Watched: Forget Me Not

Genre: Horror

Year: 2009

Director: Tyler Oliver

I watched Forget Me Not because someone said it was one of the best 2009 horror flicks.

It really wasn't.

Horror movies that rouse genuine fear connect to the audience in some way. It can be visually shocking (Juon) or contain enough reality to be convincing (The Eye). Even if the plot follows twisted logic and crazy premises, as long as it actually adheres to its own propositions, I am OK. This movie, however, sorely lacks that kind of "credibility."

The main character Sandy Channing and her friends are just some typical high school seniors in a small town. The place is mundane. The people are mundane. Save for the ghost, everything is very normal. Then this spirit comes on the scene, and voila, she not only physically attacks Sandy and clique but also alters the entire reality, i.e. the house where a party was held few nights prior now looks totally run down or parents who forget they have another child. Suddenly I feel like I am watching Butterfly Effect except Forget Me Not is much worse because it made no make provisions for god-like power. Never thought I would say this for a horror movie, but, yes, the director was really stretching his story.

The ghosts' appearance did not improve matters either. Obvious influence from Asian horror films aside, she and her entourage looked rather like teenagers dressing up goth and dancing at some Halloween party.

The movie also progressively got worse. In particular, Cody Linley as Sandy's brother Eli was unconvincing. The eagerness with which he latched onto Sandy's story was incredible. She told it in such a terse nonsensical way that I had a hard time believing her even after watching the film from the very beginning! At this point, I really started to wonder if the director madly wants to wrap his film up, and this was the first idea (bad one at that) to cross his mind.

I briefly entertained the idea that Sandy's other friends are fabricated, but if this were the case, why would the director show extended sequences about their deaths or their bed activities? Sandy apparently didn't have the pleasure to "witness" these developments, so the fictional sex and gore were just put in for the audience's sake? Somehow this sounds more lame to me than a ghost creating alternate realities.

I had high hopes for Forget Me Not and even like its seed idea. But the execution totally flopped.

Rating: 5.5 out of 10

Watched: Guisi

Also known as Silk or 诡丝.

Silk is one of the more heavily invested horror movies to come out of Taiwan lately. One brief look at the illustrious cast--Yōsuke Eguchi, Chang Chen, Karena Lam, Barbie Hsu (better known in Asia as Big S), Bo-Lin Chen--convinced me that Director ChaoBin Su had grand plans. Yōsuke Eguchi, Chang Chen, Karena Lam, are praised for their acting, while the remaining came to fame via idol dramas that require mostly pretty faces and good packaging. Thus, whether by intention or design, B0-Lin Chen left out no potential audience. The first category would attract viewers who value nuances and depth, while the second draws worshiping, screaming fans to the theaters.

In the movie, crippled Japanese scientist Hashimoto (played by Yōsuke Eguchi) heads a research team whose nominal work is in anti-gravity ""Menger Sponge." In reality, the research direction derailed once Hashimoto realized that the sponge can confine ghosts as well as allow the living to see the dead. To uncover secrets of life after death, the team captures the spirit of a young boy and drafts special agent Ye Qidong (Chen Chang) to find out his identity and cause of death.

The film is often times fraught with tension and suspense. The boy's mysterious past and even more mysterious death greatly complicate Ye's investigation. The special agent found himself at odds not only with the forces that made the ghost child but also with others on the research team, as differing motives cause members to fight one another for the possession of the young ghost. Together, the supernatural conflict and the more secular disunity give Silk depth uncommon in normal horror movies. Rather than non-stop exploitation of gore or cheap scares, the movie offers pensive reflections on life and death.

Obviously, Gui Si's premise is more involved than the typical horror movies on the market. In addition to an original plot line, Sci-fi elements combined with traditional spirit lore puts a new spin on the familiar ghost story. Although this mix-and-mesh is refreshing, jumps in logic are present. For example, the failure to convincingly explain how living transforms into ghost made an otherwise touching ending appear like a deliberate move to manipulate tears from the viewers. Some of the lackluster ghost scenes also detracted from the latter half of the movie, looking rather like washed-down parts from The Ring.

