Toy Soldiers

We are men of the army.
What does that even really mean?
It's as if being conscripted into the army
isn't enough.
Putting our lives on hold for two years
isn't enough.
Risking our lives to protect the ones we love
isn't enough.

No.

We are men of the army.
Extraordinary beings who may wobble but should never fall.

To Seek. To Save. To Serve.
The core values I was taught to live by, without question.
My role in the army was simple, seek knowledge to save lives and serve my fellow soldiers with compassion.

I remember sitting still in the dead of night, all alone.
The siren blares and off I go into the unknown.

In the distance, a stream of light slices through the darkness.

The closer I get, the clearer the picture emerge as it comes into frame.
A fellow soldier is sat down, clutching his rifle close to his body, looking down in shame.

His commander, a man who is supposed to lead by example, stands beside him, the look of disdain clear as day.

The sprained ankle looked pretty bad, I begin to act as I have in history.
Evacuate the casualty and assess the injury.

Placing an ice pack onto the swollen feet, his commander hovers over me like a vulture
How long is this going to take?
I refrain from saying anything vulgar
I explain calmly that the casualty can't go on any longer.

Just wrap and go.
He's a man of the army, a little sprain is nothing much to care about.
Just wrap and go.
Back in my day, medical attention was only given to those who blacked out.

Just wrap and go?

What has the world come to, when we are expected to somehow have a healing factor, that causes the pain to go away in a blink of an eye.
Where we are nothing more than toy soldiers, once broken, there's nothing a little tape wrapped around couldn't rectify.

When logic is thrown out of the window, in favour of the social norm of man equals strong, strong equals having the balls to never give up no matter what, in whatever you're pursuing.
After all, we preach that "Anything worth doing, is worth overdoing".

We are men of the army.

Yes.

We are also made up of flesh and bones.
We may have the willpower to ignore the pain and groans.

Yet, we can't avoid the fact that broken things becomes unwanted, when left unattended.

We are men of the army and we are only human.

Stranger Things (2016)

                      

                                        From: http://www.be-street.com/peep-these-insanely-cool-stranger-things-fan-posters/

A breath of fresh air, Stranger Things is a Mystery/Thriller with depth and spectacular performances from new faces.

There were a few protagonists in this story, I particularly enjoyed the main protagonist Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and his group of misfit friends Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) and Will (Noah Schnapp).

I was intrigued looking through the perspective of the children as they investigate the mystery of their missing friend, Will. The children's curiousity, lack of assumptions and expectations about how the world works, enables them to find completely different methods from the adults when accomplishing a goal.  

Instead of going through the proper channels such as the police, like a responsible adult. Mike and friends decide to take matters into their own hands, through the simple reason of the friendship they share. 

"Because that's just what friends do." This simple reason is all they need to motivate them to search for their missing friend.

The personalities of the group of friends start out pretty stereotypical such as Dustin, the overweight comic relief and Lucas the serious one. However, overtime more layers/personalities of their characters start to show, more so after they meet Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown). The dynamics of the group changes through conflict.

Mike wants to help out Eleven by finding out more about her, Lucas wants to completely ditch Eleven deciding that she is a waste of time, distracting them from their main goal of finding Will. Throughout all of this, Dustin remains neutral, turning out to surprisingly be the most level-headed one in the group and ultimately was the one to essentially convince Mike to stop butting heads with Lucas, because they have to work as a team.

Mike's character is explored the most through  the appearance of Eleven. She is essentially a blank slate, having no childhood to begin with, so Mike brings her into his world. We learn that she is just a child who gets entertained by the simplest things, like playing with a recliner armchair. Mike is loyal to a fault, which sometimes causes him to side with Eleven blindly without really thinking about how others feel.

I also like how simple the rules within the group is, the first to "draw blood" has to suck it up and apologise through the means of a spit handshake. Similarly, they repeat the phrase "Friends don't lie", mostly by Mike in a attempt to introduce Eleven to the concept of friendship. Keeping promises and  telling the truth seem to be a recurring theme in this series, I love the fact that it seems so juvenile coming from a group of kids, yet it is so important to everyone else, especially the adults.

