Momoko is an ordinary girl, living an ordinary life. Ordinary, that is, if you define ordinary as wearing elaborate Lolita dresses from the Rococo period in 18th Century France…
Date: Wednesday, 28 July 2010
Time: 6.30pm
Venue: Blk 52, FMS Preview Theatre #09-05
CCA points are awarded!

I’ve always been a movie goer and thus when a good film comes by, I can vouch for its 5-star rating.
The movie I’m going to review is Brave Story, yes I know it sounds cheesy and all. But please, don’t be fooled by its simple title.

Brave Story is about a protagonist named Wataru with everything that an 11-year old needs in life, until it all comes crashing down. Left alone in the world with a father who abandoned his family, followed by a mother who is lying in bed fighting for her life.

Presented to him is an opportunity of a lifetime – Go through a magical gateway to the world “Vision”, collect 5 gems to grant him a wish — to save his mother and get back his father.

But the movie is way more than that, on the quest to seek the 5 gems in the world of “Vision”, a world set in the era of an estimated AD200, where humanoid-animals and humans are the norm. Wataru’s kind heartedness and humility found him in the comfort of many friends like Kee-Keema the lizard, Meena the human-like cat, the pet baby dragon, and The Highlanders.

On the other hand, the antagonist of “Brave Story” is Mitsuru, an 11-year old boy like Wataru, who went into “Vision” to change his undeniable destiny that tore him apart. But Mitsuru is nothing like Wataru in his conquest for the 5 gems which would grant him a wish. Mitsuru, being a magician in “Vision” would unscrupulously abuse his powers to destroy anyone or anything that stands in his way to get those gems.

“Brave Story” is a movie which undeniably shows strong friendship bonds and also trust in each and every individual; and that behind every bad act, there’s always a good reason for it. For example, Wataru makes the wish of restoring back the world of “Vision” and to rid it of all the released demons — instead of making the wish to get his family back.

To top it off, what makes this movie even more touching was it’s theme song; it reflects the very film itself by providing an atmosphere of “Love and Hope” which is what most of us are looking for in life. I believe that many who have caught the movie would most likely have googled for it’s theme song – Ketsu no asa ni.
Ever since, I’ve always replied with the answer “Brave Story” when someone asks what my favourite movie is.

To sum it all, this movie is not just your typical heart warmer which ends nicely but one that teaches you on values in life like selflessness, and to accept new changes when it comes along your way.

Lee Zhen Cheng

Simplicity is beauty. Hayao Miyazaki must have had that in mind when he produced the animation My Neighbor Totoro. Unlike most of Studio Ghibli’s earlier films, it is less action packed. However, My Neighbor Totoro makes up for that by telling a story that is simple, comfortably paced and relates to the audience on a personal level.

The film evokes both the wonders and terrors one experiences as a child. When a child becomes an adult, things would never be the same. My Neighbor Totoro invokes nostalgia in its audience about the days when they were children.

Two sisters, Satsuki and May, move to the countryside when their mother is hospitalized due to an unspecified illness. In this strange new environment, they discover a magical wonderland filled with an adorable trio of furry, woodland guardians that only children could see.

Totoro itself, who looks like a combination between a kitten, rabbit and bear, is probably the most memorable character in the film.

May, the younger sister, stumbles into it’s dwelling which happens to be underneath the biggest, tallest tree in the forest. Locals call it the Camphor tree.

Totoro, the forest guardian, was slightly annoyed when May woke it up from its afternoon nap. But it soon warmed up to her, letting her sleep on its enormous furry belly.

Satsuki met Totoro too when she waited for her dad on a rainy day at a bus stop. Totoro was pleased when she offered it an umbrella and even more delighted with the sound of the rain falling on it. Happy with the gift, Totoro gave Satsuki a couple of acorn seeds.

Satsuki and May planted the seeds in their backyard when they got home. That night, Totoro paid them a visit and helped the little seeds grow into a gigantic Camphor tree. He then took them on a breath-taking flight around the countryside on his magic spinning top.

The creation of this entire amazing new world open only to the eyes of children must have needed a lot of creativity and hard work. The design of Totoro was unique, and it sticks in the mind of the audience. The other characters were beautifully designed and animated too. The animation has bright, cheerful and colorful visuals, creating a positive mood for the entire story.

May and Satsuki had their own individual qualities that were clearly shown as the film went along. May was naïve and charmingly innocent as she was very young. The older sister, Satsuki, is more mature and prone to negative thinking but she cares for her younger sister very much. When May went missing after Satsuki lost her temper, she searched high and low for her all over the countryside.

