Tsotsi

          

          This was the first African movie I’ve ever seen and I was impressed a lot. The movie is an adaption of the novel Tsotsi. It set in an Alexandra slum, near Johnannesburg, South Africa. It tells the story of Tsotsi, who is a young street hooligan. The movie shows a dark side in Africa and also dsplay the beautiful side of human nature. I loved it and absolutely recommend!

           The main character’s born name is David but Tsotsi. His mother dies of a disease and he had to run away from his home because of the abusive father. He became a homeless child wondering and sleeping and hanging with some other orphans in large concrete construction pipes as a roof. A few years later, David, who now goes by the name Tsotsi is a leader of some people included his friends Butcher, Aap and Boston. They got involved to a serious fight and it made Boston badly injured. Tsotsi run away either for felling guilty or holding the grudge. He saw a woman leaving a car unlocked outdoor and it arouses his evil thoughts. He shoots a young woman while stealing her car. Unexpectedly, he discovered a baby at the back seat of the car. At the beginning, he struggled to take him(the baby) away or not. But he still did. And he starts from knowing nothing of taking care of a baby to loving the baby as his own. It is very touchable and beautiful story. At the last, he went back to that woman’s house and returned baby. He was crying. I cried for Tsotsi.

         Grassroots’ story, a tough thug shows his big heart. 

Better Luck Tomorrow

          


          Better Luck Tomorrow is directed by an Asian American director Justin Lin telling a story of Asian American overachievers who get tired of the boring and repetitive life they have, and indulge themselves into a series of crimes. 

          The story shot in California which I by far the most popular U.S. state located on the West Coast of the U.S. And it is the third most extensive state. As we all know, California is also known for its diversity of population. Recalling my memory back, when I was touring California in March of 2010, it was hard to think I was actually in America instead of walking on a street in China. There are so many Chinese population and it makes everything easier for those Chinese tourists or visitors who don’t speak English well enough to communicate with the locals. Returning to the subject of this movie, the story happens in Tustin ,California involving with four Sunny High School students.  The beginning plot is Ben and his friend Virgil lying in the sun discussing college admissions, but soon discover a human hand in the garden. What a transition! I was sort of worried this movie would go too far I could not handle it mentally. However, it was not too bad.

         Ben and Virgil are highly intelligent students whose goal is to gain acceptance into highly celebrated Ivy League universities. Yet it would be bored to the end if these best-grade students only do what people think. Therefore, the editor and director made them involved in petty crimes. Such as the purchase and return of computer equipment in order to earn easy money. Justin Lin attempts to change the vanilla image of Asian Americans into another wild side of them. Even though it is a highlight of a great change of the previous roles of the stereotypes of Asians we see, as far as I am concerned, it just goes too far. At the ending, Ben and his other friends cruelly killed Stuart Tay, whom is boyfriend of Ben’s brush Stephanie. There’s a quote Stephanie says to Ben when she finds herself actually likes him as he does, “You know how you make decisions that lead to other decisions but you don't remember why you made those decisions in the first place.” I agree. Changes comes faster than plans all the times. In our lives, we just adjust ourselves to fit in more changes. C’est la vie. And I enjoy it.

           

Falling for Grace

     

       Falling for Grace is a romantic comedy movie directed by Asian-American Fay Ann Lee, who also co-wrote and played the main actress in the movie Grace Tang. This kind of cliche is very entertaining to watch with a couple of friends sitting on the sofa with soda, chips, and crackers. The happy ending might not be a surprise but you would be happy to see.
       Grace Tang is a successful woman, at least I think so. She has a very stable and well-paid job in the most exciting city in the world ---- New York. She was born in a Chinese family of four included her mom, dad and younger brother. Her parents don't speak any English and younger brother doesn't have a job. He is  just like hundreds of young adults over in China who don't contribute to family a penny instead of living and being affording by parents on everything at this age. It is pathetic, indeed. Back to our heroine, she is supposed to be satisfied with what she's got. On the contraory, she still yearns for social acceptance among Upper East Side elite. When she finally gets a chance to be invited in a high-end party, she is accidentally mistaken for an heiress from Hong Kong, also has the same name with hers. She missed the timing to correct this mistake and it just seems like one lie has been told, you gotta make a series of other lies to make up the very first one. By this mistake, she got to introduced to a handsome white guy Andrew. Now cliche starts from here. No surprise Grace will fall in love with his "color" instead of choosing an Asian looking guy. It proved!
       Under reliable datas, Asian man is always less desirable by different races of women, whatever she is while, black, or etc. It actual happens in reality. But why an Asian American director just copycated the same cliche like the others? She would have done something more and better than that. All in all, at least, it is still entertaining.
     

Blue

Blue is the first part of Krzysztof Kieslowski's triology. It followed with White and Red. In Blue, it tells a story of a French woman whose husband and daughter have passed away in a car accident. She cannot accept horrible truth and try to throw all her grief belongings in order to forget her previous life with her dearest family. The main character Julie features by famous French actress Juliette Binoche. The main theme is about liberty which the color of blue represents. The color has been displayed a number of times.

