Linguistico J. I. Cousin

"Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children"

Voice Actors: Takahiro Sakurai (Cloud), Ayumi Ito (Tifa), Tsuzuruhara Miyu (Marlene), Kenji Fujiwara (Reno), Taiten Kusonoki (Rude), Kyosuke Ikeda (Denzel), Yumi Kakazu (Yuffie), Maaya Sakamoto (Aerith), Masahiro Kobayashi (Barrett), Shotaro Morikubo (Kadaj), Yuuji Kishi (Yazoo), Kenji Nomura (Loz), Tohru Okawa (Rufus), Kazuyuki Yama (Cid), Hideo Ishikawa (Cait Sith), Masachika Ichimura (Red XIII/Nanaki), Toshiyuki Morikawa (Sephiroth), Shougo Suzuki (Vincent)

Such a big cast fit in an hour and a half for this film. I just watched it today and for sure the first impression lasts. As many were hoping, the graphics is absolutely worth seeing in this film. The parts where the characters weren’t fighting i have to admit were the best parts, though i have to admit that the film is purely fantasy as the title implies, i’d have to accept the animation that could be compared to shrek and the others that came out years ago.

This is indeed a lot more motivating than the earlier Final Fantasy movie which is The Spirits Within.

… i’ll have more to say about this film since i’m resting for work … i’ll be editing this post tomorrow with something fruitful and insightful comments about the film.

–jic 009030MMV1647H

"Whale Rider"

Cast: Keisha Castle-Hughes, Rawiri Paratene, Vicky Haughton, Cliff Curtis, Grant Roa, Mana Taumaunu, Rachel House

O wow! So that’s how the New Zealand-ish English sounds like. I had to turn on the subtitles just to get what they are saying. Zealand English is pretty much different from Australian, i could still understand the latter. What really got me hooked to the English of New Zealand is that it uses some expressions that I myself, whether i’m in the Philippines or here in Canada, don’t really use or to say the least "not really familiar". OH THE COLLOQUIAL ENGLISHES!!! hahaha…

anyways, setting aside those invented terms…

I really am very interested with some traditions this country has where the activities that can only have men/boy participants and shows this discrimination towards women because of a certain stereotype that is included in the beliefs of the tradition. In this film, you’ll see some girl power hehehe.

It all starts when Porourangi’s (Curtis) wife gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl (which is Pai). Koro (Paratene) expects to see boy, but unfortunately, both the newly born baby boy died with his mother. Koro wants the boy because of a tradition in their Maori family that the position of "chief" or "prophet" of their village has to be passed to the first born… and yes, it has to be a male. Koro and Pai got very well together, Pai’s father Porourangi (who could become the next chief in line, unfortunately he couldn’t do his responsibilities) went to Germany and left his daughter. Pai cannot be the one who will lead, so Koro instituted a sacred school and enrolled all the first-born boys to see who will be the next chief to succeed him. Pai, despite being a girl and unqualified for the succession, still wanted to study under Koro. What answers Koro’s question leads to a design-carved whale tooth that he was wearing on his neck for a long time. sorry if i have to cut it there…

So let’s get it on!

The Plot is absolutely nice, thanks to the great novel where it was based (i never read it hehehe). It was written by a Maori native Sir Witi Ihimaera. The atmosphere of the film is right on! The setting from inside the Maori tribe temple to the seashore tells you the kind of tradition and belief this group of Maoris have which is mainly centred on the souls of the sea or some sore (another invented term).

The actors are incredible! I think this is Keisha’s biggest break, in my opinion, as an actress. She also played a role in Star Wars (i’m not fond of such movie so i’ll let you research which role she played… she’s better as Pai if you’d ask me). The Maori cast who even speaks the aboriginal dialect are tremendously inspirational especially for a linguistic like me who is now interested in learning Maori hehehe.

