IF you go to a movie house this weekend and movie trailers are shown, you will have probably noticed that most of these movies have websites ending in the .co.uk domain. These mean they are not Hollywood movies but flicks whose first country of production is the United Kingdom, the capital of which is London. Even settings of most Hollywood movies have radically shifted to Great Britain, a very small country not even worth included in the world atlas as compared to other places in the world.

The United Kingdom if you may recall has been a world naval superpower even up to this day. For the last 2,000 years, only Native Americans ruled what is now the United States and Rome ruled Europe. But for the last 500 years, the Europeans had set out to sea to conquer new lands. That’s when the Spaniards and the Portuguese excelled. But what is even more amazing is the entry of the United Kingdom into the fray. The United Kingdom is a very little country and it is an archipelago at that – so frail and so vulnerable from open sea-based attacks. That is why their foray into naval expeditions was belittled by the European mainlanders.

To the shock of the entire planet, the British prevailed. A little country as they are (the island of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man), they have succeeded in conquering such huge countries as India (which then included what is now as Pakistan and Bangladesh), South Africa and Australia. That is the might of the empire in what is now known as the United Kingdom.

Every empire has its end though. It saw its doom with the rise of independent-minded Caucasian people in the United States. The United States drove the British back and erected their own country. But after the War of Independence, US-British relations flourished back again. It can best be described in the dividing of the memento coming from HMS Resolute. One memento sits at the Buckingham Palace, the seat of the Queen herself, while the other sits at the Oval Office.

But now, there is a resurgence of English imperialism and world dominance over the United States, at least in the movie industry. In late 2007 when the Hollywood writers’ guild had a strike, British film productions took advantage of the situation by hiring these writers and making superb quality movies. Now they are slowly being released.

AS of February 2008, there are already two mainstream Hollywood movies featuring London. Both feature villains and not-so-good guys but they are in extreme genres. While one (National Treasure: Book of Secrets) is a pure fantastic adventure, the other (Eastern Promises) introduces us to the dark grim underworld. Of course, the movies are whole fiction so do not be fooled that these things are actually happening in London.

For example, in National Treasure: Book of Secrets, there was one car chase scene where the character of Ed Harris has to throw a priceless gem over River Thames. You don’t throw priceless gems over the River Thames, do you? But in Eastern Promises, the character of Viggo Mortensen has to throw a dead body over River Thames? If these two events have happened in real life and are happening in the same universe of place and time, that will be doubly ridiculous. It simply means River Thames will become a dumping ground for all things undesirable. Fiction is fiction. There are lots of things we can learn from fiction though.

One of these is to learn another culture. We know that the Yakuza of Japan cut the fingers of their underlings who have committed mistakes to the group. So it’s easy to spot a Yakuza in London. If you see a person which matches a Japanese profile and you see one or more of his fingers cut, then simply avoid him. It’s the same thing with the Russians. Eastern Promises teaches us how to spot a Russian criminal. A Russian criminal has tattoos very distinctive to the ones used in Miami Ink. I won’t give out any spoiler, just watch the movie. Director David Cronenberg has taught us how to spot a Russian criminal in the movie.

One of the stars in the movie is Naomi Watts. I have watched her since The Ring and she is really a perfect screamer. In fact, she has reprised the role of a screamer in King Kong. She’s one of the London-based Hollywood actresses that I love. In fact, she’s a perfect epitome of a very successful American dream career. From London, she has moved on to the United States to become a successful actress there. I want to be like her someday.

To do that, I must enroll myself at the London Film School. It is where great actors, actresses, directors, cinematographers, editors and visual effects directors are bred. It is in London Film School where foreign students from as far as the United States such as Michael Mann have been trained before they go back to their home country and establish a really wonderful career there.

Michael Mann is one living testament why I am encouraged to study at the London Film School. His movies belong to the neo-realist genre, fictionalized versions of events that can happen in real life. His first attempt in 1986, Manhunter, became the prequel of the cult classic series featuring Hannibal Lecter.