Tatsumi 辰巳 is an animated movie based on five short stories and life of Japanese manga writer 辰巳嘉裕 (Tatsumi Yoshihiko). Yoshihiko is known for his portrayal of the lower classes. The film is dark and intense and filled with visual stimulus. Definitely the best movie I’ve watched this year.
Director: Seth Gordon
Cast: Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston
Review: A hilarious comedy about three men who for different reasons hate their bosses and plot to murder each other’s supervisors. Jennifer Aniston is brilliant as a sex-craving boss.
Director: David Fincher
Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield
Review: The movie is about the birth of Facebook co-created by Mark Zuckerberg (played by Jesse Eisenberg) and his classmates. Whether Zuckerberg was stealing ideas from the others or not, he had indeed created the social media through his genius which revolutionalised the world’s concept of sharing lives and privacy.
Director: Massy Tadjedin
Cast: Keira Knightley, Sam Worthington, Eva Mendes, Guillaume Canet
Review: A married couple (Knightley and Worthington) spent a night apart and found themselves facing different temptations to betray their spouse. Resisting temptation was never easy, especially for men. How pathetic. Quite boring at times as the conversations were neither witty / inspirational.
Director: Woody Allen
Cast: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard
Review: Owen Wilson plays Gil who travels with his fiancée to Paris, only to find out that they do not have anything in common. He is a writer and a romantic who accidentally travels back to Paris in 1920s when he meets his favourite writers and artists. It’s a charming fantasy which probably triggers the desire for nostalgia in most people’s minds.
Director: Ryan Murphy
Cast: Julia Roberts
Review: Julia Roberts plays Liz Gilberts who has everything in her life but finds herself lost and embarks on a self-discovery journey to Italy, India and Bali. I suppose everyone once a while will find him/herself lost and wants to do something similar, except that this movie (or book) portrays a luxurious version and has a fairy-tale ending.
Director: Lone Sherfig
Cast: Anne Hathaway, Jim Sturgess
Review: A pair of young college graduates who just meet / in touch once a year and after years they finally realise they are meant to be. But dolce vita doesn’t follow. The ending is a bit surprise, and the emotion build up is not intense enough.
In addition to my laziness, I will attribute my lack of updating for this blog to my smartphone and social media.
I have accounts at the most popular social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linkedin and Weibo. I am not particularly active (apart from Twitter maybe) but I must say they do take up a lot of my time, especially Twitter and Weibo since I find them very informative and go on them quite often.
Recently I have realised that I may be projecting a different side of me in each of this social media, which is quite intriguing. I am quiet on Facebook, cos I don’t like sharing my private life with everyone, and it abhors me how open (or should I say “sharing”?) people become on Facebook. And what I dislike most about Facebook is that there is an obligation to add people, in particular old school mates and colleagues, making the “friends” list in name only. On the contrary since I don’t know most of my followers on Twitter, I write more about what I do and like there. And weibo has a lot of wild silly information and I can also make silly comments without worrying how my followers think of me in reality.
But then after playing with these social media for a while, I find them unable to replace blogging. They simply don’t feel like the right platforms to share my thoughts, be that limits on word numbers, or the worries of my business acquaintances reading too much about my private life.
So I’ll probably blog more again!!
It was indeed my new resolution to post more frequently on my blog… perhaps I should consider taking up this challenge?
韓寒昨日在網誌上發表題為《後會有期》的聲明，表示自己能力有限，《獨唱團》的第二期乃至未來各期均無法出版，宣布團隊解散。他稱，《獨唱團》在屢次手續齊全的印刷過程中，均遇到困難甚至化漿（化為紙漿）。
「冬至花敗，春暖花開，都是生活常態，所以並毋須惋惜。後會有期。」
獨唱團竟成為絕唱…!?
I finally gave up my Windows moible and switched to Samsung Galaxy S. I must admit it’s a smart choice. Now the phone has become a much more powerful and interesting tool.
And this week my Kindle arrived! Tried reading a few free books and the experience was great! I can sync my books and bookmarks to the computer and my Galaxy, so that I can read my books with anything - Kindle, computer and mobile phone!
Technology is awesome!
Had dinner with Mr. J and Mr. B last night. We talked about our use of computers / notebooks, and what we expect from new technologies / gadgets like ipad.
