coffee and chronic

War for the Planet of the Apes.  The final installment of the Planet of the Apes Reboots trilogy.  I was a follower since the first one came out in 2011.  At that time I was excited.  Never was a big fan of the original series, but I was always interested in the universe of the series.   

The three movies of Planet of the Apes were about how apes rise and conquer to take over the world from the human. It was also a story of Caesar, as the leader and main character of the bunch, how he leads his tribe till the end with his own conflict in his life.

Let’s go back to the first film in the trilogy “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”. Caesar was raised as a lab animal by scientist, and when he got smart and started to have his own thought (notice I’m using his, and not it’s). people think he is losing himself.  They tried to lock him up in the shelter along with other apes.  Until the point where he has to refuse to follow orders and speak up (literally) to fight back to the human who has been humiliating him. It’s the moment where Caesar RISE, for himself.  At the end of the first film, Caeser has grown independent and found freedom of his and his tribe and their place in the world.

In the Second film Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, years have passed.  Caesar has become the leader of the tribe, along with Koba, another lab apes.  From the beginning of the film, it shows the conflict and different opinions between Caesar and Koba, they were both equally smart, but Koba was abused by the human during the time he stayed in the lab.  So he grew to hate human regardless compare to Caesar was growing up in a loving environment.  At the end of this film, Caesar learns in order to really let go of his past, and he has to do whatever he takes to move forward with his life and his family.  That’s the DAWN of the planet of the ape.

Finally, in WAR of the Planet of the Apes.  It is really about the war between Caesar.  The war was really inside his head.  From all the happening during the film, he starts to question himself, and his decisions in the past.  Caesar starts to have the conflict of himself.  At the end, he has learned to just let things unfold itself, all he can do is to help and protect others.  Even if he has to sacrifice himself. 

Overall, I think War of the Planet of the Apes is a great film to conclude the journey of the series.  I love a lot of it, there’s a lot I could talk about the film, like the new character Bad Ape, Nova, Colonel and Preacher. These characters show the different sides and conflicts of their humanities.  At the end, I think we can all learn something from these stories of the characters, and reflect on our life and our world.

A new Hong Kong local podcast “Overheard” by Peas Media has officially released their first episode on Soundcloud, and on the Peas Media website.  It is a Hong Kong based podcast in spoken in Cantonese.  Host by Angela & Gim from Peas Media.  As the title suggested, Overheard is a conversation based content.  Each episode will feature people with different occupations, to talk about their passion, their profession, and their feeling living in Hong Kong.  

Peas Media 新香港本地播客“Overheard”正式發布了他們在Soundcloud上的第一集，並在Peas Media媒體網站上發布。這是一個以粵語的香港播客。來自Peas Media的Angela & Gim主持。正如標題所示，“Overheard”是一個基於會話的內容。每一集都會展示不同職業的人，談論他們的激情，職業和生活在香港的感受。

Brad Pitt and Angelina has always been an odd couple to me.  Angelina to me she's always an independent woman. Independent I mean real independent.  She has the power to have her own life.  And has her own kids. She doesn't need blood.  She is really the earth mother.  And Brad. He is godness as well.  I remember when I was in junior school, one of our English teacher said he is godness in class.  I'm sure.  He is what every woman could dream of.  But he is only human.  He fell for Angelina.  As a man, we love to have our responsibility.  I’m not sure what happened between them, but they made me think of how people see relationships living in this century.  Back in the day, people have a tradition of having a stable family life.  Growing kids, work for the next generation.  And now the world is run differently than it used to.  The resource we need has changed, the type of labour has changed.  What do people really care about now is how we can help the world.  It’s very strange and I’m still confused on what is going to happen.  So don’t ask me.  If anyone have an idea, please let me know.

Growing up not a huge Alien fan.  Even skipped the last prequel instalment Prometheus.  All I knew was Alien is strong and terrifying.  

從來不是一個巨大的外星人粉絲。甚至跳過了Prometheus。我所知道的是 Alien 是強大和可怕的。

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But since Alien Covenant marketing campaign came out.  I saw the posters of the movie everywhere, and that caught my eye.  The poster was outstanding.  It looked like an old style European painting.  Most of the time these kinds of painting has a deep religious story behind them.  That made me interested in seeing the movie itself.  

但是由於 Alien Covenant 營銷活動出來了。我看到電影的海報到處都是，引起了我的注意。這張海報很出色。它看起來像一個古老的歐式繪畫。大多數時候，這些繪畫背後都有深刻的宗教故事。這讓我有興趣看這電影。

Just so happened today I didn’t have the mood of staying in the office.  So I took a stroll and got on the train for a ride.  I ended up getting of at the station of one my my favourite shopping mall in Hong Kong - Pacific Place.

