The last weekend

"How much is the price of jealousy....."

I just finished watching ITV's 3-part drama, "The Last Weekend" by Blake Morrison. I had read the novel and obviously not knowing who Mr Blake was prior to that and then realized some of his novels were made into TV drama. "The Last Weekend" is classified as a psychological thriller. These days, whenever you see 'thriller' as a genre in book or in movie, it normally cannot get away dealing with death, fight or killing. Indeed, the story involved all that.

"The Last Weekend" is set in a rather nice gathering of two couples in a country-house over a bank holiday weekend. It brought out the characters of Ian and Ollie, where their "rivalry" slowly uncovered, which dated back to their school's days. Some reviews of Blake Morrison's novel have been about his clever design on the use of an unreliable narrator to connect and tell the story to the reader. Traditionally, it is in the habit of the reader to believe whatever the narrator said and the messages he tried to convey, but not for this one. In the novel, Ian is the unreliable narrator. You slowly realised, some of the events were not as what it seemed on the surface and certainly Ian himself is the source of the problem, rather than others where he put the blame on. The drama put the setting in the same place, in a rather unusual style, it also continues with Ian as the narrator, connecting the events and the storyline. At times, it felt like a docu-drama, but later it began to make sense towards the end, in that, he is all the while in his own defend of what happened subsequently to Ollie and his wife.

Ian might appear like a nutter, but I have sympathy for him. The reader and the audience won't be able to know how much of the events and the people he described are truly the way they are, because they were all seen through his eyes and he could be biased. Even so, it is clear that he was still very much in love with Ollie's wife, Daisy, in which he claimed he had known her first before Ollie. In the story, we can also see Ian and his Emily are both of a lower social class than Ollie and Daisy. It is interesting and not sure if this is the idea that the author is trying to convey that much of the 'jealosy' of Ian about Ollie is due to these two reasons. To be fair, being human, we are able to feel either envious or jealous about people. It's how we deal with it that matters. The story built on Ian's jealousy of Ollie as the main storyline. His obsession with Daisy as another. The weekend, which is the last the two couples spent together, is where Ian's jealousy grew to the utmost and leads to undesirable consequence which in the end, lose him Ollie, Daisy and his wife, Emily.

Taking a step back, if we were to 'simulate' the lifestyle of Ian. This means, taking a different look at Ian and his likely lifestyle. Ian could be quite a decent bloke. It is only his 'darkside' that needs managing. If I were Ian, I would be more aware of that and I would move away from it because I know that won't be nice and would affect people. This means I will see less of Ollie and his wife or try not getting 'too involved'. Yes, it will be hard on the friendship, but we do made choices in life, don't we? I often like to see the way forward as best as possible. If any drama or novel that could be "educational" as well as "entertaining", it would serve useful purpose. The novel, being a novel, seems to have portrayed other characters to be "overly nice". But in real life, they need not be because some inappropriate sexual gesture of Ian on Daisy, which started off quite early on, should have been violently stopped, but it didn't. Therefore, perhaps the story is also helping the readers/audiences to be aware about people like that around, and to avoid them as much as possible.This may be a minor point, but I still think is important.

Sex Addicts in Shame!

"... there was an air of persistent unspoken sadness...."

"Shame" is strictly a tragic movie. It is about a man and his sister who seemingly suffer from obsession with sex, or sometimes what people termed as "sex addiction".Michael Fassbender, who played the lead role gives a convincing performance portraying someone with an obsession for sex.

"Shame" touched on the rather taboo topic (perhaps not now, where you can easily find people talk about it, just search on Google, wherever you are, you find loads of discussions). One cannot, of course, not mentioned about how the sex scenes are played out. The excellent skills and editing of the director successfully describe what went on in the mind of a potential sex addict. The opening scene of Brandon (played by Michael Fassbender) watching a stranger in the crowded underground, with the eye-contact passing subtle messages was well captured and conveyed, leading to further pursue that was unsuccessful, portrayed the darkest desire for sexual needs in the most impossible place.

