Falling Stones are not Heavy

I have thought about this for a very long time and I have now decided to move my blog to another host. I have used this host and blogged for more then 3 years now but I have always found the features of this host wanting. The nes host, wordpress.com, has excellent features that let me add unlimited links, has search capacity and allows me to have different tabs/sections. As such, I can now combine a website and blog all in one place without the trouble of having to update both sites. Plus wordpress is really easy to use and also lets me upload files and photos without additional charges. So, my blog is now moved to the following address. Please re-bookmark. Thanks.

My New Blog

(http://fallingstones.wordpress.com/)

Please change your bookmarks and hope to see you there!

In the light of all the dumb things that are happening in the Malaysian political scene right now, from murder, to black mail, to sodomy, one wonders whether there is still any sense of morality around these days. Perhaps as the world advance, the sense of morality becomes more and more lax, as we can see around us but this is probably also a sign of human progress, where rules cast on stones in old times is no longer relevant to the enlightened individual, whose personal freedom and choices come as priority against everything else. Perhaps, after all, Nietzsche is not too far wrong to say that God is dead.

But one sometimes wonder if this is really true, if this should be the way of life of our so-called "enlightened" human beings. Is religion still relevant? For a lot of people, it does. Perhaps it is not really because one really believes that one can go to Heaven after one is dead and enjoy eternal life there or one can have access to 72 virgins or such but the religion provides a system where a moral society can work, where mankind treats mankind morally according to the laws of the Creator. These laws are absolute and unchanging, and is universally applicable, what Kant called the categorical imperative.

Kant is very interesting, in many aspects. His categorical imperative is just this: "Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law". For example, Do not kill, is such a maxim because it should become a universal law. If you kill, and everyone else follows you and start to kill, this cannot be good. Do you like to be killed?

Kant's moral philosophy is akin to the religious view of morality, that is there are absolute things that mankind should and should not do. It is absolute inasmuch as it cannot be changed according to mankind's whims and desire to "suit" the situation, which is really an excuse to escape from the moral laws and from one's duty, whether duty as a Man, or as a father, or as a husband, or as a Prime Minister. When the principles of morality are derived from such sense of desire instead of absolute moral laws, the society can easily plunge into a mode of self destruction.

The difference, however, between Kant and the religious people is this, as is very significant. Kant's morality is derived solely from reason, practical reason, and not blindly from what God tells us to do and not to do. Although the final outcome of some of the maxims could be the same, this distinction is significant as Kant rest the responsibility on us humans as rational and intelligent being, to ask us to verify the maxims ourselves and not to just follow maxims blindly. This reminds me of the Buddha as he said in the Dhammapada, that we should verify what he said based on our own experience and reasoning, and we should not just believe what he said just because he said it. This is also important because as we have now experienced, religion can be badly exploited by irresponsible people and masses of people die or live a terrible life just because of this, whether it is a real mistake in interpretation of what God said or purposeful misinterpretation of what God said to suit their own selfish agenda.

It is important that one uses his or her intelligence, common sense and reason to derive at his or her own conclusion of events and actions instead of just follow blindly what other people said. Only then could a person be really free and be really moral.

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restored and sorrows end.


~ William Shakespeare

It is time now to put away all other weiqi/go books and study this book and do all the questions in it with 1,000 times intensity. Hopefully at the end of this, I will understand this more and stop doing really silly mistakes for the rest of my games.

This is one of the best books that emerged from this series and when I first got this book in 2004, I really didn't appreciate it. At that time, I was only a lowly Kyu player and a lot of what is in the book is beyond me at that time. Now, revisiting it, I found it to be such a huge treasure trove.

There was once a guy who came from China to KL to study and his weiqi/go strength is 5dan China. 5 dan China is really very, very strong, unlike the Japanese dan. A Chinese 5dan can probably give a Japanese 5dan 2-3 handicap stones, i.e probably 2-3 stones stronger. While he was here, we all had the benefit of playing with him and learning from him. It was very fun.

There was one time when asked, he said that weiqi is really only about 2 things:

1. Judgment
2. Reading

By reading, he did not mean reading as in reading books but rather reading the moves. Reading skill is very important because it is the source of tactical strength.

Judgment is strategic. It involves issues like what direction to play, judging the strength and weaknesses of stone groups and how to profit from it, judging territorial areas to make sure that the territory points are at least balanced, etc.

In short, reading supports judgment. Strategy needs tactical implementation. Without sound tactical implementation, strategy will fail, despite how brilliant it is conceived. However, one is probably tempted to put more importance on reading, and I know many players do. They use all their spare time solving life and death problems, tesuji problems. But without a solid strategy, a better strategist with slightly inferior reading ability will win the game.

