From the movie title, I thought it was a movie about a person’s heavy journey somewhere. It surprised me when the movie was actually about a heavy metal band. It was a music genre that I never learned to appreciate no matter how many times I listened to that genre. Despite having this prior hesitation about the movie, the distaste that I had about it just made me think that I would not enjoy this film. To my surprise, some scenes in the movie had a comedic ring to it. I think the scene which made me laugh because I remember it being in Pitch Perfect. This particular part of the film was when the band lead singer probably had stage fright and accidentally pukes in front of their audience. The same incident happened in that aforementioned movie.Apart from that, I think one of the central themes that was quite evident in the film is camaraderie. It was showcased through the relationship among the bandmates of Impaled Rektum, which could be associated also with the Barden Bellas. Through their numerous garage practices, they have formed this bond with each other — some sort of brotherhood manifested in the movie. Despite the mishaps their band had to go through, they were successful in the end. I think what is important in the movie is how they regarded each member with the utmost importance. Basically, acknowledging that one another plays a key role in their band and they would not make it if one of them was not there. I honestly think that them having a strong friendship helped their band foster. Despite the many trials in achieving their dream to become a famous, concert playing kind of band, they obviously had to constantly persevere for this dream. They did not give up easily and showed their determination in pursuing this and eventually they got there and made it.

The film, Raw was honestly by far the the most disturbing movie I have ever watched. It was too gory, bloody and made my stomach churn each time Justine tried to eat human flesh. It was just crazy. There were scenes I really had to look away and cover my eyes and ask my seatmate whether or not the scenario already changed. I just could not handle it. I really expressed myself while watching it, I tend to react and just shake my head each time there were scenes that left me asking “WTF is happening”, “Why is she doing that?”

I realized that Justine was just really exploring herself as a freshman in College. I could remember the same feeling I had and the same urges I wanted to try and wonder around different aspects that can happen. It can be said that the film is a coming-of-age type of movie. She was a girl who was slowly transforming herself as a woman who was more aware about what she wants and needs. Despite having odd desires for cannibalism. Though, it can be said that the film was able to show the awkward transformation of a young woman who was eventually awakened with the desires she finally acknowledged.

Her new way of life was deeply emphasized in her stay in college. From being away from home and the rules of her parents, she was finally free to do the things she wanted and make decisions for herself. Though her struggle in discovering her identity was not entirely disturbing there were moments when I personally found it funny and embarrassing at the same time. Anyone who has moved out of their parents’ house could have related to the film especially the ones who dorm or condo around katip since  they understand the loneliness of being away from home.

Just like her, I think I’m pretty sure at some point most of us here already got drunk and made bad decisions while at a party and just realizing it the next day while recovering from a hangover. Basically, went through the same things as she did while she was still in college. Those kinds of moments were quite evident in the film but the things that happened to her was more on the extreme side of things.

The movie, The Edukators directed by Hans Weingartner involved three main characters namely Peter, Jan and Jule. Peter and Jan claim themselves to be the “edukators”, they educate the wealthy class by way of entering their houses and leaving a notice that their days are numbered. Although, upon hearing about what the film was about, it immediately reminded me of the Hollywood movie, The Bling Ring since it also involved breaking into wealthy people’s houses in Beverly Hills, which usually were the house of actors and actresses. However, the characters in that film often stole things from  those places. Comparing these two films, they had different intentions even if they both trespassed into other people’s property. For the Edukators, it was trying to show that they were trying to make a statement, a stand that rich people will not always have it that way. Some sort of ‘all good things come to an end’ was the kind of mentality that they had. It could be said that Jan and Peter resented somewhat privileged people. It may be caused by the circumstances they were in, since they were part of the class who tries to get by and essentially not as privileged compared to them.