The film focused on the present moment, going great length to describe the life of sex addict without touching on the past too much (it was known in the movie that Brandon and his sister where left damaged by their childhood, which was never completely revealed in the movie), and yet not letting viewers finding this incomplete, because you do find there were moments of humanity where the characters were brought back to their pasts and they respond to it. You don't know what's in the past, but you can see they are affected by it. It was all very intense and moving. Some sex scenes were hard to watch simply because they were just illustrations of obsessions. Putting aside the nakedness and explicit exposure of the scenes, it was the facial expressions that said it all. You can see these were all very enforced and struggle within were written all over the face. There was also an air of persistent unspoken sadness in the atmosphere throughout the movie.The beautiful background soundtrack (by Harry Escott) also successfully enhanced the atmospheric effect.

Michael Fassbender was good in the movie because he skilfully uses body language, eye-contact and facial expressions to convey messages. It was the visit of his sister, Sissy, played by Carey Mulligan that interrupted his routine of pursue with sexual obsession, which then leads to the uncover of this rather abnormal desire in front of the viewers and eventually brought him to some degrees of awareness (I won't give it away how all this happen).

The last scene was classic. It brought the viewers back to how it gets started, the crowded underground again. This time, a stranger sensing Brandon to be "a potential", stood up from her seat, sensually hold on to the bar waiting for Brandon to do the same, but this time, Brandon just sat there, stared at her blankly. It could be the start of Brandon being aware of the problem he faced, his darkside or it could be Brandon simply "playing game". I like to think it is the former because that scene reminded me what I wrote the other day about the darkside, i.e., Acknowledging the darkside, not fighting and evoking it, but gently guiding it with awareness. Maybe that way, it felt more hopeful

The effect of the darkside 1

 "... perhaps it's time to seek helps.."

I finally finished watching unriddle 2 (最火搭档II), a Singaporean 20-episode psychological and crime thriller. This is one of the best Singapore-produced dramas I had seen in recent years. It precisely integrated the darkside of human nature into the crime story, even the cops themselves must also deal with their own demon in order to solve mysterious murders. I love the plot simply because it built upon one after another following the death of victims, from one to the next. The 20 episode consists of three different murders all under the plan of the same mastermind. I like the sequence of the events that took place, without giving too much away and then hold the appetite of the viewers, who definitely would want to keep following the story.

There were murderers, rapists, pimp and other "underground" characters in the drama. But, you found they lived "normal" life. Therefore, a rapist could go shopping. Raped victims could face up, be strategic and plan their moves to seek revenge. Being a primp does not necessarily you would be a bad person, you can be kind-hearted too. It seems people we see day in day out, strangers waiting for traffic light or colleagues in the workplace could have their own darkside, their demon to face every minute and second, yet on the surface, they can look so normal. The believability of the characters in the drama is another appeal.

It seems the ways some of the victims dealt with their darkside often leads them to their own death, which is quite sad. There were a brother and his sister both borne to a family of kidnappers in the drama. And they were tortured since young, including raped and beating, very disturbing and even more so when the sister was deaf and mute. This was definitely hard to bear in real life, and supposed this is so, how would one face that. I guess one would either learn to hate or learn to love, as one grew up. The brother often related their present experiences to  their past life and claimed it is a punishment for them by the way they were treated by the parent. True to some extent, but it could not lead to killings of the parent in the end. I can only say it is the emergence of the darksde that took them over, but also the survival instinct. It is, of course, a bit of a dramatisation, but it could also be possible in reality.

How should we deal with our darkside then? I guess the key is to live in the now, a rather cliche way of putting it, but effective one. I love the lead role hu xiaoman, played by Rui En (瑞恩), a cop who was very much disturbed by her problematic father, which often mixed with hatred and anger, leading to her overly reacted to suspects and leading to some deaths among some of them. She showed the struggle to strike a balance between living in the now and the past (i.e., the psychological time) and at times confused her judgements and end up making the wrong decision and causing the death of the suspects. We should be aware about how our darkside could affect us and others that lived with us. I guess if we could not get rid of it and it hocked on us emotionally, then we are being dragged to the past that stucked us in a vicious circles. Then, perhaps that's the time to seek some professional help.

Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont

"Have you thought of who would you like to be by your side when that day comes...."

In the end, Mrs Palfrey passed away on the hospital bed, next to her faked grandson, in "Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont", a story about the friendship between a 80 year old woman and a young writer. If time flow like water on a river stream, throughout one's life, then at one's old age, one would have reached the ocean as the water gradually flow and ended up. Ocean is deep, accepting and take on anything that eventually reached it. It is only the weather that stirred it up, but its nature is still peaceful, just like Mrs Palfrey.

