killing time

Yesterday a lot of students were absent from school. My teacher told me that it was cause lots of students have the cold, that afternoon the teacher had a meeting about closing the school for fear of the SWINE FLU (these people live in fear of that thing). Today i got picked up at 9am instead of the usual 8am for work. Which gave me about a half an hour to lift some weights. Today at school there weren't any students, yet all the teachers still had to come. I spent most of the day on the internet looking at movie trailers. One that caught my attention was "LOVE" which i thought seemed visually interesting. At the end of the trailers it said that it was and Angles and Airwaves film which i found even more interesting. Having not heard them for a while i decided to download some music from them. My favorite song from them being "Secret Crowds". Yet for some strange reason i felt really satisfied listening to it, it gave me a strange feeling of being at home. Writing about it now, i remember the first time i heard the song. I was walking in Carson Pirie Scott at Ridge Mall. The funny thing was i was in the women's section when i heard it and i actually stayed there the whole time while the song was playing. I'm actually listening to it now as i write this entry. Here's the video (i think it's a new one, the one i remember they were playing in a desert).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKCX_Mi0unI

Movie Review and More

(side note: i currently don't have any internet at my place. Only at the school i teach, and i'm only supposed to be on it for research for my class)

Today is the school festival at the school i teach, but i didn't receive a scheduel and missed my Advanced English class performance. So i decided to not watch the rest. Most of the day i've been in the teacher's office watching the K-1 world MAX
2009 final four matches. Congratulations to Giorgio Petrosyan for becoming the 2009 champion


Last Saturday i went to Yongsan station, like any big subway station in Korea there it was attached to a shopping mall. As i was shown what this mall had to offer i found a spot that sold bootleg DVDs. As i skimmed through the notebook of American movies i was surprised to find two movies i was looking for. The first being PUSH directed by Paul McGuigan who also diredted, LUCKY NUMBER SLEVEN and WICKER PARK. Having only seen "SLEVEN" i and the trailer to "PUSH" i had high hopes for this film. In the end i can't say it was awesome, or that it sucked but my price of 3,000won was well spent. I think i will pick up an original copy to see the making of the film to try to pick up some pointers.
The film quickly references World War II, where pepople with physic abalites are turned into soliders. I was somewhat dissapointed with the cinemagotraphy of this film. The shots seemd somewhat plain to me, and i didn't care for the close ups and two shots used throughout the film. Which was probably due that i really didn't find the characters too interesting so i didn't care for the drama they were going through. The one character i did enjoy was called "Victor" who was a "mover" the sames as Chris Evans' character, but you only see him in breifly in the film using his abalites. If you like Sci-Fi action movies might want to rent this instead of buying it. -As for my film review, it's more of my personal comment on the film. What i like is different from what you might like. If you watch the film you might enjoy it the first time, but if you skip it you won't be missing anything. Although they did leave it open for a sequel.

The one film that i was happy to find was THE SOLOIST. I remeber seeing the trailer before i left Chicago and when i heard that the DVD was out i asked my friends to mail me a copy (all of which told me to go to Amazon, what are friends for eh). When i picked up a copy the person who was with me told me that Jamie Foxx acted his ass off. I thought he was good, but not great. He's just another comedian turned dramatic actor. I'm not trying to put the guy down, i loved him in Peter Berg's THE KINGDOM and like him in MIAMI VICE. What i meant is that he's just another comedian turned dramatic actor, the best example i can think of is Tom Hanks. Anyway he's good in the film, and so is Robert Downey Jr. This film is about a journalist (Downey's character)who hears music, after seeing who is playing the music he decides to write a story about the homeless man (Foxx's character). He then decideds to help him by giving him a cello that he can play. As Downey interacts more with Foxx he slowly realizes that he needs help and more importantly realizes that there are many people in the streets of LA that need help just as much. There's a bit more to the story as well, Foxx's character is a bit unstable and Downey refuses to take full responsibilities. The film is good and i suggest you watch it and experience it for yourself.

Re-introduction!!!

a while ago i read something on my favorite blog (to which a link is found at the bottom of my blog). People who have blogs are slackers... or something to that effect. I'm not an exception when it comes to that.
Anyway i recently graduated from columbia college chicago, my major was cinematography. prior to graduation i took a trip to Korea becasue i was thinking of pursuing a career in the Korean film industry. I was offered a job but turned it down in order to graduate. When i returned with my degree the company had dissolved and no longer had a job waiting for me. I contaceted the few people i knew in the film industry, one of whom wanted to hire me but couldn't because my Korean is very limited. Now i found a job teaching english, trying to develop my Korean language abality (but have yet to really study) and hopefully after a year or two of teaching i'll then be able apply for a job in the film industry. So in the mean time this blog will be about my adventures in Korea. Granted some of the pics i might post will probably be a bit old since i recently broke my camera (i don't plan on buying a new one until November or December), on sports days at the school that i teach at.
In the meantime, read some of my old blogs and wait for new ones. If you have any comments pleas feel free to write them.!!!

