Sorry to Bother You

Sorry to Bother You is a movie that portrays capitalism in a creative way. We can see at the beginning of the movie the kind of life Cassius Green lives. He stays at his uncle’s garage, on the verge of being kicked out since he can’t pay his uncle for the rent, and his uncle can’t seem to pay his landlord either. This led him no other choice but to go to RegalView and work as a telemarketer. At first, he had a hard time with his job, but after making use of a “white voice” in order to talk to customers, he started rising up to the ladder and he later became an elite Power Caller. This shows how there is a certain life that white people live that everyone aspires to have.

At the Power Caller suite, he realized that RegalView’s real customer was the CEO of WorryFree. Due to his need for money, he abandoned his principles. WorryFree is a company that utilizes people and subjects them to extreme conditions. It portrays a false advertising of a “worry free” life within their compounds. We can see from here how society and its wretched institutions hinder people from being capable of exercising the higher faculties in life. Steve Lift, the CEO of WorryFree, uses people as mere means, without recognizing the humanity of his workers—their goals and aspirations in life. In the movie, he literally did not recognize the humanity of his workers by turning them into horses.

Sorry to Bother You is an interesting movie. Other than the capitalist theme, it also shows how art is also used to protest against oppressive institutions.

Repo Man

Repo Man is another movie that I liked.

I had different impressions of Otto all throughout the movie.

At first, I thought he was simply a teenager that wanted to earn enough and escape his town. When approached by a man and invited to become a repo man, it seemed like he was a good person for turning down the offer. He has principles that he live up to, and becoming a repo man breaks those. However, upon learning that his parents had donated the money that was supposed to be his after finishing school, he knew he was screwed. He could not depend on them anymore and he knew he was the only one who can make ends meet.

It seemed ironic for me that Miller, the person who said that the more you learn to drive, the less intelligent you become, was the first person who successfully entered the car. Later on, Otto joined him in the car. It seemed like Miller was the person that knows these kinds of things. Could he be the owner of the Chevrolet Malibu car? During one of their conversations earlier in the movie, Miller said that those people who disappear go to the future, and through flying saucers. Miller being able to drive the car was something that I did not expect at all since he seemed like the person who is not given focus that much throughout the movie. I think that Miller and Otto may have gone to the future after the conversation they had before.

Although the effects were not that great, I still enjoyed the movie for its plot.

The Endless

The Endless is the movie that made me feel frustrated and thankful at the same time. I was frustrated at Aaron even from the beginning. After learning that they escaped that place when they were young, I was shocked that Aaron would want to come back. His brother told stories of how where they came from was a cult. I would rather believe Justin who thought that it was a UFO death cult to save my life, rather than from Aaron who was still a young kid who barely remembers anything from when he was there.

I never liked horror films and after seeing the birds that formed a circle, I thought this movie was gonna involve witches and the like. I was not entirely wrong, though. The Endless involves aliens or unknown beings that make use of humans for their own amusement.

Upon hearing from Justin that the people from the community never aged at all even if it has been years since he last saw them, that already creeped me out. I wondered why they were not leaving yet.

I read a summary once again of the movie and I saw that at the ending, Justin told Aaron to refill the gas tank, but Aaron said that the car’s gas tank gauge has always read empty. I don’t know if this were anything significant but I thought this could mean that they did not really truly escape. They are stuck in a loop that makes them think that they were able to escape.

Velvet Goldmine

Velvet Goldmine is one of the films I liked. It portrayed two different stories: first, it showed a man who knew who we wanted to be, yet did not really expressed his real sexual identity, and years later, it came rushing back to him after being assigned a report he has to do that involved his childhood. Second, the movie also showed the rise and fall of Brian Slade.

A few minutes into the film, I immediately noticed the big screen that shows Tommy Stone. I felt like there is an importance to that, and later in the movie, that feeling I had was confirmed when it was revealed that Brian Slade is Tommy Stone.

The movie depicted the story Brian Slade. It showed how his aspiration made and broke him. He always wanted to become different each time, and maybe he took it too far when he faked his own death on stage.

From what I saw online, the movie was actually supposed to be a project for David Bowie, but he disapproved it. This “limitation” however, set the movie free, as there is no historical restrictions for the directors to employ. They are free to do whatever they want.

I liked the way it was told, from a closeted fan’s perspective. Arthur Stuart had to go back from where he came from and reminisce the times when he had to hide his real identity from his parents. He was professional still, doing his job as a journalist. He uncovered the truth about Brian Slade’s faux death and Tommy Stone’s real identity.

My Own Private Idaho

This movie was also in a way confusing for me. Most of the time, however, it made me think how attractive Keanu Reeves was (haha). I looked this movie up and I was shocked that it was actually a loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Henry IV.” Unfortunately, I don’t exactly know what Henry IV was all about.

One of the things that confused me was Keanu Reeves character. He seemed to have everything he wants, yet he lives a life that is in a chase. He does everything that disconnects him from his family.

