August 2004 Archives
2LDK, is the product of the Director Duel between Yukihiko Tsutsumi and director Ryuhei Kitamura. Both directors met in a film festival in Germany and decided to have duel. By following a few set rules, the directors would each make a movie, and compare it at festivals across the world. The hit producer of the Ringu series, Shinya Kawai jumped in and supported it all and produce both films under the Production company Duel Partners. Some of the rules for this competition were both films must be made with the same budget, it will be both shot in 7 days (insert Ringu joke here), and both will focus on acting and script. Yukihiko Tsutsumi made 2LDK, and Ryuhei Kitamura made Aragami, a story about a samurai fighting demons in a temple.
2LDK basically stands for 2 rooms, with living room, Dinning room, and Kitchen. It is used by Japanese real estate rental advertisements. For this film, it’s the location. 2LDK is a simple movie about the interaction of 2 roommates in shared apartment in Tokyo, Japan. The entire movie takes place in on evening of events and in one place. The girls in the film are Lana played by Maho Nonami and Nozomi played byEiko Koike . It’s a nice piece of acting work from both actresses, as the entire movie focuses on their reaction to each other. The story stars with both women being actresses setup by their agency in this shared apartment. Both are finalist for a role in some B-movie called, The Yakuza’s Woman. Lana, a seasoned actor who’s been in the industry is referred to as "Senpai", elder or someone who is more experienced in a field, by Nozomi. Nozomi uses this title for Lana mockingly through out the whole movie. Both girls comes from some sort of background that involves them being the center of some fame. Lana fills her room with awards from beauty pageants from lesser cities in Japan, and Nozumi’s room is filled with Acting awards from theater and books to elaborate her sophisticated acting and educational background. The movie starts in a slow Japanese cinema style and focuses heavily on the internal and empathic reaction of the characters to each other. Tensions build as each roommate gets on each other’s nerves about small living arrangements. Nozomi would label everything in the fridge, while Lana would talk about her conquests with men and flaunt her expensive jewelry and accessories.
The movie truly elevates when Lana mentions the name of Nozumi’s current boy crush, Mr. Ezuki. And the things get hairy when a few missed cell calls and the use of wrong shampoo bottles, leads to speeches about rules. The pressure for getting the role of the movies their both fighting for leads to both girls going overboard, turning the flick into a Miike esque fight. Any fan of the "girl fights" would love this movie as the second half of this movie involves electric chainsaws, jyuttes, Gold coins, toilet covers, electric cords, glass award, tatami mats, fire extinguishers, hot water boilers, and ice pokers.
This movie addresses the true nature of the Japanese/Asian culture of suppressing conflict and the result of that suppression. As a sign of the current generation of Japanese, their tendency to lean towards violence due to a culture of suppressed emotions. Both characters also span the generalization of young adults and their opposite ideology clashes in the way they approach that suppression. Both character comes in with a lot of insecurities and when attacked, their reactions to each other is more interesting then the conflict it self. All this and a nice song at the end by New comer Ando Yuko called 隣人に光が差すとき which means something like "When light pours in from neighbor (or someone next to you)". U can find a sample of this song from Ando Yuko’s page here. And not to spoil anything, as in all "girl fights" they end up kissing.
In 2001, a film by the name of My Sassy Girl catapulted the Korean film industry. Before this movie, I heard very little of the Korean movie industry, besides the few Korean indie films I would come across. Then somehow, as if overnight, the Korean movie industry is the fore-runner of popular movies in Asia. Korean Drama and pop music also raised in line to stand side by side with Japan’s army of idols and J-Drama series. My Sassy Girl was a hot warming story about a tomboy-ish girl and a loser guy. Director Jae-young Kwak crafted a funny, witty, and cute story about a how one guy suffering at the hand of this “sassy girl” whom is actually was, of course, a nice person whom gone through some drama before the movie. The Sassy girl, Ji-hyun Jun elevates this role by being, well a very memorable character, known only as “the girl”. She is tomboyish and cute at the same time, whilst torturing the protagonist, Kyun-woo, played by Tae-hyun Cha. Not to mention really pretty long black hair, as u can see, I like long black hair.
