THE BIRTHPLACE OF TAIWANESE NEW WAVE

I just watched Midnight in Paris this weekend - In one of my favorite scenes, Owen Wilson's character, having been magically transported to 1920's Paris, runs back one night to find that the same cafe he was just drinking with Ernest Hemingway at is now (in the present day), a laundromat.

Last week I was walking around Taipei with a friend, who pointed out the area where Edward Yang's family home used to be. Almost 30 years ago, this is where Edward and other notable directors of the Taiwanese New Wave (Hou Hsiao Hsien, Wu Nian Jen) used to hang out and watch movies together and talk about how they were going to change the Taiwanese film industry. Apparently after Edward passed away, a few people tried to get the government to preserve the building, a colonial Japanese-style home, for its significance in Taiwanese film history. The building was torn down anyway, and now in its place...an internet cafe.

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS

Midnight in Paris finally opens in Taipei this weekend. I am giddy like a schoolgirl.

SILENT BOB RETIRES

Kevin Smith has apparently decided to retire from filmmaking at age 40, citing the fact that he's really never mastered the art of visual storytelling, and that for him to keep going would only result in diminishing returns. Also, it seems like he's got plenty of other interests (podcasts, comics, etc.) going on in his life that he wants to now focus on.

I haven't seen any Kevin Smith movies in a while, but I still remember during my junior year of a high school, one of my friends telling me about Clerks and how it was one of the funniest movies he'd ever seen. My buddies and I found a store that rented the VHS, and we must have watched it at least three times in one weekend. By the next week at school, we were all doing Jay impressions and talking about the independent contractors that died so needlessly on the Death Star.

ps - my favorite one is Chasing Amy.

LANE 256

I'm not sure why it took me three months to edit a 5 minute short film, but somehow it did.

We finished the color-correction today for Lane 256, a 5 minute short that will be part of a feature-length omnibus that premieres as the opening film of the Golden Horse Film Festival later this year. There will be twenty shorts in total, all of which are supposed to be exactly 5 minutes.

In a decision that was either really cool or kind of stupid, we shot the short on expired super 16mm film stock.

LAWRENCE FTW

This is coming a little late...but congratulations to Lawrence Ko 柯宇綸, who just won the Best Supporting Actor Award at the Taipei Film Festival a few weeks ago for his new movie Jump Ashin! 翻滾吧！阿信.

WHY DAVID BRENT IS A GOOD GUY

"Who needs winners? They're not in the slightest bit funny or interesting. Give me a loser any day." (Ricky Gervais)

MAKE UP

AZKABAN

Still the best Potter movie?

Update: Just watched Deathly Hallows 2. Cuaron's is still the best.

A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY

I just watched the 4-hour version of Edward Yang's A Brighter Summer Day for the first time (off a digitally restored print courtesy of the World Cinema Foundation). The scope and depth of it is even more ridiculous in the 4-hour cut...watching it you feel like you've actually been transported back to the world of 1960's Taiwan.

ACADEMIA AND AU REVOIR

An interesting academic take on Au Revoir:

Senses of Cinema