Took time to watch these two films again this weekend. Anyone who knows me well, knows I am a sucker for any films that have subtitles. Maybe I am a cinema snob, but really, I do love the sound of other languages and seeing the imagination of other countries at work. I often find Hollywood ideas a little repetitive and predictable, and some films, despite the fact this is the industry i work in, a little too effects driven rather than plot driven and too many of these is like eating too much candy.

These two films are based on the books by Sergei Lukyanenko and some elements have been changed from the book, only to be expected in any film environment i guess, but as I have yet to read them myself I am keen to know what they are (Amazon sellers must love me!) so i ordered the four books from the series.

If you haven’t seen these films, I really do suggest you do, they are atmospheric and smart and the lines between good and bad are nicely blurred. The grand finale in Daywatch is an awesome sight and very nicely executed. I only posted the trailer for the first one as i wouldn’t want to spoil it, besides which you need to see Nightwatch first to make sense of Daywatch anyway.

Fox apparently bought up the rights to the third book, but nothing seems to have been done about it yet, thankfully. Nothing would ruin a Russian Tetralogy more than having half of it in English and that particular half repackaged in bright shiny Americanised newness. I hope the director of the Russian two, Timur Bekmambetov, gets to finish all four books.

I bought this because of my current Brendan Fraser kick and as i buy second hand i usually just get what is a low price rather than a desperate need to see. I hadn’t heard of this film before, but it has an interesting cast of Forest Whitaker, Andy Garcia, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Julie Delpy, Emile Hirsh and, an appearance of John Cho at the start!

Its a really good cast for the writer/director Jieho Lee who is a Korean American who has based this film on the proverb that life can be broken down into 4 emotions:  Happiness, pleasure, sorrow, love

“Sometimes being completely f****d is a liberating experience”

Again there is the wonderful interconnectedness of events and people who would normally not know each other. Its a real gem of a film as the director pulls no punches with characters and plot

http://www.floatingmedia.com/nurserytale/director.html <– jieho lee

Just watching the credits roll on ‘School Ties’ a Brendan Fraser film that I’ve seen before and always enjoyed. I guess its a bit on the cliche side of things – school and honour codes, but its still a good watch. It has heaps of other successful actors in: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Anthony Rapp, Chris O donnel, Cole Hauser, Amy Locane… but i guess seeing as its from 1992 its to be expected.

I have 3 more Brendan Fraser films to go through today as well, and next up is ‘Twenty Bucks’ which I have also seen before and follows the trail of a $20 note and the people it gets handled by. I like the interconnectivity of films like that (maybe that’s why i like ‘Lost’ so much) and that too has a long list of notable people in it including Steve Buscemi who is always very awesome.

I’m doing a whole host of clearing up while i watch as a continuing of my spring Clean. I had NO idea how obsessed i am with stationary until i started clearing things out. I now have several notepads that I’ll be giving away to friends when i see them tomorrow and halting my stationary fetish (i am in denial i have one)

I am also trying to do 3 loads of laundry while the sun shines which makes me think i am turning into my mother *doh*

It takes me a few days to write up such a great evening because I have to sort photographs and add links and act like a real blogger hehe. (Actually i really want to watch a DVD before I sleep, but I think that’s not going to happen)

Anyway!

Robots in Disguise.

A trio whom Amanda Palmer had discovered a few days before (as she told us)

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/WeRTheRobots
website: http://www.robotsindisguise.co.uk
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/robotsindisguise

A short but super set of electrosyth punk that the crowd were invited to participate in and did so enthusiastically. They were fun, cheerful and you just couldn’t help but like their catchy tunes and smart lyrics.

Mighty Boosh fans would probably recognise them from their tour and the series, but *coughs* i am not a fan, so it was all nice and shiny and new for me

Thanks gals – it was a super evening ^^

Went up to Camden this afternoon to meet up with Maggie from the Gaimen Board and go to the Amanda Fucking Palmer gig which was superb! I didn’t realy know what to expect at all, so it wa sgreat ot have so many lovely acts and quality performances

Bitter Ruin
The first act of the evening was Bitter Ruin a duo from Brighton

Myspace: www.myspace.com/bitterruin
website: www.bitterruin.com/
twitter: http://twitter.com/bitterruin

Sadly my view was blocked by a pillar and my camera adjustments meant i only got a few good pics, the rest are lovely red swirly abstracts – i like them, so maybe I will post them at a later date.

Bitter Ruin

I do recommend you check them out on myspace as they were very good with ear stopping lyrics and fine vocals. Their set was short (too short) but, as they exlained, the gig was a last minute invite so they did really well with limited time

I’ll write more about the other acts tomorrow cos its late and I am tired, but that will give you enough time to listen to Bitter Ruin right?

