Saturday, October 11, 2008

POLL 35:"WE, THE POOR, ARE ALWAYS GUILTY"

My poll 35 is inspired by the current financial crisis. It makes me wonder if any of us may have to live like the poor people portrayed in these films in the near future. I hope it won’t happen.

The name of this poll comes from a sentence said near the end of PAPER CANNOT WRAP UP EMBERS. This sentence unintentionally makes me think about the political problem in Thailand.


THE CHARACTERS IN THESE FILMS ARE POOR OR HAVE FINANCIAL TROUBLE. WHICH FILMS DO YOU LIKE?

1.ALONG THE RAILWAY (2000, Du Haibin, China)
This is a documentary.

2.APPRECIATION (หาบ) (2007, Tikampon Pupanna, Thailand)
I think this is a documentary, though some scenes are staged.

3.BAMAKO (2006, Abderrahmane Sissako, Mali)
I think “Africa” can be considered as a character in this film.

4.BREATHING (หายใจ) (2000, Barameerut Chantarasriwong, Thailand)
If I remember it correctly, this film is about an unemployed man who tries very hard to get a job. I think the film is inspired by the Asian financial crisis in 1997.

5.THE CYCLIST (1989, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Iran)

6.DAYS OF TURQUOISE SKY (2008, Woo Ming-jin, Malaysia)
http://thaifilmjournal.blogspot.com/2008/10/bkkiff-08-capsule-reviews.html

7.EN AVOIR (OU PAS) (1995, Laetitia Masson, France)

8.FEAST OF VILLAINS (2008, Pan Jianlin, China)

9.FUN WITH DICK AND JANE (2005, Dean Parisot, USA)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0369441/
I just noticed that Judd Apatow co-wrote this film.

10.HEREMIAS (2006, Lav Diaz, Philippines)

11.KILLER (1998, Darezhan Omirbaev, Kazakhstan)

12.LITTLE MEN (2003, Nariman Turebayev, Kazakhstan)

13.LIVE-IN MAID (2004, Jorge Gaggero, Argentina)

14.MA-LAI (มาลัย) (2007, Weera Kempetch, Thailand)

15.MIRACLE ON FIRST STREET (2007, Yun Je-gyun, South Korea)

16.PAPER CANNOT WRAP UP EMBERS (2007, Rithy Panh, Cambodia)

17.A PLACE ON EARTH (2001, Artour Aristakisian, Russia)

18.LE SILENCE DES MACHINES (2007, Paul Calori + Kostia Testut, France)

19.THE STREET: A FILM WITH THE HOMELESS (1997, Daniel Cross, Canada)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0226494/

20.TWO ACRES OF LAND (1953, Bimal Roy, India)

You can cast multiple votes.

8 comments:

celinejulie said...

My own vote is for BREATHING, EN AVOIR (OU PAS), FEAST OF VILLAINS, LITTLE MEN, MA-LAI, A PLACE ON EARTH, and PAPER CANNOT WRAP UP EMBERS.

Anonymous said...

that's my vote :)
MA-LAI, A PLACE ON EARTH, and PAPER CANNOT WRAP UP EMBERS.

Anonymous said...

that's my vote :)
MA-LAI, A PLACE ON EARTH, and PAPER CANNOT WRAP UP EMBERS.

Anonymous said...

โหวต Heremias ค่ะ

Anonymous said...

I love love love love love BAMAKO!!!

celinejulie said...

Thank you very much for all your comments and votes.

As for HEREMIAS, I want to mention that It is very hard for me to choose only one Filipino film for this poll, because I also like SLINGSHOT, THE BET COLLECTOR, and THE ROAD TO KALIMUGTONG (2005, Mes de Guzman). But in the end, I choose HEREMIAS, because this film allows me to spend a long time with the main character, and that long time allows me to feel something very strongly about the suffering of the main character, which is partly resulted from poverty.

Anonymous said...

I've only seen the original Fun with Dick and Jane starring Jane Fonda and George Segal.

celinejulie said...

I haven’t seen the old version of FUN WITH DICK AND JANE, but I give the new version “A-“. I like the message or the intention of the filmmaker. I think that the film is made after the scandal of Enron and Worldcom, and it is good that Hollywood responds to this kind of social problems from time to time. My feelings for FUN WITH DICK AND JANE is a little bit like my feelings for SHALLOW HAL (2001, the Farrelly Brothers) and STUCK ON YOU (2003, the Farrelly Brothers). These comedies are not “extremely funny” or “extremely entertaining” for me, but their social messages may be more important than their entertainment quality.