Tuesday, August 4, 2009 Message In A Bottle Movie Posted by juphelia at 09:17

I got so inspired by Nicholas Spark’s “Message In A Bottle” that I start having crazy ideas about writing a love letter or poem, placing it in a bottle, then throwing it into the ocean or river and let it flow. See who can find it. Hopefully the person who finds it will be the one for me!

But who am I kidding? Most likely the bottle will end up at the bottom of the ocean or sea, only to be fished or drift upon shore many years later, by which time I have probably left this world. Or got washed ashore into some African coast and got picked up and then destroyed by the natives.

So just how high are the chances of someone even finding that note in the first place? Or someone decent enough? Still, it is rather fun to just place a note in a bottle and then throw the bottle into the ocean and let it drift ashore to no man’s land. Yes, I get lots of crazy ideas at times!

Love Letter - A Japanese Movie Posted by juphelia at 08:12

I just re-watched the Japanese show “Love Letter”. I remember watching it many years back when it was screening at the old Picturehouse. That time when I watched the show, I was really touched. I remember wanting to visit the places in Japan that were the filming locations of the movie.

When I went to Japan in 2006, I totally forgot about the show. But that time when I went to Japan, it was a trip by my mum to cheer me up, and there were just too many things on my mind, so other things took a backslide. I did not even remember calling on my penpal the last time round!

Then when I went to Japan last year, we saw from a tourist brochure that several places in Otaru were the filming sites of the show. The first time round when I went to Hokkaido, we went to Otaru but I could hardly see the resemblance. In any case, a place looks different in the summer than in the winter.

So I decided to get the VCD and re-watch the show. It is still so touching even though I am watching it for the second time! The show started out with a girl (Watanabe Hiroko) at the anniversary of her late fiance’s death. She was at his grave with his parents and drove his mum home. The mother told her stories of his school days in Hokkaido, and that they lived in Otaru before moving to Kyoto. However, their old house in Otaru had since been torn down and now a highway runs over it.

To keep the memories of her fiancé alive, she found his name in the year book (Fujii Itsuki) and copied down the address. For some reason, she wrote to the address. Her letter stated, “Dear Fujii-san, How are you? I am fine.” The address she copied down was not that of her late fiancé but of a girl of the same name, who coincidentally looks a lot like her. When the female Fujii Itsuki received the letter, she was bewildered. To pique her curiosity, she wrote back.

Hiroko was shocked she received a reply, so went to her fiance’s best friend and confided in him. After exchanging a few more letters, she and the friend decided to go up to Otaru to clear up the mystery for themselves. It was winter, so there was snow everywhere. Through some incidences, she realized that the one she was corresponding with is a female, and alive and kicking. She happened to be the high school classmate of the male Fujii Itsuki.

Thus they started corresponding, with the female Itsuki telling Hiroko what she could remember of the male Itsuki during school days. Hiroko realisesd that she looks a lot like the female Itsuki, and wondered if her late fiancé fell for her because of that reason, as she suspected he actually liked his female classmate of the same name. At the end of the show, Hiroko managed to let go of her past memories and moved on in her life, while the female Itsuki realized that her male classmate of the same name did like her after all, and was too embarrassed to tell Hiroko about that.

It is a very heartwarming show. The title “Love Letter” refers to the letters exchanged by the two girls, but the symbolism goes much deeper than that. In real life, letter writing is useful, to keep in touch, to tell people you love them, to apologise. Nowadays, everyone uses email, who really writes letters in this time and age?

But I am for the old-fashioned way. Somehow emails are just too impersonal. Of course emails are a good way to keep in contact, and instantaneous too. People can talk to each other just using emails alone. But at times, I do still like to write letters, on cute scented paper. It is the presentation and the nice thought that people actually take the trouble and time to pen down words.

Somehow handwritten words speak a lot. The American author Nicholas Sparks and his wife fell in love while exchanging letters with each other. My ex and I used to keep in contact while any of us were overseas by writing letters and exchanging them when we saw each other again. In olden days, people would write letters in order to court a girl.

