Sybil

Sybil

Summary 

Sybil Dorsett (Sally Field) tells a story regarding a women who has a dissociative personality disorder (DID). She registered herself under Dr. Cornelia Wilbur (Joanne Woodward) care after experiencing several incidents of memory lapses/ black out and disturbing imagery. In this film, there are several incidents that portrays Sybil as different identities such as Vicky (who knows everything about Sybil including other identities that resides her), Marcia (who is suicidal and want to kill Sybil), Vanessa (who plays piano), Ruthie (infant personality), Peggy (who remembers the abuse that Sybil encountered) and other identities. Each Identities have different characters, intonation, interest and behaviour. Dr Wilbur noticed the DID syndrome in Sybil when she emerges as Peggy when Dr Wilbur went to rescue Sybil from jumping out of hotel window. Week by week, the other personalities of Sybil emerges and becoming stronger. Dr Wilbur tape each session for Sybil to hear when the time comes. At the same time, Vanessa falling in love with Richard. One time, Vanessa spend the night with Richard after having a Christmas dinner with him and his son. At that night, Sybil suddenly awaken as Marcia who then wants to commit suicide. Richard then contact Dr Wilbur to get help for Sybil sudden hysteria. He then been informed regarding Sybil’s disorder. Sybil feels ashamed and vulnerable especially in front of Richard. She then confronted Dr Wilbur saying that she has been faking her symptoms and denies having multiple personality. Dr Wilbur who does not believes her goes into search for Sybil’s father. The story begun to unfold as her father revealed that Sybil’s mother has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia while raising her. Dr Wilbur also talk to Sybil’s paediatrician who treats her. The doctor revealed a frightening amount of scarring that he found when he treats her for a bladder problem that may indicate she has been abused by her mother. Finally, Dr Wilbur visits Sybil’s old house. She encounter the green kitchen and saw the wheat bin as Sybil described. She then finds the purple drawing that Sybil scratch on a wheat bin. She then take a portion of the bin and show to Sybil in New York which indicate that Sybil actually experienced all the memories that she and her other personalities has described. At the end, Dr Wilbur brings Sybil for a drive, in which Peggy emerges and tells the horrifying stories of how she was abused by her own mother. Sybil is awake after Peggy is exhausted and remembers everything that Sybil has told. She then able to express her rage to her mother. Dr Wilbur has use hypnotize to bring other identities for Sybil to talk to. Sybil then embraces her issues. The story later is being told by a voice over of Dr Wilbur saying that Sybil has recovered and live a happy life.

Theme: Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)

Dissociative identity disorder refers to a person’s identity who is fragmented into two or more personalities. People with this rare disorder mostly are victims of severe abuse.

In Sybil case, different personalities might have been integrated by Sybil as a defence mechanism against her memory of abused by her mother. I would say that Sybil herself could not afford to remember the awful memories hence creating other personalities to help her deal with that. Other personalities/ identities have somehow help her to go on with life. It is so devastating that the only way for a person to cope with the struggles is to fragment the memories so that it does not drive them crazy. The issue here is the abuse that Sybil had encountered during her childhood. Even though the film itself does not tells explicitly about the abuse that Sybil received from a hand who is supposed to care for her, however I could imagine the severity of the abuse that she had. Perhaps the severity was more and beyond my imagination.

I think the problem actually lay on Sybil’s father ego to acknowledge her wife disorder. Sybil mother should not be allowed to raise Sybil on her own due to her disorder. Her father lack of judgement has brought to his daughter suffering. If the father actually saw and know what had been done to Sybil and prevented it, perhaps Sybil won’t have to go through this suffering. Despite of this, I am glad that Sybil actually has the courage to face her own issue starting from her motivation to register for Dr Wilbur care. Even though she still has her coward moment to confront her disorder when she actually stated that she was faking the symptoms so that Dr Wilbur believes it. But, I would not judge anything because considering the stressors that Sybil encounters, it is great enough for her to show some resistance so that she would have the opportunity for herself to confront her own issue and acknowledge that the memories that she had is certainly is and learn to express and embrace her issues. In fact, her resistance has motivated Dr Wilbur to search for Sybil true memories so that Sybil is convinced that she experienced the memory and she needs to let go of that memory and express the rage and any other resentment feelings towards her mother so that she can continue a happy life.   

Movie Review 10

Hunt for the WilderPeople

Summary

This Movie tells a story about a delinquent orphan named Ricky Backer and his adopted parents Paula and Hec. Paula has adopts Ricky despite knowing that he is a stubborn teenager. At first, Ricky is being defensive with Paula while Hec does not really care about Ricky being their new family. Even though Ricky shows disobedience however Paula manages to break through his defensive and delinquent behavior through unconditional love portrays by her. She accepted Ricky for who he is and Ricky could feel that. Within that short time, Ricky and Paula manage to create a bond, however that does not last long as Paula is pronounce dead afterwards. Due to the absence of a mother-figure in the family, the child services will collect Ricky back. Hec at the same time is allowing that to happen. Ricky feels desolated hence making a decision to run away from home by faking his own death in the burnt barn. His desperate trial to run away however find an obstacle where he gets lost in the woods. Hec is the one who searches for him and found him, on the way back, Hec’s leg gets injured, so they need to camp out while waiting for Hec to heal. At the same time, the authority finds that both Ricky and Hec are gone. Assuming that Hec is mentally unstable due to his wife death, Ricky is suspected to be abducted by Hec. Then, the search for them begins. In the wood, they meet with a group of hunters. The claim that Hec has sexually abused Ricky has emerges due to Ricky’s statement. Hec suggested that Ricky goes back to the child center. However, Ricky declines and stubbornly stays with Hec. Together, the hides from the authority for several months in the woods until they are discovered and caught by the police. During the short period of escaping from the poloce, both Hec and Ricky have develops bond for each other.

