海角七号!!!

If you haven't watched this film it's ok. Since it's ending its run go find the DVD!

Ok it's not the best movie ever, nor is it the funniest. But it has a nice mix of what is nice in a taiwanese film-- real people, nice landscapes, funny and idiosyncratic hokkien and chinese jokes, romance and of course, meaningful pop songs. Won 12 awards to date including 6 Golden Horse Awards. It's the second highest grossing film in Taiwan's history (behind Titanic) and the top grossing local film in Taiwan (yes, surpassed Secret).

*Spoiler Alert*

Set in Hengchun, arguably one of the more picturesque beach sides of Taiwan, the story revolves the romance of an ex-band member Aga and his Japanese corporate handler Tomoko, and their attempts to create from scratch a local band for a Japanese singer's promotional gig. What runs under the conventional plot (yea as all taiwanese movies like Secret) is a near-mystical and historical connection between a pair of star-crossed lovers 60 years ago and the Aga-Tomoko pair. A stack of 7 love letters, written by a Japanese man to his Hengchun lover and delivered 60 years too late, brings together the 2 couples and inspires the band guy to compose the hit song 海角七号, title being the address on the stack of letters.

The cinematography is ok, and the 3D effects are a little wanting. However what rocks is the film's portrayal of small town eccentricities. It showcases the heartwarming idiosyncracies of small-town folks, underscoring the "realness" and "closeness" of the film to the people who watch it. Yea one needs a strong sense of Hokkien and a basic understanding of Taiwan to grasp some of the jokes... The horny car repairman, the angsty ex-bandmember, the despondent policeman, the irritating salesman (Malasun!), the quirky kid and even the cute old folks, these are all the characters I feel the film pays particular attention to. And the rock concert scene at the end really is the first of its kind in movie history: old man, tweenie girl and other random people cobbled into a band, with exotic instruments... the songs are quite meaningful.

I've put three songs below



A rock song, in the style of Mayday or FIR.



Slow ballad



Sad folk song

My (half-taiwanese) friend Fishie recommended the movie to me. It's a small quirky film someone who loves Chinese stuff (but not slapstick comedy) will really appreciate and love.

Gone Shopping

Watched Gone Shopping on dvd. It's kinda cool. F asked maybe i can tell her after watching why do girls love shopping.

Honestly I have no idea. And if i pretend that i know something... oh well, it's a minefield out there.

Well but in all it's rather nice the way shopping centres are portrayed in the movie. Wonderland for the purchase! One character says "Our country is one big shopping mall. Our history, culture, even nature can all be found in a shopping mall and price-tagged."

Quite true huh. I think the land of brands, bags and clothes are all marketed as items that add worth to someone. Call it pop culture add-ons to identity. You buy and carry a certain bag, you portray a different image. What is more insiduous than this cosmetic add-on is that the bag influences you that you are somebody else... D and G "machine" moment huh (insider thing from 19th C lit...)

But then for what? If these add-on doesn't signify who you really are deep inside, one might just be a walking robotic cash-dispensing machine. The consumerist culture is boggling.

Who do you wanna buy as "yourself" today?

The Leap Years and Sg Shorts

I read Mao's blog and she went ballistic on people who slam Singapore Cinema in favour of Hollywood or arthouse film from other national cinemas. I had a similar experience of dismay when the brother called Singapore films lousy. Then again, he is but a babe in filmic culture! We have come far in film-making, at least as much as any other new formed nation. Watched these two across the weekend:


Well The Leap Years is a city romantic film about love and waiting. While I am seriously not a big fan of Catherine Lim (now Dr Catherine Lim), this film based on her novella of the same name does redeem somewhat the excessive saccharine and flowery use of language in her book.

Cut the chase. Tyler Lim observes in his review:

Beyond the flowery language in love letters as appropriated by Catherine Lim in her novella, The Leap of Love serves as a cautionary fable against the lack of communication in a relationship, a stark show-up against the more romantic notion of a je ne sais quoi emotive connection between two strangers. Romantics would moon over the long tortuous wait shared by the lovebirds while pragmatists would pen it down as 12 years lost in prime marriage years.<>The Leap Years is one of the very few Singaporean movies that deals with the banal and not local ah beng culture, traditional customs or Jack Neo slapstick. It is a sign of maturation in local cinema when easy themes at hand are exhausted and somebody finally reached out for something global. I hope the writers credited are Singaporeans with English surnames. Hey, the story originated from Singapore's very own Catherine Lim! (2008)

I wonder what is it with "banal" nowadays in Singapore film. And reaching out for "something global" seems to articulate a sense of over-achieving and over-determinism, two of the more negative aspects of Singapore culture. I see Leap Years as a polished film, with good filming and storyline, editing and a sound track to boot (Corinne May leh) with the ability to transcend local roots and culture because of its subject material. (Nearly) Everyone is lonely in such a "banal" urban landscape isn't it? But the kudos lie in the fact that the film nuances the normally one-dimensional aspect of filmic romanticism-- star-crossed lovers indulging in weird "literaturising" and dreaming-- and adds in it realist elements such as divorces, lesbianism, affairs and spousal misfits.

