Anyway, we were there for Matsuyama Kenichi. Oh, this gorgeous boy!
Photos below courtesy of Oh No, They Didn't.
I found the movie incredibly beautiful. The cinematography was just stunning. Everything looked gorgeous and dreamy, even the rubbish. However, the narrative was just terrible. If you hadn't read the book previous to watching the movie, I don't know how you could piece it together. Also, what a waste of a great composer! Jonny Greenwood did the music, but you wouldn't be able to tell because it was so badly edited into the film. The music would just cut off at random points or start up at the strangest moments. Very distracting!
It was really such a fucking shame because the actors were so excellent, especially Matsuyama Kenichi. He is just terrific! He has an innate vulnerability to him, which helps, but he is fearless as an actor, his emotions seem so raw. There was a scene where he's crying, and I felt like Pauline Kael watching the then-unknown Marlon Brando onstage for the first time. (Brando had been so authentic, so real, that Kael had thought he was actually having a breakdown and had to avert her eyes in embarrassment before realizing that he was just acting. I felt the same, dudes!)
Anyway, watch the movie for the visuals, but otherwise, sad to say, it's kind of a shitty film. I should have expected it because the director is Tran Anh Hung, who did the beautiful but plotless The Scent of Green Papayas. After watching it, my first ex-husband commented, "That director needs to watch some Korean dramas."
Anyway, I wanted to take pictures of the Cinematheque because the interior is really uniquely designed, but then, you wouldn't know from the photographs I took because we didn't have time to linger as the movie started as soon as we arrived. The fancy stuff is on the second floor, but we had to rush to our seats, so I didn't have a chance to take any pictures.
I did manage to photograph a bit of Kubrick, which is a bookstore and DVD shop. This is the DVD portion of the shop. The bookstore portion has a little cafe attached to it. They stock mostly arthouse DVDs -- I still have my eye on Ninagawa Mika's Sakuran, except it's so damn expensive. I've also given up on the Johnny To film soundtrack set. I just can't afford it. I think Volume 1 alone is around HKD1,500! The bookstore focusses mostly on film-related publications.
Broadway Cinematheque is in Yau Ma Tei, just around the corner from Mido Cafe.
