experimenting with hope since sunrise

posters.2005 - foreign, indie and regional

2005-11-29T18:16:01Z

NOTE: feel free to grab any of the posters below for your own collection if you have
one. i didn't get these from one place, just saved them whenever i came across cool
posters. and share good ones with me too!

OK, let's start with something old. everyone's favourite french chick, amelie.
this is a japanese regional poster of the fable. beautiful caligraphy(although
i'm curious as to how 'amelie' translates in japanese), somewhat predictable
japanese composition(centered down the middle but caligraphy somewhat
offsets this) and evenly placed props and beautifully textured background.
very untraditional credit lines on top. despite lack of excitement(mainly
due to composition) this is a faithful poster that depicts the film
quite well.

probably my first exposure to german film back in the day, and definitely
one of the first foreign films that i watched, that was yearsssss ago..
pretty cool layout showing lola in 3 segments, intercut with a shot
of her bf. you know what? this one work better when it's smaller..
i don't like it as much when it's this big... weird...

i'm a huge dan of reservoir dogs and pulp fiction but i hated his latest
two volumes mainly due to its lack of story and glorifying caricature
violence. but i can respect this rare jap poster of a woman on a mission
that uses plenty of negative space.

alright, new stuff.

this one caught my attention right away because of its textures. i have
not seen this film but i'm definitely keeping my eyes open for it. i love
the sheep(?) patterns on the wall which tells me the movie may be about this
dude who's suffering from insomnia ans is 'counting' the sheeps. it gives
you a completely different feeling than last year's machinist, which
felt whole a lot more dismal and bleak.

the text treatment is top notch, especially the credits in yellow, i absolutely
love it!!!!! the overall orange feel, juxt with black dots(sheeps), white/yellow
text, such a beautiful combination.

bio pics of tortured artists are something that doesn't work quite well
on film, at least to me mainly because these artists are such introverted
and maddeningly internal figures that it's often hard to get inside
their heads. and half the time i'm thinking 'do i really want to know
what's really going on inside their abstract minds?'. but i enjoyed
last year's girl with a pearl earring mainly because it focused on
the subject of the artist's painting rather than his life. having said
that, i wouldn't mind checking out this film. garcica's dignified pose
as he observes his painting(?) sets the tone of the film. the poster
itself has almost painterly quality to it, especially the colours.

whenever i look at andy garcis, i keep thinking 'so he has a third nipple
eh?' haha

by far, the most disturbing but definitely the most innovative and daring
film that i watched this year... i still quiver whenever i think of the first
10 minutes... the poster fits so well with the theme of the film and the
red tunnel is a torturous reminder of what went on down there... shivvveeerrrr...

japanese and their symmetry....

i love this poster because of the mood that it invokes with the girl's expression
on her face and the saturated photo. the type is all typical hollywood.
i'm definitely checking this one out when it comes out on dvd. damian
lewis was awesome as major winters in band of brothers and this one
got a lot of favorable reviews. it's supposedly about a man who suffers
from schizo and is searching for his daughter who may or may not be
a figment of his imagination.

one of the strangest films i got my hands on. i don't quite get S+M
so it was rather difficult fully understand the characters, and their
situations for that matter. i kept saying, 'what? why did she do that?'
and i found it slightly difficult to watch this film because the production
design was so bad. it's probably a matter of taste but i absolutely
hated the office set design; the corridor, office space, hell, even
her room. but the first spanking session was funny as hell and the
look on maggie's face was priceless. maggie gyllenhaal has one of the
most adorable voice over voices ever! actually she is quite adorable,
she's not beautiful or hot but there's a homey quality to her expressions.
i need to check out more of her films.

stunning poster for a french film. i don't know anything about this film
but from the poster i can tell it's a character-drive film rather than
plot-driven. the colours, props, composition and text treatment tell
me snippets about the characters in the film without giving away the
story. i'm intrigued and that's all the poster should do, spark interest.

great colours, clever type and photo.

love the colours in this one, the green and yellow, very southern. also
the subtle(or not so subtle) placement of the body and cop car in the
bg. the scratch textures actually work to heighten the mood in this
one. type treatment could have been better overall, it's typical hollywood
do. the glossiness of the arm's skin reminds me of silent hill 2......

this is probably the only time i'll tolerate looking at a man's hairy ass.....

blakc dahlia was suppose to be david fincher's next project but
he decided to go with zodiac, which i'm VERY looking forward to
as he's going back to his SE7EN roots. when i saw the poster i immediately
thought "cool, a lady Crow"...

i have no clue what this film is about but i like the structural look of
it all. yet another japanese regional.

vincent gallo's controversial flick with oral sex at the end. gallo's films
doesn't really do it for me, i thought buffalo 66 was terrible(save
for first 10 minutes where he's desperately looking for somewhere to
piss) mainly due to the despisable characters. someone from school
handed this film but i passed it. fugly brown type treatment in the
bottom but it's the photograph that draws you into it.

next one is quite similar in terms of imagery, in that both captures a specific
and passionate action. sympathy for mr. vengeance(literal korean translation
is 'vengeance is mine') by the korean auteur park chan-wook, is my
favourite film of this year(came out in 2002). sympathy is first
part of park's 'vengeance trilogy' which includes the famed oldboy
and recently released sympathy for lady vengeance(literal translation
is 'friendly miss geum-ja'). if you've seen oldboy and loved it, then
both sympathy films should be mandatory viewings. i personally loved
mr.vengeance much better than oldboy because it didn't rely on a gimmick
and felt like it was much more tighter and brutal film as a whole and
all the characters are so well justified, they all have their own valid
reasons for their actions. i may not condone revenge but i can empathize
with these ppl. go see this movie!!(last time i checked it was playing
in the new york theatres. i think it's out on dvd now)

so refreshing! photographically and typographically.
so clean and straight forward, no bullshit style. the film is about
an autistic dude whose mother trains him to become a great marathon
runner. i weeped.... oh how i weeped...

very cool film called 3-iron(literal translation is 'bin-jip' which is 'empty
house') by another festival favourite kim ki-duk who made spring, summer,
fall, winter... and spring. the tag says 'upon locking and leaving,
he fills the wife's empty space' or something along that line. definitely
worth checking out, it's about a dude who 'borrows' other ppl's empty
houses and do chores for them in return for the stay. the protagonist
doesn't have a single line. how cool is that? stunning floral pattern
on the bottom with credits, vibrant photograph and gradients.

ok, i've known that there are some fucked up horror films made in asia.
but recently it's getting slightly ridiculous, maybe desperate for
new material. i present you these 2 posters.

first up is a korean horror flick about a killer cello. that's right, a
killer cello. i'm never going to get tired of this. A KILLER CELLO!!!
maybe it's possessed or something but all i know is that the woman
starts killing her family. i'm laughing my ass off whenever i see the
poster, which is rather beautiful and cello is one of my favourite musical
instruments. nothing hotter than a hot woman playing a bach cello concerto
:D

next is 'wig', i guess it's about a killer wig?? hahhhaah
i love korean studio execs...

'the doll master' is yet another korean horror flick but this one actually
delivers, poster-wise. the imagery is stunning, beautiful and haunting
all at the same time. the film sounds like a generic horror flick with
buncha strangers in strange house getting chopped up by strange dolls
making strange noises.

the above is actually my own edit and below is the original poster. i cleaned
up the image, changed the type colour to black on white in order to
highlight the blood in her eye.

so. which poster do i like the best?

this poster is all class. it informs the audience so much without being
too literal and sets the mood of the film. the design, composition,
photography are all top notch. it's an aesthetically beautiful poster to
look at that fits well with type of films i'm into right now because these
are the ones i'm interested in making.

S4 test

2005-11-29T04:22:06Z

I finally got a new camera today after getting my trusty nikon 4500 stolen last year in ireland. i've been putting off buying a new camera because none of the cameras had a swivel lens and nikon discontinued 4500. a year after, they got s4 on the market and in preparation for the grand asian trip starting this saturday, i went downtown and picked up a unit. the camera itself was 460$cdn+tax and got a 1gb sd card for 120+tax. it's dark out so i can't test out the unit properly so i took some shots while reading the manual in my room.

oh how i missed the swivel! s4 is a 6mp cam with 10x optical zoom lens and 64mb internal ram. it can also do some video and voice recordings. i'll be using voice recording to tape conversations or interviews until i can get a recording add on for my ipod video. 4500 and sq had a video recording limit of 40 seconds but on s4 there isn't one, it'll keep recording until the mem card fills up.

