first date serbis

“it’s like porn, but it’s interesting”

remarked a, my sister’s american guy.

jewel’s (roxanne jordan) full frontal exposure, uttering “i love you” as if her daily morning mantra in front of the mirror, could have triggered a’s hasty verdict about brilliante mendoza’s movie as porn.

porn stimulates the senses, causes excitement, triggers the spirits of desire and satisfies the wiling audience. on the otherhand, porn defamiliarizes the unprepared. it spawns feelings of disgust, guilt, anger, pleasure, lust, hunger, and pain all the same time.

judging my sister and her guy’s reactions towards the film, serbis could be like porn, but still, it is interesting.

“kuya! this is our first movie date!”

“so?”

“you did not even consider what a would feel and think about this.” 

my sister snapped and walked ahead of me towards the entrance of the movie house.

of course i did. i wanted to see their reactions and defamiliarize them at the same time. besides, i also wanted a to see a glimpse of life in the philippines. i gave the couple the freedom to choose which movie they wanted see but indecision rules over them so i bought them tickets to serbis.

i am sure mr mendoza also considered what his audience will say and think about his opus. the thing is, he had his goals. and whether it is to defamiliarize, to play with the senses, or to present one of the many sides of the philippine society, he did it on purpose.

in this era of make believe where people would rather see and accept the more pleasant (usually fabricated) alternatives than what is actually happening in their environment- poverty, hunger, exploitation, prostitution, struggle, serbis have the least chance to get the general nods of approval from its audience.

the movie is not just about nanay flor (gina pareño) who struggles to save her family from crumbling down while dealing with her personal plight regarding her unfaithful husband. no, it is not only about nayda (jacklyn jose),the second matron-in-charge who manages her family, the family theatre, her regrets, her lust for her cousin, and her regrets for not pursuing her post graduate career. it’s not just about coco martin (alan), the artist who cleans and paints the walls of the family theatre. no, it is not only about merly (mercedes cabral) who frequents the family theatre and was impregnated by alan posing an additional member to the family. it is not only about the kid who, despite seeing the flaws of his environment, continues to enjoy his youth with optimism. and no, serbis is not about jewel, the girl who utters i love you in full flesh in front of the mirror. 

it is about the family being the microcosm of the society.

serbis is about sustaining the family- keeping hold of its crumbling foundations, unclogging its clogged drainage, treating the peeling skin of its walls clothed in graffiti, cleaning its grime filled crevices, providing light on its dark alley ways, refreshing its stinky atmosphere that stings the olfactory nerves, protecting its windows susceptible to all sorts of cacophony from the streets, guarding its entrance that is vulnerable to attack and invasion, and guiding its members who often gets lost in the labyrinth of their personal issues.

unlike what most critiques have said, serbis is not as obscene and shocking as i thought it would be. perhaps the noise, the sex scenes, the dirt, and the darkness are not at all strange for me. i have heard more deafening noises, have seen more obscene sex on screen, and have experienced even darker scenarios.

filipinos who expressed their disgust over the film by saying that it only capitalizes on the negative aspects of the life in the philippines (poverty, dirt, noise, prostitution, corrruption) failed to watch the film closely. they must have left the theatre early upon the sight of alan’s boil on his ass.

they failed to appreciate how the family, the patrons and the customers chased the burglar that took refuge inside the walls of the movie house. they failed to appreciate how the members of the family struggled to keep their place clean. there were scenes where one can see alan repainting the building and cleaning the restrooms. they failed to see how nanay flor and aling nayda kept the foundations of their family secured. 

serbis challenges the audience to see the beauty amidst the filth, to appreciate even the faintest light coming from the old projector inside the dark realm of the dilapidating movie house named family and to listen closely to the conversations embedded deep within the soundtrack of the streets.

it harbors feelings of guilt to those who felt pleasure against the paradigm of their morals beliefs. it elicits the feeling of disgust to those who felt that their standards for beauty and aesthetics were violated. it evokes the sense of familiarity to those who can relate to the scenes and situations. it provides a temporary pleasure that satiates the hunger of those who wanted to see something beyond hollywood.

i guess the exodus of alan at the end of the movie reflects what most of us do when faced with conflicts and truths.

it’s sad that serbis is not widely distributed in moviehouses at the philippines. the film is best watched in a moviehouse where you, as the audience sits comfy in your chair, eating buttered popcorns with your favorite soda on the side, would watch a similar moviehouse only dirtier, probably stinkier, darker and steamier.

