This is OSCAR! He is 80!

Dear Grandpa,

How are you? Enjoying yourself being polished and showered in gold? Has the cold weather been good to you? I'm sure you can handle the weather, considering how much you like to show up in your birthday suit all the time.

Bad weather aside, I can only be amazed at your endurance in surviving assassination attempts, wars, and so many historical events throughout decades. You've always managed to show up with a dignified pride, not at once giving a hint of aging. Guess your stark and everlasting beauty is what makes people admiring you go crazy and rush off to have their natural handsomeness Botoxed. You've never said "no" for all those maddening antics.

But this year, the time when you are supposed to be celebrated with a big bang, you've shown signs of, I'm not sure how I put it, lack of self-confidence? Suddenly you're not sure if you're able to throw a big bash again, the way you've always done for the past eight decades?

Grandpa, I know how your heart is undergoing major surgery right now, and at any given moment, the outcome may determine your well-being. But no matter what the results may be, they can tell you one thing: you are not going to die. You will be forever celebrated, cheered, and championed.

After all, there's no reason of backing off from celebration.

Look at how your admirers behave for the past year.

Remember how once you favor literature adaptation? It comes back in a very graceful manner this year. Watching it makes me feel like having an Atonement of all the bad sins in bad films I've watched in a year.

And remember the epic scale of Giant or any dramatic films in 1950s? Look no further than Paul Thomas Anderson's majestic There Will Be Blood, Grandpa.

I bet you can also recall the heydays of paranoia drama, the way The China Syndrome or ... And Justice For All were built. Michael Clayton does it with an equally impressive result, Grandpa, and I'm sure you will marvel about the film's director, Tony Gilroy, considering that the film is his directorial debut.

And Grandpa, maybe it is the time you reward one of your overlooked hopefuls, the Coen brothers, as they bring their most intense work to date, i.e. No Country for Old Men. It may not be your cup of tea, but if you could look beyond the film's bleak look, you will see nothing but brilliance of filmmaking, Grandpa.

Your cute little grandchildren, Juno, sneaks in, because she (yes, Grandpa, we've got a film with first-name leading lady character as its title!) and her acerbic wits will tell you that smartness is still highly regarded in the present world of mindless films.

Beyond those five, you have every reason to be proud of your future aspirants.

You thought action is dead? Paul Greengrass and his The Bourne Ultimatum inject a dose of unbelievable energy to restore our faith in the genre.
You thought animation merely circles around kidlet's fantasy? Persepolis challenges my perception towards what happened in Iran during Islamic Revolution in 1978, and Ratatouille cements Brad Bird's status as a pioneer (aka a brat with a brain) of animated flick. Oh, Grandpa, don't get me heartbroken again with curiosity of how The Simpsons Movie fails to crack in. Too brash?
Never mind. At least you can also be proud of how Tim Burton never loses his magic in Sweeney Todd and his barbaric yet menacing acts, and both 3:10 to Yuma and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford generate excitement to root for Western all over again.

See, Grandpa, how you should be proud of cinematic achievement in 2007?

Thus, Grandpa, this major surgery at your heart, at your core of living, is something I'm sure you can pass off easily. You've survived bigger events than this, and you will live on.

So will film.

Love,

XOXO.

the key is 'assumption'

i thought, i knew what i had to do.
i thought, since i've been here before, i knew what would lie ahead.
i thought, everything would repeat.
i thought, everything worked out fine.
i thought, i could manage everything.

but i kept saying "i thought", because the idea stayed on this tiny little brain of mine.

and for once, i've never been this greatly worried before.

pray us luck.
wish us well.

for once, the end seems terrifyingly distant.

i am scared :(

Somewhere.

Nothing quite prepares you of feelings experienced in every trip, no mater howw often you've taken similar trips before. Each trip is something new, and each trip has its own memory one should not attempt to compare.

But have you taken a trip where your imagination is best left intact, even after you've completed a trip?

Have you ever taken a trip where your mind still lingers, playing what-if situation even after a stamp in your passport states that you have departed the place?

Have you ever taken a trip where your feet rule over your conscience?

Have you ever taken a trip where you busily arrange your feeling all the time?

Have you ever taken a trip where a lof of thinking dominates your days?

I don't know if I have done all of the above, actually. But if those describe my present state of mind, then let's just be it.



















And yes, maybe, some wishful thinking is best left intact or untouched.


"... and i know / when i am going / no more doubt / no more fear / i've found my way / so let's leave / today / anywhere / change me / change me / change me / once again ... " (nina simone - just in time - ost. before sunset)

How do we react to changes that we undertake?

There are many ways, and all of them lead into two big classification: either we accept them, or we reject them.

Looking back, I can say that I have no regret at all.

Post-Oscar Toothache.

Reflecting any pains that Leonardo DiCaprio (might) endure(d) while filming The Departed, particularly in the scene where Jack Nicholson punches Leo's gripped arm, it is politically incorrect that I almost shared the same pains upon knowing that the film in the spotlight won this year's Oscar for Best Picture.

While the film is a highly watchable flick, I wonder if this signals the decline of American cinema.
Has the land become extinct due to the drought of fresh ideas and compelling stories?
Has the land been busily sharpening its sophisticated look with the help of CGI, without at once feeding the brains?

And all that deserving winners (Alan Arkin, Helen Mirren, Marie Antoinette's Costume Design) do not make up the fact that this year's Best Picture is a remake of a Hong Kong instant classic film. Isn't it ironic that one land suffers from dry-spell of stories is conquering other land suffers from dry-spell of box-office takings, yet still abundant with interesting ideas?

Try to read between the lines of what IndieWire (as taken from Associated Press) reports below:

"The Hong Kong director of the gritty gangster flick that Martin Scorsese adapted as his Oscar-winning hit "The Departed" heaped praise on the man he said inspired him to make films. "It is an honour to have been able to help Martin win his first and long overdue Oscar," said Andrew Lau, whose 2002 film "Infernal Affairs" provided the story for Scorsese's movie set among the gangs of Boston. "He has always been my hero, his films were why I got into making films." AFP

What does this mean?

With all due respect to Scorsese, whose "The Age of Innocence" is a very personal favorite of mine, and whose "Taxi Driver", "Raging Bull", "Mean Streets", "Casino" and "Good Fellas" are, IMHO, considered works of art, I can only wonder whether he has entered his swansong years.

If yes, then let him bask in his belated glory, while we, appreciative audience, will continue wondering and searching a very few good, compelling, original films that make us proud to watch them.

Writing the above sentence gave me a bump. For a few seconds, I completely forgot about my tootache. Darn my teeth!