American History X

Despite of violence in the movie, I thought “American History X” is positive and optimistic movie sending a message of “being equal”, and “racism and hate crime is ethically wrong”.
Now, I understand why the rest of my class mates choose this as the Best U.S. film.

In some scenes in the movie, to be honest, I felt like I wanted throw pop-corn onto the screen. Because the scenes recalled my personal memories when I was called “Jap” in front of my face by someone with unfriendly voices, and some obvious hostile words and expressions to my husband who has brown skin in my presence.
These are just examples, and I felt very LUCKY about myself that I could experience this kind of “discrimination” in today’s world. At the same time, sometimes it is unbearable experiences to remember. It feels like you were accused by someone who doesn’t know you at all for doing something wrong for nothing. May be, I should not travelling around the world nor study abroad, but I am not naive enough to stay in my home country.

As an international student living in the Unites Sates, I always amazed how people are careful about the racial related issues and fairness whatever you skin color is, because from my experience, some people and some parts of the world are not ready for racially diverse culture yet like in the United States. At least, discrimination is against the law in the United States, which protects the minorities.
(In some countries, things are much different in terms of discrimination whether it is visible or not. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4397056.stm)

In the film, the several social issues are well depicted in the society, such as racism (hate crime), illegal immigrants and gun control and so on.
For Derek Vinyard, being part of Neo Nazi group helped him to grief loss of his father. In addition, the mentor, Cameron, helped him that he is doing right thing based on the belief.
By being the part of the “group”, Derek became the young leader, however, later in the movie, Derek found himself that his belief was worng.

I think this movie throwing good questions to us why the United States has so many illegal immigrants especially from across the boarder and why some nationhood in the United States still remains poor.

Diarios de motocicleta

I am not a backpacker (for definition and more information of backpacker/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backpacking_%28travel%29) all the time however, I love to go for a trip and, and I love the idea of the backpacking trip. Unlike group tour travelling, individual trip can be adventurous. Moreover, you can make your own schedule or meet local people who probably wouldn’t see you if you were in the tour set by the travel agency.

Travelling by motorcycle, Fuser and Alberto not only they felt a dynamic nature of Latin America, but also they met many people, sit down and had conversations. Especially Fuser, who came from wealthier family in Buenos Aires, was touched by those who were struggling to survive their lives.

The beginning of the movie depicted Buenos Aires when the city used known as “Paris of South America”. The buildings and city structures had European influence. Especially, the apartment where Fuser’s family lived had a art décor taste. Although, the story based on 50’s in this film, Buenos Aires looked quite developed. There were lots of cars in the city as well as people.

After Fuser and Albert left Buenos Aires, they passed Pampa area, the homeland of Gauchos. The Pampa grass looked like Japanese silver grass, but the land was vast and flat like the farm field that you might see from I-80 when you drive somewhere between Omaha to Kearney, Nebraska.

The landscape of Patagonia, especially Fjord, was very opposite to the scenery of flat Pampa land. At the same time, the trip got tougher.

Fuser and Alberto met more people in Chile and Peru, and most of them were indigenes people.
I think Machu Picchu site was symbolic scene in this film, because it really showed Fuser was inspired the heritage of indigenes people. At the same time, he started questioning himself why there is a gap between the straggling native Latin American who he met during the trip and the “Heritage”.

In San Pablo, Peru, both Fuser and Alberto volunteered in the Hansen’s disease facility. Actually, there were colonies like these in Okinawa, Japan as well. It was built in 1950’s, and people were segregated from those who were not infected.

Unlike Fuser, Alberto was always humorous and spontaneous during the trip. I think it is helpful to have a company like Alberto when you go to trip, so you can get over tough times without taking things too serous.

Beat the drum

To be hones, I do not have any family or friends who have HIV virus, yet. In some classes, I had learned that AIDS is epidemic disease threatening people all around the word however, I still couldn’t get how AIDS is affecting our society, even I was aware what kind of disease AIDS is.

