Recent trip back home and Toronto: link
Kuala Lumpur: link
Singapore: link
Singapore and KL part 2! link
Random airports: link
Strange things: link
so there you have it for those that are not on Facebook
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Listenings - Arcade Fire
 | The Suburbs by Arcade Fire (2010) There are very few albums that are as lengthy as this one (around 63 minutes) that I'm not tempted to skip any songs or hope that a particular song ends.This is definitely the best album that I've listened to this year. It's got all that makes Arcade Fire the band to pay attention to: great arrangements, lyrics that are as meaningful as we want them to be and some experiments in terms of genre (Sprawl II comes to mind - Blondie-Abba?) Lyrically, its in my opinion about the alienation that comes from living in an ascepticised planned out suburbs and at the same time it questions our modern day living. As with any work of art everyone will find its place in this album be it a place that you feel nostalgic about or that you never want to live in, this album will hopefully speak to a lot of people. "Sometimes I can't believe it. I'm moving past the feeling." 9.5/10 more info video (Ready to Start live at MSG directed by Terry Gilliam) |
 | Blood Like Lemonade by Morcheeba (2010) First album I hear from them (which is sad since it's their 8th). When listening to this I instantly thought of Massive Attack. Electronic trip-hop rock soul-ish sang with a beautiful sensual voice by Skye Edwards. Sounds like too many styles in one but that's what it really is. It's a delight to listen to on a rainy day, wanting to relax and not worrying about anything. When done listening to the album you're left with a bittersweet feeling. Musically interesting and sang with such feeling that we feel that we came out grown up, but there's a sense of melancholy and dread that permeates the air when all is said and done. 8.5/10 more info video (Even Though) |
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Back in the RoK - round 2
So it seems that I'll be going for round 2 in Korea. Only time will tell if it was the right decision. Many things on my mind as to what I should really be doing here aside from the obvious which is work and making money. I'll start writing a lot more - at least that's the plan.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Inception
Inception by Christopher Nolan (2010) USA
Four weeks ago, I had never heard about this movie. Then I bough an issue of American Cinematographer (which was extremely overpriced here in Seoul) and got interested in it although nothing was said about the plot. The article was well written and very informative about the photography in the movie. I then saw the trailer and got even more interested. Now I've seen it, really enjoyed it and I don't know how to re-construct this movie so that it makes sense in my mind. Christopher Nolan played with time and space in this movie like we've rarely seen in movies recently. It's reminiscent of Memento, which he also wrote and directed.
Now for the movie; in order to understand it we must look for answers on-screen and on the soundtrack. We must also understand the logic and rules that the movie sets up, namely for sleep travelling. So you have an architect who apparently creates "dreams spaces" in reality, which are then reflected in dreams (boundaries and mazes). You need a "kick" / trigger to wake up from dreams. If you die while in a deep dream, due to heavy drugs, you'll end up in limbo and might never wake up. You can also reach limbo by forgetting that you're in a dream. If the participants in someone's dream demonstrate that they know that they're in a dream, people (projections of the subconscious) around will react and will kick that person out of the his dream state. Just trying to figure out how these dreams function is not easy. An architect design levels (like videogames) where dreamers (subconscious) fill up the space and moreover in the case of multi layered dreams, someone must stay behind to initiate kicks and make sure that people "wake up". So the main dream sequence is constructed by Ariadne, populated with Eames, Yusuf, Saito, Fischer, Arthur and Cobb. Fischer is the only person in there that is not fully aware of the intentions of the other subconsciousness / participants and thus the team can mess around with his mind. So because Fischer is unaware of these things, all dreams are populated with thugs and mercenaries which are subconscious representation of Fischer's "mental defenses training" that prevents people from playing with his mind.
This movie could be playing with our minds for the sakes of playing with our minds and thus we cannot re-construct the movie logically. Maybe there are also keys to understanding this movie which are not so obvious on screen. I'd like to think that what we need to understand in this movie is on screen. Cobb is grieving the loss of his wife and he misses his kids. Now what he does to find his kids again is the essence of the movie. And what an adventure it is!
