Jason on Azhar Rudin's Majidee

I think this was written not too long ago as part of a test for my Film Appreciation course. It took a couple of hours to write. It was kinda cool back then, but reading it again now makes me laugh:)

Realism in Azhar Rudin’s Majidee (2005)

Majidee is a good example of realism film form. The 15 minute short film is shot in one take following two characters’ walking on a busy Kuala Lumpur streets from the bus station to the LRT. The short contained important aspects of realism as outlined by Bazin.

Bazin said in order to be real, cinema must locate objects in space and Majidee exemplifies that point. Here, the camera objectively picks up a subject and follows his brief journey, intersected by another man on the street. Unlike conventional narrative, this subject and its situation can be easily understood by audience because the situation may happen as well to any of us. Our experience identifies the familiarity of the location, the environment, and the progressing conversation as something that we could also have encountered in real space.

Key to Bazin’s attempt to define spatial relationships of cinematic reality is the long take, deep focus, and mobile framing photography. To that point, the cinematography on Majidee held true. Firstly, the short was shot with a handheld camera in one long take with aperture that shows entire frame in focus. The outcome is an emphasize on better audience experience since in reality we also see our environment and subjects for long duration in real time and cannot selectively block our deep vision. Additionally, by the use of mobile framing, the handheld camera intensified viewer participation in the film by inviting us to be any one of the people walking on the street that so happened to be around the two main characters.

The styles emphasized by Bazin and used by the filmmakers in Majidee also added more ways for the audience to interpret the film. Bazin claims that editing presents the point of the director in a more clear and direct way to the viewer. By using longer takes and not relying on editing, a meaning of a film is ambiguous and the audiences are free to decide. Similarly in Majidee, the meanings are open to interpretation, limited only by audiences’ personal knowledge and experience. The film may be about meeting with strangers or act of kindness or even the hardship of communication in a city of cacophonous sounds and language. Even the ending was left open ended; we do not know the fate of any of the characters, just like the way in our real life. Everything is part of life reality.

Bazin said that cinema is perfect when it is the “art of the real”. As in Majidee, it is as every bit real as us walking the 15 minute journey and confronting different facets of our society.

:)

Cofee, Tea, Oscar Nominee(s)

Nope, this isn't another lengthy movie review from me. I quit reviewing movies, I'd prefer making them. Just awhile ago, I've done watching Juno and I'm eager to continue later with my half watched No Country For Old Men. Both are last year's Oscar nominees, in which the former bagged the Best Screenplay and the latter swept Best Director and Best Film.

Juno was IMHO a jewel. It took the a common life issue and turned it into a lighthearted but meaningful comedy drama. It has all the right materials a scriptwriter would want to churn out; workable story, good plot, great characters, meaningful lines, fantastic turn of events, and a perfect end. Couple that with unobtrusive camerawork and lovely music, Juno is to me, a textbook example of an effective movie. And they made their 6.5 million budget back in only 20 days of which mostly was still in limited release!

Told you its not gonna be lengthy. Now I'm going to continue with The Oscar's Best Film, which I think is another superb work. By the way, I bought my DVDs from the *distributors* at Digital Mall. They are friendlier and more accessible compared to your local assemblymen. Please do support them for all the exotic stuff you can't find in the cinemas.

no-fark!

The trailers (just watch the real thing, trailers are tools of deceive):

Juno

No Country For Old Men (this is good stuff wehh)

Review: The Magic Gourd 宝葫芦的秘密

Disney's answer to the Chinese market, albeit simplified.

In the US of A, The Magic Gourd, a collaboration between Disney and Centro Digital Pictures Ltd would be something direct-to-video. In its simplicity, its a simple story of a rather imaginative boy who's lazy in schoolwork. His life changes when he accidentally "fishes" a magic gourd who can help the boy to accomplish whatever he wants. The problem is, our Magic Gourd will do exactly as told, putting the boy in a lot of hilarious and embarrassing situation. And so the boy learns that there's no shortcut in life and he has to work his way if he was to become the person he imagines to be.

The story is straightforward and predictable, coming from a tried and true Disney formula. Its pacing is something like The Bridge to Terabithia, but it doesn't deliver the magic of the former. Maybe this works better at delivering the message to kids (it could be too that i haven't seen simple movies for quite some time). The captivating moments come from Lau Ching Wan's voice acting as the wacky Magic Gourd. His mature deep voice contradicts with the timid Gourd but Lau was flawless in his delivery of quirky lines, sometimes filled with a bit of sarcasm.

