My BAFTA predictions.

It’s the BAFTAs tonight!! I have chocolate cake to eat with my buddies Luke and Anna whilst we watch the ceremony, bitch about the clothes and whine about bad calls. Yay!

Here are my predictions:
Best Film Not in the English Language: Das weisse Band

I found Coco before Chanel, Let the Right One In and Broken Embraces all very disappointing. Of course, that doesn’t mean BAFTA will, but I also feel they’re not “BAFTA” type movies. I reckon it’ll be between The White Ribbon, which was very well received over here, and The Prophet, which won the London Film Critic’s Award for Best Film.

Best Film: Avatar

I still haven’t seen Avatar. My housemates tell me it’s very good and all, but I dunno, it looks a bit too… blue for me. Then again, I do support Chelsea, so, maybe. Having seen The Hurt Locker this week I genuinely do not understand all the fuss over it, and having seen Precious the week before and witnessed a how to guide of how not to direct a film, I really am baffled at this lol of a category. At least An Education was good.

Best Leading Actor: A Single Man - Colin Firth
Quite hard to predict this category. Colin Firth was sublime in A Single Man, and I really enjoyed Jeff Bridges’ performance as well. Serkis is well liked by BAFTAs so it could well go to him. I’m praying to god that Clooney doesn’t get it. Ugh.

Best Leading Actress Nominees: An Education - Carey Mulligan
It could go to anyone, but I feel the homegrown element will be in Mulligan’s favour.

Best Supporting Actor: Inglourious Basterds - Christoph Waltz

This is actually a surprisingly good category. McKay, Tucci and Waltz were all great. But Waltz was so unbelievably, amazingly badass!

Best Supporting Actress: Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire - Mo'Nique
I reckon the fact that Up in the Air has two actresses nominated and Nowhere Boy has two actress nominated will split the votes for respective movies. Plus Mo’Nique was amazing. So disappointed that my Goddess Melanie wasn't nominated. Ack.

Best Director: Inglourious Basterds  - Quentin Tarantino
I dunno, serious wishful thinking here. I think I know it’ll go to Cameron or Bigalow. But I really want QT to get it.

Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer: Nowhere Boy - Sam Taylor Wood
Best Screenplay – Original: Inglourious Basterds
Less wishful thinking here; BAFTAs are a little more out there with their screenplay awards, and Inglourious Basterds’ multi-layered babel revenge tale could well find itself ticking the panel’s boxes.

Best Screenplay – Adapted: In the Loop
I reckon it’s between In the Loop and An Education. In the Loop was just so creative with its swearing; love it.

Best Cinematography: Avatar
Best Costume Design: The Young Victoria
Best Sound: Star Trek
Best Editing: The Hurt Locker
Best Special Visual Effects: Avatar
Best Music: Avatar
Short Film: Mixtape
Best Short Animation: The Gruffalo
Best Animated Film: Up
Best Production Design: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Best Make Up & Hair: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Outstanding British Film: In the Loop

I would be over the moon if my #2 film of 2009, Fish Tank, won this category. But I think In the Loop will probably get it.
Rising Star Award: Nicholas Hoult (ugh)

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”

It’s a clear case of quantity over quality this week; I watched a fair few movies, but most of them were unbearably, unforgivably, pants.

The Grudge III (Toby Wilkins, 2009)

Poorly acted and scripted, and about as terrifying as doing my laundry without any fabric softener. Then again, the only reason I watched it was because it has Beau Mirchoff (he plays Wisteria Lane hottie Danny Bolen in Desperate Housewives) and he was criminally underused.

Julie and Julia (Nora Ephron, 2009)

A sweet enough idea but the film sadly turns out to be a little drab. I found all the hoo-ha over Streep’s performance nonsensical as she did nothing but sport a crappy accent (she did much better work in It’s Complicated). Amy Adams was at her charming best and I found her half of the film semi-engaging, particularly when she gets her blog up and running.

Laura (Otto Preminger, 1944)

The only film I saw this week that I would deem excellent. Gene Tierney plays the eponymous female who, at the beginning of the film, is being presumed dead. As the film develops, a very tangled web of jealousy, love and possession are uncovered. The cast are collectively brilliant, in particular Tierney and Dana Andrews.

Furthermore, the scene in which Laura returns to her house is one of the most finely orchestrated I’ve scene; the camera seems to widen to allow the full shot of the detective sleeping there, and the sound, which features a brief second of nothing but a clock ticking, captures the suspense perfectly. Great movie.

WGA Winners.

