Ken Watanabe – WilfridWong.com

Inception – Into Subconscious and Dream Whereby Logic Supposes To Dissolve

The idea is tantalizing. Imagine being able to architect your dream, bring others into your dream or trespass into others’ dreams, and if you wish to retain certain fond memories of the past, lock them up inside your head and visit them as often as you like. On the surface, “Inception” appears to be a movie with an original idea that is rarely seen since the days of “The Matrix”. If writer, producer, and director Christopher Nolan was to release the film 10 years ago – when the script was first completed – some may find the resemblances to “The Matrix” hard to ignore. Fortunately, it is 2010.

The beauty of “Inception” is the writer’s ability to create a fantasy world with a set of rules driven by logic. Some of these rules are intriguing. For those who watch “Inception” the first time, no doubt it would be a memorable journey. You could be too busy absorbing new ideas without pondering upon those illogical moments. While in “The Matrix”, we may relegate the unanswerable questions to a Higher Being (philosophically speaking), the same cannot be said for “Inception” – for it is men who invent the dream machine. At times I wonder: Is it a good idea to build logic into dream and subconscious in the first place?

I have heard a lot of praises for Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance in “Inception”. I would say other actors and actresses such as Marion Cotillard and Ellen Page are equally brilliant. This film is loaded with stars, and special effects. It is a solid two and a half hours of entertainment. And you would probably walk out of the theater with more questions than answers, while thoroughly entertained of course.

Letters From Iwo Jima – Almost Perfect

By now, you must have thought that I am someone who gets overly excited easily because of all the generous reviews be it as books, movies, music albums, or even DVDs. Truth is, if the product is not potentially good, I wouldn’t pay for it. Since I only write reviews on products that I buy, naturally they are already in my good book. As for Golden Globe Award Winner for Best Foreign Film – “Letters From Iwo Jima”, I do have my 2-cent worth of criticism though.

I picked “Letters From Iwo Jima”, together with the rest of my Movie Review Squad, because we have been anticipating this movie since we watched “Flags Of Our Fathers” (see previous blog) back in mid December last year. So, let me be upfront here. My only two complains of this movie are (1) it is a long slow moving show and (2) for a war that 20,000 Japanese troops have perished, it certainly does not look like there are that many Japanese in the show (compares to the fleet size of the American troops in “Flags Of Our Fathers”).

“Letters From Iwo Jima” has quite a number of interesting points that should not be missed. First, I have not seen anyone who directs two separate movies based on the same scenario and have the story told in two different perspectives. Clint Eastwood is the director of both “Flags Of Our Fathers” and “Letters From Iwo Jima”. Second, I seldom get to watch a war movie being told from the Japanese perspective. I have watched many war movies told from the Western perspective, even from the German’s perspective. But from the Japanese perspective acted by the Japanese? It is kind of rare. I have learnt quite a few things new about the Japanese from the movies itself which is refreshing. Third, there is so much humanity being put into the show that I felt bad just to watch what the Japanese has to go through.

Now, back to my two complains. It is a long slow moving show because the movies portrays a losing war. I mean, whatever they do, however smart and humane the Commander-in-chief is, they are going to lose the war. The first explosion happens 45 minutes into this 2 hours long show so you can imagine it is a different kind of war movie. Watching a losing war is like watching “Apollo 13” – a doomed to fail mission (“Apollo 13” is equally boring to me). And we don’t get to see that many Japanese probably because the story is reconstructed from the letters found inside the Japanese caves and I think the focus of the story is on some of the key characters.

I am a fan of Ken Watanabe (“The Last Samurai” and “Memoirs of a Geisha”) who plays the role of General Tadamichi Kuribayashi in “Letters From Iwo Jima” well. That is probably another good point coming from this long slow moving show.