michelle-wang

[michelle-wang]

Casablanca: Film Review

I like the characters in Casablanca, Rick, Victor, Ilsa. Let us begin with Rick. Rick, seems to be an individualist after he was hurt by Ilsa years ago in Paris. He said he will never “stick out my neck” for others. But in fact, he will use the gun to point at Renault in order to let Victor and Ilsa leave Casablanca successfully. When the German army comes to stop, he shoots the German with no doubt, he definitely knows the result after this shooting. The sensibility of Rick is hidden from his outside curst, the crust he built when he was hurt. As a result, Rick stays clam in the city Casablanca and does not help anyone. However, when real troubles come, the real Rick will out and back to the “war”. Rick had love and lost love. He was hurt by love but he still consists to wait for love in Casablanca. The character is full and grandeur until the end of the film when he sacrifices himself for the world. 

Then is Victor. He is different from Rick, Rick is a fighter, he is a fight and a leader as well. He has the courage and ability to be a leader. The most impressive part is when he stands out and leads everyone to sing the song while other guests are angry but silent. This is the leadership, he has the ability to encourage people.

For Ilsa, I tend to believe she still loves Rick, but she chooses to leave with Victor in order to save the world. When Ilsa goes on the plane, even though she has tears in her eyes, she knows what to do. She already understood what she should do and why should she do so. Just like Rick says to Ilsa: “But it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.” The love between three people is no longer important when compared with the background of war. 

So why this film is a classic film? In my perspective, everything, every topic in this film is appropriate. If there is more love in this film, the good part of human races will not be shown so successfully. Audiences will pay more attention to the romance between three people and ignore the background of war. If the film pays more attention to the war and limits love between three people, the film will not be full. Through war, the relationship between lovers and family members is the most touch part for audiences since this is easier for them to have resonance. 

In conclusion, this is a nice film. There will have reasons for this to become a classic film and have such a high rank in IMDb. I recommend everyone to take a look at this film, to tell the truth. Even though the scenes are all in black and white, the action done by actors are fantastic and will let you ignore the weird scene, at least for me, I am not familiar with black and white scenes. This is the first time I watched it but is not so strange as I imaged before. 

[michelle-wang]

Forrest Gump: Film Review

When I finished the whole film, I found myself cried. It started when I saw Lieutenant Dan appears at the wedding about Forrest and Jenny, with his fiancee and a new pair of “leg”. I may feel happy from my heart for all of them, for that they all have a happy ending, even though there are so many things happened. The Dan who shouted to God and complaint about the unfairness in the life disappeared, instead, we saw a Dan who has a positive attitude through his life and the future. The most moving part for me is when Forrest standing in front of the tombstone of Jenny. There is no time for me to think about why I get so moved, the film is finished. As I writing this review and thinking about that time’s emotion, I may move by the attitude Forrest has for life. He lives with sincere, he treats others sincerely, treats himself sincerely, and treats life sincerely. Maybe it is due to his IQ, he does not have ideas about sarcasm, lying, and betrayal. There is no malice in his dictionary, that is why all the negative emotion he has is confusing. It is hard for normal people to achieve since we are all human and we all have the shadow inside our minds, but we can have enthusiasm when we are facing life. Just like Forrest said: “Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you gonna get!” 

In Forrest’s mind, if no one tells him that other people are smarter than you, you are a fool, he will never know that he is different from others. Then, he will not feel nervous when making an offer of marriage to Jenny and say that I am not clever, he will not feel horrible when he finds that he has a child and the first thing appears to his mind is that will my child has lower IQ just like me. He lives with not easy as well, like all of us in this world, even though he is a millionaire, he is famous, he owns a lot of things, he is still nervous and confused when faced with love, when faced with death. Well, his low IQ brings him a lot as well. Many people with wisdom will pick chocolate when God gives them a box of chocolate, then, they will regret their choices, they will think that if I pick another chocolate, my life will be totally different and I will be much better than now! Some of them will never get up again and live in their dreams forever. Forrest won’t. He accepts all the chocolates God gives, although the chocolate is bitter, all he has is sill enthusiasm.

