Crazy Stupid Love

Dua tokoh sentral dalam film ini menarikku untuk membahas: Cal Weaver dan Jacob. Mereka memiliki karakter yang bertolak belakang disebabkan pengalaman hidup yang juga bertolak belakang.

Cal dikisahkan sebagai seorang laki-laki romantis dan seumur hidupnya hanya mencintai satu perempuan, yang membuatnya jatuh cinta ketika dia baru berusia 15 tahun. Cal menikahi Emily tak lama setelah mereka bertemu, kemudian punya anak, dan kehidupan terus berlangsung hingga satu kali Emily mengatakan ingin bercerai karena dia telah tidur dengan laki-laki lain.

Cal yang terlalu shocked mendengar pernyataan itu, buru-buru memutuskan untuk meninggalkan rumah. Disebabkan patah hati yang akut, Cal pun menghabiskan hari-harinya di satu night club, dimana dia berkenalan dengan Jacob.

Jacob adalah anti tesis Cal. Dia tidak percaya cinta sejati itu ada. Untuk menghibur malam-malamnya yang kesepian, dia mencari perempuan yang bisa diajaknya berkencan semalaman. Perkenalan mereka berdua didasari pada dua hal yang bertentangan : Jacob heran ada seorang laki-laki yang begitu mencintai seorang perempuan sampai begitu rapuh hatinya saat ditinggal istrinya. Cal heran ada seorang laki-laki yang begitu mudah mendapatkan perempuan yang dibawanya pulang setiap malam.

Diam-diam Jacob tidak terima ada seorang laki-laki yang terpuruk gara-gara kegagalan cinta. Dengan sepenuh hati, dia mengajari Cal untuk bangkit, mengajarinya berdandan agar tidak nampak ketinggalan zaman; juga mengajarinya untuk mendekati perempuan hingga tak perlu lagi Cal patah hati.

Namun, ternyata diam-diam Jacob justru merasa ingin kehangatan rumah (tangga) dimana tiap malam ada seorang perempuan yang sama yang akan menemaninya dan tak perlu lagi bertualang.

Permasalahan muncul ketika Jacob bertemu dengan Hannah, anak pertama Cal dan jatuh cinta padanya. Cal yang mengenal Jacob sebagai seorang 'womanizer' tentu tidak terima jika anak gadisnya berpacaran dengan Jacob. :)

Pesan moral yang ingin disampaikan oleh si penulis script: budaya Amerika ternyata tetap memimpikan kehidupan keluarga yang hangat dan penuh cinta. :)

LG 18.12 12/01/2019

Fight for Your Soul Mate!

Fight for your soul mate!

A movie review of CRAZY, STUPID LOVE

‘A soul mate is someone without whom you cannot live,” some people say. Therefore, after you realize that you have found your soul mate, don’t ever let him or her go. Fight for him or her if you have to do that. Convince him or her that you belong together in order to reach happiness together.

That is the moral message conveyed by a movie entitled CRAZY, STUPID LOVE. This movie is starred by Julianne Moore as Emily, a 44-year old woman who has three children, Hannah (played by Emma Stone) who is going to be a lawyer, Robbie (played by Jonah Bobo), a teenager, and the youngest Molly (played by Joey King). Emily’s husband is Cal, a successful man. Steve Carrel plays well as Cal. And there is another central character, Jacob Palmer played by Ryan Gosling.

Cal met Emily when he was 15 years old and directly perceived that Emily would be his one and only soul mate. Despite his dad’s teasing – to say a girl was his soul mate at a very young age because a teenage boy usually ‘just’ had a crush on a girl and then would date many girls before deciding a girl was a soul mate – Cal married Emily who apparently was two years older. Their first daughter – Hannah – was born when Cal was 17 while Emily 19. Their marriage seemed to run well until one day Emily asked for a divorce after she had sex with another man, one workmate of hers named David Linhagen (played by Kevin Bacon). Emily feeling guilty asked for a divorce although afterwards she explained that she suspected herself to suffer from a mid-life crisis.

