Swifty, Writing

Cure Rubbish, band name or manifesto?

noreply@blogger.com (The Great Swifty) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 19:36:28 PDT

When I walked past the NHK Broadcasting Centerbuilding at Shibuya last Wednesday night, I saw a band setting up for a performance.

There was a sign next to them, and the words 'CURE RUBBISH'.

I figured that was the name of the band (their official site here). I wondered whether it was also a manifesto. Although I'm not exactly sure what one must do when 'curing rubbishes'.

When they started performing, a large crowd of girls had already gathered around them. I think I was the only guy among the audiences.

Based on observation, and snooping around in their sites, CURE RUBBISH is not really an unknown band. One of their songs had already been used for some TV show. Searching around in Youtube yielded some actual music videos of theirs with decent production values.

Since some of you have seen me posting videos of street musicians in Shinjuku (here and here) I feel that this is something slightly different. (well, mostly the audience size during the performance)

The coolest thing is that the guys were also giving out CDs (I took one, why not?), and when they were done, they were already mobbed by their audiences.

I remember that night mostly for a young skinny girl who accompanied the band. As they were setting things up, and performing, she was going around handing out flyers, announcing about the band's performance, running frantically from one spot to the other, directing people over to the band.

I was initially amused, but for an instance, I found her diligence unexplainably touching. Was she the manager? Or an employee? Or a girlfriend? Or a relative of the band? To be working so hard, yet without showing a single sign of weariness at all, just boundless excitement. One can almost forget the tedium of life.

I was a dino dork

noreply@blogger.com (The Great Swifty) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 23:29:25 PDT

The first time I went to Ueno Park was last November, when autumn's touch had infused upon it the colours of red and gold. (Not to be narcissistic, but I did take some bloody good photos that time) What left the most impression then were the wilted lotuses at the Lotus Pond (part of the Shinobazu Pond).

When I went back to Ueno again last Friday, the first time I've done so since winter, I was pleased by the sight of lotuses covering the entire pond.

Then I walked to the Boat Pond section and saw some young couples on the rental boats. How cliched. I noted wryly, but not without a slight tinge of envy.

I trudged past the three museums at Ueno Park, the Tokyo National Museum was closed, but the National Science Museum (or National Museum of Science and Nature) caught my eye.

Mostly because of the blue whale replica at its exit.

I wondered whether it was a life-size replica, it was pretty huge.

The first and last time I saw a replica of a blue whale was at the National History Museum London. It was 1992, I was with my mom.

That was a memorable trip. It was also the first time I saw dinosaur skeletons. Like many, I was a major dinosaur nerd then. While many childhood friends and teachers from primary school can attest to the fact that I have always wanted to become a film director, I shared a brief love affair with dinosaurs.

After that trip in London I dug out all the dinosaur encyclopedias I had and read them over and over again. For a short period of time, I put aside the dream of filmmaking and seriously (as seriously as an 8 year old could be) considered switching to becoming a badass PALEONTOLOGIST. (and seriously annoying the heck out of some teachers then who thought I was deliberately mouthing off 'big words' when I haughtily declared in class that I wanted to become one)

Of course, then JURASSIC PARK came the following year, and despite the wonder and awe I had for the film, it was the beginning of the end of my flirtation with paleontology! Dino-mania went mainstream, what I had with the dinosaurs didn't feel so special anymore. (after all, MY defining dinosaur movie was THE LAND BEFORE TIME, which really wasn't seen by that many people I knew)

And so, I went back to becoming the strange fat boy who wanted to become a movie director. It's like how you would love an obscure indie band that no one knows about, and all of a sudden it gets signed up by a major label and you decide to cling to your integrity by shunning the band because 'they sold out'.

(Occasionally the long-forgotten dino dork in me would still resurface as proven in this silly MSN conversation I had back in 2005)

Like the blue whale, that trip in '92, was also the last time I saw dinosaur skeletons. So seeing them again at the National Science Museum felt like a trip down memory lane.

The museum is divided to two buildings, one the Earth Pavilion, the other the Japanese Pavilion. The dinosaurs were in the Earth Pavilion, so were the creatures from the age of the mammals.

There were two woolly mammoth skeletons too. I think the creatures from these era's a little underrated, no one seem to love them as much as the dinosaurs.

Well, there's the Ice Age films, but they threw dinosaurs into the third film, so I think that's a cop-out too, they still need the dinos to appeal to more audiences, hmph.

Another film I can think of set in the same era was last year's forgettable 10,000 BC, which I went to see with irony. It obviously didn't do to prehistoric creatures what Jurassic Park did to dinosaurs.

The museum was about to close when I rushed to the Japanese Pavilion to take a look. At the time the place was almost empty, save for four other visitors, who were all deaf-mute and communicated with each other via sign languages as they strolled past the exhibits, occasionally laughing.

I saw the Futabasaurus, a plesiosaur (aquatic reptiles that live at the same with dinosaurs, but they are NOT dinosaurs, that's what wikipedia said).

I recognized it as the one from the 1980 Doraemon movie (and its 2006 remake), NOBITA'S DINOSAUR. I guess NOBITA'S PLESIOSAUR didn't sound as catchy.

