Sign Seeker

  

                When we encounter a problem that we don’t know the answer to, we tend to seek for a sign. When we’re facing a dilemma, we seek for a sign hoping that it will lead us to the right answer. But is this really helpful? Or is this just something to push us into doing something that we would really like to do but we just don’t have the guts to do it. So instead, we look for an excuse to either push through with it or just let it go or in other words, a sign.

                In this short film, a guy named Bien fell in love at first sight with his office mate Kacey. His friend told him that Kacey is totally into him and egged him to ask her out the next day. Bien took it as a joke and just laughed it off, but his friend said, “What are you waiting for? A “let’s go out on a date” sign written on her forehead?” this gave him an idea. He started looking for signs and if he did get the sign that he wants, he would ask Kacey out. He woke up the next day a minute earlier before his alarm went off, that was the sign he was seeking.

                He still wasn’t convinced with the first sign, so he asked for more. He decided that if there were strawberries for breakfast then that was it. Disappointment took over when he didn’t spot strawberries on the table, but his mother gave him a yogurt that contained strawberries. Yet, he still wasn’t buying it, so he looked for more and more. If all traffic lights turn green on the way to the office then it’s a sign; as expected, it did.

                If he sees a dog overtaking him, then it’s a sign; indeed there was a dog inside the care that overtook him. He changed his mind and decided that he meant an elephant; a picture of an elephant on a truck appeared on his second parking slot. If there was a clown inside the elevator, it’s a sign; yes there was. Since all the signs seemed too absurd for him, he asked for one last sign; Kacey arrived and she was wearing a hat. Written on her hat were the words “Date Tayo”.

               Just like Bien, we tend to look for signs. And we find the signs, we tend to look for more because we believe it might be just a coincidence. When Bien got the signs, he still wasn't sure on what to do. So let’s not depend on the signs, we need to believe in ourselves and follow what our heart wants us to, and let’s not forget to take our brain with us. Signs are just excuses for us to do or not to do something.

You can watch the short film here.

Unplugged

                In our generation today, it seems that we can’t live without our gadgets most especially our phones. Gadgets can make our work faster only if used in the right way, but sometimes it becomes a distraction. We get too caught up with our gadgets that we forget to do more important things. And even if we do remember, we just set them aside and do it later. In this short film, we are reminded that there are more important things out there than our laptop and phone screens.

                There was a soccer team who went to the province, specifically the house of Michael’s (the coach) grandfather Nestor for their boot camp. When they finally arrived, Nestor noticed that the boys were too busy with their gadgets. This gave him an idea and told the boys his rules. Step one is to disconnect, meaning to temporarily leave the online world and step into the real world. “You have to learn manual before you can all drive automatic” according to Nestor.

                The boys explored Nestor’s house and most of the things they found there were foreign to them. Step two is to reconnect; we must reconnect with nature, with ourselves and with the simplicity of life. The boys went outside with Michael to enjoy nature. They ran around the green grass and watched the sunset and the stars. They went on with their training while also playing other games; they also went fishing and had a bonfire.

                Step three is love, love like a child, love freely and everything else will follow. When they were finally done with their boot camp, the boys got attached to the place and to Nestor. They learned a lot of things, and so did I while watching the film. We need to appreciate the simpler things in life, because they might be the more important ones. And also, we need to disconnect in order to reconnect once more.

You can watch the short film here.

Identity

When people ask us to describe ourselves, we usually have a hard time answering it. Sometimes we would ask ourselves, “Who am I really?” and we don’t seem to have the answer to that question. Oftentimes, we wear a mask to please other people or to try and fit in.  The longer we wear those masks, the more we become detached from our true selves. Are you wearing a mask right now?

In this short film, it was shown that everyone is wearing a mask. Some people were wearing different masks depending on the people she’s with. People are scared to leave their groups or cliques because they feel like it’s the social norm.  But then there’s this girl, she was different than the others, she was aware of this social problem and she wants it to stop. If she doesn’t start the change, then nobody will.

The girl finally decided to remove her mask and she feels liberated. She didn’t want to hide behind her mask anymore, she didn’t want to try and show others what they wanted to see. She chose to be herself, even if others would like it or not. As she went around the school without her mask, people were staring at her as if she has grown two heads. But she couldn’t care less, because she was finally free to be who she wants to be without worrying about fitting in, and she was happy about it.

Never be afraid to show everyone who you really are. We tend to wear masks to fit in with everyone else. But does this makes us happy? It may be, but it is not what they call genuine happiness. Real happiness is when you’re just being yourself and people still like you anyway, they like you for who you are. Still, we should be aware that we can never please everyone, no matter what you do, people will always judge you. Don’t let their judgments get to you, because at the end of the day, what’s important is you’re being yourself and if they don’t like it, then that’s their problem not yours.  

