Map of the Human Heart (R) 7.5

Map of the Human Heart (1993): Fantastic improbabilities, happenstance and the undying bridge of love are part of this romantic fantasy about an Inuit who crosses years, oceans and the ravages of WWII to find his childhood love, a Metis girl, but finds that their cultures are the most difficult spaces to gap. (7.0)

Director: Vincent Ward
Writers: Louis Nowra, Vincent Ward (story)
Stars: Jason Scott Lee, Anne Parillaud and Patrick Bergin

It is said that "all's fair in love and war" but, for some it seems, nothing is fair. Bad luck seems to follow them all the time. I can relate quite well. Haunting ending that will play in your mind for a long time. My Rating: 7.5

Dying Young (R) 6.5

Dying Young (1991): After she discovers that her boyfriend has betrayed her, Hilary O'Neil is looking for a new start and a new job. She begins to work as a private nurse for a young man suffering from blood cancer. (5.4)

Director: Joel Schumacher
Stars: Julia Roberts, Campbell Scott and Vincent D'Onofrio

Julia Roberts is so right for the part, but can't say the same about Campbell Scott. They both, plus the supporting cast give a very good performance. You know what to expect. It is an ordinary story. The situation makes for a bit of sorrow and sadness. I wouldn't give this high a score if it wasn't for Ms. Roberts reminding me of another similar redhead I knew a long time ago, also in California. YMMV. My Rating: 6.5

Mongol (R) 8.0

Mongol: The Rise of Genghis Khan (2007): The story recounts the early life of Genghis Khan who was a slave before going on to conquer half the world including Russia in 1206. (7.3)

Director: Sergey Bodrov
Stars: Tadanobu Asano, Amadu Mamadakov and Khulan Chuluun
Languages: Mongolian | Mandarin (w/ English subtitles)

Watched it a second time. (See my previous post as well.) Loved it every bit as the first time. The scenes, the costumes, the choreography, everything is painstakingly well done. I still think Khulan Chuluun's eyes are the most beautiful and mesmerizing. It is very interesting about Temudjin's two kids, but a recent genetic study indicates Genghis Khan has about 16 million descendants living today. Impressive. Highly recommend this movie. My Rating: 8.0

Order of the Phoenix (PG-13) 6.5

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007): With their warning about Lord Voldemort's return scoffed at, Harry and Dumbledore are targeted by the Wizard authorities as an authoritarian bureaucrat slowly seizes power at Hogwarts. (7.3)

Director: David Yates
Writers: Michael Goldenberg (screenplay), J.K. Rowling (novel)
Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint

Of course, the book has much more details and it explains the situations much better. I enjoyed the movie too. My Ratings: 6.5

Uncle Boonmee (PG-13) 7.5

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010) Loong Boonmee raleuk chat (original title): On his deathbed, Uncle Boonmee, recalls his many past lives. (6.8)

Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Writer: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Stars: Thanapat Saisaymar, Jenjira Pongpas and Sakda Kaewbuadee
Language: Thai (w/ English subtitles)

The first several scenes and sequences of the movie set the theme and the pace for me. I knew right away that this is a deliberately slow paced movie with minimal dialog. This is not one with an ordinary flow. I think, the deleted scenes and the interview with the director that's included in the DVD cast a lot of insight. The director admits that this is a very experimental movie with a lot of things from his own perspective. (Apparently, this is also a part of an art project involving many different media.) A lot of sequences are not linear, even some that may seem that way. I like it a lot for yet another reason that no one else may be able relate to; that is that the scenes and the whole theme are very nostalgic to me evoking many memories of growing up in Sri Lanka. I didn't realize that rural Thailand looks a lot like SL. And, of course, both societies have the same Buddhism underpinning wide acceptance of reincarnation and spirit worlds. Surreal, yet so familiar. My Rating: 7.5

Timer (R) 6.0

TiMER (2009): If a clock could count down to the moment you meet your soul mate, would you want to know? (6.6)

Director: Jac Schaeffer
Writer: Jac Schaeffer
Stars: Emma Caulfield, John Patrick Amedori and Michelle Borth

A very interesting and original idea for a story, a bit sci-fi in that we don't have such a countdown clock. Makes one think about the various implications. The movie, however, took the route of being a romantic comedy (thereby, as all such movies, losing a bit on both counts) and only scratches the surface. I enjoyed the movie, but something intangible is missing and I can't give a high score. My Rating: 6.0

