More monochromania...

Stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Tim Allen, Alice Braga, Emily Mortimer, and written and directed by David Mamet. It is easily among the awe-inspiring items in my pirate collection, along with movies such as Eastern Promises, Fargo, Lost in Translation, Match Point, Se7en, The Departed, There Will be Blood. It is poised to impress ringside fans and plot nitpickers alike. In my opinion, the movie is very reminiscent of the darker, more current films of Woody Allen, especially as regards precision and simplicity of details relating to its story. The big difference lies in its moral-inspired conclusion, against grim, grey-to-dark endings for movies like Cassandra's Dream, Match Point, and half of Melinda and Melinda. I also love that it is not crowded with too many subplots, but not too bland in its dramatic buildup. Overall, it is a movie that I could not pause, even as I watched it for the second time. It's just that good.

There is, however, one question that this movie raised in my mind. What must a person do to earn a red belt in martial arts? The puzzle is attached to the title, but either Mamet wasn't too hell bent on leaving the answer anywhere in the movie, or I have extremely poor English comprehension and failed to catch it.

Written and Directed by Woody Allen

This is a movie that showcases Woody Allen as he delves deep into the dark corners of the human mind. Many critics compare this to his fine 2005 work with a similar setting and a similarly dark theme, Match Point, and most end up referring to Cassandra's Dream as inferior to it.

For me, the enjoyment of watching a movie comes not entirely from the idea that the work was made by a legend. If you watch a current release by a great filmmaker of whom you are a fan, expecting the same storytelling style, chances are, you will play the images of his old reels over and over in your mind, keeping yourself from focusing on his current work and taking it at face value. But if you do in fact set aside the comparisons and just sit back and watch, you might actually get your two hours' worth.

This movie is not like any of his old movies, not even like Match Point. This is a study of ordinary people and their attempts at taking on extraordinary things. It's as real as it gets, so real that Allen didn't bother to sneak in big words or money dialogues to make his characters as intellectual as the crowd favorites from his old rom-coms. Still, Allen kept his focus on capturing the ordinary things, and spinning them into interesting enough storylines for the entertainment of the savvy, critical crowd that have gathered together throughout his golden career years of sheer laughter.

It's not earth-shatteringly good, but it's good. And its story will resonate in your thoughts. That's at least an indication that the Woody Allen trademark hasn't worn out.

I saw this for the second time today, after so many years have passed since I last saw it, and I'm glad I did.



Towards the ending, when John Coffey was asked what he wanted before he died, he asked to watch a romantic movie. I thought it was one of the most moving moments in cinema. I got up from my seat and cried hard as Coffey delighted himself watching Fred Astaire sing to Ginger Rogers in Top Hat.


Heaven
I'm in heaven
And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak
And I seem to find the happiness I seek
When we're out together dancing cheek to cheek

When the movie ended, I took a few moments to ponder the reasons why I cried. The movie that Coffey enjoyed was romantic, while the real movie that he witnessed was unenjoyably tragic. It was a powerful juxtaposition of two dramatic ironies of life that moved me to the edge of my seat. Some characters live their lives experiencing all bad things, and never really getting a break from it to experience good things. Coffey lived his whole life seeing the bad in people, and he was tired of it all. Oddly enough, he found redemption from all the miseries and evil of his world in death. His endless string of pain was so highlighted in that moment that he watched Top Hat, in that, he's been through so many sad things, that the happiest experience to end his misery was as basic and simple as watching an old movie.

Kind of makes me thankful that I am where I am. So many people live their whole lives without having seen a single good movie, or slept comfortably, or tasted a good meal. I get to watch at least 2 movies a week. I have a roof over my head. I eat complete nourishing meals at least 3 times a day. I can go on and on, and this kind of thinking can really get old. But that's exactly the idea, one can easily lose grip of the basic things, in their constant search of the bigger, better things. But if they look closely, they'll find that they've got more than many other people ever really have their whole lives.

I know it's gotten sappy. But touching movies usually have that effect on me.

I finally got the chance to watch Infernal Affairs, a Hong Kong-based crime thriller about two cops standing on opposite sides of the law. One is a dirty gangster posing as a mole in the police force. The other is an undercover cop posing as a Triad member. The story follows the intertwined lives of the two characters as one is determined to find and rat out the other in order to gain advantage and save himself.

I have been a fan of Martin Scorcese's The Departed before I saw this film, and my coworker loaned me a copy of this DVD to test my preference among both films. The hard thing about trusting a Hollywood remake of films is in its lack of originality. What more does Hollywood want to do with a film that is already brilliantly made? This was probably one of the questions swimming in my friend's mind as he awaited my response on watching the original Chinese version of the film.

I am a sucker for brilliant photography. Just give me a row of impressive images and I'm all eyes. This is one of the strongest points of Infernal Affairs. Another thing I love about this original is in the simplicity of its plot. The story focuses on games of hide-and-seek between the two central characters, leaving little room for distractions common in lengthy and convoluted subplots. And, of course, the most important thing about this movie that I did not find in the Scorcese version is, yellow men. Dozens and dozens of awesome yellow men.

Kidding aside, I believe in the original concept of the plot, focused characterization, and amazing photography that is showcased in this film. Do I think it more brilliant than The Departed? No. Did the experience lessen my belief in Scorcese? It even strengthened my fascination with his vision.

These are the reasons why I believe The Departed is one of the greatest films of all time, regardless of the fact that it is a mere remake of a brilliant classic:

WARNING: Spoilers ahead. Read on at your own risk.

The Departed strays from the simplicity of plot of Infernal Affairs. It is rich in subplots that entangled the lives of the main characters that drove them to greater conflicts and thus left the audience at the edge of their seats more times than the original version did. While a complex plot can make a movie disastrous, this worked to the advantage of Scorcese. The scenes towards the ending of The Departed, so arranged to unite all its twisted, intricate subplots, worked well to give the audience a satisfying ending.

The presence of a female character in The Departed is another necessary change from Infernal Affairs. The movie brilliantly showcases another angle to the lives of the two characters, which provided another strong conflict to the story. While the bad has had the upper hand in so many instances throughout the story, in the end, the good lives on in the form of an unlikely love child.

The widely popular change that The Departed introduced is the award-winning character played by Mark Wahlberg. He is the uniting factor to the twisted, messy portions of the story. He allowed the original movie to redeem itself of the dark ending that it was made to finish with. In the original, the bad loses to eternal hell. When your audience does not 100% believe in the concept of karma, it's hard for suspension of disbelief to work to the advantage of such an ending. But when you put in a feisty, trigger happy character, willing to kill whoever goes in the way of justice, you provide a satisfying ending that strays from the consequences of death and makes death the main consequence of man's actions.


I enjoyed watching both films, and I love that both have two largely different ways of telling the same story. I still am a fan of the Scorcese version, and continue to list The Departed as one of my favorite movies of all time.