Charlie Wilson's War

The Charlie Wilson's War, a cunning and yet down right to earth movie of a Texas Congressman in this fight towards the end of the Cold War between Afghanistan and the Soviet Union in the late 70s to 80s.

Allied with the sixth wealthiest woman in Texas, a friend and also romantic partner, Mrs Joanne Herring, Charlie finds himself in the heart of a new covert operation in ending the war between Afghanistan and Soviet Union. From a simple US$5million project, the operation becomes appropriated to US$1billion. He is very lucky to find capable team with the help of Gust Arvakotos who has been fighting the Russians.

His effort is most definitely commendable. Only in the presence of the suffering and seeing with their own eyes will people come to realise the real danger and harm of a war. I salute these people for the effort they have made. As disappointed as Charlie has been portrayed in the movie, I personally share the sentiment that the next generation is most particularly vulnerable and should be given the right education and attitude.

And most importantly, war is not the ultimate solution. Destroying homes, killing innocent people should never be the way to promote a cause. Let's all make love, not war people. Spare the young from further agony and fear of uncertainty. Let them lead a meaningful and peaceful lives.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 fairy clouds. This is an excellent and brilliant movie. Good depth and humour while man-handling the serious issue of war.

Accuracy of Death

The movie is a lovely story of a grim reaper who appears 7 days before the person is to die. He will observe and decide of the appropriate judgement and manner of death. The movie is a great match to my home-made salsa dip and coke with real lemon!

Our good looking Archangel of Death, Azrael is gently introduced into the movie with the death of a 10 year old little girl. To Chiba, death is nothing special, beautiful or spectacular. It is just the way the universe works and functions like the earth's rotation around the sun. In another word, mechanical. The only thing he enjoys most is music.

His next assignment is to a young girl, Fujiki. An ordinary and meek girl who feels that everyone she ever cares about will always depart from her life, from her parents, to her foster parents and lovers. She thinks about death in ending her senseless and pointless existence. Chiba feels she has yet to live her purpose and gave her a chance to find the new purpose in her life.

Next he is tasked to judge a mafia and a young boy whom is desperately trying to protect the mafia from seeking his own death. Oh Takashi look so damn cute here. Ahem! Follow by the next assignment to a grandmother living in beautiful hut near the coast. This granny is one interesting character as she saw through Chiba's real identity as a reaper and requested for him to help her fulfil her last wishes before dying without regrets.

What is amazing and lovely about this movie is that Chiba has probably gone through a decade without understanding the real meaning of life and death, till he meets with granny who helps him realise the beauty. Granny is also none other than Fujiki and the young man is her son. With Chiba finally sees the magic of universe, he also sees the clear blue sunny sky for the first time in his existence. This scene is such a simple and yet power analogy.

Rating: 4 out of 5 fairy clouds. It is a well-done and scripted movie, quite worth my tortilla chips!

Closer

I decided to catch up on my 'to-watch' list of out-dated movies before the list becomes longer. This evening I chose Closer. It is an amazing movie which you love to hate. It fully explores the selfish nature of human emotions of love and lust. When is the moment that you know you must say no to temptation or should you follow your heart before you regret walking away from someone who might possibly be the love of your life?

When Dan meets Alice, it is love at first sight. He is an obituary writer while she is a cute young American girl who has came to London to escape from a bad relationship. A year later, Dan meets Anna, a beautiful American photographer, whom he lusts after. Anna is separated from her husband then, and she doesn't want to get involved with Dan who is in a relationship with Alice.

Later, Dan meets Larry on an online sex chat. He pretends to be Anna, has a steamy conversation with Larry and continues to play a practical joke on him by asking Larry to meet him at the Aquarium. Incidentally the real Anna happened to be there. Anna and Larry hit it off really well. Dan has accidentally played the role of cupid in matchmaking Anna and Larry.

While Dan and Anna leads separate lives, each of them continues to see someone else they fancy. Yet their lives cross and feelings grow deeper. One year later, Dan decides to come clean with Alice with regards to his feelings towards Anna. At the same time, Anna is being grilled by her current husband Larry when she reveals of her relationship with Dan. It isn't a happy ending for all four of them. They are all entangled up in a messy pot of emotions filled up with love, hatred, desire, lust, forgiveness, deception, etc. At the end of the day, they are all cowards of love. Neither has the courage to face love and grab happiness by the neck.

What the four individuals have gone through is such a common everyday event in our lives. We have seen friends, family and even ourselves in similar or exact situations of being messed up when a third party enters into the sacred space between two persons who are supposedly in love with each other and have implicitly and mutually agreed to be exclusive to each other.

Commitment is so rare these days, and this is exactly what the film speaks of. No one understands what love is anymore, yet we all know exactly how the pain feels like. Isn't it interesting to understand how well we remember painful memory?

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 fairy clouds.