----
serbis is directed by brillante ma. mendoza; written by armando lao, based on a story by mr. lao and boots agbayani pastor; director of photography, odyssey flores; edited by claire villa-real; music by gian gianan; production design, benjamin padero and carlo tabije; produced by ferdinand lapuz; released by regent releasing. at the angelika film center, mercer and houston streets, greenwich village. in tagalog, with english subtitles. running time: 1 hour 33 minutes.

with: gina pareño (nanay flor), jaclyn jose (nayda), julio diaz (lando), coco martin (alan), kristofer king (ronald), dan alvaro (jerome), mercedes cabral (merly) and roxanne jordan (jewel).

dear allison iraheta

your rendition of heart’s alone made me your instant fan. i know you’ll make it big someday. i hope i could take pictures of you someday here at the city of angels.

all the best to you.

may the universe bless and guide a talented creature like you.

pink rockstar

how dare they call you the red one. their eyes must be fucked up, blind beyond repair.


yes, you are the leader, but you cannot in any way be the red one.


you will always be my pink rockstar. your hardcore dedication and passion in upholding the rights and welfare of the students does not give them any right to brand you with the red tag.


all this war of colors will not benefit anyone. i wonder what green two, blue three, and yellow four will say about this.

ah wednesday

my body is deteriorating
i ate meat.

ah

my heart is melting
i ain’t sweet.

ah

my tongue is bleeding
i cuss and spit

ah

my eyes are blinding
i see legs split

ah

my nose is bleeding
i read your tweet

ah

my soul is dying
today i cheat

ah

my body is deteriorating
i eat meat

baker darko

i never imagined maggie gyllenhaal to be that beautiful link between donnie darko and stranger than fiction.

in both movies, she was involved with characters who were aware of their imminent death. harvard was also attached to her characters in both films. in donnie darko, she played elizabeth darko, donnie’s sister who is about to go to harvard. in stranger than fiction, she is ana pascal, the ex-harvard law school undergrad turned baker who caught the heart of the irs auditor harold crick.

notice how the downward curves on her facial features compliment her beauty. her eyes, her lips, the lines of her face- all of them form an inverted smile that makes her more charming to my eyes.

though riding in car with boys converted me to be a maggie gyllenhaal fan, her performances at stranger than fiction, mona lisa smile and the dark knight made me an admirer.

anyways, here’s my favorite clip from stranger than fiction



i'd go the whole wide world
just to find her.

i'd go the whole wide world
for an autograph and a picture with her.

defrosted

i never realized that i could still slice the ice with the blades of my skates until i tried sliding on top of it again; only this time, with extra confidence.

for the record, i never slipped or tripped or slammed any part of my body against the ice after skating for almost an hour.

it was highschool since i last played inside the ice rink. blood clots and bruises used to be the trend of my body back then. i often slip, trip and slam against the ice. i fall most of the time.

after almost nine years since i last set foot on ice, i never realized that i could still skate- and this time,better.

i guess some dormant abilities just needs a push of self-confidence and an ounce of willingness to take risks in order to wake them up.

stay inside the ice rink for an hour and it will teach you to move forward. stay on one area and freeze. remain skating along the side rails and you'll miss the fun. succumb to fear, and you will never learn new tricks at all.

silk spectre is love

payback time as sweet as chocolate

it is amusing that most of the time, i smile, i bite my lips, and i hold on the cushion of the seat while watching the thai movie chocolate. i have never enjoyed watching an action-packed martial arts movie since that classic jacky chan movie i saw on board the hm bus from los baños to manila years ago.

strip tekken's ling xiaoyu of her qipao and place her in the body of the autistic young lady named zen (the 24-year old yanin "jeeja" vismistananda) and you'll get an action-packed entertainment that is as sweet and engaging as chocolate.

the movie follows the story of zen, the autistic daughter of zin (thai) and masashi (japanese). both of her parents are ex-members of rival assassin groups.

zin used to be the femme fatale of the thai gang and also the former love interest of its leader named no. 8.

masashi, on the otherhand, is the leader of the rival yakuza group who fell in love and had an affair with zin. he flew back to japan upon zin's request in order to ensure their safety after no. 8 threatened to kill them both.

zin tries to raise zen like a normal kid with the help of moom, the kid she picked up from the streets. zen grew up with extraordinary reflexes which enabled her to catch and evade any object thrown at her. she also possess the ability to acquire skills merely by observation. thanks to the muay thai training area near their house and to the jacky chan and tony jaa movies that she sees on tv, she is able to teach herself the necessary skills to kick some ass with her combined martial-arts moves.