Call me old-fashioned or sappy or romantic or hopeless, but I still like writing letters. Except now in order to flow with the trend, a mere email or even instant messaging will do. But if I ever fall in love again, I will definitely write letters to him, love poems, terms of endearment, whatever couples do. That is how I used to keep my love alive, and letter-writing works almost all times!

Saturday, June 20, 2009 Twin Bracelets - A Chinese Movie Posted by juphelia at 23:56

Years back, I watched a Chinese show entitled “Twin Bracelets”. I cannot remember how many years ago it was, but I was still in my previous abode then, so it must have been more than fifteen years at least. I remember the show was shown on television. Out of boredom, I watched it, but was touched by the storyline.

Coincidentally, a year or so later, the show was shown again on television, so I watched it again. This show somehow got stuck at the back of my mind, but I did not pay heed to it until this year. For some reason, I had a big yearning to watch the show again. Since it was so long ago, I really had no idea who was starring in the show. I could not remember the English title, but the Chinese title translates literally to “Twin Bracelets”, so I tried searching for “Twin Bracelets movie”.

Finally I stumbled onto an Asian DVD website where I could order the show, so I ordered it. Apparently there were a couple of rather famous Hong Kong artistes starring in it, but that was before they were even well-known. As I re-watched the show again, I suddenly realize why it had already touched me even then.

The story is on two best friends (mixed opinions state them as lesbians) who grew up in a village in China, where men were treated as gems and women were treated as trash. It was not olden times but set in the 1980s. Even at that era, that particular village people (sidenote : Why does “YMCA” keeps running through my head now?) still adhered to the centuries-old custom of match-making.

With education and city influence (there was a movie theatre showing modern shows, they bought soft drinks, and girls were allowed to go to school to read and write), many of the young women were reluctant to go through match-making, but they were suppressed from going against the village rules.

Anyway for the two best friends, they were worried of losing each other once they married. So they made a pact that they would never love anyone except each other. Then it came time for both to be married. One married a good and kind-hearted man, and she really fell for her husband. The other one married a playboy who tried to rape her on their wedding night.

The one who married well decided to go out of the village with her husband, as she wanted her child to choose his / her own partner in the future. The one who did not marry well had always been opinionated and feminist since young, so she immediately wanted to divorce her husband, yet divorce was unheard of in the village.

She then decided to kill herself. Before that, she wanted her best friend to die with her, as she remembered their “pact”. However when she heard her best friend was expecting, she decided to spare her life and they exchanged their bracelets. She went into the sea and drowned. Her best friend came back to the village and saw just a letter, with a pair of identical bracelets she left behind and cried for her friend.

That was the end of the show. After so many years and re-watching it for the fifth time, I still feel touched and moved by the show. The element of friendship. The suppression of women in not so developed areas in the world. At the end of the day, be it match making or not, one’s love and the person you end up marrying is really dependent on luck, is it not?

Some may be lucky they married a good man, some may only show the true colours after marriage, but like what my friend once said, “I make my bed, just lie in it.” Maybe we should take a leaf out from olden times – once a couple is married, they just try to make things work, despite the difficulties and trials they have to overcome. And that is the essence of commitment, of making a marriage last, throughout it all.

Monday, May 18, 2009 Tempting Heart - A Chinese Movie Posted by juphelia at 22:00

It had been a rather sappy weekend. I have no idea why I was in such a sappy mood. Maybe I was mourning about the love (or lack of) in my life. Whatever it is, besides wanting to be just alone, I started indulging in sappy movies all over again.

Somehow the show "Tempting Heart" came into my mind. I remember crying when I watched that show, all those years ago. If I am not mistaken, that was the first show I watched at the newly renovated Plaza Singapura, before my music lesson which I was still attending then. It was around late 1990s or early 2000. I was still a university student.

That show is edged in my memory because it was one of the few Chinese shows which I cried after watching it. The story is of a love affair which spanned twenty years, on two star-crossed lovers, who on the surface had already moved on with their lives when the love was forced to end, but at the end, she discovered that he still loved her deeply.

