I should be really working on these more often because there are 3 more left before I get to choose the ones from 2009~~~ This time around, I kind of feel like i didn’t get to watch many good films. It was really tough to find 3 animated films to include, and considered to just choose two instead, but I found 3 xD so I hope it’s not mostly filler~
Archives For Films
There’s this thing about The White Ribbon Trailer, it knows who their target market is. It’s not one of those foreign film which you don’t know it’s foreign because the trailer is just pieces of images edited together with some background music to set the mood, and no dialog at all because they don’t want your regular Joe to know the film has subtitles.
In that sense, I like this trailer. I wanna watch. Soon.
[iframe width=”560″ height=”349″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/BE_ByB2ocVk?rel=0″]
If I talk about interesting faces on screen while watching 2012, I should be talking about Osric Chau, the monk practicioner — How do you pronounce his name? I have no idea. At the moment I’m saying it with a thick Scandinavian accent. LOL He is 23 going on 24 (born on July 1986) so we are practically the same age! He’s also Canadian! From Vancouver!
And that photo is adorable, but apparently he’s an exceptional martial artist, and shared the screen with David Carradine and Daryl Hannah on Kung Fu Killer.
He’s also got a website! Not a very good one — is that Bradley Sans I’m seeing? — but you can contact him and his management from there. There are also photos and some updates. If he googles himself, I hope he ends up here. LOL — Hey, Osric! How do you pronounce your name?
I was having a discussion about 2012 (the year, not the film) yesterday, and I kept telling them that I have been expecting the end of the world ever since 1999. It’s been 10 years already. Moreover, my mom always tells me she’s been hearing this “end of the world” stuff — as she calls it — since she was a kid. LOL So that’s just too many years. xD
I just got back from the theater, after the studio stuffed me with free popcorn and soda. Are they trying to distract me? I remember watching The Day After Tomorrow (also directed by End of the World fan Emmerich) at the theater with my friends, and feeling super cold after the show. After 2012, however, I just felt okay. Maybe I wanted a bathroom, since the movie is kinda long and the free soda didn’t help.
YesAsia keyword alerts suck. LOL
CatchPlay Taiwan has released One Million Yen Girl with English Subtitles on Region 3, if anyone is interested. I will wait a month or so, in case a Hong Kong version shows up — though both would be Region 3 DVDs. In any case, I need to make a bigger order if I want to get it.
If you enjoyed One Million Yen Girl, you should buy the film =D
you know, to support Yu’s career, and that whole “she can carry a film on her own” concept.
Plus, it’s English subs, man!!! You need to be supporting Yu Aoi English Subbed projects~
I suck at Best Kissing Posts. It’s been over 10 months since my last posting on it.
Let’s make things clear first. To me, Cinema Paradiso was a film about love… but above all, it was a film about love of film, and life. My favorite version is not the Director’s cut, but most my friends loved it more because it focused more on the romantically tragic love between Salvatore and Elena.
That kiss on the rain during the public screening after Salvatore curses to the heavens about Elena not being there, and Elena coming back and kissing him like that it’s hot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95wzYxbZTuM
But the scene that made the movie for me was the last 3 minutes of the film, when grownSalvatore sits at the theater to watch what Alfredo had left. Continue Reading…
Late post! Internet issues! But it gave me the time to watch this awesome kick-ass animated film that apparently was released early in the year, but I have heard nothing about it. So Amy do, as Amy does.
I am pushing for a nomination, ha! Here’s a brief write-up:
I just saw the best animated film I’ve seen all year. A stop-motion funny, yet compelling serious drama about the unlikely friendship between one cute, albeit kinda weird, 8-year-old girl in Australia and some 40-something-year-old Jewish/Atheist man living in New York.
You should all try to check it out, even if it’s online because if it weren’t for the internet, I wouldn’t have EVER heard about it.
Now I’m pushing for a nomination… AT LEAST a nomination. We all know Pixar’s UP is a lock on it, and will probably win (boooooring), so I’m pushing for Mary and Max this season.
If it gets a nod (very unlikely, since there’s no marketing or buzz), I will die of happiness~~~ xD
I haven’t used a cellphone since someone stole mine nearly 3 years ago, but I’ve seen it moving towards it. I mean, I still think it’s gonna be tricky watching the show on my phone while making sure no one is following me to mug me.
Stories on forums that became premises for films, blogs that became books, etc. After all, everyone’s got something to say. Then came the days when Marketing caught up with technology, and we began with viral videos. We love viral videos, you’ve probably received thousands of emails from different people all sending you the same goddamn video.
Then there’s Mobile Phone Dramas. Sort of a hybrid between a series and commercials.. or other PR material, maybe a mix between short films and commercials that end up becoming a movie… like the Kit Kat short films by Shunji Iwai starring Yu Aoi and Anne Suzuki that became the film Hana & Alice. And so came Shunji Iwai again, this time with LISMO Channel and their nine 5-minute episodes titled Koibana ~ SUIKA to Bansoukou ~ (恋ばな ~スイカと絆創膏~) directed by Kodomo no Kodomo director Koji Hagiuda.
Iwai, who is producing, has mentioned the high quality of this drama, and seems to be interested in turning this idea into a feature film. In reality, anyone can say whatever they want to say, but if anyone can make a Phone Drama and turn it into a film is Iwai. I mean, after turning Kit Kat into Hana & Alice, I believe anything can be possible.
But how far have we gone… 45 minutes of Koibana may turn into a feature film, short stories become nearly-three-hour films… Facebook becomes a movie, episode recaps as if they were on Facebook. What’s next? Twitter movies? After all, there are Twitter accounts for television characters already. Yes, definitely… a Twitter movie in the future. Anyone wants to discuss a story idea?
There’s already people on LiveJournal doing roleplay (though with real people), we can make one work, right? Anyone want to pitch in? It’s casting time! LOL Just gathering people who have the time to pretend they’re a character, and see where we go. xD
While Asia is taking product placement and marketing to a whole new level, here… they try to shove ads and other silly commercials on printed media. And more commercial time. And more clicking banners.
Also, I might need to add a new category besides Television. xD
I watched District 9 yesterday, and I enjoyed it a lot. Actually, I watched Moon this past weekend as well, which was also pretty great. However, I had noticed that I had previously marked both films as “not interested“. Why? Actually, because I marked most films that way, unless I’m already interested. But this also made me think about the films I’ve watched this past year, and which ones I’ve enjoyed the most.
I’ve never followed Star Trek, but I admit I enjoyed watching the film this year.
And on a similar topic, I finally finished watching Battlestar Gallactica Season 1. LOL
But why do I seem so reluctant to watch Sci-Fi? Yes, it’s the nerd tag… I guess. I think my mother puts it best — She’s not interested in aliens, in other worlds, or UFOs — I think I’ve had the notions that Sci-Fi was just escapism, and it is in some of the films, but some of my friends (some sci-fi and comic book lovers) have taught me and made me understand that Sci-Fi can be so much more. And I do love a good drama.
But in the end, people don’t really listen.
My cousin, yes… that same one that told me Love Happens was money well spent, HATED District 9. Her brief Facebook status read something like “District 9, sucks! Badly…” and it got a bunch of comments including mine asking whether to believe her or not, considering she liked Transformers 2 (So good, she said), to which she replied “aliens!? c’mon>>>> no more comments“. LOL – The fact that she thought the idea of aliens is ridiculous should have hinted that she shouldn’t have picked District 9. Actually, she told me she didn’t wanna watch Inglourious Basterds either, to which I fainted. xD
What is good sci-fi? My friend made me sit in front of my computer screen (we haven’t seen each other since we graduated) and told me I was wrong. He told me Good Sci-Fi is Good Drama, you get social commentary in the form of metaphor and you can place those stories in the real world. Good Sci-Fi is about the characters… much more than the universe created. He is the same friend who made me watch Firefly. Yes, that same sci-fi show that my sci-fi-hating mom loved to watch.
So if you’re not sure you like sci-fi, you can give Firefly a try.
Good Sci-Fi is also not about how high-end and kick-ass your special effects are. It’s not about how many explosions you can get on screen at the same time. It’s not about how cool your props look like.
As we see on Moon, it’s almost as if this sci-fi world becomes a character piece in which the main character talks to himself and re-discovers himself in the process. About his daughter, about his wife, about his work. The miniature models are far from the high-end spectrum of regular CGI effects, yet hold this charisma or perhaps it’s nostalgia.
On District 9, what could have been an alien invasion film with explosions where people save the day turns into a film where aliens live in slums among us, as big corporate heads try to find the way to use their bio-technology weapons and think they can get away with it when one of their workers begins changing. The character sort of begins a transformation worthy of Kafka, in which he starts becoming more a “monster,” but in reality human beings are the monsters. It’s sad.