Addicted to Plastic

Addicted to Plastic, 2009. A documentary by Ian Connacher. Filmed in 12 countries over 3 years.

We all know that plastic does not biodegrade. Did you know the ocean is a sewer of floating plastic debris? We all know that animals, birds and marine life from time to time eat plastic. Have you seen the shards from an autopsy of a seagull stomach?

I watched this movie a month ago and find myself thinking about it, especially when I am shopping for groceries. There is so much waste in packaging.

In some ways the problem of plastic is connected to our "throw away" culture and our desire for all that is shiny and new. We buy cheap goods, usually made of plastic and from dollars store, and when they break we buy replacements. There is something good and right about saving up to buy quality goods that last. If for example, I buy stainless steel measuring cups, use them for a lifetime and pass them on, wouldn't that already make small difference?

Floating Weeds (Ukigusa)

Floating Weeds (Ukigusa), 1959. Directed by Yasujiro Ozu.

Great movie. Stunning compositions. Every frame can be a photo. Not for everyone, especially impatient people used to Hollywood paced plot driven movies.

A poor itinerant Kabuki troupe arrives in a small town. The master visits a son he hasn't seen in 12 years and who knows him only as an uncle. The jealous mistress of the master plots to tarnish the innocence of the young man. 

Machiko Kyō who plays the mistress is a scence stealer. I love watching her subtle expressions: when she is jealous, you feel sick; and when she is hopeful, you feel butterflies. If you are a film buff then you'll know she was the main character in Kurosawa's Rashōmon (1950).


This is the first Ozu movie I've watched. It is my first foray into what I imagine to be snooty "film buff" favourites. Ozu is revered by film critics for his methods. I watched Floating Weeds twice, first for the story and then again with Roger Ebert's commentary track on. I expected more from Ebert. Too much redundancy. Here are some technical notes:

• Ozu never moves the camera
  
• camera is usually placed at the eye level of someone seated on the floor
• composition takes precedence over continuity. eg. a Gizo statute with a red bib faces the camera even if a subseqent shot of a room is from another angle
• Ozu loved red so many scences have a bit of red in it
• people look directly into the camera during dialogues
• scenes often have frames within frames. Ozu uses Japanese architecture of sliding doors and hanging banners to maximize this theatrical effect
• often there is depth in scenes. i.e. you can see beyond characters into the next room or out windows. This compensates for not having the camera pan the room. 
• characters are often lined up in a diagonal row and talk while looking at the same direction

Good Hair

Good Hair (2009). Chris Rock does a documentary on African-American hair. What is good hair to African-Americans? It's a simple question but the answers are painful.

I watched this movie last week but couldn't find the right words to review it. A part of me wanted to do it justice because Chris Rock is sort of doing some good in pointing out the dangers in perming hair, the amount of money spent on weaves, and the problem with holding a Eurocentric ideal of beauty. Another part of me doesn't want to exploit black people. I was fascinated by the deep seated desire by black people to have straight hair. It is surprising to know that a black man will look at a black woman with straight hair and think that he can't date her because her hair costs too much. Or that black men know never to touch a woman's weave. Basically, attitudes towards straight hair affect social relationship in ways that limits intimacy and affects standards of living among black people.

Now I look at Lauryn Hill and Erykah Badu differently. As far as I can remember, they have always worn their hair in dreads or fros. I understand now they are women who truly don't give a shit about social pressure or stereotypes -- that having nappy hair means you are poor or stupid.  Good for them.

You know. I've always thought dreads were cool and now there are good reasons behind it.

Ong-Bak

Ong-Bak (2003) starring Tony Jaa (born Panom Yeerum).

The story: the head of a Buddha, referred to as Ong-Bak, is stolen from a rural village. Tony Jaa, a country boy trained in the deadly arts of Muay Thai, goes to Bangkok to retrieve it from art smuggling gangsters. Incidentally these same people bet on illegal street fights and Tony gets into the thick of it.

Ong-Bak is for action buffs. Little dialogue. Long scenes of fighting, running, jumping off roofs, walls, and over cars. Tony Jaa is amazing. In one scene he faces a group of men. He jumps up and stepping quickly on their shoulders, he runs over them. This is a serious martial artist guy. I wish I could do that.

