The Pensieve

Maria, is a 17-year-old Colombian who is on the road to discovering the adult she would be. After her boss at the flower plantation refuses to let her go to the bathroom when she was ill, she quit her job. (much to the chagrin of her family, who depends on her totally for $). At the same time, she realises that she is 2months pregnant, however since she did not feel any love for her boyfriend, she decided against marrying him. Around that same time, she befriended ‘Franklin’ the man who introduced the idea of becoming a ‘mule’. A mule is a person who trafficks heroin by swallowing numerous plastic bags of it and entering the States via plane.

Mules are not allowed to eat 24hrs before the flight (just like before surgery) and takes inhaled anesthesia, and anticholinergics (to slow down gastrointestinal motility). The process of swallowing so many pellets can be really daunting, it’s hard to do it, and it’s also dangerous. If any of these pellets break open in the mule, he/she will die (fr drug overdose of course). After they arrive, they are given laxatives to purge out all those pellets. And then, they are paid an equivalent of 5000 USD, which is like 7-8million pesos for them. One such trip can buy a big house for the family. It’s not difficult to see where the attraction of it lies, for pple as impoverished as them.

In total, 4 ‘mules’ were bound for New York. Maria and another were detained. Xrays showed the pellets in the GIT of the other lady and she was arrested. Lucky for Maria, she could not do x-rays (cuz… if u all dunno, shld go re-d0 GS posting!) plus she lied really convincingly and was let thru. Unfortunately, Lucy, one who had done the trip 2x before, became severely ill (prob one of the pellets came loose). She was gutted (!!!) by the drug dealers so they could get the remaining pellets out of her. Maria and her friend, Blanca panicked and took off with their own pellets, seekng refuge at Lucy’s sister’s house. Eventually they were thrown out… In the end, Blanca managed to return to Colombia, while Maria changed her mind in the last minute and decided to find job in the States so she could send money back. She stayed mainly coz of her baby, Lucy’s sister had told her that the only reason holding her in the States, away from her family, was so her unborn child could live a better life and get more opportunities.

As the credits rolled, I was really touched by the show. It was beautifully done, almost choreographed like a dance. The music was cool, they had songs by ‘Los Bacilos’, ‘Juanes’ and ‘Jarabe de Palo’. Happening! Most of all, the actresses (i won’t say much abt the actors) were very ‘real’. The entire movie was done such that a sad, cruel fact of life was portrayed in a more subtle but just as provocative biography.

In this poignant film, we see the real-life story of Ramon Sampedro, a Galician who spent 26 years of his life as a quadriplegic. At 20 he suffered a diving accident which left him unable to move all his limbs, and unable to feel anything except for his face. It left him, as he said: ‘no puedo vivir con dignidad’ (cannot live with dignity). In every waking moment of the next 26 years, Ramon wished to die with dignity. He engaged the help of a lawyer, Julia to help him campaign for euthanasia. Julia, as it turned out, suffers from Cadasil, a degenerative disease where she would be struck with sudden and multiple strokes, causing her to eventually go blind/become para/quadriplegic or suffer from sth like Alzheimer’s. Unfortunately, the campaign failed and euthanasia wasn’t legalised. Ramon and Julia made a pact to die together… however, over the next half year, Julia changed her mind. At that time, one of Ramon’s friends (or rather, a girl, Rosa, who loved him), decided to help him die. Thus, together with all his friends, they gave him a dose of potassium cyanide and videotaped the entire episode of his ‘passing’.

This film is a must-catch. Those who like ‘Hable Con Ella’ will probably love this just as much, and perhaps more… since Pedro Almodovar is known to be a bit perverse in all his films. This one isn’t. When i first saw the trailers, i thought it would be a depressing film… but it wasn’t. It was beautifully filmed… all the music, and scenery, the people and the words. Yes, i was most struck by the beauty of the language. By that i don’t mean how spanish sounds, but rather, how poetic the words were. ah…. i think i want to get a copy of the dvd. he he… time to go nudge MT towards that direction… heck, he might ALREADY have it! Anyway, the word EUTHANASIA, i believe, wasn’t even said/seen in the film. The idea isn’t thrown right into your face, but very very subtly introduced. Bardem (Ramon) is one GREAT actor, imagine, he only had his face to express himself! And of course, he had such beautiful, expressive eyes… GO CATCH THE FILM BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE! It’s also spiritually uplifting!

Genre: philosophy

It’s funny how many people shy away from books simply because they are in the genre of philosophy. I don’t deny that I’m one of them. Philosophy, being such a chunky word, was a symbol of an equally chunky book and equally chunky amount of information that would be thrown at the reader’s face. However, I found this assumption completely wrong. The first time was when I read ‘Sophie’s World’, and the next, when I embarked on the 729-pages long ‘The Fountainhead’. Despite knowing near to nothing about philosophy except a few names like Plato, Socrates and Aristotle (whose theories/philosophies were like Greek to me), I was able to understand this book. In fact, I was ‘hooked’ on it! From the time since this book was published, a school of though gradually evolved. It was called objectivism and was lead by Ayn Rand. Heck, it doesn’t matter if you don’t know what objectivism is… I didn’t either. What’s more important is understanding the ideas involved in this school of thought. For those interesting, you could check out this link.

The story evolves around the lives of four people – Peter Keating, Ellsworth Toohey, Gail Wynand and Howard Roark. All are connected via an interesting character, Dominique Francon. Peter Keating represents a second-hander, which means a person who takes the work of a creator and uses it to please others. He is the representation of what is so-called ‘important’, ‘popular’, ‘good’ and ‘acceptable’. He rejects the idea of originality and of creation. Yet, he is the one loved by all. Howard Roark, on the other hand, can be placed in the lines of Edison, of Adam, of Ptolemy and of all the great people whose works/actions were rejected by mankind, because they were simply –different-. Yet, the second-handers took these ideas, and made them famous, made them into universal standards of society! Ellsworth Toohey, is almost the equivalent of Stalin/Hitler/Karl Marx/Lenin… all the influential people who believed in collectivism/communism (with the exception of Hitler). To me, he is the most revolting of all the characters, no matter how Keating might debase himself. Yet, to all the rest, Toohey is the GOD, is their SAVIOUR, their CHAMPION and their LEADER… (You’ve got to read to understand what I’m trying to say here…) Gail Wynand, is a highly interesting character: he’s like a Howard Roark who has become forced to be like a Peter Keating. As for Dominique… hmmmm it’s too complicated to say, but she’s such a COOL character!

It’s queer, this is a totally fictitious story, yet as I read it, I could relate to each character within and the characters seemed like real living persons to me. In many ways, it’s true. What Ayn Rand writes is what we see in our lives… these people that I’ve mentioned are as real as can me, masquerading behind the names of our loved ones/ our family / our friends. On the other hand, it also serves to show the mastery of the author – an author who brings her characters to life.

oh today i had to force myself to watch the last samurai… but after a while i thought it was worth it, cuz i really felt like chopping up apley (the book, not the man) into pieces with the samurai sword! hehe kidding…

it was a really beautiful movie! and a little sad at the back.

i would like to blog more… but this stupid insensitive cursor is killing me! so i’m gonna go sleep now… sianz…. ortho examination not here yet! haiz… lucky reema, probably got it over and done with!

hmmm i should just encourage you all to go catch the movie if you haven’t. it’s really nice… and the jap lady in there is very pretty leh… wonder who she is… hehe…