Epoy Deyto ( http://kawtskamote.blogspot.com/2011/03/500-film-challenge.html )

Queen Kinoc ( http://thequeenkinoc.wordpress.com )

Jay-r Trinidad ( http://targrod.wordpress.com )

Adrian Mendizabal ( http://www.auditoireonfilm.com/)

Wanna join? Send me a link to your blog via email at underthefiretree@gmail.com and follow the rules set on http://underthefiretree24.wordpress.com/2013/03/31/the-500-film-challenge-year-two/

Like us on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/The500FilmChallenge

I am currently suffering insomnia, so I’ve decided to update everyone about this year’s challenge.

The 500 Film Challenge – Year 2

Unfortunately, due to numerous incidents wherein I had lost my list of films (inducing much more writer’s block into my system… all I could do is sigh.), I decided not to finish Year 1. But that doesn’t mean we can’t do it again this year, right?

So if you’re one of the many few who’s seen this challenge and may have decided to do one for yourself, well thank you very much for joining. Here are new rules I have made for this year’s challenge.

1.)    I started this at exactly January 1, 2013. Since today’s the 29^th of March, you may still begin anytime soon. As long as you finish it exactly the same day you began a year later.

2.)    If you’re interested in joining and would want to gain popularity, notoriety, and bragging rights to being the first 500 Film Challenge winner, you must have the following: a stack of movies; an updated list of films which indicate if you’ve already written a review for it or not; your own website, blog, or Facebook Page (if you write your reviews in notes, whatsoever), kindly send me a link to it so I can share this to other challengers and/or readers of this blog; if you prefer writing your reviews for your school paper, or local newspaper, if you can send me a scanned version of your reviews then that would be great! Challengers may send me an email at underthefiretree@gmail.com

3.)    The challenge is 500 films, 500 reviews (or movie experiences, if you prefer treating it that way), in 1 year. Short films are allowed as long as they’re about thirty minutes long. It is important that you write a review for every film you’ve seen. Please indicate the date, the usual credits (doesn’t really matter if you put in all of the crew) and if it is a short film or a full length film.

4.)    You may squeeze in a list of reviews in one post. Just limit it to ten movies and up to 300 words per film.

5.)    Wouldn’t it be more challenging if you’ve created a full review? It’s fun, trust me. I would appreciate it if you’d be a sport and at least make sure that 80% of the film reviews are full.

6.)    If you own a blog or a website, you may also send me the number of views every time you’ve posted a new review. I’d be more than happy to share it to other challengers.

7.)    If you are interested in joining, you may send me an email at underthefiretree@gmail.com or you may also reply to this post.

8.)    I am still thinking of a way to reward the challenge winner. If you have suggestions, you may send me an email about it. I haven’t started a fundraiser for this yet so monetary prizes are not allowed. If you do have an idea of what the prize should be, send me an email about it. Be creative. Awkward and inappropriate suggestions will not be entertained.

Here’s looking forward to a better challenge year. Cheers to you all!

I have given you two stories. Which story do you prefer?

12 March 2013

#51: Life of Pi

Directed by Ang Lee

Starring Gautam Belur (Pi, age 6), Ayush Tandon (Pi, age 13), Suraj Sharma (Pi, age 16), Irrfan Khan as the adult Pi, Tabu (Gita Patel, Pi’s mother), Adil Hussain (Santosh Patel, Pi’s father), Ayan Khan (Ravi, Pi’s older brother age 7), Mohammed Abbas Khaleeli (Ravi, age 15), Vibish Sivakumar (Ravi, age 18), Gerard Depardieu (the Cook), Po-Chieh Wang (Sailor), Rafe Spall (Writer/Yann Martel), Shravanthi Sainath (Anandi), Andrea Di Stefano (Priest)

Screenplay by David Magee

Produced by Ang Lee, Gil Netter, David Womark

I have never read the book but as I saw its title on the bestseller’s list when I was twelve, I thought it was about a man who was named after Pi, the mathematical symbol and thought it was a book about that. After a great interest in this year’s Oscar list (in which I notice all of them are about two hours long), I found myself immersed in this film’s trailer alone, wondering what the experience was to watch this, and then catch up with the book afterwards.

It is one of the greatest cinematic experiences I’ve ever enjoyed in years. The film begins as a writer played by Rafe Spall (One Day, Prometheus) visits Pi Patel after being referred to him by his uncle to tell him of the incredible story of his life. At this point, Pi is played by Irrfan Khan (New York, I Love You) as an adult. He looks at the writer with doubt but proceeds with telling him the story of his youth.

