Film Junk » Reed

Killer Imports: Coweb

Reed — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:03:02 +0000

Killer Imports is a regular feature on Film Junk where we explore foreign-language films from around the world that haven’t yet had their chance to shine. Whenever I appear on the Film Junk podcast and review a film, I invariably have a negative opinion. And when I write film reviews for the Film Junk web site, I invariably have a positive opinion, even for films that many Film Junk readers would consider bad. The discrepancy has to do with the fact that I don’t get to choose which films to review on the podcast. I find it easier to give reasons on why I like something rather than why I don’t like something. So for me, writing a positive review is easier to write and seems more worthwhile since someone may be influenced by a positive review to watch a film that I feel deserves attention. No one in a right state of mind sets out to make a “bad” film, and I know the task of actually getting a film made is not easy. I prefer not to say anything bad about the result of someone’s efforts. But I thought I should correct the discrepancy between having all my podcast reviews being negative and all my written reviews being positive. So it is with a heavy heart that I must say how much I disliked Coweb. To be fair and in the effort of full disclosure, the DVD I have of the film had the audio slightly out of sync with the video. This is really bad for fight scenes when you see someone getting hit and a slight moment later, you hear the sound of the impact. (Have you ever noticed in horror movies with lightning and thunder that you always hear the thunder at the same time you see the lightning? For anyone who has taken a basic science class or who has paid any attention as to what happens during an actual thunderstorm, the sound of thunder can occur after you see the lightning with the duration depending on how far away you are from the lightning. I wonder if any filmmaker has tried to subliminally influence an audience by shortening the duration as a movie progresses in order to build tension. It may seem like that I’m digressing from actually talking about Coweb, but like I said, if I don’t have anything good to say about something, then …) Oh, I should mention that I couldn’t understand the plot of the film because there were no English subtitles, but I think I understood enough of what was going on. However, I don’t understand the significance of the title, Coweb. Maybe it refers to the corporation that is filming fights that are staged, unbeknownst to the fighters, in various locations for the purposes of illegal online gambling. Basically, the film involves a former woman cop (Jiang Lu-xia) who is hired as a bodyguard, fails to protect her client, and sets out to resolve the situation that culminates in infiltrating the corporation. The makers of Coweb did try to make the fight set pieces interesting. There are fights that take place in a kitchen, on a water covered arena, on bamboo scaffolding, and on a street with rapper-type, free-style, break-dancing fighters. The editing and the framing of the shots allow you to see the full motions of the fighters, but I didn’t find the fighting to be all that exciting. Maybe the camera angles and movement were lacking. Maybe the fight choreography wasn’t varied or different enough. Maybe the fights lacked pacing with their unrelenting activity. To me, many of the fight scenes seemed obviously blocked out. The music was uninspired as well. I’ve seen Jackie Chan and Jet Li movies with kitchen fight scenes before, and the kitchen fight scene in Coweb didn’t add anything new. She fights a much larger Caucasian guy (Wanja Götz) for the whole kitchen fight, and the fight seems like it goes on forever. Maybe some of you can appreciate the fights in Coweb more than I can. To put things in perspective, I’m not a fan of old-style martial arts movies where the fights seem to go on forever. I’ll make an exception for Jackie Chan films only because Jackie is so creative. Perhaps I should also mention for all you purists that besides during the bamboo scaffolding fight, I don’t think much wire-work is used as the acrobatics are somewhat subdued. But I could be wrong. When she infiltrates the corporation, she fights a mass of men and pulls out a nunchaku! Unfortunately, I was underwhelmed by the whole sequence. There is a climactic duel between her and a martial arts expert (Kane Kosugi) in a fighting ring. (I don’t think this is spoiling anything, because many martial arts movies adhere to the Enter the Dragon template. And I suspect Enter the Dragon wasn’t the first movie that had a climactic duel.) Yawn. For those who have been following my written reviews of films, I have a soft spot for films involving women as the main protagonists who have no problem dealing out punishment. As I’ve mentioned in other reviews, I tend to develop infatuations with these women. I didn’t find Zhang Ziyi particularly attractive at the beginning of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but by the end of the film, I was smitten. With Coweb, I didn’t find myself physically attracted to the star, Jiang Lu-xia, at the beginning, and unfortunately, she still didn’t do anything for me by the end of the film. Her characterization was no different from Zhang Ziyi’s character either. She seemed to have a blank face with occasional moments of scowling. There was no attempt to feminize her and her clothing was rather drab. Her tomboy-ish haircut didn’t help. There is one interesting aspect about Jiang Lu-xia that deserves mentioning. She was a finalist in a Hong Kong reality-type television show hosted by Jackie Chan. I don’t know what the name of the show was, but its title probably translated to something like, “So You Think You Can Kung Fu?” (Okay, the show was actually called, The Disciple, but I bet if the show came over to North America, the producers would use my title.) She had actually gained some notoriety by posting on the Internet short films of herself displaying her martial arts skills. I think you can find some of these films interspersed with some making-of shorts for Coweb. To promote herself, she used the name “Kitty Darling,” but if you try searching the Internet for that name, you’ll probably find yourself looking at some risqué stuff. She has studied martial arts since the age of 6 and I don’t believe she has ever acted before. The director is a first time director, Xiong Xin-xin. There was no major sponsor financing this film, so much hardship was endured in order to complete this film. Before becoming a full director, Xiong was a wushu martial artist and stunt performer (sometimes doubling for Jet Li) who eventually became an action director. His Hollywood credits include action choreography for The Musketeer and Steven Seagal’s Half Past Dead. He did win a Hong Kong action choreography award for Tsui Hark’s Seven Swords. Apparently, the feeling in Hong Kong is that there have been no fresh martial arts actors being given a chance to take over from the aging stars like Jackie Chan and Jet Li in the international market. Studios in Hong Kong and China won’t finance movies with complete unknowns and the actors who can cause movies to be financed have not been able to penetrate international markets. Years ago, even Donnie Yen failed to succeed with a push from Quentin Tarantino in marketing Iron Monkey. And I’m wondering how many of you reading this know who Jacky Wu Jing is. Xiong has taken upon himself the task of trying to introduce some fresh talent. And so we have Jiang Lu-xia in Coweb. As I said earlier, I hate writing negative reviews, but another reason why I hesitated posting this review earlier was that I thought I should wait for this film to become widely available and to see if a buzz developed over this film. (I had seen “Coweb” back in the summer.) I was afraid that if I wrote a review too early, then many of you would simply ignore the review. But I have yet to see this movie available anywhere with English subtitles. Perhaps you’ll never get a chance to see this film for you to make up your own mind. The main advertising image is sort of abstract with yellow lettering on top of Jiang Lu-xia in a red hoodie, her hair covering most of her face, with a background of red splattered on black. It’s not obvious to me that this is a martial arts film. Maybe the producers should be commended as well for choosing a non-traditional title for this martial arts film. But choosing an action film based on its title given the choice of Coweb or Ninja Assassin, which would you choose?

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Reed’s Bargain Bin: Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever

Reed — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:39:47 +0000

Reed’s Bargain Bin is a recurring column where Reed Farrington tells us about a movie he bought for under $5, and whether or not he regrets the purchase. “Blowed ‘em up good, blowed ‘em up real good!” If Big Jim McBob and Billy Sol Hurok from SCTV’s Farm Film Report had been on Rotten Tomatoes’ (RT) staff, then there’s no way that Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (BEVS) would ever be in the list of RT’s worst movies of the past decade. So, in the opinion of Reed Farrington, does this movie deserve to be at the top of that list? Well, that “worst of” list was the impetus I needed to finish watching this film that had been sitting in my stockpile for the past three years. I hadn’t realized that I had watched all of it up to the last ten minutes. Perhaps this is indicative of how bad BEVS is, but I also have movies like The Lord of the Rings that I haven’t finished watching either. And some people seem to think LOTR is good. I get the impression that the title of BEVS is the main reason why this movie got placed at the top of the list. People seem to think it’s a silly title. I think the title gives some indication that the tone of the movie is comic book-like. And the word “ballistic” in the title is really appropriate given the amount of artillery that we see used in the movie. The plot is not terribly original. Basically, a woman secret agent named Sever (Lucy Liu) seeks revenge against a former boss, Robert Gant (Gregg Henry), gone bad. An FBI agent named Ecks (Antonio Banderas) is brought in to investigate Gant’s involvement with the destruction of a research facility creating assassin nanobots. As you might have guessed from the title of this movie, Ecks has some confrontations with Sever. The movie does avoid some clichés. I thought for sure that the Asian buddy cop with a young daughter was going to bite the bullet, so to speak. However, this movie does have Ecks walking towards the camera slowly from an explosion in the background. I thought Banderas does a nice job with his character. His use of a shotgun is pretty cool. The movie is somewhat lacking in humor, but there’s an amusing scene that Banderas pulls off really well. He’s sitting in a room with a cop’s young daughter who shyly doesn’t say anything. I’ll leave it at that. During the development of this movie, Sever was going to be male. When it was decided that making her female might be more interesting, it was actually Banderas who suggested Lucy Liu for the part. I like that these two agents have a respect for each other that doesn’t result in them ending up in bed with one another. You might know the bad guy, Gregg Henry. He’s a character actor who has worked steadily since the mid ‘70s to the present. Looking at his list of credits, I’m not sure which role he’s the best known for. I happen to have his autograph. Why, you might ask? Because I know him from his role as Gallatin, a member of the Son’a race from Star Trek: Insurrection. (I got his autograph from a box of collecting cards for Insurrection.) He plays a typical bad guy in this movie. The movie is directed by Kaos (short for Kaosayananda). Given the pretentiousness of his name, I think this is another reason why people would tend to dislike this film. From the “making of” documentary, Kaos appeared to be a young Asian guy. By young, I mean early 20s. (I did some research. Turns out he was 28 when he made BEVS.) It seems he got the job directing BEVS based on a heist film, Fah, that he had made in Thailand. Fah may have been popular in Thailand, but it has a low rating on IMDb. Interestingly, IMDb doesn’t list any directing credits for Kaos after BEVS. Maybe I should feature Kaos in a new installment of my series on why Asian directors fail in Hollywood. The movie was written by Alan McElroy who wrote Spawn. I admit Spawn was pretty terrible. McElroy is still writing movies like Wrong Turn and its sequel. To the filmmakers’ credit, the city of Vancouver is actually used as the city of Vancouver rather than an American city. The movie does make good use of locations. Aerial views of the city streets and panoramic shots of the surrounding mountains highlight the beauty of the area. There are some nicely photographed scenes. There’s a slow-motion scene of Ecks smoking and walking in the rain. The scenes at Vancouver Aquarium where Ecks rendezvous with his wife were beautifully done. The action is competently choreographed and shot. The fighting doesn’t get too boring and Antonio Banderas and Lucy Liu handle the fight scenes well. Banderas and Liu tried to handle as much of the stunt work as possible. I could not tell when a stunt double was used. During a motorcycle and car chase, Banderas can be definitely recognized riding the motorcycle. In another sequence, Banderas runs through a bunch of explosions with shrapnel clearly being blown into his face. I don’t see how this could be safe to do. There is a climactic battle between Sever and a henchman played by Ray Park. Since Ray Park has a background in fighting skills (he played Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace), then I’m guessing he didn’t need a fight double. The stunts are nicely done with nothing fake looking. There’s a nice stunt scene with the camera looking down and following a guy as he falls from several stories up onto the top of a cop car. We actually see the impact of the guy with the car as its roof caves in and the windows blow out. Later on, there’s a nice double car twist in the air with the cars flying over a stunt person. No one reading this probably knows who an actress named Sandrine Holt is. She was a lead character on a John Woo television series back in the late ‘90s called Once a Thief. Anyway, she appears in a non-speaking role for less than thirty seconds in the movie, and yet, she managed to get an actor credit in the opening movie titles. Her agent deserves to get some credit for arranging that. Unfortunately, I doubt she would want this notorious movie in her acting credits. So what are some reasons for why this movie is considered to be so bad? The movie’s duration is under an hour and a half, so it moves along at an adequate pace. There are some plot developments that may seem outlandish. Some might question how Sever is able to defeat armies of people with weapons. Some might also question why she does certain things in the movie if her sole motive is to get revenge on Gant. But I think the ending is appropriate and explains why she did the things she did. I admit that the dialog is less than sparkling, but this is the case for most movies, I think. There are occasional exchanges and lines that I guess are so “bad” that they’re “good”:

Ecks: Where did you get all the ordnance from? Sever: Some women like to collect shoes.