So after a few years of Korean Movie industry, Jae-young Kwak gets back together with Ji-hyun Jun, whom I would of thought would be internationally famous for her role in as the Sassy girl, but didn’t. The duo reunites to make another quirky romance/comedy, Windstruck. The Korean title is “I got you babe”, which follows the comic humor of this movie more I think. Again following the same quirky humor of Sassy girl, Jae-young Kwak brings us another romance build on a slightly abusive female lead, whilst the geeky male character suffers through a charming yet painful relationship. IN Sassy girl the story focuses more on Kyun-woo’s reactions to the overly abusive, but cute girl that stumbles into his life. Here, the story comes for the perspective of the female character in the later of the movie, and how she deals with relationships. Ji-hyun Jun portrays the character in a tomboy-ish manner. Tomboyish in her actions, not in her looks, she remains the long black hair character of Sassy Girl, more mature, and wears more uniforms, as she is a cop in this movie; which reinforces her more physical cuteness. There are more action sequences in this movie due to the fact that she is cop. Scene with exploding cares and drug lord gun fights, are all use to illustrate the romance, and not take away attention from the film. The main male character is played by Hyuk Jang whom is famous for his role in Volcano High.
Overall it’s a heart warming love story I recommend, specially if u liked My Sassy Girl. Plus Ji-hyun Jun, is quite charming in her active way. Even as a tough police officer she still has “the girl” inside her. Plus this movie even has a cameo from Tae-hyun Cha the male lead in Sassy girl, which can almost make this movie into some sort of Prequel, in an odd way…
Well for those following the Japanese media, then u must of heard of Onmyoji. A Japanese movie that came out 2001. Onmyoji is translated to Ying-yang master. As the culture of early Japan mimicked much of the Chinese superstitions, The Chinese Taoism and Taoist alchemy was a popular source of mysticism. if your a fan of the Taoist zombie fighting movies, the Chinese Ghost story series are a good mix of Buddhism and Taoist magic. But then my favorites are the modern day ones based around 1920s. A popular genere for the early 80s HK cinema.
Anyways, Onmyoji 2, is the movie i saw this past Wednesday night. The first movie was decently good. The whole Ying-yang master genre is relatively unknown to most western cultures, the introduction of Onmyoji to the states was a nice event. Plus Onmyoji takes place in the Heian period, and has a lot of old Japanese culture, that westerners rarely sees. Most of us are all wooing after Edo period katanas in the next kill bill trilogy. Though they had katanas back then. But the Heian period was more artistic. Poems, novels, and songs were abundant in this period. Quite similar to the corresponding Tang and Sung dynasty of China during the time. The movie series of Onmyoji does show use a lot of the costumes and set pieces form the time. Which is a nice view of "older" Japanese culture. Here's a nice description i found. Link
Onmyoji, by its name, is a tale of demon/supernatural fighting. The first movie takes the role of introduction and gives a nice story of a former warlords curse upon the capital city of Kyoto. Onmyoji 2 takes the setup and takes a step further into the realms of gods and goddesses. Stories talking about Amaterasu and Susano. Amaterasu is the Japanese Sun goddess, while Susano sometimes is called her brother also the founder of the Izumo Dynasty. The Japanese trace their royalties to the sun goddess, thus, Amaterasu is also the line of the Yamato Dynasty. There are many stories of the SUn goddess, not many i truly know and claim knowledge for, so do a google search or something. Most common story involves the sun Goddess hiding in her cave though. So Onmyoji takes the reborn of these gods and goddess and throws them into the modern story, modern being Heian period at Kyoto. The story of course involves Abe no Seimei, the Onmyoji form the first movie and he's trust young comical noble friend, Minamoto no Hiromaki. Hiromaki a young noble in the courts was introduce as our guide to the odd world of Onmyoji in the first movie. The second movie, his innocence is less entertaining, and for one important plot scenes of the movie, he is actually taken by paralysis because, really he's character had no place in the plot.
