Does cinematic art below to an absolute set of criteria?
Hustlers
Reyne Brady Interview (Part 2)
Reyne Brady Interview (Part 1)
Avengers: Endgame
Shazam!
Your Name
It has been some time since a Japanese anime had got me so emotionally involved into the characters. ‘Your Name’ (君の名は) managed to do that when I was just casually flicking through pages of Netflix recommendations the other day. I was looking for something to accompany me through my cooking, but I ended up sitting down completely engaged in the story.
The premise seemed straightforward – a boy dreamed about a girl and a girl dreamt about a boy. However as with a lot of Japanese anime, they are rarely so. As the story unfolds it gets more and more complicated and by that time you figured out the threads, you have involved so much in that emotional journey that you just couldn’t help but root for the characters.
It is hard to write about it without giving away too much. But the ingenuity of the movie was that it skilfully manipulated our modern-day technologies and lifestyle, and weaved them into a fabric that before you travelled to the end of the roll you will not know what’s going to happen. Also, it smartly left a lot of hints here and there and rewards you with all those enlightened moments that fed you with doses of satisfaction, if you managed to spot them.
Japanese anime might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but for me in an age of candy soap opera and tacky romantic comedies, ‘Your Name’ is a breath of fresh air, not just for anime but the whole genre. In fact, it feels like it had redefined the genre. I felt like I haven’t seen something like this before and thus became so engaged with the story and the character. All those ‘what ifs’ and ‘buts’ that were scattered around the plot made you really wanted to find out what impact would every decision made have on every character you came to know and care about.
‘Your Name’ is a classic example of a story told right and complimented by some of the most beautifully drawn scenery in animation. This is particularly impressive when you are watching it on a 4K HD big screen. The scenery just jumped to life on your TV in the most impressive manner. In the day and age of computer-generated animation, it is when you saw something like ‘Your Name’ that you remembered how you need to appreciate the master artistry Japanese animators brought to the medium. From the sketches drawn by the main male character Taki, to the actual scenery you saw when you actually saw the ‘real thing’ in the story, you couldn’t help but wonder how did we come to forget the beauty of traditional drawing and painting?
Accompanying with the story was a beautifully composed soundtrack by Radwimps that starts and stops at every single right moment in the story. From the urban hustle bustle of Tokyo to the tranquillity of the countryside, the soundtrack captured the world of ‘Your Name’ perfectly, and without losing a beat.
As with most Japanese anime, the characters were beautifully voice acted and I felt that this is why it became so engaging. Japanese voice actors were highly regarded in Japan and it shows why. They commanded real emotion with their animated counterpart so perfectly that you sometimes forgot they were just hand drawn characters on sheets. That is the magic of superb Japanese voice acting.
As I said, Japanese anime is not for everyone. This is especially the case with ‘Your Name’ as it started off pretty slowly and could be head scratching for some if you are not paying attention to the details. But once you see past the anime fabric of the movie, you will appreciate that it is a great and intriguing story told in the most masterful way that one could imagine. If you have an hour and a half to spare, check it out on Netflix before it disappears.
Love, Simon
Movies about teenagers seemed to have changed a lot since my self-imposed exile from them because of ‘cannot relate to them’. Last I wrote about the surprised Netflix hit for me through ‘To All the Boys I Loved Before’, which I felt a breath of fresh air into the genre. Tonight, I ran into a little piece of gem that I missed while people were raving about it when it was in the cinemas – ‘Love, Simon’.
Yes, I know. I am late to the party and the whole universe had moved on. But I was quite impressed about how the movie dealt with the issue being highlighted as the theme. Simon, played by the perfectly performed Nick Robinson, came from your most picture-perfect suburban family. Dad Jack (Josh Duhamel) was a famous ex-League player and mum Emily (Jennifer Garner) was the smartest and most liberal wife and mother you could find. With a well-articulated and ‘career-focused’ younger sister, Simon had it all – except for one thing – his secret identity as a gay teenager.
Simon is loved among his friends and was never the target of bullies. He is doing fine at school and is the principal’s favourite student. However, as Emily pointed out, Simon has been holding back his breaths for years. That is, until Simon met ‘Blue’. A fellow student at his high-school who posted a blog on the school’s gossip site talking about a secret that was affecting him all throughout the years. Feeling a connection Simon reached out as Jacques, and the correspondence continued. Their online relationship flourished and Simon started putting genuine smiles back on his face. His favourite pass time was waiting for ‘Blue’s’ replies. He felt that he was himself again. However, the freedom within the online world was also met with threats when part of the conversation was accidentally spotted by another fellow student and started blackmailing Simon. Determined to keep his ‘relationship’ with Blue under wraps Simon juggled and as we all knew juggling is taxing and eventually things fell apart.
It was a movie not just about growing up, but about the need to deal with shit that nobody should be dealing with because of who he / she is. As Simon’s fellow classmate Ethan said, coming out, no matter at what age, is not easy. Simon’s jealousy of the freedom Ethan enjoyed at school for being who he was, was not at a small cost. But that is the part that Simon slowly learnt and accepted. And this was the same for his friends, whom responded in their own ways to the crisis unfolding at school while re-assessing their own identities.
The movie was dealing with some heavy issues but with expert light heartedness that did not trivialise the subject. I think that was the reason that I was so impressed and got hooked into it. The conversation between Jack and Simon, in which Jack was filled with guilt for not knowing earlier to be more helpful and understanding, while Simon was the person who salvaged the situation for him, demonstrated one would never know what is inside another person’s head, no matter how close they are, and also help would always come in its surprising way. At the end of the day, proper space and open-mindedness are important for everyone involved. I also particularly like how the principal flashed out what is meant by ‘tolerance’ without letting the notion going down the cliché drain.
Love, Simon seemed to have initially presented itself as a teenage love story but it is so much more. The delicate balance that it presented made this movie an exceptional story and experience for the audience. I do not know whether everyone who saw it took away something with him / her but for me the most outstanding part was its achievements of balance without being laborious. You don’t need to overthink. It is there. Whether you want to take it with you is your choice.
Love, Simon is a teenage movie done right. It is not cliché and it is full of joy, heartache and surprises. If you have missed it, come in with an open mind for you will never know what you can learn from these teenagers.
The Agents of SHIELD - 6 Years On
With the closing to a chapter of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) dawning on us, lots of people were talking about how all the previous 22 films drew us to an epic conclusion. With a whopping initial plan of 3 hours 2 minutes run, ‘Avengers: Endgame’ could make history in a short period of time. However, with all these talks going on, people might have forgotten the MCU’s link in the television space. For that I was not referring to the ill-fated but occasional critical hit series on Netflix, but ‘The Agents of SHIELD’ on the Disney owned ABC.