What touched me at the end were the photos he took, beautiful scenery photos, photos of the sky, photos in general, which he took when he missed her badly. That was so beautiful, so touching! She cried, and so did I!

Which brought me back to the sappiness. Hmmm.... I must make a decision on certain issues in my life, whether I want to finally stop giving excuses and start leading a new life all over again, or to continue being in an ambiguous state. Decisions, decisions, decisions! As if I do not make enough decisions, that I have to do this again!

Friday, December 12, 2008 The Threat Of Love (Part One) Posted by juphelia at 16:48

Lately, I have been re-watching a drama series called “The Threat Of Love”, both parts. This series features twenty short stories on the different aspects of love as well. The first part is more heart-warming as compared to the more humourous second part. Love in a cosmopolitan context and how people deal with it.

In Part One, the first story was about how a playboy pilot got a lady pregnant after a one night’s stand. She got dumped by her boyfriend who went overseas to work and got involved with a girl, so she regretted that she did not get pregnant so as to keep him by her side. Then when she really got pregnant after the one night stand, she told her ex-boyfriend and made it sound like it was his kid, but he made her terminate the pregnancy and she then dumped him there and then.

She decided to keep the baby because she said men will let her down, but her own child truly belongs to her. Somehow she met the pilot again and he found out about her pregnancy. So he moved into her place and said to bring the baby for a DNA test after he was born to ensure he really fathered the child. After moving in, he realized that it was not too bad living with her, and even though she disliked his irritating and irresponsible ways, somehow she started treating him as part of her family. At the end, after she gave birth, he realized he wanted to settle down and he said the words, “I love you” to both the mother and child.

First lesson : loving a person means wanting to settle down with her.

The second story was on a couple of migrants. The lady was raped on the way, and the guy, in order to protect her, was beaten up. Because they were migrants, they were not able to find proper jobs, so she ended up being a waitress, later a masseuse, and he ended up being a security guard, later a loan shark. However he still kept looking out for her.

She wanted to start over a new life, so accepted a matchmaker’s introduction to this foreigner who was looking for a wife, although it seemed more like he wanted a slave than a wife. When the loan shark found out, he gave her the money to offset the amount paid to the guy so she could redeem herself, but she refused. On the day of departure, she finally realized how much he meant to her and turned back, but unfortunately, he was beaten to death by a rival loan shark. She then lamented about how late it was for her anymore.

Second lesson : Love means always being there for the person, no matter what happens, especially when in need. Love means never having to say goodbye, and to cherish it when it is around, not regret when it is gone.

The third story was about how a henpecked pair of father and son-in-law won the lottery and did not let their wives know. Their wives controlled the purse strings so they did not have much money to spend, thus when they won the lottery, they quit their jobs and started spending in lavish, all the time not letting on.

However, their wives (the mother and daughter pair) misunderstood that they were fired from their jobs, so decided to pool out their savings to let them run a business. The men then felt guilty as they felt it was even rarer for a woman to give them money than for a man to give the money. So they decided to tell them the truth. Unfortunately, before they even said anything, the father was kidnapped and the ransom the total amount of the money won.

The son-in-law thus had no choice but to spill the beans. After paying the ransom, they found the father in a box, but turned out he talked and nagged so much that the kidnappers got so irritated that they let him go before the family paid the ransom. Needless to say, he hit the roof when he found out that his family paid the ransom, and in the end, both had to go back to work again.

The message of love was not that obvious here. The men thought their wives did not love them thus controlled them, but in the end, it was their wives who helped them out when they thought they were in trouble.

Third lesson : Love is not the passionate kind shown during happy times, but the support and commitment shown during tough times.

The fourth story is actually my personal favourite, on how a conservative father who favours his sons over his daughter, finally came to terms that not just one, but both his sons, are gays. The story also shows a close aspect of a homosexual relationship, that even though both are of the same gender, the love they show each other may be even deeper and better than the love between two persons of opposite gender. Even though they may never have kids, but they were willing to sponsor and adopt kids, and buy life insurance for each other to protect each other in the event one of them leaves the world earlier.

