Sunday, March 16, 2008

"I'm a Cyborg, but that's OK"

The Korean Director Park Chan-wook is definitely a freak. I saw his movie "Old Boy" couple years ago. The violence and cruelty in the movie freacked me out- eating raw octopus, cutting one's own tongue, unblievable revenge, ...., and the story itself was crazy and outrageous. I don't believe that can happen in any place in the world. But I was intrigued by the director's fantastic imagining. If I have to pick the two most beautiful violent movies- I'll say KILL BILL and OLD BOY.

So when I found out that Park has a new movie showing in San Francisco Asian American Film Festival this week, I was really curious what it is going to be. According to the introduction on the official website- this movie "I'm a cyborg, but that's OK" is a "fantasy-laden love story between a girl who believes herself a cyborg and an insecure kleptomaniac". I said to myself, this cannot be too bad. The movie didn't disappoint me. It turned out to be a comedy happened in a psycho hospital- every patient has their own fantasy. The main actress character (Young-goon) is schezophrenic that she believes herself a cyborg (and her granny believed herself a mouse), the main actor character (starred by Rain) steals things from people just to prove his own existence- because he is afraid he is going to vanish into a dot. All the other supporting characters have fun and cute personality- a fat woman believes by scrubbing her two magic socks, she can fly anywhere; another one carries a mirror around and tries to audit a singing character in the movie "Sound of Music". Comparing to the evilness in "Old Boy", characters in this movie seem to act out of good will. However, Park still keeps some of his favorite violence element in the movie. A couple of bloody scenes were in Young-goon's imaginary fantacy.

The plot itself is not that creative- no more creative schizophrenic patients' fantasies . But Park smartly inbeded some of his lessoning in the movie, like when a person is out of sympathy (stolen), he/she can be cruel. The supposed-to-be-macaber tale was told in a comic way which reminds me of Amelie. I like many cute parts about Young-goon's behavior- her cyborg talking to vending machine, recharing herself by putting batteries between her fingers. And I also like the idea that "Thusday" can be stolen.

One of my personal requirements of a good movie is that the color sheme has to be right. I have to say that Park is very good in this. The move starts with red where female workers in red uniform working in a facotry production line, then Young-goon cut herself- red blood was everywhere. Green was another major color in the movie with beautiful green grass and green masks. And I wonder what Park has about the hair style of his characters- the Oldboy guy and the Cyborg girl both have bushy big hair.


Overall speaking, the movie is entertaining and fun. The slogan of the 2008 San Francisco Asian American Film Festival is "Sometimes you have to get out of the real world to get into other's imaginary world'. This movie is definiltey one to satify that!

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

與你告別,Matrix紀

今天我把跟著我6年的Matrix賣掉了,說實在心中有很多不捨, 我的Matrix對我來說意義重大。
這是我第一台自己的車,而且是新車。是我到美國一年後爸媽來看我時陪我去買的.
我還記得那天從LA東邊的 Clarement 開回West LA, 大概有50哩, 我自己第一次開那複雜的10號公路, 緊張的手心直冒汗。老爸老媽坐在後座也很緊張,拼命幫我東張西望, 就怕換車道或換交流道時撞到別人或是開到別條高速公路上。好不容易開回到家, 在車庫裡把他跟室友的Camry一起停好的時候,我心中興奮難以自己。是不是這麼說- 有了自己的車,世界寛廣了20倍!

從此這台車跟著我同甘共苦,陪我上學,工作,買菜,玩樂。
第一次在藍天白雲下開著他沿Malibu海岸兜風的快感,第一次開著他在LA downtown誤入歧途時的驚嚇...
他陪我分享人生的喜悅,口試通過時開著他一路狂飇Santa Monica Blvd回家通告親友。
他陪我承擔人生的傷痛, 曾經在烈陽下開著他從LA一路哭到Irvine。
堅固可靠的他陪著我在LA搬家3次,最後陪我從LA搬到SF來。載著我在狂風暴雨中到處找房,跟著我在人生地不熟的地方四處闖盪。就像一個無怨無悔的好朋友,除了我不小心幾次abuse他之外從來沒給我找過麻煩。

這兩年來他陪著我在灣區東南西北趴趴走,最近我不得不承認輕巧的他在高速公路上不夠份量。
於是我另買了一台鋼板厚重的德國車。可我捨不得我的Matrix,不只因為他載有我太多的回憶,
也因在我生命中好幾個曾經坐過他的人已經離開,再也沒有機會來坐我的新車。
拖了一陣子之後,終於決定我實在沒有空間沒有時間養兩台車。
今天我把他賣出, 過兩天就要交車了, 我像養寵物的人一樣,擔心他的新主人會不會好好待他。

再見了,我的Matrix。
我興你告別。