the day of good omens.

be forewarned that this post will contain a high level of fluff. wish it were snuff instead but what can ya do? many great things have come to pass recently and 2006 is shaping up to be a potentially good year not just for me but for a number of friends who've been with me through thick and thin. misery may love company but happiness sure as hell is nice to share too. thursday was the day xiang, deena and i came together to celebrate our friendship at the balcony but the evening soon turned out to be a cause for greater jubilation. barring the administrative drama, i managed to get into the honours programme in english literature. deena got a fantastic job offer with hp. and possibly the most exciting news yet... jo got nominated for her performance in flush for best actress in the life theatre awards! u have no idea how proud i am of you gal. i never doubted your talent... this means that more people will come to know of the great things that you can do. i was deliriously happy to get that phone call from you! on the same day... rainbows were spotted and on our way to the theatre, we got to see fire works booming and blooming in the night sky.

call me superstitous but i believe in good omens as much as bad ones. yeap, go ahead and laugh all you want. i believe that sometimes these things are little hints of a greater plan at work, be it good or bad. as much as i knew for certain that there will always be more shit to hit the fan in time to come, as jaded and bitter as i remained still.. there was nothing that could have stolen the beauty that permeated throughout the evening. in my experience, days are rarely perfect so i settle for perfect moments instead. heartily. everything that was good and true seemed to have been encapsulated by that one nanosecond in time when colours and light splayed like supernovas in a black space. we were running low on hope not too long ago. but things have a way of turning out and we feel like we've been filled once again. ready to take on the world.

film fests galore!

i may be missing out on celluloid fringe this year. but i will still be around to devour the nordic film festival held at gv plaza sing. xiang and i got our tickets for hawaii oslo and cold light. and i'll returning to the fest the next day for someone like hodder. i am mildly disappointed that manderlay isn't on the list of films this year when i caught dogville at the fest two years ago. so anyone who's interested do check it out... and check out celluloid fringe as well if you have the passion and the opportunity.

i may be missing out on belgium's dardenne brothers focus at the celluloid fringe but i will return to perth in time for the french film festival there which has quite an impressive list of contemporary french fare. one of them being l'enfant by the dardenne brothers which i've been dying to catch... winner of the palme d'or at last year's canne's film festival. also being screened is le temps qui reste, the latest from francois ozon. so i've got my eyeballs plastered on these two. friends who are returning to perth this year, might wanna check it out.


jeremie renier and deborah francois in l'enfant.

the utter bloody rudeness of everyday life...
or idp sucks donkey balls

i'm fairly sure that lynne truss wouldn't mind that i poached part of the title of her book considering that i earn zilch from this blog and the fact that i have an even more meagre readership. besides, i'm sure she has better things to do than google all day to hunt down poachers like me. while she takes on the world's foulest with zest and humour, i prefer to go on a rampage. just because.

rudeness is everywhere. lurking in nook and cranny- preparing to lunge and snap at unsuspecting victims. today it coiled and waited in a bright, barren office in a posh building in a posh area. there i was in the idp waiting area near the front desk having survived a long and perilous journey. yes perilous. one word: traffic. of the human persuasion. besides too much sun isn't good for your skin (i take unverified cancer rumours seriously). i was attended by a young man at first and i explained my enquiry as clearly as i could. he seemed a tad confused at first but once the fog cleared, he explained to me that idp doesn't carry out the service i was after. he then told me a couple of things which i could try and approach on my own. he was abrupt but i understood for he was one man manning a desk that juggled between incessant phonecalls and people with their own baggage of enquiries. now i have reliable information about the fact that idp does actually carry out the service i was seeking. so after i finished signing my forms, i thought to ask him more questions. perhaps clear the matter further so that he could see the whole picture and refer me to the appropriate counsellor instead of just giving me a token favour by agreeing to help fax my documents.