Julie tried to end her life by having tons of pills in the hospital. But  she failed. After that she decided to get rid of the life and all belongings of the past and start a new life in somewhere knowing nobody. However, his dead husband, the famous composer, left an incomplete piece of symphonic music in manuscript that has been shrouded her life in darkness. She cannot even do anything with the music playing in her head all the time. She suffers every day and find difficult to renew her life alone. Finally, Julie’s late husband’s assistant at work who has fell in love with her takes great efforts to persuade Julie to work with him to complete this music. They did it. And the master piece made by three of them has been shown in public.

Blue is a beautiful movie. Krzysztof combined great shots and great background music. I like the way this movie changes from a tale about a loss of lifestyle to an affirmations to lifestyle. I like the way that little elements like rats in the house loom big in the imagined of our major personality, where as what others consider essential such as completing her spouse's concert seem very modest.

Bombay 1995

       

        It is a love story between a Hindu boy and a Muslim girl. This movie just made so interested on finding out the history of these two religions. Their families stand in different positions toward god and view each other enemies and couldn’t tolerant anyone’s behavior any little more. However, it doesn’t change any bit between this pair of love birds. They run away from home and got married in Bombay. When they start their new life in the small apartment in Bombay, I couldn’t stop exclaiming how worthy it is for him to insist on pursuing his love at the first place. He fell in love at the first sight of her. He waits in the rain of where she gets off the bus back from school every day in order to getting to know her name and the moment the wind blows up her veil to see her face. The interesting scene is that he pretends to be another Muslim girl by wearing their special black gown for school. It actually connect with what he expressed in the last few scenes that he doesn’t care what religions they both engaged in, they are just Indians; and when he stands up bravely against the evil elements and stop the riots on 6^th December 1992 to prevent his wife and twin sons from a variety of circumstantial events. I cannot admit that I almost gave up on keeping watching this great and heart-warming movie after seeing so much long dancing and singing in their language I’ve no idea. Fortunately, I stayed till the end of it and wept my tears several time during the movie. And I strongly recommend it if you have no access to internet by the outcome Sandy did and do not want to wasting time by just sitting around in the house!

All-American Girl

     

       All-American Girl is a 1994 ABC situation comedy. It is the second American sitcom centered on a person of Asian descent (Korean), namely Cho. The main actress is called Margaret who was twenty-three-year-old, a modern American young woman who lived with her more traditional Korean family. She had a contentious relationship with her mother about some of her personal life events. For example, choosing her own dates. This episode I have watched was about a traditional parent who tried very hard to disrupt her daughter's right to choose who she dates with. Margaret's mother, a Korean lady who only wants her precious daughter goes out with a well-educated Korean guy she sets up. This was the rule of the society during those old days that you are only allowed to marry your own ethnicity. In this comedy, there are several stereotypes that shows a traditional Asian family. Margaret's grandmother represents the senior generation, who lost her partner and lives with younger generations in a same house. She doesn't work and loves verbally disrupt younger generations' daily issues while listening to them. And she loves sitting on the couch and watching TV all day long. A pair of fun character is Margaret's mother and father. Mother always plays the role with "white face", meanwhile, father plays with "red face". This is what we say in Chinese that 一个唱白脸，一个唱红脸。Usually the one who has"red face" has a quite mild personality and showing a lot of compromise, on the contrary, the "white face" mostly has a hot temper and, sometimes a desire for control. The last character who represents a common stereotype of Asian is Margaret's elder brother in this show. He has his greasy hair divided from the middle and speaks in a almost-kill-me tempo. Usually this type of kid will be adored more at home because he listens to whatever his parents say and do whatever what his parents like. Margaret's brother is pretty much a mommy-boy at this point. I was told that this TV series had been called off after only two seasons. I assume that it probably didn't set up a meaningful educational model for audiences. However, it's still laughable.

Legend of the Eight Samurai

        When our Prf. was going to play this movie Legend of the Eight Samurai, the first thing I did was to check the definition of samurai. According to the web dictionary, samurai means a Japanese warrior who was a member of the feudal military aristocracy. This story starts from a Japanese princess whose families have been killed by their enemies, escapes successfully and she is told the legend of a curse on her family. She has to find eight beads that identify eight dog-warriors to defeat the evil queen Tamazusa. The guy who rescues Princess Shizu-hime and his companion are the first two beads owners. While looking at the light shines with the bead in their palms, I can clearly see two characters 信 and 義, which separately means devotion and justice. The other character who is called Shinbei, a passionate young man who falls in love with the princess holds a magical bead in his palm with 仁 benevolence. This truth actually doesn't  come out until a little behind the middle of the story after Shinbei gets to know the evil queen is his biological mother. Shinbei is extremely sad about it and has been transferred to another body by the ruthless followers of his mother. The rest of the beads are 孝 filial piety, 忠 loyal, 智 wisdom, 悌 vision. All of them have been fight for looking for the rest of the beads to kill their enemies. To complete this difficult task, they have also been killed by the phantom ghosts to get to the last final step to success. At the end, the princess uses the high-power bow and arch to shoot the biggest evil and won the war. I couldn't give more compliments to this movie because of I'm not a big fan of fantasy. Otherwise, this movie was shoot in almost 30 years ago. I'm going to stop judging.