22

Aug

MOVIES: Before Sunrise

There is this one quote I really love from this movie and I remembered it while I was talking to a good friend this weekend.  The quote reads: “You have to resign yourself to the awkwardness of life.  Only if you find peace within yourself you’ll find true connection with others.”  Aside from how Ethan Hawke looked, this quote I think is what makes this movie very memorable for me; it’s one of my all-time favorites.

Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) met on a train in Europe.  It was not a typical meeting of strangers; it was an  instantaneous connection.  Jesse and Celine explored the beautiful city of Vienna for one night while having interesting conversations about all sorts of things from their mundane lives, to their ideas on long-term relationships, to their hopes and dreams, to their beliefs, to their emotional attraction to each other.  In one of these conversations, Celine told Jesse that if there’s any kind of magic in this world, it must be in the attempt of understanding someone sharing something.

I love to watch Jesse and Celine  talk and listen to each other.  They let each other talk for as long as each needs to.  Nobody cuts what one is saying.  While one is talking, you’ll see the other one is not busy judging the other or thinking about what to say next.  You’ll see the spontaneity and candidness  in the reactions.  You see them really connecting, really looking into each others’ eyes and trying to absorb what each is saying and meaning.

I love these kinds of conversations.  These are the kinds of conversations that  fill you up to the brim and make you feel inspired.  I remember a  friend of mine once said this kind conversation is like the work of two distinct souls trying to intertwine through words.  Soulspeak.   When you lose yourself in the sharing yet you feel you are more yourself than in any other ordinary time.   Before Sunrise beautifully captures this magical moment.  I am in love all over again!

 

273 days ago Short URL Comments

Movies

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29

May

MOVIE: Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist (2008)

We all want to have that one great urban adventure—you know, when you go out with your friends and let the night take you away, hopefully, to where your favorite indie band will play a secret show (and possibly fall in love along the way).

There are many movies about great love stories, some are short and sweet as in the 96-minute film When Harry Met Sally; others are stretched out into four-hour brilliance as in Gone with the Wind. But the special ones are those that involve music bringing two people together. Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist is a movie that belongs to the special kind.

Brought together by the love of mix CDs, indie band Where’s Fluffy? and their friends’ crazy adventure, Nick and Norah find each other having the greatest night of their lives. Especially because they had each other. And especially because they found exactly what they were looking for by the time the sun came up.

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist is about making a strong connection and letting the music and the night speak to your heart. It’s about realizing the most important thing about falling in love—that it’s not just about finding the right person; it’s about looking in the right direction to find that person.

Norah: There’s this part of Judaism that I like. Tikun Olam. It said that the world is broken into pieces and everyone has to find them and put them back together.
Nick: Maybe we don’t have to find it. Maybe we are the pieces.

Watch the trailer here:

P.S.

The movie’s OST is awesome.

358 days ago Short URL Comments

Movies

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23

May

Movie: RENT (2005)

Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes in a year. How will you make the most of it? What will you do if you know you’re not going to be able to experience all that? Will it drive you crazy to know you have something special and yet you can’t seem to use it to its fullest potential?

Rent. It’s about living your life as colorful, as wild, as risky as possible, because if you don’t, you’re wasting your time. It’s like making a beautiful cake and not eating it because you don’t want to spoil its beauty, and in the end it’ll be spoiled anyway because you left it uneaten too long.

Everything is rent. That’s the whole point. Our lives, our talents, our friends, our family, our material things, everyone we know. Everything is rent. Every character is battling with something that’s been rent to them. Their apartment, a girlfriend, a good friend, talent, and of course ultimately their lives.

Rent is a wonderful expression of everything positive about life. Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes—of living the Bohemian life, of doing what you love as long as you’re not hurting other people, of trying out new things that will make way for growth. Rent is more than a movie, more than songs, more than dances. Rent is life. And life is rent.

364 days ago Short URL Comments

Movies/Music

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17

May

MOVIE: Dinig Sana Kita (If I Knew What You Said)

Music is a big part of our lives. A lot of people have happy songs, playlists they listen to when washing dishes or when out driving in the middle of the night headed towards nowhere in particular. There is that one song that will always make us cry regardless of where we are, what we are doing and who we are with. For a lot of us, music is in the center of everything we do. You always hear people say that they can’t live without music, that music is their life. But what about people who can’t hear? Or those who can, but can’t hear the music inside of them?

Dinig Sana Kita (If I Knew What You Said) is a story about deaf boy who lives for music and finds it everywhere, and a girl who can hear but uses music to drown out the sound of the rest of the world. Their worlds meet and everything changes. When you combine music with love, something beautiful always happens. Their journey to follow their dreams, find themselves in each other and make beautiful music is a touching one.

The movie was a Cinemalaya entry back in 2009 and won Best Original Music Score for Francisbrew Reyes’ Sana Ako’y Marinig. The movie also features Sugarfree’s Wag Ka Nang Umiyak.

If you missed it in Cinemalaya, you have a chance to watch it again today at the Asia as our Society Film Festival at EDSA Shangri-La. Admission is free but it’s a first-come-first-served basis so make sure you arrive early.

Watch the trailer:


Cast:

Robert Seña
Lorenzo Mara
Romalito Mallari
Zoe Sandejas
Bronson Escalderon

370 days ago Short URL Comments

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01

May

MOVIES: The Story of a Sign (Short Film)


 
 
We are blessed with this wonderful gift of eyesight but can we really see?

With the “everydayness” of life, we have become desensitized with the world around us.  Everyday, we get off our beds, drink our coffee, take a bath and go to work.  We work and then it’s lunchtime. After lunch, we work again and then it’s time to go home.  We sleep on the bus on our way home.  We buy dinner at the convenience store.  And then we go home and stare at the television or facebook until we fall asleep.