3 initial test shots are taken in my room at night without a tripod, just me in my psedo rocking chair holding the cam as steady as possible. also, i have not altered these imgs in photoshop in anyway other than resize for web.

1x zoom without white balance

with white balance

unaltered cut outs from above shot at 6mp rez. you can tell digital artifacts and compression are visible but it doesn't look like it was taken at night.

10x zoom from the exact same position

i can't wait to test this out in bright sunny day!!!! these indoor night pics blew me away. digicams are notorious to take grainy photos with digital artifacts at night, especially inside but these pics look really clean.

mirroring fantasy

2005-11-02T18:25:21Z

ok. first of all, if you're even slightly, remotely interested in 3d, puppets,
fantasy and illustration, go see mirrormask. it's tragically flawed
but worth seeing.

there are plenty of things this film did really well. i know the director's
past work and his collaboration with the writer has been a long and
fruitful one. neil gaiman was one of my favourite authors for a long
time but many of his books tickled me the wrong way. the sandman is
a masterpiece that could stand up against any prized literary works
of fiction. and dave mckean's illustrations, paintings and digital
works have been an ongoing inspiration for me for a looooong time.
i was super excited to hear that he and gaiman were collaborating once
again on a feature film, an avenue that i'm looking forward to get
into. and as i was watching this film, i got so many really cool ideas
for my own film. for the most part the film was what i was expecting,
mckean's paintings and illustration in motion and that's where this
film truly shines. his unique drawing style is everywhere and reaches
every corner of the film, from masks character wear, drawings posted
on helena's wall, puppets helena use, decors of the sets, etc. everything
oozes mckean's touch.

TRAILER(via apple.com)

i was completely thrown into this film in the first half of the film
but at midway through i started to loose interest. there is a reason
why i dislike fantasy films and books and why i found neil gaiman's
latest works rather shallow. i was thinking about it after the movie
and figured this out. fantasy is convenient. quite simple
right? fantasy is a world created by someone's imagination. the creators
usually start with a set of rules that they must obey and most often
these rules aren't very clear to the audience and are left dangling
and causes confusion and much irritation in my case. the thing that
i hate about fantasy is that i'm never sure the extend of these rules
and films do not have enough time to go through every one of them.
for example, if they're using magic, i'm always asking, 'how much good
or bad does it do?' 'how come it can affect one thing but not the other?'
'how much of a magic reservoir does the character have?' 'how can you tell
the character doesn't have any more power to use these magic?' 'where does
his power come from?' 'what's the limitation of his power?' 'can it run
out for good?'.... it's endless. when i'm watching a movie i shouldn't
ask these questions and distract me from the content and take me out of
the world these ppl created. when a movie is based in reality, i don't
have to ask these questions because i know the ground rules already, i
live by them. so what do i mean by fantasy is convenient? since the entire
world is created by someone, they can easily solve problems by adding new
things that we're not aware of. 'well, looks like this is a sticky situation,
i guess i'll just use my magic to get us out of it.' this is why
i find neil gaiman's work shallow(not the sandman). his novels
run some 300 pages. it's not alot of space to fill if you ask me for
a fantasy novel considering everything i mentioned above.

neil gaiman(standing) and dave mckean.

he would often introduce characters or subplots but never go into them fully.
and there are always reasons why they were introduced, to bail protagonists
when they fall into plot pits. he'll mention something in his fantasy
world in the beginning and take advantage of it later on. for example,
in mirrormask the sidekick mentions that he lives in a big tower but
he cannot show it to helena. he finally admits that the tower flew
away. at the very end of the film when they're about to get devoured
by the shadow or whatever, the sidekick shouts an apology to his tower and
it comes to rescue them. the tower doesn't have anything to do with main
focus of the film but it's conveniently placed to be used by the protagonists
when all fails. gaiman is trying to establish a rule here but not a good
one. he doesn't want tower to come in all of sudden without being mentioned
before but we do not see the importance it has on the characters before
the final rescue, so he plants a dialogue in the beginning to let the
audience know that there is this flying tower but he can't show it to us
just yet. in chcaracter-driven films subplots are congtigent, meaning
the character create many subplots or are introduced to many other
characters and most are never reintroduced or used by the protagonist. but
that's more close to our reality. we meet ppl on daily basis and hear about
various stories that we don't use later on in the day. we filter
information and most aren't relative. but in gaiman's world there is
a reason for everything, reasons why such and such are there. that's the
shallow part. there's no depth to these plot devices. i felt this way about
american gods, good omen and his other post-sandman projects.

ok enough rant about fantasy. another thing this film did not do well is
the story, which feels like a modern interpretation of alice in wonderland
and wizard of oz. here's one thing that bothered me more than anything.
i've learned that in plot-driven films characters go through a change.
it can be an emotional change, spiritual change or physical change.
some kind of transformation that character go through in the course
of the movie. this is important because the audience is going on a
journey of this character and witness the things that cause the change,
thus making more emotional bond between the audience and character. when
mirrormask starts, helena is seen as more or less irresponsible and obnoxious
brat who's sick of helping her family business. you can already imagine what
kind of change she'll go through by the end of the film. BUT, she changes
even before the main portion of the film begins. her mother faints and goes
to the hospital. helena realizes her wrong and confesses her love for
her mother and feels guilty about all the things she did to her. in
the first 10 minutes she already grew up and carries that sentiment until
the end. sure i made connection with the character as she went through this
hardship of seeing her mother in the hospital but that connection wasn't
fortified in the main portion because there wasn't anything more that could
be added to our relationship and it tore apart, getting me to care less and
less about helena. and that, to me, is a big flaw in story department.
she was suppose to be thrown into the fantasy world as a brat but through
the course of her journey she gains appreciation for her family and comes
back as a loving daughter.

another flaw is its formula, which isn't new. it's a typical fantasy about
a young girl who goes into a fantasy world in order to save someone and goes
on a long journey to find the answer. it has tons of exposition in the beginning
in order to establish the story and rules, which is always a stressful thing
and i got lost. she gets backstabbed by her sidekick on the way who comes
back to save her back. ending is very abrupt and feels like you're missing
something.

i'll end this with a positive note. the 3d effects in this movie is to die
for, especially in the first half. the credit sequence is in the beginning
is orgasmic with mckean's trademark design shown completely in 3d. many of
the sets employ textural handwritings that are absolutely breathtaking to
look at and add alot to the atmosphere. in the second half sets are less
inspirating because they're quite bland. the two characters walk down the
street or path and there are blocks of buildings in straight line. that's
it. in contrast, there is a bridge scene in the beeginning where the world
comes alive with various characters crossing the bridge, schools of fish
swimming everywhere, books flying, etc. it feels like an interactive world
that characters can live and breath in. later on you can see the distinction
between background set and foreground characters and there's no interaction.

all in all, this is a beautiful film to look at but not much more. first
5 minutes of the film is probably the highlight but the bridge scene
and the library scene are both truly inspirational.

miranda july has the most beautiful eyes i've ever seen....

2005-11-01T06:08:54Z

"R..... I........N..........come on, come on...........G..

"We have a whole life to live together, you fucker! But it can't start until you call."

this instantly became one of my favourite films of the year.... i'm just beaming with glee right now...

i'm not gonna say much on this but i found this comment in imdb, it analyses the film so perfectly...

SPOILER ALERT

Miranda July created a perfect picture. I knew nothing before we went in, and read only afterward that she was a performance artist and thought "a ha", that explains how she achieved such True Art on Film. The picture seems so clever and adorably funny on the surface, but its lessons and beauty run to our core emotions and instincts. My husband and I walked all the way home marveling at how many gorgeous layers there are to peel away and enjoy, flavor by flavor. My favorites:

The SYMMETRY: Of the storyline, the first (goldfish) and last (Ellen) eulogies. From the desperate danger of the fire on John Hawke's hand, to the comfort of the fire of the rising sun in his youngest son's eyes. The round circle of peepers tended by their mother. The perfect dialog, "Like I'm a man in a book and you're just meeting the man in the book".

The REFLECTIONS: the full moon in John Hawke's full moon eyes, the reflected circle spotlighting him and then how he helped her repair the mirror, how he hated the reflected words of self esteem on his ex-wife's night shirt because only the wearer can read them in a mirror. The art curator fell in love with a reflection of herself, her own words simply pasted back to her, framed by a child's most basic understanding of sex (poop) and love (back and forth, forever). The F*** spelled backwards on her windshield under the reflections of passing trees. The distorted reflections of the fish in the water bag (John Hawke is riding along a dangerous road himself) as Miranda said "I don't know you but I love you" which reflect her developing feelings towards the special shoe salesman, after the empathy and insight he had shown into her undeserved (foot) pain. The passengers looking, or not looking, in their rearview mirrors at the fish on the cars.