Mrs Palfrey moved into a retirement hotel, the Claremont in London, just to be nearer to her daughter and grandson, so that she can be in touch with them frequently. One day, on her way back after helping Mrs. Arbuthnot (another hotel resident) to get the book she borrowed from the library, She had a little accident and on that chance encounter, she met Ludovic Meyer, a penniless young writer and struck up a curious friendship. She then  invited Ludovic for dinner at the hotel and they agreed a date, without even taking note of Ludovic's address, Mrs Palfrey left him. Later the day, upon Mrs Palfrey's returns, everyone at the hotel was excited that finally Mrs Palfrey would bring her grandson for a meal and they were all looking forward to that. It gave Mrs Palfrey a little trouble here, as she didn't correct the residents about the mistake they made, and so she asked Ludovic to be the "faked grandson" and the latter agreed! This then led to both opening up to each others about their lives, and a very heart warming friendship developed between them. It also then became clear that the relationship between Mrs Palfrey and her grandson and daughter was "emotionally distant". They hardly return her calls and kept her waiting, but then Ludovic kept her company, which Mrs Palrey was happy about.

The movie was powerful. It's not only about friendship, but what's thought-provoking was the moment of the last day of Mrs Palrey, that adds significance to this friendship with Ludovic. He was by her side, reading her poems day after day till the last. Nowhere can we see the real grandson, only the faked one. I began to wonder, does this matter to anyone at all? if you are on your last day, who do you wish to be by your side?

Actually, Mrs Palrey seemed not too troubled not having her own grandson around, even though it would be the best to have him. There is a certain degree of intellect/openness that allowed Mrs Palrey to engage with people better than others. I am thinking as people of my generation, who are relatively more educated, become old age and ill and laid on the sick bed one day, how would we feel and who would we wish to be by our side on our very last day? Perhaps those who we can connect with would be important to see on those last few days. Those people may or may not be our "closed" family members and it does not matter.

Ludovic narrated the following as the movie came to a close, "There are people that cross our live in tiny fraction of time, in the briefest of encounters, and yet they leave an indelible mark in our hearts, in our minds."  and I guess this summed up everything. Those whom we met and could connect with, may be the people we met only for five minutes. They remained the  most important, especially towards the end of our live, in our old age's days.

High school's sweethearts are the sweetest

"..... Memory is the gift of time and is enough to bring a smile on your face ...."

I just watched "One Day", the movie about a couple who knew each other during their graduations' days in a potentially one-night stand situation, which both agree to just become friends. They agreed to keep in touch with each others and this lasted over a period of 20 years, which they met only one day a year throughout, due to their different locations.

You can imagine how hard this is going to be. However, given that both characters knew each other from their students' days at University, it became one of the "purest" relationships one would expect, and therefore the strongest to survive. Jim Sturgess played the main male lead role, Dexter while  Anne Hathaway played the main female lead role, Emma. Dexter was the one who travelled the world and enjoying affairs all over the places he went for work purpose. Over the years, both experienced changes in their life and they also met people along the way. There were little heartbreaks, but both still remain friends. What touches the heart is at the end, the movie gave a flash back on how they all get started knowing each others. You realized there was a very strong sense of friendships, making you believe whatever happened, both will be supportive of each others and never will that fade away and die.

"One Day" is a type of love story, purest in its own way, standing the test of time and distance all because both involved knew each other from their students' days. I had reviewed another similar movie, As good as it gets (see here). That movie told another type of love story. That was about baggage and personal issues that affected people way of communications. The couples in "One Day" has different issues, but it seemed "easier" when both knew each others from the students' days, because you will just trust it, not that you take it for granted. You gave it time and put efforts to see it worked out. You can also be open about it and share your views, express yourselves with trusts in the other person. I guess if one has baggage issue, things are perhaps just too much to take on, and even being open could easily make you lose your composure and hence affected the quality of the relationships, which sadly is quite a realistic issue these days.