Last Train Home (PG) 7.5

Last Train Home (2009): A family embarks on an annual tormenting journey along with 200 other million peasant workers to reunite with their distant family, and to revive their love and dignity as China soars as the world's next super power. (7.6)

Director: Lixin Fan
Stars: Changhua Zhan, Yang Zhang, Suqin Chen, Qin Zhang
Language: Mandarin (w/ English subtitles)

This is a must-see documentary for anyone who has consumed Chinese made products. It is heartbreaking to see what millions of Chinese migrant workers have to go through so those of us in the industrialized world can have cheap consumer goods. There are several messages in this documentary film. There are some others in the Travelers and Magicians movie. It would be an interesting discussion to talk about what is happiness and how best to achieve it; and do we in the West even know it. My Rating: 7.5

Black Swan (R) 7.0

Black Swan (2010): A ballet dancer wins the lead in "Swan Lake" and is perfect for the role of the delicate White Swan - Princess Odette - but slowly loses her mind as she becomes more and more like Odile, the Black Swan. (8.3)

Director: Darren Aronofsky
Stars: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis and Vincent Cassel

The acting is superb. While I can't directly relate to the story of the leading ballerina in a major production in a big city, in my head, I understand the euphoria and the pressure she is under simultaneously. It is the unique storyline that doesn't connect with me, emotionally. Yet, the thrilling sequences, the roller-coaster she goes through, and most importantly the super good acting holds this movie together from beginning to the end. My Rating: 7.0

Rabbit Hole (PG-13) 8.0

Rabbit Hole (2010): Life for a happy couple is turned upside down after their young son dies in an accident. Based on a play by David Lindsay-Abaire. (7.2)

Director: John Cameron Mitchell
Writers: David Lindsay-Abaire (screenplay), David Lindsay-Abaire (play)
Stars: Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart and Dianne Wiest

"It changes though ... the weight of it, I guess. At some point, it becomes bearable. It turns into something that you can crawl out from under and carry around like a brick in your pocket. It's kind of ... Not that you like it, exactly, but it's what you've got instead of... So, you carry it around. And, it doesn't go away. Which is ... fine, actually." Hmm... Fits perfectly! The parallel universes, too. "And, this is just the sad version of us." [Sorry to be cryptic. Just a few direct quotes.] My Rating: 8.0

Hot Summer Days (PG) 5.5

Hot Summer Days (2010) Chuen sing yit luen - yit lat lat (original title): Hot Summer Days is a romantic comedy which takes place in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shenzhen, consisting of seven intertwined love stories in the middle of the hottest summer on record ever. (6.4)

Directors: Tony Chan, Wing Shya
Stars: Nicholas Tse, Jacky Cheung and Rene Liu
Language: Mandarin | Cantonese (w/ English subtitles)

A romantic comedy with a considerably less romance and marginal comedy plus quite a bit of bad acting. I'm not sure why Netflix recommended this with a 3.9 score. Yeah, the intertwined stories try to find some meaning with some soapyness towards the end, but falls far short of something like Ju Dou in romance, sentimentality and pure emotions. The only saving grace for this movie, at least for me, was that it had a lot of modern day scenes of Hong Kong and Beijing. My Rating: 5.5

Intacto (R) 7.0

Intacto (2001): An enigmatic tale of four people whose lives are intertwined by destiny are subject to the laws of fate. They discover that luck is something they cannot afford to be without as they gamble with the highest stakes possible in a deadly game from which only one of them will emerge intact. (6.8)

Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Stars: Max von Sydow, Eusebio Poncela and Leonardo Sbaraglia
Languages: Spanish and English (w/ English subtitles)

This is movie about luck. (How appropriate that I watched this right after seeing Japan win the Women's world cup against a much better US team with what appears to be pure destiny.) It is a different kind of a story. The viewer has to piece it together in the latter part of the movie. The cinematography is a bit different too. The main premise of the story is not too unreal; as such you wonder what people wouldn't do under such circumstances. My Rating: 7.0

Dear Zachary (NR) 8.0

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (2008): A filmmaker decides to memorialize a murdered friend when his friend's ex-girlfriend announces she is expecting his son. (8.6)

Director: Kurt Kuenne
Writer: Kurt Kuenne
Stars: Kurt Kuenne, Andrew Bagby, David Bagby, Kathleen Bagby

