Wednesday, June 13, 2007

10 Films that Made Me Cry...十個令我哭泣的影像...十本泣かさせた映画

Some films which profoundly touched me, all of which either made me teary-eyed or made me cry from my heart.........
1. You are my Sunshine (2005)

Starring the new (and only the 2nd Asian actress) winner of the Cannes Best Actress Award this year, the ever enigmatic Jeon Do-yeon as a prostitute and her romance with a farmer in rural Korea. At once beautiful and yet deeply harrowing film allowing the audiences an insight into prostitution practices, HIV, and abusive relationships in South Korea, themes which find common ground everywhere in the world. Very traumatising to watch at times but absolutely necessary i feel, given the important issues that it raises in what is essentially a conventional commercial film using conventional film techniques...cried twice when watching, always a good sign that its a good emotional genre film..

link: http://chinesechic.blogspot.com/2006/02/korean-film-pick-you-are-my-sunshine.html



2. Maundy Thursday (2006)




I was highly anticipating this film, not least the fact that it had two of my favourite Korean stars, the forever Korean classic Lee Na-young (I'm a HUGE FAN of her...would watch almost any film she is in, she is just one of THE most beautiful and stunning woman i've seen, and her roles are always good.) and Kang Dong-won (simply love his sleepy eyes and 'moody look').


I wasn't dissapointed and i was expecting to cry even before i watched the film given how i can kinda predict what kind of storylines are very likely to make me cry and this was definitely one of them.


The story, like many Korean films, is not particularly refreshing or remarkably innovative, but like most Korean films, they are just very good at doing what they do best, which is delving into the human and emotional side of life and tugging at your heart, manipulating your feelings so well that you just gotta cry...Basically, Kang is wrongly accused of raping and murdering two women and is on death row. A suicidal Lee, whom is a yesteryear star has attempted suicide several times already. She is filled with deep anger at herself, at the world, and it seems most of all, at her mother. After having tried to commit suicide but failed for the third time, she is asked by her aunt, a nun, to accompany her to her weekly visits to the high security prison for visiting death row inmates attempting to convert them to Christianity before they are put to death. At first, Lee is totally uninterested. But then slowly, and surely, she forms a kind of bond, a connection with Kang, as we learn the truth of his crime, Lee's past, and her source of anger, as well as the inevitable ending that we all know is coming.

Very thought-provoking film in that it deals with a man whom is afraid to die and wants so badly to live, to be given another chance in life, but whom is condemned to death, and a woman whom is so angry and whom has lost the will to live seeking only to end her life....You won't regret watching this film.


3. 200 Pound Beauty (2006)




This was a surprise huge box office hit in 2006 which catapulted the main actress, Kim Ah-Jung, to stardom. Its about this heavily overweight girl whom has a fantastic voice. However, due to her appearance, she can only hide backstage singing the songs of a hot sexy famous singer whom can't sing and has a real attitude problem. The overweight girl, Hana, is in love with the hunk producer, but dares not express her love due to her appearance. One day she overhears him telling the famous singer whom hates Hana that she should be happy she is not Hana and that they were just using her to get money. Hana was about to commit suicide but then a phone call arrives and she decides to get a complete makeover by going under the knife. This is a typical commercial flick with an average story but it somehow managed to capture the hearts of S.Korean movie-goers. I think it is successful as it brings out the insecurities women have about their looks, as well as is a reminder of the superficiality of beauty and society's obsession with it. I loved it!

4.Taegukki (2004)




I liked this film as it was a very emotional and intimate film about war. In fact, it really isn't even a 'war film' in the typical sense of the word. It was more an emotional epic about family, the extent to which one would sacrifice for family, for a brother, the love and brotherhood between two brothers and also, ultimately, the devastation that was wrought upon Korea and millions of Korean families during the Korean War. Very emotional film, cried at the very end even though i was telling myself not to, not to be such a cry baby...the scene of the older brother having bought the shoes and putting it in the wardrobe and then being found simply ignited my floodgates and i cried so hard it was like my own relative had died....haha..

5. Oh! My Three Guys (1993)

This is actually an exception to all the films that i've listed here in that it is actually an average film with a poor ending and so-so storyline if it were not for one of the stories which was just soooo powerful and tugs at your heart so much that i would recommend you all to watch it if only for one of the stories in the film.


