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The Most Distant Course
Photo from the official film blog.
In <最遙遠的距離> The Most Distant Course, a psychiatrist abandons his job on an impulse and takes to the road. As someone formerly devoted to helping people transcend the personal hells of their own making, how else can he run from his own demons, but through psychological escape routes? Our tormented shrink hires a prostitute to engage in roleplay with him, tries and fails to get fresh with a betel-nut girl, and finally confronts reality – if only that which is already overdue – by arriving for a wedding three years late.
But the address on the invite no longer exists, and eventually he finds himself along the coastal highway of Taiwan’s southernmost point. There is scuba gear and even suit, yet jumping into the surf crashing against the rocks would mean certain death. No matter: he puts on the equipment, zips himself up in black, and starts breaststroking, flippers on feet, along the road. We hear the tortured breathlessness of his carthasis as he struggles on noisily, the scratchy flop of plastic against tar relentless, dogged, pained. How much of this swimming—-no, how much of his self is real and imagined, and how much of either is valid? Is his quest, in all its desperation and futility, a search for the self, or a flight from it?
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Tags: Film
Nestled on the third floor of a building in NUS, the compact Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research is impressive but underloved. Entry is free, but evidently the students of NUS had their hands full with other more pressing matters that Tuesday morning.
Among the stuffed and suspended animals may be found civet cats, bats and monkeys of various species. For the ornithologist there is also a cupboard of birds, all laid out in dignified repose. There’s also a very interesting exhibit on deep sea fishes. The museum is tiny by most standards, but its displays are packed with specimens. One can scrutinise this cross-section of local and regional wildlife to one’s content, or until one goes blind, whichever happens sooner.
The collection includes an impressive variety of crabs, perhaps due at least in small part to the fact that its director is an expert on these crustaceans:
Unfortunately, this little museum doesn’t open on weekends and public holidays, but it’s worth a look and deserves more visitors. More information can be found here.
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Wayang kulit
I’ve been doing research on wayang kulit (literally, ‘theatre skin’ – a reference to leather, the traditional puppet material), as I’m making a series of loosely-inspired shadow puppets for Cicada Tree’s MAD About Bats lessons.
One thing about wayang kulit that strikes me is how the appearance of the puppet characters often conveys information on whether they are ‘good’ or ‘evil’.
According to the Art-Pacific.com website:
‘The puppet characters range between alus (extremely refined) and kasar (rough and crude). Refined, virtuous characters have small bodies, slitted oval eyes with pupils like rice grains, pointed noses and a modest downward gaze to delicate feet. More vigorous characters look up.
Middle size characters may be strong like good kings or princely warriors. ‘
Sometimes this codified visual system is cleverly subverted, for instance in the case of the prince Karno. Though an antagonist, he possesses many of the puppet features typical of princes.
What’s really interesting are the parallels between the Indonesian/Malaysian wayang kulit and its unrelated Straits Chinese friend, wayang opera. Both are extremely stylised forms of theatre, and both utilise a live orchestra for music. Another similarity lies in how character appearance conveys role: in wayang opera, red-faced characters are valiant and white-faced evil, green-robed characters are good, and so on – a form of semiotics than, on afterthought, applies to the allegorical folktales and stories of perhaps all cultures.
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‘Environmentalism is the most politically diverse movement in history… I have met anarchists, communists, socialists, liberals, conservatives and, mostly, pragmatists. I remember sitting in a campaign meeting during the Newbury bypass protests and marvelling at the weirdness of our coalition… [Everyone] disagreed about every other subject under the sun… but everyone there recognised that our quality of life depends on the quality of our surroundings… The environment is inseparable from social justice. ‘
‘Sure, we are hypocrites. Every one of us, almost by definition. Hypocrisy is the gap between your aspirations and your actions. Greens have high aspirations – they want to live more ethically – and they will always fall short. But the alternative to hypocrisy isn’t moral purity (no one manages that), but cynicism. Give me hypocrisy any day.’
- George Monbiot, The Guardian (6 Aug 2008).
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Cyrene reef
Cyrene reef, a short boat ride away from the mainland, lies right smack in the middle of Singapore’s busy shipping lanes. That numerous seagrass species, as well as a host of other rare marine life, flourish so close to such bustling – and often damaging – human activity is heartening. Not so encouraging however is the fact that its choice location has placed it in a precarious position, pollution among the woes that Cyrene has had, and must continue to, contend with.
As time and tide do indeed wait for no reef-bound man, we arrived at dawn, having earlier assembled onshore at the unearthly time of 615 a.m. As there is no jetty, stepping off the boat is an exercise in caution, as one has to beware of well-camouflaged stonefish…
Particularly striking is the sheer variety of echinoderms that can be found at Cyrene, from plump rounded cushion stars to the cactus-like sea urchins. Then of course there are the distinctive knobbly seastars (Protoreaster nodosus)…
The highlight of the trip for me was probably the Salmacis sea urchin – this individual (above) was found clinging on to a piece of seagrass. Salmacis are often found carrying bits of debris on them with their tube feet, possibly for camouflage. According to Ria, another theory is that this behaviour serves to protect them from the damaging UV rays of the sun to which they are vulnerable, just as people carry umbrellas for shade!
Sea urchin species come in various shapes and sizes; pictured above is likely the Black Longspine Urchin (Diadema setosum).
A flatworm in shallow water. Care must be taken by those who chance upon them and wish to have a closer look, as these creatures are so delicate that they often disintegrate when touched.
Nudibranch, probably Dendrodoris tuberculosa (thanks budak for ID).
While in the midst of trying to minimise my clumsy splashing, I noticed a small yellow cuttlefish dart away. Alarmed by my subsequent attempts at stalking it, the cuttlefish soon found a clump of yellow seaweed to hide under. It quickly positioned itself under a frond, turning up its tentacles (to better its camouflage?).
As we were admiring the seastars, Ria pointed out a huge ship passing by, bearing imported cars for the appetites of Singaporean motorists, insiatiable even as oil prices continue to rise. Just a short distance away, seastars trundled along on their own feet; it is to be hoped that they will outlast the autos that come and go so quickly with the relentlessly changing tides of fashion.
References:
Introduction to Cyrene Reef (Wildsingapore)
Star Trackers
A new star for Singapore: discovery of sea star
Many thanks to Ria and Vilma for the opportunity to visit Cyrene reef.
Filed under: All, Coastal, Offshore and Islands, Singapore | 1 Comment
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