Crying For Love, In The Center Of The World 世界の中心で、愛をさけぶ

Watched Crying For Love, In The Center Of The World 世界の中心で、愛をさけぶ couple of nights ago with family. I have heard many good things about it, like how this film how successful this film is in Japan last year and how it became a pop-culture phenomenom. Also, director Yukisada Isao's previous feature, GO was pretty incredible.

So, yes, based on the plot, this movie SHOULD reek of melodrama and manipulative tear-jerking you see all the time in Korean dramas. You know, the ones where the girl suffers from terminal illness, and how her poor boyfriend has to cope with this, and how their pure and strong love triumphs over everything in the very end.

I just saw REVENGE OF THE SITH for the 3rd time...

Family (parents+little sis+grandmother) came to Perth to visit me, so didn't really have much time to go online.

Can't believe I saw Star Wars 3 for the third time two nights ago. Went to the cinemas with dad and little sis, they were going to see SW3, I was planning to see Madagascar... only to realize that it ain't actually showing. The other choice I had was Wedding Date, soooooo, I had to choose between some B-list chick flick, or Star Wars 3 for the third time... I ended up going for the latter.

(The only movies I've bothered to see three times in the cinemas in recent memories were the first two Lord of the Rings movies. But the third viewings came during the LoTR Marathon I went through for the premiere of Return of the King, and the third viewing of the Fellowship of the Ring's extended version in the cinema came after I've watched it NUMEROUS TIMES on DVD)

Still a fine flick (especially after the Mace Windu vs Palpatine fight). Though the question my dad asked after the movie ended is same like what I've been discussing with some of my friends after seeing the film during the two previous times.

"How did he sever both the legs AND an arm with one swing?"

Attempted to write something in Chinese two nights ago, let a friend of mine proof-read it for me just now. I might put it up on my site sometime soon. But hopefully after someone has turned it into a short flash animation or something.

On a funnier note, my little sister told me that she found out her IQ was around 120 after taking this IQ test, so I told her that she was less than average because the 'average IQ for everyone is 150). Poor girl ended up believing that she had a less-than-average IQ for the next few days.

Final Thoughts On My Recently Completed Short Film, 'Forced Labour'.

Okay, I've just finished burning DVDs of 'Forced Labour' (my short film) a week ago, and I've also sent my submission to the Euganea Movie Movement 2005, a film festival in Italy couple of days ago. And now that my parents, my little sister and my grandma have seen it, I think it's time for me to give my second feature a proper send-off, and my thoughts regarding the entire experience. (my speech during the celebration party back then was too short)

Here's a summary of the 'Forced Labour', to those who don't know yet:

Conversation with a Star Wars (original trilogy) virgin (or dumbass)

Yeah baby, I've just returned from the second viewing of Revenge of The Sith. Still an entertaining movie. Not entirely perfect, but a movie worthy of my enthusiasm and recommendation.

What I've forgot to mention in my previous entry was the fantastic performance of Ian Mcdiarmid as Emperor Palpatine. My my, what he gave was quite truly, an award-worthy performance. If anyone in SW3's going to get nominated for next year's Oscars, he has a good chance (but highly unlikely *sigh*). So yeah, you people can say all you want about Anakin Skywalker, Yoda, Obi-Wan, but to me, the Emperor's by far the coolest character in the movie. Even one as manly as I would sway to the Dark Side immediately if I am convinced by him. Long live the Emperor.

(In the past, I always thought that the Emperor was pathetic, since he couldn't even kill Luke with his lightning powers in Return of the Jedi despite zapping the bloke for more than ten minutes. Of course, it occurred to me that he was TORTURING Luke, not attempting to kill him.)

Oh, and here's a conversation I had with a supposed 'film student' (some random guy introduced to me by a friend of mine) in cafetaria of my university today that left me very much perplexed.

Stars Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith + my flatmate Duane Semini is the best!

"So this is how liberty dies... to thunderous applause." - Padme Amidala

**THIS CONTAINS MINOR STAR WARS EPISODE 3 SPOILERS, BUT IF YOU ARE WELL-VERSED IN STAR WARS LORE, THEY AREN'T REALLY SPOILERS**

Yup, I've just came back from Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith moments ago. It was unexpected, I had the greatest flatmate in the world, and when I ran into him in university this afternoon, he handed a ticket to me for tonight. How much cooler can a flatmate be? Who else can wrestle the 'Flatmate of the Year' award from him when he's such a great and honourable man? He rocks, man! He is the greatest flatmate in the world!! Oh, wait, I'm repeating myself.

Remember how I was talking about Star Wars few entries ago?

Bidding Farewell To Reggie Miller, NBA Legend

Reggie Miller, NBA's all-time leader in 3-pointers made, the greatest Indiana Pacers player ever, the best clutch shooter ever (I never really witnessed any of his heroics against the Knicks, but I can still remember vividly the three-pointer he made from the half-court in 2002's Game 7 against the NJ Nets to force overtime, that was nuts), will be retiring.

He was one of the earlier NBA players I could remember when I started watching NBA back in 1993, along with Jordan, Shaq and Barkley. I could still remember how I've always wanted to imitate his shooting form when I started playing basketball back when I was a kid. And now that he's gone, things will not be the same again. *sigh*

See ya, Uncle Reggie.

Star Wars Episode 3. Playstation 3.

Well, what can I say? The entire world's gripped by Star Wars fever, and I was seriously naive back then to think that I would actually stand a chance in getting a ticket without making advance bookings. I ended up not going for the movie cos' most of my friends are busy today, and I'm still busy burning 'Forced Labour' DVDs (that's the title of the short film I've just made, to those who had just started reading my blog).

After watching the news, I realized that there's no way I'll be able to watch Episode 3 at all during these few days since there are shitloads of people who had set up camp outside the theaters. Damn, there are even some chicks who were wearing that Princess Leia bikini slave outfit too. Argh, should've made some reservations last month.

Pondering The Future Of My Film Career

I am still attempting to burn 'Forced Labour' onto a DVD so that I can submit it to various (obscure) European film festivals out there. Despite the fact that this short film's been completed, I think this is just the beginning of everything. I will now see how it will fare in festivals, competitions and such. ('Forced Labour' probably has a better chance in Europe and Asia, I think, though I might still submit it to some Australian film festivals if possible)

Even so, I'm already making preparations for my next film project, which will be a more intimate, sentimental piece that will take a much shorter time to complete (since there will only be two people in the cast). But that is something I'll think about when study break arrives. I'm in the last three weeks of the semester, two of my three main university assignments have been submitted, so I gotta concentrate on the last one too.

'A Boring Story' Returns!

Yes! I've finally uploaded 'A Boring Story' onto my site, the 5-minute short film I made last year for a competition.

Feel free to view it

Retiring soon from fanfiction. Planning next short film projects.

Seriously, this blog of mine deserves more updating. After all, how could a soon-to-be legendary filmmaker like yours truly ignore his blog like this? But then, I've never really been the type who writes diaries.

FORCED LABOUR done, picking up the pieces of my life.

Many things have happened. Forced Labour's complete, I've just finished making an 'outtakes' feature for the upcoming DVD, and also, I threw a party to celebrate the completion of this movie two nights ago.

Besides that, trailers of 'Forced Labour' are available at http://www.swiftyworks.com

I'm currently suffering from post-creativity depression. Feeling kinda empty that I ain't doing anything anymore after working on the short film for more than 2 months.

Uuuurgh.