Cecilie Gamst Berg's BLONDE LOTUS

Day 15, Film 15

This is a short film about the novel BLONDE LOTUS, which was penned by Cecilie Gamst Berg, one of the most original and interesting people in Hong Kong and a terrific blogger (China Droll). I read this novel and enjoyed it very much. It is heartfelt and gushing with emotion.

This film was shot in Chungking Mansion, where parts of the book take place.
It is my thank-you to Cecilie Gamst Berg for encouraging people in Hong Kong and elsewhere to learn Cantonese. Check out her excellent Cantocourse series on Youtube.

As for my own quest to learn Cantonese, my tones are bad, I talk like a three-year-old, and I often butcher the language, but learning a language, by definition, means making mistakes. And as a student of Cantonese and other languages, I have to say Cantonese is so very beautiful, elegant, and logical. It's without doubt, the most fun language I've ever studied.

Learning Cantonese and chatting with local people in my broken Cantonese has been such a source of joy for me. My life in Hong Kong would be so much duller without this gift.

So, Cecilie. Doje leih. You rock!!





Enjoy!!!

A BUG'S LIFE (a review of LAS CUCARACHAS)

The Following is a review of my second novel LAS CUCARACHAS from the FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW (Sept. 9, 2004)

Please click on the scanned document to enlarge it for reading on a new screen.






Here is another review in Japanese of my novel BOY GENIUS and a reading I did at the Calabash International Literary Festival in Jamaica.

from Mighty Mules' Bookstore Home



カラバッシュ・フェスティバル2004　レポート（最終日）

　とうとう最終日。朝10時から「Akashic Books Presents」というセッションがスタート。前々から楽しみにしていたニーナ・レヴォイラはじめ、韓国系アメリカ人のヨンゴス・パークの朗読が印象的だった。　まず第一にレヴォイラは日系アメリカ人で「Necessary Hunger」「Southland」と続けて日系をテーマにした作品を書いている。

彼女自身の生まれ育ったロスのクレンショーに対する愛情、思いは作家として成功した今もなぜ彼女をつかんではなさないのか非常に興味があったし、日系アメリカ人の作家がカラバッシュに参加していることも同じ日本の血を分かつ者として誇らしかった。ヨンゴス・パークも同様。話し方、身のこなしは完璧なニューヨーカーだが、実はわたし、彼がステージに上がるまでずっと日本人オーディエンスの一人だと思っていた。（笑）アジア系が二人もカリブの文学祭に出ているとはとても嬉しい。と同時にカラバッシュのコンセプトに広がりを感じたのもこの時である。年を重ねるごとに出演者の国籍、バックグラウンドが多様になっているこの文学祭だが、ジャマイカ人アーチストを除けばそのほとんどが移民／ディアスポラの作家。これは何かの偶然だろうか。

　まずは韓国系アメリカ人ヨンゴス・パーク Yongsoo Parkの朗読から。

彼は2001年の作品 「Boy Genius」と新作「Las Cucarachas」を披露。どちらも8才から12才の韓国系少年を主人公にしているので、「たぶんオレがまだ子供だからかな？」と冗談を言いつつ、自らも7歳のときＮＹへ移住し、それまでの韓国時代の経験とアメリカでの生活がどのように作品に投影されているかについて触れる。意外にも今回のカラバッシュで作品の背景や作家自らのことを話して朗読に入ったのはパークだけだったので、30分という持ち時間の使い方がうまいなと思った。フェスティバルに来ている人の中から「ずっと朗読を聞くのはちょっと退屈」という声もチラホラ聞いていたので、自分の経験をプロのスタンダップ・コメディアン並に笑わせながら話すパークのイントロや流れ作りは際立っていた。そして作者と作品の関連性を聞けた分、オーディエンスもより朗読される内容に関心が高まったことは言うまでもない。