Bitter Ruin

John Brunning ‘Pie Jesu’

I first heard this a few weeks ago in the car on the way home after a family Easter gathering.
Its definitely more of an evening song, one that calms the end of your day, and I am sure the version I heard was longer than this one.

Chinese lanterns

Through the delicate webbing of decayed flower and fruit,
the dried veins are echoed by the palm of my hand.

Would our own decay be more beautiful this way?
The outer shell falling away to reveal our still hearts?

One of the most talented and distinctive producers/artist that bridged the changing sound from the late sixties to modern day ambient is Brian Eno. Unfamiliar with the name? I’m sure you won’t be unfamiliar with the sounds – remember ‘Trainspotting’ when XXX dives into a toilet? That was ‘Deep Blue Day’ or how about ’28 Days later’ as the taxi winds its way away from turbulent London? That was ‘An Ending (Ascent)” or How about the Prophecy Theme’ from ‘Dune’? If film scores don’t linger on your brain – how about David Bowie ‘Heroes’, Passengers ‘Miss Sarajevo’, U2 ‘With or without you’, Coldplay ‘Viva La Vida”

Roxy Music
The band drifted together as bands do in the early 1970′s just after Eno had graduated form art school and was looking for wats to fuse art and music. As a child growing up in rural England he’d enjoyed the solitude of fossil hunting but also sung in choirs where he learned to appreciate words as a form of sound. Sung Latin is beautiful, but not understanding Latin turns the vocals into part of the soundscape, meaningless and yet powerful.

Roxy music was something new and different in the world of pop that was getting jaded. They dressed stylishly albeit odd and the music was lyrically clever thanks to Bryan Ferry. He and Eno though were too strong personality wise for the band to work forever and when the dynamic changed too much, Eno left to pursue his experimental electronic music.

As it was later said, Roxy music was a great band because they changed things, they made a difference and influenced others. That their line-up wasn’t rigid and fixed like other bands also helped preserve and keep their sound fresh. They reformed witht he original line up and then again recently finding that the time out was beneficial and refreshing, starting to work again in the same way as they ahd done before and discarding differences.

Collaborations
Eno collaborated with Nico of Velvet Underground, David Bowie and many others, all the while releasing his own albums of ambient sound scapes and exploring sound as a medium of expression, not just looking at being musical. Musicians came to him when they wanted a new sound or to get themselves out or a routine, and one of these was U2.

He experiments with sound, with how sound affects people and seems to be one of the few artists that actually think hard about how music is formed and what its overall effect can be. He himself started In Roxy music in the 70′s but left 2 years later, deciding to continue with his own experiments, indeed, as he has said, his first instrument was a tape recorder

When you get involved in modern music you need to go back over its modern day history to truly understand how sound had inspired and developed over generations and looking at Brian Eno’s work its easy to see how his influence has regenerated and inspired countless bands.

sources:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00q9xqm/Brian_Eno_Hits_Classics_and_Tracks/ available until 1st Feb 2009

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00q9xqk/Arena_Brian_Eno_Another_Green_World/ available until 1st Feb 2009

A simple melody played out on guitar and voice, the sentiments deep and meaningful, not one nuance missed.
This is what music is about, wearing your heart and feelings on your sleeve. Even without translation you can feel the sadness with which he sings.
Kim Kwang Suk committed suicide in January 1996.

If it wasn’t for Sung Shi Kyung I might not have known of him.

The version sung shi Kyung sings whilst still keeping it to the simple guitar and vocal has a very different feel.
There is less melancholy, confirming for me that our emotions really do infuse the music we produce. Just as music invokes emotion.

“After 50 years of devastating war, the Japanese victors create Eurasia, but the world is ruined by nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. A scientist, Dr. Azuma, identifies and develops Neo-cells that can regenerate tissue, but on the day his son Tetsuya’s body is brought back from the front line, there is an accident that spawns a whole new race, one that, in vengeance for the military’s over reaction wants to destroy them in return. In an act of sorrowful desperation, Dr. Azuma submerges his son’s body in the neo-cell liquid, bringing him back to life , but no longer really human.”

Visually beautiful and a mix of live action, 2 composite and 3D visuals this has a very distinct feel of Bladerunner to it, right down to a blond antagonist and a hero who may or may not be human. At times it seems very abstract and a sequence of short related scenes rather than a solid storyline. The grading is highly stylised and exciting to see and the whole feel is between game environment, painting, manga and live action.

War changes people, it changes the world and not always for the better. Good people die as much as bad people and who was good and kind can change to be cruel and unusual. Are neo-cell born human or not? It depends in the end on your definition of being human doesn’t it.

The ending of the film is most poignant, wise words interspersed with real and filmed footage. Very moving.