New Bits

Another entry to my dust-off life - The Jane Austen Book Club. The biggest discovery of the night would be - Paolo Nutini is Paula Nutini with wrong spelling. The movie took the pace of sentimental tv series and explored how Austen's work changed the lives of everyone in the book club. It's not compelling as Michael Clayton ( which I did not enjoy much at all ) for sure however, it appeals to me, a typical romance chic flick fan, even if it's not even cheesy chic.

I'll quite talking about movies for a while. Here's something you should sample. Paolo Nutini's New Shoes. Imagine toned down version Mika with more beats and less drama. Don't eat the shoes, just click the |> button and play it.

Lastly, enjoy the chilly nights - unbearable summer is coming soon!




Or, if you're like me, very much into Brit accents, then Jenny, don't be hasty. This is the louder version of John Mayer with less blues. I'll cut the crap, and let you try this on.

Round up!

Punk is not dead but I just don't like it.


Obviously, I could not finish my marathon list as expected. I finished 6 out of 14 titles in the list, which I presumed to be impressive enough for me to feel content about it. Out of the 6 titles, I've ranked them according to my preference as follows.

1. Persepolis ( imdb )
Witty, cynical coming-of-age movie that dissects the life revolving an Iranian girl turning into a lady, leaving her home land to Europe and back again. From scenes to scenes, the movie also illustrates the rebellion of suppressed Iranian people against the autocratic government - something, we and the world that claims to be victimized by terrorism, will never have understood before watching this movie. By the way, "Animation" sounds like a 5-minutes clip on youtube. So, I called Persepolis a "movie", since I enjoyed me more than the rest.

2. Rocket Science ( imdb )
Another coming-of-age tale about a stuttering boy being conned into a high school debate team by a dazzling girl that recruited many other "losers" in high school right before she transferred to a high school with winning team. Stutter boy did the stuttering act so well that it really annoyed me throughout the movie very much. Claire Benette's flying boyfriend is in the movie as the star debater that this lil' boy looked up to. Overall, it's quite enjoyable to look into a suburban boy's life and see how he sees through his own weakness.

3. Across the Universe ( imdb )
Being The Beetles' fan, I love the soundtrack and all the rearranged song covers. Some of the scenes in the movie really gave huge impact by using the right song eg: a young African American boy hiding next to a car while the police were pacifying the African American crowd on riot; a cheerleader walking away from the field while her crush kissed the cheerleader captain. My memory is wearing off now, so you should watch it, skip through a few, if you think the songs are too much. But, just a note: the songs used in the movie fit perfects in each scene; actors/singers' voices brought out the soul in the music; each scene is just interwoven to the next smoothly.

4. Suburban Girl ( imdb )
Don't waste your time watching this.
Sarah Michelle Gellar trying to be next...big hit romance actress. That sounds like a weekend filler that brings you no where but loose plot - imagine SMG fell for an old man. after her dad died, suddenly she claimed to have grown up and ditched him. The director presented the story in chapters just like arrangement in a book, as a trick to tie to the movie setting which is in publishing business. This is something new for me, that I can't comment much.
Still, a crap that I won't detest since I haven't come across crappy movie in such a long while. I'm just having good taste in movies all the while until now.

5. Ensemble C'est Tout ( imdb )
Audrey Tautou doesn't give a plus for this movie. The editing and cinematography are of typical European style with subtle details and less climatic storyline. It's not the typical romantic movie with lots of kisses, tears, hugs, and "i-heart-u"s.

6. El Camino Los Ingleseas/Summer Rain ( imdb )
I'm giving up to finish this poetic movie. I don't deny that it has very beautiful cinematography & script that made me feel like I was watching a piece of poetry with lots of symbolic scenes with a lot of exotic looking Spaniards. However, another coming-of-age story is not that I should be watching after a weekend with so many of them. I finished 50 minutes of it and I don't think I can continue it until I need some youth revival in months to come. This is not a conclusive opinion so...you can leave this aside too. Note, this is the first directorial work by Antonio Banderas and I think he did a great job!

Hah, I hope I'm not turning this into a movie blog. Better not.

You've got curves

There were times you hope life was not so much of a winding road up and down the hill, where you had to make a reach at every stop at every parts of the hill. You wish, you could just barge down the hill, straight from the peak to the bottom, like a snowball gaining its momentum before crashing into a pine tree.

