123. MOVIE MAGIC - I WATCH AT LEAST 1 MOVIE A WEEK

26 Oct 2020

MOVIE MAGIC. love it!

i'm a film student. 

i try to watch at least 1 movie a week.

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today, i finally got to watch 2001 Space Odyssey written & directed by Stanley Kubrick. 

the movie is stunning & beautiful, 

the soundtrack and silence can be haunting... 

the science, technology & theories make sense... 

but the pace is, well, quite difficult Lol.

i read that people at the cinemas had walked out by intermission (in 1968) LOL

yet, based on wiki, the film is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential films ever made. In 1991, it was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

my favourite shots...

below: significant scene - they observe a monolith, of alien origin,

discovered on the moon, it seems that it had been on the moon for about 4mil years.

below: zero gravity toilet and all the instructions Lol

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bbc article below:

bbc - https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180404-why-2001-a-space-odyssey-remains-a-mystery

"Much of 2001: A Space Odyssey is baffling – Kubrick likened the film to a painting or a piece of music" & "If Kubrick hadn’t wanted us to laugh, he wouldn’t have focused on a “zero-gravity toilet" ."

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Wikipedia article below: 

Wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_(film)

Kubrick told Clarke he wanted to make a film about "Man's relationship to the universe", and was, in Clarke's words, "determined to create a work of art which would arouse the emotions of wonder, awe ... even, if appropriate, terror".

In the end, Clarke and Kubrick wrote parts of the novel and screenplay simultaneously, with the film version being released before the book version was published. Clarke opted for clearer explanations of the mysterious monolith and Star Gate in the novel; Kubrick made the film more cryptic by minimising dialogue and explanation. Kubrick said the film is "basically a visual, nonverbal experience" that "hits the viewer at an inner level of consciousness, just as music does, or painting." ... 

(scriptwriting stage) Kubrick made further changes to make the film more nonverbal, to communicate on a visual and visceral level rather than through conventional narrative. By the time shooting began, Kubrick had removed much of the dialogue and narration. Long periods without dialogue permeate the film: the film has no dialogue for roughly the first and last twenty minutes, as well as for the 10 minutes from Floyd's Moonbus landing near the monolith until Poole watches a BBC newscast on Discovery. What dialogue remains is notable for its banality (making the computer HAL seem to have more emotion than the humans) when juxtaposed with the epic space scenes. Vincent LoBrutto wrote that Clarke's novel has its own "strong narrative structure" and precision, while the narrative of the film remains symbolic, in accord with Kubrick's final intentions. 

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Movies Watched in 2019-2020 (lost track)

Re-started this list 26 Oct 2020

1. Her (2013) - written & directed by Spike Jonze - the film follows Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix), a man who develops a relationship with Samantha (Scarlett Johansson), an artificially intelligent virtual assistant personified through a female voice. The film also stars Amy Adams, Rooney Mara, Olivia Wilde, and Chris Pratt

2. 2001 Space Odyssey (1968) - written by stanley kubrick (director) and arthur c clarke

3. The Discovery (2017) - stars robert redford - a man returns home to convince his dad (redford) to stop his lifetime research about the afterlife because their research findings cause millions of suicide deaths worldwide. On his way there, he meets and falls in love with a troubled woman, Isla.

4. Lean on Pete (2017) - troubled boy steals a racehorse to prevent it from being killed

5. The Usual Suspects (1995) - gabriel byrne, kevin spacey

6. American Beauty (1999) - kevin spacey

7. Inglorious Basterds (2009) - Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt

8. The bucket list (2007) - jack nicholson, morgan freeman

9. The Terminal (2004) - steven spielberg, tom hanks, based on a true story

10. 6 Underground (2019) - Ryan Renolds

11. Extraction (2020) - Chris Hemsworth

12. Old Guard (2020) - Charlize Theron - immortality

13. Close (2019) - woman body guard protects a teenager

14. Bird Box (2018)

15. The Quiet Place (2018)

16. Black Summer, TV Series, 8 eps (2019) - prelude to Z Nation

17. #Alive (Korean, 2020)

18. Kingdom - Korean, Season 1, 6 eps (2019) & Season 2, 6 eps (2020)

19. Peninsula (2020) - Train to Busan 2

20. The 100, TV Series, 7 seasons (2014-2020) - 100 teens are sent to earth after the human race had spent 97 years in space after a nuclear disaster

21. John Wick 1,2,3,4

22. Ready Player One

23. Catch me if you can (2002) - leonardo dicaprio, tom hanks, christopher walkins

24. Resident Evil 1,2,3,4,5,6

Resident Evil - Final Chapter (2016)