She must've felt out of place watching The Galaxy Girls Club

noreply@blogger.com (The Great Swifty) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:45:34 PDT

Last Saturday, when I went off to Akihabara to buy some blank DVDs, I happened upon a live event at the Live Park in Akiba (which, to the uninitiated, is not a real park, but the first floor of the Sato Musen electric store, opened earlier this year for numerous mini-concerts and live events, I heard mostly to convince authorities to reopen Akihabara's 'Pedestrian's Paradise' that had been closed since last year's Akihabara Massacre)

It was a few minutes after 4pm, a group of girls were there. They are the Galaxy Girls Club (銀河っ娘クラブ), I assume they were a new group making some promotional appearances.

I didn't find out anything about them until I started writing this post, a few days after seeing the event. In the end the girls posed for photos.

I will now try the unenviable feat of trying to name the members of the group. Not an easy task, and most probably inaccurate. You can go check on them yourselves if you want to.

From right to left: Amika アミカ, Rinon リノン, Myuu Myuu ミュウミュウ (easily the best name of them all!), Yumetan ユメタン, Maririn マリリン, Karen カレン, Jyuri ジュリ, Naccheru ナッチェル and the one partially left out of the picture is possibly Hiwarin ヒワリン. I can tell you that I am more than a little comforted to know that the leader of the group, Karen (or rather, I assume she's the leader since she's the one doing most of the talking) is only a year younger than I am. Which makes me feel less old, I guess.

One thing that would later caught my sight is the lone female spectator at the event.

Of course, looking at her bored expression, she could be like, well, me, just a random passerby who stayed around due to curiosity. Or maybe she was the girlfriend/ sister/ babysitter of one of the guys in the crowd dragged into watching this whole affair.

Otherwise, maybe the Galaxy Girls Club had managed to transcend gender barriers by not attracting a 100% male crowd (but a 99% one instead).

Mitama Matsuri at Yasukuni Shrine 2009

noreply@blogger.com (The Great Swifty) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 04:27:33 PDT

I went to the Mitama Matsuri (Soul Festival) at the Yasukuni Shrine yesterday. It is a festival that honours the dead.

My initial plan was to go to the Toro-nagashi (floating of lighted lanterns on the water) in the palace moat at Chidorigafuchi Park nearby.

Alas, I wasn't able to catch the latter, although I have to say that the Mitama Matsuri was definitely impressive.

This is the haunted house attraction at the festival. Hear the sounds of people screaming?

And then I made my way past the stalls and watched a drum performance.

As you can see, it was a pretty large festival, lots of stalls, people, and dazzling colours. I was excited to see so many in yukata too. (I am a fan of its aesthetics!)

Near the main shrine building, children performances were held. Lots of cries of "Kawaaaaaaii!" among the women audiences. I wanted to do the same but I am fearful that it would sound too pedo-ish.

The many lanterns in the festival bear letters written by many well-known people.

I was walking about the area around the main building when I suddenly heard the rumbling sounds of taiko.

Navigating my way through the sea of people, and as you can see, many were in pretty yukata, I went to check it out.

I left the shrine after that, wanting to head towards the Toro-nagashi as I've mentioned at the beginning of this post.

It was a pity I didn't catch that, the sight of lighted lanterns floating about a moat had always been something I wanted to see for myself.

Yet the Mitama Matsuri in Yasukuni, with its splendour, was worth the trip.

Before I left, I caught the Bon Odori at the festival on video. Pretty magnificent.

Sichuan Hot Pot... in a rice cooker

noreply@blogger.com (The Great Swifty) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:32:48 PDT

Last night was the last night of Steve's visit in Tokyo. My friends from China, Yang Yang and Zifeng invited both of us to have the much famous Sichuan (or Szechuan) "ma la" (numb and spicy) hot pot over at Zifeng's place. The meal was prepared by the chick, Echo (or Ecco, not sure), who's from Chengdu, Sichuan.

Great meal!

Hozuki Ichii (Ground Cherry Pod Fair) at Senso-ji 2009

noreply@blogger.com (The Great Swifty) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:35:09 PDT

The last time I went to Senso-ji at Asakusa was nearly two months ago, for the Sanja Matsuri (check out the breathlessly evocative photos I've taken of the festival here).

When I went there again yesterday, they were having the Hozuki Ichi (Ground Cherry Pod Fair), in which hundreds of street stalls were set up to sell ground cherry pods and wind chimes.

In one particularly popular stall, the customer gets to pose with the pretty vendor.

Apparently what she and the other vendors were wearing is what used to be worn by vendors selling Chinese Lantern Plants. This festival dates back over 200 years, hence the traditional fashion. (source: Tokyo Fashion, their post has more photos too)

Suddenly, just as it usually happens, another young girl in pink wandered into my shot, taking photos of a dog that belonged to one of the stall customers.

The girl in pink really liked taking photos of the dog. (As opposed to my personal indifference towards it)

I wasn't aware that the main hall of Senso-ji was under renovation.

But when I entered the hall, it remained busy.

Oh, what joy! To be able to see, in person, such an invaluable Japanese tradition! I'm always inquisitive, always eager to learn, when it comes to foreign cultures, especially when there is opportunity to immerse myself into the experience.

As a filmmaker, such exploration and constant adventuring prevents my pool of ideas from drying up. With each tiny discovery, my world view continues to evolve, to shift, to transform, never settling into a permanent state of stagnancy. A fatal trap that leads to delusion and narrow-sightedness, a damning obstacle for creativity, I have to say.

