Thursday, July 28, 2011
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3:34 AM
| Posted by
Juwen
Masterchef is coming to a close soon with the finals week around the corner. It's been a rather interesting season not so much of the contestants, their character, their personality that they bring to the competition but more of the people watching the show. As I've said earlier that this season's contestants are quite bland compared to the previous seasons and not too many innovative ideas from them too. But there is no doubt that these guys are probably the most privileged group of them all, presumably because of the enormous budget they have manage to garner over the past two seasons plus some clever networking, to meet their food idols (and certainly mine) and to pick their brains. I'd honestly give a whole lot to experience what these fellows experienced because it is a once in a lifetime opportunity (as cliche as that sounds) because even high ranking chefs do not get such privileges.
Over the course of the show, many people who have watched along side with me have very expressive opinions and emotions, even more so this season. Shall not name names but I think it is fairly easy to say who people hate given a quick glance at what has been said out there. Some of my friends have expressed their distaste towards some contestants very clearly and sounded like they are going to break up their friendship with you should you decide to give the impression that you are on the dark side. And of course there are many reasons why they have such loathesome feelings towards the contestants such as "He/She cannot cook, so why is he/she still here?", "He/She is sooooo annoying!" and in some cases citing expletives that are probably not kosher here.
Going one step further to explain "anomalies", some give speculation as to why that contestant is still in the competition. This of course ranges from the show being rigged to favour some people (for example, the Immunity Challenges) and all the way to it is all about marketing. Rigged because there are many occasions that contestants fail to cook anything above average, to put it nicely and yet they are still barely surviving, somehow managing to overthrow season favourites. Marketing because in the end the winner has to sell a good cookbook and possibly more from other avenues like TV and magazines. Of course, it can be both which seems to be what the majority of some of my friends have taken up.
Call me naive and/or overly simplistic but I choose not to adhere to the above mentioned reasons for some anomalous contestants remain in the competition. At least, to a very large extent. How I pass judgment is based on one principle which happens to be a chef-y one, that you are only as good as your last dish. No other dish in the past, no matter how disasterous they are, simply will not matter. You may have cooked several thousands of bad dishes but if you so happen to make a stellar dish, you get praised. To put it in the negative way, this is mostly true in the culinary world, all it needs to tarnish an image is one bad review from just one setting. This of course should not be the case if one wants to be truely objective in their judgment but alas, it is not.
While I'm certainly no judge in the competition nor am I one of the tasters, you can tell a lot about a dish just based on visual textures and even the technique used in the competition (unless you are of the conspiracy theoretic skeptics that say everything is redone until they conform to the producers secret grand master plan to milk the Masterchef cash cow, then I have nothing more to say). Ultimately taste will be the deciding factor which I will leave it to the judges for their criticism, there is no other way. Based on that one principle above, the overall look and the criticism of the judges, I've correctly guessed the winners and losers most of the time without having these notions of contestant annoyances and predisposition to hate/love one over the other. It is so hard to convince people that the decision is right when the person they hate gets praised for a good dish that I've almost given up trying. Bear in mind that the show was pre-recorded and of course some heavy editing would be applied, so it can make any likeable person into the most hated person on television as rather evident from the very first season. But the sad thing is that people are drawn by the drama and the theatre of reality television when, ironically, does not represent all of reality on the television screen. It is hard to be objective when viewing a reality television series because of the emotional bias that comes into play. This is why I mostly hate reality television shows, the unnecessary play on emotions when it does not reflect reality.
Then why is Masterchef (or even the new Renovators) different? Am I being hypocritical? I still hate the drama and play on our rage that this show produces but I channel all my focus to the one real aspect of the show: food (design in the Renovators case). It is exceedingly hard to lie through the process of food even more so when the emphasis is to produce restaurant quality dishes. Focusing on being objective with respect to an element that is hard to fake is the only means of maintaining some form of sanity when watching shows like these, rather that to be caught up with the theatrics of emotion based on something that is most likely edited out of context. And I suspect I am quite alone in this category (as with most other things).
I'd like to suggest some things to think about that emerges from this analyses of approaches to the highly watched show. Most of us who can at least manage a simple stir fry would at some stage cooked for friends or relatives.
- Would we judge a friend who has had their serious fare share of failures before producing one good dish as how we judge a contestant in a similiar position?
- Is it helpful to maintain two separate acts of judgment, one for our friends and one for the unknown person who is cooking our meals ie. should we maintain a bias towards our friends to be a little sugar coated (and sometimes ignorant) in our criticisms while being very harsh on a stranger?
- Shouldn't we just develop one standard on how we criticize without being biased in a way that is always appropriate for the occasion?