One gripe I had with this group is that Mike and Lucas were supposed to be close friends, even before the whole gang was together. But Lucas just comes off as a jealous friend of the group. The show didn't really develop their friendship much or even attempt to really show how close they were. In fact, I thought that Dustin and Mike were closer within the group.

The other supporting actors/actresses did a fantastic job, with the similar progression of their characters starting off to be stereotypical one dimensional TV tropes, to actual characters with personalities you can imagine existing in the real world.

The cinematography and sound design goes together so well like kaya and margarine. The way they played with the lighting to convey the thrill was highly effective, it had me on the edge of my seat each time a light flickered.

I eagerly await for Season 2, as they delve deeper into the world of the "Upside Down" and hopefully find justice for Barb.

My Rating: 4/4

Cheers
Sman

Veronica Mars: My Journey to Becoming a Marshmallow

So here's a rough journey I have taken into the Veronica Mars Universe.

1. I saw the book Veronica Mars: Mr Kiss and Tell on sale and bought it based on the fact that Rob Thomas was one of the co-writers and the creator of the amazing iZombie.

2. After reading Veronica Mars: Mr Kiss and Tell, I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't about some ditzy teen chick detective who happens to also be a badass. Veronica Mars had layers, she had raw emotions that excited me. However, I felt that my book review did not do the story justice and will get back to it soon.

3. I watched the movie Veronica Mars (2014), having been intrigued by the aforementioned book. It was brilliant, Kristin Bell portrayed the exact wise-cracking sleuth that Veronica Mars should be. I quickly fell in love and found out about the first book Veronica Mars: The Thousand Dollar Tan Line.  
4. I went on to watch Season 1 of Veronica Mars. I must say although the crime solving style of the series is similar to Rob Thomas's current work iZombie, it was rather tame in comparison. In a sense that I felt that the actors/characters were held back, almost everyone felt so cagey and gloomy. The tone just didn't excite me as much as the book and movie.

5. I went and bought the book Veronica Mars: The Thousand Dollar Tan Line, and have just finished it today. You can read my book review (here).
The short version: This is one of the best books I have read in a while and eagerly wait for any sequels.

6. I'm starting on season 2, and it seems to follow a similar dark tone, but I'm optimistic it'll get better soon.

7. I plan to start on the book Veronica Mars and Philosophy: Investigating the mysteries of life edited by George A. Dunn, after consuming the full 3 seasons of the TV series and digesting it gleefully.

And so this is how I became a Marshmallow.

Cheers
Sman

Thus Far...

My last post was back in 4 June 2016 (Saturday). It has been way more than a month since. So I'll just sum up some of the things I have been doing and hopefully get back to them in retrospect.

June

1. Watched TV Series Fargo (2014-Ongoing), 2 Seasons done and hopefully will get back to how I felt about this series.

2. Finished Book, Veronica Mars: Mr Kiss and Tell by Rob Thomas, which was surprisingly awesome.  (Will have to get back to this soon)

3. Sadly, I can't remember much from the month of June, I should start blogging at the end of each month to log my progress.

July

1. Watched Bakemono Ko (2015) and Summer Wars (2009)

2. Bought a Ton of Books from Kinokuniya

- Finished Corridor (12 Short Stories) By Alfian Sa'at

- Finished Freakanomics by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner 

3. Watched Apprentice (2016) by Boo Junfeng

4. Watching Veronica Mars (2004-2007)

5. Ongoing dread of NDP trainings.

My next post will be something more constructive, be back soon!