As a spin off series from the MCU featuring the #SaveCoulson SHIELD agent Phil Coulson, ‘The Agents of SHIELD’ had initially acted as a bridging device for some of the plot points in the movies that cannot be elaborated on screen. In the first seasons the series was tightly knitted with the Avengers movies, including the resurrection of Coulson from the Battle of New York in the first Avengers movie, the fall of SHIELD in ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’, the repair of the Hellicarrier for Nick Fury in ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ and the aftermath of the ‘Sokovia Accords’ in ‘Captain America: Civil War’ etc. Throughout its initial 3 seasons, ‘The Agents of SHIELD’ while pursuing its own stories provided significant continuation of background stories for their MCU counterparts.
However, this doesn’t mean that the series is nothing more than a bridging device. While the MCU continued the Infinity Saga in a large-scale about those much love superheroes, ‘The Agents of SHIELD’ deals with how what happened in the movies had an impact on the ground level, when not everyone has superpowers. It was this point of difference that initially drew me to the series. It was about technology, science, and strategies because these agents do not have photon blasts or super serum to make them invincible (well until ‘The Infinity War’ at least). What they were dealing with, initially with Hydra were really about battle tactics.
Nonetheless, as the series proceeded, ‘The Agents of SHIELD’ sprung into its own life. The major plot twist provided in the first season with Hydra might have gotten the series the much needed exposure and attention, but it was what they introduced, and successfully, to the MCU that the movie could not dealt with that built its own unique Identity. From season two, the Inhumans were introduced (not the ill-fated God forsaken movie turned TV series turned disaster), whom in season 3 led a huge charge for the storyline to move forward. Season 3 of ‘The Agents of SHIELD’ was practically Inhumans in the MCU did right. From Season 4 onward, ‘The Agents of SHIELD’ excelled with its ground level approach under the influence of the bigger picture. The clouds of the Sokovia Accords had hugely impacted the existence of Inhumans, both politically and socially but it was because of this with the introduction of the Life Decoy Models (LMDs) that brought the series to a different direction. The introduction of a proper Ghost Rider that tied in to the LMD and later the Framework storylines demonstrated that ‘The Agents of SHILED’ had successfully established itself as a grounded series within the grander universe in the MCU. Season 4 of the series delivered some of the best narratives within the MCU. So I was not surprised that fans were up in arms and fired up when initially ABC wanted to cancel the series. The series had established its own cult following. While being more demanding for the audience to follow the stories than its movie counterparts, ‘The Agents of SHIELD’ continued to lay groundworks for the movies when telling their own stories.
Disney’s direct intervention to ABC resulted in the 5th Season of ‘The Agents of SHIELD’ though ABC had cut the budget significantly for the production. As a result, the producers brought the series to a confined space station in the outer space to save cost. The sadistic tyranny displayed by the Kree introduced in this season laid the groundworks for the Krees in ‘Captain Marvel’ as the audience who had follow the series would have had no doubt questioning the motivations of all the Kree members in Captain Marvel’s team.
By Season 5, the Inhumans are already firmly established in the world of ‘The Agents of SHIELD’. Despite having all that power, what I liked about how the series is how they treated the Inhumans storylines. Inhumans in the series were individuals who happened to have those powers that they did not ask for. Their struggles and identity crisis and the discrimination against them were fully and thoroughly explored. That made them a lot more human than superheroes as compared to the movie counterparts. And for me, it made me feel these characters are more real, and I would care about them.
The fate of the series was thrown into uncertainty when ABC decided to just renew it for a shorten season for 2019. A lot of followers considered this as a signed of rebellion from ABC against Disney to cancel and wrap up the show, despite having delivered solid storytelling and further following for the series in Season 5 by the show. Reassurance of commitment to the series came after the Marvel Studio and ABC explained the reason for the shorter season was to avoid providing any spoiler for ‘Avengers: Endgame’ because if the season continued during from the Fall to April, it would have no choice but to talk about and show the aftermath of the Decimation as Season 5 finished right before the Decimation. This could spoil a lot of stories for ‘Endgame’. Fans were treated an early Christmas when ABC announced the ordering of the 7th Season as they debut the trailer for Season 6.
With the current MCU story arc finishing in April 2019, it is unknown what direction ‘The Agents of SHIELD’ would go or what role it would play in the bigger MCU. The show’s integration with the movies were too tight to just completely separate it. Only time will tell what would happen but the fact that Phil Coulson re-appeared in ‘Captain Marvel’ it was a timely reminder for people who once loved this SHIELD agent and demanded his resurrection. In a time when Disney is preparing for its own streaming channel with MCU tied in original series on its own platform, and the demise of the Netflix series, how ‘The Agents of SHIELD’ would move forward would be the most interesting to see.
Sex Education
Netflix has grown to become a platform for some really interesting movies and TV series. Starting with being well known for dramas like ‘House of Cards’ and then black comedies like ‘Orange is the New Black’ and reboots of ‘Arrested Development’ then the house of the Marvel TV series such as ‘Daredevil’ and ‘Jessica Jones’, ‘Sex Education’ is a new take on dramedy in a high school setting. And the result was surprisingly refreshing.
‘Sex Education’ is high school dramedy, so expect all the clichés of mean girls and popular boys in usually movies or TV series of the similar kind. However, the similarities stopped here. The premise of the show banks in on teenager’s curiosity and experimentation about sex without knowing what it is actually about. In came our protagonist Otis (played by the brilliant Asa Butterfield) whose mum (Gillian Anderson of the ‘X Files’ fame) is an established sex therapist whom he felt awfully weird about. However, because of him being soaked in this sex therapist environment, he unconsciously learnt the skills, which was discovered by the Harley Quinn like Maeve Wiley and decided to establish a clinic business with Otis as the school sex therapist. Together they have a great variety of clients with issues from masturbating with a melon to unsatisfying lesbian sex. The process was hilarious and it was through this process that both Otis and Maeve slowly discovered who they are.
The series focused a lot on both self-discovery and helping others to discover themselves, their partners and they true feelings around the world their people. Some of the therapy sessions were outlandishly hilarious and others were touching. It has graphic descriptions about teenage sex and their curiosity about their sexuality, but in a lot of cases, it transcends the physical aspects and dealt with the emotional and psychological aspects. And I think this provided a distinctive point of view for the series. Also the journey that both Otis and Maeve went through during the 8 episodes was intriguing as they came to terms to their change of status at the school and dealing with new relationships and falling out of old ones. The constant question of ‘Is it me or is it them’ continued to haunt them while they presented as a united front to help all those desperate souls at the school, with a fee.
