Best actor and best actress went to English Queen and Scotish King, just the same as Golden Globe. Well, thank God, Forest Whitaker (the last king of scotland) is from Texas. No pretty men for Oscar, the same rule still dominates. So Leonardo DiCaprio, shined in Blood Diamond and The Departed (and a few years ago in The Avigator), who happened to be stunning good looking, has to be extremely patient and lucky or just give up, like Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. On the other hand, actresses have to be gorgeious to be able to enter the competion for best actress. Double standard? Maybe.

 

The Departed won best picture and brought Martin Scorsese his first-ever best director. What a paid off! It seemed people don't think less of this movie just bcuz it borrowed the whole plot (well, 70% of this one looked exactly the same as its original Infernal Affairs) from its Asian version, while Infernal Affairs didn't win anything from Oscar last time even though it was a huge hit in Asia. This made me think how difficult it could be to understand another culture and people who speak a different language. For example, Infernal Affairs didn't have much confront when the gangs tried to find out who was the undercover cop. However, the movie managed to maintain an intense and stifling atmosphere by using body language and facial expressions, which can only be well understood if you know the culture well. In the American version, though, this was done via confronts and intense dialogue. If Leo's character chose to keep quiet and just do things to prove himself instead of confronting his boss, he would be dead. Anyway, it was shot in Boston, which made me like it better!