I believed these two young ladies in the yukata understood too. That's why for the very brief instance when the paths of our tumultuous and vastly different lives intersected in a crossroad constructed solely through serendipitious circumstances, they both allowed me the pleasure to capture the moment with the following photographs!

Dude puking in train

noreply@blogger.com (The Great Swifty) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:32:48 PDT

It was a few minutes to midnight when I was taking a train on the Hibiya Line back from the BEAUTIFIED TABOO art exhibition. Then the guy sitting opposite started puking with abandon.

I can't say that I'm not disgusted.

I felt a slight sense of sadness for the Japanese public transport service.

That's why I rarely drink.

The BEAUTIFIED TABOO art exhibition

noreply@blogger.com (The Great Swifty) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 19:45:10 PDT

I brought Steven to the BEAUTIFIED TABOO art exhibition at SuperDeluxe in Roppongi last night. The BEAUTIFIED TABOO, in its second year, is the brainchild of Tokyo-based German/Vietnamese artist Vivienne U.H. Doan. Let me quote its origins from a Japan Times article.

(The BEAUTIFIED TABOO) is an exhibition showcasing works by some of Tokyo's better-known experimental and international artists that attempts to investigate, as well as beautify, taboos.

Doan got the idea when she started to question both Japanese and foreign people on what they felt was taboo. Intrigued by the variety of answers and feelings she encountered, she took the ideas and "beautified" them, adding an artist's perspective to socially explosive concepts. Naturally, ideas relating to the human body, sex, violence and death are well represented.

Here's a list of the featured artists for this year's exhibition:

Alexis Alvarez (Photography, US)
Richard Boase (Visual Art, UK)
Ed Fox (Photography, US)
Florencia Guerberof (Video Performance, ARG)
Ryan Hale (Photography, US)
Yu Hokazono (Photography, JP),
Kawori Inbe (Photography, JP)
Jun Kitagawa (Live Painting, JP)
Catalina Madrinan (Sculpture/Painting, CO)
skinni pants (Fashion Installation, US/JP)
Massimilliano Schilliro (Photo Installation, IT)
Emmi Venna (Live Installation, FIN)
+ "The 13th Artist" (Illustration, GER)

I managed to snap a couple of photos, and shot some videos from it, but I try not to reproduce, or reveal too much of the things I saw at the exhibition, as I understand (and sort of relate to) how artists feel about these things.

And thus I attempt to preserve the mystique of the exhibition by, ah, keeping it mysterious.

This young lady in a yukata is Reiko, she was sitting next to me. We played quick draw to see who managed to snap the photo of the other quicker.

After that, the Japanese avant-garde female dance duo 86B210 performed onstage. They were totally avant-garde.

Occasionally, the Finnish artist Emma Venna would appear for her live installation, dancing her slow hypnotic dance that coincided with the theme of the exhibition. Later when I speak to her she told me the imagination in her mind were restless when she danced, a product of improvisation based on what she saw, the people, the place, whatever was happening, whatever that popped out in her mind. Beauty that could sometimes be interpreted as ugliness, or ugliness that would sometimes be interpreted as beauty.

I thought I would introduce her to my Finnish friend Niklas, it would be great to allow her a reunion with one of her countrymen.

Photographer Kawori Inbe exhibited her take on the fetishism attached to high-school uniforms in Japan.

I managed to speak to Kaori, one of the models from her photography project. We had an intellectual discussion in philosophy and literature, when the conversation veered to my two recent adaptations of Yasunari Kawabata's works (that would be my short films. LOVE SUICIDES, which is having its world premiere at the Paris Cinema International Film Festival on this very day, and KINGYO) she told me her favourite writer is Yukio Mishima. We share a love for Jun'ichirō Tanizaki (I said I loved NAOMI and THE KEY, she told me that I must read his masterpiece, THE MAKIOKA SISTERS), and also slight indifference towards the more contemporary Japanese writers.

When the exhibition ended, I took a photo of her and another model, Mayuri, taking photos of the photos they modelled for.

They also posed for my photo of them posing in front of the photos they posed for Photographer Kawori Inbe.

(Kaori posed for the third photo from the right, Mayuri was the one in the second photo from the right)

After that I took a photo of photographer Kawori Inbe taking photos of her two pretty models standing in front of the photos they modelled for.

As I snapped the photo, I wondered whether there were anyone taking a photo of me taking a photo of photographer Kawori Inbe taking a photo of her two models standing in front of the photos they modelled for?

Very meta, I thought. Then my head ached a little.

Wannabe artistic shots of Hachiko statue

noreply@blogger.com (The Great Swifty) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:38:45 PDT

I've written about the sad and tragic tale of Faithful Dog Hachiko last year. The Hachiko movie starring Richard Gere is also coming out next month, (But I'm not sure whether to see it since... I already knew that Richard Gere's going to die in it :(:(:( )

Now armed with a new camera, I decided to take some artsy shots of its statue.

I tried taking a photo of the statue's lower body.

It was a little blurry.

So I tried another one.

Better. But see the chick on the right?

She never stopped fiddling with her phone.

Er. Off-topic.

So I continued taking photos of Hachiko, this time from afar.

Then I tried zooming in to do a really artistic shot of the statue's pedestal.

I think the pedestal looked pretty good. (it's the one on the right of the photo)

My attempts at artistic photography of the Hachiko statue weren't too impressive, it's a shame these young women were wandering into the shots too.

