Atonement (M18)

Last minute decided to catch the Academy Award Nominated Film 'Atonement' with Kunhua....

It was okay, with an exceptional cinematography.

Pacing problems dragged the standard of the film down.

If I were to do it, I would have increased the pace of the beginning and the exposition to increase the dramatic tension.

But well, who cares about what I want to do?

After all, the world does not revolve around me.

Haha

Lust.Caution

Went to watch Lust.Caution with Nat and Karin on saturday night...

Movie tickets are damn expensive on Saturdays lah......

Lust.Caution is Ang Lee's latest directorial effort, his first chinese language film after 2000's sleeper hit 'Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon' which ignited the world's craze for martial arts period films....

It is based on the short story by Eileen Chang, still considered as China's most authoritive female writer of her time, condemned by some of her countrymen as a writer with a narrow perspective that perpetuates from her novellas and essays, including Eighteen Springs which has already been adapted on the silver screens by other auteurs like Ann Hui

Against a political backdrop of the Japanese Occupation period of China, it is essentially about love, passion, emotion and lust, just like 'Lan Yu' by Stanley Kwan. The tumultous times was just a tool to tell the story about a young lady (Tang Wei) caught between love and honour, and between two important yet cruel men (Wang Leehom and Tony Leung) in her life.

It was never meant for the turbulent period to be the centrepiece of the entire narrative.

As with other Ang Lee films, Lust.Caution was seemingly quiet and slow on the surface, even bland, yet beneath the benign pacing and low volume of the film were intense powerful undercurrents that provided much of the dramatic tension that was required to lend the film weight and solidity.

Innocent mahjong games were infused with motives held subtly by each of the mahjong players, and everyone in the game had their own agenda. This brings the true spirit of the mahjong game, 各怀鬼胎 to life.

However, unlike other Ang Lee films like the aptly named Pushing Hands, Eat Women Drink Man and even Brokeback Mountain, Lust.Caution can be considered a personal groundbreaking film by the director as he negotiates and confront the dirty and dark side of life, violence and extreme passion being his centrepieces for this film.

He does not shy away from the topics, taking them head on and deconstructing these thematics bravely.

For this, I applaud him.

Tang Wei will not be the next Zhang Ziyi, because she has a much wider emotional range. She will only be Tang Wei.... and no next this person or next that person.

And she act well.

Tony Leung turned in yet another stellar performance. It is considered a breakthrough performance for him.

It was apparent that Wong Leehom put into much effort into his character, under the terrific guidance of Ang Lee. Unfortunately he appeared stiff at times, inable to inject a certain degree of flexibility in dictating his lines.

The by-now famous edited version of the film, which I watched, unfortunately couldnt convey the required amount of emotional intensity to the audience. Even if it was personally edited by Ang Lee, it felt as if it a very important ingredient was missing from the whole film, preventing it from becoming the masterpiece that it was supposed to be

It was like a toothless tiger, without bite in other words.

The censored version came about because the film would not have been passed through the conservative Chinese authorities and Ang Lee wanted the Chinese to still be able to watch the film.

I feel sad that art had to be compromised because of backward conservative people who couldnt accept confrontation of the darker side of reality and life.

Ratatouille

Just watched Ratatouille.

Fantastic Film from Brad Bird, who came up with 'The Incredibles'

Well, saved for a few cheesy moments and if you ignored the improbability of certain plot parts, the film is very solid and yet enjoyable.....

Pacing was even and aesthetic unity is strong enough for the plot to move efficiently ahead.....

I give it four and a half stars

The film makes me want to be a chef

But I only know how to eat.

So I can be a food critic.

Oh by the way, my next short film is tentatively titled 'Tuitionation'

If I get my way, it will star a theatre star.

Haha

Hairspray

Watched 'Hairspray' yesterday at the new AMK Hub.

Er.... actually is it new or just that I sua ku never go before?

Talk about asking the obvious

Anyway the movie was fantastic..... Simply wonderful...... And I love it very much. But in a different way as Perhaps Love.

Er.... Lazy to elaborate more....

A few days ago, I had a new idea for a short film all of a sudden.......

So there's a high chance I will take a film module next semester and make the short film..... if I can formulate the idea properly by then.....

But this time round it will be made guerrilla style......


Maybe one day, I will make a musical. But I think musical films are very very difficult to do.....
















A place so full of memories....... The good and the bad all in it......