Gillian Anderson as Otis’ mother Jean was without a doubt a screen stealer. Her sex therapist persona that sometimes unconsciously bled into her relationship with Otis at times made really good TV and was always a joy to watch. I think her casting was absolutely spot on. Asa Butterfield’s Otis has everything you can expect from an awkward kid who wanted to just stay invisible. However, the thriving school sex therapist business had put him into the limelight and forced him to gradually open up to the world around him. This development slowly brought him out of his comfort zones and look at the world in proper light. Emma Mackey’s Maeve was deep and rich and provided a great premise for Otis to thrive. Her unapologetic attitude to life while at the same time has massive insecurity because of her ‘deficiencies in the family department’ provided a great canvas for character development. And how Otis and Maeve fed off each other’s vibe to survive while enriching each other’s life was very interesting to watch. Ncuti Gatwa as Eric did a decent job with a character that was initially quite cliché and bland. For me initially I was a bit disappointed with a gay side kick character again and it felt token and stereotypical. However, as the character grew and you found out more and more about his background the character became a bit more full-fledged and I started to appreciate him a bit more. There are a number other interesting characters in the show too although in my opinion a number of them were quite under-developed, probably because of the shortness of the series.
The soundtrack of the show was as unapologetic as the premise. It strangely complements the theme of the show in a way that it brought out the rawness of young people in a seemingly protecting but in reality, a rough environment. The high school they were in looks like a prestigious high school from the look of the campus but within the walls of this majestic building are raw souls yearning to break out and march without regret into an unknown adulthood. This emotional (or probably hormonal) yearning was masterfully magnified by the soundtracks played throughout the series. And the soundtracks were not monotone but covered a wide variety of genre.
Despite breaking new grounds, the series itself is not flawless. For example despite the presence of two lesbian relationships, with which one of them were quite graphic from a sexual depiction point of view, the only ‘gay scene’ in the series was only lightly touched on despite there were two prominent gay characters in the show. For me this kind of imbalance made me wonder whether the writers or producers still think lesbian relationships are more acceptable than gay ones so trying to downplay its impact on screen? Also as mentioned earlier there were some interesting characters that were seriously under-developed. For instance Adam Groff, the headmaster son’s character was extremely one-dimensional and his action was too predictable to be interesting. Similarly the mean-team at school was just mean-team. Although it touched lightly on its in-group dynamic, they were never really that interesting to watch. That goes the same with some other characters such as Ola and his plumber dad, Jackson the head boy whose background story though interesting did not have sufficient materials to flash it out. The other really annoying aspect are the numerous on again and off again relationship with some characters and all those cliché chance co-incidence encounters putting characters out of phase with each other. I personally felt that the show would be so much better without them.
Although ‘Sex Education’ is not without its issue but it did serve up a new template for teen dramas. It is not your average teen drama and I must say that if it is not on Netflix, it might not be produced. It is a short series of 8 episodes so if you are looking for something different and engaging ‘Sex Education’ can be one of your choices.
Captain Marvel
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) missed the boat when they refused / delayed the Black Widow movies early on. As a result, Wonder Woman hit the screen and made history. MCU from this point onward was playing catch up. The result was Captain Marvel hitting the cinemas in 2019.
Captain Marvel built up a lot of hype, not only because it is MCU first and only female superhero movie in the 11 years and after over 20 films, but also because of the significance of Carol Danvers in the comics. It is a much-loved character and without the burdening background of Black Widow in the MCU, Marvel Entertainment can really play with their material in an imaginative way.
The movie is an origin story in the 90s explaining where Captain Marvel came from through a bunch of flash back and flash forward scenes. It is a well-known fact that the premise was the Kree-Skrull War and Carol Danvers by the chance of fate sided with the Kree. A green (both experience and uniform colour) operative agent Carol encountered the Skrull and slowly peeled off her history layer by layer. There are lots of time movements in the film, so I would recommend audience members to pay attention to every screen to make sure they did not miss out important information. At times I felt the plot a bit convoluted but probably Marvel wanted to craft a more complicated character for Carol but I do not know whether some audience would find it confusing. There are quite a few moments that delivered nods to previous MCU movies and tied in to the overarching MCU story arc. However, one of the major item plot point in the movie got me scratching my head as it was confusing. Maybe I need to revisit older movies to find out more or maybe Marvel had more to tell about that story I don’t know. But when that plot twist happened, I genuinely had a “Huh?” moment.
Brie Larson in the titular role delivered a solid performance. From fighting scenes to just simple posing for her presence you can see that Brie had put a lot of effort to deliver the grandiose of this important Marvel character. She presented as a rogue agent in a disciplined team and Samuel L Jackson’s Nick Fury did not waste a bit of time to call her out. Her moments of reckoning were well played and sometimes I did wonder how could she make it interesting when the character is so unrivallingly powerful? A ‘young’ Samuel L Jackson reprised his role as Level 3 Agent Fury in SHIELD. I was quite surprise at such a low level he got such high degree of clearance. But you can certainly see the chemistry between Brie’s Carol and Sam’s Fury. As a result, most of their scenes together were the best in the whole movie. Their banter and borderline distrust with each other initially unwittingly made them the best partners in the MCU. Clark Gregg also reprised as a young Agent Coulson being just joining SHIELD but already showed traces of judgement and leadership for his later years in the MCU. There are other famous faces such as Jude Law, Annette Benning etc. who delivered solid performances but they were just not on the screen long enough for me to enjoy them. Also, for me the two scene stealers were Goose and Akira Akbar’s Monica Rambeau. Goose well, is Goose, it is destined for great things. But Akira’s Monica was full of personality. I do not know whether MCU will utilise her further in the future as a character but Akira had certainly created a rich character despite for her minor screen presence.
The film was set in the 90s. So, expect a lot of 90s soundtracks peppered across the whole movie. I also like how they made fun of the technology in the 90s, particularly the scenes about the CD ROM and dialled up Internet. Captain Marvel is the last movie before Avengers End Game. So, expect a lot of hints and scene setting for End Game and some of the other movies (hence making me more confused about one of the plot twists that post a question mark on the time line for me). If you are a fan of mid and end credit scenes, be sure to sit through the whole mid and end credits.
Overall, I enjoyed Captain Marvel a lot. I had never one moment needed to check my watch and when things are funny on screen, I truly laughed out loud. Whether Captain Marvel would make history or MCU history is still a bit too early to say, but it did set up End Game nicely to create the necessary anticipation for all MCU fans.
Bohemian Rhapsody
Watching ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ reminded me the first time I heard the song played on the radio. It was weird, long winding but refreshing. For me it was something I had never heard before and something completely new to my musical palette. And as a kid a found a bunch of men in a rock band called ‘Queen’ very funny.
Fast forward to the present, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ the movie is killing at both the box office and the award season. Despite its controversy with the Director’s role in the age of #MeToo, there was no denying that the movie struck a chord in a lot of people’s heart.
I personally missed it when it was in the cinemas. I was going through a Netflix phase and kind of fell off the cinema radar. However, another long haul flight means another catch up with all the movies I missed through the small blue screen at the back of the seat in front of me.
