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Hằng Ngày - Every day - Short Film

Hằng Ngày is a short film about the small Vietnamese Island of Phu Quoc which with its rapidly growing tourism, faces growth in its waste at an unsustainable pace.

The film starts out with giving facts about the current population with respect to the number of annual visitors every year. It then goes on to show a trash site terribly overflowing with unmanageable amounts of waste, with few employees working day in day out to somehow make the situation a bit better.  

‘Hằng Ngày’ is Vietnamese for ‘Every Day’ and this short film manages to strongly portray how us humans as a unit cannot continue business as usual and how fundamental change is desperately needed. The term ‘Hằng Ngày’ is used cleverly as a double entendre for the everyday life of the people living in regions near Phu Quoc trash sites and working every day to manage the tremendous amount of waste being disposed onto these trash sites as well as shedding light onto the fact that over 300 tons of waste is added to the already gigantic pile of waste, every single day.

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AVIDO - Looks like Avido - Short Film

This short film follows the journey of David Ochieng, a budding fashion designer from the largest slum in Africa, located in Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya. The short film addresses hardships that kids including David had/have to go through to be able to attain elementary education. Instead of stressing too much on the hardships like most documentaries in this sector tend to, it showcases different pathways David took to reach where he is now. 

David ‘Avido’, as he likes to call himself, acquired an interest in fashion and sewing by deciding to take it up himself after getting frustrated with the lack of care and precision shown by tailors that he went to, to get his dance crew’s outfits sewn. It also shows how David’s passion wasn't just encapsulated by fashion, but also by the need to prove that good things can come from the slums too. The brand ‘lookslikeavido’ came into existence after people wanting to get clothes that look like his (Avido). 

This short film does an excellent job to shed light on people like David, who blossom in the most unexpected of places like Kibera, where he continues to design and make clothes that have gone on to being worn by international artists and models.

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Westworld - The Bicameral Mind - Out with a bang!

There were so many moments in this episode where I was terrified that it was about to end. I kept thinking "No, it can't be over yet, there's still so much left unanswered!" And yet the episode kept going and going. Clocking in at 90 minutes, the finale covers a truly staggering amount of ground. I didn't think it would be possible, yet somehow this episode manages to satisfactorily wrap up an entire season full of cryptic mysteries; Dolores' visions, the nature and purpose of the maze, Ford's new narrative, Wyatt's identity, the Man in Black's identity, the relationship between Ford and Arnold, and Ford's master plan are all revealed and still, somehow, managing to keeps it all tied together in its flavor of ambiguity that Westworld is best identified with. James Hibberd of Entertainment Weekly wrote in his review, "The more you think about this episode, the more brilliant it is."[1] David Crow of Den of Geek said in his review, "We have opened the mystery box and found a wonderfully thoughtful gift inside. It's an elegantly formed slice of misanthropic sci-fi. It is violent, and it is delightful.” [2] It would have been easy for the episode to collapse under the sheer weight of all this story, and yet it does not. Instead, it calmly, methodically parses out the information, focusing on one story at a time (for the most part). In fact, the episode can basically be divided into three acts. Act one, where Dolores faces off with the Man in Black. Act two, where Maeve executes her master plan. And act three, where Ford unveils his new narrative. 

Defying all odds and expectations, Westworld has delivered a slick, powerful, and oh- so satisfying conclusion to its powerful first season, which manages to leave every story and arc at a natural resting point, while setting up some exciting things for the second season.

References:-

1. Hibberd, James (December 4, 2016). "Westworld finale recap: 'The Bicameral Mind'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved November 16, 2018.

2. Crow, David (December 4, 2016). "Westworld Season Finale Review: The Bicameral Mind". Den of Geek. Retrieved November 16, 2018.

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Game of Thrones - The Long Night - Ends Quickly (* Spoilers*)

Immediately after watching this 82 minutes long episode, I was filled to the brim with exhilaration and appreciation for the direction and cinematography implemented on this episode. It kept you on the edge of your seat throughout the episode, especially after knowing the fact that it took the team over 55 nights to shoot that single episode. After feeling exhilarated and appreciative, the second thought that came to my head was that I was expecting a lot more characters to die, which further lead me to thinking just how did pretty much every single main character manage to survive? Alongside all that I was also thinking how I loved that Arya was the one to kill the Night King, especially after the fact that the developers/writers usually leave all the 'hero' stuff to Jon and it makes the most sense considering her training. I guess in a way it got me thinking about a lot of things, maybe that is the kind of effect the creators intended on leaving on their audience. And then it sinks in, that nearly 70 episodes of build up has lead to that? We learnt nothing about the Night King and his motive, leaving us to believe that he's just another stereotypical random bad guy who wants to destroy the world for no real reason. The Night King and his army have been teased as the biggest threat for the whole series just to be killed like that and ultimately serve no purpose for the entire series. Caroline Fromke of Variety wrote: "After years of underlining just how huge and terrifying and all-consuming the threat of White Walker destruction would be, plunging back into 'who gets to sit on that pointy chair' will feel very silly."[1] Zach Kram of The Ringer called it "a strangely unsatisfying conclusion to a storyline that has sustained the show from the very beginning... it seems like those most central questions will remain forever unanswered."[2] 

I'm hoping something happens in the coming episodes that changes this and shows that they were more significant than they seem to be or perhaps it might all link back to the point in this episode when Bran announced that he was going to do something, but by the end of the episode, it seemed for all that world like he did nothing other than fly a flock of ravens away from the battle!

