Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Cineasia #6 in the starting blocks



For all you who are always on the look-out for the best in everything that's not exactly you, but different, here is something you might like if film and Asian cinema in particular are among your principal fields of interest, as I assume they would since you are reading this blog:
this year's (well actually it's last year's) Cineasia is getting ready to bring us some delicious menu of the latest and best in movies from Japan, Korea, Indonesia, China among others, and, most eagerly awaited by me personally, Singapore!

I've been reporting on this before, but anyway, here are the basics once more:

  • when – April 28th – May 1st
  • where – Museum Ludwig in Cologne
  • what – see for yourself on Cineasia's official webby here, where shortly you'll find the program and everything else in much detail.
Just quickly, I want to point out these highlights to you: there will be “Tekkon kinkreet” shown, this solid anime by Michael Arias, likewise “Paprika”, Kon Satoshi's highly anticipated latest, “Berbagi suami/Love for Share” by Nia Di Nata from Indonesia, “D.I.Y” by Royston Tan, a German first for that musical short film, and finally you wouldn't want to miss the World Premiere of “Becoming Royston”!

Let's not waste this splendid opportunity and simply show up in time at the venue to feast on it all! One last thing: there will be an audience award for the first time this year that you can vote on, so it's really all your choice, see?

(pic©cineasia-filmfestival.de)

Monday, February 26, 2007

quote of the week

“What do you say to cats?”
(Snoopy/Peanuts (Charles M. Schulz))

Thursday, February 22, 2007

my list of 57th Berlinale best films

  1. Bushi no ichibun/Love and Honor (Yamada Yoji, Japan (2006))
  2. Kain no matsuei/Cain's Descendant (Oku Shutaro, Japan (2006))
  3. Strange Culture (Lynn Hershman-Leeson, USA (2007))
  4. Takva/A Man's Fear of God (Özer Kiziltan, Turkey (2006))
  5. La León (Santiago Otheguy, Argentina (2007))
  6. Tekkon kinkreet (Michael Arias, Japan (2006))
  7. Ichijiku no kao/Faces of a Fig Tree (Momoi Kaori, Japan (2006))
  8. Senkyo/Campaign (Soda Kazuhiro, Japan (2006))
  9. Apa khabar orang kampung/Village People Radio Show (Amir Muhammad, Malaysia (2007))
  10. Luo ye gui gen (Zhang Yang, China (2007))

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

57th Berlinale 2007 round-up – So, what's it been this year?



There has been much reporting on how this year's Berlinale was perceived a real failure, lacking in anything that one has come to expect of a festival of its size and standing. As this of course is a judgment leveled against the Competition itself, I nevertheless have to agree on the point that it was a disappointment, alright. It may be all my own fault, the choices were clearly mine to make after all. Still, I am not the only one, I know that for a fact, and maybe you could already sense as much from my short evaluations of the previous ten days.
Even taking into account that I did by no means expect this year's edition to bring anything like that truly stupefying, that singular string of revelations and masterpieces I was so lucky to see last time around, but I have certainly been hoping for more.
No, 57 just didn't live up, there simply wasn't anything brilliantly special, anything to substantially enhance my understanding of the art of film making, verging awe.

From all this I exempt the winner in my programming, whom it was very easy indeed to identify, but this one virtuously elegant period drama alone (part three in Yamada's samurai trilogy and six time Japanese Academy Award winner) just couldn't make up for what was generally a rather meager vintage. And I will have to think about the follow-ups a bit longer.
We had two Korean films with yodeling in them (sic!) and that was sure fun, although the hallyu may very well show its circuit wear and be displaying signs of abating somewhat. Maybe programmers ought to keep that in mind for next year. They definitely should turn their attention to considerably increase the level of professionalism in the films' presentation and finally begin to take their short film section serious – or else cancel it altogether, for it was a shame, really. Documentaries were strong and that's a plus.
So here is my little catalog of prizes I would like to give away if it were for me to do so:

