Seongyong's Private Place

Saturday Afternoon (2014/04/13)

Posted on April 13, 2014 by kaist455

While Geese were looking for something eat, cats did not have to – because many of us fed them with no hesitation.

Posted in Photos | Tagged Cats, Geese, KAIST | 3 Comments

In the Family (2011) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4) : A simple story about one family matter

Posted on April 10, 2014 by kaist455

Slowly and delicately drawing attention and care from the audiences, “In the Family”(2011) comes to us as a simple story about one family matter. Never disrupting its slow but steady pace throughout its long running time(169-minute), it gives us a real slice of life through its intimate human drama filled with realistic characters, and there are many scenes deeply resonating with empathy and understanding behind its composed but caring attitude.

In the beginning, we observe the daily life of a family residing in Martin, Tennessee. Joey Williams(Patrick Wang), a Chinese-American man who works as a contractor, has been living with Cody Hines(Trevor St. John) for several years, and he and Cody have been good dads to Chip(Sebastain Brodziak), Cody’s young son from his previous marriage(his wife died in childbirth not long before he fell in love with Joey). Yes, they are exactly not a conventional family, but, as watching them beginning another usual day in the kitchen, we can see through their warm interactions that they are happy to be together as your average American family.

Sadly, their happy time is suddenly terminated due to an unfortunate incident. Cody is sent to the hospital after some unspecified accident, and Joey is notified of Cody’s death not long after he hurriedly comes to the hospital with Chip. Still feeling devastated by his life partner’s death even after the following funeral, Joey slowly begins to move on with the remains of their life. He sorts out the matters to be taken care of after the funeral. He takes Chip to the school as Cody usually did. He continues to work with his co-workers as usual. He also does an extra bookbinding job when he sees his client in the need of it.

So it seems life goes on as before, but then he comes across a serious family matter as handling Cody’s financial matters. Cody somehow forgot to modify his will which was written before he began to live with Joey, and the will appoints his sister Eileen(Kelly McAndrew) as not only the sole recipient of Cody’s estate but also Chip’s legal guardian. Although Eileen has been on good terms with Joey like Cody’s other family members, she insists that she take care of Chip, and Joey is naturally flabbergasted by this. After the short argument between them, Chip is soon taken away from him, and Joey only comes to see more about how legally disadvantageous he is in this family crisis. As told to him by a lawyer at one point, he has no child custody case because Cody’s will cannot be easily contested – and the Tennessee state law does not recognize him as Cody’s family member, let alone as his spouse.

Rather than underlining the issues inside the story, the movie simply presents its story and characters as themselves, and it gradually grows on us on emotional level while seldom raising its voice. The rhythm of the mundane daily life on the screen is established well thanks to its concise low-key approach, and the camera attentively observes the characters without feeling obtrusive; it engages our attention through thoughtful scene compositions and interesting camera angles to notice, and we come to be curious about what is happening on the screen. Through their natural performances, the actors in the film feel like people we may encounter in real life, and you may be surprised to know that the movie was actually shot in New York State instead of Tennessee.

The director/producer/writer Patrick Wang, who also played the lead character in his film, subtly presents his character’s social status as an outsider while never directly pointing it out. Cody’s family members were nice to Joey when Cody came with him to the family Thanksgiving dinner, but, probably because of his race, they misguidedly assumed that Joey did not know about Thanksgiving Day. When Cody’s family members are allowed to see unconscious Cody at the hospital, a nurse curtly reminds Joey that he is not allowed to see Cody, and everyone in the room clearly knows why. Eileen and other family members might be sympathetic to Joey at that time, but it can be said that they also show their own prejudice as hiding behind legal procedures to separate Chip from Joey.

The camera frequently shows the back of Joey’s head in many scenes. Sometimes we sense the invisible gap between him and others, and sometimes we wonder about what is going on inside him as observing others around him, In case of one long-take scene, the camera keeps staying behind Joey as he is talking with the other character in that scene, and its depiction of emotional tumult surrounding them is convincing although we do not see Joey’s face at all. When Joey hears the news of Cody’s death at the hospital, the camera looks at him from the behind with considerable distance, but the emotional impact beneath the surface is palpable even though we do not hear much from him.

