Sunday, August 26, 2007

The weird, the strange, the unique, the good...the MIFF!

Okay, so it's been a good two weeks since it ended. I have nothing to do most the time, yet I have no time to do anything. Go figure that one out. lol.

The MIFF (Melbourne International Film Festival, for those of you playing at home), was something I talked about going to every year. It was always, "Oh the festival is happening. I have to go check it out." Then the festival goes as quickly as it came.

But this year was different. I took a stand (...against myself?) and decided to go. I bought me a mini pass. This entitled me to any ten movies (excluding the opening and closing nights, which cost like $25 a ticket or something ridiculous like that) and three free 'day' sessions. So if utilised effectively, that's 13 movies for the handsome price of $110 (conc.)

Not too shabby.

Only catch though is that most of the movies (at least) I'd never heard of, so a lot of my choices were made at random. This could be good and bad. You go in not expecting anything at all, on some occasions not even knowing the plot. The strike rate, I'd say was about 50/50. But hey! When else am I gonna get the opportunity to see 13 (mostly) random movies, right?

The line-up included: 5 US films, 3 Korean, 1 Japanese, Russian, Danish, Romanian and UK. US heavy, I know. I couldn't be as adventurous as I had hoped. In my defence though, most of the US films, I had already heard about and wanted to see.

The movies were as follows (look these up on imdb.com, if you want more info):

  1. My Friend and His Wife (Korean) - Confusing. In a sense that, the actions taken by the characters are very hard to fathom. It's out of the norm and you ordinarily wouldn't expect people to act that way. I don't know if it's whether I missed something, or the Koreans have whacked sense of morality or what. It was weird.
  2. The Mourning Forest (Japan) - Festival-ly. Apparently it had rave reviews at the Cannes film festival and it's THAT type of movie. Slow paced, drawn out and hard to tell what it's trying to say.
  3. Bug (US) - Trippy. The most whacked out, tripped out, crazy ass thing I've seen. It's about paranoid schizophrenia. And it's so crazy it's almost humorous. But there was something so believable about it. Had decent actors.
  4. Black Snake Moan (US) - Gritty. One of my favourites from the line-up. Terrific performances and awesome soundtrack. More commercial for a festival film though.
  5. Rescue Dawn (US) - Duplicated. Had not soooo many movies like this been made, this would be awesome. However it's not original or creative enough to lift it above the other prisoner-of-war movies.
  6. Day Watch (Russia) - Fun. Completely enjoyable. It the 2nd installment of a trilogy. The fun part about this was the fact that the subtitles were almost "part" of the movie, so it was a bore having to read them.
  7. Woman on the Beach (Korean) - Random. In the same vein as the first Korean film. It's about love and relationships and all that, but it's totally random. Things happen but not much of it made sense.
  8. Fay Grim (US) - Mish-mesh. Comedy/espionage movie. The audience apparently found it hilarious. I didn't get it. Sure it was funny, but THAT funny? Had one of my favourite actors, Parker Posey, in it.
  9. The Boss of it All (Denmark) - LOL. This was so funny. Even with subtitles. Now that's rare. Being an European film, it doesn't have a what-you-would-expect ending.
  10. Interview (US) - Copycat. Another film that is similar to previous movies that you wonder why they bothered. Having said that though, this was made very well and actually pretty good. Just nothing new.
  11. Breath (Korean) - Finally. Third time lucky for the Korean pictures. lol. This was still very artsy and heavy on the 'deeper meaning' aspect, but it was quite well made and fairly enjoyable.
  12. Mister Lonely (UK) - Zzzzz. I don't know if the movie was shit or I was just tired, but I actually fell asleep in this one. I'll have to see it again to give it a proper judgement, but initial signs don't look good. lol.
  13. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Romania) - Brilliant. It's film making at it's best, particularly with a very difficult subject matter of illegal abortions in the '87 communist ruled Romania. It's the type of film that would garner awards.

As you can see, I was quite a busy boy. But it was so much fun. I'm ready to do it all again next year...provided I'm in the country, that is. :P

Much love,

Ipz.

Sunday, August 05, 2007

options open...excitment fills the air...

ワクワクしてきたぜ...

It's the moment you start to realise there actually might be a light at the end of the tunnel, you feel...good. It's more than that. It's sense of joy. It's a cocktail of emotions (as a friend would put it). Excitement, anxiousness, etc, etc....God, I can talk shit when I want to. hahaha.

Reason for this post is that things have become clearer in my mind. The way I see it, I have three options from here on out.
  1. Teach conversational English in Japan - this idea died after I was discouraged to go by my mum (the company I was going to go through were in the news in Japan apparently). But by chance (actually, I was dragged to an AIESEC stall) I went to the 'Work abroad' expo at RMIT and talked to the recruiters and it re-ignited my desire. And talking to people who've already done it has further emphased this.
  2. AIESEC exchange - call me a hypocrite. I don't care. After promoting it and helping people actually do it, I figure I should experience this myself. More so than that, I want an international experience through AIESEC. No better way than through exchange.
  3. Work in Australia - I haven't applied for anything so in actuality this is probably the least likely of the three. But a friend says she might be able to hook me up with a job next year. If that happens, I'll be into full time work here. Not a bad prospect in itself.

I guess I could do all three. It's just a matter of what order and what comes up first. It's good to have options. And all viable options too. I best not count my chickens before they hatch however, I still need to apply and pass the procedures for all three of those things. lol.

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As an end note.

The count down has began for my year of the Jordan (ie. my 23rd). God damn, that was fast. It's so true that time goes by quicker as you get older. There are so many thing I want to achieve and time keeps ticking away for me to achieve them. Ah well. It'll happen eventually, I'm sure.

As for the massive birthday celebration i've been promising everyone...it's not going to happen this year. Still can't afford it. When I can though, I'll invite everyone to a "Ippei's Better Late Than Never Birthday Bash!"...I suggest you don't hold you breathe though...

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much love,

I.

Friday, August 03, 2007

A plasma...donation?

Yes, sorry to disappoint. I'm not donating plasma TVs now. Apparently it's something in your blood. Yes, I know! Go figure right? Or am I the only one that didn't know already?
I'd been donating blood for about a year now. As impressive as that may sound, that's only really three or four donations. :P They only allow you to donate once every three months, you see. Well, apparently since I'm such a special Australian (Japanese), I can donate Plasma as well.
They told me the procedure. Apparently they take my blood as with a usual donation. Then they distill/filter my blood and effectively take the plasma out of it. Then what they do is pump the blood back into me. :S Yeah...that's the look I had too. It sounds kinda scary. But I'm sure they have advanced machinary to make sure it's done safely.
...I just hope it's advanced further than the technology in the picture above. lol. Now to find out what the hell Plasma exactly is. Wikipedia, here I come! (I just found out about the amazing-ness of this kind.) lol.
much love,
I.