  • best film: “Bushi no ichibun/Love and Honor”, Yamada Yoji (Japan)
  • best actor/actress: Kimura Takuya as Shinnojo Mimura in “Bushi no ichibun/Love and Honor” (Japan)
  • best score: Plaid for “Tekkon kinkreet” (Japan)
  • special mention for cinematographic originality: “Kain no matsuei/Cain's Descendant”, Kudo Risa (Japan) & “Ichijiku no kao/Faces of a Fig Tree”, Kugimiya Shinji (Japan)
  • funniest movie: “Senkyo/Campaign”, Soda Kazuhiro (Japan)
  • most enjoyable sex scenes: “Hu hwae ha ji An ah/No Regret”, Leesong Hee-il (South Korea)
  • best last line: “From on here you see everything.” from “Tekkon kinkreet” (Japan)
  • prettiest poster: “Hu hwae ha ji An ah/No Regret”, Leesong Hee-il (South Korea)
As you see, it is all Asian cinema, but let me assure you that this was only in part due to what you could possibly call my very own “preferences”, I give you that. But honestly, every film has its chance with me and quality is anything but a question of origin. Proven fact.
Most intriguing for me personally was attending the Berlinale Talent Campus (for which there cannot be praise enough and thanks to the organizers!), exchanging views about and gaining insights into ways and strategies for (co-)producing local content for international audiences or making films with friends, there was so much inspiration in fact, it certainly set me onto the tracks. However much I will forever stick to writing, and literature at that, as being my creativity's dominion and prefer it to scripting, after this Filmfestival experience I have to say that I am tempted to venture into film, almost to the point of certain resolve.
Despite (and because of) all this, I will be around again for next year's Berlinale for sure.

(pics©berlinale.de; Shochiku Kinema Kenkyû-jo)

Monday, February 19, 2007

quote of the week

“His policy of juvenile optimism no matter what was beginning to annoy even him besides not working anymore anyway.”
(Thomas R. Pynchon, Against The Day (2006))

10/1 – Berlinale Day 10


It's so-called “Berlinale Kinotag” today as this year's festival draws to an end, with all the awards being accorded their respective recipients, all the directors, producers and actors headed someplace else, it is still a good enough opportunity to see what they've left us with, which is their films - and that's what we have come here for after all, isn't it? So what you haven't been able to get tickets for you can have a go at now; and that's what I did as well.

37th Forum
“Ichijiku no kao/Faces of a Fig Tree”, Momoi Kaori (Japan)
What's normalcy to you? Lovely, us from a different angle.

Ozon's “Angel” was the official closing film for Competition, alright, but I let myself be ushered out by Berlinale's ultimate screening in 2007, which brought it all to a fitting grande finale in actual fact:

22nd Panorama
“Dasepo sonyo/Dasepo Naughty Girls”, Lee Je-yong (South Korea)
Soap parody of instantaneous high-school singing. In style, farcic-all, Yeah!





That's it, “Now single up all lines!” (T.R.P. A.T.D.)
and see you again next year!



(pics©berlinale.de; World Production/Mirovision)

Saturday, February 17, 2007

10/1 – Berlinale Day 9


Recovery with Latin cinema, first one short (“Guacho/Fatherless”, Juan Minujín (Argentina); OK but not great) and then a black-and-white feature film:

22nd
Panorama
“La León”, Santiago Otheguy (Argentina)
Tension and grace in absorbing beauty. Jungle tranquility worth seeing!

Time to congratulate the lucky winners (and all those who are not exactly losers either)!
Well done!


(pic©berlinale.de)

Friday, February 16, 2007

10/1 – Berlinale Day 8


22nd Panorama
“Ferien/Vacation”, Thomas Arslan (Germany)
Ill-balanced, formulaic family grotto; worse: I've seen it all before.

