Adnalysis: Get Smart, Be SEXY

Adnalysis (ad-nal-uh-sis)
Ability to analyze an advertisement and give your personal opinion.
Difficulty: Easy 

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Background
This article is taken from 8DAYS, a local weekly entertainment magazine. It is actually an advertisement to promote this Anti-drink driving campaign called the “Get your sexy back” campaign. It targeted at young adults aged from 18 to 26 years old to inculcate the idea of being smart not to drink and drive.

Analysis
I would like to talk about the selective processing of advertisements and such campaigns in our daily life. Firstly, it is the selective exposure that we choose to get in contact with these messages. If we do not read the 8DAYS magazine or just briefly flip through the pages looking for things that catches our eyes, we may well miss the ad totally. If we happen to got caught by the neon pink words that drew our attention to the ad, we may enagage ourselves in selective attention where we may briefly browse through the page without paying attention to any of the important messages that the campaigners were trying to put across. Our attention could be set on the photos of the babes and the cute guys (if any of you think so) on the ad and failed to read the wordy chunk.

If we then paid attention to the ad and bothered to read the whole chunk of words, we may come to realise that this campaign is giving out vouchers from newurbanmale.com. So what’s the ad is telling us? FREE VOUCHERS? That could be the selective perception for many of us. We may percieve the entire message wrongly and the objective of the campaigners will not be met. Finally, after completing the “Bar Exam”(online quiz), which many people can actually redo it over and over again to get a good score because after all, the questions do not change, in order to get the free vouchers, we may end up not learning anything about drink driving. This could be the case where people engage in selective retention where they only remember about playing this quiz, memorising the right answers to get the free newurbanmale vouchers.

A campaign using media to get to their target is a good start, however, they have to understand that the receivers of this message too exercise message decoding processes and selective processing when coming in contact with the ad. Hence, marketing and advertising is a difficult job and understanding these communication theories may help them do a better job.

Adnalysis: HSBC “World’s Local Bank” Campaign Ad

Adnalysis (ad-nal-uh-sis)
Ability to analyze an advertisement and give your personal opinion.
Difficulty: Easy 

A gesture is a form of nonverbal communication and most of the time, they are embelms developed in various cultures usually used to substitute verbal communications. However, once must understand that not all gestures are universal and we should respect this fact in order to prevent ourselves from offending people from different cultures.

In the Ad, we can see two distinct gestures that was brought up that may seem normal to one culture but not to another. One of them is the trusting of the palm and the other is putting legs on the table.

The trusting of the palm with fingers pointing outwards is commonly seen as a gesture to symbolise a stop sign. However, in Greece, this gesture is highly offensive. This gesture in the greek culture is equivalent to the middle finger and somehow meant the “F” word as well.

Similarly, resting your feet on the table is a utterly rude gesture. Being Asians, we do understand that it is rude to do so and in the Thai and Vietnamese Culture especially, this gesture is very rude.

Understanding one’s culture is important to maintain a good relationship with people in this globalised world. Sometimes, it may also create a little embarassment but I believe no one will blame you for being polite. As we saw from Advertisement, the Japanese representative tried to shake hand with the British while the latter chose to bow with respect to each other’s culture.

Think globally, act locally. This is known as “Glocalization” and HSBC had capitalized on this aspect to market themselves as the World’s local bank.

Hope you guys enjoy the clip.

So can anyone think of gestures that are interpreted differently in different culture? Please share with us.

Ennalysis: What makes a successful team?

Ennalysis (en-nal-uh-sis)
Ability to analyze your environment and see it in a more profound perspective.
Difficulty: Hard

What makes a successful team?

It is not about the grades but more of what you learn and get out of being part of the group. Interaction between members of the group is essential and synergy within the group will provide a beneficial outcome for the group. A cohesive group would lend support to one another and input a high level of commitment. Although decision making in a group is a complex process, distribution of work within the group provides the group with adequate time to complete the tasks. While each group member takes up both a task role and maintenance role, they are the most valuable assets of the team. In order to prevent groupthink to occur, we have to be open to alternatives decisions and raise issues in order to discover the best answers.