The first movie does boast some nice special effects, an interesting zombie assault on the capital, and not to mention an Apocalyptic destruction of Kyoto sequence. Of course the second one needed to top that. Somehow it fails. By taking pages from the popular horro movies, Onmyoji 2 tries to start as some sort of horror investigation movie. Without the quirky bonding and introduction to Ying-Yang magic, this movie lost the excitement found in the first movie, and it becomes another tail in the battle of evil. And this chapter, was not the most exciting fight. Not to mention the end “False Goddess Dance” just solidify my believe that the Onmyoji actor, Mansai Nomura, is in fact very very feminine.
The Himiko character was decently cute, plus a few interesting ninja-esque fights make the movie tolerable. But still I recommend Onmyoji 1 for anyone who is interested in the genre. But the Japanese DVD did come with some extra stuff, like the press screening of the movie. The Japanese know how to impress the press. They had the entire cast plsus shows, dance numbers, costumed receptionists. Looked fun. Anyways, stay with the first movie, it was more epic, and had better character interactions.
Its been awhile since i last talked about the music i'm listening to. recently, my que for listening to japanese music has totally backed up, as i cant listen to enough music fast enough. I have become more picky. But the hard thing is that Japanese Pop does borderline on a lot of rock stuff, so it getting hard to categorize the music and split them. I find it more and more that i start downloading a lot of J Pop or even this eurobeat stuff. But one of my older and earlier aquisitions, that i still keep on loop a lot if Love Psychedelico.
Sample: Mind across the universe form their 3rd album called: LOVE PSYCHEDELICO III.
(These MP3 are for sampling purposes only. If you are an artist (or represent an artist) of any of these mp3 and want me to take down a song, let me know, and it will be removed from the server immediately. melchoir(at)gmail.com)
The sample song is a nice example of thier 3rd album. Very 60/70s mix of the beatles, Sheryl Crow, and maybe even a little Janis Joplin. Some japanese sites has linked them to Led Zepplin, even though i'm a fan of the airships, i've never heard much of the band. Unfortunately i only have their 3rd album, as i'm in search for more.
Their offical page is filled with "psychdelic" art work and some nice japanese info. The band started in 97 with two people Kumi (vocal/guitar) and Naoki (Bass/Keyboard). Apprently the two meet at the Aoyama Gakuin University at something called the music "circle". Judging by what little japanes ei can read, i think a Music Circle is kind of like a group of musicians that just get together and rock/play music. Sounds pretty much what i'd name it. (^^")v The Offical site also mentions of their earlier two almbums and the multitude of singles. Though photos and pictures of the band is rare, i've seen a few online else where. (like i assume these are Kumi and Naoki here and here) The band first started as Psychedelic Orchestra.
The most interesting thing about this duo is their mix of english into their songs. Kumi whom i read grew up in SF from the age of 2 to 7. has very little accent, and almost none in the singing front. Her mix of english and japanese are on a level bilingual-ness, that only bilinguals understand. (yes thats me.) But she transitions between english and japanese lyrics effortlessly and makes her songs sound like the natural progression of music in a 60s rock style, if done in japan. Her free-styling voice and the carefree tones of their music makes u feel like beach in the the 60s might of been a nice place to just hang. Very cool driving with the wind music, kinda reminds me of some of the Sheryl Crow stuff, and that nice care-free feeling u get from songs like "All i want to do". All this backed up by a very late beatles-esque guitar feel. Nice music all around that makes u want to dig out roller skates and get a shake or soemthing. And hang out with a blonde girl. They make this music sound efoortless, they make the music sound fun, and they make u want to join in that fun, and thats why i'm liking this band so far.
Unfortunately they dont seem to travel much out of the country. Maybe since thier music is soo american sounding, very little die hard American Rock/Japanese listeners would really get into them. So i guess less fame for them in the states. But I do hope to see them live one day.
An Article about their second album from Metropolis.
A link to them via Amazon: Link
A review of their 3rd album form a HK magazine called BC. , scroll down tot the middle.