22nd Panorama
“Férfiakt/Men in the Nude”, Károly Esztergályos (Hungary)
One big, pretentious closet cliché. Hungarian literature is way better!

- A wasted day at the movies, there's the Berlinale 2007 for you!
- Nah, fortunately this doesn't happen too often. It will sure get better.


(pic©berlinale.de)

“the torch” #4 – on Real Love




With the latest issue of “The Torch” you'll get a playful, somewhat rather lightweight piece on one of not only cinema's but of all art's most prominent recurring themes: the strange and seemingly inexhaustible wonder of so-called “Real Love”. There will probably be no solution or final recipe on how to obtain it, be it in your movie or in life, exactly, but at least you don't have to fear being sold anything in the way of a formula either as it's all tongue-in-cheek, really, (and I hope you can) get it here.

(pic©mo)

Thursday, February 15, 2007

10/1 – Berlinale Day 7


I am very much in favor of diversity anyway, so after yesterday's entertaining J-day I thought I would stay the course while at the same time switching the format. So it was anime for me today, some rather obscure species around here, still.

30th Generation
“Tekkon kinkreet”, Michael Arias (Japan)
Unscathed by the city? Visually gratifying, huge score, superb subtitling.

The days ahead mean the showdown on this Berlinale and savouring the event while it's ongoing makes me look forward to the films, naturally, but also to the burning question of who wins what being finally, irrevocably answered. And as this is industry-important and decides on careers as well, I wish the best for everyone in competition, even as I myself have bypassed most of it to see the ones not likely to be screened big time in Germany again. Picking up the gems, it is.
And on it goes...


(pic©berlinale.de)

10/1 – Berlinale Day 6


Today I had two young Japanese directors' impressing new movies, two world premieres in fact, showing each in their very distinct way a foreign yet strangely recognizable present-day Kawasaki. The first a documentary on the public issue of running for a seat in the City Council, the latter a strictly grotesque fictionalization of things private – but neither the one nor the other in any way too strictly the one or the other. Very contemporary!

37th Forum
“Senkyo/Campaign”, Soda Kazuhiro (Japan)
Candid portray of human give and take, humorous and gripping.

37th Forum
“Kain no matsuei/Cain's Descendant”, Shutaro Oku (Japan)
Irritating, strong and refreshing, it's human dysfunction on bleak display.


(pic©berlinale.de)

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

10/1 – Berlinale Day 5


By way of preliminary assessment halfway through the event I'd have to say that I shall hope part II will get better, in terms of the films I choose to watch, for, frankly, so far there has been nothing really that exceptional to be actually stunnig. But there's still time – and today I even took some of it to simply relax...

22nd Panorama
“Takva/A Man's Fear of God”, Özer Kiziltan (Turkey)
Somber depiction of devoutness failing reality check, credible and impartial.


(pic©berlinale.de)

10/1 – Berlinale Day 4


Had to keep my ears open all day long and listen up as useful inside views and knowledge were being shared and given out freely by Jia Zhang-Ke and other esteemed fellows of the industry – just for it all to be topped off by a World Premiere, now that's what I call a busy but rewarding day.

5th Berlinale Talent Campus
“By popular demand”
Co-producing brings outside requisitions; remain subversive and make your film!

5th Berlinale Talent Campus
“Film co-ops”
Risk sharing in co-operative ventures might grow your revenue capacity.

37th Forum
“Apa khabar orang kampung/Village People Radio Show”, Amir Muhammad (Malaysia)
Scratches on deviant history: Malaysia's communist past in exile. Good!


(pic©berlinale.de)

Monday, February 12, 2007

quote of the week

“Plot is always cheap to come by but it is not central, really.”
(Peter Stamm, Literatur im Foyer (19.01.2007))

10/1 – Berlinale Day 3


First it's been about picking up plenty of inspiration and motivation for me, and to learn from experienced people in the business like Wim Wenders or Ning Ying, which opportunity was provided for on the

5th Berlinale Talent Campus
“Metrobranding”
Urbanity as story is inexhaustible, just beware the curated city-film.