Getting married for around 25 years and Cal was the first boy dating her – for both of them their spouse was their first love – obviously made Emily bored. She started to feel that she needed to be alone, not always be together with Cal when doing something. As other people who admit that they suffer from a mid-life crisis, Emily perhaps also was questioning herself whether she was still able to attract men or not. She was ‘satisfied’ when finding that David adored her.

Meanwhile, feeling content with his life, Cal never thought that he needed to stll pay attention to his physical appearance and showed any romanticism he once did when he tried to win Emily’s heart. He even directly lost his spirit to keep Emily as his soul mate. He gave in by directly saying he would sign any document (for divorce) Emily needed and leave the house.

At another side of the story, Robbie – the thirteen year old son of the couple – fell in love with Jessica (played by Analeigh Tipton), his baby sitter and as his dad at a very young age, Robbie was also very sure that Jessica was his soul mate. On the contrary, Jessica secretly had a crush on Cal! ^__^

Another central character is Jacob Palmer. He ‘helped’ Cal to find back his confidence to face women, by trying to ‘change’ Cal to be like himself – a so-called womanizer. However, later on Jacob turned out to envy Cal’s steady life by only having one woman in his life after meeting Hannah, Cal’s the first child. For sure, Cal disapproved Hannah’s relationship with Jacob due to Jacob’s ‘reputation’ as a womanizer and Cal saw his ‘action’ with his very own eyes.

How does the story end?

Watch it! It is very entertaining, trust me. :)

PT28 17.06 23/02/12

People's Power in Sydney White

 
Sydney dengan ketujuh teman anehnya penghuni the Vortex

A review based on a movie entitled SYDNEY WHITE

Sydney White adalah tokoh sentral dalam film yang berjudul sama: SYDNEY WHITE. Amanda Bynes, si pemeran tokoh Viola yang tomboy dalam film SHE’S THE MAN, berperan sebagai Sydney White yang kebetulan juga memiliki karakter yang tak jauh beda dengan Viola. Yang sedikit berbeda adalah, Sydney dikisahkan dibesarkan oleh ayahnya yang bekerja sebagai ‘plumber’ beserta lingkungannya, para pekerja konstruksi yang mayoritas laki-laki, sehingga sangat bisa dimaklumi jika dia memiliki sifat tomboy. Sedangkan dalam film SHE’S THE MAN tidak dijelaskan background apa dan mengapa yang membuat Voila memiliki sifat tomboy.

Dari segi akting, dalam film SYDNEY WHITE ini, tidak banyak perbedaan akting Amanda Bynes dikarenakan dia memerankan tokoh yang mirip dengan tokoh Viola dalam SHE’S THE MAN. Meskipun begitu, kisah yang diusung dalam film Sydney White lumayan menarik: bagaimana para ‘dorks’ alias orang aneh yang tidak mengikuti ‘the mainstream’ jenis-jenis mahasiswa di universitas memiliki power yang luar biasa setelah berkumpul untuk meruntuhkan status quo yang ada.

Alkisah di sebuah universitas yang bernama Southern Atlantic University (SAU), Sydney adalah seorang mahasiswa baru. Di kampus yang sama dulu Sydney's late mom juga menimba ilmu sekaligus mendapatkan teman-teman for life dari bergabung dengan 'a sorority sister group' yang bernama the Kappa Phi Nu sorority. Di surat wasiat yang ditulis oleh ibunya sebelum meninggal, Sydney diharapkan mengikuti jejaknya untuk bergabung dengan Kappa Phi Nu. Di zaman ibunya masih kuliah di SAU, KPN adalah sebuah sorority group dimana para anggotanya diajarkan untuk menyuarakan aspirasi mereka dan mengekspresikan karakter mereka sendiri-sendiri, tanpa merasa perlu 'terancam' untuk menjadi 'berbeda' dari yang lain.