The movie opened and closed in a come around way accounting the rise and fall of, well not Queen, but Freddie Mercury as Queen’s front man. Rami Malek of the Mr Robot TV series fame led an outstanding cast bringing to life the many important moments of Queen to us once again. There were initial discussions about whether Rami looks the part but by now with all the nominations and wins he got, that was put to rest. I personally found Rami’s performance extremely enigmatic, which reflects what I read about Freddie Mercury throughout the years in different coverage after his death (I have never really followed Queen and its career at that time as I responded to the music not its artist). Sometimes when actors perform like that you felt they are too try hard but that did not come through with Rami’s Freddie. The arrogant front and the vulnerability deep inside was well balanced. The scene where he called his ex-wife who lives next door just to quench the loneliness inside him at the height of his career was devastatingly realistic.
Allan Leech as the possessive lover with a scorn was a fair delivery. Although I personally still like him in ‘Downton Abbey’ better. It is not that he did not do a good job in ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. It was just because everyone else’s presence in the movie was corroded by Freddie Mercury’s presence. This was the same with the band members. They were by no means unimportant (Brian May created the ‘We Will Rock You’ beats, which after all these years are still one of the most catchy and engaging beats in music), but Freddie’s larger than life and over the top lifestyle just kept eclipsing all the other people around him, including the woman whom he was crazily in love and could not let go of. Lucy Boynton as Mary, his ex-wife was one of the outstanding supporting cast in the film. Her subtleness in a lot of scenes through a glance or even a sigh elevated her sadness and self-destructive symbiotic relationship with Freddie in the most natural manner. It was a pity that we couldn’t see more of her. Another one worth mentioning was the surprising turn of Mike Myers as Ray Foster. It was initially beyond recognisable to me but once you noticed, his image just got stuck in your head.
It is a Queen movie, so it is given that the soundtrack is full of Queen tracks, from the titled ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ to ‘We Are The Champions’ and ‘Radio Gaga’. They are nostalgic yet present. Seriously not a lot of songs can withstand the weathering of time and still feel fresh after decades. Queen managed to give us some iconic rhythm that even today when I heard them in the movie, I would go home and dig them out from my iTunes collection and listen to them again. For me it was also fun to see how they were incubated, fictional or not.
Since it is about the rise of Queen, the movie is predominantly nostalgic 80s and sometimes made me feel ‘how could adults at that time think those outfits are trendy and good looking?’ But I guess every generation had their pet love and fails fashion-wise. But for me it was quite truthful, at least from my limited memory.
In all for me, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was a very engaging experience. I never had once looked at my phone for the time, despite being trapped on a flight in the dark. I enjoyed every single moment of it, but probably for some you might enjoy it better if you are truly into Queen and its music.
Virgin Australia Sydney to Hong Kong experience
It’s not usually my habit to evaluate flight experience. However, my first long haul international flight from Sydney to Hong Kong on Virgin Australia had attracted a lot of interests from my friends. So, I thought I will just give it a go.
Before I start, I need to make it clear that this is the first time I flew economy in a few years (I usually fly premium economy) and also this is my experience in one single flight, so it is by no mean representative if it differs from your experience.
Booking
First of all, about my booking experience. I have been a Velocity member for many years as I used to fly Virgin Australia to Christchurch for many years. Adding my Velocity membership to the booking was quite straightforward. I also managed to select my seat at the time of my booking without additional cost, which is extremely reasonable (yes, I am looking at you Qantas on your unreasonable fees for selecting seats at the time of booking). However, I received two emails since then advertising the possibility of bidding for at least $1,000 each way to upgrade my flight to business, which means if I succeeded it will be at least another $2,000 overhead on top of my $750 that I already paid. Considering business class is just over $3,000 I personally felt that it is a bit of trick marketing into paying more for something you don’t need and not that much of a saving. The fact that I only booked it a week out from my flying date, it is a bit over the top to get two such emails in a week.
Check in
Checking in online was quite painless. I managed the process quite easily in between my last-minute packing. I even managed to get my confirmation to be sent to my email address. So, it will just be a simple bag drop the next morning.
When I arrived at the airport the next morning, I found out the usual indicators for airlines at the airport at the drop off area were all gone. So, to save money (on a cab) I picked the closest available spot to get out. Turned out the Virgin area was in the farthest end of the departing hall. Luckily, I managed to find an orphaned trolley so I picked it up quickly to wheel it to the other end of the building.
When I got there, I informed one of the ground staff that I already performed online check in, but just to find out I still need to queue up to check in at the desk. This was not what I expected as with other airlines, I could just proceed to print boarding pass and baggage drop. That added unnecessary waiting for me and I could have not bothered to do online check in. For me that was a disappointment.
Boarding and the Flight
Boarding was quite painless and the ground crew were extremely friendly and patient.
When I was on board of the flight, to my surprise my seat (38D) was not a standalone seat as it was indicated on the flight floor plan when I selected my seat at the time of booking. In fact, there were two other seats next to me. One of them was occupied by another passenger (although he moved somewhere later). This was extremely puzzling for me as I was expecting to be sitting by myself without anyone to my right. I ended up still having the whole row to me but I felt cheated when the seat I chose was not what it seemed to be. Nonetheless the seats were of good size for my miniature frame.
The crew was courteous and friendly. Most of them were pretty attentive and sincere, although one of them seemed to be a bit more stressed than others. During his conversation with his colleague during food service, I understood that his regularly route was Sydney to LA, so probably the Hong Kong shift is not as interesting as he wished.
The selection of movie and TV entertainment was sufficient but not spectacular. There weren’t a lot of interesting options for me. I watched ‘The House with a Clock in its Walls’ at the beginning and then just spent the rest of the flight playing games on my PSVita and 3DS. Probably on the way back would be different as I would be spending more time resting.
Meal services were prompt and friendly, although I personally feel the servings are way too small as I felt hungry most of the time during the flight. I wish there were more items per meal and also bigger serving. Though when I asked for another cup of tea, it was served promptly.
The flight arrived on time and overall it was not too bad although the mainland Chinese tour group caused quite a bit of issues when they started to get up as soon as the plane touched the ground, even though it is still moving at quite some speed and the crew kept on telling them to sit down. But none of them seemed to care.
My luggage was already waiting for me after I passed through customs so I was quite pleased with it.
Overall
All in all, I think the flight was not bad at all. Despite a few hiccups or ‘surprises’ it was still value for money. However, as I said after years on premium economy, my expectations could be unrealistic. I might not be comparing apples with apples on this. I probably will fly them again in the future, but save up some money for premium economy next time 😊.
Kim's Convenience
From time to time you run into something that you can totally relate to. Kim’s Convenience is one of those for me.