22nd Panorama
“Luo ye gui gen/Getting Home”, Zhang Yang (China)
Another sentimental journey teaches how reverence is in the deed.


(pic©berlinale.de)

Sunday, February 11, 2007

10/1 – Berlinale Day 2


The thing gears up a notch with lots of Japanese period drama for me, and passion alright.

22nd Panorama
“Bushi no ichibun/Love And Honor”, Yoji Yamada (Japan)
Meticulously crafted straightforward storytelling, engaging, intense and some fine acting.

57th Berlinale Spezial
“Sakuran”, Ninagawa Mika (Japan)
Yoshiwara Pop: pointlessly lavish, meaty and cheesy, tiresome yet passable.

22nd Panorama
“Hu hwae ha ji An ah/No Regret”, Leesong Hee-il (South Korea)
Dare be my man, over-dramatized and pathetic as you wish.


(pic©berlinale.de)

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Monkeylove on record



I’ve added my personal favorite among Royston Tan’s short films, mesmerizing ”Monkeylove“, to his IMDb record just now, which is still horribly incomplete and ragged; work’s in progress, though, as I will be forthcoming with more of the relevant data each bit at a time.
After he's only so recently secured his landmark win at this year's Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, taking home the Competition's Grand Prix, you registered and professional users can now finally cast your votes on this one here.


(pic©Zhao Wei Films)

10/1 – Berlinale Day 1


In for a slow start:

Panorama Dokumente
Opening Film: “Strange Culture”, Lynn Hershman Leeson (USA)
Insightfully biased documentary, pleasurably defending civil liberties against state paranoia.

Just enough time for me to squeeze in half of the Short Films Competition I, which once again proved, if such was necessary, that the Berlinale is just no home to these. Sorry, but seems to me that for our Filmfestspiele to recover some of the lost ground with respect to this important genre still more re-organizing effort is called for.

37th Forum
“Aju teukbyeolhan sonnim/Ad Lib Night”, Lee Yoon-ki (South Korea)
Big-city escape construed from delicately random impersonation - a mild disappointment.


(pic©berlinale.de)

Thursday, February 08, 2007

my list of ingredients that make for a good movie

  1. good acting
  2. structure
  3. evocative score
  4. long takes
  5. the characteristic sound of things
  6. un-written dialog
  7. self awareness
  8. humor
  9. variations on a major theme
  10. epiphany

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

10/1 - keeping it short


Whilst the Berlinale is underway and keeping me busy I'll give you short updates on what my own, personal programming has in store: 10/1, ten words per film to give you my first sketchy impressions as I go along my (hopefully entertaining) visual itinerary. If it's called for however, I shall come back to any one particular film or topic of relevance in more detail after all the fuss has subsided somewhat and once again allows for plain thinking (and writing).
So, come Friday, let's enjoy the show!


(pic©berlinale.de)

Monday, February 05, 2007

quote of the week

"Horror Vacui is an ethical fact."
(Imre Kertesz, Valaki más: a változás krónikája (1997))

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Watching out for "Becoming Royston"



Singapore independent film is vibrant, on the rise and very much alive these days. So much so, it is quite easy to gather this news by just having no more than a cursory look at the landscape as it presents itself; literally on Sinema.sg for one, proto-ymagon's friendly link, but there are many other sources to confirm the obvious. Among the many names increasingly being dropped in any discussion of current "young cinema" from South-East Asia, Singaporean productions of many different kinds and formats have come to figure more and more prominently, as can be observed in festivals around the world. One such undertaking I personally take a great deal of interest in and that looks very promising indeed to follow suit with this trend, if such it is, would be Originasian's first ever feature length film "Becoming Royston", which I want to briefly point out to you here.