As the humble center of the movie, Patrick Wang gives an unaffected performance which will linger on your mind through its embodiment of benign humanity. You may think Joey is too good to be real, but Wang convincingly presents his character as a real person with flesh and blood, and other actors in the film are as believable as Wang in their scenes with him. Trevor St. John, who mostly appears in flashback scenes after his character’s death, has a good scene where his character and Joey unexpectedly discover the mutual feeling between them. Regardless of whether they were previously aware of their sexuality, things just click between them, and, like any other couples, that’s enough for them – and they don’t need any explanation for that(and neither do we, by the way).

Along with young actor Sebastian Brodziak, Wang and St. John make their household scenes genuinely warm and spontaneously lively. Cody, who works as a school teacher, has encouraged and stimulated his son’s curiosity(Chip is fascinated with dragon stories like most of us were fascinated with dinosaurs during our childhood), and Joey gladly helps that learning process with the wooden boxes crafted by himself. Even when he is prevented from contacting Chip, Joey finds a way to reach to his son, and that leads to a restrained but undeniably poignant scene in which the camera quietly focuses on what is happening behind the door along with a certain supporting character. The scene is almost wordless in its restraint except Joey’s recorded voice telling Chip a story, but the emotional bond between them resonates through his voice brimming with fatherly care.

When the circumstance still looks hopeless to him despite the support and help from others close to him, Joey gets an unexpected help from his client Paul Hawks, a retired lawyer who is impressed by Joey’s good jobs on his library and books. Hawks(Brian Murray) volunteers to handle Joey’s case simply because he sees from Joey a good man in the need of help, and this wise, sensible old man gives a number of good practical advices to Joey, who attentively listens to Hawks during their long but meaningful conversation and immediately follows his advices as a good client.

The drama eventually culminates to a long but memorable scene unfolded within a conference room where Joey gives legal depositions to both sides. The lawyer representing Eileen and her husband throws a couple of pretty nasty questions to him at the start, but Joey calmly and reasonably answers to them, and then he talks about several things in his life: his unhappy childhood, his foster parents, his short but happy life with Cody, and, above all, Chip. As listening to his sincere and honest words, we more realize how much the family means to him – and how much he is willing to give up anything for what’s the most important to him.

As Joey was talking about his foster parents, I was reminded of a small human moment in “Short Term 12”(2013), another small independent film you should not miss. In that scene, one of its main characters gives a short but heartfelt speech to his foster parents as an act of deep appreciation, and we see this old couple being surrounded by many of their former foster children, who are still grateful about the love and care they received during their early years.

We only hear about Joey’s foster parents, but I can say that they were people as good as that loving old couple in “Short Term 12”. They taught him many things including parental love and several crafts useful for his living, and, Joey, who changed his name to remember them after their death, surely learned a lot to be a good person like them – and we never doubt about his ability to raise Chip by himself.

The movie is Patrick Wang’s debut film, and he shows remarkable confidence in his direction; he trusts us to follow his story for more than 2.5 hours, and he keeps us involved and interested as steadily building emotional momentum behind his scenes. I must confess that I was a bit concerned before playing the Blu-ray disc, but it turned out that I did not need any extra patience during my viewing; I was absorbed by its assured storytelling, and I was frequently touched a lot by its small but moving gestures of human decency. It is indeed a fiction, but it feels real through its universal family drama we can relate to, and it gently tells us through its good, decent hero that we can do better than expected to others in our life, as reflected in its powerful final shot.

Posted in Movies | Tagged Custody case, Family, Father and son, Homosexuailty | Leave a comment

Weekend Vacation(2014/04/04-06)

Posted on April 7, 2014 by kaist455

With other lab members, I went to a summer house belonging to my adviser professor’s friend. We had a fairly good time there – and I took some photos.

Posted in Photos | Tagged Vacation | Leave a comment

Another spring afternoon(2014/04/03)

Posted on April 4, 2014 by kaist455

Flowers, people, geese, and a cat.

Posted in Photos | Tagged Cat, Flower, Geese, KAIST | Leave a comment

Dear Roger….

Posted on April 3, 2014 by kaist455

Dear Roger

It is almost a year since I received the e-mail notifying me of your death, and I and others are still thinking of you while missing you a lot. At the end of last year, many people wondered about what movies you would include in your annual list, and then we went through the Oscar season without you for the first time, and now we are approaching to April 4th, your deathday.

You once said you always missed your dear friend and partner Gene Siskel everyday since his untimely death in 1999. As a guy who had only known you for less than 5 years, I do not think I miss you that much, but I cannot help but think of you whenever I get depressed or excited at the local theaters in my town. Whenever I come across something really good or new, my mind always says the same thing: “I wish Roger were here with us and talked about it with his usual enthusiasm.”

