Life and Cinematic Art
From A Few Good Men to the 2009 remake of Sherlock Holmes, I look back at twenty years of watching cinematic movies.
It all started in a Christchurch, New Zealand cinema, when I saw The Last Emperor on a nippy autumn night.Thoughts about dynastic troubles in an agricutural community as far as you can get away from the stiffness of the Forbidden City! It was a sign of the future, though, for Kiwiland was to become the favourite choice of location shooting in in the years to come.
Cinema Paradiso was the first non-English and non-Chinese work of cinematic art that I fell totally for. I was overwhelmed by its nuances, its tones and its message. Toto the child, with all his enthusiasm for screening projector movies, was portrayed so emphatically in this film it spoke of a universal longing for home after a life time spent away. The Mexican production Y Tu Mama Tambien spoke too of unbridled youth, but in another place and time. Life is Beautiful from Italy brought the cinema art form of ironic humour to handle the unbearable life in a World War 2 prison camp. Amelie and Chocolat were magical insights into the apparently ordinary journeys of individualistic women actually determined to make the most out of life.
Hollywood still ruled and Bollywood was not that influential in my choice of movies, but so-called art cinema became accessible. I was swept away by the unique wave of film art from an emerging China trend, fighting hard against the Hong Kong genre that dominated my teenagehood. SBS channel in Australia opened my eyes to the frank nudity of Euro movies; the style of Japanese cinema, especially its enchanting and engrossing manga movies; the dryness of new wave cinema in Taiwan; the exciting vibrance of Spanish movies; and the power of effective and yet controversial subtitling. The long continuing James Bond genre was significantly refreshed by the arrival of actor Daniel Craig.
Gems appeared like gold gleaming on a clear river bed - Forrest Gump; Slumdog Millionaire; a revamped Caprio-inspired Romeo and Juliet; Wall-E; The Da Vinci Code; The Wedding Banquet; Billy Elliot; Lovers of the Arctic Circle; Sleepless in Seattle; Hero; Indochine; The Crying Game; The Pillow Book; Saving Private Ryan; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Motor Cycle Diaries; and Monsoon Wedding.
The most impact an Australian movie made on me came from Strictly Ballroom, with its liberating tale and moves set in my adopted city of Sydney. Australian cinema halls seemed rather empty for most of the time, with popcorn and drinks costing almost the same price as the value tickets paid in advance.Prescilla, Queen of the Desert, left inner city Sydney on a bus, but in the end, made more impact on its reflections of a part of the current Australian community, more than the musical Moulin Rouge and the so-called epic Australia.
Echoing my cultural heritage, I can still visualise the cool vibes from Hong Kong's Days of Being Wild and China's Raise the Red Lantern. Movies were even made in my birth hometown of Penang, especially Anna and the King and Beyond Rangoon. The past two decades also saw the transformation of the Singapore industry through its colloquail Singlish language films and its growing examination of its unique demographics. Asian films moved more away from physical violence to the subtleness of our inner souls, the underlying unspoken message behind the reality and the liberation of public nudity.
The American movie Superman Returns was shot in New South Wales, so I could recognise the location shoooting venues. The start of the Millennium was agog about the latest version of the Titanic and the close of the first ten years thereafter saw Avatar, both brought to you by James Cameron. The remake of South Pacific the musical with Harry Connick Junior did not detract my fascination with the original made in the late fifities. It took a certain level of patience, fascination and obsession to go through the serial movies - whether they are Lord of The Rings, Spiderman, Shrek, The Matrix, Harry Potter, Batman, X-Men, Saw, Home Alone, Transformers, Narnia or the Tom Clancy action thrillers.
Disney Studios had a good run in the nineties with traditional animation work to be seen by audiences of all ages, like The Lion King and Beauty and The Beast. With Pixar, the writing was already on the wall for the arrival of sophisticated graphic works with complex special effects, as illustrated by Jurassic Park, Independence Day, the Incredibles and The Dark Knight, with work done by several support teams based across the globe, coordinating in creative unison to somehow produce remarkable outcomes - and whose team member names are listed in detail in the rolling credits at the end of such movies, accompanied by at least three audio tracks to cover them all.
The more things seem to change, they more they remain the same. Just like the apparent daily routine of life, it is amazing to know that we still sit in a darkened hall; can still have the sugary laden popcorn and coke; get charged more for putting on 3D glasses; and have emerging addicts feed into this type of media, despite competition from the internet, electronic games and mobile phones. Like the great classics of the past, whether in print, song or stage, the cinema still churns out pieces to enthrall, entertain and remind us of hallmark moments in true life.
Does life imitate art, or the other way around? Maybe it's both. We can have cinematic releases at the touch of a button and need not make a date out of it; books however continue to form the basis of flim scripts; and the commercial temptation of making sequels underline the reality of required funding to make this form of essentially what is entertainment. Movies have always made each of us dream and imagine, whether it be the lot of socio-economic disadvantaged villagers or the pampered teenager in advanced economies - how the genre will take us next is one of fascination itself, while providing us the romanticised sentiments from personal experiences watching movies in childhood with our parents or sitting next to our first real courtship love.