Cop: Where’s the mysterious killer? Ecks: She’s not a killer. Cop: Then what is she. Ecks: She’s a mother.

Cop (speaking to Ecks): My daughter asked me why you look so sad. I told her that you got beaten up by a girl.

I think there are many films that are pretty bland and that would not generate a single RT fresh review. For BEVS, I can sort of believe that out of 107 reviews on RT, none were fresh. Richard Reid of the Northwest Cable News is obviously not included among the 107 reviewers because he is quoted on the BEVS’s DVD cover as saying, “Smart, lethal and sexy. One hell of a wild ride!” (Yeah, I know. Sometimes these blurbs are made up.) I did read over some of the reviews and I did think the criticisms were exaggeratedly harsh. The Critics Consensus summary for the film is undeserved. “A startlingly inept film”? I don’t think so. I wouldn’t recommend BEVS to anyone, but I enjoyed watching it. Based on the ending of the movie, I’m going to advance a theory that I’m going to claim credit for and that answers why Sever is so hard to kill. Sever is a replicant. Amount I paid: $1.99. Bargain bin rating: $2.50.

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Reed’s Bargain Bin: Babylon A.D.

Reed — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:20:43 +0000

Reed’s Bargain Bin is a recurring column where Reed Farrington tells us about a movie he bought for under $5, and whether or not he regrets the purchase. Even though Film Junk followers would probably prefer to read current TIFF film reviews than a review of an older science fiction film, I have decided to submit this review of “Babylon A.D.” And at the risk of further enforcing the view that I have a poor taste in films, my review is generally a favorable one in contrast to popular opinion. I was aware that this film did poorly at the box office, but I didn’t realize how many bad reviews this film received until after I had watched the film and checked out the reviews on the Internet. The reason why I watched this film is that I try to watch all the high profile science fiction movies regardless of audience reception. Given that this movie was not screened for critics and that advertising was minimal, I wonder why this movie did not get a straight-to-DVD release instead. Perhaps Vin Diesel’s name attached to an action movie was seen as critic-proof. I admit that I was curious why the director, Mathieu Kassovitz, had said negative things about the movie prior to its theatrical release. I had never heard a director be so negative about his own movie during pre-release publicity. Kassovitz disparaged his producers for not being supportive of his vision for the film. One would think that saying negative things about people in the industry would be career suicide. Kassovitz does have his own production company and despite his honesty, he seems to be still active in film production since having made Babylon A.D. Earlier, he had shown his talent by winning the Best Director award at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival for a race relations film called La Haine (which translates to “The Hatred”). The American release of Babylon A.D. was edited to be 10 minutes shorter than the European version. The version on DVD is labeled as “Raw and Uncut” with “over 10 minutes of additional explosive action!” I wonder if this unrated extended cut is the European version. The theatrical cut is also provided on the DVD. My opinion of the film is based on the extended cut. Many reviewers complained about the incoherent and illogical plot for the theatrical release, so maybe the extended cut did fix some of this. I did end up watching the theatrical version before finishing this review. I’ll get back to this later in the review. In Babylon A.D., Vin Diesel portrays a character, Toorop, not unlike Riddick in my opinion. I even find his XXX character to be like Riddick. I liked Pitch Black, but I found The Chronicles of Riddick to be boring. I am not a big fan of Vin Diesel, but I find his action character persona to be likable. He’s gruff and blunt, but his heart seems to be in the right place. I wonder if Vin Diesel fans would be even more forgiving of this film’s perceived flaws. Many reviewers thought Diesel acted like he was bored in the film and that he wasn’t much of a protagonist, but I’m fine with that kind of portrayal even though I disagree with these reviewers. I thought that Kevin Costner took a bold move by making his character in Waterworld unlikable, even going so far to have his character take food from a child. Toorop is a reluctant hero, but one that can be relied on to do the right thing in the end. He even seems to take food from a child at one point, but he goes out of his way to give food back. Toorop is hired by a mercenary boss (Gérard Depardieu) to smuggle a young woman (Mélanie Thierry) from a Mongolian convent to New York City. Sister Rebeka (Michelle Yeoh) accompanies them. Thus the film is basically structured as a simple chase film with the importance of the young woman being a mystery that slowly unravels with possible misdirection. There is also a mysterious Noelite organization (headed by Charlotte Rampling) that supports the Mongolian convent. The casting of Hong Kong action star Michelle Yeoh as Sister Rebeka should probably be a clue that Sister Rebeka is no ordinary escort for the young woman. Yeoh does add tenderness to her character that one might not expect from an action star. She seems to genuinely care for the well being of the young woman in her care. As the young woman, Aurora, Mélanie Thierry has a wide-eyed innocence necessary for a character that has been raised in isolation. Through her, we get the perspective of how badly society has deteriorated. It is understandable how a character like Toorop would be affected by her outlook. As a mercenary, Toorop can’t give a second thought to a human life. The film makes a point that Toorop has never had a family life. The extreme circumstances of their journey bond Toorop, Aurora, and Sister Rebeka. I thought the performances in the interactions of all three actors were very well done, and I found the dialogue interesting. When Sister Rebeka first meets Toorop, she lays ground rules for the journey. One of the rules is that she has no tolerance for foul language. Well, you can probably expect what Toorup’s response will include. At the beginning of the film, Eastern Europe is shown as a place where society has broken down with people scrounging to survive. The production design seems very simple, and one wonders if a limited budget is the reason. There are some glimpses of a futuristic society with a mercenary tank’s hi-tech interior being notable. A folding map made of electronic paper is a nice touch. (I don’t think they’ve solved the problem of how to fold a map back after unfolding though.) A motel shower that sprays water based on paid time increments seems logical in a future world where fresh water might be more precious. When the locale switches to New York, it becomes obvious that the film is set in a future time. The blatant exorbitant use of electricity or energy for lighting the city is a stark contrast to the earlier European setting, but it visually displays the class hierarchy that exists between people from different areas of the world. Scored by composers Hans Zimmer and Atli Örvarsson, the music is a mix of hip-hop, rock, choral and classical music with the emphasis on the latter. Achozen (Shavo Odadjian and RZA) performed the score. Given the theme of the film, I thought the use of choral music was most appropriate. I would think that the use of hip-hop music will date this film when hip-hop has died in a decade or so. (I’m sure Sean will add a Film Junk disclaimer here that this opinion only reflects the reviewer’s personal opinion.) Some reviewers have noted that the plot is a mess. At one point, a group of people skilled in parkour attempt to snatch Aurora away. They are easily scared away when Toorop wounds one of them with a rifle shot. One might wonder why they don’t carry weapons or why they aren’t more persistent afterwards. We do find out later who they are. I simply think they are non-violent in keeping with who they are. I guess one has to wonder why Aurora was kept in the Mongolian convent in the first place rather than closer to New York City. Also why is her trip to New York City entrusted to only one individual? I suppose the Noelites might not have wanted to attract too much attention to Aurora, but I must admit that I think the Noelites should have taken precautions for Aurora’s safety. There is a snowmobile action sequence that would seem unnecessary if they simply flew across the snowy region, but maybe with the aerial attack drones, traveling on land offers a better chance of survival. I’m guessing that North America has somehow isolated itself from the rest of the world so that aerial transportation across the border is impossible. In any case, I was not distracted enough by possible plot-holes for me to come away with a negative reaction to the entire film. The meaning of the title of this film is not overt in the film. The film is based on a French cyberpunk novel, Babylon Babies, written by Maurice G. Dantec who was formerly a punk rocker. The novel has a cult following in France with a New York Times Book Review reviewer stating that the novel is under-appreciated. Derived from an ancient city during biblical times, the word “Babylon” is applied to a place of luxury and sensuality with the unfortunate consequences of corruption and sin. It can also carry the connotation of a place of exile. In the film, the decadence of New York City is reflected in the bright lights. On the other hand, cities in Eastern Europe and Russia are places of exile from what we see. Terrorism seems to afflict Europe and Asia whereas New York City seems unaffected. I got the impression that terrorism was maintained or at least supported by corporations. I should note that Babylon Babies was published in 1999 before 9/11. The film has been Americanized in that the final destination in the novel was in Quebec, Canada rather than New York City. The “A.D.” in the title is a foreshadowing although Toorop does narrate in the opening minutes of the film that he “died.” When applied to dates, I always think of “A.D.” as meaning “after death” (i.e., of Christ) when it actually stands for “Anno Domini” which is Latin for “in the year of the Lord.” To avoid spoiling the plot too much, there are religious overtones that make the use of “A.D” in the title significant. Admittedly, my review might be imposing a thoughtful interpretation that this film doesn’t merit. But I think this film also works as an entertaining, mindless action film. The action sequences aren’t really exceptional, but there are a few cool moments. I thought the camera placement and movement was excellent throughout the film. I thought the movie was paced well and I didn’t find any scenes to be extraneous. I guess if I were to find fault, I would say that the film doesn’t offer much new to say about its subject matter. However, there was the strange new idea to me that the hotel room’s massive television screen couldn’t be turned off. You could only change the channel. Or maybe Toorop was making a joke. As I had mentioned near the beginning of this review, I decided to watch the theatrical version of this film weeks after watching the extended unrated cut. I found myself engrossed in the narrative again, so I guess this is a testament to the movie standing up to repeated viewings. The DVD doesn’t have any feature that tells you the differences between the two versions on the DVD. And since Kassovitz has pretty much disowned this film, there isn’t a director’s commentary or any commentary at all to help. There also aren’t any “making of” featurettes. Because I had watched the unrated extended cut weeks earlier and my memory fades rather quickly, I didn’t notice which scenes were missing from the shorter theatrical cut. I did notice that the ending had been altered. One review I had read said that the theatrical version had the worst ending of any movie he had ever seen! So I guess the people involved in the unrated extended cut agreed with this assessment. Surprisingly, the theatrical cut contains an ending action sequence that is omitted from the unrated extended cut. If you’re a science fiction film fan, then you’re probably aware of many versions of Blade Runner. The theatrical release of that movie had a Dekker narration that was added in order to make the film understandable to film audiences. At the theatres, many reviewers found the plot of Babylon A.D. incomprehensible (or at least illogical as I’ve halfheartedly explained with examples earlier). So in the case of Babylon A.D., it appears that additional Toorop narration was added to the unrated extended cut for DVD to make the film understandable. I don’t have an immediate preference for either cut of Babylon A.D. I can see why some people might find the “feel-good” ending of the theatrical cut to be schmaltzy. I hope I’m not spoiling the ending by saying this, but Babylon A.D. could be an unintended prequel to Vin Diesel’s movie The Pacifier. Amount I paid: $3.33. Bargain bin rating: $4.25.

