Another Year, Another List

Here we go again.

• The Orphanage **** (Unbelievably scary and creepy, ugh, but ultimately sad and satisfying.)
• No Country for Old Men **** (Taut and tight, surprisingly unleavened by the Coen Brothers' usual black humour. To the idiot who sat beside us, next time just leave halfway ok? Instead of humouring your boyfriend and sitting there, fidgeting and complaining...)
• La Vie En Rose **** (The film itself wasn't such a big deal but this was an actor's showcase par none and Marion Cotillard sure as hell delivered.)
• Juno **** (Witty indie-style movie with excellent acting by Ellen Page. Not quite as clever as Saved! but funny as hell.)
• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly **** (A gently humorous story of the trials and tribulations of being trapped in one's body.)
• Sweeney Todd **** (One of the better examples of stage to screen transition. Tim Burton does a good job here, but Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter aren't the best of singers, although they do approach Sondheim's music with not a little panache.)
• This Film Is Not Yet Rated *** (In the vein of Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock. Funny in parts but a tad same old same old by now.)
• Away from Her **** (Touching, without being cloying. Should Julie Christie win for Best Actress? Probably not...)
• Across the Universe ***1/2 (Surprisingly watchable. Interesting interpretation with some good takes on the Beatles' standards.)
• My Blueberry Nights *** (Ok lah, some nice touches, some nice acting, but not one of Mr Wong's best movies)
  

How will 2007 shape up?

The Year 2007 at the cinema:

• Vexille ***1/2 (Utterly predictable storyline - Japan gets annihilated yet again in animeland - but a story well told with spectacular visuals and at a rolllicking pace. Cool!)
• Citizen Dog **** (Whimsical, hilarious and very Thai, this film captured the essence of Bangkok oh so well - buildings, dogs and plastic bottles! Although it was a smidgen saggy in the middle...)
• Elizabeth I: The Golden Age ***1/2 (Strong acting, beautiful costumes and luscious visuals but, really, way too OTT. A caricature of history really, albeit an entertaining one.)
• Moebius Redux: A Life in Pictures *** (An engaging and informative look at the life of comic illustrator, an insider's doco for comic buffs.)
• 5 Cm Per Second *** (Beautifully drawn and put together, but perhaps a leetle too much teen angst.)
• Tekkonkinkreet ***1/2 (A visual extravanganza with pretty good characterisation for an anime feature. Not sure if the storyline really worked though...)
• Lust, Caution ***1/2 (If only the narrative structure had been tighter and more focused. Tang Wei and Joan Chen were wonderful to watch.)
• Lars and the Real Girl **** (Thoughtful and touching, with a quiet gentle humour. Ryan Gosling does an excellent job here.)
• The Triplets of Belleview ***1/2 (Great music, whimsical characterisation, but stylistically best appreciated by film buffs)
• Sicko *** (Michael Moore back to his entertaining self, after the angst of Iraq, but the novelty has worn off)
• Ratatouille**** (Funny, entertaining, heartwarming without being maudlin. Definitely one of Pixar's better offerings.)
• Jesus Camp **** (A chilling look at religious extremism - disturbing to say the least)
• Hairspray **** (Good stuff - great energy, fun choreography, spot-on casting. Kudos to John Travolta for a lovely performance.)
• Brave Story ** (Patchy at best - it made me feel like yelling "Keep It Simple, Stupid!")
• 881 ***1/2 (not the slickest or tightest of productions but loud, campy, funny and touching at the same time. oh, and great music too...)
• Black Sheep ** (what a waste - this could have been so much baaaaaaa-der)
• The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros *** (would have benefited from tighter story-telling and better editing but an engaging film nonetheless)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix ***1/2 (saved by the rollercoaster ride pace, brand-new special effects and some brilliant casting)
• The Girl Who Leapt Through Time ***1/2 (high school love story but one made palatable by good visuals and a sense of humour)
• Shrek 3 *1/2 (a handful of clever jokes - we love Gingy's flashback scene - but it's time to retire the franchise)
• I Don't Want to Sleep Alone **** (typically Tsai Ming Liang but possibly more accessible than most of his recent work. Malaysia should lighten up - this is really NOT about it at all.)
• Volver ****1/2 (trust Pedro Aldomovar to take a soap opera plot and turn it into pure gold. Brilliant!)
• Notes of a Scandal *** (stereotypical characters saved by superb acting)
• Little Children *** (surprisingly decent but let down by an ending way too pat)
• Requiem ***1/2 (Intelligent thought-provoking movie that Hollywood-style horror junkies should stay clear)
• The King *** (Gripping but ultimately flawed.)
• The Queen **** (give Helen Mirren the Oscar for Best Actress already)
• Pan's Labyrinth ****1/2 (yes it was that good.)
• Curse of the Golden Flower **** (***** for superlative visuals, * for plot, a jing1 ma3 jiang3 for Gong Li as Best Actress, and one for her heaving bosom as Best Supporting Actress, haha)
• Borat ***1/2 (**** to Sacha Baron Cohen for impeccable improvisation skills)

A Year-Long Film Festival

For some reason, I feel the urge to capture for posterity all the films I watched this year. Honestly, I wish I had done so earlier in the year, because right now, I cannot remember offhand the titles of most of them. I shall add on to the list as the names come to mind...

