UNBROKEN ” (2015) MOVIE REVIEW. A REAL LIFE STORY about one man’s RESILIENCE to SURVIVE at ALL COSTS.
The headlines holler SURVIVAL, RESILIENCE and REDEMPTION.
Rightfully so, as “UNBROKEN” is based on a true wartime movie and directed by the beautiful ANGELINA JOLIE, a famous American actress known for her painstaking charity campaigns of the World.
Here’s a picture of JOLIE directing her cast.
JOLIE made her directorial debut with her 2011 wartime drama IN THE LAND OF BLOOD AND HONEY. This film bagged mixed reviews, but her determination spurred her on to forge ahead with UNBROKEN.
UNBROKEN ” headlines a heart-breaking story about one man’s resilience to stay alive during World War 2 despite the massive hideous odds stacked against him. And of his eventual redemption when he’s ready to let go of angst and forgive the enemy who caused his past sufferings.
He is a champion sportsman
UNBROKEN follows the horrific life of of hero Louis “Louie” Zamperini (Jack O’Connell) who, along with two other crewmen, survived in a raft for 47 days after a near-fatal plane crash. After enduring attacks from both sharks and from a Japanese bomber plane that tried to pick him and his companions. Zamperini was finally washed up ashore only to be captured by the Japanese Navy and taken to a prisoner of war camp. Here he was forcibly held in brutal insubordination for more than three years.
Living a raft life for 47 days without food and water.
JAPANESE actor-cum -singer TAKAMASA ISCHIHARA who plays Bird steps into the film with a cruel cynical sneer.
“Look at ME or you DIE. I gonna make you pay for all your misdeeds.”
There’s nothing like a dame.
In the picture here, director ANGELINA JOLIE snuggles up close to this old wartime hero LOUIE ZAMPERINI whose screen image is brilliantly portrayed by newbie actor JACK O’CONNELL.
The real-life LOUIE ZAMPERINI died on July 2, 2014 at age 97.
“UNBROKEN” MOVIE REVIEW
Unbroken is a 2014 American war drama film, handpicked to be directed by Angelina Jolie. It’s based on the (almost) infamous 2010 non-fiction book written by Laura Hillenbrand.
Zamperini, who survived in a raft for 47 days after his bomber was downed in World War II, and was sent to a series of prisoner of war camps.
We follow his unflagging determination to stay alive after each penalty.
And how he was fated to encounter camp commandant Mutsuhiro Watanabe (nicknamed the Bird) who made life a living hell for him.
The Bird takes a perverse shine to Zamperini played by British actor Jack O’ Connell.
He tortures him with his belt buckle, orders the other prisoners to queue up and punch him in the face, forcing the weary Zamperini to hold a railway sleeper above his head as penalty.
After two years, Watanabe gets a promotion and is taken out of the camp where Zamperini is being held.
Louie is grateful that he is gone.
One night the camp is damaged when Tokyo is bombed by American forces.
Louie and the other internees are forced to relocate to another camp where Zamperini discovers, to his horror, that Watanabe is still in charge.
The prisoners are now put to work loading coal barges.
One day after Louis sprains his ankle and is unable to work, “Bird” tells him to lift a giant piece of wood.
Louis successfully lifts and holds up the wood, angering Watanabe, leading to another harsh beating.
At the end of the war, Zamperini and fellow prisoners in the camp are set free to return to their homes.
Back in America, he kisses the ground as a mark of gratitude for giving him a second lease in life and hugs his family dearly.
Yes, Louis Zamperini led an epic life.
He was a teenage Italian-American immigrant hellion, a star Olympic runner in 1936, a WWII survivor of a labor camp. – and director Angelina Jolie unhesitatingly takes us through his torture regime.
Mutsuhiro “Bird” Watanabe went into hiding for several years and successfully evaded prosecution in spite of being listed in the top 40 most-wanted Japanese war criminals by General Douglas MacArthur.
Yet after the war, Louie forgave his war-time captors and met with many of them.
Watanabe, however, refused to meet with Zamperini out of guilt.
FOOTNOTE:
UNBROKEN follows the horrific life of of WWIIwar hero Louis “Louie” Zamperini (Jack O’Connell) who, along with two other crewmen, survived in a raft for 47 days after a near-fatal plane crash.
Takamasa Ishihara and Jack O’Connell perform their roles to perfection.