I've introduced this film before under my 'Nolstalgic Hong Kong Films Review' series so i will keep it short. Basically about three gay men in early 90s Hong Kong, their lives, loves, and tribulations. The only story that stands out and is to this day, out of the many gay themed films i've seen, still one of the most powerful gay stories i've ever seen on screen, is the story by Eric Kot, the flamboyant gay. He is rejected by his father for being gay, contracts AIDS and.....well, there is a really, and i mean really, emotional scene, after he learns he has HIV...although Eric Kot's character was not the main character, with Lau Ching Wan playing the main character, the HK Film Awards Jury were obviously as impressed and moved by his performance as a HIV positive gay man that they nominated him not for Best Supporting Actor but for Best Actor in 1994. Still one of the best gay-themed stories i've seen so far after all these yrs....you just have to ignore the other two stories:)


past post :http://chinesechic.blogspot.com/2006/07/hong-kong-films-nolstalgia-3.html


6. Hotel Rwanda (2005)


Oscar-nominated 'Hotel Rwanda' recounts the days of genocide and havoc as Rwanda gets overtaken by hatred and evil based on true events in 1994. The world watched silently as the genocide unfolded eventually killing up to 800,000 people within a year before it finally ended. The UN and Western powers refused to act or even call it a genocide until it was over: Rwanda was a nation without valuable resources such as gold or iron, nothing 'worth risking white lives' for.

This film specifically centres on the true story of a Rwandan manager of a foreign owned luxury hotel whom harbored and saved thousands of lives by bribing and buying time from the military who was also responsible for the genocide. Very worthwhile watching to know about the 1994 Rwandan Genocide...as i was watching the film, it once again reminded me of the inhumanity that human beings can unleash on fellow human beings...Nanking, Holocaust, Bosnia, Darfur,etc...the same murders, the same rapes, and the same tortures.
7. Romance of their Own (2004)





One of the best Korean films of the 'highschool girl love fairytale' genre....i cried so much at the ending...i'm serious, i was just so touched by the ending when the script gave such an emotional punch that i could feel my teargates bursting open by the ending and i cried even more when the credits started rolling( you'll know y when u watch it)....it was sooooo sad and heart-aching...however don't expect something fundamentally deep about the story, its a typical commercial highschool girl kind of romance story....but a very good one at that!



The girl in this story is your typical insecure average looking highschool girl. However, she finds out that the coolest and hunkiest guy in school has a serious crush on her and keeps wooing her. Then steps in her half-brother whom she hasn't met in many years(i'm not sure if they have blood relations as i can't rem, I saw this around two yrs ago....but he is definitely the illegitimate son of her father i think)...he is none other than the cute Kang Don Won with his sulky moody eyes and aura...he also falls in love with her...so starts the rivalry between them over her (gosh i just love these typical korean love stories where the plain girl gets to pick two different 'types' of men, though equally desirable, whom fawns over them....the ending is so sad, it seriously made my heart ache...and the theme song is one of the saddest (in light of the storyline) and most memorable i've ever heard in a film. Highly worthwhile!!!

8. Like a Virgin (2006)
This was nominated and i think won an award at the Korean Film Awards. It was a very good and interesting film bringing together two seemingly contradictory topics, traditional Korean wrestling, a masculine sport, and transgenderism, which is commonly associated with the feminine.
I didn't cry in this film but i will introduce it since i think its a good film and i did feel tears welling up at one point.


The film deals with an area which many of us have heard of and have a superficial knowledge of but don't know much about, that is: transgendered people, transsexuals. I must admit i wasn't really interested in this area despite my interests in gay and lesbian issues. I think i'm not the only one to ignore the whole trangendered area right? Sometimes we focus so much on gay and lesbians nowadays that we may have marginalised trangendered people whom face more discrimination than gays and lesbians. Well this film deals with many of the issues facing a transgendered person, in this case, a guy whom joins a traditional korean wrestling competition in order to win the grand prize which is just enough to cover his intended sex-reassignment surgery turning him into a 'complete woman'.


...and by the way, the title of the film comes from Madonna's song 'Like a Virgin'.

9. The Legendary Princesses (TV Drama- 2006)

This is actually a TV drama by KBS and its damn good!! Its freakin long, like 80 eps which means over 80 hours but it surprisingly manages to keep audiences glued to the tv box winning over 40% in audience ratings at its peak. (For ur reference, normally an average Korean drama gets around 20 to 30% and good ones b/w 30 to 40% but really big hits get over 40% in viewer rating.)
I actually cried TWICE throughout the drama, both times not bcos of love but due to the biggest key point (for me personally) which was its focus on the family and family relations, either between the parents and the 4 daughters, the relationship between the sisters, the daughters and their in-laws, the mother and her mother (the mother was such a role model figure for me, i just loved her fiesty protective attitude, not ur traditional quiet wife...and the scenes between the mother and her own mother proved to be one of the most touching ones in the whole series.


Really worthwhile watching given that it did make me cry twice and i rarely cry in Korean dramas, however much i like them...after 80 hrs of korean drama, u can even pick up more than a few words of korean:)

10. Grave of the Fireflies (2005)

This was a TV Movie on Nippon TV broadcast as a special movie in 2005 commemorating the 60th Anniv. of the end of WW2. It is based on the infamous Japanese anime tearjearker of the same name 'Hotaru no Haka' produced in 1988.

