Week 3 (21st July 2017): Not One Less (1999) & Zhang Yimou

Week 3: 21st July 2017

        

    Zhang Yimou's Not One Less (1999)       Wei Minzhi playing as Wei Minzhi (Sub Teacher)

                                  

                                                   Wei Minzhi with her students

Last week during my Media Appreciation class,we watched this Chinese film called Not One Less.I don't really watch any foreign/non-English movies because sometimes when I do want to watch one,it's either not available on Youtube,or they don't have it on Torrent websites.But I was given the opportunity to watch this masterpiece made by Zhang Yimou.This movie shows that a teacher would do anything and I mean ANYTHING to get his student back from the city.Doesn't matter if you're a permanent teacher or a substitute teacher,this movie really proves the fact that they would do anything for their students success/knowledge.The substitute teacher was told that she couldn't let any of her students leave the school and so she did kept her promise.One of her students was taken to the city for an opportunity of some sort when she specifically did not allow her student to go but her student was forced to.So from a small and countryside of China,she collected money with the help of her other students to go to the city.But as money runs out,she did not back down.She kept her promise to not let any of her students leave,so its a promise she will keep.We were also told to write about the director;Zhang Yimou.Soo here it is..

                                        

                                                                     Zhang Yimou

 

            From his first debut in 1987 with his film Red Sorghum,to winning numerous awards with Best Foreign Film nominations and directing opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games;Zhang Yimou is a Chinese film director,producer,writer,actor and former cinematographer.Zhang Yimou was born on the 2nd of April 1950 in Xi'an,the capital of Shaanxi province in China.Among the Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers,he is counted as one of them.

             With numerous awards and recognition he has won,and nominations for Best Foreign Film for his movies Ju Dou in 1990,Raise the Red Lantern in 1991 and Hero in 2003.During the Venice Film Festival,he has won the Silver Lion and Golden Lion prizes.He has also won the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and also the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.Zhang was a member of the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival jury.And as mentioned before,he has directed the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games.

Words of wisdom/Quotes by Zhang Yimou 

"Under the big political umbrella,a man is just like a leaf in the ocean,with no control of his destiny and does not have any choice"

"To survive is to win"

"People have become shallower.They view spending,entertaining,seeking leisure and enjoying as the main objectives of their life."

"Time has changed and now is the age of spending"

  

These are some of Zhang Yimou's best films of his career as rated by Flickchart.com:-

 

1.Raise the Red Lantern (1991)

 2.Hero (2002)

 3.House of Flying Daggers (2004)

 

 4.To Live (1994)

 

5. Curse of The Golden Flower (2006)

   

6.The Story of Qiu Ju (1993)

 

7.The Road Home (1999)

 

8.The Red Sorghum (1987)

 

9.Shanghai Triad (1995)

 

10.Not One Less (1999)

  

Words of wisdom/Quotes by Zhang Yimou 

"Under the big political umbrella,a man is just like a leaf in the ocean,with no control of his destiny and does not have any choice"

"To survive is to win"

"People have become shallower.They view spending,entertaining,seeking leisure and enjoying as the main objectives of their life."

"Time has changed and now is the age of spending"

Week 2 (14th July 2017): Food (Brief comment)

                                                         Jan Svankmajer's Food (1992)
14th July 2017


Soo...What this film is about is that after eating breakfast, a man is transformed into an elaborate dumb-waiter-style breakfast dispenser and the same fate befalls the man who obtains breakfast from him.During lunch ,After failing to catch the waiter’s eye, two would-be diners end up eating everything within reach.And for dinner,well...Portraits of various meals made up of human organs.Jan Svankmajer's final short film is a shocker, a return to an allegory he conceived of in the 1970s but which was unproducable under the Communist system. On one level, that's odd: every point made in Food could be spun as anti-capitalist. But under a system which famously banned him from directing for making irreverent musical choices, it's hard to really have a discussion over the political nuance of someone eating their own hand.


How different would this have been if it could have been made in the 1970s? I think it would have been less disturbing; the smoothness of Švankmajer's technique now allows him to seamlessly switch between real humans and plasticine models, which makes the violence more shocking than it is in gorier, fully animated shorts like Darkness-Light-Darkness or The Death of Stalinism in Bohemia. Other than his increased technical confidence, the only other sign that this was made in the '90s is 'Lunch', which proves that, by 1993, the floppy centre-parted indie-boy haircut pioneered by Brett Anderson had made it into Prague. Communism could never stand up to such decadent pleasures.

I've said it before,and I'll say it again.Jan Svankmajer has done it again and provided us with another and unfortunately his last short film.All of his films have attracted my interests towards Surrealism.His films will always be recommended to people I know whether they like Surrealism or not.Either way,these are films that are needed to be watched whether you can or can't handle the eerie and strange scenes or noises but with deep and dark meaningful stories behind them.

