This is the sequel to Batman Begins and continues in the tradition of humanizing the hero. Great cast with sterling performances by the late Heath Ledger as Joker, Gary Oldman as police lieutenant James Gordon and Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Dent aka Harvey 2 Face. Yes the villains stole the show for this one. That is not to say that the good guys are lousy. Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine stood well and were convincing characters. Heath Ledger is the core of this movie, if he stood on the street today you'll be clenching your fist at his Joker. He has truly surpassed Jack Nicholson's rendition and brought much depth to the villain.
Joker is a twisted psychopath hell bent on wreaking havoc and bringing chaos by mass murder. He enjoys bringing people to their limits where the distinction between good and evil mashes into a blur. Kill or be killed, ridicule the hunted hero etc.The Joker challenges the principles and the plans of the goody two shoes, has a blatant disregard for life and generally does what he feels like. He brings the bad guys to their knees as well. An agent of utter chaos.
Harvey Dent as the new DA(district attorney) is a tough as nails lawyer seeking to clean up Gotham city's underworld. He put the mob boss trial and threatens the criminals in busting their money laundering by the Hong Kong accountant Lau. Lauded as the White Knight of Gotham he is soon thrown into a horrible situation of being a target of Joker's brainwashing. First his life fell into jeopardy as Joker hunt shim down during a fundraiser ball. This was followed by the kidnapping of both himself and his girlfriend Rachel Dawes in which Rachel perished. He begins to doubt the system of justice and is eventually broken down by Joker to give into his own madness. He begins vengeance on all who were involved in the course of events which led to Rachels death, deciding the fate of his victims with a toss of his coin.
I don't want to give away much of the plot because its a must watch 2008 movie.Overall I give it a high 8.5/10. Great acting, good action, well melded CGI. Very Impressive piece of work.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Saturday, July 12, 2008
赤壁 Review
赤壁 aka Red Cliffs is the site of a famous battle near the end of the Han dynasty. It is also the title of John Woo's latest war epic. This movie boasts a stellar cast including: Tony Leung(Zhou Yu), Takeshi Kaneshiro (Zhuge Liang), Zhang Fengyi(Cao Cao),Zhao Wei(Sun Shang Xiang), Chang Chen(Sun Quan), Li Chi Ling(Xiao Qiao, Hu Jun(Zhao Yun) etc.
Before the movie screened I watched the trailer and had doubts about the choice of casting Takeshi Kaneshiro as Zhuge Liang. I was proven to be right. Takeshi didn't manage to deliver an in depth interpretation of Zhuge Liang. He had large shoes to fill with remarkable performances by predecessors like Tang Guo Qiang. Takeshi didn't manage to bring across Zhuge Liang's brilliance. Historically Zhuge Liang was described as a tall good looking man with his trademark goose feather fan. Takeshi fits the profile but to me he is just too pretty to imagine him being married to an ugly wife. ps:The real Zhuge Liang was married to an ugly daughter of scholar Huang Chengyan.
Tony Leung's Zhou Yu was intense, sometimes brooding and generally well portrayed as a renaissance man. Zhou Yu was an accomplished musician and tactician. Kudos to Tony Leung for his ability to bring the character to life. Downside, he looked a bit too old and gruff as Zhou Yu. I had always imagined Zhou Yu to look more refined, cultured and younger.
Zhang Fengyi was good as Cao Cao. He delivered as usual. His Cao Cao was proud , lusty, cocky and cynical. I'm slightly disappointed though that the deeply suspicious nature Cao Cao was missing in action. Other than that I'm pretty happy with his portrayal.
Now comes the horrible Liu Bei and the Zhao, Guan, Zhang cast. It was utterly bad. You Yong's Liu Bei looked like a decrepit farmer, Guan Yu was portrayed like a gentle teacher on steroids who morphs into incredible hulk during battle and Zhao Yun was just plain brutish. It was especially disgusting in the Bagua Formation when the fighting scenes looked like they came straight out of the Dynasty Warriors video games. Unrealistic battle where the Wei soldiers just ran like lemmings into the formation without fighting the Sun-Liu soldiers.