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Killer Imports: Shinjuku Incident

Reed — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 13:06:31 +0000

Killer Imports is a regular feature on Film Junk where we explore foreign-language films from around the world that haven’t yet had their chance to shine. See Jackie Chan drive a farm tractor on an iced, shallow pond and fall through! That’s the only promotional blurb I can think of to sell this latest Jackie Chan movie to a Jackie Chan audience. Shinjuku Incident marks Jackie Chan’s first full attempt at a dramatic role. His role in the 2004 New Police Story movie was more of a transitory role in which he got to do some emoting as a drunken cop and for which he received a Best Actor nomination by the Hong Kong Film Awards and a win by the Golden Rooster Awards. And although there is action in this movie with gangs fighting each other, Jackie’s trademark stunts and fighting skills are nowhere to be seen. Instead of Jackie dealing out the punishment, we see him taking the punishment much more than usual. Jackie portrays a farm tractor repairman who enters Japan illegally to find his missing girlfriend Xiu Xiu (Xu Jinglei). While he is in Japan, he meets up with a good friend Jie (Daniel Wu) from his hometown and other illegal Chinese immigrants, befriends the Yakuza leader Eguchi (Masaya Kato), and rises to prominence in the Shinjuku district. His friendship with Japanese police detective Kitano (Naoto Takenaka) complicates matters. The Japanese prostitute/bar hostess Lily (Fan Bingbing) also plays an important role. The movie takes its background setting from the historical significance of an influx of illegal Chinese immigrants into Japan in the ‘90s. This was something that I was unaware of. I had thought that the enmity between the Chinese and Japanese as a result of the Japanese invasion of China during the World War II years had dissipated somewhat. In this movie, we see a more benign invasion reversal, yet human nature being as it is, some Japanese people of a recent generation have developed hatred. The frequent news reports of illegal Chinese immigrants probably fueled the hatred. I do find it strange that some Chinese would choose to go to Japan with the awareness that they are not welcome, but I suppose the allure of a better life would make people bear the occasional insult and overcome the fear of being caught someplace where they were not supposed to be. The overt racism is apparently ignored by Japanese authorities since there are nightclubs displaying signs saying that Chinese are not allowed entry. I recall the scene in one of Bruce Lee’s movies where he is not allowed entry into a park that displays a sign saying that Chinese and dogs are not allowed. I love dogs, but to equate an ethnic group with an animal species seems like a huge insult. Bruce Lee’s character’s reaction to the sign is to kick the sign off the wall and then kick the sign into pieces in the air. It’s no wonder that Bruce Lee instantly became a hero to the Chinese. I’m sure dogs elatedly barked in unison as well. To be fair, the Chinese are not shown in a totally positive light as they are shown taking advantage of Japanese trust by stealing from the marketplace. And in-fighting within the group of illegal Chinese immigrants is just as evident and violent as within the Japanese Yakuza. It is interesting how illegal Chinese immigrant women are accepted as wives in Yakuza households. The uproar over the roles in Memoirs of a Geisha taken by Chinese women seems less relevant in light of this revelation. (I’m being somewhat sarcastic in that last statement.) The plot does unfold with too many coincidences, which is a usual lament of movie critics. I was fine with what happens as the drama kept me watching nevertheless. Be prepared for no humor though. The gang fight scenes are done with a minimum of flair with the exception of one short slow motion sequence. I must admit that I was expecting a more powerful climax. In keeping with Jackie’s much mentioned obligation as a role-model to his fans, the character he plays is decent and his rise to gang prominence is done with the noblest of intentions even though he does do things that are not lawful for which he regrets but for which he is willing to accept the consequences. At film awards held by China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, Jackie Chan has been receiving nominations and wins for his acting in his action films since 1985 for Project A all the way up to 2005 for the aforementioned New Police Story. I suspect that these awards are awarded with popularity in mind. With all due respect, I don’t think Jackie will be receiving an Oscar for his acting anytime soon although I do think he is competent at doing what this role demands. And for those keeping tabs, Jackie along with Daniel Wu is fearless when it comes to displaying full rear nudity. I recognized the actor Masaya Kato, who portrayed a Yakuza leader, from a film called The Last Supper based on a novel by Kei Ohishi, who also wrote the novelization of the film Ju-On: The Grudge. In The Last Supper, Kato portrayed a cannibalistic plastic surgeon / chef. I’m guessing this somewhat obscure reference will probably have no relevance to anyone reading this except to indicate the somewhat obscure films I sometimes watch. If you ever happen to come across the DVD cover for The Last Supper, then you’ll understand what attracted me to this bargain bin find. The director Derek Yee has also been an actor, writer, and producer with his acting starting in the mid-70s. He has received recent acclaim for his directing of One Night in Mongkok in 2004 and Protégé in 2007. I did see Protégé, but I can’t say it was memorable even though someone at Dragon Dynasty thought it deserved to be released by them. I generally haven’t appreciated the recent slew of Chinese crime dramas that have attracted attention with the most notable being Infernal Affairs that generated a remake from Martin Scorsese. I’ve noticed other reviews not having much affection for Shinjuku Incident, so I feel reasonably confident in not recommending this movie even though I’m more inclined to recommend one see this film to judge for oneself. Unfortunately, I found it hard to find reasons to see this film. Perhaps this film will be remembered for having Jackie Chan’s first sex scene.

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Treknobabble #72: Dogs in Space: Charles Schulz’s Peanuts and Star Trek

Reed — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:57:07 +0000

Treknobabble is a continuing series of columns written by uber-Trekkie Reed Farrington about Star Trek and how it has influenced his life. When I was in grade school, a friend of mine and I co-created a school newsletter comic strip called “Dogs in Space.” I believe the main inspiration was the popularity of the Planet of the Apes movies. I’m not even sure we were aware that dogs like Laika were used in early space flight testing by the Russians. Neither of us owned a dog. I think we simply needed another animal besides apes. Dogs were easy to draw and easily recognizable by their snouts and floppy ears. I suppose we could have called the comic strip “Planet of the Dogs,” but I think even at our young age, we didn’t want to make blatantly obvious what the source of our inspiration was. Anyway, this Treknobabble isn’t about that comic strip. And it’s not about the 80’s film with Michael Hutchence. It wasn’t even originally supposed to be about the dogs that were used in the Russian space program, but after a bit of research, I thought I should devote a paragraph or two to these special examples of “man’s best friend.” Instead, I wanted to write about the connection between Star Trek and another of my favorite things, Charles Schulz’s Peanuts and especially Snoopy. And I’ll also be writing about Porthos, the real-life beagle that appeared in the Star Trek series, Enterprise. Before I get into my main topics, I wanted to pay tribute to the Russian space dogs. As far as we know, no other nation has used dogs in their space program. The Russians used at least thirteen dogs with five of them giving up their lives in man’s pursuit of knowledge. Dogs were chosen because it was believed that they had the domestication and endurance to remain inactive for long periods of time. Stray dogs were “recruited” because they had the further benefit of having endured harsh conditions. Besides, I can’t imagine it would have been easy to get people to volunteer their pet dogs for the space program. When I read about the training, I thought it was somewhat inhumane. And without mincing words, the berth within the space vehicles was basically a torture chamber. When Laika was launched as the first Earth-born being to achieve orbit on Sputnik 2, the intent was that this would be a suicide mission. Her life-support system would fail after several days when the batteries ran down. Basically, Laika would suffocate although it was claimed that Laika would die painlessly. This is disturbing enough, but forty-five years after the launch, it was revealed based on sensor readings that Laika had most likely died five to seven hours into the flight from stress and overheating! I can only hope that Laika is living comfortably in doggie heaven. Snoopy is probably the most famous character in Charles Schulz’s Peanuts comic strip. Like all dogs, Snoopy communicates through his facial expressions and body language. The great thing about Snoopy is that we are also privy to his thoughts through his thought balloons. We can easily imagine dogs having the same thoughts. I didn’t think I would be able to find a connection between Charles Schulz’s Peanuts and Star Trek until I serendipitously came across a post in the appropriately named The AAUGH Blog. (“Aaugh” is what Charlie Brown would exclaim in frustration or pain.) In a Peanuts’ strip published on February 7, 1972, Linus finds Snoopy sitting on his doghouse. He says, “I should think you’d get bored just sitting on a doghouse all day.” Snoopy’s thought bubbles read, “On the contrary. Who could get bored flying the star ship ‘Enterprise’?” The post’s author claims that with publishing lead times, Schulz would have had to have drawn this strip before the first Star Trek convention that had occurred less than three weeks earlier. So it wasn’t a matter of Schulz drawing a strip in response to the publicity of the Star Trek convention, but rather that Schulz had an interest in Star Trek or at least was attuned to the growing popularity of Star Trek in reruns. During the 60s, Schulz had taken great pride in his association with NASA which had unofficially adopted Snoopy as its mascot. NASA had come to Schulz after the Apollo 1 tragedy and together, they created a Silver Snoopy lapel pin safety award. For Apollo 11, the astronauts gave the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) the call sign of Snoopy while the Command Module became known as Charlie Brown. Today, there is a five-foot Snoopy statue at the Kennedy Space Center. And the Snoopy LEM is still flying in a solar orbit (assuming that a Klingon Bird-of-Prey hasn’t torpedoed it to smithereens), the only LEM given this honor. In 2007, Comic Con issued exclusive Wacky Wobblers: Peanuts Snoopy Captain Kirk, and Peanuts Woodstock Mr. Spock (WoodSpock!). When Rick Berman and Brannon Braga were formulating the Star Trek series Enterprise, they decided to add a dog as a regular Star Trek character. Several breeds were tested in casting sessions. Production personnel went with a beagle, its compact size probably being one of the deciding factors. I do wonder if Snoopy had been an influence since Snoopy is a beagle! Porthos was chosen for its name. Porthos was the name of one of the three musketeers in Alexandre Dumas’ novel, The Three Musketeers. No significance has ever been attributed to why Captain Archer named his dog Porthos. Porthos was played by three beagles during the series: Prada, Breezy and Windy. Coincidentally, one of the last Russian dogs in space was named Verterok which is Russian for little wind or breeze. One has to wonder if it’s realistic to keep a beagle or any dog on a star ship. I wonder if a dog realizes the difference between being on Earth and being in outer space. It must be disappointing for a dog not to be able to stick its head out of a porthole and feel the wind on its face. A beagle is a social dog, so I can’t imagine Porthos being happy cooped up in Archer’s quarters while Archer is away. Beagles are known to howl as well when they are lonely. In one episode, we did see Archer asking Ensign Hoshi Sato to take care of Porthos during his absence, so Archer does keep Porthos in consideration. We never see any other dogs on the Enterprise. Once a dog is neutered, does it not care about being in the company of other dogs or even about being able to catch the scents of other dogs? Adult beagles don’t need much exercise but they enjoy walks. There was an episode where we saw Archer walking in the Enterprise corridors with Porthos tagging along. Archer was conversing with Trip and walking through doorways. I must admit wondering if Porthos might wander off without Archer’s attention as beagles are oft to do. Thankfully, the end of the scene had the camera panning back down to show that Porthos was still around. As with his human counterparts, we never did get to see where Porthos went to relieve himself. Beagles are not easy to housebreak. And even with their short hair, beagles do shed. I wonder why we didn’t see Roombas on the Enterprise. We did get to see Archer take Porthos down to a planet to allow him to run around, but I wonder if Porthos is cautious enough to realize the dangers of strange new worlds. I can only imagine what kind of contaminants that Porthos might leave behind on a planet. Beagles are good hunting dogs with a strong sense of smell. Porthos did alert Archer to invisible intruders, so having Porthos as a watchdog was beneficial. Their gentleness and overall good nature is probably a good asset in first contact situations. It’s funny that T’Pol found Porthos’ odor to be offensive. We can only guess what a female Vulcan would smell like to Porthos! In the new Star Trek movie, Scotty makes a reference to transporting Admiral Archer’s pet beagle. People have actually asked the writers if the beagle is indeed Porthos even though Porthos would be several centuries old in dog years by the movie’s time. The writers have answered that it’s a different beagle but the same Archer from Enterprise. So Archer must like beagles. Besides Snoopy, I suppose I also have an affinity for Peanuts because I can relate to the loser, Charlie Brown. At the same time, I saw Captain Kirk as a role model. Could it be coincidence that both Charlie Brown and Captain Kirk wore a golden yellow tunic as their familiar uniform? (Yeah, I suppose it is. Ha ha.) I guess if I were to succinctly summarize what Peanuts and Star Trek have in common is that they both express what it means to be human although perhaps on opposite ends of the spectrum. From Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography by David Michaelis, here are some apropos excerpts from the cover flap book description: “…[Schulz] daringly chose themes never before attempted in mainstream cartoons – loneliness, isolation, melancholy, the unending search for love.” “…using…a cast of memorable characters, [Schulz] portrayed the struggles that come with being awkward, imperfect, human.” Star Trek showed the opposite end where teamwork and reliance on our humanity could direct us towards progress and achievement. However, this gross categorization would be simplifying matters too far. In Peanuts, we get to see friendship and happiness through Snoopy and Woodstock. In Star Trek, we see human foibles personified through alien villainy. Maybe it all comes down to both having a memorable cast of characters.

