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Senin, 21 Desember 2009

The Storm Warriors

The Storm Warriors (simplified Chinese: 风云II; traditional Chinese: 風雲II) is a 2009 Hong Kong martial arts/wuxia film, produced and directed by the Pang brothers. It is the second live-action film adaptation of screenwriter Ma Wing-Shing's manhua Fung Wan, following the 1998 film The Storm Riders. The Storm Warriors is based on Fung Wan′s popular Japanese invasion story arc The Death Battle. Ekin Cheng and Aaron Kwok respectively reprise their roles as Wind and Cloud, who this time find themselves up against Lord Godless (Simon Yam), a ruthless Japanese warlord bent on invading China. The film is a co-production between Universe Entertainment and Sil-Metropole Organisation.

A sequel to The Storm Riders was first announced in March 2008 after Universe gained rights to the Fung Wan franchise from former film distributor Golden Harvest. The Pangs aimed on creating a big-budgeted film involving visual effects and stated that The Storm Warriors would not be a direct sequel to its 1998 predecessor. Principal photography for The Storm Warriors began in April 2008 and ended in July; filming took place in three studios located in Bangkok, Thailand. The film is notable for being the first Chinese language film shot in bluescreen. During post-production, effects artists worked on scenes involving computer-generated imagery, focusing on the film's setting and backgrounds.

The Storm Warriors was released theatrically in Hong Kong on 10 December 2009. [1]

The evil Japanese warlord Lord Godless (Simon Yam) desires to conquer China. He threatens the General in command into surrender, takes the emperor captive and subdues a large number of martial arts masters using his special poison. Among the captives are Cloud (Aaron Kwok) who surrendered out of concern for Chu Chu (Tang Yan), and the Mou Lam legend Nameless (Kenny Ho). Lord Godless gives them two choices, they can either surrender and work under him, or they will be executed. None of the masters accept the offer. Nameless then breaks free of his chains, revealing that Wind (Ekin Cheng) sneaked in earlier to give all the masters the antidote to the poison. Cloud and Wind land direct blows on Lord Godless with no noticeable effect, and even though several other martial arts masters combine their powers to attack Lord Godless, they lose the contest of strength and are killed. Nameless uses his special attack on Lord Godless, using his chi to launch all the captured masters' swords at Lord Godless, Lord Godless takes the attack head on and blocks all the swords while Nameless suffers serious internal injuries because he overtaxed himself while not fully recovered from the poison. Some other martial artists raid the prison on horseback and Nameless, Cloud, Wind and Chu Chu manage to escape, while Lord Godless sends his son, Heart and two lieutenants, Earth and Sky, after Nameless with an army, with orders to destroy any martial arts schools along the way who will not surrender.

Nameless is badly injured and will not be able to recover his full strength to fight with Lord Godless for a significant period of time, so he sends Cloud and Wind to find Piggy King's elder brother, Lord Wicked, who is the only person who can fight Lord Godless now. They go to the mountain where he has hid himself from the outside world but are unsuccessful in persuading him to help, until Wind's lover Second Dream shows up and aids in persuading Lord Wicked. Lord Wicked comes out of his cave, revealing that he had chopped off his own arms years ago. This was his attempt to stop killing innocent people because he had lost control of himself in his younger days while practicing evil kung-fu. He kicks some pebbles at Cloud and Wind to test how they react, Cloud crushes the pebbles totally while Wind only catches them intact. Lord Wicked states that Cloud is too aggressive and will not be able to handle training in the evil way, while Wind has more control and might be able to return to normal. Lord Wicked then starts training Wind in evil arts while Cloud is summoned to meet Nameless at Lin Yi Temple.

At Lin Yi Temple, Cloud fights a disguised Nameless, who states that Cloud has massive potential, able to accurately learn his styles in a short period of time, and trains him, eventually creating a new sword style which Nameless names "Ba", inventing a new character partially resembling the characters "Cloud" and "Sword". Lord Godless discovers where Nameless, Wind and Cloud have been hiding and dispatches Earth and Sky to kill Nameless while sending a few warriors after Wind. At the temple, Cloud easily defeats Earth and Sky in a single blow, but as Lord Wicked and the others are fighting off the warriors that Lord Godless sent, Second Dream gets injured and Wind interrupts his training to come out of the cave and save her, killing the warriors in the process. Afterward he leaves with his training unfinished, despite it supposedly not being possible to leave the pool yet. Cloud arrives to find Wind gone, and Lord Wicked sends Cloud after Lord Godless as he is trying to find the Dragon Tomb which contains a secret that deals with the destiny of China.

Lord Godless meanwhile has taken the Emperor and his family as hostages and is searching for the Dragon Tomb. The Emperor refuses to help him, but Heart is able to find out which path into the tomb is the correct one through the use of his chi that generated a massive wind when he picked the correct passage. Once at the end of the path, Heart starts threatening the Emperor for more information on the Dragon Tomb, but as he refuses to speak, Heart starts killing his wives and sons. Cloud arrives, and the guards which were Imperial Guards that were forced to surrender, switch sides instantly and pull the Emperor out of harm's way. Cloud and Heart exchanges blows, Heart backs off after the first exchange, and Cloud and Lord Godless starts fighting, Cloud initially has the upper hand but is unable to injure Lord Godless due to his near invincible armor. In the fight, a pile of rocks is blown away, revealing the entrance to the real Dragon Tomb, which contains a human skeleton sitting upright. Lord Godless almost kills Cloud in the next exchange of blows, but Wind, whom has been thoroughly possessed by the evil arts, arrives and fights against first Lord Godless, then Cloud, and then both of them, eventually killing Lord Godless by cutting off his arm from the underside of his armor, which was not as well protected and stealing the Dragon Bone, the secret of the tomb.

