The first two thirds of Danny Boyle's 'Sunshine' are quite great. Last third, hmm.

Sunshine, the newest film by Danny Boyle (director of Trainspotting, The Beach, 28 Days Later etc.) and written by Alex Garland, is a sci-fi film unlike most others you usually see in cinemas. Belonging more to the 'hard' sci-fi subgenre (2001, Solaris etc.) than Cyberpunk (Blade Runner, Minority Report, Matrix, DEMOLITION MAN!) or Space Opera (Star Wars, Star Trek, The Fifth Element), this film, while visually spectacular, relies more on character development and slow-burning tension than cheap explosions.

The Videoblogger Speaketh! - Interview With SURF! Magazine

SURF! Magazine had just published an interview with me about videoblogging, conducted via e-mail on February by fellow filmmaker Zan Azlee during my vacation at India.

My Thoughts On The 26th Annual Hong Kong Film Awards. YEAH! Lau Ching Wan!!!

I'll get into my thoughts about the results later, for now, some thoughts about the show itself.

Film Students Spoofing David O' Russell's 'I HEART HUCKABEES' Flip Out

3 weeks ago, a video (below) of David O' Russell flipping out on Lily Tomlin at the set of I HEART HUCKABEES was leaked out and posted on Youtube:

Eimi Yamada

The above is a picture of Eimi Yamada.

Defending Fanfiction. Was It Worth It?

JUSTIN:
More than a year ago, I posted an entry called 'In Defense of Fanfiction'. Earlier on the day it was written, Swifty sent me a link to an article by fantasy writer Robin Hobb - someone I knew of but had never read, my interest in American fantasy-genre fiction being comparatively low. The Hobb essay, which attacked fanfiction and its writers on principle, seemed distinctly petty, childish, and reactionary - in need of a good thrashing, in other words. Although I didn't hold any particular interest in fanfiction at the time, neither reading nor writing it, the Hobb essay seemed to be opposed to not only fanfiction but, more broadly, creativity in general. So without even really thinking I tore through a rebuttal, easily demolishing the numerous straw-men and outright fallacies Hobb had put forth. I posted it and then proceeded to think nothing more of it: seeing as it was written in less than fifteen minutes and our readership at the time was probably less than a hundred people, I expected it to be quickly forgotten.

'TMNT' made me remember the days when I dressed up as a Ninja Turtle

Back when I was 8, there was this costume performance event in my primary school where participants are supposed to dress up in costumes of their choices and perform for the Standard 6 students during their Graduation Ceremony. The numerous preliminary rounds leading up to that event remain my most vivid memories of my primary school days.

I remembered a girl dressed up as a pop star. (she had some pretty mad dancing moves)

I remembered some performing a Malay dance.

Then some performing an Indian dance (naturally, it was a huge hit).

And then, a few girls dressed in kimono, performing some traditional Japanese dance.

There was also a Korean dance, but I might have mixed it up with the Japanese dance.

And then, there was me, who dressed up as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.

My Short Film, Girl Disconnected, Screening At KL Jam Asia Tonight!

Yes, after being screened at FILMMAKERS ANONYMOUS 2 (videoblog here, watch me babble non-stop about my film, includes snippets of the film itself) on February and MALAYSIAN SHORTS on March (videoblog here, watch me babble less about my film, and watch famed Msian filmmaker Amir Muhammad presenting the films), my short film, GIRL DISCONNECTED, is going to be screened at KL JAM ASIA this month (... er, wow), which, I believe, is a special REPEAT SCREENING of FILMMAKERS ANONYMOUS 2. (FILMMAKER ANONYMOUS and CINEJAM are sister events/ close allies/ best friends etc.) tonight (12th of April), at 9:30pm.

This MALAY MAIL article features screenshots of GIRL DISCONNECTED.

It's unlikely for me to attend the actual screening since I'm having dinner with some family friends (where I will seize the opportunity to convince this friend of mine to be the main guy in my upcoming short film), but I'll see whether I can make it to the Q & A session after the screenings.

(of course, even with my absence, enthusiastic viewers eager to know the secrets behind the romanticism and poetry of my last short film can always leave their questions here)

I will now copy and paste the line-up from CINEJAM's site:

Back From TV Movie Production Shoot. Working On New Short Film!

Yup, I'm back after a week in Port Dickson for my assistant director gig.

The poisoned and mortal wound of the civilised world

Manic Street Preachers knew it.

"You're obliged to pretend respect for people and institutions you think absurd. You live attached in a cowardly fashion to moral and social conventions you despise, condemn, and know lack all foundation. It is that permanent contradiction between your ideas and desires and all the dead formalities and vain pretences of your civilization, which makes you sad, troubled and unbalanced. In that intolerable conflict you lose all joy of life and all feeling of personality, because at every moment they suppress and restrain and check the free play of your powers. That's the poisoned and mortal wound of the civilised world."
- Octave Mirbeau

Defending THE DEPARTED makes me a mindless Hollywood drone?

**Warning: This post contains spoilers for THE DEPARTED and INFERNAL AFFAIRS**

My recent involvement in a new production, coupled with my month-long addiction to Final Fantasy 12 made me too busy to actually post much here. I know some occasional film reviews and a once-in-a-blue-moon videoblog entry, peppered with one or two of Justin's 'too bored to blog' posts in the past month hadn't really make this blog that interesting. So I intend to write something I've been feeling rather strongly about in the past week.

The kind of hate THE DEPARTED had generated from hardcore INFERNAL AFFAIRS fans since its victory at last month's Academy Awards had started to irk me. But then, their reactions towards THE DEPARTED ever since Brad Pitt bought the remake rights years ago hadn't been exactly exemplary. And I've always believed that everyone's been waiting for a chance to rip the movie apart, to nitpick at the smallest things, to throw rationality and objectivity in the wind and condemn those ignorant gwailos for defiling our much-beloved yellow culture.