My Blueberry Nights
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Official Movie Site (Spanish): My Blueberry Nights
Movie Stills: (swiped from starplus.com)
IGN Review: Joe Utichi
Wong Kar Wai's slow, melodic romantic dramas have an enormous audience amongst hardcore film buffs. His ability to find and reflect the tragedy of his characters, and the journeys they take, strikes a chord with most who come across his work. But they're also the sort of movies that a single viewing is usually enough for most people; their stories so emotionally exhausting that a repeat watch is hardly ever warranted.
And it must be said; the language barrier is an issue. Subtitled films can be hard work for the general moviegoer and when combined with Wong's tendency to suck every ounce of emotion from his audience, it's often that his movies are simply too inaccessible for most.
But with Wong's first English-language feature, My Blueberry Nights, opening this year's Cannes Film Festival, it's clear that it is the emotional heart of his films and not the language they're made in, that makes them a difficult viewing experience. Fans of Norah Jones, Jude Law, Natalie Portman or Rachel Weisz will no doubt find a film they didn't expect. Fans of Wong Kar Wai will be pleased to hear that his first foray into the English language - and the star-power the project has attracted - has done nothing to dull the spirit with which he makes his films.
Despite being best known as a musician, Wong gives Norah Jones the lead as a young woman who finds herself breaking up with her boyfriend and traveling across America to raise the money to buy a car. Along the way she meets a British caf¿ owner, played by Jude Law, David Strathairn's unlucky-in-love drunk and his estranged spouse - Weisz - and Natalie Portman's poker rounder, all of them distracting her from her own drama and helping her come full circle.
Jones struggles as the film opens, perhaps bearing the weight of her inexperience, but as the journey begins she settles into the role, never treading Oscar-worthy waters but nevertheless providing an engaging anchor for the film's emotion.
Law's Manchester accent, on the other hand, is in a world of its own, switched on only when the script calls for him to say inherently northern things and rather forgotten otherwise. That he's playing a British caf¿-owner living in New York is fair enough, but the necessity to have him damage his performance by not using his own accent is rather curious.
Weisz and Strathairn, perform well, as does Natalie Portman, who arrives late and keeps us interested to the end, but most are victims of a script that doesn't really provide the level of dialogue its emotional core requires, as characters spout clich¿d philosophies with little of the power Wong's films have shown in the past.
Fans of his work will leave My Blueberry Nights happy that his first English language film is no outright disappointment, but they'll never class it amongst his best work. General audiences will likely be lost, but the film's cast list may just attract those who were wanting for Wong Kar Wai and had yet to find him. And if the film can win the auteur even more fans, then it can't really be that bad. -
WKW! my favourite!!!
ok, who want date me see movie?
would prefer someone who is a WKW fan hor
must have watched at least one of the following movies (and like them!)
- ashes of time
- days of being wild
- chungking express
- fallen angels
- the in the mood for love
- 2046
- happy together -
norah jones and natalie portman
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thats right.. who cares about the director..Originally posted by gigabyte14:norah jones and natalie portman -
For those who think the haunting track in the movie trailer belonged to Norah Jones, it's actually sung by Catpower.
David Strathairn, Jude Law, Rachel Weisz and especially Natalie Portman gave remarkable performances (given the literal dialog they were forced to spew). The 5 minute take on Weisz sitting along empty streets, lamenting over her history with Strathairn was painful to watch, the screeching dialog was painful to hear. There are too many details revealed to the audiences and the metaphors/ironies are exhausted in very bad taste. Feelings were more spoken than experienced before everything becomes too much.
I am coerced into thinking the narrative techniques employed in My Blueberry Nights pursued the same effect any Wong Kar Wai movie was after, only this time the screen writing is literal translation from a mandarin script. If only Wong had Mike Nichols (Closer) or at least, Charlie Kaufman (Adaptation) on his team.
The cinematography is visually pleasing but far from Du Ke Feng's art house cinema stunning (for those with standards to level the likes of 2046 and In the Mood for Love). Fans of Wong's works will notice familiar tools to denote the theme of time, place and his longing for unchanging - in MBN, fleeting landscapes, sweeping skies and zooming trains. They might even find a chuckle over his fixation on cigarettes, steaks, squishy food and heroines pacing around in jet black heels.
Still worth the watch because Wong preserves his ability to magnify very simple human emotions in unpredictable ways. You absorb that feeling and it leaves you dreaming. You'll wiggle your toes at the very first (also the last) kiss so My Blueberry Nights is just enjoyable.
But in my opinion (especially for Wong's fans), the anti hero's search for memory and unchanging, fleeting desire for love and impossibilities remain best encountered in the first of his masterpiece - Days of Being Wild. -
music not by shigeru umebayashi ma?
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You'll find one track by Umebayashi somewhere in the film but Catpower's track defines the lazy, wintry atmosphere in My Blueberry Nights, as seen in the movie trailer.Originally posted by FireIce:music not by shigeru umebayashi ma?
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ME!Originally posted by FireIce:WKW! my favourite!!!
ok, who want date me see movie?
would prefer someone who is a WKW fan hor
must have watched at least one of the following movies (and like them!)
- ashes of time
- days of being wild
- chungking express
- fallen angels
- the in the mood for love
- 2046
- happy together -
Although I cannot proclaim to have watched all of Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar-wai's works, I can say that of those I have seen, they rung some emotional bell within me, and I count 2046 and especially In The Mood For Love as amongst one of my favourite movies of all time. The themes of love, forbidden love and melancholic longing I can identify with, and that makes those films close to heart.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/12/my-blueberry-nights.html -
FI you missed out EROS - The Hand?
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this one is short film leh.Originally posted by M©+square:FI you missed out EROS - The Hand? -
omg i haven't seen shows by him and so many good reviews from everyone
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I'm actually very touched by this short film.Originally posted by FireIce:this one is short film leh.
Chang Chen is superb at the last scene. -
natalie portman looks a bit like keira knightley alsoOriginally posted by stellazio:thats right.. who cares about the director.. -
Me 2!!! Can we? Can we? Monday? Or Wednesday?Originally posted by iori8888:ME! -
This movie looks good i wanna catch it too!
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pls start outing thread... and hopefully u dun have to be busy packing bags soon.Originally posted by fairlady_xoxo:This movie looks good i wanna catch it too! 
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How to start? I've not started any outing threads b4. Am totally new with this kind of stuff.Originally posted by ^tamago^:pls start outing thread... and hopefully u dun have to be busy packing bags soon.