那些年，我們一起追的女孩 (You Are the Apple of My Eye) Limited Edition DVD

Well before Vera starts to complain that I've forgotten about the awesome birthday present, I shall blog about it!

My beloved sister had no clue what to get for my birthday (as usual). Well, if it were her birthday, I wouldn't know what to get for her too! Every year, we will end up at this "awkward" situation where we have to ask each other what we want for our special day. This year, I told her I wanted this...

The limited edition of the DVD to the highly acclaimed Taiwanese movie - 那些年，我們一起追的女孩! The English title, for those of y'all who don't understand Chinese is "You Are the Apple of My Eye" but the direct translation of the title is "Those years, the girl that we wooed". The limited edition of the DVD comes in this gorgeous steel case, as seen above, as well as a cardboard slipcase featuring the young cast of the movie.

Here's a close up of the fabulous cast. The movie is rated NC16 (or thou shalt not watch this movie with scenes of the human's butt and coarse language if you ain't 16 and above) and thank goodness they did not decide to cut away the interesting parts - well, if you consider the lead actor walking around the house naked interesting. One trivia for y'all - do you know that the team who made this movie (director, actors, camera crew, etc) mostly have no experience whatsoever in making films but yet, they made this amazing movie? Talk about passion, yes?

A close up of the embossed title on the steel case. If you want a better quality of this movie and don't mind missing out on the loads of cool stuff that came along with this limited edition version, I would highly recommend the Blu-ray version. It also comes with the cardboard slipcase but isn't as pretty as this steel case. In fact, the first time I watched this film was at my friend's house with the Blu-ray copy of the movie. Got the DVD one from my sister (or more like I've requested for it) because it's more photogenic. :P

And here are the goodies that came along with this version of the movie! The steel case houses three main components - the 2 DVDs (actual movie and the making of), a photo booklet of the screen grabs of the movie and a whole stretch of post cards featuring the cast. Interesting eh~ Oh yes... According to my friend, he said that there are only 2,000 copies of this version in Singapore. Wonder how true that is because the last time I went to hmv, there were loads in stock. Probably because they just released it? Well anyway, let's look at each individual items closer, yes?

I have never ever seen CDs or DVDs packaged in this manner before. When I opened the steel case, I was expecting to see the DVDs kept in some paper envelope, like how some of the cheapo labels pack their discs, but I was wrong and boy was I glad! The DVDs are kept in this thick piece of cardboard wrapped in this gorgeous translucent envelope. 

The back of this ingenious packaging that's not only sleek, beautiful but also functional. Opening the envelope reveals these...

A simplistic designed DVD mounted inside the space on the cardboard. Interesting, no? To make this cardboard packaging even more functional, they even laid a piece of smooth plastic at surface where the shiny surface of the disc comes into contact with the DVD to ensure that the disc is not scratched. Really thoughtful design.

This box set, like I've mentioned again and again, comes with 2 DVDs and the second DVD contains over an hour and a half of exclusive making of. Watched it the other night and it was actually quite interesting. A pity that they didn't provide English subtitles though but thank goodness I understand what they are saying. If you have the time, you should definitely watch it - very funny~

Now let's move over to the photo book. The photo book looks almost like a diary - like those leather bound ones just that this one is made of cardboard. If it was made of leather, I think the whole box set would not cost S$32.90. 

Upon opening the cover, you see this small strip of foreign looking thing stuck inside a small pocket of the cover. When I pulled it out...

This box set is filled with surprises, no? The photo book included a small strip of film with 3 frames of the movie. I wonder if the other boxes of the same movie would contain different frames from different parts of the movie but this is so cool, no? These are not exactly negatives, by the way, because you see, the colors are actually accurate so it wouldn't make sense to call them negatives. If you bought this box set too, did you take a photo of your film as well? Show me show me!!

Here's a random page from the photo book and by random, I meant the page in the middle because I was too lazy to pick a proper page. Anyway, I have not really spent time flipping through the photo book because other than stills from the movie, there's nothing else in this booklet.

Another page from the photo book. You know, I actually thought that the lead actor was so-so looking when I first watched the first few minutes of the film but somehow, his character and looks seem to grow on you as you progress through the movie. Must be due to his fabulous acting. And furthermore, according to the making of, this is the first movie this actor is acting in and I must say, he is amazing! On top of that, as a novice actor, he is thrown into all sorts of difficult scenes - kissing, nudity, crying, etc and he managed to ace each scene! Amazing amazing~~

The third component of this box set are these post cards chained together like some pamphlet. Each post card has a character (or the director himself) featured on it and on the other side are some scribbles in Chinese that I will take forever to translate even to myself.