enter the queen bitch of rudeness. as i stood there waiting for my turn to communicate with front desk, a young woman in a smart suit, face caked with make-up and tinted hair, faded dull, attended to me. pretty but it belies an ugly demeanour. i explained to her again but before i got to finish, she mumbled to her colleague her incredulity at my request. in fact, she was so flabbergasted that she refused to communicate with me aside from the abrupt retort that "idp doesn't help students make payment" (which is bullshit) nor did she want to listen to my explanation that a friend had recently (and successfully) attained an idp counsellor's assistance in finishing her application for her fourth year in uwa psych. when i told her how my friend was assisted with the payment and that the idp counsellor went as far as dealing with her bank draft, she retorted again "then i don't know, someone must have taken your friend's bank draft". sure. a wandering, thieving vagabond masqueraded as an idp counsellor to steal bankdrafts and perpetuate his life in crime. cut out the fucking piece of patronisation and eat it yourself. i sure as hell don't want it.

all she did was to continue doing whatever she was doing, eyes cast downwards (effectively ignoring when i was still talking to her) with a humourless, incredulous smirk- as if hoping that the crazy bag lady with her paper forms spilling over her hands would go away and leave them alone. she didn't even bother to talk to me or ask me questions to perhaps get to the crux of the matter. there's only so much explaining i can do if the other party plays the dull, brick wall. she barely managed to give me the token favour of faxing my documents. but she did. probably just an attempt to get me out of there. no information, no advice, no nothing to help me out with my current situation. i walked away even more confused and severely pissed.

rude and unhelpful... and idp is supposedly a service-oriented institution. i foresee that gems or whatever it's called... that whole "great service starts with me" thing that the government and the media are shamelessly plugging will crash and burn. just like the courtesy campaign. or the smile campaign or whatever bloody campaign that's plagued the nation's consciousness. it's just going to be another excuse for other nations to laugh and scoff at the need to push the awareness for common courtesy to such an extent when it is meant to be an intergral part of our etiquette and upbringing in the first place.

i find myself standing at a crossroad. do i let go of this one more bad account, let it run down and off my duck back and continue with niceties which can be potentially rewarding but slightly pretentious? or should i just throw in the (meagre) towel, that is gandhi's loincloth, accept the futility of being nice in today's society and let the bitter bitch in me run free? these days there are shouting banshees from hell (read: razoo's blogpost), yelling starbucks baristas (i feel you, deena!), shoving masses of rabid zombies (read: the average mass of pedestrians) and grouchy, secretarial goblins. i'm being poisoned slowly but surely by all the negativity that people do unto others. and nothing feels better right now than to lash back with all the vengeance and venom of a long bottled fury. i'm going to snap someday. and when i do, that's more poison permeating into the air. for those who're nice and lovely, continue to be so. remember to share and spread the love because soon, i'm afraid there's going to be none.

the best of 2005 (so says all of me)

thinking about the love for film, it's virtually impossible to express thought and emotion in just words most of the time. what is film to me? where could i possibly begin. sight and sound seducing the senses- carry with them an emotion, a thought, an idea, a story. or perhaps even many. it entertains, compels, inspires, exhilirates, challenges, frightens, saddens and maybe even disappoints. i dare to hope that film continues to ask difficult questions... questions that we would otherwise willfully ignore or avoid to perpetuate our own comfort and complacency. referring to ang lee's ambitious albeit sentimental thought on contemporary cinema, i too would like film to be a means of bringing about change in the ways we think. so thank you 2005. thank you very much for these:

(in no particular order)

bad education- pedro almodovar
howl's moving castle- hayao miyazaki
a very long engagement- jean-pierre jeunet
kontroll- nimrod antal
millions- danny boyle
sin city- robert rodriguez and frank miller
my summer of love- pawel pawlikowski
turtles can fly- bahman ghobadi
mysterious skin- gregg araki
a history of violence- david cronenberg
the descent- neil marshall
the chronicles of narnia: the lion, the witch and the wardrobe- andrew adamson

i've never felt this way... and i've never said this to anyone before but....

i love you guillermo del toro. dear God! i love you! and i want to have your children!

the trailer for pan's labyrinth finally hits cyberspace. hell yea!

a return ticket to loserville. sweet!

summer break is great. until you fall into the inevitable mindnumbing monotony of too much free time. gotta learn to mix it up a bit so later i'm gonna drag myself out of the house in the wee hours of the a.m. and travel across singapore to the far reaches of jurong to catch harry potter and the goblet of fire @ the omni. i've prepared my little tote bag of bottled water, panadol, barf bag and lotsa tissues. whoopee.

