MongKok Carmen by Wong Kar Wai 1988, **half
As Tears Go By 旺角卡门
I heard about this first film by Wong Kar Wai, and by chance, found a vcd at a shopping center in Mongkok. A HMV special. So I watched this action packed movie with the three young super stars to be.
Jackie Cheung Hok You, Andy Lau Tak Wah and Maggie Cheung Man Yuk. Lau Tak Wah is handsome and Cheung Hok You is quirky and a very good actor. Cheung Man Yuk, she plays a dainty free and natural girl - her gestures are fine girl like (would a shop girl from China/small island be so dainty? If she were, how could she manage to not marry the doctor but went for Lau Tak Wah the mafia guy?
And if she were not afraid to go after the mafia type of bf, she should have some character herself thats more colorful; or she would have had less idealistic expectations of this guy.
I appreciate the complications of the shooting in this movie, the local sets, not a moment of dead air. Andy Lau is really handsome and when he eats dinner with Man Yuk he puts his foot up on the stool first like the thuggish rough guy that he was, then turns to sit properly once it touches the sentimental aspects of his life.
Its a stylised movie of local hk scenario with injected/imported finesse built around a core of mainstream Confucionist "brotherhood", "brotherly love", "family struggles".
The dialogue between the "Uncle" and his two "Big Brother" is interesting. Its a type of local Cantonese and very lively with unspoken assumptions that a non Hong Kong person might find difficult to appreciate.
Same with the opening scene, where Lau Tak Wah receives a phone call from his aunt who spoke in a local village dialect - Lau himself doesnt reply in the local dialect. It implies that these are all new immigrants - but who is not a new immigrant in HK? Everybody ran to HK in the 50s, 60s from Southern China! Older generations either spoke Cantonese with a Shanghai accent or a local dialect accent.
This type of attention to detail and giving on screen time for the use of authentic dialogue puts the film at a more serious authentic level; or at least say, a tiny cut above the regular kick, fight, blood, sex/love/bar/mafia, everybody dies - type of action flick.
Cheung Man Yuk is not yet the stylish high fashion model-like gal we see today. She has a plump face w baby fat, and small almond eye features, her smile is sweet and reminds us of a first girl friend with delicate innocence.
This is no "mongkok Carmen", hardly any trace of a firey iconic Carmen; rather more girl next door disappointed in bad situations of "bad boys".
However, the title is catchy, in keeping with style requirements of HK entertainment. People would watch a "Carmen" like sexy gal rather than "girl next door".
Great combination of the three young actors who each have made a long way to the star position that they now hold today.
"The Movies" a game, by Alex Chan 2006; **half
Alex Chan, made a short machinima film in 4 days, w the “The Movies" Game
interview
This machinima is made with a game package, so the characters, costumes, settings might be v limited. I think the subtitles are fine, some critics say its "awkward" etc but in the overall visual of the film, its not an outstanding issue; its rather in keeping with the roughness of the tool itself. And the film maker had a very strong message to transmit and he did a very good job.
How good a job?
He inspired me to buy a copy of this software to see what tools he had at his disposition.
I have seen a lot of machinima, and this one is very interesting, there is no dead moments, we just want to see whats going to happen next!
===
Friday, 24 December 2010
Thursday, 16 December 2010
sl application for design in Architecture, Summer Wars
sl : Kansas+Cairo : Architecture Studio
Japanese animation
"Summer Wars" (world of sl like story; world of OZ)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD5QiLi2krk
"How to train your dragon", trailer 2
Japanese animation
"Summer Wars" (world of sl like story; world of OZ)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD5QiLi2krk
"How to train your dragon", trailer 2
Monday, 13 December 2010
Bu Hua : "LV Forest", "Sanlitun Village and things that happened there", Tang Ka painting, Greenberg
Very gd animation by Bu Hua
www.buhua.com
「LV森林」卜樺
the video game music with the lyrical flash animation and the message very strong work.
