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Friday, May 26, 2006
Movie Review: The Da Vinci Code
(3 out of 5 stars)
It isn’t always easy to adapt a novel for a feature film, but Ron Howard had been pretty successful for his previous adaptations, especially A Beautiful Mind, the novel that dwells into the psychologically splitting world of John Nash. Looking at his previous films, we are able to see that Howard is good at capturing a character’s soul in depth and allowing the movie to flow smoothly by centring on a main character.
In The Da Vinci Code, he did not manage to produce a fluid film as the movie moves back and forth between characters. The material itself clearly isn’t what Howard is familiar with. The original plot (in the novel) moves very frequently among the supporting characters whose plotlines run parallel with the main storyline of the main characters Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) and Sophie Noveu (Audrey Toutou).
Ten minutes into the movie, we already see Howard struggling with the portraying the prologue where Silas murders Jacques Sauniere and the first chapter of the book where Langdon is giving a presentation about symbols. It was not clear which was the main plot (although fans of the book would know) and somehow, the use of shaky camera movement did not clearly portray the first impression of Langdon well. It almost felt like Langdon sent Silas to murder Sauniere, or is this what Howard wants in the first place?
The movie continues with this unsteady movement of plots between the characters. This may have worked well in the novel, but it made the film felt very incoherent. Choppy, is what an impolite reviewer may say.
The movie also doesn’t go in depth with the explanations of the background of the story, leaving them to made-up historical footages which look lame and fake, and even at times, cheapskate. Readers of the book will find that the movie felt shallow compared to the book, and those who have yet to read it will find the plot confusing and not easily understandable.
Still, there are still nice moments in the film. Howard is master at portraying thought processes of a character, and by making Langdon have a good memory of things and able to crack codes on the spot, Howard is able to make use of what he did in A Beautiful Mind. Yes, it kind of reminds me of that film, not a bad thing though. In a sequence where Langdon was trying to crack the code of the keystone, the moving visual images that appear before him were quite beautifully done.
Sir Ian McKellen is at his best, portraying initially a friendly ally and later creating a totally different side of Leigh Teabing at the plot twist, yet remain quite homogeneous in his character. One may argue Sir Ian McKellen may be too thin for Teabing (that’s me originally), but now, I can only say I enjoy his moments in the film the most, especially the scenes in his study where he is explaining the parts about the Priory of Sion.
As with other film adaptations like the Harry Potter series, filmmakers here are facing with a lot of difficulties with what to put into the film and what not to, hence the pace of the movie turned out to be quite erratic. Howard should really stick to movies which are more character central.
It isn’t always easy to adapt a novel for a feature film, but Ron Howard had been pretty successful for his previous adaptations, especially A Beautiful Mind, the novel that dwells into the psychologically splitting world of John Nash. Looking at his previous films, we are able to see that Howard is good at capturing a character’s soul in depth and allowing the movie to flow smoothly by centring on a main character.
In The Da Vinci Code, he did not manage to produce a fluid film as the movie moves back and forth between characters. The material itself clearly isn’t what Howard is familiar with. The original plot (in the novel) moves very frequently among the supporting characters whose plotlines run parallel with the main storyline of the main characters Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) and Sophie Noveu (Audrey Toutou).
Ten minutes into the movie, we already see Howard struggling with the portraying the prologue where Silas murders Jacques Sauniere and the first chapter of the book where Langdon is giving a presentation about symbols. It was not clear which was the main plot (although fans of the book would know) and somehow, the use of shaky camera movement did not clearly portray the first impression of Langdon well. It almost felt like Langdon sent Silas to murder Sauniere, or is this what Howard wants in the first place?
The movie continues with this unsteady movement of plots between the characters. This may have worked well in the novel, but it made the film felt very incoherent. Choppy, is what an impolite reviewer may say.
