talk 534

The darkest and toughest movie I have seen in a long time, perhaps, ever. The story is " the depiction of people wasting away minute by minute" ( direct quote from a well-known newspaper).

The major actors are Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro ( remember him in "Traffic" ? --- about " drug smuggling into San Diego from Mexico" ? ) and Naomi Watts ( first saw her in Mulholland Drive).

Directed by a Mexican Director whose name I cannot pronounce correctly. He achieved something rather rare with this movie.

While the movie is dark, you still may want to see it badly because:

1) It is a good movie with a very interesting story
2) The performances are great
3) You may feel pretty lucky so far in life, compared to the characters in the movie
4) If you want to feel really really good, go see this movie first, followed immediately by seeing "Love actually". The inverse also applies.

5) One of the aspects of the movie shows one character, in reasonable good health and when ill, wasting away , you'll see it is much more fun wasting away in health. For this reason, you may want to join the Bay Area BTB event. This is an event to improve health hopefully, so that we can waste ourselves away with fun, right?

" The lord of the rings "
Fantasy movie making at its best, fun to watch even for those who have not read the books.

" The last Samurai "
There have been discussions in the Bay Area about the differences between the Chinese and the Japanese. Here may be a story about the differences between the Americans, at least the Americans around the time of the civil war, Hollywood style .

The story is about a Civil War veteran in Japan, employed to train the Japanese militaries ( so what is new here since that time?). While the story is limp, the movie is still reasonably absorbing.

Here is one small episode in the film...
The American was trying to learn Kendo, the art of Japanese fencing. He was repeatedly defeated at practice by a more skillful swordsman. A watching young man stepped up to the American and said " too many mind(s)". That did it. The American apparently began to concentrate and became, perhaps, single minded before charging again. He made it to a draw at that fencing practice, a rather remarkable feat for someone so inexperienced.

Well, what is better than "single-mindedness "?A Chinese would say " no mind ".

And then there is "Cold Mountain"...
A love story set in the time of the American civil war with an interesting plot and engaging performances. I read or heard somewhere that the best love story is not about love, but about yearning for love. This is such a love story.

Two of the movies mentioned above are expected to be nominated for the best movie of the year ( 2003 Oscar ), a few in three of the above for best performance and directing .