One scene that was incredibly memorable for me while I was watching Spirited Away was when No Face first met Chihiro. He immediately became popular through his ability to produce gold and make everyone around him wealthy. While Chihiro was the person who first let No Face enter Yubaba’s bathhouse, she is determined to earn the money to free her parents her way. Ultimately, No Face was a dangerous creature and seemingly tries to kill Chihiro at one point in the story following this scene. I thought that this scene was a good metaphor for earning your own merit. While she seemingly could’ve solved her problems here, she was determined to earn back her parents with her own money in this scene.
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The Power of a Cool Head
Apollo 13 is an incredible movie about how astronauts managed to overcome a technical difficulty and the odds in their space flight. All of the astronauts managed to survive a seemingly hopeless scenario where they were running low on oxygen and power. While this story is incredible, I believe there are a number of lessons that could be learned from this movie. While the situation was terrifying, everyone seems to consistently keep a clear head and focus on the main goal of getting home. There are a couple of times where they argue, but they always manage to stay on target with what they needed to do. It was only through their ability to unite were that they were able to get back to Earth. I believe that this is a positive message for any team activity, project, or task. By keeping our focus on the tasks that matter most and by keeping a cool head, even things that might seem impossible may become possible.
An analysis of “Jungen”
Jungen was a story about a boy on his school’s track team struggling with coming out to his friends, family, and even his partner. He balances the daily aspects of his life with his feelings towards his friend on the track team. Throughout the whole movie, he is presented with opportunities to lead a straight life. Ultimately he ends the movie by following his feelings and running off with his boyfriend. I think the movie did a good job of portraying all of the aspects of how he felt mixed with the daily occurrences in his life. As someone with multiple family members who are gay, I hoped this movie would provide more insight into what they might experience during their lives. I overall found the movie enjoyable and was glad to see it ended with a positive note.
Lessons from the Royal Tannenbaums
The Royal Tannenbaums was a story that was very different from what I was expecting. It strung together a cast of likable characters that had very different personalities and goals. It was centered around Royal Tannebaum trying to reconnect with the family he neglected for many years by pretending that he’s dying. Over the curse of the movie we see each of the characters has been dealing with some form of emotional strife and that each character handles this generally poorly int their own way. IT isn’t until Royal realizes the problem he has been on his family that his children start to finally come together. I found it amusing and sad to see how the characters dealt with their trauma and incredibly interesting how characters managed to eventually overcome their demons.
The real monsters in “Us”
Leading up to viewing this movie, I had pretty high expectations. I saw Jordan Peele’s prior film, “Get Out”, so I knew what to expect going into this film. I ended up being absolutely amazed at what the result was. It was an eerie, dark, and intense film that ends with an incredible plot twist. It left a statement about who we are as people and who we are as Americans. While there were definitely numerous plot holes in the story, I still found myself on the edge of my seat trying to figure out what would happen. The people in our share a soul with those that were a part of a government experiment with those called the Tethered. The Tethered rise above the ground and kill all of the ones who they share souls with that they can. Afterward, they show their oppression by replicating the “Hands Across America” campaign.
Matrix biblical retrospective
The Matrix is one of my favorite movies to this day and always back so many memories from the 2000s. Growing up, I was always terrified about the concept behind the matrix. What if we were all living in some sort of simulation to some unknown entity. It was always nightmare fueling for me way back then. As I grew up and watched the movie on occasion, I noticed that the movie had incredibly interesting storytelling and a lot of biblical references. Everything seems to tell the story of some savior that will save humanity from a doomed fate. Even some names, Trinity, Zion are direct references to the bible. While the action is obviously way over the top, I found interesting to observe the religious symbolism found within this movie despite it being a movie about action, the future, and robot domination.
Flora Rose HouseBound
The movie Housebound was an incredibly interesting movie that made use of typical horror tropes to generate an entertaining twist. In the beginning the movie seems like a typical ghost story movie lead by Kylie, our protagonist under house arrest in her parent’s house. Over time she comes to believe that the movie is haunted due to various disturbances in the house. While the audience is initially lead to believe this narrative, about halfway into the movie it becomes apparent that there are definitely some other factors at play.
They make excellent use of typical horror tropes in the movie. Characters frequently make poor decisions such as, investigating things when they should be getting assistance to investigate further, or explaining things irrationally so nobody believes them, or having the main villain being the least suspicious character. These elements were all used and even made fun of over the course of the movie.
Other interesting details came in the description of the main villain. While also being the least suspicious, he was also a psychologist. It seemed highly improbable that he was the culprit until the very climax of the movie when he finally lashed out at the protagonist. The way he died was also very interesting as he was killed by a meat fork, similar to how he killed previously, and had his head exploded. Overall this movie was very entertaining and I believed it was cool to see the directors make use of these horror tropes.
Undertanding Career Paths
Speaking with Tasnuva (or Tas) was a real pleasure and I believe I was able to get a lot of insight on future career paths and a better grasp on the tools I will need for my career further down the road. We talked a lot about Tasnuva’s experiences going through college, her prior career, where she wants her career to proceed, and the values upon which she built her career. We discussed what working in start-ups is like and what to expect from certain companies. I learned that being in the same job for too long could end up boring and it is healthy to have people in and outside the company to help guide your career path. It was interesting to see how her experience and career lined up with what I imagined working in these sectors was like.
As a Communication major, I found this event incredibly interesting. As a technical program manager, she said that her most valuable skill was her ability to communicate with clients. She was interested in learning about my experiences as a communication major in CALS and how a person can learn to better communicate. I also was very interested in learning about what wisdom she could impart about what it is like working within marketing.
Understanding Danger
The self defense training was something that I wasn’t sure I initially was interested in participating in initially, but is something that I am glad I got to experience. The course gave me a lot of insight on how to properly defend myself, how to prevent danger, and explained maneuvers on how to get out of certain pins. On top of providing valuable self-defense knowledge, Kyaw also provided insight on what situations some women may need to prepare against. As a man it gave some perspective on the kinds of dangers and situations some women might have to be ready to encounter and I better learned how to better handle potential threats to myself. Despite my initial hesitation, I believe I am very fortunate that I had the opportunity to participate.