Eden Lake

I myself have always been a fan of horror movies, yet not in the sense that many of you would appreciate it. So a distinction was necessary to classify said movies into something that would be clearer for me in terms of technique, purpose, setting and finally, why not, detail. It is useful to understand that these ideal types often intermix.

In this effect, my categorization of horror movies goes as follows:

- gore horror - obviously meaning sheer detail and mostly going with stupid direction, with little to no time being spent in the artistic department; examples of such movies would most likely include the teen flicks that sprung in the late 90s early 00s: much quantity, less quality. It also relies on a twist ending that usually downgrades the whole production. This one contrasts with the psychological type in terms of detail and technique.

- active horror - this mainly is in stark opposition with the passive one, most obviously and it is particularized by a constant hide and seek from the beginning till the end, the details alternating from most to less with a very diffuse peak moment. Examples include most Japanese horrors, Haute tension, The Mist, Janghwa, Hongryeon, À l'intérieur, 1408 and many more.

- passive horror - the main feat of this type of horror film is the building up of suspense with discrete detailing up till a moment of explosion (in this respect in collides with the last type) where events can chain themselves beautifully and to great effect, even if half, or 3/4 of the film was under a slow pace. Examples include [Rec], The Ring, Ôdishon (which I recommend to all horror movie aficionados as being one of the sickest and having one of the most detailed scenes of torture ever seen on the big screen), El orfanato, The Descent, Honogurai mizu no soko kara.

- psychological horror - and why should I hide it, my own personal favourite relies heavily on the power it exercises over the mind of the viewer and its capacity to bend reality. Detail is minimal, if any, the element of horror being sustained by character development, background and overwhelming suspense. The final twist is usually exceptionally done and deviates only slightly from an otherwise detail-free environment. Examples include The Blair Witch Project, Tesis, Saint Ange, The Others, Kairo, El espinazo del diablo.

Of course, this classification does not apply to most interwoven genres such as parody, comedy, action or sci-fi, but they do help in standardizing the genre. Also is to be noted that many such horror films borrow from two or even three of the types described above. Few are pure.

Now, Eden Lake was in line with the rising horror industry in the UK, following on the path of such movies as the aforementioned The Descent, 28 Days Later... and Dog Soldiers. It is brutal, yet effective and doesn't give away to popular deconstruction, but it builds itself up and manages to paint a violent reality of Britain. The cliches don't mess it up, rather they add to its goal of establishing itself as a proper, driven horror movie.

8/10

Fat Santa

So Christmas came and with it, the usual hyperbolic mass hysteria associated with stray feelings, self-pitiful gift-giving and receiving, and my all time favourite, a tightly, nicely, gently wrapped present with green shiny paper and red strings that curl full of bullshit.

Now one may wonder why is it that one of the most important holidays in the world (muslims can say whatever, I know they give each other bombs this time of the year and wish to each other "happy christian killing") relies so heavily on lies, deceit and consumerist indoctrination. Well, it's easy, we don't live in a non-profit world, and somebody's gotta exploit the weak minds of the many. We all are very much aware that Santa Claus is fiction, yes he doesn't exist (and I'm not going to touch religion just yet, however for your information, I believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster) and still is very much the cover for everything that compounds this period of the holidays. Poor children are duped into thinking he exists, parents want to be children and sick people...well, they're just sick. Santa Claus is the upfront man.

So here we have a consumerist driven holiday that has as a basis for its existence the greedy imagination of corporatists. You may think, hell, it's the holidays, it's a time of giving and loving and whatnot. Well, wrong. Ask ANY CEO (preferably not in front of the cameras) of a major company that profits from Christmas and he'll tell you plain and simple: it's all about the money. Now a sweet thing is that in Japan Christmas is considered a holiday of the kids and of lovers. Yet the Japanese aren't the best example of anti-consummerism since they have a frenetic impulse of intoxicating themselves with wretched western imports.

So there you have it, a campaign of money wasting for things we don't need and can't afford (and you wonder why is there a financial crisis...well, d'oh) sponsored by a being that doesn't exist taking merciless advantage of the helpless kids and the self-pitying adults.