Fourth lesson : Love transcends genders, cultures and race.

The fifth story is on a mother, who gave her life for her children, only to raise three selfish and ungrateful children. They were supposed to have a stepfather, but he was thrown out of the house by the eldest girl, who hated him for horning into her family. The mother got struck with senile dementia, yet the children refused to believe and thought she was just gaining attention, until one day, she could not remember the way home.

It was only then that the eldest daughter went to find the mother’s old flame and begged him to come back and take care of the mother. He never did forget her as he still sent her birthday cards every year and still displayed her photos in his room, but the mother, in order to let him forget her, lied to him that she was re-marrying. It was only when the eldest daughter told the truth that he came back to see the mother in the end.

Fifth lesson : Loving someone does not mean needing to be with the person, but looking out for the person and wishing blessings and happiness on the person.

The sixth story is on a couple, after having been married for seven years, the husband was starting to itch. So when he met a young, bubbly, whiny girl, he felt on top of the world, because she made him feel needed. Hmmm… is that men’s ego for you, that he wants someone to want him? Yet why do men then dump a girl who is too clingy?

The wife suspected of course, because he has a sudden change in attitude towards her. She chose to remain silent about it until one day, when it was raining heavily and he was supposed to pick her up, he called to cancel because that little girl wanted him to pick her up. The wife caught the girl and her husband together in the car being rather close. Then the girl changed her mind and got out of the car and the husband then called the wife, saying he could pick her up after all.

When she got into the car, he apologized and gave the excuse that he was held up at work, but she just kept quiet. When she leaned over to him in the same position the girl did, he only remarked how wet she was and seemed rather irritated. The next day, the wife found the girl in their house, with her wrists slit. At the hospital, it was discovered that the girl was making use of the husband to get back at her ex, and she attempted suicide because of him too. So the husband realized he had been made a fool, and started being so loving to the wife, but she decided to wage a cold war on him until the end.

Sixth lesson : Maybe it takes a momentary diversion for someone to realize how much his spouse means to him? Love itself withstands everything, even momentary diversions. Love means forgiveness, that even if you suspect your partner is cheating on you, you still take him back in the end.

The seventh story touches on the aspects of a May-November romance, between an older lady and a younger man. She has an established career, money, her own place and car, whereas he is just starting out as a chef. To her, she takes the relationship very seriously, and she is not able to handle all the finger-pointing on why she is running around with a “little boy”.

So she started treating him coldly, hurting his feelings in the process. But he could not get over her, so started visiting her again. This time, they talked things through and he asked why did she not tell him all her fears? Somehow he managed to convince her he was true to her and she agreed to go with him overseas for a better job prospect.

Seventh lesson : Love transcends all ages and boundaries.

The eighth story touches more on true friendship and relationship between parents and children. The main character of the story is not a down-to-earth person. Instead of working and slogging his life away, he rather gets involved in “get rich quick” schemes, and takes chances on gambling and betting, except he never gets rich. Instead, he got into even more debt. His best friend normally has to bail him out and be his guarantor for loans, to the displeasure of his wife. His parents have to continue working and running a store to help him out.

One day, he went on board a ship and gambled, and won with a very lucky hand. So he managed to clear off all his debts, and just when he was about to gamble even more, his parents took away his credit cards and filed for bankruptcy on his behalf, so he had no choice but to help his parents out in their store until he paid back every single cent. The conclusion of the story is that perhaps, it is better to be down-to-earth and live a simple life, instead of thinking how to get rich quick.

Eighth lesson : Love can also be between friends, ie true friends will love you and be there for you no matter what happens.

The ninth story is also a rather touching one. A lady was bored with her marriage life as her husband is just a simple man without any romantic streak in him. She went on a business trip and met a photographer, who got inspired by her and started taking her portrait. They felt attracted to each other and started dining and dancing together. Then she had to go back home and told him the had to face reality and would never see each other again. When she went home, she went back to her mundane life, but was thinking of him all the time.

