Billy Elliot ~ Dream that crosses the barrier

Billy Elliot is the story of a 12-year-old boy who is among the conflict of social classes in County Durham in Britain between the blue-collar miner workers and the white-collar. His mother died when he was little, and his father, a miner who is struggling to make ends meet while joining the riots of miners strike, pays him to study boxing, hoping him to be a boxer to help the family’s financial situation. At the same time Billy has adopted his love for ballet.

Under pressure, Billy secretly studies his ballet with the ballet teacher in the boxing gym, despite his father gave him pennies for boxing class. He discovered his talent and passion to be a ballet dancer. Later his father discovered the truth and forced him to only stay at home and take care of his grandmother.

Billy who is caught between his family that disapproves his ballet studying and his love of ballet, burst out with grittiness to dance in spite of all obstacles. In the middle part of the movie it shows Billy trying to dance in the chaotic conditions, which are violence between riots of miners and the police who try to suppress them. His brother got caught and prisoned, and he missed the audition for ballet school. The conflicts rose when his father saw him dancing with his friend who is a homosexual. But finally his father decides that his son really has a talent and sent him to audition in London. The movie ends with Billy as a grown-up and is successful as a professional ballet dancer.

In reality it is always difficult to follow our dreams, because of many factors, both from ourselves and the society. But in Billy’s case it is from the society, such as his father and older brother, who expect him to do a realistic and masculine job more than ballet, not to mention ballet’s education expenses, which mostly people from middle to high class can afford to pay.

Moreover, this film is also a good portrayal of social class conflicts in Britain. It portrays the background of the conflicts between working class and middle-class people in Britain, which happens in every society. However, the film does not discuss the idea of justice in the society or demolition of any social class. But it tends to bring out the individual feeling of the passion and aspiration they have inside, such as their true dream.

Romeo and Juliet 1996

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Romeo and Juliet 1996

Modern world presents the old world

Do you like using modern customs in Romeo and Juliet? Or does it degrades the classical value of this movie?

Romeo and Juliet (1996) is the movie that uses all modern styles such as cloths, hair styles,songs, etc to replace the original custom in the very past. Anyway, one thing that the director still preserves in this movie is the classical way of characters’ talking.

I think it is a very effective way to invite young people in this generation who are not interested in old literature because of the hardship of understanding complicated poems to see it.

There are modern styles of summer cloths for beach boys. Cool sport cars are used to replace horses. Beautiful guns can be substitutes for swords. Modern songs such as cardigans’s love fool are used to support the modern style.

Somehow the minor plot in this movie has been changed .In the original book,Romeo is a master of sword.He uses his sword to kill Paris. On the contrary, Romeo in this movie never uses skill of his fighting at all. In the movie, he never fights with anybody. We see only he crashes his car and kill Tybalt with his luck. And he does not fight with Paris.

This may raise the issue whether changing this may spoil the original plot or not.

But for me, I think it is good that Romeo in this story is not the perfect hero who can win anyone.He’s just a boy who engages in strong emotion such as love and hate. The main plot is still strong in the movie.

All of theses can capture attention of young people very well. They can feel like it’s the world they live in and they can share the same feeling in the story.Morever,it doesn’t spoil the classical theme of the original story.

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Potgarn

X-Men: The Last Stand, or The States stands at last.

X-Men: The Last Stand, or The States stands at last.