As Cloud chases after Wind, the Emperor begs Cloud to retrieve the Dragon Bone as it is crucial to the destiny of China. Second Dream eventually finds Wind at the secret place she had written to him in a letter about, but Wind just sits there with minimal response, and eventually the Emperor's guards arrive to try and take the Dragon Bone back. However as the General struggles with Second Dream over the dragon bone, Heart, which had escaped from the previous battle, grabs the bone and heavily injures the General, as the General and Heart struggle for the bone, it breaks into two and Wind gets fully taken over by the evil spirit again. Cloud arrives and fights Wind to try and bring him back, but fails as Wind eventually wounds Second Dream and also kills Chu Chu. In a final gambit, Cloud hurls his sword at Wind, cutting him on the forehead and Wind miraculously regains control. The cliff side has taken serious damage in the battle however, and a large section collaspes, causing Wind and Second Dream (who walks over to check on her beloved) to fall off the cliff. Cloud is not in the section of the cliff that collapses. However, Cloud jumps off the cliff as well, manages to fall faster than the Wind and Second Dream, and exerts a force to push Wind and Second Dream back to safety. In doing so, Cloud plummets into the depths, but there is no scene of him dying. Sitting safely on the stable part of the cliff, Wind laments about why Cloud did not kill him earlier when Cloud had the chance. The movie ends abruptly at this stage.


Cast and characters
Main article: List of characters in the Fung Wan series

* Ekin Cheng reprises his role as Whispering Wind, a kindhearted and trustworthy pugilist. He is willing to sacrifice himself in order to save the life of his friend, Cloud. He undertakes the path of evil to improve his prowess in martial arts in the fastest time possible to get rid of the Japanese invaders. Cheng reprises his role from the first film and decided to grow back his former long-hair extensions. He was excited about reprising his role and never thought that he would be able to reprise his role after appearing in the first film: "I've always liked the character, especially when I was reading the comics. I had wanted to make a Fung Wan movie even before The Storm Riders was made. I never thought I would be able to do it again 10 years later!"[3]

* Aaron Kwok reprises his role as Striding Cloud, an unruly pugilist who is wanted by the Chinese Emperor. He is kidnapped by the villain, Lord Godless and inadvertently uncovers Godless' secret plan to invade China. Kwok was "ecstatic" about acting in a sequel to The Storm Riders, despite realizing how difficult the filming process would be. He prepared for the role by exercising and weight training. On the first day of filming, Kwok was injured right in front of many reporters who were covering the act but he did not sustain any serious injury. Kwok described Cloud as "a very complex character, and people will see a more developed version of him here. He is more mature this time, and more 'human' too. You see him as a real human character, not just a comic character."[3]

* Simon Yam as Lord Godless, an evil warlord from Japan who desires to invade China. He captures and imprisons a large group of pugilists, including the Chinese Emperor. The character is based on the comic series' Japanese Invasion story arc, The Death Battle. During filming, Yam faced physical difficulties on the set. He had to perform with a blue and green screen, and dealt with the set's high temperature levels: "I have been acting for many years, I think this is the only time I had to change ten pairs of underwear daily. Everyday I was soaked. During the shoot I lost five pounds." Yam expressed that early in the shoot he had cramps. In order to replenish his energy he had to drink salt water.[4]

* Charlene Choi as Second Dream, the only daughter of Mou Lam legend "The King of Broadsword". She is well trained in using the broadsword as a child and inherits the great skills of her father. She aids Wind when Cloud is kidnapped by Lord Godless. The Storm Warriors marks Choi and Ekin Cheng's fifth feature film collaboration as actors: "He and I have played lovers, couples, friends and siblings. Although we have played lovers many times before, this time felt very fresh perhaps due to the costume and the comic book background."[5]

* Nicholas Tse as Heart, the eldest son and competent assistant of Lord Godless.

* Tang Yan as Chu Chu, the daughter of Kirin Arm who accompanied Cloud on his nomadic journey. Tang replaces Shu Qi, who played Chu Chu in the first film.

* Kenny Ho as Nameless, a Mou Lam legend who is superior in martial arts and regarded as the greatest enemy to Lord Godless. He pins his hopes on Wind and Cloud to save the world.

* Lam Suet as The Piggy King, an ugly-looking and womanising pugilist who likes to fool around. He is entrusted by Nameless to lead Wind and Cloud to Lord Wicked.

* Kenny Wong as Lord Wicked, the eldest disciple of the King of Knives and the Piggy King. He is a reclusive and renowned martial arts master who broke his arms in order to relieve himself from evil power. Wind and Cloud seek his help to improve their skills.

* Patrick Tam as The Chinese Emperor, who is kidnapped by Lord Godless.

Sabtu, 19 Desember 2009

Sorority ROW : Killer From The Past

Cassidy (Briana Evigan), Jessica (Leah Pipes), Claire (Jamie Chung), Ellie (Rumer Willis) and Megan (Audrina Patridge) were five members of their organization on campus. Before becoming a member they have vowed to trust each other and protect each other no matter what happens. Oath that they will have to prove when one murder victim.