This movie tells a remarkable story. It is a real story; so, it is a documentary. Parts of the documentary are filmed while the story is evolving, and as such, it is done in real time. Other parts are done with very good use of archive footage. Ultimately, it is a story about quite a remarkable set of people. Quite Moving. (Don't read about the story if you are going to watch it.) My Rating: 8.0

Travelers and Magicians (PG) 7.0

Travelers and Magicians (2003): The two men embark on parallel, if separate, journeys. Their yearning is a common one--for a better and different life. Dondup, delayed by the timeless pace of his village, is forced to hitchhike through the beautiful wild countryside of Bhutan to reach his goal. (7.4)

Director: Khyentse Norbu
Stars: Tshewang Dendup, Sonam Lhamo and Lhakpa Dorji
Language: Dzongkha (Bhutanese w/ English subtitles)

The theme is somewhat similar to the previous movie "The Drummer" in that the young, rebellious, westernized kid finds traditional values. But this one is slower paced; uses a different technique. I was more interested in what Bhutan looked like; what people looked like. The snow-capped mountains as the backdrop is stunning. People's features are a mixture of East Asian and Indian as is the case with Tibetans and Nepalese. Beautiful! Story makes you ask what is happiness. Interestingly, Bhutan is consistently ranked near the top of the list of happiest countries on earth. (Ashamed to say that while growing up in SL, I didn't know about Bhutan for a long time even though it is another small predominantly Buddhist country close to SL.) My Rating: 7.0

The Drummer (PG-13) 6.5

The Drummer (2007) Zhan. gu (original title): After offending a powerful triad boss, young Hong Kong rebel Sid (Jaycee Chan) is sent by his father to hide out in Taiwan. Under the protection of Chiu (Roy Cheung) and in rural isolation, Sid encounters a group of Zen drummers, whose powerful art speaks to him. But to become a member of this inspiring ensemble, the cocky and selfish Sid must learn the important values of discipline and hard work. (6.7)

Director: Kenneth Bi
Stars: Jaycee Chan, Tony Leung Ka Fai and Angelica Lee
Languages: Mandarin | Cantonese (w/ English subtitles)

A nice blend of modernity in Hong Kong with the traditional isolation in the mountains of Taiwan. The storyline is somewhat predictable. I enjoyed the drum-beats, the mountain scenes; and frankly what seems like a glimpse into the daily life in another society (not all that different). The rural scenes reminded me of SL. The beating of the drums mixed with a bit of martial arts (Shaolin?) was nice. The story gets a bit soapy at the end, but meh, the drum music was good. My Rating: 6.5

Frequency (PG-13) 6.0

Frequency (2000): An accidental cross-time radio link connects father and son across 30 years. The son tries to save his father's life, but then must fix the consequences. (7.3)

Director: Gregory Hoblit
Stars: Dennis Quaid, James Caviezel and Shawn Doyle

Not quite time travel, but it uses cause and effect methods across a 30-year gap. If you pass a known info down to 30 years back and that has major effects for you today, and you don't have that info, then you can't pass that info back. The sentimentality has taken precedence over the time-warped cause and effect sequences. This is not a well-thought-out story. But the acting is good enough and the storytelling is suspenseful to keep the viewer interested the whole time. My Rating: 6.0

Inception (PG-13) 8.5

Inception (2010): In a world where technology exists to enter the human mind through dream invasion, a highly skilled thief is given a final chance at redemption which involves executing his toughest job to date: Inception. (8.9)

Director: Christopher Nolan
Writer: Christopher Nolan
Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ellen Page

[Spoiler Alert] See my first blog entry as well. Seeing this movie the second time cleared some stuff for me, but then created more questions. If Mal is Cobb's own projection (in any level, after all she's dead) then why is she fighting him? Or is Cobb's subconscious mind sabotaging his own operations? If Cobb and Mal lived in limbo for 50 years and grew old together, why were they shown as a young couple committing suicide on the train tack? Shouldn't the designer of each level be the dreamer for that level? In dreams, people can fly, be at places thousands of miles away in an instant, all sorts of crazy stuff ... but these people in dreams, all they use are just street weapons; not dream-like at all. Okay, I'm still sticking with the original rating, but I see lots of places where the story could have been improved. My Rating: 8.5

