Thousand Leaves 2.0

I watched Sleuth (2007) the other day. It’s typical theatrical, as it supposed to be originally. Having two actors running the whole story, that’s fantastically challenging, and how both play psychological games on and on, it’s indeed breathtaking, I would say.

I check The New York Times and The Straits Times, I like the former more than the latter, not only the readability and the design, as attached, you can see that it has two errors shown, and on the left it’s because my company blocks blog or forum sites. I don’t know my site also got blocked, but some of my friends who has personal website doesn’t got blocked, I am not sure of the definition, though. But, it is appealing that this shouldn’t happen, and the technical person in charge should be aware of such technology.

Another thing about the English. I know there are differences between the English used in SEA and the States, or even the UK, but I seem to prefer The New York Times ’s English. Is there something I don’t know but feel? Any idea?

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Yesterday I watched “Angel” and a Japanese manga-based Korean production movie, “Renri no Eda.” The latter was kind of comical and how should I say, you can’t be too logical about why this is like that and why that is like this, because it is hard to make sense for some part of it. Though, as an entertainment, I think it’s ok.
 
“Angel” gave me a strong impact, and how the story was produced and how it ended. It is some movies that I would think to be considered “good” from the point of my literature definition. The purpose of the setting that was set back to the times where media wasn’t still as influencing as now makes me recall of Stephen King’s time setting as well; always the times of the past but not much of present. It’s something that strikes me. The past and the freshness.
 
Then I rented the soundtrack of Dreamgirls and Beyonce’ B’day. Shion has been “shaking” all the while whenever his listens to the song.

Crazy In Love Whole Song by Beyonce, Jay Z   (1863 KB)
Listen on posterous

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Rented the DVD Shadowboxer yesterday. As always, watching a movie without any background knowledge helps me enjoy the movie in a purest way. A female assassin who realised she can’t live long, decides to do her final assignment with her lover cum stepson. When she faced with her target, who is pregnant, suddenly water breaks, and assassin started to help her to deliver the baby. Thing started to get complicated, as a movie should be. The “client” who wanted her pregnant wife to be killed because he thought she is having affairs with some other guy. So, for those who are related are to be killed.

One thing interesting here is that, the assassin is assigned to kill those who are chain-related. Killing always has a reason behind, and it is always not out of the daily life, it must be related. In fact, all the assigned targets, actually are almost one-line related from the start to the end. It shows that business is like that, and real life is like that too, don’t you think so? People will do business with those they know instead of unknown, assassin will get business from the same people always.

I got a friend who thought Hong Kong is save and never imagined that it has such gun fighting in real life – except in movies. When she lived in Hong Kong for a while and found that the underground gansters were gun shooting each other at their working hours, she was shocked. When she told that story to her Hong Kong friend, she was told,

“Don’t worry, unless you are related, you won’t be involved.”

Isn’t it sound so lively? That humans have a real life taking place, not without a reason. I like it so much.

Call me sick, but I believe life is beautiful.

I mentioned I wanted to have the DVD of The Holiday, somehow after watched Music and Lyrics, I decided to pick up the latter. Now, I enjoy the songs — or the lyrics — very much.I don’t know if this is related, having Hugh Grant sings the spell of it, it seems become so full of impact. He has turned the character so lively and desperate. A person without such background can be hard to express it well. He is good, as usual.

I would love to watch the movie again, but kids had spoiled it. Now I need a surface-grinder, if you know what I mean, to polish up almost all the DVDs that I have at home.

Music and Lyrics

Well, just one word, I think I am going to buy the DVD and put it on my love-movie-to-watch-when-I-get-old list. From the web, it seems that there are lots of mistakes of its continuity and factual errors, but there are few sceens with good lines. Don’t be too fussy. Let’s continue with our real lives.

I tried to read John Arving’s The fourth Hand, but never get to finish it. I do like his sentences. As most of the people do, I think I know him only through movies, not through his books.

The only book that I finished was The World According to Garp, which I used it for my website quite some time ago. The World According to Ken Loo. I read it in Japanese version though.

