New Wave? – Malaysians in Pusan 2009

Timing, as ever, is almost everything. I say almost, because of course there are many other factors that should be considered. Nevertheless, sometimes it is just something that the powers that be have determined. Thus, this year, I will have to give the Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF) a rather big miss, because it conflicted with the schedule that has been given to me for my graduation film shoot.

Nevertheless, that does not mean that I won’t be there in spirit, even if my spirit should actually be on location with me in Toechon rather than Pusan. Nevertheless, here’s a quick look at the films that I definitely would have been watching had I the chance and opportunity to do so.

Timely – Some Day In The Future

It is an interesting title, I thought. ‘Some Day In The Future’, to me, suggests a wistful sort of existence, one that hints at the hope for a better future. As in, “We’re in a tough situation now, but some day in the future, things will be OK.” You can, of course, flip it the other way around (“We’re OK now, but some day in the future, things will be tough”), but this feels somewhat unnatural, somewhat lacking in a poetic sense. After watching the film, I can surmise that somehow, the director, Dharmasena Pathiraja, is a person who hopes for things to be better in the future.

A part of this is to do with the stylings of the film. The film itself has a certain graininess, a certain scratch here and there that made me think it was a film made in the 80s, early 90s if you really want to push it. You know how a film looks when you watch it years after it was made? An old film shown on TV or in the cinema betrays its age, and you get a sense of watching something that was kept exclusively in a vault for long years before being brought out again for a screening.

Fazil’s Top 100 – 100 to 91

Welcome to Fazil’s 100 Must Watch Movies of the Decade. You see, I came across a lot of this sort of listing all over the Internet from time to time. Thing is, I never liked them because it always has really old movies that I have not seen; new movies, particularly from the action genre, are always omitted. So I say screw them and let me come up with my own list.

I have chosen movies of the last decade, i.e. released from the year 2000 till now, because prior to 2000, I wasn’t a movie buff and I have not seen that many films (though I am slowly catching up on them now!). Thus, I wouldn’t be the best person to provide you guys with such a listing if that be the case. Also, you will notice omissions of truly great movies released this decade as well, such as ‘Moulin Rouge!’, ‘Catch Me If You Can’, ‘Traffic’, ‘Blow’, ‘Million Dollar Baby’, ‘Chicago’ and ‘Mystic River’ just to name a few. Believe it or not, I have not actually seen these movies!

Oink! – School Days With A Pig

One of these days, I may well have a mind to go down the Japanese embassy and charge its filmmakers for pedophilia; following ‘Yoshino’s Barber Shop’ after watching ‘School Days with a Pig’, I am convinced that the Japanese have an innate tendency to rely on cute kids in order to make the audience go, “Aww…” That is, of course, in place of having an actual story, a compelling issue, an intelligent script, and competent editing and directing to go along with the kids so cute you wouldn’t want to stop pinching their cheeks even after they start screaming for their mothers. The Japanese have latched on to something here, and I have decided to latch on to what it is that they have latched on.

Of course, that isn’t quite the case here in ‘School Days’. The things I said earlier about the story, script, and what not? Well, they are all present here in spades of pig poo.

RAW is WAR! – Ramly At War Begins

It was a innocuous, innocent and not-so-interesting night some time ago on Facebook. I find myself getting into it a lot more, enjoying the reactions and interactions, as it were, with my family (even my dad is on Facebook…which is nice ). Anyways, it seems as if other people’s moms and dads were also on, given the uninteresting nature of the night. I would define it as interesting if it were updated frequently, and if the statuses themselves were rather interesting to read. Funny, this: not a long time ago I hated Facebook. I hated how it seems to transplant all other modes of communications. Now, however, having tried it extensively, I realise I could make it work for me without going the way of others.

Another reason why I should thank Facebook, though, is ‘RAW’. “What on Earth is ‘RAW’?” I thought to myself as it constantly and almost-annoyingly popped up on Juliane Block’s status update. She had added me on Facebook after we had interviewed her and did a review for her film, ‘Emperor’, but communication has been at a minimum. I suppose we all have friends like that. For that past few days, though, almost everything was about ‘RAW’, and if her idea was to get my (and other people’s) attention…well, it worked.

15 Minutes of… – 15Malaysia

“Pete, what are you going to do next year?”

People asking Pete Teo what project he would do after the Malaysian Artists For Unity project.

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As the country makes its celebrations for Independence Day on Monday, I decided that there’s no better time to write about this nice little project than then. Well, there is: I could have written it on the date of its launch, which happened to be some time in the middle of August. For some reason, a combination of brain fade, constipation, and a lack of time, as well as the fact that…

…well, no, I just didn’t get round to doing it before now.

GO JOE! – G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra

Who the hell would have thought that this year’s dry summer movie season will end with a “Boom! Boom! Pow!” Seriously, not only was the movie all about boom, boom and pow, it even ended with that annoying song from the Black Eyed Peas, which was played during the end credits. When I heard that song, I immediately walked out of the cinema and wondered why the heck that silly song was played at the end. Now, come to think of it, that song clearly defines the movie.

Referring to my previous article, ‘Understanding Michael Bay’, one has to know what he or she is walking into. Firstly, G.I. Joe is a movie based on the 1980s cartoon show and action figure line. Back then, I was a fan of Joe more than a fan of Transformers. I remember the cartoon quite well and between me and my younger brother, we had a lot of Joe figures. So, when we first heard they were making a movie, we got really excited. Then, we heard through the grapevine that it will be directed by Stephen Sommers, which got my brother worried. As for me, I loved ‘The Mummy’ and ‘The Mummy Returns’, and thought that ‘Van Helsing’ was enjoyable to say the least (probably due to Kate Beckinsale’s hotness). That’s saying a lot because nobody liked ‘Van Helsing’. Therefore, I treated the news as somewhat positive. Of course, I knew it was not going to be ‘X-Men’ but still, enjoyable at least. And boy, was that movie fun!