skip to main |
skip to sidebar
[Name]
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring
(Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom )
[Category]
Classic
[Language]
Korean
[Director]
Kim Ki-duk
[Producer]
Karl Baumgartner,
Lee Seung-jae
[Cast]
Su Oh-yeong,
Kim Young-min,
Seo Jae-kyung,
Kim Jong-ho,
Ha Yeo-jin
[Story][Wikipedia Ref.]
One of the best film in the world of cinema. A five segment of season cinema narrating different stage in the life of a Buddhist monk. The story is going along with the seasons.
Spring
We are introduced the life of the very young Buddhist apprentice with his master on a small floating monastery, drifting on a lake in the serene forested mountains of Korea. The apprentice and his master live a basic life of prayer and meditation, using an old rowboat to reach the bank of the lake where they regularly go walking, for exercise and to collect herbs. One day, in a creek amongst the rocky hills, the apprentice torments a fish by tying a small stone to it with string and laughing as it struggles to swim. Shortly after, he does the same to a frog and a snake; his master quietly observes on all three occasions, and that night ties a large, smooth rock to the apprentice as he sleeps. In the morning, he tells his apprentice that he cannot take off the rock until he unties the creatures he tormented - adding that if any of them have died, he will "carry the stone in his heart forever". The boy struggles with the load on his back through the forest, and finds the fish, lying dead on the bottom of the creek, finds the frog still alive and struggling where he left it, and finds the snake in a pool of blood, presumably attacked and killed by another animal, unable to get away. The master watches as the boy begins to cry heavily upon seeing what he has done to the snake.
Summer
The apprentice (now in his teenage years) encounters a mother and daughter (dressed in modern clothes, indicating that the film takes place in modern times) walking along the forest path, looking for the lake monastery. The apprentice silently greets them and rows them across the lake to the monastery, where it is revealed that the daughter has an unspecified illness (she displays symptoms of a fever) and has been brought to the Buddhist master by her mother, hoping that she will be healed. The master agrees to take in the teenage girl for a time, and the mother leaves. Over the next few days, the apprentice finds himself sexually attracted to the girl, but is too shy to say anything; however, when he finds her sleeping in front of the Buddha statue, he is unable to resist groping her chest. She wakes up and slaps him, and in a guilty panic the apprentice begins to pray incessantly, something his master notes as strange. The girl seems to forgive him however; eventually, the two wander off into the forest alone and have sex. They repeat the act over the next few nights, hiding their relationship from the master, until he discovers them asleep and naked, drifting around the lake in the rowboat. He wakes them up by pulling the plug out of the boat. Rather than expressing anger or disappointment, he merely warns his apprentice that "desire leads to attachment, and attachment leads to intention to kill", but does tell him that the girl will have to leave. The apprentice reacts emotionally to this, and in the middle of the night runs away from the monastery in pursuit of the girl, taking the monastery's Buddha statue with him.
Fall
Many years later, in "Fall" (or "Autumn"), the ageing master returns from a supply run to the local village, and by chance glimpses a warrant for the arrest of his former apprentice, wanted for the murder of his wife. Forseeing the apprentice's return, he modifies the teenage monk garments by hand, and soon afterwards the adult apprentice appears in the spiritual door at the lake's edge, still full of anger and carrying the bloodstained knife with which he stabbed his wife. Unwilling to go on, he seals his eyes, mouth and nose in a suicide ritual and sits in front of the newly returned Buddha statue, waiting for death; the master discovers him, and beats him ruthlessly, professing that while he may have killed his wife, he will not kill himself so easily. He ties his bloodied apprentice to the ceiling and sets a candle to slowly burn through the rope, then begins painting "Heart Sutra" on one side of the monastery deck, by dipping his cat's tail into a tin of black paint. The apprentice eventually falls, and in beginning his repentance, cuts his hair off and starts carving the Chinese characters out of the wood. As he carves and the master paints, two detectives arrive at the monastery and try to arrest the apprentice, but the master asks them to let him finish his task. The apprentice continues without stopping, and collapses into sleep immediately upon finishing. Seemingly influenced by the soothing presence of the master, the detectives help the old monk paint his apprentice's carvings in red, blue and green . The apprentice finally wakes up, and is taken away by the detectives. After they leave, the master, knowing he is at his end, builds a pyre in the rowboat. He seals his ears, eyes, nose and mouth with paper in the same suicide ritual and meditates as he is suffocated and burned to death. One can see the tracks of his tears in the paper seals as flames engulf him.
