Waltz with Bashir

ഈ സിനിമ ഒന്ന് അവസാനിചെന്കില്‍ എന്ന് ആഗ്രഹിച്ചു പോയി പല തവണ. ഇതില്‍ കണ്ട ദൃശ്യങ്ങള്‍ വളരെ കാലം ബോധ മനസിനെ വേട്ടയാടും എന്ന് സംശയമില്ല.

1982 ല്‍ ലെബാനോനിലെ സാബ്രയിലും ഷടിലയിലും നടന്ന വംശഹത്യയുടെ ഓര്‍മകുറിപ്പാണ് ഈ സിനിമ. ചരിത്രത്തിലെ ഏറ്റവും രക്ത രൂഷിത മായ, സ്റ്റേറ്റ് സഹായത്തോടെ നടന്ന കൂട്ട കൊല യാണ് ഈ വംശഹത്യ. ഈ സൈനിക നീക്കത്തില്‍ പങ്കെടുകേണ്ടി വന്ന സിനിമ സംവിധായകന്‍ മറന്നു പോയ തന്റെ ഓര്‍മകളെ തിരികെ തേടുകയാണ്.

ഒരു മുഴുനീള അനിമെഷന്‍ ഡോക്കുമെന്ററി ആണ് ഈ ചിത്രം.

A new Kim-Ki-Duk in World cinema

If you are waiting for a Kim-Ki-Dukian  movie, do not wait for Kim-Ki-Duk to make a movie. “Yang Ik June” will satisfy your Kim-Ki-dukian taste buds.

The new Korean movie “Breathless” marks the arrival of a new Kim-Ki-Duk in World cinema – Yang Ik June. This movie is the new sensation from korea, conquering film festivals and critical appreciation from the around the world.

Breathless originates from the dark side of human relationships. Throughout the film you can feel the violence which demystifies violence. The director is not concerned with viewers who would humiliate its characters. It does not try to make its characters appealing by concealing their stupidity. That is to say, it does not avoid absurd moments to make itself more romantic.

It can also see as a gangster movie but it gradually breaks away from all the traditional elements of a gangster movie. In the gangster traditional films, it is rather the sympathetic qualities that makes the gangster identifiable; the viewer somehow knows that actually the gangster is 'good hearted', and waits for that moment in which he reveals the good in him/her. But from the first scene breathless questions this perspective.

In the first scene you can see that- A man is beating a woman. Then another man comes along (“hero”) and beats the beater. At that point the viewer may think like "OK, this is the hero". Yet the scene continues and the man who beats the beater starts to beat the woman, blaming her for not fighting back. The viewer does not know if she/he is to laugh or get angry, to adore the guy or to degrade him.  

Interestingly this is the first film of Yang-Ik June and he played main role in this film. His performance as an actor was amazing…one may feel that his both skills were competing each other in this movie.  

Cinematic experience

What kind of experience do we have when we are watching movies? Is it only personal..?

While reading a book we conceive words into images…. Is it same happens with cinema also..? I think personalization happens with images also. The visual moving infront of the viewer’s eyes would be different from the visual (information) that he stores in his memory. There is a transformation happens in between these process. What is that..? How is it happens..?

I think this process of transformation is vital when we study the impact of moving images on an individual and on a mass. That is why different people have different feelings about a same movie.