Strategy, whether in weiqi or in war or in business, cannot escape certain principles and as such, books like Sun Tzu's Art of War is still very popular. In the meantime, books that pay importance on tactical implementation such as The Book of Five Rings are also still very popular. There was once I was told that there are three books that anyone aspiring to be great should read.

1. Sun Tzu's Art of War
2. Musashi's The Book of Five Rings
3. Machiavelli's The Prince

Recently, one of my bosses said that one needs three books too, number 1 and 2 above plus a Marketing 101 book. Perhaps The Prince is too dark for him. But I believe we must be aware of it. If The Prince is dark, try the Thick Black Theory as explained in the book Thick Face, Black Heart.

Ok, back to the game of weiqi. There are certain principles that I always try to follow when I play. This is from reading books and also understanding gained from the hard knock of fighting in the games.

1. Do not play in an area where the enemy is strong.

2. If you need to play there, play lightly, always with an escape route in mind. Sacrifice some stones is very often necessary.

3. Attack where the enemy is the weakest.

4. Always ensure that the stones have a base, put the stones in an undefeatable position.

5. When your stones are strong, attack invaders in the strongest possible way, head-on with brute force, often include the use of strong handed tesuji.

6. Play at a place that has greatest potential. The best strategy to win is to win without the need to fight. The most profitable market are blue ocean markets.

Tactically, I make sure that I follow the following when I play:

1. When reading, always read at least 10 sequence ahead with at least 3 variations, not including branches. It is ok to take my time.

2. When doing 1 above, always have a strategy in mind - what do I want to achieve? Building a wall? Creating territorial potential? Spoiling opponent's shape? Split attacking? Pretending to attack east but intention is to attack west? etc.

3. Always assess the relative strength and weaknesses of stones. If the stones are weak, settle them as soon as possible. Strength and weakness is always relative.

4. Always play moves that can achieve two or more objectives.

5 Begin with the end in mind. Visualise the end result. If you like the end result, play it. If you don't, play another strategy.

6. Don't play blindly and follow opponent's moves and let him/her push you around the board. Always seize the initiative.

7. Always be aware of territorial balance.

This is a real baby, man.... will someone buy this for me as a present??? I can't afford it ;-)





This company really makes quality products.

I will seriously consider awarding myself with this set once I reach 5dan in strength. That is probably 5-10 years from now ;-)

above Sun The Gentle, Wind
below Chen The Arousing, Thunder

The Judgement

Increase. It furthers one
To undertake something.
It furthers one to cross the great water.

The Image

Wind and thunder: the image of Increase.
Thus the superior man:
If he sees good, he imitates it;
If he has faults, he rids himself of them.

The tide of fortune is flowing in your favour. Problems can now be resolved. Relationships and projects florish. New opportunities beckon. Considerable change is possible. Even difficult tasks can be tackled successfully. But it is up to you to make the most of this favourable period. It will not last indefinitely. Now is the time to take whatever action is need to move matters forward. IHave the courage to make a leap in the dark if necessary. The outcome will be successful.Think in terms of what you can contribute to the situation rather than what you can get out of it.

Can't help it but wants to share it here. A scene from ASHES OF TIME. Can't wait to watch the Redux!

********

Muyong Yin (played by Brigitte Lin): Who are you anyway?

Ouyang Feng (played by Leslie Cheung): Don’t you remember me?

Yin turns around and looked at Feng, mistaken him for her “lover”.

Yin: You once promised to marry me. Of course I remember you.

Feng: Did I really say that?

Yin: You passed by Gusu City the other day. We drank together under the peach tree. You touched my face…. And said you’d marry my sister if I had one. You know I am a woman in disguise. Why did you still say that?

Feng: A man can’t be serious when he is drunk.

Yin: Because of your promise, I’ve been waiting for you until today. I once asked you to take me with you…. But you refused. You said you cannot love two persons at the same time. Surely you love Yin! Why did you fall in love with another woman? Do you know I went to look for that woman? Because someone said that you love her most. I had wanted to kill her. But I didn’t in the end. Because I didn’t want to prove that she is the one you most love.

Yin: I once asked myself... whether I am the woman you love most… but now I don’t want to know the answer anymore. If ever I ask you the same question..… please don’t tell me the truth! No matter how unwilling it is for you to say it, please don’t tell me that the person you love most is not me!

********
Superb soundtrack. Superb cinematography. Superb acting from Brigitte.



"Ouyang Feng: I once heard someone say, if you have to lose something, the best way to keep it is to keep it in your memory."

