the village (2004). directed by m. night shyamalan.

have you heard of the track from the village (2004, dir M. Night Shyamalan) called "the gravel road"? that piece of music was on when Ivy Walker was walking fast, away from the village, after she unknowingly killed noah who tried to scare her, donning the "those we do not speak of" costume. and another, "the vote" is played when noah's family agreed to keep the secret going by accepting his death and reinforcing the belief that the village will stay pure, undisturbed by influence from the outside as "those we do not speak of" shall stay to be the barrier, or buffer.

(August Nicholson, in a meeting discussing whether or not to let Ivy go): We cannot run from heartache... Heartache is a part of life. We know that now.

best listened in classical mode. the echo is beautiful.

unbreakable (2000). directed by m. night shyamalan.

unbreakable

a lot of people i asked, didn't expressed a liking for this movie. they remarked that it was too slow, dead slow. perhaps it's the fact that bruce willis was extremely toned down, which does not mean underused, but not a maniac whose illusion of grandiose is to save the world. samuel l. jackson is spectacular as elijah price, hands down.

i like shyamalan's idea of debunking the myth of superheros. comics are not complete without them, but we could never recognised one in real life. nobody flies around in red underware to save maidens in trouble, nor do we see any one climbing walls and towers sticky webs of a spider. in comics, for this to happen, several elements need to exist:

1. a catasthrophe

2. the effect of the catasthrope and why one must prevent its reoccurance

3. a superhero, the person who would prevent the catasthrope

4. a fantastic ability, in which all superhero got to have one

5. a villain, all out to defeat the superhero, sometimes a motivation is not even needed, because we are allowed to assume that the villain is evil

enter david dunn, a security guard who used to be a college star footballer, now a married father with a little boy. he was never sick as far as he could remember, but that is not his special ability. on the far end of the universe is elijah price, who spends his childhood on the bed due to a rare bone disease that makes him susceptible to multiple bone fractures and breakages. dunn recently survived a train crash in which he was the sole survivor.

the similarity the two shared is that both desperately need something to believe in. price was disillusioned with the disease he was forced to live with, and dunn regretted his decision to give up football for a marriage to the woman he loves, only now he is not sure if football is worth giving up in the light of his troubled marriage.

the dynamics between dunn and price gives us a an insight of what the universe of superheros and villains colourfully painted in comics is consist of, and it is infallibly human. i won't give away the story, but it is definitely a good piece of cinema. i personally think it is shyamalan's best work.

oh, the soundtrack is something the story can not be complete without. 

days of glory (2006). directed by rachid bouchareb.

i wasn't in the mood for movies yesterday but i thot my bro gonna put up something english. he did not, instead showed a movie about the french resistance by the 7th algerian infantry division during the second world war. the movie was a close up of 4 arab algerian men fighting along side the french army to liberate italy and southern france from nazi occupation in circa 1944-45. each of them brought their dreams of greater acceptance and equality from their colonial master, as well as riches and a sense of belonging. this proved to be the things that even a so called civilised nation, france in this case, has a real trouble giving. and the shame, on top of the obvious inequality and discrimination of the soldiers from french colonies, was the fact that france have continually refused to award pensions to the native soldiers who had fought for her during the second world war.

ashes of time (1994). directed by wong kar wai.

wong kar wai shot this film in a time when pantene was nay impossible to be fund in the age where the sun, the desert, camels, renegades and travelling swordsmen were a norm and there was no place for silky, straight flowing hair was at all possible. casted with leslie cheung, the two tony's (leung ka fai and leung chui wai), jackie cheung and female heavyweights such as maggie cheung, carina lau and brigitte lin. everybody is reflecting of what they used to have, yearning for the past to be the future, regretting the past for the time they can not turn back.

life is now. not tomorrow.

protege (2006) (original title moon to). directed by tung shing yee.

this movie is downright depressing, akin to traffic (2000), though not as extensive in scope as the latter. the mood is bleak, junkies in worldly hell of drugs, dealears and drug lords suffering from delusions of grandiose, and the undercover, simply suffering from too much reality. the undercover found no purpose in trying to bring down the cartel, life as meaningless as corpses being eaten by rats as a result of being tired of trying to kick the habit away, never succeeding. who can save us from such misery? only when we look beyond ourselves.

i like the fact that it is grounded. HK movies normally suffer from trying too hard, too much action, too much colour, too many characters, and it's just a havoc lacking control. it seems directors have become wiser, and a steady flow of films recently produced have seen the effect of afterthoughts in terms of plot, editing & scripts.

the wicker man (2006). directed by neil labute.

what ever you do do not waste your time on this pointless. movie. A remake that did not need to be retold. Everyone coming out of the theater had the same comments. Worst movie I ever saw. Save your time and money!!!Nicgolas Cage was biking down hills, swimming in murky water and rolling down hills while being attacked by bees but yet his suit was still perfectly pressed and shirt crisp white until the very last scene.Although a good cast with Ellen Bernstein and Cage the acting was just as unbelievable as the movie itself. It is amazing how good actors can do such bad movies. Don't they get a copy of the script first. If you still have any interest at all in seeing the movie at the very least wait for it to come out on DVD.

as reviewed in imdb.com

my take...

where do i begin? this is gotta be the worst movie ive watched produced in 2006. i am a cage fan, and you know what, it's no good to watch cage being burnt to death by the end of the movie because i knew 30 minutes in advance that he was the intended sacrifice. it's ok to have the hero whacked off, but for a good reason. you know, like in gladiator (2000), crowe died but not after he killed the evil emperor. not for stupidity as displayed in cage's character. the dialogue is funny-stupid-odd, the combo of a very modern man in cage and the 18th century-like feeling of summerisle.

the fountain (2006). directed by darren aronofsky.

