Liveblogging the Beijing Olympics Closing Ceremony

Just like what I did with the opening ceremony, I'm going to try to liveblog the closing ceremony as well. But instead of flooding my Twitter like before, I going to try something new. Hence the window below.

Tags: beijing olympics closing ceremony 2008

TOKYO! omnibus film by Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Bong Joon Ho

I was in a cafe at Shibuya two days ago, struggling to write the script for a new short film. It went well except for the fact that I just couldn't figure out the damn ending.

After sitting there for three hours, I thought I needed a break, and most probably inspiration. So I headed off to see TOKYO! An omnibus film featuring segments done by French filmmakers Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Korean filmmaker Bong Joon Ho. The only connection between the three half-hour segment is that they're all set in Tokyo.

THE ELEPHANT AND THE SEA in cinemas now!

I know some of you folks don't follow my postings at THE ELEPHANT AND THE SEA blog, so I'll announce here:

Yup, THE ELEPHANT AND THE SEA had opened at Cathay Cineleisure since Thursday and will be around for two weeks! So please check it out! Then you can check out my very first (and probably only) attempt at composing. (aside from serving as co-producer, I did the additional editing and music for the film's theatrical release)

Here are three reviews of the film that have popped out recently.

• Zee of Cinema Online likes the film.
• Michael Guillen of Twitch as well.
• S. B. Toh of The Star? Not so much.

You can read The Visitor's interview with director Ming Jin as well.

Thanks for the reviews, guys.

Once again, here's the trailer.

Oh wow, SPEED is getting back together!

UPDATED: CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEOS AND PHOTOS FROM SPEED's REUNION SEGMENT ON NIPPON TELEVISION'S 24-HOUR TV DURING THE 31ST OF AUGUST, 2008.



Got this from Tokyograph.

'The Sky Crawlers スカイ・クロラ' by Mamoru Oshii

I went to see THE SKY CRAWLERS, the latest film by Mamoru Oshii yesterday.

I've completed my novel

Back in February, I said something about dusting off my Nanowrimo 2005 novel. Just to summarise what I posted then: I participated in the National Novel Writing Month back in 2005, I reached 50 000 words but never completed the story. I wanted to finish it one and for all.

The fantasy/scifi novel was based on ideas, concepts and characters I was working on since my secondary school years, one of those rare periods of my life where the childhood dream of filmmaking was put aside for something else. I wanted to write an epic fantasy story so epic that it would probably take 4-5 books to complete. Through those years, I was collaborating with a friend on it. What filmmaking is to me now was what the story was to me then. Almost everything.

Chacun son cinéma (To Each His Own Cinema)

I was originally planning to see SKY CRAWLERS or anything offered at the Shinjuku cinemas after meeting up with Maiko the producer regarding the status of our short film, YUKI (she's going to Kyoto end of this month for a 2-month internship at Toei, so had to see what to do next). But then she mentioned about her watching 'Chacun son cinéma' sometime ago at Shibuya. 'Chacun son cinéma' is an omnibus film commissioned last year to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival.

Is FINAS really helping to develop the Malaysian film industry?

This was forwarded to the Malaysian Cinema mailing list yesterday. It's from a filmmaker named Ahmad Yazid:

Hiking in Nasu

This happened more than 3 weeks ago, when I was at the ESC (English Summer Camp) in Nasu.

The ESC is held throughout the end of July to early August. Each round lasts for 3 days 2 nights, I think there were a total of 6 to 7 rounds. I went to the first round, and we had Japanese kids in the first year of junior high (13 year olds). They have just started learning English this year, I was there, along with numerous international students, as 'team captains' to help interact with them in English.

One of the more enjoyable aspects of the camp, to me, was the hiking. It was horrifying to see how quick the kids were as they just sped through the hiking trails in the forest while we, the team captains, were trying to keep up with them. I doubt the 13-year-old me would have survived the hiking, being the fat nerdy kid I was.

