Jason W. Chan's Blog, page 3
December 9, 2012
Body Surfing
Anita Shreve is one of my favorite authors. I love the way she constructs her sentences. Her prose, to me, is beautiful. I found Body Surfing during a book sale at my local library. I read the first few sentences of the novel and I was hooked on her prose. In fact, she influenced my writing a great deal. Her spare prose convinced me that readers don't want to get bogged down in detail. They just want the writer to get on with telling the story.
Unfortunately, the story was not so good. Our main character, Sydney, takes a job as a tutor of a daughter of a rich family. The two adult sons come for a visit and Sydney is caught between them, as they both like her.
The older brother eventually proposes marriage and Sydney accepts, but the day before their wedding, he confesses that he doesn’t love her and only took her from his little brother to hurt him. That’s basically the plot. The story itself I found unimpressive and shallow, but I am still an Anita Shreve fan. She writes sentences that you would never even think of.
Read this novel for its impressive, spare prose, not for the story.
Rating:
6/10 (Above Average)
1. Did you find the story shallow too?
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is one of the most original love stories I have ever had the pleasure of watching. I’m not surprised that the screenwriter, the highly talented Charlie Kaufman, won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for this movie. This film is deliberately disorienting because it’s not told in chronological order. I had to see it three times to understand it fully, but it was worth it.
The premise: would you erase your memory of your lover if the relationship soured? It’s a very simple, straight-forward premise, yet I’m surprised that more of this kind of romantic fantasy hasn’t been done already. The title takes its name from a poem by Alexander Pope, who in turn was inspired by the medieval tale of love and loss called Heloise and Abelard, about the failed love affair of a pair of illicit lovers, whose only comfort in the end was forgetting each other.
The premise raises a very interesting question.
Joel (Jim Carrey) and Clementine (Kate Winslet) play lovers who fall out of love with each other. Clementine, being free-spirited and therefore rash and impulsive, has her memory of Joel erased after a fight. The company that does the erasing, Laucuna, Inc, is headed by a doctor (Tom Wilkinson) and aided by a receptionist (Kirsten Dunst) and two technicians (Mark Ruffalo and Elijah Wood).
Joel finds out about his girlfriend having her memory of him erased and in retaliation, he gets the same done. But as it happens, he beings to relive happy memories of her and he decides that, as much as it pains him, he’d rather hold onto all the memories of her, rather than not remember her at all. Poignant and touching, isn’t it?
Eternal Sunshine is the result of the kind of film magic that can happen when great storytelling comes together with great direction and great acting.
What I admire the most about this film is its uniqueness and originality. In this age of the same old copycat stories (especially romantic comedies), this film was a breath of fresh air.
Furthermore, all the acting was superb, especially Kate Winslet’s, who was nominated for Best Actress for her performance here.
Favorite Scenes
1.Elephant Parade
One of the most beautiful moments is when Kirsten Dunst recites a few lines of poetry from Alexander Pope.
How happy are the blameless vestal’s lot
The world forgetting by the world forgot
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind
Each prayer answered, each wish resigned.
As she’s reciting the lines, the scene cuts to Joel and Clementine enjoying a moment of pure happiness together at the circus. As the elephants lumber past, Joel pretends to be an elephant and Clementine says, “I want to be a great big elephant.”
This scene is particularly touching because it gives us a glimpse of the happiness they once had. It’s sad because it’s about to be taken away. Its a reflection of how rare carefree happiness is in our world. What’s rare is valuable and what’s valuable is to be cherished.
2. Am I Ugly?
Another beautiful scene is when Joel and Clementine are lying in bed and then out of the blue, Clementine asks Joel, “Am I ugly?” She explains that when she was 8, she had this doll and she would always tell it to be pretty. This scene highlights Clementine’s insecurity and but also Joel’s duty as her boyfriend when he assures her that she’s not ugly, but pretty. Then, he kissed her. The scene is poignant because it shows us another facet of Clementine’s wild personality; this time, a sensitive, vulnerable facet that makes the audience care more about her because we can relate. After all, who’s never been insecure before?