The TOUCHES: How touch changes and heals us! The old man thought a shoe salesman touching his foot "was part of the service", but no "We never touch the foot." Miranda touches her three magic pink dots on her dashboard for strength, but she touches John Hawkes' squishy banana (decal) on his dash far too soon. The art curator and her assistant foolishly thinking a hamburger wrapper was sculpture because they did not dare touch it! The child's kind stroking of the art curator's hair, and the gentle knowing kiss of the woman to the child. Andrew, the other shoe salesman/neighbor says to them how wrong it is for him to touch the underage girls as he longs to, and the girls progress from applying bad makeup to kissing each other instead. And, of course, the healing touch of Miranda's pale perfect arm on the burnt hand of John Hawkes finally brings them both the sweetest peace. And their relaxation in embrace, brings peace to the viewer as well.

The HOPE: The brushes with immorality that always veer back to the side of the pure. The other shoe salesman/neighbor, who could think and write about hooking up with the underage girls, but when faced with their knock on the door, he was rightfully horrified.The kindness of the older boy Peter, who was able to sense that the girls' friendship depended on him telling them they were both skilled the same (when they weren't). And his responding to the mother-peep's public denials about her Hope chest by bringing her a private gift for it, and partaking in her imaginings of loving a daughter. The boy who could have been hurt walking home but wasn't. The possible internet molestation that instead became a tender moment on a park bench. That the curator woman with Cattitude (oh what that mug said about critics and their view of art!) had no family, and dog, and dog family, to sing carols with in summertime, but she walked away from that bench happy with the strange but beautiful connection she had made... So happy that she could finally appreciate the strange but beautiful macaroni.

And the RESPECT the film showed: for the young who are also sexual beings, in their way, for the single parent, for race, for the elderly, who still grow as much every day as the young: Yes, old Ellen was right, Miranda should collaborate, and it is her shared work with the old man that made it in the exhibition...... Miranda wanted to make it alone, but, like we all know, the Mayan ruins (or apartment building ruins, or family ruins) are always more beautiful with a partner. Only after Miranda the solo artist was ready to truly accept and enjoy working with someone else, and only after John's protective bandages were removed, did he call to begin their true love. Yes, the old man was right, even if the little girl saw her new goldfish die "At least we're all in this together."

reversing the irreversible...

2005-10-27T04:57:33Z

fuck. i feel like i've lost my innocence... what's left of it...

to say irreversible is an uncomfortable movie to sit through is an understatement of staggering proportion. i know there are more brutual films out there, and the opening subway scene in suicide circle was probably the most disturbing thing i've ever watched. but irreversible feels like i've crossed the line.

at the same time it was brilliant in many respect. but one thing for sure, i'll never watch that film again... i'm still a little shaken from watch the first 10 minutes, i don't know how they did the beating scenes. since this comes from an art house background, there was a thought in the back of my mind that perhaps this is all real, the breaking elbow and bashing in the face. wouldn't someone die for the sake of art? ok maybe not, but when i was watching it i was totally convinced that someone's real face was being mashed to bits. so i guess major kudos to the editors. this scene reminded me of another head bashing scene in dancer in the dark.. that too was difficult to watch and they didn't even show it...

the camera motion is absolutely brilliant in the first half, although not easy to sit through, not only to make the audience feel oozy and nauceas but as a method to convey the protagonist's mental shock, his adrenaline pumping having seen his wife/gf(?)'s bloody mess and with all the drugs and booze in the system. wouldn't you go absolutely nuts while searching for the rapist to wreak your vengeance? the camera becomes a visual extension of this rush as the protagonist and his buddy go around the town looking for the assailant. it stabilizes in the second half and we know everything's all well and good, but damn! how the fuck did they shoot that??? i can totally understand how some audience members walked out of the screening room. i hear the director added some bass frequency to the soundtrack to make it difficult for us to endure, physiologically.

i understand that the film is about the act in itself and not about a story but i wish there was more to this movie than buncha drunks talking about sex in the subway, rather obnoxiously. there weren't much substance in the characterization department, where characters could interact and have a decent amount of dialogues and allow us to learn about them. at the same time after the brutual first ten minutes, is it really that important to learn anything about them prior to the main event? but what annoyed me was the repetition of the lines and no one seems to be listening to each other or at least spice up the lines and change things around, and not repeat it over and over again.

lastly, the final scene is beautiful, almost worth enduring this for. i don't know how to express it, the final shot of the park with beethoven's 7th symphony is something that i want to capture in my own film, the serenity of it all.

if you just see these imgs you won't believe the shit that goes on before it.

bottom line is, if you have weak stomach, AVOID this one at all costs. you will not be able to sit through this for more than 5 minutes. this film will not scare or terrify you for 5 seconds like some horror flicks. it'll ruin your night and leave you shaken long after you turn your tv off. this is more like a snuff film that'll make you feel like you somehow made a wrong turn somewhere in your life... i think i'm going to stick to pokemon and carebears from now on...

new site

2005-10-19T21:17:32Z

to keep myself occupied, i started doing some design. it's about time right? i was fiddling around with some styles and ended up with this. it's just screenshot right now, i'm having problem getting it to work on IE and firefox. safari seems to be much more forgiving then other browsers.

splash screen for amelify.deux, which launches a main window.

from main window, you can access other mini windows(pages). click on the image below to see all windows.

the entire design was done last night, took about 6 hours(from fooling around to actually finding a focal point to work around with) and some coding this afternoon. all design's done with illustrator, html with dreamweaver. i gotta learn dw properly. alot of cool things i wanna try but i don't know what's possible, limits my concept. or at least know the program enough so that i can guide a programmer to do what i want.

Fucking Åmål

2005-10-16T02:27:58Z

go download this movie now!

or buy. i'm going to try to find this film on dvd, but i got a divx from tspy. if you like kids, you'll love this coming-of-age(this is almost a sacrilege thing to say nowadays...) film. very honest, raw, poignant and features the hottest kissing scene ever(but in the most touching way). it's not so much about sex(unlike kids) but discovering love for the first time, how awkward and embarrasing and often mortifying it can be, especially for young girls. if you're a pedophile you'll drool for about 90 minutes straight because this film's leads are 14+16 year old girls :D

such beautiful film. aside from the obvious, i absolutely loved agnes' father. he sees his daughter going through a turnmoil and allow her the privacy that all teenagers want. he knows she's in her own hell right now and there's not much he can do. but he tries to get her on her feet, tells her anecdotes about his life to let her know that in the end things work out for the best even if it may seem torturous at the moment. you may loose a battle but ultimately win the war, that kind of mentality. i sat there watching him, wanting to become a father figure like him when i have children of my own kids, a father who tries to understand the life of his own child and relate to their problems without being obtrusive, allowing them to grow and learn at their own pace. let them have their space but let them know a father's unconditional support and love are within reach. i know it may seem like it's something every parent should do but in real life such thing is not an easy task, not everyone is fit to be a parent. it must be terrifying to see one's own child to suffer through a problem not knowing if you can help in the matter. i felt agnes' father's pain and love for his daughter and like the love between agnes and elin, his emotions felt real, honest and raw.

also i think this movie has one of the best endings in recent memory. elin's conversation about the chocolate milk ratio seems so trivial but it shows who they really are. the issue of homosexuality is a 'grown up' matter and when faced with their friends and others, they come off as if they have full control over the matter - "we're gonna go fuck now", but the next scene we see them sipping chocolate milk rather awkwardly... the scene told me that in the end, they are just children at least for the moment and they are exploring their sexuality without putting pressure on themselves. it's simply love, just two human beings in love with each other, or at the prospect of being in love. just beautiful.