I actually liked the movie better than the anime, but that could be my own bias as i dislike all kinds of anime and cartoons and further, many ppl liked the original better.

The story is set in the closing days of WW2 in Japan centering on an elder brother in his mid-teens and his younger sister and their aunt with her own children to look after. After their father is sent off to war and their mother dies in an American air-raid, the two siblings go to live with the aunt but not all goes well as the war situation worsens and increasing rations and air-raids, by 1945, accompany their lives and millions of other children and civilians in Japan.

I didn't cry in this film but i was close to tears...its THE best Japanese drama film i've seen so far and the Japanese in my eyes are so lame and crappy when it comes to love stories and tearjerkers that the fact that this film made me teary-eyed took me by surprise...


The film deals with the theme of war and what it means to be living during wartime. It explores human nature and our will to survive at all costs, as well as the impact of war on the human spirit, character, and humanity. There was one scene which left me with the most lasting impression when the aunt told the brother something after she brought him bck from the police station for stealing during an air-raid. The words were really hard-hitting and brutally harsh and made me think about the nature of human beings and our will to survive...i won't spoil the plot but do watch this film....the ending where they jutaxposed images in blck and white of the siblings with current images of children in the forever raging war in Palestine underlines the message that although the story was fiction, millions of children continue to live with war everyday even today was really the icing on the cake, and just went that extra mile in putting this film a class above the rest. I was certainly impressed that they had made the connection b/w children in wartime Japan and modern-day children in Palestine by including footages of Palestinian children at the end cos it was something completely unexpected..well worth watching..............You won't regret it.


Official Website (in Japanese): http://www.ntv.co.jp/hotaru/

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

The Status of Women (2)... 婦女的地位(二)... 婦女の地位(二)

Haha...another excuse for me to put gorgeous cheongsam (chinese dress) pics...i did it with my 1st post on 'women's status' as well with a pic of Maggie Cheung in her blck n white striped qipao...this time, i have Yu Min, the ever elegant and poised 50s/60s Hong Kong film star best known for her refined and proper image in a white satin cheongsam with light grey natural motifs speckled across.


Its been a long while...I've been feeling lazy....delayed this post but really wanted to post about this for a long time since its one of my passions. Actually i should do a me-me sometime cos i think many readers aren't really familiar with my bckground, my likes and dislikes, interests...well if it hasn't been obvious, women's rights and feminism is like one of my biggest areas of interest in life. I've always been quite a militant feminist, dun know why, started from very young, just felt for the lot of women and the still prevalent inequalities that exist in society.

I would like to warn some readers beforehand that this may seem like an anti-male post which it isn't and especially my first post together with this one may give the false impression that i am a man-hating bitch but really anyone whom knows me knows thats impossible, and further, i like guys...i haven't turned to liking women ...yet! ( i'm kidding!!!)


I think living in developed or fast developing countries lead many of us to falsely believe that women and men are now more or less equal and that there isn't much of a gender gap in all areas of society. That is an illusion which ignores the reality that women in many countries such as the middle east still have an array of basic rights denied them as well as discriminatory restrictions placed on them. I was watching SBS News (i usually watch the SBS World News on weekdays when i have the time) and there were reports of the 'missing girls', the girls whom should have been born but are killed or starved or neglected to death by their parents in third world countries. This is a horrendous reality...given that its the year 2007 and this is still happening around the world. The report also talked about the hundreds of thousands of girls whom are denied an education and basic healthcare around the world. Cos let us not forget that there are over 200 countries in the world, some of which many of us don't even know the name of and they are no where as developed or progressive as some of the countries which are frequently in the international spotlight or media or have more advanced economies and thus the women in these less developed countries continue to suffer inequalities and discrimination on a daily basis. Below is an analysis and critique of the still inherent inequalities faced by women covering both the poor economies, developing economies, as well as developed economies.
Career Woman or Full-Time Housewife???:


I've said this before and i will say it again...i think women should continue to work and have a career not only after marriage but also after having children. Cos even now, there are still young Asian women whose life-long ambition is to find a good (read: this means rich) husband and then become a stay-at-home mum. I've heard about these kind of young university/college women in China and Japan, whom despite their high levels of education, have aspirations and a goal in life to 'get the rich guy' and be able to just live off their husbands... I simply think thats not a very proud goal to have and reminds me of the feudal ideals Chinese society used to have.

I always advocate that women must continue to work and have their own career even after marriage as well as after motherhood. This doesn't mean that a woman must have a high-flying career which requires her to put in so many hours at work that she would barely have the time for family life. But it does mean that married women should at least be engaged in some kind of payed work outside the home. This is vital to giving women some form of financial independence from their husbands which is ESSENTIAL in any marriage cos when arguements flare up and the going gets rough, a woman without financial independence knows she doesn't have the upper hand when it is the man whom is providing the roof over herv head, the food on the table, the branded clothes and shoes she has in the wardrobe, the car she drives, and....you get the picture. Further, without financial independence, a woman really doesn't have the option of divorce if and when it becomes necessary.

