Super Size Me

What will happen if you take McDonald's for all your meals, 3 times a day, 7 times a week?
A guy called Morgan Spurlock did the experiment, using himself for the test. or one mth consequently, he took nothing but McD for all his meals. The movie title came from the idea that, he must super-size(order the large size) the meal whenever asked.

Before the experiment, he's a quite fit guy. After a mth, he's having all kind of sick feeling, which includes depression, decrease in his sexual performance etc. At the end of experiment, he was being diagnosed with irreversible liver damage, possible chances of heart attack. Luckily he's girl friend, who is a vegan, save him with her own detox diet, bringing back his weight prior the experiment.

Respect this guy for doing such an experiment. Quite a cool movie written, directed and produced by himself. This 2004 film is an academy award nominee for best documentary.

(Rating: 88/100)

Edward Scissorhands

Added another movie by Tim Burton to our movie library. Like the movies by Burton, as his movies will bring you into another dimension when you are watching them.

The movie starts when Edward(Johnny Depp) who live in a darkness in a Gothic mansion, was found by an Avon saleswoman, Peg (Dianne Wiest), and invite him to stay at her house, after his creator, a scientist passed away.

Even though he is just a mere creation by a scientist, he is a real gentleman, with a kind and pure heart. His present in the neighborhood has brought joy to the people surrounding. I like the part where he go to all the neighbor's garden to turn their plants to different shapes, by using his scissor hands. He also provide a free hair cut using his marvelous skills. And the part where he create an ice sculpture of Kim, which creates an effect of snows in the garden.

While staying at Peg house, Edward also fell in love with Peg's daughter, Kim (Winona Rider). But they never ended up together, since he was misunderstood by the neighbours as a killer. Hence Kim has to lie to all the people that he was dead. And she don't want to live with him in the castle, since she don't want him to see her aging. (Edward won't aged, as he is not a real human. Yet it was a wonder that he have feeling, thanks to the scientist who taught him all the human emotion, manner before he passed away. He died before he gave Edward his new hands)


Thankful that Burton collaborate with Depp in this movie, as he was so impressed with Depp's performance that he go on to include the actor in many of his later films.

The 1990 film was nominated for an Academy Award at the 64th Academy Awards in the category of Best Makeup and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical for Johnny Depp, while Elfman's score was nominated for Grammy Award. In addition, the film won a BAFTA Award for Best Production Design, and was nominated in three other categories.In 2003, Entertainment Weekly ranked the film one of the most "tear-jerking";and was also ranked by a Channel 4 poll of the 100 greatest family films. (source: Wikipedia)

(Rating: 92/100)

Cool link:
Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands as a Psychological Allegory (by Cory Sampson)
Burton's Bibliography
Burton Wikipedia page
Tim Burton Filmography

City of God

City of God, a movie based on a real story, is a story about three “hoodlums” – the Tender Trio, Lil Ze & Knocout Ned at a lower class quartet called City of God, located at the west of Rio de Jeneiro.
It begins with chicken running across the street, this story is told backwards from the viewpoint of a boy name Rocket, who likes to take photograph. He witnessed the hoodlum's progress, from Tender Trio, to Lil Ze, to the death of Lil Ze.
The story ends with Li'l Zé being killed by a group of young gang members who take over the business and go about composing a list of people to kill. Rocket becomes famous from his front page photograph of Li'l Ze's body.

The cinematography of this movie is really awesome. Besides being nominated by Time as one of the 100 greatest movies of all time, it was also nominated for Academy Awards (Best Director – Fernando Meirelles, Best Adapted Screenplay – Braulio Mantovani, Best Cinematography – Cesar Charlone & Best Film Editing – Daniel Rezende)

If I am given a choice to choose the top three movies that I’ve watched for the past few years, this would definitely be one of them. This is one of the greatest movie that you shouldn't miss.
(* All conversation in Portuguese)

Credits:
The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
The film finds a surprising amount of tenderness and humor beneath the brutality. The laughs may catch in the throat, but that's only a byproduct of City Of God's power to leave viewers breathless.
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Breathtaking and terrifying, urgently involved with its characters, it announces a new director of great gifts and passions: Fernando Meirelles.
Washington Post Desson Thomson
One of the most startling, grittily brilliant films in recent years.

(Rating: 95.5/100)

Billy Elliot

This is a story of a young boy, Billy(Jamie Bell),a son of a miner(Gary Lewis) in Durham County. Forced by his dad to attend a boxing class, he choose to attend the ballet class instead. Amazed by his passion for dancing, his dance instructor(Julie Walters) held a private class for Billy, and encourage him to register for an audition in Royal Ballet School.
Watching this movie reminds me that you can excel in everything you are passionate with, as long as you put in the effort.

I like the part where Billy was asked what did it feel like when he was dancing, he answered: " Sort of feels good. It's sort stiff and that, but once I get going, then I like forget everything, and sort of disappear. I feel like change in my whole body. Like there's fire in my body. I'm just there, flying like a bird. Like electricity." Classic man...

This film is directed by Stephen Daldry, who makes his feature film debut with Billy Elliot, and produced by Greg Brenman & Jon Finn.

Beside winning numerous awards, (British Independent Film Awards(2000), BAFTA Awards(2001),nominated for Academy Awards, in categories Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Director, Best Writing in a Screenplay in 2001)

This movie is named by magazine Total Film as the 39th greatest British film of all time.

(Rating: 92.5/100)

Love Conquers All

Just finished watching director Tan Chui Mui's dvd Love Conquers All. It's a story of how a kampung girl(Coral Ong) went to work in a city as mixed rice seller. She met the pimp(Stephen Chua) who use the same cool excuse(owing some other people money, need urgent cash) to lure her into the prostitution business. This movie goes along with a very slow pace, from beginning till the end. Personally, I feel that it could be better if they slot in more music into the movie.Cinematography is not bad. However there's a cute acting by Mei(Leong Jiun Jiun) who spend her free time after doing homework to write to her penpal. And the funniest part is she actually asked her mom to sent her by bike to D'sara Kim to take a peek at her penpal..wakakaka
Behind the scene production team is the very powerful team of Amir Muhammad(producer), James Lee(director of photography) and Ho Yu Hang(Editor). This film has also won numerous awards including: GRAND PRIZE CITY OF LISBON, GOLDEN DIGITAL AWARD(31st Hong Kong International Film Festival), OIKOCREDIT AWARD, 21st Fribourg International Film Festival, VPRO TIGER AWARD, 36th International Film Festival Rotterdam, NEW CURRENTS AWARD, 11th Pusan International Film Festival, FIPRECSI AWARD, 11th Pusan International Film Festival.
(to support local film industry, go to: http://www.dahuangpictures.com/blogs/)
(Rating: 70/100)