Åmål in the title refers to a small suburban town in sweden where nothing interesting ever happens, just so you know. definitely the best movie title ever! also recommend lost and delirious if you enjoy this sorta films, very similar themes

i've been gloomy in the past several days but watching Åmål cheered me up so much. i'm gonna watch it again tomorrow. 9/10, imdb link

mom:

2005-09-29T15:32:58Z

"son, take your time. this is going to be extra hard because you've never failed at something."

divorce italian style / marathon

2005-08-23T21:14:32Z

just a quick note that i checked out divorce. i thought there was a remake and there wasn't. i found out after renting it that it's from the 60's. i hesitantly put it in(with slight positive outlook because it was a criterion edition) but i was pleasantly surprised to find a film that still looks good and stands up against test of time. although it may not be relevant today as it was 40 years ago, the film is hysterically funny and imaginative. handful of times i said to myself i have to try some of these film tricks. definitely check this out, i don't usually watch movies that are older than 20 years but this was an awesome find.

marathon: wow. wow. i have to preface that there's been only 3 movies that made me on the verge of crying or welled me up in the past. they are grave of the fireflies, iron giant and braveheart. and intensity of tears in that order and all for very different reasons. i'm proud to admit tears rolled down my cheeks 3 times during this film...

i'm almost 95% sure no one reading my blog has heard of this korean film nor have access to it, readily. like many of the films i watch i grabbed this from torrentspy when i was in school and boy am i glad i did. my cousin recommended this film and i wasn't sure if i would like it. the only thing i knew of this film was that it was about someone dealing with a disability. so i assumed it was one of those cliched "heartwarming drama about human will, going against all odds" type of story. in the easiest sense of the word, it is. but there's so much more than that. i think this one is slightly different from movies from this sub-genre because the disability is autism and the protagonist can't sense pity and can't express emotions. and this film really is about a mother and a son striving to prove that one can be extraordinary even with deficiencies. but more than anything the mother character blew me away. in the beginning of the film you see her struggling with her son who clearly lives in his own little world, the one that she doesn't reside in. she's on the verge of giving up and in one scene she lets her son's hand go and he wanders off into the crowd and disappears for half an afternoon in the zoo. you can feel the pain of this mother, of wanting to get rid of this 'defective' child but she soon realizes her mistake when she finds her son again. towards the end of the film she finds out that her son remembers all this(even though he was only 5 or 6 at the time and he's 20 or 21 now) and know why she let his hand go. she's shocked as you can imagine and the burden is almost impossible to realize. at the end of the film, they're put into a scenario where she has to decide whether to literally let her son's hand go. she knows her son may die if she lets his hand slip out of his. and even though the scenes are pretty close, you witness the change from beginning to end and the context and risks are vastly different. it's a heartbreaking scene...

there is another really great scene where the mother realizes her mistake over the years. she's trained her son to respond in certain way for the past 15 years, such as "are you tired? you're not tired, right?" and he'd reply "right". it's phrased in a way so that someone with autism will reply as a natural extension of the question. towards end of the film she realizes that no matter how her son feels physically and mentally, his response is always the same, whichever makes her happy and she can't tell which is true. she questions herself whether she got her son to run because he truly enjoyed it or because his ability to run gave her a sense of reason for HER to live. and when asked about it, she gets the answer she's wanting to hear but after realizing this she just doesn't know anymore.

i always tell ppl that i learn filmmaking from watching both great and bad movies. when i was watching marathon, i was witnessing a great storytelling unfold and it's worthy of dissection and figure out exactly what it did right. one big reason off the top of the hat is the cyclical nature of the story, especially the two "hands" scenes. one in the beginning and another at the end, which are almost replicas but the morphing of context of the scenes is what makes it so great. i need to learn to write in this matter. this is a great way to show change that occurs inside characters, which is one of the key points in writing a great story.

the origin

2005-08-19T19:36:21Z

i was very weary when i first heard my beloved christopher nolan was going to do a comic book flick. not that i doubted nolan could pull it off(and who couldn't nowadays...) but i didn't want to see one of my favourite directors taking a route that many talented indie directors took and tied up making trilogies and trilogies of comic book adaptations. two best examples are sam raimi and bryan singer. sam raimi came from the evil dead fame, and went on to direct 2 spider-man flicks(and supposedly about 5 more coming too), while bryan singer made a huge splash several years ago with the usual suspect and went on to handle x-men and X2, and now upcoming superman. there was even talk of darren aronofsky(requiem for a dream) doing the watchmen(the holy grail of all things superhero comics) and an origin of batman flick(which nolan took over). i can understand the reasoning behind hollywood bribing these young underground directors to ressurect a tired and stale genre by infusing a new perspective but i want to see these directors doing what they do best; creating personal, challenging, low-budget and uncompromising films. but having a perfect track record, i knew nolan could come out and give the mainstream audience something they have never seen before from a comic adaptation film, with a franchise that has been on the tumbling decline ever since the devil himself(joel schumacher) took over. schumacher pretty much raped batman and his young protege from every angle and left for dead. no wonder warner needed a young blood to revive the franchise.

i went to see begins on tuesday before meeting ray and rich for a short boys' night out. i figure it being a tuesday and early afternoon i thought i would be seeing a matinee. but no... i had to pay 12 bucks and change for an imax screening. apparently it's a criminal for a movie ticket to go below 10 bucks in canada... no wonder i download movies instead of going to theatres more regularly. i think the last time i went to a theatre to watch a movie was the incredibles.. or was it a very long engagement? i dunno.

first off, i absolutely loved this film even though i'm not into comic books all that much. i prefer graphic novels that depict life AS IS but i do own the watchmen and batman: year one, which the film was loosely based on. going back to origin of a character that's so well known to the mainstream audience can be dangerous. i suppose spider-man's story from the beginning was inevitable for the modern audience but batman character was modernized in the 90s with 4 films. and only several years later they want to restart it again under a different director with completely new vision? dangerous indeed. but i'm totally happy to say that i should have never doubted nolan. although i'm head over heeels happy about him going back to his roots and making a small film called the exec(due in 2006) with his brother jonah writing the screenplay, after seeing begins i wouldn't mind seeing a sequel of begins by nolan. he should NOT be tied up for who knows how many more batman films but he should be given the freedom to create original films like memento.

now, begins is not a perfect film by any stretch of imagination but the positive FAAAARRRRR overweighs the bad. the best part of this film was nolan's depiction of batman as an ordinary human being without an ounce of superpower. he has the will, determination, training and financial backing but he can't fly on his own free will, shoot death rays from his ass and is completely immuned to krytonite. it's easy to show bruce wayne making series of good choices as he transform into the dark knight but noland chose to humanize him by letting him make mistakes and improve his tactics. whenever i watch a comic book flick, i always wonder how the superheroes made their own costumes so professionally, or how their base was constructed or how their gadgets were conceived and manufactured. most of these miniscule questions are of course almost never answered and are part of the superhero mystery. the incredibles did, however, showed that there was a designer behind supercostume who insists that no one should ever wear capes. another thing that begins did so well is not only showing the evolution of batman and his weapons and gears but how logical every single one of these wares are and how integral to batman's transformation. i loved the scenes where bruce wayne is slowly trying out various gears in real life condition and making modifications and adjustments to fit his needs. and for once the infamous cape is justified. edna will be proud.

also, the urgency portrayed in the latter half is quite thrilling. the scene where batman is stuck in a building(the arkham asylum) and brings the bats for his escape is taken straight out of batman year one. i was completely into the film at this point and the collective score by the superstars hans zimmer and james howard newton added so much to the scene. i can't quite describe the feeling of desperation and urgency but i got a similar vibe while watching first season of 24. there was a part where jack escaped from police custody and was being hunted down. he then got a call from his wife and daughter who were being captive. even though jack was in much worst scenario, he tried his best to calmed down his family while trying to get himself back in charge. nolan did similar thing here by giving batman a juggling lesson, by dangling a life in front of him.

some positives other than mentioned above
+the test of bruce wayne as a ninja before he confronts ken watanabe character was amazing. it was like something in the mirror land where you see your enemy and he quickly fades into the background. such a cool twist!
+batmobile.. wow. i was shocked to see picture of the batmobile long long time ago and didn't think it made any sense. having seen it in action, it makes perfect sense! someone who's battling the entire city need a hummer-like vehicle that can bulldoze over anything. a sportscar-like batmobile just didn't make sense after watching this. also the vehicle is a real thing, not a cgi. nolan actually got his ppl to build several of them for shooting.
+batman's voice. whenever i saw superman on telly, i always wondered if everyone in there were blind. there's no way kent clark could just change costume and remove the glasses and not have anyone recognize him. aside from batman's total transformation with costume, he also changed the voice... it was so obvious i can't believe burton didn't see this way. also utilizing the natural attributes of bats such as heighten sense of hearing incorporated into the costume was brilliant.
+nolan's ongoing exploration of that gray area between good and evil, and degrees and layers of good and justice.
+batman on fire! it was amazing to see batman being a novice despite all the training. he's still inexperienced as a crime fighter and require all the assistance from his surroundings and ppl he trusts.
+when this film is on, it's really on.
+again, the music, while not as iconic as original batman, does an amazing job.
+dark knight is finally seen as a dark figure. the film is much much more grim and darker than previous incarnations. it sucked out all comic book-ey feel out of it, making it feel like it can stand as a film with satisfying merits of its own rather than leaning on its comic origin for support.