 
Sydney dengan Rachel

Akan tetapi, di bawah kepresidenan Rachel Witchburn, KPN mejadi sebuah kelompok yang berusaha membuat semua anggotanya untuk tunduk di bawah kuasa Rachel dan selalu menjadi apa yang diinginkan Rachel. Salah satunya adalah: anggota KPN tidak boleh gemuk. Bahkan di bawah kepemimpinan Rachel, SAU seperti dikuasai oleh Rachel, misalnya dengan salah satu rencananya untuk menghancurkan "The Vortex" kediaman beberapa mahasiswa yang dianggap 'aneh' di lingkungan kampus karena 'the Vortex' dianggap tak layak berada di lingkungan SAU.

Sydney berhasil menyingkirkan Rachel dari kursi  'Student Body President' setelah mampu mengumpulkan orang-orang 'aneh' alias dorks untuk menerima kenyataan bahwa 'being dork is being different and that is ok' dan memberikan suara mereka kepada Sydney. Mereka dengan suka rela melakukannya karena selama ini mereka cenderung apatis bila ada pemilihan ketua Dewan Mahasiswa.

"Being different -- or dork -- from the mainstream is acceptable." alias "Being minority doesn't necessarily mean you have no choice." Ini adalah pesan menarik yang ingin disampaikan film yang bertema komedi ini.

Sydney White film remaja yang lumayan menghibur dari pada bosen sendirian. :)

PT28 16.48 14/02/12

P.S.:

mumpung masih berdekatan waktunya, aku menunggu people's power untuk menyingkirkan FPI dari bumi pertiwi. (mekso banget yak? hahahaha)

FREEDOM WRITERS

When doing small researches to write a paper I entitled “America – A Dream that Has Not Come True” in African American Literature Class and another paper I entitled “’Salad Bowl’ and ‘Anti Semitism’ in Elmer Rice’s Street Scene” in Modern American Literature class in 2003, I was wondering if racial prejudice portrayed in “Street Scene” and racial discrimination illustrated in Langston Hughes’ poem—Will V-Day Be Me-Day Too?—can still be easily found in America at the end of the twentieth century and in the beginning of the twenty first century.

When watching FREEDOM WRITERS, a movie inspired by a real event in Long Beach California that happened at the last decade of the twentieth century, I got the answer of that question of mine. Racial prejudice, racial violence, racial discrimination, or whatever people call it, still exists in the land Langston Hughes mentioned as a dream country for million immigrants with various color skins in his poem “Freedom’s Plow”. The movie starts with live news on TV showing gang violence and racial tension causing more than 120 people killed, following the Rodney King riots. It is followed by a depiction of how a Latino father raises his daughter—Eva Benita, one central character in the movie—to be the next generation of a gangster. The marginalized communities living in Long Beach—say Latino, Asians, and Black—believe that they have to fight each other for territory, kill each other over race, pride, and respect. In short, I can say that Long Beach is the “modern” area of the cheap tenement portrayed by Elmer Rice in his realistic play STREET SCENE (1929). What I mean “modern” here is people using more advanced ‘media’ to show their prejudice and hatred against different races, such as guns. In Long Beach, people are divided into some separate sections, depending on tribes. The Latinos get along with their own tribe, so do the Asians and Blacks. They openly show their hatred to each other. However, they can become united when facing the mainstream of America—the Whites.

For the marginalized tribes’ hatred toward the Whites, Eva said, “White people always want to be respected as if they deserve to get it for free. It is all about colors. It is all about people deciding what you deserve; about people wanting what they don’t deserve; about white people thinking they can get anything … no matter what.”

The amazing aspect from the movie is the way Erin Gruwell, one white English teacher working for Woodrow Wilson High School chosen by the government to be reform school with voluntary integration program to win her students’ hearts—many of them are just out of juvenile prison due to gang fights—to make them want an education and believe that the education will better their future. Failing to get her students’ attention on the first day, slowly Erin succeeds making them united to be hostile to her due to her white complexion. Later on Erin can get their attention and make them interested to read the books she buys for them, although it means she has to have an extra job to get money to buy the books. After making them interested to read the books she provides, Erin eventually succeeds making them realize that education will really change their future to be better. Nevertheless, her hard work and much time she dedicates for her students result in divorce because her husband—feeling neglected—does not agree with her way of living. Besides, Erin realizes that her happiness is gathered when she can help her students aware the meaning of their lives, and not just as a wife of a man.