Shower

ലോകസിനിമ ഇന്ന് zhang yang കഥ പറയുവാന്‍ കാത്തിരിക്കുകയാണ്. ഓര്‍മകളായി മാറുന്ന മനുഷ്യ ബന്ധങ്ങളുടെ നൈര്‍മല്യംമാണ് zhang സിനിമകളുടെ ഇതിവൃത്തം. 80 കളുടെ അവസാനം ചൈനീസ് സിനിമയില്‍ പുതിയ മാറ്റാങള്‍ കൊണ്ട് വന്നു. പുതിയ ഒരു കൂട്ടം സംവിധായകര്‍ നവ സിനിമയ്ക്കു തുടക്കം കുറിച്ചു. ഈ ചൈനീസ് നവ സിനിമയുടെ അമുല്യമായ സംഭാവനയാണ്‌ zhang yang. zhang നെ പ്രശസ്തി യിലേക്ക് നയിച്ചത് 2 മത്തെ സിനിമയായ "Shower" ആണ്. തികച്ചും ചെറിയ ബജറ്റ് ഇല നിര്‍മിച്ച ഈ സിനിമ അപ്രേധീഷിട വിജയമാണ് box officil നേടിയത്. ഒപ്പം വിവിധ ഫിലിം ഫെസ്ടിവലുകളില്‍ വിമര്‍ശക അംഗീകാരവും നേടി.

 

Shower

 

Liu Daming നഗരത്തില്‍ നിന്ന് അച്ഛന്റെ അടുത്തേക്ക് വന്നത് വളരെ ആശങ്കയോടെ ആയിരുന്നു. താന്‍ ജനിച്ചു വളര്‍ന്ന ഈ ചെറിയ പട്ടണത്തില്‍ അച്ഛന്‍ നടത്തുന്ന bath house ( ആളുകള്‍ക്ക് സുഖപ്രദമായി കുളിക്കാനും സമയം തള്ളീനീക്കാനും വേണ്ടി നടത്തുന്ന സ്ഥലം) ഇല്‍ എതിയപോയാണ് സമാധാനം ആയത്. അച്ഛന് കുഴപമോന്നും ഇല്ല. അച്ഛനോടൊപ്പം ഈ ബാത്ത് ഹൌസില്‍ കസീയുന്നമാനസിക വളര്‍ച്ച കുറഞ്ഞ അനിയന്‍ കാണിച്ച വേലയാണ് ഈ തെറ്റിധാരണ ക്ക് കാരണമായത്. തനിക്കു അയച്ച കത്തില്‍ അവന്‍ ബെഡില്‍ കിടക്കുന്ന അച്ഛന്റെ പടം വരച്ചു, അച്ഛന് സുഖമില്ല എന്ന് Liu Daming കരുതുവാന്‍ ഇത് കാരണമായി. ഇപ്പം അച്ഛന് കുഴപമില്ല എന്ന് കണ്ടപ്പോള്‍ സമാധാനം ആയി, വന്ന സ്ഥിതിക്ക് 2 ദിവസം കഴിഞ്ഞു പോയാല്‍ മതി എന്ന് നിശ്ചയിച്ചു. ഈ shower house ഒരു രസകരമായ ലോകം തന്നെ യാണ്. ഇവിടെ വരുന്ന ഓരോ ആളും ഓരോ തരക്കാരാണ്. ഒരാള്‍ക്ക് വെള്ളം തലയില്‍ വീണാല്‍ ഉടനെ പാട്ട് വരും. ഈ പാട്ട് കേട്ട് നിവൃത്തി ക്കെട്ടാല്‍ മറ്റൊരാള്‍ ഓടി പോയി tap അടയ്ക്കും. അപ്പോള്‍ പാട്ടും തന്നെ നില്‍ക്കും. പക്ഷെ Liu Daming ഇന്റെ അനിയന്‍ Liu Erming ഇന് ആവട്ടെ പാട്ട് ജീവനാണ്. അയ്യാള്‍ ഓടി പോയി Tap തുറക്കും. അപ്പോള്‍ ഒരു ഉന്തും തള്ളും പ്രതിഷിക്കാം. അവിടെ വരുന്ന വയസ്സായവരാകട്ടെ കമ്പം "ചെറു പ്രാണികളെ " തമ്മിലടിച്ചു രസിക്കാനാണ്. പ്രാണികള്‍ തമ്മിലുള്ള അടി അവസാനം അവര്‍ തമ്മിലുള്ള അടിയായി തീരാന്‍ അധികം നേരം വെണ്ട. ഭാര്യയുടെ അടി പേടിച്ചു വരുന്നവരും, വിചിത്രമായ കണ്ടുപിടുത്തം തലയില്‍ കൊണ്ട് നടക്കുന്നവരും ഇവിടത്തെ സന്ദര്‍ശകരില്‍ പെടും. എത്ര വിചിട്രമാനെന്കിലും ഈ ലോകം ഒരു തലമുറയുടെ വികാര വിചാര ങ്ങളുടെ രംഗ വേദി യാണ്. ഒപ്പം Liu Daming ഇന്റെ അച്ഛനായ Liu ഒരു ജീവിടകാലം കൊണ്ട് കേട്ടിപെടുത്ത ഒരു കുടുംബമാണ് ഈ bath house.

