Monday 19 May 2014
Sunday 18 May 2014
Sunday 27 April 2014
Jhola
Nepali movie ‘Jhola’ is a movie made on a popular book by the same name by literary figure, Krishna Dharabasi. The plot set on the Nepali society of the time about a century ago. The movie directed by Yadav Kumar Bhattarai features Garima Pant, Desh Bhakta Khanal, Deepak Chhetri,Laxmi Giri, Pralhad Khatiwada etc. in main roles.The movie presents the height of violence against women in ancient Nepal – Sati tradition. In ‘Jhola’ an young woman (Garima Pant) is married to a man 40 years senior to her. When her husband dies, Garima is burned alive with the dead body of her husband. She escaped the fire and hides in a cave.
The story was written by Dharabasi based on a story he found written in leaf booklet in a bag (Jhola) left at his home by an elderly man who had come from Manipur, India. Hence the name ‘Jhola’. The event shown in the movie happened in a remote village of Bhojpur district. The shooting however was done in Dhading after reviewing various other locations in Sindhuli, Bhojpur, Ilam, Therathum, Panchthar, Sindhupalanchowk, Rolpa, Taplejung, Khaptad, Doti, Achham, Bajhang, and Bajura.
By: Suja Sigdel
Reference: http://xnepali.net/movies/jhola-movie-review/
By: Suja Sigdel
Reference: http://xnepali.net/movies/jhola-movie-review/
Jumanji
"Jumanji" is a movie that mixes of fantasy and adventure. The movie released in America in 1995 and directed by Joe Johnston. Jumanji is based on Chris Van Allsburg’s famous 1981 picture book of the same name. The movie is about a board game that makes wild animals and other jungle hazards materialise upon each player’s move.
In 1969, Alan is trapped in Jumanji while playing the game with his friend Sarah. Thus Alan lives 26 years in the jungle. After 26 years, Judy and Peter move into the Alan’s house with their aunt after they lost their parents because of skiing accident. Judy and Peter hear Jumanji’s drumbeats so that they find the game and play together.
26 years later, when Judy and Peter playing the game, Alan came back to the life who became an adult Alan. Alan watches Judy and Peter continue to play the game and he realises that Judy and Peter are playing the same game as he and Sarah played in the past. Therefore, Alan realised that he has to join with them to finish the game. Sarah suffered mental trauma because of Alan’s disappearance during the game, Sarah does not want to join the game, but for finishing the game, Sarah has to join the game as well.
The movie is happy ending that Alan and Sarah going back in 1969 with full memories of events that they had in the future. Alan and Sarah decide to throw away the board game to protect themselves and future that they do not have same experience again. I like this movie because it is an adventure movie so that it makes people interesting to travel future and past by watching the movie. Also, this movie shows family’s love and care. Thus, I recommend people to watch this movie especially watch with their family.
@Kelly
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumanji
Slumdog Millionaire
Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire" hits the ground running. This is a breathless, exciting story, heartbreaking and exhilarating at the same time, about a Mumbai orphan who rises from rags to riches on the strength of his lively intelligence. The film's universal appeal will present the real India to millions of moviegoers for the first time.
The real India, supercharged with a plot as reliable and eternal as the hills. The film's surface is so dazzling that you hardly realize how traditional it is underneath. But it's the buried structure that pulls us through the story like a big engine on a short train.
By the real India, I don't mean an unblinking documentary like Louis Malle's "Calcutta" or the recent "Born Into Brothels." I mean the real India of social levels that seem to be separated by centuries. What do people think of when they think of India? On the one hand, Mother Teresa, "Salaam Bombay!" and the wretched of the earth. On the other, the "Masterpiece Theater"-style images of "A Passage to India," "Gandhi" and "The Jewel in the Crown."
The India of Mother Teresa still exists. Because it is side-by-side with the new India, it is easily seen. People living in the streets. A woman crawling from a cardboard box. Men bathing at a fire hydrant. Men relieving themselves by the roadside. You stand on one side of the Hooghly River, a branch of the Ganges that runs through Kolkuta, and your friend tells you, "On the other bank millions of people live without a single sewer line."
On the other hand, the world's largest middle class, mostly lower-middle, but all the more admirable. The India of "Monsoon Wedding." Millionaires. Mercedes-Benzes and Audis. Traffic like Demo Derby. Luxury condos. Exploding education. A booming computer segment. A fountain of medical professionals. Some of the most exciting modern English literature. A Bollywood to rival Hollywood.
"Slumdog Millionaire" bridges these two Indias by cutting between a world of poverty and the Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire." It tells the story of an orphan from the slums of Mumbai who is born into a brutal existence. A petty thief, impostor and survivor, mired in dire poverty, he improvises his way up through the world and remembers everything he has learned.