今天剛剛發生，我沒有辦公室的心情。所以我走了一趟，乘坐火車上車。我最後到了我在香港我最喜歡的購物中心的車站 - Pacific Place。

Then I decided to watch Alien Covenant.  Before the movie I learnt that story of Alien has a lot of relevance from the bible.  The movie was good and all, interesting.  I especially like the part where the couple in the shower room. From this movie I did noticed what the writer and director want to do to relate the story with the bible.  After watching this movie made me want to catch up on the other older alien films.  To see if they have any hidden religious message in them. 

然後我決定看Alien Covenant。在電影之前，我學到了外星人的故事與聖經有很多相關性。這部電影很好，全是有趣的。我特別喜歡這對夫婦在淋浴間的部分。從這部電影中，我注意到作家和導演想要將故事與聖經聯繫起來。看完這部電影后，我想趕上別的老外星人電影。看看他們是否有隱藏的宗教信息。

Image source: http://imgur.com/7IR7IRX

James Franco was a surprise.  Was not following the news, and didn’t noticed he was in it until the video playback scene.  And this image at the end obviously try to make him Jesus.  Good job now I’m gonna go back to watch Prometheus now.

Everybody wants to be Don Draper.  It was 10 years since Mad Men came out on AMC.  Everyone was fascinating and fantasising the industry of advertising.  The glamours and the craziness, drinking in the middle of the day.  The office was like a big boy’s playground.  The girls, the glory, and of course.  The role of being on top, and everyone wanted to be Don Draper.  Until the last season, we saw how Don Draper transform as a character.  But it was all the urban living young creative professional’s dream to be Don Draper.  

每個人都想成為Don Draper。瘋狂男子在AMC上出現了10年。每個人都很迷人，幻想廣告行業。一天中的一天中的喝醉了。辦公室就像一個大男孩的操場。女孩，榮耀，當然。頂尖的角色，每個人都想成為Don Draper。直到上個賽季，我們看到唐·德雷珀（Don Draper）如何轉變為一個角色。但都是城市生活的年輕創意專業人士的夢想是Don Draper。

After 10 years, Netflix finally put it on their network, and it’s easier than ever for people to watch all the seasons from the beginning to the end.  This time around when I watch this.  I had a different viewing perspective.  Instead of seeing myself in Don Draper, I found I was more related to Pete Campbell.  A young ambitions creatives, a newlywed who doesn’t settle for anything less.  He would do anything to get to the top, full of confidence.  But it turns out the world is bigger than he thought.  He bumped into walls, and fought his way up.  Basically what I want to say is.  We all started at somewhere, in some point, we might let our ego do the talking, and at the moment the world is always bigger than ourselves, there’s always something to learn for us.  

十年後，Netflix終於把它放在網絡上，人們從頭到尾都看到了所有的季節，比以往任何時候都容易。這個時候我看著這個。我有不同的觀點。而不是在Don Draper看到自己，我發現我更與Pete Campbell有關係。一個年輕的野心創意，一個新婚的人誰不解決什麼。他會做任何事情來達到頂峰，充滿信心。但事實證明，世界比他想像的要大。他撞到牆上，一路衝上去。基本上我想說的是。我們都在某個地方開始，在某種程度上，我們可能讓我們的自我做這個說話，而且現在世界總是比自己更大，總有一些東西可以為我們學習。

Even for Don Draper, he has his lessons to learn, he has his dark side, he has to go through his crisis.  Life is a journey.  Take it by the step, as long as you’re moving, you will get where you wanted to be.

So “La La Land”, a very popular movie among friends and media.  And I finally had a chance to watch it. I’m not much of a film critic, I can only try to talk about my feeling about the film.  

Fantasy and dreams are always beautiful, because they are not real.  But at some point in life.  You will learn the real beauty of reality, about what we can create, with our dedication and hard work.  I heard people once said,  dreams are important, because having dreams mean you are setting goal for yourself.  I agree.  Sometimes if you want to make dreams to happen, you will have to sacrifice something in your life. That’s the beauty of it.  It shows how valuable your dream really is to you.  Sometimes your dream might be bigger than you,  but don’t be afraid, share it, if you truly believe in it.  Because you are not alone.

“La La Land”是朋友和媒體中非常受歡迎的電影。我終於有機會看了。我不是一個電影評論家，我只能試著談論我對這部電影的感受。 幻想和夢想總是美麗的，因為它們不是真實的。但在生命的某個時刻。您將通過我們的奉獻和努力學習現實的真正美，關於我們可以創造的東西。我聽說有人曾經說過，夢想很重要，因為有夢想意味著你正在為自己設定目標。我同意。有時，如果你想讓夢想發生，你將不得不犧牲你生命中的某些東西。那就是它的美麗。它顯示了你的夢想真正對你有多寶貴。有時你的夢想可能比你大，但不要害怕，分享，如果你真的相信它。因為你不是一個人

One of my favourite quote about dreams.

“A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.”