Sanlitun village with a live interactive Habbo Hotel type installation : 李心路，屯裏的那點事兒……
I would have liked to see a short video of the text that was spoken. As is, we see people playing online game together outdoor infront of a giant screen. It is nice, what were the conversation on screen? And would they talk to each other in person beyond the screen back to real life? Its like, if you had all the Secondlife avatars standing together in an open public square all looking at a giant screen with their avatars interacting; would they actually talk to the real person who might just be standing around not far? Would people bother to look up the avatar which interests them in real life? I like to learn more about this project especially.
In general the Chinese participation of their video, animation, digital art work are very strong. Maybe these are professional teams already, not student work. There is clearly a much strong political engagement, personal philosophical point of view as a backbone or repeating theme whereas student works are more concerned with family love, personal experiences. Students world is smaller, and more intimate, youthful more timid and exploration of the world opening infront of them.
===
Greenberg **+half, with Ben Stiller
Through this movie, we see in detail the bland everyday lives of people. Good people, responsible men and women. There is no "bad person" in this movie, only people who started out with ideals and slowly everything wears down day by day; people get by; with or without money, with or without success. The Ben Stiller character said at one point that he only wanted to be with a 40 year old divorced woman with 2 kids - as she would not have high expectations of life with him.
The people whom i saw the movie with all thought this is a depressing movie. I didnt find it depressing, but rather an American version of European (French)movie. French movies are very used to taking everyday situations and making poetry or drama or little moving picture paintings out of these remembered moments. American movies tend to have a much faster, clearer line of action. A typical American movie would have more shots of the party w nice food, and the sex more romantic, not slap dash, awkard - I suspect that there is an agenda to showing "things as they are in reality".
Is a movie to entertain us or to show us reality?
For example the Hong Kong film industry definitely is into entertainment. Most viewers say, for reality? You just look all around you and you get it, why pay to see it again in a cinema?
And the dancer/actress Jing Xing said, you want to see about sex, go home and look at it at home! You know it, whats there to see?
How do I see this? There are all kinds of movies for all kinds of reasons suitable to different viewers.
I think a good movie is one I would want to see again because I did not capture everything in one viewing, I still have curiosity about some aspects of the film.
===
Tibetan religious painting Tang Ka:
西南民族大學民族研究院根秋登子教授現場講解唐卡
===
www.buhua.com
「LV森林」卜樺
the video game music with the lyrical flash animation and the message very strong work.
Sanlitun village with a live interactive Habbo Hotel type installation : 李心路，屯裏的那點事兒……
I would have liked to see a short video of the text that was spoken. As is, we see people playing online game together outdoor infront of a giant screen. It is nice, what were the conversation on screen? And would they talk to each other in person beyond the screen back to real life? Its like, if you had all the Secondlife avatars standing together in an open public square all looking at a giant screen with their avatars interacting; would they actually talk to the real person who might just be standing around not far? Would people bother to look up the avatar which interests them in real life? I like to learn more about this project especially.
In general the Chinese participation of their video, animation, digital art work are very strong. Maybe these are professional teams already, not student work. There is clearly a much strong political engagement, personal philosophical point of view as a backbone or repeating theme whereas student works are more concerned with family love, personal experiences. Students world is smaller, and more intimate, youthful more timid and exploration of the world opening infront of them.
===
Greenberg **+half, with Ben Stiller
Through this movie, we see in detail the bland everyday lives of people. Good people, responsible men and women. There is no "bad person" in this movie, only people who started out with ideals and slowly everything wears down day by day; people get by; with or without money, with or without success. The Ben Stiller character said at one point that he only wanted to be with a 40 year old divorced woman with 2 kids - as she would not have high expectations of life with him.
The people whom i saw the movie with all thought this is a depressing movie. I didnt find it depressing, but rather an American version of European (French)movie. French movies are very used to taking everyday situations and making poetry or drama or little moving picture paintings out of these remembered moments. American movies tend to have a much faster, clearer line of action. A typical American movie would have more shots of the party w nice food, and the sex more romantic, not slap dash, awkard - I suspect that there is an agenda to showing "things as they are in reality".