moom brings zen on public places to exhibit her extraordinary ability of catching high speed objects thrown at her. in doing so, they were able to generate money to help the family's financial difficulties when zin gets diagnosed with cancer.

but as zin's condition becomes worse, the higher demand for money surfaced.
one day moom finds a small book bearing lists of names of people with certain amounts of money. moom, assuming that all those at the list owe zin her money, decides to drag zen with him down the lair of the goons in their society- the butchers, construction workers, druglords, and assassins to ask for their payments.

normally the goons would not budge upon moom and zen's initial plea for payment. they bullied them and hurt them, taking advantage of their seemingly frail and vulnerable characters. little did they know that the special child zen had some martial-arts skills going under her skirt.

entertaining is an understatement for this prachya pinkaew movie that combines the perfect mix of action, humor and drama that engages the audience to its not so complicated plot.

if you’re a certified filipino couch potato, you can spot look-alikes of maverick and ariel, mystika, eva papaya, and other comedians as deadly assassins.

the actors and actresses performed their own stunts during the movie’s production. no doubles were used. just imagine a la tony jaa, jacky chan and bruce lee stunts done sans the stuntmen.

sure, the movie had its own share of technical and plot imperfections, but that doesn’t mean that it is crap. this movie is love.

one rule to enjoy a martial arts action flick, don’t think too much. just enjoy!

any life can never be perfect but i discovered that one thing can make things less imperfect, one thing can bring life close to perfection.
it is love. -masashi

procrastinating soul

the other boss alerted his audience, me and the other filipino officemate, to listen to his story.

in a voice loud enough to dominate the 15 empty rooms of the building, he narrated with enthusiasm like a professional orator.

“…the soul comes back to earth seven times until it is cleansed. when you die, your soul will come back to another body to be purified. it does not matter to which body you will be born again. you can never tell. but one thing’s for sure, your soul comes back to earth to be cleansed…”

reincarnation. it is interesting to hear the jewish views regarding this matter. i lack orientation regarding the subject. methinks i was under the influence of sleep when the highschool history teacher taught us the lesson about jewish beliefs in reincarnation.

“for example, you are a very very rich man and a beggar asked 20 dollars from you. despite the fact that you know you have more than enough money to spare for the beggar, you did not give him anything. so your soul is stained. you did not give, you failed to share. in your next life, your soul will most probably take the body of the beggar who begs for money. it is only until your soul realizes the value of the virtue of giving that your can be cleansed on that aspect.”

the soul needs to be cleansed before it comes out of the cycle and finally unites with god, the ultimate creator. the other boss said that souls usually come back to earth 7 times. his mother’s soul, according to him, has already reached the 7th cycle of her soul. she died on the exact date that her father died on the jewish calendar. the other boss’s mom is the only girl among the siblings. her other brothers died a long time ago without any sons. so technically, when she died, she was the last person to carry the last name of their father, which gives the other boss the conclusion that her soul has achieved cleansing.

back in college, a friend who claimed to be the grandson of a witch read the intersecting lines of my palms and said that i have an old soul. he said that my soul was present in the universe even before the angels and demons were conceived. how old can any soul get huh? i asked the guy about what or who could i have been during my past lives. he didn’t know. all he said was that my soul has experienced and saw a whole lot of things.

the other boss said that we have to be good persons to help cleanse the soul. the sooner the cleansing, the faster it unites with god. if this body possess such an old soul, then my soul is one great procrastinator. i do have high hopes to be born in a taller body next time.

iam fan-ning

dakota fanning’s presence among movers, pushers, sniffers, watchers, bleeders, shadows and other individuals with superpowers in the chaos-filled hong-kong backdrop is the only reason that pushed me to watch push till the closing credits.

fanning, who now resemble some features of the olsen twins, shines in this a la jumper film. she wears her pink highlights well just like she played the character of cassie holmes, one of the watchers in the movie- those who can see and draw the future.

fanning on the movie push, watch her get drunk. uber cute this lil grown-up girl.

put her in front of a rust-embraced accordion door, on top of a low staircase decorated with veins of cracks, or in the midst of the traffic of people at an east-asian public market and you get a picture perfect shot. crowned with golden curls, her street-smart style in skimpy skirt, tight shirts and dark colored nails provided great contrast with the colors and the atmosphere of her surroundings.

