My psyche explained in two movie clips.

지금도 멋진 그의 리즈시절
Sometimes I can't recall James McAvoy's name, but just the name of Robbie Turner... 

The lasting impact of A-level English sessions, haha.

I remember his blue eyes deliberately highlighted and made even bluer throughout Atonement:-)

스코틀랜드 출신이라 그런가? 한성깔 있어보이는 오빠. 그러고 보니 역할들도 약간 막사는 까칠한 성격들이 압도적으로 많았던 듯. 절대 완전히 선한 역할은 없었어ㅋㅋㅋ 생긴게 반듯하게 잘생겨서 착한 역할 제의는 많이 들어왔을 것 같은데 그냥 본인이 안했을거 같다는.

반대로 착하고 선한 인상의 만년 소년같은 Scottish 남자는 여기:-)

아무리 힘들게 살아도 그 가운데 선함을 간직한 순정/정의로운 역할이 많았던 듯.

정말 다양한 스펙트럼의 장르와 역할을 넘나들지만 그 가운데 자기만의 색깔이 있는, 진짜 베테랑 배우랄까.

Watched 'The Recruiting Officer' (+Q&A session with the cast) at the Donmar Warehouse this Monday, the first production under the wings of its new Artistic director Josie Rourke. There has been much praise in the media about this production, and in my opinion it certainly lived up to the hype!

This was the most feel-good show I've seen for ages, but without loosing any of its more grave themes surrounding the cruelty of recruitment process in the era. (This was best demonstrated by the ending scene in which, whilst the rich main characters with powdered faces rejoice in their wedding plans and happy endings, the five naive young musicians -who are tricked by the cunning recruiting officers throughout the course of the play & are forced out of their lives to go into the army-  one by one put down their instruments, salute with a solemn air, and disappear into the light.) There was just such a good combination of humour and drama overall that one could not help but fall in love with it all!

Popular periodic plays almost always carry ridiculous, overdramatic, and often politically incorrect plots (the older the worse), and it is easy to get a bit carried away with the exaggerated characters. This play was a triumphant example of how charming and tasteful a play can be even with the central roles almost entirely made up of a bunch of frauds or fools, powdered faces with plumped up costumes, and even a cross-dressing heiress heroine (a originally charming plot that's become excruciatingly distasteful due to its 'trendiness' of late which lead it being overused to the core... just look at all the Korean dramas lol). 

There was a significant involvement of fork music intertwined with the storyline, and happening at every scene change. One should praise the director & the composer for having used it so neatly and effectively to create the right atmosphere, humour and perfect PACE, without letting the whole thing turn into a musical. Fork music seems to be a big trend in the music scene right now and I've been to several concerts already, the latest being Dizraeli and the Small Gods'. And I loved the use of music in this play. So ingeniously routined. OH I LOVED THE MUSIC.

If this still does not sound like enough reason to see the play (I think they just extended their run because it was so popular), just look at the casting list and you will recognise many familiar names, including: 

The AMAZING Mark Gatiss (co-writer & role of Mycroft from BBC's 'Sherlock'... seriously, this guy can do anything) as the hilarious powdered pomp! (ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ마이크로프트 자기가 쓰고 자기가 연기하는거 보고도 느꼈지만 이아저씨 뭔가 똘기있음 완전 귀여움ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ)

As soon as he popped out onto the stage and went 'Ma Dear', everyone just burst into laughter. Ah, the atmosphere was so good.. The woman sitting next to me had such jolly laugh that it made me happy too!:-) 

Whom you sit next to in a theatre is a BIG matter, I've discovered over the years..... They make so much difference.

Mackenzie Crook! (From PoC, although you wouldn't need me telling you... He's got such a distinctive appearance) 

It was quite sweet how awkward he was at the Q&A session (and yet he came! I think that tells a lot about him) and how he got the inspiration for the demon puppet from his little son and actually made the puppet himself! 

