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.

PSY317: weekly movie review

Cry Freedom

Cry Freedom, a movie depicts about the racial prejudice and discrimination that happened in the late 1970s stating the policy that were implemented in South Africa at the particular time. From the movie, we can see how the changes is brought through a lot of difficulties and sacrifices to South Africa. The story revolves around two main characters which are Donald Woods, journalists and Steve Biko, an activist to fight for equal rights for both race. Also, we also can see how Donald Woods undergoes changes in his perspective in the movie in the process of interacting with Steve Biko giving him a deeper understanding of Biko's actions and perspectives towards the condition of South Africa.

Importance of mutual understanding
In the movie, I have learned that never judge a person without putting ourselves on people's shoes. It is important to first to strive to understand people views without having a strong bias and prejudice towards the person which is unfair to them. Donald Woods portrayed this characteristic where he initially also thinks that Steve Biko is an activist promoting black superiority until he was given an opportunity to see Steve Biko in person and understand him deeper. He was able to put away his personal views and attempt to understand Steve Biko actions and views towards the condition of South Africa which in return allowed him to gain a whole new perspective and understand what was the need of the blacks in South Africa, equal rights and treatments for both races. Eventually, although Steve Biko died in the movie, Donald Woods become the successor of his thoughts and strive to tell the whole world on what is happening in South Africa trying to fight for equal rights for the blacks even he might endangered his life.

Efforts and sacrifices needed to overcome racial oppression
In the movie, I have seen the efforts and sacrifices taken to overcome the racial oppression in South Africa. The death and imprisonment of years of the activists highlighted that the issue cannot be just overcome in a day and night miraculously. Efforts and sacrifices had to be made to overcome such racial oppression and persistence in fighting it. In the most crisis moment, persistence, unity and efforts is the vital characteristics to fight against it until the end as the saying goes, in the darkest night there is a light beyond it and ending always comes the last.

Personal remarks from the movie
From the movie, I somehow have the personal connection towards the issue stated in the movie which is similar to the current condition of my country. I once given up hope and efforts to fight against it due to few failures in the past. Instead of being persistent in continuously putting effort to overcome it, I once thought of escaping the current situation by leaving the country. However, after the movie I learned that change is a continuous process which takes time and effort and does not happen in a day and night miraculously. This had further motivates me and thoughts that this is not the end and there can be more efforts to be done to overcome the issue that still exist in my country to allow a better future for the next generation.

PSY317 Weekly Reflection: Mississippi Burning

Mississippi Burning

 Mississippi Burning depicts the real life events of racial prejudice and discrimination that once happened in United States between the black and white people in the 1960s. It was shown in the movie that the racial prejudice and discrimination happened was mostly due to the fact that lack of understanding where assumption and ignorance was the biggest cause of the hatred against each other.

So, what was the cause of racial prejudice and discrimination in the first place? From the movie, there were few viewpoints I have gained. 

In the movie, it was also trying to send a message that racial prejudice and discrimination were not something we born with but something that were taught since young. When the leader of Ku Klux Klan was giving the talk to provoke  the hatred against the black people, the director attempt to show the faces of the younger generations, their reactions and actions where the eventually was just following the examples of the adult there. 

There was a story told by Agent Anderson in the story about the actions of his father on the neighbour which is black. I understood the story in my point of view as that Agent Anderson was trying to convey the message on the cause of racial prejudice and discrimination was nothing but the emotion of envy towards the others.An emotion that occurs when the person lacks of the another's superior quality where it can be achievement, possession of asset and even talents. This emotion leads them to unhappiness and dissatisfaction in their life due to the fact that someone who is not in their social group is superior than them. In order to gain back the integrity and feeling of superior, they began to develop racial prejudice and discrimination to feel good of themselves. 

The another viewpoints I have gained in the movie was the violence used in the movie. Proper legal procedure was not able to detain the clan members of Ku Klux Klan in the movie due to unfair judgements. Agent Anderson had to used his own unique way which included many illegal actions and behaviours including violence to successfully detain the Ku Klux Klan. Although, the Ku Klux Klan was all successfully detained in the movie, it did not solve the racial prejudice and discrimination immediately within Mississippi. The influence and the racial prejudice and discrimination was still there due to the lack of understanding of both races. Violence was just able to solve the surface of the problem but not the core of the problem. I believed that education and mutual understanding is still the essential way to solve racial prejudice and discrimination between races.

Social identity theory was very relatable in the movie where people tends to increase their own self-image by enhancing the status of the group that they belong (Tajfel, 1979). In the process of enhancing their own social identity, social categorization happens in the process where the divide of 'them' and 'us' known as in-group and out-group. In the movie, Ku Klux Klan was the example of a social group of white people who discriminate the other out-group member, black people to show their superiority of abilities and enhance their self image which eventually incur the racial prejudice and discrimination showed in the movie. 

On side note, I viewed racial prejudice and discrimination can only be countered and abolished by creating a mutual beneficial goals or having a mutual enemy to fight against which we can see nowadays in sports where people tend to only belong to the larger social identity group, the nation instead of their own race and ethnicity. 

PSY317 weekly reflection: Eat Drink Man Woman

Eat Drink Man Woman 1994
Eat Drink Man Woman tells a story of family of three daughters and a father on how their proceed to stages of life. The father took the responsibilities to take care of his three daughters from small until grown up take care of their lives ranging from school, food and even laundry of his daughters underwear. As the story proceed, each of his daughter started to proceed to their next stage of life, becoming independent, getting married which means leaving the home and the father. The story continues to proceed until the end where a dramatic exposure from the father which shocked everyone in the family and everyone had found their ideal place to continue in their life.

There are few characters I mainly focused in the movie which is the father, Chu and the second daughter of the family, Jia Chien.

