Another week disappears - slightly more productive than last week. Graham Wallace helped us out with ADR for one of the scenes in the movie between Tarun and me. The whole process took longer than anticipated but Graham and Tarun were kind and passionate enough to lend extra time to the process. ADR works a treat and the scene has much better dialogue now without the inter cutting background music. I finished reading one of the scripts in my inbox and next one is lined up to read tomorrow. Besides that I did a good clean of my room and managed to take out some solid amount of clutter. Amazing how much you can pile on without realizing.
I managed to catch up with Angelique briefly at the Lantern Festival but soon parted ways to enjoy some awesome food {my favorite this time around being a Vietnamese dish - I don't know the name for it but it was beef wrapped in grape leaf}. The festival was PACKED. It has grown huge over the past few years. I remember that in 2003 - there were hardly any people checking out the festival but now it is an experience walking through the crowd. The problem this time around was entire families coming out to the event {which isn't a bad thing} with strollers for their toddlers and young kids. There is barely enough space to walk as it is and every time one of the parents with strollers stopped to look at something or talk- it would stop the flow of people immediately. Also the organizers need to be more creative with their stall layouts next time around - it was essentially the same as last time and walking through the place is like deja vu. Different varieties of food available was definitely the highlight. If only they had a weekly night market with all those food stalls somewhere in central city....sighhhhh.....
When you are travelling alone there are some incidents you relegate to back of your mind because it is too embarrassing to recount or you just don't pay too much attention to them in the bigger scheme of things. I had one of those in Hong Kong that I didn't write about originally in Oct'09.
One my second or third day in Hong Kong - I can't remember which, I was feeling pretty disconnected from everything because it was hard striking up conversations with people {without knowing the local language} and I was pretty much roaming everywhere on my own checking out places. At the ferry terminal I was the only Indian in the crowd and it definitely attracted some stares from curious eyes. I boarded the ferry to Lamma Island and as soon as I settled into my seat I saw another Indian walk in. Since I was so disconnected - my first thought was 'Please don't sit next to me', as I didn't want to engage in a conversation. I held my breath as he looked at me and then walked past. As soon as I relaxed, I heard a thick south indian accent from the seat behind me asking me if I was an Indian.
I grimaced and started conversing with the guy. It was hard work trying to follow what he was saying in his very thick accent and I would ask him to repeat what he said again, to figure it out. He mistook that for me not being able to hear properly and raised his voice a few decibels to the point pretty much everyone on the lower deck of the ferry could hear what he was saying. The conversation was civil to start off with and we exchanged information about where we were from and as to how we ended up in this moment in time. It was hard work talking to him as I had to crane my neck around to be able to speak to him through the gap between the seats. I told myself not to be a wuss and bear the pain since I was finally having a proper conversation with someone.
The guy said he used to teach yoga for corporates in HK. He was contracted to an american company and was earning US$5000 a month before they decided to cut down on benefits to the staff and let go of his services. Since he couldn't afford to live in HK without earning a living - he decided to shift base to Lamma Island where he could live a rural lifestyle and focus on learning new skills like massage. He was wondering out loud if it would be better to return to India since it was a cheaper place. I was curious and asked him what kind of massage and the conversation was all downhill from there.
He said he had started practicing tantra massage and body massage. I was thinking 'Oh dear, here we go.' And soon enough he was boasting about his exploits with women of different nationalities. I sunk a few head lengths in my seat as I realized that his booming voice was being heard by everyone on the lower deck and suddenly I was giving everyone the pleasure of stereotyping all Indians {including me} as sleazy, sex-crazed maniacs. The guy was oblivious to all social norms I suppose because he carried on talking in booming voice. Noticing that I was silent for a while and no conversation was happening between the gap between the seats he tried to judge if I was listening or not by saying 'You are from New Zealand yeah? I've seen kiwi chicks. They are chubby. You know too fat.' I turned around and through the gap in the seat I replied back with a hint of disgust and anger 'Oh yeah. They are like that but nothing you can do about it right?'.
I turned back to the book I had in my hand and pretended that I was reading it. That was pretty much the end of that conversation and the guy didn't speak any further. When the ferry neared Lamma Island he tried to strike up conversation by pointing to me where his village was but I didn't really encourage him. As the ferry docked I let most of the people disembark - including that guy, before getting down from the ferry. And that was the last I saw of him. Thankfully.