The Themes

Unconditional love is portrayed by Paula as she is willing to take care of Ricky even though knowing that he has a bad record. Unconditional love portrays by Paula manage to break through Ricky cold heart for the perception of family. Ricky being an orphans who has changing adopted family from time to time might has given up to the idea that someone will love him for who he is. He might have also been disappointed many times hence might explain why he is being defensive and not accepting of a new people in his life to avoid from him getting hurt again. Giving a sense of getting loved by someone is indeed the most needed by Ricky at the time. This is true because Paula manage to make him trust her that she will always be there for her. So he has develop a secure feeling that Paula will never betrays her. This is shown in a scenes where he actually being touched and always hope for Paula’s hot pack on his bed.

Overall, during the period of escaping in the wood. The character of Hec and Ricky has reconcile and start acknowledging that they need each other. Besides, the escaping process itself might be the perfect timing for Hec and Ricky accepting that Paula is no longer with them. In a way, the process of grieving is being processed and comprehend during their journey in the woods. Besides, their minds are also focusing on other matters so it helps them to keep busy and active hence provided some relief for their sad feeling of losing someone.

Movie Review 9

Grace is gone

                                                                                                     

Summary

Grace is gone tells a story about the grief of a husband towards his wife death. Stanley Phillip is a veteran army, married to Grace and have two child 8-year-old Dawn and 12-year-old Heidi. One day, two army officers visit his house and inform the news about his wife’s death while serving her duty at Iraq. As he hears the news, he does not know how to response. He is so shock to the sudden news that he becomes numb. After the army officers leave, he sits on a couch to comprehend what just happens. Later, he gets ready and wait his children to be back from the school and inform them about their mother. However as the two gets home, he cannot brings himself to tell them so he just take them out to dinner. Later, he finds himself unable to bring out the topic. Thus, at the moment he decides to bring her girls to Enchanted Garden, a theme park located at the Florida. Throughout their trip, they stop at the grandmother house (Stanley mother) and find John (Stanley younger brother) instead. Stanley asked John to take the girls out for lunch. When John and the girls are out, he lays at the bed and start to break down. He cries and mourn for the loss. After John and the girls are back, John receives a phone call. He now knows about Grace’s death and start to question Stanley why he’s keeping the matter secret to his children. To his surprise, Stanley gets agitated and tells John to stay out from his problem. John later hugs and comfort Stanley. Subsequently, Stanley and his girls continue their trip to Florida. They arrived at the Enchanted Garden and have fun. During their trip back home, Stanley stops the car near the beach. Together, they sits and talk. Stanley informs the children that their mother is gone. They sits and cried grieving for their loss. Heidi has written a eulogy to his mother and reads it during his mother funeral.

The Theme

The main theme for this movie is death and grieving. Throughout this movie, the audience could empathize with Stanley. I could feel his longing to Grace. He fights so hard not to show his sadness in front of his children. Stanley has illustrated the emotional journey of grief that has been proposed by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. The emotional journey of grieve is not a rigid stage that a person will go through phase by phase instead it is a mix of intense emotions that has no fixed sequence. So, the stage or phase described next is only a model to illustrate how the grieving process is sometimes related to each other. The first ‘stage’ is disbelief and denial. When Stanley received the news about Grace’s death, he just stay still and calm. He is in shock and in disbelief of what he just heard. He is also in denial for a seconds. This can be described by the way he response to the army officers saying that he was in a shower and they cannot just barge in to his house and deliver this kind of news. He basically saying that he is not ready to accept this fact. His denial is also portrays where he does not allow his children to eat some food given by their neighbours as eating that would be acknowledging the condolences expressed by their neighbour towards his loss. Besides, his action of taking his children to Enchanted Garden might also be a way of him to deny that Grace is no longer with them. He might just want to feel the presence of Grace in their trip while getting close to his children to be able to tell them the news.

Secondly, Stanley shows a little sign of ‘resentment’ towards Grace’s death. For example, he calls their home number just to hear Grace’s recorded voice saying to leave a voice message to them. He leaves his message as if he is sending the message to Grace. He also ask Grace what should he do now. How about their children? Perhaps it can be translated as him to resent Grace’s death and leaving him with a great responsibility. However, the resentment period only last within a short duration as he enters the bargaining and guilt period. During his call, he mentioned that he is so sorry about everything and how he should not be angry the last time they met before Grace deported to Iraq. So he feels very guilty by sending his wife with a bitter feeling.  During the phone call to his own home, he leaves a voice message saying that it’s supposed to be him who goes to the war, it would be better for the children. It can be translated as him saying that it supposed to be him that dies because it might be better for Grace is more capable to raise the children instead of him. Next, he enters into depression when he realizes the reality that Grace is no longer with them. Perhaps this can be illustrated in the scenes where he just lays on the bed and cries when John and his children go out to have lunch. In this period, he might feel overwhelm and become depressed as he also fighting his sadness so that it would not be shown to his children. Finally, he accepts the truth that Grace is gone. During their trip back to home from Enchanted Garden he tells the children about it and they cries and mourn for their loss.

