[ambersienna mari...]

ok, so i saw Atonement and it was A-ight, not worth all the hype imo. something was missing. Kiera Knightly, though
way too skinny for my tastes, does look quite beautiful in some scenes. This green dress she wears is stunning!

yup girltrouble i saw the entire trilogy, but i gotta say oldboy is my fave. I only saw Mrs. vengeance once and
didn't like it as much, but i think i gotta give it another try.

I wasn't that big of a fan of Bright Future, i remember, but I
did really like Last life in the Universe.....

thanks for the recommendations! their mos def gettin on my netflix

[girltrouble]

oldboy is fantastic, and the one of the girls who (i have a crush on) in mr.vengeance is in the host. if you like those two movies you might want to see the final film in the chan wook park trilogy (sympathy for) lady vengeance. it's got a wicked sense of humor, and is shot in a pretty way that the other two were not.

i would also recommend samarian girl. it's along those same lines, and as violent. you could also try the isle which is brutal. be warned with that one. but that director's later work, is breathtaking, i would bet you will like 3-iron.

of course there are more violent movies, but sometimes (like asian sensation, takashi (the audition) miike's ichi the killer, which, takes the whole stoic masculine thing to the nauseating nth degree-- that is one movie i swore i would never, ever see again.) it goes way over the top. then there are comedies, (like my wife is a gangster which is fun). but don't neglect some of the dramas. PTU, and memories of murder, although the latter might be a bit slow for your tastes. but DON'T neglect park's earlier film JSA: joint security area. it's FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC. i heard about it for years, and it did not disappoint. and speaking of kurosawa (bright future) try his earlier film, cure. next to seven this was the logical end of the serial killer genre. while i think both movies are great, i am sooooooo glad that genre is dead, dead, dead. now if we can kill the sadistic killer movie (saw, hostel, et al.), i can finally be happy. can i hang my head in shame and say i've seen these movies?

but there are some movies that aren't asian along the same lines as oldboy that you might like. have you seen greenaway's the cook, the thief, his wife and her lover? you might also look at ken russell's the devils or, if you can find it john huston's wiseblood...

yay! glad you are liking the host anarch. i've just re-viewed it. i forgot how draining it was. i always just remember kick ass monster movie. it really is great. and all of the actors are so great in it. joon bong-ho is my favorite director right now, so of course, i tell people to see memories of murder, after the host, i'd tell you to see barking dogs never bite, but well, it's not available in the states soooooo...

man... i'm sorry i ramble when it comes to asian extreme. speaking of which, i am in talks to program an asian extreme midnite movie series at a local movie house.... yay! programming is soooo my dream job.... wish me luck!

[ambersienna mari...]

In the Mood for love is awesome awesome awesome.
I have to be in a particular mood to watch it tho,
being that it is a bit slow.

one of my all time fave Asian movies is Oldboy. anyone see it?
Chan wook Park makes some excellent films. I liked Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance too.

I'm about to see Atonement with my girl. I like Pride and Prejudice, so we'll see.

[dolor]

sigh. omg cha cha, how could you not absolutely lurve the sheath dresses in that movie, they were incredibly HAWT!!!!

-- In the two-disc Criterion edition of Mood you find, in the extras, an extensive discussion of these dresses, their history. It turns out that the movie "World of Suzie Wong" had I big influence on their popularity. It's part of the very deliberate historical backdrop for "Mood." Again, if you go into the special features you'll find that WKW is very keen on locating this tale in a particular time and place. Which I'm sure has much to do with his re-capturing his own history, his arrival in Hong Kong and his view, as a child, of the fascinating and secretive adult world around him... Gorgeous women and suave men!

Saw "The Savages" last eve, and liked it. It's much closer to Grim Reality than Sit Com (tho has a good chunk of the later) -- and so I appreciated that it moved to a plausible optimism at the close. I do like GR, but don't go for super down-beat endings. In this case it's the GR of being into ones middle years, and facing up to failures... and then dealing with a (bad) parent who has gone into the final End Game.

-- meanwhile I'm catching your crash bug, Trouble Gal, and may be facing a dead or dieing hard drive. Yikes! Into the End Game, once more. Time to light at votive candle, and haul this machine off to Johnny Fixit, and see if he can.

ta fer na,
Dolor

[anarch]

the desire to long for something outweighs the desire to have it, finally; and also, that this is primarily a masculine conceit.

that's exactly what I felt after having watched ITMFL, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and The Killer in quick succession. (Great films for many reasons, but this particular theme started to bug me.) Especially The Killer. I think the audience was supposed to take the pathos seriously but it just made me laugh. I put this worshipping of unrequited love down to a peculiarly Asian masculine sensibility, though, and had never considered that it could be a broader guy thing.

I'm halfway through The Host based on your recommendation, GT, and enjoying it hugely though the version I got is badly dubbed. I much prefer subtitles. I don't understand why so many people hate them.

Watched the documentaries Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, and Blue Vinyl over the weekend. Both terrific.

On flights for the holidays, I saw Stardust (Claire Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer) and loved it, and the movie based on Susan Cooper's first book in her The Dark is Rising series. What a horrible adapation. Horrible horrible, stupid flashy meaningless Hollywood crap. Christopher Eccleston was appropriately menacing though. (What is he doing in such crap? Guess he needs to pay his bills too.)

[girltrouble]

*seriously crushed out by posts by some of my very favorite reel life busties, but horribly crushed that firefox crashed and lost my last post*

sigh. omg cha cha, how could you not absolutely lurve the sheath dresses in that movie, they were incredibly HAWT!!!! i already had a crush on maggie chung, and ITMfL did nothing to help that. and i am so ruled by anticipation... the thing i love about many asian movies is that they are rather damning commentaries on masculinity. and i loved the little dig that WKW had in ITMfL, the man thinking that it was only men who seduced, and shown to be oh so wrong with only a gesture.... hee hee. that scene was amazing.

the two movies that you mentioned (dearest) dolor, masculinity again is taken down, and while i saw bright future much as you did (i think), fireworks, for me was achingly beautiful and sweet. star/director takeshi kitano does his usual eye-twitching stoicism that is in so many of his action movies (perhaps that's why i didn't see it as stale, for me it was seeing it in a new light him in a new context), but what stands out in fireworks is the space inbetween-- that inability to speak, to feel is channeled into a gentleness towards his wife, and caring for her. the silence, strangely is his oasis, and his attempt to escape violence in favor of that quiet. he's straight-jacketed in this role of masculinity, on either side, violence and stoicism, but it is caring for his wife that is where he wants to be...


lol.....i know exactly what you mean about the downsides of masculinity, i figured that long ago and promptly got on the hormones

as for your question about our frustrating friend bresson, i can't explain why his films are so lauded. *shrugs* as for me i just found them moving. i sooooo get your huh? about him.


and i missed the two of you too!!!!

[chachaheels]

Vachement!!!! How I love that word. And the fact that so much of its meaning comes from the french word for "cow".

I've been looking at my lovely stack of WKW's for going on a month or so now....free time disappeared even though it was not supposed to. I did, however, get a chance to see In The Mood for Love two times, and I loved the sheath dresses and their infinite variety. Who was it to bring up the masculine experience in this context? I can't shake the feeling I have that the desire to long for something outweighs the desire to have it, finally; and also, that this is primarily a masculine conceit. But I'm rambling and I have to be ignored until I see the rest of my fun pack. Also, ITMforL hit me in a very sore emotional place, which is something all great movies should do, I guess.

I've missed you, GirlTrouble and Dolor!!! So good to see you here, so good to read your input on everything.

[dolor]

PS Whoops. Apology, T-Gal, for dumb query as to whether you know Bright Future when there it was in your pairings.
Hope my comment wasn't too much beside the point for you.
x,
D.

[dolor]

Dear Gal o' Trouble,

Well, you know I think you're such a sweet and charming one that we could just go ahead and announce that our love IS requited! What say?

That was our Cha-cha who'd received her WKW party-pak from Santa.

Going off on a tangent about Asian Cin,
and having just seen Bright Future & Fireworks (you know these?)
this left me with a major exasperation with the male persona, that strong & silent thing, which from the outside can get real boring and cliched (esp. Fireworks) and from the inside amounts to such fatal self-ignorance (esp. Bright Future.) I mean there's a reason why real men go into the strong and silent mode... but the price that we all pay for this! In movies, I want to know... What are these guys thinking?? I want to hear their thoughts, chugging along inside, while they're being stony-faced on the outside. What do their minds and inner voices do as they... fall asleep?

I watched a bit of the making of documentary about Fireworks, and there you see the star and director being alert, friendly, humorous... I could have used more of that in the flic itself.

