the prestige...

go and see it... just absolutely fucking brilliant...!!! christopher nolan doesn't disappoint... what a great story and script... told in his typical mind bending ways but at the end everything gets explained... so much fun... have no idea why it got such mixed reviews but i loved every minute of it... christian bale and hugh jackman both are amazing as driven ego-centered magician rivals... and no matter what you think of scarlett johansson, she's fantastic as olivia, young, sweet, vulnerable but clear minded woman trapped between two men... oh, michael cane, wow... how does he do it after all these years... he's fantastic as always... wow... oh, don't forget david bowie as tesla... brilliant, i'm telling you... it's going to pick your brain and imagination...

california split...

since i just discovered early altman films like "the long goodbye", i was very excited to see that film forum was showing his "california split" with elliott gould and george seagal... last night sitting on my favorite seat, without any obstructed view except a little bit by this guy's baseball cap in the right corner, i was able to immerse myself into the world of reality ca. 1974 LA according to altman... and what a touching experience it was... from the beginning i couldn't help myself getting attached to the characters emotionally... really felt like i was in the same physical space with these guys and watching them and be a part of their interaction... feeling their shared joy, passion and frustration toward to gambling... i don't want to give away the ending but i found it rather heartbreaking...
we live in a world that we literally begin as strangers... even with your family... then for some odd reasons or no real reasons, we end up becoming friends or even more with certain people... then up to certain point we open up, share our lives, develop certain kind of expectations, relationships and even love... then also the time comes that you realize that the other person is not in the same place as you are or, even worse (?), there's no more place for the relationship to go to... then... most of people say goodbye... sometimes it can be mutual and sometimes it can be plain hurtful... or sometimes you decide not to say goodbye and hold on to it... or sometimes you don't even say goodbye and let things fade... and you move on...
now i'm old enough to call myself an adult (ha!), i can accept that there is such a thing as dealing with emotional attachments in a "grown-up" way... but still it's hard not to feel sad and curled up inside doing it... why can it all work out...?
sometimes i just feel like i don't know anything anymore... eh...

did you know...

that you can refill your metro cards in new york...? think not that many people actually know that... one little thing we could do to help our environment...

ah, north korea...

around the time when i started elementary school, north korea's plan to invade south by digging numerous underground tunnels was discovered... then south korean government produced this educational and anti-north korea propaganda animation that became a big hit... the main character was a little boy from south with some sort of supernatural power who saved people from north korea under the military dictatorship... funny considering the fact south korea was also under military dictatorship just disguised as democratic one... anyway one thing that made the biggest impression on me was that at the end the animation, the north korean army officers and the leader turned out to be rats and pigs disguised themselves as humans under some evil spell... so you could imagine what kind of message south korean government was trying to send out to young children then... however things have improved, especially within last 10 years or so, and it seems like south korean public began to realize that north korean are humans just like us...
so i do understand it's easier to dismiss north korea as a bunch of lunatics for the rest of the world... especially in these days when a single life doesn't matter all that much, especially to people in power, if it's related to their political, economical agenda... like 655,500 killed iraqi people after the us invasion... it happened because they just ignore the fact that there are millions of people who live in these countries like iraq and north korea had nothing to do with their governments' policies... none of us got to choose where to be born...
well, so when i ran across these pictures, i was glad that it showed that there are actual people living in north korea too... who probably have been suffering all their lives and many of them doesn't even know that they have... what will happen to these children...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/6052344.stm

call me naïve, if you will... but hope one day it'll be a different world somehow... and every single human life has the same weight and importance...

i don't know why...

but i've been feeling like i'm missing something... and it's been that way pretty much all my life... the problem is that i cannot figure out what exactly... i don't even know if it's something i had to begin with or something i've never had... then if i've never had it, how can i miss it, right...? but somehow i don't think i've ever really "had" it with me...
a friend from korea brought me a copy of this cd i used to listen to a lot when i was about 12... then when i listened to the songs last week for the first time in years, i began to feel what i was like and how i felt back then... then i remembered having the same feeling pretty much... missing something... longing for something... funny, songs can do that to you... especially the ones with words you can relate to... they send you right back when and where you heard it for the first time or for the hundreds times... and sum up how you feel somehow perfectly and completely... and now these songs made me realize that deep down i'm still the same person almost 20 years ago...
and i still cannot figure out "what" i'm missing exactly... so i'm still wandering the streets just like 20 years ago trying to find it... will i ever find it...?

the illusionist... and some other "issues"...