"Their dreams have become their reality, they come here to wake up"
It's a rare time in movie history that I'm kept wondering about what I've just seen and not having discussions about the deep meaning of it (like let's say we could do after watching The Seventh Seal or The White Ribbon). We are kept wondering about seemingly simple things like, well, "What the hell happens in this movie?" ! We want to re-construct it so that it makes sense and we're really wondering if it's all a dream. Well first of all our first reaction is obviously "Oh! Is he dreaming this reunion with his kids?" Some people find it cheap to end the movie that way. But what if it's the whole point to keep us wondering and make us feel like being in a dream like state. As spectators when Cobb's totem keeps spinning we really hope that it will fall but then Nolan doesn't give us satisfaction, just a simple wobble which unless we actually see it stop spinning it does not give us any answers. Can we reconstruct this movie so that it makes sense to us and that we are sure beyond any doubt that some scenes are taking place in the so-called reality. Ultimately Nolan forces us to think about what we've just seen and focus on many elements of the movie, not only its story, but also its editing.
Beyond a doubt there are going to be many answers to the question of "What happens in this movie?". And many of these scenarios will be plausible since answers are not given to us implicitly in the movie. Once again maybe that's Nolan's intentions. He shows us just enough elements to create a plausible story but in reality there are not enough of them to create something that would seem true to us. I would also go as far as saying that he's playing with our expectations of what a narrative is without being too experimental and "out there" in order for the movie to be this Hollywood blockbuster. Without a doubt, it will be a success at the box office because it is after all an action movie with cool effects à la Matrix and whatnot. Nonetheless within this blockbuster format Nolan goes that extra step to create something that plays with narrative like we've rarely seen coming from a studio production. It obviously helps to have crafted one of the most lucrative movie ever (Dark Knight). But that's an whole other discussion!
Quite often we see Cobb spinning his totem and feeling relieved, like him, that it stops spinning. We would expect that from reality; this object cannot spin forever in our reality. Let's not forget that Cobb mentions while in dream state, that if the totem stops spinning it means that he's in reality! Why don't we see the other characters looking at their totems to make sure that they are in this so-called reality? Of course they aren't the main characters so it could be the reason why no importance is attached to them regarding this. Either way he does spin it in the Tokyo hotel and it stops and then calls his kids. Important scene because if this is reality then most of the movie is explainable (well not all...) I've read on some forum that paying attention to Cobb's ring is an indicator of a dreamlike state and I must say that it's true. Most scenes that we would at first glance call a dream he wears his wedding ring and then when we want to see it the most, in the last scene, we never see his left hand clearly...
Take a leap of faith: we hear this twice in the movie: once from Saito and once from Mal. Strikes me as a strange thing to say since obviously in both cases his decisions would affect his faith be it in the real world or not. Could both characters be hinting that Cobb should jump out of his dream? Jump down a building to finally wake up? Mal and Ariadne do it but he can't...
Edith Piaf's song "Non je ne regrette rien" - I do not regret anything: how fitting for this movie. Interestingly enough Edith Piaf was played by Marion Cotillard (Mal) in the movie La Vie en Rose! This song is diagetic thus heard by characters. In my opinion it's a clear sign that using this is too close to being unreal - why would they use this song in reality? Why chose a song which theme is regret? Cobb is filled with regret and conveniently enough the "kick" music is about regret. How odd... And why would they choose a French song? I believe that this song is used in dreams and this creates an issue since its used in the Paris scene which is a scene that most viewers would interpret as reality.
