You're not alone

One of my memorable trip to The Red River Gorge, KY was with Jenny and Endo. It was 5-hour driving, filled up with spontaneous jokes, twitzzlers, coffee, stops at "weird" fancy restaurants and Michael Jackson songs. I will remember that trip as I will remember Michael Jackson as a true entertainer. And I feel like too often we wait until someone passes to truly celebrate his/her impacts. Rest in peace.

Cherry Blossoms - Hanami

This film definitely reminds me of the only Yasujiro Ozu's work I have seen, Tokyo Story, and of course a little bit of Rabun. It's a kind of film that moves 'slowly' so that I, personally, would pay attention to every little details in the film that blended mostly in delicate metaphors - flies, ducks, cherry blossoms, apart from a very compelling storytelling. And I believe that Doris Dorrie has had great thoughts on every single materials she presented in this piece.

It hurts me so much watching this piece that it gives me more reasons to love my parents. When I realized mak's devotion to abah, I thought it was merely an obligated responsibility. My childhood memories were full of hatred towards abah after what he had done to mak and it was not just me, but also my siblings. And not until couple months before I came to the States that I fully understood my confusion of mak's devotion (Yeah, another childhood pshychological trauma. Nothing much to complain about). Trudi and Rudi's love shows me exactly what I need to see as a son and a future partner to a soul.

I miss you, mak, abah.

Okuribito - Death is not the end of humanity

It could be told from most of my entries that I'm amateurishly sentimental (speaking about professional, Yasmin Ahmad owned it). Okuribito (Departures) definitely deepened my understanding of this human's emotion, in coping with life. It does not really have mind-twisted-tricky plots because its events unravel predictably, but the film is profoundly affecting, well-written moving story, rich characters and superlative acting - Kudos to Yojiro Takita.


The fact that it has expected plots does not take away all the credits from other attributes of the movie. Kundo Kayama's screenplay has made the film very well-paced. I'm amazed by his way of putting real-life witty gist in every encoffing ceremonies.

In a scene, in the office, when it's snowing over Christmas outside, Sasaki, Yuriko and Daigo are enjoying fried chicken with wines. And Daigo grabs his old cello to play a song requested by Yuriko.

Daigo - Well what should I play?
Sasaki - Let's see.. something Christmasy
Daigo - Uh..will different religions bother you?
Sasaki - Don't worry. Buddism, Christian, Islam, Hindu. We handle all religions here.
Daigo - Then, for the Holy Night.

And there it goes the best version of Holy Night I've ever heard. This is another part that made me drown into the film, the music composed by Joe Hisaishi. Soundtracks have been my attentions in watching movies since Casablanca and I believe Hisaishi has composed and placed ALL the soundtracks well in the film. It was very moving piece for me. (And guess what..I just bought its original soundtracks!)

Regarding the acting, personally, I found it is hard to pull off Daigo Kobayashi character portrayed by Masahiro Motoki as I've been told by my acting mentor to put myself in actors shoes when I watch acting performances. Interconnected emotionally, Daigo and I have a common painful history except that he is healed, sadly with a heart-wrenching lost. Overall, I found that the actors never overplay, never spell out what can be said in a glance or a shrug, communicate great passion very quietly, as I wish Daigo's extremely cheerful wife, Mika (Ryoko Hirosue) was real.

As one of the runners for Best Foreign Language Film along with Waltz With Bashir, Der Baader-Meinhof Komplex and The Class, Departures definitely surprized lot of critics. From my perspective after watching all the films running for the title, I think Departures deserved the Oscar.

Death may be the termination of a life, but it's not the end of humanity.

New!

Running on tracks, entertaining along with orchestras, playing in team sports, arguing on stage, flying across the world, backpacking on a well-known trail, climbing at one of the most greatest climbing spots...and now, cooking in a kitchen!
I got a job helping a culinary chef at The Union.

Happy Go Lucky

"Enraha" the word stuck in my mind right now whenever I think about "Happy Go Lucky". My acting mentor, Rich Rands, told me to see this hilarious and enriching movie directed by Mike Leigh because the fact that Mike Leigh uses a lot of improvisation in his script, from what the actors come up with during rehearsals.

Critics elaborately talked about Sally Hawkins' ability to portray Poppy's character, who must smile, be peppy, optimistic, talk high-pitched with infectious giggle at almost all times. It must be done naturally and convincingly, which some claims that's harder than playing Lady Macbeth. However, for me, I strayed away a little bit from my actual purpose of watching the movie. It took me far away from thinking about technical acting abilities among the actors, which I was told to look at. The storytelling aspect of the movie brought me to a higher level of understanding humanity in the effect of Sally's portrayal in "living truthfully under imaginary circumstances".

Mostly, Poppy's life episodes are similar to us, me, at least and that means the characters she encounters or surrounded by. But, the ways she deals with all of these, regardless the emotional states of the situations, has shown me the wonderful side of humanity. For instance, Poppy's relationship with Scott (Eddie Marsan). Bad tempered, Scott is an odd for a driving instructor especially he seems to channel road rage. His system for helping her remember the rear-view mirror and the two side mirrors involve naming them after fallen angels. He screams at her. No one could drive with Scott at their side. Any other person would quit working with Scott after one lesson. Not Poppy. Does she think she can help him? Their relationship descends into an extraordinary scene during which we suddenly see right inside both of them and understand better what Poppy's cheerfulness is all about. We also see Scott's terrifying insecurity and self-loathing.

Apart from very thick British accents, which I was having a hard time to understand with, I believe "Happy Go Lucky" has taught me the value of accepting people around me, despite their traits and characteristics.
"Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart" - Marcus Aurelius 121-80 AD, Roman Emperor, Philosopher.

Pain

There's too much pains obscurely portrayed by Kristin Scott Thomas in this masterpiece from Phillipe Claudel. No fancy shots. No distinctive and eloquent soundtracks. Just purely and emotionally engaged characters pulling off the cruelty state of "pain". This portrait strikes the feeling right away when it comes out in the movie. It's a very beautiful piece by Emile Friant. (click on the image for larger version)

I've Loved You So Long carries small zephyrs of suspense, but they are not the kind to send chills down te spine and set us grippping the handles of our seats. If you happened to see this one, try to fully immersed yourself in the characters' emotions.

Universal language

I was sitting in Green-room (a room for actors chillin when they are not on stage) reading an article about Dustin Lance Black's struggles to make Milk happens in W, when I heard somebody sang "Kendati selautan segunung/Permata di kanan dan kiri/Selagi jantungku berdegup hingga tiba saat terhenti/Dialah dihati" with perfect enunciation! It was Nico singing that verse while listening to his iPOD. It amazed me too that he told me he was trying hard to find the song after listening to Siti's beautiful rendition from Royal Albert Hall concert years ago. Since he found that song, he said he's been listening to Siti's over and over again and can't help falling in love with her voice.

Weeks ago he asked me who's the best singer in Malaysia and with no doubt I said Siti Nurhaliza three times so he could pronouce it correctly. I didn't expect that he's gonna be really into Siti, considering the fact that he doesn't know Malay to understand Siti's songs. He said "The beauty of arts is universal. Arts speak universal language."

I don't understand Italian but after listening to this song, a collaboration between three great legends, Andrea Brocelli, Chris Botti and David Foster to produce the mesmerizing piece, Italia, I couldn't agree less with Nico.