This is what i hear about women from my grandparent's generation. I've always wondered and also asked around why divorces were so rare for people in my grandmother's generation...could it be that marriages were perfect or close to perfect in those days?? The answer i often get bck is of cos not, and given my own research and general common sense, everyone knows women suffered enormous discrimination a mere 40,50 years back, so what is the major reason for the low divorce rates?? Aside from the fact that there was societal pressures and norms to not divorce whatever the cause, a major factor which prohibited women from divorcing was the 'money factor'. Basically, full-time housewives simply did not have the finances or capability to afford a divorce. This meant that however much domestic violence a wife suffered or however uncaring a husband was towards his wife's needs, she simply could not divorce because she didn't have the finances to support herself after the divorce. Please note, I am not encouraging women to divorce but only advising women to keep their options open as without a full-time or part-time career, married women simply do not have the option of divorcing their husbands which the men obviously do as they have the finances to maintain their lifestyles after divorce (in fact, i think men come out financially better after the divorce given that they now have one less person to support given that its usually the men whom provides financially for the most part during the marriage).

Of cos, our court system plays an important part in protecting and guarding the vital rights of women. I'm sure most people know of alimony which is payed by the breadwinner (most often men) to the homemaker (most often women). This is one way of guaranteeing the ability of divorced women to be able to survive after a divorce. Thus, the legal system must be supportive of women (or the homemaker whichever gender) taking account of the non-monetary contributions they made during the marriage when deciding on how much alimony is paid. I learnt alot in my Family Law class about how it is done in Australia, and i must say, Australia definitely has a progressive and commendable system whereby housewives are awarded up to half of all savings and property/assets bought with the husband's money PLUS half of superannuation (pension) of the husband which is the real bonus as pension is on-going payments. The judge in Australia takes into consideration of the non-financial contributions of the wife such that women whom have toiled 10,20 or more years in the house, taking care of the children, cleaning and tidying the house, whilst preparing food on the table so that the men can go out and focus on their careers, are not left with nothing when the marriage dissolves.

In Asia, laws relating to divorce have also progressed with Japan being an example. There has been a phenomenon in recent years in Japan called 'Jyukunen Rikon' (Elderly Age Divorce) whereby thousands of women in their 50s, 60s and above have divorced their husbands after being housewives for decades. This is as a result of the old societal system in which Japanese husbands left for work early in the morning and came home late at night with the wives basically bringing up the children like single mothers with very little support or affection from their husbands. When their husbands reach retirement age, they suddenly find it very difficult to live with an unexpressive man whom now knows not what to do with his life, lazying around in the house everyday. Anyways, bck to the point, the Japanese parliament has passed a pension law which is to come into effect sometime this yr or next which is predicted to shore up divorce rates even further than it is now and fuel the jyukunen rikon phenomena as it automatically entitles divorced wives half of the pension/super of husbands when they retire. Previously, wives get a lump sum and maybe division of property but not the super/pension so it is said that many women are now waiting for the law to come into effect to file for a divorce.

However, even if the law and legal system upholds women's rights....there are still BIG incentives for women to continue working. This is as i've heard that most men don't pay or discontinue payments after awhile even when the court has ordered them to pay alimony to their wives. This means that for a divorced housewife whom has obtained a court order for her husband to pay alimony, if her husband were to stop payments, it would mean she would have to go bck to the courts with a long drawn out process of enforcing the order. If she had been working all along, the alimony payments wouldn't be so important as she could easily support herself which goes to show the importance of maintaining a career. Further, divorced housewives cannot expect to just live off their ex-husbands forever and so they inevitably have to find work. The problem is.... after 10 or 20 yrs out of the paid workforce, who is going to employ a middle aged housewife whom has not worked outside the home for more than however many decades regardless of her academic qualifications or centuries-old former work experience?? A career woman would not have this to worry about and men, most of whom continue to work and climb up the corporate ladder during their marriages, certainly do not have to worry about this.

Finally, if some woman reading this still decides to become a full-time mother and housewife after marriage and having children, then thats fine (though not the smartest choice given all i've pointed out above) WITH the following essential tips on protecting themselves:

Do make sure that half of all property and assets are firmly in your name. If your husband refuses, make it be known that your relationship will go sour and refuse intimacy as well as make it known that divorce is on your mind. Of cos, first negotiate and if only your husband drags his feet and is obviously not going to transfer anything under your name like 6mths or 1 yr after u've brought up the topic do you then threaten considering divorce. Cos it really is important to make sure u have some assets under ur name in the event of anything happening. You may think everything is lovey-dovey now, but when a marriage goes sour and divorce occurs, you really don't want to end up with no career AND no assets under ur name AND having to go thru the chaotic court process.