The Princess Bride (PG) 8.5

The Princess Bride (1987): A classic fairy tale, with swordplay, giants, an evil prince, a beautiful princess, and yes, some kissing (as read by a kindly grandfather). (8.1)

Director: Rob Reiner
Writers: William Goldman (screenplay), William Goldman (book)
Stars: Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin and Robin Wright

Ah, one of the all-time best. I've seen this movie so many times now, I think I have almost all the dialog; almost. Still find it funny, endearing and wonderful even the umpteenth time I see it. Like the Grandfather tells his sick grandson, it has everything ... "Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles..." Inconceivable! My Rating: 8.5

Formosa Betrayed (R) 7.0

Formosa Betrayed (2009): In the early 1980s, an FBI Agent is assigned to investigate the murder of a respected professor. Through his investigation, he unearths a spider web of international secrets that has been thriving within college campuses across America for decades. (5.8)

Director: Adam Kane
Writers: Will Tiao (story), Katie Swain (story)
Stars: James Van Der Beek, Wendy Crewson and Will Tiao

Stories about political activism usually aren't thrillers. This movie is a rare exception. The storyline is very interesting. The acting by the leading characters and support cast is good. While the story is based on true events in the 80's, I had to keep in mind that this is still fiction. But it has made me read a bit more about the history of Taiwan. While this movie is about political events in Taiwan, it also shows US' foreign and military policies towards various dictatorships around the world (as described in "Why We Fight" and "Hearts and Minds" documentaries). Wish there were more movies like this. My Rating: 7.0

Interview with the Vampire (R) 6.5

Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994): A vampire tells his epic life story: love, betrayal, loneliness, and hunger. (7.5)

Director: Neil Jordan
Writers: Anne Rice (screenplay), Anne Rice (novel)
Stars: Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise and Antonio Banderas

Okay, so people who like vampire stories would love this. Me? You see one blood-sucking scene and you've 'em all; that's my take on the whole vampire theme. I know that I'm missing quite a lot of nuanced relationship details between the vampires in the movie version versus the book, but ... meh. Lots of inconsistencies though, so, they have a hunger for blood, but they live forever, but they die from fire, or by drinking blood of dead, but not quite, and from sunlight but the one who doesn't want to be a vampire can't kill himself ... ugh, there's an easy way out; just walk out into the sun. Whatever. Yeah, Rutger Hauer (or more precisely Roy Batty in Blade Runner) would have made a better vampire than Tom Cruise (of jumping on Oprah's couch fame). My Rating: 6.5

The Notebook (PG-13) 8.0

The Notebook (2004): A poor and passionate young man falls in love with a rich young woman and gives her a sense of freedom. They soon are separated by their social differences. (8.0)

Director: Nick Cassavetes
Stars: Gena Rowlands, James Garner, Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling

The story in this movie hit way too close to home. All I can say is that movies have Hollywood endings while the real life is not a fairy tale and often not fair (specially to me). My Rating: 8.0

Woman, Gun, Noodle Shop (R) 7.5

A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop (2009): The owner of a Chinese noodle shop's scheme to murder his adulterous wife and her lover goes awry. (5.8)

Director: Yimou Zhang
Stars: Dahong Ni, Ni Yan and Xiao Shen-Yang
Language: Mandarin (w/ English subtitles)

Until the opening credits, I didn't know this was a remake of "Blood Simple," an early Coen brothers movie. (no matter) And, this is a tragic/dark comedy with blundering stereotypical characters. That's what makes the movie work. Even though I don't understand Mandarin, the minimal dialog, the translations, and most importantly the situations were sufficient for me to find the hilarity. I should probably stop saying this about Yimou Zhang's movies, but the cinematography was incredible. The desert scenes, the use of contrasting costumes, the use of color filters and wide-angle lenses, beauty of sunrise/sunset on mountain scenes, ... great camera work. Loved the whole thing. This remake shows that a simple story idea can transcend cultures and times. My Rating: 7.5

Ponyo (G) 6.5

Ponyo (2008): An animated adventure centered on a 5-year-old boy and his relationship with a goldfish princess who longs to become human. (7.8)

Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Writer: Hayao Miyazaki
Stars: Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon and Liam Neeson

The user review in the above IMDB link is spot-on. The story in this Miyazaki film is a bit weak. The animation is nice; the scenes are good. More suited for smaller kids than his other movies like Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away. My Rating: 6.5