off to the movies

i was on some sort of a mini international film festival in front of the tv these past week. i went inside the blockbuster which was just within walking distance from my gym and grabbed me some foreign dvds. what i love about these foreign films is that it really grabs your attention. when you decide to watch it, you have to give it your undivided attention. meaning, no clipping of the toe nails or sorting the laundry should be done while the movie is on otherwise you wouldn't get to read the subtitles.

the first movie i watched was sex and lucia (lucia y el sexo) and oh my freakin god! paz vega was hot! hot! hot! it was a movie about a waitress (lucia) who got involved with a writer (lorenzo) who had a one night stand with a woman (belen) in an island on his birthday which resulted to a cute girl named luna (hingal!). of course there are more characters and most of them are connected to each other in some weird way and the hard part of watching this movie was not knowing if what's happening is part of lorenzo's novel or in fact a reality but that's what makes this film appealing.

now let's go korean with the film il mare. everybody knows that this is the film where they based the just released movie the lake house which stars sandra bullock and keanu reeves. i haven't really seen the lake house yet and i'm not sure if it still on the theaters as i type, but i sure hope to god that they didn't ruin the movie. i loved the fact that ji-hyun jun was not her usual my sassy girl self, it was so refreshing to see her in a sensitive non-astig role. speaking of my sassy girl, let me just post the "ten rules" which was my favorite part of the movie.

The 10 Rules:

1. Don't ask her to be feminine

2. Don't let her drink over three glasses

3. Drink coffee instead of Coke/Juice

4. If she hits you, act like it hurts. If it hurts, act like it doesn't

5. On your 100th day together, give her a rose during her class

6. Make sure you learn fencing and squash

7. Be prepared to go to prison sometimes

8. If she says she'll kill you, don't take it lightly

9. If her feet hurt, exchange shoes with her

10. She likes to write. Encourage her

the last movie that i watched in between tending to my laundry and tidying up my room was ang lee's eat drink man woman. now this is one movie that you don't wanna watch when you're hungry, because it will just make you grab the hunan wok menu by the fridge and start ordering chinese food. i tell you, if you wanna torture someone who is on a strict diet, let her watch this movie. (not that i wanna torture you joyce... he he he... i just wanna share a really good foreign movie with you.) enough of the food, this film is all about a father, his 3 daughters and the bond that goes on between them. it is touching in a sense that the father (who's failing taste buds were paralleled with his loss for the zest for life) was communicating his love to his daughters through food. it made me cry (oh yes it did!) because it kinda reminded me of my own father whose pancit lomi and caldereta recipes i'm missing right now. damn those millions of miles that separates the US and pinas!

anyway here's what ang lee has to say about his film:

"Everything is much different in Eat Drink Man Woman than the other films I've made. It has a bigger cast and a lot more complex story line... I started thinking about families and how they communicate. Sometimes the things children need to hear most are often the things that parents find hardest to say, and vice versa. When that happens, we resort to ritual. For the Chu family, the ritual is the Sunday dinner... At each dinner the family comes together and then something happens that pushes them farther apart."

here's hoping that he makes more movies, especially after his infamous and well acclaimed brokeback mountain.