personal.amy-wong.com – A Blog by Amy Wong.

Archive for the ‘Chinese’ Category

The Age of Amateur Cinema Will Return

Written by Amy on Saturday, March 13th, 2010 ( Start discussion ) | Heart It! (2) | Share This!

DGenerateFilms has translated an essay by director Jia Zhangke with some interesting ideas, as well as some others that I don’t particularly agree with… but maybe it’s one of those things lost in translation.

In a few years, young people throughout Asia will probably sing the same song, be attracted to the same clothes; girls will wear the same makeup and carry the same handbag. What kind of world is this turning into? It is precisely in this cultural environment that only independent films that remain committed to the depiction of local culture can provide some cultural diversity.

That’s an interesting statement, considering I have been talking about the exact opposite. I often talk how there will never be a “definite” 2000’s or 10-19’s list like we had in the 90s, because the internet has opened this gate with floods of information regarding anything… including music, films and overall entertainment. You don’t need to listen to what the record companies send to the radios, or watch what networks believe to be quality television or pay for a movie a distributor thinks you should be watching.

What the essay seems to be referring to is the vapid teenage kids who won’t bother researching and finding out about something that won’t be fed through distributors. I mean, you can’t even rely on what MySpace suggests any longer. LOL

Also… Amateur Cinema? With all the technology and all the quality cinematographers out there, even the most low-budget film can look okay. I’m sorry, but an image alone can speak a thousand words. That’s all I’m saying. I may be a “production value” girl, and I can appreciate costume, and art direction, but I also always give more importance to storyline and overall mood of the film. It shouldn’t matter if it’s “amateur” or a big-budget production.

Don’t give me Amateur Cinema, give me quality Independent Cinema.

Filed under: Chinese, English, Films, Japanese, Korean, Rants
Tags: independent

Decadism: Cinema 2000—2009

Written by Amy on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 ( Start discussion ) | Heart It! (7) | Share This!

I found an interesting post!
Here’s an excerpt;

Just as the music industry had it’s comfy, soulless, profit-raking, creatively-void existence shaken out of it’s tree, so too the film industry started to feel their profits shrivel in this freshly democratic media landscape. It seems innovation and profit didn’t necessarily go hand in hand though as the massive film production companies tried to plug the gaps with endless remakes, 3D tomfoolery and crap loads of marketing driven genre dirge. If anything it was a decade of extremes, as the mainstream became more generic and formulaic so there were the occasional glittering gems shining through the shinola, that kicked against the tide and were all the better for it.

They talk about Hollywood remakes, Indies and International films~~~

One thing to note, there aren’t any Asian films… like you know, Memories of Matsuko, 3-Iron, Oldboy, In the Mood for Love, All About Lily Chou Chou, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Battle Royale, Nobody Knows, Still Walking, etc.

You can read the post here.

Filed under: Chinese, English, Films, French, Japanese, Korean, Sharing, Spanish, Swedish
Tags: best of