Alright, theories aside, I shall take my project group as an example to share my views about being in a successful group. The name is “Seannie & Co“. Like I said earlier, success is not measured by grades, hence I proudly say that what I had learnt so far from my group is sufficient to call my group successful. First of all, we have a leader who is motivated and always on the ball. He is the coordinator of the group, making sure everything that were suppose to be done, were done. As for myself, I would call myself the devil’s advocate. I love to oppose to views and raise questions with regard to other’s views. Well, I am not the only one in the group. The other members also love to raise issues and queries about another member’s opinions. I felt that having so much debate during our meetings, groupthink will never happen.

The energy level of the group is really high and our meeting often irritate other groups around us as we tend to be extremely noisy and loud. I felt that the commitment of the group is really high and I am really proud of it.

What did I learn from “Seannie & Co” that made me think we are successful? Just one word…. FUN. To be able to get work done while having fun is something really extraordinary.

Here’s a tribute to my group members. I believe only you guys can appreciate the humour in this clip I compiled due to all the FUN time we spent together during meetings and discussions. Let’s work harder to achieve what we deserve. =)

Here is another compilation done by me and is specially dedicated to Kean…

Ennalysis: Impossibility in communication

Ennalysis (en-nal-uh-sis)
Ability to analyze your environment and see it in a more profound perspective.
Difficulty: Hard

I chance upon this clip about a deaf-mute man and blind girl. This is a really sad love story.

My opinion about this story is that it tells us that sometimes, there can be possibilities that communication cannot take place. Verbal cues were sent but not received, nonverbal cues were sent and again not received. The only thing they can appreciate is each other’s presence. I felt that the story was able to bring out the inability in communication between the two. Like what we have learnt, communication is two ways. It was rather devastation to see them go separate ways. =(

Ennalysis: Relationship Maintenance – Conflict Management

Ennalysis (en-nal-uh-sis)
Ability to analyze your environment and see it in a more profound perspective.
Difficulty: Hard

Relationship Maintenance

Picture taken from: http://www.kodak.com/US/images/en/corp/1000words/roses.jpg

Roses… I believe many girls received these last Thursday on St Valentine’s Day ya? Well at least I am certain that someone did receive of course. =)

Sending roses, expensive gifts and romantic dinners doesn’t spell out everything about maintaining a relationship, but these add spice to it. So what contributes to a relationship maintenance process?

Sharing information about yourself with your other half is essential (Self-disclosure). You cannot always expect him/her to find out something about you that you did not disclose to him/her. For instance, you may get really irritated when someone keeps rubbing shoulders against yours. However, you never show your displeasure to him/her. He/She may liked the intimate feeling of this gesture but irritated you in the process. Your choice of not displaying the unhappiness may end up affecting your mood and everything else may just fall apart. Everything that suppose to be right seem wrong which leads to conflicts.

Conflicts occurs when the two of you have different views. These views may not necessarily be rational as all of us do have irrational viewpoints at times.

Sometimes, conflicts are good and they help you strengthen your relationship. We call it functional conflict resolution. However, some conflicts may lead to the end of the relationship (dysfunctional conflict resolution). Well, we definitely do not want to see this ending because we are trying to maintain a relationship right?

Here are a few valuable tips in handling a conflict:

1. Don’t get carried away by those dramatic quarrels and take a deep breath to think rationally.
2. View it as a chance to build your relationship.
3. Be open to the view points of your other half.
4. Understand that you can be wrong.
5. Be willing to say sorry.
6. For guys, be a gentlemen! For girls, don’t EXPECT guys to be. If they do, appreciate that.
7. Giving in may not necessarily solve the problem as it may result in future conflicts.
8. Be willing to listen. (Seriously listen).
9. Do not jump to conclusions.
10. NEVER, never have the thought of ending the relationship because of this conflict. Don’t ever let your emotions make decisions for you!