This is a really good video about Go.

Haha... this is fun :-) So cool huh, this game.

I don't know, maybe there is really something wrong with me. I don't seem to be in the loop most of the time. I don't really dig things, I guess. If not, why is it that I don't seem to like what most people like? I mean, most people likes to watch football or read Tom Clancy or loves Formula One but I don't seem to be "in" and as such my circle of close friends and topics of discussions at social places is usually rather limited. I am not whining or anything, this is my personal choice, but this thought came out again when I read a review of INCREDIBLE HULK by one of the more popular reviewer in Malaysia. His conclusion for INCREDIBLE HULK is this:

"Well, not quite as solid as Iron Man, but wild enough to please."

OH MY HOLY BUDDHA!!!! What????????? Not as solid??????????? Oh no..... either there is something wrong with him or there is something wrong with me. I thought that the character development in INCREDIBLE HULK is one million times more solid than in IRON MAN. IRON MAN is fun to watch etc. but it is hollow! Oh my goodness.... "not quite as solid". I can't believe my eyes....

Ok, enough ranting.

Sepi, 2008

dir: Kabir Bhatia

[There may be spoilers, so read on if you don't mind]

I don't know Kabir Bhatia personally but I have a feeling that he is a Wong Kar Wai fan. From his first movie CINTA to now this brand new movie SEPI, I cannot but feel the Wong Kar Wai in his movies. I may be over sensitive but dialogs like "expiry date of love", running it off when one is down on love and the BLUEBERRY NIGHT shot between Baizura Kahar and Pierre Andre just jumps out. Anyways, Wong Kar Wai is a master when it comes to the theme of love and loneliness, so if this is taken as a tribute to him, then is is well justified.

SEPI, like CINTA, is made up of several different stories linked up by one event (sounds very WKW huh?). Okay, okay, enough of WKW references. Unlike CINTA that is made up of 5 seperate stories, SEPI is made up of only three. I thought quite highly of CINTA and naturally I have quite a high expectations of SEPI. Both movies are about love but the producer made it very clear upfront that the two movies are not related in any ways.

The stories in SEPI deal with lost and loneliness, but then it is also about love found and second chances in love. To me, it is also about love at first sight which I also believe to be the most impactful and strongest type of love there is, whether it is puppy love or not. By strongest, I do not necessarily mean strongest in terms of bonds or love to eternity type but more on the strongest assault on one's heart there is. All three stories involve a love triangle, which again, to me, is the most real type of situation many people faces in real life, and is the most complicated of all.

The first story is about finding your true love and sticking to your heart. The second story is about love lost and found and the third story is about knowing what love means.

Afdlin Shauki plays Adam in the first story and his delivery is always on the dot. Unable to find his true love, he remained single until one day, the scent of a flower brings him to meet this woman, Ilyana played by the ever so beautiful Vanida Imran. To complicate things, Ilyana is already engaged before she met Adam and Adam has a very fierce admirer, Suzie - played by Nasha Aziz, whom he eventually promised to marry after knowing that Ilyana is already no longer available since she must honour her promise. This brings us to a very delicate scene where we see Afdlin in his very emotional self and a subtle scene where he looks at a sympathetic little girl with tears welling in his eyes. That is just a superb moment in the movie. With this, Adam is back to square one, a lonely person all over again. All sepi again.

Eja plays Marya in the second story, the story which I think is the strongest of all three and has the best conclusion to it. Sufi, played by Tony Eusoff, just lost his beloved wife in an accident and could not let go of his sense of guilt. He runs and runs so that he can run away from reality until one day he met Marya at the park. Love at first sight, sparks everywhere, but unfortunately, Marya is already a married woman. She craves for a child but so far, God has not given the couple any yet. Marya's husband, Zain played by Riezman Khuzaimi, sells fish and is having financial difficulties. In a moment of losing his sense, Sufi tried to buy Marya from him but later, after knowing that Marya is pregnant, Sufi got to his senses and secretly helped out the family financially. Although Marya's heart is with Sufi, she has to stick with Zain for the good of their child and after many, many years, we see Marya in her old age, and looked for Sufi in the park where they first met but is met by Sufi's only child who told her that Sufi has passed away. Before he died, he told him to return something to Marya, and this something is the memento of their first love. A beautiful story.

