decreased. I would've fallen asleep from boredom if it weren't for the extremely loud music! I was getting rather impatient (can you blame me?) and went to ask them what time they planned on starting the show. The first guy said 10:30 and I was like "What??!!" and the second guy said 10. It was 9:40 when I asked and I just wandered about and took my time in the bathroom and eventually went back to my seat at 9:50 just when they were starting. Or so we thought.

Then, there was about 15 mins of 'introduction' which got more and more boring as you could barely hear them and they didn't seem like professional speakers. The girl kept dropping her papers all over the stage and she couldn't say 'dowry', she kept saying 'dowee' and the guy tried to crack jokes which noone laughed at. Hm..













OK, finally. The show. The clothes... By this time my excitement had dwindled down to almost nothing. I'm sure I wasn't the only one feeling like this either! Add to the fact that the damn smoke was getting to obscene levels and now itching my eyes as well as irritating my lungs. I reminded myself why I never go to these types of 'night' places.

The outfits were interesting to say the least. I'm not sure what I was expecting but I think there would be few I'd actually wear, and none I'd actually buy. :( (sorry if anyone from the company is reading this!) At one stage one of the outfits was so bad (the yellow checked one with the black fluffy bra thing) I gave hubby a 'look' and then looked over to the girl sitting next to him, and we both just cracked up laughing instantaneously and simultaneously.

This little number here:



There was another funny moment right at the start when this guy from nowhere with his SLR camera came over and stood right in front of us, taking photos. I was like 'what the?' The guy sitting next to me went up to him and told him to please move. Then as he was walking away (very very slowly) the three girls sitting next to us (on hubby's side) also told him to move and one of them zipped the zip on the back of his pants. I'm not sure what was going on there but all I could do at that point was just laugh my head off.

anyway

At first I thought it was because of the models.. some of them were Chinese, the other half were Caucasian, some tall, some short, some old, some young, some thin, some 'curvy' - basically a mixed bag, a representation of 'real women' as they say. At first I found this offputting but then I realised it wasn't the models at all. It was the whole thing. There was singing in the background, the models had Venetian-masks type make-up (which was nice but strange) and the clothes, weren't awful, they were just very very... erm... avant garde?





During the night waiters/waitresses came around with platters of fruit. I don't know how much fruit I ate! But even so, afterwards when it finished (around 10:30) we were both starving and went to a nearby Chinese restaurant for dinner.

I had an OK night but I thought the ticket price was a little high for what we got. But if the inside was non-smoking and they hadn't made us wait 2 hours for the show I think I would've reviewed it more favorably!

PS - I now know why Europeans like living in Shanghai so much. They can smoke to their hearts content just like they do back home, and everything costs 1/10 the price of back home! (that is a bit 'tongue in cheek' but still...) I have to say again and again I HATE SMOKING!

Strange experiences

Strange experiences

Yesterday I met up with another Australian expat girl... Afterwards, I went to Chaterhouse Books in Times Square. I must be a glutton for punishment (after my last experience). Anyway I decided to try my luck. I had a list of about 50 books and on that list, 10 I really wanted. I also wanted to see if they had Lonely Planet Taiwan.

Well I was very disappointed. If you like fiction you're in luck. If you don't, the selection is dismal to say the least. Or maybe it's my electic taste. Who knows? But NONE of the non-fiction topics that I am interested in were there. I couldn't believe it. None at all. To give you an example: The 'health' section consisted of one narrow self that had books on: dieting and weight loss, caring for babies and children. That's it! Nothing of substance at all for those who are not looking to lose weight and don't have kids (ie me). The business and computer section was highly disappointing too. Humph.

Apparently they are not legally allowed to import any book relating to Taiwan. I said so I can't find it in another bookstore in Shanghai? And the lady said she didn't know but they didn't want to do it for fear of getting into trouble with the authorities.

Anyway, while I was there there was a girl (about 10 years of age) with her mother. I could not believe my ears when she swapped effortlessly between Shanghainese - Mandarin - English, back and forth. She spoke Mandarin with a perfect Beijing accent and English with a perfect American accent. Unbelievable! It's unbelievable how easy it is for kids to learn languages. When my sister and I were growing up one of my mother's friends had some young kids we used to play with. The mother was Vietnamese Chinese and the father was a white South African. From the moment they could talk the father forced them to only talk Chinese (Mandarin) with their mother and English with him. As a result they swapped back and forth so easily, so effortlessly. I was probably around 10 at the time and remember this so clearly. If only it were that easy for adults - d'oh!

