YNOT at the Movies

I attended the prescreening of "The Architect" at the Lumiere Theatre (it opens on Dec. 8).

It's claimed to be the very first digital presentation using the blu-ray player projecting in full high definition onto the big screen.

I have to say the image is fantastic. I wish I could say the same about the film.

"The Architect" presents an unhappy family. The father is an arrogant architect who designed a housing project in Chicago whose residents are gathering petitions to tear it down. The wife is depressed at home and cleans the house obsessively. The teenager daughter is insecure and looking for validation only at the wrong places. The son is dropping out of college and confused about pretty much everything. If that's not depressing enough, meet a black gay guy living in that housing project and somehow so blind that he would dig after the architect's son.

What's the point of showing all these sad people? Well, I miss it, because I was totally paying attention to the fabulous blue-ray high definition images.

My rating: 4 out of 10.

I went to the pre-screening of "Man Push Cart" (opens on Dec. 8).

"Man Push Cart" tells a story about a Pakistan who works at his coffee and donuts stand on a street corner in New York City every morning. We were told that he used to be a singer in Pakistan, now he struggles to get by after his wife died and his son is taken away by his mother in law.

Why? What happened? Why should I be interested in this guy's life? The film didn't answer. It just keeps "documenting" this poor guy's depressing miserable life in the cold dark New York City.

I am so bored by this film and don't buy the story at all.

At one point, when he left his coffee/donut cart for a moment to buy a toy on the street, his cart was stolen. He ran around searching between the streets, but his cart is nowhere to be found.

That's just laughable.

We observe that he can hardly even pass between the cars that jammed up on the street, and his cart is about the size of a big truck. How in the world can that cart disappear so quickly if it were not abducted by aliens? And this film is supposed to be so realistic documentary style that observes this man's life quietly.

And the title of this film is called "Man Push Cart." Well, he never pushes the cart, he pulls, all the time. Even in the poster.

My rating: 2 out of 10.

In "My Mother the Mermaid" ("인어공주"), Na-young works in a post office. She doesn't like her bad mannered abusive mother and her quiet mellow tempered father. After her father suddenly disappeared one day, she decided to visit the village where her parents met. Unexpectedly, she witnesses her parents' love story unfolding.

This is a typical sentimental Korean melodrama, without the tear jerking element. I wasn't moved by the film although I totally enjoy Park Hae-il's (박해일) adorable smile. I like him better in "Rules of Dating" (연애의 목적).

While the love story is sweet and tender, just like every Korean mellow drama does well, I just can't connect the dots and make sense about the characters. How did Na-young's parents change so dramatically when they grew older? The film shows complete different personalities at the beginning (and the end) of the film compared to the main story in the middle.

It should have been two films, and crudely, they are put together.

My rating: 6 out of 10.

"Happy Feet" is an animation about this cute little penguin who can't sing but can tap dance. He is determined to find out who are stealing fish in the ocean from them. Of course, it's us.

Even an emperor penguin doesn't sing or dance, by just walking around in his tuxedo outfit, he can already melt my heart.

Watching those adorable creatures (even they are animated) moving around on the giant screen with hippy music, it simply brings smile on everyone's face and softens the most heartless mind, even Dick Cheney.

I want a penguin as my toy. Maybe not a real penguin, but a stuffed animal will do. It's such a joy to watch them dancing and singing. I wish that the film had stuck with the penguin's performance as entertainers. That would be a great film.

Unfortunately, the film decides to include a "message" and add a plot to let this little penguin to find out the polluters of the ocean. That's just a little bit stretching too thin and it totally ruins the fun. It does not work. Period. Despite this disappointment element, the film is still quite enjoyable and entertaining.

Just let the penguins sing and dance, they already have their outfits on.

My rating: 7 out of 10.

"For Your Consideration" is a comedy about making a film called "Home for Purim." This film shows the hilarious reaction from the cast of "Home of Purim" when three of them generated some Oscar buzz, only on the internet.

I love its humorous dialogue. I giggled throughout the film. It's a brilliant ensemble of actors making fun of their own, as well as the media around them. I think one has to be interested in the movie industry, especially the Oscar race in order to enjoy the humor in this film.

This is an entertaining and funny film. Although I think some of the scenes of the film in the film (I know, it's confusing) linger a little bit too long.

My rating: 7 out of 10.

I went to a pre-screening of "Turistas."

Big mistake! I knew I wouldn't like this film, but I can't resist the urge to get scared. It's really addictive. But I really wish I had gone to the gym instead of watching this horror, I mean horrible flick.

"Turistas" tells a story that a few Americans go to Brazil for a vacation. After a few drinks at a bar, they all passed out. When they wake up, all their belonging is gone, except their bikinis. That's just the beginning of their nightmares.

Indeed, the audience will see more blood, more chasing around, more sound effects, and more screaming. All of these have only one purpose in filmmaker's mind: to scare the shit out of you.

But the problem is that this film doesn't creep me out by its characters or the plot, but by its gruesome images. It's probably one of those most disgusting images I have seen. I am more shocked and sickened than scared. I feel that I was cheated with cheap pranks.

