From Manohla Dargis's review of M. Night Shyamalan's Lady in the Water, in the New York Times:
Apparently those who live in the water now roam the earth trying to make us listen, though initially it’s rather foggy as to what precisely we are supposed to hear — the crash of the waves, the songs of the sirens, the voice of God — until we realize that of course we’re meant to cup our ear to an even higher power: Mr. Shyamalan.I still want to see the film -- I always subscribe to the motto that I'd probably enjoy a film I've been wanting to see despite colossally bad reviews -- but Ms. Dargis! I wrote it first! =) Posted by the wily filipino at July 22, 2006 01:36 PM
but...he's the writer who's going to change the world!
lol.
lady in the water was...soggy.
um... smiley aside, this strikes me as plagiarism.
How dare you backdate a blog entry and then try to make it look like Dargis was cribbing from you?
Posted by: G. Van der Graaf on July 25, 2006 04:31 PMDan, I know some plagiarism stories from direct experience that'll make your hair stand on end. One of these days I'll have to blog about it.
Posted by: the wily filipino on July 25, 2006 09:08 PMso did you get to see this yet? i understand why this film doesn't appear to work as a typical narrative hollywood film, though i don't undertsand why the negative reviews are so vehement.
i think the story does work like traditional passed down through oral tradition story, and the kind of preposterous premises set forth here are no different that the preposterous premises set forth in many a traditional fairy tale. and we as a society allow for these leaps in realism, so why all of a sudden have folks become such hardcore realism fascists about this crazy, improbable story?
i think also that all artists suffer from a very wrought sense of self-importance, and m. night is no exception (understand of course i say this as an artist as well). i think though that what arrogance we allow other filmmakers, ehem, the megalomania of coppola, peter jackson's LOTR obsessiveness, and then the dominance and utter perfectionism of someone like kurosawa who is of color but worked almost completely within a japanese context etc, we just can't or won't allow in those particularly foreign-ized others in an american context.
i hope this makes sense.
Posted by: bjr on August 8, 2006 09:58 AM