25. Twilight, 5 movies, 2008-2012

26. How it Ends (2018) - volcanic disaster movie

27. The Book of Eli (2010)

28. The Hangover 1,2,3

29. Out of Africa (did not watch all, netflix ended the screening)

30. The Beach

31. Marriage Story (2019) - Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver

32. The Meg (2018) - killer shark

33. I not stupid 1 (2002) & i not stupid 2 (2006) - jack neo

34. ilo ilo (2013) - anthony chen

35. 12 storeys (1997) - eric khoo

36. mee pok man (1995) - eric khoo

Watched Again

1. the breakfast club

2. scent of a woman

3. 12 storeys

Mainland China Movies Watched 2020 (maybe in 2019)

These first 3 films were recommended by my new students, 

the 4th film is my recommendation for them:

1. 一个陌生女人的来信 (2004)

2. Hello!树先生 (2011) 

3. 落叶归根 (2007) 

4. 后来的我们 (2018) 

5. 非诚勿扰 (2008) 

6. 驴得水 (2016) 

7. 失恋33天 (2011)

8. 大唐玄奘 (2016)

9. 花木兰 (Chinese Production - 2009 & 2020)

10. 流浪地球 (The Wandering Earth, Sci fi, 2019)

1. Letter from An Unknown Woman (2004)

2. Hello Mr Tree (2011)

3. Getting Home (2007)

4. Us and Them (2018)

5. If You Are the One (2008)

6. Mr Donkey (2016)

7. Love is not blind (2011)

8. Xuan Zang or Dà Táng Xuánzàng (2016)

9. Matchless Mulan (2020) & 

Mulan: Rise of a Warrior or Legendary Warrior (2009)

10. The Wandering Earth (Sci-Fi, 2019)

K-DRAMA Watched 2019-2020

Korean Dramas:

- my lovely girl (2014)

- goblin* (2016)

- a korean odyssey* (2017)

- coffee prince (2007)

- oh my ghost (2015)

- love alarm (2019)

- memories of Alhambra* (2018)

- my sassy girl (movie, 2001)

- he was cool (movie, 2004)

- romance of their own (movie, 2004)

- seducing mr perfect (movie 2006)

K-Dramas watched in 2020 - highly rated or award-winning...

- Kingdom 1 & 2* (2019-2020)

- my love from the star* (2013)

- crash landing on you (2020 saw ep 1,2 & final ep)

- boys over flowers* (2009)

- secret garden* (2010)

- she was pretty* (2015)

- itaewon class* (2020)

- the Heirs or Inheritors* (2013)

- Mr Sunshine* (2018)

- reply 1988 (2015 - 2016)

- Iris (2009)

- Kingdom - Season 1, 6 eps (2019) & Season 2, 6 eps (2020)

- Descendants of the Sun (2016)

- My Golden Life (2017) - 52 eps!

also watched Anime & Animated Movies

- Assassination Classroom S1, S2 (2015)

- Spirited Away (2001)

- My neighbour Totoro (1988)

- The Cat Returns (2002)

- Princess Kaguya (2013)

- Princess Mononoke (1997)

- Kiki’s delivery service (1989)

- Ponyo (2008)

---------------------------end of list for 2019-2020 --------------------------

---------------------------end of list for 2019-2020 --------------------------

Movies Watched in 2018

1. harry potter 1-6

2. pirates #6 - sold compass

3. monster university

4. colossal 2016 - anne hathaway

5. korean odessey tv drama 2018 20eps

6. the last jedi

7. logan

8. billy lynn’s long halftime walk (war heroes come home and realize…) - ang lee dir

9. hello my name is doris - sally field

10. black site delta - a group of military prisoners fight terrorist when their prison is taken over by mercenaries stealing a nuclear bomb carried by a drone

11. resident evil - last chapter etc

12. the girl with all the gifts - hybrid human-zombie children used for research to find cure - glenn close

13. born to dance (last scene like dirty dancing!)

14. the sisterhood of the travelling pants 1&2

15. me before you

16. kubo and the 2 strings

17. bourne legacy

18. wind river 2017 - jeremy renner - fbi and park tracker solve murder of red indian teenager

19. the hundred foot journey - indian family set up a restaurant opp a french michelin star restaurant and conflict occurs

20. docu - walking the himalayas, ep4 of 5 - after car accident, he goes back to crash site and continues journey to bhutan

21. romeo must die, 2000 - jet li

22. a mother’s prayer - linda hamilton - plays a mother dying of aids, looks for ppl to adopt 8 yr old son - based on true story

23. temple grandin - autistic girl

24. no country for old men (very gd!)

