First post in 2 weeks hah. I don’t want to sour your mood so click for endless rambling. The following was written on paper just after my mom yelled at me. I don’t think anyone will read the entire thing, i know i won’t want to read it again. It’s like… i dunno, just that i feel strongly about this subject of film that my mom understands nothing about. I was never sure what course to take in uni, but i think.. i wanna aim for communications studies now. I’ll try.

My mom has the depth of… any character that Megan Fox plays. She cannot seem to comprehend anything more complex than a 1000-episode Korean drama serial about revenge or whatever (the one at 7pm every weekday on channel u) She just yelled at me cos i didn’t rent any movies for my bro and dad when she thought i did. That was THREE days ago and she just realised it and turned it into this overblown commotion involving me being compelled by this “spirit” in the rental store to selfishly rent “weird & meaningless” shows just to pass time. She even compared it to the previous argument about films (and renting them) Films in question happen to be The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, (500) Days of Summer, Bowling for Columbine & Case 39 (her choice. I’ll admit it wasn’t bad) Let’s take a closer look:

The Hurt Locker: “Why’d you borrow such a sad show?”

She called it a sad show during Sanborn’s sentimental ‘Death’ monologue at the end. “We watch movies to be entertained,” well look, film is a powerful medium to push ideas, msgs, actions, to make us think, to make us empathise, to make us understand that there are things in this world of greater importance than what we see with our own eyes. Hello? Do you even know there is a WORLD out there? Gulf War II? “Meaningless film”, you heart of stone? This is the real world. The multiple camera angles, erratic soundtrack, shaky camerawork, numerous close-ups, it all comes together beautifully to recreate the intensity & unpredictability of the battlefield. But i guess you don’t like that huh, to be shaken & stirred.

Inglourious Basterds: “Why is there so little English?”

Okay this film does have a lot of vulgarities, more than i had hoped for. But what was i thinking, bringing a Quentin Tarantino film within 200 miles of my mother. This film was in many ways wrong, yet all so beautiful. Violence can indeed be aestheticized and used to drive a point home, though i’m not sure what the point was in this show. Bit whatever, this was a a comedy & a fictional tale, the exact kind she’d lap up like warm milk on a cold night. And all her complaints about the vulgarities and whatnot: she should know how meticulous i am about the songs and movies i take in and the language i use. The closest i got to swearing was during PW, but you not recognizing that is really pushing me even closer.

(500) Days of Summer: “Is this M18?”

It’s PG btw, but that doesn’t seem to boost her alr negligible appreciation of this masterpiece. It’s the 2nd greatest romance movie i’ve ever seen and it’s truly raw heartbreak distilled & presented visually in a non-linear timeline that requires slightly more brainpower than a freaking newt to figure out. The last time we argued, it was over Memento and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind which were also presented in a non-linear format. She called those confusing and vulgar and probably thought the writers of those films were brain-damaged B-grade school dropouts throwing together random ideas. How shallow can you be man?

Haven’t seen Bowling for Columbine yet.

She’s accused me of mindlessly watching whatever funny shows the world praises. Move on woman. This isn’t the 16th century. Even then there was Shakespeare. We have learnt to hide words within words, meaning within stories, messages within characters. That’s why you let me study lit for 4 years. Film is mearly an extension of that onto an audio-visual platform. It is no less powerful than books and songs and is potentially infinitely more influential. So you think they are meaningless and weird?

Bullshit.

Meaning doesn’t exude from films in the 5mins that you watch while folding your clothes. Meaning doesn’t leap out to throttle you in the 10secs you take to walk past the tv. No, that’s the foul language, violence and sex jumping out off the screen to shock you, and when taken out of context it becomes utter bullshit, an embarassment to the arts and humanity itself. But when you sit down to fully appreciate a film and all it has to offer, it can even make hearts of stone bleed.

Guess i’m just feeling mentally repressed in this household. Sometimes i wonder if ppl mentally retard as they age or were just like that all along.

I so need God in my life.