“I've always taken care of you, Fredo.”

Did you see The Godfather the other night? I have to have seen that film about four times over the years. Why? My dad. He always does this “come here and watch this, you’ll find it interesting” thing, and I end up sitting on the sofa in his lounge and watching another film I would never have bothered with otherwise.

It’s a good job too, cos he’s introduced me to some real gems over the years. Gaslight (from 1940) with Anton Walbrook and Diana Wynyard. Drive (1997) with Mark Dacascos and Kadeem Hardison. And that Vincent Price film where he’s been living forever but needs to marry a fresh wife and eat her brain or something in order to stay alive another hundred years…

Anyway, The Godfather. So we watched it (again), and then The Godfather Part II the next week, and it reminded me of a TV voting show they had on. Basically, everyone was supposedly asked to vote for the top one hundred heroes and villains from any film from all time. Like an idiot I sat there and watched them all unfold slowly, counting down alternately. I kind of agreed with most of the heroes, but I have to say, I was not impressed with the top villains. How could Michael Corleone have fallen into the villains list? Could someone explain how, ultimately, once his life was weighed up by the crocodile god (Sobek?) debating whether to let him onto the afterlife or not, why was he shunted onto the villains list? All he’d ever done was protect his family ~ even from themselves at times. Yes, he was loud, and sometimes violent, and he tended to crush the life out of anyone in his way, but he did it all for his family. (And I have to say, I never liked his wife.)

I’ve heard the one about the road to Hell being paved with good intentions, but I don’t believe there’s a Hell. Actually, I’d really like there to be Hell as in Dante Ahligieri’s “Inferno” ~ all ruthlessly organized into nine circles, with their own little rings, bowges and regions. Captain Jack Sparrow was right, by the way ~ the deepest circle of hell is indeed reserved for betrayers and mutineers. Although if I recall correctly, the seventh circle was reserved for violent murderers and pirate-types, whilst the eighth circle was reserved for plain thieves. Sometimes its tough being an atheist. If you don’t believe there’s a Hell (of any kind), how can there be a heaven? You can’t have one without the other, that’s for damned sure, if you’ll excuse the choice of words…

Anyway, we were talking about Michael Corleone. I’ll stand by my opinion that he only acted for the good of his family, against any and all comers. Yes, he killed his brother Fredo ~ or rather, had him killed ~ and was rather nasty to Kay about just about everything, and even railed against his brother Tom, but why was he doing this? Think about it. I’d like him stricken from the villain annals and added to those of the heroes. How they could have him die all alone, unloved and uncared for, I just don’t understand. It was unjust, undeserved and scunnered pretty much all of us watching. I’ll never forget that scene of The Godfather Part III as just plain… AAAAARRRRRGH!!!!

So, anything else this week? What have I done? Hmm, let’s see… Re-read the Trainspotting novel (which could be why some odd words are popping up in my writing these days) and still found it enlightening, funny, horrific, witty and just downright genius. A braw novel indeed.

Failed miserably to convince people to employ me, yet again, and not once this week, but twice ~ and it’s only Thursday night! I don’t know. So it looks like I’m waiting for Saturday, when I’ll win the lottery first prize of about eight squillion pounds and can afford a first-class plane ticket back to Hong Kong.

Speaking of Hong Kong, the nominations for the 25th Hong Kong Film Awards were announced yesterday. Basically I’m all excited cos Aaron Kwok was nominated for Best Actor for his Inspector Syun of Divergence (the same part for which he won the Taiwanese Golden Horse Award late last year), so that’s my bet laid again. This year it’s HK$100 on Aaron winning against Andy Lau Dak-Wah, Tony Leung Ga-Fai and Simon Yam Dat-Wah. Come on the reds! “Giz a squiz!” Awright then:



Have you seen the video for Robbie Williams’ new-ish track “Tripping”? It’s excellent mate! I love it for the bits where he’s running but not getting anywhere (cos his feet aren’t actually moving), or the looks he’s giving the kid in the front passenger seat of the car, and the guy in the lift in the yellow dress. Fab. But wait ! You have to watch right to the end of the video! He does his trademark cheeky grin bit (without teeth) before he flops onto the bed and it all goes dark…

That’s about it then. Goodnight and sleep tight, and I’ll see you all again very, very soon.