The next day, the cycle comes back.  We have become automatons moving much more like programmed robots than living humans.

This short film entitled “Historia de un letrero” or “The Story of a Sign” never fails to inspire me during moments like these when the everydayness of life is sinking into me.  I can’t even remember how I knew of it.  But it has always been in my memory bank for years.  I love the music.  It is from the soundtrack of the movie “Il Postino” which features the life and poetry of Pablo Neruda.  I love what I feel when I experience this short film.

Today is a beautiful day.  Stop for awhile and really look and really see. . . . .

386 days ago Short URL Comments

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13

Apr

MOVIES: The Namesake – Following your Bliss

I first saw this movie halfway finished on HBO last year.  I told myself I was going to research the title but then the things of this world got in the way and I forgot about it.

Until today.  I finally found the title and I was able to watch the movie again, this time, from the beginning.  I think I cried 3 times.  It is a quiet movie that gives you a peek into the places and people of India. Beautiful. If you are used to seeing Hollywood movies with nerve-wracking special effects, I think you may not appreciate it. But then again, maybe you will.

The Namesake is a movie adaptation of the novel with the same title.  The novel was written by I discovered to be a woman writer named Jhumpa Lahiri .  I think I am going to look for the book version.

I am particularly moved by the character named Ashima.  Ashima was training to be a traditional singer in India when her parents married her off to Ashoke, a university professor in United States.  Ashima left everything in India to be with her husband in New York

Towards the end of the movie, Ashima found herself with nothing to do in life (Watch the movie if you want to know why).  Click here to Watch The Namesake Movie online.

In this one scene, when Ashima was talking to her friend, this is what her friend told her:

‘I was looking at this Joseph Campbell book the other day and he says, “When you are lost, you should close your eyes and think of when you were most happy.  Not thrilled.  Just deeply happy.  It’s called following your bliss.”

 

Ashima followed her bliss by going back to India and starting to learn traditional Indian music even if she’s already 45 years old.  By following her bliss, she has become what her name means.  Ashima means “limitless”.  I think everyone of us is limitless by nature because we came from a limitless God or Supreme Being if you may.  It is just us who give limits to ourselves.

Why don’t we try it together?  Let’s close our eyes and think of the time when we were MOST happy. . . .

404 days ago Short URL Comments

Movies

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05

Apr

MOVIE: Dead Poets Society

A movie about finding your identity, Dead Poets Society captures my heart because its theme is a general problem everyone goes through. We can’t grow and learn by the usual conventional thinking, and that’s what Professor Keating (Robin Williams) teaches his students. I really appreciate that he used poetry in making his students realize that “just when you think that you know how it works, you have to look at it from another perspective.” This is to say that orthodoxy may not be the most effective way in educating students.

It also makes me realize that restraining yourself from what you really want to do with your life is equal to being dead. One of the scenes I especially like is when he tells the students to rip the pages of the introduction off a poetry book. It means liberation and, since then, his classes meant walking in circles, standing up on their desks, kicking soccer balls while reciting poetry and listening to classical music.

He also tells his students on the first meeting that, “we don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion…”

Poetry, beauty, romance, love—these are what we stay alive for, according to Prof. Keating. Poetry is not just for a selected number of people. It doesn’t just satisfy personal whims—it’s what makes up our lives.

412 days ago Short URL Comments

Movies

31

Mar

LAUGH THERAPY: Geri’s Game – Pixar’s Short Animation

This short animation is still my all-time favorite.  I don’t know what’s so good about it.  I guess what I liked about it is Geri’s spirit, the way the animators have put spirit into the character of Geri.  It is amazing how they did it.  It must have required thousands and thousands of drawings to make Geri move and laugh like that.  Hihihihihi.

I guess one other good thing about it is that Geri is alone but he is not lonesome.  Can you see the difference?  We can be alone but not feel alone.  Heck, sometimes we can feel alone even if we are in a group.  But Geri knows how to delight himself even if he is by himself.  That’s a very difficult thing. Especially if you don’t have your cellphone, smart phone, iPhone, iPad or PSP with you.

I don’t want to play chess with myself but I want to learn how it is to enjoy those moments when I am by myself (without playing app games or lurking in facebook).

Here’s Geri for your laugh therapy today: :-)

 

 

417 days ago Short URL Comments

Laugh Therapy/Movies

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27

Mar

MUSIC VIDEO: 500 Days of Summer – You Make my Dreams

When was the last time you couldn’t help but dance and smile at every people you meet in the street?  I remember this part of the movie “500 Days of Summer” and I remember that feeling when you have finally got what you have been aspiring for and you couldn’t contain your happiness you want to rub it on others.  And in those moments, there has to be a great song to match the mood.   In the movie, it’s Hall & Oates’ “You Make My Dreams”

Music can make you feel good.  If you are feeling a little gloomy today because of the gloomy weather, the simplest therapy is to listen to songs that will make you stand up and walk with gait and smile at the world.

Remember that your happiness is your responsibility.  Sulk for a few days when you feel like it but don’t stay there for too long.  Hall & Oates is waiting for you.  Go ahead and play that song.  You deserve that happy song!

421 days ago Short URL Comments

Movies/Music/Music Video

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23

Mar

MOVIE: Struck (short film)

I was talking to a stranger last night and he shared a link to a short film titled Struck. It’s always fun when you get to talk to random people and they share something nice to you and you learn something new.

Apparently, the film was a nominee in the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. I will not say anything more about it and will let you judge it for yourself instead. But this I’ll say, it will be seven minutes totally worth your time.

Remember, if you’re not happy, then it’s not yet the ending. :)

425 days ago Short URL Comments

Movies

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