 

Liu നു പ്രായം ഏറെ ആയിരിക്കുന്നു. തന്നെ ഉപേഷിച്ച് നഗരത്തില്‍ ചേക്കേറിയ മൂത്ത മകന്‍ മാനസിക വളരച്ച്ചയില്ലാത്ത ഇളയ മകനെ തന്റെ മരണ ശേഷം സംരെക്ഷിക്കുമോ? വികസനത്തിന്റെ പേരില്‍ ആ പ്രദേശത്തുള്ള എല്ലാ വീടുകളെയും പൊളിച്ചു മാറ്റ്‌ മെന്നു govt. അറിയിച്ചിരിക്കുന്നു . അപ്പോള്‍ തന്‍റെ ഈ പ്രിയപ്പെട്ട bath house നെ വിട്ടു പിരിയേണ്ടി വരുമോ ? - Liu തന്റെ ആകുലതകളെ ഉള്ളില്‍ ഒതുക്കി കഴിയുക യാണ് അപ്രേധിഷിത ആയാണ് Liu നെ മരണം കീഴടക്കുനത്. ഈ മരണം - Liu സഹോദരന്മാരെ എങ്ങനെ ബാധിക്കുന്നു എന്നതാന്നു ഈ സിനിമയുടെ അന്ത്യത്തില്‍ നാം കാണുന്നത്.

Revive Malayalam film industry

I am always wondering why Malayalam cinema is not matured till now. The time is reached to say bye to stardom from Malayalam film industry. It is like “thondayile mullu”. The time is reached to say to the veteran actors like Mamooty, Mohanlal and suresh gopi - ENOUGH. Now we need better cinema, not the old moral value system that these actors are still representing. We need new stories on human relationships and man-woman relationships. We need political expressions in cinema not “SHIT DIALOGUES”. We need better visual story telling methods not MTV cuts and Shaji Kailas cuts. We need new experiments with MUSIC and SOUND. We need new stories exploring our cultural tradition and history. We need to explore the folklores and political movements of our history. We need to question our male shovanistic society. Middle class and upper middle class have high jacked our films years ago. PLEASE take back our cinema from their hand.  

I am not just saying we need young directors and actors. But we need new narration methods. If the new comers just imitate their older generation, what is the use..?

Hindu groom and Muslim bride - Secularism of indian film industry

It is very interesting to observe the notion of secularism in Hindi films. We have to appreciate the film industry to uphold the values of secularism during the initial decades of post independent period when the nation was divided and communal riots broke out. It is the time when the left movement had a great influence on the film industry through artists like Balraj Sahni, Mehboob Khan, Bimal Roy etc.,. Later years also this tradition of secular values sustained in hindi films along with some minor deviations. Why this happened…. is an interesting question to answer.

I believe this broader sense of humanity came from the constituent structure of the film industry. People from various parts of the country, from various religious as well as social backgrounds came to form our Hindi film industry. If you take a typical hindi film in 50s, most probably the director could be a Bengali, script writer could be from MP or UP, technical crew could be from South India, actors could be from regions like Punjab etc., Also the contribution from Goanian(from Goa) music orchestrators to the hindi film music world was enormous.

We can also see that minority community had played a major role in the development of the film industry. The main excluded section was the tribal community (It is very rare that hindi film industry has addressed tribal issues).