Piscine Molitor Patel was apparently named after a famous French swimming pool in which his uncle considers to be the cleanliest swimming pool he’s ever been on. But as he grows up in the French district of India, he changes his name to “Pi” after being teased as “Pissing Pi” and automatically becomes a school legend after he explains to everyone in school how his name is related to the mathematical symbol and jots down the entire meaning of the symbol in its numerical order during his first day in Math Class.

His family used to own a zoo, as he tells the writer his fondness for animals. One particular animal has caught his interest, a bengal tiger named Richard Parker. As he attempts to see the tiger eye to eye by handing him a piece of meat with his bare hands, his father runs in angrily telling him that animals are unreasonable beings. “They have no soul and they do not think like we do.” By proving his point, his father an ever reasonable man brings in a goat, ties it on Richard Parker’s cage and within a few minutes Pi and his brother along with their mother witness the tiger devouring goat. He was born a Hindu, but he is also a Catholic and a Muslim. He explains to the writer that “You never know your God until you are introduced to Him.” And that all he’s ever really wanted to do was to love God and to understand him in all three. His faith in God plays a vital role in the story.

Soon his father decides the family must move to Canada since the family business can no longer flourish in India, they set off for Winnipeg, Canada on the ship called Tzimtzum, a Japanese Freight ship along with all their owned animals. The only noted scene where Gerard Depardieu appears is when the family gets their meal. Since they are all vegetarians, Pi’s mother requests to get a vegetarian meal but the cook (Depardieu) continuously prepares rice/porridge, sausages, with gravy and garnish on top. Pi’s father takes rage on the cook insisting that they be given proper food. But the cook reminds them that he cooks for sailors, not zoo owners. Thus the entire family feed on rice and gravy on top. Later on while the whole family is asleep, Pi wakes up to a noise he hears from outside. He tries to awaken his brother but he refuses to wake up. He steps out of their cabin and sees that there is a storm outside. Several of their animals are released, two Toucans and a struggling zebra among others. He admires the storm, watching the marvelous waves struck against each other. Up until he witnesses one of the crew members fall into the ocean and half of the ship being devoured completely by the ocean. His instincts tell him to rescue his family, in which he attempts to do. He goes back into the cabin and we are sent into a 3D masterpiece of including the usual setting when one gets into the water, where all sound is mute and desolate. I admired this part, because although I didn’t see this on 3D, I felt Pi’s panic when he jumped into the water to attempt to rescue his family. Though he searched deep into the ship, he was not able to find them. He swims back out, still in search of his family, but he is immediately taken by a crew member to take the lifeboat. A panicked Zebra jumps into the Lifeboat and the cook and Pi falls into the water.  But Pi swims back up and gets into the lifeboat.

After the storm he finds himself in the lifeboat with an injured zebra, and riding on a net filled with bananas is an orangutan they named Orange Juice. Pi asks Orange Juice where her baby is but the orangutan just gives him a smug. Out of the blue a spotted hyena emerges from beneath the lifeboat’s tarp and taunts Pi. Pi swings the boar at the hyena but it spots the injured Zebra. With all the occupants of the lifeboat starving from seasickness, the hyena attacks the Zebra and then later on attacks Orange Juice which immediately rages Pi. Suddenly the tiger Richard Parker emerges from the tarp and attacks the hyena. Pi immediately thinks he might be next and so he swings the boar at the tiger. Richard Parker takes his swing at Pi and throws him off the boat. The next few scenes I won’t reveal but all I can say is that the only animal left is the tiger.

He adopts several survival plans, attempts to outwit Richard Parker but fails, and oftentimes succeeds. A scene in which they finally share the boat is remarkable, both cinematic and story-wise.

I have found myself asking if it is possible for a man and an animal to communicate in this way. The relationship between two survivors are evident: they have to stick with each other so they can both survive. When Pi attempts to steal the boat from Richard Parker after hunting for fishes, he suddenly finds himself caught in a situation on whether to trust his instincts or to stick with his conscience. This animal did somehow save his life earlier. And so they both stick with each other, even after discovering a floating island that literally gives meaning to the term Virgin Island. On their 227th day of being shipwrecked, they land in Mexico where they both part ways, almost half dead.

But what Pi couldn’t understand, and even us the audience could not understand at this final moment between the two is when Richard Parker walks, away from the boat, without even looking back at Pi, but stops before he jumps into the jungle. He stops for a moment, and you would expect him to look back, but he doesn’t. Pi tells the writer how devastated he is when Richard Parker just left him there by the shore. When he is rescued by the villagers, he cries out loud, not because of hunger, but because of the pain this tiger has left him.

