"I Used to Be Funny" Movie Review

I recently joined to be a member of Toronto International Film Festival annual membership and saw the local indie dramedy "I Used to be Funny". Going in, I didn't read too much about it except to know it was under the umbrella of "Women in Action" in the now showings and a local production about a woman in comedy. Suffice to say, I had no regrets watching it, and I actually found it quite suspenseful and a pretty good balance between the comedy and drama genre (I would say the latter is heavier). 

This arts majored comedy who became an au pair in Europe comes back to Toronto to find success in comedy and her love life. As she dips her toes back into being an au pair in the GTA, she finds herself in an interesting relationship with her assigned "minor". As the story slowly but beautifully unfolds, you are on the edge of your seat, wanting to know what had happened to this protagonist. 

There's only some minor defects with it if you must press me to say something, but because that will be a bit of a spoiler alert, I'm going to stop here. But I will give it a bit higher than it's IMDB rating and give it a solid 7.5. Either you do the real math or artistic math and decide whether to watch this movie now showing at TIFF Lightbox.  

The Etymology of Thank YOUs around the world

"Thank you", one of the first words we learn in every language. Ng Guo, Duo Jie, Xie Xie, merci beau coup, muchas gracias, namaste. Why? Because human civilization values the time and effort of at least trying to do something, learn something, do a task, even if that person is by largely failing and only marginally succeeding. Thank you is a powerful motivator for human relationships to not only flourish but to also be productive. 

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the English word “thank” derived from the word “think” around 450AD. Up until this time, people would typically express their gratitude by saying: “I think of you kindly.” This evolved to become “I Thank You” which was then shortened to “Thank You” around the 14th century. That later became “thanks” and, by the 18th century, simply “ta”. 

The etymology of modern day "merci" is from Middle French merci, mercy, from Old French merci, from Latin mercēdem (“wages, fee, price”). 

In Chinese, Xie Xie is used as thank you in general. In Canton, Ng Gou is used to saying thanks for the favor whilst duo jie means thanks for the gift.

The word namaste comes from Sanskrit. It’s a combination of namas (“I bow”) and te (“you”), which literally translates to I bow to you (McBroom, 2023). If the first particle sounds familiar, that’s because it is also featured in the word namaskar (e.g., Surya Namaskar), which means “greeting” or “salute. ”In terms of pronunciation, the word namaste is broken down into three syllables: nah-mas-tay, with emphasis on the first syllable. Traditionally, namaste is a non-contact way of greeting someone, expressing gratitude, or showing one’s respect. Namaste is usually accompanied by Anjali mudra, with the palms pressed together at the center of the chest, close to one’s heart. To reflect on its literal meaning, the verbal greeting is performed with a respectful bowing of the head in the direction of the person you are speaking to.

In the context of yoga, namaste is usually spoken at the beginning or at the end of the class. When it is said at the start, namaste is a way to greet each other. A teacher saying it to a student (or students) can also use namaste as a way to convey that the students are welcome and accepted. At the end of the class, namaste has a different connotation. It’s an expression of appreciation and gratitude. It is customary for the teacher to thank the students for sharing their practice and opening their mind to the wonders of yoga. The students tend to echo the sentiment with their own namaste to express gratitude to the teacher for guiding them and to fellow students for sharing their space and energy.
Culturally, thank you is the most fundamental "magic word" you can use and start teaching a child to be a polite member of the family, society, be it a small community or eventually the ever globalizing world. And this kind of manners is not just verbal and superficial lip service, but to allow children to see adults saying thanks to one another a lot, is a good practice for a healthy and warm home to be developed. And if not, there's also the other magic word "sorry".
 
That's just Airlie's 2 cents into this.
xxx

Life At This Point

As the semester and also 2016 comes to an end, I am left here sitting in my new home grading essays as well as pondering what goals should I aim for 2017. For most of my twenties I have loved to travel and yearned to travel even more. But as I have built a career and home I don't need to escape from, as well as my wanderlust satisfied for the past decade or so...I find my mind wandering and wondering about what else can I achieve? What other places can my career bring me? And for many years even before I started writing the manuscript of my novel I simply wished to be a published writer. That was the goal. But somehow that shifted recently. I still want to be published but I want it to be published in my way, a very socially corporate responsible way, and so I want to start my own publishing company. I want to adapt the model of:
1. Every time you buy a book, a book will go to a child who needs one
2. If you send in a second hand book, you can get a half price discount, that book again will go to a child who needs one.
Selling 3 manuscripts (novel, nonfiction and my short story and poems collection) as well as this business model is almost hard to achieve at all, much to say in the short future) so why shouldn't I start my own publishing company? With this business I also want to help the many writers who keep feeling rejected by the major publishing houses because their writing is not "commercial" enough. I want to create a publishing house that is not just printing money but printing heartfelt pages.

At this point in my life I also don't need to broaden my network at mixers because I know that if I really go through with this business model, I know the trusty friends I have whom I can contract as editor, designer, IT, tax advisor and legal advisor. I have been reading up whether LLC or S-corp will be a better business model, costs of publishing paper books and ebooks. I have even been fiddling with names for my publishing house. I think the more serious I get with this project, the more it would come true. It's like the self fulfilling prophecy I had for my novel. Telling myself I could do it, while I kept doing it made it come true.

