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Movie Review - The Wolfman

Written by dvm Saturday, 27 February 2010 02:30

The Wolfman is a film I have been interested in seeing for a long time, but not for entirely positive reasons. The Wolfman is a remake of George Waggner’s 1941 original The Wolf Man, and by all accounts was due to be released in cinemas in 2007. Then in February 2009. Then in November 2009. Finally being released this month. The scheduling conflicts were not the only problems for The Wolfman. The films original director, Mark Romanek, left only 4 weeks before the start of principal photography to be replaced by Joe Johnston. Johnston’s last film was 7 years ago. Add to this the need to film extensive reshoots due to gaping holes in the plot, all did not look good for The Wolfman.


I was lucky enough to see some of the re-shoots as we were shooting some scenes for Harry Potter at Pinewood at the same time, and I thought the sets looked great. Needless to say, for all these reasons I was intrigued to see it and decided to be positive about the film. But with so many changes and distractions, could the film live up to it’s hype actually be any good? Well, for me, the answer is yes and no.


The film is a loose remake of the 1941, in which traveling actor Lawrence Talbot, Benicio Del Toro, returns to his family home after receiving word about his brother’s death. Mystery surrounds the murder, with talk of a bear or some kind of beast being the main suspect. Talbot decides to investigate himself, but is also attacked by the beast and subsequently transforms into a lycanthropic monster at the sight of a full moon, devouring local villagers. Rather than embrace his curse, he hates what he has becomes and once caught and taken to a London mental institution, he tries to figure out where the curse came from, and how he can change it. Once back in the countryside, he confronts his father played by Anthony Hopkins, and with the help of Gwen Conliffe played by Emily Blunt, he tries to confront his curse head on and take back his humanity.


Despite what you might have heard, The Wolfman is not a terrible movie. It was refreshing to see a horror film that has decided to take it roots from the classic horror films of old. The look and feel of the film is great. Being set in a quaint little village with huge meandering trees, grand old houses and weary villagers, one cannot help but think of films such as The Wolfman, Dracula and Frankenstein. Here, the sets and locations act as characters themselves. The last film I can think of that did this so well was Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow.

 


The Special Effects in particular are another plus of the film. Everyone will always compare movie werewolf transformations to John Landis’ An American Warewolf in London (and rightly so) but Rick Baker’s wolf man effects have certainly pushed the genre forward. The transformation scenes certainly display the pain and agony that it must feel to take part in such a change. You can literally hear the bones cracking and see Benicio Del Toro’s body twist and contorts as his body structure changes. We see his human teeth pushed out of his mouth to be replaced by the teeth of the beast. You can really feel and believe the pain he is going through as he succumbs to the demon within. Director Joe Johnston provides an interesting touch by giving The Wolfman the options of running on two legs like a man, or acting like the beast it is by running like the wind on all fours. Although the transformations aren’t on screen long enough, nor if truth be told is the wolf, you cannot wait for the next full moon to see the beast again. And here in lies the films main problem.


Everything in between the wolfman transforming, prowling or killing, The Wolfman is just….well, just a little bit boring. It’s a werewolf film, so it is not like there is going to be any confusion or ambiguity in what is going to happen in the story, but everything else just feels rushed and slightly incoherent.


I can’t believe I am going to say this, but I believe the guiltiest party in this is Sir Anthony Hopkins. Who knows what direction he was given, but he is so lethargic in his performance that it feels like he is either supposed to be drunk or tired. He just meanders his way through his scenes like he doesn’t really want to be there. Like I said, maybe this was the directors intention to contrast his mannerisms from his human form to his lycan form, but I really doubt this was the case. The rest of the cast do as well as they can with the below par script. Benicio Del Toro is fully believable as The Wolfman as he has that crazy look in his eye before he even gets bitten. Emily blunt is great as the beautiful damsel but fails miserably to find any real connection with Del Toro, and Hugo Weaving does his best impression of Dick Van Dyke with an over the top cockney accent, as the suave Inspector Abberline. To be fair to him, he does have a cracking mustache.


If you take into consideration the sheer number of problems The Wolfman overcame just to make it to the screen, it has to be seen as a success. While there are many plusses to come out of the film, such as the wolfman effects, it ultimately feels like a mishmash of incoherent scenes that are missing that little something extra. And like the film itself, it ultimately feels like it could have done with just a little more bite. And yes, that was supposed to be a joke. I apologise in advance.

 

Dean Crawford (UK) is a Jeonju veteran, and currently works in the film industry. His reviews are published on his blog TheKinkyAfro.

 

Jeonju Dining Review: "Miss Roll"

Written by dvm Wednesday, 17 February 2010 09:41

“A Review of Miss Roll California Roll and Sushi”

by Matthew “The Truth” White


“Tell me what you eat, and I'll tell you what you are.”-Brillat Savarin

Often going to another country brings many concerns. One of those being, what will I eat? Got to eat to live right? However you don't want to eat just to live. You want to eat good food. Food you can enjoy but also feel as if you are being at least a little adventurous. I got lucky when I first came to Korea almost two years ago and I found all of these things at a place near my former house. This place is Miss Roll California Roll and Sushi. This is the kind of place that you can go after a long day at work and just relax. The atmosphere is very calming because it is nice but simple. The service is good and very helpful when they can be. The menu is part in English and part in Korean. The title of the dishes are in English but what's in them is in Korea. This could pose a problem for those of us that are Korean illiterate but the menu tries to help by having big, bold, pictures of the items on the menu. This can help you see exactly what you are getting. As you can tell from the name of the restaurant this place mainly serves sushi but if you are not a lover of the raw fish fear not they have a wide variety of foods that'll satisfy your craving. They have pastas, u-dong, douburi, fried rice, cutlets, salads and omelets rice. I go there to eat the sushi but it's nice to know you have options. As for the sushi, this restaurant has defined for me what sushi is. It's fresh, full of flavor and just makes you feel good. It is smooth and soft yet bold and powerful all at the same time. I now compare every sushi restaurant I go to now to this one. So far I have not found one that is better. This restaurant proudly proclaims itself to be a fusion sushi restaurant and it takes that to a whole new level as it makes sushi with ingredients such as cheese, jalapeno peppers, bacon, pumpkin, to name a few. Some of my favorite sushi rolls are the Dragon, Philadelphia, and Rainbow. Now for you wine drinkers out there sorry to say but there is no wine to be found here just soju and beer. Also there is soda for those of you who don't like the spirits. Now for the price. Price is always important and for Miss Roll this is one of it's better points. You can get a great meal for about 9,000 won. I believe the most expensive meal I've had there was 11,000. So you can see it's prices are pretty standard with other Sushi restaurants. Also you get a bowl of soup as a started with your meals as well which is very nice. That only adds to the value. My final grade for Miss Roll California Roll and Sushi is 4 stars. This place isn't the fanciest place but it is a wonderful place that you go to when you want to relax and have some good food. So this is Matthew “The Truth” White saying go forth and eat well.