実際「Boy Genius」も「Las Cucarachas」も頭のよい少年が少し過激とも思える行動をとったり、調子のよいくらいに自分の立場をコロコロ変えるので「まったくもう。。。」と失笑させられるのだが、前者では国がスポンサーとしてついているテレビ番組で天才として持ち上げられているボーイ・ジーニアスがアメリカの影響力色濃い韓国でいかにサバイバルしていくかという真摯なテーマを扱っているところが素晴らしい。韓国と日本。全く状況は違うだろうが共感できる部分はとても多かった。丁度第二次大戦後の日本社会といった感じ。そして新作「Las Cucarachas」は舞台をアメリカのＮＹに移し、主人公ピーター・キムが韓国系移民として人種・貧困の問題が残るプロジェクトでいかに戦っていくかをブラックユーモアを交えて描かれている。

　どちらも作者パーク自身の経験や思いが100％そのまま書かれているとは思わないが、両作品に通じるプロットも多く、彼自身のバックグラウンドや年代の重なりを考慮してもパークと主人公達につながりがあることは間違いないだろう。韓国では「アメリカ万歳！」と国に見離されたボーイ・ジーニアスが極端なアメリカ支持者になり、在留軍人につきまといながらいろんな品物（タバコ、チョコレートなど）や人脈を手に入れていく。そして実際アメリカに移ったピーター・キムは「ブルジョアなんて嘘くせぇ！」とでも言わんばかりに、韓国で知った「アメリカ」と「実際のアメリカ」の違いに激していくのだ。

　作者パークは気のきいた笑いでプロのコメディアンかと見まごうような才能のほとばしりをみせたが、今後の楽しみなアーチストとなる。今回読んだ作品はどちらも日本で人気のでそうな予感。



Here is a rough translation from the web:


カラバッシュ festival 2004 report (last day)

　Finally last day. Morning the session, "Akashic Books Presents" starts from 10 o'clock. The ニーナ レヴォイラ beginning and the recitation of the ヨンゴス park of the Korean type American which beforehand have been enjoyed were impressive. First レヴォイラ continuing with "Necessary Hunger" "Southland" with the Japanese-American, has written the work which designates Nikkei as theme.

As for love and the thinking for クレンショー of the loss where she herself grows why grasping her who succeeds as a writer even now, whether you do not release there was an interest very it was proud and, the writer of the Japanese-American participating in カラバッシュ the same Japanese blood as an amount and a person.

Also the ヨンゴス park is similar. Way of talking, without the body saw it is the perfect New Yorker, but until to tell the truth you transfer, he rises to stage, you thought that directly it is the one of the Japanese audiences. (Laughing) the Asian system as many as two has appeared in the Caribbean literature festival with very is delightful. With also what the extent is felt simultaneously in concept of カラバッシュ is this time. Whenever year is repeated, nationality of the performer, the background becomes various it is this literature festival where, but if you exclude the Jamaican human artist, most the writer of immigration/ディアスポラ. Is this something probably accidental?

　First from recitation of the Korean type American ヨンゴス park Yongsoo Park.
As for him work 2001 "Boy Genius"With new work"Las Cucarachas"It announces. Because both from 8 years old has designated the Korean type boy of 12 years old as the protagonist, therefore "perhaps I still the child, kana? While "with saying joke, also the self at the time of 7 years old immigrates to NY, concerning Korean age and the life in America how are projected to the work to experience of that, it comments.

Speaking the background of the work and the thing individual of the writer even unexpectedly with latest カラバッシュ, because those where it enters into recitation were just the park, method of using the time limit, 30 minutes is good, you thought that is. Because "that directly recitation is heard, it had heard also the voice, just a little boredom" sporadically from midst of the person who has come to the festival, your own experience amuse in like the stand-up comedian of the professional, introduction and the flow making of the park which you speak had been prominent.

And the amount which can inquire about the connection of the writer and the work, from the audience until you say, interest has not increased in the contents which are recited. Actually "Boy Genius" also the action which the boy where "Las Cucarachas" the head is good can think also radical a little is taken, being the roller roller to change his own standpoint in the extent whose condition is good "completely another. . . "

With you can laugh, but the place where the true 摯 theme is handled with former the country with the television program which has been attached as the sponsor boy ジーニアス which is raised as the genius keeps doing how the survival in the American influence color dense Korea, is splendid. Korea and Japan. Completely, circumstance probably will be different, but as for the part which you can sympathize it was very many. The feeling such as the Japanese society of after the second next great war exactly. Mixing black and new work "Las Cucarachas" moves the stage to American NY, protagonist Peter キム how keeps fighting with the project where problem of race poverty remains as the Korean type immigration, humor, it is drawn.