The movie also doesn’t go in depth with the explanations of the background of the story, leaving them to made-up historical footages which look lame and fake, and even at times, cheapskate. Readers of the book will find that the movie felt shallow compared to the book, and those who have yet to read it will find the plot confusing and not easily understandable.
Still, there are still nice moments in the film. Howard is master at portraying thought processes of a character, and by making Langdon have a good memory of things and able to crack codes on the spot, Howard is able to make use of what he did in A Beautiful Mind. Yes, it kind of reminds me of that film, not a bad thing though. In a sequence where Langdon was trying to crack the code of the keystone, the moving visual images that appear before him were quite beautifully done.
Sir Ian McKellen is at his best, portraying initially a friendly ally and later creating a totally different side of Leigh Teabing at the plot twist, yet remain quite homogeneous in his character. One may argue Sir Ian McKellen may be too thin for Teabing (that’s me originally), but now, I can only say I enjoy his moments in the film the most, especially the scenes in his study where he is explaining the parts about the Priory of Sion.
As with other film adaptations like the Harry Potter series, filmmakers here are facing with a lot of difficulties with what to put into the film and what not to, hence the pace of the movie turned out to be quite erratic. Howard should really stick to movies which are more character central.
Sunday, May 14, 2006
I'm Leaving on a JET Plane
14th May 2006: Pre-Trip Entry
It's 4:04am, and no, i'm not sleepin' not because i'm too excited or something... jus hav to prepare my stuff. and backing up all my documents so that i can clear some space in my laptop for photos. yup, i'm bringing my lappy there. cool huh~ riight... i'm damn worried. but for all the photos that i'm going to take, wow~ i can't wait to get there.
for those who still don't know, *ops* i'm still not going to disclose much, although like 80% of u peeps know oredi la. shame on the rest of the 20% of u, dun bother to find out, dun bother to call me, dun bother to email me. shame! SHAME! SHAME!. anyway, out of the 80%, around 30% found out from other frens... yeekz... and never call me to wish me bon voyage... *stick tongue out at you all*
anywayz, i'm having a weird feeling for this trip. tink i'm tinking too much la, but... dun noe. it's not that i'm having dreams or premonition or anything, but i juz hav the urge to say goodbye to a lot of people. dun noe whether good or bad. anywayz, if anything happen, here is my flight number: to destination Flight 3K 521 back to singapore Flight 3K 522. i'm taking JetStarAsia, which explains my nick for the past month: i'm leaving on a JET plane... heh, lame i know. ;)
i'm having auto-roaming, so do drop me an sms or something. don't call, very expensive. i'm paying u know~~
starting packing my bag around 3 hours ago, discovered nothin' much to pack. the rest of the time i'm juz thinking if i left out anything and backing up documents on my lappy (0.25 way done).
so, my maiden backpacking trip. what did i bring?
In my little bag:
In my big (and i mean BIG) bag:
yes... my mother forced me to bring tissue packets... all 12 packets. bah.
am a bit excited. am a bit worried. wells, let fate decide bah. ;)
seeya guys soon! will miss a lot of u...
*time-to-say-goodbye*,
Yong
It's 4:04am, and no, i'm not sleepin' not because i'm too excited or something... jus hav to prepare my stuff. and backing up all my documents so that i can clear some space in my laptop for photos. yup, i'm bringing my lappy there. cool huh~ riight... i'm damn worried. but for all the photos that i'm going to take, wow~ i can't wait to get there.
for those who still don't know, *ops* i'm still not going to disclose much, although like 80% of u peeps know oredi la. shame on the rest of the 20% of u, dun bother to find out, dun bother to call me, dun bother to email me. shame! SHAME! SHAME!. anyway, out of the 80%, around 30% found out from other frens... yeekz... and never call me to wish me bon voyage... *stick tongue out at you all*
anywayz, i'm having a weird feeling for this trip. tink i'm tinking too much la, but... dun noe. it's not that i'm having dreams or premonition or anything, but i juz hav the urge to say goodbye to a lot of people. dun noe whether good or bad. anywayz, if anything happen, here is my flight number: to destination Flight 3K 521 back to singapore Flight 3K 522. i'm taking JetStarAsia, which explains my nick for the past month: i'm leaving on a JET plane... heh, lame i know. ;)
i'm having auto-roaming, so do drop me an sms or something. don't call, very expensive. i'm paying u know~~
starting packing my bag around 3 hours ago, discovered nothin' much to pack. the rest of the time i'm juz thinking if i left out anything and backing up documents on my lappy (0.25 way done).
so, my maiden backpacking trip. what did i bring?