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Treknobabble #71: A Reappraisal of Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Reed — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:11:18 +0000

Treknobabble is a continuing series of columns written by uber-Trekkie Reed Farrington about Star Trek and how it has influenced his life. When I first watched Star Trek: The Motion Picture (STTMP) in a theatre in 1979, I must admit that I thought that Gene Roddenberry could do no wrong. I was one of those Trekkies who were eager for new adventures after years of watching reruns. I think I watched the theatre screen with rapt attention even with the interminable fly-throughs of the V’Ger spacecraft. I must admit that I didn’t clue in to the twist even when the crew approached the Voyager type spacecraft. I remember being disappointed by the simple resolution of the threat. And I did miss the fun factor even though I had thought most of the humor in the television series was hammy. Visually, I liked the monochromatic design with the gray and muted colors. I thought Star Trek needed a more serious, realistic look to counter the overuse of color that was used in the Original Series (TOS) in order to sell color televisions. The costumes appeared more dignified. I thought that it made more sense now that engineering personnel had special outfits. Also the security personnel now had head and chest protection. I had pre-imagined the all-in-one pants and boots as a visually appeasing look. I was probably influenced by the svelte appearance of Bruce Lee in a form fitting track suit. In our current day and age, this idea of the pants and boots being one piece seems rather impractical, but in the 23rd century, laundry doesn’t seem like it would be much of a problem. As the movie showed, after you showered, you could have transporter technology “instantly” clothe you. The new Enterprise looked beautiful. I liked the rectangular rather than cylindrical look of the nacelles. Wrist communicators seemed like a good idea although it may have seemed a bit retro because of Dick Tracy. Even though ten years had passed since the television series, it was rather surprising to me that no new technological ideas were introduced in the movie. Everything just seemed to look different. I suppose the airbus that brings Kirk to Starfleet Command was something we had never seen in Star Trek before, but it was similar to the shuttlecraft. I’m still trying to decide if I like the stick-shift on Sulu’s navigation console. I will begrudgingly admit that STTMP was slow and boring. I did think that the fly around of the Enterprise by Kirk and Scotty seemed to take forever. We had an entity destroying everything in its path and coming towards Earth while Kirk and Scotty were casually enjoying the beauty of a starship. I was anxious for the Enterprise to get under way! I understood later that the excuse given for the fly around was to give the Trekkies a moment to appreciate what could not be shown in the television series due to budget constraints. The musical score by Jerry Goldsmith was without a doubt one aspect of the movie that was exemplary and the fly around did give one the opportunity to appreciate the musical score along with the hard work put in by the Enterprise modelers. Before his death, the director Robert Wise was able to supervise a director’s cut in which originally planned visual effects were completed using today’s technology. Care was taken to make sure that the added effects complemented the original effects. Also the pacing was improved through judicious editing. When I saw this revised version, I must admit that my opinions about STTMP didn’t change. What has changed over the years is my regard for the movie’s plot. I think I have come to the realization that it is very difficult to come up with an original plot or even an interesting variation. The lack of originality in STTMP’s plot is often criticized. STTMP shares similarities with TOS episodes “The Changeling,” “The Immunity Syndrome,” and “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” Comparisons have even been drawn to an animated episode, “One of Our Planets is Missing.” At least Star Trek was copying from itself (although Star Trek stories can be traced back to earlier science fiction source material). And if one considers that a goal for the movie was to expand the audience beyond the loyal Trekkies, then the choice to expand and enhance elements of Star Trek that had worked before seems logical. Trekkies should be grateful that Roddenberry didn’t decide to remake a television episode for the big screen although I actually wouldn’t have minded this too much as long as the movie had retained the impact of the episode it was based on. I should note that in “The Changeling,” Kirk saves the day by performing one of his patented mind-f*cks with the obstinate computer intelligence. I’m surprised that Kirk didn’t attempt this against V’Ger. Ha ha. I do think that the use of V’Ger and its search for life’s meaning is relevant for a Star Trek movie involving a re-introduction of the characters of Kirk and Spock after the original five-year mission. At the beginning of the movie, we find Spock attempting to attain Kolinahr, a “Vulcan ritual intended to purge all remaining emotions in pursuit of the ideal of pure logic.” Throughout TOS, we saw Spock struggling with his human side as he had chosen the Vulcan way to live his life. After serving with humans for so long, we can imagine the frustration that Spock must have felt in denying his human self. The approach of V’Ger prevents Spock from achieving Kolinahr, because Spock’s human half is stirred by the disturbing telepathic thoughts from V’Ger. At the same time, Kirk’s own aimlessness at this point in his life parallels both V’Ger and Spock’s search for meaning. After completing the successful five-year mission, Kirk had been promoted to admiral, thus consigning him to a desk bound position. At the beginning of the movie, we find a Kirk who is eager to once again sit in the captain’s chair. We feel his frustration at not knowing his way around the new Enterprise. When Captain Will Decker confronts Kirk with a correct assessment of Kirk’s actions, we are glad to see Kirk recognize that Decker is right. This reaffirms our belief in Kirk as the honorable hero. By the end of the movie, Kirk is back on firm footing as the captain of the Enterprise. When Spock realizes that V’Ger can never understand its purpose without the ability to feel, we know that Spock has also realized that Kolinahr is not what he needs. Will Decker makes the sacrifice to bond with V’Ger, allowing V’Ger to transcend its machine origins. The sacrifice is made not only out of duty but also out of love, because Decker will also be bonded with Ilia who had been assimilated by V’Ger. Kirk, Spock and V’Ger have all achieved contentment for the time being. Much fun has been made of the alien intelligence that found V’Ger, because it wasn’t smart enough to wipe the smudge off the exterior of V’Ger’s nameplate to reveal V’Ger’s true name. I would think that the aliens would have discovered V’Ger’s real name somewhere in V’Ger’s data banks. If so, I imagine the alien intelligence might have a wry or whimsical sense of humor and have nicknamed the spacecraft, V’Ger, based on the nameplate that it did not bother to clean. After communicating with the alien intelligence, V’Ger might simply have come to refer to itself by its nickname. However, we are told that V’Ger was damaged when the alien intelligence came across it and the alien intelligence repaired V’Ger. Perhaps the damage had wiped all data pertaining to Voyager since V’Ger had no “knowledge” of itself except for the notion that it should transmit all accumulated data to its creator. But how do we know that the alien intelligence was corporeal? Would the fact that the alien intelligence was able to see the smudged nameplate necessarily mean that it must have the physicality to remove a smudge? Might it be so smug as to not bother to remove the smudge? There is some speculation in fandom that V’Ger in its damaged state had landed on the Borg home world. Thus the alien intelligence that had reprogrammed V’Ger was the Borg! This deduction seemed logical since V’Ger was no longer benignly gathering data. V’Ger had been transformed to basically assimilate everything that it came across during its search for its creator. One wonders if V’Ger was also given the unspoken motivation that the Borg have of achieving perfection. When V’Ger arrives at Earth, it sets up satellites around the planet and threatens the planet in order to meet its creator. If this movie was remade nowadays with our current CGI technology, then I’m sure we would witness scenes of destruction on Earth which seems to be de rigueur for science fiction movies. Perhaps the climax of STTMP would have benefitted from this type of visual impact. What made me reconsider STTMP was a book entitled, On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You’re Not, written by a neuroscientist, Robert A. Burton, M.D. His basic premise is that the “feeling of knowing” does not arise from conscious reasoning. From this, he goes on to speculate about subjects such as the ongoing debate between science and religion. People have this idea that Star Trek is all about science and how technology will provide all the solutions to our problems. Curiously, I think the message of STTMP is that science alone is not enough and not just because the movie had the audaciousness to show a transporter mishap. Humanity is special because we have a quality that transcends pure reason. Since Gene Roddenberry was a humanist who despised organized religion, he was asking us to have faith in ourselves rather than in some external deity. And in this movie, the solution lies in humanity. Burton discusses the myth of the autonomous rational mind and our understanding of objectivity. Basically he thinks people, even “smart” people, fall into the trap of thinking that any problem can be solved by reasoning. Philosophers have been tackling the question of the existence of God and the meaning of life ever since humanity attained consciousness. (Note that there have been interesting discussions of when exactly humans achieved a sense of self or consciousness, but I won’t get into that right now.) Burton thinks that the meaning of life is one of those questions that cannot be deduced through reason. Many others have come to the same conclusion that it’s impossible for the mind to know itself. I think this is the limitation that V’Ger encounters. Even when it is presented with the evidence that humanity created it and it fulfills its purpose by uploading all the data that it has accumulated while traveling through space, it still isn’t satisfied. It rationally decides that it must bond with its creator, its God, in order to gain further insight into its existence. On an episode of Enterprise, “Breaking the Ice,” T’Pol solicits Tucker’s advice concerning her pre-arranged marriage. When Tucker suggests that she subconsciously made a decision by postponing her arrival date, she replies with a typical Vulcan response that she doesn’t allow her subconscious to make decisions for her. But as Spock discovered in STTMP after a mind-meld with V’Ger, there is a limit to logic and rational thinking. In addition to giving our lives meaning, feelings for which we have no conscious control over help us to make decisions. The scene where Spock reveals this insight to Kirk was not in the theatrical release of the movie. In order to speed up the already languorous pace of the movie, someone apparently thought that this scene was superfluous or at least that the expressed idea was not necessary to be explicitly stated. At the end of the film, Kirk believes they’re witnessing the birth of a new life form. I would suspect that the resultant hybrid of man and machine would still ponder the question of the meaning of life, but its human side will allow it to cope with this unanswerable question. It would be interesting to revisit V’Ger. Like all good Star Trek stories do, STTMP leaves us to speculate on the consequences. Burton mentions a Terry Bisson science fiction short story, They’re Made Out of Meat, that I think is amusing. Imagine a machine intelligence coming across Earth and discovering humanity, and trying to come to grips with meat that thinks. I think STTMP missed an opportunity to have V’Ger provide some comic relief. Ha ha. So, does STTMP deserve better consideration as a science fiction film? I don’t wish to reopen the familiar art debate of a filmmaker’s intentions versus what a viewer interprets. The well-documented difficulties that arose in coming up with a script for this movie provide suitable evidence for the reasons why there is a lack of dramatic thrust in the movie. Filming began without a completed script and both Shatner and Nimoy got unfairly blamed for being conceited actors when they tried contributing ideas of their own. When all is said and done, I think what an audience member gets from viewing a movie shouldn’t be disregarded. STTMP is certainly a unique film. We often complain about the dearth of intellectual science fiction movies. I suppose when one tries to make an intellectual science fiction film, one is bound to produce something that is labeled boring and pretentious. I’m sure many of you are thinking that I’ve rationalized away or downplayed all the things that made STTMP “bad.” And I admit I probably am. Years from now, I will probably admit that my initial impression of J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek was wrong. And I’ll be calling it a masterpiece.