We all wish. But, there's no fun to it if you know the ending of the story, isn't it.

Till then, we make turns and turns around, feel the itch of diarrhea or dizziness in the twist of corners, until someone tells you, you made it...

Movie Marathon

As promised, here's my list of selected titles for my weekend marathon:

1. Charlie Wilson's War
2. He Was A Quiet Man
3. Le Scaphandre Et Le Papillon
4. Mr Brooks
5. Persepolis
6. Rocket Science
7. Suburban Girl
8. The Tattooist
9. Across The Universe
10. Gone Baby Gone
11. Before The Devil Knows Your Dead
12. Elizabeth The Golden Age, that I think I will skip.
13. Four Months Three Weeks and Two Days
14. The Assassination of Jesse James
15. Summer Rain
16. Ensemble C'est Tout

I know the list looks long. But, I'm ambitious.

Calling for Le Scaphandre et Le Papillon English Subtitles!

Have you ever come across a movie you know can make a difference to your life? Well, there is none because you answer to the calling of your life and you make all the decisions where you are accountable to your own actions. So, stop depending on 120 minutes to change the many minutes that have yet to come. I'm just saying that to myself as I do think the story of a successful editor at Elle's turning paralyzed and still could write a book by blinking only one eye.

Here it goes. I've acquired a copy of The Diving Bell & The Butterfly WITHOUT SUBTITLES. With total confession to the fact that my understanding in French is too limited the first 5 minutes of the whole movie ( since the story has not even started yet !!).

So, please help me out if you can dig the English subtitles for Le Scaphandre et Le Papillon 1 CD. I must watch this movie. And, yes, I must stick to this copy since I refuse to resort to RMVB version with mere Chinese subtitles that will totally degrade the anesthetic element of the whole movie! All exotic accents should play in its original voice, period.

Please leave me a comment if you have it, or even know this movie. At least, I can talk to someone about this.

More about my weekly movie marathon later.

Watch Documentaries Online

Watch great documentaries online.

You'll see more that you should.
You'll know more that you do.

Wow, that sounds catchy.

Face

"Is your worrying global enough?
Face the problem before it’s too late."

This campaign rises from a project of sensitization on Global Warming effects. It tells you that global warming can be a personal choice to make a change. Founded in 1980, Legambiente is an association of citizens that acts for the environmental protection and for the human health, the natural resources and the historical cultural patrimony.

Advertising Agency: Grey, Milan, Italy
Executive Creative Director: francesco Emiliani
Art Directors: Letizia Bozzolini, Andrea Salvaneschi
Copywriters: Livia Cappelletti, Marco Carucci
Photographer: Zona 13

Earth Hour 2008

www.earthhour.org

Let’s do an environmental theme this weekend. I just watched An Inconvenient Truth, not much of a surprise for you, since most of the sentimental kind was so hyped up with this documentary when it was first released. Al Gore made his impact on giving a shock to the society however, the change did not take place as intended, or at least, in public eye.

Global warming and other social dogmas were made a PR stunt by most companies now. Microsoft & Dell will increase their revenue with the release of (RED) so that they can donate more? All clothing apparels are using organic cotton for whatever known reason that made their brand looks green and environmental friendly. China still has the villain look as ever. And, most movies are illustrating the doom of human kind decades down the road.

One of the green house related stunt or "effort" goes to EarthHour. I remember having those moments back when I was staying with my ol' granny. The electricity supply went down and we all could still enjoy the chill in the night. They walked outside and talked to each other, sat on the stools with a cuppa in their hand. Best of all, I looked up and stars were glittering at its best. Do you still remember such scenes that once existed in your life?

Last year, the people of Sydney made an effort to turn off the electricity for an hour. And that's the significant Earth Hour with 10% reduction in use of its power grid. Quoting Josh Spear's explanation - In CO2 terms, that's the equivalent of taking 50,000 cars off the road for an hour.

Now EarthHour is back for 2008; this event has turned global, and on its quest of mankind to turn off the lights for one hour. With businesses so dependent on electricity and energy-consumption, we need to collectively remind ourselves of what we're doing and how we need to change, or at least we should starting making an effort towards this intended evolution. On March 29, 2008 at 8pm in your time zone, you can be part of Earth Hour's environmental movement. Melbourne, Toronto, Chicago, Copenhagen, Brisbane, Tel Aviv and Manila are just some of the global cities that are taking part. If you're not in those cities, you can still sign up at the Earth Hour website and make a difference.