no big agenda on this new year's day so i spent the rainy afternoon indoors with napolean dynamite. and what an afternoon indeed. heard heaps about it early last year when this humble quirky movie started to accumalate a considerable following, propelling it to a kind of cult stardom. jon heder is napolean dynamite, king geek amongst resident oddballs of a small town in idaho, and alienated teenager who deals with the trials and tribulations of life and high school with his little, outlandish ways. seriously, it's trippy. with a tight red afro, beady blank stares, outrageous lies, bizarre convictions, distorted drawings, napolean is both weird and appealing. you may cringe at his antics but you might just find yourself compelled to watch what he'll do or say next. the setting and tone of the movie are effective too... a town in the american heartlands that looks like it's stuck in a liminal space between rural wasteland and suburbia hell. taking it all in, one feels rather trapped in a time-less warp.

i've never seen a movie with so many losers. it got a little painful at a point not because the characters were bordering on spazz but because you start to wonder about the dweebs you've met before and that little dweeb in you. the interesting thing about napolean as a character is that he is at once outlandish and yet familiar. i swear he's a celluloid reincarnation of someone i knew once... someone beyond my understanding (from college no less!). it's an excellent satirical take on life at the epitome of its mediocrity and it strangeness. anyway, the weird can be wonderful sometimes and in my opinion, it's worth a watch. if not for anything else, then for its deadpan, whitebread jokes.

our ghibli dosage for 2006.

gedo senki (gedo war history)



am a huge beyond huge fan of features from studio ghibli and miyazaki though admittedly i had to be eased into true appreciation through the light-hearted antics of the cat returns which also revealed a surprisingly mature understanding of emotions. after about 2 or 3 more viewings and a deeper relation with the characters, spirited away is superb and deserves the oscar win. although howl's moving castle had major loopholes, i enjoyed it and understood how miyazaki wins over audiences by capitalising on feel-good elements in a story. gedo war history is being directed by miyazaki junior and it is based on ursula leguin's 'a wizard of earthsea' which some of you may know had been adapted into a hallmark mini-series earlier this year 'earthsea' (with shawn ashmore and kristin kreuk) that is hated by leguin and devout leguin fans. hope this one turns out decently. slated to be released in japan in july. *whine* will post a link to the trailer once it's released throughout cyberville.

i've been nice this year... so santa dropped by earlier...



a graphic novel adaptation of original story material by darren aronofsky. wicked!

although it's set to hit the us theatres, kairo (pulse) isn't that new after all! a more recent horror film by kiyoshi kurosawa hovers close in the horizon. shi no otome (loft) tells the story of an award winning author who puts up in a mansion with her editor to finish a piece which incidentaly houses a professor and his latest find, a mummified body. strange and frightening accounts ensue. i watched the trailer and it's blardy freaky, folks! the soundtrack is just unnatural. click here... make sure it's day.

gimme gimme gimme NOW!!!

i love it when studios start to plug their upcoming movies with teasers. early buzz tantalises without the stifling jubilation of major companies bringing out the big guns (read: a hundred redone trailers and tv spots, paper ads, product promotions, press releases, etc) as they roll out the red carpet in preparation for the arrival of their films' debut. by far, this is my other favourite part of a film's journey from script to screen aside from the intense anticipation during the pre-production, filming and post-production stages. and thus, i intend to enjoy this moment as much as i can as long as i am able to before the buzz picks up pace and further spawns a million other bandwagons worldwide.

these films are seriously putting me in maximum overdrive...
be smart, get quicktime 7.

the fountain



4 years... i have been waiting for this for 4 years. i have sweated, cried, bled, risen and fallen through its trials and tribulations. from its conception to its near death when brad "shafter" pitt abadoned the project only 3 weeks before filming was due to work on...ugh...troy. completely daft if you ask me. hugh jackman is my hero. with his involvement, the hacks (read: studio officials) felt it was safe to let the project resume. this is a stunning piece of work and considering aronofsky's narrative and visual talents (and the fact that i'm a huge fan of his earlier works), i can only hope that this film will turn out as great as it looks thus far from where i stand. one love story about a man's journey to seek out the fountain of youth in order to save one woman, his love, from death. a story that occurs simultaneously over a thousand years. the past (1500), the present (2006) and the future (2500). am also intending to sniff out the graphic novel adaptation of the script... so much for controlled expenditure. get the fantastic trailer here!

