Brian Eno's Music For Airports

This was exactly what I was looking for with regards to my new film ideas. Ambient music.

Are you Hungry For Talk?

As part of the Korean Film Festival, the new Hungry For Talk competition calls film lovers and goers alike to talk about their favourite Korean film, director or actor/actress in a short clip. There are prizes up for grabs (like free movie tickets), and even the chance for the winning Talkers to have their clip shown on the big screen throughout the festival.

Or, in other words, I'm asking you (my loyal viewers) to step up and participate!

Check out our short video about how to join in the conversation.

A fragment, by a Poet

"She was an entertaining creature, one I had not encountered for divers months, and I was simply compelled by the beguiling hunt. And as she intimidated me, I kept my distance, standing as she sat and as we spoke, of our past romances; I joked, about threats to jeopardise her integrity. I was not one to adore such a thing, but between the incongruity of who I had thought she was, and the smoke she had pulled from her purse, now held between her fingers:

She was fascinating.

I saw only the contours of her face, outlines of the shadows cast at soft angles by the moonlight. I was blessed from time to time, only by the long drag of the cigarette she was smoking: I saw her face illumed. The smoke escaping her lips, like an organism in somnambulant dance, sipped up into the ether of the dark hours above us; of the early morning.

I retired alone.

Now in daylight, I find myself chasing up what had gone, and what had died with the night. Mourning the life of a thrill that had lasted only the span between moonrise and moonset."

"The goodbye scene of the would-be lovers is over-the-top romantic. Nevertheless, or maybe because of that, it, too works. In the slightest of slow-motion, Mo-wan lets go of Li-zhen's hand (her wedding ring, ironically, in full view), and the camera stays on her face in extreme close-up as he remains far away in the background, out of focus. Then we discover, once again, that they are only rehearsing a separation that has not yet taken place and that, in fact, we never see. They playact through their emotional crisis, as if trying to manage it theatrically, and thus never reach their innermost selves, if such a place can be said to exist. They live within quotation markers and pre-written lines of dialogue. They put on an act because reality itself is too hard to bear. She sobs, and the strings reach a crescendo."

- Peter Brunette on "In The Mood For Love", Wong Kar-Wai

A quote on Wong Kar-Wai's "In The Mood For Love"

"Coming to its emotional climax at the Angkor War temple in Cambodia in 1966, the film plays out through a series of missed opportunities and bad decisions, as one of the most powerful renditions of mutually unrequited love in cinema history."

- Peter Brunette, Wong Kar-Wai

The Power of the Visual

"The simplest way to communicate a story is just visually."

- Sofia Coppola on her style in recent Golden Lion winner SOMEWHERE

Modeselektor - Em Ocean

Today's 'random click' has turned into a surprising find. I rarely listen to Modeselektor due to how heavy some (if not most) of their stuff can be (listen to Black Block), but this neat two minute track is something else.

Iguazu Waterfall from 'Happy Together'

The Iguazu Waterfall scene from Wong Kar-Wai's Happy Together.

This waterfall, so precisely placed in the film as what I feel is a symbol of the two leading characters' relationship - mesmerising, of great depths, to lose one's self. This shot follows a moment in the film where the two characters, Ho Po-Wing and Lai Yiu-Fai take a road trip in search for the Iguazu waterfall. Their trip comes to a halt, and we see one of them walk away from the car. "Where are you going?" says Ho, as he remains with the car, a map spread out before him. The characters stand next to a busy highway, abandoning their car and map. Cars and trucks go by in haste as their relationship grows further and further apart.

What a great, great film.

Music that Glows

Just a quick one tonight.

I have been incredibly busy assisting the marketing team for the 1st Korean Film Festival in Australia (KOFFIA), as well as the odd intern job here and there. I've also got a job as a marketing assistant of some sort at a digital television wholesaler, at which I will start as an intern. Hopefully it will take me somewhere (preferably paid!).

In the meanwhile, I have been looking for experimental/sound art type of music, or soundscapes as inspiration for a new project. I found this rather neat track on Youtube.

It's very ambient, and possibly too busy with track layers for something I could work with. Nevertheless, I love the ambiance and peace it emanates. It kind of 'glows' for me.