I like this film. The character of Forrest is built successfully. Some people may think Forrest will have such a higher altitude is due to his luck. He is a lucky person. Well, I think he is lucky, but his success does not come from his luck, it comes with his attitude to life. If we do not have enough courage for life, we will not attend the war. If we are not perseverance, we will not remember a friend’s hope so carefully and really finish the hope, when our friend is dead. Most of us do things for profit. Catch shrimp does not have more profit, for a soldier who is already famous enough. Then, we will not become a millionaire as well. All things can be connect and back to a sentence: Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you gonna get.

[michelle-wang]

Joker: Film Review

In the beginning, when Arthur is in front of the mirror, he is pulling his mouth in order to make a smile. I think here represents a fact. Arthur has two characters in his mind. One is himself, working hard to take care of his mother and pretend himself as a joker to bring fun to others. The other is Joker, a crazy, violent, arrogant joker. There is a tear falling from Arthur’s eye. This is the tear when he is suppressing Joker in his body. The emotion on his face is also representing he and Joker are fighting for the control of this body.

In addition, Joker is affecting Arthur not just in the emotional state, but also in the physical state. We can see from the picture that he is walking like a zombie. He looks like carrying someone else during life. Obviously, the “someone” is Joker.

After Arthur is fired, he presents violence beside garbage bins, which is the first time he shows his violent side. Maybe he is kicking a cat, a mouse, or just simply get away his anger, we do not that. But we know Joker is awakened. It is like when Arthur is scolded, there is a creepy smile appeared on his face. This simile may be shown by Joker.

At night, when Arthur gets a gun from his friend, he accidentally shoots the gun on the wall. One thing I discovered is that Arthur shoots the gun with his left hand, but he uses his right hand to smoke, makeup, and write. Therefore, I can say the left hand represents Joker and the right hand represents Arthur. This can be found more clearly when Arthur is writing about jokes. As he writes down “The worst part of having a mental illness is … ”, suddenly his left hand takes the pen and writes out “People expect you to behave as if you don’t.”, with a big simile in the “O”. This is what Joker says. The camera angle here is perfect as well, in addition. We can go deeper into this part.

The first time Joker appears is on the train, with the film music played. After he uses his left hand to kill three people, he goes to the washroom and dances alone. This time, the Joker does not replace Arthur thoroughly.

After the appearance of Joker is the leave of the counselor. I have a guess that the counselor is fake. Arthur imagines all these things.

When the first time Arthur is talking with the counselor, the clock is showing 11:10. When the counselor asks him where he wants to go, he answers at the hospital. And the scene of the hospital appears and the clock is shown 11:10 as well. Furthermore, when the first time Arthur is laughing due to his nervous system, the counselor shows that she knows about it. However, the second time, which is the last time, the counselor is confusing and asking Arthur “What are you laughing about?”. Therefore, I think the counselor does not exist from the beginning. The counselor is a positive part of Arthur. As Joker is awakened, the positive part disappears. The counselor leaves him.

When two polices find Arthur and ask him “Is your laugh really an illness or it is fake?”, Arthur says “What do you think?” Well, what if the laughing is Joker’s laughing? The first time Arthur laughs due to his nervous system is when he tries to make a kid laugh. This can say Joker wants everyone on the bus to hate Arthur. Then when Arthur talks with the counselor, he laughs. Joker does not want him to treat this illness. When in the train Arthur laughs and makes three men angry, this can be explained as Joker is stimulating Arthur’s angry to kill them. When Arthur is talking with his father he laughs, Joker does not want them to talk.

After that, when Arthur hides in the fridge, he awakens Joker. This time, Joker replaces Arthur.

Eventually, Arthur is Joker, Joker is Arthur. When he walks from the hospital room with the blooded footprint, I think the doctor is killed by him as well. The whole environment creates Joker. If people can treat Arthur more friendly, if his mother does not abuse him when he was young, if his friend does not betray him, Joker will not appear.

[michelle-wang]

Fallen Creed: Student Film Review

Overall, this student film Fallen Creed is doing a great job in creating the environment and increasing the reality for audiences. For instance, the whole film is in black and white, which brings audiences 30 years ago, when technology was not developed. The film music plays a big role in it as well. However, the plot is actually not clear enough. Without any introduction of the background and the setting, it is quite confusing about what is happening for audiences just simply follow the dialogues. It is not hard to discover that this is film noir. So, let us talk about this genre: Film Noir.