I haven’t made great judgements about the rest so i’ll just make ramblings. Good thing there’s the artifacts of the Maori traditions although related to the whales and the sea are still beautiful to look at with colours and designs that make me think about who my ancestors are. The feeling of being Maori is there, you see how they greet (not by shaking hands or hugging but by touching noses). The cultural fighting of the Maoris, they slightly look like martial arts. y’know having long sticks, but actually in this film, the fighting styles being used are sacred. The make-up! o yes! Keisha as i was implying looks great playing this role, she looks like a guy for some people. I don’t know if that’s just signifying a foreshadowing that Pai is going to challenge Koro’s search for a first-born male to become the next chief, and it was different when you watch it yet the consequences were the same hehehe… The rest of the cast, Cliff Curtis i think is quite remarkable from long hair in the beginning of the film to becoming a baldy, either way you know that he’s someone who wants to just keep himself from his obligations to his family and his blood. Now on some camshots, i kinda found a bit of irritation with the house (exterior) of the Apiranas (Pai, Koro & Nanny). I didn’t feel that they are distant enough from civilization. The house is quite too contemporarily built. Nature like the bushes and trees only saved the looks of that setting.

Sounds! Wow! listening to Maori is one, its like Hawaiian to tell you. But since New Zealand is a pacific country rather than near Australia and Asian, what would you expect from the language. The narration of Pai indeed is a very nice idea to create the mood of the story especially when the whales start jumping on the beaches near the Apirana’s. The music is phenomenal as well, i love listening to traditional, aborigine music. They seem to make my world glow with openness. That actually goes the same when i listen to traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, African, Arabian, Indian, European, Philippine Tribal, Latin American ballroom dances and folk music.

Well, to put it all together, "Whale Rider" is a very nice and heartwarming film and this has a message as well. It’s not the "give the girls some experience" ideal… but the thing is, no matter what, we have to treat each other equally and with reapect and acceptance. We have to acknowledge each other’s existence here on earth. Thinking too much about oneself is just like getting lesser chances of surviving and getting a place in the society, community, etc.

Recognitions:
2004 Academy Awards Nominee - for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Keisha Castle-Hughes)
2003 Audience Award - Rotterdam International Film Festival
2003 Audience Award - San Francisco International Film Festival
2003 Audience Award - Sundance Film Festival
2002 People’s Choice Award - Toronto International Film Festival
2003 Golden Space Needle Award both for Best Film & Best Director (Nick Caro) - Seattle International Film Festival

kk… next time, i’ll put up some neat Zhang Ziyi films for review, probably more foreign films, but you just watch out hehehehe…

–jic 006024MMV0136H

"Ong-Bak"

Cast: Tony Jaa, Petchthai Wongkamlao, Pumwaree Yodkamol, Rungrawee Borrijindakul,  Wannakit Siriput, Sukhaaw Phongwilai

OMG! The greatest adrenalin rush ever… with the exciting moves and stunts made by first time big time actor Tony Jaa, this film blew every KungFu and Martial Arts oriented films. That goes from Bruce Lee, to Jackie Chan… don’t even mention Jet Li and Zhang Ziyi hehehe… This film is absolutely the best Martial Arts film i’ve ever seen. Despite the very common story in these kinds of films, i never was bored because of the "body work". Tony Jaa performs great jumping skills through his phenomenal acrobatic skills… he jumps on tables and cars like a rubber ball during his chase scenes. and its so great seeing his well choreographed and trained muay thai moves on the fighting scenes. The thing very interesing about his style of fighting is what i always recall about him… he mostly uses elbows and knees which hurts a lot because of how its easy to swing them :).

A great success! It was shown in the Toronto Film Festival and it was showing in Toronto’s silverscreens. The story is all about the head of a buddha statue, which is called the OngBak was stolen film the little town in rural Thailand by a gambling group for selling them in exchange for big profits. It caused a great calamity in the village and Ai Ting is their only hope of getting the head back. He comes to an old friend who’s a native of the village Hum Lae and he went through plenty of things before he could get to the people who stole the head. Muay is a girl who’s HumLae’s friend in the gambling places… they work each other (yup cheating) to gain money from their little bets. When they met Ai Ting, Hum Lae wanted him to be in the boxing arena (a gambling place) so that they can earn money but Don, who stole OngBak was there, and that started them to go closer to the buddha statue.