The third story is set in a college where a young, brash and confident kid, Ean played by Syed Hussein, falls at first sight for Imaan, played by Baizura Kahar. Ean is good looking and is thrilled by the strong character of Imaan who didn't fall on her feet like other girls do. In fact, she criticized him for lacking in the sense of artistic appreciation and said that he is a horrible stage actor. Challenged, Ean begin to want to know Imaan more and to also want to learn how to act. Through a series of encounters, Ean begin to truly fall in love with Imaan and Imaan begin to have strong feelings for Ean too. However, Imaan already has a boyfriend, Khalif played by Piere Andre, for whom she can do anything for, let alone getting rid of Ean. She proceeded to ignore Ean and in times of loneliness, Ean begin to understand what love is, what loneliness is and acted it out in the stage with this understanding. Imaan went to a celebration party after the show but saw Khalif outside. Afraid that Khalif will misunderstand, she rushes out but is met with an event that will change her life forever and bring her back to reality. There is a twist at the end which I will not divulge here.

Overall, although I would prefer that the director actually leave the stories as they are instead of showing us the candy eye endings, they are pretty good stories themselves. In real life, things are not as sweet as the ending of the stories in this movie and many people have gone through days of extremely loneliness and still not being able to find their love, let alone true love. Things are a lot more complicated and the final outcome of a relationship is most often not the one that is the sweetest. This is one reason why ASHES OF TIME is so great. Like in a lyrics of one Chinese song, "If this is the best conclusion, why are you still always in my mind?".

Sepi will be in the cinemas on the 26th of June nationwide.

One of the signs of local Malaysian movies has still a long way to go compared to say, their Indonesian counterpart is media screenings. Just today, I attended the media screening of M. Night Shyamalan's THE HAPPENING in the morning and then proceeded to another cinema for the screening of SEPI, a new local Malay movie in the afternoon. The attendees is markedly different, I can perhaps say that it is as if I live in two worlds. In the Shyamalan screening, I see a lot of representatives from the English and Chinese media plus also from the Malay media but in the Malay movie screening, almost ALL the representatives are from the Malay media. Journalists from the English and Chinese media could not be seen. I find this very disheartening and I don't think any good can be done to the local film industry if this continues on.

The arguments goes both ways: the non-Malay journalists think, mostly, that Malay movies are really crappy movies and is a major waste of their time. Malay movies only interests Malays, ergo, only journalists from the Malay media need to attend. From the producers and distributors point of view, well, since these non-Malay media journalists are so arrogant, to hell with them! We don't need them anyways to make the money. Its a lose-lose situation.

I would really like to appeal to the non-Malay media journalists to attend more and more of the Malay movie screenings and cover the local movie scene with as much zeal as they would want to cover IRON MAN. The quality of local Malay movies, or movies from those handful of Malay directors, is improving and I think deserves more attention and publicity to bring in more non-Malay cinema-goers.

SEPI is a case in point. The movie is not bad, even very good if compared to one of the recent supposedly big box office movie. The stories are quite strong and the direction is purposeful. It is also technically good (unlike the boom mikes that keep coming in frame in THE HAPPENING - I can't understand how this can happen in a production of this scale - maybe the video-assist is faulty or someone is confused on the aspect ratio). Afdlin Shauki playing the Adam role is the most affecting and together with Vanida Imran, the pair is simply superb. There are quite a few flaws in the storyline and I thought the director compromised the ending but still, it is a pretty decent local Malay movie. It is nowhere near the league of TEMPTING HEARTS or COMRADES: ALMOST A LOVE STORY (oh my Buddha - these two movies simply took my heart away) but this is a different argument altogether.

There is a handful of producers and directors that truly wants to break out and I hope to see more and more non-Malay media journalists at these Malay movie screenings.

By the way, THE HAPPENING is really not very happening. I think I am getting sick of Shyamalan's style and he should really stop making movies like this. It is worsening and at this rate, he may be out of the business in no time if he doesn't work on something refreshing. The movie started really well, then half way through, it loses steam and it felt like he himself doesn't know how to end the story. It just floated like that, very unconvincing. Al Gore turned spooky. Even the very graphic scenes couldn't lift the movie up if there are no fresh ideas that can hold up. No fresh stories that can hold up.

Anyways, I plan to watch KUNGFU PANDA again this weekend. This time, the Cantonese version.

A lot of recent business books or articles talk about the mentoring system. I am also a champion of mentoring and I think one really learns a lot and grow a lot if one has the right mentor.

For me, in my career, strictly speaking, I have only one mentor, without whom I will be no where near what I am today. He took the time to know me, took the time to converse with me and took the time to teach me and inspire me. He will go to great lengths to even write several pages of notes explaining some things to me, often reprinting articles that is relevant to my job and when I have an idea, he will go to great length to test it and if it works, he is my first champion. I remember quite early in my career, I came up with a way to predict the success probability of movies based on a set of criteria and a point rating system and it somehow seem to work with the data. He loved it and encouraged me, even using it as part of the production proposal.