some negative points
-all hand-to-hand fight sequences were so close to the camera that it was very difficult to comprehend exactly what was going on, who's kicking who, and so on.
-the training scene could have been longer, especially wayne training with other ninjas.
-minor gripe with the script. i really dislike repetition in scripts.
-the batmobile going 'stealth'? .........................
-katie holmes' nipples should have gotten a seperate credit....
-i absolutely HATE quick reactionary cuts of extras. i loathe it!!! the obligatory kid having a small part in there to show that batman isn't all killing and knock outs. fuck that, get that brat out of there! and these cops not knowing how to react to the batmobile when they first see it. i fucking hated their dumbfounded comments.. "what maker is the vehicle? oh. i see it."
-league of whatever.
-the glacier shots. they are breath takingly beautiful but nolan already used it in intro shots of insomnia. i really need to check out iceland...
-the first 5 minutes of the film were paced too fast. i felt as if there was no exposition whatsoever.
-too many characters to develop, not enough time. i thought scarecrow was neglected, i didn't quite understand where he was coming from and what his motives were.

there are alot more to go over but i'm tired....

empty house

2005-08-13T21:58:47Z

3-iron or "bin jip" in korean(it means 'empty house'), written and directed by the famed korean director kim ki-duk who made the delightful and heartbreakingly silent spring, summer, fall, winter... and spring. i didn't know it was the same dude when watching this film but once i found the link on imdb afterwards it made perfect sense. if you liked spring then you'll enjoy this one as well.

pretty stylish and subtle poster above. this one below is enlgish poster but lacks the finese of the korean version. but nevertheless it captures the mood of the film quite nicely.

i'm surprised that the english title is so off, it refers to a golf club that the protagonist uses, but unless i misinterpreted the film that golf club doesn't have a lot of significance, certainly less than 'empty house' of korean title.

the film is about a young man who sneaks into empty houses while the owners are off to vacation or whatever. he encounters an abused woman in one of the houses and she soon joins a silent adventure as he moves from one house to another. he doesn't steal or cause harm, he pays the debt to the owners of the houses he sneaks into by fixing whatever he finds broken around the house(like toy bb gun, scale, stereo and clock) and doing dirty laundry for them. the premise of the film doesn't seem like much but i was totally enthralled, fascinated by every move just like the woman who quickly adapts this new lifestyle. neither of them exchange words, the protagonst don't have ANY verbal lines and only about one page of dialogues are in the entire film. particularly amusing part takes place in the jail. also the final shot of the film is symbolically brilliant. kim made a distinct point that life is a constant cycle with spring and he makes another point that life is complete with two complimentary parts.

again, i don't wanna say much because i want ppl to go check out this film instead of reading about it. it's definitely NOT for everyone but it's not a trying film that require a buddhist level of patience and will. it's a silent, enjoyable and fascinating film that'll put a smile on your face. i got the film from torrentspy some time ago but it looks like there aren't any seeds so you won't be able to download it off the net. maybe check vide stores with great foreign selections? good luck. i'll be viewing kim's samaria next, also from torrentspy.

cloudless sky

2005-08-06T16:38:59Z

it's such a nice day today so i decided to do some work outside on my backyard patio. currently finishing up the largo website.

canadian weather's kind of strange to say the least. one day it's steaming hot with unbearable humidity and the next day it's chilly. i'm out here in hoody... it'll probably start snowing next week....

crashed and burned

2005-07-17T00:12:23Z

finally, my day off arrives. and that means i get to watch movies and relax all day. 2 movies to report; 1 good, 1 sorta irritating.

the first movie i watched today is called DER UNTERGANG(aka the downfall), a german film that chronicles adolf hitler's last few days.

i was always curious on this matter, particularly how german people perceived the second world war. it's easy to see the outcome of the war through american perspective but it's not an easy thing to see the war from native german's point of view. it's not that all germans during that period in dark history were the enemy of humankind, but they were following a man with an obsessive, unjust and egotistical vision of the world that he wish to create for a human kind that he doesn't even belong to. in post-ww2 society hitler is immortalized as the embodiment of evil and all things wrong and unjust but the truth is he too is a human being. this film portrayed hitler as a frail, bitter, angry and unswerving man who refused to accept the inevitable. the generals by his side followed the similar fate due to the oath they swore by and loyalty to the man they called fuhrer. it's absolutely mindboggling that a group of powerful men and women would follow a man with crooked vision without questioning anything. the film doesn't show you the origins of hitler or the war but instead it details last several days that lead into germany's unconditional surrender.

some great comments from imdb users.

Der Untergang is not a movie, as some people would probably expect, that shows the leaders of the Third Reich as real monsters. It is a psychological attempt at creating a slightly different image of Hitler and his closest "companions" than has been preferred by many so far. The "monsters" appear to have human feelings. They, however, have mostly dark rather than black souls. The whole movie is truthful to history since it is highly based on the notions of Hitler's secretary, Traudl Humps - Junge. To my surprise, she herself appears at the end of the movie, old, tired of her sad memories from the 1940s. Her words "One could look for the truth even if we did not know the scale of human tragedy" prove that she was not one of the blind Nazi propaganda followers but someone who believed that everyone is a child of God and it is not right to kill. The strange destiny of hers led her to Hitler somehow unconsciously.

I think the choice of depicting Hitler as a human being with a dispassionate and modest direction was excellent. The film never tries to force viewers into an opinion. Everybody can form his own opinion. Too often the horrors of WWII led writers and directors to depict Nazis as monsters. Perfectly normal human beings can be cruel and merciless if they are blinded (by hate for example), which should never be forgotten.

In a way, a human Hitler to me is more guilty than a raving monster. He had the choice and he chose to do wrong. He could choose life and he chose murder and destruction. A human being lost respect for the life of other human beings and led a country into genocide. Ultimately he loses respect for all life and starts sacrificing his own soldiers at random. This is what I value this film for, making the idea of a human Hitler tangible.

there is a beautiful shot towards the end of this film that stuck in my mind. one of the general's wife brought all their 6 children to bunkers for safety earlier in the film and when the surrender is evident, she first gives them sleeping medicine then comes around to give them poison while they're all passed out. she pulls their blankets over their heads one by one and the blanket is small enough that their feet are exposed.

if you're interested in world war 2 or hitler at all, do check out this unique film. also, check out grave of the fireflies, which tells a story about two japanese war orphans who attempts to survive on their own in war-striken japan.

the second movie of the day was paul haggis' crash(2004).

haggis made a splash last year when he garnered an oscar nomination for his million dollar baby script. he wrote the story and directed this feature about a group of l.a. citizens who are connected by racism. i have to say this now, this movie rubbed me the wrong way from the start. to be fair, i'm not very big on racial themes because it's a tricky thing to pull off and hasn't been done in a manner that i would like. i can only list american history x as a movie that handled the racial matters to a satisfying degree. i know what haggis tried to do, showing how racism is embedded in our multicultral society here in north america and how it can come in both subtle and forward ways, AND how ppl who are racist can do something compassionate towards groups of ppl they're prejudice against and how liberal and open-minded ppl can subconsciously cause racial damage.

the main aspect of this movie that bothered so much was how it handled happenstance. the movie takes place over period of one day in los angeles. during this one day, over a dozen main characters(most of whom don't have direct connections before this faithful day) are reluctantly linked by racism. this is one thing that i absolutely cannot believe. let me give you an example. an affrican-american couple driving SUV is pulled over by 2 white cops because the wife was giving her husband a blowjob. the woman is molested by a racist cop while being pat down. they're let go with a warning after her husband's "dignity was taken away". the following day the racist cop's partner switches partners after witnessing this act and they split up. the husband's SUV is almost hijacked in the afternoon and is confronted by the partner while the wife gets into an accident only to be saved by the racist cop around the same time. can you say convenient? oh there's more. later on the movie links one of the hijackers with the partner and that same dude with a detective from the beginning of the film. the coinceidences are just TOO convenient for my liking and it seems like the 2 dozen or so characters are linked too obviously. i got the impression that haggis loved robert altman's shortcuts and p.t. anderson's magnolia just way too much. by no means i absolutely adore non-linear, multiple perspective films with interconnecting storylines but am i to believe that the only thing linking all these ppl to each other is racism??? is that really the only reason that strangers run into each other? ok fine the msg was decent at best but the director had a such narrow and single minded vision that i had difficult time believing anything. there's so much more to life than hatred, prejudice and stereotypes, and definitely so in a metropolis like l.a. the only diversity i could find was the skin colours of the ppl portrayed in this film, which pretty much goes through every ethnicity in the world; persians, caucassians, blacks, asians and latinos. the movie tried to make a point but it was so obvious and in your face, it felt preachy at most times... i'm sorry if you liked this film, many did if you look at the imdb page.