Yet another heartbreaking part of this story is added, when Japanese investigators visit him in the hospital for the ship’s insurance. Since he is the only living survivor of the ship, he is asked of how the ship sank and how he survived. But as he tells them of the story which includes the animals, his family sleeping in their cabins, lost away into the depths of the sea, none of them believes this. And so, Pi makes up a story, a less fantastic account of sharing the lifeboat with his mother, a Buddhist sailor with a broken leg, and the cook. The cook kills the sailor in order to eat him and use him as bait. His mother later struggles with the cook and pushes him to a smaller raft and the cook stabs her and she falls overboard. He returns to the lifeboat and kills the cook. The writer notices the comparison between two stories: Pi’s mother is the orangutan, the cook is the hyena, the zebra was the sailor, and Richard Parker the tiger was Pi himself. Pi asks the writer which story he prefers, with doubt and cynicism one would chose the second, but the writer attempts to mask his doubt and tells Pi that he prefers the story with the tiger in it because “it is a better story”. Pi grins back at him to which he responds “And so it goes with God.” The writer asks if he doesn’t mind that he use that story, Pi tells him that the story is his, it’s up to him to do whatever with it. As the writer glances back at the insurance report and sees that they have written in their report that Pi survived with an adult Bengal Tiger for 227 days.

Suraj Sharma’s performance as the 16-17 year old Pi Patel is remarkable, especially in parts wherein he had to react with the tiger. I haven’t seen any of his works yet but his performance is astonishing, one must look forward to the part in which he weeps upon killing a fish, and although he is supposedly hungry and tired, him making up the second story while weeping in parts that needs weeping to is just impressive.

It was perhaps a good decision to adapt the film into mostly 3D effects to capture that poetic, and epic masterpiece in which most scenes had to be shot in water. I must read the book to get some facts straightened up. A must-see movie for fans of the book, for those who like Action and Adventure, and for those who plan to go back to their faith in God.

(LATE POST)

This has its satisfying moments and unsurprising twists.

The three ghosts are somewhat stuck in limbo, thinking that they might be at a state of fulfilling a final purpose before they are taken away by Ate Shawie which seems to be a symbolism of another realm. They go into a journey of “visiting” the ones they’ve left. Along their journey they meet three college friends who are into anything recently considered popular and conjure into the usual problems involving family, friends, love and whathaveyou.

This dark comedy nearly sticks to the direct translation of it’s title.

Been here last night. I’ve been invited here before but due to the location of the venues (last year I think it was at B-Side in Makati) I never went. But thankfully, since I now live in Quezon City I had no other reason not to go. And so I went alone and took the pedicab from home to Freedom Bar. The event, which is organized by the University of the Philippines Cineaste Studios, the country’s first film related organization.

I was looking forward to the silent film competition called “Haute Auteur Silent Video Competition 2013″ and last night was when the winner for the said competition was announced.

Apparently since I had somewhere else to go by 11pm I left at 9:30 but was satisfied with what I saw among the finalist in the Silent Video competition.

One of my favorites would have to be Ramon Raquid’s Figures which features a guy brushing his teeth but this would appear as “figures” due to the Solarized format of the  video.

I had one free beer and saw a long time friend along with her boyfriend who was one of the finalists. I wasn’t able to meet Radioactive Sago Project but I was satisfied that I went and at least try to enjoy every bit of ht show.

Good luck to all finalists.

Directed by Richard V Somes

Starring Erich Gonzales, Maria Isabel Lopez, Mark Gil, John Lapuz, Joel Torre, Alfred Vargas, Odette Khan, Dennis Padilla

Story by Richard Somes, Screenplay by Somes, Boo Dabu, and Jimmy Flores

I have never seen Erich Gonzales in an indie role before. Nor have I ever imagined her being as feisty as her role in Mariposa sa Hawla ng Gabi. If there ever was, you are free to remind me or let me know of it. We all remember her as that girl who won the star search, that girl from Davao who won household hearts with her roles in local telenovelas and movies with leading men and storylines that are a bit risqué but with the help of the studio she is in contract with it becomes your typical “tweetums” flick. She’s your typical image of sweetness.

But in Mariposa, we see a different side of her acting prowess as she takes the lead as Maya, a simple but feisty young woman from the slums of a province who goes to Manila in search of her older sister. She receives a telegraph from a woman whom her sister lives with, played by Maria Isabel Lopez. With a little hint from a calendar Maya looks at, the year is 1994. There is nothing much in the set design that would contradict that we are in the early nineties, her outfits are mostly boyish flannel shirts and jeans and Chuck Taylors.