3. Try your best, Remember me, Maybe we can.
This scene occurs when Joel changes his mind and decides not to have his memory of Clementine erased. Here, they are running away from the technicians, trying to hide.
Joel tells Clementine that he wants to remember her and start over. She puts both hands on his shoulders and says, “Try your best. Remember me. Maybe we can (start over again).”
It’s a lovely scene because it gives the audience hope that perhaps, even after they’ve screwed things up with each other, they can have another chance.
Criticism
Too many love stories don’t show what the two leads see in each other. This one is the same. There is never really a deep examination of what Clementine can give Joel that nobody else can and vice-versa. In spite of this only flaw, I was still very impressed by how touching the film was.
Ending
In the end, Joel and Clementine remember what happened to them and in spite of their misgivings, they decide to give their relationship another go. If I’m not crying at the end of a love story, then it’s not a good love story. I must admit that I was teary-eyed here.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack of the film is touchingly poignant. I’ve said before that good music can really enhance the emotions of a film and this soundtrack does the film justice.
Analysis of the Title
As I mentioned before, the title Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is taken from a line of poetry by Alexander Pope. I’ve analyzed the title and this is what I think it means:
1. Eternal Sunshine means happiness forever. (eternal meaning forever and sunshine meaning happiness).
2. Spotless Mind means a mind that is untainted by experience, similar to the concept of Tabula Rasa put forth by the Greek philosopher Aristotle, meaning a blank slate. A mind is spotless when nothing happens to it.
Thus, when you put the two phrases together, it means forever happiness on a blank mind. In layman’s terms, a person is blissfully happy only when nothing happens to them. Does this apply to the premise of the film? Very much so. Think about it: Joel and Clementine had a fight. That’s why she had her memory of him erased. And when her memory of him was erased, she became happy because she reverted to a blank slate, or a spotless mind. Basically, this movie is saying that you’ll always be ignorantly happy when your mind is blank. Ignorance is bliss. That said, although that ignorant state of bliss exists on spotless minds, there will always be a part of you asking, “what if?” What if you unerased a bad memory? Would the experience that you gain be worth the pain of remembering?
I like this movie because it’s so deep, unique and original. It says so much in such a profound way of our need for relationships. Although we hurt one another, there will be happy times and a chance for happiness might just be worth it in the end.
Rating
9/10 (Excellent, Rare quality work)
- Lovestorycritic1
1. What did you think of it?
2. Did you find the non-linear storytelling to be disorienting?
3. Would you have your memory of a failed relationship with a lover erased?
The Bridges of Madison County
The Bridges of Madison County is one of the worst love story films I've ever seen, but it's not the absolute worst. That one is coming up in another review.
This film is the story of a lonely housewife cheating on her husband with a hunky stranger played by Clint Eastwood.
This is the plot: Francesca meets Robert. They have sex. They fight because he has to leave. He leaves. And then Francesca has the nerve to write to her children that "if they love her, they must love what she has done."
Not only is the pacing languidly slow, the story also doesn't make any sense. I mean, what the hell do these two see in each other? She's a mousy housewife with no personality, and he's not really that hunky. I'm not a big fan of Clint Eastwood, but I am a fan of Meryl Streep, but not even Streep can save this film.
Again, I never see why this illicit love affair is the "grand love affair" of their lives. I just don't see what they see in each other. And I don't see how love could develop in a course of mere days. If the writer/director had told me what these two saw in each other, then maybe I could believe it, but I just couldn't swallow it. Besides, love takes a long time to develop. Puppy love and infatuation can develop in a few days, but not true love. True love is deep and takes time.
The story was so slow that I found myself skipping over parts of it so that I could get to the good stuff. The problem with that method? I skipped right to the end. I guess the ending is the good stuff.
This is basically your typical Harlequin romance novel, sans the happy ending required.