This amazing movie is produced by Double Feature Films Production. Hilary Swank plays as Erin Gruwell, Patrick Dempsey as Scott Casey, Erin’s husband, Scott Glenn as her father, who always supports anything Erin does for her students, and April Lee Hernandez as Eva Benita.

PT56 13.20 161007


P.S.: You can view my post here for my paper "America - A Dream that Has Not Come True Yet" and my other post here for my paper on STREET SCENE

The Pursuit of Happyness

“We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, …” (The Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson)

Obviously Chris Gardner, the main character in the movie entitled “The Pursuit of Happyness”, a film by Gabriele Muccino was really obsessed by what Jefferson wrote—that all men are endowed the right to pursue happiness. The movie inspired by a true story has Will Smith as Chris Gardner, Thandie Newton as Linda, and Jaden Christopher Syre Smith as Christopher, their son.
When watching the movie, I was touched by the big belief of Gardner that he was really endowed that right. Everybody deserves to be happy and everybody has their own way to pursue their happiness, no matter their color, the gender, the ethnic group, the religion, etc. Therefore, everybody must strive to reach it.
Linda also believes in it. When she thinks that her husband cannot make her happy in their marriage, she has her own way to pursue her own happiness—by leaving her husband whom she thinks impotent to look for money. She is tired of being poor, having to work hard—double shift—to pay the bills while in the beginning of their marriage, she is promised happiness by her husband; happiness that she thinks without financial constraint, without her having to work double shift.
When leaving her husband, she takes Christopher with her. In America, children under 18 years old are to follow the mother when the parents are separated or divorced. However, when the following morning Chris takes Christopher from the day care, Linda doesn’t complain a lot. She does understand that Chris is a good father, only he is not really good in looking for money. That’s why when she leaves for New York to start a new life—her sister’s boyfriend opens a restaurant, Linda expects a better future there—she doesn’t mind leaving Christopher with his dad although she feels very unhappy.
Big determination of Chris to pursue his happiness—always remember what Jefferson writes in the Declaration of Independence—makes Chris do his best to reach his dream, not only for himself of course, but the more important thing is his only son. This is somewhat the reflection of his own life where he met his father for the first time when he was 28 years old. He feels very unhappy for that, and this makes him determined that if he has children, his children would know who their father is.
The story happened during the last two decades of the twentieth century. I am wondering whether Chris would get that position in the brokerage firm of Dean Witter—that miraculously changed his life—if the story had happened when Jim Crow Law still haunted America?
PT56 21.28 220807