A friend told me he knew of a couple who knew each other since 10 year old, but only re-connected after 40 years. Time never stops down, as it passed us by, it made changes in our perceptions of relationships with people.Someone whom you knew before, after many years may become strangely a "right person" when you re-connected again. Memory is the gift of time and is enough to bring a smile on your face and all those in the memory become the sweetest . And yes, if nothing else happened, you would still have the friendship and still, the sweetest! :D

When two "sick" people try to fall in love

 "..... they battled against their own demons to bring out the deepest sincerity hidden in there...."

I own a small 14" little black box that come with a VHS function. This is one of the oldest  TV model you would ever see in the world now. I have a few classic movies in VHS in my collection. One of my favorites is  "as good as it gets" by Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt.

"As good as it gets" is a love story, about two sick people. One with Obsessive Compulsion Disorder (OCD) and one other loaded with baggage. The moving part of the movie is that Jack Nicholson, while suffering from OCD, tried his very best to woo Helen Hunt. It was never easy, and he never quite get it right, either finding himself too lost for words or express the wrong thought. It all appeared like a comedy, but not funny at all if it is in real life. Obviously, Helen Hunt, who is the single mom in the movie was all too hung up over finding true love in her life, to the extent, putting all her heart and soul in her young kid becomes her top priority and she became over-anxious with tiny details.

It's an old movie and I guess most would have known the ending or the story for sure. The ending of the story does not necessarily imply that both Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt will live happily ever after. It only showed both finally able to reach the same frequency and thread of thought and communicate properly. There were some awkward moments of expressing love to each others. Those scenes where both kiss were very hard to watch, which is not surprising. Love is not necessarily romantic, especially if two "sick" people try to fall in love. They have to try again and again, until they get it right, which is why Helen Hunt must remind Jack Nicholson, "Try not to ruin it by being yourselves" each time the latter tried to "say something nice". It is very moving because they are battling against their own demons to bring out the deepest sincerity hidden in there.There is quite a substantial degree of resilience and endurance in there in this rather intense love relationship. This is something quite realistic, it might take a lifetime for someone to overcome that.

The ending of  "as good as it gets" implies that life is not all about getting married and have kids (not that if you do that, it will be a bad thing). Perhaps this is not something my parents' generation will understand. They seem to believe once marriage is on the card, things will sort itself out. There is an implicit fear of staying alone all your life and people are reacting to the fear by resorting to marriage, putting their issues about relationship aside, causing potential problems later. No one should be in a hurry to reach an ending, thinking all will end well in a marriage. because things never end, it only comes in stages, one after another. The question is what is the next stage.

In "as good as it gets", coming to the end of the movie, you never quite feel Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt will be together forever or they will become a steady couple. You only see that they resolve their conflicts they have with each others and they are able to communicate properly, and that is a good step forward. Whether they will marry or not, that however is not important anymore. One step at a time, one stage to the next, up until the day you die, you are only reaching at a certain stage, that still does not mean the end. That is why life sometimes feel like a journey, even in our love life, whose next to you, married to you or not, in a relationship or not, they are not quite as important. The important thing is they are THERE in the current stage of your life They are THERE with you, at least they live in your heart, in that special place.

Hereafter

 "How do you deal with the lost of a loved one?"

"Hereafter" is another movie I watched recently. The story linked three different segments together, each involving some relations to the issue of death. This relation to death is different to that of "Norwegian Wood". It is the effect it has on people and how they cope with it based on the extent that death matters to them. Basically, this involves a segment on a young boy who lost his twin brother in an accident and how he missed him to the extent he sought out medium to communicate with him. The second segment is about a French journalist who was almost killed in a Tsunami and finally is about Matt Damon who is a reluctant psychic, who is often devastated by the truth behind the story of one's grieve for their loved one.

The story as it developed bring the main character in all three segments together. The French journalist got together with Matt Damon while the young boy with the help of Matt Damon finally communicated with his dead brother, who told him to "move on" and "get on with this life". I was quite moved especially by the little boy's longing for his dead brother, and even more felt so sorry for him, as he kept wearing the cap that belongs to his dead brother.

