情不知所起，一往情深
而梦中所喜，何必当真

"it was their own hubris that ended their reign, their belief that they were the pinnacle of creation that caused them to poison the water, kill the land and choke the sky. in the end, no nuclear winter was needed, just the long heedless autumn of their own self-regard."

有些人见三百次也没用

有些人见三次就够了

my top 10 films of 2020

due to the lost year of 2020, i couldn't put together a year-end list. but since it's Oscars weekend, here's my belated ranking.

1. Promising Young Woman

a relentlessly inventive and gripping film that's not afraid to take on a tricky topic - and nailed it. Carey Mulligan is brilliant here.

2. The Trial of the Chicago 7

an Aaron Sorkin screenplay is always mesmerising, but here he takes another step up from Molly's Game as director. the politics is a bit distant, but he proves once again he is the master at litigation scenes.

3. Beasts Clawing at Straws

an Asian film so advanced in all aspects it won't be out of place in Hollywood. the misanthropy hurts it a little, but it's a thrilling ride that benefits from the perfect casting.

4. The Man Standing Next

how to not love this film when it takes a genre i like and so painstakingly and gorgeously put it together?

5. The Comey Rule

a film whose importance was magnified by its timeliness. more impressively, it takes some very dry events and dramatises them a few notches.

6. 消失的情人节

probably the most refreshing film of the year. it has all the hallmarks of a good Taiwanese film - breezy, heartland and warm.

7. Nomadland

a beautiful film that's so realistic you'd think you're watching a documentary. it's heavy stuff disguised as light - just don't fall asleep. Frances McDormand and the non-professional actors present the dilemma of acting - is good acting maximum acting or when you stop acting?

8. Mank

it's not Citizen Kane level, but the dialogue is a riot. the old-Hollywood style is both the charm and the curse.

9. Tenet

if only it wasn't so incomprehensible, it would've been a classic. the ideas and the direction were groundbreaking. after Interstellar and Tenet, we now know Christopher Nolan's limit. dial back a little and i still believe he could become the greatest filmmaker ever.

10. Minari

an unvarnished look at the struggles of the outsider. that also means at times it can feel too heavy.

worst sequel:

Wonder Woman 1984 Peninsula

people will go to museums to see paintings of people, not to see people who were painted.

麻将是教数学，研究历史，是文化，是民族国粹。麻将是华人本土发明的游戏。三元牌中的红中，青发，白板分别代表三个美德：仁爱，真诚，孝心，也就是人们常说的忠孝义。108张牌分别隐喻108条好汉。每人有13张牌，因为一季有13个星期，四季合52周，共364天，再加上赢时的那一张，代表一年的最后一天，共365天，恰好一年。麻将用四方桌，既是东南西北四个方位，也是指春夏秋冬四个季节。

if I let you know where I'm going, I won't be on holiday.

不赌就是赢 输钱不输命

we need to fail down here, so we don’t fail up there.

 亡羊补牢 为时未晚

wisdom is holding two contradictory truths in our mind, simultaneously, hope and despair. a life without despair is a life without hope.

戒酒，不是不沾就是戒了，而是沾了不醉，才叫戒。

"Some wounds do not close. I have many such. One just walks around with them, and sometimes one can feel them filling with blood."

你这不叫缺，你这叫穷。

"I will need to act in a way that meets with the edges of my morality."