One for the Record
3 03 2008It was with a heavy heart that I stepped out of Theatre 7 of Orchard Cineleisure on Saturday. For the first time in about three months, I was able to free up enough time to go out for a day of fun with my friends; For the first time in three months, the weight of assignments and test marks are off my shoulders; For the first time in three months, I was actually so relaxed, free from the rigour of academia.
I ought to be happy. In fact, for most of Saturday, I had been in a happier mood than I had been in for a long time. We went to the book store, Burger King and generally walked around the place while enjoying the light jokes punctuating our chatter. All seems well, and well they were. It was the last item on the agenda for the day that was different from the light-hearted and sometimes even mindless chatter that was so enjoyable.
It had been a decision by common consent that we watch the film adaptation of, local author, Catherine Lim’s novella “A Leap of Love”; one that caused some of our friends who were looking at watching films from other genres to ultimately not join us on this trip. Entitled “The Leap Years”, the film adaptation was produced by MediaCorp. It seemed like the average drama or romance film produced by MediaCorp that would prove enjoyable but usually lacking of insightful reflection. However, the power and beauty of prose wielded by one of the best, of the Singaporean literary world is not to be underestimated. Of such intricacy was the play of emotions and fate in the film that I was taken by surprise and enjoyed the film thoroughly. The beautiful interaction of the characters in “The Leap Years” raised many questions in me, so much so that I was still thinking about it after I arrived back in my room.
As we walked out of the theatre, I was more silent that usual, a far cry from the excited mood I was in for most of the day. Chern Yuen was also noticeably speaking less than usual, possibly also absorbed in deep thought like me. Amidst the chatter engaged in critique of the acting and technical aspects of the film, I could not find the drive to respond. I was thinking about the fundamentals of the film, the very plot. Some of the experiences of the characters in the film rings frighteningly close to heart. Is it worth the wait? Not only for love, but also for other things in life. What if you choose to wait and end up losing both ways? And about the wedding scene, it raised another question: Did the bridegroom make a good decision to sacrifice himself for Li-Ann? Granted, his move is logical and expected, in the face of such undying love. But we should ask ourselves, what would we do, when faced with such a situation? Raymond was the noble one, but are we capable of really loving somebody so much as to deny yourself the pleasure of her company?
Currently, I am not confident that I would do what Raymond did if I were him. It is most probable that there would not be much happiness or bliss to be had if Raymond and Li-Ann had gotten married, that much is clear. However, the crunch of the decision is going to be painful, excruciatingly so, even if it is obvious that the choice is the logical one. Perhaps this reflects to us that persevering for the correct albeit painful choice may be the only path to bliss and happiness…
My overall experience of watching “The Leap Years” can be summed up in one word: Impact-ful. The acting of part of the cast might not be too good, as pointed out by my friends. However, the plot, in my opinion, is good enough to make up for that. It had been a long time since I learnt so much from watching a single film. I must borrow the book from Xue Zheng soon to have a look at the story in the way meant by Catherine Lim, in the original print version.
To end on a lighter note, the sabbatical week ahead will be more focused on rehearsals for 《蚊子蚊子我爱你》 and《明天受阅》. This will be a good not on which to end the term for which my results are, up till now, pretty satisfactory by my standards. For those who have not watched “The Leap Year”, I urge you to watch it soon. Its well worth the ticket price for the story and the enlightenment, if not the technical aspect.
Well actually, on your word of advice at the end, do you really think that any Tom, Dick and Harry will think as much as some after watching the movie?
But yea, I guess it was a great movie, just like you said, impact-ful, cos it seriously did make me try and crack my head by putting all the pieces of my thoughts together. =)
Hope you have an enjoyable (and perhaps slack) sabbatical. Haha.
Lol chernyuen… Quite true I think… Most people will just watch it and brush it off… But I think, it hit both of us rather hard. Pretty lucky to get to watch a movie like that rather than the staple blockbuster. A change of taste is great. Sometimes :P.
You know, I think whether a member of the audience really appreciates the ideas and emotions behind a movie, or play for that matter, really depends on his/her experience… If my memory does not fail me, there should be a theory about this out there. Wolfgang something if I remembered well
Still, enjoy your tennis sabbatical then. Haha. Mine is not that slack, but its quite interesting I must say. Most of the weight nowadays come not from the “diversity of the humanities” but drama rehearsals, for a change
I was so intrigued by the movie that I read the novella by Catherine Lim (*oops you wrote Christine Lim in your blogpost there Shien Yang) once I got back. And I finshed the book the very next day! It was a short book I’d say (that’s why it’s called a novella).
Plot wise, the movie followed the book’s first half rather religiously, but about the second half, it was rather far away from the book. And Raymond, in the book, was somewhat a calefe, name appeared only once or twice. Had a crush on Li-Ann in Uni but had a good wife 3 years later. And so happens that KS speaks very good English in the book.
Somehow, I found the movie nicer, maybe because of the drama effect and with the combination of dialougue, and perhaps the changes in plots are more melodramatic than solely the power of words.
But a few teeny criticisms: the actors seemed like they were reading out descriptive phrases from a book or something, maybe because of theur Singaporean accent, I thought Jeremy, Suneetha and Kim’s accents were fine (cos they’re Eurasians). But otherwise, rather unnatural I’d say (even the Cantonese sounded a little weird, with a distinct hint of Singaporean Chinese accent). And here I have to agree with the review I read in the newspaper: the so-called more emotional parts like running in the rain are seriously drowned by too-loud music.
But in essence, a decent movie, worth a watch. Interesting, innovative plot by using the 29th February as a promise to meet up. Perhaps Catherine Lim was inspired by “牛郎织女”?