yes, i am a dakota fanning fan. my fandom started since she played the character of the adorable little girl lucy diamond dawson in the movie iam sam. as if having quite a number of movies and acting nominations at a young age and providing the voices for stitch and coraline are not enough, fanning continues to deliver great performances on screen. she is a natural. thanks to push, i’ve seen a different dakota fanning that’s more edgy, stunning and mature.

as for the movie, the effects are not to die for. the plot about certain number of individuals who acquired powers from their nazi-experimented ancestors fighting for their survival is ok, but it nearly touched the 1st level of the excitement meter.

v day

only a few seconds past, someone sniffed cigarette smoke, car smoke, factory smoke, kitchen smoke, trash smoke and possibly all other smoke that he can smell. he believes that inhaling as much smoke as possible can help form clouds inside his body. these clouds, he say, would go up to his head and eventually swell like a huge cumulo-nimbus ready to burst and water his thirsty eyes.
he breathes in smoke to summon rain- rain of tears that could wash up the bruises, the wounds, and the hurts of his soul.

coraline and the parallel universe behind the small door at the wall

young coraline jones (take note, according to the movie it is ko-ra-layn not ko-ra-lin) reminded me of my pre-teen years when i used to wish for new, if not, better parents.

the thought of the existence of the parallel universe, where things could have been better was brought to life by the genius of writer-director henry selick and novelist neil gaiman together with their whole production staff and crew of talented people.

coraline is dark; dark and sweet as the ghirardelli dark chocolates that take away my daily stress, and it is even darker and sweeter in 3d!
yes, seeing coralline on 3d and wearing those geeky, almost emo glasses makes the viewing experience a whole lot better.

coraline is alive. somewhere beneath the placid waters of our subconsciousness lies a small coralline in all of us, wanting, and secretly wishing the existence of another universe, a parallel place where things could have been different, regardless of whatever consequence comes in exchange.

this is more of an adult movie. my dad liked it. must be the 3d effects, but he loved the humor and the dark story of coraline. hours before the movie, he mocked me for dragging him into the movie house to watch an animation. "cartoons? hah. kids stuff again. you're still a kid, i knew it." yes, dad loved the movie. but i am not sure about the kids who used to be so jumpy and perky and noisy that you can feel their high level of excitement creep into your nerves.

the ensemble of huge animated breast exposures, button-eyed creatures, talking cat, dancing circus mice, stalking neighbor, flexible neighbor, decepticon step-mother (yes, she transforms, ftw!), coraline wicca doll, and the trapped spirits of the dead children silenced the excitement and the perkiness of the kids inside the movie house.

coraline is one dark, witty movie that tells us to appreciate and make the most of what we have. it does not tell you to shut up and be contented of your present situation but to be an explorer, and seek what you think will be the best for you. just like coraline, we do have choices. we could choose to conquer and live the most of this universe or we could try and go to the small door at the wall and see the parallel universe which could pose a seemingly better alternative.

----
the stop motion animation technique used in coraline is superb making it look 3d even on regular cinemas, though seeing it with 3d glasses is 10 times more awesome.

do visit the movie’s website and explore the world of coraline. discover the pre and post production details and appreciate the craftsmanship of the dedicated people who created the miniature world of coraline.

read the text here and listen to the soundtrack here.

n

i knew i saw the words i love you somewhere in the midst of the fading sentences that she wrote on the tissue paper i found in my wallet. i don’t know if her memory will admit the act of placing the note inside my three-year old leather wallet, but i do know that she placed it there days before my flight abroad.

she first bullied me on highschool. we were freshmen.

it happened just above the staircase near the parish hall. i am just confirming her name when she greeted me with raised eyebrows and her snobbish “so what?!”
since then i never dared to come close to her.
i secretly dubbed her as one of the spawns of the devil. our paths never crossed since our first encounter until fate brought us together as our school’s exhibit hosts.

no choice. i have to bear with her presence. we conversed, we exchanged numbers, we became phone pals, became classmates and became great friends. back then, i never really saw myself coming to her birthday every year. but i did.

she loves to make fun of me. loves to power trip, deflate my ego and would sometimes splash my face with orange juice and taho (soya drink with brown sugar syrup) just by the sheer act of whim.

when she was diagnosed of a level 3 leukemia by some doctors in the philippines, i was the only one who never shed a tear among her peers. i knew she will be better soon and that her trip to a hospital abroad could provide her hope.
afterall, spawns of the devil do not die that easy.