There's always something to talk about, something to do. So, start something, and make something out of it, today.

Click #3 - The Home Song Stories

Fellow Chinese reader, please welcome Joan Chen, the "diva" in Chinese film industry context. With so many awards in hand, I'm pleased to see her taking on a role, without famous Chinese directors, or the many stories about war epic that we see amass nowadays. Just a little simple storyline, few characters, portraying the core values keeping a family together, or not really.

The Home Song Stories is one of my accidental discoveries of hidden gems because right from the beginning, I wasn't really keen about watching this movie until I read the line below in IMDB.com

"Australia's official submission in the Foreign Language Film category for the 80th Academy Awards"

Right after that, I headed off to a wild dig for this movie and I watched it immediate after I found it. And 103 minutes later, I was left gasping for air, not because the storyline was suffocating but the details in the scenes, the delicate lines to bring out the characters, and the emotions that were immense enough to keep me gripping tight so that I missed nothing.

In all, the director, Tony Ayres has done a great job of bringing his life story to the big screen and escaping the result of many boring and disastrous autobiographical films ended up as. The movie is about what Ayres remembers about his mother, a songstress who uprooted her children and migrated from Hong Kong to Australia after marrying an Australian sailor, and their struggles to etch a living surviving in a stranger's land. The intensity starts when we see Rose ( the songstress ) succumbed to her weakness for men quite easily, falling fast and hard, switching from man to man, being unlucky in love, and causing embarrassment for her children, who do not know what to make out of the “Uncles” that come through the door or a suicidal mother after each heartbreak.

IMHO, Joan Chen captures the complexity of Rose’s character superbly, one character that I've heard about so frequent since childhood, from gossips, rumours or speculations on certain people you met in the neighbourhood. You just see characters you once heard so much about, being casted on screen alive. The feeling is really immense. Meanwhile, Joel Lok gives a watchful and intelligent performance, as the son, Tom, who worships his mother and must witness her pain, even when blocking his ears and shutting his eyes. It's amazing & surprising that both Joel Lok & Irene Chen are just newcomers, yet able to show such level of maturity and natural flair of acting skills in portraying Tom & May, even as fantastic as the actual Tony Ayres and his sister, Mei.

At its core, The Home Song Stories evokes painful memories, but also brings about the notion of forgiveness, remembering and honouring those memories. A mother’s love knows no bounds, even if she behaves in a manner you cannot quite grasp at the moment.

The one line that moved me was in almost the last few scenes:

“It is extraordinary,” as grown up Tom says about himself and his sister, “that we ended up perfectly ordinary people.”

Note: The trailer might not move you much, but it's definitely a movie I'll purchase the DVD for collection or watch when it's in local cinemas.

Movie Spree of 2 :: Loving Juno

From the remaining few movies I have, my urge of sharing my thoughts on this movie tops the rest of them. Yes, it's the minimal-budget-but-maximum-attention very much anticipated ( at least, I did ) Juno!

Some may feel skeptical whether this will turn out as just another teenage comedy that once flooded our movie screens. The answer is definitely a big NO! Imagine a toned down Katherine Heigl's Knocked Up, blended with a tint of artsy directorial skills, very amusing lines for Ellen Page, and folky soundtrack. In all, that sums up to a consludion: Juno is quite movie of its kind, and definitely not even close to Knocked Up, talking about a quirky-geeky-cool teenage girl experimenting sex and getting pregnant. Skip the disastrous aftermath and drop-dead shock scenes because these did not happen. The storyline could be quite expected since with the word "pregnancy", you can either get a life is killed or saved. However the spotlight of this story is that , but the characters that are very amusing instead. Juno and his open-minded parents with a sense of humour, then her cheerleader friend that is not close to typical dumb-blonde at all: why should you miss this. Last but not least, Juno is played by Ellen Page, the creepy little girl from Hard Candy. You know, "that" girl!

Since this movie is from the director of Thank You For Smoking, we can very much expect nothing less than a good movie, and this time, with a good soundtrack.



Instead of the ordinary Juno's poster, I would rather use this poster that really gives me a laugh.

Let me know if you have watched it. If not, get a taste of it with the trailer here.

Weekly Screenings - American Gangster

I'm in the mood to do some movie screenings this week. Crapping about 5 movies in a week is an underestimation of the actual visual load that comes through my pipeline. And yes, you're lucky. You'll get the fresh stash before you head to the cinemas.