　Neither writer park itself experience and the thinking think 100% are written with that way, but as for plotting which leads to both works being many, considering his himself background and the pile of age, it being being connected in the park and the protagonist you probably will not be wrong. In Korea "the American hurray! "With you see in the country and you become the American supporter whose boy ジーニアス which is separated is extreme, while hang on in the residency soldier, the various article (the tobacco and the chocolate etc.) and you keep obtaining connections. And as for Peter キム which really moved to America "the bourgeoise how lie habit ぇ! "With with as if to say, you knew in Korea, it keeps encouraging in the difference" of America "and" actual America ".

　As for the writer park whether with the laughing where the air is effective the professional comedian you saw and you showed the gushing out of the talent the ま う way, but you become the future pleasantly everyone artist. Both work which this time was read so, being popularity in Japan, foreboding.




Please help get my novels BOY GENIUS and LAS CUCARACHAS into the Hong Kong public library by filling out an on-line request. You can do so by clicking on the prompt on the upper right corner of this blog. Thank you.

The Korean Wave and Women in Hong Kong, Singapore, & Japan

I've already written about how the typical Hong Kong Chinese response upon learning that I am Korean is to smile and shout, "Daaih Chuuhng Gam!"

This is, in its own way, a manifestation of the "Korean Wave," the term used to describe the proliferation of popular culture (pop songs, movies, TV shows) from South Korea to the rest of Asia in the past decade. For the Chinese-dominant part of Asia, the embodiment of this Korean Wave is "Daaih Chuuhng Gam" aka JEWEL IN THE PALACE (2003). For Japan, it is the TV soap WINTER SONATA (2003).

Indeed, the Korean Wave has been such a big phenomenon that it has already elicited its share of backlash in China, Japan, and Taiwan, in the form of published tirades, netizen attacks, rants from jingoist politicians, and even some local performers publicly lashing out against their South Korean counterparts. Chang Zhen-yue, a Taiwanese rapper, even has a song that excoriates Bae Yong Joon (the star of WINTER SONATA) and Korean boy bands.

I have just read a book called EAST ASIAN POP CULTURE: Analysing the Korean Wave (2008) edited by Chua Beng Huat and Koichi Iwabuchi. It is a collection of academic essays regarding the phenomenon approached from various academic angles.

Here are some interesting tidbits:

1)a) An essay that examines views of women viewers of Korean soaps in HK and Singapore revealed that 30% of HK women subjects thought there is some discrimination against women in Hong Kong, while nearly 50% of Singapore women believed there was discrimination against women in Singapore.

b) Given the statement: "I have to be married to be happy.", 39.1% of HK women subjects disagreed w/ this while just 10% of Singaporean women subjects disagreed.

**The author of the essay used a very small sample of women and did not try to draw big generalizations or conclusions. Still, the numbers are interesting.**


2) Women viewers of TV soaps in HK, Singapore, and Taiwan nearly unilaterally stated that they did not like graphic or overly sexualized scenes and situations portrayed in American TV shows like DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES and SEX IN THE CITY and cited the lack of such overt sexual content in South Korean TV soaps as one of the reasons they liked the shows.


3) Before the Korean Wave, Japanese TV soaps were very popular in many Chinese-speaking parts of Asia. Many TV programmers in Taiwan and other parts of Asia were initially drawn to Korean soaps in the late 1990s because they were cheaper to purchase than Japanese TV soaps. Japanese TV soaps have lost favor in many Asian TV markets since then.

As for the popularity of HK and/or Chinese-language soaps in non-Chinese Asian nations, to date, no HK or Chinese-language TV soap opera has been broadcast on network TV in Japan. (**There was no mention of it in the book, but my guess is that this is also true for South Korea.**) Various reasons are cited for this, but primarily, lack of production value.


