80 FILM REVIEWS 81 NEW THIS MONTH 82 MOVIES 84 TV SHOWS 86 AUDIO/RADIO Entertainment 87 ARTIST OF THE MONTH © 2019 WALT DISNEY STUDIOS MOTION PICTURES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. DUMBO July 2019_GPE.indd 79 17/06/2019 2:37 PM FILM REVIEWS WANT HELP WITH WHAT TO WATCH THIS MONTH? FILMMAKER AND DIRECTOR KAM RASLAN MAKES THE CASE FOR THESE MOVIES. Even after 20 years, The Matrix remains a Trapp family, there is still one life-or-death knockout visual and philosophical feast that mountain to climb. If you haven’t watched The has a lasting impact on sci-fi movies and has Sound Of Music before, then it could become given Hong Kong stuntmen more work than one of your favourite things. they can handle. It makes me want to ask Siri to confirm that the Matrix doesn’t actually exist, but I’m scared that its answer will be, “I’m afraid I can’t do that.” THE MATRIX (1999) Time is the curse for science fiction movies. What looked clever when the movie came out goingplacesmagazine.com can look clunky and silly when time rolls by. Only a few science fiction movies have had a lasting grip on the imagination with their evocation of the future. We don’t have a space station on the moon but 1968’s 2001: A Space MISS BAEK (SOUTH KOREA 2018) Odyssey remains awe-inspiring, as is 1982’s It was on Malaysia Airlines flights that I fell in Blade Runner, even though it is set in 2019 and love with South Korean films. Given a chance we still don’t have flying cars despite the best to sample movies from around the world, I | efforts of the Malaysian car industry. THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965) was quickly overwhelmed by Korean films 80 | July 2019 Most of this movie’s ever-growing legion of with their remarkable characters, great acting, Only a very few sci-fi movies get the future fans, like Lady Gaga, Gwen Stefani and Ariana storylines that rarely end where you expect right, and on its 20th anniversary, The Matrix Grande, were born long after its release (very often unhappily), and above all, their is one, because today, in a sense, we all live in 1965. What is the secret to its enduring virtuoso film-making craft. After watching inside the Matrix. We exist in the real world of popularity? Co-star Christopher Plummer did Korean films, I feel disappointed by Hollywood people, jobs and buildings, but we also live in not like the movie at all, calling it “sentimental because they are set in rooms where no real a cyber world where our lives are better and and gooey”, which is exactly why The Sound lives are lived, the spaces are too clean and where lies can be truth. Who is to say which Of Music (and the best desserts) has remained perfect, while in Korean films, they are filled world is more real anymore? so successful. The key is the open-hearted, with the clutter of lives being imperfectly led. almost childlike naivety of Maria (Julie When The Matrix came out in 1999, the Andrews), whose unstoppable goodness is so Miss Baek, like the best Korean movies, is a far Internet was in its dial-up infancy (buffering… radioactive that it melts anyone who crosses cry from the cutesy glitz of K-pop and TV soap buffering…), but the movie’s directors, the her path. And all the songs are fantastic. operas. Miss Baek, which easily outperformed Wachowski brothers (who have since become A Star Is Born in South Korean cinemas, sisters), understood the future duality of our All musicals begin with the “I want” song, is a gritty realist drama about women lives. They created a world where our real where the (usually) female lead tells us exactly perpetuating and fighting to break cycles of physical world is an illusion constructed by what she wants in life, and then after a rocky violence. Too many Korean films only have machines and where we humans actually exist road, she gets it. The Sound Of Music begins female characters as victims, but Miss Baek is in a far darker realm. Only an extremely stylish with the iconic scene of Maria ascending a all about women doing good and bad, with ex- and small resistance movement stands in mountain and singing in the midst of alpine convict Miss Baek (Han Ji-min) finding herself the way of the machines and their computer- beauty that she wants freedom, the music of drawn to helping a clearly abused little girl. world villainous agents. And most importantly, nature and love. In reality, Julie Andrews was they all seek the Chosen One: Keanu Reeves in being blown over by the helicopter downdraft If you have never watched Korean films, his standout role as Neo. and the director