Eat, Drink, Man, Woman. - It's hard to avoid basic human desires

`          Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) is a movie directed by Ang Lee which was set in Taiwan. The story centers a family; A father who raised his three girls (daughters) by himself after his wife had passed away. Besides already taking the role of parenting (being both a mother and father to his children), he is a renown chef. Outside his home he is respected and sought after by his workers and others although, at home it is a different setting altogether. 

            One of the main concept that can be seen surrounding this film is the culture and Chinese traditions. It can be seen that his three children lived with him even though they had jobs of their own and are about their late twenty's. In most Asian cultures, the children only leaves the house when they are married. Besides that, children are supposed to take care of their parents, especially the oldest child. Jia-Jen, the oldest assumed she had a responsibility to be 'mother figure' of the family. She threw away her love life because of this. 

           Jia- Chein the second daughter, wanted to become a chef just like her father but was strongly advised against it by her father. From a cultural point of view, the chefs in these countries are usually males and this was probably one of the reasons why she was prohibited enter the kitchen after her interest in becoming a chef escalated. 

           Besides that, most Asian family sit together during dinner, it is more of an obligation and sign of respect. Even in the film, it can be seen that their table manners are very much present and that the way they conduct themselves during dinner are very formal. 

          What is interesting about this film is that all traditions and norms are broken by each of them including the father. The eldest daughter married even before introducing and seeking approval from the father. The second child, plans to get her own place to stay even before getting and married and as for the youngest she gets pregnant even before getting married. Most shockingly is the father, he falls in love with a women who is of the same age as his children. 

         What is depicted in this film from my point of view is that sometimes, in order to be happy, cultural norms should not be followed. We are so fixated in maintaining out social norms and worrying about others thought that we neglect our wants and needs. Besides that, culture and tradition, while there are benefits can also be detrimental for our health and our relationship with others. For example by repressing feelings and urges.

      Gender inequality as well can be seen with the second daughter. As mentioned before, she did not get her father's approval to become a chef. This was also one of the reasons why the second daughter turned out to be successful ( it probably drove her to become independent and aim higher) She is also one of the only female in her company who has a high position.   

         Lastly but most important is the attachment styles of each daughter.

Mr Chu does not know how to communicate well with his children, yes he has taken care of them but he hardly shows affection in other ways besides his cooking. Cooking for them is the only way he knows how to show love to them. This may have affected their personality.
 
    Jia-Jen being the oldest has an insecure attachment style with her father. Being the oldest, the crown was taken from her when the other two sisters were born thus she coped with this by always trying to be responsible for the family and taking the role of the mother in the family. This attachment style states that anxiousness or ambivalence is shown in her relationships. Jia- Jen fakes a story about a guy who broke her heart in order to stay at home to take care of the father. Besides that, when she was getting love-letters, she was anxious about the coach. Even when they finally did fall in love she wanted to marry him immediately and even convert him to a christian.

As for Jia- Chien, she had an avoidance attachment style. There has been friction between Jia-Chien and her father. Where he hardly comments or speaks to her and when she does comment it is usually a criticism on how the food taste bad an so on. This has an effect with her relationships with men. In the film, she is seen with a guy earlier on but it was purely a 'friends with benefits' situation. She hardly is close with any of her sisters as well and focuses all her time immersing herself in her job.

In conclusion, communication within the family is important, when there is a problem in a relationship or with the way an individual feels it shows in their health and so on. Mr Chu lost his taste buds throughout the movie, but at the end when he was finally content with his life and his children, his regained it. In the end, each family member turned out to happier as they did not bottle up any emotions which brought the family closer together.

Ghandi (1982) - Mahatma

Ghandi (1982), is a true story about one man who grew the courage to defy the British Empire in order to attain the freedom of equality.

        At beginning of the movie, stereotype and discrimination is shown towards colored people (the indians in Africa). Stereotype is a fixed image or rather perception of a person or a group of people where as discrimination is where a person or a group of people are treated unjustly based on false assumption about them (Stereotype). Gandhi, though he was from a upper class in the caste system in his country (India), he was treated as of low status in Africa. Even when paid for first class, he was not allowed to sit in the first class coach and was forced to join the lower class or be thrown out. This was one of those sparks where Gandhi started to rebel.