The Character

I applaud for John Cusack brilliant interpretation of a person who is in grieving process. A brilliant script and interpretation of the cator has allowed me to feel the loss and longing of Stanley towards Grace without even viewed of Grace’s character in the movie. However, I totally could feel the presence of Grace throughout the movie from the remembrance of Stanley and his children towards her. Besides, John Cusack character and behaviour as a person who is losing someone and at the same time restraining his sadness is really hard to be done. If it was me, I do not think that I am able to restrain myself from expressing sadness if I loss someone that I really love.

                                                                   

The Milgram Experiment

The Milgram Experiment

Summary

This movie was based on the true story of Dr Stanley Milgram, a psychologist who did a research on the Holocaust and found out that the obedience factors were the main reason why people were able to perform a cruel act. The movie depicts Dr Milgram journey in conducting his famous and controversial experiment. The experiment is done in the lab where a participant, an authority figure and a confederate are involved while Dr Milgram observes the situation through a two way mirror without the participant’s awareness. Through the experiment, it was found that most people follow the authority to perform electric shock to the confederate even when they know that the electric shock can be detrimental to the people who receives it. Dr Milgram conducted this study in several different places as well as variety of scripts and the proximity between the participant and the confederate yet the result still yield the same conclusion. Even when the experiment finished, it is still being the talk of the town due to the unexpected result concluded by him. Besides, Dr Milgram is being called to the ethics board meeting to clarify the ethics behind his experiment as it involves the deception.  His experiment has unveil the inconvenient truth about human behaviour and the consequences.

The Lesson

Throughout this movie, I realized that it is hard for society to accept any facts that are not compatible with our beliefs. For example, the experiment showed that people are willing to do cruel act simply because an authority figure asked for it. Hence it may explain why the army are willing to be a part of holocaust: conformity and obedience to instruction. Many people disagree with the conclusion because they expect that human will comply with their own value instead of following other people instruction that goes against their value. So, they are quit resistance to believe the result of this study. Besides, a researcher must also stay true to themselves despite of getting pressure form the society. If the researcher is confident with his conclusion he should stand to his point. One main point is that, the researcher should not manipulate their conclusion so that the experiment will be accepted by the society instead they should be authentic and present only fact even though the truth may be bitter.

Experiment

I am interested in looking at the topic of leadership in Malaysia. Do we have a racial bias when electing a leader?Malaysia has gain peace and harmony among diverse community and races, however we could not deny that there are still tension that happens among the races due to the feeling of entitlement of being a member of certain culture and races. The experiment can be conducted by having the participants from 3 major races in Malaysia. Three participants will be gathered in a room with three confederates from each races. They will be given a situation of being deserted in a dessert with other participant. A situation has called for an emergency meeting where they need to elect a leader to manage their group. At the mean time all participants are allowed to pitch for the position. The three confederates are given the same script so that they can give an impression of a leader. Later, all the participants will elect their leader by voting.

Movie Review: Amadeus

Amadeus

The Plot

Amadeus tells a story about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart from Antonio Salieri perspective. The story begins with the scenes where Salieri tries to kill himself. He keeps repeating that he killed Mozart and he deserves the punishment. Then, he was admitted to a hospital and a young priest come to him to hear his confession and to offer him the God’s forgiveness. Salieri does not want the God’s forgiveness so he tells a story to the young priest. He begins his story by saying that he loves music as a child, however his father opposed to his dream. The disapproval makes his love for the music grew stronger. Due to the passion he has, he even made a sincere vow to the God saying that he would dedicate himself to Him if he would be given a chance to pursue his interest. As if the God answers to his call, his father suddenly died. So he went to the Vienna and learn music. He managed to get through many hurdles and achieve a post as a court composer. During that time, he always heard about the genius Mozart. He was curious about Mozart and was curious to know whether the genius would be reflected upon his personality and presence. To his disappointment, Salieri found out that Mozart was actually a perverted and playful young man.From that time, he had a bad impression towards Mozart. However, he could not deny that Mozart had the god given talent. The feeling of envy had made him blamed God for giving such a talent to those who did not deserve the talent while leaving him feeling worthless as if his dedication to Him is not enough. On the other hand, Mozart was blessed in such a rich environment where he was particularly groomed to become a musical prodigy. Salieri with an envy started to plan a sabotage to Mozart. As a result, Mozart faced a lot of hardship. Despite of all the sabotage, Salieri could not refrain himself from loving Mozart’s work. He hates himself to feel that way, however that was his true feelings. Before Mozart died, he was the one besides him instead of his wife. Well, even though he had a bad intention of extracting the requiem from Mozart and to let him die, but sill it was a moment where he sincerely worked hard to finish up his rival’s work.

The character

Antonio Salieri

I believe Salieri is actually a good person. However, the threat and anxiety that he felt towards Mozart has lead him to become a sort of manipulative person. He might have envy as a way for him to cope with Mozart’s threat. Not only that, Salieri also might have a greater sense of external locus of control in associating the situations that happened to him. That was also the reason why he was so angry with the God for not giving him the talents that he wanted to have. He also perceived that he can be like Mozart if he was brought up in a rich environment that thought the value of music instead degrading the music. The only situation where he showed a high degree of internal locus of control was when he blamed himself for the Mozart’s death because he asked the corrupted maid to give him some drug that affect Mozart’s health. In addition, I think he had a low sense of security for himself as he thought that Mozart will take over his place and overshadowed him when in fact Mozart did not think that way.