While covering a multitude of arguments and ideas, Haggis's theme for "Crash" centers on the thought of faulty human communication; the film suggests that people have grown cold to affection and respect, instead immediately using hatred and paranoia as a way of communicating with their fellow man, almost always with disastrous consequences. The L.A. backdrop to the film explores the intense racial loathing and confusion that plagues the city, and while I'm not a fan of using the tired metropolis as a location for any film, "Crash" almost couldn't be set anywhere else. The setting has just the right melting pot flashpoint posture to sell this seething tale, instilling the film with a realistic take on racial claustrophobia. Like many films, "Crash" makes Los Angeles look like hell on Earth. Yet, Haggis doesn't give in to that fear, and manages to find a palpable sense of hope behind the shattering of cultures and furious intolerance.

i have to admit the movie did a good job of how ppl(especially those new to the country and language) often jump to conclusions based on stereotypes which leads to further paranoia. also there was one really great shot(pictured in the poster above), where michael pena's character's daughter gets shot while trying to protect him from paranoid persian man who accused pena of trashing his store. don't worry this isn't much of a spoiler and you'll understand what i mean when you watch the film. the shot of pena breaking down, holding his daughter and voicelessly shouting against subtle music is quite marvellous.

but ultimately this one was one hard pill to swallow for me because of its blatant nature.

hack hack hack hack hack

2005-07-11T16:52:30Z

steven spielberg is a hack. i am absolutely convinced with utter conviction that
the 'master' director has been faking all along with help of crew that's comprised
of equal mix of competent and scanty filmmakers. i witnessed a movie last that
made me realize that i've been had all these years.

it's not that the production value, acting or any other aspects that make
up a film because it was a decent effort, far from harsh criticism, and that alone
should be saying something at the current sad state of affairs in hollywood right now.
the problem is the story. there are too many plot holes, inconsistancies and impractical
situations to be listed. i find it impossible to believe that a foreign man
gets slip through immigrantion hole and lives in jfk airport for 9+ months?
just how many lines of coke did the writers do before coming up with that?
i'll mention several things that did not make any sense to me.

1. why didn't viktor try to use the media to his advantage? i can understand
his predicament of not having a country to call of his own and not speaking
the universal language of capitalism but when he gradually picks up english
and befriends several airport workers, why didn't he ask for their help? he
could have easily asked them to call up any of the local news stations or newspaper
reporters and give them this potentially interesting story and win the hearts
of manhattanites. this could lead to his exposure to the world he's forbidden
to enter and get the head of immigrantion's attention. why in the world did
viktor not asked to be transferred to his country's embassy? or i should say,
his former country, that way they could all have shared the same situation
and stay in neutral ground and not enter american soil. isn't that what embassies
and consulates are for? also, if his entire business in manhattan was to get
a signature of a saxophone player, why didn't he just escape the airport for
30 minutes(more like 2 hours if he's traveling by taxi in nyc) with help of
the trio? it's not like dixon's watching viktor 24/7, i mean, he IS the head
of security over there, doesn't he have thousands of visitors coming through?
is it really that difficult to slip past the guards in a crate for an afternoon?
was it the 'honnourable' thing to wait 9+ months to finally get out, and he
did do it illegally since he did not receive dixon's signature on his special
visa. so what was the difference between illegally walking out of the airtport
and illegally slipping out of the airport? also, why wasn't there any other
krakozhians on that plane as viktor? i find it hard to believe that a plane
originating from that country had only one native passenger.

2. diego luna, you seriously need an advisor. what a shame, he made a splash
in the festival circuit with y tu mama tambien back in 2001 and went
on to do several half-assed hollywood productions like this one and dirty dancing
sequel. what happen dude?! he was so promising back in the day but now he seems
like he's just scrapping any work in states. it's understandable that he got
attached to this pile of turd because of spielberg's name alone but he seriously
needs to make some wise script choices and not depend on his adorable face(yes
i'm confident enough to admit that some guys do have better face than i) to
attract crowd. his tambien alum, gael garcia bernal, is doing unbelievably
well in terms of picking out great films to work on, such as amores perros
and my second favourite movie of the year the motorcycle diaries. for the
most part, bernal stayed in mexico to work with highly prolific native directors
instead of chasing high paycheques and the quest for world domination. luna's
character's side story was equally un-believable. luna's character sends viktor
to ask some girl buncha random questions in order to woo her heart and finally
ships a ring to her. am i to seriously believe that the girl would actually
go for this? i dunno, maybe the black trekkie girls are weird that way, or
maybe she went head over heels when she saw the famous face from meh-hee-co
for the first time sipping watered-down soda, i dunno. maybe i should send
someone over to alison lohman and ask her some questions, maybe she'll come
fetch me to her palm spring home.

3. sure viktor was a good son by enduring all that for his father but did
he really need to go that far for something so trivial? the father's request
wasn't any significant and has only sentimental values that only his son could
appreciate. but i find it hard to believe that a father's legacy was represented
by buncha signatures of jazz musicians from another world and on a deathbed
would you honestly ask your son to do his final deed by going to america? it's
also one thing to appreciate the improvised music but quite another to send
letters after letters requesting the musicians' signatures and be obsessed
with it when someone doesn't send you one. and if he needed only one more signature
to complete the collection, why didn't he send subsequent letters to the last
dude and plea? or ask someone in states to go in person? or why didn't viktor
send luna's character on a mission instead of getting him to fetch food after
winning luna's girl's companionship? the musician was quite friendly with his
fans and it's not like a heart-felt letter wouldn't get him to sign his name.
the film begs to bend your suspense of belief too much for something so little
after all that hardship and trials this character went through. there's no
real satisfying release when the credits roll. sentimental bullshit i say.
it really would have made more sense if the peanut can really did contain his
father's ashes. maybe the film could have refer this back to the situation
in viktor's motherland, how his father wanted his family to have a better life
by coming to america and how he died without ever seeing the fruits of his
hardship and viktor finally gets to spread his ashes in central park or something.
wouldn't that be more meaningful??

there are so many more things i want to write, pretty much about every characters
with speaking parts came off wrong, but i must get back to work. the terminal
is by far one of the worst movies i've ever seen and definitely the worst movie
i watched this year. this movie is right up there with daredevil, casshern
and ju-on, and that to me says alot.

sympathize this!

2005-06-29T15:15:42Z

i watched a film last night that shook me to no end. it was brutual, clever,
beautiful, touching and unthinkable. i'm not a squirmish person but i passionately
despise horror/slasher flicks and senseless violence(unless it's happy tree
friends :D), but if the violence is justified and used as a tool to tell a
compelling story i'll watch it, but i will not watch movies that glorifies
violence and uses it as a spectacle. last night when i was watching this film,
my hand was covering my mouth most of the time holding in equal amounts of
laughs, awe and squeals. the film is called sympathy for mr.vengeance.

this film is by far one of my favourite films that i watched this year(the
film came out in 2002 so it's fairly recent). the only other film that
completely blew my mind this year off the top of my head is motorcycle
diaries and birth. i don't want to write about this one too much because this
movie should be felt instead of understood. not that there's alot of complications
in the script and it does have simple storyline that's part lars von trier,
quentin tarrantino, guy ritchie, coen brothers, and david fincher. if you've
been reading my movie entries, you know i'm a huge fan of those boys. if i
had to compare this film to others, i would get a scoop of dancer in the dark,
reservoir dogs, fargo, dirty pretty things and sprinkles of lock, stock. but
here's the kicker.

last year i wrote extensively about a korean film called oldboy that pretty much swept
the festival circuit including a major award at cannes. sympathy is by the same dude,
chan-wook park, both films are part of park's vengeance trilogy.