All I can hope for in the end is that maybe (hopefully), we’re just not privy to whatever Bran did. And maybe (hopefully), we’ll find out the purpose of his white-eyed meditation in the ‘most important battle’ ever later...

References:-

1. Fromke, Caroline (April 29, 2019). "Game of Thrones': Battle of Winterfell Drains the Tension Out of Season 8". Variety. Retrieved April 30, 2019.

2. Kram, Zach (April 29, 2019). "RIP, Night King. We Wish We Had Learned Your Secrets". The Ringer. Retrieved April 30, 2019.

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Donnie Darko

Insight into the Interpretations

Watching Donnie Darko for the first time left me sitting deep with my own thoughts and a lot of questions. What really scared us in our childhood? the dark or the unknown? of course, it was the not knowing. Darkness itself means nothing, but our lack of knowing what’s there, our lack of vision is what scared us. So what scares us now? the future or the unknown? It is not knowing what tomorrow holds, success or failure, happiness or sadness, loss or gain or simply maintaining any of these things or not, that’s what frightens us. We all want to know what's coming. Whether the trial, of not knowing, is worth pulling through or if we even have enough time left to care about anything. Should this fear drive us into being better or would going through the motions, going through destiny really make our lives more worth living? Donnie Darko is a bizarre and confusing story about a troubled teen, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, who is warned by a large and rather disturbing bunny rabbit named Frank that the world is going to end in precisely 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds. The events that occur in those 28 days lead to Donnie realizing that he must sacrifice himself in order to save the world from the impending apocalypse. Jean Oppenheimer of New Times (LA) praised the film, saying, "Like gathering storm clouds, Donnie Darko creates an atmosphere of eerie calm and mounting menace"[1] The depth with which the movie pans out and the series of events that occur throughout those 28 days leading to Donnie’s decision can be interpreted in quite a few different ways. The creators of the movie never intended to resolve the ambiguity surrounding the story and have left the final decision in the viewer's hands.

One way of interpreting the events of the film is through time travel and alternative universes. In the movie, Donnie asks his science teacher about time travel which leads to the teacher giving Donnie a book titled ‘The Philosophy of Time Travel’ written by Roberta Sparrow, also known in the movie as ‘Grandma Death’. In this in-movie fictional book,

Still from the movie of the Science teacher giving Donnie the book.

Sparrow explains that time, the fourth dimension, even though being a stable construct, can be penetrated meaning that it can become corrupted/unstable. Due to this corruption, a tangent universe can be created. Sparrow states that “If a Tangent Universe occurs, it will be highly unstable, sustaining itself for no longer than several weeks. Eventually, it will collapse upon itself, forming a black hole within the primary universe capable of destroying all existence.”[2] In this interpretation, the entirety of the movie beyond the point when Donnie meets the bunny rabbit (except for the final scene) carries out within those 28 days in a Tangent Universe that is created when a jet engine falls on Donnie's room, appearing out of nowhere possibly due to corruption in the fourth dimension. Although it is never explained why the Tangent Universe is created, the book states that “The Living Receiver is chosen to guide the Artifact into position for its journey back to the Primary Universe. The Living Receiver is often blessed with Fourth Dimensional Powers.”[3] The Living Receiver, in this case, being Donnie and the Artifact being the jet engine. The book also states that the Manipulated Living and even more powerful, the Manipulated Dead must guide the Living Receiver to end the Tangent Universe and restore the Primary Universe. The various characters within the movie, regardless of their role and importance within Donnie’s life, act as the manipulated living, in the Tangent Universe, by subconsciously guiding Donnie to fulfill his prophecy and restore the Primary Universe. Frank, the person inside the bunny rabbit costume, travels through time within the Tangent Universe to push Donnie into an Ensurance trap. The Ensurance trap is created to push the Living Receiver (Donnie) to return the artifact to the Primary Universe, leaving Donnie no option but to complete his mission of saving the world. Gretchen’s (Donnie’s girlfriend) death sets up the Ensurance trap as it causes Donnie to shoot Frank dead after Frank accidentally runs Gretchen over. As a manipulated dead, Frank must travel back in time to make sure that the falling jet engine doesn’t kill Donnie in the Tangent Universe so that Donnie can fulfill his mission. Both Gretchen’s and Frank’s deaths motivates Donnie to send the jet engine into the Primary Universe to save everyone's lives. Donnie uses telekinesis to rip the engine from the plane, to send it through a wormhole to the Primary Universe back to the exact time when the jet engine falls in the Tangent Universe. Due to the events, the Tangent Universe safely collapses and we return to

Stills from the movie during the moment when (a) Donnie realizes what he needs to do to save the world and (b) Donnie drops the jet engine into the wormhole.