The premise was quite straight forward. The Kim family runs a convenience store in a Toronto suburb. Among their regular clients are a number of quirky and unique characters. Adding some dramas among the family members and you got one of the funniest sitcoms in recent years.
In the age of diversity Kim’s Convenience uncompromisingly delivered. The Kim family is Korean (though not all actors are Koreans), then you have Mr Chin, a Chinese friend with his dog Ginger, also Mr Mheta, a local Indian eatery owner and his family, Pastor Nina, the Latin American pastor in a Korean church etc. The diversity of people within this community reflects modern Toronto as a hot pot of culture while different generations are still adapting to their identities and changing the cultural landscape. The fact that the series started with an episode addressing the LGBTQ community’s relationship with the locals had immediately set the tone of the show. And also, how they bring back these characters throughout the series reflected that the writers and producers are not just paying lip service to this cause but committed to it.
Since the main cast is a Korean family, it inevitably deals with a lot of Korean culture and sometimes play running jokes on it. However, what impressed me was that it is not about making fun of it by stereotyping it but laughing at other people’s stereotypical or lack of understanding of the Korean culture. Also, its emphasis on no matter which ethnic group you belong to, you are just a day in day out Canadian made the whole series a lot more relatable. The Kim family and the related gangs all have their day to day issues – from studies, to career, to favouritism within the family, to facing the shock of growing up and gaining independence etc. – they all contributed to the funny and emotional moments of the series.
The series also tackled the generational difference of identity within migrant families. While the kids Jung and Janet considered themselves as more Canadian who happened to have a Korean background, their parents Umma and Appa were uncompromising Koreans. Umma’s obsession in finding a nice and handsome Korean Christian boy for her daughter was extremely funny, especially when Janet went to distance to hide her non-Korean boyfriend from her mom. Then we have Janet feeling insecure because she was being out-Koreaned by her Korean cousin who actually came from Korean to study. Throughout the two seasons that I watched, both generations continued to adapt to the changing dynamic within the family while trying to understand each other more.
The cast playing the Korean family was superb. Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Appa was without a doubt a scene stealer. Most of the time he doesn’t need to say a word or do a thing, he could be just looking at something and you already found it funny. He is one of the few actors on screen in any series that I felt like he hit the mark every time he showed up. His fluctuation between pride and ignorance to understanding and acceptance were flawlessly played out every time. Jean Yoon as the mother was also great. Although the character was initially more one dimensional, as the character got more juicy materials, Umma stepped up and became one of the most important moral and cultural compass for her hard-core Korean husband. Jean Yoon meticulous timing delivered some of the best lines in the show (could never forget her comments on her daughter’s fake Korean accent). Andrea Bang as Janet, the daughter who yearned to grow up and be recognised provided the much-needed balance to avoid the show being too stereotypical Korean. She represents the view of 2nd generation migrants who sometimes struggled with her cultural identity while trying to fit into both worlds. Andrea’s performance was great although at times I felt a little overplayed at the beginning. But she certainly found the balance as the series moved forward. Simu Liu as the son Jung was a good choice within the context of the character. However, I felt like there could be more he could do in terms of character development as Jung has a colourful background. I just felt that his story had not been properly flashed out still. Nonetheless, the dynamics between him and Andrew Phung’s Kimchee was always great to watch.
As I said Kim’s Convenience is one of the most diverse show on TV that hit the diversity mark spot on. It’s about the culture but at the same time not overly cultural specific. You can feel that all characters in the show were embraced by the writers and the producers as none of them were presented in a judgmental way. And when judgements were made, they were made within the context and prejudice and ignorance always had to pay the price. That’s what I like about it. It is an open conversation itself on cultural identity, family, religion, sexual orientation and social adaptation.
The World Vs Decluttering
I have already written about Netflix’s Tidying up with Marie Kondo before. For me it was a refreshing show and I learnt a lot about how to manage storage space in terms of how to fold tops, fitted sheets, socks etc. etc. My wardrobe now looks great and tidy and I hope to maintain this state of joy for the longest I could.
However, we are living in a world that every popular thing will at some point invite backlashes. The surge of articles on the Internet, including newspaper columns and blogs against the concept of decluttering because of only keeping things that ‘Spark Joy’ have flooded my screen space in the last two weeks. Clearly, keeping life simple and decluttered is not something that everyone is into.
A lot of those articles were attacking Marie Kondo’s idea of ‘sparking joy’ because not everything needs to spark joy as they reflect who they are and who they once were. Some said it is about how you want to present yourself as a person through what you have in your house (or maybe also stuff you stocked up in the darkest corners of your garage). It is not just about sparking joy but being and reflecting who you are as a person. And that principle applies to all items across the board from clothing, to books and konomos etc.
For me I found these attacks quite amusing. My feeling was – if you don’t like Marie Kondo’s idea just don’t follow it. Decluttering had certainly helped people in the show, so what’s a big deal if that didn’t apply to you. I don’t watch reality dating shows but I won’t go on an all-out war against people who believed contestants could really find true love on those shows.
Decluttering is a lifestyle, not a rigid regiment in life. I once kept a lot of things because of sentimental reasons. But moving from country to country and houses to houses in the last 17 years made me realised that I have been burdening myself with expired sentiments and overloading excess baggage. That’s when I started to get ruthless on my personal possessions. Last time when I moved house I found out there were things in my garage that I have kept for 8 years in boxes without opening them at all. But I have to take them with me because I am moving. That’s when I made the decision of inviting a good friend who knows me very well, and asked her to go through all those and other boxes for me. I knew if I did it myself they will just be back into the garage or storage. I told her a simple rule – if she thinks I don’t need them, don’t even ask me or tell me about the contents, just throw them. This exercise helped me cleared out a lot of junks that I don’t even know what they were but had never thought about revisiting.
When I decided to renovate my place, I needed to pack and move to a temporary location so my place can be, well renovated. This is when I noticed that there are a lot of things I thought defining who I am became things that I just kept for no reasons. I suddenly realised that I have been depending on objects to tell me who I am (or maybe to impress others with those ‘wow you got this?’) and stop focusing on living as who I am. I went through another series of culling and decluttering. I donated a lot of books and DVDs to the local libraries and schools, depending on the nature of those items, discarded a lot of clothes that were no longer my size (I couldn’t believe I was once that skinny – like 27” waistline?) and removed a lot of household items that I have never, and will never use. I set up a table outside my garage and placed two huge boxes of household items, either new or mildly used and put a note telling people to take them if they need them. I got rid of about one and a half box during the process. And the funny thing is I have never revisited the remaining items in the box in the garage as apparently I don’t need any of those. I will probably ask the local council to take away all the remaining items in the garage at the end of this year as now I imposed a strictly – if not used in two years, they have to go rule.