Cheers

Sman

Everything Before Us (2015)

From: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/everythingbeforeus

Synopsis: The Department of Emotional Integrity (DEI) documents all relationship activity. A 'relationship score' is given to keep people accountable for their choices. The score is public for all to see, and affects various aspects of daily life. Two couples, teenagers and early 30s, face different but intersecting challenges in their relationships within the rules of the DEI. (From IMDb)

At different stages of our lives, our perception of relationships and idea of love changes. We grow up, gain new insights. From these experiences we learn to ultimately become better versions of ourselves.

There are two main relationships. The "love is all we need" teenagers, Seth (Brandon Soo Hoo) and Haley (Victoria Park). The separated adults, Ben (Aaron Yoo) and Sara (Brittany Ishibashi).

I'm 21 years old, and I have not really been in a committed relationship before. I'm in the middle of being a teenager and an adult. Personally, I can relate more to the teenagers, although I enjoyed the relationship of the adults more. 

Haley is moving to another state for college, away from Seth. They impulsively sign up for the DEI together, believing that their long distance relationship will work somehow. Their interactions in the beginning were rather cringe inducing, with the scene of Seth giving Haley only one glove because her other hand fits perfectly with his. Their  relationship is not really established at all, the only interactions I see are through a montage of them hanging out together doing mundane couple activities (walking in the park, kissing). The reason for them being together seems very superficial. I find myself not caring about the state of these teenagers. When they had conflicts, it didn't really bother me. I see Seth and Haley's relationship as a representation of "blind love", they are only together because of their over-preaching declaration of love for each other.

Ben wants to get into this design firm "Origin", but due to his break up with Sara his DEI score is too low. Sara on the other hand, has a high DEI score and has no problems getting a loan to open her very own bakery. Ben has to get help from Sara, thus giving him a reason to meet up with her and possibly rekindle their relationship. Their history is slowly revealed throughout the film, and we find out that they broke up due to the lack of time spent with each other. They slowly grew apart and in a moment of weakness, Sara kissed a co-worker. This comes back full circle when Ben kisses Sara, while he was dating Anna (Joanna Sotomura). Anna is quite inconsistent as a character, in the beginning she seems to be only concerned about socialising with people who have high DEI points. She is then concerned about Ben spending too much time with Sara, which is reasonable. When Anna finally decides to break up with Ben, she somehow immediately feels remorse for causing him to lose his job and tries to give him a second chance. I felt that Anna was a wasted chance at being a great antagonist for the couple.

The story of Ben and Sara is clearly more flushed out, being the main focus in the film. This in turn really overshadows the story of the teenagers. In fact I feel that if the teenagers were removed from the film entirely, more time could be used to develop the characters of Ben and Sara even more. I felt that Wong Fu Productions might be a little over-ambitious in trying to appeal to larger range of demographic by essentially telling the story of two relationships of different ages.  

Despite the fact that most of the plot were predictable, there was a sense of realness in the character's interactions, more so with Ben and Sara. Wong Fu Productions manages to capture relatable emotions of two couples in different stages of their lives. 

MY RATING: 3/4

Cheers
Sman

Coming of Age

I have recently started to re-watch and find new coming of age movies (The Spectacular Now, The Way Way Back, Perks of Being a Wallflower etc.) I hope to one day write a coming of age movie or short film that inspires people or at least have them relate to some aspects.

Out of all the coming of age movies I have watched so far, my favourite has to be The Spectacular Now (2013). What makes it stand out from the rest is the way that the characters are written, everyone is a flawed individual in some way and they stumble their way through life not really knowing what to expect. There is a sense of realness in their conversations/reactions towards each other.

I stumbled into a social gathering yesterday, hosted by a mutual friend of a close friend of mine. Being the socially inapt being that I am, my first instinct was to embarrassingly hide in the washroom and come up with a game plan. I eventually got out and met with some people from a Photography Club, I made small talk and had a chance to find out a little about them. All of them were younger than me, although I believe that age doesn't define a person, being the eldest in the group, the "young adult", I felt small with the fact that I'm incapable of having some form of social skills at this point of time in my life.

In a way I feel that I am still coming of age, finding a way to define myself as a person and learning to speak to strangers with more confidence.