Summer Fair of Zoshigaya Kishibojin Temple

noreply@blogger.com (The Great Swifty) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:35:20 PDT

Yesterday, before I was about to break Steven's mind by bringing him to Harajuku and Shibuya (photos will come in next post), we dropped by at the Zoshigaya Kishibojin Temple for its summer fair.

The Kishibojin is a goddess, also known as Hariti. This is an excerpt from its Wikipedia entry:

Hārītī (Sanskrit), also known as Kishimojin in Japanese:鬼子母神, is a Buddhist goddess for the protection of children, easy delivery, happy child rearing and parenting, harmony between husband and wife, love, and the well-being and safety of the family. Women without children also pray to Kishimojin to help them become pregnant.

Originally, Kishimojin/ Hariti was a cannibalistic demon. She had hundreds of children whom she loved and doted upon, but to feed them, she abducted and killed the children of others. The bereaved mothers of her victims pleaded to Śākyamuni Buddha to save them.

Śākyamuni stole Aiji, youngest of Kishimojin's sons, and hid him under his rice bowl. Kishimojin desperately searched for her missing son throughout the universe. Finally, she pleaded with Sakyamuni for help. The Buddha pointed out that she was suffering because she lost one of hundreds of children, and asked if she could imagine the suffering of parents whose only child had been devoured. She replied contritely that their suffering must be many times greater than hers, and vowed to protect all children.

Kishimojin became the goddess of easy birthing and the protection and parenting of children.

Some stories describe her as an aspect of Kannon. She is also sometimes identified with the Hindu goddess Kali.

(I learn something new everyday.)

It was one-thirty in the afternoon, and there was a light drizzle. Visitors were pretty sparse.

Yet the stalls I saw brought back fond memories of my New Year countdown trip in Kansai trip (check out my masterfully edited vacation videos here and here if you haven't already, parts of it were even on TV when I was invited for a chat at the NTV7 Breakfast Show back in February).

I then saw a little girl in a cute raincoat standing in front of the temple, smiling for her mother's camera.

There were a few hanging out in the temple.

A small group of people arrived later, most were mentally disabled. One was being pushed in a wheelchair. Their caretakers led them through the temple grounds.

I continued my way past the stalls.

Perhaps it was the rain. Or maybe it was the wrong time of the day.

But seeing so few people at the festival felt a little depressing.

Nearly half a day later, it was already midnight. I returned from Shibuya and went to the 99 yen shop next to the Zoshigaya station. A couple of young women were there too. One wore a yukata.

They spoke to one another in soft tones. Occasionally they giggled among themselves.

I wondered whether they had just returned from the summer fair.

Mutsumi the late-night singer

noreply@blogger.com (The Great Swifty) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:32:48 PDT

It was already around 11pm when I was heading home after taking all these photos of Shinjuku from the previous post. But as I walked out of the Shinjuku South East exit, I found a young woman sitting on the floor, preparing to perform. A scattered few were gathered before her. She was the one and only musician I saw last night.

I would later find out that her name is Mutsumi (clicking her name will bring you to her blog, but Japanese only, she did write about this particular live performance in this blog post). A sample of her song can be listened here.

Yeah, I didn't manage to take a clear photo of her, so here are some from her blog.

A group of musicians (far left in photo) also appeared to watch.

Here's one of her songs in its entirety.

I later approached her, thanked her for her performance and told her I was a filmmaker, then I said that maybe we should do a music video together (yes, all I actually harbour dreams of making a music video) I probably didn't seem credible enough though, haha.

The view of Shinjuku twilight from the top of Takashimaya

noreply@blogger.com (The Great Swifty) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:04:55 PDT

Despite having gone countless times to the Takashimaya in Shinjuku, I have never really bothered to go to the top few floors because I thought there aren't anything there but restaurants. So when an acquaintance from Malaysia came and I was showing him around, we went up and I was surprised by what I saw.

There was a nice garden for people to take walks.

The view from the top is really nice.

This is the smoking area.

After that I went back into the Takashimaya building and made my way downstairs.

>

We went past Kabuki-cho.

By then the moon had came out.

I saw a sad-faced girl standing by herself and wondered what was going on, so I took a photo of her from the distance. The others seemed to pass her by in a blur.

A guy arrived just moments later and her face lit up happily in joy.

Visiting the old lighthouse at Miura Kaigan

noreply@blogger.com (The Great Swifty) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:32:48 PDT

Yesterday afternoon I headed off to Miura (a seaside city situated at Tokyo Bay) with dorm mate Tristan, to check out an old lighthouse. Along with Tristan were Pong, whom I met a day earlier when we went to see the Gundam statue, and Jack, whom I've never met prior to the trip.

The train journey to Miura lasted for a bit more than an hour, luckily for me, I slept through most of it.

After reaching the Miura-Kaigan station, we first took a bus.

And then we travelled by foot.

The adventure was a perilous one. We encountered a dangerous centipede that in my active imagination would morph into a 500-feet gigantic monster and devour us all.

But then we finally reached the lighthouse.

The lighthouse had been around for quite a while.

A plaque said that it was "illuminated since 1st of March, 1871". This means that the lighthouse was open 113 years and 5 days before my birth. I'm not sure whether it's still working now though.