They initially did not have intentions in causing harm to anyone but this changed when one of the owners caught them in the act.  This was the time when Jan brought Jule with him in one of the visits, when unfortunately, Jule mistakenly left her phone. The only reason why they deliberately chose that specific house is because it was to help Jule to “educate” the businessman who she owes money to. This then quickly backfires when they thought they killed him but he was just knocked out pretty bad after getting hit in the head. The storyline progresses from there and to keep the audience interested, a love triangle was added, which added further drama between the friendship and relationship of the three main characters. Despite having this issue, they were able to resolve it and move on from the cheating and betrayal of Jule and Jan to Peter. Apart from this, I like how they were able to establish a strong relationship with the businessman that whom they kidnapped. Even if he was held captive, he was treated in a humane way and not as a prisoner. It was interesting how they allied with him and earned his trust that he would not tell on them.

The movie, Timecrimes of Nacho Vigalondo was a film primarily about time-travel. Before watching the movie, I actually built up my expectation for the movie since I compared to the Back to the Future films that I have already watched before. Anything that concerns time-travel clearly messes up or changes the present timeline especially if there were changes in the past.

I thought the movie was going to be chill but in the first few scenes turns out that the film had a thriller vibe to it. I think what’s common among time-travel movies is that each time-travel creates a different outcome, a new possibility of things that will transpire for that specific moment. This movie reminds us that each decision has their own consequences that can change completely your entire life. It’s crazy how that point at which where he left would not exist anymore since there is a tendency for the people who goes back to the past and change whatever they go through. What I like film though is that it touched on a delicate subject of life, which is death, it certainly is inevitable. However,  the progression of the story just shows that possibility of death was quite evident. I think that aspect of it makes the film more interesting since it makes or emphasizes the idea that death is inevitable.

Films like this makes me realize how life is short and how one should grab the opportunity when one can. It makes me aware that in life we do not really get second chances, it rarely happens. That is why when an opportunity presents itself, one must think about it critically but decide on it immediately as long as its there. Our choices and decisions will always have effects towards our life and the people involved in it. It could either have good or bad outcomes but these what shapes us to become better people.

Trollhunter is a film directed by André Øvredal is a documentary about the Norwegian folklore about trolls. The film initially started with three college students who were researching about bears, but as they were trying to interview, Hans who they thought was a hunter for bears. It turns out that this character was the one who gets rid of the trolls through multiple ways. I personally think that the CGI effects that they used from the trolls were okay, there were some parts that their depiction of the trolls seemed to be real. Although, there were some scenes that was obvious for me that they made use of these special effects. The other factual data that they have provided about the trolls made it all seem legitimate. They even tries to assess the blood of a troll in an actual laboratory.

However, films inspired from fantasy and sci-fi genres sometimes makes a person question what is real or not. Though, I found it odd how Hans had to ask if anyone of them were Christian. The way I perceived this is that it was some sort of lowkey discrimination going on. That put me off a bit from the film because the way I understood is that just because you’re Christian — you bring trouble or your most likely to get killed.  

Since this documentary mainly involved hunting down trolls, I think part of their efforts in making the film believable is to produce made up information about the research on how to dispatch each different troll and even edit videos of politicians (at the last segment of the film) that would support or convince the viewers that this happened in real life. Their efforts in making the film look like a real documentary made it believable when the necessary shots that involved running around the forest were placed in the perspective of the cameraman. Generally, this was a film genre that I normally would not watch on my leisure time. The movie itself was hard enough to relate with, which is why I did not find it as entertaining as I thought it would be.  

H

Among the EU film, this is the weirdest film I watched. I did not completely understand what was the context of everything that was happening since I could not decipher what was the role of the main character. His role in the film itself kept changing from a father, a businessman, a beggar, a gangster, a lunatic, and even a dying relative. Each character was assigned to him to mimic in real life and along with this there was a mission to accomplish (at times it would involve killing)  [to be continued]

Among the European films that I have watched for this course, Wolfgang Becker’s film entitled, Goodbye, Lenin! is the one that I appreciated watching the most. It was a tragicomedy film, I will explain it later what makes a combination of the two. Though, I found the plot of the movie relatable because there were scenes in the movie that were similar to what I have already experienced.

It was a film that had a historical context, which was the fall of the Berlin Wall in Germany. Though, it did not focus that much on that event itself, however, it was the basis of how the Kerner family’s life was affected because of division caused by the wall and the eventual fall of it. The father ended up having an affair with another woman in West Germany, which left Christiane, his wife to remain behind and take of their children named Ariane and Alex all by herself. Aside from family, she devoted her life to Socialism perhaps to express her vengeance for her husband’s betrayal and abandonment.  At this point, I could somehow resemble how difficult it was to be a single mother since my mom had to go through the same thing.

