My List of Fav Movies (update)

Time flies right? So I'm changing my fav movie list too. :)

1. Slumdog Millionaire (British-Indian Drama) – Danny Boyle (2008)
2. Finding Nemo (Animation) – Andrew Stanton (2003)
3. Toy Story 1, 2 and 3 (Animation) – John Lasetter (1995, 1999); Lee Unkrich (2009)
4. 3 Idiots (Bollywood Comedy) – Rajkumar Hirani (2009)
5. Death at a Funeral (British Comedy) – Frank Oz (2007)
6. Shutter (Thai-horror) – Banjong Pisanthanakun & Parkpoom Wongpoom (2004)
7. REC (Spanish-horror) – Jaume Balagueró & Paco Plaza (2007)
8. The Host (Korean monster-movie) – Bong Joon-Ho (2006)
9. Shakespeare in Love (Romance) – John Madden (1998)
10. Borat The Movie (Comedy) – Larry Charles (2006)
11. How to Train Your Dragon (Animation) – Chris Sanders & Dean DeBlois (2010)
12. What Women Want (Romance) – Nancy Myers (2000)
13. Spiderman 2 (Action-Superhero) – Sam Raimi (2004)
14. The Incredibles (Animation) – Brad Bird (2004)
15. Enchanted (Musical) – Kevin Lima (2007)
16. The Hangover (Comedy) – Todd Phillips (2009)
17. The Fast and The Furious – Tokyo Drift (Action) – Justin Lin (2006)
18. District 9 (Sci-fi) – Neill Blomkamp (2009)
19. It’s Complicated (Romance) – Nancy Myers (2009)
20. Juno (Drama) – Jason Reitman (2007)

William Lim

Perth in my Phone

Imannuel Franklin - smiling while chewing

Curtin Stadium at night - chilly and freaky

Mr Hendrik Octavianus - loves octopus very much

Mr Leimana Robby - Too cool for school

Mr Rawung Jeremy Valentino - He has no make up on this time

Mr Jon Mahadi - Rather attentive to what everyone has to say, even the cynical ones

Mr Benny Wijaya - The soft spoken one, yet having elegant manner of slow thinking

Mr Wijaya Hendra - The darknight, can disguise himself as the "gayish" Robin, Batman and even the Joker at times

4 months didn't cut hair

The condition of my apartment a day before I left


William Lim

Saying Goodbye

It's rather odd for me to write this post as I've never like to say goodbye to anyone. I really wish that a person is able to meet and see and talk to one another without having to say goodbye - forever. So it's kind of continuous that way.

But I should say though that saying goodbye to a person that you don't like will make you feel relieve; because you won't have to see that person again. :)

Anyway, I'm saying goodbye to a bunch of wonderful people in Perth here; these people are not easy to forget. They were kept so close to my heart at one point that I felt lonely whenever I left their homes, or the church, or after dinner.

If there was anything I learned during my stay in Perth, it would be the essence of "family" that the church has implement to the congregation there. When I first came to the church, I literally didn't feel like a stranger you know. I was definitely awkward to go to a new surrounding that I barely knew. But the weird part was, they made me feel like I'm a part of them. It's not easy to describe this, but you know what I mean.

So I guess we have established the fact that "church" is a family; not an organisation, but a family. And family is home, where everybody knows your name, your background, etc.. So to that end, I really enjoyed being in Perth with those bunch of people that made me part of their family.

Being in Perth had opened my eyes to what I was born to do - filmmaking. It's my dream to be an academy-award winning film director before I hit 30 years old; and I only realised this when I'm in Perth. So the struggle in the university opened up a new level of understanding that spurred me on to pursue my dream.

In any case, here comes the difficult part - saying goodbye. King Solomon once said that there's a time for everything; well in the same way, there was my time for everything. There was my time for laughing, crying, hanging, playing, studying (yeah right) and praying. But now my friends, it's my time to say goodbye; it's my time to leave.

So to that end, I guess I'll see you wonderful people in the autumn, for graduation then.

William Lim

My Prayer

Dear Lord

I want to be an academy-award winning director before I hit 30 years old, because You said that nothing is impossible for those who believe; and You also said that blessed are those who has not seen/received, and yet have believe.

Well Lord, I believed.

I believed that I'm an academy-award winning director - that's my faith. From now on, every time I'm producing a movie, I'll act like an oscar winning director. I will direct a movie with a passion that never stop burning. In fact, I want my films to be a blessing for people watching it; that it will have a great impact to a society, or even a country.

Lord, I'm a big guy living on earth. But to You, I'm sure I'll look like a small liliput. But believe me Lord, this small liliput has faith, and he wants to let the whole world know that You're working in his life, through his life, and by his life. So he needs the wisdom that You gave to King Solomon; and oh, a discerning heart too, so that he can make fantastic films that will be a blessing to the world.

Anyway, thank You Lord for everything today.

G'nite

William Lim

Feeling Homeless

Today will be the day that I'll remember for the rest of my life. On this day I feel homeless.

I just move out of my house this afternoon, with a bunch big boxes and two gigantic luggage. I placed some of those boxes at my friends' house, so that I can take them back next year when I'm here for the graduation.

