Thoughts And Predictions About Hong Kong Film Awards Nominees

Well, being the top-rating site in Technorati that is related to 'Asian Cinema', I guess it is necessary for me to voice out my thoughts and predictions about the upcoming Hong Kong Film Awards 2005, which will be announced on the 8th of April (more than a month after the Oscars).

Watching 'Just Like Heaven' alone, the day after Valentine's Day

I watched my DVD of 'Just Like Heaven' a day after Valentine's Day, early in the morning, when I had just struggled out of bed, and was desperate to warm my frozen heart with a cheerful romantic comedy (I spent Valentine's Day alone, doing nothing but write a poem for someone who was rather far away), and any long-time readers of this site should know by now, I am a sucker for romantic comedies, and knew pretty well that this is a film that will most likely cheer myself up.

Yet there is one thing I have to say about supernatural romances, with the exception of Ghost (... okay, maybe there's Corpse Bride too), I don't recall any other major human/ghost romances from Hollywood that actually leave a deep impression, much unlike Hong Kong, when during the 80s and early 90s where films from this particular genre were everywhere, and pretty much regarded as classics of their own (Chinese Ghost Story, Happy Ghost, My Wife Is A Ghost, and countless other Hong Kong films which English titles I don't know come into mind. Hell, I even recommended 'My Left Eye Sees Ghost' as one of the perfect HK Valentine's Day films), perhaps it has to do with the fact that in Hong Kong, these supposed romantic comedies which started out wacky and crazy would usually become poignant and bittersweet, where we audiences can't help but lament the fact that regardless of how hard they try, our protagonists will never overcome such a major obstacle of one being actually dead, where the ending is usually never entirely happy, with the ghost heading off for reincarnation, and the hero seeking solace from meeting someone who looked entirely like the ghost (damn I hate cop-out endings like that).

Screenwriting workshop. An idea for a new short film?

And thus, classes have finally started. During the screenwriting workshop, when each person is supposed to develop a screenplay that he or she will be working on throughout the entire semester, I started pondering about the numerous stories and ideas I had in mind that I could try developing so that I can attempt to shoot it during the second half of the year. (I'm currently doing Postgrad Diploma in Media Production, just finished my Degree in Marketing and Literature last year, a weird combination indeed).

CASANOVA by Lasse Hallström

The role of the title character in Casanova was chosen by Heath Ledger after he did Brokeback Mountain. It was a logical choice, if I were an actor, I would want to be in a much lighthearted and cheerful fare after doing something as depressingly angsty as Brokeback too. The director of this film is Swedish director Lasse Hallstrom, whose better-known films are Chocolat, Cider House Rules and What's Eating Gilbert Grape, so I guess he is quite a serious director (although the aforementioned works do possess certain hints of humour)

Pondering about my future film projects.

It was a discussion I had with Guestblogger Justin a few days ago, about a personal dilemma, a fear that the flames of creativity that burnt brightly within my soul had completely been extinguished, my ocean of genius had been sucked dry by a vortex of disappointment (that occurred when two consecutive short films I wanted to make had to be shelved, or most likely scrapped, after some cast members were unable to make any commitments).

Steven Spielberg's MUNICH is one of his best

Despite my initial ravings of War of the Worlds, in retrospect, it isn't one of Steven Spielberg's finest films (it's one of those rare films reviews of mine that I would want to rewrite if I am allowed to). Yes, it has some stunning set pieces, some decent acting, some chilling scenes, but basically, Spielberg was just recycling his bag of tricks, and despite the fact that I had tried defending the film ending (what happened to the aliens in the end was based on the book anyway), it was still a pretty bad ending (what happened to Tom Cruise's son was NOT based on the book). And after King Kong, I can't help but realize how shallow an experience War of the World was when compared with Peter Jackson's near-masterpiece.