The first time this word appeared was in 1946, in the article “Un Nouveau Genre "Policier", L'Aventure Criminelle” by Nino Frank. He used this word to describe some films created by Hollywood in the beginning of the 1940s. What he discussed in detail was only these four films: The Maltese Falcon(1941), Double Indemnity (1944), Laura (1944), Murder, My Sweet (a.k.a. Farewell My Lovely) (1944). Nowadays, the new word “neo-noir” appeared to describe some new film noir films since technically, film noir is used to describe films that contained only black and white from the 1940s to the 1950s produced by Hollywood. 

Most of the time, film noir has these factors. 1) There is always contain crimes, violence, and death, especially with no reasonable death and cruel death. 2) The plot and the atmosphere in the film are in the form of “nightmare”. 3) Main characters do not have a clear interpretation of good and bad. They tend to be disappointing with the world, feel lonely, and think that death is the best place for them.  In addition in this factor, actually, the whole film does not have the separation between good and bad. 4) Most film noir movies are unpredictable, audiences will feel anxious and disturbed during film watching. 5) The scene of the night will be the main setting in the film. For instance, the film we watched first “V for Vendetta” is a typical example of a film noir.

In conclusion, film noir is a type of film which is dark and anxious for audiences. This type of film does not suitable for people with negative emotions, like depression. It will make you much more depressed after watching it. This type of film always contains no definitely bad or good people, as well as evil and justice. If people want to see how good people save the world, superhero films are a good choice, but not this type of film. Most of the time, film noir films are bad ending, which means the main character always dead since they feel that death is their best choice. Therefore, if people want to see a happy ending, do not watch it. In comparison, this type of film will stimulate people to think about the world, think about yourself. In addition, some film noir will contain the element of detective. As a result, people who are a big fan of detective films, film noir will be a good choice for you. 

[michelle-wang]

The Rape of Nanjing: Review

When I first time see the period is 1937 and the place is Nanjing, I suddenly realize about the event Nanjing Massacre, which is a tragic event on Chinese history. We all learned it during history class, we watched the movie, go through the picture, listen to the interview… I have a strong impression about this since there were more than three hundred thousand people dies. During this time, thousands of women were treated as a tool for the Japanese soldiers to express their sexual desire. What is more, some of them even sexed with dead bodies. These scenes were terrible for me when I saw photos. But this is the fact. I can not imagine how these women’s families and themselves felt. 

This is put at the entrance of the museum for the remembrance of all victims in the Nanjing Massacre. This is horrible and full of depression. 

This is a wall with all the names of victims on it. This wall is so long that you cannot go through it with a glance. I know these names have no relationship with me, but still, I feel sad about them. This is also a warning to all of Chinese that our ancestors try their best to bring such a peaceful life for us.

Okay… Then let us discuss the film. In the beginning, when the little girl hiding under the bed, the point of view is the little girl. This camera angle is perfect, I think. This can let audiences feel about how that little girl is feeling when the event happened. For me, I feel afraid and horrible when that man comes toward the camera. Then the whole color of the film is in black and white, which perfectly show the period of 1937, without fancy technology. This can increase the reality. After this is the scene when the younger sister is walking alone on the street in a snow day. The snow in the sky increases a sense of loneliness, which makes the character much more lamentable. The victim of the Nanjing Massacre, lost family, no place to stay, no money to eat dinner, pregnant a child whose father is a Japanese soldier. But this is the fact. Even though many women are alive after this massacre, the experience and the memory they had will alone with them until they died. I think this is why so many people still commit suicide even they are safe.

In conclusion, I do not recommend some people with depression emotion to watch this film since this is depressing as well. If you want to know the history of the Nanjing Massacre, I do not recommend this film since there is no introduction about what was the beginning of this Massacre, why they killed so many people, how did it end and what were the results to women and these soldiers. It is better to watch the documentaries about this. But this film is suitable for people that just want to have a feeling about this Massacre. I think the emotion in this film is performed well and I as an audience can feel the depression about the girl.