My life will be very different if it ever get demolished....

It will be like taking away a precious part of me.....

Please don't say goodbye.

Transformers

Watched the movie last saturday but forgot all about it till now

The story is enjoyable enough, at times moving at times inspirational..... Enough humor was injected into the story at suitable points, though I personally find the transformer visiting house segment abit too overplayed

Of course there were points that I felt it was ridiculous like soldiers enduring bomb explosions without ear plugs and still not go deaf

But the cinematography is really really weird.... Because director and cinematographer chose to have extremely shaky camera shots that was really headache inducing..... Also, the director chose tight framings and medium close-ups of the robots that didnt allow the audience to marvel fully at the magnificent robots....

Well perhaps there were corner cuttings because you don't have to do out the whole robot when you show one segment.... Like that was much cheaper. No wonder Spiderman 3 used up 300million but Transformers was completed for 115 million only.....

Otherwise the movie could have been a true summer blockbuster.

Next summer, I am going to take the train to Gehirn.

They say that people are always happy there and nobody is ever lonely.

If I had one more ticket....... would you come with me?

If you come here.....you'll find me......

I promise

Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer

Today went to watch Fantastic 4 with two cheapskate girls Nat and Karin....

The soundtrack sounds suspiciously recycled from Spiderman and X-men, and the story attempted a layered plot which eventually seems to be half hearted because the screenwriter went for a easy resolution....

Fantastic Four is essentially a summer blockbuster at heart, not a brainy comic to screen adapdation.....

And comic fans will know that Galactus cannot be defeated so easily by a mere servant Silver Surfer, so the director probably is laying the path for a third sequel.... I just feel unsatisfied at the way Galactus was being destroyed.... Its like there was not enough time and the director just went for a quick and easy ending....

And the storyline borders being ridiculous at time.... But it was enjoyable due to the chemistry of the cast, making it almost believable that the four were a real family...

Okay enough about the movie....

Er... 'Youth Incubator' audition went fine..... It was slightly easier than I thought it would be.... But I wont say that I will get in.... Because it is really quite difficult to say what Xiao Huiling and Qingliang wants or are looking for....

Anyway I had fun during the short session... Felt at ease.... Maybe because I already knew alot of people there..... If they were totally strangers I probably would die of overflying of butterflies in the stomach....

What matters is I had fun.... Enjoying the process is the most important I guess.... Yup!

Next summer, I am going to take the train to land of happiness. They said there is no bitterness over there, and people are never lonely....

If I had one more ticket, would you come with me?

I cannot see my sky today. Can you?

Spiderman 3

Today went to watch Spiderman 3 with Nat and Karin

I simply love Cathay Cineleisure on weekday afternoons. They are practically empty and you can go at 150km per hour without crashing into some human road block

Anyway back to the movie......

Alot of people say Spiderman 3 is disappointing and some say it is just plain boring.....

From the film point of view, the last part (for now) of a successful franchise is normally suppose to climax with alot of action and exciting fight sequences, especially for a superhero film....

But people who don't read the comic series don't understand that Spiderman from the comics is not always about action and fighting villians. It also features prominently Peter Parker's struggles against his own inner demons and growing pains as a normal human where being Spiderman doesn't help.....

That's why Spiderman comics appeal to teenagers..... Because it seems real and many youngsters could identify with the circumstances of Peter Parker. At the same time, it is also a form of escape from the drab reality that most of us grow up in....

I think many directors, especially the good ones, will have to struggle with the balance between deep layered drama and exciting fight sequences when making superhero films..... A good superhero film should be able to be excite audiences, but add a few more dimensions into the whole story so that it would not be so superficial.....

Ang Lee failed because The Hulk was too deep and not exciting enough..... Daredevil is just superficial... Fantastic Four was uneven.....Brett Ratner's X-Men 3 was just plain crap......Even Superman by Bryan Singer was missing something that I simply cannot figure out....

A few fine examples would be X-Men 1 by Bryan Singer, Spiderman 1 by Sam Raimi and Batman Begins by Christopher Nolan. They are exciting and there are a few brainy layers placed into them..... So these are good.......

I thought that Sam Raimi managed to keep the balance between drama and action.... BUT only barely.

Spiderman 3 suffers from impossibly high expectations of the audience.... But it is understandable because it is famously known that there are three major villians in the show..... Venom, Hobgoblin and Sandman, so people expected lots of action that go on and on.....