The big downfall of this film is absolutely the plot for it is indeed like any other martial arts film where there are such lousy stories. the focus would be mostly on the action, but to tell you, the cinematography is absolutely fantastic. didn’t appeal that much in the beginning, but the feeling of intensity (i wanted frustration but i guess that’s a negative word to use) rose when Ai Ting went to the city. the brownness of the surroundings especially in the boxing ring and the streets at night, and even in the final place where Ai Ting fought, all of them made the surroundings quite hard to see in the eye, yet you know things are getting out of hand and it foreshadows the good stuff. the music is Thai-ish, that’s what i love in a purely cultural film, not too much of the modern music in the background except in the city.

overall, i bet people would love to see Tony Jaa’s hardships in this film. The most important thing is that eventhough the plot is kinda common to a lot of martial arts films, its getting more innovative with these ideas that may impress us viewers but which means a whole lot of sweat and blood to the good ol’ filmmakers…

–jic005025MMV1302H

"Friends" (TV Series: 4 episodes)

Cast: Fukada Kyoko, Won Bin, Yada Akiko, Toda Naho, Takeshita Keiko, Lee Dong-Gun, Han Hye-Jin, Ozawa Yukiyoshi, Doko Young-Jae, Sunwoo Eun-Sook

Wow! talking about great romance stories, this one’s the best of all asian dramas i’ve seen. unfortunately, i cannot categorize it under films because it was released as a television series aired both in Japan and South Korea.

The story starts in the busy part of HongKong where Ji Hoon (korean guy spending time in HongKong through the hospitality of his aunt) was shooting his own film, which he says to be his last one but his star quit because of him being stern… when Tomoko (who  was spending vacation in Hongkong from Japan and got snatched off her money) stumbled to him mistaking him as the one who robbed her money (same hats as the robber). Since Tomoko has no money (no hope hehehe), Ji Hoon  had to take care of her throughout her day in HongKong… in exchange, Tomoko has to be the star of Ji Hoon’s own film… and it was an unforgettable one… that’s where they started their good relationship as friends and even better as time passed…

I love the part on how they started everything in Hong Kong. Both of them have the same Chinese Characters in their names (of course Koreans do use Chinese Characters)…

but as the story develops, both become very inspired to work well and reach for their dreams (Tomoko - Learning Korean, Ji Hoon - pursuing movies)… plenty of conflicts happen and its all in the right track and as the watcher, mostly the music will make me feel the mood of the scene, but the acting and the great direction lead me to a greater level of inspiration in this 4 part series. how we remember very well the first time Tomoko and Ji Hoon met… to the people around them (the obstacles): sakamaki, hye-jin, kyung-ju, parents of ji hoon… we can see how sad it is for the two emerging lovers not seeing each other all because of korean and japanese values, another is hye-jin who have fallen for ji hoon for a long time, and many more. AWWW!!!

i think i got a headache…

breaking everything down…
the idea of a japanese girl and a korean guy as a love duet is really nice (damn! using cheesy filipino terms)… i like the music so much that everytime its being played, you could either cry or feel warm in the heart, its full of excitement when you listen to the music. when it comes to the characterization… Won Bin and Fukada Kyoko fits very well their roles and those goes with the whole cast. Hiroyasu Doi, as the japanese director… puts a sprinkle of the korean style drama to "Friends". the film treats us watchers so gently. its more of creating an excitingly lovely mood rather than seductive and sexual… i’ve seen japanese romance films as well and the j-filmmakers are really good in creating an atmosphere for their characters… y’know very 3-dimensional characters and the characterization of Ji Hoon and Tomoko are worked out by these japanese screenwriters very well.

anyways… i do not rate films, i just break them down… i love this film so much… its the film i’m going to look for in asian video stores.

