Scribblings of the Metropolitician

Dark Knight Parodies

Not really a spoiler, since no actual facts about the movie are revealed that can't be gleaned from the trailer, but again, if you're a purist, don't watch.

Hehe. Picked up on the only quibble I really have with the movie, which is more about the sound design than the content. I think the mixers got a bit aggressive with the Batman's voice in parts. I have the distinct feeling, however, that they actually lightened it up a bit since I saw it at the press screening weeks ago and the copy that was in the IMAX last week. Digital copies can be updated and resent fairly easily, and I definitely felt like they pulled the growliness of Batman's voice back a bit.

Still, even in another theater, I had to really strain to make out what was being said in the final seconds of the film's end. Was pretty frustrating. I did manage to make it out the 3RD time, though. Good stuff.

Sound mix guys -- chill out with the mixers there.

Now, this next one...

I like the spirit of this one -- doesn't have the glitz of some high-tech YouTube spoofs you see these days, but all the heart:

"It's simple. Kill the black man."

Awesome.

Gimme My Coffee 몰카

To this post on Korea Beat, I wrote the following comment:

So just film them with non-hidden cameras.

This is inane and stupid. It's a public place. So filming/snapping pics of people in a public place, exposing parts of the body that are *GASP* readily visible to anyone -- that's a crime?

Yeah, getting up in people's grill and continuing to take pictures while violating their personal space, or continuing to photograph after being asked to stop -- that's harrassment. You don't need a camera to harass. Or sneaking cams into saunas, bathrooms, or sticking special equipment up skirts -- that's private space and wrong. And illegal anyway.

But calling taking a picture of someone on the beach in a public space "sexual violence" is a bit much. Sure, it might not be "nice" or you might be accused of being a dick, but it's not the same as groping someone against their will.

This is what makes people, in a land where everyone and their dog has DSLR's and other photo equipment, scared to take pics of other people. And why people continue to largely use the $5,000 cameras and $6,000 lenses to take pictures of their cream sauce spaghetti, cafe au lait swirls, and flowers.

Seriously. This country needs to get some cops who know the law. And as a real photographer who wants to actually get down to Haeundae to take some Martin Parr-esque pictures, I could do without the additional photo paranoia that could land me in jail. Especially when I could be mistaken for the apparent Pakistani paparazzi.

Oh, that's right. He's a Magnum photographer. Which I guess automatically means he's not a pervert. Well, we all know that Koreans like brand names. God forbid -- had Martin Parr been walking down the beach in Haeundae with his 60mm macro lens and ring flash (which is usually used by dentists and in other medical photography), he might have been arrested as one of those foreign pervert photographers, too.

Well, until they found out that he's from Magnum. Because in Korea, the law's all still relative to who you are and whom you know, right?

The operative word in the original Korean article is '몰카' (molka), which is a word I absolutely hate. From the followup comment I made to Korea Beat's post:

As a photographer who has to deal with this word all the time (몰카), I'd say it doesn't really translate as what we think of in English as "hidden camera", as in a fiber-optic cable made for sticking under skirts, or cameras that look like tie clips.

"Molka" means "mol" (secretly, or without asking permission) + "ka" (the Korean abbreviation for camera).

Koreans use this term (and "도촬") to refer to ANY pictures taken without someone's expressed permission. So, as I point out to Koreans all the time, all the vaunted works of photographers from Cartier-Bresson and Walker Evans, to Garry Winogrand, Lee Friedlander, and Martin Parr, and including pretty much every great Korean photographer from the 50's to 80's, including the great Kim Ki Chan -- they'd all fall into that category as well.

Yet many of the people mentioned above grace the walls of museums around the world and have added a great deal to the quality and understanding of the world around us through their art.
In Korea, any picture taken of another human being without expressed consent is "molka." Which compresses everything from legitimate candid and street photography into the same category as sticking a fiber-optic cable up a woman's skirt in the bathroom.

So, to be clear, the article isn't talking about special devices, as "hidden camera" in English would imply, but simply taking pictures without expressed consent.

Which itself IS NOT A CRIME, even according to Korean law.

Damn skippy. This continued photo paranoia and lack of a proper understanding of the Korean law irritates me to no end.

Even when I attended the Magnum photo exhibition recently, the people next to me were clicking their teeth and going, "몰카 찍었네."

Aaaaargh!

Great Olympic Pics

Over here at Boston.com.

Some good stuff. Check it out.

Dizzam, China

Source: NYT

I was watching the Olympic opening ceremonies today, August 8, 2008, at 8:08 PM (Chinese time). I was expecting big, but damn. China opened that shit right, while effectively saying not just that China's on top of the world (like when the runners were literally trotting sideways and upside-down all across it in that amazing spacewalk sequence), but more along the lines of what my Chinese friend exclaimed: "Chinese are just EVERYWHERE!" She giggled in glee.

Indeed.

Time to learn Chinese, bitches.

Let's see...umm...ee, ur, san, sur...

Batman the Second Time

[POSSIBLY very, very minor spoilers here if you are a movie puritan.]

Umm. I'm still digesting.

Strangely, I was nearly as tense the second time around, and time passed equally fast as the first time I saw it (review here). I could take more time to enjoy the performances, especially that of Heath Ledger's. That Joker is a sick mofo, but entrancing as hell.

"Do you wanna know how I got these scars?"

Here's a link to a discussion of the little "social experiment" the Joker conducts in the film. There's a lot there to dissect and chew on, and even more to put in the fridge for later. The link is a spoiler, so only click over if you've seen the movie.