In my big (and i mean BIG) bag:
yes... my mother forced me to bring tissue packets... all 12 packets. bah.
am a bit excited. am a bit worried. wells, let fate decide bah. ;)
seeya guys soon! will miss a lot of u...
*time-to-say-goodbye*,
Yong
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Totally Random Thoughts
I am restraining myself from blogging before my trip. Seriously. And it feels so... so... well, let's just say that since i've got so much time (travelling time, rather... from one social meeting to another) that my brain was full of weird thoughts and ideas. If you dare, venture into my crazy world...:
Random Thought #1: Why the hell is China called China??
Ok, this is on the pretext that i havent really go and find the answer myself. But seriously, why is China called China? and Chinese called Chinese? It's totally weird. Mongolia at least sounds like the original chinese name "meng gu", Hong Kong is the cantonese pronunciation of "xiang gang", den why is "zhong guo" or "ren ming gong he guo" or even "nei di" known as "CHINA"? *brain about to explode* *moving on to next thought*
5 minutes after posting: ok, i looked up Wikipedia and found out that the name China may have been derived from the name of Qin dynasty that first unified the whole country. I was confused initially, then i realized... Qin... Chin... China! riiight. but this is, as noted, highly controversial. Believable though. There were other explanations too, u can go read them yourself here.
Random Thought #2: I want the world to now know me as yong, and maybe i should write a jiggle to promote it.
i'm really dreading the idea of ppl knowing me by johnson. i wanna change that, i wan ppl to know me by my chinese name! argh... hey, i know it's difficult to pronounce the "zh"s ok? i really do... and i realise, hey, just call me 'yong'! why didn't i tink of that in primary 4? bah! shucks la...
it's like "hi, my name is johnson." and tons of similar replies come in: "oh, johnson as in the baby johnson?" (seriously, i rather u say "the shampoo brand?" rather than "baby johnson?" now even my TCHS juniors call me baby johnson... BAH!), "er, johnson? how do u spell that?" (hullo~ how many spellings for johnson can there be? jonson? yonsonn? jonnson? or is that a cheeky way to really confirm that you're not hearing the wrong thing?), "johnson? is that name in ur I/C? should i write that down in the cheque?" (well, i hate to tell ppl to write down "my other name" into the cheque... as if like "my other name" is not my "real" name... i don't like it. i prefer my chinese name. i really do!)
actually "Zhang Zhengyong" is extremely easy to pronounce. i came up wif this: STEP 1) replace all "zh"s with "j"s. STEP 2) replace the "a" with "AH". STEP 3) replace the "eng" with "urn". and you have "jAHng jurn yong". whoot, and it even resembles a korean name. but seriously, that's how you should pronounce my name. almost.
But if u still can't pronounce my "zhang zheng", just call me "yong". nobody has yet mispronounce it. it's fabulous. it's so universal! so peeps! from now onwards! call-me- "yong" if u can pronounce my "jAHng jurn". ;)
Random Thought #3: What's the difference between cash sale paper, receipts, invoices, payment checks, blah blah?
i'm so not into this! i needed to give a form of payment acknowledgement to my friend and i got myself to popular. and i was like... "WOAH!" why so many varieties?! and because they were all in plastic packaging, i didn't know if there was any difference besides just the size!
i quickly called up my sis, and she also don't know. so i took the invoice and the receipts, got into a corner, checked nobody was looking, and carefully opened up the plastic packaging. oh my god, they're the same. just the size! just the name! gosh~ who the hell came up with these different stupid names to confuse us?