Another thing that amazed me was how they could fly out to Italy easily. They had no money, yet they were able to find a way. They allowed themselves to be used by a man in exchange for something in return. I felt sad for Mike because he seemed like a lost child all throughout the movie. He seemed like the type of person who just needs a little love and affection from the people that matters to him. He sought for that kind of love from Scott, who unfortunately did not reciprocate it.

The part where Scott pretended did not recognize the “family” he had hurt me a little. Even though they were not necessarily good influence to him, they seemed like a real family. He made promises with them after he get his inheritance. Even after the death of one of the most important people in the group, he still acted like he did not care. The way they mourned for him, however, was quirky. They were indeed saddened by his death, but mourning for him was done differently. They were loud and jumped around, compared to the funeral that Scott had, which was quiet and solemn.

Frankly, even after watching the film, I did not know what I was looking for, what I was anticipating, or what I wanted to grasp by the end of the film.

Trainspotting

Weirdly enough, Trainspotting is not really the kind of movie I would watch. I liked the movie, which is something I did not expect. I felt different kinds of emotions after watching Trainspotting.

Trainspotting has a different take on drug abuse. When we usually talk about drug abuse, it is something that is taken very negatively in our country. Duterte, even when he was still campaigning for presidency, mentioned that he would implement a war on drugs when he becomes president. This, alongside with change, became his trademark. He made a promise that he would eradicate drugs within 3 to 6 months of his term. However, we are now in the third year of his term and, he was actually not true to his words. Or, his promise was not actually doable with his means of eradicating drugs in the country.

Trainspotting shows a different side. It shows how drugs affect a person, how it changes them for the worst. But this does not mean that, there is no chance for the person to become better. Trainspotting allowed us to see that there is, indeed, a chance. It was a long and hard journey for Mark Renton. It was a struggle for him. He knew that he had to stop with doing drugs because it could be the death of him. There were a lot of times in which he started but he eventually failed. This did not stop him from pursuing his goal of not doing drugs anymore. And just when we thought he was finally able to become a person that is “part of society” (a person who has a job and does not rely on drugs anymore), Begbie came into the picture and started ruining his life once more. However, instead of going down with drugs again, he knew better. He prioritized getting his life together. He knew how far he had come and he won’t let a person, let alone Begbie, ruin his progress.

I did not expect the ending of the movie at all. Grabbing the money the group received from a transaction, but he still left a little money for Spud. And unknowingly, I felt a little joy when he did. I couldn’t blame Renton for doing what he did. Begbie and Sick Boy were gonna be the reasons who were gonna bring him down. And after a lot of struggles he had in starting his life all over, he did what he knew could help not only him, but also Begbie, Sick Boy and Spud.

Futureless Things

At first glance, Futureless Things seems like a light movie, but after watching three movies in this class, I should have expected a twist. At first, it has a little sweet romance in the beginning in the movie, and slowly, we see the pattern that the movie is structured in a way that a store clerk leads a mini-story. These mini-stories then all connect together that affect the main story of the movie.

This movie also tackles a couple of themes or issues that are prevalent in the Korean culture.

Racism

Currently, there exists an unspoken racism in South Korea against North Koreans. Koreans make up 96% of the country, making them one of the least diverse countries. Since they have limited interactions with other ethnicities, this could explain the discrimination that they practice.

This was depicted in the movie when a homeless man was harassing the store clerk (Min-hee). The store clerk is ethnically North Korean but became a South Korean citizen. The homeless man discriminated Min-hee in different ways:

1. He used the North Korean accent on the store clerk.

2. When the man wasn’t able to pay for the remaining 10 cents, he even called her “commies” and told her to “tell that guy Kim Jong Un (who is the current leader of North Korea) to pay it back.”

3. After a while, he came back to the store and frantically started grabbing items from the store. When asked by the North Korean store clerk, the man said that North Korea is firing a nuclear missile. He was worried that when war broke out, South Koreans would be wiped out, innocent people would be killed, and women would get raped. It was quite obvious at this point that it wasn’t true at all.

Despite the store clerk being a South Korean citizen, there still exists a discrimination against those who are of North Korean ethnicity.

This shows that even the beggar from South Korea thinks that North Koreans who are living decently are below him

Language/Literacy

In Korea, not many Koreans can speak English well. Being literate in English is a prestige because it signifies that the person is rich or well-educated.

English is taught in public schools but the best English speakers are those who can afford an education (usually abroad) that can teach them how to speak in English well. It is very common in Korea for parents to send their children to another country to learn English.

As seen in Ki-Sun’s part, he is trying to learn English during store hours. He was caught by the store owner and reprimanded him how store hours shouldn’t be used to learn English.

Ki-Sun was also discriminated by one of the customers from the store. The mother and her daughter came into the store speaking in English, but when he tried to talk to them in English, they ignored him instead of replying. When the mother was going to pay, she talked to him in Korean, knowing well enough that the clerk tried to talk to her in English.

There is a discrimination in Korea against those who are not capable of speaking in English well.

Plastic Surgery Culture

Plastic surgery has become a culture in Korea. It is very common for women to enhance a certain part on their face.

This was shown in the movie in 2 different parts.

First, it was during Sung-joon’s (the DJ) part. We can see how the woman was looking for food that has the least calories or at least food with calories that is below a certain calorie amount. After a few while, she came back and started grabbing anything her eye can see.

