The Pleasure Principle

I finally found Instant Karma in Heeren, the shop owned by an NUS graduate my age when Minxiu and I went on semi-late night shopping Sunday night. Back when it was first set up in Far East, I could never locate it. Minxiu liked the shop enough to purchase the Kinky Kailan and Rainbow Broccoli and KNNBCCB Knowledge T-shirts. There was also a Porn Star one acquired from elsewhere.

Earlier in the day, I had bought a leather bag from Country Road since it had 30% off its original selling price. Yes, that same leather bag. Ruth had asked if I really liked it so. For those in the know, well, I like it well enough. But I did buy it to prove a point, partly.

And to retain the impossible youth so that I would look like an undergraduate forever, I splurged on Biotherm products. Freebies galore and I lugged home a bagful of products, including one that I won spinning the wheel.

But of course, his accumulated bills beat mine hands down.

Then we watched Eros and walked out after first short, The Hand.

The Hand was another loving caress by Wong Kar Wai of a forgotten period, a sultry, pensive tribute to lost elegance and true devotion, as tight and taut as the bodies it costumed. The fable of lust, love and loyalty tells of a coming to age sexual maturity, of fetish-tic longings, desires and fallen hopes, all these nicely brought out by images of flesh on fabric. The Hand is controlled and hence, strangely erotic and moving, because of what doesn’t happen. Zhang Zheng gives an excellent performance here, his face scrunching up in various expressions of orgasmic humiliation, pain, pleasure and shame etc as Gong Li does a hand job on him. As for The Goddess, Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi is really wan next to her imperial imperious being. I shudder to think what sublimation and soul the former is capable of had she played the latter’s role in 2046.

We din walk out because all the reviews advised so, to go after the first. They’d have you believe the remaining two vignettes were truly gratuitous and horrid. We went because after The Hand, the various groups of people in the theatre became restless and started yakking away, hence marring our enjoyment of the movie. Minxiu demanded a refund/rewatch for the movie (Best Friend would have been so aghast :) and we got it. So we can watch Eros again (and basked in the glorious lushness of emotions) and check out if the other shorts were as bad as the press denounced.

There goes the weekend, in between finishing the very last of the shows I have on hand (pun not intended). I din get drunk at all even though there were XO, vodka and red wine whatever. But I had a fun time in the hotel room @Intercontinental Hotel and taking silly pictures to boot.