Story and cast, what it looks like and what to expect of Nicholas Chee's directorial debut feature, as well as all the rest that might be of interest to you, this kind of basic information you can possibly get nowhere better than on the film's website itself, www.becoming-royston.com here.
What is however especially noteworthy about this particular production is its very inclusive, custom-made pre-launch concept, applied to ensure maximum exposure with the targeted audience in its home market and I'd like to give you a few words on this.

To me it seems like a breath of fresh air wafting in through some window being opened up onto the future - or on what one possible future of getting films done in Singapore could be like - and on small budgets anywhere. Put in more basic a fashion, you could well regard this one production, courageously undertaken and seen through on no more than 280,000 S$, as something like a marketing template for making innovative use of what arsenal our time offers when it comes to bringing your content home to the consumer.

In the case of “Becoming Royston” a campaign was designed to stifle local support in advance of the film's actual release and to successively introduce it to its would-be audience. In its catalogue you'll find a website with meticulous attention being given to visual details, which make it appear on your computer as a sight intricate yet simple, a sight well worth coming back to. And on doing so you'll find well composed pdf fact files on the film and its cast, ports for interaction, which enable the visitor to partake, to join the experience, to plug in. And there, too, you'll find the so-called webisodes that gained considerable local renown due to exposure at McDonald's outlets throughout Singapore, addressing the urbanite young in particular.

Applying an HD facilitated single source-multiple format production concept to it all, a vast range of compatibility and flexibility was arrived at that ultimately allowed for online streaming delivery and a work-in-progress screening in five chapters, which equally managed to connect considerably well. To sum it all up, this may turn out to be a landmark achievement, setting a precedent others might want to follow and which might even develop into some kind of standard formula for future independent releases - not just in Singapore. Certainly something to watch out for - and come back to.
As sure I will, and possibly seeing this promising film come over to Germany as well. So anyone interested in “Becoming Royston”, screenings and the like: don't hesitate to contact me via proto.ymagon@gmail.com.

(pic©Originasian Pictures LLP)

Saturday, February 03, 2007

HU-Japanologie: Screenings in February



The Japan Film-AG continues its screenings this month – but due to the Berlinale somewhat reduced in scope. Even so, Koreeda (oops, too late already, sorry!) and Takeshi Kitano's “Zatôichi” are sure worth having a look, which you should risk here.


(pic©hu-berlin.de)

ATD/Bilocations – confusing dimensions and powers

To resume the reading-in-progress assessment of Thomas Pynchon's new novel "Against The Day" begun herein earlier (see pt.1 here and pt.2 here), this is now the sum-up of that work's third part, "Bilocations". No new introductory remarks are called for, I assume, as the main guiding aspects and auspices of literary concern to be levelled at this piece of writing in particular, remain the same as before. Note that this section title's indication of the very tempting ability to be at two different places at the same time, has to be read as a continuation of that previous major conceit of "doubling", which has been applied on a plethora of existential levels in "Iceland Spar".

So, here goes: (spoiler!)

Just like at every junction before, we start off by witnessing the Chums of Chance first, this time as (map in hand) they search for the lost city of Shambala as is their mission, travelling under-sand through the deserts of Inner Asia. They are however prematurely dislodged by their host craft, the Saksaul, after some "disturbances", yet just in time so as not to share its tragic fate of getting in the way of the many opposing World Powers' combating forces, vying for strategic dominance in this region.

Merle Rideout arrives at Candlebrow where he teams up with Roswell and joins in the development of some workable time-traveling device, something to do with the nature of light relative to time.

Frank meets his mother Mayva in Cripple Creek to see for himself how she's coping with living on her own and gets in effect exempted by her from being bound to finishing the last of that family business, though for all the latently obvious bitterness at play here, Frank appears to be quite incapable of accepting the blessings of worldly redemption and to let go of his self-pernicious course - staying, it seems, in the family line and, consequentially, firmly in the business. He stumbles off back south again...