It almost seems as if the triangle between Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker and Mary Jane is unecessary..... But I dont think the movie could do without it.... The story arc gives a added dimension to the entire narrative and without it, Spiderman 3 would be another mindless blockbuster cheap thrill ride like X-men 3....

But agreeing with the story doesnt mean it cannot be better..... There are a few parts that I thought was unsatisfactory, like how often Spiderman takes off his mask.... The disturbing question of how come nobody sees him when he takes off his mask nags at the corner of my brain.....

Then the way Spiderman defeated Venom can be better also......

There's quite alot of loopholes in the story if you realise......

On the whole, I would say I enjoyed the movie quite alot, though it is not as good as I wanted it to be.....

Rating: 3.5 stars

Protege

Went to watch Protege alone today.....

Back to the good old days when I watched movies alone.....

When I was young, I was quite a loner who didnt know I had to do things with friends.... I saw perfectly nothing wrong with going everywhere yourself and doing things yourself.....

Unlike the young daegekleng, I was a loner by choice..... I didnt think very much of my classmates in school... not that they like me very much either I think....

Huay Guan was still a strange place with many strangers at that time......

Anyway, the movie is nice..... Tight plot, exciting pacing.... Just didnt think much of the acting thats all.....

But still everything was great and real...... Slick.... like the current generation of cop flicks coming from Hong Kong.... Inspired by Alan Mak and Andrew Lau with their now famous 'Infernal Affairs' (The remake, The Departed, scored a few oscars, including a Best Director win for Martin Scorsese)

There were a few uncomfortable scenes though, which had me on the edge of my chair.... Like a hand being hammered off brutally and a corpse being fed on by mice..... Horrific... Almost felt like a horror movie of sorts....

But I was still glad I made time to watch the movie.....

Cant we finally see something else from Hong Kong other than cop-triad flicks or comedies?

More Chung-King Express and 千言万语 (by Ann Hui. Bet you all dont know what movie is this right) please.

Enough Infernal Affairs....

Tomorrow going to Weiliang's place for my third yu-sheng tossing of the year.... Hope my income will be triple as well. Haha

Rating for Protege: 3.5 stars

Pan's Labyrinth

A song goes like this:

And there's a danger in loving somebody too much.....

And its sad when you know, its your heart you can't trust.......

There's a reason why people dont stay who they are.....

Baby sometimes love just ain't 'nough.....

Yes.... I realised that you put yourself in grave danger when you love somebody too much..... Actually it already hit me in 2002....

But people never learn.... not even if you are an adult...... In emotional terms, we are always the kids that we were when we were young

The most scary thing is that you cannot trust your own heart.......In a relationship, whether friendship or love, you cannot even guarantee that your own heart wont change......

I thought it was going to be forever........ But I had the first change of heart in 2004....... And several months later came the end of a friendship that lasted for as long as the geography textbook was in my room.....

There's a reason why people dont stay who they are......

Yeah, and I really want to know why...... I know already!....... There are other people around..... That's why people change

Its kind of funny because who would have thought that I would learn about this only today..... and of all days today.....

My final conclusion?

Sometimes, love really just isnt enough...

So what if you really loved someone with all your heart? Big fuck?

Hearts are often broken by words left unspoken.....

Some people have long made up their minds about stuff but deny it vigorously......

I hate the infinite skies for its cruelty towards me..... It allows others to make me suffer but not the other way round......

Today

I watched Pan's Labyrinth

And it was the most beautiful film I have watched in a long long time

Curse of the Golden Flower

Yesterday nothing to do..... Then tze decided to pay for half of my movie ticket so we went Toa Payoh to watch Curse of the Golden Flower......

Thanks haha...... But hor, the rest of you dont go and bug her for movie tickets hor..... Unless you get her presents from Taiwan.... Haha

Anyway hope to meet the rest of you soon.... The presents are piling up on my table and I want to clear out everything....

Though now I can use an occupied table as an excuse to my mom not to do homework... Haha

Back to the movie......

Curse of the Golden Flower is Zhang Yimou's latest film, loosely based on the landmark Chinese narrative written by Cao Yu, Thunderstorm (雷雨)

Masked under a big budget and grand settings, it is really a socio-political commentary on China at heart..... At this point, Zhang Yimou has already hauled himself out of the pit that consisted of his last two films, Hero and House of the Flying Daggers.....

He failed with the previous two because he was being more of a cinematographer rather than a director.....