Thus, i end this section with my often quoted 'Golden Advice' regarding marriage and careers for women:

As a housewife and full-time mother, you are taking care of your husband's family (the kids and the home) and his career (by freeing him to focus fully on his career). You husband of cos cares only for his career. Thus, the golden question being, who is caring for your career?

All may seem idyllic and perfect when the marriage is smooth-sailing but once it hits an irreparable storm, and results in divorce, the husband still has his career, but what does the housewive have? She has nothing. Given that her life revolved around the family, she no longer has a family, and of course, she doesn't have a career either. She comes out with nothing.

Of cos advising women to work is not enough, men will also have to do more. Ideally, i think both the husband and wife should work and both must be involved in taking care of the children as well as domestic chores. This will mean men have to inevitably sacrifice some of their career (just as women have been doing all along) and not put in the extra hours or forsake going on that business trip overseas to help out at home. This is ESSENTIAL as i find that many women of my mother's generation actually are full-time career women AND homemakers having to work AND then come home to cook the dinner and clean up the house on the weekends which makes their lives often even more tiring than full-time housewives as they now have to do double of everything. Men of my father's generation allowed their wives to work but men, being the 'slower species' have been very slow in changing with the times and helping out more in the house. Its almost as if they have the attitude of 'We're fine with women changing so long as we are not asked to change significantly along also'. This is NOT acceptable.

Its time men also forsake some of their career for the home. A woman shouldn't have to work double as hard as a man to maintain financial independence as well as maintain a family. Women shouldn't have to choose between having a career or a family or working like a slave within and outside the home to keep both. To achieve that, men will have to start changing. And i mean changing REAL FAST.

I end this section with a quote from a book i read called 'Kickboxing Geishas': 'It is not that men aren't changing. Cos they are. They just aren't changing fast enough.'

Sex Videos, Hot Pictures, Pervert Men, Rape, Sexual Harassment, ("the usual stuff") and Everything else Men do to Women (and...other Men):

I read the Taiwanese newspaper every day and i always read the society section and besides reading the interesting articles, i make sure i scan through for any articles on women-related news and boy are they interesting and thought-provoking! Some of the articles just goes to prove how defective some men are, which is my theory...most people may read and hear about these things just thinking..oh another sick perverted person in the world...however i ALWAYS see it from a gender perspective and make the connection...it really isn't just another sick perverted person out there is it?? What people don't seem to realise or worse still, don't WANT to acknowledge is that its another sick perverted MAN doing something perverted to a WOMAN and sometimes another boy or guy.

I mean reading all these horror stories 9 out of 10 committed by men (it really isn't a secret that over 90% of all criminals and jails are filled with MEN and over half of all victims of crime are WOMEN) simply goes to show the deficient nature of the male gender (not all of cos!!!!! just some). A cursory summary of some of the articles gives an inkling of what perils women and men have to endure through the sick nature of some MEN.

Now, men aren't exactly well known for being expressive creatures (though that prob isn't true anymore for the under 30s Asian men nowadays)...its usually guys whom show less affection in a relationship generally speaking with girls more likely to be more expressive...that doesn't mean the guy doesn't love the girl as much necessarily but sometimes it has to do with Asian male ego, to show too much affection and being too caring towards the girl for some men can be unmanly...however when the time for breakup comes, ohmygod do some guys do some crazy stuff...i read about one article whereby this guy refused to break up with his gf and then he beat her up and kept her in the house for days until the girl was rescued by police after she managed to call her brother for help.

And then there was the guy whom kidnapped his girlfriend whom wanted to breakup with him with a gun at the carpark of a shopping mall and forced her into a car threatening her that he was going to rape her hard at a rural area. When she refused to comply with his request to get back together, he ACTUALLY TRIED TO SHOOT HER, crazy asshole!! The police were informed by onlookers and caught the guy...

And then there was the guy who held up the bank where his girlfriend worked at with a dummy gun requesting for them to patch up and for her to go bck to him as she had dumped him...lame loser...

And another incident where a girl asked for money to pay her debt and the guy refused. She then refused to have sex with him. (ok i admit she shouldn't have made him feel like he had to 'buy' her for sex..she was wrong) however, what the boyfriend did later was simply CRAZY ok!!! I repeat CRAZY!! They've been in a relationship for more than 3 years so i just can't believe the guy would do this to her....well to cut it short, the guy went beserk and smashed the beer glass he had and attacked her face, arms, legs with broken pieces of glass...AND IF THAT WASN"T ENOUGH, he BOTTLE-RAPED HER by inserting both the bottle tube and his fingers into her vagina repeatedly despite her screams....she later went to the hospital and went to the police.