Zamperini died on July 2, 2014 at age 97.
RATING: 4 out of 5
Local Distributor: UIP Malaysia
Friday, January 23, 2015
SCUD Hong Kong Film Director on his latest work “VOYAGE”(遊), PART 1
SCUD: “I used to live precariously, harboring latent signs of DEPRESSION. Those were dark periods where I cannot plan or work. I was fighting my inner demons. Departures of loved ones fueled painful feelings of loss. I therefore decided to make my “VOYAGE”遊 film project addressing how mental angst can wreck a person’s life.”
1. Voyage is going to be your latest film to hit the screen. Can you tell us what the film is about and what are the themes explored?
“Voyage” is my 5th film and may be the last of my productions for some time. While there’re far more films I want to make, a lot of things are pointing to at least a break.
Like many hinging their passions on art and love, I used to live dangerously with depression for long. There were periods when I could neither plan nor commit to anything weeks away. Departures of loved ones complicated the feelings, and prompted me to make a film out of such unspeakable mental and spiritual statuses.
Starting with my own experience and those confided to me, “Voyage” was then enriched by profound stories from my actors, especially Leni Speidel, my leading actress of the film, who even brought her family to realize the unforgettable scenario. As usually I am in debt to artists collaborating with me.
It is worth mentioning that the film appeared to come to own life during the making. While I thought I was making a film of suicide and other premature deaths, I found myself shooting more and more after life scenes and it unfolded to me in the editing room to be a very different film, one that unveils the subconscious or unconscious of the film maker’s desperation to look beyond the supposing end of life.
Is life a dream, an imagination, or just a projection of our wishes? “Voyage” is for those who rather believe there being no end to the voyage of life, and is dedicated to the people who have departed but have never left our hearts.
2. It is also your first film, as we understand it, to be shot entirely in English? What are your motivations for doing an English language film, and how does the language relate to the story in the film?
I shot the film in English because it is a more universal topic and story than my earlier works. It may be more convenient to my European and American audiences while the impact to Chinese audiences are minimal. It is slightly easier for me to make as majority of the cast is English speaking, though the film has very little dialogue anyway.
3. Audiences have come to expect controversial themes like homosexuality, rape and incest in your previous outings. How will Voyage be different from the others, and do you expect to raise even more eyebrows?
I guess i will always meet the expectations of my audiences on new, controversial themes, for I reckon that being an important value of mine. The scenes of various spectacular deaths may raise many eyebrows but the profound meanings behind are what I wish can be revealed to my audiences, albeit in an atypical way.
4. It looks like a significant part of Voyage will be taking place on the sea or in water. Do you find an artistic quality to this medium that you feel or felt you had to explore? How does the setting in Voyage help to shape the overall look and feel in the film?
Indeed I have a deep obsession with sea, the absolute isolation and freedom. There is a psychologic test that says your feeling to the sea is your perception to life. I guess I was the first to shoot on the circular rafts, an unique scene of Hong Kong beaches, in my first two films, with totally naked boys and girls of course. The vessel the leading man sails on in “Voyage” is a moving version of that fantasy.
5. A lone voyage out at sea. Stories about departed people…. There seems to be an emphasis on the themes of isolation and possibly loneliness in Voyage. Is that what you intended?
Absolutely, and the helplessness, the freedom, the despair, the unrestrained imaginations in a confined dungeon that is so perfect an analogy of life…
6. Another theme that is clearly portrayed in Voyage has got to be depression. Do you have any personal experiences with depression, either in yourself or people that you know? How do you think depression affects people? How does it affect the lead character in Voyage?
I have never been really acquainted with anyone not depressed, and depressed people live in a different world from those who are so lucky and also so pathetically unlucky to be out of it. People like the lead character in the film want to have their ironic stories heard, and I am doing exactly that thru “Voyage”.
HERE is a TRUE STORY of LOVE, COURAGE and REDEMPTION to stir your heartbeat.
He is this persistent photographer from NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC who never says die.
Count in one wayward girl, four deadbeat camels and one loyal (I go-where-you-go) dog banding together to go on a long treacherous trek across the heat-defying Australian desert.
“SHALL WE STEAL A KISS IN THIS STIFLING HEAT?”
“TRACKS” (2015) MOVIE REVIEW
STIR THE POTPOURRI.