The Magic Gourd reminds me a lot of the relationship between Nobita and Doraemon, and i could only guess if the writers got a bit of idea from them too. But unlike Doraemon, The Magic Gourd lacks depth in characters as both the boy and his gourd seems detached at times. Anyhow, we see Doraemon hundreds of times so i guess its no fair comparison. So at the end, Disney's first Chinese foray was a regular simple one. Maybe they wasn't going to risk anything for the potential millions of viewers, a lot of them were already fans of the world's most beloved mouse.

no-fark!

Review: Russel Mulcahy's Resident Evil: Extinction

It all ends with threes. Well, not quite.

Resident Evil: Extinction takes charge of the franchise from the previous two installations, chronicling the journey of Alice to save the world from badass Umbrella Corporation and a never ending onslaught of zombies.

As with the series of games and two movies that preceded it, RE:E follows the tried but true formula of the Resident Evil franchise: a protagonist (Alice) encounters a team of sidekicks, then join forces to trash zombie asses, until most of them gets killed, which at that point they will be confronted by the main monster, usually courtesy of Umbrella Corp. At the very brink of climatic defeat, our protagonists sums up their strength, and defeats our monster albeit clumsily sometimes. Story would’ve end there, but wait, somewhere somehow the executives of Umbrella (or Sony Pictures, or Capcom) pops out and decides to twist the story into a new direction. In this way, the corporation sustains the evolution, advancement, and multiplication of the T-Virus, plus the determination of our protagonists.

As too with the prior two cinema installations, RE:E is a easy to comprehend, smack it in your face zombie kick ass flick. Alice updates you on the beginning regarding the state of the planet (which Christ the Savior is nowhere yet to be seen, but every day is Judgment Day). Apart from the neat continuation from the ending of the last movie and a glimpse of a future sequel in the making, probably would be called Resident Evil: Multiplication, the rest of the story was as dull as the monotonous Nevada desert setting. You’ll get your usual dose of impromptu scares, gun and blade action, blood, and more blood. Oh, PETA wouldn’t be pleased yet: the franchise have so far tortured dogs, lizards, and this time they fried the entire population of crows from the Las Vegas area (digitally).

Those of us who watched RE:E probably knew there would inevitably be a fourth movie, but let me tell you why you don’t need to spend your money for the next RE installment. In Hollywood moviemaking formula, the good guys would surely win over the bad. This theory holds true for most movies targeting a worldwide audience. As such, be it the next RE or the next one after, rest assured that zombies’ heads will always end with a bullet hole or under a truck and the world would be saved someday. But true franchises never die, like McDonalds; they grow, multiply, and conquer the world. After all, apart from the one or two offbeat menus, every new branch offers the same great taste of Big Mac isn’t it?

No-fark!

Review: Ang Lee's Lust, Caution

Without lust, there's no caution.

First of all, congratulations again to the Bolehwood censors for doing such a great job to an otherwise fine movie so that young adults like myself would not have the opportunity to pull down our pants and jerk off at the cinema. Thank you.

That aside, Lust, Caution is an unpretentious foray into the human soul, faith and loyalty in times of national crises. I must admit that apart from watching halfway of Brokeback Mountain, I've never seen any of Lee's films before this one. So its one thing less that i don't need to compare this to his previous works. Suffice to say, i like this film a lot if it were not significantly censored.

Lust, Caution is a story set in World War II Shanghai where a female spy was reluctantly drafted by the Chungking Nationalist Movement to lure a Japanese collaborator in order to have him assassinated.

The highlight of this film surely goes to Tony Leung. His tormented personality in the Wong Kar Wai films and Internal Affairs is elevated to a new degree. This time, he's the baddest bad guy a bad guy could be. His character, Mr Yee, reminds me of the Qin Emperor in various movies. Cunning, suspicious, vicious, ultra sadistic, yet lonely and in need of love. Powered by some neat close shots, Leung drives his character like no other, putting the element of fear right in your face. Plus, Mr Yee is so unpredictable, the audience doesn't really know what's going in his mind, even the spy girl 'Mrs Mak' couldn't understand her target.

