Simple Thoughts

A few days ago, I was thinking over the movie I had watched a few years ago called ‘Awakenings’, it was about a doctor who found a cure (through a drug called  L-Dopa) for a mental institution which held patients with Catatonia, a sickness which caused the patients to be in ’sleeping’ mode.

I found the movie quite sad and touching and full of emotion… all the patients were so lively, and everyone was so happy, it was as if they were raised from the dead, but it became so sad, and an errie feeling lurked when the drug had no more use to help them be ‘awake’ anymore… as the mental institution grew quiet once more.

so, I thought back at my life… and sometimes, I could relate to this… weirdly. Sometimes, if you could catch me in a talking and opened mood, You could and will see the real me, but once that mood is gone, I would remain the quiet Stephanie once more. It is just so weird… perhaps, I was trained like this?

Similar Plot between The Devil Wears Prada and Curse of the Golden Flower:

Both show the important lesson: Life, fame, wealth is nothing without someone to share it with.

The Devil Wears Prada:
-Andy was pretty lucky to find this moral before things worsen, when she quit her job as working as Miranda Priestly’s assistant.
-Miranda did not quite get the point till it was too late, she chose to be a Ruthless Career Woman in the end.

Curse of the Golden Flower:
- unfortunately the emperor took too long and thus he was left without a heir, or anyone who would truly care about him.
- Prince Jai realized this moral, without a feeling of caring, he is nothing even if he could be the heir without his mother, and knownly having to feed his mother poison every day (or slowly killing her) until she died. Atleast he died a great death.

This leads into a discussion: It is hard to determine what is good for a certain individual, everyone has different values. Perhaps for Miranda, her career is most important for her, for Andy, it is having a bunch of good friends and a boyfriend who loves her, for Prince Jai, it is being a piety son, and for the Emperor it is all about winning.

There are too many different types of people in this world as a Chinese saying: There is one type of rice feeding hundreds of people to eat, and there are hundreds of people feeding on one type of rice.

I actually watched this movie quite a while back but I didn’t have the time to write about it.

Story Line
5/5
I really loved the storyline and I also thought the plot taught a very important lesson: You must be ruthless to being “successful” however, you might lose something more valuable which is friendship. Andy learned a lot when her friend said “The Andy I knew since grade 1, I knew her very well, but this person? I do not know a thing about her”

The Acting
5/5
The acting was excellent, Miranda priestly played by Meril Streep, showed wonderful skills throughout the whole movie, she was able to portray her character amazingly, especially when she was in paris without her makeup. played by Andy played by Hathaway showed a great contrast when she changed her character.

Clothing/Wardrobe
5/5
SO PRETTY! I loved the clothes there! they were so pretty, I would do anything to get those clothes (well… not ANYTHING but, gosh they’re pretty!)

The Set
3/5
The set, there is really nothing much to say about it, but I did love it when they went to Paris, so beautiful.

Overall rating: 4/5

Just now, me and my mom went to see The Curse of the Golden Flower. I really liked the story, which brings me to want to write this entry about it.

Story Line
5/5
Jay Chou’s character’s piety towards his mother was so touching. Ofcourse I don’t want to ruin the ending for
you! I could not understand why the emperor could be so ruthless, feeling less and so cold! While his second son’s (played by Jay Chou) is so loving towards all, although he was called the most rebellious, which I totally do not agree. I felt sorry for the empress, she had no choice, she was used by the emperor to gain his ‘power’ and now he wants to “kill her”. During the last part of the movie, When the Emperor asked Jay Chou to choose: being split into 5 pieces by 5 horses, or choose to feed his mother poison everyday, (of course, I can’t be a spoiler and tell you what he chooses) all he said to his mother was: I am sorry, I failed you mother.” the look on his face… I almost cried.

The Acting
5/5
I think everyone acted pretty well in this movie. They played their roles so well, I actually pretty astonished because usually some of those actors did not act too well, so I was pretty pleased and satisfied.

Clothing/Wardrobe
3/5
I liked the clothing, but I could not stand the extruding female breasts, which i found pretty disgusting, I hope foreigners who watch this movie don’t walk out of it thinking that the Chinese of the Tang Dynasty had such outrageous clothing. It is not real. Besides that, the clothing were all beautiful, especially Gong Li’s when she wore her robe for the festival. and the robe she had underneath when she took off the first robe.

The Set
3/5
I kind of hated the set, it was so yellow, it was so golden, during the first scene, I was like, OMG why does it look so much like those Western Royal Hotels? I guess, I could say it was a mix between Western and Eastern styles.

Other Reviews compared

According to Sophie, she said that “Chinese reviews in China, perhaps half of the people dislike this movie. They think it’s heavily commercialized,” I do not find it commercialized at all, it was perfectly… uncommercialized lol.

Overall rating: 4/5