Hmm, my predictions were 50% correct. Up in the Air did win Adapted Screenplay, but Original Screenplay went to The Hurt Locker (blah)

Reading & Writing.

Last night and this morning, I was reading Ben Elton's Past Mortem, a murder mystery centering around a murderer who, as the book goes on, is revealed as someone who is killing people who were/are bullies, and killing them in bold ways that re-live how the bullies treated their victims in the past. Investigating the case if 5'4" ginger policeman Ed Newsom, who, despite a mediocre childhood, is now fairly prominent and of good status, albeit short. He is also alone, and harbours an all-consuming crush on his sergeant Natasha, who is sadly attached to her abusive and good-for-nothing freeloader boyfriend Lance. One day, on a whim, Ed logs onto friendsunited.com and finds himself opening a door to his past. His childhood object of lust, Christine, holds a get-together for everyone in his year, and he finds that work and pleasure most certainly do not mix, as the killer's next strike is much closer to home.

Aside from a far-too-long and downright wrong sex scene, Past Mortem proved a highly enjoyable read. Ed Newsom is an engaging and likeable protagonist and the blend of mystery and bathos is very well done. I'm kind of slow, so, whilst some people said they saw the twist coming a mile off, I genuinely was surprised when the true culprit was revealed. And, whilst killing off bullies is not a sensible solution to bullying, the long-term effects of bullying (even if intended casually by the proprietor) are investigated with sensitivity and compassion. The book actually has a great range of scope, tackling issues such as domestic violence, friendship, insecurity, and the need to feel validation. Some of these topics are tackled better than others, and some of the characters are downright dislikable, but aside from that, this is fine, frothy stuff from Elton.

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'Tis the WGA tonight. My predictions for winners...

Will win / should win
Original Screenplay:
(500) Days of Summer
A Serious Man
Avatar
The Hangover
The Hurt Locker

Adapted Screenplay:
Crazy Heart
Julie & Julia
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Star Trek
Up in the Air

Obligatory "Audrey Hepburn is perfection" entry.

8. He ni zai yi qi (Chen Kaige, 2002)

Together tells the story about Liu Xiaochun, a thirteen year old boy with a prodigal talent at the violin. His father, Liu Peiqi enters him for a musical competition in Beijing, and although his son finishes fifth, his residence not in Beijing renders him invalid. His dad persuades a music professor to take his son on whilst he goes back home, thus leaving Liu Xiaochun away from his dad for the first time in his life.

Appropriately, for a film about the violin, the music in this film is stunning. This humble story is also written by the director, telling the story with stirring emotive force. Liu Xiaochun proves to be the kind of sensitive soul that far few 13-year-olds are. In its own little way, Together makes me appreciate my parents much more and evoke tears whenever I think about how much they’ve sacrificed for me. The supporting actors are all good, showing the subtle ways in which the people young Xiaochun meets shape his development and life. 

It’s refreshing to witness the friendships and platonic loves that the protagonist meets throughout the film. Xiaochun has two music teachers throughout the film, and each is at a dead end in his life about something, and these themes are investigated with sensitivity. Far be it from being a film about just the violin, themes of friendship, determination, courage, and love are all in here. The film is not without its melodramatic moments, but that only heightened my enjoyment of it. And, whilst it has been criticized by some for being too saccharine, to that I say, what’s so bad about sugary once in a while? As Chen Kaige himself said, "being Chinese isn't all misery”.

Tang Yun, a real-life violinist, was selected for the role when director Chen Kaige saw him at a concert, and his performance is genuine as it is heartfelt. Liu Peiqi is incredible as the father who makes sacrifice upon sacrifice because he wants the best for his son – a gesture that is shown to be even more affecting when the flashback shows how the father came to find his son (few films scenes have had me crying so much, and for so long). 

In fact, despite his violin skills being the catalyst and plot driving force in the film, I see Together more as a universal tale of the love between a father and son. The father isn’t perfect; he’s poor and struggling to make ends meet, but this is something that makes his devotion to his son easier to relate to.

There are two things about Together that resonated with me: the fact that I’m Chinese and the fact that I play violin. And it’s true; watching Together did make me appreciate the violin more, as well feel nostalgia for my homeland. But my appreciation for the film came from far more than just those similarities. 

Cinema is an art form that transcends mere entertainment. It can inspire debate, conversation, raise pertinent topics. It can make an everyday story more exciting and interesting with the aid of music, cinematography and beautiful art direction. But the main reason I watch films is to feel. Human emotion can be felt by anybody, anywhere. And in getting me to feel pathos, bathos and the spectrum of emotions in between, Together achieves that aim perfectly.