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Treknobabble #70: Across the Star Trek Universe

Reed — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:03:45 +0000

Treknobabble is a continuing series of columns written by uber-Trekkie Reed Farrington about Star Trek and how it has influenced his life. You know when you find something that you like, whether it be a song or book or movie or whatever, and you want to share that something with family and friends? And you really hope that they share the same feeling about that something? Or how about the feeling that you get when you find out that the creators of things you admire are fans of each other? I’ve grown to agree with the familiar saying that you can judge a man by the friends he has. I suppose in trying to understand myself, I’ve been trying to assess the commonality among all my interests by looking at the people behind my interests. Although this may sound self-serving, I agree with Plato in his statement that an unexamined life is a life not worth living. Since this is a column about Star Trek, I thought it would be interesting to find connections between Star Trek and other things I love. In this column, I’ll be looking at the sporadic connections between Star Trek and The Beatles. I was born in the ‘60s, so it might be natural that I appreciate things from the ‘60s even though I was too young to enjoy the experience of living through the ‘60s. Growing up in a small town in Canada, I was probably sheltered. At the least, the events of the ‘60s were filtered by the seclusion. I realize that the ‘60s were filled with turmoil, but as is so often noted, great things seem to arise from adversity. I’m a big fan of The Beatles. Not just their music, but as individuals. Part of their appeal was attributed to how each Beatle had his own distinct personality. It’s interesting to see how each of them handled the riches and the fame. The worlds of Star Trek and The Beatles didn’t seem to mix. From what we saw in the Original Series’ episodes, there was no sign that The Beatles’ music had survived to the 23rd century! Yes, I realize even if anyone at the time had wanted to include Beatles’ music in an episode, the licensing fees would probably have been prohibitive. Also there was a stigma attached to pop culture that Star Trek maintained by dismissing the relevance of television and spectator sports as well. However, the Beatles’ haircut did survive as could be seen in Spock’s mop-top and Chekov’s early haircut, I mean wig. Gene Roddenberry was not oblivious to the popularity of The Beatles (or should I say The Monkees, who were based on The Beatles) with the younger generation. Here’s a memo that Roddenberry sent to Star Trek’s casting director, Joe D’Agosta: "Keeping our teenage audience in mind, also keeping aware of current trends, let’s watch for a young, irreverent, English-accent “Beatle” type to try on the show, possibly with an eye to him reoccurring. Like the smallish fellow [Davy Jones] who looks to be a hit on The Monkees. Personally I find this type spirited and refreshing and I think our episodes could use that kind of “lift.” Let’s discuss." Walter Koenig was eventually hired as Chekov because of his resemblance to Davy Jones, the lead singer of The Monkees. Chekov became a Russian after Roddenberry had heard that Pravda had published an article noticing the absence of a Russian on the bridge of the USS Enterprise. There was an Original Series episode, "The Way to Eden", that did address the hippies and counter-culture of the time. Kirk wasn’t too sympathetic with the hippies, but Spock and the hippies grokked each other. Spock even played a musical instrument! Granted it was a Vulcan harp, but still… I suppose I should mention William Shatner’s rendition of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" that he recorded in 1968. In 2003, it was voted as the worst cover of a Beatles’ song in a poll conducted by the digital TV channel Music Choice in Britain. In the mid ‘70s, I found out about a project that had me totally psyched. Apparently, Gene Roddenberry and Paul McCartney were going to be working on a science fiction musical! I’ve read a source that says Roddenberry had initiated contact with Paul at Abbey Road Studios, but I also remember reading that it was Paul who initiated the idea. Supposedly, they did get together in November of 1976 to work out the story about an invasion from space that would involve Paul’s group, Wings, and Paul as an outer space rock singer. However, when Paramount decided to go ahead with reviving Star Trek, Roddenberry abandoned his plans with McCartney. Roddenberry had suffered a breakdown from overwork during production of the Original Series, so I can imagine that Roddenberry thought he could only handle Star Trek and nothing else at the same time. A remnant of the project can be seen on the cover of the Wings’ album, "Back to the Egg", that was released in 1979. The cover shows the group looking through a hatchway at the planet Earth from space. By the way, I find it strange that Roddenberry’s authorized biography (and even an unauthorized biography I have) fails to mention this project. Furthermore, I dug out my copies of the Wings Fun Club fanzine, Club Sandwich, from the time of “Back to the Egg” and I couldn’t find any reference to the Roddenberry project. I assume the project is not apocryphal. A curious film entitled, The Beatles Meet Star Trek, was shown in the mid-to-late ‘70s at least in the New York tri-state area. There is speculation that this film was an edited compilation of clips from the Star Trek and Beatles animated shows that got shown in theatres that had cult films, revivals, and midnight showings. If anyone has actually seen this film, please tell us about it in the blog post comments. There is a popular Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) episode called, "The Inner Light", in which Picard lives the lifetime of an alien in less than half an hour as a result of contact with an alien probe. Now unless you happened to purchase the Lady Madonna 45 rpm single or The Beatles – Past Masters – Volume 2 CD, you might not be familiar with the George Harrison penned tune, "The Inner Light". I had assumed that the writer of the Star Trek episode had been referencing the same Indian mystic text that George Harrison had, but apparently, the Star Trek episode was named after Harrison’s tune. In the TNG episode, "Redemption, Part II", during the Klingon civil war, Data commands the U.S.S. Sutherland. The motto on that starship’s dedication plaque reads, "There will be an answer, let it be." For Star Trek: Voyager fans, there is a YouTube video of Tim Russ aka Tuvok helping to sing "Let It Be" at a Star Trek convention in Germany from 1998. At Gene Roddenberry’s funeral, Nichelle Nichols aka Uhura sang "Yesterday". She introduced the song with, "This song was co-written by a dear friend of Gene’s: Paul McCartney." In The Hippie Dictionary compiled by John Bassett McCleary, Gene Roddenberry and John Lennon are listed among the thirty-six most influential people of the hippie era. If you listen to Lennon’s song, "Imagine", you can hear how this could be an anthem for Star Trek’s future on Earth: Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can No need for greed or hunger A brotherhood of man Imagine all the people Sharing all the world Much has been said about the bromance between Kirk and Spock in the latest Star Trek movie. To my surprise, co-writer Robert Orci states that inspiration came from the bromance between John and Paul! Let me allow Orci to explain in the following paragraphs:

"We looked at John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s friendship as part of our model for Kirk and Spock. They were opposites and they bonded very young because they both lost their mothers when they were teens. They might not have actually gotten along at the time had it not been for that kind of a bond. They were the only ones who kind of understood each other’s pain about having lost their mother, so they were definitely an influence on Kirk and Spock. You know, Star Trek and the Beatles were products of the ‘60s, so sometimes you have to tie it all together. "The more you read about them, the more you realize how they each had elements of the other. The Yin and Yang each have elements of the other color within their spot. I think it depends on the day. On the one hand you can say that Lennon was the intellectual like Spock, but on the other hand he was also kind of the leader of the band, so you can say he was Kirk in that way. And certainly Paul had more of the Spock haircut and the eyebrows. I guess we’ll be able to answer that one later, when we see how Kirk and Spock develop. "You know what? Spock is Lennon, because Paul is the optimist who can kind of see through the pain and still keep his chin up. That’s Kirk. Spock is a little more fatalistic with his logic, as John Lennon was."

In the Star Trek movie, recall that Kirk loses his father and Spock loses his mother as a direct result of Nero’s actions. I think I agree with Orci’s assessment that Spock is more like Lennon. Lennon wrote the song, "You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away", which is a sentiment that Spock would agree with. In a story last year that’s not directly related to Star Trek, The Beatles’ song "Across the Universe" was the first song beamed directly at light speed into deep space. Appropriately enough, the song was beamed through NASA’s Deep Space Network that was founded shortly before The Beatles invaded America. The Deep Space Network is “an international network of antennas that supports missions to explore the universe.” With his typical flippancy, McCartney notified NASA with the message, “Amazing! Well done, NASA! Send my love to the aliens. All the best, Paul.” And with her typical optimistic dreams, Yoko commented, “I see that this is the beginning of the new age in which we will communicate with billions of planets across the universe.” I imagine Uhura should have picked up the broadcast at least once during the Enterprise’s adventures.