And that kind of thinking happened a lot during 2013. Alfonso Cuarón’s “Gravity”(2013) is definitely something you would be enthusiastic about because it brings us into a new experience we have never had before, and its groundbreaking technological achievement actually serves the story and character in a powerful way unlike those bland special effects. As a guy who championed “Mississippi Burning”(1988), “Do the Right Thing”(1989), “Malcolm X”(1992), and “Crash”(2004), you would instantly pour your thoughts and feelings into your reviews right after watching Steven McQueen’s “12 Years a Slave”(2013) and Ryan Coogler’s “Fruitvale Station”(2013), and you would probably predict the eventual victory of the former at the Oscars like you correctly predicted about “Argo”(2012). Martin Scorsese, a great American director you had supported since his first movie “Who’s That Knocking at My Door?”(1967), recently strikes us again with “The Wolf of Wall Street”(2013), and I sadly missed your opinion while enthralled by its relentless approach to a despicably excessive lifestyle during its 3 hours. Abdellatif Kechiche’s “Blue is the Warmest Color”(2013) pushes its two talented actresses to very challenging scenes to create the intimate, penetrating portrayal of sexuality and relationship, and I wondered how you would think about its frank depiction of nudity and sex as a critic who wrote three different insightful reviews on “Last Tango in Paris”(1972). In your Great Movies essay on “La Dolce Vita”(1960), you touchingly said how you watched it differently as growing older, and that was why I kept thinking about “what would Roger think of this?” as watching Paolo Sorrentio’s “The Great Beauty”(2013), which is an apparent successor to that Fellini’s masterpiece.

Anyway, that is just my wistful thinking, Roger, because, above all, you have been no longer in the position to give us opinions on new films since that sad day in 2013 April. The 86th Academy awards ceremony reminded us of your absence a lot even before its “In Memoriam” montage; I missed not only your Outguess Ebert contest but also your writings we used to read during Oscar seasons, and I got the same feeling many of our friends and acquaintances had when your picture was shown during the “In Memoriam” montage.

2014 is the first year to begin without you, and, as far as I can see, I and others may have a fairly good year even if it is not better than 2013. I was excitedly busy again with those Oscar season movies during this January and February, and my first big fun of this year is “The Lego Movie”(2014), the best parody animation film since “Rango”(2011).

And there is a documentary I will definitely mention at the end of this year. After many months of waiting, I finally saw “Life Itself”(2014), the documentary whose production you helped on your usual full disclosure mode. As you wished before your death, Steve James, the director of “Hoop Dreams”(1994) and “The Interrupters”(2011), made an excellent documentary about your remarkable life, and I am happy to report to you that it is as honest and sincere as you wanted. As watching the documentary, I really regretted the fact that I belatedly watched your immortal trash “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls”(1970) after your death. Seriously, I really want to ask you this now; “Roger, how the hell did you happen to write such an outrageous trash flick?”

“Life Itself” will be shown at the upcoming Ebertfest on April 23th, and it will give the audiences a moment to remember – and I will not be surprised if there is a long standing ovation at the end of screening. In case of the other ones to be shown, your wife Chaz and others picked good ones from the list you gave them, and they also selected a number of movies you would choose with no hesitation if you were alive. “Museum Hours”(2012), “Wadjda”(2012), and “Short Term 12”(2013) are wonderful films I cannot forget easily, and I am particularly glad that they chose “Short Term 12”, which has many harrowing moments which draw us into raw emotions as inducing our empathy toward its struggling characters.

But, again, I cannot go to Ebertfest in this year due to my academic work involved with thesis. As I frankly revealed in my 2012 FFC review on “Oslo, August 31st”(2011), I almost killed myself during late 2012, but, after being diagnosed to have depression and Asperger’s syndrome, I got better and I successfully did the proposal for my thesis in late 2013 with the help from my patient advising professor. Now I have lots of work to do within a short time, so I will have to concentrate more on my study and manuscripts to be published.

I think I will graduate in the next year, and then I will come to 2015 Ebertfest as remembering many lovely moments I had during 2010. Before attending 2010 Ebertfest, I walked a lot around Chicago(do you remember that your assistant Carol Iwata once joked that I probably knew more about the city than her?), and I watched three movies with you and Chaz and your nurse Milly, and you were very generous to me while I was at a loss about what to say to someone I admired and respected from the distance for many years.

