Monday, July 21, 2014

moving towards newer and exciting things! [and what is 'warrenisweird'?]

https://lifeconfusions.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/thankyou.gif
I have no idea who the original artist of this is, but it's fucking cool.


[NOTE: this is going to feel like a wall of text, but I feel like it needs to be mentioned]

Like most things in life, some things were meant to come to a close. The 'thing' this time around, is none other than FIREWORK EYES & HAUNTED HEARTS. [wait, what?!] Let me elaborate. When I first started this blog, I originally wanted to blog about my favorite horror/cult films, comic-books and even my childhood [super]heroes. However, as I continued writing on FIREWORK EYES & HAUNTED HEARTS, I began to realize that I was finding it harder and harder to find newer and more exciting topics to blog about.

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After 2 years of occasionally typing a post up — let alone, only when I had the time — I eventually grew to feel like writing up a new blog post was more of a hassle then an exciting and fun hobby. [which was the initial idea behind creating the blog] I would constantly scour the internet hoping to find something I found interesting that I may have missed through-out the days I worked, [or whatever excuse I gave at the time] hoping to find something to talk about. I started losing faith in my own blog [tragic, I know..] If you [still] haven't figured out what I mean by this post yet, it means I'm going to be [in a sense] abandoning this blog.. Now, I don't mean I'm going to delete it as whole, but it's going to become more of a secondary blog.. more of an 'if I have the time, I'll go and visit my old writings' kind of blog.

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before you can ask yourself 'a secondary blog?'  I will explain exactly what I mean. For awhile now, I have been meaning to change up the formula of FIREWORK EYES & HAUNTED HEARTS - so much, that I was thinking of even discarding this blog entirely, and starting fresh: which is what I essentially did; in a sense, anyway. This is where [and how] I've changed it up: I will no longer be writing new posts here [maybe occasionally, but no strict schedule behind it] in fact, the reason for no new posts is that I have a new blog.. that's right, a brand new page which will actually be frequently posted upon! [though, as a note, I won't be deleting the fan page on Facebook for this blog either..]

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I call it 'warrenisweird', and it can be found at this link. just think, an actual blog that I can write what I want, when I want. I actually started it today, and meant to type this post along with the creation of it. [but Blogger was being stupid and wouldn't let me fucking log in..] I have a new format that works 100% better then this one did/does, and I already feel like it's going to go along reeeeeally smooooooothly. hell, I'm even looking into a full blown domain [so it can be written under the name warrenisweird.com] which alone should show my dedication to how badly I trust in it.
 
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  This is where I want to thank you readers. I want to thank you; immensely. even if you didn't 'follow' the fan-page, or 'like' the blog on Google.. if you read even a singular post on FIREWORK EYES & HAUNTED HEARTS, I fucking love you. by reading just one post, shows me that I am capable of having 'fans' of sorts.. and that's a damn good feeling. I definitely will dedicate my skills of writing to this blog, because without it; I wouldn't have learned all sorts of 'tricks of the trade' if you will [I guess school helped as well aha!]

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So there it is, I'm moving forward. I never thought this would happen, but I'm so glad it did. I'm feeling a little bittersweet, leaving 2 years of postings behind; but this is a fresh start. as my last post, I want to again thank you for sticking around once and awhile, and [somehow] convince you to follow me on the new blog page: warrenisweird ! see you on the flip side!

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Korean originals VS American remakes.

http://pixel.nymag.com/content/dam/daily/vulture/2013/11/27/27-oldboy-old-vs-new.jpg
OLDBOY: original [left] VS remake [right]

Have you ever watched a film from another country and thought to yourself: "man, this is so awesome, I love it!" ..only to find that a reboot/remake was on it's way in a year or two? As someone who is starting to appreciate Korean film more now, I've decided that it's probably a good time to bring up my thoughts on how many films from other countries are being "Americanized" [which means it'll be dulled down..usually.] 

The biggest offender I want to mention is Oldboy; yes, I'm going there. Oldboy is a film I talk about constantly being one of my favorite foreign films of all time. [hence why I used it above! if you want to read my thoughts on the original Oldboy, you can read the review here]  It's graphic, it's ridiculous in every way, and somehow, you just feel fucking hardcore following Oh-Dai-Su [until that ending..] through his revenge.. and then they fucking remade it..y'know, for American audiences. Now, to be fair - I haven't seen the remake yet [but it is on Netflix, so I will soon enough..] but I don't understand why it was felt to be necessary, I mean the film still stands well for being from 2003!

http://cdn2.screenjunkies.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Oldboy.jpg
SPOILER: I don't see this scene holding up well with American audiences..

But obviously, that isn't enough for Hollywood [who, as I've mentioned before, has no imagination left.]. Now, they want to remake I SAW THE DEVIL [which as it turns out - I also reviewed..read it here]! If you thought Oldboy was nuts, and haven't seen I SAW THE DEVIL, you should definitely get on that: because it takes things extremely far - far enough that I can't even see the MPAA being okay with the content!

http://sumgyeojingem.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/mirror-image-who-is-the-monster1.jpg
good luck translating this for America.


 The last Korean film I'm going to mention is a special film that's held to my heart that is [unfortunately] in talks to be remade: [I actually bought this film yesterday, since I didn't already own it] that film is none other than Audition. It's a film from 1999 from Director Takashi Miike, so you know you're already fucked. It follows a widowed man, who is convinced to hold a 'fake audition' to find a suitable new wife. that's all I'm gonna say, since it's more of a "watch this!" kind of film rather than me recite the whole film. None the less, it's eerie, it's brutal, and it even got spot #11 on Bravo's list of 100 scariest movie moments ! [obviously, the list has spoilers!]

http://37.media.tumblr.com/bfaea04916c5e6912485a52831e1fc27/tumblr_mlql7bhri71qblqlzo1_500.gif
like I said on my Letterboxd review of Auditon: just cause she's cute, doesn't mean you're safe..
So what films do you feel should not be remade? I only talked about Korean films here, but obviously, there are so many films that have already been remade that it isn't worth talking about them all. [I'm not going to mention A Nightmare On Elm Street, Fright Night, or even Friday The 13th: they speak for themselves..] But, I guess I can't complain too much. Because sometimes, remakes do it right - look at the remake of Evil Dead from 2013 from Director Fede Alvarez! [he's also known for the remake of The Hills Have Eyes!]

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE5kg1B2BNqk4edQYhZ0GYW9pSqyX5KlhJ-uZgFTeG00azAdlkpNQ4NWfaeCixdZ6e7ZMNWVeyKA2gQkJu5hkCyFESbv7L8URTVf17pEvZL3D9t2cmkdbsbjpDrCRg3je0vN9XYr5Nk1A/s1600/tumblr_mjm29lld1M1rujapqo2_500.gif
For a film I was skeptical about, I actually really enjoyed this remake.

Be sure to 'like' the fan page for Firework Eyes & Haunted Hearts on Facebook; which you can find here, or even follow me on Twitter. [visit my profile here] If you have a Tumblr, be sure to follow me here or my more horror explicit Tumblr here [please be aware, that my second Tumblr page has inappropriate content for readers/viewers under the age of 18] Have a suggestion for a new post? Send me your comments and/or ideas anywhere mentioned above. Until my next post though, CHEERS!