I walked past the lighthouse and looked into the distance, and saw this.

A boat passed by.

Summer has arrived in Japan. But being on the hill, and by the sea, the weather felt much cooler and refreshing.

The old lighthouse was like a 'MacGuffin'. This trip really wasn't about visiting the lighthouse, but to check out its surroundings: The sea and its pounding waves, the sleepy city so far removed from Tokyo, the plants about me that were constantly swaying rhythmically with the wind.

Being there felt as if a vast space was stretching before me, not a monolithic, futuristic building in sight, nor the all-engulfing sea of humanity I often find myself wading through wherever I was in the city of Tokyo, the cacophony of city noises replaced by the slow sleepy sounds of nature. I don't have any preferences, but the brief change of environment wasn't entirely unwelcome.

I moved to a slope near the lighthouse.

I couldn't help but think of the settings in Andrei Tarkovsky's film, STALKER.

We then moved closer to the sea.

As I was about to leave the seashore, the rest of the guys spotted some jellyfish in the water.

As they swam, the jellyfish seemed to dance a slow and hypnotic dance. I later saw the reeds that gave me the same feeling. One dances in water, the other dances in the wind?

Night arrived when I finished my dinner at the McDonald's by the beach.

And then we made our way to the station again.

Life-size Gundam in Odaiba and its adoring visitors

noreply@blogger.com (The Great Swifty) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:32:48 PDT

After hearing so much about the life-size Gundam statue in Odaiba, I finally decided to visit it. It was the evening of the 4th of July, which is more than a week before its official unveiling. But already many have gathered over there to take photos of it.

I was never actually much of a Gundam fan, during my childhood I've only seen the Mobile Suit Gundam F91 film and the Gundam Wing series. That was it. Macross/ Robotech remained the most important mecha anime of my childhood, then as I grew up, I was more into the likes of Nadesico, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Rahxephon, Escaflowne etc. the space opera of Macross just didn't feel like my cup of tea.

But nonetheless, I was excited to see the bloody life-size Gundam statue!

And to be there during sunset was cool too!

People of all ages were there to take photos.

Even the little girl below was infected by her parents' contagious excitement over the Gundam.

That's me, looking pretty in front of the Gundam.

I wonder whether I should shoot my next project there. Hm.

The Chinese lady with a shotgun

noreply@blogger.com (The Great Swifty) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:10:09 PDT

This is my friend, Zhu Dan, from China. She's really nice and friendly.

But she's slightly intimidating because she carries a shotgun with her all the time.

I've heard in my overactive imagination that many of her ex-boyfriends who pissed her off got their heads blown off. But those were the lucky ones, the not-so-lucky ones had other parts of their bodies blown off. Imagining all these with such gruesome and graphic detail makes me shudder.

But because she always has a shotgun with her, I figured she would be the perfect person to act for my Thai friend Kong's action short film, where all she had to do was to blow people up. So I introduced her to him back in April.

It was Kong's first attempt at directing, and he was quite intimidated too, fearing that pissing Zhu Dan off would result in her blasting him with her shotgun too. (look carefully at where the gun was, and where it was aiming at, in the photo below)

Night cruise on the Himiko waterbus

noreply@blogger.com (The Great Swifty) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:32:48 PDT

It seems that we have reached the second half of 2009. After completing '3PM', my third short film in six months yesterday afternoon, I can't help but feel a little wistful, a little melancholic, the familiar condition known as post-creativity depression is back.

So despite having finished my film, I actually chose to remain in the editing lab, and finally at night, I took out snippets of videos I shot more than a week ago with my own camera and looked through them, just so I could edit them and give myself something to do.

On the 20th of June, Lia the Artist told me and Niklas about the futuristic-looking waterbus "Himiko", designed by famed Japanese animator Reiji (or Leiji) Matsumoto ("Captain Harlock", "Spaceship Yamato", "Galaxy Express 999").

Lia's friend, Nakajima, a drummer and cahone player, was going to have a performance on Himiko.

Prior to boarding Himiko, we took a group photo.

We couldn't see the waterbus in the photo. So we took ANOTHER group photo.

Luckily I remained handsome in both photos, so I thought it was fine.

This is Lia's camera, it's injured, hence the plaster.

And so we started boarding the waterbus.

It looks like this from the inside.

We took yet another group photo in Himiko, because, you can never get enough of those. I'm still handsome.

Niklas took my camera and showed us the joys of shooting long exposure photographs.

Impressed with what I saw, I attempted to shoot some too.

Not too clear though.

I took another, it was better.

Encouraged by the results, I snapped a few more.

Each to varying degrees of success.

In the end Lia got pretty bored with my crap photography skills.

Impatient, even.

So I stopped.

Lia decided to take my camera and show me how photos like these were really taken. And so she did. Meanwhile, Niklas, too bored with our amateurish attempts at photography, turned away.

Well, despite being kinda out of focus, I remain cute, so I will say that Lia's photo was a decent attempt.

I remember that night for its pulsating music, for the crowd of people dancing, and for the stunning scenery I saw as Himiko headed to Odaiba.

Lia swayed gracefully. An ethereal figure completely immersed into the music, disconnected from her surroundings... (until I point my camera at her, in which she would cover her face or turn away)

Niklas danced nonchalantly, occasionally he seemed as if he were brooding solemnly whilst he danced. He then scored himself some free drinks.