In all, Silk is a solid production that, because of some details, failed to become great. As a side-note, I also found the casting interesting. The amount of the time that each actor spent in the movie and his/her relative importance to the entire story is totally commensurate with the public perception of their acting skills.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

The Twilight Saga--No real substance

Author: Stephenie Meyer
Series: Twilight Saga
Genre: Paranormal Romance

After being thoroughly disgusted by the second movie New Moon, I feel an even stronger urge to trash this book series, something that I itched to do for a long time.

Whatever faults it has in a literary sense, the Twilight series is undeniably one successful commercial venture. Stephenie Meyer understands human nature well--adolescents are slaves to their hormones, and all girls dream of being the next Cinderella.

To substantiate my point, I have to refer back to a post that I translated a month ago, "Popular Article on How to Write a Successful Chinese Romance Novel, Part 1," which touches upon a number of common tropes in romance fiction. Coincidentally, Twilight contains most of them.

Bella
1. To make the readers like the heroine, Meyer describes Bella as a ordinary-looking and slightly lonely girl.

2. In the series, Bella undergoes enough emotional and physical trauma to earn her the title "Survivor of the Year."

3. I am not sure how coordinated and fit Bella is, but Edward certainly does not lack any opportunities to rescue her from danger.

4. Bella stays a virgin until very late in the series.

Edward
1. In stark contrast to Bella the ordinary, Edward is an extraordinarily handsome boy.

2. Edward's vampiric nature means that he is strong enough to satisfy most female desires for a shining knight.

As befitting a young adult novel, there are at least 2 men in love with Bella, both exceedingly attractive, and a dozen others who want her for a number of reasons. Faced with so many stellar catches, Bella agonized over the choice she must make for a least one novel and a half--I suppose this is thoroughly satisfying to the female ego, especially for those who identify with the stories more strongly than other readers.


Now, having explained rather objectively (in my point of view) why the series is so hugely popular, I would also like to point out why it is so ridiculously awful.

At the beginning I mentioned that the Twilight Saga is essentially a series of common tropes strung together. Well, this is also the reason for the abysmal reading it offers. For every Chinese romance novel readers (I can't speak for English readers), these plot devices are overused, uninteresting, and boring, unbelievably so. The entire series smacks of banality.

Furthermore, I fail to understand why Edward and Bella fell in the love in the first place. The dubious "meant to be" claim aside, how does a rational being fall in love with his food? And by food I mean ambrosia. After all is this not how Edward repeatedly described Bella? OK, I concede that overcoming one's animalistic instinct in the higher power of love is another point designed to impress female readers.

The last two books of the series are even more horrible, tainted by the heavy stench of "Mary Sue," from Bella's sudden elevation of status to her miraculous contribution to vampiric procreation. By the way, for those who haven't heard of the term,

"A Mary Sue, in literary criticism and particularly in fanfiction, is a fictional character with overly idealized and hackneyed mannerisms, lacking noteworthy flaws, and primarily functioning as wish-fulfillment fantasies for their authors or readers. Perhaps the single underlying feature of all characters described as "Mary Sues" is that they are too ostentatious for the audience's taste, or that the author seems to favor the character too highly."

I have to say that despite of its gigantic success, the Twilight Saga is an insult to the romance writing, even though this genre is already known for not requiring extensive cerebral activity to read.

Rating:
2 out of 5 stars

Thai Horror "Coming Soon" โปรแกรมหน้า วิญญาณอาฆาต

Director: Sopon Sukdapisit
Genre: Horror
Year: 2008

The Thai horror movie industry appears to be flourishing these days, Shutter, Alone, Coffin,4bia...It has spawned a respectable number of productions, though not all are created equally scary.

Coming soon, which was released in 2008, starts off with an advanced screening of a horror flick having the same name ("Coming Soon"). As a marketing gimmick to entice the audience, the movie comes with the claim that it is based on a true story. However, much to the dismay of those who saw said film the creepy effect lingers long after the viewing, because everyone who watched it mysteriously dies, and bodies somehow are transported into the movie itself.