For me living a simpler and more lightweight life allows me to focus more on how I want to live my life instead of looking at things or worrying about things that are taking up my physical space. That gives me peace and ‘sparks joy’. If decluttering doesn’t spark joy for you then it is not something for you. Maybe you enjoy clutters and clutters spark joy for you. As Marie Kondo emphasised and demonstrated, giving things away are not just about tossing them out, she reiterated the importance of appreciating those items and what they meant to you in your life before letting them go. And I think personally, this is the beauty of her methodology. I am not as forgiving as she is when it comes to that but her approach did trigger me to revisit things I still have and started using them more to understand what they meant to me (yes, if I don’t feel anything anymore from them, they are going).
So there is no need to go up in arms against decluttering or Marie Kondo herself. The fear you created for yourself against Marie Kondo and her decluttering lifestyle is unwarranted if you truly believe in what you believe in. And there is no concrete wall between how you want to live your live as to how others want to live a decluttered life.
Debunking the Myth of Lonely Single Lives
So Christmas and New Year are over and it is just another few weeks before Valentine’s Day. As per usual newspaper columns are churning out one loneliness article after another for single people saying how bad it feels to be alone without a partner and how toxic loneliness is blah blah blah.
For me I am sick of this.
The truth is not everyone is built for relationship, or not everyone can be in a relationship. They key to being single is to be content with what you have and not focusing on what you don’t have. It always confound me how some of these columnists throw out notion of being single is bad because they feel so lonely having no company. For me, if you think being single is bad for you, actively find someone. According to statistics online dating sites are extremely active during this period because people are desperate to find a company by Valentine’s Day so they won’t be alone. If that’s the case, instead of spreading negativity like strayed animals spraying on the streets, join these crowds and spend more time swiping left or right, whatever suits you. Nobody needs to read another 600 articles of loneliness during festive season when you are not really making an effort to be content with who you are and what your life is.
In this day and age of craziness, spreading negative sentiments simply because you have the platforms to do so when everyone is trying to be positive with their New Year resolutions that may or may not fail is not helping anyone. Maybe you find a need to express yourself. Then ring a friend, talk to your parents or see your psychiatrist.
Being single does not equal to being lonely. People who are relationship-craze will find someone no matter what and no matter what the consequences are for them. But if you can’t find someone for this so called social milestone, then just be content and make the most out of it. When I say making the most out of it, it is not about pretending to be content but look positively around you and what you have. There is nothing called too much solitude if you actually appreciate what you have and stop focusing and moaning on what you don’t have. Not everyone can have it all and being constantly envied about your friends whom you think having it all does not give you a better life. Further, you never know what’s behind the door so this kind of groundless envy is taking you nowhere. If you are scared of being judged by the society or the people around you for being single, then you have failed the fundamentals of living – love yourself. If you can’t love yourself why would you expect others to love you?
I respect everyone’s social and relationship status as long as they are not wrecking other people’s. But the fact that I saw 4 articles in one week across different news site about how bad being single and alone is really pissed me off.
One must remember when it involved another person, everything is out of your control. So moaning about something that’s out of control and without fixing who you are internally is just a scam of relationship advice. If you can’t be happy with yourself then probably you don’t even know who you are and what you want, then what makes you think you would be less lonely or happier in a relationship? Nobody in this world has the responsibility to make you happy. If you found the love of your life, which I have a number of friends who did, that’s just a bonus to your existence in this world. And everyone should know that this bonus is not guaranteed. Being content with yourself, and your life is the key to happiness and the key to wipe that self-pitying loneliness talk out of your head. And that is your responsibility. Even when you think that writing about it and telling the world is therapeutic for you, the rest of the world doesn’t need to read about it. Just pay your psychiatrist to listening to your endless moaning. If moaning about being single and moaning makes your happy then that’s your choice, but nobody else need to take that blunt of your inconsiderate behaviour to feed into your happiness.
Seriously, be happy with who you are and what you have and stop all those moaning and complaining. Your life is in your hands and your hands alone. Nobody else in the world is responsible for your happiness if you are not building it yourself. Anything else are icing on the cake and one should never take them for granted.
Tidying Up with Marie Kondo
‘Tidying Up with Marie Kondo’ couldn’t have arrived on Netflix at a better time. This is the time when we all have unsustainable New Year resolutions that we toss out of the window due to various excuses. But, Marie Kondo had made one of them so within reach now. Thank you Netflix.
It is weird that I got hyped up by a show about a decluttering guru helping hoarders or normal families cleaning up. But I must admit that when I saw the show popped up on my recommendation on the day it dropped on Netflix, my heart skipped a beat and I just clicked watch without over-thinking. Now, ‘without over-thinking’ is what Marie Kondo’s no fuss decluttering is about.
Marie Kondo’s pet phrase throughout the whole season is ‘Spark Joy’. Basically you keep things that gives you that spark of joy. This means, sentimental items that would not spark joy moving forward have to go to the toss bin. It is a very subjective way of decluttering but there is more to that. Marie Kondo emphasised on categorising things before going through them. The major categories were clothing, books, paper, konomo (miscellaneous items) and sentimental items. For me this is ingenious as the first three categories were common grounds for most people. I personally experienced that when I packed up for renovation last time and vowed that I will not have that many clothes, buy that many books, and go through my paperwork more regularly. However, it is when you actually saw how much stuff people have when you saw them putting them into one big pile that I thought, “Wow, I am not that bad”. In one of the episodes, just a single member of the family had a pile of clothing that went all the way from the bed to the ceiling. This kind of shock immediately put the people in question into perspective. Marie Kondo’s system basically tackle the hardest and the easiest parts right from the start. Hardest in terms of volume, easiest in terms of sentimentality. It was quite inspiring to see that once put into perspective, how people can let go of piles of clothing and books, when they realised that most of them did not ‘spark joy’.
Paper is a category of its own simply because a lot of us were just always behind paper work, like filing bills and stuff. Also paper included a lot of other things such as school reports and drawings from kids etc. The kind of attachment with paperwork was hard to understand but yet every one of us had experienced it. I remember I had a box of paperwork basically were assignments I scored great while I was at the university. I couldn’t put myself to toss it but I knew I need to let go. So eventually when I moved to my current place, I asked a good friend of mine to come over and go through boxes that were transferred from the garage of my old place and told her, if she thinks I don’t need them just toss them, don’t even ask me. It is only through that, that I managed to dispose of a lot of junks that I got myself attached to with no reasons.