Life at this point is about taking care of myself, my family, and giving back to the community that blessed me with their help. Life right now...is still going to be challenging (I wouldn't ask for any less of it). And life right now...is pretty damn good...=)

#GivingTuesday (It still is Tuesday on the other side of the globe)

Asians in Hollywood

From Jacky Chan and Jet Li continuing Bruce Lee's footsteps but yet to play the real Romeo, to Lucy Liu and Jamie Chung playing the wingwomen in major works, and now Maggie Q having her own TV show; Chinese or Asians have fought hard and came quite far. But it just got started.

Earlier this year I started to watch Fresh Off The Boat, and I loved how us Chinese got to be the center of the stage, with our very own story. There are so many relateable things from that show, how you assimilate to a culture but also retain your roots in the all too stellar 90s.


Earlier this month I found out about the new TV show Into the Badlands, a production directed and starred familiar Hong Kong celebrities Daniel Wu and Stephen Fung. And as I read the transcript and videos of the interviews of the conception of the movie, I am amazed how they were able to take a Chinese traditional myth and mold it into something so relateable in the 21st century yet still highlight a lot of oriental roots. This show does have a lot of amazing martial arts scene but the beauty of the show is also the complexity of the plot and the character development; the many layers of strategic decisions made with every detail, from the setting and costume design to sound effects and music. This is a show that is really pushing Chinese in mainstream TV to a new peak.

And now here I am watching Indian and Chinese writers, Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang's creation of Master of None, a story about Asian millennials trying to survive in the 21st century New York City. Again it delights me to see Asians not only playing trivial support roles but being at the center stage. It also shows that we Asians are diverse too. We are not cookie-cut-out doctors and lawyers, nor do we only just know martial arts. Today, Asians are a variety of things, we are fun, we are funny, we are punny, we are artistic. And because we know how hard it is to break through those stereotypes, we respect diversity too.

Korean actor Ki Hong Lee is now starring in the major blockbuster The Maze Runner, and a really inspiring anecdote he shared in an interview is that he asked his mom if he can change his name to be more western for his acting career, and his mom gave the best answer. "You think Dostoevsky is an easy name to pronounce? But if you are good enough, people will want to learn how to pronounce your name. Make them learn." And that became his motivation to strive in the industry.

As of last night I heard Philip Ng is casted as Bruce Lee in an upcoming Hollywood blockbuster. Asians gaining recognition in Hollywood only just got started. Discussions just started to stir. And our role in these conversations should not only that we support them, but we also acknowledge we are all different and we should have that same support for the next Coco Lee, Amy Tan or Olivia Chow. This morning I received news from my friend Alex Chao who is a Cornell educated engineer took a leap of faith and with his friends started an acapella quartet called the Six Feet Barbershop.This is what pushes us to new heights. Taking a chance in what you believe.

However while we are different, we still celebrate similar values, such as being family-oriented, such as our beautiful language and thousands of years of history on literature, art, hell we have Confucius on our side. The goal now is to transcend our roots to be relevant in the 21st century arena. And I have a strong feeling we will be able to do this.

#notyourasiansidekick

Love at First Read (lyrics rewrote) (Shiga 說一句)

I rewrote these lyrics from Shiga's canto song a while ago, but the new setting and audio on my channel is horrible, so this is just a sneak peek of the lyrics, I'll try to do a better take 2 later on.

the instrumental version(not by me obviously lol): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOT_bfnuPr0
Insta: allyheung
Facebook: www.facebook.com/AirlieMariaHeung
twitter: @airlieheungkong

Lyrics:
From the very first email,
To the very last goodbye,
I gave, I gave all of my heart,
And revealed all of my secrets.
You trusted me, so I trusted you.
But it turned out I was just a fool.
As I pushed you away, I lost my muse and pen
To convey these mixed emotions...

Chorus:
I was surprised myself, when I fell for you,
It was love at first read and I knew
You were the man that was not just a suit
But you had passion for life and it was written down too.
It felt like you were the one I was looking for
And it didn't even take one single kiss or touch
Endearing notes trembled my heart,
And the funny thing is, that it was love at first read.

I hate myself, you did nothing wrong
Because it's you who helped me grow
You helped me shed light on life's clarity
But then things started to shatter...

Chorus:
I was surprised myself, when I fell for you,
It was love at first read and I knew
You were the man that was not just a suit
But you had passion for life and it was written down too.
It felt like you were the one I was looking for
And it didn't even take one single kiss or touch
Endearing notes trembled my heart,
And the funny thing is, that it was love at first read.

But when you did not love me
My sentiments were not reciprocated
Life lose clarity

Chorus:
I was surprised myself, when I fell for you,
It was love at first read and I knew,
You were the man that was not just a suit
But you had passion for life and it was written down too.
It felt like you were the one I was looking for
And it didn't even take one single kiss or touch
Endearing notes trembled my heart,
And the funny thing is, that it was love at first read.