Former boyfriend and girlfriend Chen (played by Ter-Chantavit Dhanasevi) and Peoll (played by Punch-Vorakarn Rojjanavatchra), also protagonists in this movie, inevitably become entangled and are persistently haunted by a vengeful ghost. To avoid looming death, the two set out to find the true story behind the making of Coming Soon. From there the tension continuously builds, climaxing when the truth is finally revealed.

The ghost's makeup is designed to have an all-around repelling effect, compounding the baleful venomous stare with an thoroughly dirty look. If one is not scared, then one is nauseated by the suspicious yellow chemical that coats the ghost's body. The turn off is effective either way. And I am very serious about the atmosphere being spooky. The manner in which the ghost stalks the victims is reminiscent of classics such as Ju-0n. It will make your heart pound.

At this point, I would almost say Coming Soon is a fine movie. Alas no, it was good until the last 30 seconds. Then it crashed. Since I don't want to ruin the fun for those who stumble upon this review, I shall conclude with this advice for the director: More is not always better; stalking is much more creepier than a direct confrontation.

Rating: 5.5 out of 10

P.S. Anyone has recs for good horror movies?

Movie: The Proposal

Year: 2009
Director: Anne Fletcher
Genre: Romantic Comedy

Review:
Before movie/book reviewers assign a rating, they should always make known to which standard they are comparing the work to. Likewise, before readers take this rating to heart, they should understand how the reviewers are assigning the rating numbers. In addition, a fluffy, light romance movie should not be compared to, say, Un chien andalou; a comparison between apples and oranges is meaningless.

The reason I stress this is because of two recent examples in which the reviewers were comparing apples and oranges. In the first case, I was browsing through a book review website that for the most part restricts itself to romance and fantasy novels. Yet when the site owners explain the rating system, they mention Siddhartha as an example of a book that merits a 9, full mark being 10. Does this mean that when I see a romance novel likewise being given a 9, I should automatically think it is Nobel Prize Quality? In the second case, I saw a reviewer on Douban (wiki) assigning 1s and 2s to perfectly enjoyable Hollywood-type movies and assigning highest score of 5 to those like Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl (wiki). In layman terms, the movies he recommended were often pompous ones that are dressed up to be presented for Chinese movie awards, and the ones he belittled were actually what ordinary people actually watch. Speaking of Xiu Xiu, my friends' parents who also had gone to the countryside as the female main character angrily denounced it as a twisted film that intentionally exaggerates and maligns the Chinese government to curry favors at foreign film festivals. I wonder which side is right, the director or parents.

But I digress...getting on with the movie review.

The Proposal is one of the better stories in the romantic-comedy genre. Margaret Tate, played by Sandra Bullock, is a fearsome autocratic book editor at a publishing firm in New York. Her "faithful" assistant Andrew Paxton (played by Ryan Reynolds) follows her every order but trashes the editor behind her back. The story quickly takes a turn towards the hilarious when Canadian citizen Margaret is informed of her visa expiration and imminent deportation, but instead of leaving US of A and potentially losing her job, Margaret decides to marry Ryan to gain legal residency. Ryan agrees to the scam of a "brief marriage, quick divorce" because of the enticing promotion she presents to him.

To convince the skeptical immigration officers as well as Andrew's disbelieving family, who by this time have had an earful about Margaret, the two invent dating tales as they go. As befitting their characters, Margaret plows right on, while Andrew at times appear unconvinced and much put-upon. Adding to the fun is Grandma Annie, an outspoken and eccentric character who is into giving thanks to Mother Earth by dancing to the sound of drums.

For me the female main character contributed much to the watch-ability of this film. There is something about a mixture of stubbornness, independence, and also a soft vulnerability (revealed during the Alaska trip) that I like very much. Andrew's character is convincing but gets eclipsed by the more dominant Margaret.

The film has its boring trite moments, for example the bedroom scene where the two have their tête-à-tête. But these are required for plot development and are not dragged out. Even if the ending is predictable, there is plenty of comedy to compensate.

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars