The end of the Film Festival

Tonight the film festival was at it's end. The ceremony started with Sabulnori, but even more impressive than it was at the opening ceremony. Some were dancing, keeping formation and playing their instruments at the same time. During the break, a Korean who sat next to me, asked me where I came from. I replied, I'm from Germany. Then he said something like Oh, are you a movie director?. Nope, just a mortal, enjoying the show.

There were two awards for movies, which supported the developement of the Asian Film best, one was the closing movie, This is My Moon and the other one was Mysterious Object at Noon. The closing movie was This is my moon, a movie from India. The story is rather easy, a soldier in the civial war against the Tamil, raped a women instread of shooting her. After that night, he deserts, but the Tamil woman is following him. At home, he encounters many problems - i.e. the woman who intended to marry him - but I can't really say I understood what it all was about. The way of acting, the gestures and dialogues were so strange, I had real difficulty to understand what happened and why it happened. There were too many differences in gestures, cultural background, way of life. Story was o.k. and generally understandable, and the characters were amiable, but I didn't understand the details at all. Might be good to see that movie again with somebody from India. ;-)

The reception at Hotel Riviera later was great, in just one month I managed to got there three times. The food, the atmosphere, all those people, I enjoyed it. I talked to the mayor, a little, but dynamic and interesting guy. Because he studied in America, his English was good. I heard from other guests that before he became mayor of the city, nothing much happened. Somebody mentioned also, that he introduced bicycle roads in Jeonju. I've seen those, some sidewalks were painted in red. Completely in red, there was no place for pedestrians left. Reminds me a little bit of the way some western toilets are built into Korean houses.

Seasons of Blood and Hope

I know, I know, I'm stupid. Since I'm rushing from one meeting to the other, I'm even forgetting which day it is. This morning I missed the German movie K.aF.Ka-Fragment, but the friends I wanted to go with said later today it was boring, hard to understand and all in all horrible. So I guess I didn't miss too much, but I would have liked to watch it anyway. Seasons of Blood and Hope in contrast, was neither boring, nor hard to understand - but it was horrible. A Danish documentary, in which the life of Albanians, Serbs, Kosovars and others in the area after the N.A.T.O. bombing. I have a personal interest in that movie, as my parents are croatians and my family suffered through the war in the 90ies. I fail to understand the reasons for those conflicts, but I'm never missing out a documentary or movie, like Welcome To Sarajevo.

The tragedy depicted couldn't be worse for the individual and for society. An already poor reagion has been bombed back to the dark ages. Families are ripped apart, survivors don't know how to live until next spring, graves everywhere. Ethnic cleansing, as it has been called shut a few old wounds - a dead enemy can't kill you - but opened a thousand new ones. Even worse, the hatred betwen the different ethnic groups, between former neighbors or friends, is being transferred to the next generation, the children are going to continue an endless fight. I can't say much more than go and watch that film.

I.K.U.

I knew it. When I visited the movie's website, I already thought this is going to be crap de la creme. A short introduction first: This movie is about nothing. You see a few people fucking like crazy, but's that's about it. I.K.U. is a Japanese pornoflick, and until tonight I didn't even know what the title meant. I pronounced it "eye key you", as it would be in English. In fact, it is Japanese, and it's the phrase that you usually hear from Japanese shortly before their orgasm.

I'm coming

Great title, you might think, so what's there to say against a porno movie? Unfortunately, a lot. I'll tell you later about it, stay tuned.

Buddhas birthday

I overslept. Great. It's Buddhas 2545th birthday and I sleep until noon. Actually, I wanted to go to the Kapsa temple in Yusong at Daejon, but I missed the express bus and the friends I wanted to go with. I could stay at home and die from boredom or I could explore Korea alone. I decided for the latter, took my tourist handbook, camera and salty cookies, heading to the Jeonju express terminal. I'm still not very good at remembering names, so I forgot which temple we originally wanted to visit. Surfing the internet for information before I left home, I found something about the most popular temple in that area, the Tonghak temple at the Keryong-san national park.

