Happy New Year!!!

Or is the Korean new year different from the Chinese and Vietnamese?

I received a "good luck" gift from a Vietnamese gentleman at work. It was a <MegaMillions Lottery ticket>. The drawing was held about an hour ago, so I am waiting for the results.

Thanks for your valuable posting on my forum. Sorry for my late reply. I was busy formatting my laptop and reinstalling Windows XP for the last couple days. Well, I don't think I like Bill Gates that much.

I have to say that I'm not a big fan of <Korean Pop Music> - I hardly listen to them. But I absolutely agree with you, they have been copycatting American ones like crazy, especially during the last decade. Korean Pop in 80-90's were really good though.. I miss those old days.

Of course, there are decent ones on these days too, but it's kinda hard to find these small gemstones among those sand of <Americanised beach>. My pick for you would be Dong-Ryul Kim, if you heard of him? (Although I wouldn't call this as "Pop.") Don't even mention about Big Bang or whatsoever, their song doesn't sound like a music to me..

I'm not that into Korean horror films either, but I've seen the movie <Sisters> a few years ago. It was impressive - they managed to use <colours> in such a creative and effective way.

Speaking of movies, did you see the film "das Leben der Anderen?" It is a German one and the English title is "The Lives of Others." I've watched 2000+ movies so far, but this tops the most of them. It just got through my <Top 5 Movies> all at once! If you haven't seen it yet, don't miss this one.

I feel like talking more, but I'm getting sleepy. I will write soon about my opinions on Korean traditional culture and tourism, etc. ;)

Happy New Year, btw!

Undoubtedly the greatest film ever made IMO

That's right.

That's right. Just try it.

The good news is that <Chessgames.com> just happily took 47 dollars of my Mom's credit card money for <two years more> of me being an incredible burden on thier posting guidelines monitors.

All is forgiven!! Ha!

I love <Chessgames.com> for so many resons.

But I have to say one of the biggest reasons is their willingness to do any kind of credit card transaction without checking.

It makes things so much easier for the consumer!!

Well I tried to buy a plane ticket from <Air Canada> with my Mom's credit card and their <fully automated with no humans> Ultra secure system is so <secure> that it proved <impossible> to do the transaction online.

Now that's good security for a business that loses 70 billion dollars per year.

When your security prevents your customer from buying your product, you company is <very secure>.

And <very stupid> as well.

The most ironic part is that <Air Canada> used to be a Crown Corporation but is now run by an <ultra efficient German Corporation> that not only has lost MORE MONEY PER YEAR than the Canadian Goverment ever did, and DOESN'T SEEM TO WANT MY MONEY EITHER.

Could take a while.

I said penalty.>

I'm not so sure about that <JFQ>. I have had that debate with myself for a long time, and FFDM always seems to come out on top. I seem to enjoy watching it more anyway.

GBU has a massively bigger budget and an abundance of locations (did you know they blew the bridge up in it twice, the first time none of the cameras were recording! haha) but the story is just about money and lacks that personal quality the other two films have.

The thing that I always end up asking myself with GBU is why don't they just share the money in the end, instead of having a shoot out?

This isn't as silly as it sounds, because the 'bad guy' Angel Eyes originally has a whole crew going after the money with him, but they all get killed leaving just him. So even if they split the money 3 ways in the end, Angel Eyes would actually be getting more than if his posse of men had survived and got the loot with him anyway!

On any given day though, the original Fist Full of Dollars may just get my vote over both of them.

Incorrect!

FFD is a remake of a Japanese film, as is FFDM.

OUTITW, by the same director/music guy, with Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson, and OUTIA with Bob De Niro and James Woods, also by

<Leone- Morricone>

Are also works of genius.

The two together just can't miss.

However-- the cinematography/sound combination in the <tuco running through the graveyard> and the <final bullfight/gunfight scene> are better- alone-- than all of the work in all of the other films combined.

If you don't understand why-- it means you will recieve the penalty.

Hey- it's out of my hands.

I didn't invent the penalty.

You will get it soon though, unless you sign a document agreeing with my "analysis" of this important question.

(I quote it at the end of every argument)

<Tuco>: "What do you know? You can't even read!"

<ER> and <Third Watch>.

<Third Watch> is so, so very much stronger that I can't even imagine it.

It's true though.

Anyone who thinks differently will face "the penalty".

Yea I know, only Yojimbow or whatever it is called has never left much of an impression on me.

<OUTITW, by the same director/music guy,>

Yes, that has great music, an even bigger budget than GBU but fails to score big points with me. It just seems to be directed by formula at this stage and is too heavy handed in its attempts to lead the audience emotionally.

For example, where the McBain family is killed in the beginning with all their food outside on the tables, its too contrived. Compare that to the scene where Angel Eyes pays a family a visit in GBU at meal time, much more authentic IMO.