Well... I cant say i dont watch these cheesy pop-idol movie events that Asia is known for. I mean this last weekend i just watched Sky High and Azumi. Azumi's Aya Ueto is basically a pop idol project not far from some sort of Japanese American Idol Show. But Asia likes to put these little Idol girl in martial art/Action movie. I guess i cant really say its a bad thing.
Anyways, HK media has been blessed/cursed by a relatively new duo since 03, the twins. Two cutsy singers whom sing pop/techno songs that dominate the pop charts. Half due to the trendy songs, half to their cuteness, which, i've heard is legendary in Asia. Though not a big fan of the idol action genre, i still decided to pick up "The Twin Effect", aka The Vampire Effect.
This movie reminds me of some sort of New Year special. IN The chinese media, during Chinese new Years (aroudn Feb.) The entertainment industry would make these new year films. Which usually are comedies with a lot of stars. Usually a feel good movie for the holiday seasons. Most of the time these movies are pretty off the wall weird with a lot famous actors, and no real point. But there was "Chinese Odessey" with Faye Wong and Tony Leung. Which i liked cause it was amaking fun of Wong Kar Wai. But anyways The Twin Effect feels like that. They got a lot of stars, and its.. cute. Well the whole point of me writing this sint about a review of the movie but its this. As much as it amazes me, The Twin, the pop idol duo, looks good fighting. I dont know i think Donnie Yen does good work. He was the action director on this movie. I think Donnie is the man, any movie he's in, he kicks up a notch or two on these action sequences. I mean i for the most part believed that these two cutsy pop idols can fight, or atleast look fine doing it. Unlike Azumi, where sure its more samurai sowrd fighting, but still, They need to get Donnie Yen for every idol action film from now on. The action and overall cuteness even made Jackie Chan's presence tolerable.
Last night i saw Gozu at the Nuart in Santa Monica. And since Cinefile is right next door, i rented a few Japanese DVDs that i've been wanting to see. So after the odd experience that is Takashi Miike's Gozu, i saw Sky High by Ryuhei Kitamura the director who brought us the Zombie/Gangster epic of Versus. Now if u have no idea of all these names i just mentioned, dont worry i'll get into them, if u do, then u pretty much also follow the japanese movie genres of late. Recently the Asia media has been dominated by horror films since the fame of Ringu in 1997. US adaptations of Japanese films such as The Ring and The Grudge are now main stream horror films. The american market has definetly notice the japanese style of bizzare story telling, and the Asian definitions for horror. Some of them translate well, and some probably won't. But to us multi-zone DVD owners, we're all over the Asian DVD. And some of us cna even read the Chinese copies. (^_^).
Takashi Miike came out in 1996 with his first film, Fudoh: The New Generation. THis movie can best be summed by the IMDB comment, "Good GOD!". It was our first view at the mind of Miike, and it introduce to us a new era of japanese exploitation films. This movie went striaght to video, like most of Miike's works. But that never really stops him, or make him less of a director. He explains in a Suicide Girls interview:
I work with people that don’t control me. The kinds of people that approach me, give me the freedom. It’s lucky that I get that situation all the time so I can be me in any film I make. But at the same time as a director I have to see what images I get just from reading the script and it all passes through my mind. That is why every movie looks like my movie.
Miike has done a whole range of movies, Apprently he set a record of making 9 films in the year of 2002. Some of his claim to fame are: Andoromedeia, Dead of Alive, Audition, Visitor Q, Happiness of the Katakuris, and his recent Film Fest fav Gozu. Mainly he hovers around the gangster/violence genre, but he also has dabbled the Romance/comedy genre with Andoromedia and even the Musical genre with Katakuris, which i recommand, cause its jsu soo weird to explain a musical about zombies, mass murderers, and the bonding of a family. Overall Miike has carved a niche for him self in the current Japanese media. Gozu which i just saw... requires a lot of talking. But unfortunately thats for another thread, here's a good review of it from Midnight Eye. Also i have an ongoing thread about Gozu on my forum.
