IMDB 250 Challenge

In the six months I’ve been in Korea, there have been a few very notable changes in my lifestyle. One that disappointed me at first is that I don’t read nearly as much as I did before I came here. I think I’ve read four books in half a year. Before I came here, I was reading three or four each month. My habitual pendulum has swung wildly in favour of film. At first, I felt I would suffer in some way from this; that my mind wouldn’t be challenged as much as it was if I was reading. I guess that’s kind of true.

Well, it doesn’t look as though things are going to change anytime soon. I’m enjoying watching movies more than I ever have and whilst I’m not or never will be a film buff, I feel I’m learning more from them and deriving more benefit. I recently checked out the IMDB Top 250 rated movies out of curiosity, to see how many I’d watched. I got to 89, which I thought was a respectable figure, but when I looked at some of the “classics” I hadn’t seen, I was shocked!

Alien, Taxi Driver, Psycho…

Over the next six months, I will be trying to save a lot of money. I’ve decided to try making up for lost time and watch as many of these films as possible and to write a short blog on each one afterwards. These won’t be reviews, just my immediate thoughts, but perhaps some people will find them interesting. Here is the list, with the ones I’ve seen in bold.

1. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

2. The Godfather (1972)

3. The Godfather: Part II (1974)

4. Inception (2010)

5. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

6. Pulp Fiction (1994)

7. Schindler’s List (1993)

8.12 Angry Men (1957)

9. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)

10. Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back

11. The Dark Knight (2008)

12. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

13. Seven Samurai (1954)

14. Toy Story 3 (2010)

15. Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977)

16. Casablanca (1942)

17. Goodfellas (1990)

18. Fight Club (1999)

19. City of God (2002)

20. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

21. Rear Window (1954)

22. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

23. Psycho (1960)

24. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

25. The Usual Suspects (1995)

26. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

27. The Matrix (1999)

28. Se7en (1995)

29. Memento (2000)

30. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

31. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

32. Sunset Blvd. (1950)

33. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

34. Leon: The Professional (1994)

35. North by Northwest (1959)

36. Forrest Gump (1994)

37. Citizen Kane (1941)

38. Apocalypse Now (1979)

39. American History X (1998)

40. American Beauty (1999)

41. Taxi Driver (1976)

42. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

43. Vertigo (1958)

44. Alien (1979)

45. Saving Private Ryan (1998)

46. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

47. Amélie från Montmartre (2001)

48. WALL·E (2008)

49. The Shining (1980)

50. A Clockwork Orange (1971)

51. Paths of Glory (1957)

52. The Departed (2006)

53. The Pianist (2002)

54. Aliens (1986)

55. Spirited Away (2001)

56. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

57. M (1931)

58. The Lives of Others (2006)

59. Double Indemnity (1944)

60. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

61. Requiem for a Dream (2000)

62. Chinatown (1974)

63. Reservoir Dogs (1992)

64. L.A. Confidential (1997)

65. The Third Man (1949)

66. Das Boot (1981)

67. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

68. City Lights (1931)

69. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

70. Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

71. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

72. The Prestige (2006)

73. Back to the Future (1985)

74. Raging Bull (1980)

75. Life Is Beautiful (1997)

76. Modern Times (1936)

77. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

78. Inglourious Basterds (2009)

79. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

80. Some Like It Hot (1959)

81. Full Metal Jacket (1987)

82. Amadeus (1984)

83. Downfall (2004)

84. Cinema Paradiso (1988)

85. Braveheart (1995)

86. The Green Mile (1999)

87. Up (2009) 110,055

88. Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

89. Rashomon (1950)

90. All About Eve (1950)

91. The Maltese Falcon (1941)

92. Metropolis (1927)

93. Gran Torino (2008)

94. The Elephant Man (1980)

95. The Great Dictator (1940)

96. Gladiator (2000)

97. The Apartment (1960)

98. Rebecca (1940)

99. Sin City (2005)

100. The Sting (1973)

101. The Great Escape (1963)

102. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade(1989)

103. Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983)

104. Unforgiven (1992)

105. Bicycle Thieves (1948)

106. Jaws (1975)

107. Batman Begins (2005)

108. Die Hard (1988)

109. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

110. Oldboy (2003)

111. On the Waterfront (1954)

112. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

113. Blade Runner (1982)

114. Hotel Rwanda (2004)

115. Touch of Evil (1958)

116. The Seventh Seal (1957)

117. No Country for Old Men (2007)

118. Fargo (1996)

119. Princess Mononoke (1997)

120. For a Few Dollars More (1965)

121. Avatar (2009)

122. Heat (1995)

123. The Wizard of Oz (1939)

124. District 9 (2009)

125. Strangers on a Train (1951)

126. Cool Hand Luke (1967)

127. The Sixth Sense (1999)

128. Donnie Darko (2001)

129. High Noon (1952)

130. The Deer Hunter (1978)

131. Snatch. (2000)

132. The General (1926)

133. Notorious (1946)

134. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)

135. The Big Lebowski (1998)

136. Annie Hall (1977)

137. There Will Be Blood (2007)

138. Platoon (1986)

139. Yojimbo (1961)

140. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

141. Ran (1985)

142. The Lion King (1994)

143. Into the Wild (2007)

144. Ben-Hur (1959)

145. The Big Sleep (1946)

146. Million Dollar Baby (2004)

147. Toy Story (1995)

148. The Wrestler (2008)

149. Witness for the Prosecution (1957)

150. It Happened One Night (1934)

151. Life of Brian (1979)

152. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

153. Wild Strawberries (1957)

154. Finding Nemo (2003)

155. The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)

156. Trainspotting (1996)

157. Gone with the Wind (1939)

158. The Terminator (1984)

159. Scarface (1983)

160. Groundhog Day (1993)

161. Stand by Me (1986)

162.The Graduate (1967)

