SURROGATES
Imagine a world where you don’t have to get up early in the morning, shower, get dressed, navigate traffic, get to work on time, dodge annoying bosses and equally annoying colleagues, avoid being given memos or suspensions for low performance evaluations or for doing such inane stuff as forgetting to turn off the light after office hours or taking too many coffee or bathroom breaks. Imagine a world where you don’t have to be subjected to the daily rudeness of people cutting in during queues, rude people in supermarkets, or groceries, or movie theaters, or inside public transportation. Imagine being spared the kind of physical torture that daily living in the modern, post-industrialized world of pollution, acid rain, excessive UV rays and crime generates. Imagine being able to stay at home, having a substitute who looks and talks like you, being able to do that for you, and all you have to do is jack into a network to be able to keep in touch with your substitute you as he/she goes through the daily rituals of modern living. Would be pretty nifty, huh?
This is the premise of the movie “Surrogates”. Based on a comic book and directed by Jonathan Mostow (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines), this movie takes our growing obsession with virtual reality (SIMS, online RPG games, farmville, facebook, myspace, twitter and so on) to a whole new level: we can have virtual selves, “surrogates” who walk and talk and act like us, doing the dirty work of living our lives while we stay in the comfort of our home viewing it from the sidelines. Except there is growing dissent and the predictable marginalization of people who cannot afford surrogates and thus is the stage set for virtual, and real racial tension between those who can afford surrogates and those who don’t and oppose their use. A series of murders involving surrogates and their owners occur and into this mystery steps in US Federal Agent Tom Grier (Bruce Willis in a freakishly photoshopped face and body…with blond hair no less…and bangs) and partner, Radha Mitchell as they try to solve these crimes. A series of convoluted plots later, Grier discovers that the founder of the company that produced the surrogates (James Cromwell – in a similar role he did in “I, Robot”) had engineered the murders to bring down the company he helped create so that he can destroy not only the company but also the surrogates and their owners. Needless to say, the real Grier emerges from his self-imposed isolation to solve the mystery, destroy the surrogates and save the day.
Verdict: Hmmm….hard to tell. It was entertaining, yes, but not compelling. There is something about a freakishly photoshopped Bruce Willis that is surreal. I doubt if virtual selves can be taken out of computers and online games and software and into real life. Thus, you would have to dismiss plausibility and delve into the philosophical and metaphysical aspects of the story. You already know what this story wants to say: Don’t live like a zombie, live your life authentically, etc.etc. A lot of other sci-fi (and non-genre) movies have already successfully tackled these issues. Perhaps what this film lacks is the same kind of thing that Mostow’s other movie, Terminator III lacked: spirit, soul, sass.
THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM
Let me just say, Jackie Chan rocks and Jet Li rules. For as long as I can remember, their movies dominated my childhood, along with the movies of such B-level actors as Chuck Norris, Jean Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren and Sylvester Stallone (macho Philippines, what can I say?). I have never seen them in one movie before, and to see them in one movie now excites like no other. And this movie, does not disappoint. Forget the plot, I watch Jackie Chan and Jet Li movies for the kung fu. 
But briefly: in the days of Middle Kingdom some thousands of years ago, the virtuous Monkey King (Jet Li) wins the favor of the Jade Emperor and thus earns the ire of the Jade Warlord who tricks him into giving up his powerful staff and his power during a duel, thereby making the Jade Warlord win the duel, imprison the Monkey King in clay and allow the Jade Warlord to rule over the kingdom ruthlessly.
Enter present-day, unlikely geeky hero —- who stumbles upon the staff while trying to save a Chinese shop owner from a gang of bullies. The staff brings him to the past, to the Middle Kingdom, where he encounters an immortal, played by Jackie Chan, a monk, played by Jet Li and a young musician hell-bent on exacting revenge on the Jade Warlord. As it happens, our unlikely geeky hero turns out to be the Chosen One, the one who will end the Jade Warlord’s reign of tyranny, free the Monkey King and usher in a new era of peace. Thus, the immortal and the monk train aforementioned hero and helps him defeat the Jade Warlord and free the Monkey King.
Suffice it to say, just watching Jackie Chan and Jet Li fight it out in their scenes together with balletic elegance is awesome. They’re like the Robert De Niro and Al Pacino of kung-fu movies.