With all these horror stories which are reported in the newspaper (there are many many more similar stories which i didn't write about and god knows however many more unreported ones), if i ever had a daughter, i would MOST definitely be the type of 'strict father' figure being very protective of her...and girls would do well to beware when picking boyfriends...cos if a guy can bottle-rape a girl AFTER 3 yrs together as a couple, anything can happen...

The above dealt with real life cases of break up situations...so now lets proceed to incest cases..

There have been numerous cases of incest almost all involving fathers or grandfathers....

There was the case in Malaysia about this father who raped his daughter after 'losing control of himself' when he saw her coming out of the shower clad in a towel...and then the grandfather who raped his granddaughter repeatedly until she got pregnant which is how the case came to light...and then of cos, daughters and granddaughters aren't the only victims...there was a recent case of a drunkard father who asked his 6 year old son to 'kiss his penis' for him (basically su*k his pen*s)...eeeewwwww..WHAT KIND OF SICK PEOPLE ARE THESE PEOPLE!?##^&**

Men are such MONSTERS!!! Only monsters can do this to their OWN children!! And people ask me why i am such a feminist? Err..maybe the above is why?

Ok, the incest bit sickens me, lets move on to sex videos and men now....

I've noticed an increase in the news recently on sex videos which couples make with quite a few prominent cases...there was one about this sex video (which i've seen) by a Singaporean girl and her boyfriend which got leaked onto the web and became a stir..then another one about these sex pics taken by a girl and her boyfriend which again got leaked onto the internet...both girls were identified and have suffered enormous stress....obviously, their boyfriends had put it up or a friend of his had put it up...so the moral of the story is girls...DON'T EVER TRUST YOUR BOYFRIEND OR HUSBAND TO TAKE SEX PICTURES OR VIDEOS OF YOU TWO, MEN CAN'T BE TRUSTED...geez, how can girls not know that?! the two girls in the above cases probably never dreamt in their worst nightmare that they would become online sex celebrities or that their boyfriends had either purposely or negligently allowed the photos/sex videos to go online...

Then of course, there is rape and sexual harrassment...women being raped always SICKENS ME but when you rape someone in an even more vulnerable position, its just unbelievably horrifying....i am referring to an article in the Taiwanese newspaper about this handicapped woman whom lived alone and was raped three times by two men (MONSTER&& PIGS##) until she died of suffocation on the third time as they tried to cover her face to prevent her identifying them....then there are the cases involving horny stepfathers who prey on their new partner's young daughter....one case involved the stepfather raping the stepdaughter when his wife wasn't around the house...another case involved this blind girl whom was raped by her uncle and when she moved to live with her mother, she was again raped by her mother's live in boyfriend...sick...totally sick...how can you rape a blind girl!!!!! MEN ARE BASTARDS...aarrgghhh.....i mean its bad enough raping a girl, not least your partner's daughter, but a blind defenseless girl is TOTALLY FCUKED UP i tell you....

And of cos, boys and men are raped as well...i read about the famous case of the Russian Army 'Gay Prostitution' scandal where it was exposed how the younger recruits were raped brutally by the older soldiers and then also forced to have gay sex with clients outside the camps with the older soldiers taking the earnings.....scary man...

And of cos, i've had my own share of weird men encounters...i remember the first time which i can remember very clearly was in 1997 when i watched this movie in a cinema alone at night...my mother was coming to pick me up after the movie and i still remember vividly which movie it was, it was called 'Eighteen Springs' and this is why i can remember the year cos that movie came out in 1997....well i went into the cinema and watched the film BUT TO MY HORROR i think about 1/3 thru the movie, i noticed that the guy sitting right across me on the other side of the aisle which divided the cineplex into two was staring at me...at first i ignored it thinking i was being paranoid, but everytime i turned my head to the right, he was looking at me....and i was like thinking, 'hey mister are u here to watch the movie or are you here to watch me?!' In the end, the entire movie-viewing experience was thoroughly spoilt as i was so scared that i even remember thinking to myself...' you bastard, now you make me worry more about whether you are still looking at me than concentrating on the film!!'....after the movie, i was ready to make a run for the exit and when the lights came on, he smiled at me and i didn't even look at him for another second and bolted out running all the way till i got to the bus stop to wait for my parents...

