Movies seen in 2008
Following up on the list of movies seen at the cinema in
2006 and
2007 here's the list for 2008. I also wrote a post about
Taiwanese movies in 2008 at my Taiwan blog. I have included links to movies I have reviewed.
In addition I saw a number of documentaries and short films at various film festivals. These included
Manufactured Landscapes at the Canada Taiwan Human Rights Film Festival,
They are Flying and
various shorts at the Taipei Film Festival,
Standing Up and
Who is Bozo Texino? at
Urban Nomad and
The Forbidden Team at a screening organised by Amnesty International in Taipei.
The most memorable film of 2008 was undoubtedly
The Dark Knight. I chose
Orz Boyz as the best Taiwan film for 2008.
Labels: movies
Some Indian movies
I've watched a few Indian themed movies lately. While none of them were masterpieces they were certainly fun and enjoyable to wait. I hope Bollywood can start to challenge Hollywood in coming years.
Outsourced -- Anyone that has travelled to India will identify with some of the experiences that Todd has when he arrives in India. The basic story line is that a manager from a US company gets sent to India to set up a new call centre. Of course Todd (Josh Hamilton) ends up learning a lot more about India than he ever imagined. Todd's romance with Asha (Ayesha Dharker) is a focal point of the movie.
The Darjeeling Limited - This film was shot in India but it doesn't really have any deep insights into Indian culture. India just forms a spectacular and interesting backdrop rather than being essential to the film. The film is the story of three brothers who go to India to search for their mother. Most of the film is set on a train which gives a distinctively Indian twist to the road movie genre.
The short film Hotel Chevalier forms a sort of prequel to the movie. It stars Natalie Portman and Jason Schwartzman. It is about the meeting of two lovers in a Paris hotel room. It was included on the DVD that I rented. The short is elegantly executed and worth watching.
Bride and Prejudice - Jane Austen could never have imagined what would have happened if her novel was given a setting in a modern Indian family. This is a classic Bollywood tale with all the dialogue in English and several big song and dance numbers.
The Mistress of Spices - Aishwarya Rai plays a starring role in this film which is set in San Francisco. The story line is a fairly simple romance and fails to achieve its potential. The movie really needed to adopt a more serious tone or else lighten up with more comedy and musical elements. The beautifully shot scenes of the spice shop are a highlight.
Labels: movies
Movies seen in 2007
Following on from the
list for 2006 here's a list of movies I saw at the cinema in 2007.
Curse of the Golden Flower
Blood Diamond
After this our exile
Apocalypto
Notes on a Scandal
Ghostrider
Little Miss Sunshine
Reflections
Spider Lilies
Island Etude
Sunshine
Next
The Nighttime Picnic
The Valley of Flowers
The Science of Sleep
The Summer Palace
Ten Canoes
The Wall-Passer
Pan's Labyrinth
Oceans Thirteen
Ming Ming
The Bourne Ultimatum
Knocked Up
Lust, Caution
The Drummer
The Most Distant Course
Michael Clayton
Labels: movies
Movies seen in 2006
Below is a list of movies I saw at the cinema in 2006. I watched a lot more on DVD too, but I didn't write them all down.
- Brokeback Mountain
- Walk the Line
- Munich
- Memoirs of a Geisha
- A History of Violence
- Inside Man
- Riding Alone for 1,000 Miles
- Fearless
- Syriana
- Azumi 2
- The Sentinel
- Just My Luck
- The Lake House
- A Scanner Darkly
- The Banquet
- The Departed
- An Inconvenient Truth
- Eternal Summer
- The Prestige
- The Road in the Air
- A Battle of Wits
- Perfume
- Babel
I won't give them ratings or rank them all, but I will note a few of the movies which I thought were special.
I loved the Johnny Cash biopic
Walk the Line. The music and superb acting performances from Reese Witherspoon and Joaquim Pheonix made this movie great.
What can I say that hasn't already been said about
Brokeback Mountain. Stunning in every respect.