The music composed by Joe Hisaishi complemented the film with great effect. “Path Of The Wind” was a perfect accompaniment to the scene where Totoro makes the seeds grow into the Camphor tree. The music begins softy then gradually becomes louder and louder, just like a tree growing taller and taller!

This animation is a definite must watch. In fact, I would recommend all animations from Studio Ghibli to you. They have a penchant of producing great animations like Spirited Away that won an Oscar for best-animated feature.

Theon Leong

Two Western bank/train robbers flee to Bolivia when the law gets too close.

“Just For The Fun Of It”
Date: Wednesday, 21 July 2010
Time: 6.30pm
Venue: Blk 52, FMS Preview Theatre #09-05
CCA points are awarded!

Held up in Bruges, Belgium after a difficult job, two hit men begin to differ on their views of life and death as they become used to local customs.

“Shoot First. Sightsee Later”
Date: Wednesday, 14 July 2010
Time: 6.30pm
Venue: Blk 52, FMS Preview Theatre #09-05
CCA points are awarded!

Delicatessen is a 1991 French black comedy film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro. It is set in a post-apocalyptic apartment building in a France of an ambiguous time period. The story focuses on the tenants of the apartment building and their desperate bids to survive.

“A futuristic comic feast”
Date: Wednesday, 7 July 2010
Time: 6.30pm
Venue: Blk 52, FMS Preview Theatre #09-05
CCA points are awarded!

Seven deadly sins. Seven ways to die.

Se7en is a 1995 American crime film directed by David Fincher and written by Andrew Kevin Walker. A financial and critical success, the movie’s story follows a retiring detective (Morgan Freeman) and his replacement (Brad Pitt), jointly investigating a series of ritualistic murders inspired by the seven deadly sins.

Let he who is without sin try to survive…
Date: Wednesday, 30 June 2010
Time: 6.30pm
Venue: Blk 52, FMS Preview Theatre #09-05
CCA points are awarded!

2guys1box

I didn’t grow up with “Hard” science fiction, SF of the Isaac Asimov variety. On my bookshelf are ten-odd Star Wars novels – rather than disappointed with the Star Wars prequels, I was enthralled by them. The Phantom Menace was the second time I went to the cinema. I remember my ears hurting and George’s Lucas’ trademark Star Wars opening – a spaceship roaring into starry space. By 14, I was collecting the novels and reading Wookieepedia for trivia on all of Anakin Skywalker’s myriad flings with space-chicks. I committed John Williams’ score to heart. Then I bought Hard Contact (Karen Traviss), a game tie-in, a footnote against the sprawling mass of SW literature, and my view of what science fiction should be changed forever.

Instead of monks swinging laser swords and simplified hyperbole about the dark side like in the official Clone Wars novel series, it was about guerilla warfare, warfare that was less about colourful dicksabers and spouting one-liners and more about y’know, war. But what I really respected about the novel and its sequels was that it challenged the ethics of an army of cloned people bred solely to do battle. While George Lucas happily ignored this, Traviss came straight out and wrote the words “slave army” into canon.

Tarkovsky's Stalker is on my to-review list.

My definition of hard science fiction is simply this: it doesn’t pander. It doesn’t involve Ewoks or hot chicks or even a well structured narrative for the sake of netting a bigger audience. Hard SF is less about entertainment and more about purpose, be it art (Stalker, 2001), sociopolitical commentary (first half of District 9), or stretching imagination and possibility as far as it is reasonable (Primer). Wikipedia will tell you that it’s about conformity to real science, but personally for me its how uncompromising the creators are in service of their vision.

Were “hard” taken to mean “difficult to comprehend” or “highly scientific”, Primer would still qualify in spades. The setting is by comparison to the rest of the movie, childlike in simplicity: A small bunch of independent engineers, working out of a garage in suburban America, struggles to juggle day jobs and the side businesses they undertake together. Abe and Aaron, two members of this group, gather the materials for an experimental device, some sort of superconductor built to reduce the weights of objects. They argue in unfiltered engineer-speak about the project, salvage a microwave oven, exclude their friends, and on the big night, they turn it on.

It works, but there is a peculiar side effect: an object left in the machine gathers common fungus at an inexplicably fast rate. Subsequently, leaving a watch in the machine reveals that time passes differently in the box – it bounces between the times it is switched on and off. With an object in the box, this just means that it goes back and forth from the past to the future of the period during which the box is switched on, for a massive number of times – a time loop. But if the object in the box could choose to enter at the “future” end, and exit the box when time looped back around to the past… then you would have functional time travel, wouldn’t you?

"I wanted to see a story that was more in line with the way real innovation takes place."

