Silent All These Years: Movies Marathon

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Movies Marathon - Babel

So recently it's been a lot of downtime and I've been catching up on movies that finally made it to DVD. First off, Babel. I thought it was amazing, worthy of all the nominations, the message is as old as time, you know racial profiling, bigotry, blah blah blah, how very Crash-like. I was however impressed on how well each city was portrayed, it was like a travel lure movie for me, now I want to visit Morocco and Japan. Well, they've always been my top 2 cities to visit but now even more. Tijuana not so much and it was more scary than exciting. I love Oscar-nominated Rinko Kikuchi who played Chieko, OMG, where did they find her? And she played a absolutely convincing mute Japanese girl living in Tokyo. She said during interviews that she was the last non deaf-mute girl to audition and got the part. Thank god the director went with a true blue Japanese
to play this role instead of Zhang Ziyi or Kelly Hu or some asian american girl.

What a role to take and the guts to take it all off and flash her bush! I gasped! Her longing for love and acceptance in the movie was heart breaking to watch. She did what she did as she had nothing left to lose just to have that emotional connection. The movie also made me want to go to Japan even more, to all the noodle houses that are open to 3 am or later, to the arcade where you can slurp soba while playing Dance Dance. I want to pop pills and play in the water fountain, well, maybe not that as I would not want to get my hair wet. The scenes where the director took us into the head of Rinko where she was in the club and everything was silent in her head even though 80's music was blasting took my breath away.

I don't get the world's intrigue over Gael Garcia Bernal, I find him borderline strange looking. Good actor I must say but not so much to look at. Brad and Cate's roles were somewhat forgettable. And in the end, I want to know what Chieko wrote to that nice looking Japanese cop with the bad teeth. Babel was not so much emotional but more artistic determinism but still thoroughly enjoyable.

Then on my Friday off, I popped in Mission Impossible III starring sofa-jumper Tom 'wife-chainer' Cruise.

posted by movetothis @ 12:27 pm

4 Comments:

At 10:09 pm, Anonymous said…

I don't remember the cop's bad teeth. I just remembered him as HOT! Cate B's performance was nothing special...and very minor role too. Not sure why she took that role....to play Brad's wife???

zocalo
At 9:31 am, Brand New W said…

i didn't like the movie that much and didn't think it deserved all its accolades. i liked the mexican storyline the best, i think. the woman and those two kids in the desert was heartbreaking.
At 9:32 am, Brand New W said…

speaking of cate, did u already go see Notes on a Scandal? i see it listed under your Distractions section...
At 10:07 pm, movetothis said…

zocalo, watched Babel again, that Japanese cop was cute but the teeth, god, stop smoking and fix it already!

AW, nope, still waiting to watch Notes on a Scandal with you so don't go without me!!!