Although he was an activist, he never promoted violence, in fact he was totally against it. He had a different approach towards independence and the fight for their rights. He played with the emotion guilt, and the morality and principle the British stood for. This can be seen in several aspects of the movie, such as when the people was encouraged to rebel by refusing the British but not retaliate with any form of violence. The British at first however did enforce their position with violence but when the same action was not reciprocated, British people from England was not happy with the way the Birtish in India reacted. They in turn in a long term, started to feel guilty and question their position and principle towards the people in India.

    
        Now how did Gandhi managed to persuade the people in India or even Africa for instance to retaliate? Gandhi basically immerse himself in their culture and tradition. He dressed like them, worked like them and even lived like them. He represented the people thus the people felt closer and connected to him. He was apart of the in group, and once he showed his courage and determination, the people followed. This is through social learning, this theory states that and act or behavior can be learned purely through observation or direct instruction, this is more infectious if the leader is respected and is looked at as a role model and that was exactly what Gandhi was to the people. He learned from them, to become more like them in terms of the way of living and they learned from him, to resist without violent, to unite as one and to take back their country.


 You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.- Gandhi.


Towards the end though, when Independence was almost in their hands, the muslims and hindus fought against each other. Both religion felt threaten by each other as well they wanted to claim their territory (Pakistan was formed because of this). The situation got out of hand and again stereotype and discrimination was formed but this time to its extreme, hundreds and thousands of life was lost in the massacre. Gandhi had little or no power to stop this, the only thing he could do was to fast and slowly the people stopped the fight as they did not want Gandhi to die, his teaching and guidance was still important to them and he left an impact on most of their hearts. He stayed at a muslim's house to show that there were no enemies but the Hindu's was angry at this. Some followed his way and stopped the discrimination others felt threaten by this. In the end, Gandhi was assassinated for trying to unite both Muslims and Hindus by requesting for equal rights. 

- The whole world mourned for the death of Gandhi, all he ever wanted was peace, freedom and equality for all.-

         The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.- Gandhi
 

Imagine one man who woke the whole of India compromising of millions of people. He must be something.

Running on Empty - Moving.

        Running on empty (1988) is a movie about a family which has been in hiding since the 60's. Due to their situation, they had formed a close family bond just within the four of them. (Parents and children). The children has learned that sticking together is the only way they would survive, that they are strongest when the were together. Thus every year they moved about twice with different aliases. Although they have moved around quite a bit, their values and culture still remains, this is because their family values were reinforced by their father ever since they were young and they never had the chance to adopt a different way of life or culture for that matter since they were always on the move.

Changed hair color so that they are unrecognizable

The family system theory best explains this. This is a theory that views a family as a unit. This is exactly what happens in this film. The father (Arthur Pope), say this to his family

 Danny: I wanna stay.
Arthur:   Do you think this is a good time to be talking about this?! we're in trouble here! a unit is only as good as it's strongest link; we're a unit! i taught you.....i taught you all of this, dont you remember that? are we finished discussing this now?
-Danny and Arthur


This theory adds that a family is connected emotionally and that families often and very much do affect its members thoughts, feelings and actions (Psychology Press, n.d.). Families based on this theory, also wants attention and approval from its members and in turn reacts to its members need, attention and support (Psychology Press, n.d.). 

        Take for example Danny and his younger brother, they were brought up differently than their peers in their varying schools. They are very polite and far off smarter. They think more independently compared to their peers as their parents has always taught them to question authority.
        Besides that, Danny has a strong passion for music which he has taken after his mother [whom took after her mother (Danny's grandmother)]. Though, at the end he was not going to pursue it because his dad had told him not to (family's approval and support). This also shows the strength of inter-dependency within this family.
        Annie Pope ( Danny's mother), also turned out the way she is ( a wanted person) because of  her rebelling against her parents. Of-course she did it (participated in the bombing) with purely good intention of making a difference but the other reason was because of her parents, to make a point to them as well.