It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be after all.

The Kings of Summer (2013)

From: http://www.thefastpictureshow.com/2013/10/the-kings-of-summer-jordan-vogt-roberts.html

Logline: THE KINGS OF SUMMER is a unique coming-of-age comedy about three teenage friends – Joe (Nick Robinson), Patrick (Gabriel Basso) and the eccentric and unpredictable Biaggio (Moises Arias) - who, in the ultimate act of independence, decide to spend their summer building a house in the woods and living off the land.

- from the official The Kings of Summer Preliminary Productions notes  

"We are our own men" is the main motivation of our protagonist Joe as he goes through the transformation from a teenager with a pretentious perception of what it means to be a man/adult to a more perceptive person, knowing that there's so much more to the learn about being a man/adult.

At the start of the film we find out that Joe is living with his widowed father Frank (Nick Offerman). Their relationship is on the rocks, as Frank is unable to truly get over the death of his late wife, emoting his sadness through sarcasm and tough love towards his son. 

One instance being a game of monopoly during family game night, in which Frank disregards the rules of the game by just trading properties with another player to spite Joe for an earlier embarrassing anecdote about him. This eye for an eye exchange between father and son continues until Joe has finally had enough, deciding to leave his father for an independent life with two other friends.

Patrick, Joe's best friend is much more calm, seemingly more confident with himself. However, he does have his own problems with his parents, his overly intrusive parents causes him to have hives and be eternally embarrassed at everything they have to say. Being less of an actual problem in comparison to Joe's more toxic relationship.  

Biaggio is basically a comic relief character with one-liners and eccentric behaviours. He is one of the underdeveloped characters who is basically there for the sake of lightening the mood, albeit some contributions felt forced. 

The trio goes on an adventure to build a pretty impressive looking house in the woods. While Joe and Biaggio go on a failed attempt to hunt for animals, Patrick finds a snake's skin. Patrick's warnings against littering in the woods is dismissed over a dinner of chickens they "found" in the woods. Joe immediately breaks the rules by inviting his crush Kelly (Erin Moriarty) to the house. 

She comes over for dinner and brings along a few friends. Kelly compliments Joe about being very talented for coming up with this whole idea in the first place. This gives Joe hope, he is almost a fully fledged man living independently and now by getting the girl his transformation should be complete. Over the campfire, Patrick and Kelly bonds in the background as Joe and Biaggio talk. I understand that the writers are probably trying to show us the perspective of Joe as Kelly ends up with his best friend Patrick by placing their interaction in the background. But by leaving the interaction unheard, they are under-developing yet another character, Kelly. It seems like she is just there to be a love interest to be fought over, between the Joe and Patrick, resulting in having no real depth or personality of her own. 

During a very similar monopoly game, Joe teams up with Biaggio to spite Patrick mirroring the behaviours of his father. This ends in a solidly acted confrontation scene between Joe and Patrick. Joe blaming Kelly for the reason for the whole group falling apart calling her a "bitch" and a "cancer". Ultimately resulting in everyone leaving Joe alone to fend for himself. 

The scene before this confrontation was my favourite in this movie. Frank asks Joe's sister, Heather (Alison Brie), if he's a bastard. She replies with "No dad, a bastard would make everyone around him miserable just because he is." Which flows very nicely to the way Joe acts out.

The film ends with Joe taking responsibility by acting fast to save Biaggio's life after he hilariously tries to kill a poisonous snake, in the presence of Kelly and Frank. Joe has taken his first step to being responsible. 

This film was really well acted, I believed all of the actors performances. Although I did feel that something was missing in this film, perhaps it was the excessive callbacks to the theme of what is means to truly become a man from the eyes of Joe. 

MY RATING: 2/4

Note: I edited video shortening The Kings of Summer into less than 10 minutes. Although I hope to make something better in the future, along the lines of a story analysis of a movie. 

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob1DPuucHkk 

Cheers

Sman