25. anon - sci fi thriller - written/directed by andrew niccol (also wrote gattaca, truman show, in time) - in a world where each person’s life is recorded on video, police look for a hacker who murders 

26. i am a hero (japanese) 2015 - zombie (called zqn) story based on manga comics

27. old boy - american movie based on south korean movie of same name - drunk man gets kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years afterwhich he is released for 5 days to look for answers

28. man on fire 2004 - denzel washington, dakota fanning, marc anthony, christopher walken, mickey rourke

29. heart blackened 2017 - korean crime/court case - remake of silent witness 2003 by chinese cast & director - tycoon father staged false evidence to hide daughter’s crime - she killed his celeb fiance

30. 
    

watched again (2018)

1. Spare Parts - troubled hispanic kids work together with a teacher to join a national robotic contest to beat the MIT team- jamie lee curtis, marissa tomei

2. proof of life - russell crowe, meg ryan, david morse

3. gladiator - russell crowe

4. the others, 2001 - nicole kidman

5. the sixth sense 1999 - bruce willis, 

6. crazy stupid love

7. starship troopers

8. transformers

local/asian films for case study

1. pa by sabrina poon https://youtu.be/WtwpzaWEGjQ

2. kid from big apple

3. drive (taxi driver)

4. mr bench http://vimeo.com/user11628695/mrbench

5. 
   

