Promises

I just watched a documentary a couple weeks ago called Promises. It is quite meaningful for people to watch, especially people in the Middle East. The movie saw through a kid’s world, thinking, and mind to explain how they feel.

There was lots of strife taking place in Palestine and Israel. It went on and on because of history, religion, race, politics and territory. Adults always have their way to explain the conflicts with other countries, even to brainwash their kids to hate their neighbor. Actually, there is neither hatred nor hostility for different races in kids’ world.

The director spent four years making this documentary, Promises, and established the relationship with some kids in these two countries. It was so poignant to hear these kids giving their voices to the environment around them while he was interviewing them. Besides, it was so ironic – Palestine and Israel are close in most ways, but people still need bear with border guards as they take a long time to check them as they pass over the border. They seem to live in different world. People are afraid to take the bus because of the aggressive hatred of terrorists who put bombs on buses, even on school buses or in schools or public places.

People should put their supposedly different religions and races aside. If hatred, war, violence between Palestine and Israel carry on from generation to generation, the victims will be these innocent inhabitants. People will live in turmoil with no peaceful and tranquil life in sight. The title is Promises. I think it should be Hope or maybe No Hope.

Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢) & The City of Sadness

"The City of Sadness" covers Taiwan during the 2-28 Massacre, when KMT soldiers murdered some 30,000 Taiwanese (a lot of local elites) in a power grab. It is one of Taiwan's most famous films. It was released shortly after the Tianamen Massacre. More on this later.

Jiufen 九份

Me, Mom and Grandma (left to right). This picture was taken in Jiufen, in the mountains near Taipei. The town is the site of one of Taiwan's most famous movies, the "City of Sadness", directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢). We drank a lot of tea that afternoon at a Japanese teahouse, except for Grandma, who went directly to drinking whiskey!

The Island

I was so impressed by the movie called “The Island”. There are many organizations and religious groups which do not agree with producing human clones because they think it is not moral. This topic also caused quite controversy a few years ago, and was even represented on the Hollywood movie “AI”. Actually, cloning may become a reality in the near future because scientists have already created animals. I think it gives people some clues, and also might affect the value of humans.

In “The Island” people spend money, donate their DNA to form people identical in appearance and physical structure. In order to prolong their lives or become immortal, these sponsors have authority to take away clone’s organs they get sick and need new organs to survive. Actually, these clones are not vegetable. They have blood, thought, feeling, passion and discretion. They are not puppies to be manipulated by another human’s hand.

After watching this movie, I had the strong same opinion and stood by with these people who do not agree with cloning. However, there is a little bit of a dilemma. We could not completely stop and deny the development of science for this society when we only see a black smudge because every invention or discovery must has its positive and negative side effects. For example, the Internet makes everything easy, such as searching for information, buying stuff, making friends and shortening the distance from one place to another through video conferencing. However, some people use this invention to do something bad, such as spreading viruses, fishing for other peoples’ credit numbers and so on. It depends on how human look at and use these benefits – and if they do it with a moral heart.

Next Movie Review Coming Soon

I'm still pondering the subject of my next movie review. I'm leaning toward either Like Water for Chocolate or Short Cuts. The part about baking the cake in the latter is particularly touching.

Little Mermaid Statue

Little Mermaid

I was reading a story called the "Little Mermaid". The original of the story was quite a different from today. She didn't lose her pleasant sound. On the other hand, she can sing the most melodious tune in the world. Despite opposition to her relationship, she chose to be a mortal and lived in man's world. Therefore, she had a deal with devil. She drank a bottle of medicine that a wizard made, and then her fins were turned into human legs. However, every time she walked she had to endure a pain that felt like knives under her feet. In addition, the wizard told to her if the prince betrayed her in the future, he would be died instead. Without a second thought, she agreed with her request. Because she thought it was an idealistic world, and she didn't know what betrayal, greed, and indifference meant in her little aqua-world.
People should use a sincere heart to treat everyone, she believed, so she still kept a pure heart with spiritual soul. She used her way and faithful heart to love him, because she did not care status, fortune, wealth and etiquette as humans did. However, she died in the end; she used her life to save the prince's life, even though he betrayed her. I think it is a pretty sad story. Why do people become so complicated as the society changes? The human heart seems not to have purity. Is it the world full of traps that should be seen as something to fear?
Maybe, the environment forces us to be strong to protect ourselves.