Our favourite movie was probably the ethnic comedy from Germany Kebab Connection, directed by Anno Saul (2004). "Kebabs, kung fu and forbidden romance are the ingredients of this multicultural comedy set in Hamburg. Young Turk Ibo is a film director who dreams of making the first German kung fu epic. To convince investors he's up to the task, Ibo makes a spectacular martial arts flavoured commercial for his uncle's takeaway kebab shop. The ad is a raging success, and everything on Ibo's horizon looks bright until his German girlfriend, Titzi, tells him she's pregnant. Thrown out of home, his follow-up commercial is a flop, and Titzi leaves him. In desperation he agrees to make a 'comeback' ad for a rival Greek restaurant. Cast: Nora Tschirner, Denis Moschitto, Güven Kirac. Winner of Audience Awards at the Turkish-German Film Festival in Nuremberg and Festival of German Cinema in Madrid."
Another notable movie we saw was John Lynch's (1999) Irish movie Night Train. "Poole, just released from prison, owes his former gangster boss a lot of money. Before long, his whereabouts are discovered by his acquaintances, and Poole finds himself on the run. Homeless, he takes a room in the quiet, suburban home of a middle-aged woman and her irascible mother. When Alice, his landlady, is invited into Poole's room, she is charmed by the world he has created there. They find themselves falling in love. Inevitably, Poole's past catches up with him, and Alice finds herself drawn into the murky intrigue of his unsavoury friends. Cast: John Hurt, Brenda Blethyn, Pauline Flanagan."
Other fun movies we saw in 2005 include The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) and Sideways (2004).
Kan cheong king award for the film with the most chair-gripping scenes goes to Peter Jackson's remake of the 1933 classic King Kong. Amazing special effects! Phil had to close his eyes for the last 15 minutes, when Kong was on top of the Empire State Building, as he was suffering from vertigo (Phil not Kong; hence no bungee jump from Phil in NZ)!
Best Book — a tough one, we both ploughed through quite a lot this year, but I think our combined favourite was Marina Lewycka's "A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian" (Viking, 2005), which "hilariously and affectingly records the fall-out when an elderly Ukrainian widower long resident in Britain falls for a flamboyantly busty Russian gold-digger in search of a passport to prosperity" says Peter Kemp in The Sunday Times.
Other favourites included Zadie Smith's "On Beauty" (Hamish Hamilton, 2005), Andrea Levy's "Small Island" (Headline, 2004) and Jhumpa Lahiri's "The Namesake" (Harper Perennial, 2004). I enjoyed revisiting some classic crime and coming-of-age novels such as Don De Grazia's "American Skin" (Jonathan Cape, 1998) and several re-isssue titles from London-based publisher No Exit Press (thanks to Chris for the recommendations). I tried to read as much as I could from the authors participating in the Singapore Writers Festival in September 2005 (two of Monsoon's authors, Gerrie Lim and Stephen Leather, were also involved) and I did enjoy prose by Australian author Peter Goldsworthy and poetry by Singaporean Yong Shu Hoong. Sandy read Iris Chang's "The Rape of Nanking" (Penguin, 1998) and was particularly moved by it.
Best Meal — hmm, tricky, I did some restaurtant reviewing in Singapore for Wine & Dine at the beginning of 2005 but nothing stood out as being exceptional. We've actually gone out a lot less this year and cooked a lot more at home (unusual for Singapore!). New Year's resolution: try more restaurants! I think our favourite meal this year was probably at Le Bon Bolli in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Touted as the most awarded restaurant in Christchurch, Le Bon Bolli serves brasserie-style French food and a great selection of New Zealand wines. It was very good food but the experince was also accentuated having survived on bad Kiwi pub food for the previous two weeks. We pigged out big time, downed a lot of very good local wines and were still pleasently surprised at how cheap it was compared to Singapore. (As I write this, the bread machine in beeping, announcing another loaf is freshly baked — that is one thing we really need as the selection of bread in Singapore is bad!)
Another memorable meal was at the unassuming-looking Xin Hua coffeeshop in Geylang, where three of us feasted on scallops in black pepper; jumbo prawns in garlic; steamed sting ray; delicious crab vermicelli; and veggie. It's a regular dirty old coffeeshop in the middle of Singapore's redlight district, the service is appalling, it's common to wait two hours for the first dish to arrive, recommended dresscode is shorts and a T-shirt but the food is fabulous and it cost more than Le Bon Bolli in New Zealand! Admittedly Anthony Bourdain filmed here, which might account for the high prices.
Best Bar — oh this is easy ... the open-air Sirocco bar on the 64th floor of the State Tower in Bangkok, Thailand. We found this place with Holly and Nel and, despite the fact that one round of drinks cost more than a night in our two-bedroom hotel suite (OK, it was a crap hotel), we could not get over the amazing views of Bangkok's skyline at night and stayed gawping at the view for hours. You must check this place out next time you're in Bkk.
No comments:
Post a Comment