Golden Globe Nominees for Year 2007

HOLLYWOOD FOREIGN PRESS ASSOCIATION 2008 GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS FOR THE YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2007

1. BEST MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
AMERICAN GANGSTER
ATONEMENT
EASTERN PROMISES
THE GREAT DEBATERS
MICHAEL CLAYTON
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
THERE WILL BE BLOOD

2. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
CATE BLANCHETT – ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE
JULIE CHRISTIE – AWAY FROM HER
JODIE FOSTER – THE BRAVE ONE
ANGELINA JOLIE – A MIGHTY HEART
KEIRA KNIGHTLEY – ATONEMENT

3. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
GEORGE CLOONEY – MICHAEL CLAYTON
DANIEL DAY-LEWIS – THERE WILL BE BLOOD
JAMES MCAVOY – ATONEMENT
VIGGO MORTENSEN – EASTERN PROMISES
DENZEL WASHINGTON – AMERICAN GANGSTER

4. BEST MOTION PICTURE – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR
HAIRSPRAY
JUNO
SWEENEY TODD

5.BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
AMY ADAMS – ENCHANTED
NIKKI BLONSKY – HAIRSPRAY
HELENA BONHAM CARTER – SWEENEY TODD
MARION COTILLARD – LA VIE EN ROSE
ELLEN PAGE – JUNO

6. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
JOHNNY DEPP – SWEENEY TODD
RYAN GOSLING – LARS AND THE REAL GIRL
TOM HANKS – CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR
PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN – THE SAVAGES
JOHN C. REILLY – WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORY

7. BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
BEE MOVIE
RATATOUILLE
THE SIMPSONS MOVIE

8. BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS (ROMANIA)
THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY (FRANCE AND USA)
THE KITE RUNNER (USA)
LUST, CAUTION (TAIWAN)
PERSEPOLIS (FRANCE)

9. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
CATE BLANCHETT – I’M NOT THERE
JULIA ROBERTS – CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR
SAOIRSE RONAN –ATONEMENT
AMY RYAN – GONE BABY GONE
TILDA SWINTON – MICHAEL CLAYTON

10. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
CASEY AFFLECK – THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD
JAVIER BARDEM –NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN – CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR
JOHN TRAVOLTA – HAIRSPRAY
TOM WILKINSON – MICHAEL CLAYTON

11. BEST DIRECTOR – MOTION PICTURE
TIM BURTON – SWEENEY TODD
ETHAN COEN & JOEL COEN – NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
JULIAN SCHNABEL – THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY
RIDLEY SCOTT – AMERICAN GANGSTER
JOE WRIGHT – ATONEMENT

12. BEST SCREENPLAY – MOTION PICTURE
DIABLO CODY – JUNO
ETHAN COEN & JOEL COEN – NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
CHRISTOPHER HAMPTON – ATONEMENT
RONALD HARWOOD – THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY
AARON SORKIN – CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR

13. BEST ORIGINAL SCORE – MOTION PICTURE
MICHAEL BROOK, KAKI KING, EDDIE VEDDER – INTO THE WILD
CLINT EASTWOOD – GRACE IS GONE
ALBERTO IGLESIAS – THE KITE RUNNER
DARIO MARIANELLI – ATONEMENT
HOWARD SHORE – EASTERN PROMISES

14. BEST ORIGINAL SONG – MOTION PICTURE
"DESPEDIDA" – LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA
Music by: Shakira, Antonio Pinto Lyrics by: Shakira
"GRACE IS GONE" – GRACE IS GONE]
Music by: Clint Eastwood Lyrics by: Carole Bayer Sager
"GUARANTEED" – INTO THE WILD
Music & Lyrics by: Eddie Vedder
"THAT’S HOW YOU KNOW" – ENCHANTED
Music By: Alan MenkenLyrics By: Stephen Schwartz
"WALK HARD" – WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORY
Music & Lyrics by: Marshall Crenshaw, John C. Reilly, Judd Apatow, Jake Kasdan

15. BEST TELEVISION SERIES – DRAMA
BIG LOVE (HBO)
DAMAGES (FX NETWORKS)
GREY’S ANATOMY (ABC)
HOUSE (FOX)
MAD MEN (AMC)
THE TUDORS (SHOWTIME)

16. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES – DRAMA
PATRICIA ARQUETTE – MEDIUM
GLENN CLOSE – DAMAGES
MINNIE DRIVER – THE RICHES
EDIE FALCO – THE SOPRANOS
SALLY FIELD – BROTHERS & SISTERS
HOLLY HUNTER – SAVING GRACE
KYRA SEDGWICK – THE CLOSER

17. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES – DRAMA
MICHAEL C. HALL – DEXTER
JON HAMM – MAD MEN
HUGH LAURIE – HOUSE
JONATHAN RHYS MEYERS – THE TUDORS
BILL PAXTON – BIG LOVE

18. BEST TELEVISION SERIES – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
30 ROCK (NBC)
CALIFORNICATION (SHOWTIME)
ENTOURAGE (HBO)
EXTRAS (HBO)
PUSHING DAISIES (ABC)

