Weird that it took me 2 nights to finish this movie, not that it’s boring, or uneventful. It just moved at a steady pace until the story climaxes. I still enjoyed it, but not as much as a grander adventure.
The only negative, if you would call it a negative aspect of this movie, is that it’s too self-aware. Like the shots are just way too perfect!!! The symmetry, and the framing, I mean not even gorgeous, or picturesque. It’s just too calculated. That’s just me, everything about the movie is awesome though, and I wish I would’ve watched it after Moonrise, and not before. The action, the drama, and the comedy in this movie is just too good. Definitely a strong recommendation
The Grand Master Killer
It’s been a while since I’ve posted on here, it’s even longer the last time I saw a Wong Kar Wai movie. From the beginning, you can tell Christopher Doyle was not involved in this movie, it still has the signature WKW cuts, and symbolism, but the movie is not as picturesque as a Doyle movie. However, it’s still an excellent movie, maybe I was in the correct mood or state of mind, but I though the pacing was great. Sure the last quarter of the movie toned down the action, the story development is really moving, and beautiful.
The movie itself had a very beautiful look, definitely the prettiest kung fu movie I have seen. Maybe it did makes sense to not have Christopher Doyle, to balance the symmetry and the grittiness of the fighting scenes.
I need to revisit this movie again in the future. Definitely recommended
Style + Substance
WOW! Sometimes you start a movie around 11pm thinking I’m probably gonna doze off and hit pause and the remote to pick up the rest of this movie tomorrow. Sometimes, you press play, and you just keep watching glued to your seat, or perhaps uneasy. Watching this movie for the first time, and seeing this now, as I’ve seen several of the Coen Brothers movie, you can pickup some of the style flourishes and techniques that you will recognize as their own.
But what I picked up from here more than the stylish fades, and great use of framing, is the awesome awesome use of sounds and music. And sometimes even the lack of music and sound adds to the tension.
Aside from the music, and cinematography, the movie definitely had that hard nosed rough around the edges Noir feel to it. A damsel in distress, that is not so, smart characters that do stupid things, and an atmosphere that is so thick you can brush it off with your hands….
“i feel infinite”
“we accept the love we think we deserve.”
Been more than a minute……
My last post was over a year ago around August of 2012, watched a lot of movies, a couple of books, a bunch of shows…. And it’s actually kind of cool doing this year in review thing because only the truly memorable stuff will be remembered
One of the best games I played this year was Ni No Kuni. The Collaboration between Studio Ghibli and Level 5. Before this game even came out, there were already tons of hype surrounding it, I don’t usually pre-order games full price thanks to CAG, but this was one game that I just had to play immediately, and have in glorious collector’s edition as well…….
Now after finishing the game, I can strongly say that the hype was well deserved. Not only was the game absorbing and the art style very attractive, the gameplay was very engaging, was there some grinding involved? Sure, it’s a JRPG after all, but damn if this game did not introduce me to the wonderful genre that is monster collecting…. Towards the end of the year I also picked up Pokemon Black, and after faltering in the beginning, that game sucked me in as well…… What really helped is the pick up and play dynamic of the game, so I can save anywhere and pick it up, also the mobility of the ds lite.
Next up is probably one of the best games I’ve played. EVER. Solid storytelling, gripping pacing, and some scary moments. Some very tense and violent moments, and some serene and beautiful ones too…..
This game spoil me in a sense a really good steak does, it’s hard to enjoy a mediocre game when you know there are game designers out there doing some amazing stuff. I really hope Naughty Dog keep making games and keep their hits coming, Uncharted, another cinematic game was also one of my favorites…… It was also very appropriate that I just watched the movie The Road and was reading the book World War Z while playing the game, it definitely put me on that same post-apocalyptic vibe.
I played some Dragon’s Crown on the PS3 and really dug the art style and the 2D dungeon crawler experience. Speaking of dungeons and one of the most recent games I played to date. Zelda Link to the Past was a very “puzzling” experience, pun definitely intended. Puzzling in a sense that I loved the puzzles and the exploration of the light and dark world, but I don’t know if it’s maybe because it’s the first Zelda game that I really devoted time to, but there was a couple of instances that I got stuck on…..
Looking back, I should’ve really stuck with it, and not given up and looked up a solution online. That earthquake medallion had me stumped……. All in all, I was already cheating since I was abusing the GBA emulator’s save state by saving before each dangerous situation. Maybe I was just playing it smart 😉
Going into 2014, I”m thinking of tackling my ridiculous backlog of games, and planning of not buying any new games, aside from some really cheap downloadable games using my xbox live balance and PSN+ membership. Speaking of…. It’s pretty nifty to be able to look through your achivements and trophy to find out which games you played the past year…. So here’s to 2014, and no next gen for me until atleast 2015!