A true artist, indeed:-) And definitely a very serious one.

...근데 아자씨 역시 당신은 해적이나 사기꾼이나 집시 역할이 걍 천직인거 같아여...ㅋㅋㅋ

I think I fell in love with all of them by the end of the first act!:-)

'Peking duck is something that has always been very close to the Oliver family. Bizarrely enough, the fact that my parents ran a pub restaurant meant that we very rarely went out for dinner as a family, but when we did, my old man used to take us out to this Chinese restaurant in Sawbridgeworth where we all fell in love with Peking duck.'

Lovable man, beautifully shot.

Sherlock 'The Reichenbagh Fall' explained!

I had to watch this in iPlayer several times to understand the trick, and think I've figured it (well, at least parts of it) out.

1. Where Sherlock places Watson: he makes it very precise where Watson should watch him. You can see that there's a small building between the pavement underneath the building (where he supposedly falls on) and where Watson is standing - meaning that Watson and the sniper (who is seen pointing at Watson's head from side/back, which means that he is also looking at Sherlock from a similar direction as Watson) can clearly see sherlock fall, but can't see him actually hitting the ground himself. The view would be obscured by the building.

2. And Sherlock DOES fall. 

Many people have been saying that it was Moriarty's corpse that fell, but the falling shots clearly show that it is Sherlock himself, waving his feet and arms in the air as he plummets from the rooftop. 

Besides, he was holding his phone while talking to Watson so unless he was able to turn Moriarty's (who's of a significantly different appearance from Sherlock) corpse into a marionette in 30 seconds, there's just no way for that to work. He had to fool both Watson and the sniper perfectly- and they weren't that far away- so expecting them to mistake a corpse for a living man..well...

And with the speed at which he fell, there is couldn't possibly have clung to a window or something (amazing as he is, he's not Ethan Hunt) so that means only one thing - he fell, but not onto the hard concrete pavement. And what is it?

3. The dump truck: 

He could have fallen into the truck (he was waving hard as he fell, so maybe he was trying to get to the truck) OR seeing that the pavement is quite broad, maybe Molly had prepared some kind of safety net underneath the building. 

Right after the fall, Watson initially sees 'Sherlock' on the ground with blood and all - I suspect that body there is not Sherlock yet, but another corpse dressed in his signature attire. 

THEN Watson gets hit by a biker, which now buys Molly&co enough time to switch that body with real Sherlock, drenched in blood and probably medicated to slow down his pulse and relax his muscles so that a professional (but disorientated) doctor Watson is forced to conclude him dead. Also, except for the blood Sherlock's 'body' wasn't mangled in any other way... but Watson was not granted the time (or the sense) to check on this because the paramedics rushed him away ever so immediately.

How could Molly have done all this in such short time when there appear to have been so many passers-by? There's an explanation to that..

 4. There is absolutely NO ONE on this street or around Watson when Sherlock supposedly hits the ground. And yet, as soon this has been done, suddenly people rush in to check up on him, preventing Watson to go near the 'corpse'. 

(5. AND THE DUMP TRUCK JUST DRIVES OFF!!

It driving off means there was a driver inside it. WHAT KIND OF ORDINARY TRUCK DRIVER would just drive off like that when a man has just fallen from the sky right next to you? That truck has a LOT to answer for, while we are tortured for another 18 months or so for the Season 3....)

Molly could not have done this alone, and yet using ordinary actors/medical staff to stage this wouldn't have kept the secret... hence I smell Mycroft's involvement here..

6. His facial expression and hand gesture at the end, I felt, is closer to that of anxiety or bitterness, than that of sadness or the guilt of driving his only brother to death. And the fact that he's sitting at that room with the 'hush-hush' atmosphere perhaps conveys the secret he now holds.

Also, earlier on in the episode, he says that he is sorry to Watson - and the tone wasn't really 'I'm sorry about the fact I've sold Sherlock' but more like 'I know how much Sherlock means to you, so I'm sorry to YOU, should I be forced to ignore your grief sometime in the future for the sake of protecting him'. 

