HI

21.8.11

Thoughtful Science Fiction

This is a review for the movie Gattaca (1997). Today I sat down to watch this movie Gattaca. This movie has mix genres of drama, romance and sci-fi. 
This movie isn’t exactly a fast paced movie but is nevertheless engaging or at least I thought it was. 
The acting is quite good but somewhat stoic but I think this was intentional to move in portraying a sterilised and mechanical future. 

Ethan Hawke is our protagonist Vincent Freeman and Uma Thurman plays a love interest Irene Cassini. There are definitely some other note worthy actors in the film like Jude Law who plays Jerome Morrow

The story is about a boy, Vincent, who was conceived “naturally” and his brother was conceived via genetically engineering. Genetic engineering is standard procedure in the not too distance future which this movie is presumably set in and those who were conceived the natural way are determined to be genetically inferior and have greater risk of terminal illness, heart failure and other diseases. Test results are able to predict some margin of error once cause of death at birth. Those presumed to be genetically inferior are considered “invalids” and are assigned mundane careers that don’t require them to be smart, taller or better looking or healthier. However, Vincent has a dream of travelling into outer of space and is unable to let go of that dream. In order to live out his dream, He must take over a life of a “valid” man, a crippled swimmer in the form of Jerome.  Jerome is willing to cooperate with Vincent to make his dream happen and thus, Vincent undergoes transformation to more or less become Jerome and take over his life. Since security checks are common place where Vincent works, he has to have urine and blood samples ready or every occasion. The only way he could keep his job and not have anybody expect of him, is to be ready for every situation. 

Vincent climbs the operate ladders and is eventually assigned a mission to outer space. At various point he finds himself at risk of being discovered and somehow manages to avert being found out. However, it is long for Irene, Vincent’s love interest, to find out the truth and others are now on to him. As Vincent is about to go into space, he decides to reveal his true identity. He hands his urine sample to the doctor who examines his urine and finds that Vincent is an invalid, however the doctor lets him proceed on his way, not the least of surprised that Vincent was posing all this time.

I found the story to be rather intriguing because it seems rather plausible. I wonder what the world would be like if we knew our possible cause of death at birth, what it would be like if everyone was tall, smart or good looking. I think it’s a scary thought and I think that this movie is ultimately trying to say, that the story is about a man who overcome his odds and ultimately proved that being genetically superior really didn’t amount to anything. If you already knew what career you are best suited for, would there be any need for self exploration… could you find joy being preselected… or is it in the human struggle that we realise our true potential... isn’t this very prejudge, that we find ourselves in the mist of today; the good genes, and a good upbringing, brings more success in life or do we have a choice to make the most of what we have. 

If you haven’t seen this movie, I would definitely recommend checking it out.

NBA SUPERSTAR


LeBron James isn’t the first high schooler to jump to the NBA, but he may just be the best. Almost from Day One, his basketball IQ hovered at genius level, and his physical skills were off the charts. Today, as a two-time MVP, his leadership skills are beyond question as well. LeBron is the reason everyone was talking about the NBA in July of 2010. His free agency was covered like a Moon Shot.  Now a member of the Miami Heat, he is shooting for the moon.

20.8.11

Steven Spielberg, the director of Jurassic Park

Steven Spielberg directed many of the top films in Hollywood history, including the blockbusters Jaws, E.T., and many more. The thriller Jaws made Spielberg a known name, and over the next 20 years he grew into the most successful movie entrepreneur alive. His directing credits include hits like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park, and War of the Worlds.

In 1994, Steven Spielberg co-founded the studio Dreamworks SKG. Spielberg then went many years without winning an Academy Award, but he broke through with best director and best picture Oscars for Schindler's List, given in 1994. He also won a best director Oscar for Saving Private Ryan and was given the Academy's Irving Thalberg Award in 1987 for his contributions to the industry.

For better or worse, here’s a list of Spielberg’s greatest movies in my opinion. 
- Jaws
- E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
- Schindler’s List
- Saving Private Ryan
- A.I. Artificial Intelligence
- Minority Report
- Munich
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind
- Empire of the Sun
- Jurassic Park
- Catch Me If You Can

In drafting this list, I was struck with something profound: I actually don’t like a great deal of Spielberg’s movies.  For every classic, there seems to be two letdowns.  Again, this argument is fruitless, given the fact that one name can be billed to so many indisputable masterpieces...

19.8.11

The gifts from god

The directors of horror movies are the entire gift from god. They all have special thought about life. They use different angle of view to show the life.  
Hideo Nakata
Hideo Nakata is famous for his film, the Ring. It is very classical. I still remember the girl who has black straight hair cross the television screen to room, most people afraid their televisions after watching this movies.