I hope that what I said make some sense. Hope to hear some comments. =)

Adnalysis: Dove Evolution Ad

Adnalysis (ad-nal-uh-sis)
Ability to analyze an advertisement and give your personal opinion.
Difficulty: Easy 

Who can determine what beauty is? Are we brainwashed by the media which changed our perception of beauty? Take a look at this advertisement by Dove…

With the power of ‘Photoshop’, anyone can look like a superstar. This ad tells it all. Try comparing at the model in the studio and the final photo, real beauty had been distorted. Who are we to determine beauty? The person doing the photo editting may just be another victim of how media had portrayed beauty.

Have you ever thought of what beauty really is? Can you be sure that it was not your experiences that determined your judgement? Can you be sure that media you are in contact with, did nothing to sway your perception towards an “ideal” image of beauty?

By theory, perception is influenced by psychological factors and social factors. Media plays a big role in influencing us and changes our mindset. It may cause perceptual errors in our perception of beauty.

Why do some of us think that people who are fat are ugly? Why do we style our hair? Why do we wear make up? Why? Look at the ad again and think about this. Are we not victims too?

Popcornalysis: Kungfu Dunk

Popcornalysis (pop-kawrn-nal-uh-sis)
Ability to analyze a movie and provide own opinions and critiques.
Difficulty: Moderate

Movie Review: Kungfu Dunk

Photo taken from http://pic.e.netandtv.com/gallery/20070708/e_netandtv_20070708060019062500099.jpg.

Photo taken from http://news.xinhuanet.com/ent/2008-01/30/xin_3720105301400578273342.jpg.

Trailer

Sypnosis
Shi-Jie (Jay Chou) is a brilliant martial artist from the Kungfu School. The master of the school adopted him as a baby, when he was found abandoned in the woods. His remarkable kungfu skills stem from his innate intuition and ability to read his opponents moves. One day, he encounters a group of youths playing basketball and shows off how easy it is for him, with his martial arts training, to do a Slam Dunk. Watching him was Chen-Li (Eric Tsang), a shrewd businessman, who decides that he would exploit Shi-Jie to make some money. Under the guise of helping Shi-Jie to find his family, he recruits him to play varsity basketball at the local university.

(Sypnosis taken from www.gv.com.sg)

*WARNING* This review may contain spoilers.

Of all the 3 movies I watched this Chinese New Year, I felt that Kungfu Dunk is the most complete movie. It may not be the best but definitely covered many details of what I look for in a movie.

This Idol flick definitely was the least popular of the 3 movies as I noticed when I booked the tickets through the internet for all these movies in the last couple of days. Most time slots for CJ7 and Ah Long Pte Ltd were sold out or selling fast at least 4 to 5 hours before the showtime but Kungfu Dunk did not receive such treatment. Although I still booked in advance to secure a good seat, the seats were more available than the others.

I felt good watching this movie maybe because I was a “Slamdunk”anime fan and also a basketball lover. This movie definitely made the slamdunk animation come alive with good use of camera angles and special effects.

I went into the cinema with almost no expectations at all unlike for the other two movies. First of all, I never really know much about the director or the storyline and only regarded this film as “that Jay Chou’s movie”. Honestly, I watched it partly because I am a Jay Chou’s fan. LOL.

This movie did not miss out much details to me as the introduction of the stop and reverse time kungfu technique during the start of the movie was put into use at the end of it. Which somehow, formulates how the conclusion should address what’s mentioned in the introduction like in an essay. For me, I felt that the movie was unexpectatedly funny and comparable to those in the other two movies. Unlike the others, this movie flowed well and I could feel the development of the storyline.

Jay Chou’s acting is another talking point and I shall just briefly talk about it. He merely act as himself yet again. The shy and innocent looking guy with few words. I can’t imagine him acting as bad guy or a triad boss. If he were to continue acting, he probably continue acting in such roles.

As I said earlier, this film covered many aspects of a movie, it covered romance, action, friendship, family, team spirit and rivalry too. There are so many aspects yet they were able to blend into the storyline so well. The audience were very well informed of the development as I viewed it.

The actions were done very well too. From the basketball moves to kungfu fighting, it kept me entertained. Together with the humour, it definitely made me want to watch it again.

Before watching the 3 movies, I ranked the movies.