ADVENTURELAND
Remember those times in your life when everything just persists on being shitty? When you were young and had a kick-ass degree and upon graduation realize that neither your youth nor your degree can save you from a shitty life or from getting shitty jobs that pay shit wages? Well, don’t look now but somebody came up with the bright idea of making a movie out of your life. And mine, as it happens.
Jessie Eisenberg plays fresh comparative litt major whose father gets demoted and thus has to move with the whole family to Pittsburgh to be able to survive on the father’s salary. Jessie’s dreams of graduate school and of a summer spent in Europe are dashed to pieces, and he must now get a dead-end minimum wage job at “Adventureland” as one of the operators of the games. His life would have been infinitely boring and tedious had it not been for Em (the, must-admit, cute Kristen Stewart), the cool, laidback colleague he becomes mildly interested in and who shares a mild attraction to him as well, but who is, in fact, sleeping with the resident technician cum wanna-be rockstar, played by Ryan Reynolds. Things come to a head when Eisenberg finds out that Em has, in fact, been sleeping with the married Ryan Reynolds, but they make up in the end.
Mi Li (Mylene Jampanoi) is a young, half-Chinese, half-Russian orphaned woman who grew up isolated and lonely in an orphanage. A chance to learn about herbal medicines from the famed Mr. Chen (Ling Dong Fu) takes her away from this sheltered life, and into a paradise, a beautiful island garden of Eden. Here she meets strict, temperemental Mr. Chen,who reigns on the island and his daughter with a temper and sense of entitlement to match. This devoted daughter is Chen An (Xiao Ran Li), who (quite literally), waits on him hand and foot, from clipping his toenails to washing them, to providing him his meals, his groceries and so on. Like Mi Li, she has lived an isolated, lonely, motherless life. The only life she has known is that of living with her father and his plants.
This is in shot in Vietnam, even though it was supposed to be set in China, and Vietnam’s beauty is showcased in its full glory. There are sweeping panoramic shots of beautiful, lush rice fields, mountains, the river and the ever-present gardens. Every shot, every scene, is shot in slow, languid strokes, making you stop and enjoy each scene. The film has a lovely, dream-like, illusory feel towards it, that reels you in and hypnotizes you. You can actually almost feel the mist the rises from the river, the rain that falls on the gardens, the steam that lifts up slowly from An’s body as she kneads pine resin or lies naked on a bed of herbs. This is a very sensual, very French film, and you can see this most of all when An and Li are together – those subtle longing glances, that palpable sexual tension, the fascinating chemistry they have with each other - ultimately what makes this story compelling. This is even made more so by the fact that while shooting the film, neither actors could actually understand each other, as Jampanoi (who is half-French, half-Chinese) does not speak Chinese, and Xiao Ran Li does not speak French. I love how their love story slowly develops, even with little dialogue (which is usually such a part of western mainstream rom-com cinema,gay or otherwise).
I am kind of surprised and not-so surprised that a Chinese-born, France-based man, Sijiie Dai, directed this film. The slow direction and lush cinematography is very Chinese, the melodrama is a bit Chinese soap opera, but more French (and male) in its romanticization of love (especially love between women) as is its off-hand depiction of nudity 
For truly what this film is is a brilliant re-imagining of the Garden of Eden story. The father and the daughter live in a paradise where the father lives out his fantasy of being king, living with a young woman who waits on him hand and foot. Li’s entrance into their paradise and into their lives, the exotic outsider beauty (who may also be a symbol of Western influence or threat to Eastern culture, which seems to raise the un-PC question-is homosexuality an external, Western influence?), upsets the balance of this paradise. Li and An’s discovery of their sexuality, their acknowledgment of that discovery and of their love for each other, also help them assert themselves to An’s tyrannical father. This is shown deliberately in the film: where before An buys groceries for her father and cares for his plants, she starts to forget and the father finds himself doing the grocery buying himself. There comes a time when he starts having meals by himself, abandoning his place at the head of the table, his symbol of power, and the couple clearly has won a battle. Li is thus now considered the evil descended on the garden, which might be akin to awakened female sexuality being considered evil as well. Li and An must now decide to leave the garden and in time, when the father finds out, they do. When Li and An are found out, and they are shot for their homosexuality, this is actually akin to society’s response to female sexuality in general: it cannot handle it, so it must shoot it down, re-subjugate it, for society’s sake. Love, especially homosexual love, is subversive, and must be stopped. However, Li and An’s complicity in the father’s death, seems to imply the way forward in female sexuality (a fine line between assertion and aggression).
