A Review on the Unriddle Series

I wrote an essay on Infernal Affairs vs. The Departed (its remake) for a film module in university. While the comparison between Unriddle 1 and its sequel isn't so much between the original and it remake, it's inevitable that sequels always get compared back to its prequel. I got to say that Unriddle 2 had a really different feel and atmosphere to the first series. Let's try to tackle the 2 from a general overview, before going into some specific points.

As I just mentioned, if you were to watch any episode in Unriddle 2, you'll realise it has a much darker feel. Not only are the criminals more vicious (or the atmosphere appears so) but also the characters themselves. Right from the get-go, the first villain Asura was downright manipulative and vicious - forcing Dabao to pick which family member she would sacrifice, leaving her wracked with guilt at her choice.

Also, we observe that Rui En's character, Hu Xiaoman was a lot darker. In the first season, Da Bao would always use the phrase "bu ze shou duan" (using underhand methods) to describe Xiaoman as she apprehended criminals for their crimes... Basically the end justifying the means. I remember Xiaoman saying that she would only use such underhand methods TO criminals, and it gave the feel that her world was black and white in that aspect - that if you are guilty, she would use whatever method she could within the confines of the law to apprehend you. There was that black and white, meaning upholding justice meant following the law, upholding the code of law. But it seemed in season 2, the scriptwriters pushed the boundaries with this "bu ze shou duan" characteristic of hers, that now her sense of justice was no longer confined to the boundaries of the law, but it was above the law. It's like we imagine a box, and now her sense of justice is outside of the box. This of course leads to all sorts of problems... While I did have some trouble reconciling such a huge paradigm shift in her thinking, I suppose the bigger issue I had was what was the trigger for this? If it was explained then it's fine (it's a drama anyway, the whole point of a good show is a good storyline and ensuring that it flows, there has to be a logic in it, I think the audience knows that a drama can be dramatic, dramatised). But there seemed to be a gap between her character in Unriddle 1 to Unriddle 2.

Let's look further at her character. In Unriddle 1, Xiaoman who was as usual serious, yet well-liked by her subordinates. Easy example, her subordinates in season 1 referred to her as "Lao Da", a sort of endearing term to their boss, as contrasted to "Madam". It's slight, but it shows the difference in closeness to subordinates vs superiors. (Of course there are cop shows where the subordinates address their boss as Madam and still have a great team relationship, just refer to Forensic Heroes 3 and you'll get what I mean, but clearly it isn't so in this sequel)

Xiaoman with her team in Unriddle

The overall feel was that there was very little humour scenes in this show. While Xiaoman was utterly serious in the first, her interactions with De Wei (the eventual mastermind behind Yuze's kidnapping in season 1) and especially with her forensic pathologist friend (played by Pamelyn Chee) were more or less light-hearted. Which added a sense of normalcy to her life, i.e. her liking Yuze and discussing it with a friend just like what girls do in real life. It allows to audience to relate to Xiaoman because here we have a character who isn't totally out of this world. (Now it just got me thinking, of course Pamelyn's character may not have worked in season 2 with its dark theme, since in a sense her friend in the show was sort of replaced by Gao Jieyu. But it might have, if they opted for a less dark Unriddle 2). 

Light-hearted scenes like this added flavour to the show

Less dark Unriddle 2. Let's look at it from a scale of 1-10: 1 being the lightest and 10 being pitch black. I think Unriddle 2 is at least a 8, and Unriddle at a 3. Definitely a marked difference between the 2 to the naked eye. I'm okay with dark shows, I think it does provoke thought. I chose to write about Infernal Affairs in my essay for a film mod in uni, because I loved it. Infernal Affairs was thought-provoking, intense, and complicated. I watched it at least 3 times, because there's just so much depth to the show, a single screening of it wouldn't suffice. Unriddle 2 was dark, and I think a bit too dark and this was a bit too much because there was just not enough time to pack in the entire storyline. Here's where I go to pace...


It was too fast. Unriddle 1 had a nice pace to it, great flow between story lines, which wrapped up neatly in between the mini-stories. It seemed that Unriddle 2 was unravelling too quickly, without enough time for the audience to catch their breath. With darker themes, you need to give the audience space to breathe - when I breathe I mean time to ponder. Cinematographic-wise, the cut scenes adding to the pace as well. And overall, for a series which you come home to watch after work, there were hardly any bits where you could kick back and relax. It would definitely be a big plus to add in some humour. An example would be in Infernal Affairs 3, humour can come in the form of Kelly Chen and Tony Leung's characters. For those that aren't IA fans, it showed the treatment sessions between the mole (Tony Leung) and his psychiatrist (Kelly Chen). Giving insight to his psyche as a mole - pretending to be somebody else, yet craving some semblance of a normal relationship. It was fantastic, developing the character while doing it in light-hearted scenes. Like any good piece of music, there are peaks and troughs. These scenes were few and far between in the show. And even when there were, i.e. with Xiaoman and Lang, there was just too much suspicion for it to be truly light-hearted.


