Claudia the Panda

Are you familiar with the YELLOW ve-sa-se jeans, red padded so-nia-ri-kel sling bag, fa-ra-ga-mo hairclip and big big bucket belt that was wore on the upper waist line!! Bia Zui lah! The “sah ba lak, qit ba di” walk lah! And and and… Tea Dance at Fire!! OMG!! Those were The Days lah!!

If you’re from the late 1970s to 1980s, you will 99.9% be able to relate to the movie The Days.

Based on a true story of the director, Boi Kwong, and his brother, The Days is set between 1989 and 1990. In a misguided effort to teach his younger brother, Baby (Ivan Lim) independence and to make him feel protected in those days of gangsterism, Tai Zi aka Zi Long (Justin Chan) brings Baby into his own gang lead by their gang leader Jeremy Tan (Anthony Levi Kho).

The Days shows a true uniquely Singapore style of gangsterism during the 1980s. Although these gangs may still be around now, but they’ve somehow morphed themselves into a very different style with cultural influence from Japan, Hong Kong or the Americans. Today you’ll hardly find those kind of gangsterism styles from back in the 80s. Those days, gangs were decked out in high-end labels in bright (super bright!) colorful clothes and their sense of fashion was highly personalised. And not forgetting the center-parting with long long fringe and sideburns! GOSH!! YES! I remember those days when I was in secondary school!! Those with backups will act super gangsters in school and scare the rest of us who’re not in any gang or “society”. In order not to step onto these gangsters tail, we stay as far as we can from them and don’t even dare take a second look at them! Afraid of being trashed by their brothers and sometimes sisters!

Tai Zi holding back his fist when his dream gal appeared

Some other interesting things that I related pretty well with from the movie…
When Durian Uncle talks…
Whenever an elder generation tries to talk to us, we will find them nagging and noisy. We just refused to listen to their sharing of experiences and telling us to do things the right way. That happens to me too! And I think its a norm in most of the younger generation than and now.

The dancing in the club…
Oh yes! Flashback of the very first time I stepped into a club! It was at Spark! Or was it Canto? Whichever it was, that night was a whole new experience for me. I’ve heard of tea dance from my friends, but never been to one. (I was the good girl mah! *cough*) I recall those lightsticks! Those techno beats! And the swinging of hands around the hugeee circumference of the dancer! LOL!

It’s not about the revenge. It should be about the lesson learned.

I shall not disclose too much about the film. It’s only 100min and with quite a lot of Bai Zui (fighting) scenes. I would say this film gets a higher rating from me than 12 Lotus and 881! I’m giving it a 4.8 out of 5 stars!

I hope this show will help educate and wake up those kids who’re currently in that transition stage. Sadly this show is rated NC16 though. Hope they’ll be able to get approval from the authorities to make it a PG show. Other than the fighting, I don’t see why this show should be NC16. If I were teaching in a secondary school, this is one of those film that I would want to bring my entire class to watch.

I’m ending off with some interesting discovery I made during and after the Blog Aloud session after the movie…

Aren’t these facial expressions and stare familiar?

Valerie (Adora Wong) is much much prettier in person!
Shan Shan (Adele Wong) her real life sister is also very pretty!

Dog (Derrick R) is a mixed of Chinese and Indian!

Okok! If you’re too lazy to read this long whining post of mine, just watch this promotional trailer for The Days! (But I guess by now, you would have read all the above already right? Wahahahah!)

And FINALLY…. the two pretty ladies that were with me tonight…

molemole and honeymeow

For more information about the show, visit their official website at http://www.thedaysmovie.com or join their facebook group here.

Support local productions! Go watch The Days! Bring your entire family and gang!

Just found this! Justin sings Crossroad…

P/S: I’ve actually taken some videos from tonight’s session. And there’s also some funny clips of the 3 of us talking about the show! But… the files are damn huge and I’m too tired to edit them now. Will keep them for another post! I’ve got prizes to give away too!! Look out for it! I’ve decided to skip the videos as I can’t seem to edit it. :( As for the prize, I’ll be giving it away in my first issue of Claud talks Gadgets! Hohoho! Working on it now…

Here are more links to those who were at The Days Blog Aloud…
Mr Brown’s vodcast
Molemole’s Ah Lian Days! – MUST READ!!
Wishbone’s Teenaged Days
Honeymeow shared her days