Avalon

Movie Galore

Friday, October 27, 2006

Been watching quite a number of movies these days, on the scale of about one per day or every two days. So you can tell life is really quite monotonous for me... But I do agree that watching more movies can give you the inspiration you need, if you watch the right ones.

Might as well make this a movie review. Here are the ones I have watched recently:

Prestige
Two magicians start a never-ending struggle to dig out the secret behind each other's greatest magic trick and a rivalry ensued that turns uglier with every act of vengeance committed on each other. Look past the bitterness, hatred and glorifying moments, and you can see the self-sacrificial spirit of two men who have devoted their lives to an art. Some turns in the story can be rather typical and pretty much expected, but there's the underlying morals hidden under all the magic and mystery.

Death Note
Highlighted enough on it so I will just say it is definitely worth the money.

District 13
This is available on VCD now. Mindless action flick, only that it makes most action movies seem like a walk in the part in comparison. Ong-Bak lovers, here are two protagonists who can really match Tony Jaa's "one versus one thousand" feat.

Exiled
Johnny Toh has a knack to make Man's world seem particularly interesting and fascinating. The show starts with a rather modern-day wuxia kind of setting and atmosphere, with two groups of gang members looking up a their old friend at his apartment to settle a score. The atmosphere is steadily built up, and a gunfight breaks out and ends, as abruptly as it has started, with the cries of a baby piercing through the sounds of gunshots. One of them goes "Shall we take a sit and talk?" and the other guy surveys the shabby surroundings and replies "Sit where?" before the scene changes and everyone starts to furnish the apartment and busy themselves making the place hospitable before settling down for a meal. The director's delicate use of black humour and atmosphere transition can be clearly seen.

The way the main leads "play" their way through and "life is like a dream" just comes into the mind. They live by their principles and are constantly putting their loyalties and righteousness to the test. Like the fact that there's not alot of dialogue so theres plenty of space for the actors to do abit of "free-style acting", something that is worth watching. Mesmerising.

Thank you for Smoking
Satirical and quick-witted. Good food for thought.

The Departed
I admit I am biased, so I prefer the original version, since there were Andy Lau and Tony Leung. But the hollywood adaptation doesn't fail to impress either, with Leonardo Di caprio stealing the limelight away.

The King and the Clown
Ok I know I am pretty slow on the uptake but this show proves to offer something other than the focus on homosexual intimacy. It's depiction of the life of a minstrel is also touching at times.

Envoy of the Stars @ 11:20 PM
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