The bus needed about an hour to get to Yusong, but it cost only 3.800 Won! Compared to Japan or Germany, this is prohibitedly cheap. After I arrived in Yusong, I tried to find a bus to the national park, but that wasn't too difficult to ask somebody for the way, because the national park is quite popular and there are not many places where a tourist would go anyway.

The whole area is in the mountains. To get to the entrance, you pass a long street with dozens of souvenir shops and restaurants, people selling corn or other snacks. The entrance gate is impressive, the wood is painted with complex images. Beside old relics, there are modern sculptures as well. On some places, I saw people building little pagodas themselves. The wood is thick and the trees are healthy, not like the forests in Germany. A little river flows along the road, and, as with fountains, people are throwing coins into it. The landscape is just beautiful. At the time when I arrived, most people slowly left the place, so after one hour it was quite peaceful. I had a great time just hiking through the woods. After I passed a few monks, I saw a ceremony next to the main temple complex, in which children paid some money first and then poured water over a small statue of Buddha. The pay-per-bless system reminds me of the shrines in Japan and the catholic church in Germany. Inside the temples, visitors pray - no big difference to Buddhism in Japan, I think. The temples, too and even the entrance door are richly painted, the main building has wooden scultpures under the roof, too.

I didn't know that the Tonghak temple, which is run by nuns, and the Kepsa temple are part of the same national park - but the temples are on two different sides of the mountains, about five km apart. The nuns are well-equipped, too. I saw a state-of-the-art computer when I went around one of the temples to see what's behind it. I hiked up the mountain, first with the intention to make it to Kepsa, but it was late, I was thirsty - I was stupid enough not to take anything at all for drinking with me - so I didn't go farther then the peak. The view was breath-taking. Only mountains with forests, nobody in sight, only nature - and my empty stomach. After 1.8 km I visited a double stone pagoda, called "brother-sister pagpda". The brother pagoda was of course higher then the sister's one. ;-) I don't know what those houses did up there, but it looked like somebody lives in them.

I wanted to wander to Kepsa, but it was really too late and I was tired already - I had to go back the same way taking care that I didn't break my neck on that stone path. After I returned, I went further along the river, the street there was easier to walk on. I didn't notice first. but there was another temple around the bend, and a ceremony was held, too. A few monks striking a bell - or buk - obviously celebrated the birthday. By the way, all those lampions around the temples, people are hanging them up, and lightning them after it gets dark. I heard that regularily some catch fire - not very safe so close to wooden temples. I went home at twilight.

back to school III

This was my last day at the highschool. I thought the first class again. As expected, nobody did the homework. Well, nobody but one. This time I learned how important it is to prepare more than probably neccessary. We hadn't enough time to get through everything I prepared, but the first part, the review of the homework was suddenly very short, and the last two tasks turned out to be too difficult for them. I think, if I teach a class regularily, I can estimate the students abilities better, being an untrained replacement for an hour or two bears dangers like misjudging the students' level. Another thing, a watch to have the remaining time in mind is as important as a good preparation. Mr Kim asked me if I could teach one more lesson - students I didn't have yet and who wanted to see the German guy - but I couldn't promise anything, as my scedule is getting tighter and tighter every week and there is just one month left.

Love's A Bitch

A movie from Mexico, directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, nominated in the golden globes and shown during this Film Festival as well. It is so far the best presentation I have seen so far. Fast, complicated, not forseeable, with realistic dialogues, emotional acting and surprising story twists. Love's a Bitch tells three intermingled stories in the megapolis Mexico City, in which ideal love goes wrong - all starting with a car crash.

In the first story, the adolescent Octavio participates in dog fights to earn money so he could run away with his brother's pregnant wife. Clashing with a rival whereup his dog gets shot, he drives one of the two cars in the accident. In the second story, Daniel leaves his family for a model, Valeria. Their life turns to the worst, when Valeria's dog is trapped in a hole in their new apartment and she gets involved in the car accident. The third story evolves around El Chivo, an old squatter, former teacher and Guerilla, who tries to come to terms with his past. After the accident between Octavio and Valeria he rescues Octavio's dog, but then his life gets turned upside down.

The movie theaches the spectators a lesson: Love's a bitch. Literally.