Winter
The middle-aged apprentice returns to the frozen lake and to his former home, which has been drifting uninhabited for decades. He finds his master's clothes, laid out just before his death, and digs his master's remains out of the frozen rowboat, setting them to rest in the Buddha statue under a waterfall. He finds a book of choreographic meditative stances, and begins to train and exercise relentlessly in the freezing weather. Eventually, a woman comes to the monastery with her baby son and a shawl wrapped around her face. She seeks to leave her son with the monk and flee, but as she tries to leave in the middle of the night, she stumbles into a hole in the ice the monk dug earlier and drowns. Finding her body the next day causes him to tie the monastery's large, circular stone to his body and climb to the summit of the tallest surrounding mountain holding another statue, which he places there.
...and Spring
Finally, in returning to "Spring", the cycle is completed: the new master lives in the monastery with the abandoned baby, now his apprentice. The boy is shown to torment a tortoise and, wandering into the rocky hills, echoes his predecessor, forcing stones into the mouths of a fish, frog and snake.
[Awards]
Argentinean Film Critics Association Awards - Best Foreign Film - Silver Condor -2005
Best Film - Blue Dragon Award -2003
Chlotrudis Awards - Best Movie,Best Cinematography -Chlotrudis Award - 2005
Grand Bell Awards, South Korea Best Film- Grand Bell Award -2004
Locarno International Film Festival -2003 4 Awards (C.I.C.A.E. Award, Don Quixote Award, Netpac Award,Youth Jury Award)
San Sebastián International Film Festival - Audience Award - 2003
Sofia International Film Festival - Burgas Municipality Award 'Silver Sea-Gull' -2006
Best Film - Golden Kinnaree Award -2004
[Links]
http://www.sonyclassics.com/spring/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0374546/
http://www.dharmaflix.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring,_Summer,_Fall,_Winter..._and_Spring
[Name]
October Sky
[Category]
Science, True Story
[Language]
English
[Director]
Joe Johnston
[Producer]
Larry J. Franco,
Charles Gordon,
Marc Sternberg
[Cast]
Jake Gyllenhaal,
Chris Cooper,
Laura Dern
[Story][Wikipedia Ref.]
This one of the best film i have ever seen. Actullay this is based on a true story. But the direction and screen-play done the magic. Every students who is intersetd in Science should see this film. I Just remember this movie at the time of Chandrayan-1 India's first moon mission.
In 1957 Coalwood, West Virginia, the coal mine is the town's largest employer and almost every male living there works, or will work, in the mines. John Hickam (Chris Cooper), the mine superintendent, loves his job -- despite its headaches and inherent dangers -- and hopes that his boys, Jim (Scott Thomas) and Homer (Jake Gyllenhaal), will one day join him working there. When it appears that Jim will receive a football scholarship to attend college, however, that leaves Homer to fulfill his father's dream, although the boys' mother, Elsie (Natalie Canerday), hopes for more for her son. It's not long before a prominent event gives him that chance.
