Falling Out of Love

Blue Valentine (2010) - Cianfrance

Documentary director Cianfrance examines a young couple's relationship, juxtaposing their sweet beginning with their falling out of love. Ryan Gosling plays Dean, a high school dropout underachiever and Michelle Williams plays Cindy, a med student from an upper middle class family. They share the common broken home background. In the beginning, it's a love-at-first-sight story, if a little too cliché involving abortion. 6 years later, Cindy has fallen out of love. With no one to blame and a lovely daughter in tow, the couple's marriage disintegrates. Both actors are endearing in those joyful and painful moments. Cianfrance's reductionism- focusing exclusively on the beginning and ending of the relationship, and no clutter of other characters to populate the couple's world, leaves the audience with deep, sad, beautiful sense of longing. I think it might have been better if he left the beginning of their relationship and the falling out part completely separate. But either way, I wanted more.

Mixed Tapes

It was a matter of time someone had a good idea to set up a website for people to make their own mixed music list and share with others. Me, being the former mix tape master, this is very good news. After several days of idling, I put up a couple of mixes at 8tracks.com. I urge to join all of you my friends to do the same. Please click & listen to them for your pleasure:

The Vulnerables

Suburbia (1984) - Spheeris

I haven't felt this kind of empathy toward the kids on the skid in films since My Own Private Idaho. This is what Korines and Clarks of the world try very hard to emulate and always come across as bullshit. This is what Alex Cox succeeds in presenting only in attitude and spirits with his films. Suburbia is the real thing. Spheeris has real affection for these non-actors who act out their squatter punk kids roles super awkwardly, which is totally befitting for the film.

It starts out with a toddler being attacked by a vicious half breed doberman pinscher and ends with another gut wrenching tragedy. These punk kids might act tough, but they are vulnerable and need to be protected, not exploited. Spheeris understood that. Features D.I. and TSOL and the Vandals performances.

I want my underwear to be handwashed

The Housemaid (2010) - Im

Plotwise, this remake of the old Korean classic doesn't rise above Lifetime channel movie of the week - a naive young woman getting a job at a super rich family mansion as a housemaid, sexually being taken advantage of by its handsome head of the family, gets pregnant, forced to have her baby aborted, takes revenge.

But under Im Sang-soo (President's Last Bang)'s direction, the film becomes a sly take on class a la Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoigie. It starts out with a random suicide of a girl in a busy neon and glass night where fashionable young people hang out. The difference of their young carefree life and people who serve them is shown in a very effective handheld- documentary style. Our heroine Eun-yi (adorable Jeon Do-yeon), a lowly restaurant worker is seen trying to get a peek at the fresh corpse. She is not frightened or sad, just curious.

I don't have to mention anything obvious here - the power play involving oral sex, the importance of male in Korean household... The thing is, everything, from set design, framing to acting, is just flawless. Im's robotic precision is counterbalanced by Jeon's good hearted, if not naive Eun-yi and Yun Yeo-jong's Byung-sik, the all knowing, eye-rolling, head of the caretakers. Despite all the fabulous looking people in the film, the middle aged Byung-sik, whose lifelong servitude to the obscenely rich family which make her a conflicted character, so much fun to watch.

Im saves the grotesquery of the wealthy to the last minute. But the build up (to the not so subtle climax and ending that can be read as slapdash) is so engaging and understated that it only amplifies the brilliance of Im's precision filmmaking.

Art of Seduction

The Eccentricities of a Blonde-haired Girl (2009) - Oliveira

The film starts with a distraught young man on a train, telling his hard luck story to a stranger next to him about his pursuit of a young blonde he first saw across the street from his office window. All the shots are so static and dolly movements so careful, as if not to disturb stuffy, dusty interior that feels like an old antique shop.

In its 64 minutes running time, time in The Eccentricities of a Blonde-Haired Girl is subjective - we see snow covered ground outside the train window in the beginning, green scenery by the end. The clock tower is missing arms but chimes away nonetheless.
Oliveira creates a richly layered parable about unattainability of perfection with beguiling Catarina Wallenstein as highly fallible example to the notion of ideal romantic muse. The problem I had with it is that its enigma disappears once you take the film as a parable. And the ending is very unsatisfying. Directed when he was 101 years of age, however well put together this film is, you can almost smell the old man's musk.

Mice that Roared: Dustin's Top 10 Films 2010

I don't know about you, but for me, 2010 was a really lackadaisical year for films. My movie going/viewing experience wasn't as vigorous as last year (and I say this every year- I guess I really am not seeing as many as before). Mainly small films and documentaries dominate the list. And here they are:

*Click on titles for reviews*

1. White Material - Denis


2. Film Socialisme - Godard


3. Exit Through the Gift Shop - Banksy


4. Never Let Me Go - Romanek


5. Winter's Bone - Granik


6. Black Swan - Aronofsky


7. Marwencol - Malmberg


8. Non ma fille, tu n'iras pas danser/Making Plans for Lena - Honoré


9. Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo - Oreck


10. The Housemaid - Im



Honorable mentions: Dear Doctor - Nishikawa
The Runaways, Bare Essence of Life, Alle Anderen/Everyone Else, Altiplano, Milk of Sorrow, Les Regrets, Turn It Up to 11, Missing Persons...