As she arrives in Manila, posters of a young woman endorsing soap is everywhere. Is she her older sister? Or does she just look familiar? Maya looks at the poster but doesn’t say anything. This may or may not lead us to think of the two but that I cannot tell and I guess you’d have to see the movie yourself. At the bus station she meets the Maria Isabel Lopez character. She asks about her sister but only gets a bad feeling that something has indeed happened. She asks the irritating question of “Asan ang ate ko? Anong nangyari sa kanya?” / “Where’s my sister? What’s happened to her?” I guess more than once… but she doesn’t get a reply. We the audience are left to believe that there is something in store for this story. And we are about to get a brief answer.

Maya is brought to the morgue to see her sister’s dead body, but since she doesn’t have enough money to claim the body, she decides to avenge her sister’s death and make the people responsible pay. She starts off by looking for her sister’s ex-boyfriend played by Alfred Vargas. He accompanies her in tracking down the people who killed her sister. Turns out the bad guys work with the police so turning them in would be difficult, but that event never happens anyway. The leader of the bad guys is played by Mark Gil whose bittersweet romance with his ex-girlfriend turns into a sick business of kidnapping girls and changing their faces to match that of his idea of the “perfect girl”. He’s also into monkey business which you’d have to watch to film first to understand what it is. The addition of that into the story is something I find bewildering. The early action scenes were exciting to watch although you’d get to see a different woman’s hair being pulled instead of Erich’s (her voice gave it away, I guess. It was so funny to watch rather than exciting) but as the story continued to progress, so did the enthusiasm I had earlier to continue watching the film. Figuring out whatever symbolism or meanings there were in each scenes, I’d say it fell flat as there was that need of a back story to back up the part where they all go back to their lives like nothing happened. They just had to finish it off by finishing it off the way movies do—- killing the bad guys and walking out.

It’s still a good film you should consider watching. But proceed without any expectations of the type of action films you’re hoping to look forward to.

In case you’d want to challenge yourself and join, you may simply email me at underthefiretree@gmail.com.

#1. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (1 January)

- I’m happy I missed this for the world.. If it weren’t for sheer curiosity, I wouldn’t watch it. I may have made a quick review for this.

#2. Dr. No (2 January)

- I had to watch this, knowing that this is where James Bond first premiered. I got frustrated at Ursula Andres’ hair. But it’s a good spy film to catch. Especially if you’re into anything vintage and vintage James Bond played by the immortal Sir Sean Connery.

#3. The Legend of Zorro (3 January)

- I was entertained. You can let the whole family watch this with you as a sequel to the first, aptly titled Mask of Zorro.

#4. The Truth About Cats and Dogs (6 January)

- I’m still finishing a full review on this. I am equally enthralled to find Janeane Garofalo in a lead role, especially with charming young Ben Chaplin. I was surprised to actually continually hate Uma Thurman and then accept and love her after watching this. I’ll post the review soon. I promise.

#5. Bandidas (6 January)

- a film by Norwegian directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, shot in a picturesque western featuring two equally beautiful and talented actors Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz along with the ever adorable Steve Zahn as their unexpected leading man. It’s a great comedy including witty antics and dialogue. Written and produced by Luc Besson.

#6. Rebel Without A Cause (6 January)

- a classic film of rebellion of the American youth set in the 1950s and is one of three films James Dean has ever starred in before his tragic death in 1955. I’ll be having a full review for this.

#7. New York, I Love You (7 January)

- several short films combined to culminate their love for one of the most exciting cities in the world. A sequel of sorts to Paris, Je’ taime and is the second film in the Cities of Love franchise. 11 short films each with a different director including Natalie Portman and Mira Nair. My favorite would have to be the one about method actors, and the little stint about strangers between Chris Cooper and Robin Wright.

#8. Reality Bites (7 January)

- you may die if you were born after 1994. Or if you haven’t seen this yet, you must see it before anything else happens to you.

#9. Senna (7 January)

- this british documentary film depicts the brief life of Brazilian 3 time motor-racing champion Ayrton Senna. With breathtaking clips including during his races through the cameras on the cars he drove.

#10. Like Crazy (8 January)

- a story about a long distance relationship between an exchange student from the UK played by Felicity Jones (Hysteria) and american student Anton Yelchin. Heartbreaking and disfunctional.

#11. Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos / Three Years Without God (11 January)

- Mario O’ Hara’s epic psychological drama during the Japanese occupation. Featuring performances from Christopher de Leon, Nora Aunor, and Bembol Rocco.

