Old Boy 2003 versus Old Boy 2013

A film review of two films, I will attempt to keep the spoilers to a minimum but be warned there will be a few. 2003 Old Boy Korean made cult hit 2013 Old Boy US Spike Lee film Both are based on source material which I am not familiar so when I read that 2013 is closer to the source material I don’t know if it is true or not. Let me start by saying, I am not opposed to remakes of films because they can retell a story in a way which will reach an audience who would not have bothered with the story at all. For example the films Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Let Me In are both Swedish Films which are very good however their remakes by the US are equally as good and retell the story in a way that is unique and still familiar to the original and in the case of Let Me In to the source material as well. I’m not familiar with The Girl with … source material. It is sometimes hard to see a film you like be remade and while I’m not a huge Spike Lee fan I don’t dislike all of his films and thought his version could be okay. He cast well known actors Josh Brolin and Samuel L. Jackson and amazing new comer Elizabeth Olson. So I had hope that this would be a good film despite the fact that a lot of the talk before the film was released was negative and condemned Lee for even attempting to remake such a good film. I will say that Brolin, Jackson and Olson all played their parts well but there was something lacking which I have to say is in the writing and the directing because all of the actors have the ability to really draw the audience into a story and believe they are the characters come to life. When that doesn’t happen with good actors it is the writing and the directing which have failed. The pace of the 2013 movies felt off and just did not have a believable flow that in part is due to my seeing the 2003 version but also in part in how Lee moves the story. Both films takes place over a 20 year period, which the 2003 version does a better job of conveying than the 2013 version. In 2003 it starts with little character introduction and then fills in that the protagonist isn’t a very nice guy. In the 2013 there is some build up that the protagonist is not a good guy and then pulls you in to the story. I prefer the 2003 version because it puts the audience in the same shoes as the protagonist. The character doesn’t understand what is happening to him or why and neither does the audience. The captivity portion of the film, the 2003 version really brings home how being isolated for 20 years from any meaningful human contact can extract a heavy toll on a person’s mental well being. I think Brolin is certainly able to deliver that kind of performance but he isn’t given the material or directed in a meaningful way to give that performance. So in the 2013 version after the 20 years there isn’t any sense that the character is really damaged by his imprisonment like there in the 2003 version. The release in 2013 is lack luster even when not compared to the 2003 version. This however it the one spot 2013 outshines 2003, which are dramatic fight scenes. The point of the first fight in the film shows the depth of what isolation can do to person and their restraint and interactions with others. However 2013 backs away from aspect of the film after the fight and in the 2003 version this is explored widely and in different settings and not always in fights. The introduction of the other characters is good in both films with the exception of the main antagonist in the 2013 film. In the 2013 version I wasn’t drawn in enough by the story to really form an opinion on the antagonist character but in the 2003 version I didn’t like the character before he is even on the screen. The 2003 version has a main fight scene which 2013 attempts to recreate. As before the 2013 version goes big the way US movies do in fight scenes which are okay if you haven’t seen 2003, but falls far short in comparison. It fails not in way of action but in the 2003 version there is the feel of the closeness of the combatants and the rage of the protagonist against his jailers and his lack of self preservation and he is an older guy now too. In 2013 the space used in the film was too big and didn’t give the same feel of tightness and close quarters combat and Brolin doesn’t seem to be as lost as his 2003 counterpart. Is it fair to compare the two scenes like this? I have to say yes because the 2013 could have done the fight a much different way but because Lee decides to try to recreate almost the same fight scene punch for punch I can say he failed to do justice to the scene as a part of the whole story but it is more action packed than 2003 version. As the story goes on 2013 drops the ball in the plot in a big way in that the protagonist isn’t even aware of why the antagonist hates him and doesn’t have that ah ha moment of oh that’s why this is happening that is there in 2003. Lee tells the same follow the clues type of story but there isn’t a personal connection between antagonist and protagonist like there is in the 2003 version. In 2003 the antagonist plan is revealed that he has made the protagonist unknowingly commit a greater social wrong and in the 2013 it is the same social wrong doing. Because of the lack of the personal connection and the reveal in the 2013 movie is telegraphed so far in advance of the reveal it is not a shock for the audience and again that may be that because I was familiar with the story line that I picked up on the foreshadowing. At the end I wasn’t sorry I had watched the 2013 version but it did not have the same gritty feel as the 2003 version. There was an emersion into the story in the 2003 version that the 2013 version never really captured. 2013 had better action sequences in that they are bigger, faster, and with bolder effects but that comes with a bigger budget and better effects departments but even that does not make up for the lack of grit and emotion through out the rest of film. If you haven’t seen the 2003 version the 2013 version may seem to be a better film overall and if you aren’t a fan of foreign films with smaller budgets you probably won’t like the 2003 version much at all. I prefer the 2003 version but that is just my opinion and maybe someday I’ll read the source material and have a completely different opinion. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Invisible Don PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