However, I was very drawn to the character of Matt Damon. I seemed able to relate to him a lot more. I cannot explain why. There's perhaps some sort of similarity, I supposed. He claimed the "gift" that he has, i.e., the ability to communicate with "the other world" is a "curse". It does not make him happier as a person, as he was often left devastated knowing the background and especially when communicating with the dead, as it is so sad. I like the fact that, he decided to leave United States, to go to London to visit the "Dickens's house" as Charles Dickens is his favourite author. This is like a form of de-cluttering I supposed. Moving away and breath helps clear his mind. As the movie ends, we saw him having a coffee with the French journalist. We don't know if his pain about the "curse" still haunt him, but we can tell it felt a bit of hope in the air for him. Obviously, living in the real world, I would have thought the "pain" will come to haunt him time and again. Perhaps you may not be affected by it, but it will still be there somewhere in your head, lingering about.

I downloaded the soundtracks of this movie from spotify. I totally love it. Most tracks sounded the same, but it uses different instruments. Each track time and again brought me back to the movie and reminded me about Matt Damon and his pain, and it relates to me in a strange sort of way and it heals me and my pains too. I played the tracks a lot and enjoy listening to them. Here's a sample of the track from YouTube.

The Beautiful "Norwegian Wood"

"The young, soft and tender hearts hurt the most, and the pains are most beautiful...."
 

"Norwegian wood" tells you about this and I think, it is also the main aim of the director to want to reflect in this movie. "Norwegian wood" is based on Haruki Murakami's novel of the same name. Haruki Murakami is a very famous Japanese writer, whose style is described by some to be more of a surrealist, who often demonstrates a sense of philosophical perspectives on some of life's most concerned subject matter. Yet his portray of characters feel so "fragmented". It needs your close attentions to follow through and understand them in the end. It not necessarily is like a Thriller. It is just like a journey of the characters, which can be just as unexpected as anything. In this movie, it revolves the issue around sex, love and death. It is about two friends grieving over the death of a friend close to both of them. It seems logical as set the age of the characters to be late teen early twenty. When it hurts, that age hurts the most, when it's pain, it's felt the most. To add a sense of eroticism to the movie, the story relates the hurt and pain of losing a friend to the sense of losing a sexual pleasure, which obviously means a lot to the characters, especially when there is love involved.

Watanabe and Naoko cannot get over the death of their dear friend, Kizuki who killed himself and passed away.Kizuki and Naoko were closer, and only Watanabe is a good friend to both of them. Only till after the death of Kizuki, Watanabe then know what Kizuki meant to Naoko, in their sexual relationship. Naoko felt the emptiness and no fulfilment. She felt the pleasure, but she can't feel the love, and the one she loved is no longer around. The truth is she can't feel the same pleasure from Kizuki. Sounded complicated, but realistic issues facing lots of people, I am sure. It's heart-breaking as Watanabe fell in love with Naoko, and both were also grieving over the death of Kizuki.

Watanabe was also romantically involved with Midori, one of his University mate. Watanabe is attracted to Midori, but admitted his love for Naoko and he was open to Midori about it. I kind of like the scene each time Watanabe and Midori were together. Midori is more witty and sharp, not as dark and depressed as Naoko. In the end, Naoko died too, and Watanabe was devastated. As is expected, in the end Naoko and Watanabe were get together as a couple, or at least is implied by the end of the movie.

A movie critic from the Telegraph claimed that the movie is a bit of a summary of Murakami’s book. I obviously didn't get to read the novel, but I am a little disappointed by the ending. I would have thought for a movie like this, the ending should be an open ending. One can only draw about one's life's philosophical thoughts when reflecting one's past. It is often good to move forward, like what the end of the movie had implied, but it reduced the depth of the story to some extent. However, it all makes sense, as the characters are in their late teens, and it is only natural they move on to the next phase of their life. Unless the movie is about "reflecting the past", which does not seem to be the case.
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I still like this movie for its attempt to breach the gap of grieving death, sexual pleasure and love. Another movie of a similar theme recently that I had watched is "love and other drugs", which I equally liked, but that was a lot more realistic and pragmatic, and with good acting too. I cannot compared both movie, as "Norwegian Wood" is restrained by Murakami's style, but "love and other drugs" is not. Perhaps next time I will compare the theme of "sex and love" in both movies, putting the author's styles in both books aside. That will be interesting.

When "being focused" is taken to the extreme...

".... you forget to return to the real world."