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Reed’s Bargain Bin: S1m0ne

Reed — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:15:02 +0000

Reed’s Bargain Bin is a recurring column where Reed Farrington tells us about a movie he bought for under $5, and whether or not he regrets the purchase. Despite the clever title and participation of Al Pacino, S1m0ne did not receive much attention from critics or movie theatre audiences when it came out in 2002. The director, Andrew Niccol, had some acclaim as a result of having directed Gattaca (a smart science fiction film about a physically defective human in a genetically manipulated world) and having written The Truman Show (a smart allegorical film about a man who's oblivious to the fact that his life has been manufactured for the purposes of a television show). S1m0ne also has a high concept idea behind it: a movie director creates a computer generated actor who becomes a star while only he knows that the actor is computer generated. I think I’ve had S1m0ne in my bargain bin stockpile for at least two years. I had watched the first 10 minutes when I had bought the DVD. Despite the appearance of Winona Ryder, who I’ve adored ever since Lucas (though, that love was tempered as a result of her shoplifting incident), I wasn’t sufficiently induced to finish watching the movie at the time. My best friend who shared my tastes had even liked the film. I guess I had assumed the film would be more drama than action, and given a choice, I prefer adrenal stimulation. At this point, I should warn you that if you continue reading without having seen the film, then your expectations may be ruined. Every review of this film that I’ve come across spoils this film in explaining why this film is unsatisfying, so I feel I should be allowed the same leeway. I am not a fan of Al Pacino despite having seen The Godfather, Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico, Scarface, and even The Scent of a Woman. So I suppose this was another reason why S1m0ne sat in my bargain bin stockpile. Niccol has stated that he wanted an actor like Pacino as the movie director character, Viktor, because he needed an actor who could be compelling during the scenes where he sits at a computer creating the computer generated actor. I suspect that this movie might be the only science fiction movie that we will ever see in Pacino’s list of acting credits. For some reason, there are certain actors who I can never imagine being able to pull off the role of a starship captain. I would include Robert DeNiro in this list. I guess this is why great actors can be miscast. Pacino is good at playing harried characters who are railing against an authoritative or entrenched system, so in a sense, he is good for this part. The audience is drawn into his scheme. Being somewhat a pessimist, I was expecting a bad outcome for Viktor even though he has the best intentions behind his actions. Pacino is supported by a noteworthy cast. Catherine Keener (Synecdoche, New York, The 40 Year Old Virgin) plays his ex-wife who he still loves. Evan Rachel Wood (The Wrestler, Across the Universe) plays his daughter. Pruitt Taylor Vince (Deadwood, The X-Files) and Jason Schwartzman (The Darjeeling Limited, Rushmore) play skeptical investigative reporters, or should I say tabloid journalists, who we think will unravel Pacino’s scheme. Elias Koteas (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), a Canadian actor who reminds me of Robert DeNiro, plays the part of the inventor of the technology behind the computer generated actor. (He was also in Gattaca.) Now I suppose the implausibility of Pacino’s scheme in fooling everyone with his computer generated character is a major point that most audience members will balk at. Even when Viktor comes clean after the authorities think that he has murdered Simone, no one will believe that Simone was not a real person. I’m guessing that the filmmakers are satirizing the gullibility of people when it comes to celebrity worship. In the real world, most people would suspect that at least one person would see through the ruse and reveal the deception; however, there are quite a few people who side with conspiracy theorists, so maybe it is possible to deceive everyone. By the way, Viktor “destroys” Simone with a virus that is contained on a 5.25 inch floppy! Were we still using 5.25 inch floppies in 2002? The technology behind Simone is glossed over, but this is fine since the point of the movie is not about actors being replaced in the future. Some reviewers think there were missed opportunities in the premise. I was almost expecting that the filmmakers would take the obvious route of having Simone become sentient. If you take the view that even life is not as rational as a tightly plotted script, then you can accept what transpires in S1m0ne. Perhaps you can criticize the movie for its blandness and obviousness, but I enjoyed watching Viktor handle his predicament and the prevalent issues between creator and creation. Oh, this movie has an additional somewhat amusing throwaway scene after the end credits. At the time the movie was made, the filmmakers had been thinking of actually using a fully computer generated character for Simone. I’m not sure if that would have been possible at the time. Even the characters in the Final Fantasy film that was released a year earlier weren’t fully realistic. I’m not even sure a character could be generated nowadays that would fool people. Supposedly, the Screen Actors Guild had reservations about the filmmakers attempting to use a CGI character, so the filmmakers decided to hire an actress. Part of the film’s publicity was to conceal the fact that an actress was used. The actress wasn’t even credited in the original prints of the film that was shown in movie theatres. Rachel Roberts, who’s Canadian, plays the computer generated actor who achieves stardom. Ironically, she has only had some small television roles ever since this movie. She did marry Niccol shortly after S1m0ne. I guess that’s one of the perks for a big-time movie director. Niccol's movies seem to have a common thread of deception. His last movie was the 2005 film, Lord of War, with Nicolas Cage. His next movie, The Cross, currently shooting in Australia, stars Orlando Bloom whom we haven’t seen since the last Pirates movie. This science fiction movie set in the near future is about a man trying to cross a border that has never been crossed. Shades of The Truman Show! In closing, I wanted to draw attention to an interesting list of names in S1m0ne's end credit scroll with the following heading: Simone wishes to thank the following for their contribution to the making of Simone Lauren Bacall Ingrid Bergman Mary J. Blige Ernest Borgnine Marlene Dietrich Claire Forlani Greta Garbo Rita Hayworth Audrey Hepburn Katharine Hepburn Grace Kelly Veronica Lake Sophia Loren Jayne Mansfield Marilyn Monroe Rachel Roberts & Hank Aleno Software, Inc. I imagine elements of the actresses in this list were used somehow in the modification of Rachel Roberts. To me, Simone does seem pretty perfect physically. In comparing photographs of Rachel Roberts with Simone, Simone does seem to be subtly different, but I couldn’t tell you which of Rachel Roberts’ features have been modified. Perhaps the influence of the above actresses was more in Simone’s voice. I’m guessing the actresses listed provided inspiration rather than actual characteristics. My mind is drawn to the comedic feature on Conan O’Brien where he would take photographs of two beautiful people and morph their images to produce a composite photograph to illustrate what their offspring would look like. (In case you’re not familiar with this comedy bit, let me tell you that the images would always be grotesque.) If you actually read through that list of actresses, then you should have noticed a peculiar name in that list. Ernest Borgnine! Some of you younger folk may not know who he is. Look up his image on IMDb. I wouldn’t call him a pretty boy. Borgnine was in Niccol’s Gattaca. There must be an in-joke attached to this. By the way, Hank Aleno is the name of the movie character that created the software that Viktor uses to create Simone. There are several names in the movie that are anagram-like or homonym-like, or that serve as allusions. For example, the name Viktor is a reference to Victor Frankenstein. For my own edification (or should I say gratification), I thought I would compile a more contemporary list of actresses that I would use to create a physically perfect woman: Jessica Alba Elizabeth Banks Halle Berry Cecilia Cheung Heather Graham Katie Holmes Kristin Kreuk Winona Ryder Michelle Williams Kitty Zhang & Ziyi Zhang I can’t come up with a witty name for a sequel. The closest I’ve come are variations of Tuesday and Gertrude. Amount I paid: $2.50. Bargain bin rating: $2.99. (Note: Rating has been adjusted for inflation. Ha ha.)

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Killer Imports: My Sassy Girl

Reed — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:28:31 +0000

Killer Imports is a regular feature on Film Junk where we explore foreign-language films from around the world that haven’t yet had their chance to shine. I think I once loved a girl. The reason I bring this up is that I recently watched a Korean movie called My Sassy Girl and the woman referenced in the title reminded me of her. I wouldn’t normally review a romantic comedy, but I had read about this movie after having seen one of the director’s previous movies, Cyborg She, which I favorably reviewed recently. Both these movies are a part of a trilogy by the writer and director, Jae-young Kwak, although the science fiction element in My Sassy Girl is not the basis of the reality in the movie. I’ll get to that soon enough. Since this movie was released in 2001, I’ll admit that I’m late to the party of supporters for this movie. In Korea, this film was the second highest grossing film in that year. And at the time, it was Korea’s highest grossing comedy ever. Its success even caught the attention of Hollywood. Dreamworks got the rights for a remake for $750,000 plus 4 percent of the worldwide gross. More on this in a couple of minutes or so (depending on how fast you read). A Japanese television series was even created based on the original source material. As in most romantic comedies, the two protagonists don’t experience love at first sight. It takes time for the attraction to blossom and circumstances get in the way. In my case, I met the girl I think I once loved when I started my first job after graduating from university. Strangely, memories long buried have just come to mind. My boss is leading me through a dark corridor that opens up into a small room. As we enter the room, I notice a woman seated at a computer workstation. She swivels in her chair and doesn’t bother to stand up as introductions are made. She is dressed attractively in a black skirt, white shirt, and red cardigan. Her hair is in a pony-tail. She does not smile. We were the only two employees in the company. In My Sassy Girl, the guy encounters an unaccompanied drunk woman on a subway and is reluctantly swept up into helping her. He knows that she is not really his type, but a relationship forms nevertheless as he is unable to ignore her. She speaks her mind, and generally embarrasses him when they are out in public. Some might wonder why he puts up with her, but I can vouch for the reality of the situation. I didn’t know anyone else in the city. Her initial cold demeanor might have been because she had a boyfriend who lived out of town. Her relationship with him was tempestuous. I probably knew it was a bad idea to spend time with her outside of work, but I couldn’t say no when she asked for favors. She didn’t own a car. In my mind, I thought by hanging around her, I might meet other women like the woman she shared a place with. The sassy girl played by Ji-hyun Jun isn’t given a name in the movie. Like the male protagonist, I found myself adoring her as well. Her hobby is screenwriting. During the course of the movie, she forces the guy to read two of her bad screenplays. One is based on Terminator, and the other is an historical sword epic. This allows the movie to go into brief interludes where the guy imagines that he and the girl represent the main protagonists in the screenplays. People who watch this movie’s trailer with the scenes from the guy’s imagination will be disappointed if they expected a lot of action from this film. There is a scene involving a lot of soldiers that seems to be somewhat contrived. The movie is kind of schizophrenic, but this may be intentional to represent the girl’s state of mind. My girl will remain nameless as well. I will admit that I loved her dog, and I think the love was reciprocated. Once, I remember that the dog was so excited to see me that it urinated on the porch before I could take it for a walk. Well, maybe it was a case of the dog being leashed on the porch for too long. But we did do a test where my co-worker and I stood equidistant from the dog and then each called the dog. The dog was confused, but it eventually shuffled on its belly over to me. Well, maybe it thought it was being called by its owner for punishment. Tae-hyun Cha plays the guy. His acting seems too broad, but the occasional dopey music seems to support the non-naturalistic style. Diverse Korean films with comedic elements like Volcano High, The Host, and The Good, The Bad, The Weird seem to employ the same absurdist attitude. I watched the Director’s Cut, which is over two hours long. Some people have complained that this is too long for a romantic comedy, but I liked the additional interaction we got to see between the two leads. I got to know my co-worker over several years of spending a lot of time with her. She was sensitive and demanding. I don’t remember denying any of her requests. In her bedroom, I remember watching the premiere episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. We even shared a bed, and I’m not using the word “shared” in a euphemistic sense. In all the years, our only physical contact was a peck on the cheek from her (in the presence of her cousin) when I stood up for her in an altercation with a store clerk (even though I thought the store clerk was in the right). Her boyfriend was a nice guy. His trust in me wasn’t misplaced although truth be told, I did admit to her that I had feelings for her when it was clear she was “using” me and the topic of why I stuck around came up. Her attitude towards me changed from that point on. By that time, she was able to find other employees to answer to her beck and call. Frankly, I was tired of being her whipping boy and I don’t mean that literally. Even though I enjoyed this movie, I’m not sure why this film has gotten the wide following it has or why exactly it’s a notch above other romantic comedies. Some have said that the story doesn’t unfold conventionally. Some have complained that it gets melodramatic towards the end. But I actually appreciated the change in pace. Eventually, the sassy girl’s behavior is explained by the end of the film. You know the old saying, “If you love someone, set them free”? Well, I let her go. She ended up marrying her boyfriend and having kids with him. I suppose in his story, I was the other guy who never got the woman. After she moved away, I didn’t pine for her. Maybe I was too rational, but that was probably a good thing for me. In my review of Cyborg She, I mentioned how I felt so much empathy with the lead male character. I found myself feeling the same with regards to this movie. Jae-young Kwak seems to be familiar with the male template that I find myself representative of. His trilogy apparently deals with the theme of love over time. Windstruck is the middle movie that I will need to see. After seven years, My Sassy Girl got its American remake and was called… My Sassy Girl! For political correctness reasons, I’m surprised that the term “girl” was retained. Originally, the remake was to be directed by the director who was hot off of Bend It Like Beckham, but the remake ended up being directed by Yann Samuel who had only previously directed a French hit comedy Jeux d’enfants. Jae-young Kwak got a screenwriting credit for an early screenplay. The remake stars Jesse Bradford (Clockstoppers, directed by Commander William Riker aka Jonathan Frakes, Flags of Our Fathers) and Elisha Cuthbert (24, The Girl Next Door). I recently saw this film in a bargain bin, so maybe I’ll end up doing a Bargain Bin review for comparison’s sake. As for me, I’ve never “loved” since.