I laughed at the end of the film. Not because of the film is funny, and it's not funny at all. It's because how silly it is and how corny the film ends.

My rating: 2 out of 10.

Tonight, I finished the Korean film "The Big Swindle" (범죄의 재구성). Now, that is a fun film.

Opening with an exciting car chasing scene, "The Big Swindle" goes backwards to tell the story of a group of con artists to pull out a bank robbery operation. However, they don't trust each other. That makes the entire operation extremely complicated.

Although I feel it somehow resemble "Ocean's Eleven" in style and humor, I am glad this film has much less characters than "Ocean's Eleven." The dialogue is very funny and witty, Korean style.

Unfortunately, the plot gets more and more confusing and hard to follow toward to the end of the film. The lines also lost the edge. I wish the film could have been more consistent. But overall, it's a very entertaining film.

My rating: 7 out of 10.

Tonight, I went to see "Babel" with Peter. Despite its star power and acclaimed filmmakers, it's a very long disappointing film.

In "Babel," an American tourist is shot randomly in Morocco when two kids are playing with a rifle their dad just bought for hunting. Since the entire world is on the verge at this moment, this is immediately regarded as a terrorist attack, and a man hunt for terrorists begins.

I wonder what if it's other way around. If a Morocco kid gets shot, will a terrorist attack is assumed and an investigation of the same scale begins?

The film develops four plots simultaneously. But the four plots in three continents are all connected eventually. Well sort of, with very bad luck. The plot happening in Japan is the most bizarre and most irrelevant among the four.

In this film, I can see similar structure as in "Crash" or "Syriana," without the compactness and engaging quality of those films.

This film drags on and tried very hard to stretch the four plots together. Some of the scenes linger around as if the director is wondering where to go next.

The film has its ambitious, but it has never reached to its potential and delivered the big idea in the filmmaker's mind.

My rating: 5 out of 10.

"The Lives of Others" (Das Leben der Anderen) tells a chilling story set in the early 1980s in East Germany before the fall of Berlin Wall.

Georg Dreyman is a successful play writer who has a beautiful actress girlfriend. Like many artists in that era living in East Germany, they are spied on by the State Security: Stasi. The agent in charge is Wiesler, HGW, who is superb at what he does shown at the beginning of the film. However, his ideology and his heart comes to a crossroad when he faces the decision on what to report about these artists.

Watching the film, I can't help but compare the Wiesler with Oskar Schindler, who is also German, saved many Jew's lives during the World War II.

History repeats itself.

It's a long film and the pace is a little slow, but I didn't get bored. By the end of the film, I am deeply moved by the story. When Wiesler said the last line of the film: "No, it's for me," I found tears in my eyes. Everyone will understand what that sentence means at the end of the film. It carries so much weight and emotion that one (very old) man in the audience literally broke down crying: I mean he was really crying out loud.

My rating: 8 out of 10.

The long anticipated "Volver" is Pedro Almodóvar's latest film. He masterfully tells a story about a family, mostly female. Raimunda, played by Penélope Cruz, lives with her daughter after her mom died long time ago. After her aunt died she kept discover more and more secrets in the family and around the village.

Almodóvar is a genius of creating twists and turns in his films with ease. It reaches to a point that I no longer get surprised no matter what happens in Almodóvar's film. I even become disappointed when the story didn't go as bizarre as I expected.

It's hard to talk about this film without revealing some plots, so I will shut up now. I do enjoy the experience the director takes me and see how he creates couple more mysteries after reveal one secret. Many of those Almodóvar's humor moments kept me smiling through the film.

But I don't understand why Penélope Cruz seems always having tears in her eyes. She must have allergy. For once, Almodóvar's film doesn't contain a transgender character. That's a surprise.

My rating: 7 out of 10.

The second film is a documentary called "I for India" from UK.

In 1965, an Indian doctor Suri left his family for the UK. To keep in touch with his family back in India, they started to make films and audio tapes to keep in touch and communicate.

Decades later, these valuable footages are put together for this documentary to show us the love and struggle this family endured. It tells a tender story of an immigrant family searching for better life yet holding on to their root.

It's interesting to see how the family doesn't feel comfortable and happy to live in India, even they feel more fit in when they are in India than in UK. But, they choose to settle in UK. It's a paradox, and a journey of constantly searching for happiness that many immigrants can identify with.

It reminds me the commercial on ImaginAsian TV: "You can take an Indian out of India, but you can't take India out of an Indian." Very true.

My rating: 8 out of 10.

After working out, I went to "2006 San Francisco International South Asian Film Festival" this afternoon at Castro Theatre and I watched two films back to back.

The first film I saw was "The Forsaken Land."

In a remote coast village in Sri Lanka, a family lives next to a military camp in the shadow of the never ending civil war. Their lives are so lifeless and drift around with the hush wind and the emotionless sexual activities.