Here's the first click on American Gangster.



I could never have expected Denzel Washington to be playing the villain. And here he is, playing the role of a mafia leader's driver cum apprentice in Harlem. After the death of the man everyone in Harlem looked up to, the underground kingdom crashed. Then, Denzel Washington inherited his mentor's teachings and built his own "company" from scratch. This is quite amazing for a true story and Denzel has done a great job playing the man crashing someone else's head into a grand piano. That is, literally, a cold-blooded man.

Somehow, Russell Crowe's sloppy cop look does not impress me very much. Period. It's enjoyable for 2.5 hours. Then, it's the end of story and nothing much came along. I enjoy myself even more watching the movies I pick at home. Yes, I'm that bit hard to please.

Next in line will be... I have not decided yet.

Kickoff

Of exact 100 RSS sources, including my own's, that I subscribed to, I think my post-holiday syndrome is the most severe. The active contributors in my list such as NOTCOT.org and The Sartorialist have started their first post of 2008 way days back. Me? I'm still a turtle-crawling grass-mowing and beef-jerky-chewing slow.

As a start, I'll write about the two fashion/trend-related feeds that have turned into my daily must-read. Well, it's also because they have daily or almost-daily updates and interesting contents. You've seen them up above ^. Yes, NOTCOT.org and The Sartorialist.

1. NOTCOT.org

I discovered this site when I was surfing Mooie's blog. ( Note: Mooie is a local boutique with a young and funky spirit that reminds me of Palate Palette at Changkat Bukit Bintang. I'm not going to share the link because Mooie's stuffs are more and more disappointing lately!

Back to NOTCOT.org. Out of my 3 months observation, I would say NOTCOT.org seems to be the electronic version of underground trend magazine mogul with various spin-off sister sites such as NotCouture, NOTed, The Gallery, TasteSpotting and last but not least their dot com. Of all these spin-offs, I'm more impressed with NOTCOT.org and Tastespotting for I love pretty stuffs and delicious food however to date, I only subscribe to NOTCOT.org as...come on, do I live it the States? I will not put myself in a situation such as loving a LV Speedy so much and knowing myself will never buy one until my salary really makes me smile everyday.

In short, give it a click. I hope you'll enjoy it.

2. The Sartorialist

Two words.
"Photography" and "posh funky people".

Okay, that's three. But, you get me.
This chap obviously has a link to GQ.com in his blog and such have I wondered one day if he's shooting for GQ magazine. The portraits he took for the street series are very beautiful. Somehow, the bokeh gives the character more personality and the contrast of colors in their clothing just perfects the whole composition of everything. I'm no photography expert but somehow, I know it's not as simple as clicking a shutter and it'll be that good.

Click on it everyday and you'll know how much your wardrobe needs a revamp. Or, at least that is what I feel these days. Urge to splurge, don't you agree?

Anyway, these two are just the tiny bits of the talented blogger pool out there and I'm enjoying reading them these days. I'll see if I smack on anything impressive tomorrow.

Till then, "tank" you.

Solitude

Taken at White Sand Dunes, Muine, Vietnam

Some people commented that the pictures I took at this sand dunes look great. Sometimes, it's the place being so beautiful that, no matter how you press the shutter, the saturation of the sky will always be so perfect in the end. Margie concluded this when she stayed in Europe. I couldn't agree more.

Muine has a stretch of 6km shoreline which gives way to the blooming of development projects for resorts and restaurants. Naturally, tourism will rise to be the major source of income for locals - be it the kids or adults. Fortunately, right after the 6km coastline, all I could see was still the normal fishing village life and stinky fish market. For now, the children are still naive, playful and fun to "hang out with" since they did not request for money after each game we played together or each photograph I took, which was very likely to happen at other parts of Vietnam.

The point is - white sand dunes area is far from other attractions hence is also less desired by the throng of tourist buses. I'm glad this allowed me to take my shots that day, and also ignoring the teases from those that will not comprehend why I rather walk further to explore the possibility of good shots than sledding sand. Even though I could only venture as far as 2 hours' of time could allow me, or the dunes were not in the shape I dreamed of, still, the moment of you standing on top of the dune, looking afar to stretch of monotone is magnificent. Solitude, it is.


I hope the scene will stay how it is for another 10 years. Maybe less.