I'll be posting up some photos from the summer camp in the next few days. But here
are the hiking ones. I can't really remember the name of the place though. :(

Photos of us beginning our journey:

'The Incredible Hulk' isn't better than Ang Lee 'The Hulk'

Just saw it today.

When I first heard the news of this 'reboot' of the HULK franchise, I had mixed feelings. Firstly, the HULK, being such a well-known Marvel character, might have the potential to become a franchise, so I understood the need to do a more commercial and action-packed HULK film for the masses so they can erase the bad taste from Ang Lee's 2003 film.

Organizing THE ELEPHANT AND THE SEA press premiere

(From left to right) Ming Jin the director, Berg Lee, Ng Meng Hui and Chung Kok Keong

THE ELEPHANT AND THE SEA finally had its press premiere yesterday morning. I was so excited that I called Ming Jin just before it started to check out on things, and to remind him who were to attend it. But now that I've already read Ming Jin's post about the premiere, I felt only relief. The past week of putting this together had been hectic. Especially when Ming Jin had to head off to the Brisbane International Film Festival for the screening of KURUS (aka DAYS OF THE TURQUOISE SKY) and I was left to handle things.

THE DARK KNIGHT

THE DARK KNIGHT premiered in Tokyo yesterday. I finally got to see it. The wait was excruciating! The hype of the film had been colossal, it's been breaking one box-office record after another and judging by its momentum, it is most likely going to be the second top-grossing movie of all-time in the US (behind Titanic, before adjustment to inflation).

After seeing the film, I'm a little baffled by the crazy amount of money it's making. It's quite a dark and intense film, not as cheery as the Spidey films, not as family-friendly as Shrek 2 or Pirates of the Caribbean 2), yet in just 3 weeks, it made more money than the likes of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and Spider-man 1 etc.

I think it's probably due to a few factors, like this being Heath Ledger's last complete role, the goodwill from the previous film Batman Begins (read my review here), the insane hype generated from fan anticipation, marketing campaign etc. And this film's proving to have legs because of the extensive media coverage it had gotten with each of the box-office record it had broken, sparking curiosity from people who weren't initially interested in superhero films, and even those who didn't see the first film.

Liveblogging the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony

The ceremony was spectacular. But I wasn't very coherent.

(Start from the bottom)








(Some really awesome photos of the Opening Ceremony at Boston.com. Too bad they don't have the one where Li Ning lit up the Olympic Torch. That one gave me the goosebumps)

Tags: beijing olympics 2008 opening ceremony

Watching Kahimi Karie (and Rei Harakami) live at Liquidroom

[Unrelated note: I found out that KURUS was on TV again yesterday. Ming Jin is currently in Australia for the Brisbane International Film Festival, where KURUS ('Days of the Turquoise Sky' to the foreigners) is screening. Interested to know what the Aussies think about the film.]


Kahimi Karie

I went to the Liquidroom at Ebisu for one of their 4th year anniversary events on Wednesday night, a live performance by Kahimi Karie and the electronic musician Rei Harakami. I first read about this from Japan Times two weeks ago, and immediately decided to go even though ticket price is a little steep.

Chicken Rice For The Win - Interview with The Malay Mail

Last week, I did an email interview with Gabey Goh of The Malay Mail. The article, Chicken Rice For The Win, came out on the newspapers yesterday, but it's online now! I talk about filmmaking and blogging.

CHICKEN RICE FOR THE WIN

Or you can just scroll down and read the interview below:

Koki Mitani's really funny The Magic Hour ザ・マジックアワー

I saw this some time ago but haven't had the time to write my thoughts. So I'll do it now.

THE ELEPHANT AND THE SEA Tickets On Sale Now!

Teaser of THE ELEPHANT AND THE SEA


Trailer of THE ELEPHANT AND THE SEA

Guess it's time for me to make this announcement too.