Is a movie to entertain us or to show us reality?
For example the Hong Kong film industry definitely is into entertainment. Most viewers say, for reality? You just look all around you and you get it, why pay to see it again in a cinema?
And the dancer/actress Jing Xing said, you want to see about sex, go home and look at it at home! You know it, whats there to see?
How do I see this? There are all kinds of movies for all kinds of reasons suitable to different viewers.
I think a good movie is one I would want to see again because I did not capture everything in one viewing, I still have curiosity about some aspects of the film.
===
Tibetan religious painting Tang Ka:
西南民族大學民族研究院根秋登子教授現場講解唐卡
===
Sunday, 12 December 2010
screenarcadia , Microwave Festival 2010 animation from Taiwan
Film editing, documentation of HuaHui MobileMusic on course.
Film viewing, and criticism writing time.
Films viewed:
The Soliloquist 2009 by Ma Kuang-Pei ***
A poetic interior voice about moments passed being lonely, self ruminations, beautiful graphics with Taiwanese elements, using old books, mail boxes, use of camera and merging of images from scene to scene very clean, powerful effective in lyrical contrast to the soft interior voice; self questioning of who is really Michael? And near the end, the soliloquist finds himself with a new cologne smell from his own body leading us to think, has he transformed himself to another person through these postal inputs - getting out of self enclosure from his heart break (Michael broke up with a boyfriend). Its a very quiet voices telling something important from the speaker. Or was Michael the speaker himself in fact but he is finding himself once more? and want to befriend himself once again? So he says, he said.
Lucky Me 2007 by Chen Wan Ju ***
Sound track is very interesting, are they speaking an aboriginal tongue? Without really knowing the meaning of the dialogue the visual - paper cut out type of hand made technique/style - is very ruggedly beautiful with aboriginal wood house, the red riding pa kicking all the big bad wolves away, the forest; overall very fresh and we feel the swimming mermaid coming up and ploof down, one two three time rhythmically very interesting and humorous charm. Simple story with sincerity and simply good old fashion happiness.
The Edge of Love 2009 by Nai-Wei Liu ***A knife falls in love with an apple and accidentally while bowing - sliced his loved one in half. Finally he finds a walnut to fall in love with. Works very well the story fits, music great. And the knives are typical taiwanese wood handle kitchen knives, everyting works well. Bravo!
Monster Coins 2008, by Vance Yang ***+1/2
3d animation with a fun storyline. The automatic machine pops out a geni who grants the coin payer a wish - the wish might be accomplished in unexpected mischievious ways. Funny and well made. I also appreciate the introduction to the film how the director got his idea for the film from the coin operated egg-gifts from Japan. He said he puts in all these coins and always, he never got the gift he really wanted, but all kinds of other things fell out. This ability to translate our common experience into something comical and true is great.
Film viewing, and criticism writing time.
Films viewed:
The Soliloquist 2009 by Ma Kuang-Pei ***
A poetic interior voice about moments passed being lonely, self ruminations, beautiful graphics with Taiwanese elements, using old books, mail boxes, use of camera and merging of images from scene to scene very clean, powerful effective in lyrical contrast to the soft interior voice; self questioning of who is really Michael? And near the end, the soliloquist finds himself with a new cologne smell from his own body leading us to think, has he transformed himself to another person through these postal inputs - getting out of self enclosure from his heart break (Michael broke up with a boyfriend). Its a very quiet voices telling something important from the speaker. Or was Michael the speaker himself in fact but he is finding himself once more? and want to befriend himself once again? So he says, he said.
Lucky Me 2007 by Chen Wan Ju ***
Sound track is very interesting, are they speaking an aboriginal tongue? Without really knowing the meaning of the dialogue the visual - paper cut out type of hand made technique/style - is very ruggedly beautiful with aboriginal wood house, the red riding pa kicking all the big bad wolves away, the forest; overall very fresh and we feel the swimming mermaid coming up and ploof down, one two three time rhythmically very interesting and humorous charm. Simple story with sincerity and simply good old fashion happiness.