Themes

This movie brings upon the topic of jealousy and envy towards a prodigy. I think this theme is relevant to almost all people when they face a genius. I believe some people might have a thought of becoming like them and to acquire the talent like a prodigy however that is just not happening so envy will be a choice for them as a way to cope with the feeling of devastation for not having the talent like them. For normal people, jealousy will just be manifested throughout their feeling and cognitive not their action. While, Salieri actually did manifested his envy through his action by providing difficulty in Mozart’s career path in this movie. I think we can learn a lot from this theme as Salieri has showed sabotaging was not the way to handle his envy, instead he felt bitter because deep down inside he knew that he could not do what Mozart can do. So he felt guilty and at the end destroying himself.  In addition, cognitive dissonance was also being portrayed in the film. Salieri admired Mozart’s work but at the same time hating Mozart for having such talent. As he could not accept the truth he began hating Mozart. Devising plans to kill Mozart was one of his way to reduce the dissonance that he was feeling at that time. However, he did not know that by killing Mozart will not reduce his dissonance but adding up to the dissonance that he felt and making him more miserable. This was because, the feeling of hate for the Mozart and at the same time still amazed with his work despite his death was added to the feeling of guilt for killing Mozart’s music career.  Hence, making his life worthless to always be compared to the dead people. He was also forced to live to see Mozart’s work getting the appreciation while his music was getting forgotten. Personally, I think that it is not healthy to have such an envy and resentment towards a person who has more than we have. Everyone has their own uniqueness and advantages. For example, it is so sad when Salieri could not see a good quality that resides within him. He was a good teacher and still have a talent to make a good music. So rather than hating people’s work, he should have strengthened his talent and that will make him a more credible talent in the market. 

movie review 6

Whale Rider

The Plot

Whale rider tells a story about a young Maori girl who aspires to be a leader of her tribe. The story starts when Porourangi’s wife gives birth to a pair of beautiful fraternal twins (a son and a daughter). However, one of the babies (son) dies together with their mother due to complications. Hence leaving the daughter behind with his father. The girl is named Paikea Apirana (Pai) based on their ancestor's name. Koro, the grandfather and the leader of the tribe is so disappointed with the situation. He hopes that Paikea should die in replace of the grandson since following the tradition, the first born baby grandson should inherit the leadership. Koro is hoping for a grandson because their family is actually a direct descendent of Paikea- he who rode on the whale from Hawaiki, so Koro has a pressure to elect a new leader that will lead their tribe. Koro actually worries about the future of his tribe for his oldest son is not interested to lead the tribe and many of their youth are more interested to go out of the village and experience a modern world. The future of his tribe depends on the new leader yet no one is eligible and have a desire to lead.

Porourangi decides to leave the village and travel to the German leaving his daughter with her grandparents. Koro expresses his resentment towards Pai, however he could not help but to love his adorable granddaughter. He always fetches Pai from the school and together, they ride a bicycle to the home. As Koro becomes older he is desperate to find a new leader, however, Porourangi who is supposed to be the one whom he hopes to lead their tribe does not want the responsibility. Koro now need to teach a group of young kids and select one leader among them. At the same time, Pai feels that there is something that keeps calling her from the sea. For that, she has a desire to be a leader. Unfortunately, her desire is not approved by traditional custom that only allow man to be the leader. During the training, the boys’ group is taught a lot of lesson and skills by Koro. The final test that would determine the leader is to get the whale teeth necklace thrown by Koro to the sea. To his disappointment, no one manages to bring back the necklace, hence signalling there is no leader qualified to lead the tribe. As he is depressed, he calls out to the ancestor to help him through the crisis. At the same time, Pai also calls the ancestor. The ancestor hears her cries, thus answer her calls. Later, a group of whale suddenly stranded on the seashore. Everybody in the village help out to save the whales, unfortunately all of their efforts are wasted for nothing could help to put back all the whales to the sea again. Pai realizes that the whales actually answer to her calls, so she touches the biggest whale and the whale responded to her. She rides on the whale back and they submerge in the sea. While everybody thought Pai is drowning below the sea, Koro’s wife told him that it was Pai who found the necklace. Fortunately, Pai survives and is admitted to the hospital. From that event, Koro believes that she is the chosen one to lead the tribe and acknowledges her.

The characters

Pai

I would say her character is the most genuine and original character I have ever seen in any movie. Keisha Castle-Hughes succeed to portray Pai character so effortless. Pai is seen as a demure yet a strong and confident young girl. She perceived herself as an unwanted child and always tries to get Koro acknowledgement. However, she believes that her grandfather loves her so much even without him expressing his love. Pai also expresses her desire to become the leader despite of the obstacle that she will need to face in order to become one. I actually admire her character. Being separated with his father and mother at a very young age is not an excuse for her to behave inappropriately. Instead, she manages to break the stereotype that a problematic child comes from those with family or attachment issues. I would say her character is very resilient and wise at her young age. According to Horward, Martin, Berlin and Gunn (2010), most of the children who have family instability will have more tendency to develop the attachment and personality issues as well as causing trouble at school. However, Pai is nothing like that and has developed a good personality, is confident with her action and do well at her school. The hardship that she faces is the one that builds her strength and wise life perspective She manages to deal with his grandparent’s dual attitude toward her existence without developing any inferiority complex, attachment and personality issues, instead she embraces her grandfather resentment and disappointment while thinking that he still loves her as a family and is giving her unconditional love towards Koro. Dual attitudes refer to different evaluations towards the same object, people, and events (Wilson, Lindsey & Schooler, 2000). Referring to the definition, Koro love Pai so much but he is opposed to her desire to be the chief of their tribe, hence showing a cold attitude towards her.