East of Eden: Kim Tae-gyun Interview

In 2002, East Timor (officially Timor Leste), a tiny island nation 400 miles north of Australia, became the first independent nation of the 21st century. A former Portuguese colony and invaded and annexed in 1975 by Indonesia with the help of US, this nation's history is marred by violence and poverty.

Director Kim Tae-gyun (Volcano High, The Crossing) uses this volatile backdrop for his latest film A Barefoot Dream, tells a story of a former Korean soccer star and failed businessman who travels to East Timor, like many other opportunistic foreigners, in the hopes of exploiting the local economy. Instead, he ends up coaching a soccer team of poverty stricken East Timorese kids, ultimately bringing them to a world tournament soccer victory. The film makes its North American premiere at the Tribeca Cinemas in Manhattan as part of bi-monthly Korean Film Nights series, made possible by Korean Cultural Service and the Subway Cinema. I had an opportunity to sit down and talk with director Kim prior to the screening:

How did you come across this incredible story?

There was a Korean TV documentary about East Timor and its independence. They featured coach Kim Shin-hwan and the East Timorese kids and how they won the Hiroshima International Youth Soccer Tournament very briefly. In it, Kim says, "I wish I could feed these kids some meat from time to time." That appealed to me a great deal.

Did many Koreans know about the existence of East Timor prior to A Barefoot Dream? In the States, except for some reports by independent journalists, the situation in East Timor didn't generate a lot of attention in mainstream media.

Yes and no, there were debates on sending peacekeeping troops in the parliament without much of fanfare (which we eventually ended up doing) when Indonesian troops were violently oppressing the East Timorese. I think Koreans are more aware of international issues once it became a viable economic power.

Was coach Kim Shin-hwan (as Won-kwang in the film, played by Park Hee-soon) involved in making of the film?

Oh, absolutely, from beginning to end. If it weren't for him, we wouldn't have the film. Just like you see in the film, Kim got to know the locals pretty well, first with his broken English (or Konglish as we call it) then by picking up their dialect. He was not only our consultant, but a guide, interpreter and ambassador. It was his friendship with Xanana Gusmão(the former President and present Prime Minister of East Timor) that made possible for him to appear as himself in the film!

What were some of the challenges you faced shooting in East Timor?

They literally had nothing there. After years of violent conflicts, there was no infrastructure set up. We had problems as soon as we landed. Bureaucracy over there is tantamount. Our gear was stuck at the airport for a long time. There have been no film productions in East Timor other than one Australian documentary crew before us. Dili is a small town of about 15000 people. And we needed about 300 extras for many of the scenes. We put out an ad for cast and extras but no one came. We had to actively seek out people on the street. But they had no concept of film business. They just came and went as they pleased. Understandably they were busy eking out a living. But for us every step was a challenge since all the things we took for granted in film productions were not there.

You have some amazing kids in this film. How was the casting process?

We cast mostly from Coach Kim's pool. He had about 30 members in his team. We picked kids whom we felt right for the part. They were around 9-11 years old.

Was it a difficult to direct them?

When the script was finalized, we gave them copies and asked them to read it prior to shooting. But kids just being kids, not some professional child actors, non of them read the script all the way through (laughs). So I had to sit them down beginning each day of the shooting and read it aloud together, one page at a time.

What became of the original team members?

As you know, it was 2004 when Kim led the East Timor team to become champions. The original members of that team are now in their late teens and many of them make appearances in the film (as grown up soccer players). They all went different ways. Some of them are still playing soccer.

You think some of the kids from the film have a future in professional soccer, for instance, Ramos? He is phenomenal.

Yes. I think Ramos could definitely be a soccer star. The other two (Motavio and Tuo), I'm not sure. I think they like to play but have other interests.

Your previous film, The Crossing (2008) (about the flight of the North Korean refugees) dealt with an important subject. Are you generally attracted to social justice issues in making films?

I think it's got to do with me getting old. I don't think film should be made just for entertainment purposes. I think there should be a good balance between entertainment and substance. At least that's what I try to do anyway.

There is talk that A Barefoot Dream is being considered for nomination for the Best Foreign Film Oscar. This film would certainly deserve such an honor.

For Trailer, Please visit Subway Cinema for Free Korean Movie Night

Kauai Morning

Recorded from the bedroom window 5:30am 12/30/10

6 min 30 sec

Before Sunset for Grown Ups?

