Movies and Entertainment

Finding movies in English or with English subtitles has not been easy. The Korean government sets a limit on the number of Hollywood movies cinemas are allowed to show. So the only two films in English on at all the big cineplexes are Miami Vice and The last House this month. However thanks to the Seoul Selection website we found one last week : Time. A Korean movie shown with English sub titles.

It was an unusual plotline. The girl of a couple that have been going out for two years is worried that her boyfriend finds her boring and that he wants a change. So she does the obvious thing and has cosmetic surgery. Suddenly leaving him for six months with no warning or explanation. He pines over her and generally has a sad life until a new waitress starts at his local cafe. This girl, it turns out, is the same girlfriend as before, but he does not recognize her. Still pining for his lost love he does not fall for the new girl. When she reveals it is her all along he gets (understandably) upset. There are various recriminations, including him visiting the cosmetic surgeon and fighting with him trying to ask him why he did this to her. Then, in a desire to get his own back, he himself has cosmetic surgery and gives himself a new look. She then tries to find him again, testing out various boys along the way to see if they are him. It is all very confusing. If you can suspend your disbelief long enough then it certainly was an entertaining thought provokin movie. The scenes of cosmetic surgery the surgeon shows her to try and deter her are not for the squeamish.

At the Sponge House cinema that this was showing at, we discovered the Seoul International Film Festival was on this month. The timing of the shows coincide with the times The Bat is working so sadly she has not been able to see any. I have watched two so far and I'm about to go into a third one later today.

The first "Portait of a Lady Far Away" was not to my taste. An Iranian movie about an architect who gets a call from a stranger who says she is about to comit suicide unless he comes. So he does, eventually, and he meets a friend of the caller. They go to a Art performance that she stars in, he figures out it was her who made the call. It goes on. There are various old women and small children involved, families, dreams etc. (Not going to make it as a film reviewer am I?)

The second "Apart from That" was an American movie about the lives of three pairs of people. It was a well observed film about life and people, no real story, just "stuff happened". Pleasantly distracting for two hours. Tonights movie is "Aura" about a taxidermist. I am looking forward to this!

Other entertainment has been to see Blondie last night. Yes the punk rocker of old is still going strong. We really enjoyed her "First and Last concert" as it was billed. We missed the start as I had assumed there would be a support act. D'oh. Not. Oh well, we will know for next time. Gotta go, show starts in 15 mins.