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!

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 Road Home – Tissue Needed

 (2000)

I only watched it once, on a local English TV channel. And I don’t think I’ll ever watch it again coz I don’t wanna ruin the good memory of it. I’d rather let it stay as sweet and beautiful as it was. I had never before seen a film that could make me cry a river till The Road Home. I don’t know. Maybe there’s something to do with the story and its scoring and pictures. Why are love stories that appear to be so poignant and desperate always able to touch us deep down? We human beings are in a sense strange animals that incessantly long for love, care and attention, but hate the pain that comes with them. The Road Home depicts a beautiful, touching story of love, but don’t forget, it already shows us the pain it brings in black and white in the beginning. Love is colorful, but yet inseparable from pain itself.

In The Heat Of The Sun – Once We Were Young

 (1994)

In The Heat Of The Sun, a story about several adolescent men during the Chinese Cultural Revolution in 70s, is one of Two Chinese films that impress me so much. It portrays a positive, vigorous picture of being young and wild, reckless and free, as animals preying for, say, girls, attention, fun, fights and maybe a chance to be heroes. Adapted from Wang Shuo’s novel, Wild Beast, the actor-director Jiang Wen tells a mellow, dream-like story of how Monkey and his friends (as shown on the poster) get through those boring but yet crazy summers. I don’t really mind if it’s authentic or believable. The point is, as a youth while getting to watch it for the first time, I felt like I was part of them. We can never redo our past, no matter how sweet or bitter it is. It’s become part of us. We are who we were, aren’t we?

Phone Booth – Never Too Late To Be Good

 (2003)

Why do we only care about ourselves, and not the others? Why do we have to be so hypocritical and need lies to cover our ass? Why are we so afraid of facing ourselves? Why do we never learn to cherish the things we’ve already got till we lose them? Why do we always want some more when, in fact, we’ve got everything we need? Why do we feel so ashamed of ourselves sometimes when we appear to be so perfect? Why do we always do things that we actually don’t really mean to?

So many questions, huh? Yeah, right, if you knew the answers to those questions, you’d know what life’s all about. Sadly, Stu doesn’t. That’s why he’s taught a lesson. He hasn’t been true to himself till he gets in that phone booth. He doesn’t obey at first. Then he struggles. He breaks in the end, and he learns a universal truth, that is, whenever there’s a longing, there’s pain.

I like Phone Booth. I like the story. I like the dialogues. I like the morality behind it. It’s one of the best flicks I’ll never forget in this life.

City Of Life And Death – Not Good Enough

  (2008)

One of the reasons why the Japs are so despicable is that they, after all these years, still deny what they did back in 1937, in Nanjing City, China, where they killed thousands of Chinese soldiers and innocent civilians, including babies and young girls, by using the most vicious means you could never imagine. And this black-and-white film, City Of Life And Death by the Chinese director Lu Chung, was made to let us know what really went on in Nanjing City 70 years ago.

It somehow reminds me of another black-and-white film, Schindler’s List, which is about Nazi German’s genocide against the Jews. A businessman named Schindler abandoned most of his fortune and saved quite a lot of Jews from the concentration camps. The most touching scene comes at the end where Schindler said regretfully that he should’ve also exchanged his ring on his finger for more lives of Jews. This is humanity. This is love. This is mercy and compassion everyone should have, or say, has already had. I believe human nature is virtuous. We do evil things just because our heart is veiled by devil and dirt.

During the Nanjing Massacre, some German set up a Safety Zone for the Chinese people to stay safe from the Japanese holocaust. Adolf Hitler murdered a lot of Jews during the World War Two, but the German had repented and apologized for what they did. The Japanese, however, have not yet properly apologized for their crimes committed, including the Rape of Nanjing. That’s why they’re despicable. They’re still trying to cover the truth, and not doing any self-reflections. We can’t change what we did wrong, but we should learn from it. So we won’t make the same mistake again hopefully. The Japanese did something terribly wrong 70 years ago, and now it seems like they still can’t get rid of their broken pride and admit the pain they caused us. How could they ever expect to have our forgiveness?

I’m not saying we should never forgive them. It won’t do us any good either if we carry the hate against the Japanese. It all happened because of hates. During the interview with BBC News, Lu Chuang the director said, “it’s very important to tell Chinese people that Japanese people are human beings, not beasts”. Well, I think either he missed out something or the translator made a mistake. It should be like, “it’s very important to tell Chinese people that {some of the} Japanese people are human beings, not beasts”. During another interveiw with RTHK, Mr Lu said he was shocked by the calmness of the Japs executing such a holocaust. They were not crazy as everybody thought. Yeah, right, the question is, how could they be this calm while killing people? How could they (or we) see themselves as normal human beings this way? Killing people without any guilt, or sympathy or feelings can actually be considered insane or crazy if you like.

Most of the Japanese, at the time, were indeed like beasts. Why? That’s exactly the question they should ask themselves! The day they find the answer will be the day we forgive them.