Plenty of good stuff for those romantics to swoon for in the show, and also quite a bit of gritty stuff for the cynical viewer. All that glitters is not gold. The city lights in the movies may be pretty, but the night they light up may be cold and the darkness still real?

Well Singapore Shorts is a collection of short films by local film-makers.

A good critique of the films can be found here.

While some short films in the collection does not resonate well with me (there was this short film made in black and white, without music, by a film-maker who studied in UK but chose to make her grad film with Japanese characters...), Birthday, My Secret Heaven and Autograph Book are worth a closer look.

Birthday is a story about a couple struggling to make ends meet. Ah Beng and Ah Lian with a bratty child. Fallen dreams and a wayward relationship within a (capitalist and expensive) world seem to be what the film is trying to put out. The realist grittiness however is redeemed by a sense of humanity. Perhaps to survive, one must hearken back to the good old days, and hopefully cling on, communicate and hope for the best (what is the best anyway...).

My Secret Heaven is a cutesy short about parents who want their kids to over-achieve (see, again). The antic of the eponymous little girl who does not want to go to her piano lessons reflects again Jack Neo's concerns in I Not Stupid. Sometimes kids, and likewise us, need a break as well... And to do so seem to require a detachment from the world, saving our sanity in a secret heaven of our own creation (see, that's why Emily Bronte is way cooler than boring Charlotte).

Autograph Book is another film on kids. This time poking nostalgic fun at those lame stuff we used to write in autograph books at the end of Primary 6. Playing with stereotypes, there's no end of fun watching caricatures of people we used to/still know since primary school.

OH and there's Wong Pin Pin's Moving House. A classmate presented on this short documentary during Research Workshop. Coincidental that I watched it just two days prior. If you ever wondered why Mandai Colombariums look the the HDB block you live in... should go take a look. A little cynical, but I found it a little hilarious (yea I may have a weird sense of humour... people relocating their ancestors' remains is not a very funny thing...).

Well what is funny is WHY THE HELL am i blogging, and doing DVD reviews at this ungodly hour? Insomnia what. Might as well. And I am presenting (a major big ppt) on Singapore Films. Might as well do some mental warm up. 'Sides, this can qualify as a journal entry of sorts (people from RW will understand...)

Good Morning world.

Chungking Express

One more nice film to catch. I am not a super big fan of Wong Kar Wai, but I guess this DVD is worth a look... I'm getting bored of the normal, run-of-the-mill films popping up nowadays. So yea! Here goes... Chungking Express, 1995.


2 stories, linked by a common urban landscape of Hongkong. If you are the kind who likes the cluttered and dense urbaneity, ala Chungking Mansions, this film is a treat! It's more polished and fun, with better acting than any heartland film Singapore can come up with.

This is no straight narrative film though, and i agree with the critic Robert Ebert (on Wiki):

"If you are attentive to the style, if you think about what Wong is doing, Chungking Express works. If you're trying to follow the plot, you may feel frustrated...When Godard was hot, in the 1960s and early 1970s, there was an audience for this style, but in those days, there were still film societies and repertory theaters to build and nourish such audiences. Many of today's younger filmgoers, fed only by the narrow selections at video stores, are not as curious or knowledgeable and may simply be puzzled by Chungking Express instead of challenged. It needs to be said, in any event, that a film like this is largely a cerebral experience: You enjoy it because of what you know about film, not because of what it knows about life."

So there you go. And the film stars TONY LEUNG, Lin Qing-Hsia, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Faye Wong and Valerie Chow, what more can you expect?

Voices of a Distant Star

What would one do if one's messages takes longer and longer to reach one's love? In the midst of war and interstellar travel, perhaps the only endearing thing is this- that blind faith, hope and love can exist in a world where modern communication fails. Two hearts beat as one. Nice OVA by Makoto Shinkai: Voices of a Distant Star









Enjoy.

