Movie: In a Corner of this World (この世界の片隅に )

"If I can die with the memory of the person I love, I'm satisfied."

好きな人の思い出しと死にしたら、本望じゃ。

I have always loved Japanese drama movies and I always cry every time the last scene fades to black. My senpai and good teacher Ms. Pauline Mangulabnan shared  me this movie "In a Corner of this World" and indeed it was a heartbreaking, heartwarming and inspirational film. I remembered other Japanese movies with the theme of World War II like Studio Ghibli's Grave of the Fireflies and Letters from Iwo Jima and they all made me cry. 

The cinematography of the film is equally sublime and stunningly unique. The first scene that pops out in the movie is a moving cart with a boy and a girl inside. The boy said it was a kidnapper's cage and told the little girl that once it stops they would escape together. Fade to black with the next scene of a woman, whose name was Suzu in bed with his husband Shusaku, the same little boy in the first scene, and they held hands. Then one will realize that both scenes are merely dreams when the third scene showed Suzu in bed, with bandages in her head. As she lifts her right arm, she realizes that her hand is gone from the time bomb that exploded during those times in war. 

Hiroshima. 1930s. Then comes the flashback when Suzu was to meet the man she would marry in a tradition called omiai (arranged marriage). Shusaku, the man she would marry, is part of the military corps. When they finally met, Shusaku said that he already knows Suzu by her mole, with Suzu clueless as to where they could have met. Suzu also met her longtime friend Tetsu and drew him a picture of him as a child and the ocean, the time when Tetsu's brother was killed in the navy war. 

Everything seems normal at first: as a housewife, Suzu worked hard in the house and served her husband well. During these times her husband was working in the military and they both lived in her parents' house, while her elder sister visits them with her daughter occasionally. A significant scene appears when Suzu got lost in the village and met Rin-san, a geisha who was kind and sweet. When she found out that Suzu is good at drawing, she made her draw a picture of a watermelon and caramel. Eventually they bid each other goodbye. 

A conflict arises when Suzu found out that her husband Shusaku seemed to know Rin-san as a customer, and becomes cold to him for a while. Tetsu visited Suzu and gave her an omiyage (present) of a bird's feather and said that it might be the last time they meet each other.

Before the war worsened, spring passed by and Rin and Suzu met again. They shared stories and Rin left Suzu with inspirational messages about the war.

Just because you're lacking a little something, doesn't mean there's no place for you in this world." (だれでもちいとたらもんがあるくらいで、この世界に場所はなくなら。)

The war came like a thunder afterwards and time bombs were scattered everywhere. Shusaku was promoted as a military commander and would be away for three whole months. Suzu endured this while taking care of her niece, Harumi but ended up getting blown by a time bomb hidden in the bushes and a fence, killing Harumi and taking her right hand. 

A part of Suzu was lost during that time because everything she did--cleaning the house, making Harumi a pouch, sketching drawings for her friend Tetsu and Rin and hugging her husband Shusaku became impossible without her right hand. She decided to wander off alone because she still could not accept the fact that her loved ones died and still they lost the war. Shusaku found her and invited her to come home. She said that her home could have been the fence where the time bomb was and then she would be with her loved ones--Harumi, Tetsu and Rin.

"I'll be your home. I hope it would be fine for you," Shusaku said in assurance.

In the end, Suzu returned home and finally accepted the realities of life during the war, and thanked her husband, who would always find her because of her mole, even during that time that she got lost when she was a kid and Shusaku helped her find her way home.

Such Japanese drama movies always make me cry and, and as a Linguistics student who studies Japanese,  appreciate the Japanese culture better. I have noticed that the characters use a Japanese dialect compared to the Japanese used in the cities. The general theme of the movie, I believe is finding one's place in the world even if he is nowhere near perfect, and moving on so that one can face the future with confidence and hope.

Movie review: "Down to earth Thor"

Mighty is the king who is humble.

Science is evolution, but the question remains whether we are truly alone in this universe or not. Marvel Pictures gave us an interesting theory in the face of a mythological realm called Asgard, and sent us not only a king named Thor (2011, directed by Kenneth Branagh) who gained a change of heart, but also a hero who achieved humility.

He only wanted to make his father proud. As he itched for battle and chased off exciting adventures with his friends, Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the hammer-wielding and thunder god of Norse mythology became a bigheaded war freak he even made himself get banished from Asgard after he triggered the war against the Frost Giants.

Somehow it's always a personal success of wanting to make his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) proud, and it paid him a visit to the human world to learn a thing or two. All of a  sudden he felt powerless and vulnerable after finding out he couldn't use his mighty hammer, and about his father's death. Learning to cope up with his new realm, he met Jane (Natalie Portman, The Other Woman), a scientist, and got along with her while they make deals to help each other out.

The greatest battle he'd always dreamed of was yet to come, as he was forced to save two worlds in the condition of being a weak human. Thor's humility was proven when he asked his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) to forgive him and spare the innocent people on earth and on Asgard, even though he didn't know what he had done wrong to him.