I wish I could have interacted more with you during that time, but I was just a young, naive guy who was dazzled and confused while meeting his hero in person, and then I suddenly arrived in the last day of 2010 Ebertfest, which was bittersweet to me in many ways. As I said before, I went through some emotional difficulty after I returned to South Korea, and it lasted for days until I finished my writing on that great experience with Chicago, Ebertfest and its wonderful people, and you.

I would never see you again in person after that time, but you were always there for me like you were to your friends, and I am still grateful for that. Once I decided that I should keep writing reviews thanks to your thoughtful encouragement, I moved on, and I have been writing many essays as one of your Far-flung correspondents – and I have recently got my latest one posted on your website.

Oh, by the way, you will be proud of your new website if you see it. It has been managed well thanks to Chaz and Matt Zoller Seitz and others since it was launched right after your death in last year, and it is packed with many talented writers who willingly give their opinions on the latest movies every week with considerable honesty and insights and wits. Some of readers grumbled many times that you would have thought differently, but, pardon my language, F*CK them all. Even when you disagreed with others, you always respected their opinions as long as they were clear and thoughtful, and, as far as I can see, these fabulous writers have been so far giving what you hoped for.

And you are still a good teacher to me, Roger. One of the recent movies was Darren Aronofsky’s “Noah”(2014), and I had a mixed feeling about it – and I was rather nervous about writing the review because I was not so sure about whether it was a good movie or not. I even considered to write a favorable review while trying to interpret my reactions to the movie as positive ones, but I remembered well what you taught me through many of your valuable reviews, and I followed it; I wrote honestly about what I thought and felt during the screening, and then I decided to rate it with two stars while admiring Aronofsky’s talent and integrity. The movie is a mess, but it is something wild we do not see everyday, and I can say it is more distinctive than “Captain America: The Winter Solider”(2014), which is enjoyable but will probably be forgotten along with other blockbuster products to come.

Today, I came across the new article on the latest Blu-ray releases written by Glenn Kenny on your website, and one of the recommended ones was “The Swimmer”(1968). The title sounds like one of those old corny movies, but the movie turns out to be something quite interesting, and, after reading your four-star review, I become more interested in it.

See, Roger, you’re still a good critic for me and others.

Sincerely,
Seongyong Cho

“A Leave of Presence” – the last piece written by Roger Ebert before his death

“Remembering Roger” – I wrote this during the afternoon of April 5th.

“REMEMBERING ROGER: THE TABLE OF CONTENTS” : rogerebert.com has a variety of pieces about his legacy and impact.

Posted in Ebertfest, Movies | Tagged Movie, Roger Ebert | 5 Comments

Elegant Lies (2014) ☆☆☆(3/4) : Tears within its cool restraint

Posted on March 31, 2014 by kaist455

South Korean film “Elegant Lies” has a fair share of tears to shed inside its story, but it holds them with admirable restraint while rarely resorting to cheap melodrama overflowing with tears. This is a sad story about how its ordinary characters cope with the aftermath of a devastating incident which changes their lives forever, and it touches us with several restrained but painful moments as gradually revealing how that sad tragedy happened – and how it could have been prevented.

On that unforgettable day, everything looks mostly fine to Cheon-ji’s family at first. Hyeon-sook(Kim Hee-ae), Cheon-ji’s mother who has solely supported her family since her husband’s death, prepares breakfast in the morning, and she and her two daughters have some mundane talk over the table before beginning each own daily routine. While her first daughter Man-ji(Ko Ah-seong) is curt and haughty as usual, her second daughter Cheon-ji(Kim Hyang-ki) is sweet and mild despite her introverted personality, but they get along well with each other as sisters, and they and their mother look like a good family in their small residence.

And then something terrible happens. After her school time is over, Cheon-ji commits suicide in her room, and Hyeon-sook and Man-ji are shocked by this sudden tragedy. As far as they can remember, Cheon-ji showed no odd sign on that day except a minor demand involved with her birthday present, and she did not even leave a suicide note to tell her reason.

Confused and devastated, Hyeon-sook and Man-ji wonders whether they could have helped Cheon-ji if they had paid more attention to her, but they also know that they must move on no matter how much they feel sad and guilty about it. While they move to a different place to live, Hyeon-sook continues to work at a neighbourhood mart where she has worked for years, and Man-ji stays in her high school with no apparent problem.