 Further, I think she compensates the feeling of loss with her grandmother love and care for her to be able to develop such a strong and healthy character despite of her family issue. Not only that, she is determined to learn traditional custom by sneaking into Koro lessons at the school even when Koro prohibited her from learning the lesson simply because she is a girl. She also has this perspective where many people should learn their tradition so that many can be a leader without having to rely on one and absolute leader.Besides, almost every character in the movie is facing inner tensions, same goes to Pai. Her conflict happens when her father is back to the village and decided to bring her together with him to the Germany because he could not bear to see his child getting a bad treatment from Koro. Pai feeling discouraged by Koro cold action decides to go with her father, however she could not bear to leave the village as she could hear the sea calling for her.  

The scene

Truthfully, Pai makes me in tears. I could feel how she feels even though I could not relate to the context and culture portrays in the movie. I have seen a lot of crying scenes in other movie without any feelings attached to it. However, with Pai character I could not help myself from crying. The scene where she gives her speech after her school performance is dedicated to her grandfather and her people is so touching. I am so sad seeing her looking at the empty chair that is supposed to be Koro seat as he does not attend the ceremony. Focusing on Pai sincerity when she gives her speech alone make me in tears. Her way of delivering the line is so detailed with the tears that is endured and the restrained voice is just so perfectly delivered with no overdramatize effect. Her speech alone hit me so hard that I do not realize my tears is already flowing. I respect the actor for bringing such a genuine and raw emotion to the audience.

Themes

Firstly, leadership is the obvious theme in this movie. Leadership portrays by Koro is basically a conservative leadership that most traditional leaders hold. For example, a believe that only man can be a leader and only the strongest are qualified to lead. This traditional view however is no longer popular among many youth nowadays. Many young leaders have the perspective where the gender is no longer important as long as they have the quality to lead people. Besides, holding a conservative view of leadership might make people to be close minded and prejudice. For example, Koro is not prepared to accept that Pai has a desire to become a leader. Pai being a girl is a problem to Koro, hence he misses all the leadership qualities that Pai has. I could also sense that the responsibility that a leader holds is so great. Looking at how Koro is depressed after he fails to elect a new leader make me thinking that to shoulder a responsibility means that to carry the leader task forever.

Second, cognitive dissonance could be one of the themes in this movie. Cognitive dissonance refers to the situations where a person has a conflicting attitudes, beliefs/ideas. For example, Koro resents Pai, however as she is her granddaughter it is unpleasant for him to hate her. So to reduce the unpleasantness he just decides to lover her as she is. Not only has that, as a result of cognitive dissonance Koro decides to reduce his cognitive by reducing the importance of his dissonant. For example, Koro asks Porourangi to take away Pai from him and brings her to Germany because he does not want Pai to follow her desire to be a leader that is against the traditional custom.

Movie Review 5

Forget Paris

The Plot

This movie tells a story about a couple who is going to get married, Andy and Liz who has a gathering with Andy’s friends at a restaurant. As they are waiting for the friends to come, Andy tells a story about his friend, Mickey and Allen and their relationship journey. Mickey is a NBA referee who is famous for his strict rule in the game. He meets with Allen when he lost his father’s body during the transition to Paris since he wanted to lay to rest with his armies’ friends during the war. Mickey is into a lot of trouble to find his father’s body. He is assisted by Allen, who is the staff at Airline Company. Mickey and Allen relationship begin when Allen attends Mickey’s father funeral. Later, their story is continuously being told by Andy’s friend who arrives one by one to the restaurant. Mickey and Allen has gone through such a test in their relationship. They have a good start honeymoon phase at the Paris, when in fact Allen is a married women. However, Allen leaves everything behind and decides to marry Mickey. Later, they face with the career issue in which Mikey doesn’t want to let go his career when Allen tells him that she is unhappy. This is because, Mickey always travels to attend the NBA game. Since Allen is unhappy, he decides to quit and get a new life and job. At the same time, Allen got a job and she quite like the job that she is having. At the current time, she is happy, however Mickey is unhappy with his life. Later comes Allen’s father who become another issue that they need to deal with. Overall, Mickey and Allen have gone through a breakup and get-together phases quite a few. The story is continuously being relay from one context to another context until Mickey and Allen arrive at the restaurant.

The character

Mickey

He is a unique character despite of having a trouble family history. I believe his past has shaped him for who he is now. When he enters into marriage, he does not know what he should commit to be a good husband since he does not have a father-figure that he could refers to. So, he is still continuing his single lifestyle such as travelling to a lot of places leaving his wife behind. He loves his career so much, however, that career will make him distance with his wife. Fortunately, he did sacrifice his career for the wife, however he is not happy with his life when he does that. I actually admire his character since I could not see any attachment issue that he has despite of his troubled family past. Besides, I would consider him to be one of the person with type A personality. Type A is a personality type that describes the person as being impatient, rigid, and workaholics. I could see that Mickey is indeed a rigid and workaholic person since he is always stick to the same routine and manages to travel often in order to attend the NBA game at various places. So in a way, he might have a low openness trait as he always stich to his habits and rarely going out to experience new things. Next, I think Mickey is a good character when he decides to give up his career to make his wife happy despite of his miserable. I could see that he has this attitude to improve himself to fix his marriage issue. He also have a self-awareness since he is being reflecting himself and his marriage life. This is portrays when he talks about his marriage life to his friend. I think he has a good social support within his circle. This is because as he reflecting his marriage issue, his friends generally give a good response and indeed telling him what kind of person he is and what aspect that he should improve to fix his relationship. Before that, he still have this kind of ego causing him to be intolerant and insensitive towards Allen’s feeling.  For example, when Allen request him to find a new job, he is hesitant because he loves what he does and said that it is his life as he could not imagine doing something other than his current career. But one thing he forget to consider is the fact that Allen did sacrifice her job to be with Mickey. So it shows that Mickey has not consider Allen’s feeling during that time hence causing a conflict in their marriage. However, since he has make a great effort to fix his marriage issue, it has touch Allen’s feeling. At the end, they are still together despite of the obstacle that they face.     