I finished watching "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer" from the BBC Iplayer tonight. This is not a new movie. It was shown in 2006. It's a different sort of Thriller movie, as you would expect with blood, murder and dead bodies. However, I like the story telling. It is stylish and it also subtly touched on the human side. I cannot help but develop empathy for the movie's main character, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille played by Ben Whishaw. because of his rough upbringing and how he survived in tough situations. He has a gifted sense of smell, which in the end motivated him to invent the most uniquely formatted perfume, and even to the extent of extracting and formatting perfume from unique human body odour, which means he needs to possess the whole body and how it leads to him going a step further.

It is rarely that movie relate human killing in this way. It is stylish because like all movies on human killing, which treats murder as a mean to an end, this movie shows the character's need for a unique smell, something that viewers can relate to. It is not like you kill human body part because you like to torture or you enjoy bloody gore. In a way, while the killing is brutal, the story telling was good. It is just a classic case of "being focused" is taken to the extreme, which develop quite naturally following the upbringing of this main character. You thought of him being nearly abandoned by his mother as soon as he was borne, and how he sold from one trader to another as slave, you almost forget this boy needs to find something he can identify or belong to. In fact, he has nothing, not even the slightest sense of freedom. That gift of smell in him saves him. He went after that, chased after it at all costs to pursue it. You just feel heartbroken at the look of Ben Whishaw in his portray of the character, showing much of the vulnerability and innocence, feeling all sorry for his destiny.

Dustin Hoffman who played the washed up perfumer, Giuseppe Baldini and who bought Ben Whishaw over from his master, taught the latter technique on perfume making. He told Ben Whishaw, "Talent is next to nothing, while experience, acquired in humanity and hard work, means everything". However, the obsession of the gifted sense of smell in Ben Whishaw drives him to the extreme to pursue further in finding the unique odour. As brutal and cruel as he may seem, he has tears in his eyes, when he realized how he accidentally put a young woman to death all because he wanted to possess her because of her odour. Unfortunately, his obsession has taken him so far that he just could not bring himself to love and be loved like most could. I just wonder how many of us are just the way like this, never mind if you are a murderer, as long as you let your secret obsession took over and when it went a little one step too far.

Au Revoir Taipei (一頁台北)

I will postpone today's interesting meets with my friend till tomorrow. This is because I cannot forget the movie poster I saw yesterday while visiting the Cathay Cineplex with M. It seems delightful and sweet. It says on the poster, the title to be "Au Revoir Taipei" (i.e., Good bye Taipei)

I quickly check this up online and find more information about this film. This movie has won a few awards already including the Best Asian Film in the latest Berlin International Film Festival and another award in Paris. I often look forward to what the Taiwanese film maker produced in their latest movies, especially the young and the up and coming ones. They normally made films without much of a baggage and can handle the theme in an orginal way and so is this film. I don't want to give too much away, but the following gives the trailer and a brief film review provided here



Oh and I like the theme song too. It nicely integrated guitars and piano and reminds me of a comptenary jazz and also felt very European. Here's the theme song (not an MV though, but you will like it, I am sure)

Here come "Kick Ass" the superhero

"... and only if being nice and helpful can be that straighforward"

I cannot understand the joy of comic book because I don't get it. I cannot see how the world of comic book characters lived their life, yet I had just watched "kick Ass" and I am enjoying it. "Kick Ass" is adapted from a comic book story and it seemed the copyright was sold even before the actual comic book was published.

I had heard good review of the movie and that prompted me to watch it. Interestingly, the main lead character of the movie was not the superhero, "Kick Ass", it was the purple-haired hit girl. I think there is a deeper meaning for putting "Kick Ass" as the main superhero role. Like some superheros in the past we knew of, such as batman, "Kick Ass" can be seen as a "reluctant superhero", whose intention of wanting to be a superhero was partly motivated by the fact that he was being bullied by friends surrounding him. That comes quite natural in a person from that age, and perhaps to some extent similar to spiderman.

Thanks to the excellent editing, I enjoyed the gun fights and violent scenes in the movie, which are brutal but also clean-cut, neat and tidy. I also like "Kick Ass" self-promoting on facebook and myspace, like most of us wanted to get the shortest route to fame, this is so true! :D Still, back in my mind I was asking myself what is it in the superheros that appeals to comic readers, is there anything in the world they want to change and cannot change, and they use superhero as a messenger to convey the ideas? at least what I can see from "Kick Ass", his motive seems to be like that.