This unification of cultural diversity had provided a secular platform for hindi film industry.

But interestingly there are many paradoxes in the secular stand of the film industry. Some of them are- if there is any Hindu-Muslim marriage, the groom is always from Hindu religion and the bride is from Muslim religion….. The responsibility to uphold religious amity always falls on the Hindu character… Most of the time Christian character would be a “professional” drinker and morally westernized….. etc.,

Even these paradoxes existed, hindi film industry was more over secular up to late 70s. In 80s and 90s we can see the rise communal messages in hindi films inspired from the large political atmosphere of the country.

Wednesday vs Mumbai Meri Jaan - Two approach towards Terrorism

Wednesday
In my opinion it is very dangerous movie in our present political scenario. The basic idea conveyed by the director can said like this - Terrorist kills innocent people.....police can't do anything against them, even if they arrest terrorists (indirectly director is indicating towards a "strong" law required to tackle terrorists)....the terrorists are no doubt "Muslims"......since police and judiciory can't handle terrorists, it is time for "Aam Janta"[common man(not woman)] to take the law in their hand...... lets kill all the terrorists.......then they will learn a lesson....

I have some questions to ask.... how can we know that who are the terrorists...???? Do police only catch real culprits??.... Many times they also catch innocents and torture them(due to different reasons)... remember those arrested from Hyderabad....govt at last accepted that they were not terrorists but police picked them intentionally...those people were given compensation for the torture .....But according to the director of this film.... these innocent people should be killed...Terrorism is a complex issue, u can't simply it...... by looking at the news paper headings or watching TV news reports, you can't find out real terrorists....

Subject wise the film is not better than any of our Ranji Panikar/Suresh gopi movies or Shankar movies like "Anyan". The common man's revenge against the incapable system....!!

Simplifying issue may give popularity but it genuinely lacks depth. I agree that Wednesday is well made movie…the rhythm of editing…..suspense factor…it is a good entertainer. But we should think what is inside the beautiful envelope…. a dangerous ideology.

Mumbai Meri Jaan
The film has a very different approach towards the issue of terrorism. it carries very positive messege....

What terrorists (belongs to any religion or political group) would like to do by carrying out a terrorist attack....??? do they simply wants to kill some people and satisfy in it...Not at all....terrorist attacks are always a triggering point.....to polarise a society.... it will destabilise the society…creates an atmosphere where human rights have no value….it will promote arm race…. It will give more power to STATE, religious and political groups to squeeze individual freedom…

Do u even thought....why terrorism is a phenomenon of this period.....?? Now terrorism is identified as an effective tool to polarise the society… Terrorism creates an invincible enemy… a fear psychosis…. An atmosphere of mistrust is a good field for seeding extremist politics.

There are Muslim extremists group as well as Hindu extremist groups. Both of them need each other to survive.

So what should we (common citizen) do in this difficult period? Should we hate each other and participate in extremist politics..? or take law in our hand and kill those we believe as terrorists..? is it solve our problem..?Do we have to abandon our humanity..? do we have to stop love each other or stop living together..? This film tries to give answer to many such questions, without being overstated…..

It is foolish to think that there is no terrorism in our society… we should be cautious about it…. The best way is to study the political climate of our society and to isolate all kind of extremism among the society. Keep religion and every kind of fundamentalism away from our political life… it is the best way and only way to stop terrorism.Please do not forget to live and love ….. in the times of darkness… I think it is the message of this movie.

New Chinese Cinema - Conflict within

it is very interesting to observe new Chinese movies....the echoes of economical development in the urban china are heard in the new generation Chinese movies.....urban based...technological overstatements...visual effects... many of the new Chinese movies are over filled with dreams of a country to reach the top of the world....