A
History of Violence was a surprising and challenging film. I loved seeing Philip K Dick's novel
A Scanner Darkly translated into film complete with rotoscoping. It might be true that Al Gore's documentary
An Inconvenient Truth was little more than a PowerPoint presentation, but it was an important message at a critical time.
I love many of the recent Chinese historical dramas and kung-fu films. Of the few I saw this year I loved
A Battle of Wits. It had a well developed and thought provoking plot carried by a great acting performance from Andy Lau.
The Departed had an all star cast and I thought Leonardo DiCaprio proved himself to be a fine actor. The last movie I saw for the year,
Babel, was also brilliant.
I look forward to seeing some more great movies in 2007.
Labels: movies
Amazing documentary from Mongolia
The Story of the Weeping Camel is a truly amazing documentary. The way that the life of the nomads is captured on film is something special. There is no narrator, the story simply tells itself. In its simplicity there is something profound.
Highly recommended.
LinksThe Story of the Weeping Camel - National Geographic World Films
The Story of the Weeping Camel - IMDb
The Story of the Weeping Camel - Rotten Tomatoes
Technorati tags: movies |
documentary |
camels |
MongoliaLabels: movies
The power of ideas
I have recently read a couple of books and seen one movie that show how powerful ideas can be.
The first is the book
Freakonomics by Steven Levitt. Levitt is an economist that asks questions that most people would never think of. For example, why do most crack dealers live with their mothers? In doing so he reveals that what the commonly accepted explanation for things is not necessarily the best one. While Levitt's theories are firmly grounded in mainstream economics theory I like his way of thinking.
Levitt cites
The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell a number of times and it has obviously influenced his work. It was a book I first heard about several years ago. The sub-title of the book is "How little things can make a big difference".
Like Levitt, Gladwell thinks outside the box. His ideas are applicable to a number of fields, most notably marketing, management, education and activism.
One of the important ideas in The Tipping Point is the idea of "connectors". These are people that have a large number of contacts and a disproportionate impact in the spreading of information. Most people have a small circle of friends and often those friends are also friends with each other. Connectors, on the other hand, have contact with a wide range of people. Their contacts are not limited to certain location or people with certain interests.
Obviously these people not only talk to more people, but the people they talk to a wider range of people. This is a key in making ideas spread.
Al Gore would easily qualify as a connector. A long career in politics including eight years as Vice-President of the United States would have bought him into contact with innumerable people around the world. And when he talks people listen to what he has to say.
He has made a documentary called
An Inconvenient Truth about climate change. Interestingly Gore had a professor while he was at university in the 1960s who was one of the first people to measure CO2 levels in the atmosphere. Gore has known about and understood the problem for a long time.
He explains it all in a very clear manner in the film. Anyone who doesn't understand climate change or quite believe that its real should be convinced by the end of this movie. If they remain unconvinced then surely it would be because of political ideologies that remain unchangeable.
Action on climate change has been delayed for too long because those with vested interests in the status quo have been very successful in sowing seeds of doubt about whether climate change is really happening. Hopefully this film will act as a tipping point and convince enough people that it is real and something needs to be done now!
I highly recommend this film and also
The Tipping Point.
Technorati tags: Al Gore | climate change | global warming | An Inconvenient Truth | freakonomics | The Tipping Point | ideasLabels: books, climate change, movies
A dark vision
I bought the novel
A Scanner Darkly a few months ago and read it in anticipation of the imminent release of the movie based on the book. I have read a few of Philip K. Dick's novels and this one ranks along side
The Man in the High Castle as his best.
Philip K. Dick is under appreciated as a writer. I say as a writer and not just a writer of science fiction, because his books are noteworthy beyond their genre. His works have gained more attention in recent years as some of his novels and stories have been made into films.
The most notable of these is
Bladerunner, which was based on the novel
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. However, this film was only loosely based on the novel. Some of the other films based on Dick's works include
Minority Report and
Total Recall.
