Dreams, Ashes of Time

Yesterday it was a very stressful day. After work, I went to a bustling district, Myeongdong, kept walking, and then watched a movie at 09:40PM. My choice was “Chungking Express (重慶森林),” the 1994 film written and directed by Wong Kar-Wai (王家衛). It is about two love-struck cops in Hong Kong before its return to China. I started to go to movie alone when I get stressed. It has been one of my new hobbies. I realized that recently I have watched so many movies than before.. sigh.

I saw the movie when I was a college student with friends almost 15 years ago. I wanted to see it again. Upcoming business trip to Hong Kong is one of reasons that I made the impulsive decision, however, unexpectedly the film made me look back on my 20’s and look at myself in my 30’s, rather than look forward to the business trip there.

In my early 20’s, I could not perceive changes in other people’s subtle emotions because I was not that considerate of people's feelings. That is, I did not know anything about people, and life. Yesterday I could see the subtle changes of characters’ emotions in this colorful movie. Now I seemed to start to see that the relationship between a man and a woman, let’s say ‘love, the most exquisite art!' Alas, I have been that dull by now.

Any organic product has the expiration date, even relationships between people do have. Can the life of relationships be prolonged by 100, or 1,000, or 10,000 years? There is someone who likes apple, but he can became a person who dislikes apple. Who can blame him for that? Then, what means that we long for? Can we trust in us, our desires? Probably truth seems that people are repeatedly do loving and hating, hurting and being wounded, forgetting and recalling, mistaking and regretting, ignoring and respecting, and finishing and restarting.

On the one hand, I was reminded of my younger days, and one of my close friends, Haewon who watched the movie with me. She passed away on bone tumors in her beautiful late 20’s. Suddenly I felt downhearted. The friend resembled Faye Wong, a leading actress in Chungking Express, her character as well as her body shape. I recalled the dead friend’s boyfriend. And I was wondering whether he knows that she, that he once loved, does not exist on earth.

Life is full of unexpected happenings and accidents. I see that a few things I dreamed and planned in my 20’s came true. It seemed terrible, but it would not be tragedies, but blessings. It could be one of reasons for me to give thanks to God. He has changed my foolish desires and plans and keep showing something noble and unimaginable beyond my intelligence and experiences.

This month, I will go on a business trip to Hong Kong. 4 years has elapsed since I visited the city for the first time. What would I feel and see this time? A dreamy song in the movie and the glimmering of Hong Kong are haunting me. I like Wong Kar-Wai's movies, just reserved his another movie, “Ashes of Time (東邪西毒)” ticket online. Today can be my last day to live or love, who knows? The unknown, the mysterious tension in life is not that bad at all. I am trying not to postpone something important and something I like to do. It would be one of sojourners’ must-have mental attitudes. Enjoy this moment, and give thanks!

My Favorite Movies

Chariots of Fire (1981) by Hugh Hudson

Eric: "If you commit yourself to the love of Christ, then that is how you run a straight race.. I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure."

The Mission (1986) by Roland Joffé

Gabriel: "We are not the members of a democracy, Father. We are the members of an order."

Cinema Paradiso (1988) by Giuseppe Tornatore

Alfredo: "Whatever you end up doing, love it. The way you loved the projection booth when you were a little squirt.. Toto. Life isn't like in the movies. Life is much harder."

The Shawshank Redemption (1994) by Frank Darabont

Red: "Some things are best left unsaid. I'd like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can't be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free."

Chungking Express (重庆森林, 1994) by Wong Kar-Wai

Cop663: Would you let a person on board with a boarding pass like this? It's dated today, but it got blurred in the rain. I don't know where it's taking me. Do you? Faye: No idea, but I'll give you another. Cop663: Great. Faye: Where do you want to go? Cop663: Wherever you want to take me.

La Vita è Bella (1997) by Roberto Benigni

Guido: "I'd have to be crazy to tell you. I'd even make love to you now right here for the rest of my life."

Christmas in August (1998) by Jin-Ho Hur

Jungwon: "I always knew that feelings of love would fade - just like old photographs. But for you, you will always remain in my heart, as you are in my last moment. Thank you, and goodbye."

Joint Security Area (2000) by Chan-Wook Park

L'auberge Espagnole (2002) by Cédric Klapisch

Xavier: "When you first arrive in a new city, nothing makes sense. Everythings unknown, virgin. After you've lived here, walked these streets, you'll know them inside out. You'll know these people. Once you've lived here, crossed this street 10, 20, 1000 times... it'll belong to you because you've lived there."