Therefore I shall try and celebrate Saturnalia, at least they had a backbone of honesty and any bullshit about it, you knew and was never hidden in pompous advertising about "how great the time of cheerful joy is". So cheerful that the suicide rate increases over Christmas (no, it's not a myth, although many suggest it decreased overtime, that's just because people imagined that going alone isn't the answer and taking some few with you will be just what Santa wants of us)

You think about that. I'll do something else.

Knife Edge

Quite some time passed, I admit, since I last saw an enthralling thriller. Knife Edge is just what this forgotten genre needed. A good thriller is hard to come by, that's just it. I can't even remember my last enjoyable one. Most of them now blend with horror and indulge in such clichees that you can't separate consumerism from sheer stupidity.

Of course, the first 20 minutes showed us the limits of the director and the acting was a bit sketchy at times. Then again, that's what I remember about classic thrillers. Deep characters, although mostly bi-dimensional, that suffer through a linear story until some twists that confront the viewer to shift allegiances take place.

I really liked Nathalie Press' performance in My Summer of Love and here she is a credible mother and new wife in a past-haunted (not The Shining-haunted) mansion, reminding us of Rosemary. Sure, all in all it was without originality and it didn't manage to expand from its genre. But the cinematography is excellent, the story, to use a line from the movie "dickensian", and it doesn't look to rely on artifices such as gratuitous nudity or butchering violence. It just delivers.

7/10

Awareness

I was at this conference where the term of awareness came up. The particular case was related to AIDS and cancer. I'm going to streamline it as usual and make the whole thing seem much more important than it is. Yes, it is.

The term 'cancer awareness' came up. This struck me more than odd. In what way could you ever be unaware of the fact that you have terminal cancer (yes, they all/most are) or of its causes. Cause let's face it, it's not AIDS; you cannot be aware that unprotected sex, drug abuse or whatever sort of blood or seminal fluid contacts can lead to that disease. Unless you start stamping everything as "potentially cancerous", from meat to electronics and radioactive material. And it won't matter, people will still eat meat, use electronics and get radiation poisoning because they were unaware.

There is to make you aware that you might get cancer (unless some limited information, such as the aforementioned radioactive poisoning, prolonged sun exposure et caetera) and once you have it, unlike AIDS, that until something goes really wrong with you, you won't know it, cancer is visible, painful and most certainly always leads to death.

So can you be made aware of the fact that you have cancer? Yes, it's called having it. You don't need much testing done for that. Can you be made aware of the things that cause cancer? Only if you list everything dangerous. Otherwise, no.

It's sad and I may be insensitive. But the real insensitive people are those that like to play with words and programs and organizations and whatnot. If I got AIDS tomorrow, I'd probably go for the medication, and try and lead a more careful life. I might die, might also not. If I got cancer, well, then it gets tough. I'll probably focus more on something more productive for posterity. But I will die. And I don't want to vomit 10 times a day while in horrific pain just to delay it. I want to go smooth. Will I be aware that I have cancer? Yes. Will I have been made aware by anything of how I got cancer or of the fact I have by outside influences. Most unlikely.

Hence my advice is live, happily first, and healthy, if you can. Political correctness is just wrong (and I'll touch that in another subject), why use words that dehumanize the human experiences? Fuck awareness or the next thing you'll know is them telling you to be aware that you're alive.

Representation

Representative democracy - now I don't know about you but whenever I hear this compound form of type of government I invariably start laughing inside - the term sounds so absurd, that it would be even more obvious if I were to put it next to another fine streak of human deception: democratic dictatorship; yes, that's how some of the communist countries officially name themselves. It's just plain hilarious.

Let's first consider representation. What are the elected officials representing? The popular interest? Oh really? Can you provide data as to an official voting against his interests just to satisfy people with whom he won't have to deal with for another 4 years (unless you live in a country where the recall function is implemented, which is rather nice)? In effect, everyone is egotistical, and everyone votes in their own self-interest. The difference between the official that is indulging himself in power and the people is that the latter have the counter-balancing of democratic system, i.e. even if everyone votes in their own interest, the most with the common interest win by majority rule. Democracy is simple: winner takes it all.