Count in one wayward girl, four deadbeat camels and one loyal (I go-where-you-go) dog banding together to go on a long treacherous trek across the heat-defying Australian desert.
This is indeed a true story.
If you seek, you’ll find that it can be an an uplifting film for any aesthetic soul.
I am not about to wax lyrical about the loads of unpretentious scenes demonstrating animal loving, a potent score that complements the the mood following the courageous heroine’s lone voyage of self-discovery and her desire to be left alone.
The Director-of-Photography harnesses a splendid job in bringing us stunning visuals that bedazzle the eye, specially of the Australian of simple aborigines dwelling in the desert with no expectations except waiting for a better life.
“TRACKS” is directed by John Curran and for what it’s worth, let us first reckon with the amazing plot assemble.
Director John Curran (The Painted Veil and We Don’t Live Here Anymore) and the producers of THE KING’S SPEECH are largely responsible for TRACKS, which depicts a heartwarming true story of Robyn Davidson (Wasikowska), a young woman who leaves her life in the city to make a solo trek through almost 2,000 miles of sprawling Australian desert. Will she survive the odds stacked against her?
Accompanied by her loyal dog (with endless bundles of love) and four unpredictable camels, she sets off on a life-changing journey of self-discovery. She is a rude and an obnoxious loner, as far as the film will show us.
Along the way, she meets National Geographic photographer Rick Smolan (Driver) who starts to photograph her voyage.
She is this hare-brained young woman from Sydney with an audacious goal: to walk alone with camels from the center of Australia heading west across 2,ooo miles of desert and sacred aboriginal territory as far as to the Indian Ocean.
Thrilling and bewildering, TRACKS matches the true grit experiences of the headstrong independent 25-year-old Robyn Davidson, who set off in 1975 through stunning landscape and horrific conditions to boot.
The film is a close insight into her persistent and gradual connection with animals, indigenous people, and the kindness of good people she meets along the way.
Director John Curran and actress Mia Wasikowska,who throws herself into the role embodying the feisty Davidson.
The character embraces both loneliness and strength, and is the kind of character a first-rate actress should harness.
PARTING SHOT:
Count in one wayward girl, four deadbeat camels and one loyal (I go-where-you-go) dog banding together to go on a long treacherous trek across the heat-defying Australian desert.
If she can do it, so can I?
I really doubt I have the courage, but thank you very much!
He is broke and is unable to pay his rent and alimony. So Keith (Hugh Grant) reluctantly accepts a job teaching screenwriting at a local university in Binghamton.
“Now, Class … I must stress that WRITING is an ART and YOU must have an inborn TALENT for it.”
“I STILL SETTLE FOR WOMEN CLOSER TO MY AGE … They are gifted and … hmmm… more sexually experienced!”
“She’s my type … hmmm… sexy and lithesome.”
“If for anything else, this spring chicken can curb my horny day blues!”
“In my Younger Days, I amassed countless AWARDS for my SCRIPTS.”
” THE REWRITE ” MOVIE REVIEW
THE METAPHOR
LIFE can be painted as a horror story, only if you ever allow it to be. (moan).
Not all days are gonna be sunshine days, right?
Not when you are approaching middle-age, with a few extra lines piled unceremoniously upon your forehead.
Maybe your looks are fading, along with your self-esteem. Maybe your bosom buddies don’t root for you like they used to. Maybe you’ve been mortified as a piece of old “over the hill” junk ” stacked with a dish of bitter-sweet memories. Maybe …. (more maybe’s …)
If the aforementioned happens to you, hold on, in life you give yourself a wake-up call.
You hear an inner voice beckoning you, “Don’t moon, just get your ass up and do something about re-writing your life story.
Does this little episode seem like a page from a movie script?
Well, yes!
Life can be a sweet song throttling from your pet canary.
But this story is for real, about a university lecturer (my friend) who stumbles in life badly, eons ago and who picked up the tethers and carried on with his life with all the dignity he can muster.
Hey FRIEND, IF YOU ARE READING THIS HERE, I know you’d never give up on life and THIS REVIEW IS DEDICATED TO YOU.
Show me the way, Okay?
THE REEL THING
Life can be a yoyo, swinging towards whichever direction you throw.
Screenwriter Keith Michaels (Hugh Grant) reminisces once-in-a-while over his past glories when he was on top of the world.