Certified Copy (2010) - Kiarostami

Is it safe to say Certified Copy is Before Sunset made by Abbas Kiarostami (Taste of Cherry, Wind Will Carry Us, Close-Up) starring middle aged people? Well, not really. It starts out with an Englishman James (William Shimell, resembling David Strathairn) giving a talk on his new book about the legitimacy of copies compared originals in art in picturesque Tuscani. As an infatuated antique dealer (Juliette Binoche, reviving her frazzled single mom in Hou Hsiao-Hsien's The Flight of the Red Balloon) picks James up and drives him around town as a guide, the film becomes something else: deconstruction of a marriage. Even though it's the first film set outside Iran, there are Kiarostami touches everywhere- long driving shots, actors talking while looking at you straight in the eyes, blurring the lines of what's real and what's not. As the couple exchange tit-a-tat, we witness the copy of the real married couple breaking apart.

I realized while watching it, that Kiarostami was at it with his magic again, completely blowing away my expections of what the movie was going to be with his elegance in simplicity.

Piece of Heaven

Anini Beach, Kauai Island, Hawaii 7:00am 12/31/10

9 min 30 sec

No Gummo

Winter's Bone (2010) - Granik

Wow, not one false note: from its acting, script to HD cinematography. It's not the authenticity of what the people of the Ozarks are like that I loved, since I have only a blurry notion and won't pretend here that I know and understand, yet these poverty stricken, meth ravaged, unfathomably tough characters ring so true to me.

Jennifer Lawrence is Ree, a 17 year old girl who needs to take care of two younger siblings and sick mother in the absence of her unseen meths 'cooker' father. It turns out daddy's out of jail and a bail bondsman and other people are after him. If he doesn't make the court date, they will take the house. It is widely suspected that local bigwig family might have killed her dad for some old grudges. Unflinching against all the poverty and violence around her, resilient and resourceful Ree is a revelation. John Hawks shines (second best performance in the film) as Teardrop, Ree's scary uncle, and aging but well fitting Sheryl Lee also makes an appearance.

Debra Granik's depiction of the Ozarks is never patronizing nor sentimental. Winter's Bone is filled with the lives of the locals in great detail and presented with great care, nothing seems out of place. Definitely one of the year's better films for me if not the best.

Bird Flu

Black Swan (2010) - Aronofsky

It's one of those 'it's all in her head' films. Relax. I haven't blown anything. If you've seen the trailer, you know what's coming. What's commendable here is that Aronofsky reached the comfortable point as a skilled filmmaker that his audience doesn't feel cheated watching his films. Since The Wrestler, he's smart enough to contextualize his actors to fit his projects. All the actors shine (Barbara Hersh as a protective mother, Vincent Cassel as a sleazy ballet instructor, Mila Kunis as seductive rival). Here, once again, Natalie Portman plays a young woman on the verge of going to pieces as she always does. But she doesn't come across as a cry baby. Like Polanski using Mia Farrow's waifish quality fully in Rosemary's Baby, Aronofsky takes advantage of Portman's girlish fragility to 11. Black Swan is way over the top (not that his films were ever subtle) in saint/whore dichotomy with bombastic Swan Lake score. But it fits with visceral visuals creating internal chaos in the character.

Matthew Libatique's dizzing, grainy 16mm/HD camerawork matches perfectly with woman losing her shit theme. Hugely entertaining, this is by far Aronofsky's best film.

Spoilt Milk

La Teta Asustada/The Milk of Sorrow (2009) - Llosa




Sullen Fausta (luminous Magaly Solier) has the 'milk of sorrow' illness: offsprings of the rape victims during the civil war are said to be borne without souls. So afraid of being violated, she had shoved up a potato in her vagina. After her mother dies, she needs to come up with the money for the funeral (she lives in a shanty town on the hillside of Lima) and to take the body to her old village. She starts working as a maid for a rich pianist who wants her to sing with the promise of pearls.

It's really hard not to compare this to Claudia Llosa's previous effort, Madeinusa. Even though it's far better than most of the films I've seen this year, The Milk of Sorrow was underwhelming. Although it's beautifully photographed, it's not literal enough in that South American literary magical realism way. It boils down to a young girl getting over her fear of the world and finding wisdom in gardening- which isn't too interesting of a subject. For some reason, the 14 yr old heroine in Madeinusa seemed a lot more mature and interesting than Fausta in Sorrow. But don't get me wrong, Solier, with her trembling girlish voice and time-transcending face, is something of an enigma still. This will definitely end up on my top ten list of the year.