It is shown throughout the series that Mycroft actually worries and cares a great deal for his brother, and he is a very smart man. I don't think he's inhuman/stupid enough to sell Sherlock's details to Moriarty without any extra safety measures, so I definitely think he's involved in this.

7. The biker: you can even see that the biker is kinda EYEING Watson and the direction he's moving. He's coming at a rather steady pace too, so this definitely wasn't an accident, as all of us would have figured out by now.

And WHAM. The biker looks at Watson. AND JUST RIDES OFF.

 WHAT KIND OF ORDINARY BIKER would do that when you've just hit someone SO HARD that he FALLS FLAT ON THE GROUND??

So here's my conclusion: 

-People have been stopped from coming onto the street thanks to Mycroft

-Sherlock actually falls

-But safely into the dump truck with Molly in it

-or possibly a safety net (optional)

-A corpse was initially laid out on the pavement to buy time (optional)

-Watson sees the body

-Watson then gets hit to buy more time and also to distract the sniper

-The body on the pavement now is definitely Sherlock, medicated and soaked in blood by Molly

-The truck disappears and people (some of them possibly put in by Mycroft) rush in

-Watson comes closer and see Sherlock 'dead'

-Sherlock is taken away into the hospital

-Snipers retreat

-With the help of Molly, is pronounced dead

-Tabloid goes crazy

-But in the meantime Sherlock sneaks out of the hospital and hides in a safe place.

All this might be wrong, though- We'll find out, once.. well.. at least not for another year, I guess. 

In the meantime, POOR WATSON...............

But don't grieve too much. Season III is definitely coming out & you shalt be united once again!!!

(I can already imagine Watson punching Sherlock lol)

Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker

Campiness done with taste... Matthew Bourne's 'Nutcracker!' is a triumph!

This guy really does deserve to be the nation's choreographic sweetheart.

I watched last year's 'Cinderella' at the New Wimbledon Theatre, and have to say it was quite disappointing for me after hearing so much about Matthew Bourne.

Hence I was NOT expecting something half as good as this when I went to watch 'Nutcracker!' at Sadler's Wells yesterday.. No, the word 'good' doesn't do this production justice- The thing was a pure perfection. By the time I walked out of the theatre, I was completely baffled by how something that is made up of so many elements that just scream 'CAMP!!!!' can be done so seamlessly and inoffensively. I mean... Who would have imagined THAT song from ballet/Fantasia-version Nutcracker to be so adaptable to THIS kind of context? The story itself was witty and offered so much to savour and smile on, but the synchronisation between the storytelling and the music was INGENIOUS... So tastefully modern but without ever loosing the charm of the original score. Tchaikovsky is one of my all time favourite composers due to the strong narrative quality of his music, and what can I say?

When two great storytellers meet- even with the gap of two centuries- this is the kind of result you get from their geniuses.

You could see that the whole crew of New Adventures, not just Matthew Bourne himself, really had fun making this work - there was so much affections, passion, and playfulness going on on the stage between the dancers and also with the audience members. Maybe it was just the effect all the 'pinkness' and 'sweetness' was creating, but I felt there really was love in the air. The whole experience was just fantastic. If anyone reads this, go and watch it- you won't regret!

+ It is actually my first time having been to the Sadler's Wells (I've only been to Peacock theatre several times), and wow.. The view and the sound from even the Second Balcony was amazing. Except the very top of the background sets, the view was clear and you had no trouble seeing the performers, and the sound was very good too. I think the ticket was almost half the price I paid for 'Cinderella', and yet NWT's 2nd balcony was far worse..

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Beautiful. 장인 정신이란 것... You have to pay so much for so little of it nowadays.

I really want to get a bespoke suit made, but can't find anywhere that does tailoring for ladies, let alone doing it for an affordable price.