You may be thinking, AZ prefers Unriddle 1 to its sequel. My answer is maybe. The fact being sequels are impossibly hard to make, and for what it's worth I really laud the scriptwriters, director and all those involved for pushing the boundaries with this show. I don't watch a lot of channel 8 shows, but I bet Unriddle 2 would rank up there in terms of thought-provoking script-writing with wonderful acting to boot. The main characters were great, chemistry between Xiaoman and Dabao was evident, and they grew closer as partners in Unriddle 2. More so, the supporting actors were fantastic, I loved Xiang Yun's acting as she spoke to her estranged husband, she played the part of controlling her emotions so well, and it was a bag of emotions, with so much feelings to grapple. Other great characters was Fu Lelin, her speech was truly realistic, having heard how the deaf speak. So was the actress that played Yao Wanyi, very very good. I guess the sad part was all these fantastic supporting characters were killed off. And I would think if there's going to be an Unriddle 2, it has to be like the first installment - focus on a bunch of interesting cases, get back strong supporting actors, and of course with the 2 protagonists leading the way, working together to solve crime cases.


I think we hit an emotional high in Unriddle 2. Emotional high meaning tons of emotional scenes, just like this one which displayed Rui En's anguish (probably the peak of it all) as she saw her mum's lifeless body before her (for what must have been a gory sight). Take this multiplied by the other emotional scenes in Unriddle 2, it was an emotionally intense show.

Xiaoman's anguish as she saw her mum's lifeless body

I will leave you with this, a very different looking Xiaoman from the ending of Unriddle 2. Meeting the perpetrator of his grand criminal experiment in the name of science - Fang Rongge. I can't help but think she looks a bit like some superhero lady with her trench coat.

Ending of Unriddle 2

iPhone Lomo App

I thought the pictures turned out pretty well, except the last when I told myself I'll take another one without my shadow on the way back.

All in all the Lomo pictures turn out better on objects than people. Also, because it's a lowly iPhone 3G camera, ambient lighting in important to photo quality. I think this applies to all Lomos without flash.

Food Review: Professor Brawn Cafe

Ordered 2 set dinners, which includes a house drink (orange or lemon juice) as well as a soup of the day. You don’t have to top up for a set dinner, how it works is by choosing whatever main course that is preselected. Think they had 4 or 5 choices for the set. We ordered the sausage with rosti and the vongole pasta.

Soup wasn't too bad, a bit thin, but otherwise homemade and not any way reminiscent of canned Campbell's.

There are 6 different sausages to choose from, tried the english pork bratwurst which is this long sausage with herbs. In my opinion the portion is quite small, if you’re a small eater it should be suffice, if not fill your tummies with dessert. Somehow the rosti was okay only, the potato strips were too thin in my opinion. There wasn’t enough bite or crisp like you’ll expect in rosti, despite it being nicely browned. I think the sausage was okay, not so much of a herb in sausage fan so can’t really comment effectively.

I had the Vongole, the pasta was nicely cooked but very normal otherwise. Too little salt was added, which is odd for a vongole since it’s easy to make use of the natural salt in the clams. Bit into some loose small bits of shell which was an awful feeling.

Also shared an Oreo cheesecake, topped up $3 to get it, underbaked crust and wholly was forgettable. The pasta was $14 I think and rosti sausage $13?

I think the house juices were probably the plus points of this cafe. A bit too thick but one can just add ice water to dilute it to the desire consistency.

As for service, one waitress stood out. Young girl, long hair and the only one who served us throughout. There was another Phillipino waitress that wasn’t friendly, oddly so since most Singapore service staff with good service are mostly foreigners and those from Phillipines don’t seem to disappoint. She basically came over abruptly, pointed to the menu and announced the set dinner. Prior to that we were already served and had water on the table.

I think next time if I meet really horrible service staff I should tell it to their face. Probably say it as nicely and politely as I possibly. I mean if I’m serving so horribly, either I have absolutely low self-awareness or I just don’t care. I don’t think people just don’t care though, there’s always some meaning behind it, a reason. Yes, no?

I’ll rate Prof Brawn’s Cafe as a 2.5 out of a 5.