Cobb can't go back to the USA because he says that "they think I killed her" (Mal). Let's take a second to think about this because it's basically Cobb's whole motivation and the main plot of the movie. Now if Mal actually committed suicide and went through all the trouble to get herself diagnosed as suicidal and basically mentally unstable, why would Cobb leave right away like this since his kids are so important to him? All these events around him seem too complicated for them to be reality! A mysterious organisation chasing him (Cobol?), a man with so much power and wealth (Saito) that makes us wonder why he would go through all the trouble to get Cobb to plant ideas in Fisher's mind? Which makes me very uncomfortable since it seems that too many elements point to the fact that this movie was all a dream! Ariadne seems a little bit too comfortable with this whole dream travel thing. Of course if the world in which Inception takes place is completely aware of these things, it would not be such an issue. This whole easy acceptance seems too convenient to be reality though. Oddly enough, it does not seem like the real world in Inception is especially advanced, in a Blade Runner kind of way, which re-enforces this notion that whatever happens in the whole movie is really a dream.
In the end it's interesting that I started writing this wanting in order to find a logical explanation to the movie and finding reality and of course saying without a doubt how it end, but all I managed to do is find that it might just all be a dream. And in the end it's similar to the events in the movie: Cobb wants to find reality (his kids) throughout the whole movie and just when he thinks he found them it might not be reality... and this is where he wakes up again on the beach and finds Saito and tries to remember why he was there! Like Escher's stairways, which we see an example in one scene, this movie could be about Cobb's endless looping dreams. As soon as he thinks that he's reunited with reality (his kids), he becomes unaware that it's a dream and keeps on dreaming since I believe that he's stuck in limbo. So it's almost beside the point that we do not see his totem spinning to the end or not in the final shot, because the totem is not important!
Parts:
1) Cobb meets old Saito
2) Cobb mission in Saito's mind to find something
3) Cobb assembling a team to complete Saito's mission (Inception)
4) Mission/Dream 3 + 1 layers
Four weeks ago, I had never heard about this movie. Then I bough an issue of American Cinematographer (which was extremely overpriced here in Seoul) and got interested in it although nothing was said about the plot. The article was well written and very informative about the photography in the movie. I then saw the trailer and got even more interested. Now I've seen it, really enjoyed it and I don't know how to re-construct this movie so that it makes sense in my mind. Christopher Nolan played with time and space in this movie like we've rarely seen in movies recently. It's reminiscent of Memento, which he also wrote and directed.
Now for the movie; in order to understand it we must look for answers on-screen and on the soundtrack. We must also understand the logic and rules that the movie sets up, namely for sleep travelling. So you have an architect who apparently creates "dreams spaces" in reality, which are then reflected in dreams (boundaries and mazes). You need a "kick" / trigger to wake up from dreams. If you die while in a deep dream, due to heavy drugs, you'll end up in limbo and might never wake up. You can also reach limbo by forgetting that you're in a dream. If the participants in someone's dream demonstrate that they know that they're in a dream, people (projections of the subconscious) around will react and will kick that person out of the his dream state. Just trying to figure out how these dreams function is not easy. An architect design levels (like videogames) where dreamers (subconscious) fill up the space and moreover in the case of multi layered dreams, someone must stay behind to initiate kicks and make sure that people "wake up". So the main dream sequence is constructed by Ariadne, populated with Eames, Yusuf, Saito, Fischer, Arthur and Cobb. Fischer is the only person in there that is not fully aware of the intentions of the other subconsciousness / participants and thus the team can mess around with his mind. So because Fischer is unaware of these things, all dreams are populated with thugs and mercenaries which are subconscious representation of Fischer's "mental defenses training" that prevents people from playing with his mind.
This movie could be playing with our minds for the sakes of playing with our minds and thus we cannot re-construct the movie logically. Maybe there are also keys to understanding this movie which are not so obvious on screen. I'd like to think that what we need to understand in this movie is on screen. Cobb is grieving the loss of his wife and he misses his kids. Now what he does to find his kids again is the essence of the movie. And what an adventure it is!