she gave me a ring the moment she came back to the philippines. she did her power tripping acts again. she survived, alright and she proved the philippine doctors wrong about her case.

i never really summoned the courage to tell her how i felt about her back then. ok, i had a crush on her. i even called a certain radio station to get some advice regarding my teeny-bopper dilemma- “to tell my bff that i love her or not?”

well, i told her not. and i never regret any second of it. up to now, she was still one of my closest friends. yes, i still love her. not in a romantic way whatsoever. just love. no specific category- just love for a person that you trust and care despite her bullying you most of the time.

the tissue paper she placed on my wallet slowly degenerates with the sentences she wrote upon each passing second of the clock.

i haven’t heard from her in a while. i miss her.

oral

the reader not only moves the senses, it also educates them.

the movie asks you to look beyond what is seen, to hear more than what is heard, to stretch the horizons of your understanding and to re-evaluate your feelings in order to unlock the mysteries that the movie posted from the start.

kate winslet’s performance made the reader a sensual journey about love- the love that transcends the walls of the norms set by the society, the love that endures time, the love for literature, and the love for oral interpretation.

…oral interpretation – the study of literature via performance – features the text and makes use of body, voice, and other accoutrements to suggest the life of prose or poetry as understood by the reader after a careful study of the literary piece. unlike that of acting or impersonating, oral interpretation's primary goal is for the piece of literature to come alive from the printed page; the performer is merely a vessel through which listeners get a taste of literature as performed – as it should be, that is. (more sophisticated speech departments have renamed this area "performance studies" which has generated a number of advanced theories on text and performance.)

…the depiction of hannah's debilitating illiteracy has its ups though – at least to me as a viewer. her appreciation of a book read aloud – of the spoken word – seems rare and distinct from how most of today's and even the previous generations would find, say, homer's "odyssey" interpreted orally. thanks to kate winslet, hannah's character as a non-literate woman but whose mind operates in an oral culture comes very much alive to me. – professor gene navera, phd, uplb

the reader’s (michael berg as portrayed by ralph fiennes) oral interpretation of the text to hannah inspired her to appreciate literature and eventually teach herself to read and write.

the movie’s message regarding literacy is clear. some people would rather accept punishment than admit that they can neither read nor write. up to this time, societies forged by men still throw a certain level of discrimination against illiterate people. some people who can’t read and write are most likely to take those discriminations as derogatory, stifling them to move forward to their lives. hannah was different. she would rather find work and ask people to read books for her than to wallow in self pity.

the reader is that movie that made me realize how much i miss teaching.

----

michael and hannah’s may-december love affair was somehow reflected at anton chekhov’s the lady with the little dog; one of the stories that michael constantly reads to hannah.

you can read the lady with the little dog here.

freya going emo

bus windows cry as it pass and look at the familiar route to the valleys. it could have been the rain, or the fog of depression, or last midnight’s insomnia, or the embrace of the freezing wind, but it was certainly not because of the scarcity of love.

subway trains stop halfway on its journey downtown. operators dominate the emerging air of panic by announcing power failure- operations will resume shortly. after 30 seeminglythousandyears, the trains get back on track.

paul david hewson sings with or without you together with his band. they sing the same song non-stop during the 2-hour journey to work.

the news of the deaths of children caused by the tainted syrup in nigeria flashes every 10 seconds via the rss feed screensaver of the computer.

coraline’s exhibit featuring the actual props and models used in the movie is now open to the public at the universal studios but the biting cold keeps almost anyone from braving the rain.

the heavy downpour causes more bus and bedroom windows to cry.

shoes are soaked in the tears from the clouds.

attack of the grammar nazi

“graduate ka ng up (university of the philippines) pero andami mo pa ding mali-mali sa grammar?! nakakahiya ka!”

