As I’ve watched many other Ghibli movies, I’ve watched My Neighbor Totoro many times, but it never gets old. The story is not complex at all, it was merely a story of an ordinary family (of course, except for their marvelous experience with totoros). The girls would fight like any siblings do, they would miss their mom who’s sick, they would running around in the house just like us. It is close to our life enough that we would relate and resonate, yet the movie is slightly different that it portrays a more attractive and fascinating (or utopian?) version of the world. Everyone is so pure, nice, and kind. The neighbors look out for each other. Tatsuo did not accuse the kids to be whimsical and he believed in the magical story his daughter told him. He even took the girls to say thank you. That kind of innocence and naturalness always hits the soft spot in my heart and makes me want to believe people and kindness more.
Author Archives: Ashley Chen
Connect with the community
This chat was a nice break during the time when final projects and papers and madness have been piling up. With the lead of Annuli, we had conversations about the past semester and future plans. We get to share the difficulties we encountered and gave each other tips on how to cope with them. It is just very relieving and reassuring that other people are struggling extra during this special time as well, it reminded me that I’m not the only one, and it is ok to be vulnerable. As final is not far ahead, the stress and pressure are piling up even higher. It is nice to just talk (or in my case, rant) about issues. It is a nice destresser, and the shared experience made me feel closer connected to my fellow community members.
Grand Finale
It was finally the end. My heart is going up and down as the story goes. One substory that really poked the soft spot in my heart is the part the young man joined the “clean-up” team of animals. He was so panicked when he first pointed his gun at living things, I can feel all of his struggles, all of his fears, all of his guilt. Yet it was merely experience he lacked. After a while, he became as numb as the others who have seen too much blood and used to death. Another point that really struck my heart was Legasov’s fate. He was courageous, he was truthful, he was honorable, yet corrupted bureaucracy tamed stained all his glory. The price of truth and fact cost Legasov his life. My heart was ice-cold and fell to the rock-bottom by the end of the episode. Is this what it takes? Does evil outwin truth in the end? I felt so hopeless, if that’s the case, then what’s the point of us even trying? Thank god, the trailer in the end gave me hope and saved me from desperation. Legasov’s sacrifice didn’t go down to drain, it finally brought the ugly into the light. And I’m so relieved to see miracles of life happened. I’m so glad to see that the volunteers went to empty the tank, the ones everyone thought would be dead in a week, miraculously survived after treatment. I’m so glad to see the firefighter’s wife, whom the doctor said would never going to bear a child, had a son. There would always be hope, even in the darkest moments.
Humanities is what lit up darkness
I love this series, it is such a good story, but it still breaks your heart on a Friday night. This episode started with the three volunteers walking into the unknown darkness. Strident noise from the detector tenses up the atmosphere and my heart. I was so impressed by their courage, all of me, from hair to toe, are so tensed up as they go, step by step, until they finally safely returned to applauses. And the firefighter’s wife, the second I saw her I had an ominous feeling. You know how disaster movies always have a pregnant woman to symbolize hope or to dramatize the conflict? I had that oh-oh when I saw her, and I was praying so hard for me to be wrong. Unfortunately, My feelings were right, she is pregnant. I watched her following her husband and talk to him, going into the barriers despite the advice of the nurse. Women stop! What are you doing! Listen to the nurse! I know you want to be with your love but what about your baby?! I was screaming inside, but I can’t blame her at all. I would’ve made the same choice, to die with my love and not to live alone. Individual human beings are so tiny and fragile in front of such disasters, but it’s these moments that humanities shine in us that makes us different.
Way to Wake-Up Sunday Morning
3 minutes before it hit 11, I woke up with my alarm and rolled out of my bed. I dragged myself to my laptop, opened up the zoom link, and waited for the event to officially start. I was sleepy and lazy as I stayed up late the previous night, so when I pulled up my yoga mat I’m still only half-awake. However, as I followed the directions, breath in, out, strength, relax, my body and brain slowly woke up, in a nice, refreshing way. It was quite a way to start off my Sunday, and I would definitely join one of these sessions in the future if I have the choice.
Sarcastic Reality
I did not get to watch the first episode but it did not influence the fun I had at all. The story was nice of course, but what struck me the most was how I see today resonates with it. The episode started with Humulk (I definitely got the name wrong, the female scientist) finding out stuff is wrong and suggests to evacuate all civilians. And what did the government do? IGNORE HER! It is so unfortunate the saying is true, “Every disaster movie begins with the government ignoring a scientist.”
Sounds familiar? Does that remind you of something else? Oh hold on, wait a second, isn’t that what exactly was going on today? I do not and will not ever understand why lives are being sacrificed for the fight of politics. I mean, masks shouldn’t be a tool of politics, and wearing masks (or not) should not be a symbol of your political alignment. Look at the person with most power in this country (yes, I refuse to call him the p-word), what an example has he set? This is not about politics nor ideologies, I know republican friends as well, but masks really should’ve been only a tool to save life, not a tool to kidnap politics.
Greetings Past Superficial
I signed up for this event with all excitement because I’m so curious to see what people listen to. Music is such a private thing and it tells a lot about people, plus I often find myself amazed by the endless possibility in options. I myself is not as creative, I go to things that I know I like and it will always work, I hardly ever go out there and explore new reigns. With this event, I get to peek a little bit into our fellow community members’ inside and personality. I was amazed by how many songs I wouldn’t normally listen to, and how that means someone who submitted this is very different from me. That always amazes me as I can’t possibly imagine all myself, and it was very interesting to get to know people past small talks and directly to a part of their soul.
Nice Nostalgic Break with Friends
It has been FOREVER since I last made a card myself. Well, that’s not true literally, but it certainly felt so. I used to be very fond of crafts, but as I grew older and gotten busier, I drifted apart from it. Last time I’ve made a hand-made card was probably back in elementary school. Not to use it as an excuse, but it was a great excuse of how clumsy I was. I had no clue what should I do with all the craft paper, decorative pieces, and scissors, so I ended up copying all of my suitemate Lisa’s idea. Her cards were simple but they looked very good.
I enjoyed this event a lot even though I was not good at it at all. It was the first time I get to do something together (except eating) with my suitemates. This event gave us a legitimate reason to relax and have fun sitting together. We listened to music while we casually chatted and made cards, it really gave me the chance to spend more time with real persons (screen doesn’t count) as we did it together in the suite livingroom. All of us loved it and agreed we should do this more often.