If I were judged as harshly for my kitchen failures as the contestants, I'd have zero friends. If you sugar coat your criticisms or even not acknowledge the flaws I've made (which I probably would have accepted already), I probably wouldn't think highly of you. Most importantly, if you show two standards of judgment, how can you be sure that you will not pass judgment reserved for another group to me and vice versa? How can I be sure?
Not that simple, eh? This criticism beast.
PS. We are all entitled to our own opinions, certainly not restricted to contestants of a reality television competition. What I'm not suggesting is that there is one answer to who makes it to the next round and I am here to assert that statement and that I am the all-righteous, all-seeing being. What I am suggesting is to look beyond the appearances of the editing and find objective reasons for your opinion. Whining on the basis that a person is portrayed as annoying isn't objective.
PSS. The Renovators are by the same people that brought Masterchef. Same dramatic tones, same epic suspenseful background music style. So observations here should be transferable to The Renovators. Careful now people, design is even grayer than food. Not that I know anything about design.
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Tuesday, July 19, 2011
at
1:47 AM
| Posted by
Juwen
Second half of the DVDs. Finished watching them for some time now. Top to bottom.
- Kick-Ass - Another comic/graphic novel adaptation in the same year as the awesome Scott Pilgrim. Didn't realize that it is actually quite violent and adult-theme-ish than I expected it to be. In fact, the comic series is even worse. Still pretty good with all it's comic book colours and narration but I'd still pick Scott Pilgrim anytime. It's more geek.
- Dave Chappelle's Block Party - Documentary on Dave setting up a block party in New York, him meeting the different people involved whether on stage or behind the scenes or even just the people living around the area where the block party is located. Mainly about the artists that performed at the party than anything else so I guess this is more of a music DVD rather than comical antics of Dave. Though I may not fully appreciate rap (especially the rap of today) I can certain appreciate their groove. They have always been the masters of groove.
- Dead Space Downfall - EA Games sanctioned two feature length animations to be produced around their critically acclaimed game Dead Space. This is the first one transcribing the events before the beginning of the game in Dead Space. This is supposed to explain a little bit more about what had happened on board the Planet Cracker Ishimura that was the basis of the game. Having played this game, this really falls flat in its purpose. There is nothing really new on offer in the animation so the whole animation feels very redundant. No plasma cutters. No rough investigation why the aliens fall quickly if you dismember them. And certainly nothing new about the Captain. If you've played the game, don't bother. Otherwise, don't bother either.
- Spaced - This short series supposedly launched the career of Simon Pegg all about living in a rather dysfunctional apartment building. It took a long time for the series to warm up to me but some funny stuff in it if you persevere. One really cool thing about the DVDs are the added subtitle option called the "Homage-O-Meter" which lists down every film, TV, comic and gaming reference made in the series. That just tickles my inner geek.
- Fallen Angels - Wong Kar Wai. Again. This was supposedly the third story in my favourite Kar Wai film Chungking Express but was cut out because it was starting to get a bit too long and later decided to remake it into one film. In the same overall style of Chungking Express, there are a couple of stories that are intermingled loosely with one another. Much more noir (side note: I think really good noir story telling on film is a dying art. Such a shame) which I absolutely love and he ups the cinematography by mainly filming on a ultra-wide lens. But the stories don't quite flow nicely like Chungking or say Days of Being Wild and slightly confuses me a bit. Being the third storyline of Chungking, you'll see familiar places here from Chungking which I guess is nice.
- How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying - This is the film version of the 1961 Broadway musical about a man who climbs the corporate ladder as fast as he can with as little effort as possible. Quite entertaining but I get the feeling that there's something missing which I'd probably say the feel of the stage. Without me watching the stage version, I'd probably say it would have been a lot different and probably a lot more enjoyable. Of course there are things for me to like, for example 60's colours and motives and fashion (still love it) and songs. Robert Morse's performance is great as the quirky man seeking corporate success.
- Transamerica - This film touches on so many taboo topics on gender and sexuality that one can not stop and think about the issues that surround it. But the film isn't about those issues but the simple coming of age story. Felicity Huffman's performance was really good and you can hardly believe your ears when she speaks in this ridiculously low voice in the film and eyes as how she portray herself as this person in transition from being a man to a woman. It is hard not to see why she was nominated for Best Actress in the Golden Globes (which she won) and the Academy awards.
- Oklahoma! - Another great musical on film. Many memorable songs here and has good storyline to boot. It seems though that the theme here is that if you like a girl you'd be persistent in making fun of her/bicker at her and likewise. If I did that, I'd most certainly be dead. Shirley Jones is so pretty but the character I liked the most was the one who played Aunt Eller. For some reason she looked more like an Ethel to me. Anyway, great musical.
- Crash - Another really good film on racism told by several smaller stories intertwined together (I seem to have a knack for films like these, don't I?). The subject of racism is not new and probably will continue to affect most of our lives, indirectly or not. This film merely highlight some of the actions we take when we are confronted by a person of another colour or race. If we were really honest with ourselves, we are all guilty of this in one way or another which is what makes this film so confronting.