–jic005024MMV2358H

Gee, i really felt so excited with my first night of Japanese Classes in a classroom setting.
I’m hoping to get this language along with Spanish, French, Korean and Mandarin all at the University Level (Spanish, French & Japanese are the ones i’m gonna focus for a while). I know my English is also at a higher level, no questions about that. But will my tagalog be left behind? I gotta read a lot of tagalog novels (NOT ROMANTIC POCKETBOOKS! hehehehe)

anyways, Japanese Classes was great, the professor is a native speaker herself. Katou-san looks pretty strict but since she knows how colleges work here in north america and i’m happy to see her do her best in teaching us. Oh yes… Ako lang yung nag-iisang pinoy, the rest were all Chinese-born… i think there were like 1 Jamaican, 1 Canadian, 1 Chinese-Canadian and 2 Koreans and 1 Filipino which is me hehehe.

Katou-san is not very fluent in english, but i think we do need a native speaker rather than someone who’s fluent in english and japanese at the same time, because i don’t want to mix up the context of english to the context in japanese. but i agree there are english fluent teachers that are fluent in japanese who can teach japanese very well. I already have memorized the hiragana and katakana scripts for so long and in this class, i have to start from the very beginning. I think i really needed formal classes to make me motivated myself in studying a language.

How’s my spanish? its still doing fine. i bought a grammar book the last time i went to the bookstore, and i found what i needed. I really was disappointed when my spanish prof didn’t explain further prepositions and i found them all in this Oxford published grammarbook.

anyways, my dream of learning languages is starting to become a reality despite having started 8 yrs ago yet couldn’t still understand a single word. I know at least to pronounce, but the grammar and cultural expressions are the ones i need to brace myself.

oh well, i’ll write more stuff. btw, the image contains the 46 hiragana characters.
またね。

–jic 005011MMV0843H

"Ichi The Killer"

Cast: Tadanobu Asano, Nao Omori, Shinya Tsukamoto, Paulyn Sun, Susumu Terajima, Toru Tezuka, Kee, Suzuki Matsuo, Jun Kunimura, Hiroyuki Tanaka

OUCH! I was almost puking at this film, but you know what? the experience is interesting. I guess its because of the idea of films manipulating the psyche of the watcher why i couldn’t stand watching it. Its full of gore and violence, masochism, sadism, you name the worst form of killing and its in this film. I wouldn’t recommend this film to anyone who has a great respect toward women and those who doesn’t have a good stomach. I realized for myself what really is sadism and masochism and i would never think and worry about it too much (i did dream about something like that and imagined a lot of it… so macabre, so disgusting even if its unreal) now that i saw it in films.

One thing i was a little disappointed was the consistency of sound. One is when Tachibana was speaking with Ichi (english and japanese lines) and its like some of her lines were being dubbed for clarity, omg, its a distraction.

I was very overwhelmed with all the props: all the blood, fake hands, fake heads and intestines, and internal organs they had to produce for the film. OhmyGOODNESS!!! if you’re up for the challenge, watch it. The way these gross film toys were laid out on the floor and splashed on the walls together with the colours that are very striking so that we could remember it… AAH! i admit they were effective, but still, its gross!

The plot is somewhat interesting with the gangster and stuff which is something common in japanese films (syndicates, yakuza etc.). i got bored with how it develops. The only thing that is being buried in my mind is that Ichi is very dangerous especially if he thinks he is being mistreated, HE’LL KILL YOU! how? he’ll slash you and cut you into pieces. OYES! SO GROSS! even the role Asano played (Kakihara who is said to be the dead leader of the Anjo syndicate group) is one heck of a masochist and sadist. One thing that drew me to this character is that in order for you to kill him, you have to make a feel for it, you have to put your heart to it.

either way, when someone will remind me of this film, its disgust that comes into my mind. yet it is still interesting through the psychological elements that the characters convey. it is very important in such a film like this, if they want to be successful… which is why i give my applause to the actors for doing so.

if you have forgotten yet, Tadanobu Asano is one of the actors in "Survive Style 5+" which i reviewed before as well as Hattori in the Internationally-acclaimed Takeshi Kitano film "Zatoichi".

now, how many times did i mention "gross"?