All righty folks, we (that's Greenlight Pictures) have officially begun pre-selling tickets for the award-winning film THE ELEPHANT AND THE SEA!



I was involved in the film as associate producer, also did some additional editing and composing for its Malaysian version (the music you hear in the trailer is mine).

Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea 崖の上のポニョ is beautiful

A confession. When I was watching Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea at the cinema yesterday, I was a little choked up during one scene. And yes, damn it, I teared up too. I was so awed by the exuberance and beauty of a scene that I couldn't help but find a single tear trickling down my face. I won't spoil that scene, but it involves the storm, and a girl running frantically ON the crashing waves.

Yes, I went 'Wow' and teared up.

Final Fantasy 6 FANDUB!!!

My love affair with Final Fantasy games started 14 years ago, the first game that got me into it was Final Fantasy VI (known to me as Final Fantasy 3 then). I first borrowed the Japanese version of the game from a schoolmate, loved it, and then I received the English version from dad as my birthday gift, I was totally giddy with joy. Before the days of Playstation, where pirated games can be bought for 5 ringgit each, each game then was precious to me. I ended up only having around 10 games for my Super Nintendo because each game was so insanely expensive, and most of these 10 games I had were the classics: Mario Kart, Secret of Mana, Super Metroid, Twinbee, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 6 etc.

Yet Final Fantasy 6 was special to me. I lived and breathed it. Its soundtrack (still the best, in my opinion) was constantly playing on my CD player. I named characters after people I know to immerse myself even more into the world. It's the only Final Fantasy game to date (yes, I've played and completed all FF games that came out since then except the MMORPG FF11) that I play through more than once.

So when I stumbled upon this gem on Youtube late last night, I could barely contain my giggly giddying glee. Immediately, I sent the link to Justin, asking him to watch it. On my MSN list, aside from my little sister, he was the only one who had played the game, the only one who, like me, grew up with FF6.

Photos of Ginza, Yurakucho and Otemachi

3 years ago, I participated in the Nanowrimo, and attempted to write a fantasy/sci-fi novel. I succeeded in hitting 50 000 words then, but never really finished the story. And once my childhood dreams of filmmaking became a reality, my focus turned elsewhere. Nonetheless, I've been a little more than bothered that I left the novel unfinished, and being a non-fan of loose ends, I decided to attempt the impossible and actually pick up where I left of in 2005.

So I've actually been spending the last few days writing. I doubt the novel will ever get published (I said THAT novel will never get published, I didn't say that I would never try to get a novel published in the future), but I needed closure.

But staying in my room all the time isn't exactly that healthy, so as usual, I needed a walk. When my friend Jason asked whether I wanted to go to Ginza with him (he had some business to attend to), I immediately said yes. I haven't been to Ginza since I came to Tokyo in April.

However, the hotel I stayed in during my earliest visits in Tokyo (1991, 1992) was in Ginza, and it was during my later visits that my parents switched to Shinjuku. I'm definitely more familiar with Shinjuku, but coming to Ginza, I felt as if I were in a different place. If Shinjuku were Bukit Bintang, then Ginza is Starhill, just like how Jason, who came from Hong Kong, described that Ginza is the Causeway Bay to Shinjuku's Mongkok.

Shinjuku is more chaotic, with more people, more shops and the like. While Ginza's a classier affair. I saw more old-fashioned cafes than fastfood restaurants, plenty of boutiques and shops selling traditional Japanese items (paper fans, yukata, kimono, decorations etc.) than electronic shops. But I was a little surprised to see a huge poster of Maggie Cheung on one of the buildings.

The 31st Sumida River Fireworks Festival

I just came back from the Sumida River Fireworks Festival. This is the biggest and most spectacular fireworks display in Tokyo. Happens annually, with nearly 900,000 spectators (it definitely felt like that when I went there just now). 20 000 rockets were fired from two bases along the Sumida River in a visual feast that lasted over an hour.