There are so many things that he helped me with, nurtured me and planned my career growth path. He even included me in his PhD. thesis, a very rare privilege of which I have in return learn a great deal. He has influenced my love for movies and enhanced my understanding of the principles of economics. I reminisce the time spent with him with the fondest memories and all of us that are trained under his wings will remember just as fondly. He is no other than Dr. Nihal, a person to whom I will be eternally grateful to.

In Weiqi (or Go), the person that I will be eternally grateful to is Mr. Tiong, the president of our Weiqi Association. From the first day I knew him, he is tireless in imparting weiqi skills and knowledge to us. His passion in weiqi is as great as ever and his passion to help new weiqi players is legendary. Never ever being stingy and without holding anything back, his only wish is to see more and more strong weiqi players in Malaysia. There was a time when I really thought I will quit playing weiqi and just play once in a long while and give up hope on improving, I think of him and somehow I am inspire to not let go of the game and to at least maintain my playing strength. Now that I am beginning anew my training, he again proved to be ever passionate and teach me the game, explaining in detail the game and playing with me, even after evryone is long gone. For this, I am very thankful and with this, I hope I can increase my skills one or two more levels. I will be eternally grateful to him for inspiring me to play this wonderful game of weiqi.

I herewith, thanks both of my mentors and I believe anyone who have experienced what I have experienced will agree that the mentoring system is a very powerful system.

P/S: By the way, just watch INCREDIBLE HULK today and thought it to be a very good movie. The character development is superb and after the movie, I seem to know HULK a lot better despite watching him since I was very young. I can feel this HULK. Unlike the Ang Lee HULK.

Following the trip to Bali, here are some photos from the trip. It is a very beautiful place. All photos taken by my wife with her Nikon camera.

Back from a 5 day trip to Bali which was very enjoyable. It is such a culturally strong place and I thoroughly enjoyed myself basking in the sun surfing the waves and immersed in Balinese culture which is strongly influenced by Hindu culture.

At the same time I was in Bali, the 29th World Amateur Go Championship (WAGC) is being held in Japan and Zaid Zulklifi is representing Malaysia in this top Go event of the year. Last year Boon Ping went and achieved a very good result and Zaid looks like doing quite good after the first 3 rounds. He is ranked 5 dan and have been playing Go for only the past 5 years. As such his achievement is rather good after picking up the game while studying in London. Read his own account of how he started playing Go here: http://msiago.wordpress.com/

As for myself, I am now in the midst of preparing myself for the Beijing Go event this October and begin to start to study and play more seriously. Have been slacking for the past couple of years or so. Am now working on the Train Like A Pro series and replaying pro games, plus games on KGS (under a new name so no one will recognise me and interrupt my games and/or start to comment on my moves which most of the time I don't think is valid comment and uncalled for). I hope to achieve 4dan with this new KGS account by this October.

On yet another note on Go, there is a couple of "tests" designed by a Alexander Dinerchtein, a Russian Pro with a ranking of 3danprofessional from Korea. One is a test on an estimate of your Go strength and the other is a test on your Go playing style.

I took the test and here are the results:

On Go Strength: http://play.baduk.org/

*****
Thank you! Your score is 148 from 200.
You are about European 1-dan (you can convert this grade to other ranking-systems by using this table )

Please don't be disappointed if this mark is lower than your real grade.
We were mainly trying to test your understanding of the game.

Your actual rank depends on your reading skill, your ability to make decisions under time pressure, your state of health and many other factors.

*****

Based on the rough estimate of Go strengths, European 1 dan is more or less equivalent to Japanese 4dan, American Go Association's 3dan and KGS 2dan. This looks like about right but when we discuss on Go strength, it is always an estimate and like the disclaimer in the test above, it really depends on your reading skills and decision making under pressure.

On Go Playing Style: http://style.baduk.org/

*****

Your style is flexible

Your Go style is flexible: you can play for territory as well as for influence.
Usually you make such decisions according to the whole-board situation or the playing style of your opponent.

You may force him to choose the strategy he hates. For example, if he likes moyos, you can play for influence yourself, just for making him angry.

Your Go style is actually the best one.

You may improve your Go by studying different things, but I suggest paying attention on yose and positional judgment.