19.BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES –COMEDY OR MUSICAL
CHRISTINA APPLEGATE – SAMANTHA WHO?
AMERICA FERRERA – UGLY BETTY
TINA FEY – 30 ROCK
ANNA FRIEL – PUSHING DAISIES
MARY-LOUISE PARKER – WEEDS

20. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
ALEC BALDWIN – 30 ROCK
STEVE CARELL – THE OFFICE
DAVID DUCHOVNY – CALIFORNICATION
RICKY GERVAIS – EXTRAS
LEE PACE – PUSHING DAISIES

21. BEST MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
BURY MY HEART AT WOUNDED KNEE (HBO)
THE COMPANY (TNT)
FIVE DAYS (HBO)
LONGFORD (HBO)
THE STATE WITHIN (BBC AMERICA)

22. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
BRYCE DALLAS HOWARD – AS YOU LIKE IT
DEBRA MESSING – THE STARTER WIFE
QUEEN LATIFAH – LIFE SUPPORT
SISSY SPACEK – PICTURES OF HOLLIS WOODS
RUTH WILSON – JANE EYRE (MASTERPIECE THEATRE)

23. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
ADAM BEACH – BURY MY HEART AT WOUNDED – KNEE
ERNEST BORGNINE – A GRANDPA FOR CHRISTMAS
JIM BROADBENT – LONGFORD
JASON ISAACS – THE STATE WITHIN
JAMES NESBITT – JEKYLL

24. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A SERIES, MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
ROSE BYRNE – DAMAGES
RACHEL GRIFFITHS – BROTHERS & SISTERS
KATHERINE HEIGL – GREY’S ANATOMY
SAMANTHA MORTON – LONGFORD
ANNA PAQUIN – BURY MY HEART AT WOUNDED - KNEE
JAIME PRESSLY – MY NAME IS EARL

25. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A SERIES, MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
TED DANSON – DAMAGES
KEVIN DILLON – ENTOURAGE
JEREMY PIVEN – ENTOURAGE
ANDY SERKIS – LONGFORD
WILLIAM SHATNER – BOSTON LEGAL
DONALD SUTHERLAND – DIRTY SEXY MONEY

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Jam-packed

Orchard Road was jam packed with so many people and so was my schedule. Anyway, i met up with Stephen there in the afternoon as we need to do a bit of Christmas shopping.

Headed over to Vivocity with Calvin, Sam and Paul for dinner at Sushi Tei before getting to Sihan's 21st birthday party at The Olive restaurant near Labrador Park. The ambience and the setting was nice and there were beer and wine served as well. Thanks to Sihan for baking the nice cupcakes for us!

I wished i could stay on longer as i hadn't seen many of my coursemates for so many months. Rushed back home next as my grandfather had won quite a significant amount of money from 4D and treated all of us, including relatives, to buffet food. My mum had insisted me to come back for an extended family photo. About 1 week ago, she was contemplating on whether we should hire a professional photographer to take the whole family photo and i rejected it as i think i would be able to manage the shot.

Apparently, i came back too late as they had already taken the group photo. Some of my relatives had to leave earlier, thus they took the group photo before i came back home.

Then i was thinking, i should have stayed at the party after all. Never mind, hope to be able to see them again before i leave for exchange next month.

Headed over to Derrick's place for his grandmother's wake at around 10.30 pm with my jc friends. Thankfully Derrick was not very affected over the matter and we were chit chatting all the way until 2 am.

What a day.......

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Qi Yao Bday

Celebrated Qi Yao's 23rd bday at Lao Beijing restaurant together with Yuan Sheng and we had a good chat about many things in general. Found out many interesting things about ys as well and we had a healthy debate over some matters.

We watched Paradise Now at The Cathay next as The Picturehouse is re-releasing arthouse films which had been shown before. Didn't catch it the first time round and decided to watch it this time.

The show is about 2 ordinary men in Nablus, Palestine, who were chosen to go on a suicide mission to bomb up Isrealis. The lead actors were great in their roles and the situation was well depicted. It is a very rationale film and it sheds realistic light on the matter by exposing the audiences of the way of thinking from the proponent and the opposition.

It is a commendable film as it shows how ordinary people can become terrorists although the theme is more relevant a few years back. It is a cautionary tale which applies in the real world and it is reflective, unsettling and tragic.

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The Warlords

Met up with my jc friends after work to watch The Warlords. It is a battle movie set in the 1860s where warlords and bandits roam freely in the early days of China.

The show starts off methodically with a tad too messy fighting scenes and a typical storyline about a guy who survived the onslaught of enemy troops and joining a group of bandits to survive amid the poverty and suppression. Jet Li plays the title role as the hero leading his battalions to invade numerous cities, while Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro are his sworn blood brothers as well as acting commanders to aid in his mission for glory.