4) Another essay examined the viewing practices of middle-aged women viewers of WINTER SONATA in Japan. This demographic of fans has often been derided and belittled for their outward enthusiasm in the mainstream press and by Japanese men in particular. I too shared this prejudice. Lonely women in their 40s and 50s swooning over a sensitive young soap star. The whole thing seemed rather silly to me.

But the essay, Winter Sonata and Cultural Practices of Active Fans in Japan: Considering Middle-aged Women as Cultural Agents, written by Yoshitaka Mori made me see this phenomenon in a totally new light.

Driven by this TV soap, many middle-aged women have taken initiative and have gone out in the world to do very cool things. They weren't merely passive viewers, who due to loneliness and misery, were being duped or manipulated by TV producers. Not at all. They were finding an active meaning in their life and in some cases, were duping the media. A subject cited in the essay stated how she'd hoodwinked the press by performing or acting the role of a zealous fan to get her photo in the newspapers.

Moreover, these women were taking initiative and expanding their mundane routines. Many had learned to use the computer and the Internet to learn more about the show and to interact with other women like them. Others had travelled, many for the first time, to South Korea, a country whose culture they did not know much about.

They did so not in search of cute young men, as they're often derided by the mainstream press, but to learn about Korean culture and to see things for themselves. This is after many decades of having a very biased and limited knowledge of Korea, given the already enmeshed and complex relationship that the two nations have of each other.

Not that any and all exchange of culture ought to be accepted uncritically as something transcendant and positive, but these middle-aged women were doing cool things and not simply being older versions of silly school girls. The essay even cited an example, in which these middle aged women viewers of WINTER SONATA were doing more to solve international political friction than conventional government institutions.

The point is, the relationship of middle-aged Japanese women fans of WINTER SONATA to the Korean Wave is much more complex and interesting than what has been usually described in the mainstream media in Japan, South Korea, and elsewhere. In other words, don't mess with and don't underestimate middle-aged women.

TWILIGHT (2008) aka Book Proves Secret Fear of Writers to be True

There are some immensely popular books that seem to be fluff but are so well written that even if the material isn't one's cup of laai cha, one can’t help but feel a begrudging respect. For me, the Harry Potter series is an example of this. I just don't care for wizards, magic and spells. It's a matter of personal preference. Still, it's clear those books are writen extremely well.

Then there is TWILIGHT, a bestseller by Stephenie Meyer which has now spurned a film adaptation. So Jene, who loves the Harry Potter series and has introduced me to many books that I would have otherwise skipped, suggested I read the book as an exercise to see how it would be adapted for the screen.

Adapting a very popular novel to the screen is always difficult since a strong fan base demands that the film not deviate from the book even if this strict adhesion to the source material works against the film. On the other hand, it also means a minimum x number of fans of the book will flock to theaters regardless of how the adaptation is done.

At the risk of being called out for sour grapes (which I must harbor at some level since my own books haven't sold well), my main impression of the novel is that it seems to have been written by an 11-year-old for other 11-year-olds. The sentences are clunky and scenes go on for much too long. The vampire story seems to be rehashed from existing works of that genre and there's very little that could be called complex or sophisticated. I can't quite understand how any grown-up could derive enjoyment from this piece of junk.

The remarkable success of a book like this makes me question my own sanity. To me, it's so evident that this book is so unbelievably lacking in every way, yet it has somehow won the praise of hundreds of thousands of readers. It's enough to make a writer lose faith in the reader and wonder why he or she even bothers.

Whenever I read a complete piece of rubbish like this that's sold millions of copies, I can't help but think back to the writers I've known in my life (most whom I met when I was in university or freshly out of university). In their unguarded moments, nearly every writer I know has told me that as cynical as it sounds, deep down he or she has come to accept that the worst most talentless writers are the ones who make it commercially.

I don't agree with this view since it's a blanket statement and it's clear that there are exceptions. But TWILIGHT certainly seems to providence ammunition for such a claim. Sure not every novel has to say something serious or important, and there is a place in this world for fluff. But this book isn't even good fluff.

That said, the only sense I can make for how and why this book works(and rather well obviously given its success) is that it does, in its inane, childish and clumsy way, try to tell an earnest story of incredibly intense first love. BELLA, the narrator and main character, sees and studies the beautiful EDWARD, who is actually a vampire, as no one else at her school does. The bulk of the book is long passages of Bella obsessing and agonizing over the meaning behind Edward's tiniest gestures, words, and actions.