Apparently, the display includes a competition between rival firework companies. I think it's definitely the most awesome fireworks display I've ever seen in my life, unfortunately, I have a crappy camera, so I cannot really do justice to what I saw, but I'll upload the video I shot there sometime soon.

[30th PIA Film Festival] SEISMIC GIRL & GOODBYE, GEORGE ADAMSKI

[UPDATED: 26TH OF JULY, 2008] Jason Gray has posted about the PIA Film Festival 2008 Winners.

I just came back from the PIA Film Fest in Shibuya again (read about my thoughts on SEMIGAO and TENGU LEAF, two films I saw at the fest on Saturday). I couldn't catch the rest of the films in competition, but managed to see SEISMIC GIRL by Tatenai Kenta and GOODBYE, GEORGE ADAMSKI by Kodama Kazuto, the two films from the NEW DIRECTIONS IN JAPANESE CINEMA project. They are films produced under the Agency for Cultural Affairs' 35mm short film production support projects. Basically, the project is to allow filmmakers (previous finalists of the film fest) to experience true 35mm filmmaking (all films in competition at the festival, being self-produced, are of course shot digitally).

Gone for 3 nights and the world had changed... Tony Leung and Carina Lau got married??

I finally got back from Nasu after being gone for three nights. I can't believe that while I was hiking at Nasu, teaching (or rather, TRYING TO TEACH) 13-year-old Japanese kids English (pics and posts about that later), the whole world had changed.

My mom greeted me on MSN immediately after she saw me online and gave me a video link (it's in Chinese).

[30th PIA Film Festival] SEMIGAO and TENGU LEAF

I first heard about the PIA Film Festival (English site here) from my friend Maiko (who is supposed to produce my next Japanese-language short film). It's an important film festival that launched many careers of young Japanese filmmakers, normally when winning an award at the Tokyo PFF, their films end up touring around the nation, and some, of course, get invited to important foreign film fests. There were some winners at the Berlin Film Festival too. Naomi Kawase was a Pia winner, I heard Kiyoshi Kurosawa was one too.

Today was the opening of the 30th Pia Film Festival, so I decided to go there and check out two of the films in competition. It's only 1200 yen (300 yen cheaper than a normal film), and I get to watch 2 films, so it's a good deal.

The festival is held in a cinema at Shibuya Crosstower, the place was filled with young people, probably university students too. Unsurprising, since the filmmakers are those around my age as well. The cinema was packed, and I started wondering if a similar event was held in Malaysia, whether it would be just as successful. It's not a bad start though. A film festival for student films held in a cinema, of course, the tickets have to be cheaper as well.

In the little-seen (and UNDERRATED) Antonio Banderas film, THE 13TH WARRIOR, his character managed to learn Norse miraculously in a night by sitting with the crowd of vikings he was traveling with, and listening closely to their conversations. Sometimes, I feel as if I'm doing the same when i go to the cinema to watch a Japanese film without subtitles. Often I don't understand most of the dialogue, but I find myself 'understanding' the plot.

Both films I saw, SEMIGAO 蝉顔 and TENGU LEAF 天狗の葉 seem to revolve around the same themes. The disaffected young people in contemporary Japan, whose relationships with their family members are friendly but somewhat distant, and they are those who are left behind by the rapidly moving society. However, both use vastly different methods to tell their stories.

Saturday Epic Anime Scene - Final Shootout in Cowboy Bebop (aka Chow Yun Fat was cool!)

It's getting harder to find an epic anime scene on Youtube. It doesn't help that every single search result I get is some rubbish AMV (anime music video) that ALWAYS use Linkin Park's songs. I was once fascinated by AMV years ago, some are bloody awesome, especially those that are capable of splicing characters from different animes into the same video. It was slightly before I started learning my own video editing, and I think in some ways, watching AMV could've been an influence.

Solitary late night walk to FamilyMart

During my Perth days, I always liked the idea of taking a late night walk to, say, a convenience store nearby. Either to buy a drink, or some snacks (often a chocolate bar).