But Man-ji slowly begins to search for the reason behind her sister’s suicide, so she meets Hwa-yeon(Kim Yoo-jeong), Cheon-ji’s “best friend” at her middle school who seems to hide a lot more than she tells. We are also introduced to Mi-ra(Yoo Yeon-mee), who was one of Cheon-ji’s classmates like Haw-yeon. It looks like this quiet girl was not so close to Cheon-ji although her elder sister Miran(Cheon Woo-hee) is one of Man-ji’s high school friends, but she has some reason to be angry about Hwa-yeon, and there is a moment of cold anger in the classroom when she bluntly points out what Hwa-yeon did to Man-ji.

As you have already guessed, the main subject of the movie is alienation at school, and we come to witness its thoughtless cruelty through several flashback scenes as Man-ji comes to learn more and more about what her sister had hidden from her and her mother. We come to see that Hwa-yeon has deliberately exploited and tormented Cheon-ji in the name of friendship, and there is a hurtful scene where Cheon-ji is alienated by Hwa-yeon and others at Hwa-yeon’s birthday party although she is “invited”. Everyone seems to be nice to her on the surface, but they actually ridicule her behind their backs through texting, and Cheon-ji seems to sense that she is not cordially invited at all.

It can be said that Hwa-yeon is mainly responsible for Cheon-ji’s death, but the movie does not present her in simple black-and-white view. While trying to avoid the blame directed toward her, Hwa-yeon starts to face her responsibility in Cheon-ji’s death, and she finds herself in an ironic position when everyone in her class alienates her after Cheon-ji’s suicide. We also come to learn that Hyeon-sook had a certain motive when she moved to a new place for her and her daughter, and there is a quietly unforgiving moment where she confronts a minor character indirectly responsible for the heartbreak still remaining inside her.

The movie becomes more like a mystery story as it turns out that Cheon-ji did leave her last words for several people around her. That naturally leads to the obligatory melodramatic scenes during its third act, but the movie stays cool even when its story gets a little more tearful along with its characters, and the director Lee Han, who previously directed “Punch”(2011), has a number of good actresses to handle these melodramatic moments. Kim Hee-ae, Ko Ah-seong, and Kim Hyang-ki are believable as family members from the beginning, and the emotions churning inside their low-key performances are visible even when they do not signify a lot. Kim Yoo-jeong, Cheon Woo-hee and Yoo Yeon-mi also give solid supporting performances, and Yoo Yeon-mi is especially good as a girl who belatedly realizes her serious misunderstanding and deeply regrets about it.

“Elegant Lies” is far from being perfect. I guess its comic elements are supposed to lighten up the mood for us, but they are distracting rather than effective in my opinion. Yoo Ah-in, who was the lead actor of “Punch”, appears as a young man living next door to Hyeon-sook and Man-ji, and you may be amused by his awful long hairdo in the movie, but his comic scenes do not mesh well with the other serious scenes including the one he shared with Ko Ah-seong. I am willing to accept a certain coincidence involved with Seong Dong-il’s character, but this character is so broad that he looks like a character coming from some other movie whenever he appears.

Despite its notable weaknesses which make it less elegant than it wants to be, the movie works on the whole thanks to its thoughtful handling of the dark subject, and the performances in the movie bring considerable life into its story and characters. As I noticed from the other audiences in the screening room on last Sunday morning, the movie is essentially a tearjerker ready to pull our heartstrings, but I won’t deny that it did its job well while never going too far in pushing our emotional buttons.

Posted in Movies | Tagged Alienation, Mother and daughter, School, Sisters, South Korean Film, Suicide | Leave a comment

Lebanon Emotion (2013) ☆☆☆(3/4) : An odd, somber mix of romance and thriller

Posted on March 29, 2014 by kaist455

“Lebanon Emotion”, a South Korean independent film which was released in South Korea early in this month, quietly meanders around its background at first and then goes into an unexpected direction through its odd, somber mix of romance and thriller. The story is simple; it is cold, lonely outside, and two unhappy people happen to come across each other under an unlikely circumstance, and they eventually find themselves warming to each other, while it becomes more apparent that something will happen sooner or later.

The movie starts with Seong-ho(Choi Seong-ho), a young man still struggling with his deep grief caused by the recent passing of his ailing mother. It has been a year since she died, but he does not feel better even after letting out his grief when he is alone at the cemetery, and he even attempts suicide when he is staying at his acquaintance’ apartment alone. He fortunately fails, but he is still alone and depressed while it gets colder outside. Although the apartment building is located in some local town near a snowy mountain, the town looks to be devoid of people except the workers at the construction sites near the mountain, and only town resident we see in the movie is a disturbed babbling guy who does ice fishing every day around the base of the mountain.

