Blue

If we can love someone so much, how will we be able to handle it the one day we are separated?

And, if being separated is a part of life, and you know about separation well, is it possible that we can love someone and never be afraid of losing them?

At the same time, I was also wondering, is it possible that we can live our entire life without loving anyone at all?

That’s my loneliness.

- The Love of Siam

One of my favorite parts of the movie, when the character Mew tried explaining to his friend Tong how he is "frighteningly lonely."

Meh.

It's just one of those days when "nothing's good and nothing's bad, everything's just kind of sad." The Blake Babies, that.

Elizabeth Bennet vs. Zombies

From Chronicle Books:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies -- Pride and Prejudice and Zombies features the original text of Jane Austen's beloved novel with all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie action. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton—and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she's soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers—and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Complete with 20 illustrations in the style of C. E. Brock (the original illustrator of Pride and Prejudice), this insanely funny expanded edition will introduce Jane Austen's classic novel to new legions of fans.

Jane Austen is the author of Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, Mansfield Park, and other masterpieces of English literature.

Seth Grahame-Smith is the author of How to Survive a Horror Movie and The Big Book of Porn. He lives in Los Angeles.

Lying Low

One of those rare down time moments here at the office. The calendar is clear, so far, while the job orders are still being written down, or the account executives are too busy whatever occupies their time to copy and paste from a client's briefing document.

Heelarious.

Have been sick for the most part of January. The first week was the stomach flu. And recently the plain old flu. I think I'm paying for the perfect blush of health since mid-year 2008.

It's my second day back at the office and not hacking like an old hag, not as much hacking as yesterday at least.

Strange. Now that I have the time to write, I actually don't have anything to say.

Review: The Love Of Siam (Thailand, 2007)

Rak haeng Siam (The Love of Siam)
Written and Directed by Chukiat Sakveerakul

Somewhere in the second half of the movie, the characters converge in Siam Square. The camera follows the craning necks and the long last looks, the oblivious, the forgotten and the ignored, under blinking lights down clogged streets. It’s a short sequence but it has left its mark. “The Love of Siam” feels accidental. The placid storytelling takes its time and lets life run its true, natural course. And the effect is almost incomprehensive.

The story is quite straightforward: Two boys Mew, the withdrawn wimp, and Tong, the rugged menace, become friends in a quiet neighborhood until Tong’s family is struck by tragedy and they had to move house. Years later, Mew (Witwisit Hiranyawongkul) and Tong (Mario Maurer) meet again, rekindle their friendship, but both now weighed down by growing pains, the former’s “frightening loneliness” and Tong’s crumbling family life. And here, the movie goes where no mainstream teen romance (as the film was marketed in Thailand to gain a wider audience) dare to.

Chukiat Sakveerakul’s script is delicate and never becomes precious with sentimentality. The graceful camera movements panning across bedrooms, streets and classrooms, the steady shots of a family unraveling or a fragile kiss, keep the pace slow but thoroughly involving. With the Director’s Cut running 178 minutes, one would expect a drop somewhere—even the much acclaimed “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” had a saggy middle—but not a second did my attention waver.

Sakveerakul cleverly slips in enough quirky tics that widen Mew and Tong’s universes. The feisty neighbor who has resorted to chick-lit voodoo to win Mew’s heart, the band manager that finds herself entangled in Tong’s family, and the treasure hunt games. The treasures? A toy. Then a goodbye.

“The Love of Siam” is a deceptively simple, no-frills family drama. But like Mew adding the missing nose of a wooden puppet as tears of rejection and gratitude run down his uncomplaining face, I am left grasping for reasons and motives. For whys and what-ifs.

“The Love of Siam” feels accidental, much like the love it defines: We simply can’t choose where our love lands. And when it does, we can’t help ourselves. We can’t help but feel alive, more alive than we have ever been.