But back then, I was usually going to the petrol station opposite Murdoch University. I remember going there almost every night whenever I had to sleep over at the editing rooms.

I like walking at night when certain places and the route I take are only partially illuminated by the streetlights, or the lights of the school buildings. There's something magical about those once-familiar places at night.

When walking alone, away from the editing rooms, I'm alone with my thoughts, I can take a breather, thinking over on what to do next, mentally reassessing previous scenes to see what I've done wrong, or I can just think nothing, and hear only the sound of my own footsteps, and the distant sound of cars passing by.

[VIDEOS] Trailers for CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY and FLEETING IMAGES

I normally don't cut trailers for short films. I think it's way too hard to do it, and I feel that I'm doing it at the risk of 1) giving away too much of the story or 2) making my films look worse than they really are.

Normally, Hollywood trailers are 2 and a half minutes. 2 and a half minutes for a 90-100 minute long film is reasonable, but if a 10 minute short film has such a long trailer, I'm already showing a quarter of the film. That's as bad as doing a 25-minute long trailer.

However, a certain film festival (name withheld so that I can save myself the embarrassment of not being selected) I've submitted both short films to have stated that trailers for submissions are optional. I felt a little conflicted, then I thought, 'why not?'. Might as well try it out. So I ended up editing a trailer for each of my film, CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY and my latest one, FLEETING IMAGES.

Live-action version of The Last Love Song on This Little Planet 最終兵器彼女 is rather lacking

Shortly after first watching Shunji Iwai's Love Letter ten years ago, I developed a little teenage crush on Sakai Miki, who played the young Itsuki in the film. It's impossible not to, there was this innocent beauty in her, coupled by the gracefulness of the scenes she was in. Especially the one where she skates by herself in the midst of a pure white snowy plains...

... and then finding a frozen dragonfly, understanding her dad's passing, it was a very elegant scene.
On the year I discovered SPEED by accident at Tokyo, I was actually looking for Sakai Miki's album, LIKE A BEST FRIEND (which I did).

But since then, I never knew what happened to her. I thought she may have retired from acting, living the blissful life of a housewife.

So I was surprised when I saw her in a supporting role at THE LAST LOVE SONG ON THIS LITTLE PLANET, which is more popularly known as SAIKANO, or also SHE, THE ULTIMATE WEAPON, which is based on a manga and anime.

Happily Ever After 自虐の詩 starring Hiroshi Abe and Miki Nakatani

The literal translation of HAPPILY EVER AFTER's Japanese title, Jigyaku no uta 自虐の詩, is 'the poem of self-torture/ self-inflicted pain'. I watched it last night not knowing what to expect. I was initially interested in it solely because of the two leads, Hiroshi Abe and Miki Nakatani.

When Kaiji Shakedown covered the film last August, it was almost dismissive of the film's visuals, pointing out its flat television look that makes it look like TV movie of the week compared to the eye candy that was Memories of Matsuko'.

Saturday Epic Anime Scene - Lynn Minmay's DO YOU REMEMBER LOVE?

Since posting the awesomely epic Dragon Ball Z scenes of Super Saiyajin transformations last Saturday (Goku's 5-minute transformation is a stuff of anime lore), I will now decide to make this a weekly thing... for the time being.

This week, I'll go for MACROSS, another anime series I remember fondly from my childhood. Back then, like most non-Japanese, I know MACROSS as ROBOTECH, and was drawn to it every week. When I first heard that Tobey Maguire bought the rights to do a live-action adaptation few weeks ago, I was more than a little intrigued. Is Maguire going to be Rick Hunter? I can see that (even though he is a little too old for the role, but hey, if he can be a young college year Spidey, Rick Hunter's not a problem). But who can be the iconic Lynn Minmay? A contemporary teeny bopper pop singer? Hannah Montana as Minmay? Please excuse me as I go and slam my head against the wall.