One night, her husband brought home a guest, and it happened to be the photographer. They used to be classmates. She panicked and could hardly concentrate the whole night. He requested for her to walk him down to hitch a cab, and he confessed how he hoped she would divorce her husband and go away with him. She then told him that they had a beautiful time, and even though he is so much better than her husband in every aspect, still, it was her husband who had been there for her through thick and thin, it was her husband who had shown his love in his own way, it was her husband who took care of her family. So even though she would always keep him in her mind, she could not leave her husband and forsake her whole family.

At the end, she chose her family over the guy she loved, and he went away, upset and alone. A year later, in an interview regarding one of his works, he said he had only loved one woman in his life, but unfortunately they met each other too late. The story ended off with her reading the article, listening to the song they danced to, and then she looked at her husband and smiled.

Ninth lesson : Memories of love are more than enough. Being committed means staying with the person, even if there is someone else better, because in the end, it takes more than love to sustain a marriage.

The last story is quite funny. It talks about how women go to extremes to stop a man’s roving eye. This lady’s husband had been teasing her about her boyish figure, thus she went ahead to get a boob job. However, her plan backfired because her husband, instead of being more attracted to her, actually got turned off, as he said she is not the wife he is used to, and it felt as if he is sleeping with a stranger. In the end, she re-did the operation and went back to normal.

Tenth lesson : If the man really loves you, he will accept you for who you are and not want you to change any part. Men look at voluptuous girls just like how women look at hunky guys, but the one they married will always be their one true love.

Monday, January 14, 2008 Hong Kong Drama : Loving You, 我爱你 Posted by juphelia at 16:48

A few weeks back, I was watching this Hong Kong series called “The Threat Of Love”. It has two series of 10 episodes each, a total of 20 episodes. Each episode is one story, but all the stories touch on the different aspects of love, between parents and children, siblings, friends, couples, homosexuals, etc.

A very heartwarming show. The first series is better though, more touching, the second is funnier. This is something like the movie “Love, Actually”, where in this society when one thinks people are incapable of love, they look around and find that love actually is all around them.

Let's hope I will have better luck this year when it comes to love! :-p

Sunday, July 30, 2006 The Lake House Posted by juphelia at 23:27

The storyline is similar to Jane Austen's "Persuasion", which probably explains why the book is featured in the movie. The plot is on two people who falls in love through correspondence, like pen-pals, except they live two years apart.

The house on the lake is the central part of their relationship, as he was the previous tenant, and she was the new tenant, but when she moved out, she put a letter in the mailbox for the "new" tenant, yet somehow he received the letter two years in the past when he was about to move in. Since then, they started corresponding through the mailbox.

Since he was living in the past and she the future, she managed to make him aware of things that could happen, like being sick after a particularly big snowstorm, and the accident he was about to be in. He, on the other hand, wrote things on the walls of places he would like her to visit so she could see it in her time. And he was able to turn up at the time and place she was two years ago and meet up with her without her knowing.

Finally, after four years, they met up with each other for real. And the place of meeting was at the glass house by the lake where they first started corresponding. The message of the show is probably a reflection on whether time really matters if both parties are truly in love.

In reality, people split because they meet each other at the wrong time. Practically, it is better to stop waiting and move on. But in that case, is the love really strong if they are unwilling to wait for each other? I am not referring to unrequited love. Maybe that should not wait. But what about couples who are really in love but through circumstances cannot be together? Is it worth waiting then?

If I am not mistaken, I think this is Keanu Reeve's and Sandra Bullock's first show together ever since "Speed". And although this show does not have the high-speed chase or excitement in "Speed", it does teach me a valuable lesson on love and happiness.

Love means never having to say goodbye. And love means waiting, no matter what time.

Monday, April 24, 2006 Japanese Movie : Crying Out Love At The Centre Of The World Posted by juphelia at 00:07

Does love ends when a person dies? What do you do if your loved one dies? Do you hold on, keep the memories alive and never get over him / her, or do you let go and move on with your life? Will you feel devastated and lost for the rest of your life, or will you be happy and get on with life?

