wahh!!! this gonna be my third post of the day hehe... so much to blog about i guess ;)we went for a movie marathon yesterday- two movies only anyway. we watched the wild at 11am (+/- 1hr 20mins). then we headed for our lunch at the newly-renovated secret recipe. then we went into the tgv kinta city again to watch gubra (2 hours) at 1.35pm.
1) the wild
disney's the wild shows off some of these impressive, cuddly characters, but unfortunately, the writing doesn’t hold up when compared to recent – and classic – animated films.
the wild isn’t terribly funny by any means, unfortunately, at least to an adult. there are a few laughs to be had here and there.
even with the funny moments, the wild is still missing that special something. while every pixar film to date has appealed to both young and old, disney has yet to get that concept right on its own. now that disney has bought out pixar, projects currently in the works certainly have a chance to reach the standard set by films like toy story and monsters inc. as for the wild, well, it’s really just for the little ones.
that aside, the animation in this film is truly some of the best i’ve seen. the brilliant presentation of times square, the realistic view of the dense african jungle, the smoke billowing from a volcano facing imminent eruption – all these things considered, well, it’s easy to see why the visuals are the film’s strong point. the animation in the opening storytelling sequence, as well as during the clever charting of the transcontinental journey across the atlantic, was also extremely well done.
for the kids, they may certainly get a kick out of the wild, with its colourful cast of characters and its typical Disney ending. but there are certainly some better options.
2) gubra
as you all could see, i do not watch stupid local films/movies. i only watch a good quality one like yasmin ahmad's. i know she has been through the ups and downs in the industry. what when the recent mysterious thing happened to her film in theatres. read about it here :(
gubra continues where sepet (whom my lil' bro was the music/sound editor) left off, delving further into inter-racial relationships, racial issues and religious acceptance and tolerance. it was not a surprised, of me sitting next to a chinese girl who came to watch the movie alone.
“gubra is basically about love and betrayal, and the inevitable question of whether or not to forgive the people who betray us and why is it that we tend to hurt the people we love most,” - yasmin.
gubra is bound to create some waves as it also raises the “sensitive” issue of the friendship between a wife of a bilal (religious figure) and two prostitutes, one of whom is dying of AIDS.
sharifah amani, ida nerina, harith iskandar and adibah noor, from sepet, reprise their roles in gubra.
psst! people who havent watched yet, stay back for after the credits. you will so kiss me for telling you this. REALLY.
if i have to compare gubra with sepet, i’d have to say that gubra didn't make me sit down and just think, like how sepet did. sepet just completely jilted me. but that doesn't make gubra a lesser movie, cos i think they’re both in two very different categories. if you exclude the art direction and the filming techniques and the obvious yasmin ahmad element, gubra wasnt like sepet at all.
gubra was filmed fantastically. i especially love how there was so much play with doors. it made me feel like i was an intangible observer, like a ghost, but yet *there* at the same time, in the heart of what was taking place before my eyes. like being in two places at once - both on the inside and outside.
the powerful and jarring scenes from sepet were succeeded in gubra - the scene where temah held her son from behind while he was sleeping, the scene where arif enveloped orked while she cried, the scene where the car was being washed after orked walked out on arif, the scene where the religious man walked past the prostitutes .. i loved them all. gubra was good cos of scenes like those. cinematography and screenplay at its best.
gubra was a feel-good, soft film. beautiful like black calligraphy on yellowed parchment, intimate like pressing warm hands softly on tired eyes. i give it a 4/5.
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