1. Ah Long Pte Ltd
2. CJ7
3. Kungfu Dunk

Those were ranked according to how good the movies MAY be and how much I anticipated them and wanted to watch them.
However, after watching all 3 movies, this is my new ranking:

1. Kungfu Dunk
2. Ah Long Pte Ltd
3. CJ7

This ranking showed how much I would recommend them to you guys who still haven’t watch them yet.

Hope my reviews helped those who wants to watch these movies and hope to discuss with you guys who had watched them.

Happy Chinese New Year to all. =)

Popcornalysis: CJ7 (长江七号)

Popcornalysis (pop-kawrn-nal-uh-sis)
Ability to analyze a movie and provide own opinions and critiques.
Difficulty: Moderate

Movie Review: CJ7

Photo above taken from http://www.heb.chinanews.com.cn/todaybd/news/dsc/2008-02-01/_1201822023_1.jpg.

Sypnosis
The latest comedy from Stephen Chow, CJ7 is a fantasy tale featuring state of the art visual effects. A poor laborer father (Chow) and his young sons lives are turned upside down when a fascinating and strange new pet enters their world. Amid the resulting comic mayhem, they ultimately learn a poignant lesson about the true nature of family and the things money can’t buy.

(Sypnosis taken from www.gv.com.sg)

*WARNING* This review may contain spoilers.

So is this movie meant to be a comedy or a tear-jerker? I doubt even director Stephen Chow had made up his mind. In recent reports, he talked about making movies that can move audience to tears rather than making them laugh like his previous movies did. I believe this movie could be his shout-out of his intention to change his style. Known to be the king of comedy in the Chinese movie industry with his successful creations of Shaolin soccer and Kungfu hustle that hit Hollywood, this move could be a very wrong one.

Let’s first talk about the nice parts above the movie. The animations were good and there were quite a few really funny scenes in the movie like what we were to expect from a Stephen Chow movie. I really like the part where the reporter in the television news program was interviewing a man who claimed he saw an UFO. However true his story may be but the photo he took of the UFO was coincidentally similar to the hat he was wearing and thus, no one actually believed him. Another scene that was really funny was the part where the kids made CJ7 do all sorts of expressions. The animators captured the distinct body language of all the various distinct incidents mentioned  and presented it really well which made the audience burst into laughter.

Despite all the ridiculously funny scenes in the movie, the storyline of the entire movie was a serious let down. What was the message that the movie was trying to put across? Was it mocking the rich-poor gap in China? Was it promoting fatherly love? Or some morale lesson about human behaviour? All these are possible but they were demostrated rather briefly. It’s like the intention and idea were there but not excecuted well enough.

Halfway through the show, especially after they showed what CJ7 could do to the electronic fan and after the father(Chow) died, most people would somehow expected the ending. Without any twist, the movied ended as predicted. CJ7 fixed the father and he returned. I almost shed tears during the part where the father was pronounced dead and the poor ittle boy became very very upset over it. But that was a moment where the solemn music and the touching emotions of the boy that really moved me. And I almost forgot to mention that little girl, Xu Jiao’s acting was brilliant. Yes! little girl… if you don’t already known that the boy in the movie was acted by a girl. She did a fantastic job with the way she used of body language and her combination of her verbal and non-verbal communication was perfect.

The movie on a whole was way off the standard from the other Stephen Chow comedies. Without the fantastic animation of the furry CJ7 and the acting of that little raising star(Xu Jiao), this movie may not even worth any good comments.

If you are looking for a comedy like Kungfu Hustle, look elsewhere, this is the wrong direction.

Popcornalysis: Ah Long Pte Ltd

Popcornalysis (pop-kawrn-nal-uh-sis)
Ability to analyze a movie and provide own opinions and critiques.
Difficulty: Moderate

Movie Review: AH LONG PTE LTD

Sypnosis
Ah Long Pte Ltd is a light-hearted black comedy about the triad world and the money-lending business. The movie takes on a humorous and sarcastic treatment on the underworld. It depicts how a young lady, Li Hua (Fann Wong) tries to restructure her money-lending triad into a professional and ‘loving’ triad that stands against the use of violence after she takes over from her triad leader (Richard Low) who retired. Her various restructuring plans (which are no doubt very creative) bring about hilarious results.

