Comments (0)

Inception Infographic

I don’t know how I only just came across this, but this is a great graphic displaying the several layers of dreams in Inception, one of the most fun and thought-provoking films I’ve seen in a long time.

Image by dehahs – awesome work!

Go see Inception if you haven’t yet.

Comments (0)

Ong-Bak 3 Trailer is All Kinds of Crazy

For anybody that watched the awesomeness that is Ong-Bak 2, we all know that that movie ended on a stupid cliffhanger on account of the fact that they ran out of money while filming the movie. We also know that the movie was absolutely crazy and didn’t seem to make much sense. Finally, Ong-Bak 3 is on its way and looks to be continuing along this path. It appears that there are three incarnations of Tien… normal, Jesus Christ version, and reincarnated demon-whatever-you-are version. Anyway, this movie looks awesome, and I hope it continues along the path of expanding in martial arts styles (the first Ong-Bak was pretty much all muay thai, but the sequel [which is technically a prequel] featured all sorts of Chinese martial arts and so on).

YESSSS!!!!

Comments (0)

Alex Roman’s The Third & The Seventh

This is perhaps one of the most beautiful short films I have ever seen. Oh, and the entire thing is animated. Alex Roman’s animated piece “tries to illustrate architecture across a photographic point of view.” The Third & The Seventh is super surreal and I suggest you click through to watch the video in full-screen. This channels a similar vibe as Ron Fricke’s non-narrative movie Baraka. It’s not just a cool idea that everything here is animated, the actual movie is pretty captivating, with amazing directing and great music (sequenced, orchestrated, mixed by Roman but based on original scores by Michael Nyman and Camille Saint-Saëns).

**oops correction, some non-animated elements. Explained in the comments: “I think i must make it clear. There are a few non-CG elements in the shortfilm: photographer (shot on greenscreen), pigeons, timelapsed growing flowers, flying airplane and sky backgrounds.”

Made using 3dsmax, VRay, AfterEffects and Premiere. Heads up to Eileen for showing me this!

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman

thirdseventh.com/

Comments (0)

Financial, Political Drama / Murder Mystery Detective Story

I finished reading the late Stieg Larrson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and I have to say, it was pretty awesome and impossible to put down. The original Swedish title was Män som hatar kvinnor, “Men That Hate Women,” a far better and more appropriate title. Also, let’s be honest, the name  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is pretty lame. I think the name Men That Hate Women is also much better in setting the general tone for this book. Regardless..

This is a really complex novel that seems to be part finance, business, political, crime thriller, and does pretty well on all parts. I will try to give a brief overview of the book. The book opens with our hero, Michael Blomkvist, losing a libel case to an accused industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerström, putting his magazine at serious risk of collapsing. The disgraced journalist is hired by a wealthy old former industrialist, Henrik Vanger, who offers Blomkvist a huge sum to spend a year writing the Vanger family chronicle and attempting to solve the murder mystery of Vanger’s niece, Harriett of which there have been no developments in 40 years. The ensuing tale goes crazy.

That’s basically it. At times the language is a little clunky, I can’t tell if that’s the translator, Reg Keeland, to blame, or how Larrson intended it, and there are some almost masturbatory extended descriptions of Apple computers that seem a little bit unnecessary. Regardless, this is a super fun read and I’m sure you’ll tackle it within a week. There’s some messed up stuff in this book! Recommended reading. I will be reading the second one in the series after I get through some other books I have lined up.

By the way, their making a movie (actually made in Sweden, not a bastardized US version just yet), and I’m not sure what to make of it. As a movie, it looks a little bit corny… I feel like you can get away with more things in a novel, but once you start seeing them it’s a little meh…. but either way it looks interesting and I’m sure I’ll watch it at some point.

Comments (0)

Mamoru Oshii’s Assault Girls on par with Michael Bay Insanity

You may remember Mamoru Oshii as the director of some brilliant animes such as Patlabor 2: The Movie and Ghost in the Shell. It turns out he also does live-action and this movie, Assault Girls (アサルトガールズ), just came out in Japan in December. This trailer is absolutely ridiculous. There is even some english in it, but honestly I couldn’t understand a word. Watch this Michael Bay-esque trailer and let it blow your mind. Lots of explosions, girls with huge guns, horrible 3d, and super epic music and it wouldn’t have come together if it didn’t randomly switch to some j-pop song. Here’s looking forward to a US release.

I think Mamoru Oshii needs to stick to anime.