[michelle-wang]

Godlike: Student film Review

This is a student film, which I do not recognize at the beginning until I see the background of Thornhill Secondary School. The whole camera shooting skill is mature, as well as the showing of plot and scenes. As I check the history of the shooting event, I think they do a great job in reducing the plot, for instance, they want to put the bomb in the cafeteria but the bomb does not happen, the two student killers commit suicide at the library. One detail which I think is perfectly done is when one student killer does not want to kill herself, the other kills her then suicide. We do not know whether two students killer in history did this or not, but I think this is appropriate guessing since they are all students.

Then, I would like to discuss something about history, the event of shooting that happened on April 20, 1999. According to Eric’s student’s words, Eric is a good student, he rarely absents. Then, why he and Dylan would kill 13 people, with one teacher and 12 students? According to their students’ words, they were the “weird boy” at school. Hard to talk with girls, played in their own circle, and said some words that you do not understand. They were the students that being bullied at school. According to their dairy, people found that these two students were under strong social pressure. They felt angry that they could not be a part of the “major group” at school. “... If you can show more respect, treat me better, ask me more about knowledge, then I maybe will not shoot your heads.” In dairy, both of them shown strongly suicide tendency. No matter they wanted to revenge or wanted to leave their name on history, they chose to use a way of the massacre before their death, to tell the existence of themselves to the world. However, along with this case, there were many imitate people. In history, from April 20, 1999, to now, there are at least 233 schools were attacked by shooting, which most of them were started by students. It is like, in 20 years before, the US got a virus called “School shooting”. Many reports indicated that school shootings are infected. Each time after one big shooting event, the probability of getting another later on is very high. 

The school shooting is a serious problem in current days, but everyone is trying to prove it. The first step is to stop bullying. I do not know what other schools will do, but in our school, we will have a presentation each year to tell students how to ask for help when you are bullied and do not bully others. Even though this is boring for students, still, I think this will make an effort in helping some students and reduce their social stress at school.

In conclusion, this student film has a high quality in telling the history of the shooting event. They try their best to reproduce the cloth, the dairy, the gun, and the situation. One suggestion in my perspective is to reduce the volume of film music and add some subtitles, sometimes it is difficult to hear what they are saying, especially in the cafe, there are too many people and noise. In addition, even though the camera movement increases the reality, I think at some point it should be more stable. Overall, if you want to get an overview of this shooting event that happened 20 years ago, this student film is a good choice!

[michelle-wang]

Contagion: Film Review

The first thing I thought after finishing the film is that: this is a good film. The plot is clear, the shot skill is skilled, provide audiences enough image spaces. The most impressive part for me is the reality of the creation of “Eschatology”. In Eschatology, human nature is easy to be destroyed, this is the fact. There are no heroes or “bad” governments involved. Everyone is a human, a normal citizen, together to create a real-world without drama. The director uses details with deliberate control in the camera language to provide a real Eschatology.

The whole film is about more than 100 minutes, but this does not give me a feeling of boring. I think there are too many things that can be discussed more than the director shows in the movie, but he does a perfect job to make them short but clear enough. For instance, the betrayal from dead wife, some Chinese governments want to hide the truth, the invisible fight between the American government and media, even the real address in Hongkong and the most popular cellphone in Japan, all these things make audiences feel horrible about the real feeling. In front of the unknown nature, people are actually very weak. There are no heroes to save humans when the disaster is coming, all we can rely on is ourselves. It is crucial but this is the fact.

One interesting character in the film is called Allen. He is a blogger, which he considers himself a journalist. He, on one hand, thinks that the government has a conspiracy with WHO, on the other hand, thinks he got the contagion and cure himself. What he does next is writing fake information on Twitter in order to gain both money and reputation. This actually surprised me since American films rarely put a media person as a villain. Well, Allen is not a journalist－strictly speaking－he thinks he is a journalist. Actually, in present-day, as social media develops in extreme speed, how to define whether he or she is a journalist is changed from writing reports into the value of news and media ethics. That is why we have words like “blogger”, like me, not called as a journalist or a reporter. 

The whole movie is filmed as time goes by, like a dairy, no strong conflict. There are separate things putting together, but this is not messy. I guess if I see this film before the coronavirus, I will start to care about the handle on the door, the elevator button, and the distance with strangers. 