He has won the Golden Globe Award for best screenplay eons ago and even had a hit movie to his name. He was once happily married and life then was pure bliss. But that was fifteen years ago: now, he’s 50+, totally divorced, broke, and hasn’t written a single screenplay for ages. He is now forgotten material.
Luckily, his agent found him a job, to teach screenwriting in a university within the quiet town of Binghamton.
Hopping to give minimal attention to his teaching duties and to focus on writing his new script instead, his attitude slowly begins to change when he meets adult student Holly (Marisa Tomei).
She is a single mum working two jobs to earn her degree. Soon the pair of star-crossed lovers find themselves embracing solace for a second chance at love.
Meanwhile she has a fell-out with a fellow colleague, a Jane Austen specialist (Allison Janney) who dislikes his gallivanting lifestyle and totally disapproves of him bedding an amorous student.
“Too much wine, not enough cheese,” he later conveniently explains to ward off misinterpretation of text.
Go watch this movie that shows you that the teaching profession may be a breeding ground for loners.
The Filmmaker called the movie “LOVE ON THE CLOUD”. It’d have been grammatically correct if it had been titled “LOVE ON CLOUD 9″. The positioning product is a nutty and “feel good” sexual comedy that joyfully strips away the entertainment facade to expose that filmmakers and artistes, irrespective of the beautiful and the ugly, all harbor sexual desires. And truth be told, it is one thing to crave for sex, yet another to catch this elusive love bug. Can love blossom from one-night-stands? You be the guest!
ANGELA BABY and MICHAEL CHEN exude a magnetic onscreen presence. Watch how the sexual sparks fly!
Our male lead is on the prowl as the night wears on, and he is going for a “WeChat” date. Sex anticipated.
“Look, I have brought my condom ….”
“Yes, sir! I am exercising my male libido to get my pecker rock hard.”
Angelababy plays an “anything goes” model looking for one-night stands. She and Michael Chen meet each other through Michael’s mobile “WeChat” app. She then discovers that Michael is a writer- director wannabe.
This Hawaiian Hula dance is as sensual as you can get …
“She’s hot, sultry and everything you need to set the pecker-in-the-loin rising ….”
“LOVE ON THE CLOUD” 微爱之渐入佳境 2014 MOVIE REVIEW.
This is a fun movie not to be taken seriously. If for anything else, go watch it because sweetie pie Angelababy is the lead actress.
It throws some light on how desperadoes in the entertainment industry pitch for financing. And having won the pitch, they have to pay the humiliating price of foregoing originality, as everything evolves around money and sex.
It is also declares an unexpected romance that blossoms amid this digital age of mobile connectivity.
‘Love on the Cloud’ “makes no bones” about headlining how financiers and sponsors in this industry are untrustworthy and lecherous.
The lead protagonist is Sha Guo (Chen He), an aspiring screenwriter whose latest screenplay is titled ‘Lone Wolf in the Wilderness’.
In the opening scene, Sha Guo pitches his creative idea to a wealthy investor named Mrs Ma. She displays enthusiasm in investing $8 million to have the script churned into into a feature film, but on one principal condition – she owns a cattle farm in Inner Mongolia and anticipates to relocate the scenery to the cattle farm.
Blinded with elation that anyone would even bother with their independent project, Sha Guo with his two cronies – one an actor named Xiao Gua (Zhang Luyi) and the other a cinematographer named Chen Xi, thereby form a team named ‘Three Dreamers’.
They rent a studio apartment and begin writing the plot that their investor wants to see.
This is where the merry-go-round dance begins where the client demands illogical changes, thereby destroying the original concept.
What started out as a writer’s dream transcends into a blinding thriller, much to Sha Guo’s chagrin.
You can well imagine that every revision is reinforced by the promise of a bigger investment, until of course it gets so huge that Sha Guo, together with his buddies are all knocked out of the entire project by a consortium of side investors that Mrs Ma had cunningly assembled.
Yes, this is a grim warning for wannabe filmmakers in China, that neither Gu nor his friends are eventually credited with or for the final product.
Even so, everything turns out to what they have never expected, the new script is way too commercialized, and bears no semblance on how the original project had started.
SUMMARY FOOTNOTE:
“LOVE ON THE CLOUD” has a pretty cast AngelaBaby and Micheal Chen.
They are beckoning to us that it’s great to be young.
It probably is, given the hard fact a flood of our leading men are ageing and the industry now needs fresh young blood. Hurrah!