Mr. B showed me his ipad. I am not particularly excited by it ( I am not saying it because I am anti-Apple). Of course it is a convenient gadget. Perhaps I just feel that such a level of convenience is unnecessary to me. Do I want or need an all-in-one machine that enables me to read books and magazines, web surf, play games and listen to music? Not really. I prefer to flip through a real magazine while playing music with my hi-fi; I prefer to watch a movie in a cinema; and I prefer, yes, to use my computer mouse to click click click and get things done rather than using my index finger. And perhaps most importantly, I am not interested in carrying around a 2kg thing and having it dominating my life.
I can’t remember when I bought ticket for this movie. I thought it was a new one but in fact it was made in 2004. I didn’t know what to expect from this film when I went into the cinema. And then I saw a Penelope Cruz-like actress. During the course of watching it I kept wondering whether that actress was indeed Cruz as she looked much less pretty or glamourous than she is now.
The movie focused on an absurd relationship developed between a doctor (Sergio Castellitto) and a poor woman (Penelope Cruz) which started with him raping her. They fell in love with one another, but their relationship ended with a tragedy. Years later the affair remains unforgettable for Castellitto.
Cruz’s acting was outstanding, and the movie was filled with drama and tension. She could act without having to “go ugly” actually.
Watched several movies featured at Hong Kong Summer Int’l Film Festival.
1) Dancing Dreams - Teenagers Perform “Kontakthof” by Pina Bausch
Dir: Anne Linsel, Rainer Hoffmann
Those (like me) who hoped to see world-renowned choreographer Pina Bausch dancing in the movie will be disappointed. The film is a documentary of a group of youngsters rehearsing one of Bausch’s famous dance pieces, what they feel and think of the great dancer and the whole dancing experience. Bausch was merely sitting aside giving comments occassionally.
The teenagers’ dance performance was not particularly impressive.
2) Sylvie Guillem: On the Edge
Dir: Francoise Ha Van Kern
Sylvie Guillem is a famous French ballerina and the documentary film is about how she venture into modern dance and try to do something different.
With no disrespect to Ms. Guillem, I fell asleep when I watched it.
3) Queen to Play (Joueuse)
Dir: Caroline Bottaro
An ordinary cleaning maid in Corsica embarks on a journey of self-discovery through chess games.
Sandrine Bonnaire’s subtle performance is pleasing. The plot however is relatively weak and the movie kinda insipid.
4) Leaving (Partir)
Dir: Catherine Corsini
A wealthy housewife falls in love with a worker and elopes with him, only to find that love doesn’t conquer everything.
I was a bit disappointed by this movie, which didn’t turn out as good as I expected. Kristin Scott Thomas’s acting is excellent and powerful. But the love story is too abrupt for the audience. It’s hard to fathom why a wealthy, educated middle-aged woman with a loving husband and children will fall in love with a poor man who’s neither physically attractive nor spiritually-inspiring. And she grew to become too irrational. There’s no guilt in her betrayal, no remorse for tearing apart the family. She’s absolutely conquered by lust, and sorry to say, with the looks of Sergi Lopez (the worker), her choice is not convincing at all.
5) The September Issue
Dir: R.J. Cutler
It’s a documentary of Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of American Vogue (the inpiration of Meryl Streep’s character in The Devil Wears Prada) on her making of September 2007 issue of Vogue.
This is quite an interesting movie, which offers a glimpse into the work of fashion magazine editors. While Ms. Wintour commands great respect in the industry, when she talks about her father and brothers who are editors in regular newspapers / political columns, a sense of uncertainty flicked in her eyes. Somehow perhaps she is still struggling to prove the importance of her work in the eyes of her loved ones.
An interesting and inspiring article on how the social media has changed our lives. “Gossip is no longer the resource of the idle and of the vicious but has become a trade.”
Maybe just a decade ago people were still trying to fake their identities when they chatted with strangers through ICQ or MSN. Now people are willing to voluntary all their information, including whereabouts, moods, feelings, relationship status etc. to friends or anyone on the internet. These info stays on the net forever and ever… And so what can we do when some people or some companies use these public information against us? Can laws help us prevent it? Or can technology does the trick and delete our silly or impulsive comments from the servers?
Or perhaps the best and only solution is for us to shut ourselves from these social media? Even if I deactivate all my social media accounts, I cannot prevent others from posting my photos or gossiping about me. We are all trapped in this web x.0 world and we must all play the game, willingly or not. It’s a weird world we have developed.
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