the closing film is coming out in korea at the end of july, called sympathy
for lady vengeance, appropriate enough, korean title is different. sympathy's
original korean title is "vengeance is mine".

if you've seen oldboy, you know what to expect. but unlike oldboy, sympathy does
not have a great mystery that keeps you hanging until that mystery is revealed
at the end and to me that's a good thing. for one thing, by forcing the audience
to hold their collective breaths until final moments of the film, the director
creates an impossible expectation that usually end up being a let down. and
that's sort of how i felt with oldboy. i absolutely loved every minute of it
until the antagonist explains why he imprisoned the protagonist for 15 years.
i thought to myself, "so..... you had a little grudge?" sympathy
starts off with the main character's motive and how his action creates ripple
effect that drives ordinary ppl to their extremes and turn them against each
other in a vicious circle. but the heartbreaking part is that all this started
with good and pure intentions. sympathy feels so much more real, as if something
like this can happen in my neighbourhood or i could possibly know someone who
may be in this situation. it's easy to imagine for someone without money(or
lost a great deal) to scheme in order to save a loved one, and the immediacy
of the desperation that follows. this film portrays the extreme limits of how
far a brother and a father will go to save respective sister and daughter,
and what happens when they clash.

there were alot of scenes or 'moments' that blew my mind away, in particular,
the first autopsy scene(no gore, just a powerful reactive acting), the river
scene(i don't wanna give any details because it's a spoiler but there's one
unique shot that freaked me out so much...), the protagonist playing with the
child(he's on the floor, she sits on his stomach, he crosses his legs, she
leans on his knees as she watches telly, then hands him a note), final act
by the river, and so much more. many of the striking/memorable shots and scenes
are spoilers so i won't describe them.

i give sympathy a 9.5/10. this would have been a perfect film if it
wasn't for the last 2 minutes. i obviously don't want to give anything away
but a director's choice to show slightly more took away from his overall vision
BUT i can understand why he decided to end the way he did by showing that a
vengeance fruits other even more malicious revenges(city of god showed this
vicious circle quite well, how one death leads to the next and the next). another
film that i felt this way about m.night's unbreakable and knew he ended his
film the way he did as a result of many focus groups...

everyone with iron stomach and lovers of well-told, well-presented and well-executed film
should definitely check this gem out. both sympathy and oldboy can be downloaded
on torrentspy. sympathy///oldboy

i honestly hope you check out both films, but sympathy is absolutely necessary viewing.

click on the poster below for sympathy for lady vengeance trailer

i love my city

2005-06-24T15:23:36Z

i cannot tell you how unbelievably proud i am to be a torontonian this morning. on the way to school i open the first page of toronto star and find a set of brilliantly designed brands in multiple hues and shades.

theses logos and identities will represent T.O in other parts of the world as tourism board of toronto attempts to generate significant jump in tourism revenues after 2+ years of sag, post-SARS crisis in T.O. and what a marvellous way it is! i'm very picky when it comes to design because now i understand that this is one of my passions and am convinced that most ppl can't tell the difference between a good design and a bad design and it's usually the bad ones that win. for once, good fucking design won! the brand was developed and designed by Brand Architecture International. the campaigns represent the city's various entertainment scenes such as film, art, dining, music and other festivals all around the year, which, in my opinion, are a great way to portray this multi-faceted canadian metropolis. there is a motif that's evident in all campaigns which looks like a lower case A or a D or a P in some cases. that motif is clear in Toronto Unlimited logo. here's the most brilliant part of the logo. torontonians usually call our city "T.O" or "T dot O" in some circles and if you look closely you can see the integrated T and O in that logo, differentiated by a subtle shade. colour shades are absolutely difficult to use and most designers should never use them because they know jackshit about using shades properly, it can give your design either integrity or a swiss cheese flavour if not done carefully. this T.O campaign is an amazing example of how to use shades!!

the font and motif looks quite similar to my friends' design community's logo/font :D

the teardrop motif seems to be a trend in design world right now. another example

at least T.O's campaign played off on it, creating different variations.

and the structure of the logo is a tad similar to TD bank's logo

if i had to nitpick further, the name, toronto unlimited, is not the greatest choice. it sounds too much like a corporation and the first thing that popped into my mind after reading that was "batman forever" and THAT can't be a good thing.

overall i can't tell you how much i love this campaign, they all work in so many levels and i can't wait to see these in person all over the city!!!!! come to toronto where good design is the king!!!

link

they don't really travel the entire way with a motorcycle...

2005-05-08T15:10:23Z

if you're even remotely interested in travelling anywhere, go see this movie RIGHT NOW!

this is by far one of the best films i've watched so far this year. gael garcia's been on my radar ever since amores perros and y tu mama tambien, but this is his best role. the story itself is your typical roadtrip movie but the journey portrayed is anything but. fortunately it doesn't fall into many pitfalls of roadtrip movies, probably thanks to the director's earlier effort the central station(a pseudo roadtrip movie about a kid and a lady who goes on a trip to find the boy's mother, if i remember correctly) which failed to win my praise but i can tell the director learned from the experience of that film and made a more coherent and tangible film with motorcycle. if you have heard anything about this film, it would be that this film shows che guevara(spell?)'s youthful days as he travels all over south america with a doctor friend. he encounters many social injustices that lower working class suffers and che forms his own thoughts and ideas reflecting his journey which ultimately leads to his role as a cuban revolutionist alongside castro. i don't really know much about him but now i'm inclined to learn more about the man and what he stood for. don't take my word for it, just watch this movie and judge it for yourself. even if you don't care or don't know anything about che(like myself) it's still a great and enjoyable film with depth and heart.

imdb link

birth

2005-04-24T04:39:34Z

i have 2 weeks break before starting the spring semester. it's already been a week and i've been going to school most of this week working on my character model. i was going to go to the lab over the weekend as well but the go bus doesn't run to school on weekends. so i decided to take it easy and catch up with reading and watching movies.

i got a call this morning from the library i used to work at. a book that i placed order months ago had come. stradivarius by toby faber, a book about the famous violin maker and story of his six creations. i wanted to read about the man behind the world-famous instruments and the history behind his work. believe it or not i find this topic quite fascinating. classical music in general fascinates me.

tonight i watched birth starring nicole kidman. it received considerable buzz last summer during cannes and its poster caught my attention immediately. more specifically, the look on kidman's face caught me offguard. it was a look filled with grief that i have yet to understand.

there's alot i can talk about this movie, but i have to tell you this is not for everyone. the story itself is rather simple and the concept isn't new. but i absolutely adored it. for one thing, this film had alot of patience, something that majority of the movies nowadays lack. the pacing is slow and builds up the atmosphere even slowly with long, still camera shots, giving the audience more than enough time to process the feelings of the characters and see the transition of expressions as they happen. there is one particular shot of nicole during opera where she came in after speaking to the boy in the hallway and she's completely distracted, beginning to get convinced that the boy really is her husband's incarnation. it's a sight to behold.

this film did brilliant jobs on original score, cinematography/lighting, and set designs. i was particularly impressed with interior lighting, the range of shades shown is perfect in creating the mood of this kind. mix that with elaborate floral wallpapers and solid colour backgrounds, most notably greens and browns.

now that i'm planning my own movie, i look at film's structure in different way, noting various techniques they use to sculpt a story and flow. one thing i want to do well is to emerse the audience into the main character's mind, getting them to fully understand their actions, motivations and consequences, and hopefully at the end of the film they'll feel like they've had 2 hours of a good conversation with the character that i've created. this aspect has alot to do with timing, more specifically, at which point in character's time does the movie start and end? the movie should have one single central focus and the movie starts and ends enveloping that focus. there's usually a build up or introduction prior to the main event and some cushion ending after the main arc. it's very much possible to cut back these two but there's the danger of alienating the audience if they feel as though they were dropped in the middle of nowhere and spend most of the time figuring out what's going on. but it is very much possible to do this properly and this is where the masterful filmmakers pull off their tricks. let me give you an example. there's a movie called cellular, came out last year, starring kim basinger. it's about a woman who's kidnapped and makes a random called to save herself and her family. a dude picks up the call and helps her out. to me, the protagonist is the dude and the most interesting aspect of the movie is what happens to that character, things he must go through in order to help this woman on the line. if i had the director's hat, i would have started the movie with the phone call because much like the main character, the audience needs to be totally convinced that this really is a random phone call and you don't know what the hell's going on. the movie actually started out with kim's character walking her son to school bus. i understand it was necessary to show the close-knit family kim has going but that's not the focus here. it goes on to show the dude's moments with friends prior to the call. by starting the movie with the phone call, you pick up on the high note, and like the character, you don't know whether to believe this woman. but in the movie you saw the whole kidnapping so you know it's real, so you loose alot of anticipation in whether or not you should go along the ride and ponder if the dude would actually go along with it as well. in turn you and the dude are in the same boat and the connection is made.