*****

Sounds like the test is quite accurate but that i probably because it says my style is actually the best one. But the truth is that the suggestion that I should pay more attention to yose (end game moves) hits right on the point. I have a huge problem wrapping up a won game.

Well, sounds like a lot more to do before hitting 4dan on KGS by this October (i.e. roughly equivalent to European 3dan, Japanese 5-6dan and American 5dan).

Like they said in the book Built To Last, we must aim for BHAG!!!

Talking about Andrzej Wajda, it reminds me of an incident which is very funny and which I still remember to this day. In fact, this is one of the many, many incidences like this which truly brightens up my day. We have this so-called, often self-appointed and self-projected illusion, movie expert in the company and this person needs to be seen as knowing everything about movies, especially in front of the bosses. We were having dinner, with the boss of course, and a movie came up in the conversation when we were talking about movie censorship in Malaysia. The movie is PROMISED LAND and apparently it was banned in Malaysia. When the boss asks which movie is that, the person, who obviously doesn't know about the movie, struggles and spoke some crap and I came in and ask if it is Andrzej Wajda's THE PROMISED LAND. This person, in the trademark move, blinks the eyes continuously and said yes yes, it is Andrzej Wajda's movie (pronouncing Wajda's name exactly the same way I pronounced which amused me big time).

There are many moments that happened in the course of my work here with this person and whenever I caught that person bullshitting (which is a lot of times and characterised by an incessant blinking of the eyes and/or looking at other people around the table for rescue, and then giggle then change topic) I find myself laughing loud inside and definitely made my day.

So with this, here's some notes on Wajda's MAN OF MARBLE, a very remarkable film.

Man of Marble, 1977

(Czlowiek z marmuru)

dir: Andrzej Wajda

Halfway into this movie, three things come to my mind. First is Citizen Kane. Second is Mao Tse-dong and third is Amir Muhammad. Of course many other things got my mind to work, and movies like this one is great because it sets my mind free. It let's me ponder on history, philosophy, politics, economics, film techniques, aesthetics, all at once. And by this, I mean real history, real politics, not some imagined settings which are not only biased but totally wrong.

There are not many Polish directors that are well known. One can actually count them with one hand. Roman Polanski is Polish but I don't consider his movies really Polish, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Andrzej Wajda, Agnieszka Holland, Krzysztof Zanussi. Anymore that one knows, one then can be considered a learned world movie buff (actually there are a couple more names that should be quite familiar to people who digs world movies). These bunch of directors made some really interesting and good movies, including Polanski. Here's a sample:

Polanski: KNIFE IN THE WATER; THE PIANIST (non-Polish films: ROSEMARY'S BABY; CHINATOWN)

Kieslowski: THE DECALOGUE; Three Colours trilogy; NO END

Wajda: ASHES AND DIAMONDS; A GENERATION; LANDSCAPE AFTER BATTLE; MAN OF MARBLE

Holland: EUROPA, EUROPA; A WOMAN ALONE

Zanussi: YEAR OF THE QUIET SUN; CAMOUFLAGE; POSSESSION

In fact, Wajda's new film, KATYN, actually made it to the nominee list in the recent Oscars, so one should be quite familiar with him (in fact, I was offered the acquisition of the rights to KATYN and THE DECALOGUE plus a few other Polish movies, so stay tuned to the channel).

MAN OF MARBLE is about a young lady, Agnieszka (Krystyna Janda), who is making her diploma film and picks a subject that interests her but the "authorities" would rather forget (reminds me of Amir Muhammad). Told in the CITIZEN KANE style, her subject is a person, Mateusz Birkut (Jerzy Radziwilowicz), a bricklayer who has been identified by the authorities to be used as propaganda tool to show the people the power of the labourers and the potential growth and prosperity of the nation under Stalinist rule. However, Birkut soon fell into disfavour and is then conveniently forgotten. Agnieszka is interested to know what happened to Birkut and went all out to look for witnesses and the people involved to get a true picture of this once hero. As she went further into the investigation, the authorities put an end to her work and stopped her from using the camera and films. Once steely and determined, we finally see her breaking down in the presence of her father who encouraged her to go locate where Birkut is now. Encouraged, she found his son and got to know what happened to Birkut.

This film is a study on the Polish society under Stalinist rule and how they manipulate and create icons and idols to support their political agenda. We see the same thing happening in Communist China under Mao Tse-dong as well, where a particular common citizen is chosen to be the example to the whole country. Sometimes, whole towns are made model-towns for propaganda purposes. Propaganda songs are sung everywhere (one particular song actually mentioned Malaysia, I think it is talking about Chin Peng's struggle in Malaya - that gives an idea on what era this film is set). At the end, Wadja showed us how he reconstructed a made icon and found a man whose only objective is to be honest and work for the welfare of the people but is a sad victim of political propaganda and agenda, and then had to live a broken life which he didn't really recover from.