The other movie i saw last night was Sky High. Unlike Miike's bizzaro gangster movies, Ryuhei Kitamura seems to stay pretty true to his genre of anime-esque swordfighting movies. I heard he did a Godzilla movie, but i havent seen that. His first claim to fame was Versus. A zombie/gangster movie that drew the American zombie fans and added them with the anime swordfighting fans, to form some sort of super Otaku. This being said, Versus was a "cute" movie with an odd plot, weird characters and zombies with guns. Not something to discuss over a latte, but definetly worth a night of zombie movie fun. Sky High, a cheesy name which i have no idea what it truly mean to the story yet, is a more refined telling of some sort of Anime-esque story. The original story is from Tsutomu Takahashi, whom IMDB says wrote Sky High and Alive. Alive being another of Ryuhei Kitamura films, but notice how i didnt link it? cause its not worth of a link. Sky High stars Yumiko Shaku whom was also the main character in The Princess Blade, another girl swordfight movie. Also i read that she stars in the TV version of Sky High, which there is a part 2 of. I'm not down with more drama form this movie, but i'm all for Comic/Anime turned into longer TV versions.
Good place to buy Asian DVDs:
Azn Films
YesAsia
Good place to rent them:
Netflix, Greencine, or if u r lucky Cinefile.
Again, i read another article about the fear of camera-phones. Here, a Black Eye Pea concert hosted by the RIAA for the DNC this past week was the cause of another round of Cellphone camera fear. Lawrence Lessig Blog writes about this incident at the DNC. Siting that the security guard saying it was a sponsor choice. Of course with the RIAA sponsoring, i guess they were probably scared of people recording the event and P2P-ing it all over. The blog also links to an Austin News station article on the views of Camera Phones.
About two month ago, i was the victum of such an event. The UCLA campus holds movie screening for the students, and i being here was going to take full adventage of that fact. So after picking up a ticket for the screening of Garden State The grad student looking guy with the glasses promptly warned me, "No cellphones!" I was thinking to myself, sure i know its distrubing, i can set it to vibrate you know. Apprently he was wise enough to follow up with the comment that the screening had a strict, "NO CAMERA!" rule, thus cellphone cameras. TO be safe, they warned everyone to just not bring any devices that might be, confusing, u know maybe a lens or something on a battery. The main cause of this was that the star/writer/director of Garden State, Zach Braff was also doing an appearence at the screening. Thus the tight security, cause we all wanted a piece of his b-list ness, well he might be A-list now after his rumors with Natelie Portman. Though i wanted to see this movie, but i was torned between the walk to put my phone in my car/office and back to the auditorium. In the end i decided aginst the walk and just drove home.
Clearly with these last two events, the cause of a media fear towards camera cellphones is ever growing. More events will happen, as the leading PR dude will go, hey NO CameraPhones Allowed to the security guys, and thus, drama. The security people are just following a rule, and the PR people are probably following a trend. I guess my biggest fear is that this will become a trend at events, and thus people will dismiss the cellphone camera bit before we even get to defend it. I assume there's not much to defend, a cellphone camera IS a camera, and yes u can sneak pictures with it. So how's this different then sneaking in a mini photo camera? Technically film works better under low light then digital. This brings up all the recent links to the an old article, the Camera Fiend. When Eastman Kodak introduced the first "personal" camera in 1888, people were scared that, the "Camera Fiend" would go around and take picture and violate everyone elses privacy. But i think camera have done ok in the last 120 yrs. I think this is an issue similar to guns, its really about the people shooting, not the camera. I'm quite sure there's more then one Artistic/Invaision Privacy debates thats gone on since the days.
A new Wired Article discusses the dilemma of the modern day advertisers. We, the 18-34 male demographic is, apprently messing up everything. This article shows datas about how we are either watching more Cable TV or playing video games or using the internet. All sign points to network TV advertisements as a dying art. So what are ad agency doing these days? Well the article mentions some interesting things such as viral marketing, live demos and to the large movement of Videogame advertising.
Also the article address issues in datamining for advertisement. Stuff like how TiVO tracks what u record, what u skip, and what channel u change to after a show. While Nielson uses a paper dairy.