Here are a few things that have happened over the past couple of days - in no fixed order - keeping in line with the non-linear time I seem to be in right now
ADR for 'Eruption' : Went well HP8 - Carlton Gore: Disappointing Nightmares/Sleepless nights: Frustrating Random catchups with Amarbir & Sapna: Random Gear Shopping for April Trip: Exciting Statelessness: Annoying 2 scripts in mail box to read: Excited but afraid The Wolfman: Frustrating
I spent the entire weekend in bed fighting off a fever. Not the best way to spend the weekend. On top of that next weekend's Tongariro walk trip has been called off because Kit and Kelly can't do the weekend because of personal reasons. The only thing you can do when you are in bed is contemplate and I have to say it hasn't been the best of times doing that. My current state of affairs overall induces massive stomach churning and heart ache - even writing that right now gave made me think about things.
To distract myself - I started reading and finished 'Sun After Dark' by Pico Iyer and it was an insightful read. I also managed to finish reading the rest of 'Testosterone Planet' and different stories evoked different reactions but all in all it made me want to travel. April-end can't come soon enough.
Still feeling very fragile but I am hoping that a good night's sleep will have me ready for what tomorrow holds.
I was talking to an old college friend online and one of the first things she said was 'It's great you've become a fitness freak.' I think that's when it struck me that maybe I have actually become a fitness freak. :-)
Fitness stats update: Resting heart rate - 69bpm {would probably've been 65 or 66 had I not been ill-advised by a couple of new gym instructors to warm up for my fitness test, before the guy taking my fitness test came down} - Down from 72bpm. Weight - 63.8 KG - Down 1.2KG Bodyfat %age - 12% - Down 3% Vo2 Max levels - 51.3 - Up 3.3 Blood Pressure - Normal range
The guy doing my fitness tests was very impressed by my jump in VO2 levels - which he thought was impressive since it came within a 1 month time frame. All in all huge improvements all round. I guess cutting down on my gym sessions while increasing the intensity of the workouts while I am there has helped. Target is to keep focussing on bringing the bodyfat%age down to 11% and try and up the VO2 Max levels to 53 before the April end trip.
I was surfing the net, searching for a layout I like for the re-design of Unkreative website and as things happen I stumbled across a review of FIVE on Empireonline's forum. Here it is for your eyes:
FIVE Written by: D.F. Mamea and Anita Crisinel Starring: Richard Thompson, Anita Crisinel, Marjan Gorgani, Andy Sophocleous, Amit Tripuraneni, Tahi Mapp-Boren Running Time: 76 minutes
Wanna hear something crazy? I almost swear I dreamed this last night.
Five is one of those films that not even New Zealanders know about, and, to be honest, I didn’t either, until I saw it on the shelf of my local mainstream video store, a review quote on the front of the DVD sleeve touting it as a “beautifully shot film with a story that any fan of David Lynch’s work will enjoy”. While I am by no means a Lynch fan, I must say that I was intrigued that something coming out of New Zealand could be compared to his work, so I picked it up. However, this slow-burning psychological thriller, in which nothing is what it seems and everything makes as much sense as your typical Lynch film wrapped in a net curtain and thrown in a smoke room, should appeal to more than just the Lynch set, as it overcomes a pretty hefty number of flaws to deliver one of the most strangely compelling New Zealand films I’ve seen.
Five starts off as a fairly conventional tale of five ex-flatmates and good friends who come together to go on a hiking trip a year after the suicide of a close friend of the group and lover of one of them. Belinda (Crisinel) and Rajit (Tripuraneni) are happily engaged; Henry (Thompson) is still a little odd after the Emily’s (Mapp-Boren) suicide; Chris (Sophocleous) is unusually moody and secretive; and Zara (Gorgani) is heading off to Boston in a matter of days. The characters all seem to have secrets hidden from each other, and the film does take its sweet time revealing a fair number of them. However, the plot takes a turn for the fucked-up around twenty minutes in, with Rajit having a crazy dream that slowly begins to come true. I can’t say too much more about what happens, as every minute from then on is potentially a spoiler, but needless to say, shit goes down, and it goes down hard. The almost-painfully slow pacing of the twenty minutes beforehand, developing the characters and making you care for them, is paid off somewhat with the remaining fifty-six minutes, and while the pace doesn’t pick up a hell of a lot, the slow-moving nature of the film does become less noticeable by this point, the obvious Lynch influences, the stunning cinematography (making exquisite use of an environment that really should have been used for many more films of this type before this, the New Zealand forest) and the minimal but noticeable foreshadowing of the plot’s numerous strange developments creating a captivating jigsaw puzzle for the audience to put together and an incredibly ominous atmosphere to go with it.