163. The Thing (1982)

164. The Secret in Their Eyes (2009)

165. Amores Perros (2000)

166. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

167. The Wages of Fear (1953)

168. Gandhi (1982)

169. Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

170. Ratatouille (2007)

171. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)

172. V for Vendetta (2006)

173. Star Trek (2009)

174. Twelve Monkeys (1995)

175. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

176. Casino (1995)

177. The Gold Rush (1925)

178. 8½ (1963)

179. Diabolique (1955)

180. Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)

181. The Night of the Hunter (1955)

182. The Princess Bride (1987)

183. The Killing (1956)

184. How to Train Your Dragon (2010)

185. The Incredibles (2004)

186. The Wild Bunch (1969)

187. The Kid (1921)

188. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)

189. Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

190. The Exorcist (1973)

191. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

192. Kick-Ass (2010)

193. In Bruges (2008)

194. Children of Men (2006)

195. Dial M for Murder (1954)

196. Good Will Hunting (1997)

197. Nights of Cabiria (1957)

198. The Hustler (1961)

199. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

200. Ed Wood (1994)

201. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

202. Big Fish (2003)

203. Harvey (1950)

204. Rocky (1976)

205. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

206. King Kong (1933)

207. Sleuth (1972)

208. Let the Right One In (2008)

209. Magnolia (1999)

210. Network (1976)

211. Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)

212. Mystic River (2003)

213. Stalag 17 (1953)

214. Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)

215. Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

216. Rope (1948)

217. The Battle of Algiers (1966)

218. Brief Encounter (1945)

219. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

220. The African Queen (1951)

221. The 400 Blows (1959)

222. Ikiru (1952)

223. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

224. Crash (2004/I)

225. Duck Soup (1933)

226. Patton (1970)

227. The Truman Show (1998)

228. Toy Story 2 (1999)

229. Planet of the Apes (1968)

230. My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

231. Manhattan (1979)

232. La strada (1954)

233. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

234. The Conversation (1974)

235. Barry Lyndon (1975)

236. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

237. Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

238. Roman Holiday (1953)

239. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

240. Monsters, Inc. (2001)

241. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

242. Spartacus (1960)

243. Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

244. Mulholland Dr. (2001)

245. Infernal Affairs (2002)

246. The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

247. Rain Man (1988)

248. Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

249. Changeling (2008)

250. Shaun of the Dead (2007)

Viral Videos of the Week Ending November 5

Here are the videos spoken about on the Pete Ross M-Town Show this evening on GFN:

Chaplin's Time Traveler

Fainting Goat Kittens

People are Awesome

NSFW A Hunter Shoots A Bear

Take a trip to the DMZ

Everybody comes to Korea with a list of things they want to do, see and accomplish as long as their arm. Taking in Asia seems to crop up on most of them, along with learning the language, taking up Taekwondo and, of course, saving money. But anybody with of a passing interest in history (or a slight penchant for voyeurism) is guaranteed to make a trip to the Demilitarized Zone that separates North and South. That it featured so highly on my own list is slightly worrying, but I’m happy to have checked it off and in the process of doing so, I had one of the most sobering, surreal experiences of my life.

There are various trips to choose from, each with their own selling points and packages. I was sold on Adventure Korea’s promise to take me off the beaten track. Rolling through the deserted countryside beyond the civilian control point that precedes the DMZ, I felt reassured that they had kept their side of the bargain, but a slight unease at the eeriness of the surroundings.

The once bustling metropolis of Cheorwan has long since been reduced to a ghost town. Stray machinery peppers the endless rows of rice paddies, conceivably abandoned at the outbreak of war, but more probably by the farmers who must leave the zone before their curfew. It amounts to a whole lot of suspense before we reach the first point of the tour, the Second Tunnel.

One hundred and forty five metres deep and 3.5 kilometres long, the tunnel was intercepted 1.1 kilometres in to South Korean territory in 1975 and had the power to transport 16,000 soldiers an hour under the border. The figure beggars belief. I have to crouch as I make my way down to its base, wondering how long it would’ve taken to carve this into the rock. The guide reveals, to gasps of astonishment, that there is an estimated twenty other tunnels like this yet to be unearthed, but that despite the recent decline in relations, they don’t anticipate an invasion. His words emphasize just how volatile the Korean situation is.

The centerpiece of the tour is a visit to the Cheorwan Observation Centre, situated a mere stone’s throw from the DMZ, with a bird’s eye view of North Korea. Of course, there is scant opportunity to see what life is actually like in the most secluded country on earth, but the little we can see is equal parts fascinating and shocking. On the South Korean side, the farmland is lush, the vegetation rich; a reflection of an age of prosperity. It’s in marked contrast with what we see on the other side.

On the entry point to North Korea, the thriving nature reserve that has been created by default in the DMZ comes to an abrupt halt. Everything living has been flattened, lest it provide camouflage for anyone attempting to escape across the border. There is a North Korean army base visible, looming disturbingly large on a hilltop. The smoke of a fire evidently lit by there soldiers rose towards the sky. Since I’ve been in Korea (actually, since long before it), I have wondered about the North and the peninsula’s situation. Being within such proximity was surreal and if truth be told, thrilling.

Traveling to the DMZ was a worthwhile experience: interesting and enlightening… and, yes, fun. However, it would be advisable to keep your expectations in check. You will not see anything you’re not supposed to, so be realistic… if you manage to do so, you’ll be in for a real treat.

Written for Say Kimchi News