Mini-Trailer Weekly #84 & May May May

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trailers

It’s going to be a super-short Trailer Weekly today, with only two clips, because I’m really, really busy at the moment (more about that below). I wasn’t even sure if this Trailer Weekly was going to happen at all, but then I thought I should really squeeze these two trailers in because they just can’t wait…

Photo Hodgepodge: Delhi – Vienna – London – Dublin

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Dublin, India, London, Vienna

Way back – last summer – I was going to post some more photographs from when I was staying with my Dad in India, but somehow that never happened.

Since this is mostly a film blog, let’s start with something on topic: a classic Bollywood poster. I have no idea what the film is about (although we easily can make a somewhat educated guess), but whenever I’m in India I take snaps of movie posters. Just because.

#1 Bollywood.

News Bites, from All Corners

Tokyo Waka.

All kinds of things were happening this week, not quite substantial enough for each to make it into a post of their own and a bit too much to squeeze them into the Bonus Bits section of the Trailer Weekly, so, instead, I’ve assembled them into this post.

101 Reasons to be a TCK

Place Promised in Our Early Days: Dublin

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Shinkai Makoto

I flew into Dublin earlier today (I’m here for an academic conference). While the guy at the reception of place where I am staying was giving me directions for downtown, he grumbled that I would have to pass by Dublin’s ugly “needle” – which very obviously he didn’t like.

But when I did walk past, I could not help but smile:「雲のむこう、約束の場所」 (Kumo no Mukō, Yakusoku no Basho/The Place Promised in Our Early Days, 2004) instantly came to mind.

UWC’s First North Korean Student: Kim Han-sol, Grandson of Kim Jong-il

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United World Colleges, UWC

Kim Han-sol (left) at UWC Mostar. Image from guardian.co.uk.

The United World Colleges are open for everyone – and that’s one of the reasons why I love them. Last year I heard rumours that a North Korean student would be attending a UWC for the first time ever – and not just any North Korean student, but Kim Han-sol, a grandson of the former North Korean ruler Kim Jong-il and nephew of the current ruler Kim Jong-un. Some people seemed to be not too happy about the news, however, I thought it was brilliant: I think it’s crucial that persons from whichever part of society they are born into go to UWC, because whatever ideas they might come with, they will be challenged in a way they won’t have been challenged before. That’s why UWC alumni include the Dutch crown prince Willem-Alexander, Nelson Mandela’s grandson Mandla, orphans from SOS villages in China and Afghani refugees (and plain ol’ nobodies like me ). It’s the extreme multi-cultural/multi-societal kind of exposure and the realisation that there isn’t just one way of existing in this world that leads to better understanding of our differences and, in the long term, might make a difference (as overly idealistic as that may sound).

Festival Interlude

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BFI, BFI Film Festival, London, Studio Ghibli

With every minute of my time occupied with work and going to the cinema (overload of the London Film Festival) this weekend, I haven’t had time to write today’s Trailer Weekly (or any other post) – will follow tomorrow. Hopefully, I’ll have some reviews of the cinematic awesomenesses* I’ve had the chance to enjoy for you soon as well. Meanwhile, you can ponder which Mei-weekday you are. (The image is from Studio Ghibi’s photo gallery on Facebook.)

Off to see Abbas Kiarostami’s 「ライク・サムワン・イン・ラブ」 (Raiku samuwan in rabu/Like Someone in Love, France/Japan, 2012)!

*I know that’s not quite grammatical. :-p

 

Photologia: Around Vasant Vihar, New Delhi

Note: All photographs copyright by alualuna. Please do not use without permission. Also: large resolution, page may take a while to load.

Not the best of photographs – terribly overexposed. But this kid ran into my picture (which was meant to be of the barbershop in the background) and it ended up like this. I edited what I could (darkening mostly and cropping a bit), but this was the best I could manage. And though it breaks all kinds of textbook rules, I still feel there is something that works here. Maybe it’s just the charm of this kid, his big smile and cheekiness of jumping in front of my lens.

Back from Kashmir: A Bit of Travelogue with Photographs

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India, Kashmir

Village Shop, Aru, Jammu & Kashmir.

I’m back in New Delhi after a short trip up north to the state of Jammu & Kashmir. Jammu & Kashmir is India’s most northern state, which borders with Pakistan (west), China (north) and Tibet (east). Except for Ladakh, which is the Buddhist part in the east of Jammu & Kashmir, the state is not a common tourist destination for Westerners, although Hindus from the rest of India do travel here for pilgrimages (most importantly the Armanath Yatra). Indeed, because of dispute over part of the territory of the state with Pakistan, many governments advise “against all travel to rural areas of Jammu and Kashmir other than Ladakh; all travel in the immediate vicinity of the border with Pakistan, other than Wagah; and all travel in Manipur” and “all but essential travel to Srinagar and Imphal” (in the words of the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office).¹

Travels, Offline

I’m just posting a short, short update, because I will be away from the internet for a few days.

Of Exams, Uneventful Travels, M & Things to Come

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Film Festival, Japanese Embassy London, KCCUK, London, Miyazaki Hayao, Studio Ghibli, trailers

Pile. Of things to watch. To review. Or some, just to rewatch for joy. And a few, like Kokowääh, to never look at again. (The books are mostly uni stuff.)

I’m back – back from my blog hiatus and recently back in the UK also.

It’s the Month of May, which Means…

つり球 (Tsuritama)

… exam time.

Well, I don’t have to take any exams myself (I’m at that point of university where they just let you do whatever ), but I am an external examiner for a secondary school exam, which means every May I hole myself up and do nothing but mark some two hundred essays in a race against time (i.e. a non-negotiable deadline). Self-sacrificial fun of sorts.

An Ode to Film Photography

… or a lament?

From a project for a course I took on Gothic Literature in North America at the University of Costa Rica. The original photograph was a self-portrait taken in the Netherlands, but in this print I completely ‘burned’ away everything except a sliver of the face to create a ghostly (uncanny?) image. I also considered adding a mirror image of the face, but never got to it – it’s technically quite involved (but not impossible) to do that in the darkroom.