Actually, both of her parents are a little bit morbid. Her father always plays with stuff birds alone, while her wobbly mother is addicted to sherry. Poor Mary feels confused about all the things around her and eagerly hopes there is a friend to share and tell.
Meanwhile, Max, a severely obese man with Asperger’s Syndrome is suffering from the chaos of New York. Just like Mary, he adores chocolate, watching ‘The Noblets’, and feeling confuzzled (an original word created by his own, the combination of “confuse” and “puzzle”) about the world. Mary and Max live in total different environment, but they do share some experiences and keen feelings, such as broken family, loneliness, thus beginning their friendship through letters.

For Mary, Max just like a guide who seriously answers her childish questions and wisely comfort her. Also, he is a friend beyond the age barrier. Having problem communicating with the world makes Max innocent and kind as Mary. He put a deep influence on Mary, from her childhood to adulthood, from a ugly girl to a famous writer. It is Max who makes Mary.
For Max, Mary is a window which sends in fresh air to his depressed world. A sort of responsibility rises in him. With the continuous letters with the little girl, he gradually realizes the problem of himself and tries to accept himself and forgive Mary and the world. “You are my best friend. You are my only friend.” The last words Max says in the movie tell all.
This movie is based on a true story of the director. It is obvious that the director’s intention is to extol the great power of friendship. However, the meaning of the story is much varied. Friendship is great in the movie because it helps trigger your confidence, makes your life bright. Friends are live links to the world. No friends equals no connection with the world. And only when one establishes good relation with friends could he deal with the world smoothly. In the movie, the process of developing their friendship is also the process of self-realization.
The following words Max say in the last letter to Mary impressed me very much:
The reason l forgive you is because you are not perfect. You are imperfect, and so am l. All humans are imperfect, even the man outside my apartment who litters, free kisses. When l was young, l wanted to be anybody but myself. Dr Bernard Hazelhof said if l was on a desert island then l would have to get used to my own company -just me and the coconuts. He said l would have to accept myself, my warts and all, and that we don’t get to choose our warts.
I guess most of us often fell into the trap of self-doubting, even self-negation. Such negative emotion wouldn’t trouble truly mature soul. The goal of our life is to be strong enough to defeat all the pressure from the outside world. But the first step is to sweep the obstacles in ourselves. And the only way is to accept yourself, to believe yourself. Then you will have the faith to enter the world, to face it. Love yourself first, and love the world.
Ps. the wonderful OST of Mary and Max is: Penguin Cafe Orchestra – Perpetuum Mobile

Volcano eruption, climate anomaly, earthquakes are here and there. It seems that 2012 is just around the corner. When Poland people dwelt on their departed President, a rumor emerged which said the President actually didn’t board the plane, but secretly went to the Big Boat instead.

Obviously, most people take the rumor as a joke, but it reveals people’s panic. Our mother earth is in trouble. Are human beings mighty enough to reverse the track of our planet of earth? I’m not sure. What I am sure is that it is our industrialization drive modernization drive that leads to the deterioration of the environment. No one wants to be a loser, nor does any country.

Competition, expansion, exploitation, we are on a treadmill with the purpose of being faster, higher, stronger. Olympic spirit is not exclusively shown on track and field playground, but on also on international stages. As a matter of fact, we are in race with our future.

impressive poster

What is happiness? What is love? What is success? What do you live for? Who are you? What should you be like? You can provide various answers to these questions. But the simplest way to deal with them is to figure out what you need and what you want.

“I am an adult. I know what I want.” For an adult, what he wants usually equals what he needs. As a man grows up, he gradually get rid of his naivety, fantasies, but becomes more and more sensible and practical. He is down-to-earth. However, a kid knows little of himself, and less of the world. Sensibility but not sense dominates him. He wanders aimlessly in his world, just like a cloud up in the air.

Ryan is the kid, while Alex is the adult. Ryan led a life of hedonism. The only aim of his life was 10.000.000 miles, a symbol of success. Unexpectedly, the balance of his life was broken after a hearty conversation with his brother-in-law. When his brother-in-law began to doubt the meaning of marriage, of life, Ryan began to examine his own life. It suddenly occurred to him that not all the things could be explained as meaningful. You should not give up life simply because it tortures you. Nor should you refuse marriage because it fetters you. Life is hard; life is troublesome. But the essence of life is to experience, that is to live with whatever God gives you.

