First Thing ... Korean Cinema

First Thing is a feature I run on my blog from time to time to interact with people in my Twitter timeline. The premise is simply to state the first thing that comes to your mind when I say _______? (The blank can be anything cinema related) The only catch is that the answer has to be in only one sentence.

Memories of Murder

So, continuing with my somewhat repeating feature I present to you the "First thing that comes to your mind when I say KOREAN CINEMA”;

@T_J_atkinson - Unsurprisingly, I think of OLDBOY

@PopcornJunkies - The Host

@ArcaneMovieTees - The Vengeance Trilogy

@FilmSamurai - Revenge Films

@DrunkonVHS - I find Korean cinema new and exciting, it's one of the few areas I haven't thoroughly explored.

@Discuss_Cinema - The Revenge trilogy of Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, Oldboy and Lady Vengeance.

@reviwer - Currently leading in the world of cinema. Standard of films just keeps getting better.

OldBoy

So it seems that "Revenge" films and the Vengeance Trilogy are the most common answers. I have to confess and say that I am yet to watch the entire Vengeance Trilogy (having only seen Oldboy), but I’ll be bumping the trilogy movies up in my must watch list.

Korean Cinema is something that has amazingly taken over the cinema world over the last decade. What surprises me is that it is yet not commercial in most countries. These movies have been doing the festival rounds and have gained more success by word of mouth rather than self promotion. I also find that Korean Cinema is much more gutsy and ballsy than any other cinema around. Be it gore, sex, or violence, everything is more realistic and in plenty. Credit also goes to the directors and writers that are making original cinema with striking camera work or plot lines.

The Chaser

As for me, I was totally won over by The Chaser which remains one of my all time favorites. My Sassy Girl is probably one of the most refreshing romantic comedies out there even now. I recently had the pleasure of viewing The Man From Nowhere and A Bittersweet Life which have some amazingly iconic moments and Memories of Murder which is a movie based on a real-life unsolved serial killer case.

So if you have a Korean Film that you swear by and want others to experience, feel free to mention it in the comments box below and let us support a budding and brilliant cinema industry.    

Note from the Author:

Everyone mentioned above are great film bloggers and/or tweeters and I recommend following each and every one of them (not in real, just on twitter). You can simply click on their names to go to their respective twitter timelines.

First Thing… The Godfather

We all have a list of movies that we should have seen, but we have not. I’m not talking about the latest releases, but the classics. The films that are part of almost all film discussions. The ones that you dare not say you have not seen. The ones that you know just enough about to sound informative when you lie about having watched them during a film talk.

Now, I know you are smart enough to have figured out from the title and the above paragraph that I have not seen The Godfather (or the sequels for that matter). There is no real reason for this. I just haven’t. I plan to someday and that to sooner than later… I hope.

So, in order to gain some more information on the film, just so that I can pretend to have seen it, I asked some of my twitter friends what is the "first thing that comes to your mind when I say The Godfather".

As always, all of the following are excellent film enthusiasts that I recommend following on twitter. You can simply click on their name below which is also a link to their twitter profile.

@Dale_SaxonIII - Overrated film experience unless you really like spaghetti.

@snobbyfilmguy - Whenever someone mentions The Godfather I immediately think of its epic nature.

@nuts4r2 - Horse's head!

@FilmSamurai - Don Corleone sitting in his office in his tuxedo at his daughters wedding petting his white cat.

@NJHallard - The music.

@littlestpicshow - Instantly think Marlon Brando and respecting the family, as he sort of optimises what the film is and stands for in my opinion.

@askimrach - Oops another film I haven't seen, I've never fancied it.

So, based on the above information that I have so cheekily gathered, the next time I have a conversation on The Godfather, this will be my official stand;

“The Godfather is an overrated film experience of epic nature where scenes with a horses head and Don Corleone petting a white cat stand out along with the music and respect for the family.”

Do you think I can get away with that?

First Thing... Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Continuing with my “First thing that comes to your mind when you think of …” series this time I decided to ask my twitter followers their thoughts on Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

FBDO remains one of my most watched movies till date. It’s a classic of sorts which has a number of iconic moments and is quite quotable.

Simply a day in the life of three friends the movie is extremely uplifting and tells you to live each day to the max as if it was your last day, all in a light and fun manner.

As always, I recommend that you follow the following tweeters on twitter  (that sounded nice) as they all are likely to provide you with hours of good conversation.

 So, this is what people think when I say Ferris Bueller’s Day Off;

@Discuss_Cinema – “I wouldn't have gotten on with him in school at all.”

@DrunkonVHS – “The fact that principle Rooney (Jeffrey Jones) is a registered sex offender...seems just a little too fitting haha”

@Zinematic – “This may sound a bit strange but I always picture a very young Alan Ruck providing fantastic support.”

@criticismism – “That lovely scene in the museum: http://t.co/vhiPBOH ”

@nuts4r2 – “Well it was a film I deliberately ignored at cinemas when it was released so, honestly, the only thing I can think of when you say that is Mathew Broderick and a car (red?).”

First thing... Star Wars

Eureka! Well not exactly. Had an idea of a blog post that I can probably do on a recurring basis. It’s simple really. I put forth something related to cinema (name of a movie/actor/director or a genre) to a select few of my twitter followers (they will be different in every post) and ask them to tell me the first thing that comes to their mind. I further ask them to limit their answer to just one sentence maximum. I will post their answers along with their twitter handles and I recommend that you follow them if you are on twitter.

I will also be doing the same with the twitter travel enthusiasts on my travel blog, but will obviously throw out a travel related topic. So keep a look out for that as well.

Today’s Question:

The first thing that comes to your mind when I say “Star Wars”

@snobbyfilmguy - I used to love them but now I'm tired of them.

@everyfilmin2011 - The man from the Green Cross Code with a big black plastic mask on.

@ronniebgoodwin - storm trooper bumping his head in the low doorway, ha...

@SuperDuper_Chic - Geeky, yet epic Sci-fi film series that shouldn't have had any prequels.

@Love_cinema - Outer space.

@askimrach - Revolutionary, awesome

@mothpete - 1. Soundtrack... but that might be because the kids are playing Star Wars Lego in the next room. 2. Luke looking up at the two suns – simple  (Okay since we are just starting 2 sentences were allowed in this case J

@shingla - blank face :-|

@Myfilmviews - A very rich George Lucas and a lot of fans that are still willing to buy any merchandise related to the movies.

@reviwer - Darth Vader