Allen

I think Allen is a brave woman. However, she is using a wrong medium to unleash her desire by being a cheater in her marriage. She said she is unhappy with her marriage and decides to get out from her former husband life. However, the fact that she is using Mickey as her source of positive experience has lead a great disappointment to Mickey. This show that her character is a little bit selfish by having less consideration towards Mickey. I could not deny that she has a strong trait within herself that is display through her career pathway. She has the charisma and can be independent as well. However, that does not mean she can act like a single person and give another person hope to be with her. Anyway, if she does not have a scandal with Mickey, this story may not be continue. So in a way, it is how the story goes. Next, I would like to talk about how brave she is when she decides to leave everything behind and marry Mickey. She is brave, however I think she is impatient in making her decision. Furthermore, as mentioned before she has the tendency to focus on herself without thinking about Mickey’s situation. For example, when she brings in her father to Mickey’s care she overlooks that Mickey might be uncomfortable with the sudden changes in his life as he already quit his job at that time to make Allen happy. Despite of her character, I actually love how she communicates with Mickey and tell him what she feels instead of just keeping the problem to herself. This shows that she may have a high openness trait as well. The openness trait is being portrayed by her love to arts, enjoys new things and adventure. I think this trait has greatly influencing her to decide to marry Mickey when they actually just know each other within short span of time. And this trait also give her a chance to continue the relationship as she is willing to explore options in her relationship.

The scene

 I love the scene where Mickey talks to one of his friend and he realize that marriage don’t works when one person is happy while the other don’t, it works when both are able to find the balance between it. That is the scene where it helps Mickey to think that it is important for both partners to give extra effort to maintain the relationship.

The lesson

Firstly, I learned that commitment is a really important aspect in building and maintaining relationship. For example, in a relationship, both partners need to be aware of their commitment such that there must be certain things that they need to let go or even do to be able to maintain a good relationship. For example, in marriage one need to realize that they somehow cannot do the things that they usually do when they are a single such as partying every week or even going back home really late. Besides, both partner should also be able to tolerate with each other.

Next, communication is really important in a relationship. Failure to communicate with each other will result in a lot of problem such as misunderstanding. It also may lead to a wrong impression or expectation towards their partner. Understanding each other will not only helps both partner in dealing with their issue but also helps people to rationalize why their partner is behaving like this hence can understand certain problem from their partner point of view. However, people need to be careful when communicating their feelings as the way people talk and what kind of language people use may be misinterpret by other partner. By communicating with each other, people can actually approximate what kind of expectation that their partner has towards them. For example, Allen always talk to Mickey regarding her loneliness and that she is expecting him to understand her. Communication is indeed essential so that people will always update their knowledge about other person that they interacting with.

Movie Review 4

Strictly Ballroom

The Plot

The strictly ballroom movie tells a story of Scott Hastings, a young man and an innovative dancer who struggles to keep his identity in his dance step to win the Pan-Pacific Grand Prix Dancing Championship in honour of his dream and his parents’ dream. Scott Hastings was raised in a dance family background in which his family owns a dance studio. His mother is a dance instructor and once a professional dancer while his father helps with the studio’s management and chores. Scott has been trained since child to win the most prestigious dance competition. He is considered as the rising star together with his partner, Liz. Together they would challenge the king of ballroom, Ken. However, Ken has wasted his chance when he dances his own step with Liz at a competition. As a result, he loses the competition. Devastated by his choice, his parents has pressurred him to go with flow by dancing the step that is established instead of dancing his own. Liz also has leaves him for a new partner that is Ken after his partner is injured.

Along the way Scott manages to find his dance identity with Fran’s help. A Latino girl who is a beginner dancer among others in the dance studio. One day, after seeing Scott dancing his style, Fran asks him if she could be his partner, being skeptical Scott rejects her. However, he has given her a chance and started to dance with her. He realizes her talent when she introduces her step taken from pasodoble routine. For his preparation for the Pan-Pacific Grand Prix Dancing Championship, he learns pasodoble routine with Fran’s father. Later, he decided to dance the routine with Fran.

Along the preparation, he is being subjected to Barry Fife lies that says his father was a professional dancer once upon a time. His father could be the top dancer if he did not introduce a new step during the championship. Barry Fife also said that a similar situation could happen to him. As a result of that lies, Scott decides to dance the traditional dancing routine. After he realizes that the story from Barry fife is false, he is determined to dance his step together with Fran.

Themes

I have been exposed that this movie portrays social influences as a theme. Social influences such as conformity, compliance and obedience will be discussed along with the characters, scenes and lessons below.

-          Conformity refers to change of beliefs, attitude, value or behaviour in accordance to the society standard.

-          Compliance refers to an action that people do because of other’s request.

-          Obedience refers to an action of compliance due to the command/presence of authority.