There is a strange deadness in the film, together with a callow self-importance and self-pity which become more stultifying with every minute that passes, factors which are actually made worse by the obvious competence of everyone concerned: so much technical élan is being expended on this narcissistic and flimsy stuff. It looks frankly like an unbearably uxorious tribute from Aronofsky to his fiancee, Rachel Weisz. Her face is always being bathed in holy white light and she wears an outrageous "saintly terminal-illness case" outfit of woolly white hat and coat, looking like Ali MacGraw in Love Story. The fantasy scenes are all fantastically over-designed in a very new agey way; Clint Mansell's musical score is coercive and declamatory, and the whole premise is in any case dishonest. Dying young is a painful, horrible business, full of agony and rage and indignity. For Aronofsky to imply that it can be brought off looking all floaty and snowy and ethereal like a pale L'Oréal model, and that there is a spiritual superiority and sacrificial redemption in death from brain cancer - well, that is naive. And slightly creepy.

as reviewed by peter bradshaw, the guardian.

confession of pain (2006) (original title seung sing). directed by wai keung lau and alan mak.

my thoughts after giving it a watch last friday:

i think them reviews got it wrong. the story isn't trying to be infernal affairs because it doesn't aspire to be one. cops and robbers may well be the background, but the story is about guilt, vengence, forgiveness and ultimately, the pain of hanging on to something both Bong (Kaneshiro) and Hei (Leung) had lost. only one man survived the tragedy and that is by forgiving himself and others. i like the camera work, the soundtrack, and the movie works mostly due to heavyweights like Leung, and Kaneshiro definitely pulls his bit. Shu Qi was underused eventhough the character could have been further expanded.

i went in with my sis, and we were the only non chinese viewers in the theatre. both of us immensely enjoyed Tony Leung stuff over the years, and i'm glad to have watched him on the big screen this time. and this won't be the last, i hope.

confession of pain (2006) (original title seung sing). directed by wai keung lau and alan mak.

it is a bad sign that already 2 reviews that i browsed gave this film a solid C?

this review from imdb.com seems to be the kindest amongst them all.

User Comments:

3 out of 5 people found the following comment useful:-Somehow, the wound is painful., 23 December 2006Author: samuelding85 from Singapore

Seung sing, or directly translate as City of Wounds in English, is Andre Lau and Alan Mak's latest tale of men and women living with wounds that scars their heart in modern Hong Kong.The duo, who has created Infernal Affairs trilogy, pairs Tony Leung Chiu Wai (who was the leading actor from Infernal Affairs trilogy) and Takeshi Kaneshiro, as 2 detectives working on a case where Tony's father-in-law was brutally murdered. Takeshi, who was still living in the agony of his late girlfriend's suicidal death 3 years ago, helps his best friend in investigation. The fact is, Tony murdered his father-in-law, and uses his authority and wits to cover up on what he did. Along with the 2 strong actors are Shu Qi and Xu Jinglei, a Chinese actress from China.Somehow, Confessions of Pain does not seems to be as strong as Infernal Affairs. In terms of plot and flow of storyline, it seems similar like any crime thriller. In terms of ending, it is expected.However, Confessions have its strength that makes this movie watchable. Andrew and Alan pairs Tony and Takeshi as two leading actors, where both were reunited again after Wong Kar Wai's cult classic Chungking Express (1994). Tony and Takeshi did not have any crossover in Chungking Express, thus Confessions gives the duo a chance to see if there is any chemistry reaction.The experiment works. One commits the murder for vendetta, while another believes that the law should not be taken on his own hands. The two men who has their own beliefs displays a clash of ideas, which makes them question what do they really want to achieve at the end of the day. Confessions, some how, seems to be living in the shadow of Infernal Affairs. Nevertheless, it still goes strong.Shu Qi and Xu Jinglei plays the woman whom Takeshi loves and the wife of Tony respectively. Shu Qi might be the leading actress, but it was Xu Jinglei who steals the limelight. She has given the recent films from Hong Kong a fresh look, as her filmography features her works from China, with barely little productions from Hong Kong in her resume. Fans of Shu Qi might be disappointed, as her role does not seems to be vital, though necessary in the story.Confessions of Pain might be just better than average, but at least it is better than other B-productions made in the previous years.

little miss sunshine (2006). directed by jonathan dayton and valerie faris.

decidedly, not enough sleep.

and i was too ambitious in setting the plan of what actually to do, resulting in an almost work-free weekend. heck, i did brush up on faults and fractures, but that's as far as studying petroleum engineering went on a sunday. a lazy sunday it was. i spent better half of the day reading toby young wierd account of his stint in new york "how to lose friends and alienate people" (2002). he's a sloth career wise, or may be he's not new york smart at all, but his social commentary of american contemporary life is amusing if not true, to a certain extent (marriage market, the so called equality and meritocracy, it's humbug).

managed to catch little miss sunshine (2006), funny little story indeed with miserable characters as twisted as we everyday ppl are (im sure i am), and confirms my uneasiness with america's odd obsession with children's beauty pagents. it's wierd to have children parade around as adults. but why do they do it anyway?

and i like steve carrell as the suicidal gay proust expert. you'll like it if you like eternal sunshine of the spotless mind (2004).