Li Hua tired of her mother’s constant nagging to get married, she finally relented and proposed to Mr Fang (Mark Lee), an effeminate dance instructor cum image stylist. Surprised to many and even herself, Mr Fang accepted the proposal. The unusual union, despite the misfits, soon blossom into love.

(Sypnosis taken from www.gv.com.sg)

*WARNING* This review may contain spoilers.

Ah, my first movie of the Chinese new year period would be Ah Long Pte Ltd. I chose to watch it first as it was the first on my list and it was the most anticipated of the 3 for me. I watched it at 120am this morning at GVmax and luckily, the movie was entertaining enough to keep me awake throughout.

First of all, I must clarify that I am kind of a Jack Neo’s movie person because I do anticipate and look forward to his movies. Because I do know that there are people we would “not waste money” on local films or Jack Neo’s films. So, my point of view may be a bit bias as I do have a lot of expectations from Jack Neo’s movies.

Ah-la-la-Long, ah-la-la-long, ah-lala-longlong-long-long-long-long…. That’s the catching tune that got stuck to me ever since I watched the trailer. I admit that the trailer definitely made me want to watch the movie as soon as possible. Nice song, nice footages… why not? Music may just play a major role in attracting movie-goers (for me at least). However, after watching the movie, I was a little disappointed.

First, there was all the abrupt deletion in several scenes. What I am talking about is the footages which were cut out by the Media Development Authority (MDA). From the link below (note the duration of the movie), a good 3 minutes were censored/cut from the original version.

http://www.mda.gov.sg/wms.www/resources_result.aspx?search=AH%20LONG%20PTE%20LTD&actor=&producer=&rating=&language=&decision=

I am not really sure what exactly they took out but I really hope that those were not the best parts. Looking at the report from MDA, it looks like they took out the sexual humour part and forced it into a PG rating. Probably because Jack Neo’s films are usually a family movie and they do not want to change their target audience.

Secondly, the whole storyline that was promised by Jack Neo to be different from the “My wife is a gangster” series, didn’t turn out to be too much of a difference afterall.

Another aspect of the movie I didn’t like, are the conversations between the characters. I really hate it when the do not converse in a common language. ‘A’ talks to ‘B’ in Cantonese, ‘B’ reply in Hokkien, talks to ‘C’ in Mandarin and ‘C’ reply in Cantonese. If the character only speak Hokkien and speaks Hokkien to who ever that speak to him in Hokkien, it is alright. But in the movie, our lead actress speaks in so many different languages and mostly in Mandarin. Which local triad boss is a woman and speaks Mandarin so perfectly? One from China? No, it’s not. If it was meant to be so due to some part of the storyline that explains why she speaks Mandarin so well, it would fit in better. But, it didn’t seem to be so. Hence, another setback.

However, I did enjoyed the movie. Why? All credits go to Mark Lee. He plays a Malaysian-mandarin accented sissy dance teacher cum fashion designer. His acting is so good that he made this Jojo Fang character comes to life. Almost every funny part from the movie that ejects you from your seat are done by him. I really enjoyed all the humour he brought into the movie that made this violence Ah Long movie an enjoyable comedy. Mark Lee definitely saved the movie from bad ratings. Well unless you want to include the pathetic half star out of five rating given by a local magazine of course.

Overall, I would reccommend that anyone who enjoys a different take in a gangster movie with all the creativity put in by the scriptwriters and a good laugh, you may consider watching this. I do not recommend this movie if you are someone who enjoys a unique storyline, a satisfactory and unexpected ending. Although this must be one of the lousier Jack Neo films, it is still worth watching again.

Just take away expectations and watch the movie. It would be a better experience.

Popcornalysis: Movie Reviews CNY 2008

Hello everyone, Happy Chinese New Year (CNY) once again. I will be watching the 3 movies as shown above and be giving my comments on them next week. The movies are: Kung Fu Dunk, Ah Long Pte Ltd and CJ7. Hope that you guys will watch them too and share your comments. =) Looking forward to the movies.