From my local library, I found a book of his, in Japanese again, A Widow for One Year. The first few pages came to me as a surprise, the sceen where a girl heard the noices while her mother having sex with someone, not her father. Though I didn’t manage to finish the book, the sceen keeps spinning in my head for quite a while.

When I picked up the DVD of The Door in The Floor, I have no idea that it in fact was from the above-mentioned book. When I saw the “sceen,” it struck me, and I looked at the details, then I realised, oh dear John, there you are!

The title comes from the picture book in the movie, which is very impressive one. A scary one too.

Those hero/ine’s in Irving’s movie, make their decisions that come from a deep thought. It is of course the best solution for them after all, but it leaves a sense of hopelessness behind the determination. I am not sure you could call such a sadness, perhaps not. It is a kind of final decision from a thorough thinking.

If you want to know the answer, open the door yourself. But, you got the bare the consequences.

I should have watched this movie first before I watched the Hollywood version, The Lake House. Well.

The original idea of, having two persons communicating between two different time only through a post box isn’t new, but the arrangement is refreshing. From the Korean version, it seems to me Korean or Asian, there is a kind of naive or pureness thinking to have a way of expressing loneniness. Only focus the hero/ine. I don’t know, it makes the movie sort of boring sometimes. That’s the culture, may be.

The Lake House gives better entertainment elements, for a movie goer. Oh, the marketing imperial! Never mind, never mind. That’s how hollywood movie is like. There is no good or bad, but preference.

Hard to compare though, for story line and the loneliness — as the standalone house means —, I would prefer the original one, especially the ending. It doesn’t end there, rather it keeps the audience with a continuity of the tales. This feeling reminds me like I am reading a novel. Whether a movie should be this way or not, it doesn’t matter here.

Whereas for The Lake House, I don’t know why, it seems to give me a feeling that it wants the audience to feel secured to fall back on reality before leaving the cinema. Letting audience go doesn’t mean the story ends though, tale ends perfectly. Life goes on.

Got an invitation card for the preview of the movie Stranger than Fiction. After the movie, a nicely wrapped cookie was distributed. Was it from the heroine, she does own a cookie shop, doesn’t she? Is the PR agent trying to intimate fictional elements from the movie?

Anyway.

I did enjoy the movie, in some way. After being a while for not going for movie at theater, that was kind of refreshment; watching it on a big screen.

I wasn’t in the right mood to go for a movie as a matter of fact because leaving early from the office — 6pm though — on that day caused me to be questioned of whether I have really finished my job or not. Recalled the episode just made me unhappy again.

Let’s talk about the movie.

Yeah, that was the reason why I couldn’t enjoy the movie as what I expected.

I enjoyed the idea of the movie very much though. There was something in me telling myself that I actually might have been in the same — almost — situation a couple of months ago as the hero. Right now, while watching the movie, I am in a much successful stage where I have come across the hard time myself. So, the issue such as whether life is in our hand thing isn’t the right time for me. But, while thinking of such, I also thought about it this way; isn’t it what the author’s situation rather than the hero? The next second I found myself got caught by the doubt, I thought it was a wonderful movie.

It’s a nicely written game story. Lots of hints scattered here and there. You need to watch it a couple of time in order to catch it, I think. I might want to get the DVD later on.

If you have no idea what I am talking about, excuse me. I am thiking loud as the author in the movie.

The Japanese title of Birth is translated as The Thorn of Memory. Sounds good, but not the content.

The process of finding the truth, whether the man one loves is really incarnated into a 10-year-old boy is good, but the ending spoils everything.

This reminded me of M. Night Shyamalan with his The Sixth Sense, of all the expectation came his second movie Unbreakable, trying to entertain the audience of the process but with a lousy ending, hardly convincing, but this is what all the new director might need to go through.

Anyway, the fundamental concept of the reincarnation is hardly acceptable here — I mean Birth. That’s why the ending tries to land back into reality, which makes the whole movie fails to convince the audience anything about reincarnation. It tries hard to land on a 10-year-old boy’s love for a widow. Somehow, it’s too fragile.