As for the film adaptation, this is precisely where it fails. Without the film equivalent of Bella's obsessing over the object of her first love, the intensity of the obsession/first love doesn't come through on screen. It also doesn't help that the film treats these scenes of fascination-turning-to-obsession-to-purest love quickly and as merely a means to get to some special-effects-driven good vampire vs. bad vampire fight sequences.

Despite this shift in focus, which I can only guess must have been made to try to add production value to the film and make it feel more like a movie, the special effects are poor and there’s very little to distinguish the film from a small TV show except that Robert Pattison plays the moody vampire. Overall, the film plays worse than most recent TV shows about supernatural elements mixing with the ordinary populace set in high schools, which as a TV genre, tends to be far more witty and sophisticated.

The classic BUFFY THE VAMPIRE series, which also featured a moody vampire love story, epitomizes this. The genius of that series and its creator Joss Whedon is that each episode also worked as social commentary about familiar issues in high school life (eg. Eating disorders, cliques, losing one’s virginity…)

Lacking this sophistication in the source material, the film adaptation of TWILIGHT also disappoints because it fails to show the earnest obsessive intensity of first love that is the book's focus and main strength.

BACK from Paradise a.k.a. The Curse of Montezuma

We're back from paradise. The radio silence comes to an end. So much to write about. Will do so slowly over the next few weeks. The trip cost a fortune, but even a seasoned tightwad like myself can't help but begrudgingly admit that it was well worth it, especially to mark our 10 year anniversary.

The Maldives truly is paradise on earth. Lots of beautiful little islands. Clear beaches. Coral reefs and amazing tropical fish. Most resorts are on their own little island with a hundred or so guests. So basically, you're secluded with your loved ones and get to snjoy the sea. It sounds rather confining, but it's not so when you're being pampered.

The Maldives was a fitting destination for us to mark our 10 years of marriage since we'd first heard about the place 10 years ago. I'd stumbled on a NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC filled with amazing pictures of the Maldives and used to look at it quite a bit back then when we were living in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. We've had an amazing 10 years since. What an adventure! We've been very lucky, knock on wood. Bottom line is, the Maldives trip is something we will treasure for a long long time...

We got to lounge about, eat well, read from time to time, watch DVDs, and swim in our own private backyard pool, complete with two crows who would stand guard and a great view of the moon peeking above the coconut trees. We also got to ride a little seaplane like the ones they had in FANTASY ISLAND.

The Plane! The Plane!

We got to scuba dive for the first time and even got certified. Yes, we had to sit in a classroom for a bit during our vacation and had to practice hand signals--my favorite is the one for "Out of air"-- and various other scuba skills in a lagoon, but we're PADI Open Water Divers now with four open sea dives notched on our weight belt, ready and itching to scuba again to a depth limit of 18 meters.

We also learned to skin dive with our snorkels. We'd done snorkeling before but always from the surface. We didn't know how to clear the snorkel underwater. We also didn't know about hyperventilating to expand our underwater dive time. I really like skindiving and am amazed by just how deep you can actually go just on your own lungs.

In addition, I got to windsurf again, which I'd first tried in Mexico about 2 years ago. It looked so easy then but was so hard. I'm sure there are lots of kids who pick it up easily, but it took me three afternoons in Mexico just to get my balance and be able to lift the sail without falling in the water. Three days of tenacious effort and lots of ropeburn on my hands only to be cursed by Montezuma with dead calm and no wind...



This time, there was enough wind. And despite the lapse, I was still able to stay on my feet and lift the sail from the getgo, no problem. In fact, by the end of our vacation, I was actually zipping along quite nicely with a 5.0 sail and had managed to figure out how to position the sail to control where I went and didn't look like a complete schmuck out there. Who says old dogs can't learn new tricks??