One time, Megan's boyfriend cheated on and the fourth best friend Megan is trying to hurt Megan replied with a crazy plan. Megan will be playing dead to scare her boyfriend who defected. Unfortunately, because of one mistake, Megan ended up truly dead. Afraid of their future ruined, Cassidy, Jessica, Claire, and Ellie Megan then hid the body and pretend it never happened.

The plan went smoothly until the time graduation comes. On the fourth day of happy friends plan to celebrate the historic day by holding a party. When all think things are going well, suddenly emerged videos taken at the time of Megan's death and one by one members of the organization died in a tragic way.

Actually, to describe the plot of the movie remake film titled THE HOUSE ON ROW Sorority is not required too many words. Just a few short sentences have been able to describe the 101-minute length movies this clearly. Finally, there is a row of real scenes show only prolong the duration of the film to be called a full feature film.

The flow was followed by the generic sort. This means that other films including PROM NIGHT also follow the more or less the same. Finally, just offered a series of scenes that supposedly made to create an atmosphere so tense, although not all scenes can finally achieve the desired effect. Can not be blamed for this thriller is already too much.

For a show that was not too demanding thinking, this ROW Sorority was not too bad. That means you can sit down with unencumbered ease any temporary until the movie ends in the middle between the beginning and end of the movie you can enjoy the bloody scene, a woman naked and sometimes crude humor is not funny. Appropriate for consumption when you are bored with everyday activities that make you tired.

Sorority Row

Behavior of wild group of girls in the United States is excessive. However, that lifestyle does not control that turned into a boomerang and dragged him to death.

Narrated, six girls from the dormitory Theta Pi, ie, Jessica (Leah Pipes), Cassidy (Briana Evigan), Ellie (Rumer Willis), Claire (Jamie Chung), Chugs (Margo Harshman), and Megan (Audrina Patridge), is very fond of the party . Night after night they were living with rah-rah.

One night, Megan found her boyfriend, Garrett (Matt O'Leary), having an affair. To give lessons, six best friend Garrett agreed to do the job. Megan to play dead when he was making out with Garrett.

With the help of friends Megan, Megan Garrett took the body to a former steel mill area. Suddenly, the dark eyes Garrett really kill Megan with the key thrust England into his stomach. Panicked, they threw the body of Megan in the place and vowed to no longer discuss the incident.

Eight months ago, when the graduation party of friends at the same time receiving a strange picture messages on their cell phone. The message was a picture veiled woman holds the key to the bloody British, just as Garrett used to kill Megan. Since then, there has been serial murders horrible way.

Who are these mysterious killers? Could the perpetrators Garret?

The answer is you can get in the film Sorority Row, the remake of the film The House on Sorority Row by Mark Rosman, produced in 1983. This time, the horror film genre Summit Entertainment production was directed by Stewart Hendler and written Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger. Sorority Row played in the UK and the U.S. since last September.

Sabtu, 12 Desember 2009

Tango and Cash

Tango & Cash is a 1989 American action/comedy film directed by Andrei Konchalovsky (Albert Magnoli took over in the later stages of filming), and starring Sylvester Stallone, Kurt Russell, Teri Hatcher, and Jack Palance.

Tango and Cash describes the final episode in the struggle by LAPD narcotics detectives Ray Tango (Stallone) and Gabriel Cash (Russell) to thwart the plans of criminal mastermind Yves Perret (Palance). After Perret frames them for murder, the two detectives escape from prison and kill Perret and his underlings.

The film begins with Tango driving a late-model Cadillac convertible in pursuit of a tanker truck. His hair is neatly styled, and he is dressed in a three-piece suit. He cleverly stops the truck, and when the LA County authorities find only gasoline in the tank, he shoots the tank and cocaine pours out of the bullet hole. Meanwhile, Cash arrives at his apartment driving an old Corvette. His hair is long and shaggy, and he is dressed in jeans, a T-shirt, and a waist-length jacket. He is shot by an intruder, but is protected by a bullet-proof vest, and captures the shooter in a parking garage after a car chase. At the police station, Cash forces the shooter to tell him about a deal scheduled to take place that night.

However, the "deal" is really a plan by Perret to frame Tango and Cash for murder. Tango and Cash separately go to an empty building, preceded by a man who is revealed later in the film to be Requin (James), Perret's lead henchman. After surprising each other, the two detectives find a dead man with audio equipment hidden under his clothing, and a team of FBI agents swarms in. Wyler, the agent in charge, finds Cash's pistol on the floor and arrests both Cash and Tango.

At their murder trial, the detectives are incriminated by an audio tape, secretly given to Wyler by Requin and verified in court by an audio expert, which appears to reveal them shooting the FBI agent after discussing a drug purchase. They plead "no contest" to a lesser charge in exchange for reduced sentences in a minimum-security prison, but are transported to a maximum-security prison to be housed with many of the criminals they arrested in the past.

Once in prison, Tango and Cash are rousted from their bunks and tortured by Perret, Requin, and a gang of prisoners until Matt Zachowski, the assistant warden, rescues them. Zachowski recommends that they escape, and provides them with a plan, but Tango refuses to go along with it. When Cash tries to escape, he finds Zachowski murdered and is attacked by prisoners. Tango rescues him, and the two of them escape. Once outside the prison walls, Tango tells Cash to ask for his sister Katherine (Hatcher) at a dance club if he needs to contact him later, and they go separate ways.