Abe and Aaron build a bigger box and cautiously begin experimenting with sending themselves back in time every day, using their advantage on the stock market. Their traveling back in time gives them 36-hour days, and opportunity to glimpse their earlier selves – their doubles from the past who haven’t yet entered the box to go back in time. This presents new, mind-boggling questions. What if someone calls, whose phone would ring, the double’s or the original’s? What if you went back and stopped your earlier self from switching on the machine? If the machine is turned off how would you return to the past to switch it off in the first place? Recklessly, they eventually throw their caution to the time loop and plunge into the unknown.

I know it seems like I’m spoiling the whole movie for you, but Primer’s plot and dialogue becomes so utterly dense later, that trying to understand it without understanding it’s time-travel system first is as futile as teaching calculus to a brain-dead person. As if the multiple timelines and paradoxes that show up later in the film aren’t enough, this film was intended to to be increasingly incomprehensible; most people require upwards of two rewatches and a flowchart to get the final third of the film. First-time director Shane Carruth (who is a former engineer) justifies this by saying that if even the two characters who made the time machine know so little about how it works, why should the audience get off any better? Plot complexity issues ultimately come down to taste and tolerance – unlike Donnie Darko, it doesn’t even kinda make sense the first time – no traditional payoff for most of us staring dumbfounded at the screen. You may find it deep, you may find it pretentious. You have been warned.

You may have noticed I’ve neglected to name any of the crew except Shane Carruth, whom you’ve probably never heard of. This is because it was a first-time independent production, made with a mere 7000 USD, around 30k more to convert it to 35mm for Sundance. Yeah, that’s right, it went to Sundance. And won the Grand Jury Prize. Not impressed yet? Primer, all 77 minutes of it, was shot on Super 16 film. Get a person with experience in shooting film and he’ll tell you that that leaves your room for error very small, due to how expensive it is to shoot on film. For context, fellow indie darling Pi (83 min) was shot on the same film stock for 60k; The Daytrippers (87 min) was shot on Super 16 for 600k. Primer’s DVD commentary confirms that many, many shots were done in one take, with a heavy burden falling on planning. And plan he did – Shane Carruth is a self-taught filmmaker, and also got into grad-level physics just for this film.

This mostly one-take method of working becomes obvious in the numerous technical problems that pockmark the scenes like the freckles on your girlfriend’s otherwise pretty face. Framing goofs, film grain owing to a mix-up by the digital intermediate, focus issues, continuity, lack of coverage, poor location sound (mostly well-patched with dubbing). There’s a night scene at some fountains where the grain is everywhere and it is very difficult to hear what is said without the use of subtitles – epic fail in a movie that relies on dialogue. I forgave him even for these transgressions however, when Carruth points out the scenes that were shot guerilla style, in a few hours before passerby begin to interfere with the shot or the owners of the venue discover what is going on. Sometimes for scenes like this, he would shoot a line or two out of a character’s mouth and move on to the next line, neglecting master shots and running out of coverage during editing. I had the honour of making this mistake in one of my film projects in order to save tape, and trust me, I really really wish I hadn’t.

"I don't know why the first thing we shot had to be a long dolly shot that goes on for several minutes with action from all four of the lead characters, but we did it."

Then he has the audacity to shoot a heap of dolly shots, focus racks, and semi-long takes, month-long rehearsals notwithstanding. And have most of it turn out fine. Colour temperatures between shots seem to shift quite a bit between scenes, from greenish to blue to orange, some of it planned, but the constant changing works out in the film’s disorientating favour. And this wasn’t all luck. The DVD commentary – which I recommend very much to film students and indie professionals – gives you a sense of how much thought the director – also the composer, writer, actor, producer, and editor – put into Primer, how one shoots an experimental movie on film with an obscenely small budget.

Today’s films, and it is unfair to only blame Hollywood, are things you watch once. Common wisdom says it is foolish to pay twice for the same movie – why watch it again? How many times really, can you watch actors with little investment in their characters spit out the stock words again and again? I think it is sad that films are no longer treasured and brought out again to be scoured like a good, dense novel, to appreciate and marvel at all the little bits you missed. To study (yes, I know that is a dirty word) and gain a deeper knowledge of all the effort and deliberation put into the details. Primer is a film like that by necessity; it’s the only way to enjoy it. You treat it like a really difficult novel. I don’t blame you if Race to Witch Mountain starts looking good.

-Chen Sing

The gift of last memories.

An Academy Award Winner of Best Foreign Language FIlm, Departures, directed by Yojiro Takita. This story is about a newly unemployed cellist takes on a job preparing the dead for funerals.

Uncover the wonder, joy and meaning of life and living…
Date: Wednesday, 2 June 2010
Time: 6.30pm
Venue: Blk 52, FMS Preview Theatre #09-05
CCA points are awarded!