"Their dreams have become their reality, they come here to wake up"
It's a rare time in movie history that I'm kept wondering about what I've just seen and not having discussions about the deep meaning of it (like let's say we could do after watching The Seventh Seal or The White Ribbon). We are kept wondering about seemingly simple things like, well, "What the hell happens in this movie?" ! We want to re-construct it so that it makes sense and we're really wondering if it's all a dream. Well first of all our first reaction is obviously "Oh! Is he dreaming this reunion with his kids?" Some people find it cheap to end the movie that way. But what if it's the whole point to keep us wondering and make us feel like being in a dream like state. As spectators when Cobb's totem keeps spinning we really hope that it will fall but then Nolan doesn't give us satisfaction, just a simple wobble which unless we actually see it stop spinning it does not give us any answers. Can we reconstruct this movie so that it makes sense to us and that we are sure beyond any doubt that some scenes are taking place in the so-called reality. Ultimately Nolan forces us to think about what we've just seen and focus on many elements of the movie, not only its story, but also its editing.
Beyond a doubt there are going to be many answers to the question of "What happens in this movie?". And many of these scenarios will be plausible since answers are not given to us implicitly in the movie. Once again maybe that's Nolan's intentions. He shows us just enough elements to create a plausible story but in reality there are not enough of them to create something that would seem true to us. I would also go as far as saying that he's playing with our expectations of what a narrative is without being too experimental and "out there" in order for the movie to be this Hollywood blockbuster. Without a doubt, it will be a success at the box office because it is after all an action movie with cool effects à la Matrix and whatnot. Nonetheless within this blockbuster format Nolan goes that extra step to create something that plays with narrative like we've rarely seen coming from a studio production. It obviously helps to have crafted one of the most lucrative movie ever (Dark Knight). But that's an whole other discussion!
Quite often we see Cobb spinning his totem and feeling relieved, like him, that it stops spinning. We would expect that from reality; this object cannot spin forever in our reality. Let's not forget that Cobb mentions while in dream state, that if the totem stops spinning it means that he's in reality! Why don't we see the other characters looking at their totems to make sure that they are in this so-called reality? Of course they aren't the main characters so it could be the reason why no importance is attached to them regarding this. Either way he does spin it in the Tokyo hotel and it stops and then calls his kids. Important scene because if this is reality then most of the movie is explainable (well not all...) I've read on some forum that paying attention to Cobb's ring is an indicator of a dreamlike state and I must say that it's true. Most scenes that we would at first glance call a dream he wears his wedding ring and then when we want to see it the most, in the last scene, we never see his left hand clearly...
Take a leap of faith: we hear this twice in the movie: once from Saito and once from Mal. Strikes me as a strange thing to say since obviously in both cases his decisions would affect his faith be it in the real world or not. Could both characters be hinting that Cobb should jump out of his dream? Jump down a building to finally wake up? Mal and Ariadne do it but he can't...
Edith Piaf's song "Non je ne regrette rien" - I do not regret anything: how fitting for this movie. Interestingly enough Edith Piaf was played by Marion Cotillard (Mal) in the movie La Vie en Rose! This song is diagetic thus heard by characters. In my opinion it's a clear sign that using this is too close to being unreal - why would they use this song in reality? Why chose a song which theme is regret? Cobb is filled with regret and conveniently enough the "kick" music is about regret. How odd... And why would they choose a French song? I believe that this song is used in dreams and this creates an issue since its used in the Paris scene which is a scene that most viewers would interpret as reality.
Cobb can't go back to the USA because he says that "they think I killed her" (Mal). Let's take a second to think about this because it's basically Cobb's whole motivation and the main plot of the movie. Now if Mal actually committed suicide and went through all the trouble to get herself diagnosed as suicidal and basically mentally unstable, why would Cobb leave right away like this since his kids are so important to him? All these events around him seem too complicated for them to be reality! A mysterious organisation chasing him (Cobol?), a man with so much power and wealth (Saito) that makes us wonder why he would go through all the trouble to get Cobb to plant ideas in Fisher's mind? Which makes me very uncomfortable since it seems that too many elements point to the fact that this movie was all a dream! Ariadne seems a little bit too comfortable with this whole dream travel thing. Of course if the world in which Inception takes place is completely aware of these things, it would not be such an issue. This whole easy acceptance seems too convenient to be reality though. Oddly enough, it does not seem like the real world in Inception is especially advanced, in a Blade Runner kind of way, which re-enforces this notion that whatever happens in the whole movie is really a dream.