More information:

Website:www.missroll.com.kr

Telephone Number: 254-7988/7986 010-9654-7988

Location: Go to the old gate of Chobuk University, cross the street and when you see the 7-11 turn left. Walk about 20 feet and it'll be on your left.

Matthew White (Georgia, USA) teaches English at Woosuk University.

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Korea in 2022

Written by jh Tuesday, 09 February 2010 00:00

by Jim Huntington

It is March 29th, 2022.  It is the tenth anniversary of Korean reunification.

 People are remembering, and celebrating, in Jeju, Chongjin, and everywhere in between.  President Park Moon Su is giving speeches in Seoul and Pyongyang.  In the latter city, the Citizens Starvation Memorial is covered in flowers.  In Seoul, American president Marco Rubio will address the crowd as well.  For most Korean children, Reunification Day is a peaceful Spring holiday. 

 Many remember the events of 2009 and 2010, when in the months prior to Kim Jong-il’s death, some journalists were pessimistic about world reunification reaction.  In News Blaze, commentator Ivan Silic asserted that major powers wanted the peninsula to stay divided.  A Korea Herald editorial took a milder view, opining that while American interests would be served by reunification,  Chinese and Japanese ones would not.  Neither mentioned the possibility that the country could become reunited as soon as it did.

 When Kim died of pancreatic cancer in May 2010, his youngest son Kim Jong-un, as expected, assumed power.  Although the Reuters news agency had previously recorded his description as an “intelligent and thoughtful man,” Western observers did not know to what extent that was true.  During the younger Kim’s Swiss education, he had seen the modern world, become aware of the misery caused by his father’s regime, and vowed, secretly, to free his country to the extent his opportunities allowed.  He successfully concealed this attitude until after he was installed. 

 In July 2010, “Brilliant Comrade” Kim Jong-un announced that all North Korean citizens with close relatives in the South could cross the border to visit them.  The logistics were chaotic – over a million people with claims of varying legitimacy applied in person in Pyongyang alone – but within a week chaos at the new Temporary Journey Offices had died down, helped by Kim’s deployment of thousands of People’s Armed Forces soldiers to facilitate the process.  In August, the Republic of Korea welcomed half a million, who became the summer’s news story.  The effect on the South went beyond the 500,000 guests – there were so many family reunions that work absenteeism reached all-time national highs.  Yet all but the most severe employers took a remarkably relaxed attitude.

 All visitors were required to return by October 1.  Some returned sooner, and told all the people they knew about life on the other side.  Many returned that day.  Some did not.  By then, though, the mood of the North Korean people had changed permanently.  They were ready for freedom they not only knew was nearby but could now graphically describe and understand.  Although the military continued to guard the borders, their resolve was weakening, as even soldiers are human beings with families, ears, and relatives.  On October 5, to the roaring applause of hundreds of Pyongyang University of Science and Technology students, Kim announced that radio and television access to the outside world would now be allowed.  He also stated that citizens visiting South Korean relatives could stay abroad indefinitely.

 The next few weeks were, to that point, the headiest in national history.  Between radio, TV, and reports from travelers, almost all North Koreans knew what they had been missing.  They organized protests about their living conditions, and almost held a general strike.  Students marched in the streets for Internet access.  Everybody wanted more food.  The army was called out to maintain order, but when Kim was told some students had been shot, he ordered that no soldier shall fire on unarmed citizens.  Photographs of that time are reminiscent of those of American 1960s student protests – one young man even reenacted what Berkeley students had done over 40 years before, by putting flowers in soldiers’ rifle barrels. 

 So where would the food come from?  On November 18th, one week before the American Thanksgiving holiday, Kim called President Obama and made a bold offer:  In exchange for $2 billion in aid, made up of $1 billion in food and $1 billion in seeds, plants, and farm equipment, North Korea would destroy its entire nuclear capability in front of international inspectors.  After five days of working out specifics, the American Congress approved the bill, with the Senate voting 100-0 and the House, with one member very ill, concurring 434-0.  Deliveries started before Christmas, were distributed by the North Korean army, and saved an estimated 10,000 lives that winter and many more in the years to follow. 

 Changes continued during 2011.  Kim Jong-un announced 50% reductions over the next two years to the People’s Armed Forces and the Ministry of People’s Security.  Many soldiers were assigned to farm duty.    North Koreans with good work records were allowed to apply for exit visas.  Government torture was banned.  And late in summer, with exceptions only for a few sites Kim considered offensive and inflammatory, Internet access was legalized.  That year Kim also survived two assassination attempts.  The first, at the Triumphal Arch, involved two disaffected soldiers with machine guns approaching Kim and his personal guards.  Twenty meters away they were questioned, and started shooting – only fast action by Kim’s guards stopped the effort, which ended with both assailants dying on the scene.  The second, also on the street, was a poorly planned knife attack which was easily aborted, and two days later the attacker was publicly hung. 

