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Mahler 5

Tonhalle: Mahler 5, Bansal, Haydn(0)

March 12, 2024

Two great symphonies and a commission that were thoroughly enjoyable.

Mistakes by the River

Wei Shujun’s 河边的错误 [He bian de cuo wu/Mistake(s) by the River]

Welcome to Wei’s postmodern neo-noir period mystery rabbit hole.

The Zone of Interest

Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest

An extraordinary movie that is, and should be, deeply disturbing.

Dune

Denis Villeneuve’s Dune and Dune: Part Two

A treat you don’t want to miss.

Quatuor Ébène (Photo Julien Mignot)

The Quatuor Ébène String Quartet at Robert-Schumann-Saal, Düsseldorf

Another thoroughly enjoyable string quartet experience.

The Fifth Element

Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element

A collection of enormously silly adolescent fantasies, but entertaining.

Septembersonate

Manfred Trojahn’s Septembersonate by Johannes Erath and Vitali Alekseenok

A chamber play with a chamber orchestra focused not on dramatic events but internal torments.

Sammlung Philara (click to embiggen)

Sammlung Philara: “What Is Steady Anyway?” & “Artichoke Underground”

If this kind of art is your thing, Freeman & Lowe’s Artichoke Underground will knock your socks off.

How Do Y'all Live?

Miyazaki Hayao’s 君たちはどう生きるか [How Do Y’all Live?]

Seven years of development are more than enough for a script to lose focus.

Perfect Days

Wim Wenders’s Perfect Days

If, at the end, you don’t know whether to be joyful or sad, you’re in good company.

The Beekeeper

David Ayer’s The Beekeeper

The exact dose of gratuitously violent popcorn entertainment I was looking for.

Tropical

Tropical: Stories from Southeast Asia and Latin America | National Gallery Singapore

If you happen to be in Singapore between now and March 24, 2024, don’t miss this! :)

Shōnan Jinja

Singapore Adventure: Shōnan Jinja

Yes, we crawled through a tropical jungle and back for a destroyed World War II shrine.

La Liseuse

Chaïm Soutine Exhibition | K20

How cool would it be to create a game where you live inside the worlds of these paintings.

Introductory Talk

notabu.ensemble neue musik | DEC 6, 2023

With respect to art music, this year ends as fantastic as it began.

The Name of the Rose

Jean-Jacques Annaud’s The Name of the Rose

The book holds up well, the movie not so much.

Napoleon

Ridley Scott’s Napoleon

Sadly, it left me cold from the first scene to the last.

ゴジラ-1.0 [Gojira Mainasu Wan]

Yamazaki Takashi’s『ゴジラ-1.0』[Gojira Mainasu Wan]

Hands down one of the best movies in Tōhō’s Kaijū franchise.