The Fanfiction Debate

In many ways, this is a continuation of Guestblogger Justin's rebuttal against Robin Hobb regarding the merits of fanfiction and Mike Peterson's entry about Copyleft. Although I have retired from fanfiction, and there are many things about fanficdom that annoys me (check out my rant here, here, and here), I don't really condemn the mere action of writing fanfiction, and I think I will be pretty flattered if people do write fanfiction based on my creative works instead of screaming bloody murder like Robin Hobb did. Sure, if people tries to make money via this fanfiction, then it might be some sort of copyright infringement (but you can most probably get away with it if you were Neil Gaimnan), but otherwise, I think it works well from a marketing point of view, and from a creative standpoint.

Anyway, for years, I've been a member of this fantasy writers mailing list (join by sending blank email to fantasy-writers-subscribe@topica.com) and I recently got into this interesting discussion about fanfiction with numerous of its members. Will use different colours so that it'll be easier for y'all to differentiate us.

WALK THE LINE, fine performances by Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon

I am rather ignorant to the details of Johnny Cash (and June Carter)'s history, and I don't remember ever listening to any of his songs before (well, I might heard some when my dad was playing it, but I don't think dad was that into Johnny Cash either), thus I can only evaluate the biopic based on whether it could hold the attention of any viewer who does not know anything about its subject. After all, I'm not anal when it comes to judging the factual accuracy of biopics (I can never understand why some people like condemning biopics that much just because they aren't accurate enough, yeah, I'm looking at those who complained about 'A Beautiful Mind' not examining John Nash's homosexual tendencies), it's more about whether it 'works' for me as a film.

Why did I watch Big Momma's House 2?

Do not believe what everyone else said, Big Momma's House 2 is absolutely a necessary sequel. There is a need to see Martin Lawrence going around dressing up like a fat woman again, and then bonding with three children in your typical Hollywood manufactured warmhearted scenes that are similar to the gazillions (pardon me, but what is bigger than gazillion? Bazillion?) of inoffensive family films out there. There is a need to see Big Momma in a bathing suit to understand the true concept of being grossed out (yeah, look at left pic to suffer what I suffered).

Six years have passed since Big Momma's House 1, but I am sure absolutely everyone's hungry for this sequel, since it did make 28 million during its first weekend in the United States despite everyone pretending to complain about it before its release. And hey, I'm sure we are always craving for films about poor misfits teaching seemingly rich but emotionally lacking people what is it like to be a family. Hey, having a somewhat good intentioned family comedy is good for families, right? Good to strengthen family ties. Yeap. Maybe it'll work for kids, or people in their early teens, but if this is a film meant to appeal to the masses, then the crowd it will entertain will most probably be pretty small.

My Recommended Valentine's Day Films Part 3: Hollywood Films

Well, this is the hardest part of my romantic film recommendation series. How can I possibly compile a decent list of Hollywood films when there are so many of them out there?? Hmm. Once again, I'll try to separate them via categories. As for the film reviews, I'm not going to painstakingly put them up, you can do your own search at Roger Ebert's, or head to Rottentomatoes. Click title for info.

Once again, I'm going more for feel-good films than the sad and tragic ones. And I'm also avoiding three hour epics, so nope, I won't be mentioning that little film about that sinking ship (... I'll probably get lynched if I do anyway). I would recommend Brokeback Mountain, but it's too depressing for V.day viewing too.

CAPOTE, Bennett Miller's impressive film debut, Philip Seymour Hoffman's great performance

I felt disturbed when watching the biopic, Capote. Maybe it had to do with how much Truman Capote reminded me of, well, myself. Except the gay and effeminate part. Both of us are ambitious, egoistic, manipulative, charismatic, persuasive... well, the fact that I’m drawing comparisons between Truman Capote and myself in a film review should speak volumes about my ego.

Anyway, this is a biopic of Truman Capote, but thankfully, it isn't the type which begins with a childhood event and then ends with a death scene. Nope, this, like many of the recent biopics, focuses only on a pivotal event of the person's life, and in the case of this film: the six years Truman Capote spent to write the groundbreaking non-fiction book 'In Cold Blood' (he used a style which made the whole thing look like a gripping fictional novel instead of some dry report. Check out Wikipedia's entry about New Journalism) that became an international bestseller and made him, according to the film ending, the most popular writer in America.