Say 'NO' to Drugs

To prepare my students to enter lesson three of Advanced 4 level, I invited my students to watch ’28 DAYS’, a movie illustrating about drug addicts in a rehabilitation center. The main character of the movie, Gwen—played by Sandra Bullock—is a drug addict. Due to an accident she undergoes when she is ‘fly’, the court gives her two choices: to go to a jail or to go to a rehabilitation center for 28 days. She chooses the second option.
After watching the movie, I gave the following questions:
1.How did Gwen end up being a drug addict?
2.Did the treatment in the rehabilitation center work to cure the addicts?
3.In the rehabilitation center, did ‘chanting’ work to encourage the addicts to stay away from drugs?
4.Which is more important: the motivation from the addicts to cure themselves or from the family members/rehabilitation center?
5.What sometimes made an addict lose his/her spirit to live?
There are ten students in my class, five female and another five male students. One student is still in the third grade of senior high school, two students just graduated from senior high school, going to enter college, and the rest are college students. I asked the students to work in two groups: female and male groups.
For the first question ‘How did Gwen end up being a drug addict?’, the two groups referred to the familial background of Gwen. Her mother—Gwen has one older sister, Lily—was an alcoholic. There is no clear illustration about the father. The fact that the mother is an alcoholic infects Gwen to be an alcoholic too. (This is what she says to the other addicts in the rehabilitation center what makes her a drug addict at the first place.) A parent who doesn’t give good examples to the children will become a model. The difference between the female from the male group is that the female group came up with another idea—Gwen chooses wrong people as her friends. She chooses to live in wrong environment. An alcoholic mother only is not enough to make children become alcoholic too because Lily—Gwen’s sister—is not an alcoholic. Lily is ‘clean’ from either alcohol or drugs.
Gwen’s boyfriend apparently doesn’t support her to be cured from drugs because once in a while when he visits Gwen in the rehabilitation center, he brings her some drugs secretly. His reason is: Gwen needs it. Someone cannot be separated from drugs abruptly. He/she needs to be away from it step by step.
For the second question ‘Did the treatment in the rehabilitation center work to cure the addicts?’, the two groups had different idea. The boys said that it worked only to some addicts while the girls said it worked to all of the addicts under one condition: the addicts themselves had big motivation to cure their addiction.
The students thought that the rehabilitation center had good programs to help cure the addicts. It depends on the addicts then whether they had positive character to their own lives for their future.
The third question ‘In the rehabilitation center, did ‘chanting’ work to encourage the addicts to stay away from drugs?’, both groups agreed that the chant worked to encourage the addicts. By chanting, they remind themselves that they would have good future if they stayed away from drugs. I am myself of opinion that to some extent, ‘chanting’ here somewhat has the similar use of praying. When people pray, hopefully they will always remember the pray, and to make it come true, they will try their best to reach it. For example: when a student prays, “God, I want to graduate with flying colors”, he/she will study hard to make it come true.
For the fourth question ‘Which is more important: the motivation from the addicts to cure themselves or from the family members/rehabilitation center?’ the groups got a bit different answer: the girls said that the motivation from two sides—the addicts and the family members/rehabilitation center—is both important. The boys said that the motivation from the addicts is more important. The girls reasoned when an addict had big motivation to cure the addiction but the family members/environment doesn’t support him/her, it will be useless. The same example is Gwen’s case whose boyfriend doesn’t really support her.
The last question ‘What sometimes made an addict lose his/her spirit to live?’ referred to one addict named Andrea in the movie. Her days—for 28 days—in the center is going to be over soon. She will be leaving. Before her departure, her friends performs one scene play, taken from Santa Cruz, Andrea’s favorite soap opera, However, her last intake of drug—not clear how she can keep it secretly from the staff of the center—kills her. She dies because of overdose.
This scene is related to the previous scene where there is ‘family session’ in the center. All addicts are encouraged to invite their family members, to express their feelings to each other. It can be in the form of disappointment of the family members because the ‘addict’ becomes an addict. Or on the way around, the ‘addict’ becomes an addict because he/she doesn’t get enough attention from the family. When knowing that Lily will come, Gwen is worried because she thinks that Lily will make her ashamed with anything Lily says. On the contrary, Andrea is hurt when her parents say that they will not come because they are ashamed of her. They even say that they don’t want Andrea to come back.
Obviously, this makes Andrea lose her spirit to live. This very young girl doesn’t know where to go after leaving the rehabilitation center. Her using drug again—overdose—can be interpreted as Andrea’s committing suicide.
Gwen herself in fact then reconciles with Lily after the family session. They lack of talking to each other heart to heart that has made them have strained relationship. By the end of the movie, Gwen, who realizes that she has chosen a wrong person to be her boyfriend, breaks the relationship with him.
By the end of the discussion, we can come to a conclusion that having a close relationship with the right people—can be friends or family members—with whom we can talk to each other heart to heart, will save someone from being an addict. The feeling that we are loved, needed, and wanted—by the right people too—is another key to stay away from drugs.
LL 16.53 220807

