TFIOS trailer!!!!

Nothing particular in this blog, I am just so happy that the TFIOS trailer is finally out. 

Hero (英雄) and wuxia genre (武侠)

Until present day, I would still play back the movie and rewatch it again and again. It just has this melancholic vibe in it, a mix of beauty and tragedy. Tragedy probably because I know from the start, it is a mission destined to fail, because it is a story based on Jing Ke's (荆轲) assassination attempt on Qing Shi Wang (秦始皇).

Starring Jet Li, Zhang Ziyi, Donnie Yen, Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung, the casting is so great for the movie that even one doesn't understand the movie still can enjoy the hell out of it simply by its awesome action scenes. My favorite is the fight between Jet Li and Donnie Yen at the Go chess club and also the fight between Jet Li and Tony Leung on the lake which is all in thousand nuances of blue. 

What I like the most about the movie isn't the action sequence but the reason why the protagonist Wu Ming doesn't kill Qing Shi Wang even when he has the perfect shot to do it. Wu Ming sees the bigger picture, puts his mission of revenge for his people behind and lets Qing Shi Wang live. Being in the era of Warring States (战国时代), he realized if he kills Qing Shi Wang now, there will soon be another kingdom, another king like Qing Shi Wang stomping the other kingdoms and never-ending war continues. What Wu Ming really wants is peace and the only way to end the war sooner is to let the strongest of the kingdoms win the war and conquer the other kingdoms. Qing Shi Wang is the only one with such power to do so and thus end the war definitely. 

So Wu Ming lets him live. He then walks out the door, turned around to face millions arrows heading towards him. This is probably one the most epic ending to ever put on the big screen, so epic that Leonidas' death in 300 copied this scene. It gives me goosebumps everytime I watch it. It is the feeling of a man, standing straight in front of the inevitable, of the insurmountable : a man against millions, a man against death, a man against history. 

If you think the Chinese wuxia (武侠) movies are so unrealistic, I can't blame you because I used to think so too eventhough I kinda love people flying around. But for one quote that I can't remember from whom, I start to embrace these movies and books that Chinese normally categorized as wuxia and even proud of the fact that I love these unrealistic fighting sequences. The quote is basically saying that growing up in Eastern culture, wuxia novels and comics are in fact the equivalent of superhero comics in Western culture. We don't have Superman or Batman or Spiderman, but we, in the Eastern culture have Zhang Wuji (张无忌), Yang Guo (杨过), Nip Fung (聂风) and Bou Ging Wan (步惊云). We don't have Stan Lee but we have Jin Yong (金庸). And in this movie, Wu Ming is my superhero.

1984

War is peace

Freedom is slavery

Ignorance is strength

This slogan pretty much sets up the tone of the book. One of the classics of 20th century, it is about a dystopia, a re-imagined version of the world in 1984 where the totalitarian regime dominates the world. The story sets up in Airstrip One, which formerly called known as Britain, in Oceania controlled by Ingsoc, as it is one of the three superstates (the other two are Eurasia and Eastasia). It covers the whole continent of America and Australia, and Airstrip One. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU. Commit any unorthodox behavior and you will be vaporized, become an unperson.

I knew about the book because of Shailene Woodley. As she told John Green in one of the vlogbrothers video, it is her favorite book of all time. And from many critics I saw, it has a pretty good score. So I gave it a try and I was shocked from what I got after finishing the book. It struck me as a lightning bolt, a chill running down my spine as it is frightening. I actually had insomnia the night I finished the book, because it provoked so many disturbing thoughts inside me and they kept buzzing me.  Now I am just glad that the human race didn't go down that way. 

What strikes me the most is realizing how easily alterable the history is. Do you ever notice that everytime when we recall a memory or retell it to somebody, we kinda alter it at the same time? What we remember isn't always what really happened. Luckily we have records like history books, photos and videos to track down the history. But how if all these records are fabricated. And if everybody is brainwashed as in the book and you are the only one who remember the past, how can you ever be sure that what you remember is the truth and not what you created in your mind? If the truth is a lie and lie is truth, what is to hold on anymore? It just gives me goosebumps thinking about it.

Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past. 

I don't know why but it all reminds me of the Malaysia history text book. During high school, many people and I did know that there were many inaccuracies in the text book, like Raja Abdullah was the founding father of Kuala Lumpur instead of Yap Ah Loy. But we never gave a damn about it. All I knew was that it was for the exam, memorized the text book and answered the questions as what they set as the correct answer. Now I realized the danger about altering the history and the importance of truth. Anyway, who can prove that Yap Ah Loy was or was not THE founding father? The past has no physical existence anymore. The truth is only so because the records say so. To quote the book,

We control matter because we control the mind. Reality is inside your skull.