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Movies Watched in 2017

Title / Info	Synopsis
1. He was Cool, 2004 South Korean, Teen, based on the same-titled 2001 Internet novel written by Guiyeoni	The story is about a cheerful high school student named Han Ye-won (Jung Da-bin). She is a sweet, clumsy and warm girl. On the other hand, there is Ji Eun-sung (Song Seung-heon), a student from a vocational school and a well-known bully. He is hot-tempered and rude but deep inside he longs to be loved.
2. Romance of their own, 2004 also known as Temptation of the Wolves South Korean, Teen, directed by Kim Tae-kyun, and based on a novel of the same name by Internet author Guiyeoni. Nominated x4, best new actor and best new actress	the film is about an average high school girl who moves from the countryside to Seoul after her father's death only to become involved in a love triangle with the two most handsome and popular guys in town.
3. My wife is a gangster, 2001 South Korean	it's about a female gang boss who needs to get married to fulfill her dying sister's wishes.
4. Shanghai calling, 2012 American romantic-comedy film written and directed by Daniel Hsia and produced by Janet Yang. Starring Daniel Henney, Eliza Coupe, and Bill Paxton, Shanghai Calling is a story about a group of Americans who find themselves immigrants in a foreign country. Awards - best actor, best new director, outstanding first feature film, best screenwriting award	Sam Chao (Daniel Henney), an ambitious New York attorney, is sent to his law firm's Shanghai office to close an important deal. Things go disastrously wrong and he finds his career in jeopardy. With the help of his beautiful relocation specialist Amanda Wilson (Eliza Coupe), fast food executive Donald Cafferty (Bill Paxton), and his local colleagues, Sam just might be able to save his job and learn to appreciate the wonders that Shanghai has to offer.
5. Seducing Mr Perfect, 2006 Also known as Seducing Mr Robin	Min-june (Uhm Jung-hwa) is a believer in true love and always very dedicated to her current boyfriend. However, men always break up with her - her latest boyfriend ends their relationship on his birthday. Distracted by the latest break-up, she bumps into a car and a man steps out of it - who turns out to be her new boss, Robin Heiden (Daniel Henney). Heiden has very clear ideas about a relationship and love: both are a game of power and Min-june seeks advice from him, as she doesn't want to get dumped again. However, when she starts to treat men like Heiden treats women, she realizes that she prefers her older behavior, even if that means that she gets dumped again; she doesn't see love as a game of power and never will. Heiden, who has to deal with his own heartbreak, as he loved a woman so much that she had to shoot him to get the message across that she wasn't interested in him, starts to soften at Min-june's attitude towards life. He eventually falls in love with her and both get into a real relationship and a happy ending of their own. Finally, Instead of trying to make her understand that love is a game of power, he learnt from her that it is the purest language of hearts; no need of rehearsals, judgements, hidings at all.
6. Goblin, 2016/2017 South Korean, drama serial, 18 eps, romance/fantasy Guardian: The Lonely and Great God (Hangul: 도깨비; RR: Dokkaebi; lit. Goblin) is a South Korean television series starring Gong Yoo, Kim Go-eun, Lee Dong-wook, Yoo In-na, and Yook Sung-jae. It aired on cable network tvN every Friday and Saturday at 20:00 starting December 2, 2016 until January 21, 2017. Its final episode recorded an 18.68% nationwide audience share making it the second highest rated drama in Korean cable television history, behind Reply 1988.	Kim Shin (Gong Yoo) is an immortal goblin (Dokkaebi 도깨비) and protector of souls. He lives with an amnesiac grim reaper (Jeoseung-saja 저승사자) (Lee Dong-wook). who is in charge of taking deceased souls. Together, they see the dead off into the afterlife. One day Kim Shin meets a girl, Ji Eun-tak (Kim Go-eun), who has a special ability to see ghosts, and is destined to be his bride and return him to ashes.
7. Young and Dangerous 1,2,3 1995, 1996, 1996	Group of teens join a notorious gangster family after being bullied at the neighbourhood playground
8. 100 pound beauty 2006 The film was a critical and commercial success. It was the third best-selling domestic film of 2009 with 6,619,498 admissions nationwide, grossing US$42,013,016. 200 Pounds Beauty also received several awards and nominations, including Best Actress for Kim Ah-joong at the 2007 Grand Bell Awards.	It is based on the Japanese manga Kanna's Big Success! (カンナさん大成功です! Kanna-san Daiseikou Desu!?) by Yumiko Suzuki about an overweight ghost singer who undergoes intensive plastic surgery to become a pop sensation.
9. How to be single Dakota johnson, rebel wilson,	A group of young adults navigate love and relationships in New York City.
10. Salt Spy/Action/Thriller, Angelina Jolie Originally written with a male protagonist, with Tom Cruise initially secured for the lead, the script was ultimately rewritten by Brian Helgeland for Jolie.	Salt is a 2010 American action thriller film directed by Phillip Noyce, written by Kurt Wimmer, and starring Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Daniel Olbrychski, August Diehl and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Jolie plays Evelyn Salt, who is accused of being a Russian sleeper agent and goes on the run to try to clear her name.
11. Love for Sale South Korean, Sci fi, futuristic thriller, 45min Gang Dong Won also in Tempatation of Wolves ( a love of their own)	Set in the future, when buying and selling memory is common, a man (played by Gang Dong-Won) attempts to retrieve his memory of lost love and his ex girlfriend (played by Song Hye-Kyo).
12. Passengers Jennifer lawrence, chris pratt	Chris gets woken up after an asteroid his the space ship and realizes that he’s woken up 90 years before he can reach his destination.
13. The great wall Matt damon, director zhang yimou	A westerner searching for gun powder discovers the reason behind the great wall - it was built to keep creatures out - these hard to kill creatures try to invade the cities every 60 years .
14. Rogue one	Star wars series - how they got the map of the death star to the rebels so that they know how to destroy the death star
15. The Arrival The film grossed $197 million worldwide and received critical acclaim, particularly for its atmosphere, intelligent science fiction storyline, and Adams's performance.	When twelve mysterious spacecraft appear around the world, linguistics professor Louise Banks is tasked with interpreting the language of the apparent alien visitors.
16. Leon the Professional Luc Besson dir, jean reno, Natalie Portman	Leon, the assassin, rescues and teaches 12 year old Mathilda his trade and helps her to take revenge on DEA drug officers who had killed her whole family
17. Beauty and the Beast Emma stone
18.	花木兰

18. jason bourne

19. triple X #2 (with donnie yen)

20. Dr Strange

21. Suicide squad

22. deadpool

23. Independence day2

24. avengers civil war

25. spiderman homecoming

26. a dog’s purpose

27. Ms periguine’s home for peculiar children

28. Fantastic beasts and where to find them

29. Finding Dory

30. Lego Batman

31. slumdog millionaire

32. gi joe - rise of cobra

33. Tempted - A married woman (Virginia Madsen) becomes attracted to a young man (Jason Momoa) after she takes the ashes of her nanny to Hawaii.

34. tag (japanese) - girl runs thru alternate worlds and sees her friends brutally killed in these worlds. A woman is cast adrift into an increasingly bizarre set of alternate realities in which each scenario ends in bloody carnage. Based on: Riaru Onigokko; by Yusuke Yamada

35. unknown - liam neeson, aidan quinn - man wakes up from an accident and finds out that his current identity is a cover for a terrorist attack (which is a cover to steal a professor’s technology)

36. Sicario - Sicario (Spanish: "Hitman") is a 2015 American crime-thriller film directed by Denis Villeneuve, written by Taylor Sheridan and starring Emily Blunt, Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin and Victor Garber. The film follows a principled FBI agent who is enlisted by a government task force to bring down the leader of a powerful and brutal Mexican drug cartel.