Interview with 'Thoughts On Films'

Earlier this week, I sat down (in front of computer) for an (email) interview with Fikri of 'Thoughts On Films'. Things I spoke about include: filmmaking, videoblogging, my role in Greenlight Pictures and the company's previous productions, the theatrical distribution of local independent films in Malaysia.

Editing trailers for short films is hard + Weird Chicken Rice Mystery coincidence

As I've mentioned before, my short film, CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY, was shown at Urbanscapes on the 28th of June.

Most epic anime scenes ever.

One of the most important anime series of my childhood.

Nothing to me then, can be more badass than a Super Saiyajin transformation in Dragon Ball Z.

The first one, Gohan's transformation to SSJ2 is both poetic and insane. Like there's this dove of light flying across, revelation striking him, and he flips out and turns SSJ2. Awesome emotional buildup. Wham! The lingering last shot of Gohan as he stared at the camera with tears in his eyes, it's like a coming-of-age tale for him, finally losing his innocence, his future unsure. It's evocative. It's something similar to the ending in Truffaut's 400 Blows.

Refusenik

This entry was originally written last Sunday. But as you know, I ended up being buried by the production of my new short film, FLEETING IMAGES. (screenshots), so I'm posting this up now instead.

I first heard about the TOKYO REFUGEE FILM FESTIVAL because of Refusenik (also check out the official production blog). It all happened 2-3 weeks ago when I was seeking, via Facebook, other filmmakers who reside in Tokyo, and I found Megumi Nishikura. After corresponding briefly on Facebook, she told me about the screening of Refusenik, a documentary she was involved in as assistant editor during her stay in Los Angeles.

Screenshots of my new short film, FLEETING IMAGES

The lack of blogging recently had a lot to do with me trying to finish up my new short film, FLEETING IMAGES before the deadline of a certain Japanese short film competition.

When you're sleeping only 2 hours, and spending most time of the day editing and shooting, writing a new blog entry is the last thing you have in mind.

The idea for FLEETING IMAGES came to my around two weeks ago. My Japanese short film was temporarily put on hold, so I was a little bummed out that I couldn't submit anything for the aforementioned short film competition*. I'm a person who needs deadlines to motivate myself into finishing something, does that mean that since YUKI's (title of that short film) is in limbo, I'll have to just sit on my arse and wait? Not an appealing idea.

So I started wondering what kind of short films can I conjure within two weeks. When I have a lack of cast and crew? Ideas started swimming around my head, and one was clearer and more doable than the others. After watching the first ten minutes of Chris Marker's Sans Soleil last year at Ming Jin's place, an interesting film that's part travelogue and part documentary (in the end, I guess the more accurate label for it would be a 'film essay'), I've once remarked: "DAMN, I could've used my holiday videos and try make something similar!"

Catching the sunset in Odaiba, and seeing Japan's Statue of Liberty

It's difficult to see the sunset in Tokyo, so I decided to go to Odaiba (an artificial island in Tokyo Bay) today to do that instead after a few recommendations from friends.

Errol Morris' Standard Operating Procedure

Managed to catch another film at the Refugee Film Fest last night, this one's a documentary about the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse called STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE, by Errol Morris, director of the seminal documentary THE THIN BLUE LINE. I watched the latter two years ago when I sneaked into the lecture sessions of the documentary class while studying in Perth.

Being the only other film by Morris I've watched, I still notice that he retained his style for STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE, which is driven entirely by the interviews of his subjects and some reenacted scenes. With a budget of 5 million USD, and a score by Danny Elfman, this is a documentary that features 'production values' of what you normally see in its Hollywood fictional counterparts, shots of playing cards showing Saddam and his sons faces falling slow-mo onto the ground etc. Along with some really beautiful filmmaking flourishes that you don't see often in a documentary, like the scene which shows the assembling of a forensic timeline using hundreds of Abu Ghraib photos taken by three different cameras.

