Esoteric Life...(4/7)

Chewing gum of the summer...(22/9)

Random Madrid...(19/9)

Cinema...(12/9)

Finally is the word to use, as the idea to explore the independent cinema in Paris has been a long-term goal since I first moved to the city some years ago. Apart from a few I went in the 7eme due to work purposes, I have been puzzled by the clusters of tiny cinemas in the Latin area. Today I went to this classic screening operator and found my memory in CineArt in Wanchai, largely due to the old foldable leather armchairs. Basically like a 'one-man' show, the cinema owner (I suppose) demonstrated his business workflow from door-opening to ticket sales, machine setting, film rolling, "air"-conditioning, film projecting etc in a versatile manner. Basically independent cinema is more for cinema-lovers, if not only film-lovers.

See the Light to Come...(20/8)

Seeing is believing, but sometimes it depends on how we look at things…
I like taking photos. The more I practise capturing moving images with my camera, the more I find an alternative way to interpret time and life in the surrounding. The advanced technology in photography enables us to take a picture simply with one click. It becomes too easy sometimes that action with camera simply replaces part of the sensational system of mankind to external happenings and stimulation. People may think that, ‘no worry, I have taken a photo for memory’, but how much memory do they keep just because they take a photo and somehow neglect the basic element to really ‘look at’ things carefully. The same phenomenon can probably occur in certain devastating humanitarian-related affairs when the actual happening is easily prejudiced by a few cliché photos that may not have fully captured the reality. Bearing in mind the tendency to be negligent, it becomes more of a technique to ‘define’ the photography objects and to ‘select’ the means of interpretation about the objects. Here I find the fun to be a camera person…
…As I see the peace and the beauty
…The hope and the future
...people and the life
…The globe of movement
…The totality of the universe
I spent a week in Warsaw this summer and went to Cmentarze Powazkowskie, a cemetery in the north-western part of Warsaw, to visit the grave of a well respected Polish film director, Krzysztof Kieslowski. The cemetery visit inspired me much to contemplate and appreciate life, and some of the ‘nature morte’ snapshots can be found here...
http://www.kodakgallery.eu.com/ShareLanding.action?c=jiw1j59.1exwy214h&x=0&h=1&y=z8mogq&localeid=en_GB_EURO

The journey...(13/7)

Films of the Month...(28/1)

A dream in theatre...(27/12)

It was my first trip to London in 1998. Accompanying me along the trip was a notebook with made of calfskin parchment. A loaded white papers full of dreams and fantasies. Youth was the ever-flowing ink that bound itself inside a silent of passion and glory. The trip was an inspiring and enlightening voyage of life, and framed with Warhol's quote of the "15-minute stardom", I thought of a devotion to theatre and performing arts...
The splendid theatre industry in London was fascinating. Filled with strokes of colours and relativity of brightness, the moving objects are shaping their shadows in a waltz. Lights in, and lights out, and a fame rested inside the deeper end of an unexplored land. A decade, slowly evolving in its set pattern, and actors act, as of they ever choose to play. Summers come and go, and quietly, the ink fades into the sepia butterfly wings...a reprise of waltz dance in the virtually cooling air. Tonight, the striking beams of contrasting lights brought me a flashing memory of the once-upon-a-time gorgeous moments of florescent glory. My pen writes in past tense...

The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus...(27/11)

The all-time formula on exploration of the imaginative world in front of the big scene of cinematography applies to blockbuster fans like me, as always. This one is more special - it is special because of the life and the death, or the snapshot and the eternity, and without the melancholic egoism, the clown was dancing in front of the theatre prop set, elegantly and colourfully... It is also about independent film production, an expensive purchase of invaluable imaginations. With a natural and peaceful mind to enter the off-realistic dynasty of mindful bubbles, it is a purification of ignorance and forgotten cruelness. Playing shadow, a trick of magician, a story-telling old man, a query-less absent-mind. This is the imaginarium of Dr Parnassus... make a choice not to choose now.

Existence...(28/7)

sweded...(2/6)

Be kind enough to accept this long-jargoned web 2.0 world...let's rewind and accept this as a terminology of the continuation of the greatest invention in the 20th century, named the Wired or the Time Magazine. Michel Gondry has the courage to play his lo-fi filmatology based on his solid and breakthrough mtving technique in his previous works in the 90's...
Further to the success of la science de reve, he sweded his career and brought to this techy Be Kind Rewinded movie. Cool and humourous. I would say Michel is the best performer at present to truly plays with his methodology in the cinematic setting of story telling. Be sweded and be creative, check some sweders on web!

Eyeball keeps rolling...(19/1)

Darjeeling...(17/1)

This is another wonderful journey of Wes Anderson in India, and exotic enough, would this be his own way of deconstructing his world...Roman Coppola continues his role of an assistant director to add his belle-motion filming into the pilgrimage story of the three brothers. Spiritual, and funny enough would this film-noir continues to be a vivid stream of cinematology of the Hollywood world. It carries the Western value of the mythic world of the East. Darjeeling, a daily word of their life now, forms a very symbolic approach to this paysage region in India. Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola enjoy the possibilities and variations in their film. Part 1 of the film is a truly root of transition from the Parisian world into an adventurous kaleidoscopic discovery of Darjeeling, or the moment of pause and quietness away from the modern people's life. The rhythm of the film is nice, and the pace speaks the language of the film. Of course, the suitcases sponsored by Marc Jacob and Louis Vuitton are the main character of the film. Bill Murray is always lovely in the film.