"Kick Ass" himself, however, also knew his shortcoming and weakness, so has he chosen to be a superhero too fast too soon? And here comes the next question, forget about being superhero, are you a helpful person? if you are, have you overestimated your ability? is helping people all about YOU? Obviously not and that perhaps it led to interesting issues to be addressed as we seen in "Kick Ass".

In the movie when it ended, "Kick Ass" finally fulfilled his ambition to be "superhero" and did a "brave act". In the real life, perhaps it is not that straightforward, "being helpful" can sometimes lie in the "grey area", and it could become tricky, if you put your interest in the hand of others. Be very careful.

Best movie moms

"Moms also made mistakes, and they are also learning all the time, not an easy job, just like those who are their children.."

A lot of Hollywood movies have interesting and moving mother's characters. Strong mother, weak mother, happy mother, sad mother, etc. I came across this interesting site, best movie moms, that put together 9 movies about moms and put in one sentence, what make those moms so great in the movies they are being played. Here's three of the interesting and/or thought-provoking ones:

1) Forrest Gump—You can redefine your kid’s limitations
Forrest's mom insisted that Forrest Gump should be schooled and treated like a “regular” kid despite his learning disability. This mother helped foster the perception that Forrest Gump was just as capable as anyone else. No wonder, beginning of the movie, we heard Forrest Gump saying, "my mama said life is a box of chocolate".

2) Stepmom—Letting others be there for your children is part of really loving them
Stepmom is a real heartbreak and tear jerking movie. Susan Sarandon not only finds out she is dying of cancer, but her husband was divorcing her, and she has to come to terms with her anger at her kids’ stepmom. I think in this movie, it tells you that, GREAT moms need to learn to "let go" too.

3) The Blind Side—You can be a mother to anyone you open your heart to
I have not watched this movie. But the statement already made me feel so over-the-top, as fi to say, I am a supermom, I choose who I want to open my heart to. Sandra Bullock who played the main lead in the movie won an Oscar for her performance.

Moms are just human, it is their characters that made them. Moms also made mistakes, and they are also learning all the time, not an easy job, just like those who are their children. The movies showed moms to be close-to-perfect, sometimes it does give you ideas how to become a great mom, if you know what you want and which models to follow. Good luck to you! :D

The talented Mr Ripley

I first watched "The Talented Mr Ripley" few years ago while living in Glasgow. I still didn't know Anthony Minghella was the director at the time. I enjoyed the film at the instance, particularly very appealed to the "storyline", the criminal plots and the clever twist of the development throughout the film. It was after few years as I took notice of Anthony Minghella that I began to see the uniqueness of "The talented Mr Ripley". Years ago, a friend gave me the video tape of this film. Now, I still played and watch it over again and again. Apart from Tom Ripley, the below are other characters that I liked in the film.

1) Jude Law - He played Dickie Greenleaf. I also only get to know more of Jude Law through this film. His Spoilt rich kid, and playboy character in this film is very well acted by him. He teased each and every characters in the film with his charm. That is why Tom Ripley is so drawn to him and so "want to be him".

2) Cate Blanchett - Cate Blanchett played the character, Meredith, who is a brief encounter to Tom Ripley. She only appears in the beginning, middle and end of the film. But, Cate Blanchett is such a fine actress. She shows the eagerness for Tom Ripley, whom she mistaken to be Dickie Greenleaf, and able to express it just enough to maintain her subtleness, like any posh young lady would do in the 1950s.

3) Philip Seymour Hoffman - Philip Seymour Hoffman played Freddie Miles, the only character in the film that suspected Tom to be "involved" with Dickie Greenleaf. He is camp and show enough in his campness (which is just nice!) to imply to Tom of the latter "intention".



Overall the cast of this film is very good. Each and every character has a place in them and they are simply unforgettable. I also loved the "Jazz theme" in the film, using that as an element to show it as a "luxurious pastimes" of Dickie and enhance the 1950's feel of the film and even more so when it is set in Italy. How stylish that is! Just watch the clip above and see if you agree, :D

Gabriel Yared, who is the soundtrack composer, did a great job for the background music that often reflect the underlying emotion of Tom Ripley, reminded the audience of the irony of life facing Tom Ripley's sexualities. It left the audience engrossed in the underlying emotion embedded within the tracks (here's one of the tracks you can listen and decide it for yourselves) which so subtly captured the anxiety of Tom towards his own sexuality, which was made "unclear" in the film.

