"Fathers and Guns"

The other movie I watched from Siff was the French movie "Father and Guns," which was a comedy/action film. It began with having one of the main characters, Marc's co-worker/friend being kidnaped by the people from a criminal organization. Marc was determined that he would have to save his friend and bring him home. Marc's father, Jacques, who was also a cop, was on the same team as Marc. The two did not get along with each other well. Jacques always looked down on Marc, and Marc on the other hand, did not really care about his father. One day, the team found out that the lawyer who was the defense counsellor for the criminal organization was going to a "Parental-Reconnection" camp with his son, Jacques and Marc were ordered by their chief to go to the camp in an attempt to find out from the lawyer the place where Marc's co-worker was hidden. At the camp, Jacques was trying his best to build a friendship with the lawyer while Marc was becoming friends with the laywer's son almost effortless. Finally, in towards the end of the movie, the lawyer decided to stand up and point out the crime committed by the criminal organization. Marc's co-worker was sent home safely, and the lawyer moved to a nice sunny place with his family. After this case ended, Marc and Jacques were still on the same team with each other, but their relationship has improved a lot since then, and were able to work together peacefully.

There were many scenes from this movie that I found interesting and liked, especially the events that happened at the parental reconnection camp. For example, one of the activities the characters did at the camp was to pick out an item from a box that they thought best reprensted their sons or fathers. The fathers and sons who had a more positive attitude towards each other picked out something more manly as a representation. For the fathers and sons who did not like each other too well, picked out item like a barbie doll or even "shits" to serve as an image. I think this activity they did indirectly related to the course concept of masculinity and restated the ideal standard/images for men. People are supposed to find it funny when the father used a barbie doll to represent his son, and are supposed to find it normal when they use something masculin (or manly) such as a superman toy. The stereotypes for female are stated by Jacques' statement in this activity. Jacques was the one who picked the barbie doll as a represeentation for his son. He explained in the movie that he thought "all sons have become mamma's boys," that their fathers must coddle them, "shower them with love and, above all, always listen to them. Listen to them some more, still more," otherwise the sons would start whining, sulking, and crying. Here, Jacques was kind of implying how these are the ways women would act and expected to treated with and that, it would be extremely ridiculous for a man to act like this.

I also found a light form of "sexism" at the beginning of the movie when the lawyer came out from the building and was surrounded and interviewed by a group of reporters. When asked by a young female reporter some questions, the lawyer stopped and turned her with a scornful look on his face. The lawyer first questioned the female reporter who does she write for. After the reporter responsed to his question, the lawyer went on to question her about her major. When given the reply "social science," the lawyer asked "with or without math." The female reporter was given a rude response "figures" when answered "without." The lawyer then replied much nicer to another male reporter's questions. From the conversation between the lawyer and the female reporter, it was not difficult to see how the lawyer did not really treat women at work place with respect. The reason for this could simply be that because they are females. As mentioned in blog 7th, movies are a form of media, they can be used to teach people about their social roles and inform them about the stereotypes for both sexs. Others may think this movie is just simply for entertainment, but one should also be awared of the underlying meanings of this movie.

picture site: website- Bell

video site: youtube- Father and Guns Trailer

"Castaway on the Moon"

One of the movies I watched from Siff was "Castaway on the Moon." It is a Korean movie and its main characters are a middle-age (around late 30's to early 40's) male named Kim, who has no jobs, lost his girlfriend, and is in a lot of debts, and a young woman (around her 20's) who has been staying in the same room for 3 years and never left the room. The movie began with the Kim jumping off the bridge into the Han River attempting to kill himself. "Unfortunately," Kim didn't end up dying, instead, he was brought to this "island" located at the Han River by the waves. I really liked one of the lines being said by Kim when he found out that he was still alive, which was "When you are useless, you don't even have the ability to kill yourself." At first, Kim was still trying to escape from the island, he wrote "HELP" along the side of the island. He even attempted to kill himself once again by hanging himself. Finally, he realized that was no point to leave the island or to kill himself because that won't change anything in his life. Therefore, he started to settle down on the island; he built a little house for himself using an abandoned duck boat and started to make food by catching fishes and birds. Life was pretty good until one day he found this instant noodles wrapper on the ground. The wrapper struck him and reminded him how much he missed having the noodles. Inside the wrapper was a sealed sauce. The sauce not only gave him the motivation to make his own noodles so that he could eat it with the sauce, but it also gave him a goal, a new goal for his life. He started to enjoy his life, and he changed the word "HELP" to "HELLO."

Meanwhile, the young woman was staying in her room, living her life with the exact same routines everyday. She spent the majority amount of time on viewing other girls' blogs, and she would copy down the pictures of shoes or clothes from the other blogs and put them on her own blog. She often imagined herself as a young, beautiful lady with nice clothes and nicely done make-ups. She liked to take pictures of the moon and just random things on the streets using a professional camera through her window. One day, she spoted the word "HELP" written by Kim, she interpretated it as a signal delivered by the aliens, and she thought Kim was the alien. She was really excited about her discovery of Kim and she decided to make contacts with Kim, which was the reason that brought her out of her room for the first time in 3 years. Kim and the young woman later on built a unique relationship with each other. They communicated through writting along the sides of the island and through the letters put in the wine bottles. After a few months, Kim was found and was forced to leave the island, where he now considered his real home. The movie ended with union of Kim and the young woman on the bus.

I really enjoyed watching this movie. It was presented in a humorous way and the plot was interesting and easy to follow. Some of the course concepts addressed by this movie would be the stereotypes for men and women. For example, Kim from the movie was expected to have a decent, well-paied job by his girlfriend, and be successful on the society by his girlfriend. He didn't meet the expectations and was therefore dumped by his girlfriend. However, one needs to realize that these are not only the expectations of Kim's girlfriend, they are also what are being expected from every male in our society. Furthermore, the young woman from the movie was hoping to be younger, to have a nicer body, and to dress up nicely. She wanted to act elegantly and be more "womanly." These wishes of the young woman are also the wishes/standard of and for the females in the society. Movie is a form of media, and this movie is used to teach its audiences that men ought to be successful and have a good job, and that women should be young, pretty, and well-dressed so that they can attract other people's attentations (especially men's).

picture site: blog- Korean Movies, Best of Life

video site: youtube- Castaway on the Moon Trailer