You can watch the short film here.

The Aim

“Getting better education doesn’t depend on your financial status, and the main point is that every man shall understand that he studies for himself and for his country’s prosperity. Without education we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously” –GK Chesterton. Indeed, let’s not make our financial status a hindrance for a better education.  And when we finally have the chance to get a better education, let’s not put it to waste. Some people don’t even know how lucky they are to have the quality education that other people want.

                There was a boy, who belonged to a rich family, but he wasn’t being serious with his studies, all he does is mess around during class and bully his other classmates. He didn’t study well, and during tests he would copy the answers of his seatmate. One classmate, who was often bullied by the rich guy, belonged to a not so wealthy family. He failed a test and he was made fun of it. After that, he worked and studied very hard so he wouldn’t fail next time.

                The wealthy guy’s attitude was getting worse. He has his face buried in his phone all the time, he was sleeping in class, and he was cutting classes. He was caught cheating during a test but he didn’t even care. When the results were posted, the not so wealthy student’s hard work finally paid off, while the wealthy guy was called to the principal’s office with his parent. After 8 years, the poor student became the director of the school, while the rich student lost everything and became a security staff of the same school.

“Intelligence plus character that is the goal of true education.” -Martin Luther King Jr. What is the use of intelligence if you have a rotten attitude? What is the use of having a brilliant mind if you’re using it to harm others? And even if we did achieve a lot of things, let’s learn to keep our feet on the ground and stay humble. Let this short film be a motivation for all of us to work hard in order to achieve our goals in the future. 

You can watch the short film here.

The Last Song

          When two people get divorced, sometimes the most affected ones are the children. Ronnie was really good at playing the piano even at a very young age under the guidance of her father. But she became an angry rebellious teenager after her parents got divorced and she hated her father ever since. She has ignored the instrument and her father since he left.  One summer, she was sent to her father’s house along with his little brother to spend the season there. 

          She barely talked to her father during her stay there and she was barely in the house. She went out all the time and met with a few people. One of the people she met was Will, who works for the aquarium as a volunteer. Ronnie discovers a turtle nest at the beach and decided to guard it every night until it hatches. Will joins her shortly afterwards and Ronnie found out he was deeper than she believed and eventually fell in love.

          Ronnie also started to develop a stronger and better bond with her father. But one day, her father suddenly collapsed and when he was rushed to the hospital, she learned that he has stomach cancer that has spread to his lungs. From then on, she started spending more time with her father because she believe they don’t have much time left to bond more. Ronnie also found out from Will that his best friend was actually the one who set fire to the church that her father was blamed for. She wanted to tell the truth to the police but her father prevented her from doing so.

          The saddest part of the movie was when Ronnie continued her father’s composition for her, entitled “For Ronnie”. Her father was too weak to finish it so she decided to do it herself. As she was finishing it, her father died with content knowing that he has finally patched things up with his daughter. Ronnie played the whole song at church after she delivered her eulogy for her father. It was a very emotional moment, and I teared up while watching it.

          This movie is really touching because it tackles on the love a father has for his daughter. Most of us would just take our parents for granted. Some of us would hold a grudge against them. And others just plainly hate them. This movie reminds us that our parents are getting old and that we should cherish every moment we have with them while they’re still there, because we never know when they would leave this world.  

The Art of Getting By

“We live alone, we die alone. Everything else is just an illusion.” George, the protagonist of the movie was haunted by this quote. He came to the realization that he was going to die someday and that everything seems meaningless to him now. Because of this mind setting, he ceases to complete his assignments which led to him being put to academic probation. He was fatalistic and he feels like he has better things to do with his time than making meaningless homework and that he has a problem with motivating. Then he met this girl that changed him.

He met Sally at the school rooftop, he covered up for her smoking on school grounds because he’s been into a lot of trouble before and he thinks he can handle it better than her. They hung out a lot after that encounter and became really good friends. But when two opposite sexes are really good friends, either one of them is going to fall in love with the other right? George felt like they were something more, while Sally thinks otherwise. The former didn’t have the guts to say how he felt so Sally ended up with someone else.

When George realized that everything he went through with Sally was just nothing for her, he didn’t speak to her and ignored her calls for days. He became depressed and his performance in school worsened.  One day he got into an argument with his stepfather and broke his stepfather’s collarbone, he immediately ran to Sally’s place and that’s when he found out that Sally was going out with Dustin, George’s friend whom he introduced to Sally when they first visited his place to check out his paintings. That was a wake up call for him; he went to school the next day to tell his principal that he was going to do a year’s worth of assignment so he could earn his diploma on graduation day which is three weeks away and he’s still has to take the final exams. This was the most inspiring part of the movie.

