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a penguin of very little brain
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| those hordes from the north |
[Jun. 18th, 2009|10:10 pm] |
Do you remember reading Tomorrow, When the War Began, the crux of which is Australia is invaded by some populous nation to the North, on Australia Day, desperate to take all our land, and you thought to yourself, I wonder if he's implying that it's Indonesia or China, coming to threaten our Australian whatever whatever?
Well, watch this space, because now that they're making a movie version of it, I'm pretty sure we're about to find out! |
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| [movie] mary and max |
[May. 7th, 2009|09:27 pm] |
This evening we ventured out into the world to see Mary and Max, a claymation movie about penfriends Mary, a lonely young Australian, and Max, a 40 year old who lives in New York.
I would not have seen this movie if it had not been for the trailer, so I include that now.
The first half of the movie was funny and engaging. The attention to detail was fantastic - the loving, dorky recreation of 1970s Australian suburbia with its Hills hoist and its novelty mailboxes was cool, and though the characters were lonely there was a sweetness there. The second half of the film was equally engaging but a bit sadder, and by the end I was crying quite a lot.
I am still glad I saw this, though, and I recommend it. The visuals were also pretty awesome.
Max is severely obese, and suffers from Asperger's. There were some titters in the audience (tiny though it was, being in cinema four at Luna Leederville) as the film referenced Max's Asperger's and other mental health issues, and I think the film does play on that at first but gradually we (and Mary) come to see that he does not consider it a disability, rather he considers it part of who he is and he is happy that way. I would be interested to know how accurate the portrayal of his Asperger's is, it felt very honest but I cannot be that sure. The obesity is handled less well, overall, though Mary's suggestion that he control his weight by eating things that start with the same letter as the day (eg marshmallows on Mondays) was adorable.
The movie states it was based on a true story; the only info I have found on it is here. |
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| [movie] up the yangtze |
[Oct. 9th, 2008|10:29 pm] |
Saw Up the Yangtze yesterday at Luna Leederville, a documentary about the lives that have been changed by the Three Gorge's Dam. The director follows two people who have taken jobs on a 'farewell' cruise liner, which travels up and down the river, taking in the sights before they are flooded. The documentary is a partly economic and political, but mostly social, look at the impact of the Dam Project. One of the people, Cindy, is from a peasant family whose home on the banks of the river will be flooded, and her story in particular had a very strong impact for me.
The director filmed (as I understand it) slightly in secret - he was employed by the cruise operators to film a promotional video for the farewell cruises. There was little chance of him being able to film otherwise. The impact of the dam has been so heavy, a fact I already knew. I love the Project as I dislike the Project - the amount of renewable energy it can produce is massive, but the environmental, social and economic cost of establishing it has also been massive. But even with my knowledge of the situation, these images, the jarring juxtaposition of Cindy's family in their hut with no electricity, and the garishness of the tourists looking for a China that no longer exists, was incredibly effective.
You can read an interview with the director here. I don't know how long it will be running, but it's a great documentary, only 99 minutes long, and I think it is excellent viewing. I am really glad I went to see it, and Davyd (who unlike me, does not have this constant need to learn more about China, and an obsession with the Three Gorges Dam Project), also recommends it, so I suggest it is thoughtful viewing for all. |
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| indiana jones and the temple of doom |
[Jun. 12th, 2008|07:44 pm] |
How did he get his shirt back? Davyd asked. That's a very good question, I replied. Other good questions: why is this movie so racist? Why is that woman so annoying? How did they manage to get so many bad actors in just one film? Why can't George Lucas write women?
This movie is so awful. |
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| you'll never learn a thing if you bail out now |
[Jan. 20th, 2008|07:05 pm] |
 On and off I spent the weekend making this heart mobile. It is perhaps the dorkiest present I have ever made, but it was simple and it is bright and I really like it. I hope the recipient does, too. It has been constructed from scraps of bright-coloured felt and a handful of beads.
If I make something like this again (and as it is bright and cheerful, I suspect that I will), I will alter two elements. The first is that I will decide which piece is the top piece before I start, so that I can sew a loop into it as I go. A ribbon would be best, but it's too hard to affix after the fact. The second is that, if there are to be any patterns, they should appear on both front and reverse, not just front, to account for the twisting it does in the breeze.
In other news, we went to see The Golden Compass this afternoon. The screenplay was quite terrible and clunky. All of those awesome actors, and the best role Christopher Lee could be given was thirty seconds of clear, outright exposition. Christopher Lee! The landscaping, however, as expected, was beautiful. Oxford looked fantastic, and the flying blimps were awesome. I continue my love of Eva Green, and my obsession with steampunk. |
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| documentary: the blood of yinzhou district |
[Jan. 20th, 2008|05:02 pm] |
This morning I watched the documentary The Blood of Yinzhou District (潁州的孩子). It's a 39 minute short film (in Mandarin with English subtitles) about young orphans in some remote villages in Anhui Province whose lives have been affected by Aids. It won an Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject, and was the subject of a fair amount of debate in China.
It follows three sets of children through the events of a year, highlights their situations and the difficulty they have functioning in their lives. It does not attempt to soften their situations at all, and some of their situations are quite horrible.
I found it a good primer to the general situation, the fear of the disease and the social and familial obligations that make operating within the bounds of Aids quite difficult. It briefly touches on the problem with supplying medications to control the symptoms, and spends some time on the reasons for its widespread impact. Particularly interesting to me was the way the stigma is so high, one girl made sure her future family, including the man she was marrying, had no idea that her sister had Aids.