The second half of the movie, it gets better and better from the Suzhou battle onwards as the internal conflicts spiral out of control resulting in tragedies of epic proportions. Peter Chan, first time director of war movies, does an amazing job indeed. He infuses much moral decisions into this war movie and the full blown consequences are fully depicted in the big screen. The drama in the non-battle scenes are as engaging as the spectacular battle scenes and it is devastating, chilling and tragic.

The character developments for Da Ge (Jet Li) and Erhu (Andy Lau) are good and we get inside the individual characters and understand the rationale behind their decisions. Their acting is commendable and it is searing with much emotions. This movie is nothing short of an impressive epic.

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Vietnam Day 7: Cat Ba Island (Part 2)

We spent about half an hour in the hotel room playing card games and resting before heading downstairs for lunch.

View of Cat Ba coastline from the 6th floor balcony

Hotel room

Lunch

We had lunch and went for kayaking next! The bus brought us to a jetty about 15 mins away and we were whisked off in a boat to a floating kelong renting out kayaks.

We split into pairs and started our 1 hour kayak around Ha Long Bay. We were not issued with life jackets but proceeded anyway. The numerous limestone formations protruding out from the sea ensured calm waters within the bay.

We did not stray too far from familiar territory as the bay is huge and we can get lost easily among the identical limestone formations. We had a good time kayaking but we did not bring our cameras to capture all these as we did not want our cameras to get wet.

The trip to Monkey Island next was cancelled due to the rain and we headed back to our hotel.

After washing up, we headed back out to explore the shoreline of Cat Ba Island.

Water Park near the beach

Hundreds of motorists waiting for passengers

People flooding the popular beach

Picture of the beach

We got ourselves a hotdog each

Side view of the beach

We walked along the boardwalk which led to a further beach and the scenery along the way is beautiful.

At the less crowded beach

Huts along the beach

Islands and the dark clouds

As it was drizzling lightly, we headed back to the hotel area after staying at the beach for a short while.

Ferries anchored near the jetty

Gloomy weather but nice photographic effect

We had dinner at the hotel restaurant soon after and it was rest and relax for the rest of the night. It was raining cats and dogs soon after and there was a power failure in the midst of our dinner. Luckily, we had finished most of our food and proceeded to accompany Terence to a nearby internet cafe to book an earlier flight back home.

Then, we had more card games back in our hotel and watching tv shows while waiting for the rain to stop. After the rain stopped, we took a stroll by the bayfront and it was very lively with many people dining, shopping and walking around.

Bustling night life

By several roadside stalls

Vietnamese signboard near the jetty

End of Part 2 (12 noon to 11 pm)

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More Outings

Met up with Stephen and Jiayun on Thursday for dinner at Cafe Cartel and went to Ben & Jerry's for desserts next.

Met up with Daryl and Liyuan for dinner and watched The Golden Compass on Friday. The Golden Compass is a fantasy show adapted from Phillip Pullman's trilogy of novels. It is about a girl, Lyra, who possesses a golden compass that many desire and she sets off on a mission to save children from being "intercised" by the Goblers. The fantasy world includes human souls that manifest as daemons (animals that can talk), flying witches, and the fearsome armoured bears.

This movie boosts good acting from Dakota Blue Richards as the protagonist child hero and the supporting cast which includes Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig and Eva Green hold the film together. This film has some good special effects as well but i did not enjoy this film thoroughly. The story seems too rushed in the beginning and it is not constantly engaging. The climax of the show is a little lacklustre as i would have preferred it to be more exciting and rousing. Its fatal flaw is that there is little emotional connection with the audience and the characters. We feel detached from the characters and it is a pity as this movie could have been better.

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Busy Busy

Been going out almost everyday after work to meet up with my friends who had finished their exams.

Mon: Went out with Fuli, David, Bernard and Weiming to have dinner at PS.

Tue: Went out with Qi Yao and Yuan Sheng for dinner at PS and watched Enchanted next.

Wed: Went out with Clarence and Derrick for dinner in town and headed to Irish Pub next.

Now to the review of Enchanted. Enchanted is a perfect date movie and an absolutely delightful show. The tale is about Giselle, a princess waiting for her prince charming, who gets transported from the fairy tale world into the real world by an evil queen. She meets a guy, Patrick Dempsey, who helps her in difficult situations and they gradually develop feelings for each other until her fairy tale prince charming arrives into the real world to rescue her from the world "without happily ever afters".

The storyline is predictable but rather interesting with the numerous teleportations and the evil queen transformations. The acting by Amy Adams is wonderful as she totally inhibits her role as the idealistic and naive princess waiting for her prince charming to rescue her. She has an incredible sense of humour with her apparent lack of understanding of sarcasm, lack of knowledge of breakups, and many other earthly stuff.

This fairytale romantic comedy triumps as it successfully blends modern ideas into traditional fairy tales without losing its charm. A sugar syrupy show for everyone to enjoy.

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Grandpa Birthday

My grandpa's birthday was held at my house on saturday and tables were set up in the porch to accommodate all my relatives.

Having dinner

Buddha Jumps over the Wall


Extended Family picture

Family picture + sister's boyfriend

We had a very full meal and i guess i will only be seeing most of my relatives after i come back from exchange.

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