As the film progressed, Christiane ends up having a heart attack after witnessing his son, Alex attending a march that was for an anti-Berlin Wall demonstration. Since medics were not able to do assist her and do CPR immediately, Christiane ended up in a coma. That is why, whatever transpired during her coma such as the revolution she absolutely had no idea of. I could relate to Alex how he had to take care of his mom while she was bedridden and make it to the point to pass by her to update her about his day. This was the tragic part of the movie but eventually became a hopeful segment since the mom woke up from the coma.  I had a similar experience with my mother when she had several operations within the past two years but she was only bedridden for some days. I understood the stress of trying to make sure that whatever food she requests that she wants to eat, I bought it as soon as possible. It shows how the two siblings managed to go on with their lives despite the unfortunate circumstances.

Apart from this, I admire Alex’ perseverance in trying to make his mom believe that they remained in the Socialist period. He went through extreme measures just to hide it from his mom such as creating their our tv news reports, which actually makes these scenes comedic since none of it were true. Another example is how he kept transferring products of other brands to the containers that his Mom knows that were socialist products. All of his actions just shows how much he really wanted to his mom to get better despite him constantly lying about the truth of their current situation.

Generally, I found authenticity in the film since it shows how life can be so unpredictable and somewhat unfair. There was a scene when the mom remembered where she hid her money. However, when Alex and Ariane wanted to get it exchanged, the bank informed them that they were already two days late and they just simply missed their chance. This specific scene got me to reflect on having expectations about people and life. There will be times when they can disappoint us and even hurt us, however, in the end of it all life goes on.

Before watching the film, we were told by our professor that we will be watching a movie made from 2003. Part of me got excited for a bit since I expected that the film would be more relatable compared to the past movies that we’ve watched in class. Although,  the Five Obstructions by Lars von Trier turns out to be a documentary type of film, which honestly just made me lose interest as it began to play out. It felt dragging and some scenes were boring for me.

Essentially, the documentary film did not really catch my attention. That is why, it was difficult to me to follow what was happening in them movie. Although, it mainly focused on two filmmakers, Jorgen Leth and Lars von Trier who were trying to work and help each other in experimenting on art and cinema. I researched more about it, apparently it this film was already some sort of five-time remake of a film produced by Leth before. It was quite evident that the filmmakers had a mentor-mentee kind of relationship. Leth was initially challenged by von Trier to remake it but in each attempt Leth imposed a different variation to be done in the film. Each obstruction that was created by Trier were basically ways on testing his skills and creativity to make a better or at least a more recent version of The Perfect Human. I do not understand why they had to create five different versions of the same film, I personally think one big revision could have been enough. Although, I think that each change done helps Leth become a better director since he gained a lot of experience by doing the challenges. Furthermore, their relationship showcased camaraderie instead of competition. It seemed that von Trier was really trying to help Leth improve on his directing skills.

Among the five obstructions, what I found entertaining the most is the fourth one because it was animated remake of the entire film. It had a lot more details added into it and color, which helped me be engaged again with the documentary. Though, it was mentioned that both film directors were not a fond of cartoons, they accepted the idea that by doing this it was beneficial to Leth’s film since it offers a new way of portraying the visuals from his old movie. Apart from this,  I found the second obstruction strange since it shows a bitter reality about what is still happening around the world. The film depicted the great division between the poor and the rich. It was emphasized through the translucent screen in this particular obstruction wherein the poor remained in the background, which then could symbolize how they are usually disregarded by rich society. Most of the time, they are left to stay behind and watch the affluent spend their wealth as they continue to suffer. As for the man, this person resembles how the rich often have the good and comfortable life that they take for granted. Out of the five obstructions, these two were the only ones that left an impression to me.