[Tokyo Refugee Film Festival] PRAYER OF PEACE: RELIEF AND RESISTANCE IN BURMA'S WAR ZONES / JUN-AI

Right, so I said I was going to take a brief hiatus to force myself to write for my new short film. I might have underestimated my own writing skills since it took me only one night to finish what I need to write.

I went to the 3rd Annual Refugee Film Festival in the past two days (Friday and Saturday) and attended the screenings held at NHK Fureai Hall. The Tokyo Refugee Film Festival is organized by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and it screens films that draws attention to the human side of refugees (theme of the World Refugee Day's this year)

Brief Hiatus

Taking a break from blogging.

Anyway, production of my upcoming Japanese short film, Yuki, will be temporarily postponed.

Negotiations with my lead actress Kazue Fukiishi had gotten a little complicated. (kidding)


Kazue Fukiishi


There's supposed to be a June 30th deadline for me to beat, so I intend to whip together another short film instead. I won't say much about it, but it'll be something along the vein of Chris Marker's Sans Soleil. A video essay, an attempt on visual poetry, using unused video footages I've shot in the past, including my India travel videos.

Need to shut myself out to concentrate in writing. Normally a blog entry takes away so much from me that once I've updated it, I'm too drained to actually write something else. When it comes to creative endeavours, I'm no multi-tasker*. :(

* I mean, I'm normally a multi-hyphenate (director - writer - producer - editor), I don't mind juggling multiple tasks for one project, but to juggle a few projects at once lessens my focus.

CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY and KURUS screening at KLue Urbanscapes 2008 (28th of June)!

I first received a phone call from a lady from KLue sometime in late February (just a few days before I started shooting CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY). She told me that it was filmmaker and friend Tony Pietra who had given her my number, and the conversation was like that:

[VIDEOS] 3rd Auntie's singing comeback at a fundraising concert for the Sichuan Earthquake.

I've mentioned before that my mom was once a singer. In fact, my parents were married mostly due to these circumstances (Mom was a recording artiste for a label that my dad was in, the tale of their courtship was in Sin Chew newspapers two years ago)

Mom's younger sister, my 3rd auntie, was a singer too. But she had gone on hiatus for nearly 15 years (or was it 20?), since opting the idyllic life of a housewife:

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull gave me mixed feelings

Saw this on Sunday immediately when it premiered in Tokyo. Here's a confession, unlike most, my best film memories in childhood weren't really the Indiana Jones films. Because, quite frankly, I can't remembe them much at all. I saw THE LAST CRUSADE when it first came out in theaters and I was only 6. Then I watched RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK a year later when it was screened in primary school for Children's Day, I remembered how the projectionist was being an ass by putting his hand over to projector during the kissing scenes to 'protect' the children's eyes.

The Chinese Program at the Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia 2008

Just as I've mentioned in my previous post, I returned to the Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia 2008, this time for the Chinese Program that my friend, Cara Yuan (she organizes the mobile film festival in China) was curating.

Attending the Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia 2008

I first heard about SHORT SHORTS FILM FESTIVAL from Cara Yuan, organizer of the mobile phone film festival in China (I met her when I was at the Hong Kong International Film Festival back in March). She has came over to Tokyo to curate the Chinese program for the Short Shorts Film Fest, which will be featuring short films by Wong Kar Wai ('THERE'S ONLY ONE SUN', I've seen it on Youtube before) and Fruit Chan. I'm attending that a few hours from now, after I wake up (it's 3:42am while I'm writing this).

But wanting to familiarize myself with the way to the film fest, I decided to attend another one of the programs yesterday afternoon, right after I finish classes. Each program is 110 minutes long and is a compilation of short films for a particular competitive category. The one I went to was a screening of short films for the ASIA and JAPAN Competition, along with one entry for the STOP! Global Warming Competition. Then there's also a special screening of Tadanobu Asano's 224466, a 25-minute long short film he directed and starred in. Since I've just watched Mongol yesterday, it marks the second consecutive day I saw an Asano film.

