Christmas movie

I kinda want to watch this... but most likely I'll wait for VCD/DVD... =P



I think the Taiwan trailer is better



If you haven't watch the TV series yet, you can watch the whole series here with Chinese subtitles =P

Someone uploaded parts of the TV series on youtube!! I like the professor a lot, haha!

Movies I watched on my flight back

I don't know why all the 3 movies I chose to watch during my flight back to Hong Kong from Melbourne are all kinda sad... It's not even a deliberate choice, because I have no idea what they're about before I chose them...



Today, I kept thinking about this movie-- P.S. I Love You, it's about a young widow who has recently lost her husband and how she recovered from her loss through the letters left by her husband. (I don't know how it can be classified under Romantic Comedy, my tears just kept on running when I watched it... =P) Bereavement is a long process. During our fellowship sharing today, scenes from this movie just kept on flashing in my mind... I guess this movie kinda makes me think, this woman found the love of her life early in her life, when she had her husband, she quarreled with him the way every couple does. Then she lost her husband before she turned 30, it's like she lost everything in her life. When she recovered a bit, then her friends found their own happiness, leaving her alone. It's just so sad, and life is so unpredictable, when you should be happy, you aren't, and then you lose the important thing/person, life just goes on. I guess what I'm saying God is the only dependable being in our lives.



I didn't enjoy Charlie Wilson's War, it's not like it's a bad movie. It's more about politics than war. And it showed how one person can think they did something good, but the fact is what they have done would have some serious bad consequences. (This movie is about how the US helped Afghanistan in fighting the Soviet Union.) I didn't like the characters, I guess, that's why I was never "involved" in the movie, and even when it is also written by Aaron Sorkin, if you want to watch a bit of drama on politics, please watch the West Wing. The West Wing is just so much better. I didn't find the movie witty at all... despite what the other reviewers think...



I knew the Kite Runner is sad before I even watched it. I have been meaning to read the book for more than a year, but still haven't gotten round to it yet. It's also about Afghanistan. I have watched documentaries about the beauty of Afghanistan before the war, I don't know a lot about the history frankly, but how the friendship of the children was broken, that story is heart wrenching... and I have just read more about it on wikipedia, the novel itself seem to be worse... (I mean there're even more depressing details... I don't think I'll ever read it. =P)

Pearl Harbour

Summary from imdb.com (in case you have no idea what the movie is about)
The classic story of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor is told through the eyes of two boyhood friends, now serving as officers in the Army Air Corps. Rafe is an energetic young pilot who is selected to fly with the British in Europe while America is still not at war. After Rafe is shot down and presumed killed, however, Danny comforts Rafe's former lover, Evelyn, and the two draw closer. But, when Rafe turns up alive, the two former friends become enemies, and it is through the turmoil of Pearl Harbor that the two may reconcile their differences.

I really can't see why these people fell in love. I only remember the heroine said "the guy's butt is cute." and the hero said, "you're so beautiful."... I agree looks are an important part of the attraction, however, for a 3 hour movie with not much plot, frankly, I think I expect more than that... You don't spend the rest of your life with someone because their butts or looks... Am I getting really old to think like this??

As for the plot, the movie felt like a 2-hour one being stretched into 3 hours, unless we can get to know more about the characters (which we don't), then it may be ok... Luckily I was doing MCQs while watching it last night... =P

So you may ask, anything good about the movie??? well... Ben Affleck looks really gorgeous in the military uniform... HAHA!!

Awake

Wonder if this movie is going to be shown in HK?? It's a story about a guy who is having awareness during surgery...

The tagline is wrong about its incidence though... "Every year, one in 700 people wakes up during surgery. When they planned her husband's murder, they never thought he'd be the one." =P

The Pianist

The Pianist will be shown again on TVB Pearl tomorrow at 9:30pm.

I always tell people I don't watch this sort of movies. This "sort" meaning the sort that makes me unhappy.

Surprisingly, I liked it when I first watched it.

The movie is based on the true story of a famous Jewish pianist, Wladyslaw Szpilman, surviving the Holocaust. I'm not sure if I will re-watch it tomorrow, it's definitely heavy stuff. If you have never watched it before, I strongly recommend you to watch it tomorrow.

The movie was described like this in one of the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. I don't know how to describe my feelings on the movie better than this. "A portrait of hell so shattering it's impossible to shake."

(btw, seldom seen a movie being rated so high on Rotten Tomatoes =P)

At World's End

Pirates of the Carribbean 3 coming!! on 24/5/07. We can order tickets online NOW for cinemas in Hong Kong... so early... here... (Of course, I would NOT order online, so expensive... $75 for a ticket at AMC on the first day...)