Today, I was doing some last minute shopping for relatives in Taiwan. Both my parents had rung me with a 'shopping list' of things to buy and gifts for people. While I was doing this I accidently found a really great DVD store that had heaps of English/foreign DVDs. I finally got Ang Lee's Lust Caution (after my father reminded me I was supposed to get this for him!). I made them play it (two copies - one for me and one for dad) in the store to make sure 1) it was working fine and not dodgy, 2) the deleted scenes were intact. It was copied from the "Taiwan version" so yeah it was all there. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry! Here I was watching some R-rated sexually explicit scenes (in fast forward motion) with a guy in a little DVD store. So so strange! I almost felt guilty. I felt like a pimply 16-year-old boy sniggering. Haha. The thing is, the cut scenes don't really affect the movie that much but still, it does play a role in the script so who wouldn't want a complete movie if they can get one? Unfortunately for hubby there are no English sub-titles so he'd better learn Mandarin quick smart if he wants to watch it (not that I can talk, ha!)

Also, I saw they had the Simpsons Movie too so I nabbed that one. In English this time!

Die Simpsons Der Film (the world of bootleg DVDs)

Any English speaking person visiting or living in China is bound to want to buy some DVDs. Heck any French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian etc speaking person would probably buy some too.

Now let's get one thing straight. Yes they are pirated, bootleg, whatever you want to call it. I'm sure there are goody two shoes who say what we do is wrong, buying them only supports the industry, blah blah blah. Fair enough, but unless I'm mistaken YOU CAN'T BUY REAL DVDs here! I hear computer software is the same.

And if it weren't for the enjoyment of badly dubbed DVDs, then living here wouldn't be nearly as much fun.

It is always a surprise wondering what you'll get. Was it filmed by someone in the cinema? Is it actually the movie that is on the cover? What language will it be played in? If in Chinese, will the subtitles be in English and if they are, will they actually make sense??? All these Questions - it becomes such a fun 'game'. haha.

So after waiting what seemed like forever for this movie to come out, I was dying to get my hands on a copy of the latest Simpsons movie.

I bought it on Monday (two days ago) and patiently waited for my husband to get home so we could watch it together.

I played around with the audio and subtitle buttons on the DVD remote. Hmm... it was German or Chinese.. Chinese or German. Where was the English? Alas there was no English to be found so we couldn't watch it :( I can understand the Chinese but there is no fun in that, no puns, no play on words. At least it's not totally wasted. I can give it to my sister and her boyfriend who speak fluent German and they can have a laugh at how bad the dubbing/translation is!!

So I get out another movie from our 'collection' and it seems it is in Mandarin with Finnish, Swedish, Danish or Norwegan subtitles. OK.. but, after fiddling around with the buttons on the remote again, Eureka! Out came the (accurate) English subtitles and we were 'rescued'.

Last night I was looking for something completely unrelated and then came across this post on Shanghaiist. So I wasn't the only one who bought a German copy! haha.

Should I perhaps go back a little further and entertain the non-resident readers some more? I was out shopping with a friend and we did not see any shops selling DVDs. So she asked one of the shopkeepers, who then walked us over to another shopkeeper (they all know each other you see.. I wouldn't be surprised if they were all related!) who then called out to a third shopkeeper. The tiny shop sold Nintendo and Playstation games but upon close inspection there were a few DVDs but the Simpsons one was nowhere to be found. So we asked and she didn't know what we were talking about, and we assumed she didn't have it. Then the shopkeeper in the store opposite heard us and at first thought we wanted the game "The Sims" but in the end she figured out what we wanted. So then the DVD shop owner rummaged through a drawer full of hidden treasures and pulled out what I wanted! Phew! If only I knew it was in German then.. hmm...

Living in China is full of such 'fun'!

Harry Potter and the Chinese Porcelain Doll

Been having soooo much trouble accessing my Blog for the last few days, weeks.. Just then I finally got back into it and the language was back in Chinese - ARGH. Either my computer is stuffing me around or the Great Firewall is/was. Anyway.. these are posts I wrote ready for posting before.

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China - the land of the fakes! Piracy

OK we all know about China's fake industry - LV handbags, Chanel sunglasses, Gucci wallets, Ralph Lauren Polo t-shirts, North Face jackets, DVDs, etc etc..

Little did you know that China has fake EVERYTHING. If this isn't enough to scare people off I don't know what is - hahaha.

Here are some fake things I have heard about recently.

1. Fake eggs

See this link

Makes me sick thinking about it but hopefully we haven't bought nor eaten any fake eggs!!

2. Fake Colgate toothpastes (which are genuine Colgate!)

Although there is a Colgate factory in China, apparently the ingredients of the toothpastes are not the same as in the US, Australia or other Western countries. Apparently there is a dangerous ingredient inside. Great! Just when I thought a reputable global brand meant that something was 'safe' and when we had bought about 6 tubes when we first arrived... <_<

3. Fake Apple iPhones



This one is quite ingenius actually. And note the Windows chime... hilarious! The Chinese have rebadged the iPhone as tPhone and included a removable battery plus a host of other extra features. At first glance it looks exactly like the iPhone too. Check out the YouTube video.

and now...

4. Fake "Harry Potter" books!

See this link