blueberry pies, self rolled cigarettes and sobriety chips

so i finally watched my blueberry nights with jasmine, karlindi and steven

so what do i think about the movie? just like the blueberry pie, i think its great to have a slice or two of wong kar wai's movie every now and then, and it does go well with ice cream...

i've always been a fan, i think i watch most of all his movies, except fallen angels. looking at the great cast kar wai had with this movie, i thought i should support his first english movie and i was not disappointed

i think kar wai maintained his usual great cinematography and use of colors and frames. anyone who has watched his earlier films would feel well at ease, sorta like meeting and old friend and know exactly what to expect from his stories of the past

the first impression that the movie was strangely similar to chungking express. it had a diner/cafe, a regular that kept ordering the same food, the same philosophy about life and food, a heroine who wanted to go somewhere far away leaving the hero grasping at thin air all of a sudden...

even the characters name and occupation come from his old movies. a cop (tony leung in chungking express), sue lynn (maggie cheung in in the mood for love), a singer in real life playing the heroine (faye wong in chungking express)...


at the end of the show, his fans would think it was a rojak of all his previous movie and would be fun to identify all the character. for those who are new to wong kar wai, i think my blueberry nights would be a great intro his movies

essentially, all kar wai's movies are centered along the relationships between people, don't let the beautiful screen shots fool you...

in the movie, norah jones said "she took the longest way to cross the street", having unable to let go of her old love. are we all taking the longest way to cross the street?

cashback

just finished watching the movie cashback with kara, and in line with my new motto of don't wait, just do it, i had to blog about it before i forget/delay/never get around doing it.

The synopsis from wikipedia:

"After a painful break up with his first girlfriend Suzy, Ben, an aspiring artist, develops insomnia. To take his mind off his problem he spends his nights working at a local supermarket, where he meets colorful characters. He falls in love with his colleague Sharon.

He lets his imagination run wild. In particular, he imagines that he can stop time for others, so that he can walk around in a world that is "frozen" like in pause mode of a film. He imagines Sharon and female clients standing naked in the supermarket, so that he can watch and draw them.

We see in flashback, with Ben's voice-over explaining how he always has been impressed by the beauty of the female body, how he, as a young boy, could see a Swedish boarder naked while she was going to and coming from the shower; being Swedish she did not believe this situation required modesty. Also we see little Ben's friend Sean Higgins showing Ben his parents' adult magazines. Furthermore we see Ben paying a girl for showing him her genitals.

Sharon is Ben's date when they go the birthday party of their boss. Ben meets Suzy who wants to continue their relationship. Ben refuses, but Sharon gets a negative impression seeing Ben with Suzy for a moment, and gets angry.

As a practical joke colleagues Barry and Matt phone him, one of them pretending to be an art gallery owner who is interested in his drawings, and an appointment is made. It turns out well: the gallery owner, seeing Ben's work, is interested, and an exhibition follows. Sharon also visits it and is impressed not only by Ben's success, but also by the many paintings portraying her; she is not angry anymore."

The original movie was actually a short film that won numerous awards. The full feature film includes the 18 minute Oscar-nominated short film of the same title.

Watching the film actually made me think of the subtle messages within the movie.

In one scene, we see Sharon desperately trying to avoid watching her watch/clock. It is said the more you watch time past, the longer it takes. I can certainly vouch for that. Any thoughts?

I also reflected on how Ben on his colleagues tried to distract themselves over their 8 hour shift, as though they were trapped within their job/work hour. It made me think, do I want to work in this line for the next 10, 20 years of my life? Can I keep on doing what I'm doing? The answer is a resounding no, and I have got to get out as soon as I can.

one of the memorable quotes i like from the movie :

"Once upon a time, I wanted to know what love was. You just have to see that it's wrapped in beauty and hidden away in between the seconds of your life. If you don't stop for a minute, you might miss it."

Think about the above phrase. Are we too busy with our work to neglect the people around you? Are we chasing love and yet be unaware that it is always around us? Are we moving too fast and chasing life when life quietly passes by?

Ben said in the movie that he could stop time, pause time and even fast forward time. But what he cannot do was to reverse time correct what he did wrong.

I've always thought of what I would do if I could reverse time, to go back in time and change the past, to undo the things I did wrong, to make better choices. I’m sure you have too. We all have our own regrets, big or small.

In truth, we cannot go back in time to change the past. What we have is hindsight. We can only learn from our mistakes and move forward. Everything we are today is a product of some mistake we did in the past. The choice to linger on the past or to move on is entirely up to you.

Reflect, learn and improve. That’s all we can do...