Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Reconstruction

An interesting love story that revolves around four characters: Aimee, her husband August, Alex and his girlfriend Simone! Alex and Aimee got to know each other when they met at the train station.

The director broke the story into fragments and pieced them up together in an unusual way! Several versions of the same scene were shot and it presents many possibilities of what actually happened to the viewer. The actress who played Aimee looked stunning! The cinematography is very well done and the city of Copenhagan looked very beautiful in this film!

Internet Movie Database Link

Saturday, November 26, 2005

Sophie Scholl

The setting is during the Second World War when Germany was facing great losses in battle and a resistance group against the Nazi regime called the "White Rose" was established. The story is about how three of the "White Rose" members, Sophie Scholl, her brother Hans Scholl and a friend Christoph Probst were caught and integorrated by the Gestapo.

Great acting by the actress who played Sophie! She displayed wits and courage during the interrogation and never losing her cool! Liked the brilliant arguments presented between her and the investigator when he tried to "correct" her thinking! One thing that I learnt is that although the integorrator or the judge tend to shout very loudly, the truth always speaks louder than that.

Internet Movie Database Link
More info on the White Rose

Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul

An interesting documentary about the music that is played in Istanbul, the capital of Turkey. Many different styles of music are featured, including rock, hip-hop, and pop, but all of them have a Turkish feel to it.

Very nice music! Liked how the camera focused on the musician's expression when they play the music or when they sing the song! The interviews with the musician's were interesting and insightful too! I also liked the advertisements in the film that were quite funny!

Internet Movie Database Link

A Scene at the Sea

The story is about how a cleaner, Shigeru, picked up surf boarding as a competitive sport and how his girlfriend, Takako, supported his passion for the sport. Both Shigeru and Takako are deaf and dumb, but they are able to communicate with each other and fit in with the crowd.

A nice quiet film by director Kitano Takeshi with a great soundtrack! The small little things that the couple do together and their facial expressions help us feel for the characters although they don't talk at all. I also liked the well executed ending!

Internet Movie Database Link

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Singapore Shorts Showcase

Saw this after the Singapore Students Shorts Showcase and it comprised of the following:

Crocodile Journals
Last Drop
Flutter
Elephant: Ok
The Habit

I think the difference between the professionals and the students is that the message is brought out more clearly through a strong storyline and the sound track is better too!

Felt quite sad for the crocodile in "Crocodile Journals" who tried so hard to fit in with the rest. "Last Drop" reminds me of a German animation that I saw a few years back about a person finding himself in worlds made of different materials. "Flutter" had nice Indian music as background. Liked the storyline in "Elephant: Ok" and the message that it brought across. Didn't really like "The Habit" as I thought it was a bit gross.

Singpapore Students Shorts Showcase

Saw this during the Animation Nation 2005 at the Singapore History Museum and it comprised of the following films:

The Art of War
The Battle of Bukit Chandu
Evolution
Konnimo: Our Phantom Skies
Kung Food
The Other Side
Red/Blue
Restricted Roads
Team Innovation
Vincent

Liked "The Art of War", "The Battle of Bukit Chandu", "Kung Food" and "The Other Side" the best!

"The Art of War": The way the pac-man like soldiers slowly fall backwards when hit was quite cute!

"The Battle of Bukit Chandu": Most professionally done with a good story line and well choreographed action!

"Kung Food": Liked the matrix-like kung fu action and how the apple perspires out of fear!

"The Other Side": Interesting idea that the "person" on the other side of the mirror actually has to try very hard to imitate every action that one does! Pretty funny too!

Saturday, November 19, 2005

Ah Sou

The story is about what happens when a triad chief, Gent, gets killed and his adopted child, Phoebe, takes over as the head.

Liked the use of animation to show the flashbacks of the adopted child! The story is not too interesting. I thought I could learn how Phoebe managed the team that comprised of her foster father's pals: Buddy, Whacko and Chance, but the film didn't show any of that! :( One plus point for the film is that Karena Lam acted quite well as Nova, a female triad chief who was an enemy of Gent.

Internet Movie Database Link

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Valiant

Valiant is an animation film about how pigeons served the army during the Second World War by helping to deliver messages.

The story is quite good and the action in the air is well choreographed! I have seldom heard English accent in an animation but this is one of the few.

Internet Movie Database Link

Thursday, November 03, 2005

The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D

Caught the last half hour of this film as I was channel surfing. The story is about the adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl who are creatures in a boy's dream that suddenly turned true.

The adventures are quite interesting as we see how shark boy and lava girl co-operate to defeat the bad guys despite being very different. Sharkboy is a hybrid of a boy and a shark and he can only live in water. Lavagirl produces so much heat that she destroys everything that she touches but she cannot stay long in water.

Lavagirl has the most radiant smile I have ever seen and the ice princess looks quite cute too! I also like the jokes told by the weird guy in giant goggles who is supposedly the boy's physics teacher in real life.

Internet Movie Database Link

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Watched this Tim Burton film next as I missed the public screening in Singapore. The story is adapted from a novel by Roald Dahl and it is about Charlie visiting a gigantic Chocolate Factory together with four other lucky children who won tickets to do so.

Liked the adventures in the factory itself, the flashbacks to the factory owner's childhood days and how Charlie's house slant to one side! Didn't like the small little creatures who look horrific and the musical numbers that they performed though.

Internet Movie Database Link

Marathon

Saw this Korean film on an SQ flight back to Singapore. The story is about how much an autistic guy, Cho Won, likes running and how he trained to complete the Marathon. It also shows his relationship with his family, his coach and the general public.

Great performance by the actor who played Cho Won! He plays the autistic guy very convincingly! Was expecting to learn how a proper training program would be like but there is not much of it. The coach just said that pacing was important and to start slow and run fast when it rains. Not very helpful advice I would think.

Liked the depiction of how different the mother and the coach treated Cho Won! The former over-protects him to such extent that he is like an invalid while the latter treats him just like a buddy. Guess it is hard to strike a balance as an autistic does have special needs but still needs to learn to be independent like any other ordinary person.

Internet Movie Database Link
Korean Film Review