just watched "the illusionist" tonight... thought it was quite nice, smart and well made movie... didn't love it but liked it quite a bit... thought rufus sewell, the guy from one of my favorite movie "dark city", was excellent as an ego maniac, ambitious and vicious crown prince... and was surprised, don't know what i was really expecting, at jessica biel for being rather good and a great screen presence... guess i'd never seen her other than in magazines so kinda had low expectation of her... sorry, i can be judgmental... i know...
however i was a bit thrown off by how the characters were talking... i guess this happens quite a lot in the movies when its setting is in a foreign, non-english speaking country, the characters are all speaking in some sort of "accent"... to be authentic...? but then unless everybody is doing a grand job with the accent, it has danger of looking a bit silly and hard to ignore... well, in this movie, i guess they were all trying to speak in austrian accent and somehow i had hard time believing... paul giamatti's accent was great... but surprisingly edward norton's accent was hard to buy... usually i think he's fabulous but i couldn't stop thinking this was not the best performance of his... oh, well... oh, couldn't stand the music... yep, done by philip glass... was surely better than "the hours" but still...
however there a couple more "issues" while i was watching... not with the movies... a. there was, then were, believe it or not, fly (flies in the seconds half) trapped somewhere between film's projector and kept distracting... yes, it was absurd... then b. of course i got to sit behind a moron who kept talking throughout the movie... i had to tell him to be quiet because it became so unbearable which he didn't respond well... then c. there was this guy sitting behind me who couldn't stop clearing his throat throughout the movie as well... so in other word, i was very distracted... argh...
see, i'm a control freak in many things and especially about going to see movies... have no problem admitting that... i absolutely have to sit at the middle and that's why i cannot stand angelika because their thearters have aisle in the middle... maybe not all of them but at least the one i always end up in... well, on top of that rumbling subway noise and screes being a bit too high and giving you neckache after a while...
then i hate people eating pop corn and stuff during the movie... so you can guess only how much i hate someone talking with passion... i know that's it's a public space and other people are there to enjoy the movie and i cannot expect people to behave how i want them to... but then how about some respect to other people...? once i was sitting not too far away from this couple that wouldn't stop making out and talking so loud, i had to say something... then the guy's response was like, "what, i cannot hear you"... what a jerk...
then i usually, 99.5% of the time, not tonight though, i sit through the end credit... which could drive some people crazy...
well, i guess that explains why i like going to the movies by myself most of the time...
oh, went to see "the science of sleep" again last night... was so damn good... ah...
yeah, me, control freak... oh, well...

i know, i'm pretty lame...

believe it or not, i grew up mainly listening to korean pop songs... first, korean pop music used to be WAY better back then... secondly, it was a way of rebelling against my classical training... it wasn't until after i moved to boston when i heard what people meant by real "jazz", not like the "smooth jazz" i heard when i was in high school... and it wasn't until way way later i heard "experimental" music... guess i'm kind of a late bloomer(?)... and even now my knowledge in music is very limited... kind of getting sick of saying "i don't know" when friends mention names of bands or musicians or songs... but, oh, well... i cannot pretend to know something when i have no idea... but it's getting to annoy me a bit... seriously, i don't even know anything by rolling stones or the smiths or even radiohead... absurd, isn't it... then my next problem is that i have no clue where to begin... there are so many bands and so much music out there... once in a while, some friends will mention some names and i try to check them out... but still i usually get overwhelmed by it fast... i know, i'm pretty lame... ah...

the private life of sherlock holmes...

as i've mentioned many times already i'm reading a bio of billy wilder... gee, i'm almost done finally...
anyway... ed sikov, the arthur of the book mentions 2 movies being billy wilder's most personal films... the first one is "ace in the hole" with kirk douglas which i probably wrote about it already... it was a disaster at the box office and was forgotten for a long time until recently... and of course now it found its well deserved recognition from the critics and the audience...
and the other one is "the private life of sherlock holmes"...
it took billy wilder more than a decade of planning and rewriting... and as many of you would agree, sherlock holmes is one of the most known, fascinating and beloved literal characters of the last century... according to wikipedia, sherlock holmes series have sold the second largest number of copies only behind bible... however billy wilder had his own vision that holmes was a drug addict and a homosexual... some of you might think this depiction is rather perverse but if you think about it, it's rather closer to how sir arthur conan doyle portrayed the hero... although when i read the stories as a kid in korea, there was no mention of heavy drug usage except that he used it to disguise himself as a dying man... but i'm sure other mentions were censored off...
after shooting the movie for about 10 months, spending 10 million dollars and almost driving richard stephens who played holmes into committing suicide with his demanding way, billy wilder came up with almost 3-hour long version of the movie... then the production company decided that the movie was too long, too dark and too risky... the whole thing was cut down to a little more than 2 hours... it literally broke billy wilder's heart...
the result is still a great movie... still filled with fantastic story telling and many tender emotional moment that portrays holmes as a warm hearted man behind that sharp and even harsh exterior... someone who's afraid to be hurt... a human...
if you haven't seen it and a fan of sherlock holmes, you'd appreciate it... and the violin melody composed by miklós rózsa is so delicate and beautiful... a perfect choice...
...
we often witness that many of great artists' visions in the past didn't get the recognition until way later in time... just look at van gogh... he was so tormented by how the rest of the world was not able to appreciate his art and ended up killing himself... but now his art works are considered to be one of the greatest ever... we all know that many of these geniuses are way ahead of the time and it sometimes takes more that the artist's lifetime... but now we live in such a time that we need instant gratification in almost everything we do, sometimes it feels really hard to continue creating without getting discouraged or distracted by it... not to compare myself to great artists but just as someone who's trying to focus on what i really believe in... i keep telling myself not to lose the bigger picture in life but as many of you already know, it can get difficult... ah... guess why it's good for me to read billy wilder's bio... and realize that not everything he did was loved or rewarded... both of his most personal movies were literally trashed... ah...
...
well, it might have taken people to appreciate but "the private life of sherlock holmes" is a great, tender, emotional movie that will hold up in years to come...