Another time was in Melbourne where this guy followed me until i got into a shop to hide from him...and then in Sydney once in Chinatown very late at night cos i wanted to get something from 7-11 and this Caucasian middle aged guy suddenly came beside me and said 'Hi' and smiled at me...it was very deserted then and i gave him a quick glance and walked straight ahead...when i turned a corner and looked bck he was still looking at me....i was so freaked out...like seriously, me being cruised on the street?? gosh. and i am not even attractive...imagine what the attractive goodlooking people have to go thru? Then of cos was the time when i first got to Sydney and i was with my parents, brother and their friend...we were just at the Casino having supper at a restaurant there...when this Chinese guy was soooooo cruising me...he was the waiter there and alright looking, i noticed he kept looking at me at first but of cos i ignored it at first cos i am not a paranoid person who thinks every other guy is stalking me...but it soon became apparent he was cruising me when he just kept on looking...like everytime i glanced over, he was invariably looking at me. Now, i'm positive i didn't look weird or anything for him to look at me....and at first i admit i was pretty flattered....i was like, wow this pretty goodlooking guy is cruising me...BUT then of course that feeling soon turned into fear...and let me tell you anyone whom has been sexually harassed or molested can tell u this fear...its a deep fear which runs thru your entire body...cos he kept looking and even when i looked straight into his eye as i was starting to feel uncomfortable, he didn't even look away but just kept looking at me....that seriously freaked me out...i couldn't wait to leave the restaurant...how do u expect me to eat with a stalker guy like there looking at me all the time...he even went to the table beside us to come closer to me as i very well knew he had nothing to do there and he continued looking and glancing at me...i ignored him and hardly looked at him as i started to feel scared...at last we left, and he was still looking at me even when i had left almost like i was a long lost relative....and u know what was the most embarassing thing??? My mother realised that the waiter was making excuses to come to the table next to us and that he had kept looking at us the whole time..!!! (She wasn't aware he really had his eyes on me the whole time....SO embarassing ><")

So yeah, just thought i'd share my own experiences....i've heard from friends of similar experiences of sexual molestation or weirdos before and it seems to be pretty common, especially for girls.....feel free to share if you have any similar experiences either by a girl or a guy, i'd LOVE to know!!:) (the kepoh in me,hehe...)

The Double P's: Prostitution and Pornography:

My basic opinion on prostitution and pornography is that they should both be legal and it is futile and senseless to try to ban them. Many Asian countries such as Malaysia, China, and India ban both whilst other countries such as Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea ban prostitution but not pornography. I think that it should be legal although ideally i would say that it would be best if men didn't visit prostitutes or watch porn. Both P's constitute an important part of women's issues as prostitution and pornography primarily concern women as prostitutes and porn actors and men as the consumers....although of cos the rise in gay visibility and status has also meant a rise in male prostitutes and gay porn...but i think it can safely be said that both form only a very small percentage of the overall female presence in the above industries.

I think instead of banning, we should be regulating the porn and prostitution industry and setting industry standards and guidelines just like any other industry. This is to safeguard the rights of the prostitutes and porn actors to make sure that they enjoy work safety and freedom of choice just like any other worker in any other industry. Banning the Double Ps have never prevented them from occuring, with prostitution being the world's oldest profession. Women will still be abused and used by men (the pimps, the porn directors, makers) even if prostitution and porn is illegal...so why not protect them by laws and regulations with strict enforcement and any breaches warranting heavy penalties??

I think Hong Kong is a fine example as a role model for other countries to follow in the area of prostitution. In Hong Kong, prostitution is not illegal. However, pimping is and managing a brothel is illegal. So you may ask, whats the difference?? Well, the difference is huge and i think of significant importantance. Basically, women who individually prostitute themselves of their own free will are not illegal .Therefore, a prostitute will not be arrested. However, the men, the pimps whom run the brothels and manage the businesses will be arrested by police as the action of 'encouraging or introducing a woman to have sex with a third party' is illegal in HK. So is 'managing and operating' a brothel. Thus, in raids, HK police will only prosecute the pimps and brothel operators and free the prostitutes. This is a fantastic law in my opinion in that it makes it illegal for MEN whom pimp women and take their earnings without having to do a single thing from reaping profits from the prostitutes, the WOMEN, who have to do the dirty work, sleeping with all the men and not even being able to get everything they earned. Further, this resolves the problem of sex slavery as many prostitutes around the world are actually sex slaves, forced into prostitution by men whom they've been sold to by their parents or simply just forced to become prostitutes by human traffickers, MEN again. (There was a recent case in S.Korea which made the news whereby police rescued a middle school girl, prob 14-16, from sex slavery as she was forced to have sex with as many as 800 men during the course of her imprisonment by a group of pimps. Clients apparently included academics and surgeons. gosh, it makes me wonder, how can the clients, ur average male on the street, have sex with someone they know is underage just by appearance and even more disgusting is the fact that they should have known she was there against her will, so how can they continue to have sex with her??!! If they didn't know, then its simply a case of wilful blindness...oops, sorry legal term, it means when someone turns an eye from the truth and prevents themselves from knowing the truth of something) By making prostitution legal, prostitutes whom are actually sex slaves and rescued by police do not face charges of being a prostitute which may arise in countries where prostitution is illegal. (In the S.Korean case, the police obviously didn't charge the girl for prostitution)This is due to the fact that from a strictly legal sense, the act of prostitution is in itself illegal, which the girls have in fact engaged in, although completely and utterly against their free will.

