Favorite Books. And by favorite I mean "inducing giddy obsession"

Pink llama is there to add balance. I bought these classics at one book fair sale for <100B each, which is why they're all the same Wordsworth editions. 8D

In order of favorite to most favorite.Won't repeat Brontë/Austen stuff. 

Future Posts

• Favorites
• Contemporary
• Friends vs. HIMYM
• Things That Made Me Cry
• Things I Laughed At
• Khaled Hosseini
• Thai edition
• Chinese edition

Aroi wa.

Clockwise from top left: Coconut pie, ขนมตาล, ขนมกล้วย, ขนมฟักทอง

Brontë vs. Austen

Haven't done a books post yet, so here I go.



I've read one of each by the three sisters: Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, Charlotte's Jane Eyre, and Anne's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. And two by Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice (I felt like it was almost required of me) and Emma.

For me (but not for most people, according to asking around) Brontë trumps Austen. Wishy-washy acoustic coffee-shop music is not enough for me, but something with lots of bass and strong vocals is. In the same way,  Austen, while pleasant, isn't enough, but Brontë's dark gothic plots are. I'm not sure if that made sense. Okay lemme try again:

The worst thing that can happen in an Austen book is an uncomfy social situation, but in a Brontë it's eternal damnation/lifelong unhappiness/doom spanning generations. For me, the latter's just more entertaining. When I express these views to Jane Austen girls they give me this look of disgust and say that I'm "sadistic." Which I am okay with. 

The one on the far left reminds me of that hobbit. Merry, I think. 

Summer Blockbusters

Okay, after three four posts on unknown indy stuff it's time to go to the opposite end of the spectrum. If I've been talking about the nobility of the film world--good-taste but possibly snooty and inaccessible stuff--then it's time to talk about the loud, mainstream crowd. Here is the Summer Blockbuster edition. Reviewed in order of worst--> best.

What the crap is this?


Transformers 3: Even Worse Than the Last One
The only reason I paid money and took time to watch this was because we were at the theatre and there was nothing else to watch. This movie was playing every 10 minutes, seriously. So for convenience's sake, we went in.

I went into the theatre in a good, forgiving mood. There's no way it could be worse than the second one! Megan Fox's super-realistic acting is gone! Maybe the robots got new sound effects! Maybe there will be some improvements--

WRONG.

Three hours of ear-eye-brain torture.

NEEDS A MUTE BUTTON

First of all, call me traditional but the hot girl is about a foot taller than Shia LeDouche. By the way, he got even douchier than he was in the last movie. The garbage script attempts to deal with the "I'm a hero, what are my responsibilities?" issue, but it completely fails and I end up laughing.  I feel bad that Leonard Nimoy has to stoop so low to work on a film like this.

And then there was that action scene climax that was over an hour long. Is it really necessary for the other building to fall on top of the glass building so the railings will connect and the two kids can escape only to run into an ugly robot blah blah blah. The fact that the girl was running around in stilettos for hours was more impressive than all of the robot-building smashing. I leaned back and tried to sleep but it was too loud. Then I thought that I should've taken some sort of sedative. I closed my eyes and I swear, there were tears.

By the third hour of the film I'd lost my mind, and so had my friends. We'd taken to laughing out loud at "serious" parts of the film, like when that paper hits Patrick Dempsey's face, when the robots say a sentimental goodbye to LeDouche, and especially that line that goes something like

You didn't betray us. You betrayed yourself.

That killed me.

EU Film Fest: Verdict

The audience: About 20~50% Thai. They range from teenage all the way to 80+. I wasn't really there for the kid movies, so didn't see any kids. (I came late to The Magic Tree.)The rest of the people were probably European/American expats. One nice thing about this winnowed-out audience is that at the end of the movie you can lean over to a neighbor and ask, "Wait, so...they're dead?" which is what the person next to me did. So I tried asking when I got confused too, and guess what? People who go to film fests are nice enough to explain the artsy-fartsy stuff.

The venue:

A bunch of photos of Bangkok in the 50s

  

Vintage ads.

A Mona Lisa done by a kid. There was a whole section of these. 

There's a spiraling ramp on the upper floors with an unbroken line of graffiti on the walls. That sentence didn't make sense. So go see it for yourself. 

There's a little library on the underground floor. Full of thick art books. Dead silent. But "No Sleeping" allowed, lol. 

All in all, I'd say that I had a great time at the festival. Sure, five indy movies in one day is hardcore, but Mika and I did it because we are HARDCORE ARTSY PEOPLE. Looking forward to next year's. Or even better, a film/art/etc. festival sooner than that. Tell me if you know anything about one!

On a completely unrelated note, I must say that the best Bubble Tea is the one by Miss Mamon (sold at Central Rama 3 and Central Pinklao). And I'm not just copying BK Magazine either. I went and bought and tasted. For once, the pearls weren't all tough and rubbery like Dakasi's. And the tea was a perfect blend of milk, tea, and sweetness. Mmm. T_T

Look, even the cup is cute. One con would be that the CUP IS NOT BIG ENOUGH

  I'll post about more well-known movies right after. Get ready for rants, both bad and good.

EU Film Fest: DAY 3

(Didn't catch the first movie, Kooky, because I was busy recharging my iPhone in an Apple store. Shamelessly. Lol)

 The Wedding Photographer (Sweden, 2009)

This was the only romantic comedy in the whole festival. For me, rom-coms have a higher bar to reach than other films because it's so easy for one to be cheesy and trite. With most rom-coms, I forget the characters' name before I'm even out of the theatre.

 But this one was the best rom-com I've watched in a long time. It had the rom. It had the com. And it also dealt with other issues (ie. social class, friendship, changing yourself, urban-vs.-rural, rich-vs.-poor, etc.) All the while making the whole audience laugh like hell. I need to get a DVD of this, seriously. Also, Astrid's clothes and hair were really pretty. How Robyn shot photos like a machine gun was also hilarious. I didn't mind the fact that I was laughing hysterically while sitting between complete strangers. Trailer here: 

When We Leave (Germany, 2010)
Completely different from the last one. By the end, I was clutching my hair into two fists and the woman behind me was sobbing.

Umay moves to Germany with her son to get away from her abusive husband. Her conservative Turkish family and husband don't believe that women should live alone because it is shameful to the family. They make life really hard for her. Reminded me a lot of A Thousand Splendid Suns. Example:

Umay: Please don't desert us! (etc. sad speech with tears)

Older brother drags her out and dashes her head against the pavement.

Trailer here.

Forbidden Fruit (Finland, 2009)

Last film of the festival. The theatre was fully packed.

Forbidden Fruit is about two girls who belong to a extremely conservative Christian group (Conservative Laestadians) in Finland . In their community, things like TV and dancing to rhythm music are forbidden. You don't say "Hello," but "God's greetings" instead. 

 The brunette, Maria, runs away to Helsinki because she wants to see the world. Her blonde friend Raakel has been instructed to "bring the lost sheep" safely back to the community. They experience a lot of firsts in the city, like dancing (gasp), boys (gasp!), and alcohol (GASP!). 

Maria: Kissing felt really good.

Raakel: REMEMBER THAT FEELING WHEN YOU BURN IN HELL!  

The movie was really funny at times; the whole audience was laughing at the teen-girl antics. But you also learn whats un/necessary in faith. (Is a bunch of clergymen constantly checking on the status of your sins necessary or not?) Anyway, I'd recommend this to anyone who has experienced--or even more importantly, is being encased in--any sort of restrictive society.


Oh, and one more thing. Those Scandinavian films: it took me a second to understand when they say "I'm going to bed, it's late" and it's still light out. 8D