In the end it's interesting that I started writing this wanting in order to find a logical explanation to the movie and finding reality and of course saying without a doubt how it end, but all I managed to do is find that it might just all be a dream. And in the end it's similar to the events in the movie: Cobb wants to find reality (his kids) throughout the whole movie and just when he thinks he found them it might not be reality... and this is where he wakes up again on the beach and finds Saito and tries to remember why he was there! Like Escher's stairways, which we see an example in one scene, this movie could be about Cobb's endless looping dreams. As soon as he thinks that he's reunited with reality (his kids), he becomes unaware that it's a dream and keeps on dreaming since I believe that he's stuck in limbo. So it's almost beside the point that we do not see his totem spinning to the end or not in the final shot, because the totem is not important!
Parts:
1) Cobb meets old Saito
2) Cobb mission in Saito's mind to find something
3) Cobb assembling a team to complete Saito's mission (Inception)
4) Mission/Dream 3 + 1 layers
5) Cobb meets old Saito (similar to #1)
6) Cobb in airport and home
Nolan uses the oldest trick in the book to start the movie with a scene that we'll eventually see later in the movie. It's been done often, for example in Kubrick's Lolita. In relation to the whole looping of the story it becomes much more than a simple editing trick. But it's not that easy since the movie does not end with Saito but with Cobb re-uniting with his kids. So if Saito kills himself in part 5 (which we don't see), it means that he wakes up in the real world but how does Cobb wakes up? Maybe Saito shoots Cobb then himself? Pushing it a lot since this relies on too many elements not seen on screen. Anyways between part 4 and 5 how does Cobb meet up with Saito? He seems to be waking up in yet another layer. Whose dream is it though? What's the kick? Is this limbo? Mal stabs him in the 4th layer of the Inception dream. So if he dies from this wound he would go to limbo, if he decided to give himself a kick like jumping off the building he would probably not be with Saito.
Who is Saito? If Eames can mimic somebody in someone else's dream, could there be any mimics in Cobb's dreams?
All in all, it's actually hard to point at things that would be beyond any doubt what we would call reality in this movie.
Digress:
Is Saito actually Cobb's father (as a mimic) that's testing him to see if he can let go of his deceased wife to get access once again to his kids proving therefore that he's finally able to live without her?
It would be too easy to say that most characters in this movie are only Cobb's projections and thus we are left with nothing that connects us to any reality whatsoever.
6) Cobb in airport and home
Nolan uses the oldest trick in the book to start the movie with a scene that we'll eventually see later in the movie. It's been done often, for example in Kubrick's Lolita. In relation to the whole looping of the story it becomes much more than a simple editing trick. But it's not that easy since the movie does not end with Saito but with Cobb re-uniting with his kids. So if Saito kills himself in part 5 (which we don't see), it means that he wakes up in the real world but how does Cobb wakes up? Maybe Saito shoots Cobb then himself? Pushing it a lot since this relies on too many elements not seen on screen. Anyways between part 4 and 5 how does Cobb meet up with Saito? He seems to be waking up in yet another layer. Whose dream is it though? What's the kick? Is this limbo? Mal stabs him in the 4th layer of the Inception dream. So if he dies from this wound he would go to limbo, if he decided to give himself a kick like jumping off the building he would probably not be with Saito.
Who is Saito? If Eames can mimic somebody in someone else's dream, could there be any mimics in Cobb's dreams?
All in all, it's actually hard to point at things that would be beyond any doubt what we would call reality in this movie.
Digress:
Is Saito actually Cobb's father (as a mimic) that's testing him to see if he can let go of his deceased wife to get access once again to his kids proving therefore that he's finally able to live without her?