Of course, as I’ve mentioned, the film faces a fair few hurdles in trying to achieve what it wants to. The score, composed by none less than three different people, is clearly influenced by the work of composers like Angelo Badalamenti (Mulholland Dr.) and Howard Shore (Se7en), but it often fails to match the atmospheric creepiness of their influences; rather, it strays into overly telegraphic territory at some points, and painfully overwhelming and intrusive at others. Much like the films of their primary influence, Crisinel’s amd Mamea’s script also suffers from some rather inane dialogue, and this problem is compounded by some inconsistent acting, particular on behalf of Thompson (worrisome, as he has a key role with some of the juiciest moments) and actor/editor/producer/director Tripuraneni. However, the actors do pull it together when required, and they excel when it comes to small moments, like Rajit’s ill-advised joke to Zara in the car on the way to the national park, or Sophocleous’ delivery of the line, “Just thinking,” one scene after a monumental outburst on his behalf. There’s a subtlety and intelligence to their performances that often buggers off for periods of time before coming back, but when it does decide to stay, watching these five act off each other is intriguing and gripping.
This psychological thriller wears its influences on its sleeve, and this is made all the more obvious by some of the film’s obvious flaws (Crisinel and Gorgani, though both two of the better performers in the film, have nothing on Naomi Watts in Mulholland Dr., whose performance distracted from a lot of that film’s flaws). However, if you get through the first twenty minutes, Five pays off in a way more films should – it keeps you guessing, it keeps you hanging on, and, most importantly, it keeps you captivated, right up until the stunning conclusion. It’s a Lynch-esque film that doesn’t hold pretensions of high befuddlement – it’s a simple tale, but built and executed as such that it’s far more satisfying than the work of that respected auteur, and all the more laudable, given its obviously shoestring budget.
Verdict: A solid and gripping thriller-cum-character study with an ingenious storyline and stunning cinematography making up for the generic score and the often-dull dialogue. Don’t listen to the twats on IMDB when it comes to this, and try it for yourself.
4/5
I guess I owe a thanks to the reviewer for watching the movie and then taking the time to review the movie. I am sure the acting concerns that the reviewer has will be negated in 'The Moments In Between'.
Crazy week!!! This whole week I've been pre-occupied with conceiving and then editing the teaser trailer for 'The Moments In Between'. I finally managed to finish editing it today and here is the trailer for your consideration.
Besides that we had a crazy morning on Friday when one of our flatmates had to call in the cops because she heard someone in our house. There did turn out to be a man in our house and he had armed himself with our kitchen knives. Quick action by the police meant that the intruder was quickly subdued without anyone getting harmed. The incident in detail would make for a whole post {it was about 4 and half pages of writing when one of the cops took our statements about the incident} but that would be sensationalism. The long and short of the story is that pepper spray is nasty stuff and the landlord is getting a second set of front door locks put in.
Last night went to dinner at HP8 {49, Nuffield Street, Newmarket} with Benji, Shuzhen {Benji's girl friend}, Vicky & Vincent {Shuzhen's friends} & Lance. It was an amazing Sichuan meal and it works out very reasonable when you share the dinner amongst many. All the dishes were great but my firm favorite is Spicy Sichuan Fragrant Eggplant. Most of the dishes were not that spicy accounting for various tastes of the group but I did manage to convince Benji & Lance to try Dan-Dan noodles along with me. It was the spicest dish we had and Benji couldn't finish his bowl and also said that he is not going to let me talk him into trying any of my recommended dishes in the future :-). Well worth the visit.
Sichuan dishes
Trying another awesome dish
Vicky & Vincent
Benji & Shuzhen
Lance enjoying a beer to ease off his Dan-Dan noodles
It's a long weekend on account of Auckland Anniversary Day and I've spent majority of the time on 'The Moments In Between'. On Saturday, shot another scene for the movie and it was a smooth shoot. The performances were great and we managed to get it done in a couple of hours because it was just Sarah, Lauren and me. We were lucky that the weather was perfect for the shoot, especially considering that it's been bucketing down through later half of last week and even this entire weekend. Here are a few screen grabs from the shoot.
Caged
Trapped
Mistakes
Sunday was spent editing that scene and it cut together nicely. After that I went about compiling and stitching together all the scenes that we've shot, to make it look like one continuing storyline rather than individual scenes clubbed together on a timeline. So far it's working and the first 38 minutes of the movie are essentially locked for now. The task for today is editing another scene that we shot a few weeks back and once that's in place I'll be able to add another 2 scenes to the timeline. All in all - we are halfway through the movie and I'm pretty pleased with the way it is shaping up.