The detectives then visit the witnesses who framed them in court. Wyler admits to Tango that Requin was in charge of the setup, and Cash discovers that the audio expert made the incriminating tape himself. Cash finds Katherine at the dance club, working as an exotic dancer. Later that night, Tango and Cash are met at Katherine's house by Tango's commanding officer, who gives them Requin's address and tells them they have 24 hours to find out who Requin works for. Tango and Cash apprehend Requin and trick him into telling them Perret's name. Armed with a high-tech assault vehicle, they drive to Perret's headquarters, crash through the outer fence, destroy a fleet of armed trucks, hijack two heavy vehicles, crash into the main building, and kill several guards.

At this point, Perret, who has kidnapped Katherine, starts a timer that will trigger the building's automatic self-destruct procedure. After killing Perret's core security personnel, Tango and Cash are confronted by Requin, who is holding Katherine at knifepoint but throws her aside to fight the detectives hand-to-hand with the help of another henchman. The detectives defeat the two criminals, and when Perret appears, holding a gun to Katherine's head, they kill him and leave with Katherine just before the building explodes. Afterward, they joke half-seriously about Cash's desire to date Katherine. The film ends with a newspaper headline celebrating their vindication.
Cast

* Sylvester Stallone as Raymond "Ray" Tango
* Kurt Russell as Gabriel "Gabe" Cash
* Teri Hatcher as Katherine 'Kiki' Tango
* Jack Palance as Yves Perret
* Brion James as Courier/Requin
* James Hong as Quan
* Marc Alaimo as Lopez
* Michael J. Pollard as Owen
* Robert Z'Dar as Face/Trucker
* Lewis Arquette as Wyler
* Eddie Bunker as Police Captain Holmes
* Roy Brocksmith as Federal Agent Davis
* Richard Fancy as Nolan
* Michael Jeter as Skinner, the audio expert
* Clint Howard as 'Slinky,' Tango's cellmate
* Saveliy Kramarov as an irate man whose car is wrecked by Cash
* Patti Davis as a reporter
* Glenn Morshower as a co-worker
* Geoffrey Lewis as Police Captain Schroeder (uncredited)

Rabu, 09 Desember 2009

The Salena Incident

Plot Outline: During a routine transport, a group of prisoners manage to overpower their guards and take them captive. On the run, they enter the peaceful town of Salena and think they're free. However whilst they are there, they encounter a threat more powerful than anything they could imagine - flesh-eating aliens have crash-landed there and are hungry!

The Review: A traumatic experience in cheap movie making is the only threat anyone could encounter if they slap this into their DVD player. The Salena Incident has vision of grandeur but like many low budget films, it has expectations which would never be fulfilled by such a low budget and incompetent writing. Starting off with an Aliens-like slaughter of a commando team, the film never really gets into first gear. I guess the scene does it's job in establishing the threat of the aliens but once you know that they can sweep a commando unit into the ground pretty quickly, a bunch of cons, guards and big-chested blondes aren't going to do much later on. Things don't get any better with the introductions of the various cons and guards. Each one has their own trait to distinguish them from the others but that's about the only thing separating them. At least the film gets the rag-tag group of cons and guards into the town as feasibly quick as they can and they don't drag out the escape longer than is needed. Once they get to the town, events happen in a never-ending cycle of monotony. Characters are attacked by aliens. One is possessed or eaten. Aliens stop attacking to allow the infiltration into the group of the now-possessed body. Said possessed person then reveals themselves. Cue the whole process starting again. Throw in firefights and a few explosions here and there (and yes it looks like the same explosion effect used time and time again)

The film uses the body possession plot device that I hate - you know, when the characters become possessed by the aliens and they use the human bodies to move around. In reality it's just a cheap way to get around showing the aliens on screen. For some reason, the aliens eat certain characters but then possess others. You can tell a character is possessed by their eyes turning black. So I guess no one realises their former lover or friend is now an alien with two big bulbous black things peering back at them? The aliens get a little messy too, with a severed hand and severed body being the highlights. But the gore effects are unconvincing and don't look anywhere as good as they needed to be.
The cast is also non-descript. One of them used to be a Power Ranger. A couple of them have never worked again after this. It doesn't surprise me in the slightest because any smart casting director wouldn't even recognise this on a résumé. Enough said about them. Enough said about the film really, I'm just wasting my time. I didn't enjoy it. I endured it.

Final Verdict: I'm not sure whether this has been released in the US yet. It doesn't look like it. But let me tell you from across the Pond, you're not missing anything in the slightest. In fact do yourself a favour and petition for The Salena Incident to never be released there...ever. The less people that watch this, the better the world will be.