Llosa's Madeinusa review

Hong Kong, My Love

Chinese Box (1997) - Wang




Wayne Wang's love letter to Hong Kong coincides with the 1997 handover of HK to China from the British rule. Jeremy Irons is John, a Brit journalist who never figured out the place where everyone speaks nothing but money. Gong Li is Vivian, a successful business woman who can't get out of the shadows of her past and Maggie Cheung is Jean, a young woman with a scarred face who can't get over her first love. Thanks to Jean-Claude Carrière's nuanced, mature script, the three are not merely stand-ins for the dying Empire/end of the era, old generation bound by tradition and bitter new generation. He captures the year of uncertainty in a specific place/specific political climate like a time capsule. Shot mostly hand-held by Vilko Filac, regular of Emir Kustrica's, HK has never been this intimate or beautiful. Ruben Blades steals the show as a serenading roommate of John. Jared Harris as a straight-faced, forgetful former high school sweetheart of Jean is also memorable. I like this a lot.

Too Goddamn Beautiful

La Piscine/Swimming Pool (1969) - Deray



It's sunny French Riviera. Jean-Paul (Alain Delon) and Marie (Romy Schneider) are staying in a beautiful summer villa with a fancy swimming pool. They are stunning looking couple. In fact, everything in this movie is fucking beautiful. They have sex, fool around, everything is hunky dory until their friend Harry shows up with his 18 year old daughter, Penelope (Jane Birkin). Tension rises. The couple's fragile relationship is being tested. It's Harry's off hand remarks over dinner or snack near the pool that carries venom for both Jean-Paul and Marie. You see, Marie was Harry's mistress once.

Romy Schneider is radiant in this, much more compelling than lanky, flat chested Jane Birkin's non character whom she is supposed to be jealous of.

There are no real dangerous games or seductions playing out in Swimming Pool. Even though it resembles Delon's better known Plein soleil a little, with his darker side coming out, it's not really a simple morality play. The film is a little too simple on the character's psychology and its pacing is slow but the leads are so damn pretty.

Sour Grapes

Les Rasins de Mort/Grapes of Death (1978) - Rollin




Soft focus, inept sound, snail's pace, horrendous continuity, bad make up...I should've hated this. But for some reason, I didn't. Jean Rollin might not be the cinema's most celebrated poet of death, but there is something very unsettling about his films. In Grapes of Death, female characters are only there to be naked, beheaded or impaled and only the beer guzzling, uni-browed peasants survive the vineyard pesticide induced zombie attacks (well, not really). I wouldn't call that exactly a social commentary. Still something very macabre about the whole thing. I'd like to see more of his stuff, maybe better ones than this though.

Daddy Issues in Mumbai

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Poor Man's Hitchcock

Hi, Mom! (1970) - De Palma

Brian De Palma's take on fame and upper class in the backdrop of sleazy New York in the 70s is hilarious romp. Young De Niro plays Jon, an aspiring pornographer pitching his idea for peeping with a long lens on the inhabitants of a highrise across the street. He then takes advantage of a ditsy lonely girl after spying on her for a while. Then there is a experimental theater group doing an interactive piece called 'Be Black Baby' where well intentioned rich white patrons go through some horrendous ordeal- putting on black faces and getting physically assaulted, only to rave it as life-changing experience.

Maniacally spastic and energetic in its playfulness, this might be my favorite De Palma.

All Dogs Go To Heaven

Plague Dogs (1982) - Rosen






A black retriever named Rowf and a fox terrier, Snitter escape from a top secret laboratory in a mountainous English town by the lake. After many water endurance test where many fellow lab dogs drown, Rowf has issues with water. Snitter has been subjected to brain surgery and has a hole in his skull and also has a lousy luck with humans (his masters die). To avoid starvation, they stalk sheep with the help of a snarky fox named Todd. The body count rises. The towns people are after them, the labcoats are after them. Soon the Defense Ministry is called in with paratroopers to smoke the dogs out and destroy them for fear of them carrying bubonic plague.

No less devastating than Rosen's Watership Down, Plague Dogs is nevertheless beautifully drawn animation with a strong anti-animal lab testing message. The ending will break your heart.

The Lamest. Motorcycle Gang. Ever.

Psychomania (1973) - Sharp




The devil (frog god) worshiping motorcycle gang, 'The Living Dead' roams the English countryside, wrecking bloodless, Monty Python skit resembling havoc- cruising through supermarket and terrorizing old ladies by ripping off sideview mirrors and breaking windshieldsof their cars. Their leader, a suave young man believes, with the approval from his ghost channeling medium mother, that they will come back as invincible after they kill themselves. All the members follow his suit in very comical ways and leaving dry corpses everywhere (they just fall down), but our heroine Abby is still undecided because she loves life!

Not hokey enough to be a cult classic and bike stunts are pretty lame. There is a disclaimer about the film's original negative being lost that they had to transfer from 'the best available sources'. Picture quality wasn't too bad though. And the film is chuckleworthy.