 Early next year it became clear to Kim that the best for the people would be a merger with the South.   In February 2012, he traveled to Seoul to meet with President Lee Myung-bak.  He offered Lee his country.  Lee, and the National Assembly, agreed within days.  The announcement was made, the details were worked out, and on March 29, 2012, the Republic of Korea had nine new provinces.  The maps and globes all over the country, in schools, in government buildings, and on paper, showing Korea as one nation, were finally correct. 

 Lee, along with Kim in the new position of Reunification Minister, directed the integration.   Former Northern citizens were allowed to exchange their KPW won for KRW, which, although suffering on the foreign exchange market by reaching 1,711 to the US dollar in 2013, reached its pre-unification level of 884 three years later and has been slowly strengthening ever since – at press time, about 650 won buys one dollar (or 1,242 for one euro, and 1,626 per pound). 

 The largest Korean reunification-related endeavor involved one of the largest military construction brigade efforts in history.  With no significant foreign threat, the country needed nowhere near the combined total of 1.9 million active armed services personnel, not to mention 9.2 million reservists, but before mustering them out, they put three-fourths of them to work in the North, where for the rest of their tours they built roads, motorways, subways, sewers, railroad tracks, cellular phone towers, and much more.  Most prominent were the extension of KTX service to Pyongyang, Wonsan, Hamhung, and Chongjin, completed ahead of schedule in 2015, and the first maglev train segment, between Busan, Seoul and Pyongyang, in 2020.. 

 State-sponsored reunification work kept unemployment rates for the combined country around 4% for the decade, compared with America’s and the Eurozone’s 9.8% and 9.2% respective figures.  In contrast to the continuing American and European problems of discouraged jobless, people unhappily choosing non-working lifestyles, and part-time jobs for people wanting to work full time, few Koreans could not find full employment in the 2010s.  The government also used its formidable bully-pulpit power to encourage those in the South to “eat less – send it north instead”;  they did, and by 2015, between that effort, improved farm outputs, and more imports, starvation in the North dropped to American levels.  In what was rumored to be a rare near-unanimous decision, Kim Jong-un received the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize.

 Major countries have reacted consistently positively to reunification.  The United States, which signed a lease to maintain two Korean bases, is rid of a dangerous destabilizing country, freeing military and humanitarian resources for elsewhere.  China, which in no uncertain terms told the changing North Korea it did not want refugees streaming over its border, now has no threat of war or nuclear incidents from the other side.  Japan has expanded trading with the new larger Korea, and appears to hope that in a generation or so, helped by its symbolic 2016 official concession of Dokdo, it can be in a true friendship with this country, with which it has more in common, geographically and culturally, than any other.  Russia was never concerned with the previous order too much, as Korea borders only 16.5km of its remote northeastern territory (in fact, in 2011 an unnamed Russian diplomat, after enjoying Jack Daniels at an American embassy party, was said to joke that a nuclear attack on Vladivostok would “much improve it”), but now it has a growing trading partner that much closer.     

 So how were such commentators as Ivan Silic wrong?  They looked to the past, not to the future.  Silic claimed the combined army would bother other countries, without realizing Korea would not need one anywhere near that size.  Silic and the Korea Herald staff both claimed China preferred North Korea as a buffer, and indeed China was providing it significant aid, but how much of a problem would a liberal democracy, also a major trading partner (including 25 million Korean cars sold in China in 2019) and a country with a far smaller military force than before, be? 

 Silic also wrote that America could have easily displaced the North Korean government.  That did not happen since its rise as a true threat coincided with American disgust over the trauma of Vietnam.  When that mood had faded, Kim Jong-un’s father had formed a very well-defended and well-armed country, more akin to Switzerland than anything that could be dislodged in a “matter of hours.”  Silic also did not realize that what he called North Korea’s being “something like a good friend to the US,” as shown by former president Clinton’s 2009 visit to negotiate freedom of two captured American journalists, had always been solely an effort to placate such an intractable and dangerous country,  similar to America’s conferring Most Favored Nation trading status on the USSR during the late Cold War.  Indeed, the American State Department had been known to do much more than that to rescue its citizens from trouble abroad, many times. 

 As for the territorial designs Silic saw Japan having on Korea, he did not see that Korea was, for decades before reunification, already “very hard to control and impossible to invade.”  Additionally, 2022 marks the 77th year since any two industrialized countries have gone to war;  if Japan actually did such a thing it would get a very poor response from, among many others, its critical trading partner and military ally across the Pacific.  While the Korea Herald staff may or may not have judged correctly in saying Japan preferred a split peninsula, they did not mention Japan not only would take no action against reunification but would profit financially from a larger republic.  As for Germany, when Silic mentioned that country’s indifference to Korean issues he must have forgotten that since about 1980, over forty years ago now, continental European countries have consistently ignored most actions, both good and bad, of other countries.  As it turned out, German attitude actually went the other way;  as Germany, which experienced its own reunification with similar joys and problems, has been closer to and more appreciative of Korea. 

 So now, with no significant enemies and the most potent list of friends of any country on the planet, Korea is entering its Golden Age.   It is prosperous and on the technological forefront.  It is education-based, with foreign English teachers, accepted by the vast majority of Koreans, now all over the former North as well.  It is also benefiting from America’s reverse brain drain in other fields, and interest in Korean language and culture at American business schools trails only Chinese.  The border with China is functioning, with less pressure on the other side now that Liaoning and Jilin provinces have been named China’s latest Special Economic Zones.  Tourism is increasing, as word of low prices, cities and sights undiscovered by Westerners, and tolerant, friendly people has reached the rest of the modern world, along with its rail connections with the rest of Eurasia. 

 Currently, it is time for Koreans to look inside to their culture of stress and overwork, and avoid making the Japanese mistakes of insularity, economically unneeded jobs, and too little consumption.  Yet the 23 million person gulag, outlasted only by Cuba as a Cold War remnant, is consigned to history.  And as they celebrate today in Seoul, Pyongyang, and elsewhere Hangul is spoken, the world is cheering with them.

