Saturday, April 29, 2006

Men at Work is about four men and a large phallic rock. They spent the entire film trying to knock the thing over, with some assistance from strangers. The film was set in the backdrop of a key world cup qualifier between Iran and Japan. Hence I like the film. Hah hah. This film is very accessible. The main characters are all middle-aged yuppies, and the political and social allegory is rather familiar to all of us. Even the music is western pop. I certainly hope that no American director is thinking of doing an adaptation, that will totally ruin it. I watched the film because I did enjoy Abadan. The other reason is because of Abbas Kiarostami, one of my favourite directors. He has such an eye for nature's beauty. Here, everywhere the camera pans, is another beautiful postcard view of their terrain. Once again, the film deserves a wider release, hope to watch it again some day.

The Last Communist is an immensely enjoyable film, sort of like the cousin to Singapore Ga Ga. I was glad to have watched it, for now I got to know about the MCP and Malaysian leftist polities in the 60s a little better. The bitter irony of Chin Peng's efforts was that his activities were being marginalized by the public, which was sad because all he really wanted was to spread the communism that he thought was good to his country, and he really believed in it. I thought it was extremely brave of Amir to have made this documentary, as a film about opposition to the government should be considered extremely taboo. Can't see this happening in Singapore anytime soon. The musical interludes really brought the house down. The Q & A was one of the best I have ever sat in, the questions were intelligent, and Amir's answers were witty and insightful. Besides Chin Peng, there were numerous interviews with normal but interesting folks who talk about their everyday lives, and these brought out the Malaysianess of Malaysia. If Amir really go and make that planned sequel to this film, I would definitely watch it too.

Grandpa is a Raisin. So why is Grandpa a Raisin? Eastern European animations are often very charming, and using folk tales to tell stories are very common. The individual stories from grandpa were simple and funny, and bore very straightforward morals and lessons to learn. The surprise ending is perhaps not too surprising after all. What I find extremely strange was how on earth these two films were programmed together ... an animation together with a political documentary, like heaven and hell, literally. Think most people came for the animation more than the history lesson. I have no problem with Russian history, but I am not too sure for 2/3 of the audience ... The documentary was not too great in my opinion as well, so I guess those who left after the animation did not lose that much after all.

♥ 2:24 am