–jic 005011MMV0116H

"Please Teach Me English"

Cast:
Na-Young Lee, In-Mun Kim, Angela Kelly, Mun Hee-Na, Yeong-Ae Kim, Ju-Bong Choi, Hyeok Jang

Funny, romantic comedy. Couldn’t end my day without watching those. This is the first time i saw a Korean film that includes a foreigner in their cast. Angela Kelly’s an Australian i believe. Anyways, when it comes to characterization, Yeong-ju (aka Candy played by Young-Lee) is very well done. Plain, simple girl who’s working in public service, then got into studying English. When you see hair being done like that (2 pony tails with matching eyeglasses), at first i though that she’s pretty much the nerdy type, but i think she’s the conservative type instead.

Going on, Moon-Su (aka Elvis played by Hyeok Jang), is outrageously weird. When you think of this character, you’d think of what he always wear outside the house including in the English class: coat & tie. Has a story on why he wants to study English. Nonetheless, there’s no way you’d not show any sympathy from these comical characters.

The teacher Catherine Presley (yup she named Moon-Su "Elvis") is quite a hot teacher i admit. She’s perfect for the role because she’s not too much of the authoritarian teacher neither too lax as a teacher. You don’t see an old woman dating Elvis, neither would she be someone who’s younger looking and seductive woman, you get my drift. OH YES! she reminded me of the professors i have here in college here in Toronto… they’re absolutely nice chaps and they’d ask you to call them by their first names (that’s for YOU filipino professors hahaha).

The colour is very nice, i’m always happy to see that in a lot of Korean Films, they make scenes as vibrant as possible. The cinematography is great, you don’t get off too easily from the film. I watched very closely the story and of course the pace does go well.

overall, its a film you’d really love if you’re into romance/comedy, i’d cherish this film because of the issues being tackled there such as the challenges of non-English speakers in studying English as well as how the natives get along with foreigners. i have plenty of friends who had difficulty in learning English.

okay? gotta go!

–jic 005010MMV1008H

I’m planning on watching PingPong after this film but it was like 12AM. Anyways…

"Otakus
in Love"

Japan: Koi no Mon (恋の門)

Cast:
Ryuhei Matsuda, Wakana Sakai, Suzuki Matsyo, Kiyoshirô, Hijiri Kojima, Shin’ya
Tsukamoto

Intriguing
J-Film. otakus in love? been really sticking that in my mind before i could
even watch it. they’ve shown the interesting things about the lives of manga artists.
gee its hard! especially if you’re working for a company with deadlines to meet
and stuff. pretty magical… that’s what i wanted to say for the entire film.

first of all, the plot of the story is all about Mon and Koino (hmm how did we
get to that japanese title "Koi no Mon"? played both by Matsuda and
Sakai)… Both of them are artists. Koino on draws on paper, Mon draws on rocks (and he sells
them too hehehe). wacky film that involves cosplays, how the manga artists work
their stuff, etc. but this film involves relationship issues as well as Mon
being encouraged by Koino and the others to become a manga artist. Marimoda, a
retired manga artist once met with Koino who asked him to draw. But in
exchange, Koino has to give herself to Marimoda when Marimoda himself becomes successful. A contest from
a manga company was held and that gave way for Mon and Marimoda to fight for
Koino. anyways, too complicated, too vague for me to tell the rest… you get
the story since the title in english is "Otakus in Love".

i like this film so much. subjectively, i am really drawn to the drama of it. most especially the parts when Koino and Mon are being intimate. until when they slept together and stuff… no x-scenes bitches!

this film is wacky as a comedy film but very educational and insightful on the
lives of otakus… especially their love lives which i absolutely wanna see for
myself.