 

 Jim Huntington is a former project manager and adjunct business professor now teaching at Wanju County elementary and middle schools.

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LOST

Written by dc Tuesday, 02 February 2010 04:48

Have I been lost without Lost? A love letter… by Dean Crawford        Oh Lost. Lost, Lost, Lost.  You’ve been gone a long time old girl and I have missed you so much.  10 months and counting, in fact.  At first I was afraid, I was petrified.  Kept thinking I could never live without you by my side.  I kept thinking to myself, “have I been lost without you?”.  For five years we had been seeing each other on and off.  Our relationship was eventful and intense.  Even though we would spend a great deal of time together, you were always a complete mystery to me.  Just when I thought I had you figured all out, you would flip our relationship on it’s head and keep me guessing.   Every year, like clockwork, you would leave me.  But I didn’t mind as each time I knew you would come back.  You always came back.   But this last time you ended with me rather abruptly, and some would say rather unfairly.  You just left me in a confused haze with so many unanswered questions. You would come to see me at all crazy times and wasn’t quite sure who you were supposed to be.  You would constantly try to reinvent yourself and change your style.  Were you this retro 70s chick, or were you from the here and now?  You just couldn’t make up your mind so you left to decide once and for all who you really were.  But sadly, this left me alone.  I was all by myself and all I could do was think about our relationship. About specific incidents and how early on you would tell me one thing, but would actually mean something else.  I constantly worried that on certain occasions you made me promises and laid the foundations and rules of our relationship, only for years later to pretend that never happened or you really meant something else.  I wondered why I ever even started with you in the first place when you were clearly never going to live up to the expectations that I had for you.  I now think you were making everything up as you went along just to keep me interested.  You never really had any goals, nor had any ideas our relationship would lead us.   This last break up was the worst.  I truly hated the way we finished.  I thought we were heading in the same direction, but then you revealed a piece of your past to me that was going to affect our future and I didn’t like it.  I didn’t like it one bit.  But as ever, you presumed that I would just come running back.  But a lot has changed since you’ve been gone my love.  I have moved on.  My Auntie, B.B.C, introduced me to somebody new, and her name was The Wire.  I had heard a lot about her, and she seemed too good to be true.  I mean, sure, I’d had a lot of quality partners in the past. The Sopranos were a tough bunch.  At times things could get a little X-Rated and violent, but we always had a good time.  It was my first relationship where I really felt like an adult. Then came 24, but she just ended up being a string of one-night stands.  The intensity was too much too handle at times, but when we were together it was always fun.   I’m not even sure what she is up to now anyway.  I know she moved from L.A, to Washington.  Last I heard she was in New York.  Then there was Smallville who made me feel like a teenager again.  But in the end, I found myself growing up and she wasn’t growing up with me so I had to leave.  They were all great in their own special ways, so I didn’t see the point in emotionally investing myself in someone new so soon after my break up with you, Lost.  I spent a long time thinking about it, and eventually I decided to take Auntie’s advice to believe all the hype, bite the bullet and start another relationship.  Even if it didn’t work out, I knew The Wire was only in England for an intensive short stay and would be leaving by the end of the autumn.  When we went out on our first few dates I couldn’t stop thinking about you, Lost.  Even though we were no longer together, I still felt like I was cheating on you.  If the truth be told, I think I was only seeing The Wire to get over you. I didn’t want to get too involved so I was extremely cautious at the start, wary not to be taken for a fool.  But with The Wire, something felt different.   At first, I didn’t see what all the fuss was about.  I felt like I had made a mistake and wasted my time getting involved with someone else so soon.  Sure, she was intelligent, witty, funny and the like.  But it just felt like something was missing.  However, as the seasons passed something began to change.  The Wire was intelligent and started treating me like an adult. The Wire didn’t keep repeating itself in an effort to keep my attention.  There were no flashy gimmicks, no tricks.  Nothing was drawn out.  Everything felt fresh and vibrant. The Wire would just be herself and if I liked it, great.  If not, tough. We would see each other three or four times a week but The Wire really took it’s time with me.  It really got to know me and I know her.   No longer was I being brought to the brink on every date, only to be teased into an anti climax and told to wait until the next date.  She wouldn’t leave me hanging over the proverbial cliff.  She respected me as a person, and respected my intelligence and this made me want to see her even more. The Wire was incredibly complex and complicated, and once I had figured her out, it was the best thing that had ever happened to me.  We would have some real in depth conversations and I really had to pay attention to her. There was no filler on our dates.  Everything she said was for a reason.  So we took things slowly at first and gradually we picked up the pace until we really got in our groove and eventually we reached a wholly satisfying, full on climax.  Was the hype justified?  You bet it was.  I had never been with anyone like The Wire before. And just like that, after 5 months, The Wire was gone.  It cut like a knife, but she was out of my life.  However, I had the time of my life, and I owed it all to The Wire. Lost, you were the last thing on my mind.  I felt free.  Grown up.  Mature. I could finally think about making a new start.   But now you’re back from outer space.  I just walked in to find you here with that sad look upon your face.  I should have changed that stupid lock! I should have made you leave your key if I had known for just one second you would be back to bother me.  I’ve decided that I’m not going to get involved with you anymore.  I’ve grown up and don’t need a tease like you in my life.  Go on.  GO!  Get out of here!   Ok, Wait.  Wait, wait, wait.  Don’t go!  Don’t walk out that door.  I know I’m crazy for thinking this, but maybe, just maybe this time will be different.  Maybe you were just making it seem like you were B.S’ing your way through our relationship.   Maybe you do really have an answer for all those little mysteries you introduced me too.  Maybe this time you will quit playing games with my heart.  Maybe it was my fault for reading into things you said a little too much.  Maybe, just when I thought our chance had past you’d gone and save the best for last.  Yes, that’s it!  Let’s let nature decide and try for one more season.  Come on Baby, one more time!  Maybe then you will give me all the answers I need to fully understand you and it will be true love after all.    How about we meet up on Tuesday?  Say 9pm?  Or if you’d prefer, we could do England?  Next Sunday at the same time?  Yes?  Great!  Oh, Lost.  How I’ve missed you so.  You’re just too good to be true.  I can’t take my eyes off of you.  Oh, I’m just so excited and I just can’t hide it. I know this may sound like a bit of a cliché, but I really have been lost without you.    Let’s get it on…

