Tsotsi- Review

From Beginning to End (A Summary):

This film was directed and written by Gaven Hood. Tsotsi was filmed in South Africa in 2005. It was released in December 23, 2005, and it won the 2005 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language and also  nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language in 2006.

Tsotsi, revolves around a teen name Tsotsi, who is a street thug. In Tsotsi young age his name was David; when he was still young, his mother was ill from a disease, and he ran away from home, due to an abusive father.  Tsotsi ran away and lived with other homeless kids his age too. Thus growing up he was a street thug.
Tsotsi and his group of gang gets into many fights. Soon after one of the fights, Tsotsi shoots a rich lady name Pumla and steals the car; along with the car he finds that not only did he steal valuables but also a baby. Pumla survives of course but is unable to use her legs anymore; she had a sketched out of Tsotsi being the shooter.

this is Mariam and the baby

Tsotsi of course does care for the baby, but not so properly.  Tsotsi one day leaves the baby in his shack and went into the city. In the subway he meets a poor man in a wheel chair/bike. Meeting this man, Tsotsi thinks back to his childhood memory. Taking care of the baby, he aims his eyes on Mariam, a widow with a child, and puts forces on her to feed the baby and take care of the baby. Doing this Tsotsi learns of Mariams' life.

Aap, Tsotsi, Butcher & Boston

With his friend, Boston, injured, he cares and shelters him. Tsotsi even also had told him that he will find money for him to go and take his exams. Thus Tsotsi took two of his friend, Butcher and Aap to Pumla's house, and tied her husband up. Tsotsi didn't care for the money, all he wanted to take was the baby's things, but as for Butcher he took all the the golds he can find and the gun of Pumla's husband. Before leaving, Pumla's husband turned on his car alarm, thus in panic Butcher aimed the gun at him, but Tsotsi instead comes in and shoots Butcher to death, and ran off along with Aap.

Tsotsi returns to Mariam, where he left the baby, and learns that Mariam has know what he did, and wishes for the baby's return to his mother. Tsotsi does in fact returns the baby to the Pumla. He was outside the gate of the house, and surrounded by the police and was holding the baby. Pumla and her husband was able to get their baby back.

Tsotsi then falls in the polices' hands, but of course with the unknown ending of what really happened to Tsotsi is really up to how we want it to end- him dead or alive.

Orphans in South Africa: 

I feel like orphans plays a big role in this film. We can see that from this movie to have a almost complete family is better than nothing.

As of now in South Africa, many children are orphaned at a young age even up till they are 18 of age. This mainly due to the lack of health care; and is build up on not having a father and mother to care for them from the start.

It has also been found that 29%,  found in mostly pregnant women, in South Africa has HIV. And also AIDs being another big part of the case too.

 - Here is the link to the website that I found about these information: 
 http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51624  

My Thought:

I have to say that I do recommend this film. I thought that the moral(s) of this film was really brought up in this film.

Chak De! India - Review

From Beginning to End (A Summary):

This film, Chak De! India was written by Jaideep Sahni, and directed by Shimit Amin. The film was released on August 10, 2007.

This film started out with one of our main key character, Kabir Khan finishing off the last shot of the men's world hockey game against Pakistan. But with this last shot he misses, and thus lead to a burden and title that he carried for seven years as a traitor of India. But then seven years later he was given the opportunity to regain the people of India's trust. Kabir Khan became the coach for the women's hockey team, setting the goal of getting the World Cup. Within the women's hockey team, it consist of India's top 16 ladies from every state. Kabir Khan trains them to be one and play as one for India and not for their own state. This leads to the ups and down that the team encounters and learns to cope with.

As it nears the time to attend the World Cup games, Kabir Khan and his friend learns that the team was not going to attend, due to not being able to play as well as the men. Thus Kabir Khan sets the deal of the women's team against the men's team. The game of course was won by the men, 3-2. But then everyone was pleased by the might of the women's team; thus won them the chance to go and attend the World Cup.

They all of course almost did not make it, but after winning Great Britain, they just kept on going up and up. Thus in the finale, against Australia, they were tied, with the 2-2, bringing in the tie breaker where five players from each team try to shoot for a goal and win the point. In the end, India won, making them the World Cup Championships. They brought pride and fame back to their country. This indeed lift the burden off of Kabir Khan, going back home to his home town not a traitor no more.

Hockey in India:

This film was in fact inspired by the India's women's field hockey team led by Captain Suraj Lata Devi, that won India in three consecutive years in Gold during 2002 in the Commonwealth Games. Overall field hockey in India in fact have been in the country for about 75 years now.

My Thoughts:

Overall I really like this movie, it brings in the intense of a game- of any game actually, and not only that but also the strength of women. I recommend this to anybody, especially if that person does not and have not heard or seen what is field hockey.