Personally I think Leone is a great director of men, but not women. In the Fistful of dollars trilogy women are very stereotypical wives/mothers/whores etc but basically 2-dimensional. Male-female relations are essentially left untouched in the films, and while that could be seen as a negative in my view it just concentrates the action more. (If I want to watch Pride and Prejudice I can just put it on)

Now in OUTITW Leone has to try and portray a very strong female character, Jill, and that poor woman has to deal with a LOT in the film. Too much I think, to maintain any authenticity of circumstance or emotion for me. Added to that she has some very awkward lines, and on top of all this she has to be a sex symbol too!?

Maybe another actress could have carried it off, but the Jill character,aside from being nice to look at, really spoils the whole thing for me. Maybe if Leone had had more experience with stronger, more complex female characters before, he could have pulled it off, but I don't think he does here.

<However-- the cinematography/sound combination in the <tuco running through the graveyard> and the <final bullfight/gunfight scene> are better- alone-- than all of the work in all of the other films combined.>

These are great scenes in themselves, and they are so powerful because they are among the few scenes which Leone and Morricone worked on together from the beginning. The music and action were planned out together and this shows, whereas before Morricone was just writing a catch all score once the action had been finalized.

<If you don't understand why-- it means you will recieve the penalty.>

I agree these scenes are cinematically superior to anything in the other films, but that does not mean GBU is necessarily the superior film when looked at as a whole.

Guess I will just have to take that penalty.

Do I get dropped into a vat of gunk like in Noel's House Party?

haha

"Growing old gracefully" is not an American habit.

The best westerns don't even have females as extras.

In the American West, recent census figures reveal that there were in fact <zero> women living West of Manhattan until 1910.

Film should respect this reality.

Or, the producers should be forced to read and re-read Hemingway's <Men Without Women> with toothpicks holding their eyes open.

You could be right.

<Cat Ballou = very good movie>

I haven't had the pleasure, but I will try anything once.

<The best westerns don't even have females as extras.>

haha

That is an interesting point <JFQ>, it may even be an extension of my own theory that the best westerns do not have John Wayne in them.

hehe

Any of you seen <Slumdog Millionaire>?

I saw it via Pirate Torrenting (seems I'm hooked on it atm) - but wasn't that impressed, as I was led to be going by the rave reviews and all the Oscar nominations... <The Wrestler> starring M. Rourke, is also a contender, I read... Still have to watch that one. I bin so busy I hardly had time to watch. (well, I downloaded 12 block busters: Tropic Storm, Body Of Lies, The Reader, Doubt, Into The Wild, Recount... All highly recommended,)

<Jess> I did have a look at the K-K 1986 endgame you posted at my place, prolly about two weeks late, but alas, THAT NEVER SYOPPED ME BEFORE -- and I had fun doing it -- as it indeed "wasn't all that easy," to convert it. Flawless executing i mean; there are several traps and counterplay to deal with and some fancy Knight maneuvering... It's still on the last page of kibitzing at my place.

Oh yes, and <crawl from f- to b8> also posted on it.

BTW I heard 'Randy The Ram' will be having a match at Wrestlemania this year as well!

Randy the Ram at wrestlemania!? I hope it gets to youtube.

Now then the serious talk about westerns. there is a movie "once upon a time in the west" which only makes since to closet freudians as it has to do with the integration of the id, ego, superego... charles bronsen plays the id and keeps slipping in and out not saying a word...they represent the lady protagonist's psyche...and the awesome first scene with the fly has nothing to do with the rest of the movie....no waitaminit...maybe the fly is freudian too like Pippin in the lord of the rings instigating change by being a pestering annoyance...hmmmmmmmm

PS coming from a long line of cowboys, gennerally a completely psycho ethnic group that I try to avoid as much as possible...JUST AN OPINION...brokeback mountain was the perfect cowboy movie if you ask me...cowboys were mean, terse, self oppressed...just like all the cowboys I know and fear!!!

Ps I just saw Alfie the old one from '66 it is quite a movie. couldn't be made today i say with the consequences of abortion...although jude law remade it but I know they prettied it up. It was a trip with alfie at first loveable flirt but as the movie goes on he gets crueller and crueler... plus it features a "silly bar fight" scene...you can have one of those in near every movie, eh? or special star trek episodes like "the trouble with tribbles"

blah blah blah have a nice day lovely jess and woody and open red forum defence

Is there still a thing as <original screenplay writing>? Or are we seeing only <adaptations>??

Beats me, but it would be an easy experiment to check up on all the releases over the last 6 months or so...

Is there possibly a lack of creative minds and storytellers?

I'm not in a position to judge, but it seems to me we're in a relative dry spell.

One of Holland's greatest ever writers, Harry Mulisch, said similar things about literature, writer's lack of original storytelling.