Annie Pope:         Will you take him, dad? He want's to study music. He's good. They want him at Juilliard.
Donald Patterson: Just like they wanted you. Still have that practice board?
Annie Pope:          So far. Danny learned to play piano on it.
Donald Patterson: So you taught him. There's some irony in this. Don't you think, Annie? Here you are, asking me to take Danny into a life that you ran from like a shot out of hell. This what he wants?
Annie Pope:          I think so. Got himself an audition without telling me. He'll need money and people to care for him. 

 Another important scene is Danny's love life. In the new town which he is living in, the meets a girl name Lorna who is his Professor's daugther. She encourages him to go to Juliard, to have an future as well as finally let someone in and fall in love. From my gathering, without her support, he would not have had the encouragement to tell his dad about Juliard or even taken the audition for that matter. College would not have mattered much if it was not for her asking him about it.

Social learning theory would fit in to this. This theory shows that partners learn from their relationship behaviors (Bardbury & Kamey, 2010). They have learned to trust each other hence that is why Danny tells Lorna about who his family really is, they also transmit positive outcomes to help better the other. Danny would not have took college as that important if it was not for Lorna who speaks about college. He learned a few things and a different way of thinking with Lorna around, he finally wanted to stay in one place and not move around so much, he finally made a decision on his own and decided to talk to his parents about it.

Both this theory is important but family system theory would have had a bigger impact on Danny, only with his parents blessing did he finally pursue his ambitions. This is because Danny is from a nuclear family, which only consist of the four of them whom always had each others back and was always close in terms of space and in terms of relationships (only constant relationship they had).

P.S. First movie of River Phoenix that I've seen. Since watching it I have become a fan of his work (acting), what a shame he had to die so young, just when he was at his peak (like Heath Ledger). Off to watch more of his movies now, cheers!

 References (Links):
http://www.wwnorton.com/college/psych/intimate-relationships/ch/03/summary.aspx
http://psypress.co.uk/smithandmackie/resources/topic.asp?topic=ch11-tp-03#Effects%20of%20Relationships
 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096018/trivia?tab=qt&ref_=tt_trv_qu



  

Awakenings (1990) - Bitter-sweet

        Awakenings is a movie which was based by a true story; A book written by Oliver Sacks. It centers a Doctor (Doctor Sayer) who is placed at a chronic hospital at the Bronx whom tries to help overcome Encephalitis Lethargica in his patients (a form of disease that leaves patients catatonic). 

                                       

     In the beginning of the movie, when Dr. Sacks (played by Robbin Williams) joined the hospital, it can be seen that little or no care was given to the patients with Encephalitis, they were not treated as a human being instead a thing. This can be seen by the way the nurses treated the patients, hardly anytime was spent with them. The nurses and doctors of the hospital had formed a stereotype on these patients thus treating them as things without even so much as having a proper conversation with them. They assumed they all were brain dead and could not comprehend anything thus treating them merely as things with no emotions. 

     This stereotype and discrimination on them (the patients) broke when Dr. Sayer showed them nurses and doctors that they are responsive and their brains do work. When these patients were given the drug L Dopa, they regain normal human functioning. This would then lead them (patients) to tell the nurses what they dislike and what they prefer (such as the color of their hair, food preferences and activities they would prefer). The nurses were surprised by these requests and felt bad for not treating them better when they were catatonic. Main takeaway from here is patients should be treated as humans and not any other way. Their consciousness and brain very much still works.

                               

Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Maslow's Hierarchy of needs can be seen when Leonard Lowe (played by Robert De Niro) came out of his catatonic state. His first needs was met long before he got out of the catatonic state by the help of his mother and the nurses. Safety needs were also met as the hospital was a safe and guarded place. One could then see Leonard Lowe move to the third stage where he started to cultivate friendship with the rest especially Doctor Sayer. He then begin to find intimate relationship, this can been seen with the women he met at the hospital whom he was quickly smitten by.

        Though, all this being said his feeling of prestige and esteem needs were not met. He managed to pass the stages of Maslow's hierarchy but stage four which was also essential in terms of his psychological well being were not met. He did not accomplished much on his own for he was not allowed to. Leonard Lowe was not given permission to do so much as go out for a walk alone thus affecting his mental state where he threw a fit (this may be also due to the side effect of the medication). Leonard Lowe was not given the freedom to choose thus altering his behavior which may have impacted the side effect even more.