As the townspeople gather outside one starry October night, they see the Soviet satellite Sputnik race across the sky. Filled with awe and a belief that this may be his ticket out of Coalwood, Homer sets out to build rockets of his own and enter the space race. Of course, most everyone thinks he's crazy, especially when he teams up with Quentin (Chris Owen), the school math geek who happens to know a thing or two about rocket science. With the aid of friends Roy Lee (William Lee Scott) and Odell (Chad Lindberg), however, the foursome begins experimenting with their new passion. With the help and encouragement of some local townsfolk and their science teacher, Miss Riley (Laura Dern), who hopes that Homer and his friends will enter their work in a science fair contest, the boys begin their tests, but quickly run into several obstacles. First, they don't really know what they're doing, their tests are initially disastrous, and they eventually get themselves into hot water with the local authorities. That, coupled with John not understanding nor supporting his son's "hobby," soon derails the "rocket boys' " dreams.
From that point on, and contending with the many obstacles that face them, Homer and his pals set out to prove that they can build a rocket that will soar unimpeded into the sky, proving that they have what it takes to leave the confines of their predetermined, coal miner lives.
[Awards]
Best Family Film- 2000 Critics Choice Award
OCIC Award Ajijic International Film Festival 1999
Humanitas Prize Feature Film Category 1999
11 Nominations
[Links]
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0132477/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Sky
http://www.harrymaugans.com/2006/05/03/october-sky-and-rocket-boys/
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/october_sky/
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=octobersky.htm
http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/1999/OCTSY.php
http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/octobersky
http://blip.tv/file/464938
http://www.homerhickam.com/
[Name]
Life is beautiful
(Vita è bella, La )
[Category]
Classical,Comedy,
Romance
[Language]
Italian
[Director]
Roberto Benigni
[Producer]
Gianluigi Braschi,
Elda Ferri
[Cast]
Roberto Benigni,
Nicoletta Braschi,
Giorgio Cantarini,
Giustino Durano,
[Story][Wikipedia Ref.]
The first half of the movie is a whimsical, romantic comedy and often slapstick. Guido (Roberto Benigni), a young Italian Jew, arrives in Arezzo where he sets up a bookstore. Guido is both funny and charismatic, especially when he romances Dora (Italian, but not Jewish; portrayed by Benigni's actual wife Nicoletta Braschi), whom he steals – at her engagement – from her rude and loud fiancé. Several years pass, in which Guido and Dora have a son, Joshua (written Giosué in the Italian version; portrayed by Giorgio Cantarini). In the film, Joshua is around five years old. However, both the beginning and ending of the film is narrated by an older Joshua.
In the second half, Guido, Guido's uncle Eliseo, and Joshua are taken to a concentration camp on Joshua's birthday. Dora demands to join her family and is permitted to do so. Guido hides Joshua from the Nazi guards and sneaks him food. In an attempt to keep up Joshua's spirits, Guido convinces him that the camp is just a game – a game in which the first person to get 1,000 points wins a tank. He tells Joshua that if you cry, complain that you want your mother, or complain that you are hungry, you lose points, while quiet boys who hide from the camp guards earn points. He convinces Joshua that the camp guards are mean because they want the tank for themselves and that all the other children are hiding in order to win the game. He puts off every attempt of Joshua ending the game and returning home by convincing him that they are in the lead for the tank. Despite being surrounded by rampant death and people and all their sicknesses, Joshua does not question this fiction both because of his father's convincing performance and his own innocence.
Guido maintains this story right until the end, when – in the chaos caused by the American advance drawing near – he tells his son to stay in a sweatbox until everybody has left, this being the final test before the tank is his. After trying to find Dora, Guido is caught, taken away, and is shot to death by a Nazi guard, but not before making his son laugh one last time by imitating the Nazi guard as if the two of them are marching around the camp together. Joshua manages to survive, and thinks he has won the game when an American tank arrives to liberate the camp, and he is reunited with his mother.
[Awards]
Grand Prize of the Jury at Cannes Film Festival in 1998
Academy Awards for Best Music, Original Dramatic Score and Best Foreign Language Film
Won 3 Oscars.
Around 52 wins
27 nominations
[Links]
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118799/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_Is_Beautiful
http://artsandfaith.com/t100/2005/entry.php?film=95
[Name]
Ore Kadal
(The Sea within)
[Category]
Classic, Romance
[Language]
Malayalam
[Director]
Shyamaprasad
[Producer]
Vindhayan
[Cast]
Mammotty,
Narain,Meera Jasmine,
Ramya Krishnan
[Story] [Wikipedia Ref.]
