dreams of a pretty place far far away

to avoid stuffing myself (figuratively, of course) i’m gonna watch one movie a day to widen my perspective on… stuff. okay i don’t really know why i should watch a movie a day, but i do know i love watching movies! you know, so as to pass time and procrastinate because i don’t want to study for lnat become more cultured. and because you can’t really become more cultured if you watch rubbish films (like that frankenstein-which-looked-like-corsola-with-stiches-in-his-eyeballs movie), i’ve gone lengths to read many “top 10 films to see before you die” lists so that i can single out nice movies to enjoy. and i came up with a list (it’s there on the left-hand side i just updated it) which i can hopefully complete.

hmm however i do think movies are kind of like substitutes for books, because even though the former basically consist of all the main elements of literature; from the mechanics of plot, climax, turning point, to the more technical/craftsmanship-based aspects of theme, metaphor, symbol, paradox (and my personal favourite, chekhov’s gun), movies are fundamentally a director’s vision of a story, or idea. When you read literature, as a reader, you’re expected to do all the imagining, thinking and inferencing based on the words you read. The author may carefully craft his diction to invoke a certain emotion or reaction, but the degree or accuracy of the type of feeling invoked varies to the individual, and may or may not adhere to the author’s original intention. Conversely, in a movie, the director or producer does all the imagining for you – the cinematography, dialouge, pacing and etcetera are all combined to create a visual spectacle developed to manipulate you into thinking or feeling a certain way. you might think “manipulate” may be too strong a word, but if you think about it carefully, books tend to make you think more than movies because there’s so much room for imagination and speculation, whereas for movies everything’s in front of you like a smooth-running 8 course dinner – you can’t choose the individual components but wait for the chef to serve you, whereas books are more like a la carte menus where you can pick and choose.

anyway, where was i! oh right, i watched the bucket list today, starring morgan freeman and jack nicholson, a movie about how 2 men nearing the expiry dates of their lives befriend each other and make a list of things to do before they die, and set about completing it. what makes the movie great is the fact that, instead of focusing on the to-do list, the director chooses to zoom-in primarily on the chemistry between the two men. and i also loved the ending! made me teary-eyed :’) but in a good way of course.

after i watched it i felt inspired to think about my own bucket list, but i could only list materialistic or very gimmicky things, like “eat premium caviar and drink vodka for dinner in Russia”, “go horse-riding through the english countryside”, “kiss the man i love” and “run around the beach at the part where the sand meets the waves with my big, white, long-haired dog and then fall tiredly onto a pile of cushions by the shade of a palm tree while male servants feed me peeled grapes” (okay, that last one i made up for comedic effect, but anyone’ll agree that that’s something to include on their lists :D). maybe as i grow older i’d think of more selfless and big-picture things to do, heh.

hmm what’s on your bucket list? maybe it’ll be the first step onto making you appreciate life more! i’ve decided to come up with one to be put into action once i save up enough money, buy my parents a house, see my kids get married and then retire. hopefully! because life never does as well as it’s planned… fortunately or unfortunately.

what’s on your bucket list?