His name is Jamel (played as a teenager by Dev Patel). He is Oliver Twist. High-spirited and defiant in the worst of times, he survives. He scrapes out a living at the Taj Mahal, which he did not know about but discovers by being thrown off a train. He pretends to be a guide, invents "facts" out of thin air, advises tourists to remove their shoes and then steals them. He finds a bit part in the Mumbai underworld, and even falls in idealized romantic love, that most elusive of conditions for a slumdog.
His life until he's 20 is told in flashbacks intercut with his appearance as a quiz show contestant. Pitched as a slumdog, he supplies the correct answer to question after question and becomes a national hero. The flashbacks show why he knows the answers. He doesn't volunteer this information. It is beaten out of him by the show's security staff. They are sure he must be cheating.
The film uses dazzling cinematography, breathless editing, driving music and headlong momentum to explode with narrative force, stirring in a romance at the same time. For Danny Boyle, it is a personal triumph. He combines the suspense of a game show with the vision and energy of "City of God" and never stops sprinting.
When I saw "Slumdog Millionaire" at Toronto, I was witnessing a phenomenon: dramatic proof that a movie is about how it tells itself. I walked out of the theater and flatly predicted it would win the Audience Award. Seven days later, it did. And that it could land a best picture Oscar nomination. We will see. It is one of those miraculous entertainments that achieves its immediate goals and keeps climbing toward a higher summit.
Reference：http://www.metacritic.com/movie/slumdog-millionaire
@Bruce Wei
The real India, supercharged with a plot as reliable and eternal as the hills. The film's surface is so dazzling that you hardly realize how traditional it is underneath. But it's the buried structure that pulls us through the story like a big engine on a short train.
By the real India, I don't mean an unblinking documentary like Louis Malle's "Calcutta" or the recent "Born Into Brothels." I mean the real India of social levels that seem to be separated by centuries. What do people think of when they think of India? On the one hand, Mother Teresa, "Salaam Bombay!" and the wretched of the earth. On the other, the "Masterpiece Theater"-style images of "A Passage to India," "Gandhi" and "The Jewel in the Crown."
The India of Mother Teresa still exists. Because it is side-by-side with the new India, it is easily seen. People living in the streets. A woman crawling from a cardboard box. Men bathing at a fire hydrant. Men relieving themselves by the roadside. You stand on one side of the Hooghly River, a branch of the Ganges that runs through Kolkuta, and your friend tells you, "On the other bank millions of people live without a single sewer line."
On the other hand, the world's largest middle class, mostly lower-middle, but all the more admirable. The India of "Monsoon Wedding." Millionaires. Mercedes-Benzes and Audis. Traffic like Demo Derby. Luxury condos. Exploding education. A booming computer segment. A fountain of medical professionals. Some of the most exciting modern English literature. A Bollywood to rival Hollywood.
"Slumdog Millionaire" bridges these two Indias by cutting between a world of poverty and the Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire." It tells the story of an orphan from the slums of Mumbai who is born into a brutal existence. A petty thief, impostor and survivor, mired in dire poverty, he improvises his way up through the world and remembers everything he has learned.
His name is Jamel (played as a teenager by Dev Patel). He is Oliver Twist. High-spirited and defiant in the worst of times, he survives. He scrapes out a living at the Taj Mahal, which he did not know about but discovers by being thrown off a train. He pretends to be a guide, invents "facts" out of thin air, advises tourists to remove their shoes and then steals them. He finds a bit part in the Mumbai underworld, and even falls in idealized romantic love, that most elusive of conditions for a slumdog.
His life until he's 20 is told in flashbacks intercut with his appearance as a quiz show contestant. Pitched as a slumdog, he supplies the correct answer to question after question and becomes a national hero. The flashbacks show why he knows the answers. He doesn't volunteer this information. It is beaten out of him by the show's security staff. They are sure he must be cheating.
The film uses dazzling cinematography, breathless editing, driving music and headlong momentum to explode with narrative force, stirring in a romance at the same time. For Danny Boyle, it is a personal triumph. He combines the suspense of a game show with the vision and energy of "City of God" and never stops sprinting.
When I saw "Slumdog Millionaire" at Toronto, I was witnessing a phenomenon: dramatic proof that a movie is about how it tells itself. I walked out of the theater and flatly predicted it would win the Audience Award. Seven days later, it did. And that it could land a best picture Oscar nomination. We will see. It is one of those miraculous entertainments that achieves its immediate goals and keeps climbing toward a higher summit.
@Bruce Wei
Saturday 26 April 2014
Guarding Tess
How many different spins have their been on the "buddy film"? From The Odd Couple to Lethal Weapon, it seems that just about every angle has been covered. Then along comes a movie like Guarding Tess that thinks it has a unique twist to this tried-and-true theme. However, an unusual pairing doesn't equate to a noteworthy picture.
Since the death of her late husband the President, former First Lady Tess Carlisle (Shirley MacLaine) has been living in a house in Sommersville, Ohio, under the watchful eye of Secret Service agent Doug Chesnick (Nicolas Cage) and his team of six. Just when Doug thinks his term of duty is over, Tess requests that he return for another three years, and what Tess wants, Tess gets. So, against his will (his alternative is the unemployment line), Doug remains in Sommersville, where his already-brittle relationship with the aging widow turns into an open contest of wills.
