星期二, 9月 26, 2006

Woody Allen's Match Point


Scarlett Johansson: I will review this movie in an upcoming blog.

Match Point


This is one of my favorite 2006 films. The actress is quite charming and the story line intriguing.

星期日, 9月 17, 2006

Wicker - Not so Great

We went to see Wicker, starring Nicholas Cage, last night at the Miramar Theater. My husband's friend gave us free tickets. We had a good dinner at Friday's. The movie was a bit disappointing: Patrick fell asleep and was even snoring for most of the time.

星期五, 9月 15, 2006

Mother of Mine

Mother of Mine was about 70 thousand war children sent to Sweden, a neutral country, for protection during World War Two. This is a story about the fate of a nine year old little boy, Eero, who was sent to Sweden for refuge with a foster family. His father was dispatched for a cruel war in Finland and got killed on the front. The bad news had a great impact on Eero's mother, and almost fell apart. In order to not lose the only hope, she made a devastating decision and sent her own kid to a safe country. It is hard to bear the feeling of losing someone you love and separating with your child. It was kind of a double hurting for this poor mom, but other families dealt with similar situations at that era. It will take a long time to adjust themselves to face the reality or even worse live in a bottomless pit for the rest of their lives. His mom promised him that the war would finish very soon, and they could get together again. "It is just a short journey for you to stay in Sweden," she said.
Eero took the boat with other kids suffering a similar fate to another country with different language. Everything is new for him, but keeping away with his mom and losing his dad made him even more sentimental and want to go back his own country. You could see the facial expression on each kid filled with sorrow on the way to their own foster family. It is cruel for these kids to suffer separation from loved ones in life or death. How could this war take away these kids' right growing naturally, and force them to face the heartless war and be adults even though they are still so naive? The foster family Eero was going to stay with wanted like a girl, not a boy because their daughter died by drowning. The mother hopes a girl can replace her lost child but was disappointed. Even though the foster mom could supply the daily life needs for Eero and let him learn at school in a safe environment, she still couldn't open her heart to accept him. Eero could feel the foster mom doesn't welcome him plus he couldn't say any Swedish to communicate with them. He doesn't know what happened to their daughter at that time. He tried to escape, but there is no place for him to go. However, the only person he could trust and talk with is his foster father because he is nice to him and quite sympathetic. The foster mom got the several letters from Eero's mom, and she know more or less about her personal situation, suffering and missing her own kid. It seemed to soften her and try to open her heart to accept him and look him as her own kid. After the war finished and everything had returned to calm, many kids went back to their own country from Sweden (via Poland). Eero had established the subtle relationship with his foster family in the end however. It is a very touching movie which could make you cry and laugh at some parts.

Facing Window

Facing Window is an emotionally complex story about a young wife who has two kids with 9-year marriage. She worked in the company which packed chickens as a bookkeeper. Actually, it is not what she would like to be for the mutual life. She would like to be a pastry chief, own her business, but pressure and bondage in the reality make her no chance to fulfill her dreams, because the man she married has a precarious job with irresolute personality. As time goes by, all of these trivial reasons accumulating caused her out of breath, and more and more frustrated and impatient for her graying marriage. She projected her ordinary lives onto another world which could lead her to find a way out of her boring and simple life.

She turned to a mysterious young man who lived across from her window. When the night is falling, she stayed in the kitchen alone, stared out of her window, and then wondered about her lives and the mysterious guy. The strange guy living in a block opposite her was peeping through the window to see and wonder about her as well. However, they didn't know they have feeling for each other until her husband brought an elderly guy who lost his memory with unknown past into their house as a catalyst.

At first, she couldn't understand why her husband did not send the old guy in the police station. They had big fights for this issue, but later she changed her mind and even tried to help the old guy evoke his memory while she had some interaction with him. From my viewpoint, her husband is full of sympathy with nice heart. He thought it is cruel to put an old, poor guy in the police station without any relatives. On the other hand, his wife wasn't wrong, because it is dangerous to take some strangers home. It is understandable because they have two young kids.

Anyway, the director used very skillful ways to link the fate of the old man, couples, and neighbor together. Besides, he mixed with humane weakness, fear, struggle, decision, and emotional confusion which normal people are afraid to touch in reality into the plot. Some audience will feel pity for the women what the decision she made in the end of movie, because she chose the family and to betray her true feeling. Others will think she did the right choice to keep her family.

Earth and Soil

I went to watch a movie called Earth and Soil which took place in Afghanistan.

This film depicted an old man bringing his five-year deaf grandson to look for his son working in far away mining area. To tell the bad news which his village and several others had burned down, and even his wife and mother died in this tragedy. The old man watched people burying the dead, carrying their belongings, and leaving ruin villages on his strenuous journey. All of the sadness happening in these people was the heartless wars. For these survivors and refugees not only suffered the physical hurt, but also mentally, because they need to carry the burden of losing relatives, friends, and even strangers. Moreover, they need to repair their broken hearts piece by piece, and learn how to continue living. However, the only hope and comfort for this old man was his deaf grandson, caused by bomb, and to seek his son. It is quite desponded to watch, but it is a good movie.

The director faced Russia invading Afghanistan in 1981 when he was 20 years old. He saw the ruthless war causing people without home to go back. One day, he bumped into an old man carrying a kid with sorrow, fear in their eyes. All of the scenario and inspiration were come from what he saw at that time. In order to survival, the director escaped from Afghanistan to Pakistan for searching political asylum. He wrote down the unforgettable memory into words and represented into the big screen after 22 years.

History is just like a mirror which reflects previous and nowadays. However, people seem not to get the lesson from history. Similar stories, fighting for power, religion struggling, conquering territory, involving in other countries’ business, financial issue, and so forth happen again and again. I am not a person who is completely anti war, but if people fight for right, fight for truth that is correct. However, some wars seem not like that, it involves in personal greed, or to hypocrite religious, political name to get what they want. In the end, who encounter the catastrophe the most?

星期三, 9月 13, 2006

My husband Patrick


We are outside Angkor Thon at the main entrance in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Tenants v. Mrs. Henderson

The movie Tenants is much more interesting than Mrs. Henderson Presents. More on this later.

Angkor Wat, Cambodia


This clever little boy could count to ten in at least half a dozen languages. My husband and I bumped into him behind the Preah Kanh temple in Siem Reap, Cambodia

Mom and Dad

A picture of my folks in a Szechuan restaurant.