Happy Teachers' Day! May all the teachers in the world (including my sis) have an enjoyable day 2dae!
Anyhow, ytd watched this show called "龍虎门" on chn u. It's a 2006 show starring 甄子丹 (Donnie Yen), 谢霆锋 (Nicholas Tse), 余文乐 (Shawn Yue). The story revovles around 王小龍(Donnie) and 王小虎(Nicholas) who were sons of 王伏虎 but had different mothers. 王降龍 and 王伏虎 set up "龍虎门" (martial arts gym) but during the setting, 王伏虎 had died. Donnie's mom left on her own accord with her son when he was young and was burnt to death in a fire, but Donnie was saved by this triad head Ma. He grew up to serve him, although he still upheld his values of integrity, loyalty and using martial arts to defend his ideals. Ma was later given the "罗剎令", a medal that gives him the monopoly of trade among the triads by a powerful but evil martial artist 火云邪神, but during a fight with another triad head Bai, he lost it to a grp of guys from 龍虎门, headed by Nicholas. Donnie went to retrieve the medal but he and his bro were ambushed by this sneaky dickhead with his lackeys who served Ma as well. Donnie defeated all of them, while Nicholas, under the drug effect in the tea prepared by the dickhead was saved by 石黑龍 (Shawn). Shawn wanted to join the gym but was rejected by 王降龍, the founder. He challenged him and was defeated, even thou he used his most powerful weapon nanchuku. The gym leader eventually accepted him as a disciple. Nicholas went to look for Donnie, with the help of their mutual friend and daughter of Ma, 马小靈/Ma Xiao Ling, in the hope he'll come back to the gym one day, and Donnie expressed his wish to Ma, which prompted Ma to retire and gave up his "罗剎令" medal. This angered 火云邪神, the big baddie and he sent his lackeys to kill Ma and Donnie. They succeeded in killing Ma, but Donnie arrived in time to save XiaoLing, and killed all lackeys including the dickhead. However, he was severely injured and after bringing XiaoLing to the care of his bro at the gym, he lay in the middle of a wheat field, losing consciousness. In the meantime, 罗剎女, a servant of 火云邪神, who is an admirer of Donnie coz he once saved her when she was young, attributed the deaths of the baddie's best lackeys to 龍虎门 (so as to save Donnie from certain death), and it prompted the big baddie to confront the gym leader. He eventually defeated and killed 王降龍, the gym leader but spared the lives of Nicholas and Shawn, claiming they dun deserve to die in his hands. XiaoLing, hoping to save Shawn and Nicholas, who were in grave conditions, decided to place them on a cart and pulled it to a mountain where an martial arts and healing expert could save them. Donnie managed to survive and return to the gym, only to see it shattered and his uncle, the gym leader, dead. He collapsed in exhaustion, but was saved by 罗剎女, who used an antidote given by her master to revive and heal him. However, in doing this, she sacrificed herself as she was given a deadly hit by her master (he wanted her to choose to save Donnie or herself). Donnie fell into the water as the antidote worked on him. XiaoLing, who brought the injured duo to the mountain, was told to pick up several beads that fell from the tower where the expert resided and when she managed to bring all the beads to the expert, one of them fell down the tower. The expert asked if she was willing to save her friends by jumping down the tower to retrieve the bead and she did so, only to realize it's an illusion and she did not die, but her sincerity was examined by the expert. Not only did the expert save the duo, he taught Shawn 金钟罩, a unique skill that required 2 nanchukus which whip up winds to form a bell-like shield, and taught Nicholas a superb kicking skill. But even equipped with these powerful skills, they lost the duel to the big baddie 火云邪神 upon confonting him. In the nick of time, Donnie appeared and challenged the baddie and he kicked his ass, eventually defeating him. They all returned to the gym 龍虎门 safely, with Xiao Ling waiting for them, looking forward to a new future.
What interests me in the show is how the director manags to film in a way that's so much like my dream!
