Summer movie madness; ODing on Korean movies, action movies, and a begruding defense of Michael Bay. So many people have been passing through New York lately that combined with work I haven't had much time hence the drop off in blog posts. Apologies to friends I haven't emailed in awhile; things are well, probably too well. Nick has been staying with me and after he leaves I hope to go back to hermitville for awhile to get some projects going and I might be directing some more stuff soon.
I didn't get to see anywhere near the amount of movies I wanted to at the NYAFF but as it's over I do want to add to the word that it is one of the best film festivals in NY. For asian movie fans it's one of the best ever, I'm convinced. It's fun and lively as opposed to stuffy and self important, which festivals can come off as and the Subwaycinema group are so damned passionate about the whole thing. That's what it feels like more than anything: a group of individuals who want to share as much as they can. Keep it on your radar for next year and sign up for the mailing list. Two of the coolest people I met were Goran and Grady Hendrix, who writes a blog I've found indispensible: Variety mag's Kaiju Shakedown. It was awesome to meet the guys in person. And I also got to meet Nikki Lee who you may remember from the pages of GR. She's working on making some films these days so look out. As a hapa her art blew my mind with all its paradoxical notions of identity.
Here's me with Han Jae-Rim, director of Rules of Dating and The Show Must Go On, and soon I'll write up my official interview with him but even better was getting to hang out with him, despite our limited faculty of language with one another. He even bonded with Nick simply by talking music. That's a good language with no borders. Jae told me he got Yoko Kanno to do the score of his new movie because of his love in high school of Cowboy Bebop, which is so fucking awesome.
Here's a quick rundown of movies watched lately, which I'll expand upon later:
I'm a Cyborg But It's OK the new Chan Wook-Park movie. I want to write an impassioned defence of this movie as its had many detractors and it failed collossally at the box office in Korea. I feel blessed to have caught it cause it looks like it's not going to get a US release. It is not, despite a change in tone, in any way dissimiar to Park's ouvere. In fact the philosophical implications of sympathy and guilt are still very predominant, even some revenge. I loved every odd inch of it.
Memories of Murder Bong Joon-Ho's startlingly realisitic police procedural has been out there for awhile. If anything it's like a Korean version of Zodiac; but for me a lot of the connective tissue in some of the stuff I love in Korean cinema has to be actor Song Kang-Ho who I am just absolutely marvelling at. I love this guy. I'd watch him read a telephone book. This film isn't easy to watch but moments of it aim for a sublime and downbeat poetry that The Host lacked.
Woman is the Future of Man rave reviews and Scorcese's commendation don't do it for me on this one. I think it's very dilligently made with intellligence and discipline but ultimately for all the ground it treads it says little, and what it does say isn't so complex. My viewing companion, a female, said it's bleak portrayal of men as liars and cheats and sleazebags didn't really tell her anything she wasn't already aware of.
Transformers. This is the hard one to write about. Because I fucking hated and loved this movie at the same time. I swear to god there's a really phenomenal filmmaker buried in Michael Bay. The last forty five minutes of this movie are jaw dropping, and constitute the first real "ok I haven't seen that before" wow effect I've seen this summer that really great special effects work can give you. But the tone of the movie, the way it constantly wants to sell itself to you as if it were an ad for itself, all the missteps and groan inducing comedy bits... I have respect for Michael Bay. For shooting a lot of this stuff as practical as possible. For doing 75 setups a day. For coming up with some of these insane shots. I can even understand why he made the robots so organic and busy looking. But someone please sit him down with a copy of Team America so he can make a checklist of things he shouldn't do. This is my pick for stupid movie of the summer, but be warned, it's really really stupid.
Solo Con Tu Parejas Alfonso Cuaron's first movie, and one of the first features from cinematography god Emmanuel Lubezki, in a beautiful Criterion DVD. I liked this movie, and found parts of it to be sublime, but I didn't love it. It's very much a first feature. And there's something wonderful about seeing rougher work from someone who later knocks it out of the park. It is very different from his later work, more controlled and stylized. But still very smart, very human, very unique.
And...
Fireflies in my backyard while I was out there drawing some storyboards.
Moth and wasp fighting in my backyard. I thought the wasp was being completey mean to the moth as I'm sort of fond of the things (but I prefer Gamera to Mothra) then I read that moths are bees mortal enemies and destroy their colonies something fierce.
