Love, Actually – 3 Doa, 3 Cinta

I spent long and hard, thinking about how to start this particular review. It’s not that the film ‘Pesantren’, or ‘3 Doa, 3 Cinta’ is hard to decipher. If anything, it plays out in a very straightforward manner, and a positive one, at that. I do wonder a little about the multiple titles that has been bestowed upon the film. Though both aptly and accurately describe the film, neither is particularly eye-catching, or attention-grabbing. ‘Pesantren’ (religious school) sounds a little more local, and thus stands out strongly amid the other films lined up in the schedule. Nevertheless, its uniqueness would have inspired more of a “Huh?” sort of reaction, rather than a “I’ve got to watch that one!” So, I suppose it would be appropriate to begin the review by pondering what is in a title.

Then again, it is the easy way out I take for every other Korean film I review, due to the big difference between the Korean and the English titles like ‘Shadows in the Palace’ (shameless self-promotion here).  Plus, with the professional wrestler Edge’s theme song ringing in my ears, it is difficult to think with the noise. I’ve taken the habit of listening to songs from Youtube as I write these days, partly to provide for inspiration, so do forgive me for the little sidetrack.

Hungry For More? – Thirst

I walked into the cinema with my ears ringing. On one side, I was well aware that this film is, thus far, one of the highest grossing film in Korea at this point of time in the year, and at this point of time of my writing. That means that it has beaten ‘Wolverine’ (which came out the same weekend), and sort of officially kick-started Korea’s own summer season (Bong Jung-ho’s ‘Mother’ and Hong Sang-soo’s ‘Like You Know It All’ will be making their bow soon). And why shouldn’t it? It’s a story about a vampire priest falling in love. Sounds interesting enough, but add in Park Chan-wook, arguably one of, if not the most visionary of Korean filmmakers I’ve come across, releasing his first film in two years, and Song Kang-ho, one of the most popular Korean actors of our time. Throw in the obligatorily beautiful Korean actress (Kim Ok-bin), and you have quite a dish churned out onto the table there.

On the other hand (or ear), the atmosphere was ringing with disappointment. On one level is the reviews that I didn’t really ask for, but came to me regardless. “Oh, I was so disappointed,” my editor moaned to me. “I really expected more from him.” The same echoed from almost every Park, Kim and Lee that walked through the corridors of my school, all offering their two cents worth, and all of them having about the same weight in gold.

It’s not that heavy, apparently.

Why So Serious? – XXY

“Delicious,” I thought to myself as I watched the mother cut up the carrots. She was doing so with a fair amount of anger, and sadness both at the same time. “Absolutely delicious.”

That may appear to be misleading, for I am not actually saying that the dish is delicious. Mind you, I don’t recall ever having tried Argentinian food in my life. Ever. Which is strange, because I do get adventurous every once in a while with my food. Perhaps it is delicious, perhaps it isn’t. Much like a film review (hah!), I suppose it depends largely on one’s tastebuds, and how destroyed it has been by years of curry abuse. But I digress.

I wasn’t talking about the food.

Lesson in Session – The Class

Shooting from a multiple camera perspective, or MCP, can be quite a power trip. I recently experienced it on a short film shoot. Armed with two Sony PD-150s, the cinematographer went wild, with almost every cut shot from that point on utilising a second camera. In one way, it saved time on some of the set ups (though it can double it on others), since we can shoot the same conversation from two different angles at the same time (duh!). At the same time, however, very few of the shots were properly planned, and while some of the spontaneous ones were rather well done, even when the second camera wasn’t really needed, it was pressed into service regardless. “Just shoot anything,” was the cinematographer’s eventual instruction, sounding more like a wartime direction rather than a filmmaking one.

Nevertheless, the sense of chaos that permeated was one that resulted from a lack of planning, a lack of coherence between the shots. After all, if a camera is all we need to transplant our vision…then two cameras will result in a greater vision, or a greater amount of vision. In other words, a fair amount of chaos.

Smackdown! – The Wrestler

What a departure it is from Darren Arofnosky’s previous films. The slick and insane editing of ‘Requiem for a Dream’, the vision of ‘The Fountain’…if anything, the film goes right back to the very roots of his career, with the eventual vision matching that of his breakout feature film, ‘Pi’. That wasn’t a very pleasant film to watch, but I mean pleasant to include the roughness of the actual end product, which was intended and added much to the film. The same thing happened here, and while some parts were difficult to watch, mainly figuratively and almost literally at times, I appreciated the director’s effort to show the reality (or perceived reality) of a broken down professional wrestler.

After all, what usually happens is not something is a pretty thing to watch, and the end product should not end up looking as something that comes even close to the weekly offerings that World Wrestling Entertainment put on.

Nice and Neat – Vicky Cristina Barcelona

He walked over to them…sauntered, more like it. His smile, ever so slight, is engaging, cheery, and yet hides an intent that is not so pure, though sincere in its nature. Vicky and Cristina both looked as they feel: taken aback, but more than just a little intrigued by him. Cristina, especially, felt her heart beat just that little bit faster as he reaches their table.

“American?” he started, guessing their nationality. Within three minutes, he had their attention, and did not waste any time. Vicky, however, wasn’t very impressed as he invited them to Oviedo. “I’ll show you around the city, and we’ll eat well. We’ll drink good wine. We’ll make love.” “Yeah,” Vicky asked sarcastically, “who exactly is going to make love?” “Hopefully, the three of us,” came the confident reply.

Snikt! – X-Men Origins: Wolverine

“I’m gonna rip your head off. See if it works”

The first movie that kick-starts the summer is arguably the most important movie of the year. It’s an indicative of how well the year’s summer movies would do. It also sets you in the mood. If the first summer movie is a major disaster, you’ll probably be lowering your expectations for every movie that is coming out during the summer for that year and chances are, your expectations would be met.

It’s unfortunate, then, that this year’s first summer movie, ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ is comparable to natural disaster. A much more appropriate title for the film would be ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine and No One Else’. Clearly, I did not enjoy it.