The only downside to our trip was that having been pampered and lulled by paradise, we forgot that there's crime and poverty in the world and stupidly put our laptop, which we'd brought with us to do a little writing and so we could watch DVDs-- in the checked baggage on our trip back--a marathon journey with stopovers in Colombo and Kuala Lampur--and came home to find that it had been stolen out of our luggage. It was naive and dumb of us to not have the computer with us as carry-on. Still, I guess such lapses happen after being in the Garden of Eden...

It was a sad coda and quite a big nuisance to lose a laptop, especially since it was our only computer and contained nearly all of our photos from the trip... But then again, even as our luggage was being rifled through, the universe did somehow balance out the minuses and threw us a bone--well, actually, more than a bone--a very much appreciated upgrade to business class for our flight from Kuala Lumpur to Hong Kong. I guess it was from having accumulated so many miles this years on Cathay.

And on top of that, when we got back to Hong Kong and were reminded instantly upon arrival by the decorations there and P.A. system music that it is now already Christmas, I found an e-mail waiting for me from Cullen Thomas, the author of BROTHER ONE CELL, an excellent book which I wrote about in one of my earlier posts. There's also a link to this book in my OTHER PEOPLE'S BOOKS list. He'd actually somehow read the post and wrote me to say hello. For those of you who haven't read that post, Cullen Thomas and I are both writers and share a link to the Bronx as well as to b-ball.

Anyway, how cool is that!!! The wonders of the Internet. Now if only I could figure out who the other 2.5 readers of this blog are.... More posts about random funny incidents and observations from this trip will follow in the next few weeks. Any similar experiences out there? re: airport theft?

I end this post with a photo of yours truly leaving a part of me in the Indian Ocean.

Most Infuriating 'How I Became a Film Director' Story in History

I, like most other people, fell in love with movies as a child by watching movies simply as a consumer enjoying entertainment. I cherished the whole popcorn and soda experience and watched anything and everything. It wasn't until I was about 19 or 20 that I was exposed to truly great movies and became more serious about this magnificent medium.

Since then, I've been fascinated with how people get their foot in the door and the circumstances under which they got to make their first feature film. I made a terrible first feature film when I was 24 called FREE COUNTRY that was lackluster on all fronts. I wrote the screenplay myself and financed it by scrounging money from my student loans. Maybe not a great move if you're a sensible person with more practical concerns, but that's a different can of beans...

Whatever the case, I must have read hundreds of books over the years about different filmmakers from the most revered to the most crass to glean how they got their first films made.

In most cases, filmmakers have had to use their own money. This was the case for Godard, who used an inheritance to make his first film. In a few cases, they are able to supplement their own money with other people's money, which was the case for the Coen Brothers and Sam Raimi.

Of course, in those places where there is less emphasis on entrepreneurship and where the state controls the film industry, a small number of filmmakers catch a break while at the national film school and the state finances their first film. This was the case for Roman Polanski, Zhang Yi Mou, and Andrei Tarkovsky...

The point it, no matter who paid for the first film, most aspiring filmmakers find it incredibly difficult to get a break and it is through extreme struggle and luck that they get a chance to helm their first picture after having desperately wanted to make a feature film for a long long time.

Given this state of affairs, I learned something so very infuriating this week in a book on IM Kwon-taek. For those of you who may not know 'IM (sorry, couldn't resist), he is an old-school film director who has also come to be regarded in some circles as the elder statesman and face of Korean cinema. His most well-known films outside South Korea are SOPYONJAE, a period film about a family of itinerant beggar singers; THE GENERAL'S SON series, about a patriotic Korean gangster who fights Japanese gangsters during the 1930s when Korea was colonized by Japan; and CHIHWASEON, a period film about an extremely talented painter who was also a maverick, a drunk, and a womanizer.

Through these films he has won critical acclaim both in South Korea and in Europe. And it is through these films, which are quite impressive, that I first learned about this director, who is in his 70s now and still working in South Korea. But it turns out this is just the tip of the iceburg. The guy has directed 100 feature films since making his feature debut in 1962. During the first half of his career, he was considered something of a hack, who robotically and rather haphazardly cranked out genre pictures as was the industry practice then. He only gained his current reputation in the past 20 years.

