Tuesday, May 28

back in the city

i feel like i didn't study for a week. but the time away from studying was time well spent with my family. it's not like i was just bumming or loafing around. i spent a lot of quality time with parents, jimmy, and especially david.

the night before his graduation, after the Lakers game, we watched Yeop gi jeog in geu nyeuh (My Sassy Girl)


i was pleasantly surprised. a few weeks earlier, NYU med's film club had shown it, and it had the biggest draw i've ever seen for the film club, close to 40 ppl. (i didn't watch then b/c Lakers game 2 was on at the same time).

the girl was cute, fine. the guy (who i had a hard time liking from earlier dramas...what's with those lips? it's very puffy and round. as someone once said, it looks like an anus.) was very funny, and gained sympathy from me pretty quickly. but the thing that amazed me was that this movie was so tight. there were few silly and unnecessary scenes, the acting was amazingly good (especially in comparison to some of the hyped american movies i've seen recently), the music was very clever and appropriate, and the quality of the film was amazing, very unkorean. it was just a very complete package as a movie. i was completely surprised. to top it all off, they managed to retain a lot of korean culture, even its sillier aspects, and yet incorporate that in a seamless way so that non-Korean audiences can enjoy and laugh at it. it was unashamed of Korean culture.

Yesterday, after unpacking all of David's stuff in our NJ home, we completely missed the Nets/Celtics game (oh well...), and instead chatted it up with Mom and Dad, which was cool.

Dave and I went to Rudy's Pizzeria to pick up a pie (by the way, in LA, we NEVER called pizza's "pies." it was always simply called a pizza. i was terribly confused when i first got to baltimore, and people were like, "would you like a pie?" me: "no, i'd like a pizza, please." then, with a funny puzzled look on their face, the guy would say, "so, you want a pie?" me (wondering why he was asking the same question when i had just said i wanted a pizza): "uh, no. i'd like a pizza please." i humored the guy the first time. i figured he didn't know what he was talking about, so i went along with his ignorance. it took me about a month before i realized that EVERYONE on the east coast called pizzas, "pies." (HELLO, does it LOOK like a pie?! just cuz it's ROUND?? aren't most pies SWEET? i mean, at least chicken pot pie has a crust on top like a pie, has bread like a pie. pizza has a much tougher crust that is totally unlike pie crust (gluten developed from the kneading - The Joy of Cooking (my favorite bedtime read)) i will never understand this...anyway...)

so, while waiting for the pizza, we went to the local video store to get some videos. my choices: serendipity, princess diaries (ok, ok, i'm gay). dave's choices: metropolis, microcosmos
our compromise: serendipity, metropolis and microcosmos

reviews:
microcosmos
amazing. just absolutely amazing. i thought it was an animation like a bug's life. instead, it turns out to be a movie that draws us into listening to nature. the struggles for survival, food, mating, etc. all to a perfect soundtrack. if you are not amazed, if you do not wonder at God's work, you are not human.

serendipity
ok, so we had both never seen this movie, and both had heard good things about it, and unfortunately, neither of us had been on a date since...uh....uh....several years for dave, since high school for me...wow...sad... (how is it that i got so much LESS action in college then high school? all those high school about-to-graduate movies are SERIOUSLY wrong....haha. ANYWAY...)
so this movie was very good. i can see why so many ppl liked it. kate beckinsdale acted very well, much more memorable than in pearl harbor. while watching the movie, several things were bugging me.

1.why oh why is john cusak in always this type of movie? he is the EXACT SAME CHARACTER in all of his movies. he has simply moved from LA to NY (hmmm....kinda like me...). but he plays the same hopeless romantic that is terribly confused, yet willing to throw everything behind in his quest for the girl.

2. how can sara (kate b.) tell her patients one thing, and then totally live another way? this goes beyond hypocrisy, which we are all prone to, but this goes further. it's telling her patients, look, this type of thinking is making you quite mentally unstable and ill, and then she goes and does a similar type thing. (and has the GALL to say it again to the patient, even AFTER experiencing the crush/rush/etc!!!) this troubled me quite a bit, and maybe prevented me from developing my usual crush-after-watching-a-pretty-actress-in-a-movie-syndrome that i usually get.

i just don't think this movie NEEDED cusak. i, for one, am ready to see a no name actor do a brilliant job in that role (c'mon, there are millions of guys out there who act the same thing, because they LIVE that role) on the other hand, his best friend (who has played similar best friend who's a total guy's guy roles before) played his role extremely well, surpassing his previous performances.

metropolis
not for everyone. this movie is a mix of computer generated backgrounds mixed with an old, 80s style anime characters.
it's not exactly a fast movie, and the dubbing is pretty doubtful sometimes. but the music. wow. the music. what can i say? japanese people just have a good appreciation and grasp of music, and what is appropriate for certain moments. this movie demonstrated that the japanese are the masters of finding the soundtrack to one's life. there are three memorable scenes, each with the perfect melody and genre. you will know which scenes i speak of when you see it.

overall, the movie wasn't perfect, didn't have the tightness that i demand of movies, but what an experience.

conclusion: just some great movies....no regrets.


yakob at 8:05 PM

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