Wajda is widely acknowledged as to be the forerunner of a new generation of Polish filmmakers after the second world war and shortly after Stalin's death, made his first movie A GENERATION. The movie is a marked move away from the propagandist films made before and Wajda continued to push the boundaries further and further with his next movies such ASHES AND DIAMONDS. Together with Zanussi, they sort of started a movement called "Cinema of Moral Concern" with the expressed objective of morally examining modern Polish history and and modern Polish life.

MAN OF MARBLE, one of the films from the "cinema of moral concern" movement, is a truly fascinating film. Watch it if you can and if you are interested in history, politics, movies, you will love this film.

This is a very good message and a very nice song. A Malaysia like this is likely to be a better Malaysia. Why isn't Yusoff Haslam here? That will be a breakthrough ;-)

I have been avoiding to do this for a long time because in principle I do not like to mix my personal blog with work. But the setting up of the channel website is taking a lifetime for reasons I cannot understand, so maybe once in a while, I can blog about the channel's programming highlights. There are over 100 movies played on the channel every month, of which about 20% of them are fresh titles and the balance 80% repeat titles. Out of this 20% fresh titles, there is about 4-8 titles every month that is the key highlight and these titles are further programmed in a way that will appeal to a large target market, from the aunties to the young, from urban to rural. So here it is:

A. For those who loves to watch locally made Malay movies:

1. HARU BIRU - a Que Haidar drama action. It didn't make a lot of money in the box office but this movie deals with the social problems in Malaysia and the spoils of youth in contemporary Malay society. I will consider this a relatively high grade Malay movie compared to some other dumb but more successful movies in the box office.

Premieres 4th May. Repeats: 9, 13, 19, 25,31 May.

2. ZOMBI KAMPUNG PISANG - this is a wonderful movie from director Mamat Khalid. A comedy which is more of a social satire and B-grade movie spoofs, it is a very smart and well made movie with an ensemble cast headed by Awie, who, in my personal opinion, is a more talented comic actor (as seen in BAIK PUNYA CILOK) rather than a macho romantic as in SEMBILU.

Premieres 9pm 18 May. Repeats: 23, 27 May.

I will consider the above two movies the better made of the local Malay movie crop of craps.

B. For those who loves a more "niche" type of movies (which more me means more intellectually stimulating type):

1. SANCTUARY - a movie by Malaysian Ho Yuhang of which I have previously reviewed on my website. Go there to read more. Yuhang is one of the more talented local filmmakers. Although sometimes loud-mouthed, he is smart, intellectually disciplined and has some sense of humour that is lacking in many other filmmakers.

Premieres: 7th May. Repeats: 17, 20, 26 May.

2. HOLIDAY DREAMING - this movies hails from Taiwan, a land where the local film industry has been suffering for a long time from the onslaught of Hollywood movies but is recently seeing a revival.

Premiere: 31 May

C. For those who loves Bollywood movies:

1. GURU - This Mani Ratnam movie stars Aishwarya Rai and hubby and is a sure Bollywood entertainer.

Premiere: 2 May. Repeats: 7, 12, 21, 31 May.

2. ANTHONY KAUN HAI - translates as Who is Anthony, this movie by Sanjay Dutt (Sanju Baba) is an action comedy. Sanjay Dutt is quite a good actor and seeing him in LAGE RAHO MUNA BHAI is really fun, for example. We see his normal fun and charm in ANTHONY KAUN HAI as well.

D. For Hong Kong/Japanese/Korean movie lovers:

1. DOG BITE DOG - Edison Chen (heh heh!!) acting in this action thriller. Sam Lee is good in this movie. But beware, the intense action may upset your stomach.

Premiere: 16 May. Repeats: 21, 26 May.

2. 200 POUNDS BEAUTY - A very entertaining Korean Rom-com. Good movie to watch to unwind after a day of work.

Premiere: 10 May. Repeats: 13, 21, 29 May.

3. THE GREAT YOKAI WAR - by the ever great Takashi Miike, this action-fantasy is a welcome change from Miike's who is more well known for his violent flicks (although this is not entirely true).

Premiere: 17 May. Repeats: 20, 28 May.

For more comprehensive synopsis, please Google them or search on IMDB.

The above movies will be my pick if you ask me for a handful of movies to look out for in the channel.