It is not hard to find the similarity with the contagion in the film and the coronavirus. I want to say some thoughts about this virus. As I know, the first country that starts to prevent the virus is China. I come from China, therefore I know the hardness to just look at the horrible number and do nothing. China is so serious in January and February, that no one should leave their home, everyone must wear the mask when going outside and clean everything by alcohol when you come back home. Right now, China does a great job of controlling the virus. The whole country’s increment in one day will not larger than 50, with more than 10 provinces have no increment for one month. I can say China controls the virus. What makes me feel anxious is other countries, like Canada. Even though at the beginning Canada did not have a serious problem, it is sad to hear like some people are laughing at the people who wear masks. If Canadians are aware of the coronavirus at the beginning, how will the number become so crazy now? Fortunately, we are trying our best to control the virus now.

Just like what film shows, the brightness will come one day. All the darkness will away. I hope everyone stays healthy! 

[michelle-wang]

Ghost of Rwandan: Film Review

Even though I mentioned the history of genocide in Rwanda in reviews before, I still want to talk about more based on the research I done on the Internet. From 1994 April to July, in Rwanda, in 100 days, 80,000 people died in the civil war between Hutu and Tutsi. The people who were killed were normal men, women, and children. The only reason they were killed is because of their identity, Tutsi people. In the 1960s, Belgium let Rwanda independence and gave power to Hutu people. As a result, from the 1960s, Tutsi people had a poor condition. Many of them were killed and many of them became refugees who could only go to other countries to live. 

In 1993, due to other countries’ power, Hutu people were forced to sign a peace agreement and finished the civil war that happened for many years between Hutu and Tutsi people. However, this was effective only until 1994, April 6th. The plane of the president of Hutu people was shot by a missile. Then on April 7th, the female president of Moderate was killed. Ten soldiers that protected the president were killed on the same day. This was the beginning of the genocide in Rwanda. That is the reason why April 7 is the remembrance day of Genocide in Rwanda. From that day, every country started to evacuate its own country’s citizens. There were 1500 soldiers arriving in Rwanda from Belgium and French to help evacuate people, but they only evacuated foreign people, not Rwandan. In the end, all the white people brought their kids and their pets on the plane and were all safe. However, the rest black people must stay, the thing that would happen to them is death. Even though I understand there was politics included, but to see the armies with weapons were not help to protect black people who were killed just by knives, I still feel terrible.

During the genocide period, there were some Rwandan people went to America to ask for help, hoped America would help them to stop the genocide, but the president of America used the reason of not want to interfere with other country’s politics and refused. One documentary used to show that President Clinton said on a News conference that the factor to determine whether America is going to send the army is the benefits and profit that can bring to America. I understand this is politics, but still, I feel pathetic and powerless.

In fact, there were many places in Africa that had genocide, but we did not know since this could not attract attention to world society. The reason I think is that there were not many important natural resources, not had a great location. In addition, in many dependent countries' perspective, Africa is an area with a large population, governments in foreign countries are not paying attention to them. 

In conclusion, let me talk about my feeling. I do not like to watch documents. The main reason is that they are always too stressful and heavy. These will make me feel terrible after watching them. But on another side, this documentary tells the event of genocide in Rwanda in detail. There are reports from some people to say their feeling about genocide, which make this more real. I do not recommend this, except you are interested in the event of genocide.

[michelle-wang]

Shake hands with the devil: Film Review

Since I just finished watching Rwanda Hotel, I would like to make a comparison between both since they are focusing on the same event: The Genocide of Rwandan. If in the Rwanda Hotel I can see human nature and the hope of the world, in this movie, the loss of human nature will make people feel that the world is in dark. No matter what you used to see how many inspirational movies, no matter how kind this world you believe, after you finish this documentary, you will laugh at yourself about looking forward to the goodliness to the world is so childish and fragile.