was up a tree shouting please give them a try. You might find yourself instructions, but reality doesn’t matter, and if dazzled by unfamiliar character and plot Since The Matrix, every sci-fi movie has after that stunning intro, you have a problem twists, skilful film-making and, as with Miss its Chosen One: an ordinary person who with Maria, then the problem is you. Baek, an evocation of winter cold that is not doesn’t realise that he/she is the preordained cosy but gets in your bones. And afterwards, leader and saviour. The Internet and social What sets The Sound Of Music apart from all check out Bong Joon-ho’s Memories Of Murder. media have given us this need and hope by the rest is that it shows us what happens simultaneously feeding us with the sense that after the “happily every after” of romance we must be special and reminding us that we and marriage. Even after the nanny Maria has The Matrix, The Sound Of Music and Miss Baek are are helpless. brought love to the previously loveless Von playing onboard. Check your in-flight entertainment system for channel information. July 2019_GPE.indd 80 17/06/2019 2:37 PM NEW THIS MONTH HOLLYWOOD DUMBO ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL THE AFTERMATH COLIN FARRELL, MICHAEL KEATON, DANNY DEVITO, ROSA SALAZAR, CHRISTOPH WALTZ, KEEAN JOHNSON, KEIRA KNIGHTLEY, ALEXANDER SKARSGÅRD, JASON CLARKE EVA GREEN, ALAN ARKIN JENNIFER CONNELLY R / / 108 mins / Drama, Romance / E, E+ PG / 112 mins / Fantasy, Adventure, Family / E, E+ PG-13 / / 122 mins / Action, Adventure, Romance / E, E+ Set in post-war Germany, Rachel Morgan Dumbo is a baby elephant whose Alita, a cyborg, awakens with no memory arrives in Hamburg to be with her British oversized ears are the subject of jokes at of who she is in a world she no longer army colonel husband, Lewis, who is tasked a struggling circus owned by Max Medici. recognises. She is found and taken in by with rebuilding the city. Rachel is surprised When it is discovered that Dumbo can fly, Ido, a doctor who realises that within the to discover that they will be sharing a the circus makes an incredible comeback. cyborg shell of Alita lies a woman with an house with its previous owners – a German This attracts entrepreneur V.D. Vendevere, extraordinary past. As Alita learns to navigate widower and his daughter. Rachel settles who wants to feature Dumbo in his her new world, Ido tries to shield her from into the house seething with suppressed entertainment venture, Dreamland, which her dangerous past. animosity and comes to terms that she is hides dark secrets unbeknownst to Max there to mend broken relationships as much and his troupe. as broken cities. | July 2019 81 | BEST OF MALAYSIA CHINESE JAPANESE TAMIL goingplacesmagazine.com ONE TWO JAGA 淪落人 / STILL HUMAN ねことじいちゃん / பர ியேற ும் பெர ுமாள் ZAHIRIL ADZIM, ARIO BAYU, ROSDEEN SUBOH ANTHONY WONG, CRISEL CONSUNJI, SAM LEE THE ISLAND OF CATS / PARIYERUM PERUMAL PG-13 / / 85 mins / Crime, Drama / E+ PG-13 / / 111 mins / Drama / E+ GUIN POON CHAW, TASUKU EMOTO, KATHIR, ANANDHI, YOGI BABU SHÔNO HAYAMA PG-13 / / 154 mins / Drama, Romance / E+ A story of an abused domestic After becoming a paraplegic PG-13 / / 103 mins / Drama / E+ worker who attempts to flee due to a workplace accident, Pariyan is a law student from an Daikichi is a 70-year-old widower home to Indonesia while an Leung is left to contemplate his oppressed caste who befriends who lives on a small island with idealistic police officer seeks existence after his wife leaves Jo, a girl from a higher caste, his cat Tama. His son, who works to fight corruption among the him. He hires Evelyn, a domestic who helps him with his English. in Tokyo, is concerned about his ranks. In a world filled with helper, who comes to Hong Kong Jo slowly falls for Pariyan, but her father’s well-being and urges desperation, doing the right to earn a living while putting father and cousin are not thrilled Daikichi to move in with him. thing isn’t just difficult but also her dreams on hold. Despite with this relationship and go to Daikichi, however, prefers the sometimes dangerous. the initial language barrier and violent lengths to stop it. Pariyan simple life and the company of distrust, the two strangers begin reluctantly backs off as he is the locals he grew up with. to learn more about each other reminded of what a difference As things around him slowly and then themselves. the caste system makes. This movie won six awards at change, Daikichi ponders life the recent 30th Festival Filem and the memories left behind by Malaysia, including Best Film.