Last night went over to Devonport onto Mt. Victoria {it's more like a hill} to get a view of Auckland City since there were fireworks display at 10.30 PM. I was sort of apprehensive because when it comes to fireworks display Auckland is piss poor and the last couple of times I caught those - they were pretty poor and underwhelming. Thankfully the display was beautiful this time around and definitely worth the long drive onto the shore to get a more panoramic view of the city. Here are some snaps from last night.
Ever since reading that book on Sichuan cooking by Fuchsia Dunlop, I've been searching for Sichuan eateries in Auckland and needless to say it was hard work trying to track down these restaurants as there are a prolific number of chinese restaurants which offer all kinds of chinese cuisine and thus hard to isolate Sichuan dishes there. After much driving and testing here is my list of Sichuan eating joints that I know off in Auckland. In order to compare them I decided to only try 'Kung Pao' chicken and the rating is out of 5 stars. I've left out service since I ordered most of them as takeaways.
Taste of Sichuan [471 Dominion Road, Mt Eden; 09-6390989] Taste: 3.5 || Quantity: 4 || Ambiance: 3 || Friendliness: 1.5 || Price: $15-$20 Note: An authentic Sichuan joint. There weren't many people there both times I went there and the customer service was definitely a bit off as I didn't really feel welcome. The additional dish I tried here was Dan-Dan noodles which were yum.
Sichuan Cuisine Chinese Restaurant [95 Anzac Ave, CBD; 09-3091898] Taste: 3 || Quantity:4 || Ambiance: 3 || Friendliness: 4 || Price: $15-$20 Note: Another authentic Sichuan joint. The place was packed and understandably the order took a while to come even though it was a takeaway {about 25 minutes}. I also tried Dan Dan Noodles but I much preferred the ones from 'Taste of Sichuan' or 'HP8'.
Spicy House [557 Dominion Road, Mt Eden; 09-6315128] Taste: 2 || Quantity:4 || Ambiance: 3 || Friendliness: 4 || Price: $8-$15 Note: Not sure if it is authentic Sichuan{maybe it is} as I didn't taste any sichuan pepper in my dish and I couldn't find Dan Dan Noodles. Superfast service with very generous serving and very reasonably priced. The place is small but was packed every single time I went there.
HP8 [49 Nuffield Street, Newmarket; 09-524 8488] Taste: 4 || Quantity:4 || Ambiance: 4 || Friendliness: 4 || Price: $20-$25 Note: Authentic Sichuan place with nice ambiance. Dan Dan Noodles were awesome and were only $4 for a bowl - which more than fills you up as a snack. Overall slightly more expensive restaurant but the ambiance and the food more than make up for it.
Sichuan in Remuera [333 Remuera Road, Remuera; 09-5233038] Taste: 2.5 || Quantity:3 || Ambiance: 3.5 || Friendliness: 4 || Price: $15-$20 Note: Pretty disappointed with the dish actually - it wasn't spicy at all even though it tasted alright. The place has decent ambiance and people were starting to stream in but doesn't make up for the average dish. Maybe they have some other specialty dish.
Sichuan Restaurant [31-33 Broadway, Newmarket; 09-5231668] Taste: 4 || Quantity:4 || Ambiance: 4 || Friendliness: 4 || Price: $20-$25 Note: Nice ambiance and it was busy when I went there. Pretty helpful staff. The menu didn't have any chinese dish names written on it - which is surprising considering that all the customers in the restaurant was chinese {bar me}. And I asked the staff taking my order about 'Dan Dan' noodles since they weren't on the menu but apparently they do make them. The noodles were alright but not like HP8's dan-dan noodles. The same restaurant has a branch in Glenfield {75G Porana Road, Glenfield; 09-4409642} for anyone wanting to check out the cuisine on the north shore.
It's been a expensive effort because of the price of the dishes, so I am leaving out one of the more central restaurants {Imperial Sichuan - listed below} and I also found a few more restaurants which are not as central and handy as the one's above but the list is as follows and I'll try them if I change upon them in my travels {or alternately you can post a rating in the comments if you've been to the restaurant}.
Genius Chinese Sichuan Treats [115, Onehunga Mall, Onehunga; 09-6364284]
My pick of the lot - HP8 and then Sichuan Restaurant on Broadway. It's not somewhere where I'd eat everyday because of the prices but definitely worth going once in a while.