The crysanthenums used and imagery of rebellions wearing scarfs of crysanthenum were an obvious reference to China's tumultuous political history..... Blood was often seen drenching the scarfs that the rebellions wore.... indicating the bloodiness of the political sacrifices of the past

Iconography was put to good use by Zhang here......

The scene where the rebellions were trapped in a square-like yard was Zhang's take on the Tiananmen Square Incident, the part of Chinese History that the communist government chose to be oblivous to.....

Images of soldiers being crushed under heavy juggernault iron walls and being shot to death by arrows were reminiscent of rebellion students being rolled over by army tanks as well as shot by guns on that fateful day on Tiananmen Square.....

The King's iron-fisted rule on his country as well as family ultimately resulted in lives being lost on a national scale.... Zhang is stamping perhaps his personal opinion on the communist government here.....

With such solid layering in the script, it is probably Zhang's best film out of the three martial art blockbusters that he made in recent years.....

Despite all these mertis, Zhang has still bit way to go if he wants to catch up with Ang Lee's benchmark gongfu film, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and acheive something great

It is indeed a joy in watching Gongli act.... If you are able to see past her cleavage and concentrate on her acting, you would realise Gongli has a charismatic screen presence, carrying her role with natural gravitas.... A very much welcome change from the hollow prancing by another Chinese Superstar: Zhang Ziyi

Chow Yun Fatt is not exactly at his best like during Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon but he still carries the role with enough dignity....

The rest is not worth a mention, not even Liu Ye

The martial art cheorography is not well done, and looks suspiciously like Yuen Wo Ping's style

It is easy to dismiss all these big budget martial arts epics as cultural products made to pander to the Westerners......

But not all of them are like that.....So I go to the cinema time and time again, in case I miss a good one.....

And I am glad I didnt miss Curse

Rating: 3.5 stars

Lan Yu (蓝宇)

Lan Yu is a chinese gay film by Stanley Kwan (Jin Peng) set against the backdrop of China during the period of Tiananmen Square Incident.

It was filmed in a time when the Chinese was still very conservative about homosexuals and the topic is almost a taboo in China.....

The film was very bold in using explicit gay love scenes and other areas..... I think out of the many gay films I have watched, it is the closest any chinese film can get to gay pornography......

The male anatomy is usually protected from the silver screen even in European films where the Westerners are known for their liberal ideas. But in Lan Yu, it is being shown freely in the first few minutes of the film.....

Was actually quite disturbed by the gay love scenes for the night after I watched the show.... Because really very bold.....

I think it is a milestone for Chinese Cinema...... No wonder it caused a ruckus when it was being released back in the late 90s (or was it early millenium?)

Despite all the controversy that surrounds this film, I was surprised to discover that Ang Lee was not the first chinese director to handle the homosexual topic with great sensitivity with his now famous 'Brokeback Mountain'

Stanley Kwan did use the same amount of sensitivity in exploring the love between 2 men during a conservative time in a conservative place such as China.

So he must be applauded...... But I think I am too late.... Lan Yu has 10 Golden Horse Nominations, 5 wins including best director, best actor, best editing, best adapted screenplay, most popular film. It was also selected for Cannes Film Festival, the sacred ground for all successful indie films/arthouse fare/ great blockbusters

The actors were great as well.... Almost made me believe that they were really gay..... I wondered if how much vomitting they did after the bed scenes.... Haha

After a few years of separating and reuniting, after overcoming lots of obstacles, the main characters finally realised they were meant for each other..... But Lan Yu died due to a construction site accident.

I burst into tears when Lan Yu died...... Literally......

You could draw close parallels between Lan Yu and Brokeback Mountain.... They are really similar

One line from the screenplay impressed upon me very much:

两个人, 要是太熟了, 倒不好意思再玩下去了. 也就是说, 到该散的时候.

孔明兵法（二出祁山：孔明粮草不足，后虽取得粮草，却要撤军）

孔明曰：粮草虽足，但打持久战未必无患。倒不如出其不意撤兵，可免损兵折将。

Sometimes withdrawing might not help you achieve your goals, but it can prevent more hurt (有时候撤退不能帮你达成目标，但能免去更多的伤害)

When I know I have to withdraw, I will do it, even if I got 十万个不舍

明年，如果需要我撤兵，不管是否出其不意，我一定撤。

这对大家都好，你懂我的意思吗？