But u can also see another trend in Chinese movies..... The film makers who are interested to make meaningful films turned their canvas towards rural china... They are mainly concerned with the rise of inequities in the new development paradigm. Along with the self critical evaluation of the society, we can also see the nostalgic exploration of the past, retelling the stories of heroes who were committed towards the society. But there is no soft corner towards the earlier mistakes like Cultural Revolution. Realistic elements of cinema were rediscovered... simple and direct story narrations... issue based but with lot of human elements.... individual suffering in the context of social changes......nature becomes a major character in the film.....

So we can see a direct conflict with these streams in modern Chinese film industry. Interestingly the STATE is promoting both kind of films....may be to keep up the "development mania" in the first case and not to lose all the human values in the era of development in the second case.

The second stream has produced a number of heart touching films of our time. Some of such films are

1) Getting Home (2007, Dir: Zhang Yang)
2) Still Life (2006, Jia Zhang Ke)
3) Courthouse on Horseback (2006, Dir: Lifu Wang)
4) The story of Xiano Yan (2004, Dir: Gangliang Fang)
5) The Road Home (2000, Dir: Zhang Yimou)
6) Not one less (1999, Dir: Zhang Yimou)
7) Going To School With Dad on My Back (1997, Dir: Youchao Zhou)

Impacts of Multiplex Boom

I think after multiplex boom happend in major cities of india, we can see new kinds of films being produced and marketed.Multiplex boom has both positive and negative impacts on our film industry. upto 1990s hindi film industry produced films mainly for small town and middle class population. So the story and characters of majority of films were targeted for these viewers. But now the situation is changed. Multiplexes have introduced new marketing and exhibition possibilities in front of Indian film industry. Multiple screens in multiplexes have created new spaces for low budget and art films. Before, those films can’t be screened in major theatres because they usually do not pull as much viewers to the theatre. Big theatres can’t function if the viewer attendance is mediate or low. But screens with lesser seats are very suitable for low budgets films. It will promote production of art cinema.But multiplexes are alienating lower class from theatres.

Due to the heavy ticket charge majority of population can’t approach multiplexes. Their dependence on television and cable network is increasing drastically. So the democratic space created by traditional theatres is vanishing gradually from cities. In Indian context it will create negative impact in a long run. The charaters coming from working class are now slowly disappearing.

"Boys do not cry"(2008, Korean)

When the Korean War ends in 1953, the country left with nothing but desperation. This film is about that period when the gangs ruled the urban Korea. It is about two orphaned boys, who lives in a relief camp where everyone suffers from hunger, inhumane treatment and unbearable work conditions. But these two have a dream of a better tomorrow. One of them has wits and brains and another is a tough street fighter. Together they scheme to collect rice from the neighborhood and to sell it in the coming winter season. They recruit other street boys in their business. But when they start to take business away from the local gangsters, their fight for survival turns into a war.
Nice film but not great one. Understated story and good performance by the actors.

Korea has made so many good films about their war.... i wonder why India never made a realistic good movie on any of our wars. Films like Boarder and LOC are terrible.

One of such themes is “Partition”. We can count Hindi films on Indian partition with fingers. It was such major national tragedy, even then for a long time the Indian film industry seldom addressed it. After 1990s some films were made on the theme like 1942 earth, train to Pakistan etc., but they were not mainstream films. Why mainstream film makers neglected this theme????
[Garam Hawa and Dharam Putra are the exceptional films on partition. I recommend you to watch both these films]

WHERE IS HERO IN HINDI CINEMA. WHERE R THEY GONE ??

The concept of Hero itself is personification of contemporary moral values i.e., the moral values of the contemporary society decide the “hero ship” of that time. It means by studying the hero (of novel, story, art forms, cinema, etc.,) we can learn the moral values of the time or vice versa. Moral values always changes with time. We can see the same in Hindi Film “Heroes”.

Who was a hero in Hindi films – he was a hard working, truthful, strong, handsome, kind, action orientated ‘MAN. He also represents a particular class (with all its qualities). In most of the films, Raj Kapoor, Guru datt, Manoj Kumar, Dileep Kumar, etc., represented those heroes. After independence the thirst for social change were seen their characters. In that period the class difference between the hero and Villon is the main stage of drama in many movies. Many of progressive artists came to film industry during that period.

