Shawshank Redemption— Freedom, Faith and Friendship

The Shawshank Redemption is a movie about time, loyalty and patience, about how men deprived of freedom are trying to get the freedom back.

It is about faith. Red once said, hopes are dangerous, it is the sources of negative emotions. He has been in prison for over 30 years, and it is fair for him to say so. Prison is a place that nothing can grow.

But Andy told him that hope is a good thing. Only with hope, positive things can stay. That is why Andy can spend 20 years to dug a tunnel, came through the dirty sewage, and embrace freedom in the pouring rain.

You know, you will never know if you do not try. So have some faith in life.

It is about freedom. When Andy broadcasted Le Nozze di Figaro in the prison, all prisoners and the police are standing still, and putting away their sorrow and hatred. Andy also brought beer to the prisoners when they are fixing the roof, making them feel like at home. The strong man is who he helps himself. And Andy, while trying to help himself to maintain the hope for freedom, also delivered the faith to the inmates in the prison as well.

And It is also about institutionalization. Men are weird creature. “These walls are kind of funny like that. First you hate them, then you get used to them. Enough time passed, get so you depend on them. That’s institutionalizing.” It is deep in your heart, and just like Brooks, even he is out from the prison, he only has the freedom to his body, not mind. He can not get rid of the institutionalized mind, and had to hang himself.

Busy for living, or busy for death. Maybe we could just pause for a little bit to think about our lives, to think about our faith, and our freedom.

Scenes in Schindler’s List

Schindler’s List has been discusses intensively by its fans over a long time, and with no doubt, it is one of the most well known and highly ranked films of all time. I am hesitant to give out a review on it, because I do not think I can provide any insightful information than all other reviews. So I decided to pull some scenes out of the 195-minute movie.

Scene 1: A jewish family is praying at night, the dwindling candle is blown off by the wind, smokes went up, turning into the smoke of the running train. The subtitle showed that the German army has occupied Poland, every jewish family needs to register and move to the big cities. The nightmare is about to get started.

Scene 2: In a party, handsome Schindler paid very close attention to the German army officer. By all means, Schindler is a greedy businessman, and he sees great business opportunities in German armies.

Scene 3: Schindler performed so well in the parties that even German high officials had noticed him. He also won the trust of them and have got business ties with them.

Scene 4:  A jewish family is packing and ready to move, and a german solider is watching them doing it. A little girl is throwing rock at the jewish family and cursed them. The jewish family did nothing but stayed silent.

Scene 5: Jewish workers are classifying some of the products and goods. One of them stared at a bunch of gold teeth, he knows that each one represents a lost live.

Scene 6: The massacre began. German soldiers shot the patients in the hospital, but the patients can not feel the pain anymore — the doctors have made them drinking the poison, so that they can be less painful.

Scene 7. Schindler is looking down at the chaos on the street. There are just black and white, but a girl in red is running on the street. The red pops out, just like the lives of many are trying to find a way out.

Scene 8, Lieutenant Goth and Schindler are in a party, Goth is drunk and falls on the ground. He said to Schindler: “ You never got drunk, this is your ability to control yourself, and this is power.” Schindler argued: “killing is not power. Power is justice. When you have the ability to kill, but you do not, this is POWER.”

Scene 9. Goth’s jewish servant, a little boy, made a mistake and was found out by Goth. Goth did not punish him, and let him go. It seems like Schindler’s words had worked. But when the boy went away, Goth aimed at him and shot him. Indeed, the nazis could hardly change their nature of killing.

And one more scene: When the German has lost the war, and Schindler is ready to leave the factory. Jews regard Schindler as a saint, whoever saves one life, save the world entire.”

Inception — An Analysis

This week, I want to give a review on Inception. WARNING: if you have not et seen the movie, please do so before the review, because I am gonna reveal a lot of information and plot in the article.

 

Inception really is one of the newly produced films in the IMDB ranking, and I am really surprised at its high ranking of 14. And this is also one of my favorite films as well. I still remember now that I sat in the theatre for nearly two hours, and my mind was so in the movie, that when the movie finished, I was still so involved in it that I sat till the credits was over.

I think Inception worths you to watch for at least two time, one for purely the techniques, special effects, music and performance; the second time for understanding the plot; and the third time solely for the performance of Leo DiCaprio.

Here I want to give my own interpretation of the film ending. I was confused at one point if the final shots was just Cobb’s dream or reality. After watching the movie for five times, I think it is reality, and I do really hope Cobb finally went back home.

Let’s first start with some basic info the film has given us:

1. We have a total of six layers of dreams. The first one is reality, and then we have the first layer of dream, the second layer, the third, the fourth, and finally, the limbo.
2. usually when we dream at night, we are in the first layer. In order to get from the first to the second, we need medicines. In order to get out from the dream, we need a kick, or get killed in that dream.
3. If we are in the third layer, in order to get back to reality, we need to have a kick first in the second layer, and then the first layer, and finally the kick from the reality. If any of these kicks is missed, we can not go back to the reality any more

Below is my interpretation of the plots:

Cobb and his wife did the experiments on inception on themselves. They went into the fourth layer and did not leave anyone in the previous layers to give them kicks. One day in reality is fifty years in dreams, and they eventually died in the fourth layer of dreams and fell into limbo. Cobb tried to get out of limbo by committing suicide with his wife. In this way, they finally got back to reality, but his wife got confused on what is dream and what is not. She tried to commit suicide in reality to get rid of the dreams. The death of his wife got Cobb very painful and tried to escape his life. But no matter how hard Cobb tried to forgot about the past, his wife is still in his sub consciousness and will always destroy his plans of inceptions.

