I'm not really someone who enjoys reading books, but somehow after being influenced by Yaoming (for his constant visit to Books Kinokuniya with me during days in TP), Teck Soon (my army platoon mate who loves books) and Paul (another fella who loves books), i soon found myself hanging around book stores more often, ranking after HMV and other CD/DVD shops and fashion botiques.
A month ago, i catch Robert Towne's Ask the Dust, a romantic drama that has a strong cast and crew. See? Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek are the leading actor and actress, Donald Sutherland as the supporting actor, Tom Cruise as producer (yeah right. He is the producer.) and Robert Towne directs the film. FYI, Towne is the man behind the award winning 1974 classic, Chinatown, which stars Jack Nicholson and directed by Roman Polanski. Years later, he brings the work of the late author John Fante onto the big screen. Pretty romantic, but a bit dull. Never did i expect that critics did not give any face to such a nice production, where the review was pretty bad. Grades on the scorecard: C+.
Ask the Dust is John Fante's 3rd book on Arturo Bandini series, in which Arturo Bandini is a Italian author created by Fante. The background was set in the Great Depression era aka US in the 30's. Bandini wrote about his experience on living in hand to mouth, how he delay payments from the landlady, and most imoprtantly: his encounter with Camilia Lopez, a Mexican waitress who wants to climb up to the highest level of the social ladder. From petty quarrels to friends to lovers, they have gone thru the stage of knowing each other, to loving each other, and despise of the Americans due to their racial difference.
And i do not know why i cried when watching Ask the Dust in The Cathay.
Sad to say it is currently only running at Golden for 2 shows daily till next week. And it is treated as a soft core porn there, though Ask the Dust is not even porn in the 1st place.
Finally, i decided to buy the novel at MPH, cos it comes with a free leather notebook. And that leather notebook comes with the wording of Ask the Dust. (It was actually a movie collectable item.)
Sorry guys but i think i'm stopping here now. Going to enjoy Ask the Dust now...