Week 2 (14th July 2017): Down To The Cellar (Brief comment)

                                               Jan Svankmajer's Down to the Cellar(1986)

14th July 2017

So after admiring 15 minutes of another beautiful masterpiece by Jan Svankmajer,I have to say that this is by far the best short-film I've ever seen in a while.Knowing how Jan Svankmajer is with his movies,I can really see and feel the creepy vibe the movie provides.The most amazing part is that he uses everyday objects as stop-motion models instead of models.

It all starts with a little girl going down in to a cellar to get some potatoes.She comes across with some normal looking folks.But it all changes with the very creepy and eerie noises which was a brilliant touch by Svankmajer.The folks started eating,bathing,sleeping with charcoal at least that's what I think it is.That was the most creepy and disturbing part of the movie.Watching those disturbing things.When she entered a room with a chest filled with potatoes,that's when the stop motion animation happens.As she was collecting potatoes,the potatoes disappears as if it moved by itself(which it did).Each potato dropped in the basket she brought along,rolled back into the chest full of potatoes.

But then again,Jan Svankmajer has done it again and as earned even more respect from me for his brilliant work.I recommend everyone to watch his films and animations.

Week 2 (14th July 2017): What Is Surrealism?

        Examples of Surrealism 

14th July 2017

So what is Surrealism?Surrealism began in the early 1920's as a cultural movement and is best known for its visual artworks and writings.It was also founded in France and Belgium.Unnerving,illogical scenes with photographic precision painted by several artists,created strange creatures from everyday objects and developed painting techniques that allowed the unconscious to express itself.The aim was to "resolve previous opposing conditions of dreams and reality into an absolute reality.Surrealism works feature the element of surprise and unexpected things.However,a lot of Surrealist artists and writers regard their work as an expression of a philosophical movement with the works of being an artifact.

Surrealism was founded by the poet Andre Breton in Paris in 1924,Surrealism was an artistic and literary way to show movement.It proposed that the Enlightenment,the influential during the 17th and 18th century intellectual movement that championed reason and individualism had suppressed the superior qualities of the irrational,unconscious mind.The goal for Surrealism was to liberate thought,language,and human experience from the oppressive boundaries of rationalism.Breton was well-versed in the psychoanalytical writings of Sigmund Freud from his studies of medicine and psychiatry.He was particularly interested in the idea of an unconscious mind which produced dreams was the source of artistic creativity.A devoted Marxist,Breton also intended Surrealism to be a revolutionary movement capable of unleashing the minds of the masses from the rational order of society.But how could they achieve this liberation of the human mind?

During World War 1,Surrealism was developed out of the Dada activities and Paris was the most important center of the movement.The movement spread around the globe since the 1920's.Eventually affecting visual arts,literature,film and music of many other countries and languages,as well as political thought and practice,philosophy,and social theory.By 1937, however, most of the major figures in Surrealism had been forced to leave Europe to escape Nazi persecution. Max Ernst’s Europe After the Rain II (1940–42) reflects this fraught moment with a post-apocalyptic vision created at the height of World War II. A partially abstract work formed by “decalcomania”a technique that entailed painting on glass, then pressing that painted glass to the canvas to allow chance elements to remain Europe After the Rain suggests bombed-out buildings, the corpses of humans and animals, and eroded geological formations in the aftermath of a great cataclysm.

The term 'surrealist' was founded in March 1917 by a letter to Paul Dermee by Guillaume Apollinaire which wrote[Translated to English] "All things considered,I think in fact is is better to adopt surrealism than supernaturalism,which I first used".The term were used by Apollinaire in his program notes for the premiered Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes,Parade on the 18th of May 1917.The one-act scenario by Jean Cocteau in Parade was performed with music by Erik Satie.

                                                             The Icons of Surrealism

Week 2 (14th July 2017): Jan Svankmajer

Week 2: 14th July 2017

 

Jan Svankmajer

Jan Svankmajer is a Czech filmmaker and artist whose work spans several media.He was born on the 4th of September 1934.He is a self-labeled surrealist known for his animation and features,which have greatly influenced other artists such as Terry Gilliam,the Brothers Quay,and many others.He is also well-known for a puppeteer, and an animator known for his dark reimaginings of wel-known fairy tales.He was hailed by critics for privileging visual elements over plot and narrative,others for his use of dark fantasy.

In the 1950's,Jan Svankmajer studied at the Institute of Industrial Arts and the Marionette Faculty of the Prague Academy of Fine Arts.After studying there,Jan Svankmajer started working as a theatre director with the Theatre of Masks and the Black Theatre as his associates.After getting involved with Prague's Lanterna Magika Theatre's mixed-media production,he started experimenting with film-making on his own.He started making his own short films in 1964,and has been continuing for over 20 years now after fulfilling his dream on making a film based on Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland called Alice(1987).

