Too casual philosophy and too-formal blogging
Dir. Sergei Eisenstein, Cin. Eduard Tisse & Vladimir Popov; Silent; 75 minutes. Astounding montage (especially part four—amazing rendering of men as machines) but used to what effect? All characters felt one-dimensional, in keeping with this film's origin as Soviet propaganda. It would be interesting to see if or how Eisenstein's theories of montage could construct … Continue reading Battleship Potemkin (1925)
I live miles from Hong Kong Island, on Lantau. Usually, this means I have to bring a book on the MTR to pass time on the way to work. On weekends, though, it means I find myself near famous monuments like the Tian Tan Buddha, or "Big Buddha." I must admit: my anticipation built through … Continue reading Wednesday Photoblogging: Ngong Ping
Dir. Orson Welles, Cin. François Reichenbach & Gary Graver; in English; 88 minutes. Orson Welles in this film pioneered a genre I take for granted on lazy weekend mornings: the video essay. More remarkable: the film is over 40 years old! Still, F for Fake presents a clear, visually-compelling, surging, well-documented essay, giving an entire format and … Continue reading F for Fake (1975)
Dir. Hayao Miyazaki, Cin. Atsushi Okui; dubbed in English; 125 minutes. "Subs, not dubs!" is a rallying cry for English-reading anime viewers the world over. But seeing this movie dubbed for the first time, I could feast my eyes on images, rather than text. And thanks to this, I saw the painstaking detail that SG … Continue reading Spirited Away (2001)
Dir. Dean Devlin, Cin. Roberto Schaefer; in English. 109 minutes. In this disaster of a movie, an obnoxious pretty-boy maverick no-bureaucratese scientist (Jeremy Renner) must save the day from evil, hyper-corporatized abusers of power. Power, mind you, that they posses thanks to his impossibly grand weather-controlling geodesic sphere wrapped like a bubble round all the … Continue reading Geostorm (2017)
Dir. Pietro Germi, Cin. Carlo Di Palma & Leonida Barboni; in Italian with English subtitles; 108 minutes. Riotously funny and deeply uncomfortable at the same time. I couldn't help but wonder if Cefalù would kill his new bride-to-be, next—or if she would get there first. (Though if we get another spectacular, disturbing 1000-ways-to-die sequence out of it… .)
This past week, some colleagues and I hiked up a stream near, but not quite on, the Pat Sin Leng nature trail. We spent the better part of several miles scrambling up rocks like these or pulling ourselves along narrow, wooded trails on the sturdiest roots we could reach. The higher we clambered, sweatier we … Continue reading Tuesday Photoblogging
Not Opinionated Enough 