Nakajima performed in the end, pounding his ~~strange-looking drum~~ cahone (thanks, cuz) with his bare hands, sometimes so quickly that his hands became a blurry motion, the girls standing closest to him squealed in ecstasy.

The night lasted for a few hours, despite the repetition, the scenery was never boring, the glittering lights of the buildings and their kaleidoscope of colours, more luminescent when they were reflected from the surface of the sea. As the ship went back and forth between Odaiba and Hinode Pier, my mind wandered fleetingly to the the ending of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA. then I wondered whether the strobe lights were making me think seemingly unrelated things. During one of the last rounds when the Himiko docked at Odaiba, a woman puked and was carried out.

Of course I wouldn't finish this blog post without posting a video of the cruise. For the first time ever I actually had to do some edits for the videos I shot with my Panasonic DMC-LX3 camera (up until now most of the videos I shot and uploaded here had been unedited).

So, here you go.

Yakitori is yummy

noreply@blogger.com (The Great Swifty) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:13:06 PDT

On Saturday night I went to a Yakitori restaurant at Shin-Okubu with Eric (my friend, not my dad).

(Eric and I at the Shinjuku Station East Exit, before making our way to Shin-Okubo)

And dammit, the food's so bloody good!

We ate much more than this. But I was so busy eating that I didn't bother to take any more photos.

There were three desserts available, we tried all, the best one's strawberry with cream.

The restaurant has some cute waitresses too (BTW: testing out the video feature in Flickr).

... now if only I can remember the name of the restaurant.

TRANSFORMERS 2 will be the biggest film in Malaysia

noreply@blogger.com (The Great Swifty) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 09:29:48 PDT

On a lighter note, Sebastian had been pretty depressed about the unanimous love my beloved home country had for TRANSFORMERS 2.

When I saw it on Monday, I immediately predicted that TRANSFORMERS 2 will be the top-grossing film of all-time in Malaysia. It's not that difficult, considering that the current record holder is the first TRANSFORMERS film.

With all these major explosions, tiny Decepticons dry-humping Megan Fox's leg, funny jokes, what is not to love? Here's a Facebook exchange that occurred just now.

Films should only be about entertainment. To have it any other way would be a travesty.

You know what's worthless? Films without explosions.

I shuddered and knew immediately that the following short film had no explosions and scenes of Megan Fox being dry-humped by a tiny Decepticon when I read its synopsis on the Paris Cinema Film Fest website:

Love Suicides brings out one of the unknown faces of Malaysia. Edmund Yeo chose to film silence and frozen time – symptom of a worrying torpor – in a deserted region, spared from industrialization. Inspired by a short story written by Yasunari Kawabata, the film reflects a state of paralysis relayed thanks to a minimalist account given by the two actresses and underlines the dangers of one’s attachment to the past, which is a source of deadly incommunicability. Well-crafted from the point of view of form, Love Suicides is a violent and delicate fantastical short film about the haunted spaces of a world cannibalized by memories.

That Edmund Yeo guy... what a waste of time making films without explosions!

Reflecting on Michael Jackson (1958-2009)

noreply@blogger.com (The Great Swifty) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:17:23 PDT

When I woke up this morning and saw the news of Michael Jackson's death, I was quite affected by it. I grew up as a fan. As a child I listened to all the cassette tapes I had with me then, OFF THE WALL, THRILLER and BAD. I didn't know how it all started, I can't remember. The King of Pop then was at the pinnacle of his popularity, television was often dominated by his electrifying performances, or the music videos.

In kindergarten I drew pictures of men grabbing their crotches because that's the pose I remember most from Michael Jackson's dances, to the consternation of teachers.

Watching his Black and White music video in Las Vegas when I was 7, during my very first magical trip to the States with my parents, was a vivid moment of my childhood memory. We were in the hotel room and my dad switched on the TV.

"Look, it's the boy from Home Alone!" Mom said.

That got me glued. After the dad got blasted all the way to Africa by Macauley Culkin's power guitar, I was exhilarated to discover that it was a Michael Jackson music video. And what a music video it was!

Michael Jackson - Black Or White
Uploaded by nabukodonosour. - Explore more music videos.

The aforementioned trip was magical because I would later visit Disneyland for the very first time, and watched my very first 3D movie, Captain EO.

The Dangerous album came along, and that was the defining MJ album of my childhood. I listened to it over and over again. But most times I tried finding a particular song to listen to since each one gained more significance during different moments. First there was Black And White. Then the awesome Do You Remember The Time music video came along and I listened to that more.

Michael Jackson - Remember The Time
Uploaded by hushhush112. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

Then came Heal The World. I've been watching the NBA highlights on local TV since as long as I can remember but it was the Bulls vs Suns 1993 Finals that turned me into a fan, especially a Michael Jordan one. So JAM became significant.

Michael Jackson - Jam
Uploaded by djoik. - See the latest featured music videos.

I also saw Free Willy that year, I began to listen to Will You Be There more as well.

I guess I'm old enough to live in a time when Michael Jackson was still considered 'great', and that you could say without irony that you were a fan.