End of the day I give it a 6.5/10 and do not recommend hardcore fans or people with no inkling of 三国 personalities and events to watch this movie. John Woo should stick to guns. Sweeping war epics should be left to directors like Ridley Scott.
Before the movie screened I watched the trailer and had doubts about the choice of casting Takeshi Kaneshiro as Zhuge Liang. I was proven to be right. Takeshi didn't manage to deliver an in depth interpretation of Zhuge Liang. He had large shoes to fill with remarkable performances by predecessors like Tang Guo Qiang. Takeshi didn't manage to bring across Zhuge Liang's brilliance. Historically Zhuge Liang was described as a tall good looking man with his trademark goose feather fan. Takeshi fits the profile but to me he is just too pretty to imagine him being married to an ugly wife. ps:The real Zhuge Liang was married to an ugly daughter of scholar Huang Chengyan.
Tony Leung's Zhou Yu was intense, sometimes brooding and generally well portrayed as a renaissance man. Zhou Yu was an accomplished musician and tactician. Kudos to Tony Leung for his ability to bring the character to life. Downside, he looked a bit too old and gruff as Zhou Yu. I had always imagined Zhou Yu to look more refined, cultured and younger.
Zhang Fengyi was good as Cao Cao. He delivered as usual. His Cao Cao was proud , lusty, cocky and cynical. I'm slightly disappointed though that the deeply suspicious nature Cao Cao was missing in action. Other than that I'm pretty happy with his portrayal.
Now comes the horrible Liu Bei and the Zhao, Guan, Zhang cast. It was utterly bad. You Yong's Liu Bei looked like a decrepit farmer, Guan Yu was portrayed like a gentle teacher on steroids who morphs into incredible hulk during battle and Zhao Yun was just plain brutish. It was especially disgusting in the Bagua Formation when the fighting scenes looked like they came straight out of the Dynasty Warriors video games. Unrealistic battle where the Wei soldiers just ran like lemmings into the formation without fighting the Sun-Liu soldiers.
End of the day I give it a 6.5/10 and do not recommend hardcore fans or people with no inkling of 三国 personalities and events to watch this movie. John Woo should stick to guns. Sweeping war epics should be left to directors like Ridley Scott.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Homecoming
A year has gone by since I first stepped into the airport at Sydenham, Sydney. The past year has been one of recuperation from the "perils" of work. Reviewing my life at this juncture, there's this maelstrom of thoughts churning in my mind. Penning it out will be a good way to equilibrate myself.
Singapore is a "paper society" that places much emphasis on academic meritocracy . A person's worth is judged by his/her qualifications, a hallmark of the Confucian management style. If you hail from an elite school, it makes you special & valuable. Frankly I think this is a load of bull. I study because I like to understand my discipline better and because I like to analyse things and tinker with high tech instruments that cost over a million bucks. Basically I'm just a hoarder of knowledge. Does that make me better than the hawker who makes his living cooking noodles? I think not.Study requires a good memory, some understanding and the ability to regurgitate; eventually to apply principles. To kickstart a business requires acumen, determination and the ability to anticipate customer preferences; eventually to produce a product. Isn't the ability to create superior to the ability to comprehend.
A good insight into the value of creativity versus stellar academic achievements is the case of Mr Sim Wong Hoo, a polytechnic graduate who is way richer than most of the Singaporean Oxbridge grduates. Mr Sim is always dreaming up new gadgets when we the so called "highly educated intellectuals" are finding ways of fine tuning things, chasing the next storage barrier and trouble shooting problems. Smart people can do a bad job as well. As in the case of the design of the Creative MP3 players. Apple is so successful with Ipods because its products are broad spectrum design. Anyone from 7 to 70 is able to use Apple with ease. Creative MP3 players although fantastic in function are terribly narrow spectrum design products. As a consumer using a gadget daily , do I need a 50000 songs storage space or do I need a 5000 song storage but a quick and user friendly way of getting to a song I want? As a gadget owner I wanna show off my cool gadget. I may want to give it as a gift to my Dad/Mum, but they are gadget dummies who have no idea how tech works so which do I choose? Creative Zen or Ipod? Which person doesn't want to be seen as being cool? In its tech race Creative lost its creativity when it focused solely on scoring high marks in tech barriers.