in birth, the movie essentially starts when the boy is already grown. it actually starts with the husband's death and the boy's birth but i don't think it was necessary. but i understand it. there were several movies of this kind, with the concept of reincarnation as the main selling point. they usually show the life before and how close those characters were and how they part, only to reconnect years later. but this film skips that predictable process and i applaud director's choice.

there were several things this film could have been better. 1, there were a number of dull shots in terms of colours and contrast, mainly outdoor shots. the interior scenes are absolutely breathtakingly well rendered with ambient lights placed beautifully to show off the set's contrast range but the outdoor shots seem lifeless. it does take place in the winter with snow on the ground but they could have use some filters to add some colours in there, something like orangish brown.
2, the "realization" sequence towards the end by a secondary character wasn't necessary at all. she's given only about 5 minutes of face time so the audience are fully aware of what happened when she was framed into the shot. the director should have given her a still face shot as she comes to realization, perhaps a slight smirk. that's what it would have taken.

other than those two little flaws, the film had an original voice and vision. if you like slowburning character study films, this is for you. make a note of the final scene by ocean. that tiny scene added a whole new dimension to nicole's character. brilliant.

mom + dad

2005-03-18T04:02:03Z

The Banner Girl Collection [UPDATED]

2005-01-20T22:42:07Z

my collection of The Banner Girl ads keeps on growing!! i originally started collecting this time last year at the height of her internet fame(and missed many more ads because i never thought of this collection at the time) but apparently her infamous adorable face still sells. so here's an update with even more banners of her. if you see any ads and banners with her, PLEASE let me know, i'll add them to this collection :D i may be giving a lecture to some design students and i'd like to include this in there.

i'd also appreciate it if someone could get me original photos that are used by these companies. i want to post the full, uncroped images of her as part of this collection. thanks

these ppl are relentless!! they'll use every part of her body! :)

and of course, let's not forget the smallest of them all. i can still tell it's her!

thanks to jenniah below for providing this image.

found this outdoor banner in seoul.

one day I'LL FIND HER, even if i die in the process!!

---

here's something i found funny.

doesn't she look like this girl?

banana in january

2005-01-17T00:55:26Z

just got back from meeting up with buncha kids from the program in downtown. haven't been there in so long, it was nice to just walk around eyeshopping, would have been better without snow in my face. i walked by banana republic on bloor street and this caught my eyes.

what a fabulous use of watercolour! i did some fashion illustration experiments using real fabrics but doing something with watercolour never crossed my mind. i walked in and noticed that this illustrator/painter did the entire spring collection campaign for banana. i asked to see if i can find out who did it but no one knew. the manager told me that banana have an exclusive agreement with the artist for the season and they must destroy all of the display once they're taken down. ray knows a friend who is a manager at another branch of banana, perhaps i should try to get me some of these, they're fantastic!!! i want to scan some of them and use the textures. can you imagine 3d models with these textures? wonderful!!!

they also used the watercolour texture for a small banner below.. awesome... why didn't i think of that!!

it would have been great if all banners were consistent but these wallpaper patterns are great too.

before meeting up with the kids, i went to the chapters and picked up this book, which is pretty much a textbook for class. it was too expensive for me so i exchanged a book and used 2 gift cards i had forgotten about AND spent 20$ for it...

my new workstation setup

2005-01-08T23:49:45Z

the basement was so cold so i moved my station upstairs to my bedroom where it's nice and cozy. since i don't have the desk space to put both monitors side by side, i did something more interesting :) this is by FAR the coolest workstation setup!!!

terrible photo but whatayagonnado with sq?

doesn't it remind you of nintendo ds? except it's 10 times bigger!

20" is set at 1680x1050 and 17" at 1440x900, totalling at 3.06 million pixels :D G33K1N3SS!!! the screens are connected even though it's on top of each other, so i can drag things up and down and even have a browser across both screens. and i can have one long browser :)

photoshop setup. work on top, all palettes on the bottom.

maya setup. i can have the reference imgs on the bottom.

now i just need to actually get to work.. saturday night date with maya!

O M G japs are pervs..

2004-12-29T04:19:23Z

my pervert friend ray found this image somewhere today... someone read me the captions!!!

best and worst films of 2004 [UPDATED]

2004-12-24T01:57:22Z

here is my list of best and worst films that i viewed in 2004. some are a bit old but i watched them this year.

BEST FILM OF 2004: before sunset. i knew this was going to be great but i didn't know it would be this astonishing. linklater really up the ante with this. my thoughts on this film.

REST
-24 season 3: first half and mexico episodes feel wasted after the 'twist' is revealed half way through but second half of the season more than makes up for this groundbreaking season, including the most intense scene in dramatic television history! - the sacrifice at 6:59am.. that scene left me speechless and shaken...

-the incredibles: watched twice at the theatre back to back, then downloaded a preview dvd and i'm still begging for more!

-les triplettes de belleville: one of the most creative, moodiest and ingenious films of the year. this is a must for the non-mainstream animation fans.

-eternal sunshine of the spotless mind

-dogville: lars von trier doesn't disappoint. he closes his 'torturing women' trilogy with this 'americanized' film about a stranger in a small mountain village. unbelievably creative use of mise-en-scene. could have shorten it to 2.5 hours though.

-old boy/memories of murder/spring, summer, fall, winter and spring/silmido: 4 outstanding korean films, including old boy which won grand prix award at cannes.

-quills: displaying a powerful will to write. i usually hate period films but this one surprised me and got me taking out marquis de sade's justine immediately afterwards.

-snow falling on cedars: brilliant use of isolated sound effects and fusing flashbacks into the narrative.

-tokyo godfathers: a surprising find. i had so much fun watching this japanese animation, something that i haven't done in a long time. suspend your disbelief for awhile and just enjoy this flick about 3 homeless ppl and a baby and how their several days are filled with hilarious coincidences.

-millennium actress: directed by the same dude who made toyko godfathers. this animation has THE best transitions!!! the way the story unfolds, blending sequences of flashback and current events are so seamless. one of the rare japanese animation gem.

-in america/the barbarian invasions: two touching films about families.

-21 grams: portraying physical, emotional, psychological pain to the breaking point.

-five senses: lives of 5 ppl and how their lives are seen through their 5 distinguished senses. of the 5, the segment about the doctor who's going deaf is beautiful. he makes a list of all the sounds he wants to hear before his ears give up. the best canadian film since red violin.

-invader zim seasons 1-3: ZIM! WHAT? ZIM! WHAT? ZIM! WHAT?

-------------------------

WORST FILM OF THE YEAR: casshern: what more can i say about this recycled polished shit?

MOST DISAPPOINTING
-innocence: ghost in the shell 2/appleseed: both of these computer animated films adapted from masamune shirow's manga had SO MUCH going for them. it's criminal that writing brought both of them down to a pulp, one was overwritten and the other underwritten.

-a very long engagement: a bitter disappointment, at least to me. it just didn't have enchanting quality of past jeunet films(most notably amelie and city of lost children, hell, even delicatessen). shame.

-2046: yet another disappointment from a director that i used to respect so much. this one felt like a mess, reflective of wong kar-wai's unorthodox method of filmmaking. no wonder christpher doyle left his partner in crime during the making of this film.

-ju-on the grudge: absolutely one of the worst horror films ever made.

-fahrenheit 9/11

-a tale of two sisters: horror cliche 101

-taegukgi: what a load of crapshitscheiz.

-the passion of the christ: i found this one tedious and trivial. just 2 hours of torturing scenes with several breathing breaks. hated every moment of it. maybe the fact that i'm a heathen has something to do with it, i dunno.

FUCKED UP FILM OF THE YEAR: la pianiste(aka the piano teacher)

THE MOVIE WHICH COULD HAVE BEEN SO MUCH BETTER IF HANDLED BY A VETERAN DIRECTOR: saw

my constantly updated compilation list of films that i adore.

the misadventures of the awkward picto - episode 04 the ex-mas special

2004-12-20T04:34:56Z

happy ex-mas/(c)hanukah and merry new year!

EPISODE 01
EPISODE 02
EPISODE 03