Dorian Gray

I just watched the movie Dorian Gray (2009), based on Oscar Wilde's 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'. I have always been meaning to read this book. I have started it once but have never gotten around to finishing it. It just sits on my shelf as we speak.

But here's what I thought of the movie.

I know that the movie got really low ratings but I didn't think it was that terrible. The movie started off really well actually, I thought it was quite captivating at first and illustrated the slow corruption of Dorian Gray, the change in person from his innocence to a corrupted self. I thought they showed this well, however perhaps the change in person happened a little bit too suddenly, but oh well I guess its because it was a movie. Also, Ben Barnes as Dorian Gray is very very good looking. And so I thought the movie had so much potential but the second half of the movie just didn't work. It just became a little bit ridiculous and overdramatic, especially the ending. At least I did finish it though, unlike Perfume. So there's a plus. 


Rating: I think I give it a 6.5/10 because the second half of the film and the ending, if it were just the first half or the movie continued with a tone similar to the first half I'd give it a 7.5. 

aims

So my aims for this holidays:

- READ A LOT. I have a bunch of books that I have in my possession that I have no yet read, I really think I should. Plus, I want to read the Song of Ice and Fire series (Game of Thrones).

I've sort of started this, I'm reading The Great Gatsby at the moment. Though I have read in before, when I was year 12 I never really got it. And then I remember talking to Clara about it that year, and she said that she loved it. Clearly, I'm the less romantic and literary one. So, I decided to finally read it again to really understand what the fuss is about. (This is also sparked by the fact that I can't wait for the movie, though admittedly I never imagined Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby, or Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway (I mean, really?) I always imagined Nick being quite young and in his late 20s)

- WATCH MOVIES. So I'm not a fan of watching movies in cinemas, just purely because it costs too much. But during holiday I do tend to watch a lot of movies because I have the luxury of being able to borrow them from libraries for free or rent them cheap. I remember last holidays I ended up watching The Beach and Shutter Island both Leonardo ones I really enjoyed. There were other ones too like The Prestige and others, but I've forgotten which ones now.

I've began this too, starting with Jane Eyre and also to rewatch the Lord of the Rings trilogy because I've never really seen it properly. I watched the Fellowship of the Ring yesterday, which I liked. I watched it with Jacky, I kept going 'who's that?' 'what's that?' 'where's he from?' but I don't think he minded because he wants me to watch them too.

So here's my list of movies that I want to watch (I'll periodically cross them off as I watch them):

Jane Eyre
LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring
LOTR: The Two Towers
LOTR: Return of the King
Winter's Bone
Sleepy Hollow
Melancholia
Thor
Wall-E
Sucker Punch
Pan's Labrynith
How to Train Your Dragon
Ratatouille
Tangled
Pocahontas
Sleeping Beauty
The Little Mermaid
The Breakfast Club
Sixteen Candles
Girl, Interrupted
The Virgin Suicides
Lost in Translation
An Education
Chocolat
Perfume (didn't finish)
Gladiator
Maria Antoinette
The Chronicles of Narmia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Chronicles of Narmia: Prince Caspian
The Chronicles of Narmia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Elizabeth
Dorian Gray
(to add more later.)

- BE A NERD AND STUDY. So I've been told that next year I won't have much time to study for my exams, so I should probably start now.

- PLAN FOR SINGAPORE. So excited! It's going to be FUN! :)

jane eyre

I just watched Jane Eyre, and really quite enjoyed it. It took me back to when I first read it about four years ago.

I enjoyed the way they told the story with the cutbacks to the present and past, and I liked that they did leave all the important scenes in there. Of course they couldn't put everything in there, Charlotte Bronte is quite thorough in explaining her every detail and every event (pretty much) in Jane's life it couldn't possibly be put all into a film so I liked the way they told the story in the movie.

Plus, Michael Fassbender. Even if he had weird sideburns.

I was telling Jacky that I found him attractive and he was like, '..but he's so manly." HAHAHA

Rating: 8.5/10. Because... Michael Fassbender! and I'm a bit intrigued by Mia Wasikowska.

#184 paper towns (part 2)

so i finished the book today

and i loved it.

(do not read on, if you want to read the book. which you should, because it was a good book. and should totally be made into a movie.)

i loved how in the beginning it was lighter and easy to get into

but then i got into

more deeper issues.

i love how he discusses how we cannot truly become other people

and truly know them

that we more or less see our own reflections of people.

rather than the person themselves.

john green not only brings this to light with Margo

and how everyone has their own versions of Margo

but even with Q, how he wants his friends to care about what he cares about (which is Margo)

but Radar tells him that people are their own people.

i also love how he named the main, i guess, object of this book

(because i think she is more of an object in this book than subject, because of the fact that she is a mystery to others. and the fact that characters in the book, like Q, do things because of her though she is not necessarily there. and people do not really know her, but have their own 'Margo' view/idea for themselves. does that make her an object? i don't know, but it just doesn't feel right for her to be a subject.)

Margo Roth Spiegelman

because Spiegelman is a German word for mirror maker

"and Margo is the Spiegelman of Paper Towns, because when people look at her they don't see anything that is essentially true about Margo, what they see is some fun house mirror reflection of themselves." John Green

i thought that was really interesting.

i also love how their are many different covers of Paper Towns

with many different 'Margo'-s

representing the point above

that people all see their own reflections of Margo

but none of which is the true Margo

(the copy I have is the one not of her face, because that's the Australian version)

though the ending did leave me hanging a little bit

because of the fact that Margo did not definitively leave

but Q and Margo both turned back to each other

so immediately after I'd finished I thought perhaps

Q decided to go with Margo

or that they stayed together in the paper town

but after reading into it more

it is definite that Margo did go own her own afterwards

because Q valued the future

but Margo valued the future as being a series of nows.

i want to go buy and read his other books now :D

♥

#183 paper towns

currently reading Paper Towns by John Green

the same John Green I was blogging about a while ago

the one that is one half of the vlogbrothers

:)

loving the book so far

and intrigued by one Margo Roth Spiegelman

can't wait to read what happens next

i think, i'll start reading again

because i can

since i'm on holidays

and i have a lot of books to read still

that are on my shelf.

i think the next one after this one is:

Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.

yes, ok.

bed now.

p.s. i still haven't gotten completely better from my sickness. boo!

read read read #8

shall be a short post
cos it friggin hot
and i'm tired
and i have work tmr.

i am well into my reading phase
borrowed like 10 books today
wanted to to borrow more
but i wouldn't have been able to carry them home
i borrowed Ernest Hemingway
bt i know from the past
as in writing classes in yr 10 called 'Express Yourself'
to read Hemingway
you kinda need to be quite alert
and read between the lines
not just whats there
i remember we read a few of his short stories in class
and there was one that was a conversation between this man and woman
and even though they never said anything related to it
and he as narrator never mentioned any of it
you were supposed to figure that the woman had just had an abortion
thus, through the tone and emotions of what the characters are saying
he hints things.
thus you ned an alert mind to read him.
but i was too tired
and hot so i couldn't be bothered
though i did start The Old Man and The Sea
but then opted for something lighter and easier to read

gah, its so hot
:(

sigh.

real fakes

real fakes
Originally uploaded by alsz

i like this photo
cos its funny
and perhaps a little ironic(?).
well, not ironic
but
i'm not sure how to explain.


me & jacky found these while we were exploring state library
and came across the music scores section
i'm not sure what the books are about though.

♥