Marie Kondo’s approach to decluttering is extremely systematic but at the same time tackles personal attachments and sentiments head on. The whole ‘spark joy’ concept helped every family in the series to understand the difference between ‘keeping stuff’ and ‘holding on to stuff’. Keeping items that spark joy enriches your life – both in the past and in the future, but holding on to stuff just became a chain around your ankle or weights on your shoulders. Some people got there quickly and some needed a sudden epiphany, however everyone in the series got there eventually. It was quite uplifting to see how people’s lives changed just based on some basic principles. Also what I liked about the series is that Marie Kondo didn’t stay there all the time to hold hands. She taught them the methods, and left them for a few days before checking back in on them. In case they needed further advice, she would provide further advice. This kind of approach helped her clients to understand that decluttering is in fact their own responsibilities instead of relying on an expert to give them a quick fix.
For me letting go of stuff is not that hard as I know my weakness and as I mentioned I had employed radical efforts to let go of things. So what I got most out of the series is the way you store things and keep things tidy. Marie Kondo’s approach to daily chores to keeping things tidy was an eye opener for me. From folding different laundries to how to keep shoes and other things in the house, Marie Kondo’s tips were not only pretty in the eyes but also extremely effective. I remember how I got up after watching two episodes, took out everything from my wardrobe and tried her way in folding tops and pants. The end result was I have the tidiest wardrobe I had ever seen in my life and her method opened up so much more space in a limited space immediately. For me that kind of satisfaction kept me coming back to learn more and I think that is a hooking factor for me.
One other aspect that I did appreciate Marie Kondo was her insistence to greet the house. Her rationale behind is to make sure that the house is respected as being part of the family. Some families followed and some didn’t but all understood the point that their house is part of the family, not just a shell they live in. Looking at it from this angle provided them the determination to respect the place they live in and tidy it up properly. I have never thought of it this way but it is a nice sentiment to something that you worked hard to keep.
‘Tidying Up with Marie Kondo’ is addictive. That’s not just because of her personality or her methods, but her unique views about things in our lives and how we handle them (she recommends people to thank the things they had before throwing them away). I am not a very sentimental or emotionally attached kind of person, but even I understood where she came from. That’s how profound Marie Kondo’s approach and personality are. I personally will recommend the show to anyone who, let’s just say, wants to ‘clean up their acts’ :)
Dumplin
In the world of beauty pageant everything seems to be unforgiving. It is even worse when you are the daughter of a former beauty queen, whom, according to most people did not live up to your mother’s fame. That is the premise Dumplin’ was dealing with.
Willowdean, aka Dumplin’ used to have her aunty Lucy to support her and helped her appreciating herself. But with her aunty’s passing life had taken a sudden hard turn. Firmly believe that her beauty queen mother who called her Dumplin’ will not be able to understand her, she shut herself down and her only window to the real world was her friend Ellen. Her mum, Rosie, the local celebrity and beauty pageant icon was busy with every year’s pageant and with a trick of fate, Willowdean decided to enter the pageant to start a revolution. Despite saying she is not the Joan of Arc of the fat girls, Willowdean shifted from feeling she was the person being judged to judging other people. Inevitably things fell apart.
Dumplin’ is a surprisingly heart-warming dramedy that treads the water of body image and public shaming. It did not attempt to provide a social critique but at the same time it looked at the issue sharply from all angles. The idea of whether you are a person with self-confidence or not, judging yourself and other people is just a fair game. Fair game though it is, they were not pretty games. Both Rosie and Willowdean learnt that during the course of the story and this had become the cornerstone of their relationship.
Jennifer Aniston played Rosie, the ex-beauty queen and chair of the pageant. She was obsessed with her definition of beauty, both on herself and on others. Her judgement on her sister Lucy and eventually her daughter, whom she nicknamed Dumplin’ had completely segregated herself from the other two. Jennifer Aniston had come a long way to shed the Rachel shadow since her Friends days. Her subtleness in this role allowed her to show more depths as the ex-beauty queen mother who couldn’t help but being disappointed with her ordinary daughter. She hit several marks effortlessly making some of the scenes extremely funny and in the more emotional scenes she delivered competently enough.
Danielle Macdonald as Willowdean was brilliant. She started off as a girl who was extremely likeable to become the person she used to hate was a great transformation. As the world around her started crumbling down because of her shift from the judged to the judging, she unravelled and disintegrated. This is the point when you found her character extremely annoying and irrational, and such is the power of Danielle’s portrayal of this character. She was deeply and emotionally connected to the character, and in some scenes she outshined everyone on screen.
All other characters were there for comic relief. For some of them we never really knew them, even when the credits rolled. Bex Taylor-Klaus’ Hannah and Dove Cameron’s Bekah were some of them. They pop up every now and then to tie the story together, but then we never really understood them as characters in that world. Maybe because of the need to focus on the two main characters all other supporting characters had been rendered overly irrelevant. For me that was the major weakness in the whole film. Because so much effort was thrown into the mother-daughter relationship, at plot points when there wasn’t much happening, dull moments inevitably got magnified because you have nowhere else to look or nothing much else to look forward to. For me while the main story arch is important, supporting story arches and characters are equally important to enrich the world of the story so it feels less claustrophobic.
The strength of this movie is the message about personal images. The fact that it didn’t limit the judging to only one sector of this small community but everyone involved helped one to think about what does it mean to be judged and to judge. There might not be a universal answer to this question any time soon, but before we got to this consensus, we have Dumplin’.
Ralph Breaks the Internet
The 2012 ‘Wreck it Ralph’ was a surprised hit for me. I didn’t really think too much about it until I saw it and thought “wow that’s clever”. The story ended and things were back to the normal and the bad guy was done and dusted. So usually that’s it.
But then came the sequel. I thought “God! Disney is really milking everything. What else can be done?”. I didn’t think about it that much when the first trailer dropped as it seemed instead of playing with nostalgia in the gaming world, they are just bringing it up to date about the Internet. But then…then…the Disney Princess trailer dropped. I thought “Oh my! This is brilliant! Disney playing with its established franchises and demolishing the stereotypes by turning up the volume in merely 2 minutes?” That is when I thought I need to see this. For if Disney can have fun with itself, the possibilities in the film became limitless.
And so I did. I must say I enjoyed every minute of it. The pace was a lot faster than normal Disney films and the establishment of goals was swift. The curiosity of the arcade characters about the new ‘dangerous but unknown’ Internet plug in was hilarious. And the astonishment that Ralph and Vanellope had when they were finally exposed to the Internet was hilarious. ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ is a film about status quo versus challenging yourself. Ralph representing the status quo while Vanellope eyes were opened and had no idea how to go back to the unplugged world. That doesn’t mean that Ralph didn’t try, but he was sceptical about a lot of things and his experience was not always positive. And the insecurity in him that prompted him to try to protect Vanellope in every way he could became the main dilemma throughout the whole story.