I remember attending his concert in Singapore for his DANGEROUS WORLD TOUR. What year was it? 1998? 1999? Growing up with my parents in the music industry, attending concerts was a common part of childhood, I also had the privilege to meet the performers on backstage either before or after the concert. Yet Michael Jackson was a different case, the ticket was a hard-fought one. My parents didn't go, but I went with my father's colleague and his family, I could still remember how festive it was, even though I sat so far from the stage that he was a tiny speck, and I could only look at the big screen. Because I was only look at the big screen, it was an occasionally surreal experience where I wondered whether he was REALLY there. Until I was handed the binoculars, but only for a while, because we took turns using it.

As years went by, with all these accusations of child molestation, and his increasingly bizarre public appearances, a personal life seemingly spiraling out of control, and I, like most people, occasionally followed with morbid curiosity because, well, it was impossible to keep him out of the news, I secretly still wanted to see a comeback from him. A late-career renaissance, some sort artistic redemption, all these allegations meant nothing to me, for me, Michael Jackson was more about the music, that will always be his legacy.

1995. HIStory's release was an exciting moment of my life, when Scream or You Are Not Alone started playing on the radio, I would turn the volume up.

michael jackson & janet jackson scream
Uploaded by erichedly. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

The attachment to him always lingered. In 2001, when I was already finishing secondary school, I still turned on the TV and waited for the local premiere of YOU ROCK MY WORLD. The parents (and I think the sister) watched too.

Michael Jackson - You Rock My World
Uploaded by djoik. - Explore more music videos.

We decided it wasn't as good as his old classics, but then, what is?

News of Farah Fawcett's death was the last night I read before I slept. Then I woke up to news of Michael Jackson's death from Twitter and RSS feeds I subscribe to. Not entirely a cheery day.

The news jolted away whatever lingering effects of the sleep, and I tweeted/ posted on my Facebook status before heading off for breakfast.

I don't deify people, so I have made my share of Michael Jackson jokes, and laughed at even more of them. His personal life was more a cautionary tale than anything, and I do think that his decline was mostly consequences of his own actions. Sebastian's contrarian attempts to celebrate Michael Jackson's death was initially deemed classless by me, but ultimately, as I quote from a blog "It's not wrong to reflect on someone's mistakes or misjudgments at the time of their death. That's the way we reinforce our own mortality and reinvigorate lost ambitions."

Yet when someone who had such an immense presence in your life dies suddenly. it's hard not to feel a slight numbness and melancholy.

Today was the last day of the basic cinematography classes I've been attending that were taught by Kenji Takama (cinematographer for the DEATH NOTE films, WELCOME BACK, MR MCDONALD'S etc.). I presented my newest short film 3PM to him, and then KINGYO, the former he enjoyed, the latter he was genuinely impressed with, telling me that it belonged to an international stage.

To be praised by such a respected individual in the industry was a joyous moment, but it was fleeting. As the class ended and my friends dispersed, I found myself overwhelmed by thoughts of mortality again, of 'the one shot in this silly little exercise called life', of its impermanence, of the possibilities of never fulfilling one's own potential, of creating a legacy, and so forth.

Yes. Sitting alone in my room now, I think I feel a little melancholic.

We're on a mission
In the everlasting light that shines
A revelation
Of the truth in chapters of our minds

So long, bad times
We're gonna shake it up and break it up
We're sharing light brighter than the sun
Hello , good times
We're here to simulate, eliminate
An' congregate, illuminate

- "We are here to change the world" Michael Jackson

Short interview with me on BMW Shorties website

noreply@blogger.com (The Great Swifty) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:07:17 PDT

Did a quick email interview with the peeps at BMW Shorties two days ago, and the interview was immediately up on their page yesterday. Good job using the cast and crew photo from 3PM too!

An excerpt.

Filmmaking has been around for decades, how do you innovate and make your film different?

Actually, I don’t self-consciously try to be ‘innovative’ and do things ‘people had never done before’. Normally I just find a story I really like to do, and hope that my personal filmmaking sensibilities can do justice to the story, enough to make it unique. I’m not sure whether I am original, it’s really up to my audiences to decide that.

Read the rest here.

100 HARIJADI on Youtube

noreply@blogger.com (The Great Swifty) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:26:41 PDT

Photo taken from Dira Abu Zahar's blog

100 HARIJADI (translation: 100 Birthdays) is the latest TV movie from Greenlight Pictures for Astro Ria.

It was aired on the 12th of June, to a somewhat positive reception (message board's in Bahasa Malaysia only).

Aside from the brainstorming and story development sessions I went through with Ming Jin shortly before I returned to Tokyo in April, I was uninvolved in the project.

Of course, I haven't watched the film either.

So it was more than a little surreal to catch it on Youtube this morning. Someone had liked it enough to upload the entire thing. It's definitely not everyday that you watch a production from your own company in such a manner.

100 HARIJADI stars Dira Abu Zahar (she posted some production photos here), Zahiril Adzim, Radhi Khalid, Tony Eusoff. With the band Hujan making a cameo appearance.

Here are the first three parts (in Malay, no subtitles, sorry)

100 Harijadi 1/10

100 Harijadi 2/10

100 Harijadi 3/10

You can catch the rest of it here. Or catch reruns of it on Astro Ria if you are in Malaysia.

A very sweet gesture from the 3PM cast and crew

noreply@blogger.com (The Great Swifty) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:23:47 PDT

So I've wrapped up the shoot for my newest Japanese short film, 3PM last Friday. And had am now editing it.

