Date: 2009-03-11 17:41 Subject: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Security: Public Tags: movies, rl

Even if you don't watch Watchmen (or prefer the original), the opening credits are possibly the best of any movie I've ever seen, and gain by re-watching after seeing the film. Special effects, political and pop culture references notwithstanding, it dragged a bit in the last hour. Also, a giant teleported SQUID does feature prominently, just not quite in the same way as the comic XD

I may have been the only person who watched the Metropolitan Opera's HD transmission of Lucia di Lammermoor to catch Watchmen in the same cinema. Hard to decide which was more entertaining.

Date: 2008-07-26 20:15 Subject: opiate of the messes Security: Public Tags: books, movies, rl

After approximately a week of wrestling with the ___ High Commission over visa applications for compulsory research attachment and sorting out medical check-ups + health insurance for various dependants (with a break in between for semi-obligatory drive up north), took some time to prostitute my literacy watch flicks and read stuff.

Movies watched: ( Red, weren't you in Red Cliff? )

Books skimmed through read:( TL;DR )

EDIT: *wheezes* OMG YES This page lists, in 10 parts, most of the classic bits including dialogue, where the director (who was also one of the scriptwriters, a la George Lucas) decided to adopt a *refreshingly* non-standard approach to the mythcanon (historical "fact" and countless adaptations before and since the novel).

Highlights:

- Liu Bei exhorting Zhuge Liang to "come, eat a bit more" in preparation for his journey to Wu;

- Zhou Yu/Zhuge Liang UST -
Lady Qiao the Younger (ZY's wife), after a Zhou-Zhuge jamming session which rises to a near-frenzied pitch: My husband (her term of endearment for him 周郎, also used confusingly to refer to him colloquially and in the literature, might be rendered as "[surname] laddie") has not played the zither for a long time...
Zhuge Liang: I, too, have not been so un-calm in a long while. (The words 冷静 used earlier by him to refer to his unflappability.)
Lady Qiao: You two will surely suit each other! (合的来 also can mean harmonize together, or *fit* nicely.)

Later, Zhuge to Zhou: I am not looking at you, I am appreciating (欣赏) you!
And of course, the tender loving appreciative looks they exchange on public and private occasions where each gets to show his, uh, talents.

Guan Yu as kindergarten teacher! Zhang Fei being complimented (presumably non-ironically) on his calligraphy by the finest minds of Wu! Liu Bei making straw sandals for his war council! Cao Cao - still not king emperor!

Date: 2007-11-14 08:03 Subject: life is like the movies...not Security: Public Tags: movies, rl, yuletide

Watched Stardust yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it with no preconceptions, not having read the book or any reviews. The veteran actors looked like they were having fun, and the young ones were perfectly serviceable in their roles.
I found Captain Shakespeare rather more attractive than Tristan, though.

Next up, maybe: Lust, Caution. Seems that the only thing it has in common with Stardust is that they are both based on written works. Opinion will probably be coloured (bad pun) by having read Eileen Chang's story.

In other news, have obtained Yuletide source in bargain corner, after finding out to my complete surprise that I didn't actually possess it. Wonder if my impressions of it will still be the same after so many years.

Date: 2007-09-17 22:53 Subject: sicko Security: Public Tags: movies, rl

( Sicko )

Date: 2006-09-10 00:05 Subject: movie music Security: Public Tags: movies, music

Singapore Dreaming may not be the mythical "definitive Singapore film" (whatever that means), not as easily classifiable as Jack Neo's oeuvre nor as potentially internationally-marketable as some other Singaporean directors' work, but it has a sincerity and familiarity which has been notably missing from recent local offerings.

Its leitmotif is the Hokkien getai staple "Longing for Spring Breezes" (望春风, "Bong Chun Hong" in Hokkien), with enough cover versions to rival "Waltzing Matilda" (to the Australians what "望春风" is to the Taiwanese, apparently), most famously by Teresa Teng and which was used in the movie.
This is my favourite rendition of the versions I found online.

One might not expect to find "Chopin's Etude No.3" featured in episodes 50 and 51 of what a Life section writer calls "steampunk" anime. Not in the FMA movie, though IMO it might have fit the setting better.

Also, watching Snakes On A Plane is an experience rather akin to downloading various versions of "Bong Chun Hong" and hearing this

Date: 2006-08-25 00:39 Subject: bad hair day Security: Public Tags: movies, mushishi

At the risk of being the curmudgeonly lone dissenting voice in the laudatory gushings over the "Bug Master" screen-shots at mushishi, must say I am not terribly impressed by the previews of Joe Odagiri's turn as Ginko which seem mostly to involve looking vacantly unwashed in the great outdoors. (And what's with the unfortunately obvious dye-job and the frayed and stitched peasant-shirt, rather than the modern look of his clothes which the author deliberately emphasised?)

And though "Nui" may have been intended to look calmly mysterious like the Mona Lisa, the impression given is of other aspects of that work of art: static and slightly androgynous.

Tanyuu with that hairstyle (and vaguely OOC expression)reminds me of an angsty heroine in a Taiga drama, e.g. the Shinsengumi one. What's next, Ginko channelling Saitou Hajime?

Date: 2006-08-12 21:54 Subject: Love between man and raccoon is of course impossible and destined to be fruitless Security: Public Tags: crack, movies

If this is the Joe Odagiri who is going to play Ginko in the live-action movie of Mushishi, Princess Raccoon(Tanuki Goten) sounds like teh crack it would have made a fine anime.

The Japanese male version of Snow White meets a Beast raccoon princess in an enchanted forest. Who needs dwarfs or singing cutlery when you have bishies, men with fake pot-bellies and Zhang Ziyi in Noh costumes rapping?

subject header is a direct quote from the movie

Date: 2006-07-30 23:32 Subject: life is a cabaret, old chum, so i'll sleep when i'm dead Security: Public Tags: movies, reviews

Actually, life at present is more like a tale told by an idiot, though with little sound and fury and signifying only as much as you can make people believe by all that strutting and fretting. And I woke up at 9 am today after three consecutive days of 5 hours of sleep, so the second part is manifestly untrue as well. Not that it seems to have improved my productivity.

( This is only of interest to those who have watched Cabaret (the musical) )


( rambling about Clive Owen, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Mike Hodges )