37. 1 mile to you (2017) - boy loses friends and gf in school bus accident, gets over his grief by running

38. The Brave One 2007 - jodie foster - radio dj turns vigilante and seeks revenge on the people who murdered her fiance and hurt her while robbing them at the park one night

39. Pitch Perfect 1

40. The Transporter Refueled

41. Duma 2005 (very good movie!!) - Xan takes a journey to bring his cheetah Duma home to the Serengeti

42. The Lovely Bones 2009 - peter jackson, mark wahlberg, rachel weiz, stanley tucci, susan sarandon - based on a book written 2002 - 14 yr old suzie brutally murdered by neighbour, overlooks family struggling to heal after her death

43. hereafter - matt damon, directed by clint eastwood, ep spielberg - after death experiences he is able to connect with the dead. a construction worker (matt damon), french journalist who was momentarily dead in the 2004 tsunami, a boy marcus who lost his twin brother had a glimpse of death/afterlife - they connect with each other.

44. spiderwick chronicles - nick nolte, andrew mcarthy, mary louise parker - children kill goblins who want the book

45. the Humanity Bureau, nov 2017 - nicholas cage - year 2030 canadian dystopian sci fi - noah, a case worker, lives in a world with economic recession and serious environmental problems - he helps a mother and son escape genocide by govt that kills whoever is deemed unproductive and expendable - he also wants to expose the truth about the bureau’s secrets

46. Mayhem (2017) - action horror comedy - derek cho ( steven yeun, guy who plays glenn in walking dead) is framed by a co worker and wrongfully fired on the same day that an airborne virus breaks out in his corporate office. trapped in the quarantined building, he must fight not only for his job but for his life. 

47. Lady Bloodfight (2017) - a blonde girl gets recruited by a wudang champion to fight in a kumite tournament

48. Hidden Figures (2016)

Hidden Figures is a 2016 American biographical drama film directed by Theodore Melfi and written by Melfi and Allison Schroeder, based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly about black female mathematicians who worked at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) during the Space Race. The film stars Taraji P. Henson as Katherine Johnson, a mathematician who calculated flight trajectories for Project Mercury and other missions. The film also features Octavia Spencer as NASA supervisor Dorothy Vaughan and Janelle Monáe as NASA engineer Mary Jackson, with Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst, Jim Parsons, Glen Powell, and Mahershala Ali in supporting roles.

49. Jumanji 2 (2017) 4 kids play jumanji while in detention and get sucked into the game

50. Alice - through the looking glass (2) -

Alice uses a time travel machine to save the mad hatter

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peony lantern 1968 - satsuo yamamoto - man falls in love with a ghost woman

watched again 2017 (partial)

saving private ryan

forest gump

Elysium

Shall we dance 1996, japanese

Hackers

Movies Watched in 2016

Title / Info	Synopsis
1. Poongsan, 2011 (South Korean, Thriller/ Romance, post war)  Indie, low budget film	Poongsan, whose real name is never revealed, is a mysterious messenger who crosses the demarcation line between the two Koreas, delivering letters and cherished heirlooms between separated families in Seoul and Pyongyang. One day he is commissioned by South Korean government agents with the task of smuggling in In-ok, the beautiful lover of a high-ranking North Korean defector, into the South. Yet things take an unexpected turn when the deliveryman falls for the young woman, but their romance is put in jeopardy by the obstacles they encounter.
2. House of Flying Daggers, 2004 Director Zhang Yimou Starring Zhang Ziyi, Andy Lau, Takeshi	Kaneshiro. Unlike other wuxia films, it is more of a love story than purely a martial arts film.
3. My lovely/loveable girl (South Korean, Drama Serial, 20 eps, starring Rain, Crystal, Kim Tae Woo
4. Love Comes Softly 2003 (Saga,10 movies) Hallmark, Christian, starring Katherine Heigl
5. Train to Busan, 2016 South Korea, Zombie movie	Father and daughter struggle to survive from a zombie problem on a train to pusan
6. In the Mood for Love and 7. Fallen Angels Wong Kar Wai
Hallmark tele movies
Finding Dory
Godfather 1 & 2
Kill bill vol 1 & 2
kid from big apple (malaysian movie)