The Pursuit of Happyness

No, that's NOT a typo, and why the unusual spelling? You need to go and see the movie yourself. :)



It's about Chris Gardner, how he took care of his boy living on next on nothing (They even slept in toilets inside the subway at times.) and in the end become a successful stockbroker and later on an entrepreneur.

The two most memorable lines (for me) from the movie (not verbatim, I can't remember them exactly =P)
1. Don't let anyone tell you you can't do it, not even me, you have a dream, go on and pursue it.
2. Thomas Jefferson wrote about protecting the pursuit of happiness in the Declaration of Independence, and I don't know how he knew to use the word "pursuit" because this is really a pursuit of happiness, one could never get it.

I have been poor, but never that dirt poor. I have worried about money when I was younger, but never like that, so I really admire Chris Gardner. To achieve such success under those circumstances.

I read this from a news report on Chris Gardner from Fortune. "But I do believe, with all my heart, that some of the things that I had to go through were God's way of getting me ready for what He wants me to do."

I think the most successful people are the ones who need to go through difficult times.

As for the pursuit of happiness, I think we can never be totally happy, I'm sure even after Chris Gardner got rich, he is still unhappy at times. Joy is a totally different thing. I think we need lots of things to be constantly happy. To be joyful, we only need God.

Check out his real story, just slightly different from the movie version,
from his biography here
from CNN here
from Fortune here

P.S. To those who went to see the movie with me (except one), Chris Gardner's son is really younger than us, he was 20 month old NOT 5 years old when he slept on the streets with him... =P He was 25 last year... And the year this story took place was 1982... =P

Why you should not waste your money on 300... MAJOR SPOILERS ahead...

Since certain people are surprised by the fact that I actually wanted to see this movie, I suppose I'll have to start first by explaining why I wanted to watch it...

When I first saw the poster in the MTR station, I ignored it, "yuck, another violent movie" was my first impression. Until I read the review in the Metro post and got to know its story. I have always been fascinated with ancient history and culture, ever since I don't even remember when... Just look at all the ruins I've been to...

And I also like reading about military strategies, that's why I love the Legend of Galaxy Heroes. (no idea what the appropriate translation is, anyway, it's a Japanese novel with comic and animation adaptation.)

Now back to the reasons why you should NEVER waste your money on it...

1. If you want to watch for the history stuff... (yeah, I knew before watching, the historical accuracy is non-existent... but it was way below my already low expectation...), no plot at all! Just give me a story, I'll be satisfied, never mind the historical accuracy, but there's none. Just watch the 5 minutes trailer, then you've already know everything worth knowing in the movie.

2. If you want to see how they plan the attack with only 300 with some brilliant strategies, well, there was only one. "Hold the narrow passageway, and the Persian army will not be able to win!" Repeat this for 5 times in your mind. And then they break it every time, charging out to the plains to kill the Persians... It's a wonder the Persians actually took 2 hours to kill them all...

3. If you want all the gory, bloody scenes... there are lots of them, but every single one was horribly done... They were so unreal! Special effects... well... I won't even comment on that. The blood looked like red water, the cuts on the head looked as if they're made by an electric saw. (There's no way they could make such a clean cut with an axe/sword/whatever ancient weapon they were using...)

4. If you want to watch naked men/women/sex... First for the guys, (I read in a girl's blog, the reason she watched this film was because of all those naked muscular guys), none of the naked guys are good looking, yep, they all have great bodies, but after 10 mins, every screen filled with men in the buff... none of them good looking... no plot... (yeah, I'm repeating myself...) I just wanted to fall asleep...

As for the naked women, every one of them appeared in a perverted way, except maybe the queen... no idea why they need to show the naked young lady (the oracle) being fondled by those ugly old prophets... YUCK! I won't even mention those naked women with the hunchback.

Sex... well, not even the consensual love scene between King Leonidas and the queen was well handled, so you can imagine what happened with the rape scene... (don't get too excited, there's just about 5 sec of it.) If you want more, I think porn may be a better choice...?? (though I've never watched them before)

Companion

Share this with you. Watch this whether you have a companion in your life or not. This animation is created by a guy in Hong Kong, using 3 years...

The Pursuit of Happiness

Another movie that seems interesting...

300

Initially when I saw the posters of this movie in the MTR stations, I thought it's just another violent movie that I'll never be interested in, until I read what the movie is really about...



Actually it is about the historic Battle of Thermopylae where 300 Spartans fought against 100000 Persian army. They all died in the end, but the Persian army suffered a great loss from these 300 warriors.

Quite interested in the movie, wonder if it'll be too bloody... It's R rated in the States, but in Hong Kong, it's just in Category IIB... hmm...