Following – Wow! This Is Amazing

 (1998)

Following, stalking, sniffing, shadowing, whatever, that’s what The Young Man does around the streets of London. What’s his name? Sorry, not mentioned. And what for? Well, he’s a loner, waiting to be excited, and he considers himself a writer, so what do you think? Anyway, one of the important rules he sets for himself is to pick the target randomly. As he, however, breaks it helplessly later on, things go terribly wrong. Who’s following who? He has no idea until he goes to the police and tells what he thinks has happened.

This black & white film back in 1998, looking fairly old fashioned and rough, yet with a fresh and stylish non-linear story structure, is considered a British noir classic, that could get pretty confusing at the beginning, but don’t worry, don’t fall asleep, pay attention, and at the end, you’d go like…well, how’d you feel if you think you’ve seen the whole picture but you’re in fact just part of it?

Christopher Nolan is one of the filmmakers that I admire. Following is his first try as a director. If you’ve tried his Momento and The Prestige, you wouldn’t feel too much of a headache watching this one, but if you haven’t, try it too. You’ll be loving it.

Blood Simple – It’s Not Simple

 ((1985)

This is the first Coen Brothers’ film I like. Its visual elements, score, dialogues, editing, are so stylish and appropriate that it’s without doubt a neo-noir classic. Like those psychological thrillers, there are twists that will make you go like oops this moment, and ha-ha the next. I particularly like those sarcastic dialogues that create a sense of humor and mystery for this film. So pay attention to their talks while watching it, coz it’s the funniest part of all. It’s basically an 1-gun-and-3-bullet story: Ray, the bartender is seeing his boss, Marty’s wife, Abby. Abby puts a gun and 3 bullets in her own handbag in case Marty does something vicious. Marty asks a private detective to spy on them, but later, he can no longer take it, so he tells the private detective to kill them all. The private detective then breaks into Ray and Abby’s house and finds a gun loaded with 3 bullets in Abby’s bag. What happens next is considered one of the most thrilling moments in movie history. Top Chinese director Zhang Yimou is remaking this film. I don’t know if it’s going to be another classic or not, but anyway check this Coen Brothers’ 1985 debut out first. It’s really going to entertain you! Just like the tagline goes: when blood is involved, nothing is simple.

The Prestige – Hey! Don’t Go Too Far

 ((2006)

 Are you watching closely? Nah, you’re not. You, as a matter of fact, don’t want to, coz you’d like to be fooled, and you just can’t help it. We’d all like to be amazed, coz we get tired of the world we live in, sometimes. I guess kids could’ve figured it out right from the beginning. Their imaginations are in a sense much more vivid than ours, adults’. If you ask a 2-year-old, could a man disappear at one end and reappear at the other in a jiffy? He’d probably go like, why not? Could there be a duplicate or something? Why not? Well, no wonder they say kids are more like philosophers. I’m not saying kids wouldn’t be glad to see The Transported Man trick. They would, but they wouldn’t be too surprised about the secret behind it. We, adults, such pathetic animals on the planet, trapped and stranded by the law of nature, would only try to work out the secret by using something we’ve always worshiped, something that we think distinguishes us from animals-logic. It’s got to be reasonable, so there must be either a double or-you may have guessed-a twin. Can’t be a duplicate coz it’s physically, scientifically impossible. You sure? Just coz you can’t see it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Seeing is not always believing. Look at the stars and all the stuff up there, beautiful and real huh? They’re merely past tense. I can’t say I enjoy this film as much as I thought I would, but if you think you wanna break away from reality or the law of nature for a bit while, it’s well worth checking out.

A Few Good Men – I Know The Law. Do You?

 (1992)

Guys, don’t mix it up with Top Gun, in which young Cruise is a naval aviator, who shoots out in the air and makes out on the ground, but as one of A Few Good Men, he turns into a Navy lawyer, defending two Marines, to whom, Unit, Code, God, Country are all that matters, charged with the murder of one of their fellows. So, no blood-boiling actions nor fights, no romance either, just bickering, bantering, and talks.

The story is simple. LTJG Daniel (Tom Cruise) is inexperienced, but not daring. He’s too chicken to piss off people in high places, like Col. Nathan (Jack Nicholson), who is too proud and patriotic to open his mouth. LCDR JoAnne (Demi Moore) is, however, too righteous and headstrong to give up digging the truth. Therefore, conflicts are inevitable. Dialogues are exceedingly sharp and precise. Acting is without doubt very charming. This is what a legal drama is supposed to be like, isn’t it?