But gradually that hero vanished to angry young man-who takes revenge against the prevailed corrupt society. The hope was changed to anger. “Amitab” was famous for such roles. Jitendra, Shatrughan sinha, Mithun etc., also played such roles.

Now due to globalization those heroes are also slowly vanishing. Now we do not know what should be the moral value of a hero. What should he stand for? The class struggle is almost vanished. Now we have heroes, who are very confused like us. What is right -what is wrong, he does not know. I am not saying whether it is good or bad, but it is the truth.

Villains of Popular Hindi Cinema

Let me share some of the interesting observations on popular Hindi cinema (I will not call it Bollywood).

The Hindi film industry always reflects the social realities of the nation-sometimes directly sometimes indirectly-most of the time by creating stereotype characters especially villains. If u study the kind of villains in Hindi films, u can sketch the changes happened in our society.

For example after independence when the whole nation was in a state of hope to build a better nation, the characters in the films represented that vision. That time the society was basically based in villages. Agriculture and ownership of land were the main issues. So Hindi film industry produced villain who was a greedy landlord who want to take over the poor man’s land. Even then almost every film ended with a note of hope to change this system.

Then when slowly the society gets more urbanized the villains became greedy factory owners. Then city “gunda” (mafia) became villain and police became hero. Slowly when the bureaucracy and law enforcing system in this country could not meet the demands of masses, gradually police became villain and interestingly the mafia man was raised to hero. After sometime politicians became villains and then Pakistan became main villain along with Muslim terrorists.

Oscar 2009

In the oscar nominated films, I personally feel that none of them is outstanding. Out the films (slumdog, Benjamin button, milk, frost/Nixon, and visitor) I like Milk compared to other movies. Slumdog is not more than a Hollywood entertainer, Benjamin button lags even though it has very interesting storyline, Frost/Nixon somewhere loses its political appeal, Visitor is a mediocre one.

“Milk” is a shocking revelation to the human right struggle of homosexual minority in USA. In this movie synchronization of personal life of Milk and his political movement is done in a unique way. Political discussions happening in personal level and in group level in this movie give a feel of watching a Ken Loach movie (but not politically that intense). Sean Penn has done a marvelous job in this movie (he is giving good competition to Brad Pitt in the best actor category).

JIFF award winning movie "Karna Motcham"

Director: S. Murali Manohar (Student of MGR film institute, Chennai)

Jaipur International Film Festival 2009

Jury(Me, Rakesh Andania and Sudipto) with Murali (director of award winning movie "Karna Motcham")

"Getting Home" (2007, Director: Zhang Yang)

It is one of the best Chinese films produced in the year 2007. Like Zhang Yang's earlier film "Shower" it is also an unusual story but honest tale of ordinary people. It is also a pulse counter of modern(developed). The film reflects the humane side of Chinese society as well as the emerging callous class difference and developmental paradigm of the society. The plot follows Zhao as a construction worker whose best friend dies, leaving him to fulfil a promise that he will return his body to his distant hometown. Short on money, the determined Zhao decides to carry his friend's corpse on his back, relying on help from the people he meets on his travels…