“Beat the drum” really showed me how both country side and the city area threaten by AIDS, and what could be the cause and prevention of this epidemic.

In Musa’s village, there were not many middle aged generation, because most of them died from AIDS. So, the main residents in the village are elderly, young children, and babies.
The villagers’ lives were depending on the smaller scale of agriculture, however, the losses of the active middle aged generation affected the productivities of the village.

The village consist group of one room houses made of clay, and straws (branches) roof. Most of the house did not have the door.
The climate around the village seemed dry (savanna) so there seemed no forest around the village other than smaller bushes.

The people in the village seemed to follow the traditional local religion of Zulu. So, the Sharman sacrificed the cow, which was the only live stock of Musa’s family.

The track terminal of rural area seemed not only just terminal but they also have prostitutes. Most long distant truckers were seeking some comfort from these prostitute as well as Nobe, the truck driver from Johannesburg.

Life in the Johannesburg definitely had a faster pace than the village life for Musa.
Like Favela in Rio de Janeiro, it seemed there are some sights seeing tour in Soweto as well.
In Soweto, South Western Township, some homeless people living in the house using cardboard. The cardboard houses build under the highway and each house almost share the walls in the limited and narrow spaces.

Street kids lived in Soweto as well. And most of them were involved in small crimes like robbery or pick-pocketing in order to survive. However, Musa, honest little guy, stayed away from those street kids activities.

Musa and the owner of the truck company in this movie symbolized the positive change in South Africa. Musa’s attitude affect both people in the Village and the city how people really face AIDS to change the current situation. The owner of the truck company, at the same time, realized what he thought to his son, who had AIDS, was the right things to do for the society than seeking own profit.

I really hope the awareness and right information can stop this epidemic.

美的人生/Singapore Dreaming

The movie depicted the typical Singaporean working-class family.

Given the Asian economical boom of the last few decades, including in Singapore, many families experienced a societal transformation from the traditional values to modernized values. This change in values brought confusion to many people as well.

In the film, The landscape of Singapore looked very similar to other Asian metropolitan places like Shanghai, Hong Kong or Tokyo. The region seemed very urbanized and filled with skyscrapers along the islands. This tells us how “living in apartments” is popular in Singapore.

The Loh family, Chinese-Singaporean family, lived in a public apartment. Like in some other big Asian cities, living in an apartment is pretty common. A few decades ago, the “better off” families influenced the apartment market. For example, those who could afford preferred to live in the prestigious western influenced designers’ apartment with “Eames chairs”. Mr Poh and the older generation, was also aware of these societal changes, so he expected a lot from his son who apparently “attended” college in Idaho.

The social class structure of modern Singapore is also depicted in the film. Education has great value Asian countries. For instance, Singapore is (always) ranked as one of the first countries for many years in trends in mathematics and Science(an international assessment of the mathematics and science knowledge of fourth- and eighth-grade students around the world). In addition, it is more common than for any other Asian society for the young Singaporean to go abroad to study in countries like Australia and the United States. As a result, it became very competitive for the overseas graduates from Singapore to find better jobs back home. If you want to be a successful business person in Singapore, you need to have a degree from a well-known school.

Unlike its neighboring countries, Singapore has significant cultural diversity. In terms of language, for example, there are several recognized languages like English, Malay, Mandarin Chinese, and Tamil (or Hindu).In the film this was clear that most people spoke in Singlish (Singapore English) and Hokken, one of the Chinese dialects from Hokken Province. Close to the end of the film, CK (Mei’s husband) was trying to talk in Cantonese even though his mother tongue was not Cantonese.

The story also depicted Siew Luan, Poh’s wife. She seemed to be a traditional submissive housewife of the older generation. When the whole family was speaking in English, she was the only one who couldn’t understand the conversation. This kind of submissive women can be seen widely in some Asian countries.
To me, it is always exciting to watch an Asian movie because I will always find similarities in the cultures depicted in the movie and the values of my culture.
In this movie, the funeral was presented a Chinese Buddism (bit of Confucius influence)ritual, however, it looks very similar most of the Japanese Buddhism funeral.