Here's a photo of the cast and crew sent to me by main actress Yumiko Kitazawa (you can also read about the shoot from her blog, but it's only in Japanese).

From left to right: Yumiko the lead actress, Ko the sound guy, Kabayama the camera assistant turned lead actor, me, Erika the cinematographer and Yuiko the producer/ assistant director

Like I said, I've immediately started work on editing the film the night when I finished the shoot, and things seem encouraging thus far.

It was cool to receive a thank you note from Yumiko over the weekend, and then Yuiko, who told me that she had left some Black Thunder (my favourite chocolate bar that I often have for lunch) in the fridge at the editing lab.

So this morning went I went to the lab to continue my editing, I found the Black Thunders.

Thanks. It was a very fun shoot.

Black Thunder is not just a chocolate bar. It is a way of life.

As a bonus, I'm sharing the video of the June 12th line-reading session we had with you guys (I mentioned the session here).

Happy Father's Day, dad

noreply@blogger.com (The Great Swifty) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 18:09:05 PDT

As I look out through my window right now, the world is absolutely grey, and obscured by the rain. Perhaps I'm going to be stuck in my room the whole day. On the other hand, I checked the weather forecast in Kuala Lumpur and it seems cloudy, and there will be rain too in the afternoon, but the rains of tropical Malaysia are ferocious, but fleeting, often ending in mere hours, while the rain of Tokyo often drag on for days. So rain or not, I doubt it will do much to affect Father's Day for dad.

Yup, that's dad.

By now my cute fat-faced little sister had flown back to Malaysia from Perth as a surprise trip for dad. Good work, cute fat-faced little sister!

Dad is celebrating the day with mom and my deceptively pedolicious (deceptive because she is much older than her child-like appearance) little sister at home, and probably also with a film, just the way he likes it.

I hope they all have fun.

Happy Father's Day, dad.

Completed the shoot of my new short, 3PM, edited a rough cut too

noreply@blogger.com (The Great Swifty) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:00:06 PDT

Just got back from the editing lab moments ago. Managed to wrap up the shoot for my new Japanese short film, 3PM. It was a fun shoot, exhausting it was. It's been a while since I've actually made a comedy (though many argued that CHICKEN RICE MYSTERY is just some some film with some comedic moments, and not really a comedy), I needed to do once since I've been making three consecutive depressing films (four, if you count my little-seen experimental video, FLEETING IMAGES).

Like I said, 3PM is a zero-budget film much smaller in scale than KINGYO, and set mostly in one location. I only had a skeleton crew (Me, Kou-san the sound guy, Erika the director of photography, Yuiko the producer/assistant director) , but just as I've always believed, as long as everyone's passionate, things can run pretty smoothly. That was the case of the 3PM shoot.

Even though we had some cute Waseda University cheerleaders briefly interrupting the shoot with their practice session at our location, but that lasted barely more than half an hour, and although they did their best to distract me, I managed to valiantly relocate the shoot to somewhere nearby.

Spirits were still so high that I immediately started work on putting together a rough cut of the short film in the evening, and worked on it til just now. Things look quite promising, I managed to try some stuff I never tried in previous works, yet I'm a little surprised by its length. The whole thing is nearly 16 minutes. I thought it'll be 10 to 12 minutes. Whoa. I might have some snipping to do.

Here are some stills.

I was shooting this particular scene when I noticed that it looked so silly that I had to take a photo.

Now, here's a proper one of my main actress Yumiko Kitazawa.

LOVE SUICIDES in competition at the Paris Cinema International Film Festival

noreply@blogger.com (The Great Swifty) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:14:46 PDT

Love Suicides

I have mentioned this briefly back in April, but I'll mention it again since I've gotten more details now that the official line-up of next month's Paris Cinema International Film Festival is out. So yup, LOVE SUICIDES, my first ever Yasunari Kawabata adaptation before I made KINGYO, is one of the 17 short films around the world selected for competition at the Paris Cinema International Film Fest.

With all the attention that KINGYO's been getting lately, I have to say that poor LOVE SUICIDES is starting to get overlooked. But I'm very happy, nay, totally stunned, that my little film is making its premiere at such a prestigious event. I hope KINGYO will follow its footsteps. If I'm not wrong, LOVE SUICIDES is one of the only two Asian shorts in the line-up, the other being guest-of-honour Tsai Ming Liang's Madame Butterfly.

The very awesome Paris Cinema Film Fest website had put up excerpts for all 17 films.

So you can see a few seconds of LOVE SUICIDES as well.

(If you are looking at this from Facebook, you won't see the embedded video unless you click the original blog post)

[Compétition internationale] Love suicides (extrait)
Uploaded by festivalpariscinema - Classic TV and last night's shows, online.

The girl sits by the sea

I've uploaded another scene onto Youtube long ago. This is it.

The mother force feeds the girl

My film won't be the only Malaysian presence at the film festival. Yeo Joon Han's (no relation) SELLOUT! is in competition at the feature film category, while Tan Chui Mui's upcoming THE YEAR WITHOUT A SUMMER is one of the projects selected by the Paris Project.

Not to neglect my current adopted home, Japan, Naomi Kawase's AND PROTECT, PROTECTED (MAMORI, MAMORETE) and Sabu's first planned English feature, ARRESTED MEMORIES, are also in the Paris Project as well.

Check out some production photos of LOVE SUICIDES. Or you can read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 of my production diary.