Posts filed under 'Films'
It’s Independence Day weekend and for those who will be staying home (like me) during the long weekend, I am recommending the films below. They are all foreign films (not if you’re Japanese or Korean). I have them as part of my tiny DVD collection. They aren’t new. They’re about at least 3 years old already and I’m guessing that most of my readers have not seen them yet. I’m a huge fan of martial arts films especially the ninja and samurai. That’s not the only reason why I’m recommmending them, however. These films possess deeper meaning. I have found those meanings in my own perception. It’s up to you to find for yourself.
I will recommend more films later on.
SHINOBI — The movie contains one of the greatest fight scenes ever shown on film. The hero and heroin possess amazing powers and the fit the actors portraying the characters. Probably one aspect of the movie that made me love it is the cinematography. Amazing, amazing, amazing.
AZUMI I — The first of the two. The history of Azumi; how she became. An excellent display of swordplay. I’m a huge fan of the ways of samurai. I’m a man who adores perfection through simplicity and the samurai way of life is that. Simple, precise, perfect. The pretty face of Azumi is a plus.
AZUMI II — The second installation. The continuation of Azumi’s journey towards cleansing. Aagain, contains a great display of swordplay. Unlike most sequels, this one did not disappoint me. Azumi still looking good especially with a cloak (that’s when she really kicks ass).
SHADOWLESS SWORD — This is a Korean film that I can proudly recommend. Korean films are becoming better and could probably replace Hollywood. The film contains another excellent display of swordplay. A must see.
July 4th, 2008
The weekend was dismal. Rain was pouring most of the time, but that didn’t ruin my fin de semana. I finally got a new pair of jeans. The only “decent” pair I had is no longer decent, so I had to buy a new pair. I also went to see Kung Fu Panda which I rate 2.5 stars out of 5. I was thinking of checking out The Incredible Hulk but I opted out at the last minute. I also had a couple of rounds inside a batting cage. I’m kind of getting a hang of hitting them softballs. I kind of bruised my ring finger because I was wearing a ring while hitting. It’s not a good idea. I’ve been hitting the balls where I want them, but I wasn’t getting strikes and that’s the downside of the rounds I had. I wasn’t also able to watch the performances of the boys from Pinoy Idol because the weather wasn’t so good that we lost all satellite signal. I was really looking forward to the performances because I saw a couple of good ones from the girls. I hope I can find streams online.
I’m on the ferry this early because I have to change router at work. I hope it’s successful so that I can do other things. It’ll be a busy week for me because I’ll be out of the country in the next week. Once successful, I will immediately post a documentation of the steps I took for my own perusal.
June 16th, 2008
I can’t sleep if I didn’t write something about this film. This film is one of the two best examples (the other being the “Thank For Smoking”) to tell the world that some things cannot be controlled however one tries to because these things are designed to be that way. There is no moral ground surrounding them.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, the movie is about a man who lobbies weapons to warring parties. When he was caught by an FBI, he was immediately released because “he is needed by the government.” If you are so naive about the world, war is caused during peaceful times to create a balance. There will always be war. Peace is a pipe dream. War does not have an antonym. It’s the reality.
May 28th, 2008
Taken from “Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay”:
I fear that I will always be
A lonely number like root three.
A three is all that’s good and right,
Why must my three keep out of sight.
Beneath a vicious square root sign,
I wish instead I were a nine
For nine could thwart this evil trick,
With just some quick arithmetic.
I know I’ll never see the sun, as 1.7321
Such is my reality, a sad irrationality.
When hark! What is this I see,
Another square root of a three
Has quietly come waltzing by,
Together now we multiply
To form a number we prefer,
Rejoicing as an integer.
We break free from our mortal bonds
And with a wave of magic wands
Our square root signs become unglued
And love for me has been renewed.
May 25th, 2008
If something strikes a nerve in my head I usually blog or linger a thought about it. However, due to some uncontrolled circumstances, I lost my inspiration over the weekend. So here I am again, trying to remember the moment which confirmed and disappointed my way of living. I may have seen a movie that could push “Mallrats” or “Good Will Hunting” down a notch. I’ve only seen “Into The Wild” once, so I don’t know the effect if I watch it over and over again.
“Into The Wild” confirmed my ideals and that it had been lived once. It’s a story of a man (Christopher Johnson McCandless played by Emile Hirsh) who detached himself from society because he hated it so much. He embraced the peaceful and adventurous Nature. He disregarded the material things because he believed it caused. It’s really a very powerful equation because I never thought of it that way. I’ve always thought of it’s result specifically. I’ve always deduced it to suffering. To say that it causes struck a domain with a wider range. Wealth and power causes suffering. His definition precedes mine. It’s a discovery of greater value for me. Wealth and power causes ______. Anything could be filled in the blank and that’s what I meant by a wider range.
I’d really would like to write more about MCandless’ thoughts but I won’t. I would go straight to the disappointment he brought me before he died. His last testament was the confession that “happiness only real when shared.” This is where I still define myself from him. Happiness, as I always believe, is for oneself. Having it shared with someone else does not make happiness eternal. A man’s journey should lead him to eternal bliss and all of us shall perish not achieving it. We are all slaves of love and care. We submit to love. I witness that because I for one have been forced into submission by the feeling of imperceptible care for someone. The selfless and voluntary devotion to someone. The reality of happiness is unattainable because we are not completely detached from society. From the movie, he made friends with others which brought his own demise. He lingered the thought of going back to society to share his experience with others. He was not always true to himself because he always hinted the return to society. His transformation wasn’t complete.
