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I'm Back!
I just read an article about a town in Africa being burnt down which resulted in many men, women and children dying. As I was reading, I thought of how devastated and sad the people must be. I thought about how even though a lot of people weren't there for Hurricane Katrina, many people felt sad and wanted to find ways to help the victims. Do the people of Africa feel the same? Do they too want to help out the victims of this tragedy?
In class, we have been talking about a book called "The Waiting Years" written by Fumiko Enchi and one of her themes is universal emotion. In her story, a wife is asked to find a concubine for her husband and she is saddened by this. When something that we as humans find tragic happens, do we all generally have the same emotion? I think everyone is heartbroken when bad things happen, and happy when good things happen. The way we show are emotions may be different, but they are all the same non the less.
Monday, April 22, 2013
Making my way through the labyrinth that is foreign films
I am back once again to tell you my journeys in foreign film watching. I chose to watch Pan's Labyrinth mainly because it has a creepy looking faun on the cover and it caught my attention. Before I started watching it, I read a little review on it and cherished each word of the summary because without it, I would have been lost.
The film is about a young girl who finds a labyrinth when she moves to a new home which is a Mexican Army base with her mother and new step father. This movie takes the viewer to a new world inside this labyrinth and make you think about the things children can see.
While watching this movie I just kept thinking about how people grow out of playtime and make believe as they grow into the real world. I'm only twenty, which is still young, but I have lost my sense of imagination already. What if Pan in the movie isn't imaging this and there really is another world filled with creatures who see through their hands and creepy fauns? Are we blind to what the world could be? I think maybe growing up kills our sense of wonder. Instead of finding beauty in magic in everything, as we grow older we just try to get through life by paying bills and keeping the government happy.
Something else I found myself thinking was why in the world are people living in the woods to attack the army. I had a really hard time following this because there are two story lines, one is pan finding the labyrinth and the other is her step fathers involvement in the army. And trying to follow this was seriously difficult. I think that because I haven't learned the history of Mexico, I didn't understand. I probably should have done some more research, but oh well. Anyway... I found this movie to be very interesting and I even looked up the film director and found more films that he did. One that I watched was the devil's backbone and I loved it as well!
If you find time in the your busy life to watch at least one of these two movies, I suggest you do because they are both great and you can find that the Mexican culture is not as different as we think it to be.
Until next time!
Stephanie Walker
The film is about a young girl who finds a labyrinth when she moves to a new home which is a Mexican Army base with her mother and new step father. This movie takes the viewer to a new world inside this labyrinth and make you think about the things children can see.
While watching this movie I just kept thinking about how people grow out of playtime and make believe as they grow into the real world. I'm only twenty, which is still young, but I have lost my sense of imagination already. What if Pan in the movie isn't imaging this and there really is another world filled with creatures who see through their hands and creepy fauns? Are we blind to what the world could be? I think maybe growing up kills our sense of wonder. Instead of finding beauty in magic in everything, as we grow older we just try to get through life by paying bills and keeping the government happy.
Something else I found myself thinking was why in the world are people living in the woods to attack the army. I had a really hard time following this because there are two story lines, one is pan finding the labyrinth and the other is her step fathers involvement in the army. And trying to follow this was seriously difficult. I think that because I haven't learned the history of Mexico, I didn't understand. I probably should have done some more research, but oh well. Anyway... I found this movie to be very interesting and I even looked up the film director and found more films that he did. One that I watched was the devil's backbone and I loved it as well!
If you find time in the your busy life to watch at least one of these two movies, I suggest you do because they are both great and you can find that the Mexican culture is not as different as we think it to be.
Until next time!
Stephanie Walker
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