Film watch list: What have I been watching?!?
October 28, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Back from a long hiatus. What have I been watching thus far? Well…
The Proposal – Sandra Bullock is the fire-breathing, man-eating incarnation of Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly (The Devil Wears Prada), albeit a watered down, less scarier, version. She is a Canadian book editor who faces deportation if she does not fix her visa status soon. Enter nice book editor’s assistant, the secretly rich, quiet Ryan Reynolds who reluctantly agrees to marry her so she can get a spouse visa. Sparks fly. Dogs fly. Guess how it ends? Sidebar: I am sorry. I could not finish this. I just feel that Sandra Bullock is too old to be in romantic comedies. Why can she not be like other fortysomething Hollywood movie stars and star in a movie where she actually acts her age?!?
I Could Never Be Your Woman - Michelle Pfeiffer is a successful TV executive producer and a single mom juggling between the responsibilities of work and home. Enter Paul Rudd as the young break out actor who falls for her. Sparks fly. Cute one-liners fly. Movie falls flat. Amy Heckerling directed this. So that makes you scratch your head. I do not know why this one has not done better. Perhaps it is because they were trying to pass Michelle Pfeiffer and Paul Rudd off as younger, trying to make a non-issue as an issue, trying to make a conflict out of nothing, trying to make a movie that just does not quite compute.
Garden State – Zach Braff plays a young struggling New York actor cum waiter who comes home for his mother’s funeral. Estranged from his father, alienated from his hometown, the character does not know what to do and I do not know what to make of this film as well. Natalie Portman is thrown in in the middle of the mix as a chronic liar with epileptic fits, but even her charm does not save this movie. The problem? Nothing happens. Literally nothing happens in the movie, the whole entire time.
The Sweetest Thing – I know this is an old one, but since I had to go through it, I might as well write about it. Cameron Diaz and her lady friends spend their time hanging out and hooking up (unfortunately not with each other). Apparently they all have issues. Cameron Diaz’s character is afraid of relationships, and her other two friends cannot just have enough sex (in fact, Selma Blair’s character’s jaw gets stuck in an uncompromising position while doing it) and…well, that’s it really.
The Heartbreak Kid – Ben Stiller has relationship issues. Encouraged by family and friends (note to self: never listen to family and friends), he proposes to the first woman he meets on the street and she turns out to be a total psycho (creepy that). On their honeymoon, he meets the perfect woman (Michelle Monaghan). Sparks fly. Lies fly. Fights ensue. This one is actually funny.
Made of Honor – Patrick Dempsey has relationship issues. He is bestfriends with Michelle Monaghan and is in love with her but does not realize it until she leaves for Scotland and comes back with a rich Scottish fiance. Sparks fly. Montages fly. Guess how it ends?!?
The Ugly Truth – This one is actually more fun. Katherine Heigl (look how nicely she’s filled out since those “Roswell” days!) is a successful TV executive producer (aren’t they always?) with relationship issues. She has a crush on the neighborhood hottie but can’t quite work up the courage to ask him out. Enter totally un-PC, totally woman-hating Gerald Butler (without the “300″ get-up…so sad!) who teaches her how to play the dating game without looking like a total dork. Sparks fly. Vibrating panties fly (best scene that, actually. This redeems the movie for me). Happy endings for everyone.
Mary and Max – Eight-year old Mary from Australia, and 40something obese man from New York, Max, strike up a friendship as pen pals. The story chronicles how each one go through life. A touching, bittersweet, heartfelt animated film.
Zombieland – Funny take on zombie movies, with Woody Harrelson starring, with funny cameo from comedian Bill Murray. Mixes tongue-in-cheek humor with indie sensibility. Winning formula! Now a hit in the USA.
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Tagged: Entertainment, Honore de Balzac, Katherine Heigl, Michelle Pfeiffer, Patrick Dempsey, Sandra Bullock, Zach Braff, Zombieland