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Killer Imports: Fatal Move

Reed — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:09:28 +0000

Killer Imports is a regular feature on Film Junk where we explore foreign-language films from around the world that haven’t yet had their chance to shine. There’s a scene in Fatal Move that made me appreciate this film. The camera is shooting from a relatively high angle, looking down at the aftermath of a shooting in which Chinese Triad members are laying on the pavement beside a car. We see another car enter the scene quickly. And the car runs over one of the men lying on the road! Normally, in the movies, you would expect a car to swerve around a body on the road, because you would be expecting a stuntman to be lying on the road. I didn’t rewind to see if the film-makers used a dummy or a CGI facsimile, but this subversion of expectation is the visual sleight of hand that I love. Last month, I had watched the first twenty minutes of this film and I didn’t think too much about it, so I moved on. When I returned to this movie recently, I think I got hooked at the midway point. There is a lot of CGI blood that is the blood of choice when filming movies with swords nowadays. In this movie, the splattering CGI blood does appear unreal but maybe that’s because you don’t normally see the blood in a movie when a person is slashed with a sword. Or judicious editing and camera placement avoids showing the blood as the sword swipes across a body part. I don’t remember the blood from the Kill Bill movies looking this unreal. Perhaps what makes Fatal Move different is that the camera seems to hold position at times while allowing you to see someone slashing his way through opponents. There are several instances of a head, limbs, and fingers being graphically severed, but I don’t think it’s overdone (even in the uncut Hong Kong version). Because the director would not edit these scenes out, this film was never released in mainland China. Action sequences are interspersed throughout the film, but there is considerable drama. I have seen many films with Sammo Hung, and I’ve never thought much about his thespian talents. I have noticed his comedic flair in the past, but Fatal Move is the first movie where I’ve seen him demonstrate some dramatic heft. He plays the leader of a Chinese Triad gang. The plot of this movie involves Chinese Triad gangs fighting for territory. This is a popular Chinese film genre. As an interesting side note, Sammo has a scar between his nose and his mouth, and this is quite evident in the film. I’m not sure I really noticed the scar before or paid it much attention. Anyway, according to Bey’s Blog at the Dragon Dynasty web-site, the scar is a result of an actual street fight in which Sammo got a broken Coke bottle swung into his face from behind! Sammo thought his friend had his back. When I first heard about Martin Scorsese's The Departed, I sort of wondered why the source movie, Infernal Affairs, was so admired. I had seen Infernal Affairs and I had thought it was a somewhat ordinary undercover good guy versus bad guy story with twists. People generally acknowledge that Infernal Affairs is an awkward title for a film of its caliber, but I don’t see an improvement in the American remake title. I can see Fatal Move as a prime candidate for being remade in America. I have read some unfavorable reviews of Fatal Move, so maybe I’m in the minority for thinking there’s something unique in it. It would be interesting to find out if Coppola’s Godfather films have influenced Chinese filmmakers who have made Chinese Triad films. In various genre movies, there are some conventions in place in order to justify violence inflicted by heroes or villains. In science fiction movies, we normally have enemies being robots or non-humanoid aliens. In horror movies, we have the monsters killing promiscuous teenagers. In superhero movies, most heroes don’t use lethal guns and they never kill the criminals. Until post-Vietnam, war movies had humans killing other humans for patriotic reasons. Nowadays in war movies, there is no justification for humans killing humans. One thing I find interesting about gangster films where you have gangs fighting each other is that morally, the violence inflicted upon each other seems valid since they’re only hurting themselves. I mean, if the cops were to resort to such violence, then it wouldn’t feel right to cheer for the cops. Sammo’s gang has some cool fighters, and I found myself cheering for these guys, even though they’re not really good guys. However, they are loyal, which is one redeeming trait of being a gang member of any nationality. I don’t see how anyone would consider joining a gang after seeing this movie. Generally, in any film with bad guys, the bad guys have no qualms about killing insubordinates or incompetents. Sure, working for a legal organization still might involve backstabbing peers, but you won’t necessarily be killed! I understand the appeal of feeling like you’re a part of a family that looks out for you. Joining a gang is sometimes a survival tactic. That’s unfortunate. I guess that’s why there are people who try to get at risk youth involved in programs that will hopefully keep them away from bad influences. Getting back to the movie, one of Sammo’s henchmen is a martial-artist / actor who I understand has been trying to make his claim to fame. His name is Wu Jing aka Jacky Wu as well as a slew of other similar pseudonyms. In Fatal Move, he can be easily identified as the guy with the blue hair. I had seen him in minor roles in other films, but I hadn’t taken notice of him until Fatal Move. I was sufficiently impressed to go out and buy Invisible Target and Legendary Assassin, the latter film being his most recent and for which he is a co-director. Maybe I’ll review those two films later. (In case you’re wondering, I liked Invisible Target more than Legendary Assassin even though he has a smaller role in it.) North American fans of Chinese crime films might be pleased to know that Simon Yam and Danny Lee have major roles in the film. Apparently, both these actors were selected by the director in order for the film to have some North American appeal. I’m not a big fan of many of the crime films that John Woo, Ringo Lam, and Tsui Hark have done. Recent Asian films have shown a level of polish and refinement that better suit my tastes. I’m not familiar with this film’s director and writer, Dennis Law. I still need to buy his previous unrelated film, Fatal Contact, that was a starring vehicle for Wu Jing. Some reviews have complained about the melodrama and uninspired performances from the actors because of the clichéd script, but these criticisms feel hyperbolic to me. I doubt that all the actors would treat the material as second-rate. (To be fair, I have been criticized for not being able to properly critique acting skills, but I do feel vindicated that William Shatner has been nominated and won awards for his acting.) Most reviewers seem to like better the film SPL, which starred many of the same actors as Fatal Move, and also Donnie Yen. There were some scenes in SPL that I really enjoyed, but I think Fatal Move is thematically cohesive and thus the better film. For fear of ruining any plot elements and possible surprises in Fatal Move, I have avoided describing too much of what happens in it. Some of the regular readers of Killer Imports might think that I pretty much enjoy every film I see and that I’m not very discerning. Generally, I prefer to review films that have given me a good impression. I’ve recently seen a widely circulated film that I absolutely hate. It stars a female that kicks ass. It’s called Coweb. I’ll try reviewing it for my next Killer Import.