What amazed me about ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ is the way how they packaged a lot of technical terms and jargons into ways that general audience can understand. How they visualised concepts such as Avatars, Net Traffic, Spam Clicks etc. was totally ingenious. The way how they transformed Internet insecurity into something that is completely relevant to the movie was a home run. I don’t know whether the audience would learn more about the Internet after watching this movie but for me it really gave me new ideas to explain complicated computing concepts to other people in the future. Just looking at this aspect of the movie, I could feel that it is more than just a sequel for milking the franchise but the creators did put in a lot of efforts into making this a unique experience.
Now back to the whole Disney Princess part. Without a doubt the Disney Princess trailer was a heavy hitter as a marketing ploy for the movie. But as we all knew, sometimes all the best thing in the movies were in the trailer. Despite being lured to the theatre by this trailer, I was secretly hoping that’s not all we would see in the movie. Luckily, Disney delivered solidly in this aspect. The trailer was just one of the several scenes in the movie that made fun of their stereotypes. The subsequent scenes completely showed how Vanellope was in all ways breaking this model of what to be considered as a princess, and her take on this role was contagious with the girls. The good thing is that the movie didn’t just played on their stereotypes, because that would be just a single note that could get boring very quickly. The movie also played on their strengths and the mutual influence between them and Vanellope gave these princesses more solid characterisation than just mere caricatures of themselves.
There were other great new characters debuting in ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ too. And they all stood out and left great and lasting impressions even after I left the theatre. Shank the main racer in the Slaughter Race game and her gang were serious, funky and funny at the same time. Yesss the Search Engine guru and the way she deployed pop ups on the browsers were one of the funniest things to watch. Also, how she explained to Ralph the good and bad sides of the Internet was spot on. And then you have KnowsMore the search bar that kept trying to predict what people wanted to search for was hilarious. I also enjoy how J.P.Spamley did his spamming and took Ralph a trip to the Dark Web.
For me, ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ had delivered above my expectations and I personally loved it more than its predecessor. And I think that is a good thing. Especially for nowadays with so many mediocre and bad sequels to just make an additional dollar and ruined their own franchises. I hope Disney would not treat this franchise too lazily and lightly, for there was something special here with Ralph and Vanellope’s world. I believe ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ is a movie that can be enjoyed by young and old alike.
Aquaman
Aquaman finally rolled into cinemas worldwide like a tidal wave. The DC Extended Universe (DCEU) hasn’t been as lucky as the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It has always been seen as an after thought to cash in on a trend. As a result, there were more misses than hits. At this point Aquaman was in an interesting situation – it doesn’t have much to lose within the box office record of the DCEU, and it has everything to lose within the existence of the DCEU.
James Wan of the horror genre fame (Conjuring, Annabelle, The Nun, Saw etc.) was an interesting choice for the Aquaman movie but Warner Bros surely got it right this time. The fresh take to what is considered as a standalone yet existential film in the DCEU breathed new life into this troublesome extended universe. You can still see the horror roots of this young director right from the opening to a number of scenes, particularly the scenes in the Empire of the Trench. But this completely different approach to Aquaman brought life to a could be stale superhero that has a long history within the Justice League.
Jason Momoa was an interesting choice for me at the beginning as Aquaman for me. However, I was sold when he appeared in Justice League. He was likeable and quickly established Arthur Curry’s persona on the screen. He stood out and delivered. With Aquaman having him leading charge the weight on his shoulder is much heavier. Nonetheless he delivered a totally enjoyable performance that is consistent with his first League appearance but expanded multi-folds in his own movie. Patrick Wilson as his brother Orm brought charm to a could be one dimensional villain. His calculative demeanour and charm at the same time provided some much-needed layering for most DCEU villains. The fact that his motives were justifiable despite his methods were questionable, he presented himself as a relevant member of this extended universe.
However, for me, what I enjoyed most was the presence for two really strong female characters in the form of Nicole Kidman’s Atlanna and Amber Heard’s Mera. Both ladies demonstrated that female characters are no wall flowers or damsels in distress. Both Atlanna and Mera took their fate and destinies in their own hands and acted on what they believe is right. The fact that both came out from Atlanta, where chauvinistic hierarchies were deeply entrenched (come on, forced arranged marriage among royal families in this modern age?), their break outs from this rigid social structure carried a lot more meaning for a lot of girls who went (if they did) to see this movie. Atlanna fought hordes of enemies and has the best survival instincts, while Mera’s power took her dual with Arthur out of tons of tight corners and near-death experiences. The fact that Mera is the voice of reasoning and can talk down Arthur any time she wanted, (the part about Arthur thinks best when he is not thinking, anyone?) made both Atlanna and Mera the most formidable heroes in Aquaman.
The surprise moment for me was the appearance of Randall Park as Dr Stephen Shin. He just appeared in MCU as Agent Jimmy Woo in ‘Ant-man and the Wasp’ and 7 months later appeared in a rival universe’s movie. I can still member how James Marsden’s Cyclops was notoriously killed off early in X-men: The Last Stand when he took part in the Superman reboot. Time has really changed.
The visuals and the score in Aquaman were both stunning and spectacular. I particularly liked the part when Vulko played by Willem Dafoe first opened young Arthur’s eyes to the world of Atlanta, when things that were obvious but not seen suddenly became apparent and sensible. A lot of efforts were also made in creating certain classic scenes from the series, my favourite was the first time Arthur leapt onto an armoured sea dragon. The underwater effect was great and thank God no more bubble talks in this movie. The underwater fight scenes also make sense in how they move and fight and James Wan had delivered spectacular scenes one after another.
While all is good with Aquaman as a standalone movie, it did create a few issues for the movie to exist within the DCEU. The movie is set in a timeline after Justice League, so there were a few issues I couldn’t get over with about the universe’s continuity:
· After disaster struck why was there no mentioning of other members of the Justice League, at least just in the sense of helping to clean up?
· Why was there never a call from, for example Bruce Wayne or Diana Prince, when they both have knowledge of Atlantis and there were signs of rumbling from Atlantis around the world?
· One of the most confounding part for me was Arthur Curry doesn’t even know Mera’s name? When in Justice League it appeared that they have known each other for years because of Mera’s history with Atlanna and Atlantis itself? She was charged with guarding the Mother Box in the timeline of Justice League, when Arthur went there to help her stopping Steppenwolf!
All these non-acknowledgements made the movie not making sense in the continuity department. And for James Wan, who created the Saw and the Conjuring universe, I would expect more from him, even though he wanted to put his own stamp on Aquaman. Yes, the DCEU is currently in a precarious position, with Henry Cavill and Ben Affleck leaving, but not referencing to what happened in other movies when it is supposed to be a shared universe movie is quite unforgivable for me.
If one can look pass the continuity issues with Aquaman in the DCEU, the movie itself is extremely enjoyable and action packed. It is one of the few movies that Warner Bros and DC Comics got it right. Hopefully this could be a second renaissance for this struggling extended universe, despite failing to address the same universe.
