Articles by mgedwards

A preview of coming films

I love movies.  Although I have not been able to watch many movies since I moved to Korea, I still keep up with the film industry and occasionally watch movies I find irresistable.  I am impressed with a gaggle of new films that will open soon.   The Christmas movie season is filled with a much better selection of movies this time around than it did last summer.  At that time, movie studios suffered from low box office revenues, largely due to the fact the fare they offered was generally unappealing.  This season is different.  I saw previews for several upcoming films and am impressed, not because they are original, per se, but rather that this holiday season is not dominated by comic book movies, television show flicks, Christmas stories, or yet another sequel.  Of course there are some staple films such as "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," but all in all, Hollywood did a fair job of straying from formula and doing it well.  
 
Here are some of the upcoming films I think could be the best in their categories.  Click on the links to view the trailers (Quicktime required).
 
Science Fiction/Fantasy
 
King Kong.  Peter Jackson, director of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, returns in December with an updated version of the cinematic classic.  I am not a big "King Kong" fan, but I love Peter Jackson’s work and think this movie showcases Jackson’s brilliant filmmaking. 
 
The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.  After the success of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, someone was bound to bring "The Chronicles of Narnia" to the big screen.  Disney will give it a try in December with the first book in the "Chronicles."  I wonder if they’ll turn all seven books into films.  As a big fan of the "Narnia" series since childhood, I am really hoping that the film is more than a disappointment.  The preview leaves me hopeful.
 
Comedy
 
Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World.  The trailer for this movie to be released in January 2006 is absolutely hilarious!  Any film that dares to broach such a potentially explosive subject is worthy of a second look.  Albert Brooks is a master of deadpan comedy.
 
The Producers.  The Broadway hit comes to the big screen in December.  Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick reprise their Broadway roles, and Uma Thurman is wickedly sexy.  After "Kill Bill I and II," I never thought Uma could pull it off.
 
Drama/Suspense
 
Munich.  This Steven Spielberg film due out in December chronicles events following the massacre during 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany, when Israel athletes were assassinated by terrorists.
 
Memoirs of a Geisha.  I absolutely loved this book.  The movie appears to capture the spirit of the novel, although it will probably not fully realize Arthur Golden’s masterpiece.  Due in December.
 
Animation/Children’s
 
Curious George.  It is really nice to see a good old-fashioned cartoon animation film amidst all the me-too computer-generated films such as "Madgascar."  I am so glad that they didn’t turn George into a CGI creature and turned Will Farrell’s voice into "The Man With the Yellow Hat" instead of having Farrell himself play the character.  My son loves this preview, so I’m positive that kids will love it.  Scheduled for release in February.
 
I like a good horror film, and I’m also an action/adventure fan, but I just didn’t see any upcoming films that I would recommend in either of these genres.  A few honorable mentions that piqued my interest include "V for Vendetta," "North Country," and "The New World," but none are enough of a draw to earn my money this holiday season.

A different perspective

I puzzled my family tonight.  We bought my son another jigsaw puzzle, and I realized that it has the same puzzle pattern as another puzzle my son has already mastered.  One puzzle features "Finding Nemo," and the other one is a "Winnie the Pooh" puzzle.  They’re both made by the same manufacturer, so that’s why they both have the same puzzle patterns.  After dinner, I psyched both my wife and son out by melding the two puzzles together this evening.  I combined some of the pieces from one jigsaw puzzle with the other, making two different, somewhat surreal puzzles.  At first both my wife and son protested.  "Don’t do that!  That’s too weird," they said.  "Why not?  It’s a challenge!"  I answered.  My son wanted to tear up the puzzles and put them together the "right" way, but I insisted.  Finally, both of them caved in and helped finish them.  They cheered after both puzzles were finished, because they finally saw the value of putting together the puzzles in a new, vividly different way.
 