Since watching the movie, I started using "Ong-Bak" in reference toTony Jaa's fighting style which is characterized by jumping up and elbowing people in the head. I itch to Ong-Bak people in the head and sometimes I do, but I plan to stop. It doesn't seem right to use Buddha's name in that way.

What exactly does Ong-Bak mean? Here's a quote from a Thailand forum board:

"Ong" is a classifier used in Thai for Buddha images, statues etc (it's also the name for "body parts", there may be two meanings in the title).

"Bak" means to "etch" or to "score", for example, your name on a rock.

According this definition, it makes sense and isn't disrespectful to say I'll "Bak" you in the head.  It's just that I love saying "Ong." If you watch the movie, listen to the pronunciation. I suspect you'll want to say Ong-Bak and then your elbows will itch for contact with heads too.

Blue Gold: World Water Wars

Rick Stein's Far Eastern Odyssey

Rick Stein’s Far Eastern Odyssey (2009), a six part BBC series on food in Southeast Asia.

Wow. Spectacular mouth watering food. Unfortunately (or not, depending on your epicurean leanings), 75% of the recipes are a variation of curry. Yikes or Yum ! ? If you like food, this is absolutely worth watching.

Rick Stein tours Southeast Asia, exploring cuisine, people and politics. He covers restaurant and hotel food, but it is the street food and home-styled cooking in villages that distinguishes this series. From food stalls, Stein tastes chopped roti and curry for breakfast and for lunch on one rainy afternoon, he eats mouth watering, steaming bowls of noodles. In the villages, Stein studies women cooking outdoors, sitting low to the ground, surrounded by plates of spices, chopped and minced ingredients. He is one lucky bastard. Is there anyone who wouldn’t want to travel and review food?

Anyway, here are the places he visits:

Part 1: Cambodia
Part 2: Vietnam
Part 3: Thailand
Part 4: Malaysia
Part 5: Sri Lanka and Bali
Part 6: Bangladesh

As a host, Rick Stein does a satisfactory job, as in a B-. He might be well known, but I haven’t heard of him so I’m not predisposed to like him or believe he can cook well. I admit he’s good at describing the taste of food and has an enthusiasm for eating – his pudgy impatient fingers are often seen greedily reaching for morsels. And I’ll give him credit for trying to understand local politics, even though his sources are mostly ex-pat Europeans hoteliers or restaurateurs. He just wasn’t particularly fun to watch. But a mediocre host has one advantage: it tests the strength of content and in this case, the cuisine and locales are so vibrant they nullify the fuddy-duddy presence of Rick Stein.

While doing this write up, I found a food blog, gastronomyblog.com by Gastronomer who was one of Rick Stein's guides in Vietnam. See Gastronomer's entry on the taping here.

*Note to self: Try the Bánh Cuốn recipe. Minced pork and wood ear fungus wrapped in rice sheets.

I also found ramblingspoon.com, a good food blog Karen J Coats, a former Asian correspondent for a food magazine. She has cleaned up, magazine quality photos of food and everyday life in Asia. Nice to look at.

*Note to self: Find and try Kampot pepper, a pepper that is indigenous to Kampot, a town SW of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Supposedly it’s the king of peppers and has a spicy, aromatic and flowery taste.

Banlieue 13

Banlieue 13 (2004) or in English, District 13. Starring Cyril Raffaelli and David Belle. Jason Statham fans take note. As you can see from the poster, this movie is from the producer of Transporter 2.  

District 13 is a ghetto controlled by criminals. A punk from the ghetto teams up with a cop to save his sister held prisoner by a crime lord, and to diffuse a bomb that could destroy the whole area.

This is a movie with very little plot, but if you like continuous action sequences in the style of Jackie Chan, then Banlieue 13 is for you. There are some spectacularly convincing jumps through windows, off roofs and monkeying up of pipes.  

Try to image fight or chase scenes to this music by Da Octopusss and you'll get a sense of what to expect:

This is the first time I've seen Cyril Raffaelli and David Belle. They were extremely fit and physically well matched. There was a scene when both did a back flip and it was mesmerizing, sort of like watching synchronized swimming. Anyway, there is a sequel, Banlieue 13 Ultimatum (2009). I probably will watch it. And strangely enough, I'm curious about Ong Bak (2003). Apparently it's about a Muay Thai martial artist who fights for the honor of his village.