Chu is the father of the three daughters who had lost his beloved life 16 years ago and took the responsibility of taking care of his daughters since young until they are grown up alone. In the movie, we can see that Chu is an old man that had begun to lost the direction and his meaning in life.His daughters are beginning to leave home to pursuit their own dreams and ideal marriage while Chu is growing old nearing to death and lost his sense of taste which influence his career as a chef. In my perspective, Chu is in the Erikson psychosocial stages of development of Integrity vs. Despair. The three daughters will eventually leaves him as they proceed to their next stages of life, the lost of his sensation in taste which caused a crisis in his career and the sudden death of his best friend, Old Wen. These few factors had caused Chu to reflect his own life on his accomplishment and what will he be leaving when he faced death. As the story proceeds on with the incidents, Chu decided to quite his job as a chef and started to make notes on the Chinese cuisine recipes intending to able to pass it on to the next generation. His daughter growing to be mature and moving on to the next stage of life, marriage allows him to start to make consideration for himself which he did not since the day he took the parental responsibilities fully by himself. In the end, Chu was able to find his meaning in life, finding his new true love, Jin Rong and his soon-newborn child. In the end, Chu gained back his sense in taste which i perceived it as a symbol that Chu finally gained back his meaning in life and able to live with integrity.

The another character I focused is Jia Chien, the second daughter of the family. Jia Chien was the first of the three daughters to announced that she is going to leave the home and live outside to gain her independence and freedom of life. She had some resentment on her father, Chu for not allowing her to become chef and instead insist her to go for college and work in business field. Although she was successful in her career following the path that her father insisted, she still have resentment towards him for the control and force that influence her life pathway. As the story proceeds in the movie, Jia Chien eventually saw her father doing medical check-up in the hospital which leads her to think that her father might not be in good health and reminded her the mortality of her father. She began to have doubts to whether leave her home which she always wanted to do so. She was even given a good promotion in her job position by the company which was a good chance and reason to leave home. Eventually, she decided to reject the promotion offered and stay home to take care of her father which showed her love towards her father and she had forgiven her father for the acts in the past. However, surprisingly a shocking news was announced by her father to get married with Jin Rong, a classmate of her sister and Chu was actually in a very good health condition. The expressions showed by Jia Chien when her father announced it was first shock and then tears when her father is leaving the home. Ang Lee did not further explain or describe why were there tears in Jia Chien eyes when she looking at her father leaving the house with his new true love. Several meanings can be derived from Jia Chien tears scene in the movies. In my view, the tears of Jia Chien in the movie signifies two meaning of sadness from the feeling of abandonment and happiness. Jia Chien was willing to give up the good opportunity to leave home for independence and the promotion from her job to take the responsibility to take care of her father, due to her sisters were all unavailable and assumption on her father decline on health. The sudden news that her father, Chu was actually fine and found his new true love shocked her in an extend that her untold efforts and decisions were all in vain, this time her father is the one who will be leaving their home to move on to next stage of life. The happiness part would be where her father is actually in good health and found his true love and meaning in life to continue on and additionally, she is now gained her desired freedom to do whatever things she wanted to live independently.

PSY317 weekly reflection: Strictly Ballroom

Strictly Ballroom(1992)

The movie Strictly Ballroom is mainly about the theme of compliance involved in the dancing competition. Scott the main character started off as the guy who refuse to comply with the group, friends and families expectation on how to dance. Scott was the 'special' one in the group identity which dance using his own created steps. Being different was not perceived as good phenomenon in the movie, everyone did not accept the way he danced and even felt frustration and sadness for Scott's behaviour. For instance, the reaction of the Barry Fife which felt frustrated for Scott's dance and denied his dance by not recognizing his dance, Scott's mother which felt sad and even said she failed as his mother for not guiding him to dance 'appropriately' instead of his own dance steps. In addition, Liz was also angry towards Scott for not dancing normally and following the customs of the original dance. Friends of Scott also avoid to comment on Scott's dance whether was it they liked it as they did not dare to admit the dance was good which is different with the group expected behaviour and answers. Most of the characters in movie tried to ask compliance from Scott to stop dancing differently from the others so that Scott can win the competition. Scott was able to refuse to comply with the request until Barry Fife attempt to gain compliance from Scott by telling a fictional 'truth' about the past of his parents and he should win the trophy of the competition to fulfill his parents expectations and wishes which made Scott eventually comply for the first time in the movie.

Also, in the movie we can see how Scott stand against the peer pressure from his surrounding to conform and comply with the group expectations. Scott first started trying to get affirmations from his friends and families on whether is it the way he dance not good. He focused on the question their thoughts on the dance instead of whether the dance was complying to the group's needs. Scott was trying to gain support for him to resist the conformity pressure on him. Then, Fran appeared in front of Scott which she recognizes the way Scott dance and provide the necessary support to Scott to perform and dance in his free will instead of conforming with his surroundings. They supported each other and provide each other the courage to stand against conformity even in the means of being rejected for being different in the group. Finally, although Scott once comply and conform to the group needs, Scott's father, Doug provide the necessary support and guidance to Scott to once again overcoming the conformity pressure. Eventually, Doug also was the first one to stand up and support Scott and Fran publicly on the recognition of their dance which then the influence slowly came to the audience to show up their true feelings and comments of their dance. To overcome conformity being alone without any support is nearly impossible, we are human after all where we need support and recognition from the others. To stand up against peer pressure on conformity, being alone is stressful but when we have someone that support us, the will and strength to fight against conformity will be strengthen. This is what I learned about overcoming conformity from the movie where to effectively ensure our thoughts and behaviour are not influenced by conformity, we need to be critical in thinking and gain support from someone that understand us.