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Saturday, July 2, 2011
at
2:28 AM
| Posted by
Juwen
Half of what I should be watching. Other half to come soon. From left to right.
- Army Daze - Hilarious film on what goes on during the Singapore National Service's Basic Military Training. This was a film that was recommended to me countless times by Singaporeans (mostly guys, not surprisingly) ever since I step foot in Melbourne. The only thing that I was a little unhappy about was the character of Kenny and his predicament. I think it's a pretty important one to address but it felt like it was an afterthought and gone in a flash. Despite the film being over 15 years old, I wonder if the problems highlighted here are still relevant today in Singapore, though I'm pretty sure at least one of them are. Wonder why it took so long for me to watch this.
- Brick Lane - One of those novel to silverscreen adaptations. Like all such films I've seen, I've actually never read the novel so I cannot say anything about its faithfulness to the novel. Very good cinematography and very vibrant although it is meant to be a film about the struggle between what you want versus the reality of things. The married couple here seem to resemble a lot like my family at some point in time. Even the husband acts eerily similiar to my dad and how their children act a lot like my sister and I back then. Lots of issues I see in the film, I can see in my family which makes this film quite relevant to me.
- The Usual Suspects - I am a total sucker for good sting-type films. All I need is a well crafted story that has only one but pivotal plot twist and I'm a happy man. This ticks all the right boxes for me. My brain exploded when the film ended and had to take a moment to recompose myself and analyze it again to make sure I understood it correctly. That's the mark of me enjoying such movies like Memento, Saw etc. Must watch.
- Pan's Labyrinth - When this was first released I was put off by the title and bits of pieces of the trailer which felt like it's another Alice In Wonderland type story. Boy was I wrong. It is still a children's story of sorts but waaaaay darker and quite graphic as well (read: don't watch, children. Until you are older). I guess you can think of it as a mix between Princess Diaries and American McGee's Alice. Great stuff.
- Bambi - One of the few Disney animations I haven't watched. Very little dialogue, lots of orchestral pieces and lots of detail. Quite Fantasia-esque in many ways and no doubt very similiar to a lot of the Disney shorts around that time. This has got to be the bottom of the barrel as far as Disney's reputation for giving unreasonable expectations of love. Anthropomorphized wild animals in love. Even wimpy humans like me are jealous. Damn you Disney. Other than that, if you liked old Disney shorts (and I mean pre-50's) or Fantasia, you'd like this as well.
- Dancer in the Dark - There are very few films that evoke strong raw emotion from me other than the "Hmmm. Interesting." and this has now entered those ranks. I draw parallels with an animation that gave me roughly the same emotions which was Grave of the Fireflies. Both portrays an overall sad feeling to the story but in both cases I didn't see it as sad but rather filled with utter frustration and a bit of anger. Both films' main characters are overly protective to the point where it is blindingly painful to watch their impending destruction. Both highlights innocence in very difficult and harsh environments. And in both films I cannot analyze the films until much later because I was filled with the above mentioned frustration and anger at the characters. This, I think, is what all films should be like if plot is to be the centre piece. That a work of fiction should evoke emotion from the characters and not just the airy-fairy sugar-coated emotions like romantic love. Because it keeps it real even though it's just fiction.
- Traffic - Way too similiar to Babel in its story telling with very minor differences. If you've watched one, there's really nothing new in the other generally apart from the different issues each represents. What is worth noting is the film editing. Traffic makes heavy use of colour temperature and tinting to differentiate between different locations (to be more precise, colour temperature changes as a function of lattitude). Their film effects also make the film have a rather noir-ish feel which fits in with Traffic. Not that Babel should have done these things because they didn't need to. Their respective locations already did that. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I'd still say watch it though it is about as slow as Babel so stay awake. By the way, Michael Douglas in aviator Ray Bans = kick-ass awesome.
- Needing You - Sometimes we all feel like a brainless TVB-ish rom-com (or is it just me?). This ticked all of the requirements and was okay up till the last half an hour or so. There are like some major holes in the plot just so they can get the guy and the girl together. It's like they ran out of steam (or drunk?) and storyboarded the first thing that came to mind. That just sucks. And this was the highest grossing local film that year contending with John Woo's MI2? Really now. Side note: Sammi Cheng is purdy.
July Camp. Part time. First time.
I'm starting to hate the post-uni mode. With all the residency issues and job search and all my other issues simmering over this pot, I feel like a failure. The only thing that will make me feel good is when I can get a permanent residency or a job. For some reason I doubt the former will come to pass. I should be preparing for the worst where all the hard work of studying the Masters goes to waste and back at square one having "squandered" 2 years and thousands of dollars in money that I don't own. That is starting to look very real to me.
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