The second time this theme was tackled was in Ki-Sun’s (the person trying to learn English during store hours) part. 3 women who were wearing hijab came to the store. One woman removed a part of her hijab, showing how she recently underwent a nose surgery, and asked Ki-Sun whether she looked like a Korean celebrity.

These scenes show how there is an obsession to look like a Korean idol. A Korean idol is typically skinny, fair-skinned, has a small nose, double-eyelids and a prominent jaw.

Diversity of Religion

In Hyun-soo’s (actor) part, we encountered a man who buys a lottery ticket and does all kinds of prayers before scratching it. Everytime he wins, he makes use of his winnings to buy another lottery ticket. He turns to different gods for them to bless him with a win. But when he stopped buying tickets, he neglected the paraphernalia he used to pray to different gods. He only turns to a religion when he needs something in return.

The third man the Hyun-soo met was the typical door-to-door religious person we meet. We feel compelled to listen to them out of respect for their religion.

The last person however, has an interesting outlook at religion. He makes use of philosophy of religion to tell Hyun-soo what cigarette he wants to buy.

There is an equal distribution of the major religions in Korea. They are able to coexist with each other. Any religion is widely accepted. According to korea.net, Korea is a country where all the world’s major religions, Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism and Islam, peacefully coexist with shamanism.

Schizopolis

The movie started and ended leaving me confused the entire time. I failed to understand and connect the things happening in the film. Having this movie as the first one we are going to watch for this semester, it is really something I did not expect. I did not really like this film. It was quirky and different from the movies that I usually watch, maybe that is something film enthusiasts would like; but as a person who enjoys the mainstream kind of movies (or one could say just an average person), Schizopolis is not really my cup of tea. Or maybe I simply did not appreciate this kind of movie enough. The movie overall feels like there is no one cohesive plot. There are different things that happen at the same time and yet feel like they are connected with each other. Some people in class were laughing at some scenes but I just spent the whole time watching trying to understand the film. Whenever they would laugh, I felt more lost since I wasn’t really sure what they were laughing at. I hated the feeling of feeling confused the entire time, trying to decipher the situation and what the characters are saying. It was only during the class discussion that made some sense to this movie. One example was the porn-like scene. I would not have realized that until someone pointed it out. I could not understand why the characters in that scene had to talk gibberish? Weirdly enough, I may have understood some things that they were saying, just pure guess out of the context. However, during the class discussion, someone also pointed out how no one really cares about the story of a porn video. This could have attributed as to why the characters were speaking that way. Moreover, the scenes where Fletcher Munson becomes a different person were another part of the movie that confused me. It seemed like Fletcher and his wife had their marriage on the rocks for quite some time and Fletcher’s writing of a speech for his boss seemed like the tipping point. Fletcher was not supposed to be the person who is the writing the speech but his boss gave him the job. It seemed like Fletcher is not really into his work or does not really know how to make speeches since as shown in the movie, he seemed to have a hard time. This seemed to put Fletcher on a ton of pressure that it affected his relationship with his wife. Their conversations had merely become a description of what they were saying, a generic type. It could have been anything based on the description, noting that their marriage is deteriorating into a mere courtesy.

Overall, watching the movie for the first time did not really make me appreciate the movie. If I were given the chance to watch it for the second time, I might be able to understand it a little bit more than the first. Watching this kind of movie would require me at least to watch it twice before I can comprehend anything that is happening in the movie.

Shin Godzilla

I had mixed feelings after watching Shin Godzilla. I am familiar with Godzilla, a dinosaur-like monster from Japan, but other than that, there is nothing else I know. I had a different expectation as to how the movie was portrayed. Indeed, it showed Godzilla destroying a city. I expected the movie to show civilians affected by monster, however, it focused on how the Japanese responded to Godzilla as a crisis. It focused more on the politics behind it. But the way they responded to Godzilla was also different from what I expected. I thought they would fight off Godzilla in a way Pacific Rim did. Even though it is different, I was not disappointed at all. Instead of entirely focusing on Godzilla and how it destroys the city, the movie mostly showed how the Japanese would respond to a disaster. And their response still corresponds to their culture. They still respect the hierarchy in the organization. They made sure that the order and procedures are being followed, even if the situation was an emergency and calls for an immediate response. The movie also addresses the history of Japan. When they started talking about having the need to drop a nuclear bomb to be able to kill Godzilla, Japan was very wary and did not want a repeat of the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki back in 1945. Even though the use of the nuclear bomb was to kill something that threatens the country and not because of human greed, Japan still did not resort to that solution. Instead, they looked for different ways on how to respond to and solve the problem. The movie also showed the resourcefulness of the people of Japan. Indeed, they were able to find a solution that did not involve destroying a city. It was something that would involve teamwork and cooperation of its people. Through the great minds that worked together, they were able to come up with something that would not kill Godzilla, but would make it passive and subject to experimentation. They showed how responding to a problem or crisis, we don’t necessarily have to resort to extreme means. There are different ways on how we could solve them, we just have to think things through.