Earphones tt can swim with...

Quite self-explanatory, thought this was quite cool. Imagine kicking back in the pool, just floating on your back and looking at the blue blue sky, amidst listening to Bossa Nova/ Jazz tracks (think Agua De Beber, Girl from Ipanema, etc). Or you're doing a freestyle, with Rock music to get the adrenaline flowing.

I found this on the US Apple Store, they usually send me promos and stuff in the mail, so I check it out from time to time. They probably have it in the Sg store as well, except more expensive after conversion. I don't understand why though, I checked the HK Apple store as well, and it was still a few bucks cheaper than Sg.

Chasing Daylight

My most recent read is a non-fiction book by Eugene O'Kelly, entitled "Chasing Daylight". It's one of those books that have been sitting on my shelf for the longest time - like a year or so. It never fails to amaze me how fast time flies. Anyway, on the cover it writes "New York Times Bestseller", so I'm told. But what provoked me to buy this book wasn't that it was on the bestseller list of the NYT, it was the very nature of the book - last words by a dying someone. And it was it isn't a moany and groany piece, or the "you got to live well, what happens if you die tomorrow" in-your-face kind of book. What really enticed me though, was he was the former CEO of KPMG America. The kind of person that lived his life at 100 miles per hour, with much thrill and action and exhilaration in the business scene. The stark contrast of living that kind of life, planning for weeks, months and years ahead, only to hear that he had only 3 months to live.

I'd like to quote something from that I've once heard by someone who's successful in his own right. More or less the same stuff...

"You can do anything if you give your best energy to it. Time truly becomes less important."

It's a paradigm shift, when so much of our work is prized upon how many hours we clock in, commitment is based on the sheer amount of time we're at work. But it isn't time that we're viciously fighting against, think of it, we'll lose. What we got to focus on is on putting in our best, our all, so that time somehow slows for us. Because of sheer concentration and focus, we find ourselves accomplishing more than we could have imagined. Or maybe the same amount of success, but less time engaged in work.

Not done with the book yet, but when I am I probably should pen down my thoughts. Not sure when that would be though... There's just too many things to do, and I do need to believe I can do it all, I can do everything and anything.

Novel

Not a review, this post. It's just a scribbling of my search for a new novel to read. There are some titles at the back of my head, I'll list them down:

The white tiger by Aravinda Adiga (Man Booker Prize winner, '08)
The god of small things by Arundhati Roy
A thousand splendid suns, or Kite runner by the same author - Khaled Hosseini
Oliver Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (this year's Pulitzer Prize winner)
The gathering by Anne Enwright (Man Booker Prize winner too)

And basically considering a Man Booker or Pulitzer Prize winner. I know I shouldn't use prizes and what nots to ascertain if a book's great. Then again, what's great, excellent, far better than average? Does winning a prize automatically determine that? I'll say no, but it sure helps in narrowing a list of books to choose from. It's almost dizzying having to pick out a book to buy from the bookstore. I know it sounds weird, but I like to have a few books in mind before going down to the store to compare the few. I mean, I won't mind being vague and saying, okay, let me go pick out a book from Borders. I guess I'm being more anal this time 'cos I've got some expectation of a good novel read. It's been a while since I finished a novel, and there's the appetite that needs to be whet, a thirst for a good book that I can devour entirely.

And hey, if I do pick out a book soon, I'll be able to revive this personal review blog a little. Which reminds me, I can't believe UP is ending and I haven't caught it. I don't think anywhere shows it in 3D anymore, ahhhhh, I missed wearing those plastic specs.

ST Grammatical/ Spelling Error

So I've heard of the multitude of spelling and grammatical errors ST had, and continues to have. I never thought much of it, the main reason being I hardly read the daily paper. The secondary reason, and ironically the more important one is that I don't think my England is that powderful to accurately critique what's "grammatically correct" and what's not. I'm thinking, I don't even write grammatically flawless essays in the first place (or at least I don't think so). Reason being, I can't even remember the technicalities of grammar, like subject, verb, object, and I'm probably writing it wrong, so you see my point here.

And then I saw this, no big deal, but now I get what those folks are grumbling about, that yes, ST does have grammatical errors. I've seen it aplenty in CNA online, just haven't seen enough to see it on ST.

Here's an example:

"This mean that going forward, ANZ will hire more staff in Singapore, including commercial bankers and relationship managers, he said." Okay, I just realised he's quoting some guy, but I remember seeing brackets in articles, like (this) one. I think that's the reason for brackets right? Do educate me if I'm wrong.

So here's from me in a LOOOOOONG while!