On one day, Seong-ho hears a scream from somewhere when he is near the mountain, and he soon finds out what has happened. When they went to the mountain on the first day, his acquaintance showed Seong-ho his steel trap set for hunting roe deer in the mountain, and Seong-ho discovers a woman caught by that trap. He instantly releases her from the trap and then takes this injured woman to his staying place, even though he does not know at all about who she is or why she does not want her accident to be notified to the police.

We know her reason, for the movie takes us right to what happened before she got trapped. She has just been released from prison after serving her time, and she is frustrated to see that there is no one to welcome her – even her own sister does not want to see her at all. As following her plight, we also get to know a bit about a guy who was probably her partner/lover in the past, and this vicious man is someone you can’t possibly mess with. When she vehemently expresses her anger to him during their phone conversation, he becomes determined to track her down and confront her, and he starts his tracking as soon as he happens to learn where she is.

While feeling as bleak as its wintry background, the movie is not entirely humorless, and it has a fair share of darkly amusing moments thanks to Jang Won-young’s humorously twisted performance as the villain of the story. His voice is quiet and placid, but his eyes reveals a man fueled by cold aggressiveness behind his stern face, and you know he will not be stopped until he is finished with his personal business. There are a number of characters who unintentionally stand on his way in the movie, and one of these unfortunate guys comes to pay a big price for annoying him during one violent scene. You may feel a little sorry about him, but it goes without saying that he had it coming – and he richly deserves it for a good reason.

While these unpleasant things are happening outside, the movie also focuses on the growing feelings between Seong-ho and the woman as they spend some time together inside his staying place. As soon as he arrives in the apartment with her, he applies a bandage on her wounded ankle, and he even lets her stay in the apartment until her wound is healed. They go out together for having a lunch later, and Seong-ho also buys clothes and underwears for her.

She emphasizes that she will just stay for a few days, but they slowly begin to recognize each other as the lonely souls going through each own personal difficulty. When they have a dinner together in the apartment, the mood on the screen is slightly heated through the soft, warm lighting over their dinner table and their faces, and they become a little more opened to each other as having a conversation. In their restrained performances, Choi Seong-ho and Kim Ji-wook are good at suggesting what their characters are reluctant to talk about; although we know little about her character, Kim Ji-wook gains our sympathy as a good woman damaged by her mistakes and hardships, and there is a poignant moment when her character silently realizes that there is not much difference between her and the man who helps her without demanding anything to her.

The movie is the first feature length film made by the director/screenplay writer Jeong Young-heon, and he deftly establishes moods and characters in his film while giving several good moments to be appreciated. His hero’s chilly dream sequence unfolded on a wide snowy field is not only haunting but also revealing in its simplicity, and we come to understand more about how much Seong-ho has been grieving; he desperately wants to let his aching feeling of loss go, but he keeps being haunted by the memories of his mother even when he tries to get away from them. The low-budget quality of the movie is noticed from time to time, but Jeong Young-heon wisely uses that limit to create the feeling of isolation and loneliness with his handful of actors, and the result is a stark but interesting piece of work showing lots of potential inside this first-time director.

Oh, by the way, I forgot about explaining the title of the movie to you. As recognized in the movie, its title is from a Korean poem “Lebanon Emotions” by Choi Jeong-rye, but, as far as I heard from others, it seems that there is not any notable connection between the poem and the movie. I have no idea on why the director decided on that title or what he intended to imply, but he made a nice little film, and I am all right with that in spite of my bafflement toward its title.

Posted in Movies | Tagged Romance, South Korean Film, Thriller | Leave a comment

What Maisie Knew (2012) ☆☆☆(3/4) : What she saw and heard

Posted on March 29, 2014 by kaist455

Maisie is quite a little girl, considering that many children at her age cannot deal well with such a tough situation like hers. She probably does not entirely understand how her life is changing, but she remains rather calm and quiet in her innocent way while we observe the situation through her little narrow view. Regardless of how much she is aware of what is happening around her, we know there is nothing much she can do in her position, and we naturally come to worry about whether there will be any stable environment for her in the end.

Based on Henry James’s 1897 novel, “What Maisie Knew” tells us how Maisie’s comfortable life is disrupted through her parents’ sudden divorce, and one interesting thing about the movie is that the adapted screenplay written by Nancy Doyne and Carroll Cartwright moves the story background from the late 19th Century to our time. That does not feel like a big stretch to us, because divorce has become a far more ordinary thing since James’ novel was published while the human matters associated with it still feel timeless to us.