Coming up in June, it is also quite exciting. We have:

1. FLOWER IN THE POCKET
2. AFTER THIS OUR EXILE
3. PAN'S LABYRINTH
4. MY WIFE IS A GANGSTER 3
5. BAIK PUNYA CILOK

So look out for this. Am in the process of closing a bunch of very good movies, which I will announce when the deed is done! Very excited!

One of the most enjoyable aspect of my job is tweaking the scheduling strategy. The impact on the channel's performance is direct and scheduling is more of a science backed by in-depth analysis of data. Eventually, a pattern will emerge and the gaps are as glaring as daylight. Another aspect of why this is so fascinating is because the scheduling landscape moves all the time because the competition is not dumb. They react accordingly, whether by accident or by design, and therefore it is necessary to be vigilant on the changing landscape and put in counter strategies. It is really like playing chess and when the numbers show positive results, it is very satisfying, just like winning a good game of weiqi.

As people who knows me knows, I am quite interested in economics and pricing does interest me too. In the course of my work, I have heard detailed analysis on pricing strategies employed, or should be employed and both of these arguments aims at the same aspect of our organisation.

One argument is such that when the ratings of a particular programme is consistently very high, one should raise the price of advertising slots to maximise advertising revenue. For timeslots or programmes that is not popular, the price should be reduced or bundled and sold as a package together with the high ratings programme. This, to many people, is actually common sense but common sense is actually a rare commodity. The real question here is this: what is the maximum price can one put in relation to the ratings numbers? Say, in the standard price list, a 30 seconds spot costs RM4,000 no matter where the spot is placed in the channel. Now, say the 7am slot has a low ratings number of X and the 9pm slot has a high ratings number of Y. Is it possible from here to construct a mathematical equation to shows the path to the optimum pricing for advertising for both these slots?

The other argument has to do with perception instead on real ratings numbers. Now, this is a lot more tricky but I can assure you that it is founded on precise mathematics as well. The key here is really competitive advantage. To what extent can a company differentiate its products based on its competitive advantages from what is available in the market will determine how much extra money they can charge. Differentiation has a lot to do with elasticity, the more differentiated, or perceived to be differentiated, the less elastic will be the price. As Bruce Greenwald and Judd Kahn said in their book "Competition Demystified", there is really actually one aspect of Porter's Five Forces that stands heads and shoulders above the other Forces and that is The Barriers To Entry.

Barriers to Entry, according to the authors, is really determined by three kinds of genuine competitive advantages. These are: Supply advantages, Demand advantages and Economies of Scale. As for my current company, although some people said that it is protected by the Government via licenses etc. looking at its history, it is exactly these three factors that see it win the competition. It has superior product supply - often exclusivity deals, a captive demand customer based on formed habits and stickinessof the programmes and the general economies of scale of its customer base and thus reducing its average cost per customer.

All the above needs further qualifications and needs to be guarded against. For example, in terms of supply, the exclusive content can easily be taken away by a player who has better connections with the supplier and/or and offer a significantly higher price. What is there to stop this from happening? In terms of demand, viewing habits can be changed via a superior product and marketing.

Ok, back to the question of pricing. If the company has differentiated its products effectively via the competitive advantages gained, the company should be able to charge a higher price compared to other players in the market. For example, say there is one channel that has its audience spend 40% of their TV viewing time on and the company decides to now start charging the customers after a period of free viewing. How much can it charge? There is a math in this and the correct number can be computed.

One fascinating way to compute the number is via equations using Game Theory. A simple example, here's an abstract representation of Bargaining Problems:

[v1(z) + t] + [v2(z) - t] = v1(z) + v2(z),

where v1(z) is player 1's benefit of z in monetary terms, t is the amount of money to be transfered between players 1 and 2.

The surplus in the bargain is represented by the following:

v1(z) + v2(z) - d1 - d2,

where d1 and d2 is the outcome for both players 1 and 2 if no agreement is made.

The above are the abstract and here is the standard bargaining solution. The standard bargaining solution is a mathematical representation of efficiency and proportional division (based on each player's bargaining power). Each player is assumed to obtain his default payoff plus his share of the surplus. The mathematical equation is this:

d1 + n1(v* - d1 - d2) = v1(z*) + t,

where n1 is player 1's relative barganing power, v* is the maximum joint value by determining the value z* that maximises v1(z)+ v2(z)

With the above equation, solve for t to find the optimum amount of money to transfer between the players.

Still with me? hmmmm.....I am not sure if I am still with myself. But if you put some effort and follow the equations carefully, it is really common sense.

Let's try to put this into the pricing problems that we have and see if we can find the answer.