Be that as it may, the guy's place as the representative figure of a national cinema--whether such a thing even exists or whether the reputation is deserved is a separate issue-- is similar to AKIRA KUROSAWA's in Japan.

Here is a link to the wikipedia entry on IM Kwon-taek:


Now, here is the zinger. It turns out that the guy's becoming a film director was a complete accident. The guy didn't love movies. He didn't even watch many movies. He didn't try for years to become a film director.

So how did it happen?

During the Korean War (1950-53), he found himself an 18-year-old refugee separated from his family in the southern port city of Busan. To survive, he worked for a time as a day laborer, but quickly found out the work was just too strenuous. So, he got a job working at a shoe store, which some enterprising person had set up to sell U.S. Army issued boots in the blackmarket.

Near the end of the war, the owners of the shoe store went to Seoul, the capital, and left him in charge of the Busan store. He managed that business for another 6 months on his own. At that point, the owners told him to close up shop and come to Seoul. They wanted him to help out in their new business venture, a fledgling movie production company.

Thus began his entry into the film industry. He started out in the props department and began doing all sorts of tasks to help the fledgling movie production company, until he eventually became a film director with his first feature FAREWELL TO TUMAN RIVER (1962 B&W), whose print has since been lost.

To put it simply, IM Kwon-taek became a film director because he worked at a shoe store.

The closest to this story that I can think of is AKIRA KUROSAWA's, who as a floundering high-school graduate who had failed to get into a Japanese university, became an assistant director by answering a newspaper ad and then somehow passing the Japanese film studio's (I think it was TOHO) lengthy interview and examination process.

But even in that case, Kurosawa had already been enamored with films from having seen numerous Russian and European classics under the influence of his older brother and had harbored an ambition to make films.

With IM Kwon-taek, there was no such exposure or ambition. Initially, his working in films was akin to his working on an assembly line at some factory.

Maybe his example is what some people might call FATE or DESTINY?

Whatever the case, it must be so strange for him to see the current brouhaha about filmmaking and just how competitive and popular the film industry has become and that there are even film schools where people pay large sums of money to go to study the craft.

Amazing!!!

OASIS by Lee, Chang Dong

I just read a book on the Korean director Lee, Chang Dong, which I got from the main branch of the HK public library over the weekend.

Lee, Chang Dong has made four feature films in the past 12 years. All four films were serious movies and well-received.

Prior, he was a novelist with two books and no ties whatsoever to the film industry. I have read none of his novels but have seen all four of his films. They are all pretty amazing.

That said, I learned from the book that the guy's father was a leftist intellectual who was blacklisted and persecuted in Korean society of the 1970s and 1980s. This left its mark on Lee, Chang Dong.

From reading the book, I got the impression that this director is one serious person and a real intellectual. Most film directors are not. It is a hands-on medium after all.

Still, the guy's strength as a writer is evident in all four of his films: GREEN FISH, PEPPERMINT CANDY, OASIS, and SECRET SUNSHINE. He wrote the screenplays for all four films. All are complete original works except for SECRET SUNSHINE, which is based on another author's short story. All have tight storytelling structure and form and content are excellently-crafted.

Today, I saw OASIS again. The acting is superb, but the screenplay is even better. Lee, Chang Dong is the master of the subtle exposing of hypocrisy. The film slams middle class aspirations that most people in Korean society have by focusing on two outsiders, a fuck-up ex-convict and a woman suffering from cerebal palsy. This description doesn't do the movie justice. The film is no RAIN MAN or MY LEFT FOOT. It doesn't look for redemption in some vindication of the human-spirit type of story. It's far more desperate and disturbing than that.

My favorite contemporary filmmaker is Kim, Ki Duk. But this guy, Lee, Chang Dong, is intense like Kim, Ki Duk, but only much more cerebral and cautious. The film plays like there was nothing at all left to chance. Every frame seems to have been crafted. This guy must be such a perfectionist.

I was also impressed that in the book, which contained interviews, Lee, Chang Dong repeatedly mentioned Kim, Ki Duk as a terrific filmmaker from Korea. Kudos to the guy for giving credit where credit is due.