Whenever we watch the super hero films, the images which draw our attentions are the miracle power and amazing body-building weapons. However, deep inside the story of these super heroes, many of them based on the society circumstances at the time they were written. ‘X-Men’ is one of the powerful super hero movies which monitor the current issues in the society that we rarely recognize.
As well as the other sci-fi movies, The Last Stand connects the story to world’s current issues. In the beginning of the story, becoming mutants are not accepted like being the second-class people or being colored people. Moreover, being the mutants may relate to those who are unaccepted homo-sexual. But their senses of humanity prevent them from doing wrong. This may be compared to the western-base education system those second class people have that lead to the acceptation from the upper class society.
Interestingly, after the September 11 crisis, The Last Stand also portrays the strong image of Americans ideology that admires the hero who fights with bad people (the terrorists, and those who are not US followers). It also helps making the positive image of American government policy in declaring wars on terrorists. The gathering of different mutant bases shows the cooperation of many countries that join U.S. in such the policy.
The Angel (or Archangel) accurately portrays the images of being American with his character of eagle which is the symbol of The States. He is the heir and CEO of the multi-billion dollar Worthington Industries. This privileged background resulted in Warren being stereotyped as an arrogant and fun-loving playboy during his early years with the X-Men, but the trials and tribulations of personal experience have tempered him with humility and deepened his character over the course of time. He is the last one who saves the important person at the end of the story. This shows that The States can help the world from any crisis circumstances with the others mutants, or cooperative as the back-up people.

PS. The Angel, in film, is not a mutant so he cannot hide his wings. This shows that the States is also not a mutant but other cooperative countries are.

Spanglish

Spanglish explores the complexities of Mexican immigrates in American society

Spanglish is an easy viewing film with many hidden messages. It is a cross blend of several different themes. Meanwhile, the underlying aspects are cultural and language clash.

Flor(Paz Vega) a single mother who crosses the Mexican border in favor to search for a better life especially for her beloved daughter(Cristina). In reality, there are more than 12% of Hispanic inhabitants in America thus, the movie is very informative on the culture of immigration into USA from the south without any ability to speak English.

Flor settles herself by working as a housekeeper in white American family, because the language barrier she has difficulties to express her emotion particularly appears on the scene that she was very angry and frustrated when John(Adam Sandler) overpaid her daughter for collecting colored pieces of glass from the beach. Throughout the scene the language obstacle strikes. Flor has to depend on Cristina to translate when she says. It points out how important it is to be able to speak the language due to it will let free from dependency.

Besides the language, Flor is determined to maintain her own Mexican cultural background and expects her daughter to be pround of their own identity. Even though her daughter seems to integrate well to the new cultural environment. At the end, the relationship between them are still tight.

Apart from the interesting cultural differences and the enlightening life of immigration, this movie is full of entertainment and intertwines in many aspects of real life.

Som(Phitchaya Phugpadoong)

http://sonypictures.com/homevideo/spanglish/index.html

Memoirs of a Geisha

“For my world is as forbidden as it is fragile,

without its mysteries, it cannot survive.”

Shizako Hoshi, Sayuri narrator

The declaration above has stunned me from the beginning of the movie "Memoirs of a Geisha." At first, I was curious why a geisha was fragile and why her mytery had to be hidden.

Memoir of a Geisha is the movies that catch my eyes. Every scene proceeds so incredible through combining the great techniques of light setting. The melodies of solo violin could bring me to the feeling of this secret memoir of the great artist for that time. It deserved to get the Golden Globe winner in best score, for John Williams.

Though there is some interrupted of the Ziyi Zhang’s performance (Sayuri), considered not as good as Gong Li does (Hatsumomo). Without the glamorous light and costume Ziyi Zhang would not be the successful in Geisha’s performance. Throughout the film Gong Li could display the passions of a Geisha that are longing for love and finally losing everything. She could reinforce the audience to hate her being touchy, yet feel sympathy for her behavior in the same time.

Why does she have to be envious with Sayuri and Pumpkin?

What will have happen after she had left the house?

Leaving some dialogue for characters to speak in Japanese could help the audience to feel about the scent and flavor of being oriented. Though the audience might not know the meaning of Japanese language, the scenes and the performances could help in getting the surface meaning.

Many believe was portrayed in this movie. For example, the pray that Sayuri did in the temple was proved that it could become true, and the striking of stones brought good luck for the geisha. Those believes told me that in every life we have a chance to believe and hope in a particular thing. One of the most interesting aspects is not waiting for the chance to come but go and reach for it.

How many awards does this movie won?
visit Memoirs of a Geisha Official Site

Pawinee Nim-anussornkul (Pik)