If you really love someone, his / her death will be a big blow to you. The pain of losing a loved one, knowing all the dreams of the future and things to come will never be fulfilled. How does one continue living? Perhaps they only survive and not really live.

How does Juliet feel when Romeo died in front of her? So devastated that she killed herself. How does Ophelia feel when Hamlet was slain? How does Cleopatra feel when Antony was killed? And how does Rose feel when Jack drowned?

Years ago, I feared my then-boyfriend would die in a plane crash during one of his flights. I remember feeling I would never be able to get on with my life if that really happened. Then when I was in such a messed-up state when he dumped me, I remember hoping he would really just die in a plane crash and release me from my misery. Pretty mean and evil of me, I know, and I am not proud that I even thought of that.

Perhaps I am just a sucker for sappy love stories, but in the books I have read and movies I have seen, when two lovers are to be separated due to death in whatever circumstances, the one who is dying will always tell the partner to go on with life.

Jack told Rose to live on, get married, have kids, grow old and die a happy old woman, and made her promise never to let go of this promise. She promised him not to let go, and watched him sink into the ocean before she got herself rescued. She continued living life to the fullest, getting her dreams fulfilled, got married, have kids and did die a happy old woman.

In "Winter Sonata", JS had to go for an operation which might cost him his life, and told his brother XH to take care of his love YJ. He told YJ to forget about him and go on with her life, continue to fulfil her dreams, which she did.

In the Japanese movie "Crying Out Love At The Centre Of The World", Aki's last message to Saku was to scatter her ashes in the Australian desert, then go on with his life, get a good job and settle down.

So if our loved one dies, perhaps we should just move on and be happy. It will probably be what the late love wanted of us. Will he / she rest in peace if we never let go of the past and blow our chances at happiness again?

Of course, ideally, girls will want guys to be like Heathcliff in "Wuthering Heights", where he remained faithful to his true love Catherine even after she died. But he became a ghost of a man, just continue living day after day without really living.

If I am dying, I will want my loved one to go on with his life. It will be sweet to hold on to me, to my memory, but I would not wish him to waste his life away just like that. I would want him to find a new love and have another chance at happiness, the love and happiness which I would never ever be able to provide.

But what would I do if my loved one dies? Honestly, I do not know. I believe it is possible to love a person for eternity. Perhaps I may just love him, and keep his memory alive for life, or perhaps I may settle down with someone else if I can ever find one who can trigger off strong feelings in me again. Or perhaps I may even do a Juliet and be buried together with him.

Wednesday, April 5, 2006 Perhaps, Love Posted by juphelia at 23:37

I was watching the DVD of the Chinese musical movie "Perhaps, Love" the other day. The thing that struck me the most was Jacky Cheung - still a majestic voice, still my favourite singer in Mandopop. Now I wish I have gone to his "Snow.Wolf.Lake" concert last year.

It was actually a movie within a movie. Jacky Cheung plays a movie director who acted as the main supporting actor in his movie. The leads are Takeshi Kaneshiro (still the same boyish look even after more than ten years) and a Chinese actress whom I cannot recall her name. But she is pretty, especially her eyes - prominent double eyelids and perfect almond shape. How I wish I can have eyes like hers!

The entire movie is on love and sacrifice, not of yourself, but of the love which two people have come to share. Often, when people set out to do what they want, the loved one has to be sacrificed so he / she will not be held back by the relationship. One wonders just how strong the love was in the first place if it can be so easily given up.

But the show got me thinking. The path of true love never does run smooth, yet how many people are willing to brave through obstacles together? Or perhaps people are just so self-centred or pampered that they give up when they come across any difficulty?

A friend told me the other day that if a guy is not even prepared to go through a little difficulty for me, then how reliable can he be? This was paraphrased in my own words, in case I get accused of misquoting.