Okie, it's not the plot, but it's more of the perspective of the film shots. The duels were especially exciting (u can compare them to Matrix, but oriental style). There were one on hundreds, two on one and one on one. I like the whole feeling of how the movie is filmed, coz it echoes some of the scenes in my dream. I especially like the part when a fight broke out in the sushi shop. How the camera slowly zooms in from far to near (in the reverse direction), through the name of the shop, then thru the walls separating different rooms, wandering and revolving around a few characters, then before focussing on them, starts to drift away and float towards the character(s) in another room.
It's like my dreams. Especially the month of August, when my dreams were very vivid and came in bulk. (Perhaps average of 4 per day?)
I've told one of my best pals in the platoon, Wen Kai, (how i suddenly click with him was a mystery, considering he was a rather quiet guy until i started to disturb him everyday) once that somehow most (but not all) of my dreams often feature myself (in first-person view) floating about and wandering...searching for whatever. And more often than not..i would either drift closer and closer or further and further to a target in the dream. In addition, my dreams would also feature either something got smaller and smaller, bigger and bigger (a childhood dream i once repeatedly had featured a huge rock growing bigger and bigger and abt to squash me), longer and longer, shorter and shorter, and getting more and more (in numbers, like bugs), or flying higher and higher or falling all the way down. That's why when i watched 龍虎门, i had a deja vu feeling.
How come i had so many dreams in August? Perhaps it's lunar 7th mth in Aug? (I once felt so terrified to slp once at around 1 am) Or maybe it occurs every half a yr? (At least for me, the last time i had so vivid dreams was ard late Feb to early Mar)
Anyway, the vivid dreams, be it at home or in camp, always seem to be pleasant in the end (even thou they may start out scary), and i guessed if i'm not wrong, i've experienced lucid dreaming again. (The last time i had it, probably 4 yrs ago during sec4 when i tried after discussing the topic wif shiu cheong)
Lucid dreaming, it's having the consciousness that u r dreaming (and u noe and can feel ur actual body lying on ur bed slping) and having partial or (if u r good) total control of ur dream. Usually, b4 it occurs, u either see a rainbow of colours accompanied with white light (or sometimes pitch black darkness) and a blur of images; or u feel ur body becomes so light that as if ur soul had wandered off on its own, leaving the physical body and floating/drifting around, 1st within ur room and then away into the outer world. U r able to understand and think clearly during lucid dreaming (which gives u partial control of ur dream), unlike ordinary dreaming when u r not always able to do this. And with that partial control, u r able to manipulate ur dreams the way u want it to be. It starts slow, maybe u r able to control which direction u want to drift towards, then gradually, u can decide who or what u wanna see appear in ur dream. That's where the exciting part is, coz u have quite a highly successful rate to decide what u want to do in ur dream (maybe to see someone u like etc). But that is also the point when u may lose ur control. Coz lucid dreaming is like holding sand in ur hands, holding/controlling it too loosely and u'll turn out following the dream and let the dream unfold itself (instead of doing what u want, u may probably juz let events occur by themselves in the dream); but exerting too much control is like squeezing the sand too tightly, they juz fall apart/ fall out of ur hands. Usually, my (lucid) dream will end coz i exert too much control, i tried to make something happen so much so that the dream juz fell apart and i eventually wake up. Waking up from lucid dreaming is the abt the same as going into it, u see the images get blur, then a patch of darkness (that may be followed by bright light or coloured lights) b4 u awake.
It's very thrilling to be able to control ur dream, esp when u r floating/drifting at the same time (perhaps that's what ppl call 灵魂出窍/soul out of ur body). U juz feel urself 轻飘飘 (extremely light). But i also read abt the adverse effects of deep lucid dreaming : it may make u go berserk or unable to wake up. So that was why i didn't dare to try it deliberately. (However, if it occured naturally, i shall see..) Another criteria for lucid dreaming to occur easily is when ur body (including ur eyes) feel very exhausted but ur mind is still wide awake (not feeling sleepy). That's when u may also experience 鬼压身 (when ur eyes open after a nap but cldn't move ur limbs). The last time it happened to me was quite a few years ago.
But why do we dream? Is some omnipotent being trying to convey something to us thru our dreams? Or are they the products of our fear and desire? Do they give us insights to life in general? I really hope to find out, but for the time being, i'm feeling abit sleepy. Maybe i shld slp now.
&its not what you think
7:50 am