Reconstruction (2003) by Christoffer Boe

"If he steps back, if he doubts about the love, she will disappear."

Der Fischer und seine Frau (2005) by Doris Dörrie

Still Life (三峡好人, 2006) by Zhangke Jia

Ratatouille (2007) by Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava

Letters to Father Jacob (Postia pappi Jaakobille, 2009) by Klaus Härö

Sound of Noise (2010) by Ola Simonsson, Johannes Stjärne Nilsson

The Tree of Life (2011) by Terrence Malick

Mrs. O'Brien: "The only way to be happy is to love. Unless you love, your life will flash by.. Help each other. Love everyone, every leaf, every ray of light. Forgive."

Life of Pie (2012) by Ang Lee

Adult Pi Patel: "I wept like a child. Not because I was overwhelmed at having survived, although I was. I was weeping because Richard Parker left me so unceremoniously. It broke my heart. You know my father was right. Richard Parker never saw me as his friend. After all we had been through he didn't even look back. But I have to believe there was more in his eyes than my own reflection staring back at me. I know it, I felt it. Even if I can't prove it. You know, I left so much behind: my family, the zoo, India, Anandi. I suppose in the end, the whole of life becomes an act of letting go. But what always hurts the most is not taking a moment to say goodbye. I was never able to thank my father for all I learned from him. To tell him, without his lessons I would never have survived. I know Richard Parker is a tiger but I wish I had said, "It's over. We survived. Thank you for saving my life. I love you, Richard Parker. You'll always be with me. May God be with you." 

Adult Pi Patel: Faith is a house with many rooms. 

Writer: But no room for doubt? 

Adult Pi Patel: Oh plenty, on every floor. Doubt is useful, it keeps faith a living thing. After all, you cannot know the strength of your faith until it is tested.

The Dandelions (Du Vent dans mes Mollets, 2012) by Carine Tardieu

A Late Quartet (2012) by Yaron Zilberman

Peter Mitchell: "Time present and time past are both perhaps present in time future, and time future contained in time past. If all time is eternally present, all time is unredeemable. Or say that the end precedes the beginning, and the end and the beginning were always there before the beginning and after the end. And all is always now."

My Love, Don't Cross That River (2013) by Jin Mo-Young

Gravity (2013) by Alfonso Cuarón

The Kite Runner

Afghanistan, which has a rich history, is an important geostrategic location, connecting East, South, West and Central Asia. For the reason, the land had been a target of various invaders before the country's independence from the United Kingdom.

The independence seemed to end its foreign affairs, however, it was not. Since the late 1970's Afghanistan has experienced a continuous state of civil war punctuated by foreign occupations, now the country is being rebuilt slowly with support from the international community and dealing with a strong Taliban insurgency.

"The Kite Runner" directed by Marc Forster with Khalid Abdalla, Atossa Leoni, and Shaun Toub is about the country's story. After spending years in California, Amir returns to his homeland in Afghanistan to help his old friend Hassan, whose son is in trouble. The movie shows Afghan history and its scars quietly but also hope, which would not be given up in the Afghan's hearts. I'd like to recommend this movie or novel to all my friends.

God Grew Tired of Us

In God Grew Tired of Us, the film shows the lost boys-Sudanese refugees. They altogether fled from Sudan to Kenya, and have been locked up in UN refugee camps. Some of them were selected and sent to the US. John Bul Dau and other three people sent to Syracuse, and other four people sent to Pittsburg. 

After a few years passed, among them, John and a few started to take leadership roles for their people and country. One studied economics in the States and went back to their country to build a school. John set up a foundation for academic and medical expenses of Sudanese refugees (johndaufoundation.org).

I can see they spent time together almost for 10 years in a camp, so there is a close bond among them. Also they think it is a shame if they do not take care of their own people. It really touched me.

In terms of North Korean refugees, it is really sad that they are quite different with Sudanese refugees' situation. Their first destination is China, but the government keep holding UNHCR's investigation so there is no refugee camp even the total number of North Korean refugees in China is between 300,000 and 400,000. The refugees are just hiding in China. They can hardly help each other but unwillingly have to be scattered all over the world. It is a tragedy, indeed.
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I cannot remember since when I got to have an intention to help them, anyway I have a strong attachment to them, in some ways, I would like to help them and am waiting for the chance I can do something.

