Hello, My Friend – Goodbye Solo

I rushed to my seat, having had a quick cup of coffee on the outside. It’s a packed auditorium, for that is where this particular screening was held, and I managed to get there just in the nick of time. According to the festival rules, no one is allowed in after the screening has started. And you don’t want to be late for screenings; in addition to being a waste of time, energy and money rushing to the respective screenings from halfway across town, it’s also more than a little embarrassing.

“Fikri! FIKRI!” I managed to make out amongst the din of the conversations. I turned, looking for the person calling out my name. I couldn’t quite see it, or her, rather; the voice struck me as feminine.

“Fikri!” Finally, I found her. It was Hye-jin, one of my seniors at school. She was with a friend, and I went over, as you do, and tried to make casual conversation (as you do). Of course, I had a mini-crush on her when we were on Paula’s set, when I met her for the first time. “Forget about her,” said the gaffer at the time. “Move on.”

New Models – BMW Shorties 2009

This post will veer slightly away from what we have been doing so far, and turn our attention towards the upcoming short film competition called the BMW Shorties. It’s a competition that has been running for a couple of years now, and quite frankly, it has grown and grown more and more year on year. I myself never got round to submitting an entry myself. That can be put down to timing, and, slightly shamefully, the slipping of the mind. For some reason, that has been happening a little more often than I would have liked it to; we all have days when we’d wonder what day it actually is, but I think it has occured to me several times over the past month already.

But enough about me. This post is not about me. It is about the shorties.

Bloody Hell! – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

*Warning: spoilers if you haven’t read the book.

‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ is not a Harry Potter film. It’s actually quite different. Yes, I did like it and after third time watching it, I am unsure if it’s the best Potter movie to date or it’s second only to ‘Prisoner of Azkaban’. All in all, it’s a high quality film.

Fans of the books have always had a problem with the films. Despite generating almost $5 billion worldwide, the fans never fell in love with the movies in the same way as they did with the books. In the first two films, ‘The Sorcerer’s Stone’ and ‘Chamber of Secrets’, director Chris Columbus took everything straight from the books. It was a page-by-page adaptation and everything was held intact. However, Columbus isn’t really all famous for his directorial skills; having done ‘Home Alone’ previously, what we got was an above-average kiddy flick.

Powerful – Madeo

The detective stood up, and he brought the prisoner, Do-joon (Won Bin, 원빈) to stand at the same time. “Just stand up, don’t worry,” he assured him, as he opened a drawer, and pulled out an apple. “I’m not going to hurt you.” He raised it to Do-joon’s mouth, and told him to bite down on it. “Do you know what sepak takraw is?” The prisoner, not exactly the sharpest tool in the box to begin with, give a quizzical, “Huh?” He bit down on the apple, making sure it’s held down tightly between his teeth.

The detective took off his jacket slowly, making sure that it is neatly laid on the back of the chair, before proceeding to give a very short and brief history lesson on the new sport now known as ’sepak takraw’. “It is a sport that is very good with urgency, because you can release a lot of power within moments.” Or something to that effect. He then proceeded to give a very swift and very strong kick to the apple, leaving only the part bitten down by Do-joon. Then the detective put on his jacket once again. “If you are not cooperative…”

It is easily the coolest scene in the movie. Is it because it is a popular sport in Malaysia and its neighbours? Maybe. But perhaps just by itself, it is still a very cool scene.

Revenge of the Box Office – Korean cinema 2009 (1st half)

Reality is much more dramatic. Despite current wave of financial crisis, Korean film industry has passed through a tumultuous, roller coaster ride during 26 weeks of the first half and produced many news. In 2009, Korean film industry started out with the unexpected mega box office successes of ‘Scandal Makers’ and ‘Old Partner’. Since then, lukewarm “thriller trio” (‘Marine Boy’, ‘The Scam’ and ‘Handphone’) passed through the box office, even though they were highly anticipated since their developmental stage. The number of Korean films screened at Cannes Film Festival broke the record with a total of 10 films (including short films), and ‘Thirst’ won Grand Jury prize.

Disaster Movie – Haeundae

I was never really that taken by ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ and other such disaster movies. A big part of the reason is the personality of the locality. I am not talking about the location’s charisma (surely, few places are more charismatic than New York). Rather, it’s one based more on the personal experience I went through. I have never been to New York, and so, watching it as the Emmerich-Devlin team destroyed it countless of times in ‘Independence Day’, ‘Godzilla’, and the aforementioned ‘Tomorrow’, it did not hold as much resonance as it might have done with others. For what it’s worth, the films were generally fun to watch.

‘Haundae’, however, promises to be different. It is the name of a beach in Pusan, Korea, a place that I’ve been to twice before, and plan to visit again before my time in Korea ends. It is a place of many good memories: long nights on the beach, the beautiful girls by the plenty, the same goes for the films, and chucking Singaporean filmmakers into the East Sea all rank highly.

A Cut Above – Yoshino’s Barber Shop

It is, in a way, somewhat ironic that the review following the last post is that of ‘Yoshino’s Barber Shop’. Ironic, partly because Yasmin Ahmad herself was a big advocate of Japanese creative arts culture in general, and films in particular. It was her that I kept thinking of as I watched this film.

Why? Because in terms of tone, dialogue, action, colour and humour, it reminds me very much of her films. There’s even a light-hearted poke at society, a not-terribly-original tradition vs modern aspect to the proceedings. But of course, this is not her film.

This is a film made by Naoko Ogigami, who graduated from Chiba University’s Image Science programme. We would do well to remember her name.