L'etat, c'est moi

I am me. What does that mean, really? That I or you in the case of you reading me, who am I? or you? Looking back from far enough are there truly any individuals out in the sea of humanity. Certainly a very vast majority of us are singular in our entity with the exception of the conjoined and those in mid coitus. The latter only a temporary condition and in some cases very temporary. Are we truly as individual as we proclaim when we say, I’ve gotta be me. In the vast soup that is the social worlds we are influenced by so much and we see all the groups we have identified in the world. Some of them are labeled offensively and others not so much offensively but as descriptive of how they act or interact with others. Let’s take hipsters for instance as they seem to be a group who loudly proclaims it is important to be me and to shun the main stream. I can get on board with that idea, going with the flock isn’t always the best way to do things, progress stagnates, we become comfortable and comply more easily to those who would lead us not because we agree but because it is easier. So I get the whole be the tenth man argument; if 9 people say go right, why not go left. Well because sometimes it can really be a mistake, like a lethal mistake but largely there is no reason not to go left when everyone else goes right. The larger group isn’t always the most correct just because they have tradition or history on their side. It does take effort to stand on the outside of it all though and it is easy to get sucked back in. My observation is if all these people just want to be this individual not corrupted by the main stream why are most of the hipsters, remember we’re picking on hipsters for the moment, so readily identifiable. It is almost if they aren’t individuals at all but in fairness with nearly 7 billion people on the planet you are not a unique snowflake, blah, blah, blah what ever that guy said in his fight book. Which really isn’t all that insightful or shocking but I digress Harder than it may seem to say I am me, a oneness in the vastness of the world. It is possible though and as we mark up our flesh with ink and metal or gouge holes in to it for a way to be apart from the whole. Adopt a clothing style or lack of one, what ever it is that we do to be something different from everyone else. We still cling to others because we are social. Very few people have the ability to live apart. I think it is less common today because it is harder to break away from others or the influence of others. How long can you go without any interaction with another person? No talking, no games, no text messages, nothing that lets another person know you exist. They can’t see you and you can’t see them. Depending on your currently living situation that may be very nearly impossible. To cut ties, uproot and be you apart from others. What is the longest period of time that you have been out of contact with any other people and been truly alone. I don’t mean metaphysical aloneness though that is a whole different thing which you can me in a stadium full of people and be alone. For most of us including me the most I’ve been apart from others is measured in hours not days or weeks or even months. How can anyone truly be completely individual with that much influence in your life the number of variables to consider is staggering as to what means more or less or nothing. How can you be different, completely and uniquely different, not ironically different or just to be different that is fake difference and nobody has time for phonies. Before you stare down your nose at the bearded dude in jeans drinking a nonfat latte made with all lava grown Peruvian beans sitting on his bike reading a tattered paperback just remember he may not be a hipster. He may just be a guy who has a bike and likes a beard because it is easier than shaving and ordered a coffee from the first place he came across and the book may be anything. We may be anything and in all the sameness that is this world aren’t we all just a little bit different or in some cases a lot a bit different. You know the cliché don’t judge a book by the cover or even the one if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck it must be a duck. Before you dismiss someone because of the category you have put them and defined them as being a certain type of person ask how different are you and how many times a day are you dismissed as being just another one of those people, and not even known it. We miss so much of the world because we see but close our eyes and we hear but don’t listen. (Also I know that title has nothing to do with anything I've said, it usually doesn't I just like the way it fits but doesn't fit) Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