Have I been lost without Lost? A love letter…

by Dean Crawford


Oh Lost. Lost, Lost, Lost.  You’ve been gone a long time old girl and I have missed you so much.  10 months and counting, in fact.  At first I was afraid, I was petrified.  Kept thinking I could never live without you by my side.  I kept thinking to myself, “have I been lost without you?”.  For five years we had been seeing each other on and off.  Our relationship was eventful and intense.  Even though we would spend a great deal of time together, you were always a complete mystery to me.  Just when I thought I had you figured all out, you would flip our relationship on it’s head and keep me guessing.

Every year, like clockwork, you would leave me.  But I didn’t mind as each time I knew you would come back.  You always came back.   But this last time you ended with me rather abruptly, and some would say rather unfairly.  You just left me in a confused haze with so many unanswered questions. You would come to see me at all crazy times and wasn’t quite sure who you were supposed to be.  You would constantly try to reinvent yourself and change your style.  Were you this retro 70s chick, or were you from the here and now?  You just couldn’t make up your mind so you left to decide once and for all who you really were.  But sadly, this left me alone.  I was all by myself and all I could do was think about our relationship. About specific incidents and how early on you would tell me one thing, but would actually mean something else.  I constantly worried that on certain occasions you made me promises and laid the foundations and rules of our relationship, only for years later to pretend that never happened or you really meant something else.  I wondered why I ever even started with you in the first place when you were clearly never going to live up to the expectations that I had for you.  I now think you were making everything up as you went along just to keep me interested.  You never really had any goals, nor had any ideas our relationship would lead us.

This last break up was the worst.  I truly hated the way we finished.  I thought we were heading in the same direction, but then you revealed a piece of your past to me that was going to affect our future and I didn’t like it.  I didn’t like it one bit.  But as ever, you presumed that I would just come running back.  But a lot has changed since you’ve been gone my love.  I have moved on.  My Auntie, B.B.C, introduced me to somebody new, and her name was The Wire.  I had heard a lot about her, and she seemed too good to be true.  I mean, sure, I’d had a lot of quality partners in the past. The Sopranos were a tough bunch.  At times things could get a little X-Rated and violent, but we always had a good time.  It was my first relationship where I really felt like an adult. Then came 24, but she just ended up being a string of one-night stands.  The intensity was too much too handle at times, but when we were together it was always fun.   I’m not even sure what she is up to now anyway.  I know she moved from L.A, to Washington.  Last I heard she was in New York.  Then there was Smallville who made me feel like a teenager again.  But in the end, I found myself growing up and she wasn’t growing up with me so I had to leave.  They were all great in their own special ways, so I didn’t see the point in emotionally investing myself in someone new so soon after my break up with you, Lost.

I spent a long time thinking about it, and eventually I decided to take Auntie’s advice to believe all the hype, bite the bullet and start another relationship.  Even if it didn’t work out, I knew The Wire was only in England for an intensive short stay and would be leaving by the end of the autumn.  When we went out on our first few dates I couldn’t stop thinking about you, Lost.  Even though we were no longer together, I still felt like I was cheating on you.  If the truth be told, I think I was only seeing The Wire to get over you. I didn’t want to get too involved so I was extremely cautious at the start, wary not to be taken for a fool.  But with The Wire, something felt different.

At first, I didn’t see what all the fuss was about.  I felt like I had made a mistake and wasted my time getting involved with someone else so soon.  Sure, she was intelligent, witty, funny and the like.  But it just felt like something was missing.  However, as the seasons passed something began to change.  The Wire was intelligent and started treating me like an adult. The Wire didn’t keep repeating itself in an effort to keep my attention.  There were no flashy gimmicks, no tricks.  Nothing was drawn out.  Everything felt fresh and vibrant. The Wire would just be herself and if I liked it, great.  If not, tough. We would see each other three or four times a week but The Wire really took it’s time with me.  It really got to know me and I know her.   No longer was I being brought to the brink on every date, only to be teased into an anti climax and told to wait until the next date.  She wouldn’t leave me hanging over the proverbial cliff.  She respected me as a person, and respected my intelligence and this made me want to see her even more. The Wire was incredibly complex and complicated, and once I had figured her out, it was the best thing that had ever happened to me.  We would have some real in depth conversations and I really had to pay attention to her. There was no filler on our dates.  Everything she said was for a reason.  So we took things slowly at first and gradually we picked up the pace until we really got in our groove and eventually we reached a wholly satisfying, full on climax.  Was the hype justified?  You bet it was.  I had never been with anyone like The Wire before. And just like that, after 5 months, The Wire was gone.  It cut like a knife, but she was out of my life.  However, I had the time of my life, and I owed it all to The Wire. Lost, you were the last thing on my mind.  I felt free.  Grown up.  Mature. I could finally think about making a new start.

But now you’re back from outer space.  I just walked in to find you here with that sad look upon your face.  I should have changed that stupid lock! I should have made you leave your key if I had known for just one second you would be back to bother me.  I’ve decided that I’m not going to get involved with you anymore.  I’ve grown up and don’t need a tease like you in my life.  Go on.  GO!  Get out of here!

Ok, Wait.  Wait, wait, wait.  Don’t go!  Don’t walk out that door.  I know I’m crazy for thinking this, but maybe, just maybe this time will be different.  Maybe you were just making it seem like you were B.S’ing your way through our relationship.   Maybe you do really have an answer for all those little mysteries you introduced me too.  Maybe this time you will quit playing games with my heart.  Maybe it was my fault for reading into things you said a little too much.  Maybe, just when I thought our chance had past you’d gone and save the best for last.  Yes, that’s it!  Let’s let nature decide and try for one more season.  Come on Baby, one more time!  Maybe then you will give me all the answers I need to fully understand you and it will be true love after all.