Random Thought #4: er...
You mean you haven't had enough? I can go crazy by myself just thinking abt these stupid thoughts that had been lingering, and i had to resist from blogging and i couldn't throw these thoughts in here... bah! now i can rest in peace......... CHOI! what R-I-P...? but hey, who was the first one who came up wif "R-I-P" and who composed that famous tune that goes with it anyway? ok ok ok! i should stop...
*eyes-rolling-all-over-the-socket-with-thoughts*,
Yong
PS. see, i even changed from johnzzon to yong liao... wahaha!
Random Thought #1: Why the hell is China called China??
Ok, this is on the pretext that i havent really go and find the answer myself. But seriously, why is China called China? and Chinese called Chinese? It's totally weird. Mongolia at least sounds like the original chinese name "meng gu", Hong Kong is the cantonese pronunciation of "xiang gang", den why is "zhong guo" or "ren ming gong he guo" or even "nei di" known as "CHINA"? *brain about to explode* *moving on to next thought*
5 minutes after posting: ok, i looked up Wikipedia and found out that the name China may have been derived from the name of Qin dynasty that first unified the whole country. I was confused initially, then i realized... Qin... Chin... China! riiight. but this is, as noted, highly controversial. Believable though. There were other explanations too, u can go read them yourself here.
Random Thought #2: I want the world to now know me as yong, and maybe i should write a jiggle to promote it.
i'm really dreading the idea of ppl knowing me by johnson. i wanna change that, i wan ppl to know me by my chinese name! argh... hey, i know it's difficult to pronounce the "zh"s ok? i really do... and i realise, hey, just call me 'yong'! why didn't i tink of that in primary 4? bah! shucks la...
it's like "hi, my name is johnson." and tons of similar replies come in: "oh, johnson as in the baby johnson?" (seriously, i rather u say "the shampoo brand?" rather than "baby johnson?" now even my TCHS juniors call me baby johnson... BAH!), "er, johnson? how do u spell that?" (hullo~ how many spellings for johnson can there be? jonson? yonsonn? jonnson? or is that a cheeky way to really confirm that you're not hearing the wrong thing?), "johnson? is that name in ur I/C? should i write that down in the cheque?" (well, i hate to tell ppl to write down "my other name" into the cheque... as if like "my other name" is not my "real" name... i don't like it. i prefer my chinese name. i really do!)
actually "Zhang Zhengyong" is extremely easy to pronounce. i came up wif this: STEP 1) replace all "zh"s with "j"s. STEP 2) replace the "a" with "AH". STEP 3) replace the "eng" with "urn". and you have "jAHng jurn yong". whoot, and it even resembles a korean name. but seriously, that's how you should pronounce my name. almost.
But if u still can't pronounce my "zhang zheng", just call me "yong". nobody has yet mispronounce it. it's fabulous. it's so universal! so peeps! from now onwards! call-me- "yong" if u can pronounce my "jAHng jurn". ;)
Random Thought #3: What's the difference between cash sale paper, receipts, invoices, payment checks, blah blah?
i'm so not into this! i needed to give a form of payment acknowledgement to my friend and i got myself to popular. and i was like... "WOAH!" why so many varieties?! and because they were all in plastic packaging, i didn't know if there was any difference besides just the size!
i quickly called up my sis, and she also don't know. so i took the invoice and the receipts, got into a corner, checked nobody was looking, and carefully opened up the plastic packaging. oh my god, they're the same. just the size! just the name! gosh~ who the hell came up with these different stupid names to confuse us?
Random Thought #4: er...
You mean you haven't had enough? I can go crazy by myself just thinking abt these stupid thoughts that had been lingering, and i had to resist from blogging and i couldn't throw these thoughts in here... bah! now i can rest in peace......... CHOI! what R-I-P...? but hey, who was the first one who came up wif "R-I-P" and who composed that famous tune that goes with it anyway? ok ok ok! i should stop...