This is a bit besides the point, perhaps, but
I know you've thought much about masculinity... the problems & the charms...

We're having a beautiful snow fall right now... Here in the NE, I'm waving at you in your NW corner.

ta ta fer na,
Dolor

PS As for IFC, I don't have cable. Out here in the country, I just have rabbit ears (which I ignore) and Netflix.

[girltrouble]

speaking about unrequited love... oh dolor. you are dreamy so supreme.

i'm not sure who was watching the kar-wei-athon. but i did feel tinges of jealousy. the first of his movies that i saw, chung king express. was a revelation to me. it's playfulness and romantic, fatalistic sentiment hit my filmic sweet-spot, like films do occasionally. normally i don't have a favorite movie, but rather a list of movies i adore and can rattle off. but films like that, like barking dogs never bite, like life is sweet, or seance, that are so refreshingly different, i can't resist obsessing. they usually have a only few films under their belts, so i can have a religious fervor for their future films.... (and for those of you keeping score, here is the formula of films i love favefilm=new film: barking dogs=the host; seance=bright future; chungking=mood for love/2046....)

speaking of asian films, and early films/film directors that i loved, the asian horror film the eye, directed by the pang bros., has been remade with jessica alba, and is going to be out soon. the first movie i saw by the pang brothers was the ultra cool bankok dangerous, a beautifully stylish action movie about a deaf hitman that isn't just pretty but smart too. when i heard they were doing a horror movie, i was kind of at the end of my love of asian horror with, with the exception of the exceptional 'tale of two sisters', i thought had pretty much run it's course. but then i saw the eye. a solid horror movie, that was much better than i could have expected. genuine chills and ofcourse the obligitory mystery. but the pang bros have a talent that i loved in wong kar wei-- an instinctive sense of what a certain scene should look like, and going straight for it. i'm willing to bet the american version will be a lot more bland, more slick and less interesting. infact if there is one problem i have with all the remakes of asian horror movies it they pretty them up too much. the low budgetness of asian horror made them seem more gritty, more real. something that is lost with a big budget and stars.

but see what i mean before you see the new eye, ifc is airing the original on the dates and times below:

The Eye
Sunday, January 13 5:35 PM

Friday, January 18 9:05 AM

Friday, January 18 3:35 PM

Thursday, January 24 10:05 AM

Thursday, January 24 5:15 PM

[knorl05]

acts of worship
"...focusing on the relationship between Alix a young homeless addict and Digna a successful photographer in Manhattans Lower Eastside. .....
revealing them both to be suffering the same fear that manifests itself in loneliness, self-destruction and isolation."

tears just now drying up. good stuff.

[dolor]

Cara Cha-Cha,

Who said:
"I received many Wong Kar Wei films for Christmas, and I'm watching them all, one by one, over the course of the next month sometime..."

Perhaps you've already noted T-Gal and D-Gal swooning here over those slo-mo scenes of the Beautiful One walking down the stairs to the Noodle stand... in In the Mood for Love? (In the special features they spend much time on those sheath dresses that she's wearing.)

It is the mood, and he prefers his love impossible, unrequited. "Happy Together" (which I haven't seen) is as ironic and unrequited as the song itself, I'll bet. "Imagine me and you, I do..." With "Mood" we skip right through the moment of consummation, en fin, (in room2046, of course) without any arrival at happiness. Or even emotional intimacy, togetherness? We merely see her... on the other side of consummation. Dolor! Meanwhile, our hero drifts off to communicate his love (?), regrets (?), into a little alcove in a ruin in SE Asia. It's another "Letter to an Unknown Woman." (Put that one into your list for Santa too.)

I gave the soundtrack to "In the Mood for Love" to my precocious son for Xmas,...
and we're going to be watching 2046 this eve....

a bientot,

Dolor

[dolor]

Dear Girl-Trouble,

In regard to Bresson
[which should be said in French, non? Something like "A pros pro de Bresson" (bilingual Canadiens correct me please!]

I remain vachement puzzled, baffled. More seriously baffled than with any other topic that I've encountered in the movie arena.

He is highly theorized himself (which intrigues my restless mind). loves to make his case, but I still don't understand his emphatic case for Cinema as a brave new art form (to be distinguished from theater). Nor can I follow his case (which links to the former, I'm sure) for non-acting (?): using non-actors who deliver their lines in a very flat manner. It makes his movies seem... doctrinaire. Movies of flat ideas. Though their is also real emotion there, and empathy for those who suffer. Esp. donkeys (Balthazar) and Mouchette.

