The Word of Mia: The Walk to Remember Formula
Warning: This is a work of satire. I know living with a terminal illness isn’t funny, but the movies make it a little too cool for comfort. So take this with a grain of salt, and I hope you laugh as hard as we did.
If you don’t know the movie, you’re not missing much. The girl has cancer, the guy is in love with the girl, they get married so at least they’re together when the cancer finally gets the girl. Oldbies would probably know this plot by a different title –
Which I haven’t seen but my Mom says I’m not missing much. I’m not exactly sold on their soundbyte either, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry”? I know I don’t buy into that.
But what can these movies tell us about love and relationships? Terminal illness is a way to make a move. After all, you’ve got nothing to lose. Your health is failing, you can afford to laugh in the face of risk. As my fellow coffee cup relationship analyst, Pepper (the Kamikaze Pilot) observes, “If I knew I was dying, I won’t have time to be emo about rejection. Time is of the essence. In the event of success, he adds, “At least when I get to hell I can say I’ve had sex thousands of times in X days.”
This is the Word of Mia, with a little help from Pepper.
[Writing Meme] Day 2: Your Favorite Movie
When I’m really into something, I tend to babble. I try not to babble in this wordpress, but I’ll take exception to that now.
‘In the Mood for Love’ is a cinematic masterpiece for me. I love Kar-wai’s lush visuals, I love vintage China, I love Maggie Cheung, I love Tony Leung. I love how the story of their relationship is told through different scenes. I love that I often went “WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!” the first time I showed it. It’s not the greatest love story ever told, if anything they demonstrated too much too soon, but that’s what adds to its richness and complexity. It was what kept me glued to the screen and blew me away.
For those who aren’t used to the non-linear storyline, the Criterion Collection edition of ‘In the Mood for Love’ has the deleted scenes that made their relationship clearer. It wouldn’t have had the same punch-in-the face effect for me if they included it, but hey, different strokes for different folks.
Kar-wai makes me sad that Shanghai has become a modern megacity. I wish they found a way to conserve the elegance of way back then*.
I loved ‘In the Mood for Love’ so much, I was so disappointed by ‘2046’ when it first came out. Treating ‘2046’ as a sequel to ‘In the Mood’ was like trying to rekindle the old flame of a high school sweetheart twenty years later. It felt awkward and strange, and I saw some spark of the old film, but for the most part I kept second-guessing if it was going to work. I felt deeply disturbed as the end credits rolled. I liked ‘2046’ much better after I distanced it from ‘In the Mood for Love’, and took it in as a movie about non-commitment, and treated Tony Leung’s character as an entirely separate entity.
Part of the 30 Day Meme. Next is Day 3: Your Favorite Television Program.
*Erratum: All this time I thought this movie was set in Shanghai, so much so that when I watched it with a Taiwanese friend, she and I talked about Shanghainese and Maggie Cheung. Kae and wikipedia just corrected me, minutes after I published this entry.
Moonlight Over Manila
I’m currently doing production work for Repertory Philippines’ Romeo and Bernadette, a very loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. In the show, Romeo Montague wakes up in 1960s Brooklyn and chases after one girl that bears a stunning resemblance to Juliet. The girl turns out to be the daughter of a mob boss, and all hell breaks loose as Romeo woos her and finds himself in the crossfire of two warring mafia families. Internet geeks will recognize this as glorified fanfiction. When I said this was Shakespeare, shaken and stirred, I wasn’t kidding.
The material is filled with little gems that tickle the lit geek in me. It’s a little bit meta, narrated by a Brooklyn Guy trying to score with his date, it has theatrical in-joke (a song about how excruciatingly long it takes for a character to die), jokes about Romeo’s diction (“Where’d you learn English from, a bible?!”), and a modern adaptation of classical arias. All this tailored around a cleverly funny retelling of Romeo and Juliet.
This being February, it serves as the perfect Valentines Day date. Forget the cliche movie date, you can make yourself all cultured and debonair by catching a play, and guys can pick up a few tips on how to be a regular Romeo.
Speaking as a nerd with a shot of cynicism, while the play is enjoyable, I see it as a cautionary tale about falling for patterns. If you’re lucky in love, you’ll find your Juliet–or Romeo. If you’re not so lucky, you’ll find yourself hitched to some guido that just wants to get under your skirt. But hey, that’s just me. If you read this far, that means you got past my cynic warning.
Catch Romeo and Bernadette at Onstage Theater, Greenbelt 1, Makati, every Friday at 8:00pm, Saturdays at 3:30pm and 8:00pm, and Sundays at 3:30pm this February! You can call Repertory Philippines‘ Box Office at 88-70-710 or log on to Ticketworld for ticket purchasing and information.
Pictures taken by GR Rodis. Used with permission.
[Writing Meme] Day 01: Your Favorite Song
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6E2Mooz_LA]
Don’t Rain On My Parade by Barbra Streisand
I first caught ‘Funny Girl’ on the old classic movie channel when I was much younger, but I just viewed it as a Barbra Streisand vehicle. I have heard the Streisand jokes and the horror stories, but I still admired her for being able to produce-direct-write-sing-dance. I watched ‘Funny Girl’ again after my first college heartbreak as a form of emotional masochism. ‘Don’t Rain On My Parade’ was always this song that stuck out, and I ended up playing the clip over and over again.
In 2009, which friends declared to be one of the worst years of their lives, the song was revived in the popular musical dramedy, ‘Glee’.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL0dsvaW3Lc]
That same year I survived the end of my longest relationship, a falling out with a good friend, the end of my first steady job, and the worst storm to hit the country in years. I wasn’t in great shape, but I could have been worse. There were also happier moments had over the year, like new friends and prospects, and I grew more accepting of myself. I wasn’t going to let the worst of 2009 take that away from me.
The finale of ‘Glee’, which featured the song, premiered the same week I was confined to home because I didn’t have any money. I was mulling over my own personal travesties and sang out, “At least I didn’t fake it, hat, sir”. It has been my anthem ever since.
Part of the 30 Day Meme. Next is Day 2: Your Favorite Movie.
Stream of Consciousness
J.D. Salinger Dies at 91. R.I.P.
I survived the miseries of high school by being schmartsy. It helped that my dark period in literacy (marked by Sweet Valley Kids, Twins, and Babysitter’s Club) hit me when I was 9. When I entered high school at 14, not wanting to call attention to myself, and finding most of my colleagues petty with their need for boyfriends, attention, what have you’s, I used intellectual snobbery to make up for my insecurities. I started reading “real” books as opposed to the romance novel drivel that my classmates preferred. Jessica Zafra was the main protein of my bitchery, and then there was Holden Caulfield in Catcher of the Rye. I found comfort in his criticism of “phonies”, it served as my prozac because I wasn’t psychologically damaged enough for medication.
Several years and a lit-related degree later, I figured that if ‘Catcher’ were published today, I would have dismissed it as another published blog. Still, it served its purpose, it was the one friend that I felt understood me when nobody else did. I know that other angsty, angry teenagers feel the same way.
Thanks J.D. Salinger, for being one of the few highlights of early high school. While my books and outlook on life have changed, that never will.