An interesting thing about the book is that there is an essay within the book, practically a fictional non-fiction, a book that exists only in 1984 which is called The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism. There is only part of the essay exposed inside the book, describing how the world has became as it is in the book and how the totalitarian regime functions. However in the final chapter of 1984, it kinda completes the essay in a way, explaining the motives of Big Brother and the Party. Anyway the essay has some interesting ideas but be careful, there are some potentially dangerous ones.

It is a book everyone should read because the dehumanizing ways which the Big Brother and the Party use to rule Oceania, will make us realize how fragile our current social structure is, why the peace is so precious, how easily it all can be tilted and turn ugly, and how human rights can easily be violated if we are not careful enough. 1984 is a warning, a warning to all of us. 

   

Her (2013) review

What an insightful story, emotional, heartfelt and yet heartbreaking. It truly touch me, in an unexpected way. It is a strong contender for Oscar best picture this year. It got an artsy tone, a meaningful story, not a groundbreaking idea but certainly an interesting one. The main theme is about A.I., but It is no new subject to be put in a movie. The first movie about A.I. I had watched is A.I. Artificial Intelligence, a 2001 film. It is a good movie but the pacing is rather slow, render the movie a bit boring. However, Her is very well done.

The setting doesn't seem like a distant future but an immediate one and this is frightening. The movie is saying that a relationship between a man and a woman is possible even without any physical attraction. But at the same time, it is hinting a future where the lack of physical contact is prominent, a future where human beings prefer to stay in their virtual world than to have a conversation with other people. A scene in the movie hit me hard, a scene where everybody walking around with earphones on and talking to their own computers, everybody sinks in their own virtual world regardless of the crowded world around them. And a memorable quote from the movie,

Sometimes I think I have felt everything I'm ever gonna feel. And from here on out, I'm not gonna feel anything new. Just lesser version of what I've already felt.  

Beautiful and sad...

The tone of the movie is, like I said, very artsy. It is almost hipster-ish because of the large variety of bright colour used as background and also because of what the characters wear in the movie. I don't know why but the movie seems like it was made by an Apple fanatic because of the similarity of the virtual machines used in the movies. I also felt like I was in Tokyo while watching it. I kinda dislike Apple-hype but in the end it is just a tone. Stay faithful to the tone and the movie would be felt as a whole. 

The soundtrack is also very well chosen. All the songs are perfect fit for the movie. I love all of them especially one, the one also played in the trailer, Supersymmetry by Arcade Fire. Amazingly this song can give you eargasm even when played backwards. 

After watching the movie, I feel a strong desire to tell more people about this amazing piece of work. Such a good movie but what a shame it gains so little recognition from the media mass. So few people know about the film. If I hadn't stumbled upon a video from comicbookgirl19, I wouldn't have known about it. Her is probably one of the two best movies among all the movies I had watched in 2013. The other one is Gravity.    

Too much excitement about TFIOS

TFIOS movie is coming soon. I just could not hold my excitement within me anymore. Apart from following the vlogbrothers youtube channel closely for any update about the movie, I recently also started to go through some previous movies from Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort. I was hoping to find a little bit of Hazel and Augustus through those movies and I am not disappointed. 

The first one I watched was Spectacular Now. From the start, I thought it was going to be a typical cheesy teen romance movie. Shailene has a really nice smile and if it was not because of her smile, I don't think I was going to finish the movie. In the end, it turned out to be alright. The movie actually deals with more serious issue of alcoholism and I was truly touched by the ending. The movie was not mainly about her character but Sutter. I think we audience can't say much about her acting in this movie because I feel like there isn't much space for Shailene to perform. She was just being a typical teenager in high school. But make no mistake, her smile is the nicest smile I have seen since a long time ago. 

After that, I watched Carrie, the 2013 version by Chloe Moretz and not the original version in 1976. Ansel Elgort played Tommy Ross in this movie, one of the few good character who don't make fun of Carrie. Through this movie, I am sure now that Ansel is perfect to play Augustus, relatively good looking, tall and absolutely charming. Ansel just has the look of a good guy. But I am not sure whether it is a good thing for an actor because his good guy look might just limit his acting career and be the "good guy" all the time. 

As for the movie Carrie itself, it reminds me of a girl in my class during high school. She was this weird girl without any friends in my class and many of my classmates made fun of her behind her back. Watching Carrie, I felt bad for Carrie and the girl, and I am ashamed to say that I joined the gossip about her sometimes. If she had any supernatural power like Carrie, I might end up as one of the victims like in the movie. 

Anyway, TFIOS is very well written. Of many book to film adaptations, I think this time the movie would not spoil the book because the setting of the book is not anything of fantasy like the LOTR or Harry Potter, which the visual has no chance of beating the readers' imagination. And the story is rather short, so lesser chance that anything in the book would be cut. Under John Green's own supervision and from his vlogbrothers videos, he was happy about the film. I am so so so excited!!!