In the Name of the Father is a 1993 biographical film directed by Jim Sheridan. It is based on the true life story of the Guildford Four, four people falsely convicted of the IRA’s Guildford pub bombings which killed four off-duty British soldiers and a civilian.

Peter William “Pete” Postlethwaite, OBE, (7 February 1946 – 2 January 2011) received an Academy Award nomination for his role in In the Name of the Father in 1993, and was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2004 New Year’s Honours List. He died of pancreatic cancer on 2 January 2011.

1982

2010

After audiences were shocked by his gaunt appearance during his performances in 1984, Kaufman acknowledged having an unspecified illness, which he hoped to cure with “natural medicine” including an all-fruit and vegetables diet, among other measures. Kaufman received palliative radiotherapy, but by then the cancer had rapidly spread. His last resort search for successful medical therapy was “psychic surgery”, performed in Baguio, Philippines in March 1984. Kaufman died in Los Angeles on May 16, 1984[18] of kidney failure, caused by metastasized large cell carcinoma, a rare kind of lung cancer

Because he kept the true nature of his health a secret—almost until the day he died—fans have, over the years, doubted Kaufman’s death, thinking that he staged it as the ultimate Andy Kaufman stunt. Rumors that Kaufman was still alive go as far back as May 17, 1984 (the day after he died), when a caller phoned the Howard Stern radio show on WNBC in New York to announce that Kaufman’s death was a hoax. Friends and family said that Andy almost never smoked, didn’t drink regularly, and was also a vegetarian. At the time, lung cancer was considered very rare for non-smokers to contract, and it is also rare in people under the age of 50. Kaufman himself even said that if he were to fake his death, he would return 20 years later. On May 16, 2004, his surviving friends threw a ‘Welcome Home Andy’ party for him. He didn’t show up.

The mysterious 1-18-08 “Cloverfield” trailer, which was shown in theaters as a preview before Transformers.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/11808/
http://www.1-18-08.com/

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents… some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.”

- HP Lovecraft, “The Call of Cthulhu” (1926)

This is a true story.

1986 to 1991.

In a small town outside Seoul, over the course of six years 10 women were raped and murdered in a 2km radius. Korean society’s first serial killer took the lives of 10 victims, ranging from a 71 year-old grandmother to a 13 year old schoolgirl.

As time went on, the methods of the killer grew more bold and well-planned. One victim was stabbed 19 times in the chest, while another victim was found with nine pieces of a peach embedded inside her.

Other than the victims, the killer left not a single shred of evidence. Over 3,000 suspects were interrogated. At least 300,000 police took part in the massive investigation. But not a single person was indicted for the crimes.

This is a story about the detectives.

At a time in Korea when a murder investigation only meant grilling those who knew the victim, for these officers everything was a new experience.

There was no profiling mechanism, nor any idea of preserving the crime scene for forensic investigation. Only search and interrogation based on the detectives’ sense of duty and persistence.

In this age of ignorance, two detectives at the bottom of an ill-supported police force, have only themselves to rely on to face this horrific series of events.

The film reminisces about a time of innocence when the inability to comprehend such heinous acts led to unbelievable mishaps and harrowing nightmares.

Another excellent Korean movie.

SCMP
Sunday, May 22, 2005

Private eyes
By Vivienne Chow and David Watkins

Director Wong Kar-wai. Photo: K.Y. Cheng.

THE MASTER OF light and shade he may be – but he’s the master of shades, too. Wong Kar-wai never steps into the public arena without his prescription sunglasses, refusing to take them off even when indoors. With his eyes hidden from view, it’s sometimes impossible to tell where he’s looking, what he’s thinking or whether he’s finished answering a question after one of his customary pauses.

Many rumours have circulated about why Wong hides his eyes. Some say he suffers from a rare disorder and is ultra-sensitive to light – although the sensual, luminous colours of his films would suggest otherwise. Others says it’s vanity – an attempt to look like the chain-smoking characters who populate his movies. Or maybe he simply dislikes being interviewed.

The truth is more down to earth, derived out of a basic need for privacy: they’re his disguise. “I have no problem with the press – I give interviews all the time. Sunglasses are like a uniform for me,” says Wong, smoking his umpteenth cigarette. “I don’t have a name card, so I have glasses. Without these sunglasses, people don’t recognise me. That way I can have more privacy with my family when I don’t wear them. Some people do things in opposite ways.”

Although his films are filled with tragic types suffocated by romantic longing, Wong in person is cheerful, to the point of being playful. And although he imposes a dimmed view of the world on his eyes when facing reporters – as he does on the day he’s at Taikoo’s UA Cinema, promoting his part in Eros, a directorial menage a trois with Steven Soderberg and Michelangelo Antonioni about erotic love – it’s what his eyes see through the camera that the world is clamouring for. Continue reading →