I am fully aware that I cannot come close to what McCandless have gone to, but I strongly believe that my realization is enough for me to live that life inside my head. I shall die not a hypocrite for I am living the things I believe inside me. My shell matters to me not.
April 28th, 2008
I was watching “High Fidelity” and I thought about confessing something. The reason why I started collecting CDs is because I wanted to have a soundtrack of my life. As of this moment, I have not picked one, not even a track. There is no way I can choose the tracks that will narrate the moments in my life with my ongoing collection. Rob Gordon (John Cusack) had about tenfolds more records than I do and I’m very particular with the genre I listen to. I have no variety, thus my choices are thin. I’m full of rage inside, yet I can’t listen to a raging music. I listen to the Manics because I love the melodies they make and I love the revolution they make, but I hate the message. I enjoy the act, not the substance. I listen to Travis because they look cool, like some songs, but mostly hate the style because it’s too gloomy for me. I listen to Stereophonics because the music rocks, but I can’t relate to the words because they are all stories. I listen to Oasis because they’re just fooking badass. I listen to the Cranberries because I love the music, but I can’t relate. I listen to the Corrs because they influenced me in so many things especially the love for music. I listen to hundreds of bands and artists in the alternative scene, but I never listened to a record that describes me.
April 19th, 2008
I can’t let an entry pass without writing about “He Was A Quiet Man”, a psychological film from Frank A. Cappello starring Christian Slater, Elisha Cuthbert, and William H. Macy. The film is about the resistance of the weak against the bullies. Bob Maconel (Slater) is an employee who keeps a six shooter in his drawer, but never had the right timing to cause an onslaught on his six predetermined victims until one day when a co-worker did it and he became a hero after killing the murderer. This is where I got lost because the ending showed that it was him who did the killing.
I think the movie failed me, however, Slater’s acting was super-excellent. I’m a big fan of Christian Slater, but he’s really grown into a better actor. Recently I also saw Anthony Hopkins’ mind boggling “Slipstream” and Slater also played a semi-psycho. If “Quiet Man” had more substance, Slater would have been a good candidate for an Oscar. I agree with the critics’ statements about Christian Slater in this movie. This is by far the best acting he’s ever done.
April 17th, 2008
The last weekend, I wasn’t lucky with the movies I picked. Saturday morning I went to Blockbuster to exchange my two-month-due rental with a couple of “the latest.” I rented “Death At A Funeral” and “Across The Universe” and watched them accordingly. I was disappointed with my choices.
“Death At A Funeral” looks familiar to me, but I can’t remember what this film reminded me of. The whole movie happened at a funeral service in the family house of the deceased located in some countryside in England. There, different characters collided. There’s the insecure son, the cocky son, the widow, and a bunch of relatives and friends with their own problems. I can’t even call most of these people names because their characters are too shallow, underdeveloped and useless to the story. The only thing good that came out of this movie is that the events were perfectly timed to compliment each other. I was even disgusted at one point when Howard tried to pull Uncle Alfie’s trousers and put him on the toilet and he got all the shit all over his hands and face. That was disgusting!
“Across The Universe” is a musical. I’m never fond of musical and I always think that musicals should just stay in theaters and not the motion pictures. I only rented this movie because “Across The Universe” is my all-time favorite Beatles song. The movie is terrible and they even messed up the scene when Jude was singing “Across The Universe” because they mixed it with “Helter Skelter”. I love “Helter Skelter” but don’t mix it with the title track. The characters were terribly developed and the story didn’t have enough conflict to be made into a movie. Again, this movie is too shallow.
I expected more comedy from “Funeral” - British comedy that is. The story was concentrated on how to piece the puzzle of events without thinking about how the characters are doing. “Universe” is the second movie featuring Beatles music. I did not expect anything from it other than the music. They were all good vocalists, especially the lead. Well, I’m biased because I’ll pick British singers over American singers anytime. Good luck to me in the next weekend. I hope to pick good ones this time.
April 9th, 2008
Tonight, before going to bed I thought I’d post an entry on a very interesting Korean film I just saw. It’s called Somebody Special. It’s a romantic comedy about a baseball player trying to find the meaning of love and a girl who has been in love with him since they were young. The story does not interest me, rather it’s the humor. Though many have said that romance and comedy blended really well in the movie (and I agree), the humor has the upperhand. It’s not a simple funny humor, rather it’s a laugh-out-loud humor delivered subtly yet obvious. Finally a paradox from me.
I found this film while searching for Lee Na Young’s works. I like Na Young’s acting because she’s eccentric. She’s vulnerable, yet strong and I think she’s the only actress who can do what she does with her tongue (no malicious intent).
March 17th, 2008
Finally, I had the time and resources to watch this movie. I did not bother watch the series, nor have an intention to. The reason being that firstly, I don’t like the theme of the story and secondly, I don’t like the lead actress in the series. The movie, however, is an exception because of Song Hae Gyo (there are countless spelling in the web, but I chose this for no reason other than it’s easy to pronounce). I will not elaborate on the story because I’m not Korean and I don’t have the background of the story. All I can say is that Song Hae Gyo did her part as Hwang Jin Yi [only from what I know of the character] wonderfully in this motion picture. Not only was she stunningly beautiful, her acting did not fail. I’ve been wanting to see this film even before it was released, but it took me this long to finally see it. I’m not disappointed. It made me watch Full House again.
February 18th, 2008
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