pirates of the caribbean 2- dead man's chest



captain jack is back. need i say more? get ye ol' trailer, here.

x3- final stand



ok, i have to admit that when it comes to the x-men, i'm a puritant... and one of the worst at that. love bryan singer but not quite his first effort on the film adaptation of my favourite comic book series as a kid. x2 appeased the puritanical monster in me a bit because i felt that the spirit of x was kept alive in that one. when he abandoned x3 to work on...ugh... superman returns (you have to understand that i'm not much of a dc fan unless it involves batman, i'm more of a marvel upstart) just as he was about to get his x-groove, i was devastated. and when i heard brett ratner took his place, i was ready to give up all hope. but... to be fair... after watching the trailer for x3, i am rather intrigued. and so arrives the glimmer of hope. i am pleased to see the fantastic olivia williams join the cast as dr. moira mactaggart, one of xavier's oldest friends and former flame. i am a little baffled by kelsey grammer portraying beast... i'm not sure he has the gait but i must say, he does have the voice. and voice is terribly important. well, only one way to form an opinion... view the trailer.

the white countess



i am particularly interested in this because it is the last film worked on by the superb movie prowess of the merchant-ivory duo with the death of ismail merchant earlier this year. with a screenplay worked on by kazuo ishiguro (the same man behind the remains of the day, another merchant-ivory masterpiece), the story is set in 1930's shanghai where a blind american diplomant starts an affair with a russian refugee. get the trailer, here.

kairo (pulse)



to appease my appetite for fear and tension, horror has become a staple for me since childhood. i am fixated with asian horror. although the ridiculous multiplicity annoys me sometimes, there are a number of gems out there. this one sounds intriguing and the trailer is pretty creepy. anything that is effectively atmospheric will win me over. written by apparently the grandfather of japanese horror, kiyoshi kurosawa, the plot revolves around a group of teens who stumble upon a website that claims to be able to allow them to communicate with the spirits of the dead. watch creepy trailer...

dear wendy and manderlay

yes i know i've pretty much bugged my nearest and dearest to death about these two films for a long time but it's been over a year and there's still no sign of them crossing my path! i've put them in the same paragraph for they are both directed by two of my fave directors, thomas vinterberg (dear wendy) and lars von trier (manderlay) who incidentally are the geniuses behind dogme 95. both are equally interested in the study of human behaviour in social situations at large. watch dear wendy and be taken in by manderlay.

the da vinci code



i have to admit that i didn't survive reading the novel which i bought at the peak of its popularity just to see what the fuss is about. the story didn't quite attain and maintain my interest. i put the book down to pick up the catcher in the rye instead which soon reached my list of favourite books. i know i know... there's something wrong with me. i walk against the tide of the rest of the world's population who are dan brown fans. a friend tried to ignite my interest by telling me that even if i end up not liking the novel very much, it should be one of those books that i have to read before i die... i'm still debating if i should actually resume the book before this summer break ends. well, what do you guys think? should i? i wanna watch this because i like ron howard and i like the superb cast of audrey tatou, jean reno and sir ian mckellen... i must say i didn't quite picture tom hanks to portray langdon. hmmm. catch the trailer here! this is the new trailer... not the old teaser. just thought you should know. =)

poseidon

saw the older, original film, the poseidon adventure, on the dvd shelf at hmv going for 15 bucks! picked it up but it didn't make it through the check-out counter though. shame. anyway, i like das boot so i'm cool with wolfgang petersen. and richard dreyfuss, kurt russell, emmy rossum, josh lucas and mia maestro make quite a motley crue of a cast. interesting. about a luxury ocean liner attacked by a rogue wave after which a handful of survivors need to work together to live. get trailer here and hold your breath.

alrighty... these are just some of the newest and not that new teasers and trailers out recently to whet our celluloid appetite. enjoy!