suspension of disbelief

Yesterday I cashed in my gift certificate at my favorite restaurant in town. I had wine, dinner an appetizer and dessert. All of it was good, though one or two pieces of calamari was a bit too chewy. Nothing major, though. It's been a good week: the Giants beat the Kansas City Chiefs in a really important game (an exciting one too), Anchor Christmas Ale turned out to be the bomb this year (I have two more in the fridge that I can't wait to crack open), my sister's going to be performing in a play in the big city, I'm going home at the end of the week and I got to touch a pregnant belly for the first time (super spooky). I'm sure this is all just leading up to something bad--because I'm Eeyore--but I'll ride it out anyway. I'm happy to be distracted by the distractions. Recently, I've gotten to watch a few pretty good movies. The first one being Ab-normal Beauty by the Pang Brothers, who do slick as fuck horror movies out of China via Thailand.

The Pang Brothers' movies are always at least something to look at, even if the stories are a bit on the janky side. The first time I saw their work was The Eye, which even though it was kind of a Sixth Sense copy, was still really good (and scary). Ab-Normal Beauty wasn't the typical Asian horror ghost story, but a kinda Se7en-like movie about people with weird obsessions. It was breathtaking to watch. Some of the shots made me gasp. And the story was pretty good, too, mostly because actress Race Wong did a pretty damn good job carrying the plot. I guess she's part of some two-woman pop group in China or something. It seems like every actor in Asia also has a hit record. But I think it's cool that pop stars in the Far East do movies like this--something really raw and pretty disturbing--instead of fluff like Crossroads. I dunno. I had some problems with how the story progressed, but I thought it was a really good movie overall. It's definitely worth checking out. I think it gets released in the States at the end of the month.

On Sunday, I watched Romasanta with Julian Sands (The Warlock!) and Elsa Pataky (seriously), which was about a serial killer who'd hack up bodies so it looked like a wolf attack and use their fat to make soap out of. Pretty gnarly. I think it's based on a true story; he was the first serial killer caught in Europe. I liked the movie, even if it was kinda basic, but it made me think about how society has progressed over the last hundred years or so. I wasn't thrust into some serious pondering, but there was some thought there. There was one scene where the detective is trying to get some information on Romasanta from a merchant who bought soap from him, but the merchant isn't very forthcoming at first, so the detective says "Lock him up," which causes the merchant to change his tune. Justice was swift back then. The movie was set in the 19th century, and there were other scenes of people walking around or getting from point A to point B via horse-drawn carriage, and I just couldn't imagine what that must have been like. Going on a journey was a real commitment. Also, there was a scene in the courtroom where the townsfolk were crying for the blood of Romasanta, and I said "people got really worked up about shit back then." When people were pissed about something, they rioted or lynched or burned people or threw you in a sack and dumped you in the river to see if you floated or sacked the castle because the king taxed their rhubarbs or something. And everyone did it together so it was kind of social. Sick and twisted, but social. Not like today, when people kinda get irked but then don't hardly ever do anything about it. Apathy. Of course, my only knowledge of those times are from movies like Romasanta.