Twilight the Movie

I just finished watching the movie over the weekend. All I can say is that the Twilight story reminds me of the Roswell TV series. Here is a list of common things I noticed between the two series:

1. Both female protagonists (Liz Parker and Bella Swan) are high school students who nearly lost their lives. They were in the wrong place and in the wrong time. Both girls who have died, except they were saved by their respective crush (Mr. Vampire and Mr. Alien).

2. Both female protagonist experience a strong attraction to their respective crush -- to the point of sacrificing everything they have just to be with their out-of-this-world boy friends. In the end, they became vampires/aliens themselves.

3. Both shows have sheriffs acting as distant father figures.

4. Both shows deal with a "family" or "group of related" aliens/vampires, who were forced to accept high school girl because of her strong/passionate connection with alien/vampire boy.

Watching Twilight made me think of Roswell and I couldn't help but feel that Stephenie Meyer borrowed/used some of Melinda Metz's ideas.

I would not suggest comparing the movie to other vampire flicks. Twilight was written to be a love story for young adult writers. It steers away from excess violence, bloody gore, and horror. The story focuses on Bella and Edward's relationship, mirroring your typical high school romance (mixing with some supernatural elements).

Overall, I had a good time watching the movie. The story was a bit predictable (even without reading the book) but the characters are interesting enough for you to want to watch the sequel.

(Review copied from My Seven Lives)

Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others)

the german democractic republic (GDR) and the stasi (the secret police) reigned on east germany before the wall between east and west came down.

it was a drab, dreary, suppressive world were the state watches over its citizens in every aspect of their lives. you could easily observe this in the color tone used for the character's costumes and environment they moved around and lived in. it was kind of dead.

a stasi agent was tasked to hold a prominent playwright and effectively his wife who was also a prominent actress under tight surveillance because he became a suspect for being too clean.

the operation was to wait and listen, then record everything that transpires in the playwrite's house. any subversive word or action will be charged with treason or disloyalty to the state. imagine what kind of burden that is for merely saying things could potentially lead to imprisonment.

many artists like the playright before him were known subversives. some had escaped and embraced the west which stood for capitalism and freedom. for others who had been caught and blacklisted (though one of the heads of state in the film vehemently disputes it and that the state never blacklists) to perform their crafts had been silenced. and there were other artists who couldn't take it anymore, had taken their own lives which the state conveniently reclassifies as self murderers.

during the course of the surveillance, the stasi agent experiences a change introspective in him. from being ruled entirely by principle to beginning to feeling things. watch the elevator scene when the stasi agent rides it with a boy who rats on his father about saying anti-state things. normally the stasi agent would have the boy's dad arrested but maybe for this time, he let's it go.

the playwright had begun writing an article to be published in the west which exposes the social conditions and suicide rate specifically of artists in the GDR. this is obviously treason in principle but the stasi agent let's it go because he begins to appreciate the simple lives of his target.

i had always been a supporter of socialism but after watching what true socialism had been at least for east germany. i think that any extreme of the political spectrum could never be good and could only end up oppressing its citizens instead rather then uplift their lives.

maybe the central to the film was a message of striking a balance between the extremes living by principle vs feeling

Rate: 3 out of 5
No to extremes

shadow women

les femmes de l'ombre is a film dedicated to women who fought against nazi barbarity during world war 2. particularly this film is about 5 women who were hired by the french division of special operations created by winston churchill in britain a.k.a. the SOE.

it begins with the recruitement. a french sniper and her brother who were both formerly tortured in the camps, a prostitute convict who had no loyalty to britain nor france, an ex-wife of heindrich who is a nazi fficer hiding in britain in shame of her past connections, an explosives expert who was apparently catholic and very religious, and an italien/jew operative working as a secret agent disguised as a nurse in normandy. their mission was to deliver a geologist out of normandy france and back to england. unfortunately the sniper's brother was captured.

things get a lot more interesting after they were forced to make a side trip to occupied paris for what turns out to be the real mission - to assasinate heindrich who had knowledge of a big plan by the allies and he was trying to convince the third reich of the threat.

i was perhaps quick to judge the ladies as they each were compelled to display rather some unadmirable qualities during the mission as each take turns at valor and cowardice. in the end they were all just being human. when one is faced with the same predicament (torture), i wonder too, what would i do.

one by one each of the ladies played their roles valiantly having to give up their very lives for the mission.

rating 4 out of 5
i love films which depict women of strength, intelligence, skill and guile.