Miyazaki San!
It’s been 3-4 months since my last post. Seen a bunch of movies that I didn’t blog, haven’t really played a game continuously to write about it. Been watching many live music acts. Dirty Projectors, St. Vincent, and Destroyer were all awesome!
I don’t know what it is, but I’ve been on a Miyazaki kick lately, perhaps because I went to a Miyazaki marathon at someone’s house last month that kinda rekindled my interest in Miyazaki’s work, or perhaps because I just pre-ordered NiNo Kuni, a game made by Studio Ghibli and LEVEL-5, or perhaps I’ve been on an anime kick lately after finishing Kids on the Slope (an awesome mini-series about Jazz from the creator of Cowboy Bebop).
I remember watching Princess Mononoke in a movie theater with a bunch of friends when it first came out and was really impressed. Not as impressed as I am now, the first time I saw it, I liked it for what it was, a cool movie with tons of action and really cool looking characters. But now, that I’ve seen more movies and been more exposed to other styles of animation. Princess mononoke had a 7 Samurai vibe to it, the ambiguity of the good guys and the bad guys like in old movies. The complexities of the characters, and the extremely violent scenes I kind of overlooked the first time I saw it, maybe because I was watching a lot oh hyper-violent movies anime and movies back then. (e.g. Fist of Legend, Ninja Scroll, and Hong Kong Ballet Movies).The movie was also a social commentary on our relationship with nature and how nature fights back.
I think this is the first movie most Japanese kids watch as soon as they can open their eyes, I can get on board that. Yeah, sure there’s this whole dark side conspiracy theory giving the movie a much darker meaning. I’m taking it as what it is without “Confirmation Bias”, this movie is amazingly beautiful! For a 1988 movie, such breath-taking frames, some of the scenes looked like an impressionist painting. I would really love to watch this movie on a big screen. Scratch that! I would love to see all of Miyazaki’s work on the big screen. I love the simple story, the familial love, the characters, from the really cute little girls and the non-speaking / totoros and dustmites. Sure they don’t say a lot, but they have a lot of character and spirit.
So this movie wasn’t directed by Hayao Miyazaki, but his son Goro Miyazaki. So even though it’s not as great as the other Ghibli movies, I still found it entertaining. The colors and the architecture were great. You can tell the animation style for Studio Ghibli is changing, but the heart and soul is still there. The story wasn’t as fleshed out as I wanted it to be, it had so much potential , but was just a little lacking. It reminds me of the movie Jiro dreams of Sushi, the way the son started taking over the father’s restaurant and how he has so much pressure on him to live up to his father’s greatness.
I will try to go through some more of Miyazaki’s work and other Studio Ghibli (pronounced jee-blee or ji-bu-ri in Japanese) films.
Choices.
Mass Effect 3, the conclusion to Bioware’s epic trilogy actually provided more questions than answers, but not for the same reason as most people. It was a rainy Saturday night, and just had dinner, I had a choice of braving the rain or hunkering down and finally finishing the game. I’ve been wanting to finish the storyline because everywhere I looked on the interwebs, people are complaining about the ending. I’ve been trying to avoid all spoilers for the game since I wanted to make my own opinion, and 5 hours into the endgame run? Did I hate the ending? No! Did it blow me away? No! Am I mad at the developers for not tying up all the loose ends and giving an ambiguous ending to the game that spanned over 80 hours of playing time spread across 3 games? Not really. (The game actually made me think of Bastion in regards to the blue pill red pill ending)
What I”m a little disappointed about is how the developers have caved in and admitted that they are changing the endings, or adding into it. If video games are to be considered a legitimate artistic medium, then we should keep the controls in the hands of the developer. I don’t see movies, books, and music being changed for the sake of public opinion. Or maybe they are, are times a changin…….?
Finally!
This is one of those movies I’ve had on my “To Watch” list for as long as I can remember, I’ve started watching it on some occasion, but just never gotten around to finishing it. Color me surprised when I stumbled onto it in my Public Library, not just a Public Domain DVD but the Criterion Editon, they must’ve reprinted it, for I thought this has been OOP for a while.
The movie many refer to as “The Best Hitchcock Movie Hitchcock Did Not Make“, is pretty entertaining with some silly moments and typical damsel in distress moments had some great dialogue, and nice twists and turns, with a poster like that, how can I knot watch it?
angcolette 