As much as I enjoyed Ang Lee's treatment of the story and the movie itself, let's leave the debate on the merit of the show and talk just about Mr Green himself.

ILM's rendition of the Hulk has been nothing short of breathtaking. ( One writer in a local newspaper passed him off as been "rubbery", and I've since dispatched David Banner's mutant mouse after her, god bless. ) For the uninitiated, computer graphics are terribly afraid of a few things : close ups ( and we're talking full, cinema resolution ), water/wet skin, green or not, and notably, bright scenes with lots of sunshine and daylight, because its excruciatingly hard to blend CG and make it believable in such conditions. But here, the Hulk is just flaunting it, plain. In the scene where he bursts out of the containment chamber, water spewing and hands raised in rage, I might as well have believed that he was a living, breathing Hulk. Let's not even get started on the desert scenes.

Realism aside, my favourite scene has to be the electrifying shot of father and son, rocketing through the sky, their silhouettes etched onto passing clouds like giant impressionist paintings, coupled nicely with Elfman's dramatic score.

I'm not entirely sure how the makers of the Japanese horror film Ju-on decided on the peerless tagline "The scariest movie ever made"; painfully it is anything but. Gimmicky publicity notwithstanding, no one still has the foggiest idea why folks are willing to spend good money to get spooked, myself a guilty party, albeit a terrible choice this time.
The premise and plot of the entire story, juxtaposed on a nonlinear timeline, escapes me completely so let's just move on to the scare-o-meter. Woefully, this one barely registers a single hit, resorting so blantantly to cinematic devices already seen in more original films like Ringu and Dark Water, bordering on absolute banality and triteness. Developed photos getting wracked, ghastly figures peering into lifts, did I mention something wierd on TV ? In one particular memorable scene where the protaganist of the moment gets hunted down by her 3 dead friends, I was quite convinced that the filmmakers were on to a parody from Night of the Living Dead or the more recent Resident Evil, whichever one better.
"The scariest movie ever made ?" NOT ! Mr Nakata please, we're still waiting anxiously.

Pixar has outdone themselves once again with Finding Nemo, an animation feature so rich with overwhelming tapestries of colour and vibrancy its hard to appreciate with only one viewing, and where the words "computer generated imagery or CGI" seem to lose coherence with what the eyes actually see on screen. As animators ourselves, me and my friends have expressed both awe and disbelief at the level of complexity and depth of the character animation, which is only achievable by a marriage of immaculate animation techniques and self acting on the part of the animator to immerse himself/herself into the role. And of course, we were more than happy to see David Tart's name ( http://www.tartamation.com/tartamation/ ) as the credits rolled, an animator from Pixar that taught us for 3 days during a short program back in school. Yes, Pixar ok, don't play play.

Almost every other blog that I've visited have their owners writing about Matrix Reloaded and how it holds up, so I guess I won't dwell more about that. Instead...

Best dressed : The Merovingian Twins, complete with thick mascara and dreadlocks.

Worse dressed : Everyone else living down in Zion.

Best dressed female : Persephone ( black shiny outfits just got boring after a while )

Best/Worse philosophical banter : Chocolate cakes and going to the loo.

Best line, unanimously : "Sample this." ( Trinity setting her pistol on Persephone )
Anyway, if I were Neo, I'll choose Persephone over Trinity anytime. *laughs*

With my last film Dolls by Takeshi Kitano showing this coming Saturday, the film festival have once again come to and end for another year. Having caught 9 films altogether ( the biggest number since my first film fest ), many of which were packed on consecutive evenings, I must say its has been quite a chore ( I dozed off in the early part of Russian Ark ). As much as I enjoy watching movies, I don't believe in movie marathons for I feel to fully appreciate and "digest" the gist of the films you need to cater time for recovery from all the visuals and ideas still swirling inside your head, arty film festival movies more so.

On a sidenote, I've become increasing annoyed and resentful of a few individuals who dwell within the Singapore International film festival forum, criticizing any and every directors' ( including Royston Tan's 15, which won a FIPRESCI award ) work as been weak, undeserving, sucky, and whatever detracting word they can find. Its amusing how they could spend all their time in the forum writing lengthy reviews discrediting works when they've never so much as written a single line of script or shot a single take of film. What even made them think they are in a position to judge a piece of film work ? To quote Al Pacino in the movie Insomnia, where he was chastising an inept superior who never took part in any real action : "You, and all the assholes like you, risk nothing, spend the whole day sucking the marrow out of real cops when you just don't have the balls to be one yourself. "

Its at least comforting to realize that the filmmakers themselves are probably too wrapped up in some future work that they never have time to visit any of these forums filled with self consumed film critics.