Deuce and Lake live out their intentionally blind-folded conspiration, that high (or low) drama of absolution sought after and retribution unpaid, called a marriage, where in jointly developing their intertwined pasts into an irresolvable destiny, the very task of facing each other, literally, has become the ultimate penitence - with forgiveness being persistently held at arm's length.

Yashmeen Halfcourt, herself a mathematician, leaves Cambridge (Renfrew!) for Göttingen (Werfner!) to scrupulously pursue her study of the still unsolved Riemann Zeta conjecture there, leaving Lew Basnight and Neville and Nigel behind, as well as the Grand Cohen, the TWIT and White Hall, who are all keeping an eye on her, for different but incidentally converging interests of their own.

Dally Rideout with her "family" and Kit (Christopher) Traverse find themselves traveling on board the same ship over to Europe. Despite their all but romantic encounter they are fatefully made to part ways midocean as the Stupendica all of a sudden splits up and changes course, which miraculous transmutation finds Kit on board its parallel identity, battleship "Emperor Maximilian", and taken into duty there, while Dally continues on her route to end her voyage at Trieste. Kit for his part debarks at Agadir, hires on to a German trailer and tries to labour his way up north toward his original destination. Arriving in Ostend he joins in with a group of young Anarchists, the European, the somewhat more decadent brand of that same persuasion known from the kind of American travails his family history tells such a compelling tale of. There in Belgium he gets involved in all kinds of impossibly flamboyant schemes and their respective agents, ranging from such unlikely schools as mathematics, Absinthe or mayonnaise, all of them conspiring or unintentionally collaborating in one or more ways to turn into adventures, so fantastic indeed, as would leave even James Bond to better think twice before getting himself drawn into. Luckily and against all odds, he eventually manages to escape to (relative) safety.

Finally he leaves Ostend and its enchanting Quarternioneers' World Conference acquaintance Umeki Tsurigame, whom before parting he entrusts with care-taking of some much sought-after apparatus, accidentally come into his possession, that apparently engineers the dubious quality of doubly refracting and emitting (sic!) possible as well as impossible vectors of light and time, effectively turning it into a kind of Q-weapon of potentially world-annihilating power, something better not to fall into the wrong hands.

On tour through Italy with the Zombinis, Dally feels Venice to be her one, true home, and she decides to stay on by herself, where she meets time-stranded painter Hunter Panhallow in search of redemption, some way of restoring chaos to order or forestalling the first altogether. In the city with him and standing in as his model, she gets to know his colleague-in-arts Tancredi and the up and coming school of the Futurists he is attached to, their art and accompanying vision, which of course includes the visualization of time and passage.

Over time, Kit has finally made it to Göttingen, where he meets Yashmeen and catches a first glimpse of the unsettling possibility that the currently prevailing crisis in mathematics, with opposing factions arguing in favor of or equally passionately against the fundamentally antagonist approaches of vectorism and pure, "real" mathematics to solving the Zeta function and thereby defining the interminable on either scale, micro or macro, in actuality were nothing but a reflection of the oncoming political crisis then threateningly encroaching on Europe and the entire world, probably even strangely connected, if not altogether identical with it, being some kind of flipside thereto. Eventually he falls for Yashmeen, unanswered, as she leaves Göttingen only a short while later - not without first (but almost uncomprehendingly so) laying the foundation to what would in effect grow into the famed solution of the Riemann problem she had been so desperately in search of.

Lew Basnight back in London gets informed about a copy of the secret map to Shambala apparently being in the possession of one Lamont Replevin, some suspicious dealer of antiquities.

Next, Kit is forced to leave Göttingen and relinquish his mathematical studies there, as Scarsdale Vibe cuts off his funding and seems to be intent upon having him eliminated altogether. Thus, for an alternative, Kit takes over an assignment by the TWIT to inquire into the whereabouts of Yashmeen's father, Algernon Halfcourt, to secure and report back on his reputed record of the mysterious events at Shambala.