He worked hard; he did a year’s worth of assignment for three weeks and got his diploma on graduation day. As a student, this movie was very inspiring because as what the principal told George as he was receiving his diploma, “Anything is possible”. We tend to complain over one single assignment that was due next month but he did everything in three weeks, all we need is that something to push us to work hard, and that is motivation. And as to what happened between him and Sally? I’ll leave that for you to watch the movie and find out. 

3 Idiots

I always hear people talking about the movie 3 Idiots and most of them have recommended it, but I haven’t seen it since only recently. At first, I thought the movie was all comedy and was purely for entertainment. Little did I know that I was wrong, very wrong. The movies was more than that, it was more than just “3 Idiots” doing silly things to make the audience laugh. It was about friendship, love, family, school and dreams.

Farhan, Raju and Rancho met at an engineering school, Imperial College of Engineering. Farhan and Raju belonged to an average family while Rancho was from a rich one. Farhan wanted to become a photographer, but went to an engineering school because it’s what his father wants while Raju, just wanted to help his family financially. Rancho is a genius and studies because he wants to, and he was a big influence to Farhan and Raju, because of Rancho, Farhan decided to follow his dream which is photography, while Rancho took an unexpected approach for and interview for a corporate job. Rancho became their inspiration to work hard and follow their dreams.

The story didn’t just revolve around those three, it also dealt with students committing suicide due to pressure, and may it be because of our parents, teachers or peers. Raju even attempted to commit suicide, but he had Rancho and Farhan behind him to support him all the way. This goes to show that the movie also tackled about true friends and how they can help you overcome any problem. It also shows that family should always come first and that we should support them in doing what they love. True love was also present in the movie as Pia left her husband-to-be on their wedding day to go to the man she truly loves, Rancho, and she wasn’t even sure if Rancho isn’t married since they haven’t seen each other for years.

The movie was 2 hours and 44 minutes long so it’s impossible to fit everything here. I recommend you watch the movie, if you haven’t yet. It’s a very inspiring movie and you’d be lying if you say you didn’t tear up while watching it. After watching the movie, I can say that I would have really missed 1/8 of my life if I haven’t watched it. I couldn’t even believe how many moral lessons was fitted into one movie, but one line really got to me, it is that “Cramming may get you past 4 years in college but it will screw your next 40 years.”

The Vow

          What makes a movie more interesting? What makes a horror movie even more frightening? It’s the line at the beginning that says “Based on a true story.” The moment we see that line, we immediately become more interested with the movie. This is also how I felt the first time I watch the movie, The Vow.

          “Life's all about moments, of impact and how they changes our lives forever. But what if one day you could no longer remember any of them?” The antagonists, Leo and Paige were involved in a car accident, Paige got major injuries since the moment before the accident happened, she unbuckled her seatbelt to lean over and kiss Leo. She then woke up in the hospital and to Leo’s surprise; she doesn’t remember a thing about him. Imagine being involved in an accident with the person you love and when she finally regains consciousness, she doesn’t remember you at all. It hurts right? This is the moment of impact, which proves potential for change, and no matter how hard you try, you can’t control how it’s going to affect you.

          Although confused about everything that has been happening, Paige was still open about gaining her memories back and staying with Leo might help with that. But it wasn’t that easy, especially for Leo, he tried so hard to help Paige regain her memories by going on with their everyday lives like they used to. It was almost impossible though, since Paige remembered to be in love with her ex fiancée whom she thinks is till her fiancée. Pain after pain, Leo finally gave up trying to make Paige fall in love with her again, because he can see that she’s in love with her ex fiancée thus his famous heartbreaking line:  “ I see the way you look at him. I know, because you used to look at me that way.”

          After the wedding incident, Leo finally decided to just let it go. But like what they say, just when you're about to give up, that's when a miracle actually happens. Paige then finds all the answers to her questions: why she left home, why she left law school and why she broke up with her fiancée. When asked why Leo told her any of these, he told her that he doesn't want to drive her away from her family again. They saw each other again outside a café; they did some catching up and went to find a place to eat.

          The couple that inspired the movie is living happily together now with their kids, and she never regained her memory. This was made the movie really great. This movie is really inspiring and that it makes you believe in true love. It makes you think that you can get through any obstacles when you really love the person. It makes you believe that if two people really are meant to be together, they will always find a way back.