How about we meet up on Tuesday?  Say 9pm?  Or if you’d prefer, we could do England?  Next Sunday at the same time?  Yes?  Great!  Oh, Lost.  How I’ve missed you so.  You’re just too good to be true.  I can’t take my eyes off of you.  Oh, I’m just so excited and I just can’t hide it. I know this may sound like a bit of a cliché, but I really have been lost without you.

Let’s get it on…

 

Dean Crawford is a Jeonju veteran, with an infectious enthusiasm and multifaceted experience in film. To see more of his reviews, visit http://thekinkyafro.tumblr.com/

 

 

 

Film Review: "The Bool of Eli"

Written by dc Tuesday, 02 February 2010 04:26

Movie Review – “The Book of Eli” by Dean Crawford The fourth collaborative outing from Albert and Allan “Menace to Society” Hughes, is “The Book of Eli” starring Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman.  It promised to be an exciting affair for several reasons.  One, the film appeared to deal with many themes including the role of religion in the future.  Perhaps this would encourage some serious debate, as the presence of religion in society is a topic on most people’s minds right now.  It also appeared to have some exciting action sequences and I found the idea of Denzel Washington as a sword wielding religious bad-ass to be quite appealing.  It was also the newest in a line of post-apocalyptic movies to be released here in the UK, and it came only a week after “The Road”, which is superb.  Now, for me to make comparisons between “The Road” and “The Book of Eli” would be unfair, as they are two totally different films with very different directors.  Well, sometimes life just isn’t fair so I’m going to anyway!  First, the outline of the film. “The Book of Eli” centres around Denzel Washington’s character, Eli, who has been charged with the heavy duty of carrying the last remaining Bible on Earth.  Eli is our main protagonist and our hero.  He has been walking for over 30 years and all he knows is that his job is to carry the bible West to put it into the hands of people who will know what to do with it.  This task is not as easy as it seems as the roads are filled with gangs that are willing to do anything to find scraps and leftovers. This world is lawless. People rape, people kill, people eat each other.  Sound familiar?  After using his holy sword of justice to destroy a group of mercenaries, their boss Carnegie, played by Gary Oldman, tries to persuade Eli to join his gang.  It just so happens that Carnegie is on his own holy pursuit to find the book but for totally different reasons.  He intends to use the bible to corrupt.  He sees the book as a weapon.  So it’s lucky for Carnegie that Eli spends a night in his “hotel” and subsequently realizes that Eli is carrying his much sought after item.  What ensues is an all too predictable game of cat and mouse in which Eli and his female companion try to stay one step ahead of Carnegie.  They encounter strange people on the way.  They almost get caught.  Eli kicks arse.  They run away.  They almost get caught again.  They blow sh!t up.  They run away again.  You think they are giving away the book.  They are not.  You think they aren’t going to make it out West.  They do.  There is one genuine twist in the film which I won’t give away, but it doesn’t affect the outcome of the film in the slightest. At times, “The Book of Eli” is visually stunning. It has a stylish sepia, almost as if the contrast has been turned up so high as if to make you feel like the characters in the film, who are constantly under the threat of being blinded by the sun.  It is not 100% confirmed what caused the world in which they live to become the way it has, but we do know that it was a war that started it.  Because of the bright, stylized nature of the film, possibly a nuclear as the toned up bright lights reminds me of The Matrix or Highlander Part 2 where wars or science burned holes in the sky to which people must now protect themselves from.  The action sequences at times are equally impressive.  Denzel does a good job with the fights, though sometimes they feel quite laborious and his movements lackadaisical and highly staged. Obviously they are choreographed fight sequences, but you don’t want to realise this during the film ruining the illusion.  He is also helped by the way the directors choose to stage the action.  Whether is be filming them in shadow, or making numerous cuts so as to not linger on Denzel too much.  One action sequence in particular is quite breathtaking.  Eli and his companion are inside a house and Carnegie is outside, and all hell breaks loose.  Guns blaze, rockets fire and things get blown up.  The camera goes in the house, outside the house.  Through the letter box.  Through bullet holes. Think one particular shoot out in “Bad Boys 2”, only more impressive.  And what makes this scene so impressive is that it appears to happen in one take.   Gary Oldman is his usual brilliant self, seamlessly mixing smooth criminal and manic psycho in one fell swoop.  The rest of the film, however, is less impressive. In my recent review of the Road, I mentioned how impressed I was with the look of the characters.  In that world, the remaining people who survived have nothing and it really showed.  The people looked dirty.  I mean, really dirty.  However, in “The Book of Eli”, despite living in a post-apocalyptic world where water, let alone soap is like gold dust, many individuals still manage to have a certain sex appeal.  Some of the woman’s clothes are horrifically dirty, yet are luckily ripped just in the right ways as to show a nice amount of cleavage or lie tantilisingly high above the knee.  Even some of the men manage to get matching outfits and look like trendy cyber punks.   In  “The Road”, people wear a mish mash of garments and simply make do.  “The Road” has a magical way of reminding us to not take things for granted by the intense pleasure they take in the small things, such as a cigarette or a can of peaches.  It is subtly done.  In Eli, we have Denzel Washington spell out to his audience what went wrong in the past. “In the world before, people had more than they needed and had no idea what was precious.  We threw away things that people kill each other for now” – Eli. I know this is nitpicking and like I mentioned earlier, it is totally unfair for me to compare the two films as they are unique and each director had their own individual visions on how best to portray their worlds, but I believe it’s the little touches like this that make the difference between average filmmaking and great filmmaking. Another fault I found in the film was the crass way in which it tries to make a statement.  On the one hand, we have Eli who is walking across the country on blind faith alone.  A voice inside told him where to find the book and what to do with it, and he is protecting it with his life.  He lives his life by the words inside and in this brave new world, this appears to make him one of the last few decent people in America.  We could deduce it is his faith that allows him to act this way.  So, are the filmmakers trying to say “look what happens in a world without religion?  People loot, people kill, people pillage, people eat other.”  If so, then we should bring religion back right?  Well, contrary to this opinion, Eli suggests that religion might have well been the cause of the war.  And take Gary Oldman’s character Carnegie for example. “It’s not a book, it’s a weapon!  A weapon aimed at the hearts and minds of the weak and desperate.  They’ll come from all over to hear it’s words and they’ll do whatever I tell them…it’s happened before.” – Carnegie. He is quite clearly the representation of the darker side and religion and how some new radicals can take the words of religious texts, whether it be the bible, the Koran, the Tora, and use it’s message for destruction and self gain rather than peace. He is the total antithesis to Eli. Both points of view are put through to the audience so it is hard to know what side of the fence it sits on.  If, like Eli suggested some people believed, the bible was the cause of this apocalyptic event, why not simply leave it be?  Wouldn’t the war he described simply happen again?  If there are people out there who are willing to rape, kill and pillage to get their hands on it to spread it’s message for that of selfishness and their own interests, why not just destroy it too, or bury it so no one will be able to manipulate it’s message ever again.  The answer is obvious, of course.  And I am sure that by presenting such strong cases for each case, the directors want the audience to make up their own minds, but I just see it as a way of dumbing down an audience so you don’t necessarily have to think about it too much and just focus on the ass-kicking. Ultimately, what could have been a well thought out movie that infers the role of religion in the future and what role that can play on our lives, ends up in a none-too-original popcorn action flick.  Instead of subtly trying to engage in debates and let us try and make weigh up the pro’s and con’s of each character by their actions alone, we are bashed about the head with a shovel full of contrasting opinions. “RELIGION IS GOOD!”  “NO, RELIGION IS BAD AND CAN CORRUPT!” RARRRRRR!!  And what also could have been a slick action movie with great pacing, merely dragged along from one formulaic narrative point to the next.  I wouldn’t say that “The Book of Eli” is that bad, it just isn’t that great either.  I would say that the directors missed a great opportunity.  They would probably say they just wanted to see Denzel Washington as a sword-wielding religious bad-ass.  In that respect, they reached their holy grail.  Amen.     Trailers that were shown before the movie:     “Ninja assassin” -  Looks lame, but the fights look great. “The crazies” – Zombies?  Air born viruses?  Whatever, looks creepy. “Shutter Island” -  The trailer could have consisted of Leonardo Di Caprio reading the Great Gatsby for two hours and I would still be excited for this. “Edge of darkness” – Mel Gibson goes crazy and beats up people…again.  Directed by Martin Campbell who did Casino Royale so I’m in. “Green Zone” -  Could be interesting, but it just looks like The Bourne Identity Part 4 – Bourne Got His Memory Back.