The Host - A Review

From Beginning to End (A Summary)


So with this film, the setting is set mainly by the Han River in South Korea. It started with an American doctor who told his Korean assistant to pour toxics down the drain, pouring every single one of the toxics down into the Han River. About four years later, two fishermen found a weird looking fish, with about six legs. Then about six years later, a man jumped off a bridge above the Han River, and notice a huge dark figure within the water.

As for present day, on a good sunny day, while Hyun-Seo, and her grandpa, Hee Boong, were watching t.v. Hyun-Seo's father, Park Gang-du, went out to the park to serve the costumers that bought some drinks and grilled squid from their snack bar. But as Gang-du goes toward the customers, he and other park guest finds that that there is a weird, dark object or animal that hung under the bridge. This dark weird looking animal, jumps right into the Han River and swims toward the people; and then as everyone goes toward the river, the first person to throw something into the water at the animal was Gang-du, then everyone else throws an item at the animal, and then the animal swims away. But not too long, the animal, the six legged mutant fish, jumps out of the Han River and starts to attack the people. Everyone ran and even some tried to stop the six legged mutant fish from killing the people.
But then, as Hyun-Seo got out of their snack bar home, Gang-du grabs her and took her running away from the six legged mutant fish, but then she trips, and Gang-du grabs a wrong girl. And he then sees his own daughter gets taken away by the six legged mutant fish right into the Han River.
Thus, this led to the assumption of Hyun-Seo being dead. Thus bringing in Nam-joo, the sister, and Nam-il, the brother, Gang-du, and Hee Bong together as a family.

Gang-du, Nam-joo, Hee Bong, and Nam-il

After that, park area by the Han River was taken down into investigation, and everyone was taken as being infected by a virus and were treated. As, Gang-du and the rest of the family are in the hospital, Gang-du receives a phone call from Hyun-Seo, saying that she's in a sewer. Gang-du of course ask  for help, but no one listened, instead they thought it was the virus that is taking in effect and also the death of Hyun-Seo that may have caused him to say that he received a call from her. Therefor they all escape the hospital and goes in search for Hyun-Seo in the sewers by the Han River. As they of course went back to the park area, they were attack by the mutant fish again, and they of course they attacked too with the weapons that they had, thus the mutant fish almost dead. But, then Hee Bong wanting to kill the fish with the last bullet, was killed by the mutant fish, because he did not have any bullets left to kill. Thus Gang-du and the dead body of Hee Bong were caught, and Nam-joo and Nam-il escapes.

Both Nam-joo and Nam-il went their own separate ways. Nam-il contacted one of his friend at a telephone company, and was able to identify were Hyun-Seo's call came from. Leading him to the one of the sewer by the north side bridge of the Han River. He of course texted and called Nam-joo and Gang-du of the location. They all went to the sewer in search Hyun-Seo. Gang-du found the place of where Hyun-Seo was; but as he went there, the mutant fish jumped out with Hyun-Seo in its mouth. They all chases the the mutant fish to where the people had began a riot.

They all attack the mutant fish and kills it, and Gang-du was able to retrieve Hyun-Seo's body along with her a little boy. Hyun-Seo died, but the little boy lived. Thus Gang-du takes in the little boy as his own.

Han River: 

The Han River, is located in the northern part of the South Korea. And the fourth longest river in South Korean peninsula. The Han River runs into Seoul then into the Yellow Sea. The Han River is one of the largest river that was constructed by dams. Going back into history, the Han River plays an important part in the Korean history, since it was back then the place where trading took place. In this film, we can see that the Han River is an important river, since in this film we see that power plants are built near the river, and the riots they were played in the film also the importance of it too. Not only that, we see that the people of Korea is also pulling out the fact that if their river(s) are not kept clean from toxic any problems can happen to change the city and people, creating corruptions.
A Vocab to Know:


With in this film, a Korean word that I thought was interesting was Seo-ri and can be similarly to pronounced as the English word sorry.  Seo-ri, in Korean means that if a person is to steal they should and can steal food, or mainly what they need, but can not steal money. In which stealing money is being a thief.
Recommendation:


At first I was told that this movie is a "funny" and scary movie, but I didn't see it like it, it was not funny at all. But other then that I got to say that I do recommend this movie.

