Wow...it's been such a long time since I last blogged... Haha then again, I only blog when I have some thoughts or feelings I wanna archive... and I haven't felt that way for a while..
So ya, the movie Once.. awesome movie, amazing soundtrack... Watched it alone in Green Hall (on the screen Uri gave/lent(?) me). It might be the best "love-themed" movie I've seen in a while.
I guess it resonates with my own thoughts on love... It was everything that a typical american movie wasn't, and thus so much more realistic. No sex, no memorable quotes to sweep you off your feet, no deux ex machina to rescue our protagonists, no happy ending...
Once is a movie where love does not triumph over all, where we have other responsibilities, where we have to take ownership of our past mistakes, where we have other dreams and ambitions besides looking for "the one", where we don't always end up with the person we love the most (and we can still be happy)...
When I watch movies like the Notebook and Serendipity, I think "how can people be so irresponsible?!" When I watched Once, I think "well, that's unfortunate, but I wouldn't have done things any differently". There were so many ways Once could have become a typical movie - one Hollywood would produce. Arranged in levels of increasingly levels of typicalness.
1) Guy decides to stay in Ireland to be with Girl. They start some music school together (Ending typical of a Korean drama)
2) Guy and Girl decide to go to London together to pursue a music career - to give it a go, so as to speak (Ending typical of Hollywood)
3) Guy gets signed by some record label, Guy returns to Girl successful, Guy, Girl and Daughter live happily ever after (Ending typical of Singaporean local production)
But neither of these happen.
Instead, Guy goes to London to pursue his music career (and his ex-girlfriend). Girl reunites with her pseudo-ex-husband and stays in Ireland with her mother and daughter. In the real world, that would have been the most likely outcome. Our life decisions are not just governed by love... On one hand, we have goals, dreams and ambition; On the other, we have responsibilities, uncertainties and insecurities. Somewhere along the spectrum, love comes into the picture. It is most definitely not the whole picture, as is often portrayed in movies like Serendipity and the Notebook.
We don't know what happens to Guy or Girl hence-after. They probably continued to live their normal existence, just as they've had. Maybe every now and then, they would look back and reminisce, how Once, a long a time ago, there was this guy/girl...
So ya, the movie Once.. awesome movie, amazing soundtrack... Watched it alone in Green Hall (on the screen Uri gave/lent(?) me). It might be the best "love-themed" movie I've seen in a while.
I guess it resonates with my own thoughts on love... It was everything that a typical american movie wasn't, and thus so much more realistic. No sex, no memorable quotes to sweep you off your feet, no deux ex machina to rescue our protagonists, no happy ending...
Once is a movie where love does not triumph over all, where we have other responsibilities, where we have to take ownership of our past mistakes, where we have other dreams and ambitions besides looking for "the one", where we don't always end up with the person we love the most (and we can still be happy)...
When I watch movies like the Notebook and Serendipity, I think "how can people be so irresponsible?!" When I watched Once, I think "well, that's unfortunate, but I wouldn't have done things any differently". There were so many ways Once could have become a typical movie - one Hollywood would produce. Arranged in levels of increasingly levels of typicalness.
1) Guy decides to stay in Ireland to be with Girl. They start some music school together (Ending typical of a Korean drama)
2) Guy and Girl decide to go to London together to pursue a music career - to give it a go, so as to speak (Ending typical of Hollywood)
3) Guy gets signed by some record label, Guy returns to Girl successful, Guy, Girl and Daughter live happily ever after (Ending typical of Singaporean local production)
But neither of these happen.
Instead, Guy goes to London to pursue his music career (and his ex-girlfriend). Girl reunites with her pseudo-ex-husband and stays in Ireland with her mother and daughter. In the real world, that would have been the most likely outcome. Our life decisions are not just governed by love... On one hand, we have goals, dreams and ambition; On the other, we have responsibilities, uncertainties and insecurities. Somewhere along the spectrum, love comes into the picture. It is most definitely not the whole picture, as is often portrayed in movies like Serendipity and the Notebook.
We don't know what happens to Guy or Girl hence-after. They probably continued to live their normal existence, just as they've had. Maybe every now and then, they would look back and reminisce, how Once, a long a time ago, there was this guy/girl...
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