Through this movie and the experience of the United Nation, we can know that the genocide in Rwanda can be avoided, at some point. However, these Western countries choose to ignore it due to their own benefits.  They even evacuate the army of the United Nation. Just like I said before, I know they will do, but when it comes true, it still makes me feel pathetic for thousands of life in Rwanda. We can see some pieces of evidence from the film. First is a conversation, basically said that Americans do not determine this massacre as genocide since if Americans determined as genocide, they must send the army to Rwanda. At last, when Belgian and French decided to intervene, the soldier said that if they do not intervene, these countries’ reputations and economic will be damaged. All they care just their own economy. The most impressive scene in the movie is the dead bodies, there is a large amount of them to show how horrible the genocide be. I cannot think how hard people’s heart is to see thousands of lives are killed in front of them and leave the country immediately. At that time, I have the same emotion as Romeo. “All these staff are done by Belgium, but now they just not care about Rwanda and take planes to fly away… These bastards” 

Anyway, to tell the truth, I do not like this film or the documentary. The whole film is too depressed and dark for me. In this film, the shadow of human nature is explored thoroughly. If you are interested in history and the politics about genocide in Rwanda, this is a great documentary since it explained the reasons and results of genocide in detail, as compared with Hotel Rwanda. In addition, this is from a Canadian solider’s perspective, not like in Rwanda Hotel is the victim’s perspective. In this way, the whole story is explained better. In fact, in the first part of the Rwanda Hotel, it is hard to understand since Hutu people just shouted and wanted to kill Tutsi, audiences are confused about what happened. Ok, let’s talk about this film back… Since I said this is kind of dark and depressed in the whole tone, it is better for you to not watch it if you are already in a depressed and stressful mood. It is too heavy and real.

[michelle-wang]

Hotel Rwanda: Film Review

It is hard to imagine, at the end of the 20 century, civilized society, in one country, all the law, morals, ethics, order, and human nature are all disappeared. You never think of that in just 100 days, almost 100,000 people dead, 100,000 real lives disappeared. It is even hard to imagine, all the people around the world keep silent when facing this tragedy.

This film is filmed in a real-life event. In Rwanda, there are two main nations: Hutu and Tutsi. Before Rwanda’s independence, this was the colony by Belgium. Since Tutsi looks more similar to Western and has whiter skin, Belgian let Tutsi people, who take up 15% of the whole population in Rwanda, take charge to manage Hutu people, who take place 85% in the Rwanda population. However, before Rwandan’s independence, Belgian let Hutu take charge again. In this way, the contradiction between each other explored. That was the reason why on the radio, Hutu kept instigating the nation’s angry, then more people outside the army were instigated. Tutsi people backed to the country called Uganda, ready to get the power back again. Then this thing just happened. The president of Hutu’s plane was shot, no one knows who did, even right now, the murder is unknown. However, Hutu people said this must be done by the Tutsi people, then, the genocide explored.

Just like the film showed, all foreign people have left Rwanda, no other country decided to help this country, just left Rwanda as a living hell.  Just like the western journalist said: “I will send these pictures to the world. They will say ‘Oh my God, it is horrible!’ and keep eating their dinner. ” That is right, totally right.  At this time, a hotel manager Paul took responsibility to protect 1000 Tutsi people, by his identity of Hutu people.  Paul made many friends in the hotel, hoped to get a little help from these guests. However, no one left when the war exploded, included the brave journalist who took the picture of genocide. Of course, we have no reason to blame him, he tried his best.

After the context, let’s discuss the feeling. What impressed me most is the children in this war, no matter the children of Paul or others who lost their family and parents. It is hard to release when sees their frightened eye. They rolled up together, hugged each other to get warm, helpless. They have the character of mature which should not have at their age, but this did not make any work. When all the white people left, there was huge rain outside. Even the rain was terrible, it could not cover the confusion and disappointment in children’s eyes. They did not have hatred, they just lost their way. When the car left, there is film music, folk music that sings by kids. The rain kept falling, the car left. There is hope in the song, then what?

Children are easy to be satisfied. One scene record that Paul and his wife were dancing in front of many kids. There was simple happiness on everyone’s face. These kids could not feel the emotion of leaving apart and been separated, just a simple action can bring a laugh to them. That moment was really joyful, but what about the future?

I never hate war so much.

In conclusion, there is no doubt that this film is in the grey and depressed mood since this is filmed by a real-life event. I do not recommend people to watch it when they already had pressure and negative emotion along, this will make them even sad. However, this is a successful recompose. It shows the historic event accurately. 

[michelle-wang]

Minority Report: Film Review

An interesting question to think about: If you already knew the future and wanted to change it, the future you knew would really be the future you wanted to change? Or would it be the future you already changed? In other words, are you sure this is still the future you wanted to change or the future you had already changed it? 

