From a spam/dump account, created probably on 29/05/15 with the first post being these Oreo Volt Flyknits, to a film review account on Instagram that took shape during the first year of the pandemic, @chmbrfrflctn ceased activity on 10/02/22; fizzing out amidst the few months where writing opportunities passed by (own volition) and rejections were aplenty (definitely not mine).
I bought them and it happened to be my first ever Carousell purchase. Let them go the following year in April. I remember the shoes being very comfy.
My attempt to revive it after finishing an internship with the Singapore International Film Festival was short-lived. Four posts in and that was it, there was no drive to continue doing so. The craving for disparate, tangential conversations on random films during work and hangouts could not be replaced with what seemed like shouting into the void. Writing to a style guide was not in the cards, coming off a then recent rejection from a film publication.
(Benefit of the doubt, they apologised after a writing test and interview. Email said something about a lack of bandwidth to accommodate and guide new hires. Alright then.)
There was a time I contemplated Letterboxd, but like Twitter, the platform felt largely performative; filled with hot takes, puns pertaining to plot, and the rare insightful review. I opted to continue logging films in my little corner of Mubi, shackled to an arbitrary amount of stars that were bound to change whenever I seriously contemplated it for more than a few minutes.
Here’s a spread. Three for classes at University. Four for myself. Two watched in cinemas, both Melbourne and Singapore. Have fun figuring it out.
Take these films for example.
After recently watching Apichatpong’s Blissfully Yours, I find myself inclined to rewatch Ashes with more scrutiny for the film landscape surrounding Thailand in 2012. Top Gun Maverick honestly should be higher, had decent fun watching it with my housemate. Did I rate it low cause it was sandwiched between M (film noir canon, arguable) and… Is Decision to Leave rated that highly cause of it being the last film I watched with my partner (and potentially only reader) Yin Lin before going overseas?
The answer for the last question is yes by the way, but don’t get it twisted. There should be no asterisk, Park Chan-wook did it again.
On Why?
Writing on here seems more intuitive. Being able to link other articles, fill mine with images, format for clarity, there will be a more conscious effort to attempt talking about films here. The ones I love / hate / need revisiting / have thoughts / want to ramble on.
Above all, my experiences with film will constantly be shaped as time goes by. And that’s okay, I just want a place where I feel adequately equipped to write about them, and Instagram just was not cutting it.
As I’m writing this
it is 11.32pm. 28 more minutes until my title becomes clickbait, and it becomes 8 months and 9 days. Below is my copy paste entry of Kids Return.
The leitmotif of this film will forever be etched in my brain. Whenever I recall it, I can clearly hear the melody of the Japanese string instrument / 90s synth piano and memories of it will flood back to me (if anyone can identify the instrument, please let me know). An odd pick one night, YL and I stumbled on this film through the Sabukaru insta page. The opening shots lead one to believe that this is a film about two high school boys trying to figure things out in Japan. Well yea, that’s about right, and it is great.
Shinji and Masaru are not great students. They skip class opting to ride one bike around, constantly up to no good. Its standard fare by all accounts, but this film manages to capture their navigation through adolescence in a strangely wholesome manner. One of them joins a boxing gym and is pretty good at it, the other finds solace in a Yakuza cell.
The draw of this film is the interactions between Masonabu Ando and Ken Kaneko. Their friendship is palpable on screen and reminds me fondly of one in my youth. In Takeshi Kitano fashion, the inclusion of criminal activity was a shoehorn but it never felt that way. Its plot thread was weaved in naturally within the narrative and we were off on the ride that Kitano wished to take us. Amidst its twists and turns, we could not help but to root for the two of them. Plus it helps that Joe Hisaishi scored an earwom of a soundtrack
The medium is already proving fruitful, with the interspersed images and in particular the link to the film’s leitmotif. Certified banger.
Reading through this now, I surprisingly feel similarly. Just want to call myself out on one glaring thing.
In Takeshi Kitano fashion
I’m pretty sure this is still the only Kitano film I have seen. That sentence was probably because of all the articles I read about Kitano, but wholly uninformed of my own experience with his films. Terrible form.
And that’s fine. Everyone’s says random, baseless things at times to front. Important thing is to be accountable to oneself. It’s 11.59pm, oh nope it’s midnight.
8 months 9 days? For my sake, let us all allow this one to slide.
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I guess share it? If you think friends and family wanna read this, and have an email sent to their inbox whenever I write. Think of it as a morning commute read or even a before sleep one.
The statistics for this one in particular indicates a 5 minute reading time. I mean… why not right?
As I mentioned, I have no idea how this works. You can try commenting or just feedback to me directly if you want. The comment section will be useful in future when if there are more eyes on this page.
12.09am. 12.15am after editing. I realise now that I wrote the Kids Return “review” in Singapore, so technically it is still 10.15pm there. So after all this rush, it was never clickbait. Uh huh. Yep this is definitely the platform for me to ramble on.
Turns out there was a little Matt Rat in the void