The Primary Universe back on October 2nd, 1988, the day Donnie is killed by a jet engine. While Sparrow’s book explains all of these details to make sense of Donnie Darko’s events, it doesn’t illuminate why all these rules exist or what deeper meaning lies beneath them. In a way, this literal explanation of time traveling rules, while seeming to clarify, only obscures our understanding of why the Tangent Universe should exist and/or why a Living Receiver, in this case, Donnie should sacrifice himself to save the Primary Universe from destruction.

A much simpler explanation and interpretation for the events in the movie is Donnie’s worsening schizophrenia. Donnie’s psychiatrist tells his parents that he is suffering from daylight hallucinations after Donnie told her about his friend, the giant bunny rabbit. Donnie’s reduced expression of emotions as well as his repeating hallucinations of a six foot tall bunny and delusions of an impending apocalypse are strong suggestions of psychosis or other forms of mental illness. Since Donnie is an unreliable narrator, it is possible that he created an entire narrative to make sense of his own delusions. However, this interpretation is complicated when the psychiatrist suggests Donnie to stop taking his medication after revealing to him that the medication he had been prescribed to were placebos, just pills made out of water. This can be seen as a hint from the director that Donnie doesn’t have schizophrenia and suggesting that the Tangent Universe is real.

Another way to interpret the film is as a metaphorical Christ narrative because, in the film, Donnie must fulfill a prophecy in order to save the world through self-sacrifice. Donnie can be interpreted as a Christ figure. A mentally unstable and misunderstood teen, Donnie might not be a typical Christ representation and his actions might be deemed as disturbing rather than redemptive, but the suggestion of a higher power controlling the film’s events makes us consider the presence of a god-like force in the story. The movie’s characters are motivated and manipulated by unknown forces more powerful than them for a purpose they don’t fully understand. The whole idea of the Manipulated Living and Dead guiding the Living Receiver toward an Ensurance trap boils down to something similar to the idea of having a given fate or destiny. Although Donnie is seen as a Christ figure in this interpretation and throughout the movie he follows onto a path where signs of God, awakening and/or other potential holy forces tend to appear in unexpected forms as well as Donnie’s innocent side that relates to the pain of others come through, it does not take away from the fact that Donnie surrenders to various unholy temptations before he fulfills his prophecy to the point where it almost seems like he feels like its a necessity that he fulfills the temptations as a part of the course and thus rejecting the idea of portraying himself as someone holy.

For me personally, it is the theory of time travel and alternative universes that makes for the most plausible interpretation of the movie. As at the end, the film shows a montage of most of

Stills from the movie showing the Manipulated waking up in the Primary Universe experiencing the residual effects of the trauma, making it seem like waking up from a terrible nightmare.

the characters, who interacted with Donnie in the Tangent Universe, back in the Primary Universe looking disturbed. According to Sparrow in the book, the Manipulated are haunted by their experience in the Tangent Universe, feeling the residual effects of the trauma. Indicating that erased memories and destroyed alternate dimensions can still have a reality. Whatever interpretation one might draw out from the movie, it is clear that Donnie’s ability to see the future confronts him with the dilemma of free will. His choice to follow his destiny or ‘travelling within God’s channel’ as he calls it, is a journey of awakening. Donnie awakens to an inner love that powers his sacrifice, even if his actions won’t be remembered in the so-called real world. Funnily enough, from what is written in ‘The Philosophy of Time Travel’, it appears that the continuing existence of the Primary Universe only requires the removal of the artifact from the Tangent Universe. Provided that Donnie was able to retain his knowledge from the Tangent Universe, he could’ve easily saved himself in the Primary Universe after returning the jet engine simply by getting out of the room but perhaps by that point, Donnie felt that there was no need to continue. In his acceptance of his fate and perhaps of God by traveling within God’s channel, he transcended his own mortality. There is more than enough ambiguity for viewers/fans to continue making new theories and interpretations but on a deeper level, the movie’s ending reinforces a message of the power of sacrifice, empathy and the ways in which our actions, mundane or drastic, can have complex unknowable repercussions in this universe and others.

References:-

Jean Oppenheimer, ‘PARK CITY 2001 REVIEW: Donnie Darko Plays with the Time of Our Lives’ (Indie wire, Retrieved 23-10-2018).

Richard Kelly, ‘Chapter One: The Tangent Universe’ in The Philosophy of Time Travel <http://www.donniedarko.org.uk/philosphy-of-time-travel/> (Retrieved 23-10-2018)

Richard Kelly, ‘Chapter Six: The Living Receiver’ in The Philosophy of Time Travel <http://www.donniedarko.org.uk/philosphy-of-time-travel/> (Retrieved 23-10-2018)