Rating: 1/10 (Terrible)
1. What do you think?
2. And if you liked it, why, oh why?
Before Sunrise/Before Sunset
Before Sunrise and its sequel Before Sunset are two awfully romantic movies about this guy who meets this girl on a train in Austria. Because he has no money for a hotel room, they end up wandering Vienna throughout the night, getting to know each other. He has to be on a plane back to America in the morning and they have only one night together (hence, the name Before Sunrise).
At the end of the night, they promise to meet again at the train station in six months, but as we find out in the sequel, they don't. In the sequel, our man (played by Ethan Hawke) has written a novel about their time spent together, and he's giving a talk at a Paris book shop when who should wander in but our heroine (Julie Delphy).
The premise and situation are awfully romantic, but the story is slow and tends to wander, like our two leads. My main problem with both pictures is too much dialogue. That can't sustain an entire film, much less two. If I wanted nothing but dialogue, I'd listen to the freaking radio.
As the great screenwriter and teacher Syd Field said, a film is defined as a story told in pictures, played out in a dramatic context.
The emphasis is on the word pictures.
Not words, but pictures.
If I wanted nothing but words, I'd read a damn book.
In addition, nothing really happens. All they do is get to know each other via dialogue.
The story idea and premise are awfully romantic, but the execution was poor. I just wished that something happened. Have a rapist attempt to rape the chick, and then have the hero save her. That way, he'd turn out to be a hero and she'd fall more deeply in love with him. Or maybe she turns out to be a poor prostitute who was trying to solicit a client without trying to be too forward and he doesn't know any better. Imagine all the hilarious situations that could lead to. Maybe he's a horny pig whose only intention is to get some from her and he spends the entire film trying to do that.
Anything, anything at all, is better than just walking around and talking.
Yet, in spite of my criticisms, I found myself quite charmed with the premise, even though the story execution was poor. There is something awfully romantic about developing feelings for someone, and then never seeing them again. Perhaps, it's a reference to the idea that you can love someone so much that you never want to see them again. If you see them again, I'd only end up hurting them. Furthermore, the notion and the romantic fantasy that two people could be together forever and still sustain intensely passionate feelings for each other wouldn't turn out to be nothing but high fantasy, a page taken from the Lord of the Rings.
In any case, this duo of films has the right concept, but the wrong execution.
5/10
July 21, 2012
June 12, 2012
May 12, 2012
Looking Back On Old Friends
http://jasonwchan.blogspot.ca/2012/05...
Continuing along the same line of thought in my post on nostalgia, two more people have been popping into my mind a lot lately. Let's call these girls J and T. The three of us met in yearbook class in high school when I was in grade 10 and quickly became friends. That year was the best year of my high school life. I really opened up and as a result, met a lot of good people and made a lot of new friends.
I loved J's quirkiness and innocence and T's sense of humor. The three of us would goof off in the photography lab or the computer room after school. But after grade 10, I moved away before the grade 11 school year and we all lost contact.
After graduation, I went to college to figure out what to do with my life, but nothing really appealed to me. I longed for the days of carefree happiness of high school, especially my old friends, J and T.
I was 19 or 20 when they re-established contact. At that point, I was lost, without a direction in life. That was why I was eager to re-connect with familiar faces.
I remembered riding around in J's car, with T riding shotgun. I didn't have my full license at that time, so I remembered thinking Wow. How cool is this! My friend has her own car and she can drive. I felt like such an adult, doing new, adult things. I remembered the remixed version of Mariah Carey's We Belong Together blasting in the stereo as we drove, the summer sun streaming in through the car window. I felt such a sense of ecstasy and carefreeness. It was like I was back in high school.
That night, we went to dinner at the Keg in downtown Vancouver, Canada, where they refused to serve me alcohol because I was underage. J and T teased me mercilessly about that. They were a few years older than me, so I always felt like I was their pesky yet adorable little brother.
We actually ended up going to quite a few restaurants that night, including an upscale, high-class restaurant on Granville Island, where a six-piece California roll cost $6. Being of Asian origin myself, I loved sushi, but they did not. At the beginning, I had trouble converting them to the Japanese delicacy, but they eventually grew to like it.