In Michelangelo’s Antonioni’s film, L’Avventura or in English the Adventure seems to have a misleading title because I expected that the film would involve some sort of journey with the main characters in a rocky area. It actually did not venture on what I thought it would be of a typical island adventure. In fact, the island that they ended up staying in or getting stuck in, as previously mentioned was just surrounded with rocks. Instead of “the island adventure”, it was unexpectedly focused on some sort of “love” story. Although, the film mainly talks about a certain truth about the reality of relationships. More often than not, blockbuster films depict love and relationships in an ideal way or would present it in such a way that it achieves its purpose that is to entertain.

            The focus of the narrative was to portray love as an adventure how its very uncertain that a person cannot simply determine what comes next. All relationships will always be tested and goes through difficult times. The challenging circumstance that this couple experienced is that they had a long distance relationship for quite some time. Evidently, this affected the dynamic of their relationship and this reached to the point that Anna even told him that she wants to be left alone. She suddenly disappeared during their trip, which I found a bit odd since the area seemed like a place that she could not have gone anywhere else without anyone noticing. Although, the boyfriend made an effort to search and look for her along with her friend.

 Perhaps, with the amount of time they were spending with each other, it could be implied they eventually developed feelings. Though, I personally do not consider that as an excuse him for pursuing her. It seemed off for me since Claudia was a close friend of Anna. As for Claudia, how could she betray her own friend by doing such a thing. I was not surprised that Sandro was caught cheating by Claudia in the latter part of the film. I found the initial reaction of the Sandro very odd since he tried to hide from the girl. Since it was quite obvious what he was doing already and I hate how he ended up following her and cried in front of her. On the other hand, it was frustrating that the last scene showed how Claudia also comforted him despite what she had witnessed.

            I certainly found one of the scenes disturbing, the men on the street were casually gazing then eventually staring at Claudia. The way they were looking really made me think that “parang ‘di ba sila nakakakita ng babae dati”, it really made me feel uncomfortable. Apart from this, there were a number of sexual scenes that made it seem like most of the male leads had a static characteristic. They were depicted as men who gets away with whatever they do or usually even sexually engaged. Overall, I found the plot interesting but it seemed to lack some details.

After I watching Ingmar Bergman’s film, Persona, I was initially quite disturbed with the opening scenes of the film. I thought that this feeling would subside once the plot progressed but the movie just heightened this feeling all the more. I find it difficult to explain what actually happened since I was skeptical how the events played out. It was hard to discern the chronological order of the movie. There were scenes wherein it seemed to be part of a memory but in some cases it seemed to be what was actually going on. Though, it made me wonder if all of this was only happening in their minds (or at least only in Elisabet’s mind) I consider the film as a horror or thriller movie because overall the contents and events that transpired had some eerie vibe into it. The fact that this film contains this vibe made me anticipate for situations that would shock me but some scenes just left me baffled.

As previously mentioned, Persona mostly contained unusual images which was evident already from the beginning.  Though the dynamic of the two main characters made me ponder how the director tried to build and destruct each one’s persona. The names of the characters were Elisabet and Alma. The former was an actress who suddenly did not speak with others but remained to interact with others by doing eye contact and using her body language. She was a patient, which seemed  to be in a psychiatric ward. The latter portrayed as Elisebet’s personal nurse. Instead of staying in the ward, they went to a vacation house where Alma ended up opening up to Elisabet about her past experiences.

Their relationship seemed to be odd, I could not fully grasp how they perceived each other since there were scenes where they were best buddies but later on Alma getting frustrated with her and shouted at her. What confused me was a scene wherein she read a letter that Elisabet wrote for her doctor to get updates. Apparently, according to that letter Alma was the one being studied by them. I started to question was Alma the one who had mental issues or was it both of them. Another scene which further disoriented me was when the husband referred to Alma as Elisabet. From then on, I started to interpret that possibly the two main characters was essentially one person who has an issue with having a split personality. That is why this particular woman turns her persona into either Alma or Elisabet . (That’s just my theory after watching the film.)

It can be implied that this movie requires the audience mental capacity to reflect about the events happening in the film. They have to process and I guess come up with their own interpretations that may be similar to what writers wanted or not. From what I did, pondering about the film despite leaving me feeling disturbed at first helped me understand what happened and get rid of this feeling.