It was actually really difficult to do this.  Combining parts of two different jigsaw puzzles together into two new hybrid puzzles is actually quite challenging.  I don’t expect my son to do it anytime soon.  It forces you to consider the shape and pattern of both puzzles, seeing both simultaneously and figuring out which pieces fit best in shape and artistic value.  The end result is something both strange and intriguing.  The surrealist masters of the canvas, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, and M.C. Escher, among others, realized beauty through abstraction and projected amazing imagery through their art.  I especially value illusions and abstractions because they help me realize that virtually anything can be viewed from more than one perspective.  In the photos section, I posted some of my favorite illusions.  What do you see when you look at them?
 
The jigsaw puzzle incident remains me of something that has really frustrated me for the past few months.  I am facing some serious conflicts with someone who is very different from me.  While I value their perspective, I am growing frustrated by their persistent opposition to my suggestions.  It seems that everytime I suggest something, I can always count on them to provide a countervailing opinion.  I’m sure you probably know someone just like that, someone who seems to think exactly the opposite of the way you do.  I appreciate their input–I really do, because they usually come up with talking points I have not thought about.  However, I am really growing weary of their inflexiblity.  They tend to refuse to see other points of view or show flexibility on their own positions.  Just like my family could not initially see the value in mixing jigsaw puzzle pieces, this person typically imposes their opinion and spends their time trying to persuade me to see their point of view, instead of exploring the value of another perspective.  I tend to move towards agreeing with their opinion because I believe it’s important to be flexible and come to consensus when consensus is possible.  However, at some point my flexibility will end when I become too frustrated, and I too will be recalcitrant.  When that happens, no one will win.

The absence of graffiti

I had my first encounter with graffiti in Korea today when I noticed cryptic writing and macabre paintings sprayed in black spray paint on the walls of a murky, pedestrian underpass.  I saw them in Seoul near Itaewon, a district frequented by foreigners.  I have noticed since I arrived here last February that Korean infrastructure noticeably (and mercifully) lacks signs of graffiti scrawl.  I’ve heard that graffiti exists in Hongdae, an free-spirited, bohemian district in Seoul, but I have not seen it.  It’s my observation that Koreans generally do not deface public places by scrawling graffiti on buildings or infrastructure.  In Korea, graffiti is neither a widely accepted art form, nor is it typically used for decorative purposes.  Not far from where I encountered the graffiti, I saw a wall ornately painted with a mural of children flying kites in a grassy field.  The mural has been there for awhile, and it still has not been defaced by graffiti vandals.
 
This is a far cry from American culture, where graffiti is widely used, particularly in urban areas.  Recent news reports claim that Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman advocated punishing those caught defacing freeways with graffiti by cutting off their thumbs on public television.  While I doubt that remedy will work and is a very harsh punishment, it underscores that graffiti has a much greater impact on American culture than it does in Korea.  While some consider graffiti an art form, many in the U.S. consider it a nuisance, even criminal.  However, graffiti is a non-issue in Korea because it is virtually nonexistent here.  I don’t think this is because the punishment for unauthorized graffiti is necesarily harsh in Korea.  More likely, it is because graffiti is not a manifestation of Korean culture.
 
I was curious about the origins of the English term "graffiti," which is derived an Italian word.  Graffiti.org explains:
The origins of graffiti go back to the beginnings of human, societal living. Graffiti has been found on uncovered, ancient, Egyptian monuments, and graffiti even was preserved on walls in Pompeii. Graffiti is the plural form of the Italian word grafficar. In plural, grafficar signifies drawings, markings, patterns, scribbles, or messages that are painted, written, or carved on a wall or surface. Grafficar also signifies "to scratch" in reference to different wall writings ranging from "cave paintings", bathroom scribbles, or any message that is scratched on walls. In reference to present day graffiti, the definition is qualified by adding that graffiti is also any unsolicited marking on a private or public property that is usually considered to be vandalism.
Murals, mozaics, and wall carvings are all technically considered graffiti.  Ancient cave paintings in France are technically graffiti, as are markings carved into lava formations by ancient Hawai’ians on the Big Island of Hawai’i.  It’s interesting that the term "graffiti" has taken on such a negative connotation in the English lexicon.  Someday what people consider a nuisance may someday become cultural artifacts.  Some of it, anyway.  Probably not in Korea, though.