Kite Runner - Review

                                             

From Beginning to End (A Summary):

In this film, we see the tragic in friendship between two little boys, Amir and Hassan, who are both in different society status. This story began with Amir in his adulthood and married in California, and receives a phone call from his uncle Rahim Khan, to go back and meet with him in Pakistan. Amir does goes and visit. In this movie too, we are taken into the flashbacks of Amir's life before his life in California.  In the past, in Kabul, Amir and Hassan are best friends, but due class status Amir starts to look down upon Hassan. During one of the Kite Competition, Amir and Hassan cut off the last flying kite, and so Hassan takes off to go get it as a trophy. But then Hassan was chased by three Pashtuun boys. Amir found them in an alley, but did not do anything to stop the three bullies, and left Hassan to be attacked. Ever since that incident, Amir began to look down on Hassan. As time pass, the Russian comes into Kabul, and were going to kill Amir's dad, thus they ran off, getting to Pakistan and then the U.S.A. As for the present, as Amir meets his uncle Rahim Khan. His uncle Rahim Khan tells him of Hassan's death and of Hassan's son still alive somewhere in Kabul. Not only does Amir learns of Hassan's death, but also that Hassan is his brother, half brother. Uncle Rahim Khan tells Amir to go back to Kabul and bring back his nephew, Sohrab. So then Amir sets his goal in finding his nephew. When Amir enters back in Kabul, everything has changed, the people, the place, the culture. Amir finds the orphanage that Sohrab was in, but found out from the director of the orphanage that his nephew was already taken away by the Taliban officials, and to find the Taliban official he have to go to the football (soccer) game. And after seeing who was the Taliban official, Amir makes an appointment with him. Meeting up with the Taliban official, Amir's real identity was found, since it was his childhood bully and cousin, Assef who is the Taliban official that took Sohrab. Amir, having Sohrab, Assef didn't let them go, thus beats up Amir, but Sohrab attacks Assef and blinds him, and thus Amir and Sohrab escapes. Amir and Sohrab safely got back into Pakistan, and learns that Uncle Rahim Khan left the world. After that Amir and Sohrab finally lands back into California. Taking in Sohrab as their own child, Amir and his wife, faces the problem of his father-in-law not wanting a Hazaras in the house, but Amir tells him that Sohrab is not neither a Hazaras and a Pashtun, but his nephew. Ending this film, Amir and his wife takes Sohrab kite flying, telling him of how great his deceased father was back then when he was little. 

Status in Afghanistan: 

There are about seven ethnic groups in the country of Afghanistan. These seven groups are: Pashtun, Uzbeks & Turkmen, Tajiks, Balochis, Aimaqs, Nuristanis, and Hazaras. Among these groups, the Pashtun are the largest and the most powerful; thus standing at the top, and leading the people. The second largest of and powerful to stand next in line with the Pashtuns are the Tajiks, but they do not politically have the power. From the film, we can see that the Pashtun does have power. Not only powers do they carry but also pride too. As for the Hazaras, they can be considered as having low status. Even from the film, do we see that Hazaras people are looked down upon as slaves. 

Talibans:

In the film we can see that the Talibans are forceful and powerful, due to how they ran the country flipping everything of how it use to be from liveliness to deadliness. The Taliban, in fact was created to fight and go against the Soviet rule and invasion. After the leaving of the Soviet rule, Afghanistan government and president rose to reform the country under a new reconstruction and laws. But not too long did Afghanistan broke into territories, each governed by a warlord. This lead to corruptions within the country, which lead to major deaths that rose up dramatically. Thus making Afghanistan a corrupt country that is filled with terrorists ruling the area. 

My Thoughts:

I would have to say that this film, The Kite Runner, is a must watch film. This film pulls in so much information and culture from the country, Afganistan and of course America itself. 

Maria Full of Grace

From Beginning to End~ A Summary

This film is about a teenage girl name Maria, who worked in a flower factory and became pregnant with her boyfriend. Not being able to earn enough money for her family, Maria decides to take the job offer that a random offered her. With this job, she will be given a sum of money that is a lot, and all she needs to do was to swallow up about 60 pellets of drugs and travel to New York and digest it all out on the stay. Maria along with two other girls stayed at a motel with the two guys that are in charge of taking the pellets. With one of the girl sick, she tries to help her recover the best that she could do. But then Maria sees and finds that the bathroom is full of blood one morning, and so she takes the packs the pellets and her belonging along with the other remaining girl and takes off and heads to New York, in search of a place to stay, which was at the dead girl's sister's home.  Maria and her friend tells of the situation to a social worker, about the drugs and the dead body of their friend. Their dead friend was given a proper funeral and Maria prepares to leave New York to go back to Columbia, but finalizes her answer to stay in America.

Working:

With Maria she is working in hard working areas that pays little wages in Columbia. And some families in her situation with no choice will in fact do drug dealing to earn the amount of money they want and need.

In America:

In this film, we see the perspective and opinion that America is the best and suitable place for someone's child to grow up in. And that perspective and opinion is indeed correct too. Since in America, everyone is given the opportunity in education and job whether poor or rich. With the view that America is the best and suitable place, Maria decides to stay in New York, for the sake of her child in her.

My Thought:

This film is a great movie to watch. I do recommend this film. It shows a lot of hardships that many people around the world faces.