(“you are a graduate of up and yet you still have lots of grammatical errors? shame on you!”)
-sentence courtesy of the friend’s boyfriend.

apparently, my friend’s ego was heavily bruised by the boyfriend’s sentence.
it was as if their love and relationship are bounded by the laws of grammar, that a faulty parallelism, a misplaced modifier, a run-on sentence, a lapse in the subject-verb agreement, a distorted sentence pattern, and a misspelled word is a mortal sin.

for the record, i know many people from up who could not even construct a decent sentence.

friend flooded me with rain of rants via ym, occasionally throwing phrases of self-pity and despair.

i silenced the friend with “stop!” a one word sentence.

love is neither invented nor written by strunk and white. it is not about grammar, not about syntax, not about sentence patterns, not about subject-verb agreement, not about spelling, and not about sentence constructions. love is about communication, trust and understanding. no highfalutin words necessary.

i told the friend to leave the judgmental grammar nazi boyfriend for personal peace but the friend would not listen.

the friend is about to finish the masters in media and cultural studies degree at a university in london and also works at abs-cbn as a reporter/correspondent.

the friend’s boyfriend is a philippine based veterinarian, almost ten years senior from my friend who also graduated from the university of the philippines.

before nine

here’s a list of what i’ve been reading at the subway over the past couple of days:

a perfect day for bananafish
uncle wiggily in connecticut
just before the war with the eskimos
the laughing man
down at the dinghy
for esmé - with love and squalor
pretty mouth and green my eyes
de daumier-smith's blue period
teddy


those stories were lifted from jd salinger’s nine stories, which is one of my favorite story collections.

the story of teddy just shocked me this morning. what a shocker. i have to write sister irma and esme about it.

vanishing point

on this series of russian pictures, sergei larenkov has photoshopped together modern images of st petersburg with photos taken during the brutal siege of leningrad during wwii.

in this series, the close and the distant past converged on a single image. big thanks to the wonder that is photoshop.






more images here

owl and the sparrow, a fairytale

stephane gauger’s owl and the sparrow (CÚ VÀ CHIM SE Sẻ) takes you to a weeklong stop at modern saigon. the journey is like a melodramatic fairytale that lulls you to sleep while it tells you the story of love forged among total strangers.

three wandering souls rule the story.
the first one is the 10 years old girl named thuy (pham thi han) who runs away from the bambo factory of her uncle who mistreats her since the death of her parents. carrying her barbie backpack full of hope and courage, she went into the city determined to move forward her life.

the next character is the stewardess lan (cat ly) who comes to the city to rest for a week, searching probably for her soulmate, for that someone who will complete the other half of her heart. she is the sparrow.

hai (le the hu) the zookeeper comes next on the list. hai spends most of his time alone in his house whenever he is not talking to the animals. his attachment to the resident elephant that will soon be sold by the zoo management forged his bond with thuy. he is the owl.

among all of these souls, the kid thuy possesses a keen sense of purpose and direction.

fairies clad in pastel colored gowns flying in glittery colorful wings are not present in this movie. instead, the street children and the other strangers met by thuy served as the fairies that guided her around the city and showed her the basics of survival. except for thuy’s uncle, the orphanage bully, the other guy of hai’s ex-flame, and the poker-faced policeman, you would think everybody else in the film is a fairy; each of them nice and kind in their own way.



the interweaving of the lives of thuy, lan and hai happened on the midnight when thuy met lan on a noodle stop in the city. since then, the relationship between thuy and lan as a family slowly developed and is highlighted by hai’s presence on their lives.

the tale of the owl and the sparrow presents issues of child labor and poverty in a subtle manner that is immediately overshadowed by the feel-good tone of the film.

although the constant camera shakes often make the eyes blink and seek refuge in the dark corners of the moviehouse, the warm color of the picture makes you feel welcomed in most of the scenes. also, the toned down and soft treatment of the colors of city life effectively highlighted the characters’ lives and emotions.

her tact and overly enthusiastic persona could put you off, but the strong, hopeful, and tough side of thuy is highly inspiring. being a child who survives in the jungle of the city all by herself, being able to defend herself whenever the situation calls for it, and being able to connect the lives of other people makes thuy a character to remember.

things happen in a slow, steady pace like a fairytale and before you know it, the film was concluded when thuy, lan and hai declared themselves a family.

why the boy in striped pyjamas almost burned my heart

it is war.

war of choices, war of belief and morals, war between family and loyalty to advocacy, war of races, war of heart and the mind. conflict is evident in the movie, both internal and external; though approached in a subtle manner as if looking at all the wars and the conflicts through an innocent child’s perspective.

the simplicity and innocence of bruno and schmuel’s friendship is moving and inspiring. it breaks all the barriers that war has set for both of them- physical and spiritual, transcending barriers of race and social classes.

bruno, being the son of a commandant of a nazi concentration camp, and schmuel, being the jewish child on the other side of the fence, inside the concentration camp developed a unique relationship that was muted by the terrors of war.

what a movie to start my sunday. it almost sent me to tears.