Ryan & Alex

What Ryan wanted is not what he needed. What he really needed was Alex, and a warm and cozy home. Thus, an instinct pulled him from the air to the earth. The instinct is called love, which always exists inside one’s heart but becomes dull and numb as time goes by. But the fact only proved his naivety. The instinct dropped to impetus.

The impetus of brother-in-law is the freedom in the air, and it in turn took him back to the earth. On the contrary, Ryan’s impetus is the true love on the earth and it sent him back to the air. Indeed, happiness is inertial, springing from repetition.
The ending reminded me of the Hurt Locker. Just like James, Ryan restarted his trip on plane without knowing the deadline. His happiness is only available in one place-up in the air.

Distance

I saw you in the distance

A noble soul shines

A humble heart hesitates

Tortures the distance

Consoles the distance

Keep it, keep it, the distance

Ibrahim Ferrer

No coffee, no tea, only a piece of Jazz music will work.

If Hip-hop represents vigorous young people, Jazz is likely to be a wise old man. There is no boundary in the world of music. However, different genres capture different features. As for Jazz, nothing is more notable than its elegance. It is a gentleman sipping a cup of tea. It is a lady flicking her skirt.

Personally, I would like listening to Jazz at an easy night. The swing surely let my imagination take flight.

Here are two recommendations of Jazz album: <Buena Vista Social Club> & <Buena Vista Social Club Presents Ibrahim Ferrer>

from Dead Poets Society

someone else for a moment, so that they know in some profound sense what it is like to be themselves.”

My interpretation of this comment is that reading helps you have a better understanding of yourself. To certain extent, all the artistic activities take you close to yourself. So does watching movies.

We want to be a dedicated fighter, a smart scientist or a brave adventurer from time to time. What if our country was defeated? What if aliens visit my home? What if the doomsday comes? What an actor gives is an experience held and shaped. He is in a slum, he is in a desert, and he is on another planet; he is in Jonesburg, he is in Iraq, and he is on Mars. That’s the joy of being an actor and we, viewers, share it. When we watch a film, we are both here and there. Our imagination takes us to whenever we want. And an ideal way to fulfill the imagination is to watch a film. Compared with reading, it is less time-consuming and monotonous.

about the war between Cameron and his ex-wife Kathryn. The result had shown that The Hurt Locker overshadowed Avatar greatly. At the same time, Kathryn Bigelow became the first female winning the Award of Directing. A great woman who changes the history of the Oscar will definitely change the history of human society.

I always hold the belief that males and females are born equal. Equal in rights and obligations, but complementary in capacities. Anyway, they’re born different, in physiological structures. However, with tremendous endeavors and willpower, females can be strong as males. Today I happened to read a ballad, Mulan, which is translated from a classical Chinese poetry. I believe most of you know the Disney-made movie entitled Mulan. Actually, the film is based on this ballad. Share with you the last part of the ballad:

Today is a special day-International Women’s Day, so I’d like to recommend a special film for all the women.

Film: A Good Woman
Director: Mike Barker
Cast: Helen Hunt/Scarlett Johansson/Tom Wilkinson

A Good Woman is a drama film adapted from Oscar Wild’s famous play Lady Windermere’s Fan.
I just want to comment on a few insightful sentences in the movie.

1. Marriage is based on mutual misconceptions.
How many secrets husband and wife keep from each other, though some of them are out of good intentions? Sometimes the good intentions cause greater hurt rather than telling the truth. Robert doesn’t want to reveal the identity of Mrs Erlynne to Meg just because he doesn’t want to shatter her fairy-tale imagination of her mother. But what is the price? Meg is crazy that her husband falls in love with another woman. She is at the verge of being seduced by Lord Darlington if not her mother finds out her in time. Maybe others would put the blame on Meg, why she just simply believes in her husband?
I think it’s easy to say and hard to do. How can you judge whether your sweetheart betrays you? Wait and see? Actually Meg has seen it by her own eyes that her husband stays with Mrs. Erlynne and gives her money. If I were Meg, I would not believe Robert, either. I think Robert is the one who to blame, why doesn’t just tell Meg the truth? Is it so difficult to put it straight rather than seeing their marriage destroyed? Talked about Meg, the fault is that she wants to revenge, to get Robert’s notice again by plunging into another man’s breast. Anyway, I should say, people become real fools when they fall in love, so whether we’ll make the same mistakes is hard to say.