Watching "The Forsaken Land" is a treat for the eyes. It's perhaps the reason it won Cannes' Caméra d'Or prize. However, the film is super slow in pace and it's not for common movie goers.

Not only it's slow, it's also quiet. After about 20 minutes into the film, only two sentences are spoken in the film. And then it goes another 10 or 15 minutes or so without a single word. It reminds me a lot of the film making style by Tsai Ming-liang (蔡明亮).

But the film keeps building up mysteries around these characters. Who are they? Why do they live here? What is the military is doing there? Who is that girl? That old guard? What did the girl see? By the end of the film, there are many questions left unanswered.

While the film is telling a haunting story about the misery of its characters, most likely the images are what would stick in our minds.

My rating: 6 out of 10.

Tonight, I went to a pre-screening of a new Mongolian film "The Cave of the Yellow Dog."

This film is from the same director of "The Story of the Weeping Camel." It's again in a docdrama format, but more a drama this time, which is a good move.

"The Cave of the Yellow Dog" tells us a story of a Mongolian family living in isolated remote mountains. The eldest little girl found a dog, and she wants to keep the dog. But her father fears that the dog might draw foxes to their sheep, so he wants the girl to get rid of the dog. Can she keep the dog?

Well, it's not really that important if she can keep the dog. That shouldn't be the reason one goes to see this film.

Instead, it's simply fascinating to observe the daily lives in this family watching this film. It's like living on another planet. It's amazing to see how self-sufficient they are and how little they contribute to the global warming.

When I see the young couple break down their home and load all their belongs on trailers powered by cows, I gasped. They did that without any help from others. Maybe the film crew did help outside the camera? And they have three very young children.

How did they do it?! They can assemble their entire home easier and faster than I put together a cabinet I bought from IKEA.

Watching young children playing around with animals are always cute. When they do that with a breathtaking background, it makes me want to move over to Mongolia. On the second thought, maybe not.

My rating: 7 out of 10.

My throat still hurts.

No, I am not sick, it's because I laughed so much when I went to see "Borat!: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" with Doris.

Even it was on a Wednesday night, the big theatre was almost completely full. And the movie wasn't what I expected. It's really bald and brave to offend pretty much everyone while making the audience laugh.

In "Borat," a Kazakhstani TV journalist is sent to the US to made a documentary about the "greatest country in the world." Well, almost every where he turns, some comedy moments come up.

I am not a big fan of physical comedy, nor bathroom humors. But I did laugh so much in this film. The jokes are cruel, dirty, raunchy, offensive, and indeed funny. Being funny let the film get away with all the mischief it creates.

Sometimes, I am utterly shocked by what I am seeing. That shocking factor is the power driven behind this comedy. Very entertaining.

Doris said she almost puked for one scene in the film (and I think everybody would know what it is if one sees the film). That makes the film even funnier. Now just thinking about it, I have a big grin on my face and I start to giggle again.

My rating: 8 out of 10.

I skipped the gym today to attend the pre-screening of "Copying Beethoven" at the Embarcodero Theatre with Peter.

The film is a big disappointment. No matter how much effort Ed Harris puts in, with a long curly hair wig, I just don't see Beethoven on the screen. I do hear Beethoven's music though, a lot of them in the film. Sometimes I want to close my eyes to enjoy the music instead of watching these actors trying so hard on the big screen without a clue. It definitely needs new toner for copying Beethoven.

The movie is a story about this young woman who works as Beethoven's assistance to copy music sheets for him. It would have been easier if Beethoven had a copy machine.

The Beethoven character keeps talking about the soul of music on the big screen, but that's exactly what lacks in this film. It doesn't have a compelling story to tell, even there are so much we want to know about Beethoven.

Watching this film, I think everybody would think about "Amadeus," a fantastic film about another great musician: Mozart.

But this film lacks both the imagination and the understanding of Beethoven.

My rating: 4 out of 10.

But we can never get back to that film. So we decided to watch a new documentary "24 Hours on Craigslist" I checked out from the Library.

"24 Hours on Craigslist" randomly (or maybe not) reveals some of the people from the bay area who post anonymous ads on Craigslist. The filmmaker brings them to the front of the camera to tell their stories.

Funny? Sometimes. Shocking? Not really (remember, this is San Francisco!). Entertaining? A little. Have a point? Hardly.

Some of these people posted on Craigslist might be regarded as weird freaks by the general public, but it's just the (normal) way of life to some others. Everybody is looking for something on Craigslist, and everybody will find something for themselves. That's why we call it a diverse community.

But the subjects in the film are so random that we don't really see the vision of the filmmaker. We get the impression that it's a parade aiming to shock people.

I wonder what people would think about this generation 20 or 30 years later when people watch this documentary.

My rating: 5 out of 10.

One thing I found out from this film is "flash mob."

People post specific instruction on Craigslist, such as "coming to the lobby of xxx hotel at specific time, and then at this specific time everybody start to greet each other at the lobby like they are long lost friends..."

That kind of instruction generated this big pillow fight early this year in San Francisco.

Sounds pretty cool, yeah?