Archive for December, 2002

TOP TEN FILMS OF 2002 POLL

okie…here goes me and my stupid antics about movies again. Choose – the top 10 films of 2002, although its hard to be objective and we all have our preferences…but i’m quite certain a few movies will still stand out with superior screenplay, cinematography, art direction and the like. To make it fair, i’ve only listed the movies that we’ve watched ( which should be pretty much the same, give or take a few ). For the whole list, refer to the comments box / click on the comments link.

This is my list : ( not in any order of merit )

1) Road to Perdition ( Mendes )

2) Minority Report ( Spielberg )

3) One Fine Spring Day ( Jinho )

4) Infernal Affairs ( Keung Lau/Fai Mak )

5) Insomnia ( Nolan )

6) The Man who wasn’t there ( Coen brothers )

7) Spring Subway ( Yibai )

8 ) No Man’s Land ( Tanovic )

9)-

X)-

Can’t seem to find any enough films to top the ten slots…to do so would have been a little forced. Asian movies still has quite a stand with 2 Chinese shows and 1 Korean, plus a foreign movie. Excellent cinematography for Man who wasn’t there, and Minority Report certainly boasts the best art direction in any movie i’ve seen this year, at least the most impressionable for me. Over to you guys.

Running at 179 minutes, Lord of the Rings : The Two Towers is a long movie; but screentime is justly spend on the long and reasonably gritty battle at Helm’s Deep, although the Ents’ contemplation of an impending war with Saruman at Isengard was languid and unnecessary; nor was it in the original story. Discrepancies in the movie and book aside, I was particularly happy with Miranda Otto’s portrayal of Eowyn, handmaiden of Rohan and later part in the story, the only mortal capable of vanquishing the Nazgul, the 9 minions of Sauron. Imbued with zeal and energy, yet graceful and beautiful at the same time, she was the exact image of what would have been described in the book.

Undoubtably the best Hong Kong film I’ve watched in a long time, Infernal Affairs sees veteran actors Andy Lau and Tony Leung square off as opposite undercover agents both in the police and drug syndicate. Wasting little time in establishing the plotline seeing the both of them embarking on their incognito missions, the story jumps forward to the present day with each of them working ever more feverishly as they try to take each other out before any of their true identity is exposed. The battle that rages on is two-fold; the physical, tangible need to remain undiscovered while remaining useful to their original cause, and the internal, psychic wrestle to remain true to their identity and shrug off the embattled weariness. In the end, no one escapes unscathed and the victory that is claimed is not without a sinister twist of irony. I especially enjoyed the conundrum exchange of words and battle of wits between the two protanganist excellently played by Andy Lau and Tony Leung. A masterful piece not to be missed.