There was a short note on "desire" on a postcard shown in the film (and shown in the picture above), when Dickie was trying to write something back to his dad in New York. That could be taken as the theme the film is trying to focus on, and could be understood to go beyond sexualities and explain most of Tom Ripley's behaviour.

Shutter Island

"In Shutter Island, you "forgive", but not "forget".."

Finally, I watched "Shutter Island". Martin Scorsese is one of my favourite directors. The last film I watched by him was "Gangs of New York", which was disappointing. He actually only directed 4 films since 2000, including "Shutter Island". These 4 films starred Leonardo DiCaprio, who gave the roles in all his films the best performance.

A friend of mine told me that her boyfriend finds "Shutter Island" boring in the first 30 minutes and perhaps too slow. The critics reviews were mixed and mostly considered it as average. It is about an up-and-coming U.S. marshal Teddy Daniels assigned to investigate the disappearance of a patient from Boston's Shutter Island Ashecliffe Hospital and the mysterious events following his investigation.

I like thriller and even more so if the plot is unpredictable and "Shutter Island" is satisfying in that sort of way. I especially like Ben Kingsley in the film, who portrayed the mental hospital's chief physician. His acting is effortless, easily bring across ideas to audience about the characters and very convincing. The best lines of the film as follows:

Leonardo said, "I think it's time we leave Shutter Island"
Ben Kingsley said, "who are we?"
Leonardo said, "me and my partner Chuck"
Ben Kingsley said, "No you came here alone"
(err. Spooky!)

Maybe the film's title already said something, "Shutter", as in "shut", so a thought that comes to the mind after watching the film is that, bad memories and trauma cannot be lost or totally shut away, it can only be placed in a safe place in our head and be there as long as possible, untouched, just like some say, you can't forget, but you can forgive. What has that got to do with the film, perhaps you are guessing now, but why not go watched the film, survived into the second half of the film, you will begin to see the darker side of the story and will enjoy it.

Precious

"Even in fantasy, there is light". Precious is a movie about searching for that light in the dark. However, it felt like a docu-drama at times, especially the rather believable monologue by actress, Gabourey Sidibe, who played the lead character, "Precious" (just watch the film trailer, and you know what I mean) This makes the story feels raw, as if a sexually abused victim narrating her past using flash-back and story reconstructs. With all the superb casts and acting in place, this film developed a style of its own, unique and distinctively different.

One just couldn't believe how anyone who is as monstrous as the mother in the film, who abused her daughter and let her daughter raped by the stepfather, can still bring out the bitter side of her own life and wanted sympathy from others and Mo'Nique who played this character, did it extremely well. She had already won few awards, including the BAFTA for her excellent performance in this film.

The last twenty minutes, her conversation with social worker, Ms. Weiss, which is played by Mariah Carey, and with a break-through performance, whose facial expression says it all about the monstrous mother, was the one to watch in this film.

Brotherhood

I watched the film "Two Brothers", a story about two twin tiger cubs, who were separated and how they reunited again years later. A rather heart-breaking story with some sense of humor, at times funny and with great humanity. It cleverly humanizes the behavior of tigers to interact with the human, giving it space to reflect on the humans' treatment of the wild animals. I was deeply moved by the story, and equally attracted to the cute tiger cubs which are great actors in the film. They took the central stage in the film and I just adore them. Here's some lovely pictures of the cubs from the film.



If you had not got enough of that, the above also gives you the film's trailer to satisfy your interest.

What worth mentioning is that, the lead character at the end of the film said of the two tigers that they were never learn to hunt, and that all great predators who escape from captivity become man-eater when return to the wild. However, as seen from the end notes of the film, it says, "it is up to us, the tiger's deadliest enemy, to ensure the survival of the greatest of the great cats, the last lord of the jungle." so, what happen to the tigers in the end? Maybe you should get a copy of the DVD and watch it, you would sure enjoy it!