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Some exciting news. Wong Kar-wai's latest film, his first ENGLISH language film My Blueberry Nights opened at Cannes this year.

My Blueberry Nights" is a romantic road film, with a young woman making a soul-searching trip across America and encountering a series of charming and bizarre characters. Norah Jones stars in her first motion picture, which is chock-full of today's A-list of good-looking actors and actresses, including Jude Law, Rachel Weisz, Natalie Portman, David Strathairn, and Tim Roth.

Some clips here.

Two reviewers who 'get' Wong Kar-wai (because he really isn't for everyone) are here and here.

Gah! I so want to see this but it is nowhere on the internets. Sadly, Wong Kar-Wai isn't working with Christopher Doyle anymore (how much do I love Christopher Doyle? So much). Instead his cinematographer is Darius Khondji, whose work I really loved in Se7en so that helps.

( Some gorgeous pics )

Wong Kar-Wai's next film will be The Lady from Shanghai which I'm guessing will also be in English because of the cast (Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz). Still, I live in hope that Tony Leung, Faye Wong, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Maggie Cheung will show up too.

(Though Maggie Cheung has pretty much retired from acting now. Apparently, she wants to focus on her painting and composing music. Good for her, tragic for us.)

Last night I saw The Departed, a US remake of the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs.

I really loved Infernal Affairs when I saw it a couple of months ago and have since bought the sequel and loved that too, so it was with some trepidation that I went to see The Departed.

The Departed sticks fairly close to the story line of Infernal Affairs, however there are some new characters and, of course, it is now set in Boston.

( Spoilers )

So, it’s probably quite clear from all this that I don’t think this film is as good as the original but is it a bad film? No. It’s not even a bad remake. Liberties were taken but I’ve seen worse. I enjoyed the original more but I still had a fun time watching this.

Alternative subject line could be: koalathebear made me do it.

The first thing she made me do was watch the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. She has professed her love for this film on numerous occasions, saying that if you only ever see one film from Hong Kong, it should be this one.

And as usual, she was right. Despite the language barrier and thus the whole have-to-read-subtitles-thing this was one of the most enjoyable films I have seen in a long time. It's smart, tightly paced, beautifully shot and well acted.

( Pics and more under the cut )

Secondly, koalathebear directed me towards these gorgeous caps of the film Finding Nemo. I'm not really a fan of complete CGI kids movies but I love Finding Nemo. It's beautiful but that is secondary to the story. Soooooooo icons! Use them as such or for bases - I don't mind ;-) When my computer isn't acting so funky, I might edit them a bit more.



( I speak whale )