September 16, 2009

  • Interlude: Movies

    Mr. Muscle - Why men have more... From the Economist
    Risky Business - Women, Testosterone, Finance, and Risk

    I watched Red Cliff again, the other day, and still enjoyed it.  I do hope that more of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms makes it to the big screen.  Such an amazing cycle of intrigue...

    I've also been watching a lot more Thai film lately.  Perhaps it's because I'm not familiar with all of their cultural symbolism, stereotypes, and icons, but I found myself quite taken by the style and content of many recent films.

    Since seeing Shutter (a film about a murder and a photographer) and then Last Life in the Universe, I've gradually found that I've really enjoyed the Thai industries way of looking at stories.  Most likely, in 5-10 years, I'll have gotten used to their story telling methodology... but until then I'm really enjoying it.

    Recently, I've watched:  Coming Soon, Vengeance, Chocolate (think Ong Bak for girls - but different story twist), Ong Bak 2, 4Romance, Fireball, and The Victim.  Probably the most stereotyped stories were Chocolate, Ong Bak 2 and Fireball... but they still provided interesting angles to the stories. 

    Not bad, really.
    That Chocolate employs what appears to be an autistic martial arts idiot-savant female in definitely a different twist.

    But most striking to me is probably the fact that I've yet to see a Thai horror movie where the protagonists "win".  Moreover, the malevolence of Thai "bake" (sorry, used the Japanese word there... don't know the thai word yet) is really quite unearthly.  Most Chinese "ghost stories" tend to have a relatively sympathetic affect to the spirits -- there's a long history of romance with ghosts/spirits in chinese folklore.  Japanese Horror has its fair share of malevolence, but most have tended to be more personal, and there's at least an even chance that the protagonists will win.

    Speaking of good quality horror, in the States, I really like Fallen and Session 9.  Those are some of my recent US horror favourites -- that is, in the last 10 years.

    PS.
    Does anyone know anyone who would be interested in funding horror movies?


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