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