cinema
october 11, 2003
i've been listening to A LOT of the stations on live365.com in recent days. it's such a great way to expose oneself to listening to various genres of music without having to commit to buying a cd or anything. i love it so much that i joined up and paid as a preferred member because this is the best way for me to listen to music - while i'm on the computer, which is more than half of my waking hours. my fave stations are the jpop/jrock, canto-pop, 80's, indie, reggae, jazz and classic rock. but i'm expanding my horizons and listening to a lot of the other stations that they offer. i'm wondering if anything like this can be listened to in the car? is XM radio like this? i never knew there were so many other funky types of music out there and it's all good! i am in love!
i finally got around to watching charlotte sometimes earlier this week. i ended up watching it twice in one day because i was out of it while watching it the first time and felt like i couldn't grasp the whole movie the way i wanted to. so i watched it again and understood and felt it much better. it's a really intriguing love story that tells the lives of 4 individuals but namely the main character michael. the one thing i noticed was that the story relied heavily on nuances and lighting and such while restraining from overly using excessive dialogue. like in life, half the things we convey are without words but with expressions or actions. by not exposing as much verbally, you seem to want to dig deeper into what they are thinking. at times the movie seems a bit slow but it's these pauses that allow you to really capture the moment and the surroundings that the characters are in. the best part i believe was that it showed that love doesn't always necessarily work out for everyone and that the lines between love and friendship are actually very slight. although the cast is basically asian american, this definitely isn't a story that you watch thinking it's an asian american movie. it's just a really good movie. period.
last weekend, in the midst of craziness, i took two hours out of my life to watch lost in translation. what an amazing movie. i was telling a couple people afterwards that as eerily as it seems, i know first hand what it's like to be really alone in tokyo. during my dec 2000 travels there, i spent many days looking out the window from a high rise hotel wondering what the hell am i doing here - very much like what scarlett johansson did. i felt goosebumps when i watched her do that. although you're walking around the city with a million people around you, you feel more alone and emotionally lost than ever. this movie did a great job to capture how i'm sure many many people who've traveled alone there feel about these giant foreign metropolises. it's exciting. it's alive. it's amazing. but yet, it's so overwhelmingly solitary. of course watching this movie all too much made me want to go back and visit again. it just reminded me so much of not only the city but more importantly of the feelings i had when i was there traveling alone - struggling with the language and feeling like i never wanted to leave and torn between wanting to go home. it successfully portrayed how tokyo looks, sounds and feels from a foreigner's pov. i cannot even begin to express how i feel about this movie. hopefully in a few more months, i'll be there once again?
* * *
ok, it's saturday and here's my to-do list for the day:
hit the gym
get an oil change
bank
post office
alter bridesmaids dresses
pick up prescriptions
pay bills
definitely not the ME things i was thinking of doing. *grumble*
* * *
remember a little while back, i reviewed the indian movie, dil chahta hai and asked some of you for other indian movie recommendations? well, i received some feedback and wanted to post the movie titles here. i haven't seen any of these but just wanted to share. thank you rasee and ritchie for taking the time to contribute to my indian film interests! :) now, i just need to find the time to find these and watch them!
Devdas
Dilwale
Dulhaniya
Le
Jayenge
Kuch
Kuch Hota Hain
Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham
Hollywood
Bollywood
American Desi
American
Born Confused Desi
Leela