Some of the good Korean films of the year 2008

Forever the moment (Dir: Lim Soon-rye)
The film is about the unforgettable performance done by Korean women hand ball team during Athens Olympics. The film is really not about the hand ball game but about the women players and their hardships to perform well in the last game of their life. The final scene of the movie is unforgettable to me because I never seen such a brave decision taken by a director. The final penalty throw of the game is shot with really unexpected frame. This frame itself shows that the film is about the player not about the play.
Crossing (Dir: Kim Tae-kyun)
It is a story of a man living in North Korea crosses the border to China to get some medicine for his wife. He was then send back to South Korea and became an unwanted refugee prohibited to return to his family. Meanwhile his wife passes away and his young son sets out to find his father. It is one the best movie produced in Korea and nominated to contest in Oscar in the best foreign film category.
The Chaser (Dir: Hong-Jin Na)
Joong-ho is a pimp who was a detective once. He is in financial trouble as several of his girls have recently disappeared without clearing their debts. One night, he gets a call from a customer and sends one of his remaining girls Mi-jin. But when Mi-jin meets the customer, Jung-ho realizes the phone number of the customer matches that of the calls the missing girls got last. As something smells fishy, he searches for her. During his search, Jung-ho dents a car in the alley. When Jung-ho spots blood splattered on the driver’s shirt, he senses the man, Young-min, is the suspect. After an intense chase, Jung-ho finally catches Young-min. But because of Jung-ho’s pretence as a cop, they are both taken to the police station. At the station, he bluntly tells the policemen that he has killed the missing women, and the last girl, Mi-jin, may still be alive. As the police force is obsessed with a random search for corpses, Jung-ho is the only one who believes Mi-jin is still alive. With only 12 hours left to detain the serial killer without a warrant, Jung-ho’s hunt begins.
This film which was released this year became a surprise hit in South Korea. It was Hong-Jin Na's debt feature film and the actors are not so popular in the film industry. The budget of the film was also a mediocre one. After the slow start in the box office, the film became very popular through mouth publicity. It became one of the biggest hit of the year 2008 in South Korea. The breath taking performance of the leading artists, craftsmanship of the director and thrilling storyline are the plus point of this movie.
Dream (Dir: Kim Ki Duk)
The story revolves around a man and his dreams. One day he dreams that he caused a car accident. He goes to the place where the dream occurred, and surprisingly finds that an actual hit-and-run accident has occurred there, and that the police have traced it to a woman with a sleepwalking disorder. Later he finds that there is an unexplainable connection between the two. They discover that whenever he dreams, the woman acts out his dream in her sleep. So they came to an agreement-they will not sleep at the same time. But it is too difficult to do so. Tragedy is waiting at the corner…..Even though the film has an interesting storyline, Kim ki duk fails to convert it into a unforgettable viewing experience (like his previous films-Time and Breath). Also "Kim ki dukian twist" is missing in this film. I can almost predict the climax of the movie.Visually it is not appealing like his other films.
Tokyo (Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Joon ho-Bong)
It is a omnibus film directed by three directors with each segment shot in Tokyo.
First story of the film is directed by Gondry called “Interior Design”. It is about the surreal fable of a couple who move to Tokyo in search of a future. The second film is directed by Carax called “Merde” is about a mysterious sewer dwelling man spreading chaos in Tokyo town through irrational and provocative acts. The third story is made by Joon ho-Bong(one of my favorite Korean film director who made Memories of Murder). This story is about Teruyuki, one of Japan’s many hikimori- citizens who have withdrawn from all contact with the outside world.

Two highly hyped but disappointed movies of the year

1. The Good, The Bad, The Weird (Kim Jee-woon) (biggest money grosser of the year in Korea)

2. Once upon a time in corea (Jeong Yong-ki)

Kim ki duk's new movie "Dream"(2008)

I got a chance to watch kim ki duk's new movie Dream (Bi-mong). The new film(15th) will, as in many of KIM's previous works, distort the boundaries between reality and dream. The story revolves around a man and his dreams. One day he dreams that he caused a car accident. He goes to the place where the dream occurred, and surprisingly finds that an actual hit-and-run accident has occurred there, and that the police have traced it to a woman with a sleepwalking disorder. Later he finds that there is an unexplainable connection between the two. They discover that when ever he dreams, the woman acts out his dream in her sleep. So they came to an agreement-they will not sleep at the same time. But it is too difficult to do so. Tragedy is waiting at the corner….. Even though the film has an interesting storyline, Kim ki duk fails to convert it into a unforgettable viewing experience (like his previous films-Time and Breath). Also "Kim ki dukian twist" is missing in this film. I can almost predict the climax of the movie.Visually it is not appealing like his other films.