After dropping all those boxes, a question appeared from my mind, "Where do I go next?"

My flight to Singapore is not for another 2 days. Thus, what should I do in Perth in the mean while? More importantly, where would I stay in the next 2 days?

Frankly, I don't have an answer to that. Why? Because I'm practically homeless. All I have with me now is a rented car, and a box with my stuffs in it. In a way, I'm mobile, but with no destination.

This reminds me that a home is everything that you would long for, you know, apart from the happiness of the world. It's all that you can think about after a hard day at work, or after a failed date with one of the best hostess in town. You can cover your head with a pillow sheet, and then bang it against the wall to get some answers on why your date went miserably wrong. You'll bleed, but the good thing is, no one knew what you're doing, except God.

All I'm saying is, a home is basically a location where your heart should be placed. There was a quote that I read a few years back that said, "Your Home is Where Your Heart is". I think this is so true.

Your home is the place where you keep a myriad of wonderful or ghastly memories; you know every corner in that house, and that made you feel comfortable and safe. More imperatively, a home is where you can feel to be yourself. There isn't a slight of awkwardness in there.

Well, so much about home. But what about me?

I'm now homeless person, for 2 days.

William Lim

Studying Movies

These last couple of weeks, my life has been filled with movies. I've been renting over 25 DVDs in the last 2 weeks for the purpose of my research and study. And I'll definitely get more of them in the following week.

See, the thing is, I'm writing a script for my new movie. It's a comedy film, and will be my first full feature length film. The disadvantage here is that, I've no experience in making a full feature film. I mean I did direct three short-films before, but I'm guessing this time, it will be a different challenge.

With that, there are some studying and research to be done; and my research was simple, basically I watched movies. But I'm not watching the movies for my entertainment; I watched them so that I can understand what does it take to make a fantastic film, and also, to understand why some films fail.

So to that end, I began renting the award-winning films, the great comedy films, and the bad and "no good" films. I watched each films twice: the first time was for my entertainment, and the second time was for studying. I studied them pretty thoroughly; trying to understand why the film won an award, and why some films are extremely funny, and why some films fail.

All in all, it was a tiresome exercise. I couldn't even imagine that I can watch five films in a row, within a day. But in any case, after watching the 25th film, "The House Bunny", I began to understand why some films fail, and why some films are splendidly well-made. It's like, I've finally obtained that secret ingredient in making a fantastic film.

I can't tell the secret yet as I haven't tested it. If my film turns out to be fanstastic, then I'll disclose the secret here. Haha.

Anyway, I'm about to watch movie number 26 now, "There's Something About Mary". It looks like it's going to be a good one, judging by the reviews from Rotten Tomatoes.

Alright then, back to business.

William Lim

Very Inspirative Quote

I read a quote on twitter today; it was extremely inspirative!

The quote was re-tweeted by Alicia Keys, and Kim Kardashian. They loved it. I loved it too!

Here's the Quote:

"Don't tell me the sky is the limit when there are footprints on the moon! Go get your dreams!" - Unknown

I don't know who was the original quoter. But it sure was mesmerising..

I couldn't be more thrilled. I'm going for my dreams now; and not going back.

William Lim

My Top 20 Films

It's rather weird if a manic filmmaker like myself do not have a favourite film.

Actually I do. I have a list that I've been keeping for so long. It's my top 20 films of all time.

Here we go:

1) Finding Nemo (Animation)
2) Slumdog Millionaire (British)
3) Toy Story 1, 2, and 3 (Animation)
4) 3 Idiots (Bollywood)
5) The Host (Korean)
6) Death at a Funeral (British)
7) Shutter (Thai)
8) District 9 (Sci-fi)
9) Borat the Movie (Comedy)
10) REC (Spanish)
11) How to Train Your Dragon (Animation)
12) What Women Want (Romance)
13) Spiderman 2 (Superhero)
14) The Incredibles (Animation)
15) Enchanted (Musical)
16) The Hangover (Comedy)
17) The Fast and The Furious - Tokyo Drift (Action)
18) It's Complicated (Romance)
19) Juno (Drama)
20) I Love You Man (Comedy)

That's it...

I had a hard time choosing the films and ranking it. But it's finalised now.. haha

William Lim

New Movie

Well, what can I say, I'm writing a new script for my new film now.

I've done 3 short films before, and now I think it's time to do a feature-length film.

I'm aiming to finish the whole production by Aug 2011, just in time for the Sundance and Slamdance Film Festival's submission; before submitting it further to the Cannes and Toronto International Film Festival.

To be frank, I'm nervous. Not nervous about making the film, but because we're a bunch of asians; hardly any asians get their breakthrough in Hollywood. What if this movie does not get picked up by a US distributor? That's the scary question.

I don't care about winning, and I certainly do not focus on winning. I'm focusing more on the things that will lead me to win. Like a good screenplay, creating a superteam, and obviously, I want this movie to be a blessing to people watching it.

So please pray so that we can finish the movie on time, and there will be a US distributor who's willing to distribute the movie in the US; and eventually the world.

Thanks Lord for this dream that You've given me. I'm going for it.

William Lim