London Korean Film Festival

Due to sponsorship, free Korean films were being shown at the Prince Charles Cinema near Leicester Square. The PCC shows films for as low as a quid.

I tried to see My Scary Girl (Delkom Salbeolhan Yeon-in). I arrived 1/2 hr before the film started and found the queue stretched down to Leicester Square, turned right and stretched towards the Swiss Centre. I joined the back, noting that about 1/2 the queuers were non-Korean. Apparently it had only just been released in its native country.

After waiting 1/2hr, I had nearly got to the front of the queue. There were 10 people in front of me. A cinema employee came out and said there was only 1 ticket. He asked if there were any individuals who wanted 1 ticked. The Chinese Australian screamed she was alone and was given the last ticket.

I waited 1hr in the pouring rain for the second film of the night. After I appealed to the festival organisers, they agreed to give out tickets 20min before the film started, allowing the audience to take cover from the downpour, for a while.

I managed to see See You After School (Bang-gwa-hoo Ock-sang). It's a remake of Three O'Clock High. A loser accidentally annoys the chief school bully and is challenged to a fight at the end of the school day. He tries everything to avoid be slaughtered in the fight. It's an above-average high school comedy. It made getting soaked worthwhile.

Slating Spartan

Review of the Spartan DVD & Val Kilmer commentary

[spoilers]

Thanks to Time Out magazine's promotional offer, I have been enjoying a free trial of ScreenSelect's DVD rental service.

As Spartan was written & directed by David Mamet, I thought it would fuse the crafted dialogue of Glengarry Glen Ross with the intricate plotting of House of Games and the excitement of Ronin (where he is credited as Richard Weisz in protest at not being given top billing.) Was I severely mistaken.

It stars Val Kilmer as a special forces operative who is asked to find a kidnapped politician's daughter.

It's a simple thriller with obvious twists that could be seen coming a mile off. Mamet sets up a number of scenes only to end them for no good reason. Perhaps they were curtailed after poor test screenings.

For example:

1) An attempt to befriend a contact by posing as a Good Samaritan goes wrong through a blunder by Kilmer's partner

2) A raid on the kidnappers is aborted when a news report comes in

Mamet's trademark dialogue is absent although perhaps the laconic Kilmer fits the bill as the operative who prefers action to the words of politicians.

In addition, there's a significant plot hole: when Kilmer cleans his knife, he finds a bug and we cut to a jeep arriving at his location. It's implied that he has been bugged for some time yet the buggers have not bothered to intercept him until the very last moment. Why would they wait?

For the actors, Kilmer leads fairly well and has more depth to his character than the one he played in Heat. His rookie partner, played by Derek Luke has the misfortune to be shot twice.

In a so bad, it's good way, I found Kilmer's commentary amusing. Usually, DVD commentaries are done by the director with or without colleagues. However, Mamet's input is missing. Perhaps he wanted to dissociate himself with this turkey. Kilmer's role is a leading man constrains him to mainly talking about his role & his character. He's wise enough to not rabble on to fill up airtime and there are often 1/2 minute pauses between his comments. He discusses the training of special forces operatives and his perception of their experiences in the field.

More amusingly, Kilmer speaks disdainfully of "Daveed Mameh" (as DM's theatrical luvvies are alleged to refer to him), in his absence. He pokes fun of DM's propensity to fill the set with his friends because he alienated the cast. He relates the story of falling asleep on a cold, oily hangar floor because he was exhausted after a day's shooting.

Kilmer claims that Mamet is a failed actor who abuses his actors. He states that Mamet made William H Macy (playing Kilmer's superior) repeat take after take because he was jealous of Macy, whom he had known for 30 years. In an interview, Mamet claims that he employed Macy because he owed him $2700 from 1970 and wants payback. He even claims Mamet cast his rabbi as target practice for Kilmer. His criticism of Mamet extends to the latter's wearing of his Pulitzer Prize-winning T-shirt, day after day.

Kilmer's conservatism extends to his criticism of Mamet's cussing, even though it is much reduced in this film compared to his previous oeuvre.

Finally, Kilmer is surprised by and bemoans the scenes left on the cutting room floor. I wonder if the film could be salvaged by a 30 minute longer extended edition.

So, a below average thriller but the commentary raises a few laughs. The public agrees with my verdict with the film being a colossal financial failure, making less than $4.5M.

Heard at College: Art Unappreciation

"Fuck perspective. I want to use a camera."

Fishy Financial Farm

I went to be interviewed by the fishy financial adviser.

His set of subsidiary companies is located on a farm. I drove down a narrow, muddy country lane and noticed a few horses grazing to my left. As I turned away to concentrate on the road ahead, I noticed I had just gone past the address I was looking for. I turned into the drive and drove on a narrow path, past the horses, avoiding the boulders marking the edge of the path. The path winded its way for a few hundred metres until I reach some stables and a farmhouse. There, the lady of the manor directed me to the offices.

I got out of my car, which was now drenched in mud - annoying as I had cleaned it a few days ago. I walked over to a large brick out-building. I was greeted by the owner of the business, whom I had spoken to. We wore matching pin-stripes and his accent was less dodgy East-End geezer but more public school toff. I asked me a few brief questions and showed my CV to an Italian colleague. He must have been pointing to the section where I claimed to speak French as the Italian started talking to me in said lingo. I replied and he commended me on my ability.

The owner disparaged the "dead men's shoes" of big business.

The owner said he ran a small but growing business but he made quick decisions. He said there was scope to invent something new every day. For example, he was asked if he could do training. He said yes, even though he had never done any. He then went away to work out how to train a client. He was asked if he could value a business. He said yes - and then researched how to do it.

He said that he had 2 rules:

1. Answer the phone within 3 rings
2. If the customer wants something, always say yes
   

He said that as I arrived early (unusual for me), didn't get lost and didn't ring to ask for help, and looked presentable, he thought I could work for him. He asked me to tell him how much money I wanted and when I wanted to start. I said I would think it over and let him know.

Dear John 1

My decision time to accept a job as a project planner at an industrial company was nearly up. I was planning to write a "Dear John" letter as:

• The job was a more intense but narrower-focused job than my previous one
• Although it was on a bigger scale, I would be an even smaller cog in the machine, with less ability to influence schedules - only report on them
• The department was under-performing so my boss had to be pulled off another job to turn things around. I reckon that as soon as he saw how bad things were, he pleaded for more staff. So, I would have to turn-around a "problem child" and work with people who probably didn't like modern project management methods
• The money was poor and non-negotiable
  
• The job was far away from friends and family

I was preempted by my friendly HR contact at the company. He asked me if I was going to take the job. I said I was not. There was a long silence that was terminated by him saying he was going to tell the admin people. I then said that as we had this conversation, there was no need for me to write a letter. He said I should write one to "close the loop". I agreed. However, it won't be at the top of my To Do list.

So, that's one bird flown, the Japanese one will be taking-off soon as I'm pinning my hopes on the financial planner 2nd interview in June.

Fishy Financial adviser

I received an email to discuss my application to be a Financial Adviser. I phoned up the contact at the company and he seemed to be a ducking and diving geezer - oily & slimy with a slippery hold on financial regulation. He seemed disappointed that another applicant wasn't willing to start trading stocks after a few weeks but had checked the regulations and was told that he needed to shadow someone for 2 years. My contact sums up the worst stereotypes of financial advisers.

However, I shouldn't complain as I got his name mixed up with someone else's on my covering letter :-( AND he was still willing to interview me on 9 May.

Spooky

It's now 01:02:03 04/05/06

Yes, that's right, unlike the Yanks I don't get the month and date confused.