Lessons from the black box

Was going to log off when I saw a trailer of "Turn Left Turn Right" on TV. Kel had already informed me that it'll be showing in early Apr, when I'm away. I've never watched it but I heard it's very nice. I want to watch it..

I think it was on screen in late 2003, when I was already back but somehow I missed it. I like the storyline, of this boy and this girl always so near yet they never found each other when an untimely rain washed off their contact numbers after their first meeting in a park. The two main songs are lovely tunes that I still sing to today. 933 had this advert/ jingle, that took its origin from the movie and it went - I translate - "Have you ever thought that in this city, there's someone who keeps passing you by?"

Some time last year, I think it was around the time when I was feeling rather lost, when it finally hit home that I'm back for good, I bought the picture-story on which the movie was based. I thought it was a beautiful story. A bit sad but beautiful. Anyway the ending was a happy one.

There are times when I feel that I'm after such bitter sweet lives, preferably with the sweet at the end. "Love Vacation", "Meteor Garden", "Autumn in My Heart", I like these stories. Which reminds me, I had wanted to write about "LV", my favourite Jap drama.

I first watched it in 1999/2000, alone in my shoebox room on 3rd floor, St Mary's Staircase in the back quod of BNC, a very well hidden attic room right at the top.

That was my induction into Jap drama. I was hooked.

"LV" must have the best soundtrack ever. I'm listening to it now, an instrumental piece which fitted perfectly into one scene where Sena professed his love to what's-her-name while Minami watched on from the window, happy for him, sad for herself.

I didn't know if I should feel happy for him or sad for her.

Think this is the only "LV" instrumental that I can listen to without feeling affected. I can get rather emotional with the others, "Tiny Tale", "Silent Emotion" and "Minami - Piano Piece of Sena".

How come? Don't know.

I asked the guys to help me find VCD/DVD in Japan when they went there last year because I could no longer find it in SG; Jap dramas of that period seemed to have disappeared, almost totally supplanted by Korean and Taiwanese soaps. But it remained elusive. I almost ordered from a Taiwanese website but as fate would have it, I came across it accidentally while in Malacca.

But the thing about me, or maybe about human beings, is that we take things for granted. Now that I have the VCD, I have no motivation to watch it for the third time. I've watched just one disc on CNY eve on my own in the room.

It's just like in the show. Sena kept chasing after her dream girl but the one for him was really next to him, the bride who became his housemate after being dumped at the altar by his old housemate. And Minami, she liked him for sure but since he liked the other girl, she went out with this other guy, a really nice guy. But she couldn't be untrue to both him and herself. Anyway, long story but ultimately, it was Sena and Minami and they lived happily ever after.

The fairy tale feel of such stories is what keeps them alive in people's hearts. And with them, hope. That in a city full of unfamiliar faces, or worse, familiar strangers, there is a possibility that there may be true love somewhere out there. At a time when you least expect, it can bang on your door. Minami almost knocked down Sena's door when looking for her groom :p But of course, that's fiction. Outside these dramas, hope may knock differently, it may not be dramatic but if and when it happens, it's real :)