The Ring
He directed this movie from 1998 to 2005, he as the writer and director. He is the director of the Death Notes. It is also very popular in the world. 

James Wan is a Malaysia-born Australian producer, screenwriter, and film director of Chinese heritage. 
James Wan
He is also a giant director. The Saw is the best example about that. The Dead Silence is his work, too. His always use the sound and blood to show his thinking. He is very young (born 27 February 1977), I think it is a good news for his fans.

Dead Silence
There are many famous horror movies’ directors in the world, I like horror movies and I like them, too.

Supper Stars

Stephen Chow
Stephen Chow is named “The King of Comedy” in China; he is a Hong Kong actor, comedian, screenwriter, film director and producer. Stephen Chow began as a temporary actor for TVB. He entered TVB in early 1980s, and was trained there, although he had few opportunities to appear in films. Chow graduated from TVB's acting classes in 1982. Chow began to find some success with the children programme 430 Space Shuttle, which he co-hosted with Tony Leung Chiu-Wai. In 1987, Chow entered into the movie industry through the film Final Justice, which won him the Taiwan Golden Horse Award for Best Supporting Actor. While Chow became quite well known on TVB for his comedies (especially 1989's The Final Combat), he shot to stardom in 1990's, all for the Winner. This film made him and his older sidekick Ng Man-Tat two of the most sought-after stars in the Hong Kong film industry. Chow would collaborate with Ng on many of his more successful comedies, including Shaolin Soccer. Chow became Hong Kong's undisputed No. 1 comedian, taking over the mantle of Michael Hui. Unlike Hui, Chow's comedies are of the mo lei tau genre. With his expert comic timing and "rubber-faced mannerisms" , Chow ranked alongside Andy Lau, Chow Yun-fat and Jackie Chan as the major box office draws of the 1990s. In 1994 Chow began directing films, starting with From Beijing with Love, which he co-directed with Lee Lik-Chi. In the late half of the 1990s, mainland China began to warm to Stephen Chow movies. His film duology A Chinese Odyssey (1994) became (and remains) a cult classic in mainland China, baffling many Hong Kong observers, as the duology did only moderately well in Hong Kong. Nonetheless, on the mainland Chow rapidly became one of Hong Kong's most iconic film stars.  In 2001 his film Shaolin Soccer grossed over 60 million HK dollars. The film won Best picture, and Chow won Best Actor and Best Director at the 2002 Hong Kong Film Awards, receiving a total of seven wins from 2001–2003, including the Blue Ribbon Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the Golden Bauhinia Award for Best Picture and Best Director.It was his first international hit and established his reputation in the West. In 2004 he directed the film Kung Fu Hustle winning 18 awards including BAFTA Best Film not in the English Language, five Golden Horse Awards and six Hong Kong Film Awards. Chow's film CJ7 began filming in July 2006 in the eastern Chinese port of Ningbo. In August 2007 the film was given the title CJ7, a play on China's successful Shenzhou manned space missionsShenzhou 5 and Shenzhou 6. This film introduced newcomer Kitty Zhang as his romantic lead. In 2011, news was released that Chow had started work on a new Chinese Odyssey project. He is to star as well as co-direct, produce and screenwrite. He is to co-direct with Derek Kwok. Other names have included for the project are Anthony Wong, Show Luo and Shu Qi. Chow often casts relatively new young actresses to play opposite him, especially as romantic leads, and many of these actresses have gone on to have successful film or music careers of their own. He had been acting movies since 1981 till now and there are about 84 movies. People love his movies due to the way he played is different between other. He was using another style to make people laugh, but after they laughed, they always can learn something from it. All the stories he acted are from the society. All the things may all be happened around people; in that case, it will pay more people’s attention.

Jim Carrey
Jim Carrey is a Canadian-American actor, comedian, singer and writer. He has received two Golden Globe Awards and has also been nominated on four occasions. Carrey began comedy in 1979, performing at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto, Ontario. After gaining prominence in 1981, he began working at The Comedy Store in Los Angeles where he was soon noticed by comedian Rodney Dangerfield, who immediately signed him to open his tour performances. Carrey, long interested in film and television, developed a close friendship with comedian Damon Wayans, which landed him a role in the sketch comedy hit In Living Colour, in which he portrayed various characters during the show's 1990 season. Between 1996 and 1999, Carrey continued his success after earning lead roles in several highly popular films including The Cable Guy (1996), Liar Liar (1997), in which he was nominated for another Golden Globe Award and in the critically acclaimed films The Truman Show and Man on the Moon, in 1998 and 1999, respectively. Both films earned Carrey Golden Globe awards. Since earning both awards, Carrey continued to star in comedy films, including How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) where he played the title character, Bruce Almighty (2003) where he portrayed the role of unlucky TV reporter Bruce Nolan, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004), Fun with Dick and Jane (2005), Yes Man (2008), and A Christmas Carol (2009). Carrey has also taken on more serious roles including Joel Barish in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) alongside Kate Winslet and Kirsten Dunst, which earned him another Golden Globe nomination, and Steven Jay Russell in I Love You Phillip Morris (2009) alongside Ewan McGregor. Till now he has already acted 36 movies.