And the film is doing VERY well in South Korea, where word-of-mouth means everything. A 9.5 rating by netizens, too. I think Batman (and copies of the first film, Batman Begins) will be undergoing a real renaissance here, now that the public has finally been exposed to the true, darker version of Batman that defines the original from the 40's and the brilliant restart Frank Miller gave him in the 80's.

I will be seeing this film a third time.

That Joker is just so crazy he's hilarious. In that wincing, peek-between-your-fingers sort of way.

"Why so serious?"

Hahahahahahaha.....

Get 'Em, Paris!

Haha. Paris Hilton swings back at McCain.

Paris Hilton is a better speaker than John McCain. And she has a better energy policy! Booyah! ㅋㅋㅋ

Come On...This Is the Other Guy?

Bald-faced lie about MLK day in Arizona. But that's on top of forgetting a pretty clear two-part question and not being able to answer it without being reminded, and actually using the question as the ANSWER.

Dude -- I'm no Republican, but this is the best our system could come up with as the other guy? *SHUDDER* Perhaps I shouldn't have too much faith in the health of the democratic process back home, and Obama is really just one of those fortunate aberrations. Sheesh.

The Dark Knight Is Here!

OK -- now, it's for real. I have (with the help of Clarke) 56 tickets in my hand right now. The date and time of the premiere has been moved AGAIN, as we were surprised to hear that the first shows are on August 5th, and not he 8th or the 7th, as the date had been previously set.

We had a choice between 6:30 (too early for most working fools), 9:30 (pretty OK), and 1:30 (too late for all but the Batman himself). There were lots of seats at the 1AM show, and more on the Wednesday and days after, but since it's a weekday anyway, and seeing it opening night seems to be the main part of the fun here, we stuck to the plan. So!

Date: Tuesday, April 5th
Movie Time: 9:30
Ticket Receipt Time: 9 PM (Be at the CGV by 9PM! Tix get returned at 9:10)
Cost: 10,000 won (we ain't scalpers!)

The girl at the ticket counter was quite amused when we replied to her question of how many tickets we needed: "Everything from rows 2 to 5. Oh, and throw in the seats on the sides there, too."

Hehe. Cool.

The movie runs around 2.5 hours, so make plans to get home after walking out of the theater at midnight. Beer and stuff will be had after the show, but I trust the group's size will be dwindled down considerably at that point.

As is Yongsan IMAX tradition with us on this site, we'll be having dinner in the area from 7--8:30PM in the 국제가든 restaurant, which is right across the street from the main Yongsan complex, where the taxis are lined up. It's quite easy to find (I actually never even knew the name of the place until recently), since it's the only Korean meat restaurant on that side of the street, which is populated with several seedy little bars, a noraebang, and a chicken place. Just go down the escalators, cross the street at the crosswalk in front of the main Yongsan Station plaza (where the taxis and the most people are), walk left after crossing, and after a few of the places I described, you'll see a restaurant that is the only meat place on that side of the street. It serves all kinds of stuff, including draught beer, which is AWESOME.

Click to embiggen and get all Googly.

Just a short note -- our seats are to the front, but that doesn't matter so much these days, since they don't place the front row up so far anymore. I'd rather not get into reserving seats specifically, since that would make things a big headache. I just include this so you know what the seats look like. We're not in the front row, anyway. And I saw the film already in that very theater from the 2nd row, and it was fine. Anyway, our seats are in green.

Click to biggify.

So, how to confirm? Try to write a comment to this post, but most importantly, whether you do or not, send an email to the above address with "Dark Knight" somewhere in the subject line, since that's how I'll be keeping track of who's getting how many. If we do magically fill up, I'll announce it as an update to THIS post.

Also include your cellphone number in the email. I need to know it for the day of, since UNCLAIMED TICKETS GET RETURNED AT 9:10 and I'd like to be able to call anyone I haven't heard from, and even people I have, if there's reason to.

Please be there to pick up your tickets by 9PM!

SUMMARY!
-- Write a comment and definitely an email with "Dark Knight" in the subject line and your phone number in the body.
-- Be there by 9PM, since I'll start calling owners of unclaimed ones and will be returning them by 9:10 for the refund.
-- Dinner is at 7 if you'd like to chill and chat.
-- It's 10,000 won per ticket.

And let's have fun! As per my review, this movie's worth seeing at least a couple times and doesn't start moving from start to finish. And if I didn't really think so, I wouldn't be organizing this shindig after having already seen the thing.

Don't worry! We're seeing it later than in the US and several other countries, but we're gonna see it, right?! So...

"Why so serious?!"

Hehehe.

Welcome Back, FatMan!

As "A Geek in Korea" brought to the fore, FatManSeoul is back. Well, sorta.

Actually, Fatman Seoul was the inspiration for not only Zenkimchi, but for Feetmanseoul, too. He treated food as fetish, and that single-minded obsession with particular things influenced me to undertake a photo project that I simply allowed to travel in a path all its own, after being burned out and disappointed by 5 years of street photography here in Korea.

Well, the new FatManSeoul.com continues with this tradition, and I like the way it's going because, besides Zenkimchi, it's the only food blog out there I know of looking at Korean food as the object of fetish to the point one needs to in order to tell me something new about it, to see things I wouldn't, to be more than just an expat's look on the standard Korean foods that fascinate those who don't know much more than kimchi, mandu, kalbi, and live octopus (requisite "eww" included).

To me, "extreme foods" are the ones many Koreans eat every day, and are surprising even to someone intimately familiar with Korean food ALREADY, such as...*GULP*...cheese milk?!

Dang. Takes a whole lotta love to be on the lookout for and actually drink something like THAT. And who knows? Maybe it's da bomb and I'm not adventurous enough to try it myself. Now, I can once again safely entrust someone else to do that job for us.

FatManSeoul, welcome "back."