The 44th Taipei Golden Horse Award Winners

The winners were announced on Saturday, 8th December, and as expected, Lust, Caution was the big winner of the night, bagging statuettes in the best film score, makeup and costume, adapted screenplay, new performer, actor, director and picture categories. It's a small compensation for being snubbed at the Oscars, but frankly it's sad to see revered directors like Lee and Martin Scorsese obsess over the Academy Awards. They don't need the gold, bald men to prove to us how awesome they already are.

Ang Lee was also awarded the Outstanding Taiwanese Filmmaker of the Year trophy. Frankly, they should have given him this last year for Brokeback Mountain, which is a far more significant movie milestone than Lust, Caution could ever be.

See my truncated list, or go to the Golden Horse main site for the complete winner's list.

The annual LOTR cash-in continues...

Last year I wrote an article about movie studios' attempts to ride on the fantasy revival fad brought about by the Lord of the Rings movies. The Chronicles of Narnia was one successful endeavour, but last year's Eragon wasn't, though I was optimistic about it.

Of course, the company who started it all couldn't just sit still and let everyone else ride on its success. Planning to start another lucrative franchise (in case things don't work out with LOTR prequel The Hobbit), New Line is releasing fantasy epic The Golden Compass this week. Based on the first book of Philip Pullman's award-winning His Dark Materials trilogy, the story revolves around two kids who find adventures travelling between parallel universes. A break from the usual medieval Nordic settings in many fantasy movies, The Golden Compass offers steampunk-influenced technology, locales and fashion senses. Think Full Metal Alchemist, or... er... Wild Wild West. Some of the main characters apparently possess creatures which they could summon, something like a Pokemon, called "daemons". Pok-emon, da-emon, get the connection? Um, no, I haven't read this book either.

As much as Narnia was lauded by religious groups for its positive Christian references, Pullman's works were derided for its atheistic messages. Naturally, the movie adaptation is also getting a lot of unwarranted attention and comments, despite the fact that it's not even released yet. Who knows how much of the purported anti-Catholic stuff from the book got translated on to the big screen? But it's an easier target for overzealous people (who are even planning to boycott the premiere), because it hasn't made as much money or name as J. K. Rowling and her pro-witchcraft Harry Potter mega-franchise. It's likely that the controversy would only spark the public's curiosity to New Line's box-office advantage. But, like what I once felt about Eragon, I hope that there is a good movie somewhere amidst the PR frenzy, and that director Chris Weitz (he of American Pie fame) has more up his sleeves than just dick and fart jokes.

New BMF Review: Face/Off!

John Woo's best American movie? Read what The Big Movie Freak has to say!
Click here!

A videogame that finally makes you cry

I came across this comic strip from a link on Penny-Arcade.com's site. See it here first before continuing. Though it could all be exploitatively made up, but even if it is, it's still a stroke of dramatic genius, giving example of how videogames can transcend its role as being merely a brainless button-mashing apparatus, and also how it's not always all about f***ing killfests Halo or Grand Theft Auto. And as games become more social and open-ended in nature, it creates avenues for completely unique, personal and sometimes even heartfelt experiences for each gamer, like the one purportedly experienced by the comic artist.

To those not familiar with the game pictured above, yes, the game does allow you to do all the stuff shown in the comic, so they're not made-up story devices to lure out the eye juices.

Check out Penny Arcade's funny response to this comic here.

See other people's comments here.

Hardcore Star Wars merchandise!

Check this out! A projector shaped like R2-D2, with a remote embedded in a Millennium Falcon, and if I didn't read it wrong, accompanying sound system with TIE Fighters as the speakers! Got this pics from Aintitcool.com here. Rich geeks, get more infos here.