Senin, 07 Desember 2009

Balibo Five Film

The Balibo Five were a group of journalists for Australian television networks based in the town of Balibo in East Timor (then Portuguese Timor) where they were killed on 16 October 1975 during Indonesian incursions prior to the invasion.[1]

In 2007, an Australian coroner ruled that they had been deliberately killed by Indonesian special force soldiers.[2] The official Indonesian version is that the men were killed by cross-fire during the battle for the town.[3]

The group comprised two Australians, reporter Greg Shackleton, 27 and sound recordist Tony Stewart, 21; a New Zealander, cameraman Gary Cunningham, 27, for HSV-7 (Seven Network) in Melbourne; and two Britons, cameraman Brian Peters, 29 and reporter Malcolm Rennie, 28 working for TCN-9 (Nine Network) in Sydney.[1][4][5]

While the men were aware that Indonesian troops were to mount an attack on the town, they believed that as Australian journalists, they would not be considered military targets. Greg Shackleton was filmed painting an Australian flag and the word 'AUSTRALIA' on the wall of a house known locally as the Chinese house.[1]

The level of prior knowledge within the Australian government of Indonesian plans to attack Balibo and target journalists to prevent Indonesian military involvement being demonstrated is debated.[6]

The Balibo Housing Trust, funded by the Victorian Government, now owns the Chinese house and preserves it as a community learning centre.
Roger East

Roger East, 50, an Australian AAP-Reuters journalist, travelled to East Timor to investigate the deaths of the five men. East was captured in Dili by the Indonesian military on 7 December 1975, the day of the invasion, and executed by firing squad on the morning of 8 December with his body being disposed of in the ocean. He has been refered to as the forgotten sixth member of the Balibo Five. Calls for an inquest into East's death have been rejected.

A 1999 government enquiry into the deaths of the Balibo Five and Roger East, conducted by the former chairman of the National Crime Authority and Australian Government Solicitor Tom Sherman, found no evidence of murder for the five but accused Indonesia of burning their bodies in a charade to destroy all evidence of a monumental blunder following their deaths in crossfire. However, in contrast to the Balibo incident, the killing of Roger East:

"took place in an urban area with a number of uninvolved persons in close proximity. The quality of the evidence on Roger East’s death was much higher. The evidence came from two eyewitnesses, supported by strong circumstantial evidence of the killing from two further witnesses. In relation to Roger East I have concluded that, it is more likely than not, he was summarily executed by an unidentified Indonesian soldier late of the morning of December 8, 1975, in the wharf area of Dili."

Advocacy

Greg Shackleton's widow, Shirley, became an outspoken supporter of East Timor's fight for independence. Other relatives were so traumatised by the event that for many years they did not pursue the matter any further. In 1994, Brian Peters' sister, Maureen Tolfree, became involved with the East Timor issue, having heard of a demonstration in her home town of Bristol against the sale of BAE Hawk fighter jets to Indonesia.[7]

Musician Paul Stewart was a teenager when his twenty-one year old brother Tony died. He later formed the Dili Allstars with Colin Buckler (of the band Painters and Dockers). They recorded a song with East Timorese musician Gil Santos to protest the capture of East Timorese resistance leader Xanana Gusmão by Indonesian armed forces in 1992.[citation needed]

Stewart worked as a consultant on the 2009 film Balibo, saying that it was a difficult but rewarding experience, and that it was one that finally presented the truth to the world. Now running a charity that donates musical instruments to East Timor, Stewart said the film highlighted the Australian government's lack of action over the deaths of the journalists. "To this day, the one phone call my mother's had from the Government came a couple of weeks after it all happened when someone from the embassy in Jakarta called and asked 'where should we send the bill for the coffin?'" he said.[8]

Malcolm Rennie's mother, Minna, later became involved with the issue until her death, as did his cousin Margaret Wilson.[9]

In 2006, the International Press Institute sent a letter to United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, to express concern that UN investigators had failed to fully investigate the deaths of the Balibo Five, as well as three other journalists killed in Timor-Leste in 1975 and 1999, and to request that the UN reopen their investigations.[5]

Robert Connolly, director of the 2009 film, said: "It's quite clear the journalists were murdered. The current Indonesian and Australian (government) point of view that they were killed in crossfire is quite frankly absurd. We seek out war criminals from World War II, so to dismiss calls for justice for the Balibo Five is crazy." [10]
2007 inquest into death of Brian Peters

On 5 February 2007, the New South Wales (NSW) Coroner's Court began an inquest into Peters' death.[11] Although a British citizen, lawyers for the journalists’ families successfully argued that as Peters was a resident of New South Wales at the time of his death, NSW jurisdiction applied. This was the first public inquiry held regarding the fate of the Balibo Five that had powers to call witnesses.[12]

On the first day of the inquest, Yunus Yosfiah, former Minister for Information in the Habibie Government in Indonesia in 1998 and 1999, was accused of having led the 1975 attack in Balibo. Allegations were also raised that the journalists' bodies were dressed post-mortem into military uniforms and posed with weapons to make them appear to have taken an active part in the fighting.

The Australian media reported that the Australian Defence Signals Directorate intercepted an Indonesian military radio communication suggesting that the five were killed on the orders of superiors.[12]

An eyewitness account described seeing the five men before they were killed. "At this point Indonesian Army Captain Yunus Yosfiah and his team shot the journalists who were unarmed with their hands in the air ... I saw them shoot. A lot of them were firing. They fired towards the white people."

According to evidence presented, the fifth Balibo victim locked himself in a bathroom but was stabbed in the back with a special forces knife when he emerged.