A tragic history was dramatically infused as Loki hated his father for lying about his true identity, discovering he was not a son at all possessing the blood of a Frost Giant. But then we also saw how much he loved his father, saying he can rightfully hold the throne as king by conquering both the human world and Asgard.

Just like Thor, all Loki wanted was to make his father proud. I believe this is the major conflict in the story that set it all in motion. It was sad enough when their mother told Loki why Odin lied to him; because they didn't want him to feel different.

On the other hand, the movie also gave us a bunch of laughs especially when Thor was exploring the human world. I would never forget the scene when he went to a pet shop and demanded for a horse, and when he asked for more of his drink and smashed the mug into pieces.

My mentor Ms. Josephine Bonsol kept telling me to watch the movie, and it's definitely all thumbs up!

Movie review: First Blood "The war you asked for"

When we make something worse, it becomes our nightmare.

It's a timeless irony we always make our own enemies, and we don't even know it. After all, people are made one simply because of wrong choices, pride, envy and selfishness. What's worse, we actually choose to make these wars, because we can always choose not to.

There was no problem at all. He just wanted something to eat. They drew First Blood (1982, directed by Ted Kotcheff) , and they're going to pay dearly for it.

After the nightmarish Vietnam war, veteran soldier John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) searched for his friend in the country side only to discover he's the only one left of the elite team. He wandered off, hungry, until "king-shit" cop Sherrif Teasle (Brian Dennehy) got hold of him in his territory and arrested him.

Not knowing he was already signing his death sentence, Teasle tortured the war-traumatic outcast and struggled to keep him in order, as Rambo still suffered from ghastly visions of the war back in Vietnam. He eventually escaped, and devised a "home" in the depths of the jungle.

Sometimes it's our pride that makes us kill ourselves. Hot on his trail, the police boldly crossed the "border" called hell, and suddenly the hunters became the hunted. Rambo's commanding officer, Colonel Trautman (Richard Crenna) then visited the once quiet town and warned the police about the "pure fighting machine" who's been trained to ignore pain and weather, and to kill even with his bare hands.

Somehow it was a war he could not win. With no code of honor or even someone who could watch his back, Rambo could not escape from the town law and had to do his time in jail after wrecking the whole place in defiance that he didn't even start the war.

What is war, anyway? I was taught that I cannot understand everything, but Rambo made me cry when he couldn't accept that he lost in this war he never asked for, and told the colonel about his unspeakable life back in Nam. He said he dreamed it for seven years, when his friend literally blew up in pieces after falling into a booby trap, and no one would help him and he was trying so hard to put his friend's body parts back in place. Somehow it's a nightmare no one could ever bear.

Beyond that silence, beyond that Medal of Honor and Green Beret awards, beyond that fighting machine, lies a war no one could win, a reality no one could endure, and a person no one could ever understand. There are people in this world we may never figure out, but it is but their right to earn respect and acceptance. There may be people who'll always wander off, alone, but still determined to live and fight. 

And from them we may even find our heroes.

Part of John Rambo's lines:

Trautman: You did everything to make this private war happen. You've done enough damage. This mission is over, Rambo. Do you understand me? This mission is over! Look at them out there! Look at them! If you won't end this now, they will kill you. Is that what you want? It's over Johnny. It's over! 

Rambo: Nothing is over! Nothing! You just don't turn it off! It wasn't my war! You asked me, I didn't ask you! And I did what I had to do to win! But somebody wouldn't let us win! And I come back to the world and I see all those maggots at the airport, protesting me, spitting. Calling me baby killer and all kinds of vile crap! Who are they to protest me? Who are they? Unless they've been me and been there and know what the hell they're yelling about! 

Trautman: It was a bad time for everyone, Rambo. It's all in the past now. 

Rambo: For *you*! For me civilian life is nothing! In the field we had a code of honor, you watch my back, I watch yours. Back here there's nothing! 

Trautman: You're the last of an elite group, don't end it like this. 

Rambo: Back there I could fly a gunship, I could drive a tank, I was in charge of million dollar equipment, back here I can't even hold a job *parking cars*! 

We were in this bar in Saigon and this kid comes up, this kid carrying a shoe-shine box. And he says "Shine, please, shine!" I said no. He kept askin', yeah, and Joey said "Yeah." And I went to get a couple of beers, and the box was wired, and he opened up the box, fucking blew his body all over the place. And he's laying there, he's fucking screaming. There's pieces of him all over me, just... like this, and I'm tryin' to pull him off, you know, my friend that's all over me! I've got blood and everything and I'm tryin' to hold him together! I'm puttin'... the guy's fuckin' insides keep coming out! And nobody would help! Nobody would help! He's saying, sayin' "I wanna go home! I wanna go home!" He keeps calling my name! "I wanna go home, Johnny! I wanna drive my Chevy!" I said "With what? I can't find your fuckin' legs! I can't find your legs!" 

I can't get it out of my head. A dream of seven years. Everyday I have this. And sometimes I wake up and I don't know where I am. I don't talk to anybody. Sometimes a day - a week. I can't put it out of my mind.