Bliping

Today is the Tomb Sweeping Day, a traditional Chinese festival celebrated in memory of the departed souls.

This festival functions as a reminder to urge the living to memorize the dead, to memorize the past. Most important of all, the living should shoulder the responsibility and practice their beloved’s wills. It seems the festival is exclusively available in China. But the highlights of this festival are universally acknowledged.

The American film<The Cider House Rules> carries the similar message. It was originally a 1985 novel by John Irving and later adapted into a film of the same name by Peter Parnell. When you are sick of typical Hollywood blockbuster-heroes, fighting, sex etc., this film will pacifies your irritable mood.

Homer Wells grows up in an orphanage under the care of Dr. Wilbur Larch, who secretly was an abortionist. They have established a special relationship, between the relationship of father and son and that of teacher and student. Dr. Larch conferred Homer lot of medical knowledge, but little worldly wisdom. With Homer growing up, his self-awareness urged him to seek the outside world and design his own future. Then he left, far away from the orphanage, from Dr. Larch. Exciting and colorful, the world outside the orphanage is new to him. Especially when he fallen in love with a girl, he realized how dull his life before was.

However, with the evolvement of his new life, Homer constantly lost in the collision between the past life and current life. His past had already inserted into his future. Finally, on hearing the death of Dr. Larch, Homer decided to return to the orphanage to work as the new director. He decided that he provides the safest abortion alternative for women and everything he does will be “the Lord’s work.”

The film is loyal to its original work. Slow and quiet, all the drastic emotion was well hidden under the peaceful scenes. But to tell the truth, I like the novel much better than the film. There are more characters and plots in the novel, regarding several historical problems of the US. The theme was successfully expressed through the single-line plot. That is to Back to Basics. One should never forget his past, his root for it is them that decide your future. To betray your past only leads to self-torture and suffering.

Tags: Adaption, Charlize Theron, Oscar nomination, Tobey Maguire

This entry was posted on Monday, April 5th, 2010 at 4:56 AM and is filed under Feature film. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.