Movie Review – “The Book of Eli”

by Dean Crawford

The fourth collaborative outing from Albert and Allan “Menace to Society” Hughes, is “The Book of Eli” starring Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman.  It promised to be an exciting affair for several reasons.  One, the film appeared to deal with many themes including the role of religion in the future.  Perhaps this would encourage some serious debate, as the presence of religion in society is a topic on most people’s minds right now.  It also appeared to have some exciting action sequences and I found the idea of Denzel Washington as a sword wielding religious bad-ass to be quite appealing.  It was also the newest in a line of post-apocalyptic movies to be released here in the UK, and it came only a week after “The Road”, which is superb.  Now, for me to make comparisons between “The Road” and “The Book of Eli” would be unfair, as they are two totally different films with very different directors.  Well, sometimes life just isn’t fair so I’m going to anyway!  First, the outline of the film.

“The Book of Eli” centres around Denzel Washington’s character, Eli, who has been charged with the heavy duty of carrying the last remaining Bible on Earth.  Eli is our main protagonist and our hero.  He has been walking for over 30 years and all he knows is that his job is to carry the bible West to put it into the hands of people who will know what to do with it.  This task is not as easy as it seems as the roads are filled with gangs that are willing to do anything to find scraps and leftovers.

This world is lawless. People rape, people kill, people eat each other.  Sound familiar?  After using his holy sword of justice to destroy a group of mercenaries, their boss Carnegie, played by Gary Oldman, tries to persuade Eli to join his gang.  It just so happens that Carnegie is on his own holy pursuit to find the book but for totally different reasons.  He intends to use the bible to corrupt.  He sees the book as a weapon.  So it’s lucky for Carnegie that Eli spends a night in his “hotel” and subsequently realizes that Eli is carrying his much sought after item.  What ensues is an all too predictable game of cat and mouse in which Eli and his female companion try to stay one step ahead of Carnegie.  They encounter strange people on the way.  They almost get caught.  Eli kicks arse.  They run away.  They almost get caught again.  They blow sh!t up.  They run away again.  You think they are giving away the book.  They are not.  You think they aren’t going to make it out West.  They do.  There is one genuine twist in the film which I won’t give away, but it doesn’t affect the outcome of the film in the slightest.

At times, “The Book of Eli” is visually stunning. It has a stylish sepia, almost as if the contrast has been turned up so high as if to make you feel like the characters in the film, who are constantly under the threat of being blinded by the sun.  It is not 100% confirmed what caused the world in which they live to become the way it has, but we do know that it was a war that started it.  Because of the bright, stylized nature of the film, possibly a nuclear as the toned up bright lights reminds me of The Matrix or Highlander Part 2 where wars or science burned holes in the sky to which people must now protect themselves from.  The action sequences at times are equally impressive.  Denzel does a good job with the fights, though sometimes they feel quite laborious and his movements lackadaisical and highly staged. Obviously they are choreographed fight sequences, but you don’t want to realise this during the film ruining the illusion.  He is also helped by the way the directors choose to stage the action.  Whether is be filming them in shadow, or making numerous cuts so as to not linger on Denzel too much.  One action sequence in particular is quite breathtaking.  Eli and his companion are inside a house and Carnegie is outside, and all hell breaks loose.  Guns blaze, rockets fire and things get blown up.  The camera goes in the house, outside the house.  Through the letter box.  Through bullet holes. Think one particular shoot out in “Bad Boys 2”, only more impressive.  And what makes this scene so impressive is that it appears to happen in one take.   Gary Oldman is his usual brilliant self, seamlessly mixing smooth criminal and manic psycho in one fell swoop.  The rest of the film, however, is less impressive.

