Our Life is the Future Movie

There are some great movies made by the people. Here are some of my favourite movies which touched me, made me laughed, cried, and learned.

-JOURNEY-
1. THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON

What made Button a curious case is that, when he was born, he was already in his eighties. He lived his life in reverse ageing. He experienced joy and sadness, loves lost and found and the meaning of timelessness.

A brief quote from the movie, 'For what it's worth, it's never too late. There's no time limit. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again.'

The courage that I gained from the movie is that, sometimes we have to ignore the limitation of time, to pursue for something that we urge to get in life. No matter how far it is, how long it is gong to be, and how is the outcome, at least we have tried. And we going to be proud of what we have been going through, for that we only live once! Be who you want to be...

-FREEDOM-

2. THE BEACH

The story is about Richard's journey of discovering the paradise on earth, a beautiful place which is unspoiled and uninhabited. 

Does paradise exist in the world, and where is it? A place with joy and peace, limitless freedom, of absolute perfection, a place where human long for at all times...

-CHANGES-

3. THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT

Life is about changes, unavoidable changes. Some are controllable while some are not. This movie was about Evan Treborn, who was trying to free himself from his disturbing childhood. He managed to travel back in time to set things right and save his friends. However, every minor changes he made to the pasts created major problems in the future which made the overall situation even worse and irreversible. 

In the end, he chosen to die before he was due to born in the hospital. Despite the sad ending, I have watched the movie for a few times. Though life keep changing, we should not dwelling with the pasts but learn to deal with the changes and move forward.

-DREAMS-

4. THE GREAT GATSBY

The Great Gatsby may be the most popular classic in modern American fiction. It was 1922 in New York, an era of jazz, loosening morals and sky-roketing stocks. This movie depicts the impossible love, the faith on dreams - the American dreams, the temptations of wealth, and the struggle to escape the past.

"All I kept thinking about, over and over, was 'You can't live forever; you can't live forever." - F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

That's the truth about life. Take some times to realize our dreams, worthy and no regrets.

Attraction & Acceptance

Art is about attracting attention, yes or no? Art is usually created by mankind to express emotions and deliver messages.

Last week, I was discussing with my 3D lecturer about some disturbing and provocative arts. Most of his class works require neat and clean finishing. I questioned if he could accept something messy, dirty and disturbing, as art is really subjective. You can create something in your own way and call it as art.

His answer was fair. You have to know the rules before you break the rules. There is always a set of rationales to follow in creating arts. At the basic level, he probably prefers something simple, neat, and aesthetic. He mentioned about one of the stage performance by a student who was caught by the police after performing. There was a disturbing scene using glass to knock the head to bleed. This kind of performance requires license to perform by the authority. 

The level of acceptance by the public towards the extent of art is still under question. Though the freedom of creating arts does exist.

Without Hope by Frida Kahlo (1945)

Anatomical Pieces by Theodore Gericault

Photography by Jerome Ambramovitch

'Pension Fritzl Vienna' by Viennese theatre group

Performance by bio-artist, Stelar

Photography by Antony Crossfield

Photography by Antony Crossfield

'What you see might not be real' by Chen Wenling

Doll Art by Bohyun Yoon

Definition by You

Kenzo's latest window display at Takashimaya, Orchard. Could it be an example of juxtaposition or surrealism?

Or probably a solution of cost saving for the mannequin head? To depict a kind of E.T? Head was eaten by the tiger? 

Whatever it is, beauty is in the eye of beholder. The audience defines the beauty of an art. Art, is still an art, regardless of whether you think it's beautiful or ugly.

One Kind of Japanese Art

Shunga (spring pictures) is the Japanese term for erotic paintings, which were very famous especially in the late 19^th century of Japanese art history. Shunga usually depicts a variety of lovemaking techniques, situations and possibilities, demonstrating the diversity of sexual behaviors, either heterosexual or homosexual. Most of the shunga produced have a common feature of tendency to exaggerate the size of the genital organs. The influence of Western culture started at the beginning of the Meiji era (1868-1912), whereby figures began to appear wearing Western clothing and hairstyles (as shown in the pictures below).

Chinese Expression

China is one of the oldest civilization. It was one of the most advanced societies in the world but through imperialism and civil wars, it began to decline. These are some examples of graphic design in China of the early 20th century, usually playing with simple shapes and contrasting colours, which we can find in the magazines, posters and book covers.

