Friday, July 28, 2006

High Fidelity vs High Fidelity

Current book read: A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby - watched dvd: High Fidelity, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

You know. If there were ever a T-Shirt with a sablon saying "I'm the newest biggest fan of Nick Hornby" on it, I will buy it right this second. I will buy it, and I will wear it like every day of the week until my afterglow is over. No, I won't wear it directly, of course. I will first cut off its sleeves first, like what I did to almost all my T-Shirts this summer, and then wear it.

Good Lord. Nick Hornby is awesome! He's an awesome writer! I mean, take High Fidelity, for example. The hero, Rob Fleming, (A) Does not resemble me. (B) Can not be someone I look up to, at least for now. (C) Does not remind me of any guy that I know. (D) Is really not the type of guy with whom I am usually friends with. But (E) Is so compelling, so that you will not feel sorry for yourself even after hearing him laments about his recent broke up with Laura.

The guy is so specifically characterized, until you'll say that, "I can't believe that there is a character so specific like Rob in a work of literature." The specific character make the guy real. And then sometimes you will see a bit of yourself in him. And then a bit of your friends. And finally, maybe Rob represents how men are. Or in this case, Hornby is so genius, so that he could draw what represents men in Rob. Breathtakingly genius.

Because of the five things that I thought Rob was, I lost so many times in the book. Sometimes I didn't know what I was reading. This is specifically, because I am not a Rob-musical kinda person. I'm not. And I won't be. I mean, my music? Blah. It's a mixture of a top 40 pop, musicals, and musical films, for God sakes. But I'm enjoying it. If I were friends with Rob, I would have eaten his rotten insults of my music. I'm not saying music taste, because clearly, I have no taste.

But seriously. Guys. GUYS! Read the book. Read. The. Book. You will not regret it. At least if you have countless commuting hours like I do, it will keep you company.

Now off to the movie.

The movie ... why did I need the movie? Hmm. Basically, I'm not the type of guy who after reading a book, I want to watch the movie to compare it, or vice versa. But sometimes I want to see how it translates. And this time, because I lost so many times during reading the book, I needed some directions.

There are some good news and bad news about the movie. The bad news is that, Rob is too clean, slick, cute, perfect looking. I know Hornby likes Cusack, but I'm not really. The redirection from London to Chicago sucks. And some of the Hollywoodification were too much.

The good news is, I LOVE Dick character. Love him. Now HE can be a good friend of mine. Gosh. And of course there is this thing.

You know, I loathe German productions. Especially their reality series. I hate all those all-time-favourite singles thrown into every moments literally. For example, take a house makeover series. And after some dreadful steps, the house is finally finished. The family who lived there will see it for the first time. In order to make them surprised, the producers put blindfolds on them and told them to open it after they were told to do so.

What happened then? The producer then abruptly throw a song like "One Moment in Time" when the family sees the new house for the first time, for believing that this was a one moment in the family's time. So fucking lame.

In High Fidelity, there are a LOT of chances for this lamity (if there is such a word) to happen. Throw a song here and there just because it fits literally. But no. Guess this is what makes them Hollywood, though. They saved it until the last time. The very fucking last time. We were just fed and fed and fed about the almighty song, and when it's there ...............

it's emotional.

So, yes. I was watching a boy movie. Based from a book that can make all the chick-lits writer wish that they could have had at least 5% of Hornby's talent. And it's not sad ending-y. But I cried.

HAH! No more tears and serious stuff and life-slash-future-related entertainment on Fridays. I'd better get me some Harry Potter.

Have a nice weekend!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

somebody found Nick Hornby :) I dont read chicklit so cant really make any comparison. but I dig Hornby, though it's been years since I read any of his books.
high fidelity is depressingly funny.. love the book.

Bie said...

hey .. thanks for commenting.

I'm in the middle of a fourth Nick Hornby. And funnily, I thought the three that I've read, were all depressingly funny. Heheh..