These three types of social influence are portrayed in this movie by the interactions between different characters in this movie.

Character

Scott Hastings

Honestly, there are many characters in this movie that I wanted to discuss. Firstly, I will talk about the main character that is Scott Hastings. I would consider him as a confused character in this movie as he struggles to fix on his dancing style. He is the main subject for other people to impose their influence on since other characters have greatly influence him. For example, Barry Fife manages to influence Scott to comply with his request for him to dance a standard step in the Grand Prix competition with his dance partner. Barry Fife tells a story that he knows will elicit Scott’s guilt feeling hence complying with his request. The story about Scott’s father who wasted his chance to become a great dancer by violating the dance norm during the competition and how it affected his father’s life afterwards really hits Scott as he is about to make the same decision as his father. On the other hand, Scott is also enforcing compliance to Fran and his father as well. Scott and Fran have trained together for many days for the dance competition, however due to complying with Barry request, it resulted Scott to enforce Fran to comply with his decision. So, in a way I could see that compliance strategy comes from both sides. Barry and Scott himself.

At first, I admire Scott’s character as he resists to follow the norm. He wanted to dance his step despite of going against so many people. He has the courage and the skill. Unfortunately, he could not stay motivated to fight for his dancing style as he faces a lot of other challenges from people surrounding him. That is why, his character needs a supporting character that would help him dealing with the challenge.

Fran

Second character that I want to talk about is of course Fran. Fran’s character initially not viewed as one of the supporting actors that keeps the story going. The audience especially those who has the same perspective as mine do not view Fran character as important at the beginning of the movie. However, as the story going, the audience could see how her character changes in term of many aspects. Even though the changes are subtle and do not involve a dramatic transformation, however she portrays a realistic change ever happen to a person. For example, her courage to request Scott to dance with her has increased her self-esteem. At the same time, she manages to improve her dance step. Besides, the way she presents herself after becoming Scott dancing partner is different compared to her previous character. Her self-confident and social interaction have levelled up. Not only that, her character keeps going stronger and stronger due to different events. I view her character as a stronger character than Scott. That is because, she portrays the courage that Scott does not have. She is the one who keeps telling Scott that his dancing style is great. She is the one that willing to open up opportunity for Scott to see they can make the changes together in dancing style. She is also resistance towards Scott and other people influences. Overall, even though her character does shows that she is indeed being obedient and conform to people in the movie, however her resistance towards those influences had created a significant dynamic in the story line. Without her character, they will be no means for Scott to realize his potential in dancing floor. Her character also make the story becoming more interesting by providing a little bit surprise and the courage element into the story. 

Barry Fife

I would also like to discuss some point regarding Barry Fife character. He can be considered as antagonist in this movie. I would say that he is the one who enforce his influence to many people especially Scott’s parents and Scott himself. Barry Fife is an amazing actor as he delivered the lines in such a convincing style. If I am Scott, I would believe his lies too. Underlying his character, I could see that he is manipulative. I also view that he has low self-confident with his own dancing skill. Feeling insecure may be the reason why he decided to make people obedient to his order, conform to his rules and comply with his request so that he can achieve what he wants. 

The scene

I would like to talk about the scenes that really annoys me in the movie despite of great acting from the cast. I dislike the scenes where Barry Fife is telling lies to Scott at the dance studio. From that lie, Scott complies with him. Getting annoyed by their conversation after knowing that it is all lies indicated that the writer manages to create a good tension not only between the character but also with the audience as well. Somehow I could relate the feeling of betrayal following Barry fife lies. Hence, I could feel a sense of engagement between the character, Scott and myself. Perhaps, I could say that my high empathy level is affecting the way I feel as I watch Scott being manipulated by Barry.

Lessons

I have learned several lessons from this movie. Firstly, it is important to understand the reason why you decide on a certain action. This is because, there will be many other social influences that will affect whether you will stay with your decision or change it to satisfy others. For me, I would say understanding your reason will help you on providing justification why you should go against a certain norm in your society (or maybe circle of friends, family, etc.). Being clear with your objective is the way to go! For example, Scott and Fran, both are being resistant towards other people objection to not dancing together at the Grand Prix competition. This is because they are clear that the reason they want to dance on the dance floor at the competition is not to win the competition but for the sake of showing their own style to the audience.

I also learned that I need to stay true to myself. There will be people who would like to see you fall, but there are also many people who want to see you succeed in whatever aspect that you are into. However, it will be unreal to be rigid by staying true to yourself and disregard other situational factor in reality. Somehow, people need to learn to tolerate with others to ensure a harmony yet can still pursue your own objective in an appropriate manner. Just like the characters in this movie. They all have been subjected to compliance and obedience strategy of others and decided to conform at some point, however when the times come, they all managed to break from the norm and just dancing freely on the dance floor. 

Movie Review 3

Eat Drink Man Woman

                               

The Plot

The plot of the story is simple, warm and full of surprises. It is a fun movie to be watched. Despite of being simple, it manages to deliver a heavy message.

Mr. Chu is a masterchef for Chinese cuisine. He’s a widower with three daughters. The first daughter is Chu Jia Jen, the second, Chua Jia Chien and the youngest, Chu Jia Ning. All three daughters are unmarried. Two of his daughters may be consider as a late bloomers.

The story basically centralized around those characters in their daily life. Every Sunday, Mr. Chu will have a family dinner. He prepares the food wholeheartedly as if it is a big banquet. Well, it does seems so. There are a lot of food on the tables but there are also a lot of food left uneaten.