         One other aspect that the movie emphasizes is the way we take life for granted. After the patients came out of their catatonic phases temporarily, they were in awe of the littlest of things such as being able to move, being able to listen to music and dance and being able to go out or even look at the sun. They were so content about these things, things that we humans with normal ability take for granted. Hardly do we count our blessings for the life's we have compared to others who are more unfortunate then us.

           The psychology of gratitude based on positive psychology is one way to overcome this issue. This view proposes that individuals want to live a meaningful life and as well a life with fulfillment. By doing so, it enhances our experiences in our daily activities such as love, work and play. It also increases our well being. When individuals are grateful for the things they have and the life they live, life suddenly becomes more satisfying. Leonard Lowe wanted people to see this as he was not given the opportunity others had such as going for a simple walk. He was rather upset that people were not appreciative enough of the simplest things such as these as he, even if he wanted to, could not because of his condition.

  I end with this.

   

Cinema Paradiso - Simply Beautiful.''

Cinema Paradiso

           Cinema Paradiso, an Italian film that came out in 1988, is a film that not only has touched the hearts of Italians but also world wide. Why is this so?

Toto

           The film centers a boy named Salvatore who is better known for his nickname Toto. Toto grew a strong passion about films and that is where he met Alfredo, a projectionist in the cinema.

  

He used to sneak in the cinema just to get a peak at the movie

                          










Why or how did Toto develop a passion for films?
        This can be seen in the beginning of the movie, Toto's father had left for war and it has been several years since he's been back. He has a yearning and longing for his Father and as well long to see his mother in the arms of his Father. Toto hides his yearning for his dad and his troubles behind films. The cinema was a place where he could forget his troubles and immerse himself into the films.

       From a psychological perspective, this is better known as Escape Theory, by immersing himself in films, it helped him to forget his troubles as well as the people in his life which he was not happy with.

           Thus, because of Toto's passion, he has met Alfredo who fulfilled his fatherly needs.

Totó: Now that I’m older and going to the fifth grade… I’m not saying I can start going to the projection booth, but why don’t we become friends?

                              
           Toto learned almost everything from Alfredo. Alfredo advised him and taught him. Toto looked at him as a role model; a father he never had. Alfredo has influenced his life so much that at one point in his life, he himself did the exact job Alfredo did; a projectionist. When Alfredo insisted that Toto leave Sicily and explore the world and work somewhere other than there, he obeyed him even when he did not want to do that.

           Bandura's Social Learning Theory clearly explains this. Toto took Alfredo as a role model, he learned his ways (learned from Alfredo's mistakes), observed him well and adored him.

   




"You’re young and the world is yours. I’m old.
I don’t want to hear you talk anymore.
I want to hear others talking about you."- Alfredo





            Alfredo's advice or rather demand that Toto leaves Sicily  did very much influenced his future as an adult. Toto made it big in the cinema, as a director of some sort. He heeded Alfredo's advice and never looked back. Alfredo's words drove Toto to succeed; the drive theory explains Toto's success in his adulthood. A drive theory is when someone's need are not met hence they look for solutions to meet these needs. Toto (Salvatore) probably became successful in the film industry because film was the closest thing that reminded him of Alfredo and the good times they had. This probably motivated him to work in an industry which he loved. Another reason to it could be metting his primary needs; food and shelter. Not forgetting of-course Alfredo's words of wanting Toto to make it big.   

  
          Finally, the ending is where it gets to all of the audiences. From what I have gather from the ending, your childhood defines who you are in the future. It shapes your very core and no matter how far you are from home, the memories of the past will be everlasting. 
  
        The demolishing of the cinema (when Toto comes back to pay respect to Alfredo) also shows how much culture have changed.

 I end with the fact that, the movie would not have had that big of an emotional impact if it was not for the music composed by Ennio Morricone. In the film, the music was present in most of the important parts of the movie thus conditioning viewers to have a bigger emotional impact at the end where the music was louder than the other parts of the movie thus, making this film known as having one of the best ending. The ending with the music really does bring out those emotions and nostalgia.