It would be too easy to say that most characters in this movie are only Cobb's projections and thus we are left with nothing that connects us to any reality whatsoever.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Recent readings - Then We Came to the End
 | Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris (2007) The office is often an inspiration for literature and movies. This novel is about a Chicago advertising company that is downsizing and the lives of each employees and work anecdotes. What makes this story interesting is how the author catches our attention with funny as well as sad stories about each characters. The totem incident is just one example of an absurdly funny sub plot that is to be found in this book. Interestingly enough, even the sad parts (ovarian cancer) can also be funny at times and simply humane as well. Anybody who has worked, or is working in an office can relate to many incidents and anecdotes in this book. The way it's written is also inclusive (use of "we") and we're drawn more easily in the story. I will stay tuned for more work from this author. |
Recent Viewings - Silmido
 | Silmido by Woo-suk Kang (2003) Korea Back in 1968, North Korea sent a group of commando to try to assassinate S. Korea's president at the time. They failed but were not that far from the blue house when they got caught! They were known as Unit 124 back in the North. Shortly after, S. Korean government decided to create a similar unit which they called unit 684 to try to go to Pyeongyang and assassinate Kim Il-Sung. Interestingly, unit 684 was comprised only of convicts. They stayed on the island of Silmido for years before the government decided to get rid of them by killing them! Hearing of this, they try to make their way to Seoul to probably take their revenge. They got intercepted and they were killed or sentenced to death. This movie recreates the events surrouding unit 684, their training and their demise. The movie does what it should do pretty well. Training sequences are brutal, music is there to make us feel empathy for the unit, men who are at first annoyed by each other finally bound (they don't really have a choice anyways because they're stuck on this island). It's a politically charged movie although not so much in your face as it could be. Interesting to see how the S. Korean government handled this situation and never gave the green light for the assassination attempt. This movie left me wondering what if they actually went with the mission and succeed. This part of the world would be very different right now.. |
Listenings - Pantha du Prince, Local Natives, Memory Tapes, Love is All
 | Black Noise by Pantha du Prince (2010) I've never actually listened to a full techno album before this so I'm not even sure after listening to it what to say about it. Sounds like lounge music to me and possibly dance floor material. I'm probably going to say this quite often: this is an album that can only do it's thing as background noise, at least for me. I doesn't feel appropriate for me to review this album either. No score... more info video (Stick To My Side) |
 | Gorilla Manor by Local Natives (2010) Fun sounding album with little hook. At least give us one or two memorable tracks so that we could have a reason to listen to the rest. I don't want to feel like it's a chore to appreciate an album (and this happens quite often indeed). I did not have a lot of patience for this album and I wanted it to end quickly. It still feels like they're having fun on this record... although it's the kind of party that I'm not sure I want to go to unless I want to get bored. 5/10 more info video (Airplane) |
 | Seek Magic by Memory Tapes (2009) A one-man solo album by Davye Hawk. It's a mix of different genre: dance, eletronica and a little bit of funk and rock. It's like if Hawk wanted to put in one album all the different genre that interested him. It all flows well though, it's not a compilation of random genres. The only problem is that it never actually lifts up! It's perfect music for a relaxing sunny afternoon though and for some reason I think it would play well in a cafe! There's also an extra track on another cd titled Treeship which is 22 minutes long (somebody made a 7:30 vid). While listening to this I was thinking that somebody should make a short animated movie with this track as background music. The whole song creates a narrative with only music. Something like La Planete Sauvage would be interesting. 7/10 more info video (Stop Talking - live but not a great vid) |
 | Ten Thousand and Ten Injuries by Love is All (2010) Great indie pop rock (yeah I know indie and pop don't really go together!) from this happy bunch of Swedes. The album sounds great (something to do with production I guess), the saxophone is an interesting addition to what we could call a punk-revival band, the length of the album is just around 34 min. which is like the perfect timing for an album in my humble opinion. If you did not know this band start with this and listen to their previous album as well (A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night). Thoroughly enjoyed this album. 8/10 more info video |
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