glass (2019). directed by m. night shyamalan.

i think the movie could have been better. i love unbreakable (2000) which ranks among my favorite movies of all times. it's like a central story is missing, which makes the central characters less engaging. despite a repeat fine performance from james mcavoy, the message is not coming through. the fact that it needed to be spelled out to the audience at the end of the movie shows that the film could benefit from another round of thought process. with the current product, it feels like it rushed for production to sell tickets. 

i still think shyamalan could deliver a much more superior story than this.  

the visit (2015). directed by m. night shyamalan.

two siblings went to visit their grandparents for the first time as they are estranged from their mother who had run away from home when she was younger. the kids are excited and decided they will film the whole event as a way to reconcile their mother with her parents. at the first the old folks seems pretty regular - but it didn't take long for them to be not so regular for shyamalan to employ his suspense here and there. what i like about this film is that it doesn't take itself seriously - there are some funny moments when it is scary at the same time. word of advice - don't let your kids travel alone to visit someone you hardly know. 

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

one of my favorite movies of all time. my favorite movie, number one.

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. 

lady in the water (2006). directed by m. night shyamalan.

i regretted not seeing shyamalan's movie lady in the water on the big screen. i've always enjoyed his other movies, and so far has not been disappointed in any one of them. the movie isnt linear in the strictest sense, and it's really rewarding for potential viewers to pay attention cuz this isnt a movie you can watch while eating (or doing laundry etc). what i like about shyamalan is his ability to present something, put it in such a way that is intelligent and more often that not, gives us a glimpse of originality when so many other movies are a concoction of the things that i have already seen (beware, i think it's a good sign you keep surprising yourself). and there are lots of nice shots, which is one of the things that i look out for, be it in the village, signs and unbreakable (to name a few).

he took his time to tell the story. and sometimes the camera is static, which i find particularly irritating in yasmin ahmad's movie.

it's christmas tomorrow. merry christmas.