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American Psycho

August 17th 2008 05:05
After watching The Dark Knight I decided to watch American Psycho - another film which features a very buff and naked Christian Bale.
The film is disturbing, but more disturbing was the fact I was laughing during some of the more violent scenes. I have no idea how Christian Bale managed to play a psychotic serial killer and make the audience laugh. I suppose its the fact he plays such a superficial, inane, psychopath who analyzes the music of Huey Lewis when he's hacking someone to death.

I read somewhere the Tom Cruise was originally earmarked to play Christian Bale way back when the book came out. In fact Tom Cruise lives in the same apartment as Patrick Bateman. Another bit of trivia about this movie is that feminist Gloria Steinem made it known that she hated this film and Gloria is of course Christian Bale's stepmother. The irony is pointed out in Bret Easton Ellis' book Lunar Park.


Leonardo DiCaprio was another star who was earmarked to play Patrick Bateman. When he dropped out Christian Bale, the director's first choice, was brought back in. I just can't imagine anyone else as Patrick Bateman.

The film is a satire on the late 1980s culture of vapid excess and all that is wrong with the extremes of the misogynistic male culture.
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The Counterfeiters

August 17th 2008 04:47
Apologies for the hiatus.

I've been incredibly busy with life. A life that allowed almost no time for movie viewing! But I am back.


The first movie I saw after months and months was The Counterfeiters.
This film is about how a group of Jewish concentration camp prisoners were sent to counterfeit money for the German war machine. The film is based on the memoirs of Berger, a leftist whose wife was killed in a death camp before he was shipped off to the counterfeiting camp.

The events are told from the point of view of Sammy a professional counterfeiter who manages to survive a labour camp thanks to his artistic skills and then is recruited to the counterfeit team. The team is kept away from the general camp and is given privileges others in the camp could only dream off - toilet facilities, soft beds, civilian clothes. However the sadistic nazi soldiers are always there to remind them that this is no holiday camp and they are at their mercy.


As with all films about the holocaust, I was left weeping by the end of the film. It was one of the best films that I've ever watched but will probably not watch it again because of the content.

It's right up with there with The Lives of Others.

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Lust Caution

March 22nd 2008 03:51
I finally got around to watching Lust Caution which was directed by one of my heroes Ang Lee.
The story is about a group of students who form a resistance and plan to assassinate Mr Yi, played by Tony Leung, a Japanese collaborator. The film is based on a novella by Chinese writer Eileen Chang.


The opening sequence was amazing. So much was left unsaid - I really want to
read the story upon which it is based. I"m curious as to how much is the original story and how much is Ang Lee's rewrite. I read somewhere that the character of Mrs Yi was written for the film version so that Joan Chen could have a role. I'm just curious as to how the film would work without the Joan Chen character.

As the title suggest, there's a lot of lust in this film. The second second sex scene was so intense. It was interesting how I was more comfortable watching the first sex scene
but felt like a complete voyeur when watching the second one which was really lengthy. It just went on and on, and I felt like I was intruding on someones very emotionally intimate moment. By the end of the film, you realise that Ang Lee has not thrown in that scene for pure titillation, but that depicting that emotional and physical connection between Mrs Mai and Mr Yi is central to the plot.

The guy who plays the idealistic young college student Kuang Yumin is played by Lee Hom Wang an American Chinese guy who has a music career in Taiwan.

I read somewhere that Brokeback Mountain was about Lost Paradise and this
was about eternal damnation in hell. I've watched a couple of these films lately -
both Chinese films, where people end up in eternal hell. I wonder whether different cultures have different collective psychological make-ups which influence endings and telling of stories.
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Infernal Affairs II

March 15th 2008 03:05
I managed to rent a copy of Infernal Affairs II from Planet Video. . They had Infernal Affiars III as well, but my partner wanted to pace ourselves so that we still had something to look forward to Easter weekend.

Infernal Affairs II is the prequel to the original movie. The two leads Andy Lau and Tony Leung are not in it. Instead their parts are played by their younger counterparts Edison Chen and Shawn Yue. Anthony Wong, whose father is English and Eric Tsang revive their roles as Superintendent Wong and Sam


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The Devil Wears Prada

March 9th 2008 01:49
I watched the film when it first came out at the cinema and what I loved so much about it was the fashion. The same costume designer who worked on the Sex and the City series worked on The Devil Wears Prada. I loved the visual aspect of the film so much that when I did not find time to watch the film again, I purchased the book and salivated over the descriptions of couture wear.

The story is about an arts graduate who finds herself working for the bitch boss from hell. The author of the book, Laura Weisberger, was once an intern at Vogue where she worked for Anna Wintour
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Infernal Affairs

March 7th 2008 23:40
Infernal Affairs is Hong Kong film upon which the original of the Oscar winning remake The Departed is based.

I had the choice between watching the original and the Hollywood version - I chose the original. To be honest I had low expectations of Infernal Affairs even though I knew it had received widespread critial acclaim - the reason being most Hong Kong action films I've watched have been B-grade. The premises are good, but in my experience the production values are pretty low grade and the genre confused


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I have to admit that I was never a Harry Potter fan until I watched this last movie.
I've watched every single movie but up until recently had never read more than the first sentence of the first book. I had glossed through the first book but could not get into it as I found it a little too childish. Yes I know the first book was popular amongst adults, but I just could not get past that first sentence.

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And the band played on

March 7th 2008 05:10

I'm really looking forward to getting out more to watch movies at the cinema now that my baby can be left with my parents. The last film I saw at the cinema was Pirates of the Carribean on opening weekend. The cinema was so crowded and overheated I started getting heart palpitations and the baby started kicking uncontrollably. I never made it to the end of that movie.

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Home Song Stories

March 6th 2008 12:05
It's been a while since I watched a DVD - since the birth of my baby. But finally he started sleeping at a decent hour and my husband and I sat down to watch Home Song Stories. An Australian film directed by Tony Ayres, who is famous for his previous work on Gay Chinese identities.

Home Song Stories is about Tony Ayres' childhood in Perth. He came to Perth from Hong Kong with his very glamorous and very troubled nightclub singer mother and his sister. His mother married an Australian sailor. The story is about how the mother struggled in suburban Australia. The film is set in Melbourne, but many of the events took place in Perth - Applecross to be exact. Tony Ayres went to Ardross Primary School


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