–jic 005010MMV0040H

"Kids Return"

Cast:
Ken Kaneko, Masanobu Ando, Leo Morimoto, Hatsuo Yamatani, Michisuke Kashiwaya, Yuuko Daike, Mitsuko Oka, Ryo Ishibashi, Susumu Terajima, Moro Morooka, Atsuki Ueda, Koichi Shigehisa

I’ve watched a later work of Kitano before this (i hope to give my thoughts about those other films). It seems that Kitano’s style throughout his films is evident especially on scoring the music. Its hard to find the purpose, but for me, it can be annoying as well. one scene seemed to be slow and the music on the background seems to ask us to wait for what’s gonna happen. its the same with another film that i watched.

Other than that, i love the story. Its all about two pals (Masaru & Shinji both played respectively by Kaneko and Ando) who recalls their younger years as delinquents in school. They grew up together and suddenly went to separate ways: Shinji becoming very devoted to boxing and Masaru becoming a member of Yakuza. Its a coming of age as these characters do change as different events happen in their lives. They sure looked like they were mature in the present time. One thing that drew my attention is the significance of the school uniform to other kinds of clothes. school uniform symbolizes the life being controlled by the strict laws of the school system. wearing ordinary clothes makes a feeling of vulnerability either life will be worse or better. Boxing gloves and coat and tie both represent where the two decided to go for in their lives but a very great deal of acceptance has to be considered because it seems that school was lost once Masaru and Shinji both went in to the Yakuza and on the ring respectively.

i absolutely feel a lot of frustration in some scenes of the film. I love seeing scenes where characters develop. but i rarely seen a comic relief in this film. not even the stand-up comedians made me laugh. the idea about the comedians in the film basically was that they are not supposed to be funny at all and they were desperate to get into such jobs.

i wanted to talk more, but all in all, it is a depressing yet indeed interesting film to watch.

–jic 005009MMV1953H

"Maria Full of Grace"

Cast:
Catalina Sandino Moreno, Yenny Paola Vega, Virgina Ariza, Johanna Andrea Mora, Wilson Guererro, Jhon Alex Toro, Guilied Lopez, Patricia Rae, Orlando Tobon, Fernando Velasquez, Jaime Osorio Gómez

Might as well put up a review for one of my fav films i’ve watched so far in a couple of times. This film is absolutely a great one, especially on the acting department. This is Catalina Sandino Moreno’s debut film and it won a couple of awards already in international festivals and this actress was even nominated in the Oscars. Very impressive eh?

The story takes place in Colombia where Maria is working in a flower plant dethorning roses. She had a problem with the supervisor leading her to quit her job. Later on we learn of her pregnancy to Juan, but Maria couldn’t marry him because he doesn’t love her. Continuing her quest of looking another job, she stumbles into a man named Franklin (Alex Toro) and got a job in shipping drugs to the US. and the story continues on as i go on to my reactions of the film…

Its a very interesting film. You get to know another method of shipping drugs… and its through making people like Maria swallow more than 50 big pellets the size of a grape, letting it inside their stomach until they arrive in the place where they intend to ship it… i am WARNING PARENTS that THIS FILM IS NOT FOR KIDS! for i can see how true the actress does it as if she’s doing the job. You will really feel awful as you see one pellet go through the throat.

what’s nice about the film is the script. i’m studying spanish and despite fast and articulate tongues, they are very understandable. the scriptwriter did a very good job in selecting the words (well the translator who did the subbing did…) and the actors especially sandino moreno coveyed those words very effectively automatically with the emotions that goes with it. you feel like "yeah speak up those convincing words to make those villains shut up!" and stuff.

absolutely a great film!

Recognitions:
2004 Sundance Film Festival - Audience Award (Dramatic Competition)
2004 Berlin Film Festival - Silver Bear (Best Actress): Catalina Sandino Moreno
2004 Academy Award Nominee for Best Actress in a Leading Role

–jic 005005MMV1607H