Ore Kadal is based on Sunil Gangopadhyay’s novel Hirak Deepthi. Dr. S.R. Nathan (Mammootty) is a world-renowned professor of Economics. A theorist to the core, he always harps on his pet topics of poverty and developmental issues that concern the third world. He is a loner who hits the bottle. Not a womanizer though, in his own terms, he loves their company.
But his close friend Bella (Remya Krishnan) is more practical. She tries to identify herself with some of the stark realities of life.
Deepthi (Meera Jasmine) is a housewife who stays in the same apartment complex with her husband (Narain) and son. Her husband is on the lookout for a job. On his persuasion, Deepthi approaches Nathan.
Their chance encounter ends up in a complex relationship. But Nathan is unperturbed and quite unmindful of his ways. While Deepthi gets a feeling of guilt, Nathan just shoos it away. In fact, he is working on a book on middle class attitudes and notions. Yet, when confronted with real questions, Nathan loses ground — a reference to the pseudo-intellectual image.
Here, the director closely examines the disturbing relationship between two individuals. Deepthi is not able to pull herself away from Nathan.
The undercurrents in the minds of Deepti and Nathan, their tormented souls turbulent as the sea are captured on frame dexterously by Alagappan, the cameraman. Though the film does not give any direct message, it does hint at what makes or breaks a relationship.
[Awards]
Kerala State Award 2007
Dubai Amma Awards 2007
NETPAC Award for the Best Malayalam Film
Fipresci Award for the Best Malayalam Film
Film Critics Award 2007
Sify Award 2007
John Abraham Award for Ore Kadal
Bollywood & Beyond 2008 (Stuttgart, Germany): Audience Best Film Award for Ore Kadal
[Links]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ore_Kadal
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0997170/
http://www.shyamaprasad.info
[Name]Children of Heaven
(Bacheha-Ye aseman)
[Category]Classic, Children
[Language]
Iranian
[Director]
Majid Majidi
[Producer]
Amir Esfandiari, Mohammad Esfandiari
[Cast]
Amir Farrokh, Hashemian, Bahare Seddiqi
[Story] [Wikipedia Ref.]
Ali takes his little sister Zahra's shoes to the shoemaker to be repaired, but loses them on the way home. The siblings decide to keep the predicament a secret from their parents, knowing that there is no money to buy a replacement pair and fearing that they will be punished. They devise a scheme to share Ali's sneakers: Zahra will wear them to school in the morning and hand them off to Ali at midday so he can attend afternoon classes. This uncomfortable arrangement leads to one adventure after another as they attempt to hide the plan from their parents and teachers, attend to their schoolwork and errands, and acquire a new pair of shoes for Zahra. Zahra sees the shoes on a schoolmate's feet, and follows her home, but the two soon become friends.
Ali enters a high-profile children's footrace in the hope of receiving the third prize of a new pair of sneakers. He accidentally places first and wins another prize instead. The film ends with Zahra finding out that she will not get a new pair of shoes, but there is a quick shot of their father's bicycle at the end of the movie that shows what appears to be the red shoes Zahra had been focusing on earlier and another pair of white sneakers, presumably for Ali, whose old sneakers were torn from so much use. The film ends with the final shot showing blisters on Ali's feet. Some versions include an epilogue revealing that Ali eventually achieves the larger-scale success of having a racing career.
[Awards]
nomination - Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (1998),
nomination - Jury's Grand Prize at the American Film Institute's festival
[Festival]
Fajr Film Festival,
World Film Festival,
Newport International Film Festival,
Warsaw International Film Festival,
Singapore International Film Festival
[Links]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_Heaven
http://www.cinemajidi.com/children/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118849/
http://www.driftreality.com/iran/children-of-heaven/
http://www.rossanthony.com/interviews/majidi.shtml