In my recent review of the Road, I mentioned how impressed I was with the look of the characters.  In that world, the remaining people who survived have nothing and it really showed.  The people looked dirty.  I mean, really dirty.  However, in “The Book of Eli”, despite living in a post-apocalyptic world where water, let alone soap is like gold dust, many individuals still manage to have a certain sex appeal.  Some of the woman’s clothes are horrifically dirty, yet are luckily ripped just in the right ways as to show a nice amount of cleavage or lie tantilisingly high above the knee.  Even some of the men manage to get matching outfits and look like trendy cyber punks.   In  “The Road”, people wear a mish mash of garments and simply make do.  “The Road” has a magical way of reminding us to not take things for granted by the intense pleasure they take in the small things, such as a cigarette or a can of peaches.  It is subtly done.  In Eli, we have Denzel Washington spell out to his audience what went wrong in the past.

“In the world before, people had more than they needed and had no idea what was precious.  We threw away things that people kill each other for now” – Eli.

I know this is nitpicking and like I mentioned earlier, it is totally unfair for me to compare the two films as they are unique and each director had their own individual visions on how best to portray their worlds, but I believe it’s the little touches like this that make the difference between average filmmaking and great filmmaking.

Another fault I found in the film was the crass way in which it tries to make a statement.  On the one hand, we have Eli who is walking across the country on blind faith alone.  A voice inside told him where to find the book and what to do with it, and he is protecting it with his life.  He lives his life by the words inside and in this brave new world, this appears to make him one of the last few decent people in America.  We could deduce it is his faith that allows him to act this way.  So, are the filmmakers trying to say “look what happens in a world without religion?  People loot, people kill, people pillage, people eat other.”  If so, then we should bring religion back right?  Well, contrary to this opinion, Eli suggests that religion might have well been the cause of the war.  And take Gary Oldman’s character Carnegie for example.

“It’s not a book, it’s a weapon!  A weapon aimed at the hearts and minds of the weak and desperate.  They’ll come from all over to hear it’s words and they’ll do whatever I tell them…it’s happened before.” – Carnegie.

He is quite clearly the representation of the darker side and religion and how some new radicals can take the words of religious texts, whether it be the bible, the Koran, the Tora, and use it’s message for destruction and self gain rather than peace. He is the total antithesis to Eli. Both points of view are put through to the audience so it is hard to know what side of the fence it sits on.  If, like Eli suggested some people believed, the bible was the cause of this apocalyptic event, why not simply leave it be?  Wouldn’t the war he described simply happen again?  If there are people out there who are willing to rape, kill and pillage to get their hands on it to spread it’s message for that of selfishness and their own interests, why not just destroy it too, or bury it so no one will be able to manipulate it’s message ever again.  The answer is obvious, of course.  And I am sure that by presenting such strong cases for each case, the directors want the audience to make up their own minds, but I just see it as a way of dumbing down an audience so you don’t necessarily have to think about it too much and just focus on the ass-kicking.

Ultimately, what could have been a well thought out movie that infers the role of religion in the future and what role that can play on our lives, ends up in a none-too-original popcorn action flick.  Instead of subtly trying to engage in debates and let us try and make weigh up the pro’s and con’s of each character by their actions alone, we are bashed about the head with a shovel full of contrasting opinions. “RELIGION IS GOOD!”  “NO, RELIGION IS BAD AND CAN CORRUPT!” RARRRRRR!!  And what also could have been a slick action movie with great pacing, merely dragged along from one formulaic narrative point to the next.  I wouldn’t say that “The Book of Eli” is that bad, it just isn’t that great either.  I would say that the directors missed a great opportunity.  They would probably say they just wanted to see Denzel Washington as a sword-wielding religious bad-ass.  In that respect, they reached their holy grail.  Amen.

 

Dean Crawford is a Jeonju veteran, with an infectious enthusiasm and multifaceted experience in film."The Book of Eli" should reach Jeonju cinemas soon. To see more of his reviews, visit http://thekinkyafro.tumblr.com/

 

 

Editorial: Walking INTO North Korea?

Written by dvm Saturday, 30 January 2010 18:12

Donald Kirk's article in Asia Times Online entitled Grim Tales from North Korea's Gulags reveals the stark horror of North Korea's regime. It is important to read this and put our lives here (just a few hours' drive away) into perspective. After reading the article, come back 'round to consider the question: Why are these nutters walking into North Korea? The hideous beauty of it becomes as plain as a light in the darkness. They are giving their lives in the hope that it may lead to something better for the hopeless sufferers. Is it suicide? There can be no doubt. Is it insanity? Mad as a hatter eating US beef. However, a persistent pondering pesters the pate: this is a kind of self-sacrificial suicide that resonates of Jesus, rather than Roh.

David Van Minnen is Editor of The Jeonju Hub
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The Back Page

Written by dvm Wednesday, 10 June 2009 10:49

The Back Page is our Op/Ed section. Letters to the Editor, Editorials, etc. will be displayed here. We welcome your comments, and encourage Hub readers to submit any (well-written, journalistic) idea or opinion. It would be fantastic if you would include a mugshot of yourself and a line of bio. Other images/links/video pertinent to your topic are most welcome. Include your first and last name and e-mail address. (Anonymous posts will not be published). Send to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
 
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