The Edge of Love 2009 by Nai-Wei Liu ***A knife falls in love with an apple and accidentally while bowing - sliced his loved one in half. Finally he finds a walnut to fall in love with. Works very well the story fits, music great. And the knives are typical taiwanese wood handle kitchen knives, everyting works well. Bravo!
Monster Coins 2008, by Vance Yang ***+1/2
3d animation with a fun storyline. The automatic machine pops out a geni who grants the coin payer a wish - the wish might be accomplished in unexpected mischievious ways. Funny and well made. I also appreciate the introduction to the film how the director got his idea for the film from the coin operated egg-gifts from Japan. He said he puts in all these coins and always, he never got the gift he really wanted, but all kinds of other things fell out. This ability to translate our common experience into something comical and true is great.
Monday, 6 December 2010
Maria's Aluminum skin gifts 69; Prince of Wales Charities - Qin
Christopher Evans - qin player and sinologist - adopted a cube for the Prince of Wales Charities, why? Because the Prince of Wales is interested in the Guqin! Ha, does he have an avatar? Maybe I should prepare one in his looks just in case he needs one to come to visit?
Maybe the Prince of Wales could come to visit the Digital Guqin Museum, well, I better get the Museum ready for his highness' (avatar) visit!
Maria brought me aluminum skins again, 69! All cut up and ready to be trimmed!
Two big rolls of Austrian beer skins. Very nice design too, light yellow and silver, plus red and silver. And one very special red and beige - communist looking one - now what kind of beer could that be? I must check this out.
Picture coming tomorrow!
Maybe the Prince of Wales could come to visit the Digital Guqin Museum, well, I better get the Museum ready for his highness' (avatar) visit!
Maria brought me aluminum skins again, 69! All cut up and ready to be trimmed!
Two big rolls of Austrian beer skins. Very nice design too, light yellow and silver, plus red and silver. And one very special red and beige - communist looking one - now what kind of beer could that be? I must check this out.
Picture coming tomorrow!
Saturday, 4 December 2010
Films viewed last wk 1-3rd Dec
films viewed:
"Osmose", dir Raphael Fejto, **half, simple, charming, authentic, shoe string film
Two young guys, the young guy thing they do, short clips showing intimate silliness, fresh
"Mike Tyson", dvd, three documentaries
"Salt", Angelina Jolie, ***
More action packed spy flick. Action is gd, Angelina Jolie deserves every applause for her own stunts. No surprises in the story, but very entertaining.
"The visitor" ***
drama with depth. Watchable a second time.
"VolaVola" machinima, (must be reviewed a second time to give a correct rating)
I always thought 3mn is the limit to machinima films. Here, its 90mn. The story line is quite standard, but there are moments that are v gd specific to the sl world. Like to see it a second time after the first viewing last year at Geode.
"Osmose", dir Raphael Fejto, **half, simple, charming, authentic, shoe string film
Two young guys, the young guy thing they do, short clips showing intimate silliness, fresh
"Mike Tyson", dvd, three documentaries
"Salt", Angelina Jolie, ***
More action packed spy flick. Action is gd, Angelina Jolie deserves every applause for her own stunts. No surprises in the story, but very entertaining.
"The visitor" ***
drama with depth. Watchable a second time.
"VolaVola" machinima, (must be reviewed a second time to give a correct rating)
I always thought 3mn is the limit to machinima films. Here, its 90mn. The story line is quite standard, but there are moments that are v gd specific to the sl world. Like to see it a second time after the first viewing last year at Geode.
Thursday, 2 December 2010
Sonic Espaces: Concert immersif Rue de Beauce - les photos ...
Sonic Espaces: Concert immersif Rue de Beauce - les photos ...: "Les préparatifs avaient commencé dès le début du mois. Le mercredi les choses sérieuses se mettent en place. On vérifie tout. Matériel, con..."
Wednesday, 1 December 2010
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