Scarlett Johansson in the film

2. Before you get married, you have to keep your eyes open widely and after marriage, only half open.
Actually not only the marriage, but all the important choices in life should be considered carefully beforehand, and after you’ve made the choice, you’d better do your best to make it as good as possible, not to regret, because that’s only waste of time

Poster

Cast: Richard O’Barry/Louie Psihoyos/Simon Hutchins/Kirk Krack/David Rastovich/Scott Baker

A dolphin’s smile is nature’s greatest deception, it creates the illusion they’re always happy.

Nothing is as misleading as the gorgeous scenery along the coast of Japan near Taiji. As an unsuspecting tourist I would not have the vaguest inkling of the brutal slaughter that takes place yearly right under people’s noses.
Produced by the Oceanic Preservation Society, “The Cove” tells the story of O’Barry’s mission to obtain hard evidence of what goes on in Taiji and exposed it to the public. “The Cove” is much more a spy thriller than just a record of that adventure. When the director Louie Psihoyos slipped into the little coastal town of Taiji, Japan, it was under cover of documenting the degradation of ocean reefs. Those men — perhaps cops, perhaps worse — trailed Mr. Psihoyos and his crew unrelentingly, determined to prevent anyone from filming the enormously lucrative dolphin capture and slaughter that support the town’s economy and employ its fishermen.

From flipper’s trainer to dolphin defender, the persistent O’Barry, who has been arrested many times for trying to free captive dolphins, is practically Taiji’s Public Enemy No. 1. The film is larded with footage of

Harmonious Scene

fishermen barring him from entering the cove, where all photography and recording have been banned. When he gate-crashes a meeting of the International Whaling Commission, the video screen strapped to his chest is like a physical manifestation of decades of guilt. A real hero is always daring to admit and fix his mistakes. “If a dolphin is in trouble anywhere in the world, my phone rings,” he says. You may not give a fig for dolphins, but Mr. O’Barry is giving enough for us all.
The director and all the team members are heroes for their intelligence and courage. Heroes, however, are instantly identifiable, like the shy Japanese councilmen who risk their jobs to protect schoolchildren from mercury-tainted dolphin meat.

“The cove” exposes the guilty in Taiji, bringing us terror and anxiety at first and hope and confidence in the end. Think over what can you do to confer your care for dolphins. Of course, all the creatures in nature is equal, please treat them as your pet!

Director: Neill Blomkamp
Cast: Sharlto Copley/Jason Cope/David James

“It wasn’t like watching a movie; it was like living an experience” one of my friends said after watching District 9.
4 Oscar Awards nominations, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Visual Effects, and Best Editing, make District 9 one of the hottest movies of the year of 2009, comparable with Avatar. The film was produced by none other than Peter Jackson, thus assuring the box office. The director Neill Blomkamp was raised in South Africa until he was 18, and this film is a direct reflection of a similar camp called “District 6? which was used to segregate blacks until apartheid was finally lifted.

The story, adapted from Alive in Joburg, a 2005 short film directed by Blomkamp and produced by Copley, pivots on the themes of xenophobia, inhumanity and social segregation.

The film was produced for $30 million and presents fictional interviews, news footage, and video from surveillance cameras in documentary style. On August 14 2009, the film opened to critical acclaim, in North America and earned $37 million in its opening weekend. Many saw the film as a surprising hit for its relatively unknown cast and low-budget production, while achieving success and popularity during its theatrical run.

Wikus van de Merwe (Sharlto Copley), an MNU field operative, was assigned to relocate the aliens, derogatorily referred to as “prawns”, from District 9, a military-guarded slum in Johannesburg, South Africa, to an internment camp outside the city. Collisions between MNU and aliens and gang group take place continuously and you can never take your eyes off the screen during watching.In the end, MNU’s illegal experiments on the aliens are exposed. The aliens are shown to have successfully moved to District 10. Wikus’s wife reveals to have found a metal flower on her doorstep, which provides her with hope that her husband is still alive. In a scrap yard, an alien presumed to be a fully transformed Wikus is seen crafting a flower out of metal.

Wikus negotiates with Prawn

Sharlto Copley as Wikus van de Merwe, the main human protagonist, a mild-mannered manager at the MNU Department of Alien Affairs. This was the first time acting professionally in a feature film for Copley, a friend of director Blomkamp. His performance was so wonderful that I doubt why Academy Award didn’t nominate him for Best Actor.

The film is impressive not only in the wonderful performance and exciting plots, but also the soundtrack and its themes. The two are perfectly combined and cast a shadow on the viewers. You can’t miss it!