Then we jumped to the scene that Cobb tried to steal the information from the Japanese businessman Saito. He eventually failed because him teammates sold him out. But Saito was really interested in his ability, and wanted to hire him to do a bigger project to his business competitors. he wanted Cobb to promotes good images of Robert Fischer’s father into Fischer’s mind so that he would not do good in his businesses. The action would take place in a ten-hour flights on a plan. If Cobb succeed, he can return to  his home and take care of his child. But now he is wanted in United States because of his wife’s death.

But the plan did not go so successful, but they finally did it, they all went back to the reality except Saito, who died in the third layer and went straight into limbo. But Cobb also went into limbo because he killed his wife in his dream and was also killed by her. In limbo, Saito and Cobb managed to kill themselves to get back to reality. They succeeded.

And Cobb finally got back home, and the film stops with an open ending– the spinning top totem keeps spinning, and the movie stops without telling if it stops or not.

I believe it stopped and it is reality. But seriously, I did not have any evidence to support  it. But I saw a article on explaining it. I will post it below so you will believe it is reality like me.

From http://screenrant.com/inception-spoilers-discussion-kofi-68330/3/:

• Was Saito truly powerful enough to make one phone call and end Cobb’s problems or was that just Cobb in limbo projecting his subconscious wish to go home? You can argue logistics all you want, but if it’s said that Saito is a powerful and wealthy man (he bought a whole airline on a whim), then there’s reason enough to infer that he could bend the legal system for Cobb. Rich powerful people bend laws all the time.
• Is there something up with that immigration agent or is he just an immigration agent? After two viewings, the conclusion should be that the immigration guy is just a guy. If he’s staring at Cobb, it’s because his job is to look people over and scrutinize them. Would you want immigration letting people through without face-to-face scrutiny?
• Did Cobb’s father (Michael Caine) arrange to meet him at the airport or is he there because he’s Cobb’s projection? At this point we’re reading way too much into things. There is a phone on the plane, so Cobb could’ve easily arranged for pickup. This was also an intricate plan they were hatching, so arranging for airport pickup would probably be on the to-do list.

• In early dream scenes Cobb is wearing a wedding band that doesn’t appear in the “real world” scenes or the end scenes in the airport – does that mean the ending is “reality?” Details like that are certainly strong evidence that there is a real world and that Cobb does live in it at times – such as when he isn’t wearing a wedding band.

• Does the fact that Cobb uses Mal’s totem mean it doesn’t work as a totem and therefore he never knows if he’s in reality or not? Again, we’re reading a little too deep into things. The only people who know the weight and feel of that totem are Mal and Cobb, and since Mal is dead, Cobb is the only one left who knows the totem’s tactile details. So yes, he could certainly use it as a measure of reality, the totem was not “ruined” by him using it.
• At the end, Cobb’s kids seem to be the same age and are seemingly wearing the same clothes as they were in his memory of them – is it “proof” he’s still dreaming? As carefully documented by our own Vic Holtreman, at the end of the film Cobb’s kids are wearing similar outfits to the ones he remembers, but their shoes are different. As for their ages: if you check IMDB, there are actually two set of actors credited with playing Cobb’s kids. The daughter, Phillipa, is credited as being both 3 and 5 years old, while the son, James, is credited as being both 20 months and 3 years old. This suggests that while it might be subtle, there is a difference between the kids in Cobb’s memories and the kids Cobb comes home to. That would suggest the homecoming is in fact “reality.” But feel free to debate that.
• Will the spinning top keep spinning or was it about to fall over just before Nolan cut to black? Sorry, we will never know for sure, although it does start to wobble and it is never shown doing that in the dream world. Each of us will take away a guess – kind of the point of that final shot.

Leon the Professional– two cold hearts

I was fifteen when I watched Leon the Professional for the first time. It was then a film that was too dark and tortured, that I could hardly enjoy it. I remembered watching Mathilda’s family got killed in such a way that the killer was actually enjoying it, and the brutal kills served such a contrast with the background music. This movie, along with CSI and Criminal Minds, gave me quite some nightmares back then.

The second time that I watched it was three years ago, when I graduated from high school and was ready to go to colleges. The film was not that scary anymore, but the story about two tortured souls are still sad to watch.

Leon lives in a miserable life and works as a cleaner. But that is just a disguise of his real profession of hitman. It seems like his only friend is the houseplant he has nurtured for a long time.

Mathilda Lando lives with her father and step mother. She stopped school and started smoking. And her life became even more miserable when her family were killed. She began living with Leon and hopes that he can seek revenge for her family.

Till now, I still think it is a story that really has not much to do with my life. But I think that is why it appears so intriguing to me. The delicate details in the film brings another completely unknown life experience to me, in which there is sadly beautiful love story between a hairy middle aged killer fell in love with a 12-year-old girl. They all have miseries in their lives, and that experiences made them cold hearted. When two cold hearts come together, they bring each other out of the shell and give atonement to themselves. You can see that in girl’s eyes, when at the end, she holds Leon;s plant and get back to school. The love is always there, but she has grown into a completely new person.

Luc Besson continues his theme of woman with gun in this movie, but did some variation on it. This time, it is a 12-year-old with gun on revenges. This odd pair has produced tis unique chemistry, and the film becomes Besson’s benchmark that he can hardly pass so far.