Man! Tom Cruise looks so handsome in this film, but don’t worry, this is not an one-man show. Jack Nicholson also contributes a lot of fun as a cold-hearted, a little bit sick Colonel, with always that evil grin on his face. Demi Moore? Frankly, I don’t find her attractive at all—though Daniel says her lips are sexy, blatantly, that’s merely a gag—but there she must be to help Daniel stay the course of looking for the truth.

Right, basically, it’s all about the truth. You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth, lad!

 (1986)

Dead Poet Society – Seize The Day

 (1989)

Dreams are a beautiful thing. I used to dream of being a good teacher who would be able to inspire students to do something extraordinary. Hey, what is “extraordinary”? Ripping up a textbook? Sneaking out of the school in the middle of the night and reading poems in a cave? Playing God, and going against the people in authority? Chasing your dreams without knowing the price you’re going to pay? Climbing onto the desk and shouting “Oh, captain, my captain”? I didn’t know. I was not sure.

“Carpe Diem”, “seize the day” in Latin, and one of the best quotes in movies ever made, is what Mr Keating (Robin Williams) says to his students while asking them to lean in and see the pictures of the alumni. Also he adds, “make your life extraordinary”. Yeah, right, life’s short. We ought to try our best to make our life shine, but who’s there to judge if it’s extraordinary, yourself or someone else?

And the other question is, how? According to Mr Keating, you can, as long as you seize the day. Again, how? What’s the meaning of “seize the day”? Live every day as if it’s your last? Catch every opportunity that ever comes to you? What if your life ends today? What would you do? Have you ever thought about that? If you haven’t, come on, join Dead Poet Society!

Terminator 2: Judgment Day – He’s Back For Good

 (1991)

T1: creative, Arnold The Hero turns into a vicious T-800, who would’ve thought of that? T2: a genre classic, introduces the unforgettable T-1000, heart-pumping fights and chases, the best of the series without a doubt. T3? Seriously, they shouldn’t have made it. Arnold should’ve just turned it down coz it’s so much of a cliche. T4: a comeback? No way!

Why is T2 a cut above all? James Cameron’s directing? Arnold in good shape? Robert Patrick as the unbreakable T-1000? Great chases, special effects and score? It all counts I guess. But what touches us most is probably the love between T-800 and young John Connor deepening as the story goes, like Sarah Connor said, “watching John with the machine, it was suddenly so clear. The Terminator would never stop, it would never leave him. And it would never hurt him, never shout at him or get drunk and hit him or say it was too busy to spend time with him. It would always be there and it would die to protect him. Of all the would-be fathers who came and went over the years, this thing, this machine was the only one who measured up. In an insane world, it was the sanest choice.”

We, human beings, are trying to do everything we can to make this world a better place, but ironically, deteriorating it. We think we’re better than anything else in the world, but we are not. We seem to understand the value and meaning of life, but as a matter of fact, we don’t. T-800 gives us “a sense of hope, because if a machine, a Terminator, can learn the value of human life, maybe we can, too.”

“I know now why you cry, but it is something I can never do.” This is what T-800 says to John and Sarah as a kind of goodbye. We cry because we have emotions. And they make us suffer. Machines don’t, so they have no fears, no hesitations, no selfish thoughts. That’s why we sometimes look up to them as sort of perfection. The tension and difference between men and machines are always there. But are we better? I doubt it.

Shutter – You Gotta Pay For It

 (2004)

I don’t really like ghost stories coz they’re nothing to be scared of. To me, humans are a lot scarier than ghosts, so ghost stories don’t impress me much, but this one does. There’s a Hollywood version of it, that, frankly, very sucks. This Thai film is really a must-see, giving you a rough idea of what karma is. Basically, it’s about cause and effect, action and reaction. Everything happens for a reason. Therefore, if you do something wrong now, you’ll have to pay for it later. You get what you did, and you’ll get what you do now. Something terrible happening to you has got to do with what you did in the past (lives). Keep that in mind while watching “Shutter”.