#12. Giant (9 January)

- haven’t finish this. yet

#13. Rock Star (10 January)

- classic Jennifer Aniston and Mark Wahlberg where he sings his heart out and fakes a british accent. He used to do a cover band for a popular rock and roll band and when he is suddenly discovered by the band’s lead guitarist. He is catapulted into fame for successfully belting out the same old songs, almost even better than the guy he replaced. But after realizing that he’s just a cover singer and not much of his talent can be taken into by the band, he walks out and hands his microphone to a fan and never returns back.

Directed by Martin Campbell

Starring Antonio Banderas, Catherine Zeta – Jones, Rufus Sewell

Screenplay by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman

03 January 2013

I was actually fifteen when this was released (2005) and had no idea a sequel was made. But thanks to reruns on cable I was able to watch it. I was eight years old when The Mask of Zorro but I still did not manage to watch it back then and now. My parents didn’t have time. I didn’t think I’d enjoy it now, but I did.

You can check the entire plot on wikipedia.org (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zorro).

Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones reprise their lead roles. Rufus Sewell plays the villain, Count Armand, who surprisingly pulls of a great mexican-infused accent. Adorable then-child star Adrian Alonso plays Joaquin De La Vega. It’s a great family friendly film. Banderas and Zeta-Jones look like they were made for each other in this film.

I haven’t seen the first two films but I have an idea what they’re like thanks to the number of  YouTube spoofs and Pop culture references to Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton. And quite thankfully this film has a bit of help in reminding us (and Claire Danes’ character) of who the Connors are and the resistance. But watching this one alone doesn’t help much.

It’s definitely a macho film. So macho in fact that it has been  trying to fight the times and relate to it’s perspective new audiences. The original fans are still there, sure. I remember a friend a couple of years ago even telling me the Terminator’s (T-850 Arnold Schwarzenegger) most famous lines thinking I wasn’t born yet in 1997 (although I already was) and showing me more YouTube videos of him being mashed up along with Arnold’s other films.

Directed by Jonathan Mostow

Screenplay by John Brancato and Michael Ferris

Based on characters by James Cameron and Gale Ann Hurd

Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes, and Kristanna Loken

The film begins with an explanation of past events. John Connor (Stahl) has been living off-grid in Los Angeles. According to Wikipedia,

Following the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, John Connor (Nick Stahl) has been living off-the-grid in Los Angeles. Although Judgment Day did not occur on August 29, 1997, the date given by the Terminator in the previous film, John does not believe that the prophesied war between humans and Skynet has been averted. Unable to locate John, Skynet sends a new model of Terminator, the T-X (Kristanna Loken), back in time to July 24, 2004 to kill his future lieutenants in the human Resistance. A more advanced model than previous Terminators, the T-X has an endoskeleton with built-in weaponry, a liquid metal exterior similar to the T-1000, and the ability to control other machines. The Resistance sends a reprogrammed T-850 model 101 Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) back in time to protect the T-X’s targets, including Kate Brewster(Claire Danes) and John.

So, with that valuable information at hand, everything now seems so clear to me as I recall the film. Claire Danes is an effective actress who plays out the panicked daughter of a Lieutenant responsible for the creation of Skynet. Like us she has no idea what is happening and asks most of the questions for me, I mean for us. More surprisingly, Schwarzenegger’s reprise as the reprogrammed Terminator fits well, and all the dead-pan humor you would expect from his previous versions still remains intact, if not, well mastered. The part where he says “Talk to the hand” would be one of my favorites, as well as the part where his system has been corrupted by the T-X in which he decides to shut down himself… His performance is really good.

Not bad for the intimidating T-X played by Kristanna Loken. As the Claire Danes’ character says it, “just die you bitch!” but she just doesn’t.

Although the plot has carefully played its cards in building up the suspense for this much-awaited box office hit of 2003, I’d have to watch the first two to make a clear judgment. If I’d ever be ask to give out stars, I’d give this a 2 out of five great stars.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 7,600 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 13 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

For my last post for the last day of the year, I’d like to say (or write or type) a few words…

I’d like to thank you for viewing this post or for any of my posts. This year or the year before. Thank you for the honest and unspammable comments. I’d like to apologize for almost not keeping up with the posts. I will try to make ammends next year and attempt to keep up with the posts.

As you know by now, I love movies. I will continue writing about it, continue watching films, and continue understanding this art that has been handed down to us since the Lumiere brothers. In line with this, I will begin the new 500 film challenge which will start… in a few minutes. Will attempt to give an up to date review of my experience in each film. The challenge rules have been changed (by me, of course) and will post the new challenge tomorrow.

Well, I won’t spoil your new years eve by letting you stay on your seats. Go and enjoy this night. And thank you for staying tuned. Mwah!

Princess/Under The Fire Tree