Mark Tedeschi QC, in his closing statement to the inquest, stated, "There is incontrovertible evidence, including eyewitness accounts, that Indonesian troops deliberately killed the Balibo five newsmen. At least three of the journalists were shot after an order was given by Captain Yunus Yosfiah and the fifth man was stabbed by officer Christoforus Da Silva. It is highly unlikely the Captain would have made the decision to kill the newsmen without the sanction of his superior officers. There is enough evidence to refer the case to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions to consider prosecuting two unnamed people for the war crime of wilful killing."[12]

The NSW coroner investigating held that "The Balibo Five ... were shot and or stabbed deliberately, and not in the heat of battle" in order to silence them from exposing Indonesia's 1975 East Timor invasion.[2]
War Crimes Investigation

On September 9, 2009, it was announced that the Australian Federal Police were launching a war crimes probe into the deaths of the Balibo Five.[13]
[edit] Feature film
Main article: Balibo (2009 film)

A feature film about the killing of the men, called Balibo, has been produced by Arenafilm in Australia, with Robert Connolly as director and David Williamson as screenwriter.[14] The film is based on Cover-Up, by Jill Jolliffe, an Australian journalist who met the men before they were killed. The book has been a source of controversy because of its criticism of some of the people involved in the campaign for justice.[15] Journalist John Pilger has criticised the reworking of the film's screenplay to play down the Australian government's cover-up of the killings and the removal of scenes which showed the effect of the cover-up on their families [16].

Attending the premiere of Balibo at the Melbourne International Film Festival on July 24, 2009 at Melbourne's Hamer Hall was the President of East Timor, Jose Ramos Horta, who fought for his country's independence in exile for 24 years. Horta alleged in the evening's closing speech that the Balibo Five were tortured and killed by Indonesian forces. Horta said of the recent changes in Indonesia: "It is better. Indonesian democracy today is one of the most inspiring in the south-east Asia region."[11] Also in attendance were the families of the Balibo Five, who were called to the stage by director Robert Connolly. Relatives of Tony Stewart held aloft a banner bearing his name which had been embroidered by East Timorese women.[13] A tearful Maureen Tolfree, sister of the Balibo Five's Brian Peters, said she hoped many Australians would see the film and learn the truth about the events that happened some 35 years ago. "I think it will bring to the Australian public what's gone on," she said.[14]

In December 2009, the authorities in Indonesia banned the film from public screening.[17]

Sabtu, 05 Desember 2009

The Horsemen Film

Horsemen is a 2009 horror/thriller film directed by Jonas Åkerlund and starring Dennis Quaid and Zhang Ziyi. It was released on March 6, 2009. It was filmed in Toronto, Winnipeg and Chicago.

Aidan Breslin (Dennis Quaid) is a bitter detective emotionally distanced from his two young sons following the untimely death of his devoted wife. While investigating a series of murders of rare violence, he discovers a terrifying link between himself and the suspects in a chain of murders that seem to be based on the Biblical prophecies concerning the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death.
Story

The movie opens with an older man and his dog out on a winter morning hunt, when a strange sight catches his eye. A serving tray on a stand in the middle of a frozen lake. He steps up to investigate, but notices the phrases "Come and See" on several trees surrounding the tray. When he lifts the lid, his eyes widen, but his fate is not shown.

Detective Aidan Breslin (Dennis Quaid) is an emotionally detached widower whose life with his two sons have been devoid of personal contact since the death of his beloved wife. He receives a call of a possible murder. He arrives at the lake and is instead asked to identify a man's teeth, due to his former dental forensics expertise it is as yet undetermined if the man is in fact dead. Using the evidence on the teeth, he is able to determine the sex, race, diet and approximate age of the victim which matches that of a man who had earlier been reported as missing, but they have no evidence to what happened to him, and the only clue were that trees surrounding him reading "Come and See" on the north, south, east and west banks. The bizarre murder of a beloved wife and mother of three (including an adopted Asian daughter Kristin) displays prominent features of a ritualistic killing. She had been strung up on a series of hooks, the bedroom painted red and according to an autopsy report, she had been drowned by her own blood due to a precise stabbing through the lung and heart walls, as well as a bizarre twist that she had been pregnant and the fetus was removed. On the walls of the rooms "Come and See" is displayed prominently on all four walls. Using physical evidence, Breslin is able to determine that there were four attackers, and they used a tripod for a camera to record the murder. Breslin attempts to console the grieving daughters, but is interrupted by the arrival of their father.

Meanwhile, Breslin's home life finds that though he attempts, his work continually interrupts his chances of attaching emotionally with his sons Alex and Sean. Another murder occurs, with the same M.O. through a man who is hanging in a living room surrounded by black colors. This leads Breslin to a tattoo parlor and finds the builder of the hook rigs who confirms he had constructed four in total. Another murder occurs, but this time in a hotel room with no hook rigging and only three notices of "Come and See" on the walls. Sean's insights point Breslin to the Bible and he discovers that these killings are much like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the colors of the room corresponding to the colors of the horsemen. "Come and See" goading them toward the lifting of the veil and the coming of the Apocalypse. Kristin contacts him unexpectedly and he goes to meet with her, and console her in her mourning. However during the conversation, she shocks Breslin by presenting her sibling's fetus and revealing she was involved in the murders. After her arrest, her interrogations make her appear unhinged, almost wanting for death. Breslin assumes that she is the one representing the Horseman of Death, as she approached each of the victims and delivered the killing blow to them.

