EUFF 2006

Hey guys! I thought the EUFF "catch-together" is a gang thing and is supposed to continue as a gang tradition, but no one entered their thoughts on the film that we have watched in our gang blog for documentation purposes leh.

BBBBBUUUUUTTTTT! Have no fear... For Felicia is here... haha.. I have a film review with our collated sentiments. :p I had initially planned for it to be less serious and playful, but I don't know why it turned out semi-serious leh.. Paiseh.. Maybe because I am still under the influence of essay-writing which I had undertaken for almost the entire day. Yucks!

Anyway, do add brief gan xiang-s after the film tmr k! I'm sure we are gonna love it. :D


European Union Film Festival 2006
Brothers (Brødre) from Denmark

A seemingly simple storyline which parallels Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbour, but in actuality exposes the very gruesome truth of the psychological effects of war – very crippling and haunting indeed. It definitely left us 3 MovieBabes agreeing to Serene’s improvised version of ‘The far reaching effect of the bloody Afghan war – The terrorist act of OXXXX and the many lives it had affected’ as a better choice for the film’s title. (kinda long though, something like 'Damn the Bloody Afghan War' would be more poignant. heh)

The only resemblance of a boy eye-candy was Jannik (the Josh Harnett), to whom Serene described as “cute in the sexy, playful I-jam-in-a-band-as-the-lead-singer kinda way.” And YES! We definitely know where that was coming from. I wouldn’t say Michael (the Ben Affleck) is bad-looking, but he certainly lacked the charm which ladies like us would find attractive and sexy in an on-screen character, which leads me to wonder why the “bad guys” always end up as the better looking ones. Perhaps it is the filmmaker’s ploy to evoke some "sympathy" from the viewers towards the “baddies” by appealing to their visual senses. Other eye-candies I thought were Sarah (the Kate Beckinsale) and the daughter Natalia (so young so pretty liao.. model potential!).

Also, we were opened to a perspective of Denmark, albeit a limited one, Danish rolls - yum! Danish fashion sense and Danish cinematography. Serene being the fashionista and soon-to-be-exchange-student-to-Spain, took time to examine “what the female lead wears and how to match coats with scarves and sweaters in order to still look chic”, while Huimin was captivated by the direction of the camera as it incorporated many close-up shots like “the lips when the couple kissed, the hands of the dad at his son's 'funeral', the eyes lit up by the bit of sun coming in when the soldier was held in captive”. I am still baffled by the significance of the repeated snapshots of the cat-tail like plant and blue pupil (the part of the eye lar) and my feelings were particularly stirred up when the kids were so traumatized by their father's estranged behaviour.

A thought-provoking question which impressed upon me, as well as Huimin, was whether I would club a fellow comrade to death in order to save my own life. Whichever, the outcome is so inconceivable that no one should have to make such a decision.

Despite what I would call a “limp” plot, watching foreign films for a change is definitely eye-opening and very insightful in many ways. That explains my eagerness to watch our next EUFF2006 film later. Can’t wait!