Thoughts on The Fountain (the movie)

I just finished watching The Fountain, directed by Darren Aronofsky, and portrayed by Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz.

*warning: spoilers ahead*

At first, I couldn't understand what the hell was happening, and even read the back of the DVD cover thrice (or was it five times?), but it was only when the story focused on the present that the story started to gel for me.

First, I love love love this film. It's very hard to understand and certainly not your typical romantic comedy entertainment. But it's very thought-provoking and deals with the issues of life and death.

Second, I like the incredible cinematography and superb acting. I believe the actors' very beautiful acting, the real emotion they displayed made the concepts of life, love and death very tangible. I could really feel Tom Creo's love for his wife, the desperation that underlined his every action as he raced against time to search a cure for his wife.

Third, no summary would do it justice, not even my thoughts on the film as I try to express it (however inadequately) below. To really appreciate it, you must go and watch this, experience it for yourself! It's worth the time and money spent. However, it's not your usual film, and if you are looking for light entertainment at the end of a hard day, this is not it.

Fourth, did I mention the film was thought-provoking? All throughout the ages, men have been searching for the tree of life, the fountain of youth, anything to stop aging, anything to live forever. However, while performing this quest, they may have overlooked something important in their lives, something that, when lost, can never be retrieved.

Like, Tom Creo, who elected to spend his time in the lab doing more experiments to find "the tree" to heal his wife, instead of spending more time with his terminally-ill wife in her last days.

Also, what we think of as "the tree of life" (granting immortality) may be different from what we think it would be. Like the conquistador Thomas, who found the hidden tree of life deep in the Mayan jungle, which sap healed his wounds, but in the end, plants grew out of him. He did get immortal life, but as a plant. (What delicious irony!)

And then, the concept/truth that for each of us, death will come. Until then, it's a matter of how you live your life to the full, treasure and cherish the people around you, the time you have with them, build relationships that warm the heart and transcend time.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope yours is more interesting than mine.

I just finished watching the last episode of The Amazing Race Asia Season 2, and I was so affected that I had to blog about it.

*spoilers ahead*

For those who've watched, the winners are the two men from Singapore team, and one of them has a slight difficulty in speaking. Yet, this difficulty didn't prevent him from entering the race and it definitely didn't prevent him from winning. He was instrumental in causing the team to pull ahead of the other two competing teams, so while the victory was definitely a team effort, he contributed a lot, even the main part, I would say, in this crucial leg of the race.

I'm a big fan of lessons, I guess, so I was really touched to realize that no obstacle, barrier, hindrance, physical disability is so great that we couldn't achieve what we want, as long as we set our minds to it. It reminded me of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (the first movie). When I first went to watch the movie, I was intrigued by the character that Angelina Jolie was portraying. Here is this woman who's strong and who believes that she can do whatever a man does--even better. At that time, I thought that if I were still in school and my teacher asked me to write who I want to be when I grow up, I would say I want to be Lara Croft, or someone like Lara Croft.

This is not to say that I'm a feminist. I still appreciate all the small gestures that gentlemen do to make a woman feel special, which is sadly in short quantity these days. I guess, the point I want to hammer into my head, to be my mantra from now on is this: There is no limit to what I can do, as long as I want it badly enough and set my mind to achieve it. :)