It is a bit complex. Let’s say this with an example in the film: the future precogs see about John is he will kill Leo, and then John wants to change it. He escapes from the catching of his colleges and with the help of precogs he successfully goes into Leo’s room and sees these photos. What if he does not want to change the future? Then we can predict he will be arrested at the beginning. However, the future precogs see is that he shot Leo. So we can say, the action he decided to change the future already be the part of his future. Let’s use the word of Lamar: “No one can stop him, he is already the part of the future.” We are living in right now, we all part of the future of the past.

I like the allusion in the beginning about preventing the crime. When John throws the ball to the table, Witwer catches it. If he does not catch it, the ball will fall to the floor, he catches it, in other words, he prevents the event that the ball will fall to the ground. It seems to be a perfect allusion, but people are not balls. The ball falls due to gravity, it is absolutely, cannot be changed and no other choices. But people are not balls, our minds are not gravity as well. “You have a choice”, just like Agatha says. This likes a paradox. People should have their choice when they decide to kill people or commit a crime. Fortunately, at the end of the movie, all of the people are freed. They have the choice to choose their own life.

Then let’s talk about the plot of this movie. The setting is in the future, 2054, people invent technology to know the crime before it happens. John, a policeman that works to catch and arrest people before they commit the crime. The future is predicted by three precogs. One day, John discovers he is the next murder, and he has no idea who is the victim, he does not know him at all. He does not trust it and decides to find out the “real” truth on his own. Surprisingly, he finds out that man is the man who took his son years ago. He does not kill the man at the end. However, the man wants John to kill him in order to give his family a better life. John finds out things are not as simple as he thinks. He finally finds out the person at the back is Lamar, his wife’s father, the owner of precrime technology. 

The mood of this movie, personally, I think is not dark. This is more likely to be a detective movie instead of a dystopian movie. I did not feel depressed but exciting. I do not think there are many narrative elements in the film. The most impressive things for me is the setting and the plot of the movie. They are attractive and pretty progressive at the time of 2002. There are many twists in this movie to make audiences feel exciting and curious about what will go on next. In addition, just like I said at the beginning, there do have some interesting questions to think about deeply. However, to tell the truth, the beginning of the movie is boring and confusing. I think the reason is it is not clear enough in introducing the background of this movie and the existence of precogs. If you like detective movies and like to think deeply, this movie is a great option.

[michelle-wang]

Children of Men: Live and Death

The setting takes place 20 years later. However, I do not take this movie as a sci-fiction movie since there is no advance technology. It actually will not matter if change the timeline into the present day. In addition, push the timeline forward can have the function to warn people that this may happen in the future to us. 

In simple words, this movie talks about that the world has not had a child for 18 years. Accidentally, Theo discovers a woman with a child inside her. He decides to protect this baby. In the end, he successfully brings Kee, the mother of the child, to the Project of Human Development with his life. Not a complex plot, but still can have things to make me think.

The theme of this movie, in my opinion, is the idea about life and death, which I write as my title. Except for the foreign woman, since the movie does not tell clearly whether she is alive or dead in the end, other people who want to protect the baby died at the end: Julian, Jasper, Theo……. Audiences may ask the reason why to let so many people died, is it just because this is a disaster movie? I think the answer is no. I interpret this as “Miracle needs life to be exchanged”, which also is the thing the director wants to tell people. When people are praying for a miracle to happen, be prepared to get enough things to change it. Form a new life in 18 years, such a huge miracle, need other’s life to exchange. It totally makes sense. In addition, death is sublimation. It is too thin to put all the hope on a baby in doomsday. However, if many people have the hope to change this world, this movie then changes from a baby can save the world (which I think totally not make sense) into a realistic movie, a movie to say how people react when doomsday comes. 

One big scene in the movie: when the baby is crying, soldiers shout to a ceasefire. Everyone, no matter refugees or soldiers are looking at him, trying to touch the baby, the future. The birth of a baby awakes the most precious value inside people’s minds. However, just after about one-minute silence, the fire interrupts this peaceful scene, the war begins again. 

It is not hard to awake people’s emotions, but it is hard to stop them from immersing in violence and bestiality.