Tsotsi

The movie showed the contrast of urban and rural landscape of South Africa.
The urban side of the city, especially the station seemed like if it was in a developed country. It was hard to believe that it is actually Johannesburg’s central station; the building looked modern, and so did the train(subway). Like in most developed countries, the station seemed diverse and lots of business activiity going on.

According to the Wikipedia, the Sowet area (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soweto ) where Tsotsi lived is also a urban area of Johannesburg. Sowet looked very similar to favela in Rio de Janeiro. However, the historical background in Sowet makes it much different than that of “the favelas”. The houses were made from steel craps, wood or thin panels. Sowet area was also spread out flatter than most favelas in Rio de Janeiro.
In Sowet, there were many garage-size houses and it looked like there was no tap water in some houses. So, people have to go out to get some water. Also, there was no electricity, except in the bars.

The Surrounding areas of Sowet and the house where Tsotsi robbed the BMW looked like suburbs of Johannesburg; it looked more residential and the neighborhood looked much more organized than Sowet. Basic infrastructures were available and well taken care of.

The contrast between blacks and whites were clear. There were no white resident in Sowet. The only white in Sowet was a police officer. There seems to be some rich black people outside of Sowet. Some of them were in the field of law enforcement, however, most of them were not in executive positions.

The Apartheid was not necessarily the major component of this film. However, the film depicted more of the consequences or ramifications of the Apartheid.

The baby in this film plays a symbolistic role in this film. The baby symbolized hope. The baby taught Tsotsi huge life lessons and to get over his traumatic childhood. Tsotsi made a living by stealing money and lives from ordinary people outside of the neighborhood, and finally learned that what he had been doing was illegal and morally wrong after he “had” a baby. Tsotsi’s transformation made him take care of others like Boston who was beaten by Tsotsi earlier in the movie, and even saved the father of the baby boy. At the end of the film, Tsotsi turned himself in to the police to end the vicious cycle.

The movie ends with Tsotsi’s transformation and the hopes for a renewed future for South Africa after the Apartheid.

City of God

The film is based on a novel written by Paulo Lins who also spend his early age in the favela know as “Cidade de Deus.” (http://socrates.berkeley.edu:7001/Events/spring2004/03-04-04-lins/ )

The movie depicted the city of god, one of the favela in Rio de Janeiro during the 60s and 80s. It was filmed in the early 2000’s in a real favela in Rio de Janeiro.

The movie described the chaotic side of life at the “favelas” (slums). Most of the cast members were former gang members and all of them were at some point involved with drug trafficking. In real life, the favelas are deeply controlled by the drug traffic and most of the time Traficants are the real government and the law. They provide safety and security including social services, weapons, and so forth, just like the gang did in the film. In turn, non-gang members help them when in need. This give and take relationship makes it more difficult for the police to get into the core of the favela to break down the crime. (http://sand.miis.edu/research/student_research/Logan_Human%20Security%20in%20Favela.pdf
Related story of the new movie by the director of “Bus 174” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/21/AR2007102101040.html ).
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There were many meninos de rua, the street children(http://www.udel.edu/butzin/articles/child.html ), living in the favela who became the followers of Little Zé.
Of course, most of the scene depicted the gang scene, however some houses in the favela like for instance, Knockout Ned’s house, seemed simple but organized compared to the gang member’s apartment.

What Martin Holloway experienced in the favela was little different than that of the movie. In the film, the favela seemed more dark and dangerous for the ordinary tourist to get in. He was really lucky that he could get around safely.

The movie started from the recent scene of favela, and it flash back to the old days. This method clearly describes how the favelas developed. In addition, telling the story of each cast who became “the real gang” from the naughty boy in the old neighborhood, totally made sense at the end.
The landscape outside of favela seemed less violent. Like any other city, there was public transportation. However, in the bank, there was a box for the sniper in order to shoot the robbery for just in case.