His well distinctive,uniquely as he calls it "Svankmajeresque",would do very well to get epithets bounded to be applied to him out of the way.Surrealist is one of them.It is a term used indiscriminately to refer a wide variety of artists and member of the Czech Surrealist movement,and has claimed his allegiance to that philosophy of art and life numerous of times.The other is animator,which is partially true.His films employ and with incomparable mastery,various techniques in his clay animation,puppetry,stop-motion,cut-out figures and the often mixed in with "live" subjects.These are just techniques that means to an end and it is a vier of the world,life and its dynamics.

In the mid-1970's,he has produce and exhibited his drawings,collages and 'tactile sculptures',after being temporarily banned from film-making by the Czech authorities.Some of his most famous work Lekce Faust (1993; Faust),gave a new spin to the familiar tale of the Faustian bargain.The film is set in a foreboding puppet theatre that lures the main characters inside.He experienced a strange version of the Faust play that includes giant puppets and clay figures filmed in stop-motion

Week 1 (7th July 2017): What Is Media?

7th July 2017

So what is media?Well after a few google research,the definition of Media is,it is basically another way somewhat a very advanced way of communication.Communications such as Broadcasting,Direct Mails,Fax etc are what media is all about.The most commonly used place for 'spreading' Media is always in the most beautiful yet very dangerous place known to society nowadays.And that is the Internet.Whether through Blogs,Text Messaging Apps,Articles from various websites and more.Here are some links containing the definition of Media.


From the link- http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/media.html ,Media means communication channels through which news,entertainment,education,data,or promotional messages are disseminated.Media includes every broadcasting and narrowcasting medium such as newspapers,magazines,TV,radio,billboards,direct mail,telephone,fax,and internet.Media is the plural of medium and can take plural or singular verb,depending on the sense intended.

Furthermore,from the link  https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/media ,the word media comes from the Latin plural of medium.The traditional view is that it should therefore be treated as a plural noun in all its senses in English and be used with a plural rather than a singular verb: the media have not followed the reports (rather than 'has').In practice,in the sense 'television,radio,and the press collectively',it behaves as a collective noun (like staff or clergy,for example) which means that is is now acceptable in standard english for it to take either a singular or a plural verb.The word is also increasingly used in the plural form medias,as if it had a conventional singular form media,especially when referring to different forms of new media,and in the sense 'the material or form used by an artist':there were great efforts made by the medias of the involved countries about 600 works in all genres and medias were submitted for review.

1. Communication channels through which news, entertainment, education, data, or promotional messages are disseminated. Media includes every broadcasting and narrowcasting medium such as newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, billboards, direct mail, telephone, fax, and internet. Media is the plural of medium and can take a plural or singular verb, depending on the sense intended.
2. Data storage material divided into three broad categories according to the recording method: (1) Magnetic, such as diskettes, disks, tapes, (2) Optical, such as microfiche, and (3) Magneto-Optical, such as CDs and DVDs.

Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/media.htm

Week 1 (7th July 2017): Self Introduction

 Week 1:7th July 2017

       Hello and good day to you!My name is Ilham Harith Bin Zulhazri.I was born on the 6th of November 1999.With the creativity of my parent's they named me 'Ilham' because it means Inspiration.And 'Harith' means Strong and Making Efforts.

        I currently live in Shah Alam but I've spent most of my childhood and teenage years in Taman Tun which is in Kuala Lumpur.The reason to that is because,my beautiful mother worked at University of Malaya.So on her way to work,she would send me and my sisters to granny's house which is in Taman Tun.My grandfather would send us to school every morning since we were 7.They are both still alive and healthy at 70.

        My hobbies aren't that very interesting to be honest.I would regularly Google all bunch of stuffs,take non-copyrighted photographs on my Canon EOS 650D and my Huawei P9,and I love listening to my favorite genre of music EVERYDAY.And my favorite genre of music are Rock and Metal.I still get questions from people on why I love listening to that kind of music.Some people would say I worship Satan,some people would say I'm an evil person.And to be honest,I don't really care what they say because,it comes to the point where it's actually funny when they tell me that.How I got into this music is by my handsome and hard-working father and his late father which sadly passed away before my parents even got married.

             I was quite an ambitious child back then.There was a time when I wanted to be an architect because I loved to play games that requires you to create your own cities,buildings,skyscrapers.There was a time when I wanted to be an English Lecturer just like my mother.I am very IN LOVE with animals,bugs and insects.Most people would be scared to hold a Tarantula on their palms,and then there's me attempting to place the creature on my face.Which unfortunately DID NOT HAPPEN because the professionals did not let me.So with that interest,I also had an ambition where I wanted to become a Wildlife Biologist.But sadly,not all dreams come true.No worries,my ambition to become a Designer might just happen if I focus on my studies and never giving up.Besides,if I can't be a Wildlife Biologist,I can always be an expert of the wildlife with the help of books and Google.

Communication channels through which news, entertainment, education, data, or promotional messages are disseminated. Media includes every broadcasting and narrowcasting medium such as newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, billboards, direct mail, telephone, fax, and internet. Media is the plural of medium and can take a plural or singular verb, depending on the sense intended.

Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/media.html