What a pleasant surprise!

Wolkwalkers, despite its simplistic story where one could pretty much guess the entire plotline by watching the trailer once, it is 100% worth watching and worth recommending. I feel like in a world where animation market is dominated by either Disney Pixar, a movie like this is like a gasp of fresh air. This is the first movie from Cartoon Saloon that I know of and now I can't get enough of their works.

I first got to know about Wolkwalkers through YourMovieSucksDOTorg. His review piqued my interest because his rating for the movie is quite high, standing at 8/10. One thing to know about YourMovieSucksDOTorg is his choice for movies and his standards. Anything that gets above 5/10 is good while anything that's above 8/10 is rare and excellent. So when he's given his approval for Wolkwalkers, your know that's definitely worth checking out.

What stands out about Wolfwalkers has to be the art style. I am no professional animator and I don't know how to properly articulate its art style. It just feels hand-drawn and contains a lot of purposely rough edges. In short, it is unlike what I've seen before. I am especially amused by the way they depict the background. Whether it is a building, a walled city, or a farmland, they are all plain rectangles and lack of perspective, like how a child would draw them, or like the paintings before Renaissance. Combination with the magical elements in the story, the movie just feels like fairy tales, or one of those Aesop's fables. It really reminds me of my collection of colourful story books which I've lost many years ago.

As to the soundtrack Running with the Wolves, my oh my! This is actually the biggest surprise from the movie for me. How the hell that I only know about Aurora now while she has been so good for so long already. Her live performance of the song in Pandora captures my heart instantly. With just a guitar accompaniment, her voice leaves me in awe. Her skillful singing is undeniable, her unique personality is enchanting, plus her fairy-like appearance, what's not to love about her. I especially love the way she moves when she sings, as if the song itself is bursting from her soul and her body can barely contains all the emotions. She even nailed the live performance for the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in 2015 while she was just 19! She deserves more popularity!

Midsommar - The Tragedy of Atheism

At the end of Midsommar, seemingly genuine happy, Dani smiles. 

But all I feel is sadness. Many classify it as an horror piece, which is totally justifiable with the amount of disturbing elements in the movie. But to me, this is a tragedy. Going through the trauma of losing all her entire family, it is just sad that it ends up the way it ends, engulfed, consumed, and she has become agreeable to the shady shits done by the cult.  

"What if she had a proper moral support?" I asked. "What if there is someone to comfort her by her side when she is the most vulnerable?" 

"What couldn't have been done differently so that the cult doesn't win?"

Sigh...

To me, the movie epitomizes the tragedy of our increasingly secular world. At the start of the movie, when shits hit the fan for Dani, she needed a community to embrace her, a proper moral support system, all of which religion could have very well provided. But in a secular world, she was left alone to process the grief. This is where the cult had its way to fill in the void and stood in for what she lacked of when she was the most vulnerable. When nothing else could provide a source of consolation, the cult would.

To quote Alain de Botton in the TED talk Atheism 2.0: "We have secularized badly." This is a point that I stand by whole-heartedly. I have always hated those proud atheists who feel entitled to ridicule theists, but forget to look at what religion can bring to us, how it can benefit us. To deny the existence of god, that's the easy part, at least to me it is. What's difficult is what's now, what comes after that denial. What is proposed by Alain is very interesting. We should not discard religion entirely. We should not look down upon religion. Instead we should learn the methods from religion and we steal what works. Tradition and ritual are words strongly associated with religion. And thus in our modern secular world, these are the terms many are very skeptical to. But Alain argues that the power of ritual cannot be overlooked.

I still remember vividly my experience attending my godfather's funeral when I was like 10. To be honest, I was not that close with my godfather. So his passing didn't really affect me. But I remember the funeral, the gathering, the song singing, the setting of the church, the ambience. All of these combined, successfully created a place of empathy, an environment to encourage one to grieve, to share the pain of lost, together. I said successful, because I remember that tears did start to swell up in my eyes. This is first time that I feel the power of ritual.

All of this is not to say that atheists must always revert back to rely on religion for emotional support through hard times. But like Alain proposes, we should employ certain methods of religion to replace scripture with culture. The reason why I am a strong proponent of this idea is that I had a very personal experience with it. During a series of depressive episodes, it was not the church events nor the visits to the psychiatrist, it was the book "The Catcher in the Rye'' that saved me from plunging into the abyss of dangerous thoughts. It was a book that I'd noted down verses and memorized, a book that I'd carried with me all the time. Although my view of the book has changed and I now think Holden is a shitty whinny teenager, it was the right book for me at that time. 

The story of Dani also makes me reflect on the nightmarish situation in Malaysia right now. With high number of Covid cases, seemingly endless lockdown, political turmoil, economic downturn, and high suicide rate, there is no lacking of tragedy everyday. Everyday, cases like Dani where the all the family members had died are no longer news worthy. At the same time, there are many MLMs on the rise, using cult tactics, exploiting people's insecurities, such as the loss of loved ones, the lack of meaningful human connections, lack of financial security, or the general hopelessness, to prey on the vulnerable. I know it is hard to stay unshaken in turbulent times. But 

"...if we can't be there for each other when we're alone, angry, and in need of guidance, the cult will be. But if you always felt held, what a cult could ever offer you?"

--  The True Horror of Midsommar --

#kitajagakita

To feel the flow of time through Before trilogy

I recently re-watched the Before trilogy, one movie per week, over 3 week-span, just like how the movies was made, 9 years gap in between movie. I guess it is the only way to do right to the trilogy, the correct way to watch the trilogy. It gives time gap to allow the thoughts to sink in, let the emotions to mingle, to marinate, to feel the time passing, inevitably.

I'd always thought that the idea of setting an artificial time limit was brilliant romantic idea first brought up in the Drumroll, Please episode of How I Met Your Mother. I realize it is actually an idea first brought to life by Before Sunrise. I guess adding a ticking clock, a time limit, just like some people would argue that it is exactly because we will die eventually that it gives meaning and excitement to life.

The cities that each of the movies is set in are very interesting choices. I agree that both Vienna and Paris are very romantic cities. The only difference is that Paris to me, exactly like the Jesse and Celine in their early 30s in Before Sunset, more history, more diverse, and yea, I guess more mature. As to Greece in the third installment, I think it is also a perfect fitting to the stage where their relationship is in. Although it is filled with sunshine, it is no doubt a city of ruins and end-of-empire melancholy. It sets the tone of the movie and perhaps it also has a subconscious effect on both the characters and viewers, just like how the city of Istanbul has influenced Orhan Pamuk, his work, and his view on life.

I've always like this fan-made tribute video for the trilogy. From the video, one could already know the entire plotline of the trilogy, but that's not the point. The plot is not point. As well made as how this tribute video is, it is no match to watching these movies itself, to evolve together with the characters through these movies.

I feel like I could just listen to them talk. The topics that they bring up is so interesting and I just feel like quoting all of them here. What else to say about the trilogy that has not being said. It is excellent. I watched the trilogy a few years back. Now that I'm older, it manages to hit me more than the first watching. I have no doubt that when I re-watch it years later in the future, it would hit me in even more ways than it is now.