Saturday, February 10, 2007

How dare I watch a movie during O&G posting

Just a little more than a week left to O&G end-of-posting tests, that frightful barrage of assessments. The OSCE, especially, is quite a frightening concept; I cannot imagine myself rattling on confidently for 10 minutes about any topic in O&G. Which means I need to get some practice this coming week. Ok I'll not go on and on about the silly test; everyone has to face the horror anyway.

You'd think I would be furiously studying away in preparation for the upcoming tests, but no, today I went shopping in Orchard Road, for my Chinese New Year clothes. I'd like to think that it's somewhat justified for me to go shopping because it would be unfathomable to not have gotten new clothes for CNY, but I still can't help feeling annoyed that there goes another day I could have spent more fruitfully on studying. I think all this laziness will enact a painful toll when the tests come along. Oh well. Spent 45 bucks on a simple T-shirt from Marks and Spencer and a pair of chinos from Robinson's; not much mood to look for special items to buy this year, but I had already walked from Wheelock to Taka and Paragon then to Centrepoint before deciding to buy something. The afternoon heat was terrible, so I relished each time I ducked into a blissfully air-conditioned shopping centre for refuge. Then had an early reunion dinner with my dad's side of the family at some restaurant near Kembangan.

This week at KK has been quite slack; our CG's posted to the labour ward and OT but we managed to finish all our deliveries already, and none of us were very keen about going to OT so we took some breaks to study and at times, go home early. Heh. I have no idea why I don't like going to OT but I just think it's too much of a hassle and I rarely learn much from the time spent there, unless I'm up close and watching the surgeon at work. Most of the time I just feel like I'm in the way. And the bloody shoes hurt madly, too.

On Tuesday, one of the days we went off early, I went and watched Pan's Labyrinth. It was another of those spur-of-the-moment movie decisions; I got home and checked the movie times in the newspaper because I felt like watching one, and it so happened that there was a screening at Tampines at 4.05pm, and I thought I really shouldn't give up the chance of watching a movie that has been so well reviewed by everyone.

[Spoilers for Pan's Labyrinth] Though I think if you haven't watched it by now you'll have to download it or wait for the VCD/DVD/TV release

In a way I think maybe I was spoilt by all the good reviews; normally when that happens you expect the movie to be mind-blowing fantastic, engaging, moving. Not that Pan's Labyrinth wasn't all that, but it just wasn't as great as I had been expecting it to be. For one I had expected there to be more of the fantasy component to it, although I knew a large part of the movie was to do with Ofelia living in the countryside where her stepfather the Captain has set up camp to fight the rebels. A few points I wanted to say:

1. How could I not say something about the Pale Man scene? For some strange reason I was under the impression that the Pale Man was a character that helps Ofelia, when I saw pictures of him in magazines and newspaper. Don't ask me why, somehow he looked like a benign character to me. So the scene was a bit of a shock for me, from the moment I saw the ceiling paintings of the Pale Man killing and eating children. It was so freaking scary, lol.

2. It took me the longest while to realise that the mandrake thingey that the faun told Ofelia to do was something to help her mother get better; I had all these reservations about the intentions of the faun and was quite convinced the mandrake root thingey would kill the child or the mother. I also thought it was one of the 3 tasks Ofelia had to do. Perhaps something was lost in translation.

3. Even though I've read a few reviews where the mandrake root was described as cute, I thought it was quite gross, really. Haha. Really, imagine putting a root into milk and having it start wriggling and making squealy noises. Freaky.

4. I think one of my favourite scenes (besides the Pale Man scene which was great for being tachycardia-inducing) was when Mercedes was captured by the Captain and managed to free herself with the knife hidden in her skirt, while the maniacal Captain was self-indulgently going through the torture devices. The stabs she delivered to him were particularly satisfying, though I wonder why the stab to his chest didn't simply go through his heart, or at least puncture his lung and give him a pneumothorax. And, oh, the cheek. Lovely. I think it's a measure of his sheer madness that he stitches himself up after that and still guzzles alcohol with nothing more than a grimace. He's totally nuts.

5. I think Mercedes rocks for being so amazingly strong.

6. The question kept bugging me, whether Ofelia seeing the faun and the other fantasy stuff was real, or just her hallucinating. After all, there was that scene where the Captain saw nothing when she was in the centre of the labyrinth talking to the faun. I figure there must be some real magic involved somewhere, otherwise how could she leave her room to get the Captain's office with the chalk trick? And I don't think it was a coincidence that her mother started having APH again when the mandrake root was burned.

7. That reminds me of the part where the Captain killed the doctor because he killed the captured rebel; a few moments later the servants come running to say that his wife was having trouble and needed a doctor. I was like "Ha you idiot, if you hadn't been a tyrant and killed the doctor your wife would have had better medical attention rather than some medic" but in the end he couldn't be bothered if his wife died anyway as long as he had his son. Bleh, what an ass.

8. The ending was quite happy and I was pretty satisfied with it. For a moment I thought Ofelia was just going to die without ever seeing the Underworld (and thus meaning that I wouldn't get to see it either), and I thought "If she just dies and the movie ends I'm going to be royally annoyed". So it was a good thing it didn't end that way. The plot twist that she had actually successfully completed the third task by sacrificing herself instead of her baby brother smelt a bit fishy though - almost too feel-good and like a self-consolatory thought. This was one of the points where I strongly suspected that she was really just hallucinating.

9. I kind of feel like I didn't experience the movie enough. There was just this strange emotional disconnect that kept bugging me throughout the movie; I didn't quite manage to feel the emotions the movie wanted me to feel. It was like I was cold and detached throughout. I didn't really get why there were those scenes of the Captain shaving and frequent shots of his pocket watch - were these supposed to indicate his obsession in precision and perfection? I don't know, but it sounds plausible. I think, if I ever had the chance, I would really like to watch this movie again, perhaps when I'm less high strung over O&G. Ha.


Time to sleep. Tomorrow will be all-mugging day, I'd like to think. I've written out the syllabus topics and pasted them on my writing table to remind myself of how much I have yet to cover and how stressed I really should be now.

Avaris / 2/10/2007 11:33:00 PM

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