As we live
there is a pretty good chance we would contemplate what exactly we are living
for and what do we want in life. As a fellow human being I have my fair share
of those moments. I consider myself as a pretty "together" kind of
person but with a brain that can govern unconscious emotions I am not immune to
those unwanted thoughts and moments.
I said
those are unwanted thoughts and moments because I don't like them. However
being "unwanted" does not mean that they are unnecessary. Depending
how you handle it this kind of thoughts and moments could turn out to be
something extremely beneficial or could even turn your life around. I grew up
learning that I am the only person responsible for my own happiness so
naturally I have my own approach to deal with these moments.
A number of
people asked me where do I usually find courage to make major decisions in
life. I gave up what I established and moved to a different country to start
from scratch. I decided to do something completely different to become an
actor. I moved out of my old familiar profession to work in completely
different fields. I decided to leave comfortable and safe permanent employment
to contract works so I can have more time for personal and family matters. To
some they are some kamikaze acts. For others the bravery is inspiring. For me
it is something I need to do to understand my life and find my happiness.
I do not
want to sound proud or arrogant because this is not what a humble life means. I
just want my life to be meaningful to me and if I need to deal with all the
crap that were thrown at me in these odd decades of years I need to do my best
to make myself happy. I don't do drugs and do not believe in the illusion they
brought so I have to keep it real. One thing though - no matter how dramatic
the changes look to other people, most of the time they are planned and thought
through. Risks were assessed to ensure that I could bear the consequences if
things did not work out. This is because at the end of the day you cannot
expect other people to come and rescue you. This is not me being proud but
being pragmatic.
Life has
its ups and downs and there is no way we can avoid them. But when we are in the
down phase the question is not just "how could we get out of this?"
but "how could I make myself happy again". This is because feeling
down is more than a mere environmental impact but also an internal and
emotional shift. Simply searching for an external objective change would not
make you happier and if that objective change failed to satisfy you, you risk being
drawn further inside the vortex of disappointment. That said I am not saying
objective change will not bring happiness. What I am trying to point out is
objective change has to come from your heart so you align the internal and
external factors together. That makes it easier for one to get out of tight
corners and situations in life.I am no
expert in life and I do not intend to pretend to be one. But what I know is I
want to be happy and I need to continue to sustain that because life is too
short to stay unhappy. Listening to my heart, find out what I what, find out
how to achieve it, assess the risk involve, plan my damage control and then go
for it is my way to do it. It might not work for others but I do not believe in
"there is nothing we can do" when it comes to our own lives. I
believe there is always at least one option: to act to change or to just stay
unhappy. Objective environments or constrains are objective because they can be
changed. It depends on us to act responsibly to go to where we want ourselves
to be. Nonetheless do always ask yourself "what would make me most happy
at this stage of my life?" so a relevant goal is set for your actions
because haphazard actions could lead to further hazards and disappointments.
And this would possibly the last thing you want to see happening.
Life is an
art itself and it is up to us to paint or sculpt it.
A recent trip overseas allowed me to catch
up on some movie watching. One of them is the acclaimed Gravity. I originally
did not intend to see when I first saw the trailer. I was thinking “why would I
want to watch someone drifting in space for 1.5 hour?” However, as the gravity
gains momentum, I began to think whether I was too quick to judge a movie by
its trailer. But then I never got a chance to see it in the cinema due to other
reasons. So it was quite lucky that it was one of the selections on the in-flight
entertainment.
By this time, I believe most people who
were interested in the movie would have seen it. It is a movie about survival
in space. No there are no aliens, just some good old people floating and
drifting above Earth. I read some interviews with the director Alfonso Cuaron, and
the actors Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. They were all talking about how the
movie displayed a strong will of living can sometimes create miracles. This
theme constantly runs through in Gravity. When it seems that all hope is lost,
if you are willing to stay alive, that will could well be your lifesaver.
Gravity has generated another series of
Oscar buzz for Sandra Bullock and I think she rightly deserves it. It is
basically a one-woman show that gravitates you to this person’s survival tale. Usually
I get really bored with this kind of movie as sometimes I do think producers,
directors or screenwriters are stretching it too much and thus taxes its
believability. However, this is not the case in Gravity. You do care more about
the character and you will feel her disappointment when things did not work out
as planned. Alfonso Cuaron has crafted a piece of work with the correct length
that continues to capture your attention at every corner. I was unwilling to
take my eyes off the screen and felt annoyed when I needed attend to my in
flight catering (lucky you can pause the movie when the cabin crew displayed
their hospitality). In the movie, there was virtually no help available to
Sandra’s main character Ryan. Through this ordeal Ryan not only learnt about
survival but also the meaning and reason of living. It is sometimes sad that it
takes such an extreme situation for someone to understand the value of life.
However, sometimes we do need this kind of epiphany to helps us truly
appreciate life and overcome our obstacles to achieve true and simple happiness.
Ryan’s ordeal was very real and emotional. Alfonso Cuaron said Gravity was
partly a personal story as he was going through a rough patch in life at that
time and thus poured his energy into this screenplay.
Without a doubt, Alfonso had brought out some
of the best performances from Sandra Bullock. This is an extremely difficult production
in a way that Sandra is being suspended in the air most of the time while trying
to deliver her lines and keeping the performance real. In her interview Sandra
said it was some of the most difficult things she did in a way that you have to
ensure that every movement is right on the dot otherwise it is NG and doing it
all over again. Furthermore most of time it is just a green screen with basic
directions of where to look at and how far the target object was supposed to
be. This is hard enough doing it normally not to mention being suspended in the
air for several hours every day in a heavy astronaut costume. I think just for
this, Sandra Bullock deserves winning an Oscar (though probably Cate Blanchett
will win for her performance in Blue Jasmine).
George Clooney provided some great support
in Gravity despite most of the attention was given to Sandra Bullock. His
character is pivotal to Sandra’s character survival and he also provided good
Clooney comic relief for an extremely intense journey. It might not be an Oscar
nominating role like he had in the past, but it is equally important in the
movie, and that is what matters.
In my opinion, Gravity is a well-paced, well-written
and well-constructed masterpiece of the modern time. It might not have deadly
aliens chasing you across a space station, or aliens invading your home turf in
hordes. But the environment is as equally difficult to survive and that is what
made it great – just simple story telling and technologies are just things to
make this story happen. If you still haven’t seen it, I would highly recommend
you to check it out when it is available on other legally published formats.