Afgan Star

Beginning to End:

This documentary here is a film about how Afghanistan has gotten their own Afghanistan Idol version of American Idol in public for the nation. Thousands of citizens of Afghanistan, from all ethnic groups, came together to compete to compete, to become Afghanistan's singer.  Many did not pass the stages of getting to the top, but the last four that stood at the top were, Rafi, Lima, Hameed, and Setara. All of them are great singer. But the one with that became vulnerable after her last stand on stage was Setara. Due to religious custom and the country's society, women are not allow to dance on stage and take off their veil over their head, in which she did. Thus she faces hardships of being threaten and looked down upon. All four of them wants to win, and sing for and to all of the Afghanistan, and recover it's country since the Taliban rule. In the end Rafi wins the Afgan Idol.

Government and Society:

This is Setara dancing and sing on stage

In this film documentary, it shows a lot of how the Taliban have effected the people and their life. The effects of the Taliban on the people is that it restricted many to do what they want, and with their life, everyone was really divided up. But after the Taliban has died down, in this documentary, we can see that the people are trying to recover especially their singing, and with the vast amount of participants from all the regions of Afghanistan everyone came together from every ethnic groups.

With Setara's situation, I think that, what she did is and was how she really felt that if there are to be change, it should not just start with singing. But the reaction of the people that saw what she did were like unbelievable, as if they have not seen someone done that. We get the view of the people, especially strongly from the men, how they wanted to kill her, banish her, and even calling her a "loose women," when they do see that other women have done way more than what Setara did. But of course it's a cultural thing, thus they see it differently, since it's within their own country, religion, culture, and custom.

My Thought:

I do consider this documentary to be watch. It really shows a lot about Afghanistan and its people. With this documentary I even questioned myself: Would I have done the something similar as Setara?

Please Vote for Me ~ Review

Beginning to End (A Summary):


For this film, it is a documentary of three 8 years old, Chen Chen, Xu XiaoFei, and Luo Lei, who were chosen by their teacher to be taking in the roles of class candidate. And the process of one of them getting the role as class monitor, they have to get elected by their peers, performing the democratic election way. These three elementary kids steps in front of their peers firstly by showing their own talent. Chen Chen, Xu XiaoFei and Luo Lei all goes under pressure with one another attacking each other, putting one down with attacks to make one fail. Chen Chen, Xu XiaoFei, and Luo Lei gets their help from their parents and guardian and also teacher for tactics advice. On the second stage these three students introduces themselves and what they are capable of doing. Thus each of them going up to introduce themselves, of course they also gave negative points as the audience. Not only that but both Chen Chen and Luo Lei goes and attack Xu XiaoFei, as a girl in which they see as partially weak. On the third stage of the democratic election, all three students, Chen Chen, Xu XiaoFei and Luo Lei, goes against each other, bringing out the negatives and weakness of the other, to gain their peers' votes. They all break out of course, but in the end the results goes to Luo Lei as the class monitor.

Government and Society:

Looking in through this documentary film, we see a lot in the country of China, not just how it looks but how citizen of the country live their life and how it is being run. From the beginning Director WeiJun Chen asked the students if they know what "democracy" is, in which none of them knew. The acknowledgement of democracy can be seen from that, and also that kids in China, growing up do not know what democracy is. China, of course , is a communist country, and takes control of the population and their way of thinking with restriction, but still China's government do still open up to the world for their people's benefit.

One thing that I found to stick out is that each family has only one child. And that child is the apple of their parents' eyes. The roles of parents are strongly seen through this documentary too. Due to the one-child policy that every couple must abide to, parents strongly supports that child in anyway to be sure that he or she is successful and win.

Another thing with this documentary that can be pull out is that boys or men see girls or women as a person that is weak. But yet they are willing to accept her to their status power as boys or men, showing equality.

Of course throughout mostly every country women has been degraded, and were not able to get their opportunity as men. But now as the world moves forward in time women are given their rightful place in society with the men. From the documentary, Chen Chen and Luo Lei both attacks Xu XiaoFei first, since she is a girl and is can be more emotionally be brought down. But then not do they also do that but then also they apologizes back to her.

Education:

Education in China seems to be more founded as what everyone is going for and is fully focused on. Just like the democratic election, this helped the students know and get the feel of what a democratic election is in the western countries. The students, Chen Chen, Xu XiaoFei, and Luo Lei, all took this seriously, not just because they are going to get to be class monitor, but also because they were chosen to. The parents are support too, making sure that they are successful and do things correctly.

My Thoughts:

I think that overall, this documentary is a must watch and a must show. This film shows a different part of the world. Not only that, but it also shows the presence of democratic election reaching to places in Wushan, in an elementary school, and showing the process of a democratic election too. This film here shows how one country's children may not know democracy is, not just China but maybe in other part of the world.