In the Mood for Love (2000)

Wong Kar-wai is a director that I have wanted to get into for quite some time. He’s frequently name dropped and as a fan of Asian cinema, it seemed strange that I had not yet come across any of his films. The other day at the college library, which owns a fair amount of Criterions, I came across “In the Mood for Love” a film that I had heard much about but new very little of.

In features I’ve read of Wong Kar-wai his unique style especially the way his colors are so vibrant is always remarked upon. Visually, the film is gorgeous. Kar-wai makes colors so vibrant in a way that recalls Technicolor but clearly realistic. Colors pop out but it’s nothing like “Hero” or any of those other wuxias that are powerful now. The colors are realistic but heightened in a way that makes other films look drab.

The film’s narrative follows a man and woman who both move into separate apartments on the same day. Both of their spouses are often away on business trips and the two soon realize their spouses are having an affair together. The two strike up a friendship, imagining and rehearsing how their spouses first got together, how they interact. They begin to fall for each other but the pressures of Chinese society and their desire to not be just like their spouses leave their love unrequited.

“In the Mood for Love” is one of the most honest romance films I’ve ever seen and a lot of its success comes from the filming and the editing. Many of the shots begin focused on an object and slowly pan or tilt to their destination, the camera lingers but always very abruptly with a very fast fade out and then jumping to the next scene. The camera often follows characters from behind gates of windows, panning over walls that block our view of the characters. Interestingly, the spouses if seen on camera are always seen from the back and typically through glass or a mirror. The camera is a voyeur, peering into forbidden love. Wong Kar-wai has said he sees a lot of “Vertigo” in this film and certainly the Hitchcock influences are there. The way cigarettes smoke lingers in the air recalls film noir, the beauty of shadows and light. The scene where Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung pass each other on the stairs is perhaps the most sensuous scene ever filmed and they are only walking on some stairs. Maggie Cheung is absolutely gorgeous in the film; the costume design, my god those dresses, and her hair are both pristine.

Some, even I initially, may not like the direction that the film goes but it seems to be a necessity. The discussions between the two of them over power relationships, the nature of their spouses’ affair, their context in Chinese culture prevents them from being together. The film explores the nature of Chinese society and this undercurrent of their romance. By the end, where Leung is at the Buddhist temple ruins whispering into the crack in the wall and the camera moves freely throughout the film achieves perfection.

10/10

Die Antwoord-$O$

Mini bio of the group with a little bit of Beat Boy


Before February 2, few in the United States had much knowledge of South African music, much less South African hip hop. But on that date boingboing.net and dlisted.com posted two videos from Cape Town based rap crew Die Antwoord. Millions visited Die Antwoord’s website causing it to crash in a few days though it quickly surfaced with much more bandwidth. In the last couple weeks Die Antwoord have become one of the biggest music acts on the internet thanks to videos for “Enter the Ninja” and “Zef Side” as well as hosting their debut album $O$ on their website.

The biggest attraction to them is their bizarre look and unique take on hip hop. Die Antwoord (Afrikaans for the answer) called themselves Zef rap. Zef roughly translates as common but should be thought of as the South African equivalent of the redneck. The group’s visual appearance echoes this; they seem to be something straight out of Harmony Korinne’s film Gummo.

The legitimacy of Die Antwoord’s Zef style seems pretty suspect. In the video for “Zef Side” the camera zooms in on frontman Ninja, wearing only some bling and a pair of Dark Side of the Moon boxers, and follows the rhythmic gyrations of his crotch in a way that can only be a joke. In real life, MC’s Ninja and Yo-Landi Vi$$ser are married with a daughter and the biggest tell is that the two along with third member DJ Hi-Tek were once members of MaxNormal.TV. Ninja was formerly Max Normal, real name Watkin Tudor Jones, who led a rap crew who performed in three piece suits. While the group may look like just a gimmick, the trio’s music is legitimately fantastic.