Hitherto, a mixed bag of films at the Singapore International Film Festival, but unfortunately there seems to be more disappointment than pleasant surprises so far. 2 films, China's Dazzling and Japan's anime A Tree of Palme have turned out to be duds. Let's hope the remaining 3 films will be good ones, well at least, ones that I like. With commercial releases like My Little Eye, Together fighting for the limited time I have now as the SIFF is going on, I seem to be living in and out of theatres as of late.

Program for this year's Singapore International FIlm Festival ( SIFF ) have began with Love at 7-11, a portmanteau Taiwanese film revolving around the love lifes of 3 different parties of people. Next came Lilya 4-ever by Russian director Lukas Moodysson, a heavy, sobering film depicting the perfidious child sex trade still very much active in the now defunct USSR. Whilst it had an urgent and important message to deliver, it was also the saddest and grimmest film I've watched in a long time. More films coming up.

Director Choi Ho's modern romance, Who Are You ?, tries to capture the essence of the N (Network) generation, Korea's young people who grew up with e-mail, instant messaging, cell phones, and the Internet in one of the most wired nations of the world. The film centers on an Internet game called "Who Are You" a sort of ultimate dating game where players pick partners and interact in a simulation of the real world. As far as romance movies go, the plot is nothing new. The role of new technology in the realm of dating is a subject that was explored in 1995's The Contact, with actor Han Seok-Gyu and actress Jeon Do-Yeon, and again in the 1998 Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks film "You've Got Mail". Who Are You? is simply the latest version, a technological update of this genre.

However, as a snapshot of today's youth, this film is highly relevant and asks some hard questions. In one scene, Hyung-tae outlines the Seoul skyline with his fingers and says that from that angle, it looks like a scene from a game, an interesting commentary on the increasingly blurred line between the real world and virtual reality.

Although the film's ending was not really to my liking, finding it lacking in a certain satisfying, emotional impact, I was nonetheless enamoured by the overall youthful and energetic feel of the story, something perhaps lacking in an essentially stolid and mundane real working world, not to mention the wonderful and romantic possibilities existing only within the walls of a deftly crafted film world. For that 100 minutes as I sat in the theatre, I wish I was living it.

In 1971, Mao's Cultural Revolution swept over China, shutting down universities and banishing "reactionary intellectuals", boys and girls who had graduated from high school, to the countryside to be "re-educated" by the poor peasants. This is the backdrop for Dai Sijie's Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, a beautifully shot movie depicting the experiences of Ma ( who is actually a depiction of Dai Sijie himself ) and Luo sent to a remote mountain village The Phoenix, where they met a local tailor's daughter known only as the little seamstress. Caught in the daily, menial routines of labor and re-education, the trio sought little escapades and delight in reading the literary works of western authors like Balzac and Gogol, plus playing music on Ma's violin, calling sonata names like "Mozart is Thinking of Mao" to convince the local authorities that the merrymaking is Mao-worthy. One can argue that while the potential for underlying political or satirical messages can be numerous and varied, I was more obsessed ( and contented ) to simply indulge myself in the richly filmed scenery of the mountains and textures of the villages, the soothing music, both of local taste as well as western, the tunes of the violin forming a strange, yet binding aural dichotomy in the face of a complete asian setting.

I was earnestly happy today when I heard on the radio that Miyazaki's Spirited Away has won the Oscars for best animation feature. Whilst its nice to get some decent recognition from western audiences, Miyazaki's films have simply transcended the need for any awards to justify its merit, and I would support it, Oscars or none. I eagerly await their next animation feature, and hopefully, with Miyazaki himself at the helm again.

After a languid stalemale at the board of censors Royston Tan's 15 have been passed with an RA rating and ready for screening at the SIFF. Royston, age 26, already a director of a reputable feature film, with invitations from dozens of film festivals worldwide. I'm already near 24. What can I achieve in 2 years time ? I'm pretty sure I can be the proud owner of a couple of movie dvds that I really like, but beyond that, I'm not too sure.

SIFF update

Films confirmed ( tickets booked )

1) Dolls 3rd May Saturday 4pm
2) A Tree of Palme 26th April Saturday 4pm
3) City of God 29th April Tuesday 915pm
4) Winged Migration 25th April Friday 7pm
5) Man Without a Past 23th April Wednesday 7pm
6) Dazzling 21st April Monday 7pm

Films for consideration

1) Bowling for Columbine 27th April Sunday 7pm
2) Bokunchi 1st May Thursday 915pm
3) Russian Ark 30th April Wednesday 915pm
4) September 11 2nd May Friday 915pm
5) Love ar 7-11 27th April Sunday 7pm

For movie synopsis please visit www.fimfest.org.sg. Film recommendations welcomed.

