Movies again

Bitch post truncated

Went for my elective today but no movie was screened and there was a 3 hour lecture instead. He discussed Judou and City of Sadness today which improved my history as the focus had already been shifted to sociopolitical and transnational theme. Judou was made immediately after the Tiananmen incident and it discussed certain issues which have sociopolitical undercurrents. City of Sadness was made in 1989 and that was only 2 years after Taiwan was freed from martial law. Did anyone know that Taiwan was under the occupation of the Japanese for 50 years from 1895 to 1945? Did anyone know that Taiwan was under martial law for 40 years from 1947 to 1987 when citizens lived in fear of riots and killings that was prevalent in the earlier years?

I did not know all these facts until the lecturer discussed about it. Anyway, i signed up for OCBC debit card at a roadshow in NTU after that and won a bag after hitting bullseye on the dart board. Went to the media resource library to watch Goddess, a movie which i missed as i did not attend the first lecture for my elective this semester.

I went to Jurong Point to watch Jarhead after that and it was great to see a war movie again. I can't remember what was the last war movie i've watched. After experiencing army, i think i can more or less understand what the soldiers were going through. Jarhead is about the Gulf War and US Marines were deployed to Kuwait to protect the oilfields and fight against the Iraqis if necessary. The soldiers' enthusiasm was infectious and they were comical, rowdy, gung-ho and high-spirited.

Soon, they realise that the war was not what they had expected and they get bored of the heat, the lack of women and the training that was not put into action. It is not a boring show though as we see troops decked in MOP 1 playing soccer, staff sergeant unleashing perpetual punishments, soldiers doing interesting things to kill time and some of them constantly reminiscing of their loved ones.

It is actually an anti-war movie as the true life account of Anthony Swofford depicts the burnt corpses laying around, the sheer psychological torture of the soldiers and the aftermath which still rendered them as jarheads. Good acting by Jake Gyllenhaal and the story makes us think about unnecessary violence, wasted resources, impoverised countries and the moral turmoil which everyone of us has experienced before.

Welcome to the suck (tagline), war sucks indeed!