The audio is quite awful at points, and stylistically it feels quite awkward. The emphasis is on close ups of people, and drawn out scenes that seem to contribute little.
For much of the film, the presence of the founder of Fu'ai (阜爱) is at times incredibly intrusive, in a way that makes me want to doubt the legitimacy of her words, though I am confident she is genuine. However towards the end, when she becomes an intermediary accompanying the children, rather than the pushing force, her presence in the film seems more intrusive, and it is at this point that she aids the storytelling more effectively.
The director and the director of cinematography allegedly had a difference of opinion in how the film was to be pieced together - Yu filmed enough for a five hour piece, but the result is a 39 minute short film. Although this constraint may have been external, I think that the brevity of the film detracts from the film's message. I think that we could have benefited from more detail within the piece. As it is it is enough to give a general idea of the problem in China, which perhaps was Yang's intention.
I definitely recommend having a watch of it - it's short and is an excellent base primer to the situation.
I was unable to find this documentary through other means, so I watched it on youtube. You can find it in four parts: one; two; three; four.
Links: official webpage; Opening Up to Reality, in the BJ Review; Exploitation and The Blood of Yingzhou District |
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| movie: the home song stories |
[Oct. 7th, 2007|09:12 pm] |
I spent some time today at the movies, with my mother. We saw The Home Song Stories, a story that is sort of about being Chinese in Australia (in the 70s), and sort of about the Chinese diaspora, and also about being unhappy and stuck and trying so hard to live.
I was intrigued going in, at the idea of an Australian movie, set in Australia, but in English, Mandarin and Cantonese. Unlike many other multi-language movies I have seen recently, the English was used as the modifier, rather than the Mandarin or the Cantonese, which was interesting. Watching it was also an interesting experience for us. As the movie opened in Hong Kong, there was singing, and my mother laughed. "That was the song, when I was growing up," she whispered, and what she meant that it was very, very popular, but now she cannot even recall its title. It starts 忘不了， which sounds like it could be a song title, so. Later, my mother said, "her Cantonese was not very good;" I laughed, and said, "it's okay, her mother was clearly not a peasant, so they're even." (they were supposed to live rural, but her mother spoke with a strong Beijing accent)
I loved Tom, the main character, an adorable eleven year old boy, ethnically Chinese but having spent the majority of his childhood in Australia. I love this story of how they found the actor: they placed an ad in The Age, and at the end of the day that the ad ran, he called, and in a little voice said that he'd heard they were looking for an eleven year old Chinese boy, and he was an eleven year old Chinese boy. That's an adorable story, and I love the character and the way he played him, quiet and observant and so unconfident but still kind of sure.
It's a difficult film, very harsh and bleak and as such, the ending feels a bit out of place but overall it's a very strong, compelling movie. My mother kept reaching for her tissues, though I will be scolded soundly for saying that, and I was really struck by the style of storytelling.
Also, I loved how "Australia in the 70s" it all was, so clearly identifiable. At one point Tom was sleeping on sheets identical to ones I slept on for years, which caused me a lot of glee.
I'm not very good at reviews, I know, but I'm really glad that I saw this film.
For a better review, you can see David and Margaret's one here. Margaret gave it four stars and David gave it three and a half, and you would never doubt them, surely. |
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| 看电影 |
[Jun. 24th, 2006|04:42 pm] |
On Thursday I watched 我的父亲母亲 without subtitles in my Chinese class, and it was so beautiful and really sad and difficult to understand, not because I had no English aid, but because of the situation it was trying to convey. I'm not even sure I can describe it, but I am going to try. The movie is nominally about a young man who returns to the village of his youth because his father is very sick, only to be told by the village elders that his father has died. His mother is distraught, and insists that his father be carried home from the hospital on the shoulders of people, rather than in a truck. This isn't possible, because all the young people have left the village for work in the cities. The story diverges here, and becomes partly about the young man's attempts to have his father carried home, but mostly it becomes a flashback to the love story of his father and his mother. Zhao Di (the young man's mother) was very devoted to the man who would later become her husband. When Luo had to travel away from the village (he was called back for Cultural Revolution reasons), she would stand out on the hill, overlooking the road to the village, every day. She became very sick, and everyone became very concerned for her, especially as there was no official attachment between the two. Because this story takes place in a Northern village, and it's just on the cusp of the CR, they village elders are clearly worried about her because this was still a time of matchmakers rather than "love matches," so her behaviour was not only inappropriate but also unusual and worrying.
It's a movie sort of about the Cultural Revolution, but also about life in China at that period of time, and it's completely different to anything that I have ever experienced, which is why I struggled to understand her motivation and her actions.
Anyway, I've totally not explained the movie in any sort of clear way, but whatever. It was very sad and very beautiful and quite interesting, and I am going to try and see if I can purchase a copy for myself (and then force many people to watch it). Another movie that I want to see because I have been told that it is very beautiful is 2046. I saw it for sale in Borders last week, but it is unfortunately expensive and I am unfortunately broke, so I did not purchase it. But I shall! Perhaps after my birthday. 2046 stars Wang Fei, whom I have never seen act but whose singing I adore, and also stars Zhang Ziyi.
Oh! I wanted to mention that 我的父亲母亲 is known as "The Road Home" in English, which is a reference to the road along which Zhao Di wants her husband to be carried from the hospital to the village, and is significant because he first came to the village as the new teacher, the hope of the village teaching the children, and he did so much for the village and that's why it's important, hokay. However, "我的父亲母亲" doesn't translate to "the road home." A literal translation of that is "my father my mother," which also makes sense and sounds lovely in Mandarin, but is a bit too prosaic in English. |
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