Shades of Pain

Uhhh, disappointed. I really thought its going to be some seriously sick movie or some sort. I didn't read the trilogy, I just heard about the novel from people previously, and I read reviews about the movie on several blogs. It was overly hyped and probably that was the cause of my disappointment. Sigh, where do I start?

The overall plot - boring. It had no substance at all. Were they even trying to achieve a love story? I'm not too sure. Releasing it on Valentine's indicated so (I thought), but its not even nearly close to a proper love story. There were no touchy scenes - except in its literal sense. So I guess the main focus is actually on the sexual parts only. The love part of the movie was poorly delivered.

Everything is so confusing. She is supposedly the romantic one right? She is the one who wants a normal loving, lets-stay-together kinda relationship. But, when he first introduces bondage to her and everything, she likes it? Erm sis, you are confused. I thought I had one sick person to deal with. Apparently both of them are sick and confused. Another confusing part will be the 'Dominant and Submissive' agreement. I think they got it confused with BDSM. I'm not too fond of Googling about the difference now. I'd probably ask some well informed people later on.

But to my understanding its different. He is supposed to be in control. But when she says 'No' to him, he stops? Dude wth. I'm assuming they are trying to say that he actually has true feelings for her, he can change, he doesn't actually want to treat her like an object and what not. The thing is, when you do that - you are making the entire plot so fragile. They didn't even establish what kind of person he actually is. I think they were trying to portray a villain with a conscience - but they failed miserably. The very short justification of his 'singular interests' wasn't enough to invoke any kind of compassion (if that's what they were hoping for) from the viewers. Actually, justifying his actions, just deteriorated the quality even more.

It was really confusing because, at times she kinda liked it all, at other times shes pissed off. She read the agreement clearly, even made changes to it and she agreed. Then later shes mad about the way he treats her, and he feels bad about it too? Whaaaaaaaat. Sighhhhhh. They seem like adolescents to me, seriously. Unsure of what they want in life. At first I was mildy impressed when he explained exactly what he likes. It shows he knows himself well - confidence. But eventually, he is just equally confused as her.

How could it have been better, for me at least? Lets see, I wished they established a proper love story first. If they want him to be a changed villain, then be a proper sadist first, and then change into a good guy. Here, its like they were floating on both planes without actually setting foot on one or the other. Sloppy people. Finally, the sex scenes. Actually can I even call it sex? No, actually its not. Tbh, its really nothing. Most of it were suggestive implantation of ideas - where actually nothing much is directly shown but its compounded with sound (heavy breathing and what not) - and the image is printed in your own mind. Yes, there were boobs and ribs everywhere, but cmon people, that was all they hype about? These people probably never watched any Swedish, French or South Korean movies. I can't say this is child's play, but the scenes are below average. Dear screenplay director, you have poor imagination.

Gawddddd, I still cant accept the fact that he felt guilty at the last part. Sighhhhhhhh. I'm like facepalm-ing multiple times. The fact that he felt guilty is more disgusting than the sex scenes - SERIOUSLY. The movie in my country is banned from screening probably because they just want to save our money. I assumed the novel will be better, but even that, my friends who read it said it was boring too. Life lesson? When someone starts any form of relationship (or even before that) with the sentence anywhere between the lines of 'No one can know about it' -  LEAVE...IMMEDIATELY.

Love Loop

 

Hey there! LOL wth. What kinda opening sentence was that? Nvm, I'm leaving it there. Yesterday I watched this Tamil movie. Anegan. Yes I know, it's Chinese New Year and all, and I haven't even watched Kingsman. I wanna watch Dragon Blade too. Btw, is John Cusack lost or something? Apparently, the showtimes for Kingsman wasn't appropriate and Dragon Blade wasn't being shown at my place. So yea. Here I was. Turns out, I loved it. Finally a love story (a tamil love story), that I did not puke to. Well, there has been others that are good, but not of recent. 

The story starts off in 1962 Burma. There's a couple - well Dhanush and the unknown-new-very-pretty-actress which falls in love. The usual happens - dad objects it, and kills Dhanush. The death was pretty epic. It was titanic-ish with the ship and all, but this time, they actually took the jump. Just in time, the dad shot Dhanush' head and clavicle. So, she was alive, but since he was shot, she just hugged him underwater and they died together there. Till now they movie was kinda like - mehhh. But then, the scene fast forwards to present (which just now they didn't really mention whether it was a flashback or not). The same girl (in current time) is in a hypnotherapy session with a psychiatrist, in a clinic. Shes actually telling the entire Titanic scene suicide under hypnosis. Obviously, this got me intrigued. 

Well, eventually the story unfolded and I'll provide a summary. Apparently since Burma, the couple have actually been reincarnated multiple times. However, in every generation, everybody's role is mixed up. Which means, in this life if Mr.X is her father, in the next generation, he will be in her life, but not necessarily her father. So in every generation of the couple's reincarnation, there's always a villain to stop them from actually being together, and most of it ends up with them committing suicide or being killed. So basically, the couple is actually fighting to be with each other.

What was the trigger to all this? The current time, the couple (they haven't actually got together yet) is working in a video game production company. The boss of the company (the villain now), uses a psychiatrist to induce imagination of young adults through psychotropic drugs (I think I saw Dopamine? I'm not too sure either. Pretty sure I saw ----amine). But this drug abuse got out of control. One of their colleagues had severe hallucinations and jumped off the window. The main actress however, due to the drugs, had recollections of her previous lives. The psychiatrist used regression therapy. Well, in real life, regression therapy is supposed to rekindle childhood traumas. There has been hypotheses that everything is actually recorded as a memory, so theoretically regression therapy can actually be used to trace back all the way to the birth canal. However, in this movie - she had the ability to see her previous lives. 