I remembered babbling in French that evening, because we had all taken French class back in high school. I was getting up to go to the washroom. Happy that the washrooms were free in that expensive restaurant, I said, "At least the washrooms are gratuits." (French for 'free', pronounced gra-too-ee)
J, thinking that I had said, "pooey," immediately made a face and said, "Eeewww, pooie."
That was one of the funniest things that happened that evening. I don't know why I remember that part so well. Maybe the funniest things stand out more, or maybe I just so happened to remember the good times.
To wrap up the evening, we went to the water, right by Stanley Park. The moon was out and the atmosphere was quiet. The three of us just sat on a bench in front of the water, listening to soft pop music. I remembered thinking What a wonderful time I had with two good friends.
To this day, that evening was one of the best in my life. I didn't have to think about the future. I could just enjoy the company of some good friends.
But like all good things, my friendship and contact with the girls came to an end.
Over the years, a couple things happened.
T started to have trouble with her family because she was in a relationship with a boy that her parents didn't approve of. I think it was a religion issue. The last I heard, she went to the Southern US to work.
The other incident was particularly memorable, because it affected me hard. One night, J called me up and said that she liked this boy. She tried to get me to guess who it was, but I tried and failed miserably. I don't recall how she brought it up, but it turned out it was me. She said, "Let's go out."
It was a total shock. I had no idea that she liked me. Unfortunately, I didn't feel the same way so I tried to let her down gently. I said, "I don't see you that way, more like a sister." I know I probably shouldn't have said that I saw her as a sister. That was probably the last thing she wanted to hear, but the damage was done. I was an idiot back then, and hopefully, I'm wiser now.
We ended the conversation on a good note and promised to remain friends, but it was hard.
We tried to stay friends after that, but it became kind of awkward. I'm sure you understand why. A few months after her brave revelation, it was her birthday, so I said I would take her out to dinner to celebrate. She agreed. On the day we were supposed to meet, I called her, but she didn't answer. I called at least three more times and then left a message on the fourth try. That night, we never did go to dinner. She never called me back. Over the next few weeks, I tried texting her, calling her and even emailing her, but she never got back to me.
At first, I was confused. I didn't know what happened. But then, a friend of mine enlightened my dumb adolescent self. She was probably avoiding me because it was too hard for her to see me.
Thinking back on it now, I don't blame her. If I couldn't have a girl, then I didn't even want to be friends with her. It would have been just a consolation prize.
It's been at least 5 years since I last saw or spoke to J or T. The last I heard, J wanted to be a broadcast journalist or a teacher. I don't know where she is, but I wish her the best. I hoped she was able to do what she wanted to do.
I think about them from time to time. Where are they now? What are they doing? Are they happy? Have they found someone who loves them?
In any case, I'll always remember them fondly. They formed such happy memories of my life - memories of innocent adolescence I could reminiscence about and feel grateful for.
What about you? Were there any old friends in your life that you were once close to, but aren't anymore? What happened?
Continuing along the same line of thought in my post on nostalgia, two more people have been popping into my mind a lot lately. Let's call these girls J and T. The three of us met in yearbook class in high school when I was in grade 10 and quickly became friends. That year was the best year of my high school life. I really opened up and as a result, met a lot of good people and made a lot of new friends.
I loved J's quirkiness and innocence and T's sense of humor. The three of us would goof off in the photography lab or the computer room after school. But after grade 10, I moved away before the grade 11 school year and we all lost contact.
After graduation, I went to college to figure out what to do with my life, but nothing really appealed to me. I longed for the days of carefree happiness of high school, especially my old friends, J and T.
I was 19 or 20 when they re-established contact. At that point, I was lost, without a direction in life. That was why I was eager to re-connect with familiar faces.
I remembered riding around in J's car, with T riding shotgun. I didn't have my full license at that time, so I remembered thinking Wow. How cool is this! My friend has her own car and she can drive. I felt like such an adult, doing new, adult things. I remembered the remixed version of Mariah Carey's We Belong Together blasting in the stereo as we drove, the summer sun streaming in through the car window. I felt such a sense of ecstasy and carefreeness. It was like I was back in high school.