I went to see the film yesterday. It was in every respect as brilliant as the novel. The script was quite faithful to the novel, too. The most obvious and striking thing about the movie was the
rotoscoping. This is a technique of shooting a film and then drawing over the film to make it appear like an animated cartoon. In this film the rotoscoping was done digitally rather than by hand.
This creates an effect that blurs the lines between vision and reality which fits in neatly with the theme of the film: the perils of drug abuse. It also brings to life some of the "sci-fi" elements of the novel. In particular the "scramble suits". While reading the novel, I imagined these as being somewhat bulky and cumbersome devices, but in the film they are light and slinky. They are also central in the plot of the film, as they are worn by undercover police so you never know exactly who knows who is inside the scramble suit.
Even though the actors actual faces are "painted over" by the rotoscoping they give brilliant performances. Other reviews of the film seem to make note of the fact that they have had past histories of drug use/abuse. Whether this contributed to their performances, I don't know. Perhaps they were just given a film that was a good script to showcase their talents.
Anyway, I highly recommend this film and if you enjoy it take the time to read the book. They are both great and reading or watching one will enhance your appreciation of the other.
Labels: books, movies
Powerful and moving documentary
Two friends independently recommended this documentary to me. The two great things about this documentary are the vivid and realistic way it portrays Indian life and the inspiring efforts to help raise children out of poverty.
There is something special about India that you can only really appreciate if you go there. It is the extraordinary vitality and vibrancy of the people. The makers of this documentary have done a wonderful job of capturing some of this spirit on film. It is quite an accomplishment.
This film is so positive and it shows that if someone makes an effort they can make such an enormous difference to children's lives. The documentary is about children living in the red light district of Calcutta. Zana Briski, a New York-based photographer, lives with the children and women in the red light district. She gives the children cameras and teaches them how to use them. This gives them a new perspective on the world and empowers some of them to achieve their potential.
This film is truly inspiring. Thanks to my friends for recommending it to me.
LinksBorn into Brothels - official websiteIMDb: Born into BrothelsKids with CamerasLabels: movies
A true Tibetan tale
Tibet suffers from being seen from two diametrically opposed points of view. Some people idealise Tibet and its people as representing a peaceful Buddhist culture. Others hold the view that the Chinese colonisation was necessary to civilise to the Tibetan people.
The reality of life in modern Tibet is undoubtedly somewhat different. While there have been a number of notable films related to Tibet in recent years, they still try to represent Tibet as a Shangri-la.
Kekexili: Mountain Patrol is a film set in Tibet based on a true story. It is beautifully shot in the harsh mountain landscape. The scenery makes you realise that despite its rugged beauty, life here is tough. In fact, as the movie develops you can see that people are really fighting to survive in this high altitude desert.
The story of Kekexili revolves around the mountain patrol, a group of Tibetan men who are trying to stop the poaching of the endangered
Tibetan antelope. These men are as tough as the mountains they live in. They are trying to do something to protect their environment. As the movie progresses it becomes clear that the distinctions between good and bad are not always clear. Often moral decisions are based on nothing more than what is necessary to survive.
Overall, this film presents a stunning and realistic picture of life in modern Tibet.
Links
Mountain Patrol - National Geographic World FilmsIMDB: Kekexili (2004)Kekexili - Rotten TomatoesLabels: movies, Tibet
A brilliant Buddhist movie
I just watched
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring on DVD. The film is exquisite. There are just so many fine details that capture the spirit of Buddhism.
The film is set on a small temple that floats on a lake in a secluded mountain valley. The temple itself is only small, but the artwork inside it is absolutely exquisite.The location is Chusanji Lake located in Mt. Chuwang National Park and it looks like an amazing place. I would love to visit Korea just to see it.
The story is simple and revolves around an old master and his disciple. At the beginning of the film the disciple is just a young boy, but he is middle aged at the end.
I don't want to give away the story or just rehash the plot. I can only say that this is one of the best films I have ever seen. Watch it, you won't regret it.
Labels: movies