These films aren't for everyone, especially if you haven't seen many films. It's like reading, the more you read the better a reader you become. Same thing with films, the more you watch films, the better you become at appreciating them. Of course, this is only relevant to people who have a serious respect for movies. For most people, movies are just a time filler.

Regardless, OASIS is definitely a winner. A haunting film like no other that will stay with you for a long time. The closest European equivalent is FASSBINDER, but Lee, Chang Dong's films are more carefully crafted with less theatrical cavalier quality.

Reading POLANSKI book

Am reading a bio of Roman Polanski by Jonh Parker that I got from the library.

Very surprised to learn how difficult the guy was. He was apparently the walking paradigm of a termmperamental artist, who'd throw tantrums and start screaming on the set.

I hadn't seen that many Polanski films.

In the past, I'd seen only the following Polanski films, in this order:

CHINATOWN
KNIFE IN THE WATER
ROSEMARY'S BABY
THE TENANT
THE LAMP (early short film Polanski made at Lodz National Film School)

I loved CHINATOWN, I'd attributed a lot of the film's impact to Jack Nicholson's performance and Robert Towne's screenplay. I remmeber being completely blown away by the picture the first time I saw it.

I thought KNIFE IN THE WATER was very impressive, especially considering that it was a debut feature film.

ROSEMARY'S BABY seemed campy to me. My wife and I kept thinking how great the apartment in the film was.

THE TENANT seemed interesting, but definitely too much like a derivative of ROSEMARY'S BABY, but set in Paris.

THE LAMP was a 3-4 minute short that was very creepy and seemed to be signature Polanski. We saw this at the MOMA when they had a screening of many great films from Lodz.


Anyway, reading the book, it reminds you just what struggle and difficulty even such successful directors like Polanski went through. You forget that they, too, were struggling artists at one point.

As ruthless and self-centered as Polanski must have been, he did manage to make some excellent films, as well as, of course, like everyone, some real duds.

I have yet to see REPULSION. I wonder if I can even find that film here in Hong Kong.

Another Writer from the Bronx

Just reread BROTHER ONE CELL by Cullen Thomas.

It is a recollection of the 3.5 years that Thomas, an American from Long Island, spent in a South Korean prison for trying to smuggle hashish into the country.

I'd read the book back in NYC after hearing a clip about him and the book on NPR and thoroughly enjoyed it back then.

Here is a link to the amazon page for the book.

http://www.amazon.com/Brother-One-Cell-Cullen-Thomas/dp/0143113119/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224477768&sr=8-1


Rereading it after stumbling on it at the Hong Kong Central Library, it occurred to me just how much and well Thomas really 'got' Korean culture. I guess being in uncomfortably close contact w/ Koreans inside the prison and Thomas' relatively young age at the time (he was 23? or so?) allowed for that.

On top of all that, I realized that that there is a connection between Cullen Thomas and myself.

You see, after I got my MFA from NYU and had dug myself into a financial hole by making my 16mm feature film debut w/ FREE COUNTRY, I scrambled to find some source of employment and was hired as a staff writer for CURRENT BIOGRAPHY, a reference publication that's published out of a strange building in the Bronx, some 10 minutes away from Yankee Stadium.

For the next several years, I'd trek to the Bronx every day and sit in a cubicle and write 3-5 page bios of prominent people in the news based on newspaper clippings compiled for each person. It didn't pay much, but I got to read a lot of newspapers and actually learned a lot.

I also stole time from my workday and started writing my first novel BOY GENIUS there in that little dark cubicle in a forgotten corner of the Bronx.

Anywa, to make a long story short, it turns out that Thomas, too, had worked at CURRENT BIOGRAPHY as a staff writer after serving his 3.5 years and being sent back to the U.S.

There were only about 5-6 staffwriters when I was there, and Thomas was not one of them. I can't really figure out the timing, but I have a hunch that Thomas was there just before I got there. Who knows? Maybe I got the job that he left??

Whatever the case, I've since written two novels and Cullen Thomas has published BROTHER ONE CELL.

Kudos to him!!

As for all those other aspiring writers out there, the lesson here is a simple one.

Go to NYC.

Go to the Bronx.

Get a job as a staffwriter at CURRENT BIOGRAPHY.

It's better than an MFA.