That night, we went to dinner at the Keg in downtown Vancouver, Canada, where they refused to serve me alcohol because I was underage. J and T teased me mercilessly about that. They were a few years older than me, so I always felt like I was their pesky yet adorable little brother.
We actually ended up going to quite a few restaurants that night, including an upscale, high-class restaurant on Granville Island, where a six-piece California roll cost $6. Being of Asian origin myself, I loved sushi, but they did not. At the beginning, I had trouble converting them to the Japanese delicacy, but they eventually grew to like it.
I remembered babbling in French that evening, because we had all taken French class back in high school. I was getting up to go to the washroom. Happy that the washrooms were free in that expensive restaurant, I said, "At least the washrooms are gratuits." (French for 'free', pronounced gra-too-ee)
J, thinking that I had said, "pooey," immediately made a face and said, "Eeewww, pooie."
That was one of the funniest things that happened that evening. I don't know why I remember that part so well. Maybe the funniest things stand out more, or maybe I just so happened to remember the good times.
To wrap up the evening, we went to the water, right by Stanley Park. The moon was out and the atmosphere was quiet. The three of us just sat on a bench in front of the water, listening to soft pop music. I remembered thinking What a wonderful time I had with two good friends.
To this day, that evening was one of the best in my life. I didn't have to think about the future. I could just enjoy the company of some good friends.
But like all good things, my friendship and contact with the girls came to an end.
Over the years, a couple things happened.
T started to have trouble with her family because she was in a relationship with a boy that her parents didn't approve of. I think it was a religion issue. The last I heard, she went to the Southern US to work.
The other incident was particularly memorable, because it affected me hard. One night, J called me up and said that she liked this boy. She tried to get me to guess who it was, but I tried and failed miserably. I don't recall how she brought it up, but it turned out it was me. She said, "Let's go out."
It was a total shock. I had no idea that she liked me. Unfortunately, I didn't feel the same way so I tried to let her down gently. I said, "I don't see you that way, more like a sister." I know I probably shouldn't have said that I saw her as a sister. That was probably the last thing she wanted to hear, but the damage was done. I was an idiot back then, and hopefully, I'm wiser now.
We ended the conversation on a good note and promised to remain friends, but it was hard.
We tried to stay friends after that, but it became kind of awkward. I'm sure you understand why. A few months after her brave revelation, it was her birthday, so I said I would take her out to dinner to celebrate. She agreed. On the day we were supposed to meet, I called her, but she didn't answer. I called at least three more times and then left a message on the fourth try. That night, we never did go to dinner. She never called me back. Over the next few weeks, I tried texting her, calling her and even emailing her, but she never got back to me.
At first, I was confused. I didn't know what happened. But then, a friend of mine enlightened my dumb adolescent self. She was probably avoiding me because it was too hard for her to see me.
Thinking back on it now, I don't blame her. If I couldn't have a girl, then I didn't even want to be friends with her. It would have been just a consolation prize.
It's been at least 5 years since I last saw or spoke to J or T. The last I heard, J wanted to be a broadcast journalist or a teacher. I don't know where she is, but I wish her the best. I hoped she was able to do what she wanted to do.
I think about them from time to time. Where are they now? What are they doing? Are they happy? Have they found someone who loves them?
In any case, I'll always remember them fondly. They formed such happy memories of my life - memories of innocent adolescence I could reminiscence about and feel grateful for.
What about you? Were there any old friends in your life that you were once close to, but aren't anymore? What happened?
April 18, 2012
Hello!
Hello to fellow readers, writers and fans alike!
Thanks for checking out my blog. I'll be updating it regularly.
Soon, I'll be hosting chats about my work and other books. Stay tuned!
Thanks for checking out my blog. I'll be updating it regularly.
Soon, I'll be hosting chats about my work and other books. Stay tuned!