Driving Miss Daisy did it much better, but there are some shared themes between the 1989 Academy Award winning film and Hugh Wilson's Guarding Tess. Both are about two mismatched people coming to know and appreciate each other, and eventually realizing how important their relationship is. This, the central theme of every "buddy film", lies at the core of Guarding Tess. Only the details surrounding it have changed to fit the situation.
The story is not especially original. Mostly predictable, Guarding Tess is light on surprises, but that's a given for any film that falls even loosely into a formula category. Despite a slow start, the movie eventually slips into a congenial flow. Unfortunately, Guarding Tess ends up derailing because of a ill-conceived ending that has something to do with a silly kidnapping subplot.
The comedy is mostly low-key, and much of it works. Coming from writer/director Hugh Wilson, the man behind the original Police Academy, it's surprising to find a motion picture whose laugh-to-joke ratio is relatively high. Guarding Tess relies far more on verbal jousting and body language than on slapstick and other ridiculous gags.
Nicolas Cage carries the movie. Normally know for his manic on-screen antics, it's interesting to see Cage in a restrained performance. The harnessed emotion is always there, just beneath the surface, waiting to break free. Shirley MacLaine does a reasonable job as Tess, and holds her own in scenes with her co-star, although her magnetism isn't as palpable. The rest of the cast, including such familiar names as Austin Pendleton and James Rebhorn, provide adequate support.
Ultimately, while Guarding Tess is genial and amusing, it lacks any semblance of originality. There are a few good jokes, some solid chemistry between the leads, and a little pathos, but it all doesn't add up to very much. The ingredients are there, but the final product hasn't been prepared to its best advantage.
Reference：http://www.threemoviebuffs.com/review/guarding-tess
@Bruce Wei
Friday 25 April 2014
The Yes Men Fix the World
The Yes Men are a New York political action cooperative specializing in hoaxes that embarrass corporations by dramatizing their evils and excesses. They put up phony Web sites, print fake business cards and pose as representatives from the companies that are their targets. It's amazing what they get away with. Maybe not so amazing, if you study the faces in some of their audiences. These are people so accustomed to sitting through corporate twaddle that they fail to question the most preposterous presentations.
Consider the "SurvivaBall." This is a fake survival suit, built by the Yes Men but presented as a new product from Halliburton. This is an inflated padded globe completely containing a human body, and round as a beach ball. Obviously, if you fell over, you'd have no way to stop yourself from rolling, or be able to stand up on your own. There's a closable face opening, air filters, little extendable gloves and a port that, unless I miss my guess, is intended for extra-suit urination. It comes with the big red Halliburton trademark.
In the post-9/11 paranoia, the Yes Men seriously pitch this invention at a conference for the security industry. Study the faces in the audience. No one is laughing. People look bored or perhaps mildly curious. There isn't a look of incredulity in the room. The few questions are desultory. Not a single security "expert" seems to suspect a hoax.
Experts in the news business are no more suspicious. The Yes Men faked a BBC interview during which a "spokesman for Dow Chemical" announced a multibillion-dollar payment to the victims of a notorious 1985 explosion at a Union Carbide insecticide factory in Bhopal, India, that killed 8,000, injured many more and spread poisons that cause birth defects to this day.
Think of that. Twice as many dead as on 9/11, we know exactly who did it and Dow (which absorbed Union Carbide) has never paid a dime of reparation. At the news it was finally settling the suit, Dow Chemical's stock price plunged on Wall Street: Things like this could cost money. The Yes Men were unmasked as the hoaxers.
They were also behind a stunt that made the news recently: staging a phony press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, announcing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was reversing its stand on global warming. Some news organizations double-checked this, but not Fox News, which repeated the story all day.
Another hoax, inspiring the question: Why does the U.S. Chamber of Commerce resist the theory of global warming? What is the USCC, anyway? Is it supported by the dues of countless merchants on Main Street, or is it a front financed by energy companies? Only a month ago, Exelon, the largest U.S. electric utility, announced it would no longer pay dues to support the USCC right-wing agenda.
The Yes Men are represented in this documentary by Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonnano. You may have seen them on TV -- as themselves, or as "corporate spokesmen." It's remarkable no one recognizes them. They don't wear beards or dark glasses. They are disguised, in fact, in a way that makes them above suspicion: Why, they look and talk exactly like middle-aged white men in conservative business suits.
The film is entertaining in its own right, and thought-provoking. Why don't more people quickly see through their hoaxes? A photo of Bichlbaum and Bonnano with the SurvivaBall appears with this review. Would you believe in such a product? As head of security for your corporation, would you invest in it? It is surprising we don't look outside and see, coming down the street, a parade of emperors without any clothes.
Resource：http://theyesmenfixtheworld.com/
@Bruce Wei
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