Alex, growing more and more distant from his father after Breslin insisted not to continue to celebrate their late mother's birthday every year slowly starts to open himself up to his father. Breslin returns the feelings to his children and attempts to make plans with them, however further reports pull him away. A failed attempt to catch the Horsemen at their home base grants further clues. A website, which Breslin noticed the homepage of before the computer was destroyed, and a partial hard drive recovery which leads them to that website in which a future date is displayed. One boy, Cory, who had come out as gay to his family confronts his homophobic brother Taylor, and turns out to be one of the Horsemen. After stabbing a man, but leaving him alive to provide his description to police and takes Taylor. Taylor awakens to find that he is hooked up into a rack with his eyes fixed open in the middle of a green lit room, as his brother comes out of the darkness and while wielding a bone saw he proceeds to cut himself in the chest and kill himself before Taylor's eyes while trying to cut his own heart out. The following morning, a traumatized Taylor is questioned by Breslin, who goes over to Kristin's house and he and his partner Stingray discover the video recordings of her mother's murder, he then learns that she had been sexually abused by her father, and has him arrested. Breslin's boss tries to get him onto another case, but he becomes convinced that there is still another pending victim as four rigs had been constructed and only 3 had been used in the 4 recent murders. He approaches Kristin that the third victim was the Horseman Pestilence. The third Horseman identified, she refuses to relinquish who their leader is. He comes to the conclusion that due to the nature of the first murder, he was meant to be assigned to the case all along, and becomes concerned that his family will be targeted next.

Stingray is attacked when investigating the Breslin home at his request, and when Aidan arrives he searches the house, entering his son's room for the first time since his wife's passing, only to discover to his horror that everything in the room, floor, ceiling, computer, bed spread are white in color; the color of the Horsemen leader. The clues point him to a theater called the Metropolitan, which had earlier been confirmed to be where Aidan first met his wife. When he arrives, he is knocked unconscious by an unseen assailant, when he arrives he finds himself handcuffed to the stadium seating as he finds his son dangling over the stage on the final of the four rigs. Watching, terrified as Alex starts bleeding to death, gives him a speech regarding to his own emotional detachment after being the only one present when his mother died. As Alex succumbs to his injuries, Breslin rips his handcuffs off the seating and fires his gun to detatch the rigging from the ceiling. Alex awakens weakly as his father holds him, but it is undetermined if he survives. In the final scene, Sean wakes up from a bad dream as his father comforts him quietly. When he asks where Alex is, Breslin replies: "Don't you worry about Alex. Alex is going to be okay." In the director's commentary, however, Jonas Akerlund stated," There is no happy ending, however you twist and turn it. There is no happy ending so, to me, Alex had to die in this movie."
Cast

* Dennis Quaid as Aidan Breslin, a widower detective trying to solve the "Horsemen" case[1]
* Zhang Ziyi[1] as Kristen
* Clifton Collins, Jr.[2] as Stingray
* Peter Stormare as Mr. Spitz
* Eric Balfour as Taylor
* Patrick Fugit as Cory
* Chelcie Ross as Krupa
* Lou Taylor Pucci as Alex Breslin
* Liam James as Sean Breslin
* Deborah Odell as Ms. Bradshaw
* David Dastmalchian as Terrence

Rabu, 02 Desember 2009

Astro Boy Film

Astro Boy (鉄腕アトム, Tetsuwan Atomu?, lit. "Mighty Atom") is a Japanese manga series first published in 1952 and television program first broadcast in Japan in 1963. The story follows the adventures of a fictional robot named Astro Boy and a selection of other characters along the way.

Astro Boy is the first Japanese television series that embodied the aesthetic that later became familiar worldwide as anime.[2] It originated as a manga in 1952 by Osamu Tezuka, revered in Japan as the "God of Manga."[3] After enjoying success abroad, Astro Boy was remade in the 1980s as Shin Tetsuwan Atomu, known as Astroboy in the United States and other Western countries, and again in 2003. In November 2007, he was named Japan's envoy for overseas safety.[4] An American computer-animated 3-D film based on the original manga series by Tezuka was released on October 23, 2009.

The Astro Boy series consists of several storylines, many of which are self-contained and self-concluding. Frederik L. Schodt, who wrote the English-language adaptation of the series, said that as Tezuka's art style advanced, Astro Boy "became more modern and "cute"" to appeal to the audience of boys in elementary school.[5] Schodt added that the page layouts used in Astro Boy episodes "became more creative."[5] When designing supporting characters, Tezuka sometimes placed homages of Walt Disney, Max Fleischer, and other American animators. In several of the Astro Boy stories, the first few pages of each one were in color.[5] Tezuka had a "Star System" of characters where different characters appeared ; several characters in Astro Boy appear in other works written by Tezuka. Schodt explained that Tezuka developed "a type of dialog with his readers" since he developed so many stories during his lifetime.[6] Tezuka often had a habit of introducing nonsensical characters at random moments in order to lighten a scene that he believed was becoming too serious. Tezuka sometimes felt trapped by the need to satisfy the young male audience's desire to see battling robots.[6]

Tezuka used Astro Boy to imagine, in a 1950s perspective described by Schodt as "analog," a world where man and advanced technology coexist and the issues stemming from this fact. At the time Japan did not have a reputation for science and technology that it had gained by 2002.[6]