Seven Days - 세븐데이즈

I saw this film last night, and wanted to write a review for it. I've been buying a lot of films lately but haven't been watching them. So i'm trying to catch up. Anyway, i saw this yesterday. Kim Yoon-Jin (김윤진)plays a lawyer who has her daughter kidnapped. As ransom she has to prove a man innocent of a rape and murder, and she has less than seven days to do it. A friend of hers who's a cop {played by Park Hee-soon (박희순)} notices her strange behavior and knows there's a problem. So she tells him and he helps her as much as she can. As she looks for evidence she starts to think maybe the man wasn't the murderer after all. But the mother of the victim {played by Kim Mi-Sook (김미숙) knows he's the man responsible and hates Yun-Jin's character for being his lawyer. There were some parts of the film that i thought were a bit too much, especially when her daughter is kidnapped and she starts to look for her. At some points they use dissolves to transition from shot to shot while the camera is handheld. I thought it gave a too much of a dizzying affect that they wanted the audience to feel as Yoon-Jin might have during that time, but i think they could have had the same effect without the dissolves. But that's just my opinion. As word starts to spread that Yoon-Jins's character is now representing the defendant one of her rivals is appointed as the prosecution. As in Korean movies there are always plot twists and this is where the first one happens. Evidence proves that there were more people involved than originally thought.
As this happens she gets phone calls periodically through out the film from the Kidnappers telling her the condition of her daughter. Who gets sick while she's kidnapped and need of medical attention and threaten to let her die. Once she finds the evidence, the twist is revealed but this film has more than one. The second is at the very end of the film, when she proved the man innocent and has found her daughter. If you read some of my other reviews you know i don't like to give away too much information. I rather let the viewer find out for themselves. Where as i'm the opposite, I like to know the ending to films or TV shows before i watch them.

태양은 없다!!!

I finally did it!! i've been looking everywhere for this film and i found it on Friday after my tutoring with Vicky Whoo Hoo!!!
Anyway i was only able to find a VHS copy of the film and it had no Subtitles. As i watched the film I could totally see why Kimmy loves him (she's my first Korean tutor who now lives in Korea), anyway as i watched it. It reminded me of some of his earlier films like Born to Kill and Beat. How they show young men struggling in life, it actually has me wondering about how my life will be when i move to Korea next June. I hope it's not as hard for me as it was for them. I do understand the lonely feeling they had from my short experience in Korea.

씨네21

Yesterday i was meeting a friend of mine for some Korean tutoring. When I showed her a magazine i had bought in Korea. I showed her some pics of Jeong Doo Hong (i've already posted them on this site) that were in the magazine and ones i took when i met him. He was wearing the same thing, i told her that i was there for the interview he had in the magazine. She started to laugh. then i told her to look through the magazine to see if they mention me.

She did and told me that they did, she read me the article and told me what it meant. then i had to read it back to her for my Korean lesson.

다찌마와 리 -- Dachimawa Lee

It's about 11:30pm here in Korea on Aug 17. Anway i just saw 다찌마와 리 and wanted to talk aobut it before i went to sleep. This is Ryoo Seung-Wan's newest film. My Korean speaking abality is rahter low, so most of the jokes went over my head. This film is silly, and kinda confused me at the end, but that's my fault for not knowing Korean. Anyway the film takes place during the 40's, and is suppose to be an omage, to old 60's/70's spy films. The film is dubbed with the actual actor voice to give it that werid slight off sync look. As it goes: Dachimawa Lee is a spy, and his partner gets killed on a solo mission. He then given the assingment to finish the job. While he retrieve his orders he is given a new partner who falls in love with him. When he starts to feel the same way about his new partner he falls head first into his assingment, he actually does. When he get the stolen treasure his partner his partner is killed and he loses all his memories. A woman finds him and takes him in, where he runs into a trobule (someone he met earlier). He then becomes a "one arm swordsmen", only because his arm is in a sling. He regains his memories and finishes his job only to find out that there is a tratior in the organization. That's where things get complicated for me, i don't want to give the film away. I want you to see it for your self. It seems his partner knew about the traitor and had to fake their death.
But it's very funny with Im Won-Hee looking perfect for the part. To me his face looks perfect for a film from the 60's/70's and leading ladies Kong Hyo-Jin and Park Si-Yoen