16th Singapore International Film Festival - Movie List ( April 13 - May 3rd ) Tickets go on sale from March 14th

Ok. To avoid the potential disappointment of missing any good shows, I've drawn up a list of films that I have decided or am deciding to watch. Films marked with an asterisk * are decided shows, bearing any unforseen events like sold out movies, terrorist explosions at ticket branch, etc. Disclaimer : The films in the list were drawn after considerable time done on reading positive reviews in Sight and Sound magazine ( which is a difficult magazine for any movie ), online reviews, past viewing experiences, and in some cases, calculated conjectures. There's no guarantee that it'd be a blissful movie experience, but heck, it'd be a pretty good bet.

*DOLLS ( JAPAN ) - DIRECTOR : TAKESHI KITANO ( HAHABI, KIKUJIRO ) DATE : SATURDAY, MAY 3RD, 4PM

*A TREE OF PALM ( ANIMATION, JAPAN ) - DIRECTOR : NAKAMURA TAKESHI ( ANIMATION DIRECTOR, AKIRA ) DATE : SATURDAY, APRIL 26TH, 4PM

*CITY OF GOD ( BRAZIL ) - DIRECTOR : FERNANDO MEIRELLES DATE : TUESDAY APRIL 29TH 915PM

*WINGED MIGRATION ( FRANCE ) DIRECTOR : JACQUES PERRIN ( THIS IS MY OWN SELECTION FOR GOOD CINEMATOGRAPHY ) FRIDAY APRIL 25TH 7PM

*BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE ( USA ) DIRECTOR : MICHAEL MOORE SUNDAY APRIL 27TH 7PM

BOKUNCHI - MY HOUSE ( JAPAN ) DIRECTOR : JUNJI SAKAMOTO TUESDAY MAY 1ST 915 PM

RUSSIAN ARK - ( RUSSIA ) DIRECTOR : ALEXANDR SOKUROV ( THIS MOVIE WAS SHOT WITH ONE SINGLE, 96 MINUTES TAKE ) WEDNESDAY 30 APRIL 915PM

For more information on these films please go to www.filmfest.org.sg. Also please get back to me asap on shows you folks want to watch so we can arrange for ticketing. Cheers.

Roman Polanski's The Pianist gives jarring and near hallucinatory realism to life within the Ghetto, where captive Jews were held before many of them sent for extermination during the Holocaust. The absolute conviction of its detail, notably the superbly convincing set design certainly adds to the lucid quality of the horrors happening within. Seeing through the eyes of the protanganist, it quickly becomes clear that surivival in such a genocide is strictly a matter of single minded determination and often sheer luck, for death takes on a near arbitrary nature.


Sparing my lacklustre rhetoric, I quote, from the review in Sight and Sound Magazine : " The power of The Pianist derives largely from its dogged adherence to fact as well as it grim humour and restrain. Music is very sparingly applied, so that even a soaring crane shot over the devastated city of Warsaw is denied a swelling John Williams score of Spielbergian dimensions, but simply comes to rest with a plaintive clarinet solo. When Szpilman finally is allowed to play a Chopin ballade in order to prove his identity, music has been such a "lost" sound that the performance has a rare emotional clarity. "


Nicely put.

I completed my National Service today. Oddly enough, I had no rush of excitement, no bursts of elation at this moment of emancipation. The feeling can be best likened to chewing a piece of tasty gum that you've kept for too long in your pocket that when you do start to eat it, realize that it has long lost its flavour.

While visiting my friend's house for CNY today I passed the tempting game of Daidi to watch Stephen Chow's Shaolin Soccer, of which I quickly realized I shouldn't have missed when it was on show at the cinemas. Though still very much laden with trite Stephen Chow slapstick humour, the notable difference here was the impeccable use of CG and sfx which greatly accentuated the value and appeal of the story and action. Think the Avenging Fists or even Tsui Hark's Legend of Zu and it becomes apparent that flashy SFX does not equate to good movies, but this instance proves that it can be done.

My favourite scene in the movie is where Zhao Wei, though sporting a rather dubious headshave, does a coup de grace on an offensive volley shot as she retaliates using a Tai-chi move, spinning the burning soccer ball on her finger. This composited shot is so beautifully done that for a split second I was almost convinced her kungfu skills are for real. Very very neat work.

The Journey of Man - a 2 part National Geographic documentary tracing the origins and subsequent geographic evolution of man is undoubtably the best documentary I've seen in years. In fact, it even tops my all my favourite documentary series of all times, David Attenborough's The Living Planet. This might be largely attributed to the intrinsic nature of of the subject which so beautifully explains our biological history and inheritance as humans on the whole. Spencer Wells, the geneticist behind the journey gives incisive and lucid explanations of our genetical forefathers and how under extraordinary odds, ventured beyond Africa and evolved into every racial group around the world today. In short, this is the exact story of out past and origin. If you're tuned in to the National Geographic Channel, you can't miss this.