It all started in a Christchurch, New Zealand cinema, when I saw The Last Emperor on a nippy autumn night.Thoughts about dynastic troubles in an agricutural community as far as you can get away from the stiffness of the Forbidden City! It was a sign of the future, though, for Kiwiland was to become the favourite choice of location shooting in in the years to come.
Cinema Paradiso was the first non-English and non-Chinese work of cinematic art that I fell totally for. I was overwhelmed by its nuances, its tones and its message. Toto the child, with all his enthusiasm for screening projector movies, was portrayed so emphatically in this film it spoke of a universal longing for home after a life time spent away. The Mexican production Y Tu Mama Tambien spoke too of unbridled youth, but in another place and time. Life is Beautiful from Italy brought the cinema art form of ironic humour to handle the unbearable life in a World War 2 prison camp. Amelie and Chocolat were magical insights into the apparently ordinary journeys of individualistic women actually determined to make the most out of life.
Hollywood still ruled and Bollywood was not that influential in my choice of movies, but so-called art cinema became accessible. I was swept away by the unique wave of film art from an emerging China trend, fighting hard against the Hong Kong genre that dominated my teenagehood. SBS channel in Australia opened my eyes to the frank nudity of Euro movies; the style of Japanese cinema, especially its enchanting and engrossing manga movies; the dryness of new wave cinema in Taiwan; the exciting vibrance of Spanish movies; and the power of effective and yet controversial subtitling. The long continuing James Bond genre was significantly refreshed by the arrival of actor Daniel Craig.
Gems appeared like gold gleaming on a clear river bed - Forrest Gump; Slumdog Millionaire; a revamped Caprio-inspired Romeo and Juliet; Wall-E; The Da Vinci Code; The Wedding Banquet; Billy Elliot; Lovers of the Arctic Circle; Sleepless in Seattle; Hero; Indochine; The Crying Game; The Pillow Book; Saving Private Ryan; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Motor Cycle Diaries; and Monsoon Wedding.
The most impact an Australian movie made on me came from Strictly Ballroom, with its liberating tale and moves set in my adopted city of Sydney. Australian cinema halls seemed rather empty for most of the time, with popcorn and drinks costing almost the same price as the value tickets paid in advance.Prescilla, Queen of the Desert, left inner city Sydney on a bus, but in the end, made more impact on its reflections of a part of the current Australian community, more than the musical Moulin Rouge and the so-called epic Australia.
Echoing my cultural heritage, I can still visualise the cool vibes from Hong Kong's Days of Being Wild and China's Raise the Red Lantern. Movies were even made in my birth hometown of Penang, especially Anna and the King and Beyond Rangoon. The past two decades also saw the transformation of the Singapore industry through its colloquail Singlish language films and its growing examination of its unique demographics. Asian films moved more away from physical violence to the subtleness of our inner souls, the underlying unspoken message behind the reality and the liberation of public nudity.
The American movie Superman Returns was shot in New South Wales, so I could recognise the location shoooting venues. The start of the Millennium was agog about the latest version of the Titanic and the close of the first ten years thereafter saw Avatar, both brought to you by James Cameron. The remake of South Pacific the musical with Harry Connick Junior did not detract my fascination with the original made in the late fifities. It took a certain level of patience, fascination and obsession to go through the serial movies - whether they are Lord of The Rings, Spiderman, Shrek, The Matrix, Harry Potter, Batman, X-Men, Saw, Home Alone, Transformers, Narnia or the Tom Clancy action thrillers.
Disney Studios had a good run in the nineties with traditional animation work to be seen by audiences of all ages, like The Lion King and Beauty and The Beast. With Pixar, the writing was already on the wall for the arrival of sophisticated graphic works with complex special effects, as illustrated by Jurassic Park, Independence Day, the Incredibles and The Dark Knight, with work done by several support teams based across the globe, coordinating in creative unison to somehow produce remarkable outcomes - and whose team member names are listed in detail in the rolling credits at the end of such movies, accompanied by at least three audio tracks to cover them all.
The more things seem to change, they more they remain the same. Just like the apparent daily routine of life, it is amazing to know that we still sit in a darkened hall; can still have the sugary laden popcorn and coke; get charged more for putting on 3D glasses; and have emerging addicts feed into this type of media, despite competition from the internet, electronic games and mobile phones. Like the great classics of the past, whether in print, song or stage, the cinema still churns out pieces to enthrall, entertain and remind us of hallmark moments in true life.
Does life imitate art, or the other way around? Maybe it's both. We can have cinematic releases at the touch of a button and need not make a date out of it; books however continue to form the basis of flim scripts; and the commercial temptation of making sequels underline the reality of required funding to make this form of essentially what is entertainment. Movies have always made each of us dream and imagine, whether it be the lot of socio-economic disadvantaged villagers or the pampered teenager in advanced economies - how the genre will take us next is one of fascination itself, while providing us the romanticised sentiments from personal experiences watching movies in childhood with our parents or sitting next to our first real courtship love.
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