Ip Man (film)

I managed to catch this film, "Ip Man", yesterday. I didn't think very much about this film at first, thinking of just catching yet another action film about a martial art expert of the past, something like "Fearless". Making films like these must be the boom now. And to say the truth, I didn't know who Yip Man was in the first place... because Wing Chun was never something that I was interested in, even though I know that it does have something similar to taiji's pushing hands.

At the end of the day, I must say that the fighting scenes in the movie was very well choreographed, though some parts of the fighting was more for show rather than a true manifestation of how martials arts is applied. After all, real martial artists don't punch people repeatedly like they are training on a punching ball... rather, it is one shot, one kill. Each move is supposed to maime or kill an opponent outright, much like the scene in which Ip Man was fighting against the karate-ka of the Imperial Japanese Army's 5th Division.

The important message is like "Fearless", that there is no greatest form of martial arts, but rather how good the martial artist is (which means how hard he trains, and how well he understands). The other key message, even more important, is that a killing skill (which martial arts are) must be practised together with benevolence. With the power to kill or injure, comes the need to be responsible in using that skill. It does not mean not using the skill, but rather, being able to control oneself such that we do not use martial arts unnecessarily, and when we do use it, we only use enough to protect ourselves and those around us. If it means breaking someone's arm to stop him from slashing at someone, we should. But if pushing a person away is enough to deter him from trying to rob us, then there is no need to break his ribs or poke his eyes.

So do catch this if you are a fan of Wing Chun, likes to see fighting scenes, or enjoy listening about the morals of martial arts.

Official website

Pearl Harbor 67th Anniversary

Today marks the 67th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Blog post on 66th anniversary

Recycling - Envelopes

Back in my school days, a friend of mine was very environmentally conscious, and it got me to think about recycling as well. So I started to reuse paper, print on both sides, etc. But my wife is even more environmentally conscious. As much as possible, we try not to waste anything. Recently, she has this bright idea to reuse envelopes, given that we receive so much junk mail from banks and property agents. What she did was to take those envelopes, invert them and stick them back together so that the clean, unwritten inside is now on the outside. And not just envelopes. She took our old calendar and folded envelopes out of them (the brown envelopes you see above).

Now, why do I need so many envelopes? That's because I need to send my calligraphy pieces to Japan for my calligraphy teacher to mark.

Tokyo Love Story 東京ラブストーリー

I wonder how many of you know about this great Japanese drama, Tokyo Love Story (Japanese title is "東京ラブストーリー")? It used to run on Fuji TV in 1991. I don't recall it ever having been broadcast in Singapore, though. I only heard about it from a Japanese friend when I was in Japan, that it is the greatest Japanese love drama ever and that I must watch it. So I came back to Singapore, found the VCD version being sold in a local VCD shop, and got myself a copy.

And ended up loving it.

The lovely character of Akana Rika (played by Suzuki Honami, she was so cute) really left me with a deep impression. Here is someone who is daring, fun-loving, out-going, yet deep inside, she faces her inner turmoils about how she really wants to go about handling her relationship with Nagao Kanji (played by Oda Yuji).

Arimoto Narimi, playing the character of Sekiguchi Satomi, showed just how good an actress she was. She played a character that was always hesitant, that emphasises herself as the weak and lost female. She played the character so well that she was hated by many of the female viewers in Japan when the drama aired, so much so that there were letters of complaints being sent to Fuji TV.

I am a sucker for love stories, like The Return of the Condor Heroes. I am intrigued by people who can love without reservations, who dare to express their feelings without having to worry about how the other people around them may disapprove. Guess that is why these love stories just seem to make their way into my inventory...

We were all once like that

We must always remember that, looking at those who are starting to walk the same path as us, we were once like them. We made the same mistakes, we learnt the same lessons. Thus, instead of laughing at them, or being sarcastic, we should instead help them along, so that they can learn quickly, so that they can draw from our experiences to further their journey down the same path.

Don't think that just because we are not making the mistakes now, we are better than them. We took the same pain to learn from our mistakes as well. Once, some of our seniors down the path laughed at us, or were overly sarcastic. If we didn't like that back then, we should not be doing the same to those who follow us.

The spirit of volunteering

I recently posted a post on volunteering at MINDS. Just the other day, someone was relating his experiences volunteering as a community grassroot leader. Both he and his wife are active volunteers in their communities, in various activities. But to me, it seemed that they were after the wrong goals... he was bragging about the perks that he gets as a volunteer, about the benefits that the community gives to recognise the efforts of volunteers. I felt very disgusted with his "spirit of volunteering" that I ignored him for the rest of the morning. I just didn't want to hear him bragging about the gifts and perks he got from his "volunteer" activities. To me, that is against the spirit of volunteering. A volunteer should be giving his time and effort because he believes in the cause, and not because he is looking forward to getting something in return.