The conflict of the movie? In every generation, everyone dies. So when everyone is reborn, no one remembers anything. However, this time, there was an overlap. The previous villain, didn't die yet, but they were already reborn, and working for him in his company. For obvious love triangle reasons, he tries to kill them again, but this time nature itself killed the villain. So the reincarnation loop ended, and the couple finally gets to be together. I shall not describe the kill scene, because when put in text it seems weird. Watch it if you want. Hahaha.

The plot was really neat, and I really like neatness. If you want to direct complex plots like Inception, Memento, or Primer - you better be Nolan, Chan-Wook, Lynch or something. If you realize you are not, go with a neat plot. Its not easy to direct a reincarnation plot, if you mess it up, the whole movie is doomed. This was done really neat and tidy. The songs for the movie was nothing much, they could have come up with more emotionally songs that could have associated better with the overall mood of the movie, but I'm okay with whatever they offered. One other thing, that I found cute in the movie was (weirdly), in every different generation, the person that fell in love first was her, but the person that chased first was switched everytime. Hahahahaha! Kinda cute, I have no idea why. In Burma she chased him. In Madras, he chased her. Altogether, it took them four generations to finally be together. Another point to note was, they did not describe all four, they only described three of them, and only two was in full detail. Which made me love the movie even more, because they understood that 'less is more'. When people get the point of reincarnation and how it works already, don't push further thinking that viewers wont understand. Well, we do - thank you. 

At no point, I found the movie boring, I didn't feel the time passing. However, I shall not be bias. I shall still mention the weak point. Of course it would be the fighting scenes. Cmon tamil movies, either remove fight scenes, or get better at it. Tbh, I don't mind fighting scenes. Even Batman fights, but when he does it, he does it with much swag. Nolan actually takes the trouble to study punch moves and Bale actually trained a lot for them. Tamil movies always make the hero of the movie - fight like a superhuman - although he is obviously not. You can either make brilliant escapes when the bad guy comes, or you can fight stylishly. I rather see a cool fight - a really tough and violent one, rather than a lame one. Anyway, while you were lamely fighting, I had time to discuss the plot with my sister, so yea it was okay too. Hahahahaha! Overall, I enjoyed the movie. See ya!

The Metamorphosis

 

So I just read 'The Metamorphosis' by Franz Kafka, published in 1915. Its originally in German, and I read the translation by Stanley Corngold. I heard of Kafka before probably from one of my friends in school - a pretty long time ago. I randomly came across this - I can't remember how - and I was attracted by the idea of a guy changing into an insect. However, this story focused on something entirely different. 

The main character that changes into an insect (what insect is it exactly, is left to the imagination of the reader - only details such as the hard back and numerous tiny legs were described) is Gregor Samsa. His parents are only referred by Mr. & Mrs. Samsa and his sister is Grete. At first I couldn't really determine where this story was going. Somewhere around 3/4 of the story that I got a hint of what was his aim using the metaphorical interpretation of the story. 

The plot briefly. He changes into an insect, suddenly. At first his sister cares for him, and actually helps him adapt to his situation. His mother freaks out initially, but eventually comes around, but she has hope that he will return as a human. The father, is portrayed as the mean human being. However, the sister eventually gets tired, and wishes him dead - along with the parents. He understands the situation and he himself gives up and dies. 

To be honest, it is a short story but it is weirdly saddening and tragic. I like movies or stories that can send a message in a very short time. Its really difficult to do that. I am not really confident about my interpretation of this story, but I'm just going to go ahead with it anyway. I didn't really read any analysis of it yet. 

I think the story is talking about families that have a differently able child. It shows what the family members are really going through, and how they really feel. When Gregor changes into an insect, he can only watch his family suffer. He can't do anything to help them, he cannot achieve everything he wanted to provide for his family as the breadwinner. He, the 'differently-able' literally becomes a pest to the family. People are scared when they come into the house. His father, although so old, has to go to work because Gregor cant provide anymore. The mother and the sister also has to work. The sister has to sacrifice her dream of playing the violin and gets a job behind a desk instead. At first, the sister portrays the people who can accept changes. She takes care of him, but eventually gets tired and snaps. His mother portrays the people that hope Gregor can change back. This is the kind of people that seem like they are helping you, but they are just trying to change you to fit themselves. The father is just downright mean and even tried to kill Gregor. 

The story shows us both sides of the story. Gregor sees, hears, understands and feels everything, but the family cannot understand his language. Gregor is suffering in his own way. The family thinks Gregor cannot understand them, and they are suffering socially and financially. Both parties are suffering in their own way, and neither of them can be blamed. No parent hopes to give birth to a disabled child. They have to spend their lives taking care of their child no matter how stressful it can be. Try imagining taking care of a child with down syndrome, autism, or some other very incapacitating genetic disorder. I think, this is what 'the insect' is pointing to. Eventually, we all get tired, and they are just a pest to the normal people. 

The dragged death (took a couple of hours) but not a labored one, paradoxically magnified the effect of sadness. Gregor just understood that his family didn't want him anymore and gave up his last breath, full of hunger, pain, sadness and alienation. The metamorphosis is not exactly referring to Gregor - the insect, the mother or the father. It is actually referring to the sister, who changed from a caring one, to wishing Gregor would just die as she grew older. I guess we all, if stretched just enough, will eventually snap. This story is just, majorly depressing. Goodbye.