And that brings me to the second part of my commentary (couldn't really call it an argument now, could I?). It concerns the matter of democracy with a hint of representative system. No election can be representative and democratic at the same time. Sure, democracy exist in all tiers of decision, even in an oligarchy of 10, where 6 decide against 4; to this effect, if you claim the representative aspect, one vote (of the official) cannot equate the diversity of the magnitude in which he was elected (since he represents ALL of the citizens in the respective constituency, not only those that elected him). On the other side, if you argue the democratic aspect, it would totally conflict the representative facet: democracy compels you to always respect the majority rule, regardless of votes wasted. Dictatorship of majority.

And finally I come to the wittgensteinein angle of my argument (yes, now I can call it that). Democracy is a label applied to practical measures and undertakings of any construct (political - regime, social - corporation) to infer it legitimacy in front of those that should actually recognise their value: the populace, and more particularly, the majority. By repeatedly telling the masses they live in a democracy, they give up their undeniable democratic essence to a rather distorted minority that basically governs (or leads) outside the ethic ground they uphold. On that account, 'democracy' and notably 'representative democracy' are make-believe terms in the same scope as you would consider 'democratic dictatorship'. Funny thing is, the roles are reversed, and democracy actually is dictatorial.

Therefore, a small practical example requires to be satisfied: consider a community of 2001 individuals (I'll discuss direct democracy and its implications in the modern world another time, so let's skip the "oh, but..."). Individual no. 1 has to die, doesn't matter why, he just has to. So, as in a true, pure democratic state, the matter is subjected to vote. 999 vote against his death while the others 1001 vote for. That is his death sentence. Now, among the arguments you'd shout against this is that every life is priceless. I agree. You also say that we are all equal. By using simple logic and mathematics, 1001 priceless unique lives are decisively more than 999 (say even 1000, if the guy about to die can vote on the matter). And that's the proof of democracy. If you feel the need to name your system, please don't perjure the name of such a beautiful concept. Democracy is not representative. It's not open for debate. It's absolute, winner takes it all.

Vox populi :)

High School

An enthralling story about the friendship between 7 guys that goes awry as each of them discovers themselves with respect to their relationship which ends up taking unexpected turns reminding of the chaos theory.

Jiu jiang feng (Winds of September) delves into a common subject for most of us, the seemly endless times of high school (here also against the backdrop of chinese communism, however not as harsh as most imagine) when we'd get into trouble, got reprimanded, laughed it off and do it all over again. Two of the boys are sophomores, two juniors and three seniors, the latter not affording many more screw ups, or they risk expulsion. Yen is with Yun, however he is handsome and likes to flirth with other girls. Tang tutores Yun and secretly loves her, whilst covering the mishaps of Yen. And from here you can imagine any possible scenario; without spoiling, I shall nevertheless say that when one of the blocks of this friendship falls, it all comes down eventually, like a domino. The boys don't meet anymore, get agressive with one another, even lie to evade a police record. The unity goes away.

Remembering the high school years, let's value those gatherings, the schemes we always connived, the way friendships covered for our faults and the satisfaction you got that, even if things went bad, at least we were all in it together. And let's laugh.

I rate the movie 9/10

History

So a few weeks back, I had the chance of seeing Purple Violets, a witty romantic film which interested me not only because of the cast (Selma Blair, Patrick Wilson, Edward Burns) and the literate-connected theme (which was more used as a push-block) but for a historical genealogy of sentiments.

Now I know some of you may disagree with this rather pragmatic approach and argue that love is a spur of the moment, spontaneity act and you would not be mistaken. However, love is also something you can best comment empirically, i.e. after it is over, an empirical argument which you cannot displace for another experience's convenience. Hence, feelings cannot be rationalized but they can be valued upon an occurrence.

Getting to my point, after much pondering, I came to the idea that feelings are stronger and the relationship is more stable (by which I mean, anything you may understand through 'stable', be it hack'n'slash lunches and violent evenings on the kitchen table) when the partners know each other longer. Basically, a relationship has more chances of success the longer the two lovers have experienced life as a couple or as emotionally-distinct individuals, for it is experience which binds their feelings and during rough times, it is that which they have lived through a constant reference for stability and happiness. And it will be harder to really know a person as time goes by, since there will be less of each other's lives you have seen, got to know, experienced, got to love, and there will be no reference to a past that would alleviate pain; rather, it would only heighten the emotional disequilibrium.

So my point is, give history a chance.

Oh, and my rating for the movie is 7/10