This came about when I was saying how difficult my parents can be, and I do not blame my exs for not willing to get to know my parents better. So he said winning parents over are but a minor thing, there are more difficult issues to face in the future. So if the guy is not even willing to go through the small trouble of winning my parents over, maybe he is not that reliable in the first place.

But it is true that in the course of a relationship, many obstacles have to be faced. What is winning over parents compared to, say, terminal illness? If the guy is not even prepared to fight for me, is he going to run away if I get struck down by some terminal illness?

Is he going to give up if we face major financial problems or on the brink of bankruptcy? Is he going to just scoot off if our relationship or marriage face some problems? Will he stick by me throughout no matter what problems, major or minor, we face?

Maybe the reason why there are so many breakups, separation and divorce lately can be due to people not willing to work things out and just give up. Sometimes I wonder how can anyone promise anyone else a good future if they run away at the slightest problems?

Maybe what the female lead in the show said is true - "In this world, the only person one loves is oneself". But it is sad indeed. If we can love ourselves so much, why not use the same amount of love and give it to another person? Make another person feel loved like he / she has never felt before.

Perhaps love really only triumph if it has withstand trials, tribulations and obstacles. If after all the major problems and whatnot, and the couple still emerge inseparable, maybe that will be the type of love that will truly last a lifetime.

Sunday, September 11, 2005 Korean Drama : Winter Sonata Posted by juphelia at 04:15

I am finally done with the "Winter Sonata" marathon, which started at 9:00pm Friday night and just ended about half an hour ago, with an eight hour siesta in between for sleeping, eating and cleaning. This is the third time I watched the series, and I still cry over the show.

BYJ is still the most suave, charming, gentlemanly and sensitive screen persona I have seen. Oh, if he can only look at me that way, I will not mind doing anything for him. The actress Choi Ji Woo is definitely the luckiest girl, able to hold his hand and share kisses together. And the scenery.... it is so beautiful and picturesque, directly out of a landscaped painting. Oh, why did I go to Korea so early? If only we had waited a couple more years, we could have gone to Korea and went along the "Winter Sonata" trail - the actual places where the series was filmed.

And the way she fussed over him when he was unconscious in the hospital. How I wish there is someone for me to take care of, or better still, how I wish I have someone to take care of me day and night when I was in the hospital. True love really exists. Everything she did was for him, and everything he did was for her. If you really love someone, you will want the best for the person, sometimes even to the extent of making a painful decision to leave the person and never return.

I still remember the most touching line in the show, where they were in a church and he said, "Dear God, there is a woman I love deeply. I want to be with her and take care and protect her forever. I want to have children with her and be a good husband and father. I want to be their protector, their hands and legs to warm them up forever. I want to be always there for her, to love her and cherish her. Please let me be with this woman I love so deeply." And he turned to her and asked, "Will you marry me?" Yes, I will definitely marry you........

After watching the show for the first time, I got so into turtleneck sweaters that I made use of the end-of-year sale to buy turtlenecks (both long and short-sleeved) from G2000, Mango, Zara and Iora. I specially chose colours like white, green, mustard and pink, as featured in the show. I also went into the long winter coat phase. I bought a fur-lined jacket (fake fur of course!) from Mango (which incidentally, was the exact same one Monica was wearing in FRIENDS - I got a big shock when I saw the jacket she was wearing, but that proves I have good taste!), a white trench coat from Wanko, and a fur-lined pea coat from This Fashion (a very big bargain - nice and cheap!). Needless to say I have not used any of the coats yet, since I am still waiting for the day I can save up enough to travel to somewhere cold, or else wait for someone willing to sponsor me a trip to somewhere cold. :-D

I also scoured the entire island for the "Polaris" necklace, the necklace which he gave her as a Christmas gift. I finally found it at a jewellery shop at Tiong Bahru Plaza. Although it cost a bomb and set me back a big sum, I was so happy to be able to own the necklace. It is so precious to me that I wear it only for very special occasions.

Meanwhile, I am finally turning in, hopefully with sweet and pleasant dreams of BYJ!