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Killer Imports: Cyborg She

Reed — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:15:25 +0000

Killer Imports is a regular feature on Film Junk where we explore foreign-language films from around the world that haven’t yet had their chance to shine. I wish I had made this movie. I think that’s one of the highest endorsements I can give. (If I had made it, I would have subtitled it “The Reed Farrington Story.” (Just kidding.) I’ll explain this a little during this review.) If you don’t want the movie spoiled, then I suggest you force yourself to forget the title of the movie, that is, Cyborg She. Oh, sorry about reminding you about the title. Well, I suppose it doesn’t have to be a secret, but the fact that the love interest is a robot, I mean cyborg, isn’t revealed in the movie until about a half an hour or so into the movie. But I think revealing that she is a robot in the title of this movie is meant to help this movie find its audience. I suppose if this movie was called "Love Eternal", some female audience members expecting a straight-forward romance would be upset. In Korean, the movie is titled Boku No Kanojo Wa Saibgu which literally translates to "My Girlfriend is a Cyborg". Even though the literal translation is a bit too straight-forward, it makes more sense than Cyborg She. I have no idea why the movie ended up with the English title Cyborg She. I wonder if I’m missing a clever play on words. This movie is also known as "Cyborg Girl", which makes more sense. Anyway, I found this movie while I was looking for I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK (an even more awkward, straight-forward title) by Park Chan-Wook, the director of Old Boy. There’s a suspicion that this movie was inspired by Park Chan-Wook’s film, but I don’t know if there is evidence to confirm this. This movie has been described as The Terminator told as a love story. (I thought The Terminator was a love story between Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese, but let’s not get into that discussion.) The cyborg refers to herself as a “cybordyne model 103,” a direct reference to The Terminator. (I’m guessing “cybordyne” is a bad English sub-title translation of “Cyberdyne” although the actress does sort of pronounce the word as “cybordyne.”) The movie even chooses to use the exact visual effect to show someone coming back through time. The difference in this movie is that someone figured out how to bring your clothes back in time with you. The cyborg female arrives wearing a futuristic skin-diving suit. (I’m guessing the producers wanted to keep this movie family friendly.) Interestingly, the cyborg female doesn’t do what Arnie does to get suitable period attire. If you recall, Arnie would find someone his size and ask for his clothes in a not so polite way. Instead, she goes to a women’s fashion section of a department store! I’ll try not to ruin the story too much for you. Basically, a dweeb with no social life (someone like me) encounters a gorgeous woman who follows him around. Now no gorgeous woman has ever followed me around, but I wish this would happen to me. His reactions to her and how he gradually begins to be comfortable around her seemed so believable. I can imagine myself behaving in the same way if a gorgeous woman ever took a fancy to me. The story spans over a century into the future, and is about how the dweeb and the gorgeous girl fall in love with each other. That’s about it. I empathized with the dweeb quite a bit. The dweeb’s living space with books and knickknacks would be what I imagine my living space to be if I lived in a bachelor apartment. Although I don’t have a pet Gila monster, I think it would be cool to own one. There is some goofy and corny humor that I didn’t mind, reminiscent of the type of humor found in Jerry Lewis movies circa 1965. I’m not French (although I speak and write “un peu”), but I love Jerry Lewis! There’s a running gag with a university professor who throws a piece of chalk at anyone who is napping or not paying attention. I had a professor who would get upset as well, especially if he caught you reading a newspaper during class. He wouldn’t throw his chalk, but he would give us a stern lecture about wasting our tuition dollars. On several occasions, I felt like standing up and telling him that he was wasting the entire class’s tuition dollars by wasting time chastising all of us. But I was too busy napping. I wanted to avoid ruining too many of the scenes for you in case I manage to convince you to see this film. I’ll mention an inconsequential scene only because it’s a popular movie cliché that I’m told people should not imitate. (I’ll admit I did this for a neighbor’s cat.) The dweeb gives his pet cat a dish of milk. I’ve been told that cats can’t digest milk properly. Oh, I should warn you about a sentimental section complete with a grandmother and a children’s choir on the soundtrack. Personally, I don’t mind children’s choirs. I thought the music throughout the film was perfect, especially for tugging at the heart strings. I liked the Japanese pop music as well. (If you purchase the Malaysian DVD from Sarawak Media, you also get the soundtrack on CD!) Now I doubt the music is going to win any awards, but it serves its purpose nicely. I loved the look of the film. There’s a wonderful looking scene on a hilltop aglow from the sun as the cyborg gives a piggy-back ride to the dweeb. From electrical energy to people being tossed around like rag-dolls to city wide destruction, the visual effects are very well done. The director and writer of this film is Jae-young Kwak, who is known for romantic films, none of which I’ve seen. My Sassy Girl seems to be his most popular film. He did co-write All About Women, which I reviewed. The cyborg and the guy are played by Haruka Ayase and Keisuke Koide, respectively. This is the first time I’ve seen these two actors, and I thought they were decent. The director is Korean, but the two lead actors are Japanese because a Japanese company financed the film. With Shaolin Girl coming to mind, it seems like Japanese companies are financing Asian talent. Inevitably, some people will find time paradoxes in any time-travel movie (although some people seem to think that Primer is self-consistent). One point made in the Wikipedia entry for this movie is that in one of the times that the cyborg journeys to the past, the cyborg is wearing a futuristic skin-diving suit that is modeled after a costume on a figurine that the dweeb later gives her before she leaves the past. This apparently doesn’t make sense. I think the simple explanation is that the suit design was later created by the dweeb as a result of having been influenced by it when he had it. Giving the figurine to her was not the reason why the suit was designed in the future. Got it? I often wonder if film-makers on purposely overlook paradoxes while they are making a time-travel movie, or if they simply don’t realize the flaws in their logic. I believe that many time paradoxes are only time paradoxes because the conception of time is flawed. People often think that time is continuous so they think of a single time-line, parallel time-lines, and even of branches on time-lines. I like to think of time as discrete. Our minds create the illusion of continuity. My conception is based on what happens at the quantum level with the notion that what we observe causes something to happen. If time-travel were possible, I would think that it’s possible to go to any possible instant at which any possible events may have taken place. So you could travel “back in time” and meet yourself and even kill yourself and that would be fine. You could even travel “back in time” to a time you remember when everything is exactly the same except that you were never born! I’ll understand if you don’t agree with me or don’t understand what I’m saying. Given my understanding of how time works, this film presents a sublime message of love within a time-travel framework. I do admit that there seems to be an inconsistency in how people travel through time. And this whole thing about what happens to your clothes seems inconsistent unless there was an instance where she traveled and changed her clothes in between trips. Technically, she’s not a cyborg either. She’s really an android or a humanoid. (I never used to be so nit-picky until I saw the latest Star Trek movie.) To be honest, I didn’t "get" the film after my first viewing. I had to think about it and read what others thought about the movie. I’m not even sure my understanding is the correct one, but I don’t want to spoil the movie for you, so I’m not going to discuss my understanding of the film. In fact, some of my statements in this review are misleading on purpose. (And no, that last sentence wasn’t supposed to be one of those word conundrums like “This statement is false.”) Suffice to say, for me, the ending is simply perfect. I normally don’t like to do the “if you liked a particular movie, then you may like this movie” scenario, but I’m going to with this film. If you liked Chris Columbus’s Bicentennial Man with Robin Williams, then you may like this movie. I don’t believe Bicentennial Man was very well received because of its cloying sentimentality. Well, this film has the same predilection. This may not be much of a ringing endorsement. Oh, I did read someone comparing this movie to a more popular movie, The Notebook, which I haven’t seen, yet. (I’m not sure how many regular Film Junk readers would admit to having seen The Notebook.) Anyway, this is one of those rare films that will highly appeal to a select audience including people like me.

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Treknobabble #69: Make a Difference

Reed — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:33:37 +0000

Treknobabble is a continuing series of columns written by uber-Trekkie Reed Farrington leading up to and following the release of J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie. “Don’t let them promote you. Don’t let them transfer you. Don’t let anything take you off the bridge of that ship. Because while you’re there, you can make a difference.” - Kirk to Picard before Picard convinces Kirk to help him, resulting in Kirk’s "death". Hopefully, when you try to make a difference, you won’t end up dying like Kirk. But that’s the risk I suppose that’s worth taking. I guess it’s the same message that’s in the latest movie when Pike dares Kirk to do better than Kirk’s father. And in a famous Kirk soliloquy from an Original Series’ episode, “Return to Tomorrow,” Kirk passionately says, “Risk is our business.” I’ve been in semi-retirement for six months now. And I can’t seem to relax. My mind keeps thinking that I should do something with my life. The best years have passed me by; however, if my health remains well, I still have half my life with which to accomplish something. Being in a state of inertia, I think I’ll most likely not do anything with my life. Even knowing that on my death bed that I’ll regret not having done anything, I still can’t motivate myself to do anything. I guess the problem is I don’t know what to do with my life. I suppose I could take classes for self-improvement, but that wouldn’t really make me happy and it wouldn’t make a difference to other people. I suppose I could volunteer my time to help others, but helping individuals doesn’t seem like a worthwhile pursuit in the grand scheme of things. What I mean is that there will always be people who need help. I understand that helping others is important even for the person who does the helping. It helps a person maintain his humility. I’m going to contradict myself now. It’s important to help individuals. But for me, that’s not enough. Looking back, I had the grades and opportunities to go into any line of work. I never think of “intelligent” people entering into occupations like police officer or firefighter. I know I’m getting into trouble by being so frank. I know serving people in these capacities is important and I do appreciate the selfless nature that is required. Anyway, I’ve always valued my life too highly to put it at risk like these people do. Never was much of a talker, so being a lawyer was out of the question. Many parents dream of their sons and daughters entering the medical profession. Besides being squeamish around real blood (especially my own), I think being a doctor or dentist falls into that category of helping individuals which is not my thing. I like to engage in tasks that have some clear goal. Helping people live as long as possible doesn’t do it for me. Since I had an affinity for mathematics, I found myself having a choice between a career in computer science or aerospace engineering. I thought I might find more opportunities with a computer science degree, so I took this pragmatic choice. While at university, I had the opportunity to work with the Canadian astronauts for some co-op work terms. There was a part of me that harbored the thought that I could become a Canadian astronaut, but being with these first set of Canadian astronauts made me think that I didn’t have the “right stuff.” Besides the academic qualifications and high-risk nature of the position, the public relations aspect of being an astronaut seemed daunting. When Star Trek: Generations later came out, I was reminded of the uncomfortableness of dealing with the press during the scene when Kirk, Scotty, and Chekov are on the bridge of the Enterprise-B. When I graduated, I didn’t want to use my computer science degree to work on databases for the lucrative bank or brewery industries. I managed to find a position writing software for biomedical purposes. This was interesting for a while, but ended up being a dead end job. So I switched into video game programming. This too was a dead end. Perhaps I’ve reached the limits of my capabilities, but I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life working on stuff that I didn’t care about. It’s time to put away the plush toys and grow up. Part of my ego thinks I should be spending time working on a “cure for cancer,” but where does one begin? To me, the way the world runs doesn’t offer much in pursuing that goal. Everyone including myself seems only to be looking out for himself. But I know there are people who are able to overcome obstacles, create opportunities for themselves, and succeed despite the odds. If Star Trek were a reality, I suppose I might think about enlisting in Starfleet. Exploring the universe seems like a worthwhile pursuit. I lack the confidence as well as a multitude of other attributes to ever be a Starfleet captain though. I’d probably end up being a red shirt. Unless you were a part of the bridge crew or had shapely legs, I can’t imagine life on a starship to be too exciting. (In the Original Series, Kirk would often choose a comely female scientist to accompany the landing party. I love feminism!) Instead of making a difference, I find myself watching a lot of movies and television. William Shatner used to answer the question of the importance of Star Trek with “Star Trek is just a television show” or with some other equally dismissive response. This was a good way to deflate the self-importance that many non-Trekkies thought people associated with the show felt. But to be fair, Star Trek does offer inspiration. And not just for future doctors, engineers, and NASA employees. When tragedy strikes, people look to entertainment to feel better. And Star Trek’s vision of the future can give optimism to people during bad times. I’ve mentioned before how some episodes like The Next Generation’s “Tapestry” have made me take a look at my life. I suppose it’s up to me to do something with the message. I suppose people find the raising of children to be the most important aspect of life. If we can’t make a difference, then at least perhaps our children might. And I do realize that every life is important in ways that aren’t always apparent. The popularity of the movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” each year at Christmas time is a testament to that message. We can’t all be Captain Kirk, but the U.S.S. Enterprise doesn’t fly on his charisma alone. I’ve been reading a book called Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill by Matthieu Ricard. Ricard is a Buddhist monk who earlier had a promising career as a cellular geneticist. Ricard seems to be in favor of suppressing negative emotions like desire, hatred and envy. I wonder why the Vulcans didn’t try this instead of suppressing all emotion. Is it even possible to suppress only the negative emotions while reveling only in the positive emotions like compassion and love? One might argue that you can’t have one without the other, but I think that having an understanding of something doesn’t mean one has to agree with it or express it. In order to put an end to the incessant wars on Vulcan, the Vulcan people made the drastic decision to put their faith in a philosophical leader, Surak, who taught the suppression of all emotion. Those who disagreed with Surak left Vulcan to found their own planets. The Romulans are offshoots of Vulcans. Surak seems to have been a good influence. War was no longer a problem. (Vulcans even practiced vegetarianism before the practice became popular with humans.) According to my understanding of Buddhism, happiness is leading an altruistic life. But I don’t understand what a Buddhist priest accomplishes besides leading a peaceful life and spreading peace. If everyone was a Buddhist, nothing would get done. I mean the world wouldn’t progress. Maybe that’s what true happiness is. But that’s not the type of world that Star Trek believes in. Captain Kirk would always be destroying computers that controlled worlds with everyone living in bliss. His argument for interfering was that living should be more than merely existing. Life should be about making a difference. Not just in helping others, but in pursuing the broad questions. Like the meaning of life not only within ourselves but in the universe we live. Note: Can anyone spot the non-Star Trek plush toy in the above photo? (Sorry, I don’t have a nifty prize for the person who gives the first correct answer.)

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