In Mexico, Frank together with Ewball Oust and Wolf Tone engages in weapons trafficking across the US border and in doing so unexpectedly runs into Stray at El Paso. And no word of Reef yet, who over in Europe is doing tunnelling work in the Alps, in exile from his own destiny, it seems, or trying to flee it, not easy to decide, when he is eventually haunted to avenge his father, as a visitation of sorts manifests itself into the real opportunity to have a go (or a shot rather) at Scarsdale Vibe in Venice. Running into Kit in Switzerland first, the two brothers quickly team up to turning this prospect into a joint resolution. In consequence of which plan they are once more to part ways, Kit and Yashmeen, as she for her part has to follow instructions by the T.W.I.T. ordering her back to London.

In London meanwhile, Lew Basnight has to face the sobering discovery that known to his employer, the Grand Cohen and the T.W.I.T., Renfrew and Werfner are in fact one and the “same” bilocated, split up or refracted person, working out its own inner antagonism as two agents (or in the guises of such) for opposing world powers vying for dominance over or, if that were not to be, alternatively, destruction of the strategically important Balkan, conceiving of some new monstrous weapon, a trap-pipeline of poison gas. Being unwholesomely reminded of a very similar situation not too long ago back in the US, of him being put to use in somebody else's plans, unknown, unexplained to him , beyond his grasp or maybe, even, beyond the reality of this world altogether, he decides to leave it all behind him and move on separately.

Now at this point where part three comes to its fitting conclusion I don't want to treat you to any additional lengths of analysis here, only add, if you don't mind, one or two observations of mine, hopefully worthy of being added:

In my estimation, certainly the Wild West episodes are the most accessible ones, partly due to the tableau of characters given here, who more than has to be deemed customary with Pynchon actually work as representations of real living people, fairly complete with emotional display and all, and with identifiable, credible speech patterns to go along with it, that make for readable, enjoyable dialog, so much so in fact, one feels tempted to call them “authentic voices”. Well, almost.

Nevertheless, I feel this portion to be just slightly less scrupulously written than the preceding one, less forcefully trimmed to precisely that degree of Pynchon-logic, which in essence is this very entertaining trigger-play of counter-referencing and inimitable association-leaps so typical of him as to make it his very own trademark in writing style. This may in part be owed to the fact that the eponymous metaphor of bilocation, the ability of being two or more places at a time, doesn't serve to bring anything new into the equation that is being literally performed, if not solved, in here. To me part three is very much an extension of part two - which doesn't sound too bad after all, for again you are given all the valuable enjoyment of the English language being performed on with nothing short of grandiosity.

Finally, what crossed my mind, which by nature is always looking for ways of trans-lation, is the tempting question of how a film version of all this would have to be like? Well, pretty close to Miyazaki Hayao, I would say, one of my favorites anyway, and just look at the “Chums of Charms” signet at the top of this post, now, ain't that Laputa or isn't it? Try imagine this all in real film – or try do this, how about it?

Stay tuned for more!

(pics©www.pynchonwiki.com)

Friday, February 02, 2007

“the torch” #3 - in the crux: subtitling




This sub-series “in the crux” takes on seemingly banal technicalities and tries to have a fresh look on how they may effect the outcome. With respect to adding subtitles to your film this edition of “the torch” assesses how non-English European audiences can be very touchy about not being addressed in their own language; resulting in that a Singapore film's potential success in Europe may depend (or could at least be substantially increased) by having it feature right-to-target subs. To see for yourself whether this really is how it works with foreign language subtitles, their risks and opportunities, and if quality pays, even in subtitling, do have a look here.

(pic©mo)

Thursday, February 01, 2007

my list of challenging/promising theme-pairings

  1. death and
  2. love and exuberance
  3. time and the image
  4. history and cybernetics
  5. language and faith
  6. art and friendship
  7. sex and communication
  8. politics and fear
  9. globalization and heritage
  10. beauty and the trivial