The country side of Rio depicted two sides, which is the famous beautiful beach side and deep dangerous jungles at night. The costal line leads to Botafogo shows shinny and beautiful side of Rio de Janeiro, on the other hand, the small, dark jungle in the suburb contrasted the shinier side of Rio.

The class structure of favela builds upon power. It is crucial for the strong gang like Little Zé and Carrot to keep their territory safe from their enemies. Like I mentioned earlier, these mobs usually target street children to become gang members. In Brazil, one of the social issues is that the children wouldn’t be prosecuted as a criminal, in addition, some younger ones who committed the murder can be out of juvenile jail soon. Sometimes the child protection law in Brazil “helps” young criminals be free forever.

In the place like favela, it is difficult for most of the kids to get proper education because of poverty and lack of opportunities. Because of that, it is very difficult for those meninos de rua to get out from favela and to become non-favela resident. At the same time, the life in favela means co-existence of ordinary citizens and criminals. Sometimes, the criminals take “good care” of the poor citizen in favela much better than the government does.
On the other hand, there are not many minorities outside of favela. Especially in the news paper company, only Rocket seemed to be the black.

Veer-Zaara

The conflict between India and Pakistan affected the daily lives of the people in the film. The Kashmir conflict in the north-eastern region of the India started during the independence from the British colonization, there have been several wars repeatedly in the past, and it is still on going argument on territory between (including China) these two counties in the government official level.
In the film, the accusation to Veer by the Pakistani local police that he was a spy from India was sounded, considering about both counties’ sensitive diplomatic situation.

English is not official language in India any more; however, it seemed that military personnel spoke in English in the film.
English seemed semi-official language in India. Actors are mainly speaking in Hindu, but English are spoken occasionally and abruptly in the conversations with Hindu accent English. As a foreign language speaker, it is common in my language to borrow some words in English, but people usually don’t mix English phrases in the sentence like Spanglish.

In the film, it depicted more of a country side of India. It showed many fields (I am assuming it was rice field) on the way to Veer’s hometown and many sugar canes appeared on the film.
According to the Indian side of Punjab state official web site(http://punjabgovt.nic.in/welcome%201.htm ), there are several multinational companies like Nestle, NEC, Hitachi, Fujitsu and so on(http://punjabgovt.nic.in/INDUSTRY/MajorMultinational.htm), however, the film mainly showing the rural side of the states, so I could not get urban and developed side of Punjab.
Like any other country’s rural area, there are many fields in the film, however, the infrastructure, for instance, the road, was not well maintenance. There seemed no public transportation in the village or car, other than little bus from the nearest bigger city. People are asking and using someone’s tractor as transportation tool. It took for travelers the tractor ride and some trekking to get to the station in the city to go to the trip to the final destination.

The Bollywood movie has distinct characteristics than the Western movies.

First, there is no scene of kissing or any other sexual contacts. Interestingly, there are some ancient Hindu architectures has direct sexual motif, and there are some sacred objects in the Hindu temple which symbolized the genital parts of male and female. But it is taboo in Indian culture to show affections in the public, as well as in the movie. (By the way, Japanese culture had great influence of Buddhism from India and Nepal region, which has some similarities in Hinduism and Japanese Buddhism today.)

Second, most of the Bollywood movie has some musical scene which is not common in the Western movies. In the Western culture, you will see “musical scene” only when you watch “musical movie” or in the theater. Indian actors must be requiring specific dancing skill other than acting.

In Indian culture, dancing has important role. Historically, there are four main traditional dances which started more than 2 thousands ago, for parsing Hindu Gods and Goddesses.
In addition, there are many regional dances for different purpose, for instance, festival dance, religious dance, harvesting dance and so on. But unlike the dance that many of us dance in the club or some places (Salsa, Hip hop, Samba or Twists?), dance in Indian culture has more of an element of entertainment.