The spy girl, Wang Jiachi (played by Tang Wei) was as many ways as good as Leung's Mr Yee. I think she was underdeveloped at the first half of the movie, together with the rest of her university accomplices (Wang Leehom etc). It seemed their journey towards planning the assassination was rushy. But its the second half of the movie that Wang Jiachi, or Mrs Mak, shines through with some very emotional scenes. I just felt that i couldn't entirely pity her because i don't really see what hell she went through, thanks to the censors. I think the deleted sadism/masochism scenes really hurts the entire film. The end outcome was especially triggering though.

As i said, the deleted scenes makes this already difficult film even harder to comprehend. The sexual encounters are essential to understand the plight of Jiachi. First, you might not understand the struggle of the Chinese patriotic movement during the Japanese oppression. There's no Guy Hawkes fireworks nor spear wielding Spartans invoking your audiovisual senses. The resistance is really a secretive activity run in constant fear from people like Mr Yee. Secondly, the film feels bit like a stage play, its meaning is not always explicit. You must deduce. Lastly, the Shakespearean tragedy-like nature of this film might not suit everyone.

In all, this is not your typical fall blockbuster. So proceed with caution, and maybe you'll find some lust.

no-fark!

10 Years On: Revisiting James Cameron's Titanic

The year was 1998, mention anything about Titanic, Jack, Rose, My Heart Will Go On, You Jump I Jump and probably you'd invite some menacing looks from your high school mates. But then, its hard to say that this film has not made an impact on anyone. Its as famous back then as George W. Bush is today.

I remember the first time i watched Titanic. It was a pirated copy vcd (so i get to see more, harharhar). Being an adolescent back then, you're always enticed by steamy stuff, but as i watched on, it wasn't Kate Winslet's fat boobs that caught my attention. It was three hours worth of pure exhilaration, joy, and sadness witnessing the disaster of the century. When the band strikes 'Nearer, My God to Thee', the tears started to accumulate.Now after almost ten years, I still regard this as one of the best movies ever. Here's why.

Historical and scientific inaccuracies aside, Titanic makes a perfect example of the three act structure. Make the beginning like how you'd end? You got that, Titanic started with a research team finding the wreck. Atto Uno begins with Rose recalling the events before boarding the ship. Meet her badass rich fiance, Calderon, who's the typical antagonist. Speaking of contrast, lets pit the rich with the very poor. At the other end of the dock, we see lowly Jack, winning a getaway low class ticket from a poker game. Walla! The steamer goes to the sea and to its doom, with our poor characters and in it. Of course, our two protagonist developes love ("You jump, I jump") amidst the social gap and the looming threat of the fiance.

Atto Due kicks off with a BANG, literary. Titanic hits the iceberg (THE, because its another antagonist). The ship starts to sink! Now, the sinking ship itself becomes the ultimate antagonist. Our protagonist barely escaped the humans, now are faced with the wrath of destiny. Here, main plot and subplots intervene and mixed perfectly for a juicy disaster. The lifeboat rush scene was particularly captivating. Arriving at the climax, the ship starts to dip violently, bow first into the water. Then, the ship cracks in half, with our lovers at the very end of the stern. Off it crashes into the freezing arctic water. Bringing the last of many survivors with it, including our lovers. That's where our oh-i'm-so-cold Jack speaks his cheesiest dialog in the entire movie, dies from hypothermia and sinks underwater, leaving poor Rose alive and living to her nineties, where she joins the researchers to revisit the sunken HMS Titanic. The whole thing is melodrama to its max.

Are there any character developments? You bet, or maybe not so detailed. But hey, most of them have a purpose to the entire story. We might have known or guessed the motives of the characters: the captain wants to speed up the ship, the fiance just wants Rose for himself, Jack and Rose wants each other, and at the sight of impending doom, most people wants to survive. There are ample contrasts shown throughout the movie. The lavishness of the upper class contradicts with the rags of the lower decks. The conflict of man versus disaster is contrasted with the struggle for lifeboats between the social class and the genders (to some degree). The band playing courageously while the ship sinks? Classic surrealism.

You may hate it for its cheesy dialogs or think its overrated, or, like me, enjoys it for what it is. Either ways, there is no denying that Titanic is memorable, if it isn't influential. I think there's not much movie after it that made such significant impact on viewers. Too bad, Cameron doesn't have any directorial roles after Titanic. But once in a while, Hollywood comes out with something close (ie. Gladiator, LOTR). So when's the next major blockbuster phenomenon?