The dinner is one of the way for Mr. Chu to communicate with his family. During dinner, they will talk about something and the funny thing is every time there is diner, the family members will have an announcement to make. Those announcements are the important element that makes the story ongoing. Most of the announcements made are mainly to inform other family members about their relationship. The youngest daughter breaks the stereotype of marriage turn when she announces her pregnancy. Without further questions, Mr Chu sends of her youngest to the hand of a young man. The second daughter’s announcement is about her moving out from the house and career promotion to Amsterdam. While, the eldest announcement is about her getting married. Hence, leaving the second sibling unmarried.

During and between the days before dinners, there are also a lot of individuals’ issue that the film portrays. The second daughter issues are the heaviest compared to other. Her issues is about friend-with-benefits relationship, distance daughter-father-siblings relationship, and career decision to be made. While the eldest daughter issues are about her distancing herself from any intimate relationship and her sense of responsibility towards her father.

Uniquely, all the complicated issues mentioned above are tackled in such a witty and intriguing way. This make the movie easy to be watched and understand by the audience even though it caters to a heavy message. Despite of being an old movie, however, those issues are still relevant until today. Hence, this film is highly recommended to be watched by anyone especially to those who can relate to a cold-warm family relationship interaction because it provides evidence that simple action can be a way for people to channel their love.

There is one full-blown surprise towards the end of the movie! It will leaves you with awe and admiration towards the scriptwriter for a genius wrap up. To avoid making a big spoiler, do watch it yea!

The character

                                      

I would like to point out one character only that make the story feels warm and approachable. Well, of course other characters are important as well, but I am more attracted to Mr Chu who portrays exactly the stereotypes that I have for traditional family parenting.

Mr Chu is a realistic portrayal of a widower from traditional Asian father-figure based on stereotype that most people have. Or it may be my own stereotype. I perceived a traditional father-figure as a person who don’t know how to be affectionate towards his children, and this stereotype is enhanced when he is a widower.

Perhaps, this character can be discussed based on situational and personality theory.  I observed that Mr Chu has a warm and approachable vibe surround him, however it doesn’t seems so when he is around his daughters. For instance, he is a loving father-figure towards Shan-shan (a child character), a great listener towards Mrs Liang (aunty-like character who is the mother of Jin-rong (a single mother/ mother to Shanshan) but very cold character towards his daughter. I would like to view his behavior based on the Personological system point of view. Personological system was a term coined out by Henry Murray for his personality theory that viewed personality is the result of complex organism responding to specific nature or environment.  Here, needs, motivations and environmental press (situational drive) derived from others are very important in determining how a person would behave towards particular people. I remember that the second daughter mentioned he was very warm towards her when she was a child. So, I think Mr Chu started behaving coldly towards the daughters is due to his frustration and sadness from losing his wife. He then channels out the feelings to his children resulting them to become apart. He may feel a great sense of responsibility to take care of the children without their mother. As he loves them, he provided them with sufficient materials and foods as a chef. However, the lack of physical affection and communication make his children perceive him as cold.  

Murray viewed situational and social role as the important determinant for personality. I think this is really relevant to Mr Chu character because the situational factor such as losing his wife and taking care of his children while filing up social role such being both father-and mother-like figure to his children has makes him more focused on the burden that he needs to hold instead of looking at what the children needs the most, for him to show his affections.

I also think that the differences between the treatments he gives towards his children from childhood until they are grown up is because the feedback that he gets from his children. Of course they are adorable as a child, however as they grew up perhaps some start to have some rebel or ignore him. This is only my assumption of why he behaves the way he is towards his children, perhaps there are other factor that I missed from the movie itself.

The washing-dishes scene

 

  

I choose a scene where the daughters are washing dishes in the kitchen as the most interesting scene that make me reflects on myself. Actually there are several scenes that shows them washing dishes and all of them are my favourites. Of course they are a lot of other scenes that seems interesting and you must be wonder why i am attracted to this scene.

So, what makes that scenes notable to me?

In that scenes, the second daughter are asking about the first daughter opinion about starting a relationship. The eldest daughter tells her that she is not ready and ask her not to worry about her life. She also confesses about the responsibility that she thinks it is her duty to take care of their father who’s getting old once the other daughters leave the house. They also talk about other thing while washing dishes in other scenes. I think that they enclose more about their thought during these scenes compared to their family gathering (dinner time). Dinner time is specifically used for them to make an announcement and not as a place to share intimate conversation. I realized that I could have intimate conversation with my siblings even while we are doing something simple together. You do not have to sit down seriously just to share your opinion but rather the best way is to do it naturally during appropriate times. I choose this scene because it also seems relatable to me.

Lessons

I have learned a lot from this movie. I learned that people have different way of expressing love. Some people may express it through words and actions. Thus it is up to us to be observant enough to know whether they are expressing their love or not. For example, Mr Chu is working hard to prepare the dinner for every Sunday. This is his way to express his love. The sad thing is that people often take other people kindness for granted and therefore often misunderstood the sign of love as the cues for other emotions, hence feeling distance in the relationship just like what happens to Mr Chu and his second daughter especially. So in case people do not understand the love gesture, please verbalized your love to others!

Say it before it’s too late!

I also learned that we cannot judge other’s character based on her behavior alone. For example, the second daughter always rebelling and always says that the father and her are distance when in fact they are the closest emotionally. So it is important to determine whether they meant what they are saying or they are just saying the opposite things from their feeling.

Human relationship is complicated yet it provides comfort in our life.