Sanma Akashiya
 
Sanma Akashiya was born July 1, 1955 in Kushimoto, Wakayama, Japan) is a Japanese TV comedian and actor simply known as Sanma. His real name is Takafumi Sugimoto. His talent agency is Yoshimoto Corporation. Together with Beat Takeshi and Tamori, Sanma is said to be one of the "Big Three" tarento of Japan.[by whom?] Sanma's nickname is Owarai Kaiju. He is known for his ability to endlessly carry a conversation. His protruding front teeth are often ridiculed even by himself. 

Sung-kee Ahn
 
Ahn Sung-ki (Korean:  born 1 January 1952) is known to the public as the "National Best Actor of Korea" who had been acted over 80 movies now. A Roman Catholic, he was born in Daegu and grew up as a child actor - graduating Kyundong junior high school, from which Cho Yong-pil also graduated - appearing in director Kim Ki-young's celebrated film The Housemaid (1960). Starting from the 1980s, he appeared in nearly 100 movies. He was a graduate of the Vietnamese department of the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. Because of his ability to speak several foreign languages, UNICEF appointed Ahn as a representative, and his image is often seen in advertisements on planes travelling to Korea. He acted twice as the President of Korea in the movies the Romantic President (2002) and Hanbando (2006).He had military service after graduating from university as an artillery officer (first lieutenant, 1974 ~ 1976) which he volunteered for.Go, Shogi and Cue sports are well known as Ahn's hobby, but he confesses in the interview that he has not played cue sports; he also tells his profiles publicized about twenty years ago are still on the internet. Ahn is critical about plastic surgery; he told that plastic surgery damaged actors' identity, in Park Joong-hoon's Holiday Talk Show on January 18, 2009. He had been acted over 80 movies now.
Ahn has two sons, Dabin and Phillip, who both attended The Lawrenceville School, a prestigious boarding academy in New Jersey. His sons both aspire to pursue art and design in the future.

14.8.11

Roots

In my previous post, the celebrities show the audience where they came from in their own documentary film. It is a perfect way to show the audience what their place is like and how special it is. While not many people know where Stratford, Ontario or Akron, Ohio is, it is actually a place where Justin Bieber and LeBron James grew up. Both of them just put these two places onto the map again cause before them, no one would of heard of it or been there.


Stratford, Ontario


Akron, Ohio

For different countries, they have their own way to show the comedy.

China
 
Most of the China's movies are related to their history. Different generations shows different kinds of movies. However, no matter at what generation, there is one thing that will not be changed, which is all the stories in the movies are from people. Most of the Chinese directors wanted to show the normal people's story in order to attract more audience. Therefore, China's comedy are from people. 

Korean
 
For Korean, their film industry developed much slower than China, their first movie came out at 1901, its time was very short. At that time, same as China, most of the movies are related to their history, which is about defending Japan. Due to that generation's issue, only two to three movies can be created a year, till 1980. In that case, it is clearly to see that Korean's Drama Series are much mature than their movies. However, Korean's comedy movie now are becoming more and more popular, most of them are telling stories about schools. As we all know that, lots of interesting things are just happened in school, like first love, which people will never forget. In that case, comedy things in school are now become a popular source in Korean. 

Japan
 
It is known that Japan is famous for its Animated and Adult Video. For their movies, we can hardly see any popular film; instead of that, Dracula movies is already famous all over the world, it is all because the way Japanese live. Japanese people have a really stressful living style, most of the time they spend are on the work. Hence, they like to watch Dracula movies rather than comedy movies in order to release their stress. 

England
 
England do not have too much comedy movies as well. But there is one comedy movie now are known everywhere, its name is "Mr Bean". Before that series of movies, "Mr Bean" is a drama series. The difference between England drama series between Korean's are "Mr Bean" is really short and with no one talking inside. It is a classic way to show the comedy way. But now, England made it as a movie and let the "Mr Bean" start to talking, the reason I think it is because they want "England Comedy" to be accepted by people from difference places. 

American
 
For American, it is hardly to say how many different tapes of comedy movies they have. The reason is that American is a developed country with a multi-culture environment, in that case, lots of culture are talked about in the movies. Also, due to it is a freedom country, so lots of things can be talked in the movie, such as sex, skin color and men and women. Therefore, American comedy movies are vivid.

