PSY317 Weekly Movie Review

Departures

Departures, a Japanese movie which depict the story of a young man,Daigo Kobayashi working as a mortician which bis responsible for dressing and preparing the bodies ritually following the Japanese traditions. Due to the lost of jobs as a cellist in Tokyo based orchestra and the happening of few incidents such as the death of his mother which eventually resulted him getting in touch with the job of mortician by chance. He initially faced a lot of difficulties in performing the job and even attempt to give up. As times goes by he was able to aware the meaning and importance of the job which eventually motivated him to continue working as mortician aside of the high paid salary. The movie also presented few conflicts of him with his father, friends and wife due to different reasons and situations where he was able to cope with it as the story progress. There are few highlights in the movie that I would particularly to mention in this movie review.


The theme of death

Death is often a taboo in our daily life where we do not simply mention and discuss death. The movie attempt to tell us what is happening to those who left behind after the death of their beloved ones. The movie showed that death do not only involved one person but also friends, families and loved ones. Those who are left behind will feel the sorrow and sadness for their lost of the close ones. Death is sudden and often unpredictable and will leave us regrets when we found out that we did not appreciate them enough and sooner when they were still there for us. This was shown in the movie where the lost of Daigo's both parents, where he felt guilt for not taking care of his mother and the father that he initially hated and felt that the father would not even remember their promise until the end of the movie.


The purpose of the death rituals and ceremonies

One of the insights I had gained through the movie is my further understanding of death rituals and ceremonies. From the movie, I personally viewed that the purpose of performing the death rituals which is Japanese traditional 'encoffining' ceremony in the movie was initially for those who were left behinds of the death of their loved ones. Although there are different explanation for the purpose of the ritual, however I personally viewed the main purpose was to affirm the truth and the fact to those who left behinds that their loved ones are truly dead and would not be back to life. At the ending part of the death ceremonies performed in the movie, it can be seen that most of the families and friends were burst into tears and sadness towards their lost of loved ones. These scenes of movie then gives me a new view towards the necessities of death rituals were initially for those who left behind so that they are able to be more acceptance towards the reality of losing their loved ones.


Finally, this movie is awesome and certainly deserve to be in the one of my best movie lists. The movie is able to inspire people to view death in a different perspective leading re-evaluation of previous views and beliefs.

PSY317-Weekly Movie Review

When a Man Loves a Woman.

When a Man Loves a Woman depicts the story on the family facing alcoholism in their family members. The movie started with the beginning of how Michael, the airline pilot met and started a romantic relationship with Alice. The movie proceeds continue to start showing Alice's signs of issues in dealing with alcoholism, the lack of self control on emotions and behavior after being drunk. Until the problem went even serious where she began to even hurt her daughter and herself, Michael discussed with Alice and decided to send her to clinic for rehab to overcome the alcoholism issue. Then, the story continues to talk about the how the issues arised in the movie after the returning and recovered Alice to the family and how was the reactions of the family and Michael, her husband. There were few highlights that I specifically focused in the movie.

Emotional validation

The movie highlighted the importance of the need of being accepted and validated for our emotions and feelings. Sometimes when we are the state of bad mood, sadness, anger and grief, what we need was not a solution to overcome these emotion but someone to accept and listen to us.  We all have the need for someone to be able to accept and validate for who we are including our feelings and thoughts. The movie portrayed the importance of emotion validation in a love relationship. Michael was the example in the movie where he was constantly trying to be the problem solver, the fixer to help his wife which is genuinely a way of showing his love towards his wife. However, Michael's behavior of constantly trying to help his wife overcoming the problem neglected the importance of recognizing the reasons behinds of Alice's feelings an thoughts causing Alice begin to feel herself as worthless and unaccepted by her husband. The only need that Alice wanted in the whole process was only to be listened and accepted by her husband, Michael instead of trying to solve the problem.

The role of effective communication in maintaining relationship

The importance of communication was one of the highlights I focused in the movie between Alice and Michael. Communication is important in maintaining relationship to be able to effectively convey messages of their thoughts so that mistakes and misunderstanding are understand and able to overcome it. In the movie, there were few instances of misunderstanding in the relationship that could have been overcome earlier if Michael and Alice actually communicate to each other more effectively on the issues that arises from their behaviors. Alice could have actually told her husband, Michael the actual need in their relationship which is someone to listen to her, accept her and support her. Michael as the loving husband if was able to know and understand the need of his wife, Alice I believed he would perform and communicate with Alice to avoid more conflicts and arguments in the movie.

Gender differences in relationships

Gender differences were also one of the highlights of the movie that I focused.  In the movie, we can see that Alice and Michael portrayed the different need of each gender where females would more likely tend to have their feelings and thoughts shared through listening from their loved ones while Michael as the typical males in relationship which tend to be the problem solver, the one who attempt solve and fix the problem that is faced by their loved ones. Recognizing the gender differences in their need in a relationship definitely is important which will be able to further help in maintaining relationship.

PSY317 Weekly Movie Review

Dances with wolves

Dances with wolves depict the story of the Union Army Liutenant, John J. Dunbar in the American Frontier and his life and experiences with the Lakota Indians there.  The movie showed how Dunbar was progressing to understand and get to know the Lakota Indians which eventually established a solid trust relationship between him and the Lakota Indians. Also, the movie also showed how the prejudice and discrimination can happens due to the lack of understanding of practices and cultures among races.

Prejudice and understanding

In the movie, whites American often viewed all Indians as barbarian which often steal and rob their things. It was all prejudiced and stereotyped by the white Americans that were never clarified. This prejudice was initially held by Dunbar in the movie due to his first unpleasant experiences first contact with the Lakota Indian, Kicking Bird and three Indian children that tried to steal his horse. However, slowly as the movie progress, Dunbar started to have change in mindset initially when a group of Indians came approach him were trying to communicate with him and understands the reasons he is here. As the movie continues to progress, Dunbar and the Lakota Indians began to understand each other more. Dunbar started to understand that not all Indians are thieves and murderers instead they were nonetheless similar to whites where they valued the same thing, friends and family and their acts were merely to protect their home, friends and family without political intentions. It was the lack of understanding among both races which leads to prejudice resulted from fear of someone being different from them. When understanding among both races is not achieved, the prejudice formed from misconceptions on each other further provoke hatred which leads to discrimination and war between races.

Metaphor of the wolf

In the movie, the director used the wolf as the metaphor to describe Dunbar relationship with the Lakota Indians. In the beginning, Dunbar and the wolf were both very aware of each other, having the fear of being harmed by each other which leads them to stay a distance from each other. Slowly, as Dunbar has the opportunity to interact with the Lakota Indians, he was also establishing relationship with the wolf by feeding them. Then, as the relationship of Dunbar and Indians get better, wolf also lowered his awareness and started to become closer to Dunbar. Another notable scene of metaphor of wolf is used in the movie is the scene of when Dunbar is caught by White soldiers and being send to the prison. The wolf, Two Socks appeared in front of the white soldiers despite being threatens with gun shots he remains there being loyal and Dunbar attempt to save him by resisting the white soldiers. This scene implies that despite of dangers might prevail for saving Dunbar, Lakota Indians who viewed Dunbar as part of their families and friends are willing to take the risk to save him. The metaphor was interesting to used in the movie as wolves were originally viewed as enemy of human same as the prejudice hold by whites viewing Lakota Indians as thieves and murderers. The director had conveyed the message where views and stereotyped schemas formed without clarification can be wrong and we should revise our perceptions and clarify them before making judgments on the others.