*eyes-rolling-all-over-the-socket-with-thoughts*,
Yong
PS. see, i even changed from johnzzon to yong liao... wahaha!
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Others yearn for freedom, but I only hope for some time alone
Weird title for a post huh?
Well, I don't know... I've been complaining to closed ones about my unreasoned depression. It's sad that I can't contact those I wish to speak to, but I just have to tell myself I managed to get the other 50% of them. hullo guys, please check your handphone if it's proper? I can't even get a proper ringtone from some of you.
That aside... like I said, the depression came from nowhere. I tried to find reasons, I really did, but most of them were so trivial I feel like slapping myself in the face and ask myself to wake up. Is it a post-exam syndrome? Is it the sudden release from tension? Or is it the fact that I get too bothered by having nowhere to run to?
But I am running away. I'm running away for a while. Or rather, flying away. Heys, some of u may have already received my personal calls (that's why the phone calls) to tell u abt my trip, others, well, I just don't feel like telling u.
My first time on a plane trip overseas without an authoritarian figure (ie, parents or teachers or someone to yap at me).
Three months, lots of things to settle, before I launch myself into another semester of hectic lifestyle.
Why aren't some of you allowing me to call you just to catch up? Three months is all I got.
It sounds like I'm passing away or something, but it does feel like that to me. It feels like a suicide, a breakaway from the real world, when school term starts. And by then, if u can't contact me, will u blame me again?
I'm running away. And I need it. And I need to say goodbye.
*an-absurd-little-bird-is-popping-out-to-say-cuckoo*,
Johnzzon
I'm amazed... you actually highlight this part. so clever. Ok, u lucky ones, i'll tell u about my trip. I'm flying off to Taiwan from 14th to 22nd may, that's a 9 day trip. Will be going with yeok (my jc fren) and her frens. If you want a gift, give me a personal call on the handphone. I'm not entertaining smses. Ha! I'm expecting NO ONE to call me anyway. U bunch of mei liang xins, never reply to any of this shit i'm posting on my blog one.
Well, I don't know... I've been complaining to closed ones about my unreasoned depression. It's sad that I can't contact those I wish to speak to, but I just have to tell myself I managed to get the other 50% of them. hullo guys, please check your handphone if it's proper? I can't even get a proper ringtone from some of you.
That aside... like I said, the depression came from nowhere. I tried to find reasons, I really did, but most of them were so trivial I feel like slapping myself in the face and ask myself to wake up. Is it a post-exam syndrome? Is it the sudden release from tension? Or is it the fact that I get too bothered by having nowhere to run to?
But I am running away. I'm running away for a while. Or rather, flying away. Heys, some of u may have already received my personal calls (that's why the phone calls) to tell u abt my trip, others, well, I just don't feel like telling u.
My first time on a plane trip overseas without an authoritarian figure (ie, parents or teachers or someone to yap at me).
Three months, lots of things to settle, before I launch myself into another semester of hectic lifestyle.
Why aren't some of you allowing me to call you just to catch up? Three months is all I got.
It sounds like I'm passing away or something, but it does feel like that to me. It feels like a suicide, a breakaway from the real world, when school term starts. And by then, if u can't contact me, will u blame me again?
I'm running away. And I need it. And I need to say goodbye.
*an-absurd-little-bird-is-popping-out-to-say-cuckoo*,
Johnzzon
I'm amazed... you actually highlight this part. so clever. Ok, u lucky ones, i'll tell u about my trip. I'm flying off to Taiwan from 14th to 22nd may, that's a 9 day trip. Will be going with yeok (my jc fren) and her frens. If you want a gift, give me a personal call on the handphone. I'm not entertaining smses. Ha! I'm expecting NO ONE to call me anyway. U bunch of mei liang xins, never reply to any of this shit i'm posting on my blog one.