Rose...(12/1)

Le Petit Prince tells us that everyone has one's roses: the unique bunch of possession and translation of the meaning of life...
If the story of Antoine de Saint-Exupery expresses the sensation of hopeless and frustration of life during the second world war period, it should be regarded as only a fairy tale of the era. The stage version of le petit prince currently performed at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre is not a good provision of Saint-Exupery's philosophical definition to explore the forgotten world of life. The musical simplified the complexity and depth of the story by assuming the monolithic reasoning of the grown-ups. Apart from repeating the 'theories' and 'belief' which the script writer considers Saint-Exupery would like to address to his audience, there was no metamorphic approach to translate the story of le petit prince. A simply dialogue, performed with a repetitive lyrics of the presumed meaning of the story. Sadnessly be such arrangement a failure of the overall musical performance, no matter how the just-in-time sound effect or visually-impacting stage design attempted to rescue the play. The word 'ephemeral', on the other hand, is a pleasing jeu-de-mot. I like the possible possibilities such word embraces. When le petit prince talked about his rose, he was only caught by the empathetic appearance of the contradicting nature of rose, or the interpretation of his world during his journey of life. Should I have the privilege to choose the substance of the Rose, I would rather prefer the inspiring vision Anthony Reynolds wrote, 'the dying rose sees the death of love'...an identical ephemeral value to Fassbinder's love is cooler than death.

Numeration...(5/1)

The by-product of the digital world, being the numeric interpretation of things and feelings in the world, is the current jargon of the cinematography...People are more conscious or receptive to numbers as a conversion to their expression as well as interpretation to expression. There are counting days of the post-disastrous era in I am Legend, a symbolic record of the length of life and meaning of life. The sensation of Elizabeth is measured in miles from New York, the city where she dragged on for ages, in My Blueberry Nights. The distance is of no meaning, but it was the tone of Ry Cooder. The decreasing number of population in Aliens Vs Predator 2 is another symptom of numeration for the battle of species. Audience can easily be fed with the dualistic analysis of to be and not to be, in numeric terms. Human cognition is suppressed with the simplified calculation of recognisable measurement of nature. We are content, and at the same time, we learn only how to weigh the substance in an undigested way. Human intelligence, fading.

Flashing 24+...(31/10)

... 2007 is a fast moment. The past few months nurtured a blossoming self during the transition of time and displacement of coordination on the planet. Contemplation is splendid in the fast moving seconds. Under this circumstance, the movie industry totally fits into the life of city people...
An environmental friendly initiative to save people energy - there is hardly any need for movie lovers to think and appreciate. Formula-one style arrangement of movies' script. When you watch a film, you don't really feel like having watched it. A successful formula to replicate in the consumerism world...

Lust Diamond...(26/9)

The film is a masterpiece of Ang Lee, and an illusive expression of the short story of Eileen Chang by the now appraised Director Lee. The name of the story is rich, lust and caution, colour and splendid, diamond and promise. Is a revolution a symbolic caution of loyalty? It is a story of lust flattened by the glittering stones during the war time... The characters in the film are alluringly impressive, especially the stunting performance of Tang Wei. When there is no return of life in the enclosed cubicle, what would the morality and humanity be? Trust or lust, and all at last to dust. A line divides the way back home and the far edge of the end of loyalty, it is a lust, and it is a sin.

Amadeus...(2/9)

Re-watched this favourite film during the weekend of me. The 1984 version of Amadeus is used to be one of the best films I have seen during my childhood time...
The enigmatic Mozart was a true idol figure with the unique calling of the "one" charisma with arrogant notes and god-gifted genes of pride. I love the Mozart in the film who had the luxurious of pride and a colourful life indulged in the affluence of praise and self-actualisation. Salieri was a pathetic character in the play of Amadeus. The film was nicely produced. Instead of seeking orchestra performance from the Austrian brand in the film, the music part was played by the Czechoslovakian group. The impact of music notes in the film was touched, while the costume and the scene design were awesomely splendid. After Year 250 of Mozart, the legendary extension of his music life simply sublimes in his requiem mass in D minor...

Blossom...(25/8)

The dull flame of desired cashback @ 13...(25/6)

I first watched this trailer in MK2 Bibliotheque. It was one of the best trailers I saw in the past few years...dreamy, artistic, romantic. Because of the rushing schedule, I missed the film in the last days in Paris. I missed it again in last HKIFF when I was out of town. Finally I got into Cinematique after two and a half years and watched the full version of Sean Ellis' work. The film was was not bad, but expectation usually blocked my way to see the real picture. It is the second that people see eternity. The concept reminds me the time box which people put under the soil at a specific location for a reason to go back to the one second after ages. Bjork and Antony performed the english version of Fyodor Tyutchev's work that appeared last second in Tarkovsky's stalker. Unconsecutive seconds can sometimes be re-arranged consciously to extend the broadness of people's vision and imagination. Thirteen years ago, I first wrote my script. It was a hope of transmitting the second to eternity, and now it becomes the dull flame of desire. Still dreamy, still artistic, still romantic, and dull.