This is what I mean - wall of Chinese characters which will take me forever to read. Oh well~ Maybe when I'm too free or something, I shall attempt to go figure out what they are writing or scribbling on these post cards...

"You Are the Apple of My Eye" is an excellent movie and they also managed to produce a wonderful box set for collectors and fans in the form of this limited edition steel case packaging. For S$32.90, this whole collection of items as well as the fabulous love story of a gang of teenagers can be yours and I say it's definitely worth the money! Wonderful movie with a wonderful cast with a wonderful packaged DVD box set - what more can you ask for? :)

Read more...

一炮而红 (Already Famous)

It's finally out! The DVD of the highly acclaimed local comedy movie written by, directed by and starred by the multi-personae Michelle Chong and Taiwanese icon, Alien Huang, is finally out!

Normally, I wouldn't want to watch a local production because they are normally the same old "against the government in a tongue-in-cheek" manner (yes, you can easily guess who would normally direct these kind of movies). But once I know that Michelle Chong is actually starring in her own production, I told myself, and my friends, that this is one movie that I will not miss.

Well, but again, if it wasn't for Michelle, I probably wouldn't want to watch the movie as well. Being the marvelous comedian that she is, proven by her forever changing and forever refreshing images and characters on "The Noose", I expected her character in this film to be as wild and crazy but yet, entertaining to watch in this film.

In fact, I've actually watched this movie in the cinema and I got the DVD just for the bonus "making of" contents. And of course, to share the movie with my siblings who did not go to the cinema for the movie.

Let's start unboxing the DVD, yes? :D

The clear DVD casing is packed in the sleeve as shown above. In terms of packaging, there's nothing to really be fascinated about but nevertheless, the content is worth the S$19.90 that I paid for. The DVD comes with the movie as well as the bonus contents - the making of. I normally get DVDs just for the bonus contents and people call me crazy but oh well~~

Oh yes~ If you haven't watch the movie, you will be pleasantly amazed by the casting of the entire film because there are tonnes of local artistes that you'll find in this really humble film. In fact, if you inspect the cover of the DVD, you'll see an entire list of the movie's cast written all over. Interesting touch, no?

The back of the sleeve basically summarized the movie and displays some interesting screen grabs from the movie. These screen grabs are definitely not enough to show how humorous this film is. And apparently, they changed the PG sticker and it still looks hideous as ever.

The inside of the plastic case holds the DVD as well as full spread screen grab from the movie depicting Alien handing something to someone. Honestly, I was surprised that they actually did something like this because normally, the designers wouldn't really bother decorating the insides so this was a good touch.

A close up on the DVD. I wonder why they did not choose this one as the main cover of the DVD because it's so much more interesting and tells a whole lot more about Michelle's role in the movie as opposed to just the two of them standing side by side.

Now with the DVD removed, you get a clear view of what the whole picture is about.


Anyway, in case y'all want a synopsis of the movie...

The story basically revolves around Michelle's character - Ah Kiao, a Malaysian, (yes, we love it when Michelle does accents because they are so over-the-top and funny) who dreams of becoming a celebrity. Throughout her path to stardom, she faces many challenges. Like all movies, romance seem to intertwine with the storyline and so, she meets a coffee boy starred by Alien, and sparks flew between this unlikely couple. Yeap. That's my very brief take on the story plot.

In terms of the funny aspect though, rest assured that this movie is meant to entertain and to make people laugh. Well, at least it made me laugh because the jokes were simple, the actors were spontaneous and energetic in their acting and it definitely affects the audience. Some may find that the jokes are lame or meh but to me, it's the simple ones that tickles me because then, I wouldn't have to go through the process of trying hard to understand what's so funny.

Well, there's only that much I can put in words because I'm not a professional reviewer. If you ask me about the packaging, I can probably tell you more but I just can't do proper reviews. But I would really highly recommend this movie to those who wants to be inspired for a moment through the laughs and simple lessons of perseverance because it's definitely worth the money.

Now, let's pray that Michelle will do a Lulu movie one day. Yessi? :D

Read more...