• Paprika ***1/2
• Renaissance ***
• Moongirl **1/2
• Bill Plympton's Dirty Shorts ****
• Into Great Silence ***
• My Summer of Love ***1/2
• Lower City **1/2
• Little Miss Sunshine ****1/2
• Singapore Dreaming ***
• The Host ***
• The Unbearable Lightness of Being *** (second time round!)
• Cars **1/2
• Tony Takitani ***
• Hard Candy ***
• Paradise Now ****
• The Road to Guatanamo ***1/2
• L'enfant ***
• V for Vendetta ***
• Mirrormask ***
• Brokeback Mountain ***
• The Producers ***
• Mrs Henderson Presents **
• Sympathy for Lady Vengeance ****
• Hostel **
• Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of Were-rabbit ****
• 3-Iron ***
• Transamerica ***1/2
• Capote ***
• The Wayward Cloud ****

He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

Everything you may have read or heard about Wong Kar Wai's 2046 is true. It is really and truly Mr Wong wanking so hard his dick may have fallen off. However, for those of us who are fans, this treatise on unrequited love revisits (lovingly) old territory. Indeed it seems to sum up his previous musings on the nature of love. Love it or hate it, here's why 2046 is worth watching.

1. Faye Wong makes an amazing android. Really.
2. The movie makes women look beautiful even though, if you look closely enough, Gong Li looks fat, Zhang Ziyi has bad skin, and Carina Lau looks like an auntie, an "ah so".
3. A wonderful soundtrack - Italian opera, classical music, latin music - an ecletic mix that is Mr Wong's trademark
4. The lush visuals that suck you in, courtesy of Mr Doyle and Co.
5. The immensely watchable Tony Leung Chui Wai

Lost and Loving It

This one took such a long time to write, I can't even remember what sparked it off. I started this post on 10 September and now it's almost a month later, and much has happened in between. For one thing, I started to download "Last Life in the Universe", then discontinued the download when the DVD went on sale here. I bought the DVD and almost immediately lost it in the mess of my room. Damn it, I was so looking forward to watching it again. It was one of my favourite films this year, together with "Lost in Translation". Anyway, here we go: my thoughts on the two films.

Although I prefer Last Life, both films have much in common. Both are about two lonely people (who have little in common and may never have met each other in the normal course of things), who meet and, for a brief moment in time, connect. Both are set in big cities (Bangkok and Tokyo) that provide the very powerful sense of urban alienation, amplified by, at least for three of the four characters, the culture shock of being alone in a foreign land. And both films were very satisfying to watch.

At one level, the films could have been little more than that hoary cliche about two ships passing in the night. The notion of serendipity is usually badly explored by American movies starring Meg Ryan, Helen Hunt and their doe-eyed sisters. Fortunately, both films lifted the idea beyond the ordinary. It helped that there was no happy ending, nor was there a melodramatic parting of ways. The other important factor was the excellent direction and finely nuanced acting of all four leads. The shock of meeting a soulmate when you least expect it; the vertigo of falling in love, heightened as it were by the tacit knowledge that the chance meeting cannot but end - the melange of feelings were made palpable oh so subtly. You felt for these characters precisely because you were not told to.

Where Last Life was more effective was in its storyline and cinematography. Its more improbable pairing of suicidal Japanese librarian hiding from the yakuza and grief-striken Thai girl about to migrate to Japan provided more dramatic tension than Lost in Translation's ageing over-the-hill actor meets young lonely wife. In the latter, the two Americans cling together as they reel from the shared experience of being lost in Tokyo. In Last Life, Kenji and Noi are drawn together in spite of the cultural, language and personality differences, which made the fledgling romance more poignant. As for the cinematography, the landscape, a major player in both films, was so "lush and invocative" (quoting some review I read and totally agreed with), it was hard not to fall in love with the film. Kudos to the incomparable Christopher Doyle.

All in all, the two films appealed to the hopeless romantic in me. Now, if only I can locate that missing DVD...