12.8.11

"...be water, my friend" - Bruce Lee

Chinese martial arts are a fundamental element of 20th-century Chinese popular culture. Martial arts fiction is a popular film genre which emerged in the early 20th century and peaked in popularity during the 1960s to 1980s.

If one speaks of great Chinese martial arts movies, it is necessary to move back in time to see great examples. Nowadays, most of the Chinese martial arts movies are done with special effects.

Notice martial arts movies of the late 1960s to 1970s... that is truly Chinese martial arts; not that Donnie Yen’s Chinese martial arts movies isn’t good, but if he had to fact Bruce Lee in his heydays... I wonder.


Clip from Bruce Lee's The Game of Death (1978) 
(Click on the image to view GIF Image, Approx. 1.5mb)

10.8.11

Unknown

Every country own the different culture in the world. When a country to show its culture by the movies, they always choose the different ways. For example, they show the different kinds of horror movies.

When we talk about the horror movies, we always think of some famous countries, like Japan and America. They are all having the different culture horror movies.

Japan is a big country, which produce the horror movies. When talk the movies in Japan, I always think of its horror movies. In the front rank of the horror movies in Japan, Ju-on: The Grudge is the perfect horror movies, which we must talk about it. It was act in 2003 and 2009. It has two seasons. America also react this movies. I still remember the little boy run in the room in this movie.

Ju-on: The Grudge
America is a movie country; there are many kinds of movies from it. The horror movie is one kind of these movies. In these horror movies, the Final Destination is the best one I like. It is different from the Ju-on The Grudge, no ghost in it, you don’t know who kill these people, and who is the next one. It is too blood for many people, but I like it. There are 4 parts about it.

Final Destination

4.8.11

Documentary - A Definition for the Digital Age

Documentary films, a film where it talks about a person's life. From sport stars to singers, each stars share their real life story to people to tell them where they came from. It also shows the fans how many hard work that they had been through and this makes their fans to understand their idol a little more. Last but not least, it motivates people from dreaming big and dreams will come true when you believe in yourself. Below are some examples of documentary films that I love to share.


LeBron James


Justin Bieber


Michael Jackson

hahaha... movies


Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences. The comedy genre humorously exaggerate situations, the way of speaking, the action and characters. 

Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (the black comedy being an exception). One of the oldest genres in film, some of the very first silent movies were comedies. Comedy, unlike other film genres, puts much more focus on individual stars, with many former stand-up comic transitioning to the film industry due to their popularity. While many comic films are lighthearted stories with no intent other than to amuse, others contain political or social commentary (such as Wag the Dog and Man of the Year).

The comedy genre can be considered the oldest film genre (and one of the most prolific and popular). Comedy was ideal for the early silent films, as it was dependent on visual action and physical humour rather than sound. Slapstick, one of the earliest forms of comedy, poked fun at physical mishap, usually in practical jokes, accidents and water soakings.

3.8.11

Horror from your mind

Many people don't like horror movies, they feel very afraid to watch horror movies. Some people don't like the blood people; some people don't like the music in the movies, even the actor open a closed door. In fact, people always take themselves in the movies; they imagine the horror things will happen on themselves.
There are many kinds of horror movies. The Slashed films, there is a killer will kill people one by one. No one knows who is the next. This kind of movie always has the blood and the body of dead people. It looks too violence.
SAW

Paranormal horror, there are some supervision things happened on people. We always afraid about the things which we don’t know. Not the real people, the Paranormal can do many things which the real people can not do.
INSIDIOUS

Monster movies. There are big and dangerous monster can kill people.
GODZILLA

Vampire horror. The people can drink blood of people. This kind of movie is very classical.
 TWILIGHT

"Whoa" Sci-Fic!

Science fiction movies comes in all sorts of varieties; such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel. While the technology in these stories tends to be more advanced than our own, it's not necessarily outside the realm of what we believe will one day be possible.

Great science fiction movie makes me sit back in my chair and go, “whoa.”
I love that feeling. It doesn’t have to be from something new, and many new things alone won’t do it, but an idea, or image, or something amazing that’s unique in my experience. Whoa. Love it.

The poster on the left is a prime example of a great science fiction movie, District 9.

District 9 is an excellent piece of science fiction with a great idea/hidden message of a very accurate view into the life on earth.

Without giving anything away, the whole experience is a comment on how we as a species behave. Whoa!

2.8.11

You're Welcome

Welcome to ViVid Movies blog.

If you're wondering what kind of posts you can expect to find here in the coming weeks and months we have something in common. Truth is, we're not entirely sure how this blog will evolve over time, but in short, we'll be talking about different types of movies and how we go about writing them.

We'll be updating this blog regularly, so don't be a stranger.