I was perusing through a film magazine the other day when I came across an article on the movie Wings of Desire by Wim Wenders, on which I have watched sometime back last year. I remembered the film as been rather arthouse, abstract in parts and I found it difficult to follow the story. It didn't help that it was shot during the 80s, a period that I always like to label as the "trashy years" with flashy clothes and bloomy, disheveled hairstyles in fashion. Anyway, it was a particular explanation regarding the plotline that caught my attention. In the movie, the scenes often intercut from colour to b&w footages, which I found disconcerting - but it actually had an important reason; for the angels, supernatural beings as they are, only saw the world in b&w; for they only see the truth and the "essence" of things, unhindered by the distractions of colour. Humans however, mortal beings as they are - saw the world in colour, ironically blinded by colours.

I thought that was wonderfully explained and used. It also reminded me why b&w photos are so strong in composition and form - for they too are unhindered by distracting colours, stripped to its simplest form and shape.

Granted that too, Angels must have a really tough job.

Happy New folks. :]

TOP TEN FILMS OF 2002 POLL

okie...here goes me and my stupid antics about movies again. Choose - the top 10 films of 2002, although its hard to be objective and we all have our preferences...but i'm quite certain a few movies will still stand out with superior screenplay, cinematography, art direction and the like. To make it fair, i've only listed the movies that we've watched ( which should be pretty much the same, give or take a few ). For the whole list, refer to the comments box / click on the comments link.

This is my list : ( not in any order of merit )

1) Road to Perdition ( Mendes )
2) Minority Report ( Spielberg )
3) One Fine Spring Day ( Jinho )
4) Infernal Affairs ( Keung Lau/Fai Mak )
5) Insomnia ( Nolan )
6) The Man who wasn't there ( Coen brothers )
7) Spring Subway ( Yibai )
8) No Man's Land ( Tanovic )
9)-
X)-

Can't seem to find any enough films to top the ten slots...to do so would have been a little forced. Asian movies still has quite a stand with 2 Chinese shows and 1 Korean, plus a foreign movie. Excellent cinematography for Man who wasn't there, and Minority Report certainly boasts the best art direction in any movie i've seen this year, at least the most impressionable for me. Over to you guys.

I really should be editing the actual film instead of doing up the website at this point, but still...

http://www.notionwerks.com/windsing

Running at 179 minutes, Lord of the Rings : The Two Towers is a long movie; but screentime is justly spend on the long and reasonably gritty battle at Helm's Deep, although the Ents' contemplation of an impending war with Saruman at Isengard was languid and unnecessary; nor was it in the original story. Discrepancies in the movie and book aside, I was particularly happy with Miranda Otto's portrayal of Eowyn, handmaiden of Rohan and later part in the story, the only mortal capable of vanquishing the Nazgul, the 9 minions of Sauron. Imbued with zeal and energy, yet graceful and beautiful at the same time, she was the exact image of what would have been described in the book.

Undoubtably the best Hong Kong film I've watched in a long time, Infernal Affairs sees veteran actors Andy Lau and Tony Leung square off as opposite undercover agents both in the police and drug syndicate. Wasting little time in establishing the plotline seeing the both of them embarking on their incognito missions, the story jumps forward to the present day with each of them working ever more feverishly as they try to take each other out before any of their true identity is exposed. The battle that rages on is two-fold; the physical, tangible need to remain undiscovered while remaining useful to their original cause, and the internal, psychic wrestle to remain true to their identity and shrug off the embattled weariness. In the end, no one escapes unscathed and the victory that is claimed is not without a sinister twist of irony. I especially enjoyed the conundrum exchange of words and battle of wits between the two protanganist excellently played by Andy Lau and Tony Leung. A masterful piece not to be missed.

Last night I stayed up late to rewatch the detective thriller Insomnia that had arrived on DVD, and was especially thankful for the subtitles that allowed me to understand certain minute plot development as well as nuances in the casts' acting and performance. I sank into my sofa and immersed myself completely in the story, Al Pacino everybit as convincing as Will Dormer, the tormented detective that would just as well been a real life, fully fallible character. Perhaps I should now delve into his earlier works, Godfather would be a good start.

Red Dragon, the premise plot setup for what is to become the Silence of the Lambs and later on Hannibal, is a handsomely made film that righfully earns it place as a respectable prequel to the other two highly acclaimed pieces. Once again, Anthony Hopkins and Edward Norton gives dependable performances together with Ralph Fiennes ( The English patient ) whose role as the highly unstable "Toothfairy" killer earns laudable respect as well. Alluding though not explicitly to the main character of the sequel Clarice Starling at the end of the film makes one want to watch Silence of the Lambs all over again. A neat device indeed. I had to admit my preconcieved notions that Brett Ratner, who previously directed Rush Hour and not exactly to my liking, was not capable of carrying a heavy weight that has such fantastic sequels as benchmarks, but I was pleasantly surprised. In fact, this one makes it to my DVD list.