Happy birthday Titanic!

no-fark!

Review: Felix Tan's Hidden Summer in My Heart

Two strangers...an entwined destiny, but still strangers to the end.

That pretty well sums up what i felt as a commercial flop by an aspiring local production.

I believe there are 3 kinds of moviegoers: the critics, the innocent audiences, and lastly the industry people (aka filmmakers). I'm sure the former two are left spitting after watching this film (btw its shot in digital beta), that will explain the last day of screening at 1utama where me and The Girlfriend had the entire hall to ourselves. So, i rather be fair by judging this film based on a filmmaker's viewpoint, or at least a budding one.

Hidden Summer in My Heart (陌生人) was produced by a crew of mostly MMU graduates headed by Director Felix Tan. Now, on the pretext of the story and concept alone this film would seems to be another one that is touching on social issues, and that concept could really work. This is story of a mother looking for her daughter in a alien country, then crosses path with a young pimp who betrays her at first but sort of repented later. The young guy decides to help her find the daughter and both tracked to Johor Baharu, which coincidently is the guy's hometown. There, the mother brushed her daughter for a moment before the girl runs away. The guy accidentally meets her former girlfriend whom he tricked into prostitution some years ago. Then out of nowhere, the bad guys (the guy's former employer) decided to get even with him. In the end, most things went well but not in the way neither of the two preferred and certainly against most audience's expectations.

So what's the problem? Its a good story hindered by loose plots, shallow characters and mediocre acting. Some sub plots are really unnecessary, especially the dance number which might have been added as the actor's promo. The characters doesn't rout for attention. It feels like they don't really know themselves nor their world. Bland. We don't really feel pity for the mom, nor we feel rage or pity with the main guy, nor anyone else. There's nothing for the audience to hold on to, and that's why the film drags us from KL to JB.

There are to me, many things unresolved in the film. Some characters are explored not even halfway, then they are dumped with no explanation whatsoever. There's a depressing feel, especially during the meeting between the guy and his ex, but the filmmakers didn't capitalize on that. After a brief encounter, she was out, and everything came down to this guy again. That leads to the casting. Actors are just so-so. The mom doesn't speak like a Chinese mainlander, and that cuts down authenticity. The guy was stiff, again unauthentic. I'd wished his expression could be better. There were some parts that are promising, that includes his singing.

On the technical side, cinematography was unconvincing. There are a slew of engaging angles but did not really tally with the plot. I think the use of digital video makes this film too glossy, but i understand it might be unavoidable since its a relatively young production company. The music could be bettered. Using much of computer generated music, it feels awkward at times. The music wasn't adding a punch, but are hitting another nail at their feet. The editor obviously hard worked. This could be due to the availability of shots, as some scenes were near to jumpy. Attention were also not given enough for some bits of the audio balance.

This was a concept that might work had it not been the loose plots and other minor stuff. At the end of the show, we left the already empty hall, empty headed. But then, its a bold try for a new company, and in terms of effort, is worth my two thumbs:)

no-fark!

Review: Jay Chou's Secret

Heck, I'm interrupting my html studies now to settle my score with IMHO this summer's best Chinese melodrama: Secret (不能说的秘密), which i think deserves my mention in the blog.

Some weeks ago I went for this movie with The Girlfriend. This is one of the rare times where i entered the cinema without knowing anything what i were to expect, and we're some 10 minutes late too.
So it goes, we found our seats and started watching what in my preconception is typical Taiwanese idol fare. Jay Chou who played Ye Xiang Lun, a not so typical music student in a junior college, impresses a bunch of students. Then we get some slapsticks from some Nan Quan Mama guys. Okay, i thought to myself, i expected this. Then we get to meet the leading lady (girl), and thats when everything seems to be beautiful. Xiao Yu (Played by Kwai Lun Mei) is the sort of girl that gives you this strangey kind of feeling. Alright, at that point it felt like a Japanese romance movie. The two meets, some kind of feeling builds up between them, they got chemistry, and finally Yu tells him she likes him (of course they kissed). Tada! That was easy right?