I feel that the more we study the more limitations we impose on our thinking. Its funny because when one reaches PHD level, the scope of study is so extremely narrow and specialised. A macro view changes to a micro view as one climbs the academic ladder. Makes one wonder if all highly educated people eventually become afflicted with tunnel vision. Brilliance requires a free & inquisitive mind. One with no shackles. The benzene molecule was dreamt up as an ouroboros by Kekule when he opened his eyes to bright sunlight. Teflon was discovered because some chemist was curious enough to saw open a gas cylinder. An act which would be deemed crazy by most singaporeans.
Like homegrown Creative, Singaporeans have such a shackled mindset. In our race to the Mortar and gown, the directorship of a company etc we tend to forget the fun creative things like beer helmets and sportsmanship. We become afraid of failure as that consigns us to the bottom of the heap in a meritocratic society. Thats not true, a winner is one who fights against all odds and thrives. At the very least you will learn to respect yourself. There is no worse enemy than ourselves. Fear is not an external entity. It is within. Fear shackles us. Then again like the Gopher game in the arcade, we get hit by a huge hammer whenever we try to stand up and that doesn't help at all.
Singapore is a "paper society" that places much emphasis on academic meritocracy . A person's worth is judged by his/her qualifications, a hallmark of the Confucian management style. If you hail from an elite school, it makes you special & valuable. Frankly I think this is a load of bull. I study because I like to understand my discipline better and because I like to analyse things and tinker with high tech instruments that cost over a million bucks. Basically I'm just a hoarder of knowledge. Does that make me better than the hawker who makes his living cooking noodles? I think not.Study requires a good memory, some understanding and the ability to regurgitate; eventually to apply principles. To kickstart a business requires acumen, determination and the ability to anticipate customer preferences; eventually to produce a product. Isn't the ability to create superior to the ability to comprehend.
A good insight into the value of creativity versus stellar academic achievements is the case of Mr Sim Wong Hoo, a polytechnic graduate who is way richer than most of the Singaporean Oxbridge grduates. Mr Sim is always dreaming up new gadgets when we the so called "highly educated intellectuals" are finding ways of fine tuning things, chasing the next storage barrier and trouble shooting problems. Smart people can do a bad job as well. As in the case of the design of the Creative MP3 players. Apple is so successful with Ipods because its products are broad spectrum design. Anyone from 7 to 70 is able to use Apple with ease. Creative MP3 players although fantastic in function are terribly narrow spectrum design products. As a consumer using a gadget daily , do I need a 50000 songs storage space or do I need a 5000 song storage but a quick and user friendly way of getting to a song I want? As a gadget owner I wanna show off my cool gadget. I may want to give it as a gift to my Dad/Mum, but they are gadget dummies who have no idea how tech works so which do I choose? Creative Zen or Ipod? Which person doesn't want to be seen as being cool? In its tech race Creative lost its creativity when it focused solely on scoring high marks in tech barriers.
I feel that the more we study the more limitations we impose on our thinking. Its funny because when one reaches PHD level, the scope of study is so extremely narrow and specialised. A macro view changes to a micro view as one climbs the academic ladder. Makes one wonder if all highly educated people eventually become afflicted with tunnel vision. Brilliance requires a free & inquisitive mind. One with no shackles. The benzene molecule was dreamt up as an ouroboros by Kekule when he opened his eyes to bright sunlight. Teflon was discovered because some chemist was curious enough to saw open a gas cylinder. An act which would be deemed crazy by most singaporeans.
Like homegrown Creative, Singaporeans have such a shackled mindset. In our race to the Mortar and gown, the directorship of a company etc we tend to forget the fun creative things like beer helmets and sportsmanship. We become afraid of failure as that consigns us to the bottom of the heap in a meritocratic society. Thats not true, a winner is one who fights against all odds and thrives. At the very least you will learn to respect yourself. There is no worse enemy than ourselves. Fear is not an external entity. It is within. Fear shackles us. Then again like the Gopher game in the arcade, we get hit by a huge hammer whenever we try to stand up and that doesn't help at all.
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