It’s supposed to be a scary movie, but somehow I don’t find it that scary. But it does thrill me in terms of, like I said, showing how great the karmic force is. Some don’t believe in karma. They think everything happens by chance. You’re here, by chance. Get ill, by chance. Get rich, by chance. Meet your love, by chance. Have a kid, by chance. Die, still by chance. If everything goes by chance, then you can do nothing to change anything. You don’t even have to do anything for everything will come to you automatically, or by chance if you like. This is totally ludicrous, isn’t it?

So if you think you’ve captured a ghost in a photo by chance, think again!

Seven – A Stylish Classic

 (1995)

Seven deadly sins, seven ways to die. (Spoiler Alert!)

 (Glutoony)

Gluttony: when people eat and drink more than they need to.
John Doe: An obese man, a disgusting man who could barely stand up, a man who if you saw him on the street, you’d point him out to your friends so that they could join you in mocking him, a man, who if you saw him while you were eating, you wouldn’t be able to finish your meal.

 (Greed)

Greed: a very strong wish to continuously get more of something.
John Doe: I picked the lawyer, and I know you both must have been secretly thanking me for that one. This is a man who dedicated his life to making money by lying with every breath that he could muster to keeping murderers and rapists on the streets!

 (Sloth)

Sloth: unwillingness to work and make any effort.
John Doe: a drug dealer, a drug-dealing pederast, actually!

 (Lust)

Lust: a very strong sexual desire.
John Doe: and let’s not forget the disease-spreading whore!

 (Pride)

Pride: belief that you’re better and more important than other people.
John Doe: a woman, so ugly on the inside she couldn’t bear to go on living if she couldn’t be beautiful on the outside.

 (Envy)

Evny: the feeling that you wish you had something that someone else has.
John Doe: it seems like envy is my sin.

 (Wrath)

Wrath: extreme anger.
John Doe: become vengeance. David. Become wrath.

Somerset quotes Ernest Hemingway’s words at the end, “This world is a fine place and worth fighting for.”, but he only agrees with the second part. Meaning we should never lose hope though this world’s like hell and we’re like sinners. The creepiest part is where the rain stops and the sun comes out shining after John turns himself in. Things seem bright and clear all of a sudden, but you’re still…left in the dark.

PS: one of my friends reviewed this film in chinese, check it out if you guys are interested.

Leon, The Professional – Love Kills

 (1994)

A stylish Luc Besson’s film back in 1994, telling us the fact that love does kill. Leon the pro moves without sound, kills without emotion and disappears without trace. How could he be like that? It’s because he’s rootless. He’s got no lovers, friends nor any relatives. Loners are considered the freest person coz they can’t be threatened or betrayed. That’s why he’s able to be the hottest hitman in town. As he, however, becomes attached and grounded after taking in Mathilda, a girl who comes to knock on his door after losing her whole family, his destiny is apt to be miserable and disastrous.

“No women, no kids”, that’s Leon’s principle of killing. Why? No idea. Maybe he himself is a man. And he sorta hates himself for what he does for a living. Or maybe he has a belief that women and kids are weaker and more innocent than men. But is it easier to kill a man than to kill a woman or a kid? I doubt. Alright, that’s not the point. The question is, will he still be able to do it right after having a partner? Is love really worth dying for?

The ending, as unforgettable as Sting’s Shape Of My Heart, kinda says: okay, this is it! This is what a classic is supposed to be like. There won’t be a sequel or anything. So long.

The Abyss – Is Something Down There?

 (1989)

When Titanic won 11 Academy Awards for James Cameron in 1997, no one seemed to remember this piece of sci-fi masterwork he once made a few years earlier. To be honest, Titanic doesn’t impress me much. To me, it’s nothing more than an old-fashioned, surreal love story, but The Abyss is a lot more than that.

Why does The Abyss so fascinate me? Well, I guess Ed Harris is part of why. He’s so cool and manly in the film. And the story, which is so mysterious that no one really knows what’s happening, or say, what they’re dealing with till the end. James is very good at telling (love) stories by using stunning visual effects (the upcoming Avatar I guess is just another trick of that). It did win the 1990 Oscar for Best Visual Effects, that’s not why it attracts me much though. As a matter of fact, it was to make us reflect on our violent nature. Can violence bring us peace and solve our problems? We all know the answer, don’t we? Why, however, do we still think violence can be the choice?

Only if we overcome our violent nature, we’ll be able to understand the mystery and beauty deep down The Abyss.

 (1997)