The collection that was originally issued by Akita Shoten under its Sunday Comics imprint had 23 volumes of paperbacks. The stories do not appear in order by the date of creation. Instead they appear in the order that Tezuka and the collection editors believed was the most appropriate. The collection begins with "The Birth of Astro Boy," an episode which Tezuka wrote in 1975 to make the collection of stories easier to understand. The first Astro Boy story ever written, first published in April 1951, is in Volume 15. Osamu Tezuka often re-drew chapters he had created earlier. Schodt explains that therefore, when comparing two episodes written at the same time, one may appear "more modern" than another because Tezuka revised the art. For many of his older stories, Tezuka often added introductory pages in which he himself was portrayed as the interlocutor. The color pages of the Astro Boy stories were re-printed in monochrome for the inexpensive paperback versions.[5]
English-language version

The English-language version of Astro Boy is an adaptation of the Akita Shoten collection.[5] The artwork was flipped so the books would read left to right, as how the English language reads.[7] Frederik L. Schodt wrote the English-language version of Astro Boy. For most characters he used the original Japanese names. The story was set in Japan with Japanese characters and Schodt believed that it was necessary to retain the Japanese names whenever possible. Schodt translated the nickname "Higeoyaji" to "Mr. Mustachio," as it is a nickname. Schodt decided to use Astro Boy's English name. He explained that "Astro" is close to the Japanese name, "Atom," an English word. In addition Schodt believed that using "Atom" in an American edition of the story would be "going against too much history." Occasionally names of Japanese characters had double meanings that were impossible to convey in the English-language translation. Schodt decided that keeping the sound of the names was important, especially when the names were famous. In those cases Schodt tried to use the double meaning elsewhere in the translation. When dealing with minor foreign characters with humorous-sounding names, Schodt replaced the names with new English-language names based on English puns wherever he felt it was possible.[6]

The editors of the English-language Astro Boy comic did not remove content that could be perceived to be racially insensitive. Some content in the Astro Boy series depicts foreign people, such as people from Africa and Southeast Asia. The editors of the English volumes explained that in instances the people may be portrayed differently than how they actually were in the year 2002 in real life (the year of publication of the English version). The editors added that some portrayals may show them from an era from a long time in the past, or may show them to be from very undeveloped lands. The editors said that some readers may feel that the portrayals contribute to racial discrimination, especially against people of African descent. The editors explained that while this was not Tezuka's intent, the editors believed that the issue needed to be explained and addressed as some readers may feel demeaned or insulted by the depictions. The editors expressed the belief that it would be inappropriate to revise the works. The editors explained that because Tezuka was dead, there was no way to reverse what he created, and revising his works would violate his right as a creator. The editors expressed the belief that editing or stopping publication of the work would "do little" to end racial and ethnic discrimination throughout the world.[8]
Plot

Astro Boy is a science fiction series set in a futuristic world wherein androids co-exist with humans. Its focus is on the adventures of the titular "Astro Boy" (sometimes called simply "Astro"), a powerful robot created by the head of the Ministry of Science, Doctor Tenma, to replace his son Tobio, who died in a car accident. Dr. Tenma built Astro in Tobio's image and treated him as lovingly as if he were the real Tobio, but soon realized that the little android could not fill the void of his lost son, especially given that Astro could not grow older or express human aesthetics (in one set of panels, Astro is shown preferring the mechanical shapes of cubes over the organic shapes of flowers). In the original 1960 edition, Tenma rejected Astro and sold him to a cruel circus owner, Hamegg.

After some time, Professor Ochanomizu, the new head of the Ministry of Science, noticed Astro Boy performing in the circus and convinced Hamegg to turn Astro over to him. He then took Astro as his own and treated him gently and warmly, becoming his legal guardian. He soon realized that Astro was gifted with superior powers and skills, as well as the ability to experience human emotions.

Astro then is shown fighting crime, evil, and injustice. Most of his enemies were robot-hating humans, robots gone berserk, or alien invaders. Almost every story included a battle involving Astro and other robots.
Characters
Main article: List of Astro Boy characters

* Atom / Astro / Astro Boy
* Professor Ochanomizu/Dr. Packidermus J. Elefun, head of the Ministry of Science
* Astro's parents, created by Prof. Ochanomizu in order to make Astro more human-like
* Uran / Astro Girl, Astro's younger sister
* Cobalt / Jetto, Astro's younger brother (appears as older brother in the 1960s anime)
* Chi-Tan / Ti-Tan, Astro's baby brother
* Higeoyaji/Mustachio/Shunsaku Ban/Mr. Percival Pompous/Daddy Walrus/Albert Duncan, Astro's schoolteacher and/or neighbor in the original manga and color 1980 tv series; a private detective and surrogate uncle for Astro in the 1960s tv series
* Shibugaki and Tamao / Dinny and Specs, two of Astro's friends
* Chief Nakamura / Chief McLaw
* Inspector Tawashi / Inspector Gumshoe

Astro Boy

Set in the future of Metro City, Astro Boy is a young robot with incredible powers created a brilliant scientist. Magnitude energy 'blue', Astro Boy has a strength, x-ray vision, great speed and ability to fly. Trying to be accepted, Astro Boy and learn the joys of human emotion, trying to reach his goal. Recognizing that family and friends in danger, Astro Boy and back up power to the city of Metro to save all that he loved and to know the meaning of a hero
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