Neener, Neener, I may or may not be a 5 year old

While I’m not what most people would call a sports fan. I know how most of the games are played and the major rules of the games but would be hard pressed to name more than a handful of people who play professional sport. That said I do like things within the sporting world and one of the things which gives me joy is that Lebron James lost again in bid for a championship win. As I’ve said I’m not a fan so I should give a hill of beans about any of it and I really don’t. I did not watch a single minute of basketball this year to include the championship games. However when I read the headlines that San Antonio had won defeating Miami I took joy in the knowledge that Lebron had lost. I don’t really know that much about him other than he is good at the game not necessarily great but better than most, but for some reason though I can not stand this man. I really should be indifferent about his success or failure in it all but I don’t like him. I do however like Dennis Rodman, more for his ability on the court back when he played and also for his understanding of the politics of basketball in the modern day. Back to Labron, he may be a genuinely nice man which does make it hard to justify this dislike. However I don’t care and I’m not alone in this. Lots of people don’t like him and by a lot I mean easily a million people if not more. People say he is arrogant, cocky, out of touch, disrespectful, didn’t pay his dues, disloyal and on and on. To say a professional athlete is arrogant is to say the sky is blue but I think many people misconstrue confidence as arrogant. To get to the top level of a game where thousands fail takes real skill not made up bravado you have to at some point cut it or you are out. Yes he may appear to be arrogant but you don’t hang your head with self doubt and make it to the NBA, so I can’t really fault him if he comes across as arrogant. I don’t watch enough nor care enough to listen to him speak to know if he is cocky or not but I’ll give him a pass and say that he may not be any more cocky than the next ten guys in the league. Not paying his dues. Kobe entered out of high school and while he did get some ribbing about it, it doesn’t seem to be the same level as Lebron. The corruption of the NCAA doesn’t make going to college a strongly valid point to argue about paying your dues especially if your college is as corrupt as the mafia if anything skipping college is just saying hey I’m going to make money for four years while you all hope you don’t suffer a career ending injury while in college. As to the other critiques of disloyalty and disrespect all of Cleveland can hate the man if they want for leaving but seems to me most ball players don’t stay in the same town anyway those days have gone away. Overall I can’t really put a finger on why I don’t like Lebron James, I just don’t. Perhaps he is the embodiment of everything I don’t like about professional sport in the modern day and just has the bad luck of being that for a lot of people. Because it doesn’t matter how well he does more people want to hate Lebron than seem to want to love him. ESPN is the propaganda machine for the church of sport, the announcers and field reporters at the missionaries and priest of this cult. Pontificating every morning, noon and night they way of the church of sport. The fervor and reverence made in the name of sport is so akin to religion it is scary. Masses are held in the cathedrals of sport every day of the week. High holy days are spread throughout the year and for some mass migrations / pilgrimages are made for the faithful to pay homage to the sport of their faith Is Lebron any guiltier than anyone else in the system? No he is not but for some reason he is the one at whom they cast stones and I’m guilty too. I have no reason not to like him but I don’t and as shallow as it sounds I probably won’t. Does Lebron give a shit about me or hell all the haters? Not even a little bit mainly because he can buy and sell any of a hundred haters ten times over. The thing to consider too is that Lebron is a symptom of a machine we made or at least allowed to be made and he is the Frankenstein come to life. So to say you hate Lebron in part you are saying you don’t like yourself and in the spirit of full disclosure that is true in my case but I don’t hate myself as much as I don’t like him but it does bother me a little that I take joy in his failure to succeed. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015