[Article] South Korean Film's Reception Shows a Big Chill Toward North

Just three years ago, South Koreans were full of warm feelings toward North Korea. They spent billions of dollars on economic projects there, hosted the North's leaders for joint holiday celebrations and put one of its celebrities in TV ads, all part of the afterglow of political efforts to bridge their divided countries.

A new movie here called "Crossing," the first by a South Korean director to portray the living conditions of North Koreans, seemed destined to take advantage of those feelings. Laura Yoo, who hasn't seen her father since he got stuck in the North in the Korean War more than 55 years ago, left a recent showing in tears. "I came here and I thought about him," she said. But Ms. Yoo turned out to be an exception, as the movie attracted far fewer people than its producers hoped. Its mediocre showing is another sign that South Koreans have turned cool toward the North after realizing their outreach was bearing little fruit. Aid agencies say this shift in sentiment is making it harder to interest people in helping out North Korea. "This is the least fashionable topic in South Korea," says Erica Kang, Seoul director of Good Friends, a Buddhist charity that works on hunger relief in North Korea.

The change also stands to complicate international efforts to lure North Korea out of its isolation and end its strategy of wringing aid from others with military threats. An opening in the North could pacify a region beset by tensions for decades and, some hope, even lay a foundation for the two Koreas to reunite.

The shift in sentiment made a difference in the presidential elections here last year. Voters chose conservative candidate Lee Myung-bak, who promised to attach strings to the economic aid South Korea had been providing to the North. This month, that sentiment hardened further after a North Korean soldier fatally shot a South Korean tourist at a resort the South had built in the North to boost its neighbor's economy.

In light of broader challenges now facing South Korea as its export-driven economy copes with the global slowdown, many South Koreans consider further overtures to the North to be a luxury when they are so poorly received. "Every time we've made an agreement with them, they break it," says Choi Doo-hwan, 53 years old, a fruit-juice vendor in Seoul.

Ten years ago, then-president Kim Dae-jung ended decades of hostility from the Korean War of the 1950s by developing a policy of economic and political outreach that was designed to spur North Korea toward openness and change. North Korea allowed videoconference reunions for some Korean families separated in the war's aftermath, but it did little else, falling far short of South Koreans' hopes. A turning point came in 2006 when North Korea tested new missiles and a nuclear weapon.

It was in the warmer atmosphere that movie director Kim Tae-kyun four years ago began work on "Crossing," hoping to show ordinary life in North Korea instead of the political and military imagery that South Koreans had seen for years.

A veteran of comedies aimed at teenagers, Mr. Kim spent more than two years to research and write the serious, fictional drama. To get details right, he interviewed more than 100 North Koreans who had fled the country and cast some as extras. "In the process of interviewing North Korean refugees and reading the literature, I did feel a very deep sense of shame as I realized how much I didn't know," Mr. Kim says.

"Crossing" depicts the journey of a miner who makes an illegal trip to China in search of medicine for his wife. After almost being caught by Chinese police, the man joins a group of North Koreans seeking safety with a charity worker, not realizing that doing so has put him on an escape route to South Korea from which there is no turning back. He tries to reconnect with his wife and son, who become desperate without him, while adapting to his modern, wealthier new life in Seoul.

Reviewers strongly praised the movie, with several noting it depicted North Korea in a way that has never been seen here. After a month in South Korean theaters, "Crossing" attracted only 900,000 viewers and hasn't made up its $4 million production cost, producers say. By contrast, the movie hit of the summer here, a cowboy adventure called "The Good, the Bad and the Weird," attracted 1.7 million people in its opening weekend.

The Wall Street Journal
Evan Ramstad (evan.ramstad@wsj.com) July 29, 2008 

The Shawshank Redemption

After all my classes, I thought, 'I well deserve to watch a movie tonight.' Finally I made it! In a few days, I want to watch this movie again. In a gray place, usually one dares to dream. Andy Dufresne, however, he dreamed and realized his long cherished dream. Especially in prison, where integrity is lacking, Andy is an individual of integrity among a host of criminals. He has a sense of who he is regardless of what people judge or treat. That's why many people are excited by this movie. "They cannot get that from you.. that's yours.. that's HOPE."