I didn't get to see anywhere near the amount of movies I wanted to at the NYAFF but as it's over I do want to add to the word that it is one of the best film festivals in NY. For asian movie fans it's one of the best ever, I'm convinced. It's fun and lively as opposed to stuffy and self important, which festivals can come off as and the Subwaycinema group are so damned passionate about the whole thing. That's what it feels like more than anything: a group of individuals who want to share as much as they can. Keep it on your radar for next year and sign up for the mailing list. Two of the coolest people I met were Goran and Grady Hendrix, who writes a blog I've found indispensible: Variety mag's Kaiju Shakedown. It was awesome to meet the guys in person. And I also got to meet Nikki Lee who you may remember from the pages of GR. She's working on making some films these days so look out. As a hapa her art blew my mind with all its paradoxical notions of identity.
Here's me with Han Jae-Rim, director of Rules of Dating and The Show Must Go On, and soon I'll write up my official interview with him but even better was getting to hang out with him, despite our limited faculty of language with one another. He even bonded with Nick simply by talking music. That's a good language with no borders. Jae told me he got Yoko Kanno to do the score of his new movie because of his love in high school of Cowboy Bebop, which is so fucking awesome.
Here's a quick rundown of movies watched lately, which I'll expand upon later:
I'm a Cyborg But It's OK the new Chan Wook-Park movie. I want to write an impassioned defence of this movie as its had many detractors and it failed collossally at the box office in Korea. I feel blessed to have caught it cause it looks like it's not going to get a US release. It is not, despite a change in tone, in any way dissimiar to Park's ouvere. In fact the philosophical implications of sympathy and guilt are still very predominant, even some revenge. I loved every odd inch of it.
Memories of Murder Bong Joon-Ho's startlingly realisitic police procedural has been out there for awhile. If anything it's like a Korean version of Zodiac; but for me a lot of the connective tissue in some of the stuff I love in Korean cinema has to be actor Song Kang-Ho who I am just absolutely marvelling at. I love this guy. I'd watch him read a telephone book. This film isn't easy to watch but moments of it aim for a sublime and downbeat poetry that The Host lacked.
Woman is the Future of Man rave reviews and Scorcese's commendation don't do it for me on this one. I think it's very dilligently made with intellligence and discipline but ultimately for all the ground it treads it says little, and what it does say isn't so complex. My viewing companion, a female, said it's bleak portrayal of men as liars and cheats and sleazebags didn't really tell her anything she wasn't already aware of.
Transformers. This is the hard one to write about. Because I fucking hated and loved this movie at the same time. I swear to god there's a really phenomenal filmmaker buried in Michael Bay. The last forty five minutes of this movie are jaw dropping, and constitute the first real "ok I haven't seen that before" wow effect I've seen this summer that really great special effects work can give you. But the tone of the movie, the way it constantly wants to sell itself to you as if it were an ad for itself, all the missteps and groan inducing comedy bits... I have respect for Michael Bay. For shooting a lot of this stuff as practical as possible. For doing 75 setups a day. For coming up with some of these insane shots. I can even understand why he made the robots so organic and busy looking. But someone please sit him down with a copy of Team America so he can make a checklist of things he shouldn't do. This is my pick for stupid movie of the summer, but be warned, it's really really stupid.
Solo Con Tu Parejas Alfonso Cuaron's first movie, and one of the first features from cinematography god Emmanuel Lubezki, in a beautiful Criterion DVD. I liked this movie, and found parts of it to be sublime, but I didn't love it. It's very much a first feature. And there's something wonderful about seeing rougher work from someone who later knocks it out of the park. It is very different from his later work, more controlled and stylized. But still very smart, very human, very unique.
And...
Fireflies in my backyard while I was out there drawing some storyboards.
Moth and wasp fighting in my backyard. I thought the wasp was being completey mean to the moth as I'm sort of fond of the things (but I prefer Gamera to Mothra) then I read that moths are bees mortal enemies and destroy their colonies something fierce.
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I was leaving a friend's house around one in the morning last week and pulling out of the driveway I happened to glance up at his neighbor's huge tree. It was absolutely full of fireflies. The whole tree was twinkling. It was totally unexpected and a really amazing sight.
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