For some reason which is not explained well, Maisie’s parents have a big fight at their home in the beginning, and we soon see how their home life at some luxurious Manhattan apartment is crumbled step by step during a short time. Susanna(Julianne Moore), who is an aging rock singer, changes the lock of the front door to keep her art dealer husband(Steve Coogan) out of the apartment at one point, and then we see a bitter custody battle between them as they are going through divorce process.

Stuck between her parents for a while in this mess, Maisie(Onata Aprile) looks helpless to us at times, but it seems she accepts the inevitable change in her life. Young kids like her would feel understandably confused or angry about that, but it looks like Maisie is floated above the situation like an innocent observer. She gets along well with her schoolmates as usual, and she quickly adapts to her new home to live with her father, though she is not so happy to know that her mother is not going to live with her.

As the time goes by, we see more changes coming into Maisie’s daily life. Not long after it is shown that there is something going on between her dad and her kind Scottish nanny Margo(Joanna Vanderham), her dad re-introduces Margo to Maisie as his girlfriend, and she soon becomes Maisie’s stepmother. In case of Susanna, she marries a young bartender named Lincoln(Alexander Skarsgård), and, because she mostly occupies herself with reviving her old career, Lincoln is usually the one who takes care of Maisie just like Margo does instead of Maisie’s father, who is busy with his work all the time.

Lincoln and Margo meet each other for the first time at Maisie’s school through coincidence, and it does not take a minute for us to see that it is a sort of Meet Cute scene between them. As we see more about how lousy Maisie’s biological parents are to Maisie, we also begin to notice a certain possibility while Lincoln and Margo respectively spend time with Maisie; when they all walk around the city together, they do look like a real family as enjoying each other’s company.

I have not read Henry James’ novel, but I can say that the directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel did a good job of sticking us to Maisie’s view throughout their film. The camera is frequently set to her viewpoint, so our view is usually limited to what she heard or saw. The conflicts between the adult characters around her are glimpsed briefly as Maisie passes by or faintly conveyed through the muffled arguments from outside as she is in her room, but we can easily guess what is going on – and what is going to happen to her sooner or later.

The movie depends a lot on its child actress Onata Aprile, and McGehee and Siegel drew a splendid natural performance from Aprile. Maisie may be a little too good to be realistic because of her precocious attitude, but Aprile brings considerable believability to her character, and we constantly care about her and her welfare – especially when she is temporarily put into the care of a total stranger later in the story,

Aprile is supported well by the adult performers surrounding her. While Alexander Skarsgård and Joanna Vanderham have a nice subdued chemistry as two different people who really look like more suitable parents compared to their respective spouses, Steve Coogan and Julianne Moore inject a little does of humanity into their pretty unlikable characters. Coogan, who begins to show his more serious side recently, has a small nice scene with Aprile, and he ably balances his character between concern and selfishness during that scene. While I came to dislike Moore’s character more than before in the end, Moore brings some degrees of understanding into her pathetically self-absorbed character, and she is very good in a crucial scene where she realizes how she has screwed up things again and then makes a sensible choice for her daughter.

“What Maisie Knew” is a sensitive domestic drama equipped with good direction and nice performances, and I cared and worried about its little heroine while watching it. You may complain that its ending is too neat and predictable, but the movie makes us want it to happen through its good storytelling, and we are glad to see that she will be all right – at least for now.

Posted in Movies | Tagged Child, Couple, Divorce | 1 Comment

Campus animals in spring afternoon (03/23/14)

Posted on March 28, 2014 by kaist455

While cats and a rabbit were having a rest, ruthless avian campus gangs engaged in a duel of fate…

Posted in Photos | Tagged Cats, Geese, KAIST, Rabbit | 1 Comment

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) ☆☆☆(3/4) : A fish in the new water

Posted on March 27, 2014 by kaist455

While you may have to watch previous Marvel Comics movies before watching it, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” is a surprisingly entertaining entry packed with fun, thrill, and a considerable dose of intrigue, and that was good enough for me to put aside my constant skepticism toward the Marvel Comics franchise for a while. As a well-made blockbuster film, it has several spectacular action scenes to excite the audiences, and, thanks to its engaging mixture of comic book action and espionage thriller, it is actually interesting to watch even when it is not on its bombastic action mode.