However, more work has to be done in stopping human trafficking which is estimated to traffick 800,000 people annually across international borders, many of them women, and many into sexual slavery prostitution. And this figure doesn't even include trafficking within national borders in countries such as India where young girls from poorer states are tricked into the red light districts of Bombay or China where girls are abducted by human traffickers and sold to poor farmers in rural regions as young brides....the fight continues...

As for porn, i think we need to regulate the number of men allowed to 'act' with the actress of the film as well as the storyline...i've come to realise without actually having seen ANY porn films involving women (i've seen a few gay porn films before which is weird i know, who has watched gay porn but not straight porn??I mean even all gay men have watched straight porn, if only for the male actors..haha....i know about the films mainly thru third parties, talk shows, online pics and synopsis of porn films) that some stories MUST be banned in their degrading portrayal of women and possible effect on societal order. If i were ever to become Prime Minister of a country or in a position to introduce a law, it would be a law to regulate the porn industry...first off, ALL PORN INVOLVING RAPE STORIES WILL BE HENCEFORTH BANNED!!!!! I mean what is it with men and rape?? People always say 'oh that sick criminal pervert stealing women's underwear' or 'that sick rapist' or 'the disgusting soldiers who commit rape in war'....well, i had a long time coming to terms with this but the undeniable fact which i REALLY and i am sure none of us want to admit is that there is somewhere deep in the male biological make-up (most men anyway) which naturally somehow has 'a thing' for rape...there i said it! I know this is controversial but how else can you explain the obsession with rape and bondage of women in Jap porn??!! (is it the same with Western porn?) Somehow, you can't deny it must be somewhere in the male gene which seems to enjoy rape and overpowering women with all the rape fantasy porn available...i mean porn brings out the darkest deepest uninhibited desires of men, and if men (correction: some men) enjoy watching rape porn and wank to it, how different are they from the rapist on the street or in war? All they need is the correct environment and walla, you have a rapist whom can now act out what he watches in porn....so rape stories must be banned...

and also whats this with one woman and plenty of men in porn stories? Its such a 'power thing' i mean aren't men shallow visual animals when it comes to matter of sex?? So why the common scene you see whereby one woman has to have sex with 3,4,10,20,etc men in one porn flick? Why would men (correction: by this i mean Straight Men, which is whom i am dealing with in my analysis, Gay Men and Gay Porn will have to be left to another day, in another post) want to see 3,40,50 di*cks and only one pair of boobs and you- know -where...?? Of cos, my explanation is that it all comes down to one reason: POWER. It has to do with the fact that its MEN having power OVER WOMEN the number of men outnumbering women is already a sign of male power over women and then of cos they penetrate her in every imaginable way and fondle her in every conceivable manner is a symbol of male power over the woman, the passive, the to-be-fcuked, whereas the male is the instigator, the one in power to manipulate. Thus, this kind of power dynamic can no longer be tolerated in the 21st century where men and women are supposed to be equal, or somewhere close to it. This is not to mention the injurious effect of having a woman have sex with an entire football squad ( i mean the guys get a break since they take turns, and once they 'finish' they can leave whereas the same woman has to take the next actor)...its pretty inhumane really and reminds me of the 'comfort women' (Japanese WW2 sex slaves whom were forced to serve battalions of soldiers). So under me, i would limit the number of men to woman ratio to a maximum of 3 actors for every porn actress. There will be no limit on women to men though so guys can't complain cos you can have 10 naked girls with big boobs on one guy, thats fine... the aim is to break the power dynamic against women...(actually even 3 actors to 1 actress ratio is a compromise as its still men overpowering women unfairly!!)

One last note, i noticed quite alot of chauvinistic disgusting comments that some male viewers would write on sites, about porn movies and photos, such as " yeah....bang that bitch hard...ram it up her....." or "fcuk the slut...etc..." I was thinking when i saw these comments, do most guys have these thoughts when they watch porn flicks? What does that mean? That all the talk of the new age sensitive guy and women's empowerment is all an illusion and nothing more? That men really haven't changed that much and are simply restraining themselves in public to appear respectful of women when in the privacy of their rooms whilst watching porn, the sexist thoughts are what they really feel about women?? I don't know, I really don't know.

Anyways, that was a looooooooong pooost....but a very important one in my view...anyone whom has actually read the entire post i would like to say a BIG thank you, i really do appreciate it... If you haven't and just skipped to the last para reading this, please take the time to READ IT!!

Comments always welcome:):):)

First Post on this topic in Jan 2006:
http://chinesechic.blogspot.com/2006/01/status-of-women.html