Wrong! (haha, i anticipated this too) She seems short of breath, obviously a side effect from kisses, and we found out that she's athsmatic. My experience tells me that its a severe one, and so i concluded at that point that this girl is going to die or that this girl is near dying but miraculously survived at the end. I thought this movie was going from Japanese to Korean. But hell no, i was wrong. I'm not going to elaborate on the story here but i can say that the next thing happen was a spooky ghost story-like adventure, and the ending (or more precisely the resolution) blew my mind away.

The best part of it is knowing after the show that this is directed by Jay Chou. Damn...I think this movie deserves to be on a text book. The cinematography was close to perfect. It captures the feel of the setting pretty well (was located at Tanshui). The framing were classic example of what to shoot. Every bit of emotion is present either from the characters or their surroundings. Casting-wise, Kwai Lun Mei was aptly casted for the role of Yu. She has this next-door-girl kind of feel. She's not too beautiful, nor cute, and i think that keeps someone like me rooted to what happens to her. Jay Chou clearly improved over his last movies, he's very much being himself, minus the over-coolness. Anthony Wong (who plays Jay's dad) brings on a good performance worthy of his others. Most of the supporting cast are not bad at all.

I personally liked Secret for its plot's tightness. Everything but one question is answered. The story might be a mixture of different genres but it works here. It felt draggy during the middle parts but a brilliant (and equally draggy) resolution saves the show. The downside (apart from the ending, but thats personal) is the script. It felt too simple and lacking punch, but i think the film redeems itself for the good story and camerawork.

Overall, Secret feels like a long, short story, albeit one that is good. You got to see the movie with your own eyes to experience what i mean. It wouldn't be called Secret otherwise:)



no-fark!

My Peek on: Transformers

Hell yeah! Hell-la-lujah! There ain't this much entertainment in cinema since Terminator 2.
If you're still wondering if this is kids stuff, GO WATCH IT! Transformers might be the one movie that you'll remember for a long time, something in the likes of T2 or Titanic (Yes, cheesy Jack and Rose). This movie is huge.

Firstly, you don't need to bring alot of brains to watch this one. In fact, its easier to watch it then read my blog. Once you strap yourself to the seat and let Optimus Prime introduces the show, its all autopilot from there. There's enough forward action to get you glued for the rest of the 2 plus hours (i lost count, this is one of the very few shows that i don't care at all of the time). The Micheal Bay cheesyness? Thankfully kept at a minimum. The main character Sam Witwicky ("ITS WIT-WICKY!") was not bad, throwing audience with his antics and comedies. But my biggest clap (and whistles) goes to, woo-hoo, Mikaela Banes (played by, woo-hoo, Megan Fox). Damn, she saves the day. These two met, get along, develops love, you know. Thank-goodnessly, its far less cheesy than Pearl Harbor.

Next, introducing the Transformers. Look, i'm a kid when it comes to badass, heavy-metal, mechas, and i think this is the sleekest Transformers yet. I have doubts before the show on how they're gonna make this believable to the modern world (this ain't cartoon where you can revive bots as easy as you kill them every episode), and the producers did just that. But i do feel that it was a bit hard to identify who's who of the Decepticons, they look quite the same (hey, when did Starstream got killed?). Apart from that, they did great with the morphing scenes. I bet you can get the automation precisely when you slow-mo the entire morphing sequence.

So, whats not so good about the best movie of the year? For the start, there's so much time for action that characters are not fully explored. The humans are okay. They get some good screen time, take us along the story, but the robots are just lacking the heart and soul that we usually get from the cartoons (sans Beastmaster series). There's too few robots to my liking, and they came in even numbers for both sides. That somewhat balances the entire struggle, but i was hoping that the Decepticons were more harder to fight, which leads me to Megatron. The most vicious, cunning, and powerful leader of the Decepticons stayed frozen for almost two hours before running amok and reduced to a pile of scrap from a push of a cube to the heart that came from a human. I was expecting a colossal battle between Optimus and Megatron like they always do in the cartoons, and i was even more expecting for an Optimus sacrifice. It all never came, and that makes the ending felt like leaping off the top of the Twin Towers just to realize that you could then walk on air.

The touching feeling of the entire show essentially ended with Bumblebee getting caught by the humans. The rest of it was pure exhilarating action, and as i said earlier, the action (and Megan Fox) saved the day. So for the entertainment factor alone, Transformers deserved my 5 out of 5 stars.

p/s: Do you feel i ended my review abruptly? Thats how it felt at the show's ending.

No-fark!