Imagination VS Reality

Michal Trpak, a Czech artist, likes to install his sculptures almost exclusively in public places. He aims to create a dialogue between public life, the surrounding architecture and sculptures. For example, one of his famous artwork, 'Slight Uncertainty', was installed in an office building in Prague. These figures are hung holding umbrellas. They seems like flying, indecisive of landing.

Another famous art piece from Trpak, 'Escape into Reality', combines painting with sculpture. It was made of cement, wood and acrylic paint. I like the combination of 2D and 3D form to depict the real and virtual world. Trpak said that, 'It is hard to find a boundary between real and virtual,' he assumes that boundary doesn't exist.

Fantasy I: A Conversation with Stone

My life is full of unexpected  events, mostly extraordinary. Last summer, I went to BB Island for vacation. I was walking along the beach and accidentally fell down after hitting a stone. 

‘What is wrong with you, man!’ Someone shouted at me but I did not see any people around me.

‘It’s me talking to you, call me Stone Little!’

OMG, it was a stone trying to talk with me. I swore that it was a tiny stone talking to me. He told me that he wanted badly to be human if he has a choice. As a human, we can travel to any place in the world. We can read and write, we create things. We have feelings, and the most wonderful thing he wishes to have, is the love among human. He thinks that love is the most precious thing human own, but he wonders why human seldom appreciate it. There are cases of suicide, people hurting people, endless wars and etc.

However, stone, do you know that you are eternal? You are valuable, that people would pay dollars to buy you for your beauty.

Stone replied, 'Sometimes, people is cheated by his eyes. People values the beauty of the appearance, but forget about the inner beauty.'

I brought Stone Little back to Singapour. However, he never talk since then.

The Circle

Captured by an American photographer, Rob Herr, 'The Circle of Leaf' well represents a life cycle of human. Life is journey to treasure, we shall cherish every moment with the people we love until the time to say 'goodbye', who knows, one day there will be another journey for us, where we will reunite, again.

Beautiful Eyes

The eyes are the windows to the soul.

“To thee I do commend my watchful soul, 
Ere I let fall the windows of mine eyes.” - William Shakespeare.

Human eyes are something honest, they represent a person’s inner self, feelings and emotions. When a person trying to tell a lie, he tends to look away because the eyes easily reveal a great amount of guilt. For an enthusiastic person, you can see his eyes filled with passionate sparks.

I always think that human, all of us have similar eyes, except for the colours, until I found the fantastic photography by Suren Manvelyan. In fact, everyone has a different set of lines, dots and colours in the iris.

Manvelyan has done a series of close-ups of the human eyes, themed ‘Your Beautiful Eyes’, whereby he gained popularity. They were published by National Geographic, Yahoo!, The Sun, Daily Mail, and many others. In this series, he captured the great details of eyes through vivid and up-close photographs, showing the real textures that lie below corneas. These textures differ by person. They somehow look like the surface of an unknown planet.

Well, what can you see from these eyes, can you feel the soul beneath?

 

 

Human Behaviour

"And there's no map
And the compass
Wouldn't help at all
Human behaviour, human, human"

Homogenic by Bjork, 1997

This is what Bjork sang for human behaviour, that most of the time human emotion has no logic, that we always get confused of. Like the creativity, something that we urge for in every part of life, with no boundaries beneath. Human emotion can hardly be satisfied, creativity is a journey without ending. Human tends to be emotional, loves to live in a creative way. 

Originally planned for Bjork's album

Bjork is singer-songwriter, often appears in crazy fashion scenes, weird and creative style, which is as daring as her musical style. Let's have a peep of her fantastic beauty.

"There's definitely, definitely, definitely no logic

To human behaviour

But yet so, yet so irresistible"

Beautiful Disaster, Jimmy

Life is always filled with unexpected events. Sometimes, unhappy event could lead us to some positive changes. Jimmy Liao, is a famous Taiwanese illustrator, who has worked in an advertising company for 12 years until he was diagnosed with leukemia. He survived from the battle with leukemia and published some pictures book which has earned him several book awards. His books have been adapted for television, movie and animation. One of the famous books is A Chance of Sunshine (向左走，向右走）. Jimmy's illustration usually surrounded by the theme of urban life, loneliness and dreams.