"I came to Japan to make porn."

Since moving to Tokyo two months ago, the most often-repeated line I hear from male friends is:

"You should make porn in Japan."

Haunted by the interview of Akihabara knifeman's parents

The past few nights had been a non-stop coverage of the Akihabara Massacre and the killer, Tomohiro Kato. Not exactly the most uplifting stuff for a guy like me to watch when sick.

There was a TV interview with the parents of the killer last night. Their faces were obscured to protect their identities, only the father spoke during the 4-minute interview, the mother stood behind him, sobbing quietly, unable to manage a single word.

The father apologized for their son's actions, but it was the image of the mother collapsing onto the ground at the end of the interview that haunts me.

She was literally crawling back to the front door of her house where her husband was standing and waiting. I seriously thought it was heartbreaking.

I cannot imagine what is this like. To live with this for the rest of their lives. I think they are victims of their son's actions as well.

My First Experience In Pitching My Film In Japan

PITCH (filmmaking)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A pitch is a concise verbal (and sometimes visual) presentation of an idea for a film, generally made by a screenwriter or director to a producer or studio executive in the hope of attracting development finance to pay for a screenplay to be written. Pitches are usually made in person, although they can be made over the phone or, occasionally, pre-recorded on audio or videotape.

A good pitch is generally between five and ten minutes long and lays out the premise, hook and essential beats of the story, along with thumbnail sketches of the principal characters (often including the names of actors who might play the roles), and a clear idea of the genre, tone, likely audience, and budget level.

If an executive is interested in a pitch they may ask to see a treatment. If not, they will often follow up with "What else have you got?".

For this reason, a wise supplicant will be prepared to pitch a second and possibly third idea without hesitation.

I've been gripped by this vaguely familiar feeling of melancholy in the past few days. I wondered whether it had anything to do with the ELEPHANT AND THE SEA trailer I was editing, or the fact that my laptop adapter had gone crazy (laptop abruptly switches off by itself when it's plugged in, no problems when using batteries), or the awareness that I was going to get sick, or because I was stuck in limbo between productions, maybe none of them, maybe a little bit of all of them.

The 3 phone calls I received after the Akihabara (Tokyo) stabbing rampage

The horrible stabbing spree at Akihabara this afternoon has already made international news. When that happened, I was actually at the MOS Burger near my dorm, having a production meeting with Maiko.

I didn't know anything until after the meeting ended and I was on my way to the Takadanobaba Station to catch a train. As I was on my way there, I got a phone call from Jason, my Hong Kong friend.

"Hey, where are you?" He asked.

"Taking a train to Shibuya." I said.

"Oh, then you're not at Akihabara then. There was a loony who went around stabbing at people with a knife. You better be careful." He said.

"Hm. I see." I continued walking, not aware of casualties then, just a little bothered that something crazy had happened at a place I visited just last Saturday.

Why Filmmakers Need to Know the History of Cinema

Tim Sharp, a classmate of mine during filmmaking classes in Perth sent me a really good article of his where he emphasized why a filmmaker should know his cinema history, and lamented that the lack of this awareness contributed to the sad state of affairs seen in the current Perth filmmaking scene. When reading his article, I felt that the issues he discussed are pretty universal. So I definitely recommend this to anyone who has anything to do with the film industry, or wants to do something with it.

Here are some nice quotes that I agree with:

THE ELEPHANT AND THE SEA Trailer

I just woke up from my beauty nap at 2am and received an email from Todd at Twitch telling me that he had just posted up the teaser and new trailer of THE ELEPHANT AND THE SEA on their awesome site (I visit them daily). Awesome, thanks, man! I haven't even actally posted the trailer anywhere else as I've just finished editing it yesterday. (hence the lack of blog updates)