Secondly, the fancy technics. There are many long take scene. One scene surprised me is when Julian is killed by the man on the motorcycle, the Focal Distance & the Definition. If we look at this scene in more detail, where should the blood bag stay to avoid appearing in the scene? How the window is broken? How should make the bottle falls on the window directly? But it just happens, in a second. Then the most impressive scene for me is when Theo is finding Kee, the unstable camera angle and the drops of blood. Both staffs give me a feeling that I am just following with him, that I am staying in the war as well. This scene makes me feel nervous and exciting. From here, I realize that this is a disaster movie. Following is the film music, for Theo crying for Julian’s death and Jasper’s death scenes. I think this plays a big role in bringing up audiences’ emotions. Since many of us have no experience the same as Theo, it is hard for us to feel what he feels. As the music comes out, we can feel some of the emotion as Theo feeling: his ex-wife and Jasper died in front of him. Interestingly, Theo stands with a tree both times. When Julian died, he squats and cries. When Jasper died, he does not cry and tells Kee he is fine. By using similar scenes and situations for Theo, the director here indicates the character development of Theo.

In conclusion, this is a good movie to make audiences thinking for a while. If you enjoying the diaster and action movie, Children of Men can be your dish. If you are looking for a sci-fiction movie, this is not a good choice. If you like watching the hero movie, Theo, in my mind, is a hero.

[michelle-wang]

V for Vendetta: Revolution in Dancing

Spoil Alert

The most impressive character in the movie - V. He is a killer, an avenger, a weirdo, an artist. He knows every word about Shakespeare, he loves Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, he gets touched by reading Revenge of monte Cristo. He knows how to cook, he loves old fashion, he likes listening to old songs from old CD recorder. Live with him feels like living in the 90s, enjoy but live away from crowded. All these characteristics of V we get from the dialogue of him and the setting of his room. What I like most about V, is his romance. By using the prop, every time V explores the buildings in London, there are fireworks alone. He wants people to remember November, 5th, but not just remember. He uses fireworks to light the whole darkness sky, just like V himself is a light to shine into citizens’ inside. He changed revolution into a festival, he brings the light and future. With the film music of march is played, V rounded by the red rose he plants and the mask that follows him forever, goes to the end stop: Capitol. The sun rises, he is the future. 

With no reason, V always makes me think of the wall with plants in the old cities in London, the River Thames when raining, the street lamps in Victoria style in the fog, all the things that are old, beautiful but darkness.

The setting takes place in 2040, London. Just like the book 1984, with the control by the government, people live with silence. V is the only survivor in the experiment by the government. His target of revolution is the whole century, which all the homosexual people, “terrorists” are disappeared like they never appeared in the society. The world with no difference, everyone is the same, Brave New World! During V’s revolution, he meets Evey and they fall in love. Evey says that why I know nothing about you, even the appearance beneath the mask, I still love you so much. I guess this is because they are so many people live with invisible masks, but V opens his soul with the mask. Mask is the best costume in this film, not just indicate the difference between V and others, but also allusion that the whole society is wearing the mask and citizens almost forget what should be beneath the mask. Personally, I think the film is talking about politics. “People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people,” said V in the discussion with Evey. I think this is what this film wants to tell people.

The film is tragic in tone the whole time. No matter is the weather is raining most time, or the identity of V or the sentence said by Evey: “He cared more about revenge than he did about her.” All these are foreshadowing the death of V at the end. There are two scenes touch me deeply. One is Evey decides to leave, V says to her: “If there is one last wish, can you come to see me before next November 5”, his voice shaking. He knows he will die on that day, and he knows he falls in love with Evey. He cannot stop his revolution, all he wants is to look at Evey again before he dies. The second one is when V sees Evey in his room, again, his voice shaking: “I never thought to see you here.” Along with this scene, I see the most romantic kiss I ever saw, the kiss with a mask. Their love is lonely but distressing. In this scene, the director uses Emphasize for the shot size, make audiences see the tear from Evey clearly.

In a nutshell, this is a fantastic movie for everyone. If you like the politic movie, there are impressive quotations and plots. If you like English literature, the words said by V are the best for you to investigate. If you like the action movie, there are slow-motion fight scenes. If you like old fashion, you can find it in V’s room and real music.