Denias Senandung di Atas Awan

“Denias Senandung di Atas Awan” (“Denias humming from above the cloud”) is one of good movies produced by Indonesian producers. It is produced by Alenia Pictures. The story-based one a true story-is about one boy named Denias living in Papua, one quite big island in Indonesia, located in the eastern part of the archipelago. The island has one so-called biggest gold mining company in the world, the Freeport. However, it doesn’t mean that the native people there live wealthily. Denias used to live in one poor village located in inland and the villagers still practice the ritual ceremonies from their ancestors.
There are five interesting things that I noted when watching it.
Mourning ritual ceremony
When Denias mother died in an accident, because a torch used fell down and burnt the house made of wood, his father had to undergo the mourning ritual ceremony, his left forefinger was cut. While for the other family members, they had to bath in mud.
For the first ritual, the forefinger is cut to show the mourning, I, as one stranger of one ethnic group in the Papuan culture, am of opinion that this practice is really not humane. The husband will get double pain, the mental and the physical. Although I must say that when I get psychologically troubled, sometimes I want to injure my body so that I will get injured not only inside but also outside. (I always suspect myself as suffering from sado-masochism.)
This ritual reminds me of the practice of suttee in India in the previous century. When a husband died, the wife had to throw herself into the blaze burning the corpse of the body. This is much more inhumane because a woman deserved life no longer when her husband died. Mary Daly stated that suttee was legally banned in 1829. I am wondering if in this era there is still one ethnic group in India still carries out this inhumane practice?
Discriminative treatment toward other people
One scene in the movie shows this discrimination when the Board of School refuses to accept Denias as one student there, with reason, “Denias does not come from the surrounding area. This school is especially for children from ethnic groups living around here.” Sam Koibur, one teacher in the school tries her best in order that Denias can study there because she sees good potential in Denias. This is what she says toward the Board of School:
“When the first time I came to this place, I heard a lot about the discriminative treatment toward other people. At first I thought that the discriminative treatment was only done by the newcomers; but in fact the native people here also can do the unfair treatment toward their fellow inhabitants.”
The situation is absolutely different from the one in Java, the most densely populated island in Indonesia. In Semarang, my hometown located in Central Java province, the government needs to issue regulation of ‘regionalization’ where students are to study in the school located in the same region where they dwell. If not, smart students will flood the most favorite state schools downtown, and the schools located in the suburb will only get the less intelligent students. This creates gap among state schools.
Papua is an island where the native people have dark skin with kinky hair. There are many ethnic groups there with different local languages that make them not able to communicate well if there is no national language-Bahasa Indonesia. Once I met a Papuan person that told me in the past people from those different ethnic groups often fought to each other because of misunderstanding, miscommunication, and different habits. This reminded me of the beginning story of slavery in the United States where many dark skinned people were brought from Africa to America to be slaves. (I refer to AMISTAD movie.) On the ship they could not communicate because they spoke different languages. In America they were treated very badly by the whites, such as being whipped when they were considered to be slow to work, or to do some mistakes. Unconsciously this way to treat other people was stuck on their mind. Consequently, they did the same thing when other people did mistakes, or just to take revenge. In the short story “Sweat” written by Zola Neale Hurston, Hurston wrote how Sykes treated his wife, Delia. It was the same way how the whites treated the black people. Considered to be under the black men, the black women had to get that severe treatment: as a revenge of the black men because they were considered lower than the whites?
The native of Papua have been treated unfairly by the new comers to that island. Feeling inferior, they do not protest. Unfortunately, then they ‘take revenge’ to their fellow native Papuan.
Papua is one of the richest island in Indonesia-with its gold mining company, the Freeport-but most of the native people live poorly.
The land is rich with gold and copper. However the native don’t know how to mine ores containing gold. Therefore they cannot do anything but just become workers after the mining company was established there some decades ago. Who gets the most profit from this mining company? Not the native people of course.
Denias comes from a poor family with an uneducated father. However, one volunteer teacher says that he is smart and suggests him to pursue his dream by studying until he can reach the cloud, to see the world from above. By the end of the story Denias is accepted to study in one elementary school in the town nearby. After the movie is over, it is stated that now Denias is studying in Darwin Australia, with the scholarship he got from the Freeport company.
Studying in formal school
Since Denias’ father is uneducated, he doesn’t realize the importance of studying in a formal school. He is angry when he finds out that Denias is studying (in a makeshift hut used as temporary school) while he needs Denias’ help to do something. Pay attention to the following short dialogs between Maleo (one army member sent to the area. he was willing to teach Denias and his friends simple arithmetic, how to read and write, geography, etc) and Samuel, Denias’ father.
Maleo: I need your help to make Denias able to study again.
Samuel: Don’t interfere my affair. That is not your duty.
Maleo: I know this is not my duty but your duty.
Samuel: This is not Java. All sons have to help their parents. You don’t understand that.
Maleo: I understand that. That’s why Denias has to study. If he studies, he will be able to help you a lot later.
Samuel: That’s it. You only can say later later and later. What I need is now now and now.
From the above conversation we can conclude that process of acculturation between the culture of the native and the culture of the comers really need handling carefully and wisely so that none feels cornered and marginalized. The comers are not supposed to feel more civilized than the native, while the native are wiser to adapt with the new things. It is understandable if the native didn’t find it necessary to study arithmetic, reading, writing, etc in the old time. However now with more and more people move to Papua, it is advisable that the native study the same thing as the comers: to protect Papua their native land from the greed of the comers.
“Koteka”, traditional clothes in Papua.
To find out more about koteka, check this site: http://www.answers.com/topic/koteka
People in Papua wore ‘koteka’ in the old times. This ‘cloth’ is only to cover the genital organ of both men and women. Papuan women in the past were topless and breasts were not considered to be covered. In the beginning of the movie, there is a ritual traditional ceremony called “Wearing Koteka”. The ceremony is done in a religious way that means ‘koteka’ can be categorized something sacred because only to wear that, they need to hold a special ceremony.
This reminded me of one experience of one of my Professors at college. Several years ago he was among some other experts in culture involved to carry out some acculturation process in Papua. One of them was: “To make our brothers in Papua wear more proper and decent clothes. We are already civilized here. How can we let our brothers there stay naked and not well cultured?”
If you were the native of Papua, would you consider these strangers more civilized only because they covered up their bodies? Or would you consider them as colonizers?
Not knowing what he would do in Papua at the beginning, my Professor protested after finding out the intention of a group of so-called expert in culture from Java.
“Denias Senandung di Atas Awan” is indeed worth watching with so many moral lessons behind. The casts are: Albert Fakdawer as Denias, Ari Sihasale as Maleo, Michael Jakarimilena as Samuel, Marcella Zalianty as Sam Koibur, one teacher who helps Denias accepted in the school in the town nearby.
PT56 12.21 100807

