Thursday, December 22, 2005
Now bring us some figgy pudding
Like during most holidays, I'm really enjoying myself too much to have time to update this space, but thanks for visiting regularly anyway. We recently acquired cable television in our previously-not-television-crazy household, and time management has gone to pieces, what with me sitting riveted to the screen for hours. This is a bad thing.
Paediatrics posting ended with a little fizzle last week, though I should be thankful I got a simple case of DM for my long case, and the theory paper wasn't too bad with the thorough grounding that we were given during tutorials. I think I can say I like paediatrics, though I can't say that much about children. Previously I thought I'd hate paediatrics, not because of annoying children, but because it always hurts me to see children suffering, much more that it does seeing adults and old people suffering. But I really didn't see many suffering children during the paeds posting, and I was quite surprised by the nice fuzzy feeling you get when you see a child get better and return to his or her bouncy lively self, though I kind of detest overly bouncy children. And seeing them smile at you just brightens up the whole day. I don't think it's quite possible to dislike paeds, really.
Yesterday I went out with ZF and Eric to KTV (resulting in me losing my voice, because I tried to sing with a sore throat) and subsequently a screening of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (what a ghastly whopper of a name) and dinner at Marche. Spoilers ahead for Narnia, for whoever hasn't watched the movie, which I would expect is the majority of readers. Sorry.
[spoiler alert]All in all I quite liked the storyline of the movie, because largely it adhered to the original narration by CS Lewis, with some little changes that I found quite clever, and unlike the Harry Potter films there weren't any changes that I felt were too far off the original or which failed to explain important points in the plot. Then again the original novel is quite a simple story (after all, it is a children's novel written long long ago - I don't even know when) with few explicit descriptions, and a lot of scenes are left to the reader's imagination. One of my friends complained that there was too little action in the film, but I thought, having read the original, that the action was sufficient for me, what with the exciting chase and battle scenes and all, which gave me goosebumps with their splendour.
The characters:William Moseley as Peter Pevensie is so endearingly cute, the big brother entrusted with the responsibility of protecting his three siblings, and yet not so sure how to go about doing it. I wish I had an older brother like William, heh *has totally forgotten about Cedric Diggory*. I found Susan kind of annoying, because she looks to Peter for looking after the siblings, since she's younger, but whenever something goes wrong she goes all sarcastic on him and blames him for making the wrong decisions. She's the smart one, basically, and yes though I dislike her I'm always being sarcastic to people in leadership positions, so I shouldn't complain so much. Edmund is the wayward child, the one who betrays his siblings to the White Witch and who is saved by Aslan. I kind of sympathise with his character actually, even though most people will dislike him. He's someone I can identify with, definitely. Lucy is the cutest of all (though really not as cute as Peter, haha) what with her childish innocence and bright little comments that make every one laugh.
Tilda Swinton as the White Witch is totally amazing, she manages to appear convincingly kind towards Edmund and yet have that hidden coldness in her, and the way she moves in battle is so graceful. Her face makes me think of Jacelyn Tay, in the way that they're kind of ethereally beautiful and yet unnatural-looking at the same time, but that's kind of beside the point.
Aslan is totally brought alive by Liam Neeson's voice. He has the Voice, totally. And erm, his mane is pretty too. I don't know what else to say, heh.
Some things I liked about the movie:1. I finally found out what Turkish Delight looks like. And it looks really yummy too.
2. Mrs. Beaver. I found out at the ending credits that she's voiced by Dawn French. Oh, Dawn, how I totally totally love your brillant skills at acting, even voice-acting! You're my idol.
3. I like that the director or scriptwriter thought of some things that I was thinking as well as I read the novel: like, why doesn't Lucy think of giving Aslan her healing potion when she sits by his body. She does try to give Aslan the potion in the movie, but Susan tells her it's too late.
4. The bombs idea. That's really quite cool, and I bet Peter thought of it. I should really stop squeeing so much.
5. All the animals, in general. Why is it the White Witch has Siberian tigers on her side? Is it because they're white? But I'd think that Siberian tigers are good animals. Oh well. Wild boars rushing into battle is kind of comical, though.
Things I didn't like:1. Mr. Tumnus. He's like a total pervert or something, seriously. And why does he get to put the crowns on the Pevensies?
2. The handkerchief plot loophole, which once again involves the pervy Mr. Tumnus. Didn't he already return the handkerchief through Mr. Beaver? Why does he return it to Lucy a second time in the last scene?
3. The weird audience that I was watching the movie with, that laughed at weird moments, like when Aslan breathed on the stone statues to reverse the spell of the White Witch. Ok, it's a cheesy scene, but you don't have to laugh so loudly.
All in all a pretty enjoyable family movie, but I wouldn't say it's as good as LOTR or Harry Potter. It's probably restricted by the original simplicity of the CS Lewis books, so there's not much to explore, but I think it's already a pretty good job done.
[/spoilers]The FictionJunction YUUKA album is so fantastic. Here's a song from it, for that nice Christmas cheer. Merry Christmas, everyone! Gosh, I totally miss carolling.
Avaris / 12/22/2005 05:50:00 PM
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