Nor can I grasp... why it is that he is venerated. Those I admire (David Thompson, the gang at Time Out) admire him. Do those that venerate him concur with his theory? Or do they approach him from some other vantage? "Youth wants to know!"

Now watching "Bright Future" by Kurosawa. The younger K that is...

-- reggae & out
your D-Gal

[anna k]

I liked Nine Lives. It was a movie that had nine segments featuring well-known actors doing a scene in one continious take. I liked the high caliber of actresses (Glenn Close, Robin Wright Penn, Kathy Baker, Sissy Spacek, Holly Hunter, Lisa Gay Hamilton, and even the younger Amanda Seyfried and Dakota Fanning) and the stories, though unreseolved, were captivating. There were bad reviews on IMDB, people being pissed at the stories not being connected and only being a brief moment into a person's life, but I enjoyed it and liked watching some good actors do theater-like pieces with a flowing camera movement.

The Devil and Daniel Johnston was good too. Daniel's singing style got a little grating, but his story of being mentally ill and the conflict of love/hate in his family was interesting.

[roseviolet]

I saw Juno the other night with a bunch of friends and we LOVED it! I think we all fell in love with Ellen Page. She's an amazingly talented actress & did a great job with a great character. I may have to buy that when it comes out on DVD.

I also saw Sweeney Todd. Some of Sondhiem's songs work better than others in the film, but all in all I think it was good. I must admit that I have a bit of a weak stomach when it comes to blood and guts in films and there was a LOT of blood in this baby! So that unnerved me a little. I'd love to know just how many throats get slashed. Did anybody count? At any rate, I can see why tons of people find it to be darkly hysterical. I may see it again with some other friends.

Who Killed The Electric Car is so infuriating and saddening and confusing and infuriating again. I simply cannot understand why they wouldn't let people keep their cars! So bizare. Grrr.


Are any of you seeing the Metropolitan Opera's live performances that are showing in movie theaters? It's a series that they did last year that was very successful, so they're continuing it this year. I saw Hansel & Gretel this week while visiting my family. I hope I can get tickets for the rest of the season now that I'm home, but they sold out VERY quickly last year.

[chachaheels]

please excuse my double post

[chachaheels]

I have been falling behind in my film watching...so now I have a nice, long list of all the movies I've really wanted to see for a while.

I LOVE Javier Bardem and I know I should not miss him in No Country for Old Men. He doesn't even speak English, but there he is, just being great.
I received many Wong Kar Wei films for Christmas, and I'm watching them all, one by one, over the course of the next month sometime...
Sweeney Todd is one of the most perversely twisted comedic plays I've ever seen (anyone ever seen the play version with Angela Lansbury?) which includes the horrific scenario which gets me more than almost any other: forced cannibalism. I'm attracted and repelled by any film/story which includes that element in the story. So, yeah, I am going to watch it.
Juno. Of course. For some reason, Ellen Page always makes me think of Love My Pugs, maybe it's because she's from Halifax. Also: it's like Death and the Maiden. The world needs more "how's about we look at this whole rape/molestation thing from the victim's point of view for a minute, huh?" resolutions in stories.

I wish Who Killed the Electric Car? could become as ubiquitous as Star Wars figurines, Star Trek conventions, films made to sell pop and tchochkele at McDonald's and Burger King, and Paris Hilton. The world would be a much better place.

Also watched Sicko, finally. And I'm gonna move to France, I've decided.

[LilPinkElectricC...]

Oh Juno was so good! It was sharp and funny without being jaded or sarcastic. Good soundtrack as well.

[morganelizabeth]

Has anyone seen Juno yet?

I'm going to see it this week.

I'm already completely in love with Ellen Page, so I think this movie will be great.

Did anyone else know that Ellen Page is only 5'1"?

[hellotampon]

i wish there was some kind of online database that could recommend movies to you when you enter the movies you like. there are things like that for music (like pandora's box and gnoosic) but i haven't seen anything like that for movies. does anyone know any? i'm spending a lot of time wandering hopelessly through the video store, picking up boxes and putting them back down. even a good movie review site would be helpful.

I think Netflix has that. I don't know if you have to join to get the recommendations though. I just vaguely remember being turned on to a bunch of great movies when I lived with my parents (they subscribe)