The Holiday

“… a vacation is supposed to be doing the unexpected…”

What kind of holiday is your favorite? Would you prefer spending your time in a beach with its white sand, blue sea, sunshine, the sound of waves and also seagulls? You can swim to your heart’s content; or you can build sand castles; at other times sunbathing to get tanned. Or would you spend it in a small cottage in a slope of a mountain during winter? You can build snowman, ski, etc. Would you like to spend your holiday with the one you love—such as your plus one—or with family members or a group of close friends? Or would you choose to be all alone?
This movie—THE HOLIDAY—gives a great idea to spend a holiday: exchanging homes and everything. The two main characters, Amanda Woods played by Cameron Diaz, living in a sunny area of Los Angeles exchanges dwelling place with Irish Simpkins played by Kate Winslet. The illustration that both of them are single, live on their own in their respective home perhaps makes this exchanging dwelling place for two weeks easier to do. Although both of them are single, they have different experience that makes them end up without a plus one. Irish’s boyfriend—Jasper—cheats her by having a relationship with another woman and then he gets engaged with the other woman; leaving Irish broken hearted. Amanda breaks her relationship with her boyfriend—Ethan—after he admits that he sleeps with his receptionist. Both of them have the same reason to leave their dwelling place temporarily: to forget the pain due to their unfaithful boyfriends..
Can both of them forget their boyfriends who have made them broken-hearted? Will they find someone new in the new place that will help them forget the pain?
PT56 21.37 050807