Enter the fucking Ninja

Debut album $O$ take hyper charged rave music and combines it with fast paced hip-hop. “Enter the Ninja,” one of the songs that helped Die Antwoord gain popularity, is typical of the group’s sound. Yo-Landi begins the song pleading “Be my samurai” then Ninja enters the song busting out slick rhymes faster than most rappers. The group’s lyrics switch between English and Afrikaans, sometimes in the same song, and when understood are witty and very profane. The song is like many hip-hop songs existing mostly to glorify the rapper’s exploits. Ninja’s lyrics are rather sarcastic mocking hip-hop conventions; during a spoken word section he exclaims “This is the coolest song I’ve ever heard in my whole life”. Die Antwoord are aware of hip-hop stereotypes and exploit them for their audience’s enjoyment.

Yo-Landi Vi$$er gets plenty of time on mic either keeping up with Ninja’s fast paced flow on the amped up “Wat Kyk Jy” or on solo track “Rich Bitch”. The pinnacle of the album is eight minute long “Beat Boy” which begins with Ninja commanding DJ Hi-Tek to “turn up that next level $hit”. The beat begins to build propelled by Ninja’s spitfire vocals and a sweetly smooth chorus courtesy of Yo-Landi. “Beat Boy” represents everything great about the album and Die Antwoord.

However, like most hip-hop albums, $O$ suffers from being overly long. For some reason hip-hop artists feel the need to fill out CDs to near capacity and at an hour long $O$ is just too much. With sixteen songs there’s a lot of filler and mediocrity, “Wie Maak die Jol Vol”, that threaten the success of the album. Fortunately, when Die Antwoord are at the top of their game it more than makes ups for the weaker songs and helps to keep the listening experience fun.

Though in need of an editor, Die Antwoord more than live up to the internet hype. This is one case where the internet has helped the world discover a hip-hop genius in Ninja who might have lingered in obscurity.

4/5


Just found this. My life is so much better.

Crabcore: If you haven't heard of this before then where have you been?

New musical genres emerge all the time. Most are combinations of previous genres (shoegaze plus synth pop equals glo-fi), so very few contemporary genres are actually entirely new. Crabcore is a rare example of originality, but not in a typical way.

Instead of being named for the style of music, “crabcore” emerged from the dance moves pioneered in a single band’s music video. Not to be confused with the Welsh group Attack! Attack!, Westerville, Ohio’s very own Attack Attack! created the crabcore genre with their video “Stick Stickly” off of their 2008 debut album, “Someday Came Suddenly.”

Musically, “Stick Stickly” is a culmination of many of elements in current scenester metalcore: watered down hardcore, nerdy keyboard breakdowns, and the standard contrast between brutal screams and whiny emo vocals. As noticed by the band Brokencyde, a crunk screamo pioneer, there is a huge hip-hop obsession in the scenester world. Not surprisingly, the whiny emo vocals in “Stick Stickly” are obviously auto-tuned. Crabcore is T-Pain meets metal but the music here is not what’s important—it’s the dance moves.



At first glance, the “Stick Stickly” video seems to be a normal metalcore video; there’s a bunch of guys in black, a menacing decrepit building in a field and a fairly terrifying-looking girl wandering around in a white dress. Further shots of the group’s performance reveal a considerable deviation from the typical metal video style when the group begins to do synchronized frog hops along with very impressive guitar spins and flips.

The first breakdown is when Attack Attack! earns the crabcore tag. The camera focuses on the guitarist, who crouches down very low and begins to sway back and forth like a crab. Equally ridiculous, the band decides to switch from metal to electronica at the end of the song while running in place. This unusual new style boasts a rising fan base, though a good deal of enthusiasm for crabcore and Attack Attack! is mainly tongue-in-cheek. People have also made numerous parody videos and groups on Web sites such as YouTube and last.fm to satire the absurdity of crabcore.

Crabcore bands continue to emerge. Las Vegas-based This Romantic Tragedy somehow took crabcore to even more ridiculous heights in their video for “The Worst Part is Waking Up.” In the video, the group makes crabcore their own: guitar flips are more extreme, the crab move is given much more screen time and there is even a keyboard slam during a breakdown. However, unlike Attack Attack!, This Romantic Tragedy doesn’t seem to realize that crabcore is pure ridiculous fun. They take it very seriously.



Attack Attack! has not made any videos since “Stick Stickly,” but with a new album to be released in 2010 there is considerable anticipation for the band’s response to the hype and their ever-growing fan base. With the recently announced song title “Sexual Man Chocolate,” Attack Attack! seems to be on the right track.