Totally random post that might make sense one day. Or not.

It all started last year in New York City during the first night of the Summer. I was watching an interview with Martin Scorsese on YouTube in which the director mentioned the movie “The Grandmaster,” which he had recently produced.

A quick search on IMDB showed that Wong Kar-wai had directed the film. I went back to YouTube and found another clip where Martin Scorsese interviews Kar-wai. Very interesting.

A few more clicks and I stumbled upon this gem on Vimeo: “The Grandmaster – Visual Effects Making Of.”

Wow.

I love Kar-wai’s work, including Days of Being Wild (1990), Ashes of Time (1994), Chungking Express (1994), Fallen Angels (1995), Happy Together (1997), and, my favorite, 2046(2004). His movies are truly incredible. Pure visual poetry. As close to perfection, in my humble opinion, as you can get in cinematography. Masterpieces. How did I miss The Grandmaster? It was time to fix this terrible mistake.

So, I logged into my New York Public Library’s account and requested the DVD. Done. I went back to IMDB and saw an article about the “Top 10 Best Asian Filmmakers of All Time.” Kar-Wai is #9, and another one of my favorites, Chan-wook Park, is #3. I wondered what Mr. Park has been up to. I found the films of his “Vengeance Trilogy”: Mr. Vengeance (2002), Oldboy (2003), and Lady Vengeance (2005), to be extremely violent, yet remarkably engaging. I didn’t care much for Thirst (2009).

So, I logged in to my Amazon Prime account and found that Park’s latest movie, “Stoker,” was available on demand. My not-so-productive evening had come to an end. I immediately watched the movie and loved it.

Something about the music in the closing titles really got my attention. It was unique, kinda raw and depressing, but beautiful. Strange. I noticed the artist was Emily Wells, someone I’d never heard of. I copied and pasted her name into Amazon and found several songs and albums, many of them quite engaging, and two of them belonging to Stoker’s soundtrack (track number two called “Becomes the Color” and the last track on the album called “If I Ever Had a Heart”).

So, I went back to YouTube and watched some of her videos. I ended up visiting her website and noticed that she would be playing live for free in New York a few days later. I went to the event and found it interesting, but not really my cup of tea. Nonetheless, the experience was worth it.

What I find intriguing about this whole experience is how easily we can access a virtually endless and seemingly disconnected ocean of information, all of which is right at our fingertips. To travel from seeing Martin Scorsese on YouTube to a live presentation by Emily Wells may not seem like the clearest of paths, but aren’t we all increasingly embarking upon serendipitous journeys such as these? Or, is it just me?