A blind monk in a Benedictine monastery would enjoy watching Maggie Cheung's slow-motion walk in those dresses.

Best film of the year as I said before. But I can't figure out the talking cars or the chimps. Certainly it's about film making, especially since it's the director in the opening walking through the wall--and use his finger as the key.

You do know, though, that the driver is Edith Scob whose great starring role is in Eyes Without a Face. And I'm sure there's references to other films I didn't get.

Now you tell me. Doh!

On my last viewing, I finally saw and recognized the import of Chow's slippers. I keep seeing new things every time I watch it. One of my students said it perfectly: "This movie is all about subtlety."

I think so. BTW, I asked them to guess the name of the sequel, and one student got it right!

Note, too, how often Maggie and Tony are filmed through the bars on the window when outside.

You're a bit slow, aren't you.

Yeah, it was pretty thrilling to see her put on her mask at the end. Those eyes!

The talking cars are about how big machinery are dying out and being replaced by computers/digital/ones and zeros. Or something.

lol...Most definitely. I loved the whole cultural modesty about how she's stuck in his room for 18 hours or so and never takes her shoes off. It would be improper, even while she's sleeping in his bed. And then when she visits him in Singapore, she steals his slippers. So intimate.

One thing I still do not understand: why didn't she stay until he arrived?? Why go all that way and then just leave?

That I have noted to my students. I don't just show them a film and go, "look, pretty pictures!", you know.

Dom,

I think she leaves her slippers and then goes back to get them rather than take his slippers. Why go all the way and then leave? Why call him and not say anything? What's she going to say? You have a son, I think. But she can't bring herself to say it.

I just had to share this with youz guyz

But they're the same slippers, I think, that are under his bed when she is stuck in his room in 1963 and she leaves her shoes on...the last shot of that sequence ARE the slippers. And when Chow does return he is upset because something is missing from his room.

I'm confused now...

WAIT A MINUTE

Are you saying they slept together and that the son is Chows?? I don't see that at all. They never slept together. She even repeats a couple of times: "We won't be like them."

I've always assumed the son is her husbands'.

So what secret does he whisper at the end? Also, it's much more poignant given the ending when he hears that a woman and her son live in the building now.

You're not answering my questions.

I always figured it as a ships passing in the night kind of thing. Please tell me how they are her slippers in either of his rooms. And when exactly did they have sex? She wouldn't have done that while married. "We won't be like them."

Remember the first time she's stuck in his room while the neighbors play mah jong. She puts shoes on before she goes back into her room, and the slippers are left under the bed. If you go to just before the 53:00 mark, you'll see that she has arrived at his room wearing the slippers, but since she's supposed to be coming home from work, I assume she's taken his wife's shoes, one reason she has trouble walking in them.

There's one scene in the cab in which she leans her head against him and says something like "I don't want to go home alone tonight." I'm not sure if she's playacting there because Wong leaves most of this ambiguous. When did they have sex? I don't know exactly, but I'm going to assume in my reading that they take the playacting as far as their spouses do.

Okay, I've gone back and watched the scenes in question.

Regarding the slippers: you're right, she's wearing them at the beginning of the scene where she's trapped in his room. She then changes into her heels, leaving them behind. However, when she goes back to her room, the old lady asks her what's wrong with her leg and Su says her new shoes are bothering her. Then she closes her door and quickly takes the shoes off and massages her feet, as they obviously hurt. ...Why? Is it possible she went over to Chow's with her slippers on and borrowed a pair of his wife's shoes to go back to her room without arousing suspicion? This doesn't make sense to me, though, because Chow's wife had already left him at this point - although, she could have left some clothes behind, I guess.

Later in Singapore, she visits his room and has on slippers. However, the end of that scene is a CU of her feet - in heels - as she bends down and lingers over the slippers, as if she's going to take them - but we do not see her actually do so.

The previous scene has Chow looking all over his room for something that is missing - presumably, the slippers. So by taking them with her and leaving the cigarette butt with the lipstick mark, do you think Su is intentionally telling Chow she has been there?


This is the mystery!

She says that line, and then he takes her hand - which she lets him do. Remember, previously he had tried to take her hand in the cab and she pulled away - either because he went too far in their play-acting or he wasn't play acting any more.

Next scene - the two of them on opposite sides of the same wall, day dreaming, while the radio plays what is apparently a birthday message from Su's husband to her.

Next scene - We see a phone ring but no one answers. Then a shot of the clock where Su works while we hear Chow ask, "if there was an extra ticket, would you go with me?"

Next scene - Chow is in the hotel room he locks up and turns all of the lights out before leaving - ostensibly leaving for good. And when he is in the hallway, his image is frozen even while the camera is moving! Why? I know we saw the same shot previously with her - but what meaning can be behind it?

Next scene - we see Su rushing down some stairs. Next, we see her sitting in the hotel room, alone, obviously having missed Chow. She cries. And we hear her in VO: "It's me. If there was an extra ticket, would you go with me?"

Okay. I have noticed that there was often VO over a shot of the clock in Su's office. However, it was never clear that these VO's were actually conversations or just in the minds of our protagonists.

Why the ambiguity? When Chow says "will you go with me" - are we to believe he actually said that to her and that he waited for her as long as she could but she arrived too late? And then her VO repeating the same line - just a moment of regret, as she remembers his question?

Or did he never say that to her at all??

I certainly see how - if they had made love that last night and the little boy is his son, that it would make everything even more poignant.

But it still doesn't answer the question - why didn't she wait for him in Singapore (when she took the slippers)?

I'm a little obsessed.

I can't answer that last question, Dom, but you know how women-and men--are. We sometimes hold back at the times we shouldn't and commit too early and too much when we should hold back. And the film is about repression, both historical and personal.

I love that shot you mention in the hallway. And Wong plays with chronology in subtle ways, using flashforwards at times. I love the shots, too, of Chow in the doorway bathed in the amber light.

Just watched Sinister and thought it was a great scary movie, it was scary from beginning to end.

John, Dom

move it to separate thread imo!

[REC] 3 - Talk about franchise-killing sequels. I don't understand who's idea this was but it was a very, very bad one. They completely abandon the home-movie camera aspect, which is about 80% of what gave the first two movies their charm and interest. Super, super gory. Super cheesy too. By the end, I really wanted the main protagonists to just die already because they were acting so stupid. The actress who plays the bride is absolutely beautiful though.

Safety Not Guaranteed - I really enjoyed this quirky little movie. It's about a 20-something girl who's interning at a local magazine and they go to investigate a man who placed a personal ad looking for someone who wants to travel back in time with him. The characters are written well, the pacing is good, and the ending was something I couldn't quite predict so I was happy. I thought all of the actors were quite good in this, especially Aubrey Plaza, the main female lead. Definitely recommend.

Vanishing Point (1971) directed by Richard C. Sarafian and starring Barry Newman, Cleavon Little, Dean Jagger, and a 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T, 440 Magnum.


And yeah baby, I saw this movie in 1971 before most of you rattle head wanabes were born. Great movie; almost a documentary style of shooting that captured the feel of the times when made, and having no other point than whatever you wish to project into it. VP has turn into a cult film, sort of like Repo Man or Buckaroo Banzi from the 80's, but Vanishing Point out does them. Take some durgs and watch it full tilt.

Just watched "Know Your Mushrooms". I thought it was a scifi movie but it was about mushrooms.

+1!!!

I wasn't too into [REC] 2. There was a clear drop in quality and scariness from 1 to 2 for certain. Idk. If 3 is on Crackle for free I might watch it though.