New York, I love you.

New York, I Love You is well, exactly like its Parisian counterpart in form. It consists eleven short film and directed by different director, each of the film's eleven directors were given a set of rules – they must confine their story to a single neighbourhood and it must deal with a ‘love encounter’ and they must wrap their shoot in two days in New York City. 

There are some interesting conceptual tags in this; it’s a pseudo-sophisticated filmmaker’s conceit that assumes that everyone has they’re own movie idea of New York. Unsurprisingly the stories vary in quality, from the ludicrous, to the mundane, to the really solid. Some of the stories feel more like a scene from something bigger, others feel like they were edited drastically down to fit the film

This segment is about a teenage boy is stood up by his prom date and his sympathetic pharmacist (James Caan) sets up him last minute with his daughter, who it turns out is in a wheelchair.  When they run into his ex (Blake Lively), she lies and tells the ex that the boy is taking her because of the Make A Wish Foundation.  

I love the part when they have sex in Central Park, to fulfill his wish for prom night. After that when he drops her back at her home, she steps out of her wheelchair and turns out she's actually a method actress and studying being wheelchair bound.

This segment is about a retired opera singer checks into a hotel and planning to commit suicide.  But, she bumped into a melancholy Russian bellboy .  He interrupts her as she is planning to jump, and when he goes to close the window, falls to his death.  The hotel manager looks out the balcony where the body should be and tells her there is nothing there.  She asks him to close the window. I didn't get this story at all. I can appreciate its qualities, but it's too ambiguous. Also, because it mostly takes place in a classy hotel, it felt detached from the rest of the film, which makes it almost as misplaced as the other segment. Though, is surprisingly good and very subtle.

And this is my favourite segment, it's about an old couple celebrate their 63rd wedding anniversary, talking a walk at a slower pace than the city around them. It's a very simple story, but a great little piece that'll put a smile on your face.

There are enough good moments in "New York, I Love You" to cancel out the bad ones, and those moments are spread out fairly evenly across the film, so it's an easy watch. Maybe, this film just wants to show us all the little things that we usually miss in our life. 

The Overture.

 I always enjoy watching Thai movies, but due to the language and the lack of platform to reaches Thai movie, I do not have the chance to watch a lot of them. The overture is a Thai musical drama that setting at a background of world-war two, it makes the story line more unpredictable and emphasizing the Thai's spirit. Every thai people should watch this movie.

Sorn

This movie started with talking about a family of musicians, Sorn has a brother who's good in Ranak-ek( an old traditional instrument,It has 22 wooden bars suspended by cords over a boat-shaped trough resonator, and is played with two mallets), who got murdered due to his talent. Like his brother.
 Sorn has talent in Ranak-ek as well, but due to the incident his father refused to let Sorn follows his brother step. However, Sorn still continues to practices it secretly everyday in the midnight, and eventually his father allowed him to play.

Ranak-ek

In the movie, the government tries to push the Thai people to the modern era and all those traditional instrument to be banned. In this part, i felt that we people should look back more for the good things and should not try too hard to follow up the innovation. Old but gold, not everything can be replace.

Krun

As a musician myself( a drummer), some of the scenes gave me goosebumps, especially the finale round when Sorn playing against his rival Im Krun. The result is plodding but warmhearted, and the music is enchanting and so is the scenery, never know such a low cost movie could be this good. Watch it and don't the the good old traditional music faded away.

Brave

And yea, here we go again another princess movie. Do not doubt me, despite the fact that i'm a grown man but i still enjoy watching animation movie, like this one.

It has a obvious theme just by looking at the movie title, great animation, good music but yea, after all it's just another princess movie. Every scene of the plot, come out from exactly what you had expected.what i'm trying to say is, the story line is almost predictable.

What i like about in the movie is the central theme of the mother-daughter relationship, it's what i found not often to be seen from Pixar film. Merida, the princess is my favorite character in the movie, how often you have seen a princess with a head of red curly hair?

By looking at the surrounding inside the movie, i realized it's a setting of Scotland. Scotland is a fantastic place to travel, after watching the movie i felt like going to visit that place anytime soon. The costume, accent, castle etc made me very engaging with the movie.

I enjoyed watching this movie and would like to watch for a second time, what a beautiful payoff for the ending while her mum turned from bear to normal.

Clash of Empires- The Malay Chronicles: Bloodlines

Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa is a 2011 Malaysia film based on the 16th century document Hikayat merong mahawangsa. A Malaysian action film based on a real history huh, and finally a high budget movie came out from local film industry which can be filming over the world.

Truth be told, hardly had i watched a local movie in the cinema. Malay, Indian nor Chinese movie, as long as they're produced by local.

 I've a problem in speaking Malay(what a shame) as i was graduated from chinese private school, so it was quite a hard time for me to understanding what they're talking about in the movie when they're speaking malay. 

I'm not gonna lie, i'm not gonna compare this movie with hollywood movie, but this movie really impressed me as i never thought they could produce such a good visual effect and filming skill in a local industry. The action in the movie is good and the CG was okay but not brilliant. 

Now to the negative parts, the thing i don't like about the movie is most of the characters can speaks well in English with accent, like how? The princess's handmaid's acting skill really need a boost, she's acting badly in the movie and not comfortable to watch at all. 

I would give this movie a 5 out of 10, as i believe this movie will be a stepping stone for the produce to come out with a bigger and better movie, later.