The movie follows the new adventure of its earnest superhero Captain America/Steve Rogers(Chris Evans), a good, brave young man who was transformed into a super soldier through a special military experiment during the World War II as depicted in “Captain America: The First Avenger”(2011). At the end of that film, he found himself in the 21th century after long years of his unintended hibernation in the North pole area, and we later saw how he came to work with other Marvel superhero characters to save the Earth in “The Avengers”(2012).

Two years after that humongous catastrophe in Manhattan shown in the climax part of “The Avengers”, Rogers is now residing in Washington D.C., and he still feels like a fish out of water. While he is not very familiar with lots of things including Steve Jobs or Marvin Gaye, many people he knew are mostly gone as he is reminded at a museum, and we get a small, poignant scene where Rogers visits Peggy Carter(Hayley Atwell), who is no longer a pretty plucky woman he once loved during their war time.

At least, under the supervision of SHIELD director Nick Fury(Samuel L. Jackson), Rogers has works to do as Captain America, but, after his latest operation on a hijacked ship belonging to SHEILD, Rogers begins to wonder about what is going on inside SHIELD – and what he is really doing as its agent. While a big secret project involved with three newly developed Helicarriers(you remember that huge aircraft carrier in “The Avengers”?) is nearly approaching to the final step, Fury seems to have some thoughts behind his back, but he is not someone who would easily tell what he thinks, and Rogers is certainly not very pleased about that.

He soon finds himself in the new water. Along with Fury and a few other characters, Rogers faces a big threat which may topple the very existence of SHIELD, and Rogers suddenly becomes a hunted man running away from his agency because of a crucial clue he receives from Fury. As a senior SHIELD official directing this sudden manhunt, Robert Redford amply imbues his authoritative character with the aura of suspicion even when he does not seem to do much on the screen, and that naturally takes us back to a good old paranoid spy thriller like “Three Days of the Condor”(1975), where Redford played a young agent who must find a way to survive with almost no one to trust.

Like Redford in that film was helped a lot by Faye Dunaway’s character, Rogers gets a considerable help from his fellow fugitive Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff(Scarlett Johansson), a former Russian agent who has been working for SHIELD. After her thankless job in the previous Marvel Comics movies, Johansson finally gets a good chance to shine in this film; her spunky performance effectively complements Evans’ sincere performance as Romanoff and Rogers investigate to find who is really behind the threat, and Johansson has a fun with her character especially when she surprises others and us through her clever tactics.

With the screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFreey, the directors Anthony and Joe Russo roll the story under their competent direction, and the movie gives us a fair share of nice surprise turns including the first appearance of Winter Soldier(Sebastian Stan), Captain America’s main opponent who is probably his counterpart in many aspects. I was not very impressed by the action scenes in the film due to its confusingly choppy editing approach, but some of them are exciting enough to hold our attention, and we do not feel lost as several things are separately happening during the big obligatory climax action sequence decorated with lots of bangs and crashes as required.

Chris Evans, who impressed me a lot with his performance in “Snowpiercer”(2013) in last year, is commendable in the title role. While he surely looks less silly than before thanks to his new modernized uniform, Evans brings comfortable likability to his simple-minded character as before, and we are not surprised by how he quickly befriends Sam Wilson(Anthony Mackie), a war veteran who eventually becomes Rogers’ closest ally along with Romanoff. Like Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson and Robert Redford have their own good moments, and Cobie Smulders is also solid as Maria Hill, Fury’s trusted agent we previously met in “The Avengers”. Some of you may enjoy several references on “The Avengers” and other Marvel Comics films sprinkled throughout the movie, but I must say that they usually made me wonder about what the hell other superheroes are doing when the lives of at least 20 millions of people around the world can be lost(Tony Stark is one of them, incidentally).

“Captain America: the Winter Soldier” tries something different within its boundaries, and I enjoyed it more than I expected. While its predecessor is an old-fashioned fun which was also a good start, the movie finds another way to handle its Boy Scout hero as dealing with some thought-provoking topics relevant to our reality, and it also willingly makes several risky moves which will probably affect subsequent Marvel Comics movies. For now, in my opinion, this is the most entertaining movie from the franchise in recent years, and I think I can have some hope on whatever will come next despite my remaining skepticism.

Sidenote:

1. The end credit is accompanied with two small scenes promising us the next movies to come, so please stay during the end credit if you want to see them all.

2. The movie is also shown in 3D, but, as I have pointed it out many times before, 3D is not an ideal choice for action movies like this. Save your extra charge, please.