Japanese Films

Well Japanese films rarely get recognition in Singapore. It took a few modules in film studies to open my eyes to the lyrical beauty, simple and natural style of Japanese cinema.

Japanese Film Fest 07 is here... I'm going to a couple of screenings and i definitely do not mind any company.

Most of the films are free, but for the payable screenings at 11 bucks per film (bit steep huh), see here.

3 'payable' films i hope to catch are (taken from the webby, link's above):

How to Become Myself (PG), 20 Sep 07, Thu, 7.30pm

A story of how two girls struggle to define their individual identities in modern Japanese society. "[Director Ichikawa Jun] has a keen eye for the moments of truth or flashes of beauty that suggest a larger, transcendent reality."

Life can be so Wonderful (M18), 23 Sep 07, Sunday, 4.30pm

5 stories of solitude and melancholy which capture the quiet beauty of everyday life in Japan - an aging nude model, an alcoholic, a young woman's ambivalence, an astronomer and his girlfriend's pregnancy, and a lonely travel agent.

Moon & Cherry (R21), 23 Sep 07, Sunday, 7.30pm

A sassy movie about a student who joins his university's obscure erotic writing club, and ventures into a game of sexual cat and mouse with the only female member, who is really using him to aid her writing. "Noriko Eguchi, one of the most remarkable and exceptional actresses that Japanese cinema has had the privilege to entertain in years."

If there be any interest in the above three, i know japanese arthouse is not for everyone, contact me asap so i can book and we go together okay...kaaaay...kaaayyy (echoes into nothingness)

Be With Me?

I'm back from Redang. AH... Photos later... Alot of people have been asking me for this...

"Is true love truly there, my love?"
Yes, if your warm heart is.
Sadly, some times even true love can be broken, oh dear.
Yet it does not mean the world is ending.
Love does not die although bodies may perish from all sorts of hurt.
Love disappears only when you do not understand what it means."

--Theresa

The film is as lyrical as the short poem and definitely worth a catch. Frenchy and other art-house snobs might sneer at it being a local production, but what the hell, it opened Cannes Film Festival? Director's Fortnight somemore. Ok Jasmine, you asked for it 3 times. i promise the copy I have will sooner or later be in your hands. Soon. Yes.

Who said art must be stuff-ily high? I support local production!

Check this out...





881 rules. Who said heartlandish stuff are not fun? I am going to catch that movie. Who's going?

War Films

Been watching dvds like i drink coffee these days.

For the guys especially, here are some war films which i thought were nice:

First is...

Quirky little piece of WW2 film that does not focus on huge special effects, blasts or some historical meta-narrative that opens itself to either huge criticism or applause.

Well story goes that a half-squad of "whiz kids", are formed into a recon unit based in the Ardennes of 1945. Sitting on the site of a huge offensive, the kids are ordered to occupy an abandoned manor in the foresty no man's land to "listen in" to the Germans. What happens is a series of hide-and-seek games leading to a touching fraternisation between the kids and a squad of war-weary Germans. The Germans want to surrender and the brainy US kids hatch up a plan in which both sides will benefit from the surrender. As the army goes (it's the same everywhere), something always screws up the surrendering, the kids get ordered to stay behind and the Ardennes Offensive occured. Watch out for fresh faces, quips and the recognition of certain figures all army guys (well people in UNITS especially) detest.

Then...

Stanley Kubrick. Hollywood's very own ah beng and frankly refreshingly weird director. Pulling no stops at the full military experience, it's really a nice look at military training, head-on grunt actions and on-the-ground satire at the Vietnam War. Vulgarities can never be that creative and funny; anti-war satire can never be that interestingly portrayed!

Quotes:

"Oh my God! You are so ugly you can be a modern art piece!"

"The best part of you went down the crack of your mama's ass and ended up as a brown stain on the mattress!"

Lastly,

Damn emotional movie about Hitler and the Third Reich's last days. The setting is very realistic and the acting i feel is top-notched. It's never an easy job trying to portray Hitler, Goebbels and all the rest of the Third Reich's generals. Hard-assed history types will probably try shooting holes at the perceived inaccuracies or biasness of the whole gig, especially the film's sympathetic treatment of Schenck and Mohnke. I say look out for the emotions, the struggle for survival and the questioning of what is patriotism, loyalty and even parenthood. I think the best part of the film lies in its portrayal of a collective madness and its ensuing sheer magnitude of destruction. Never an easy job for a German director and cast to do such a thing.

Worth a look. Gutteral German sounds cool too.

Yep. Nite.