X-men: Days of Future Past

I have always loved the X-men movies. Yes it is another superhero movie but the variety of characters is what made the X-men movies so different from other superhero movies. Marvel is a world of superheroes and X-men has a quite central position to this world.

From the first movie when we were first introduced to some of the core characters, we know that there will be more movies to come, as one movie is just not enough to introduce all the colourful and interesting characters that populate this X-men universe. After the first movie, we had “X-men 2” and then “X-men: The Last Stand” that kind of wrapped up the initial trilogy. In these three movies we get to know Professor X, Wolverine, Storm, Cyclops, Jean Grey (aka Dark Phoenix), Rogue (still think they did not do justice to this character), Magneto and Mystique. We also had a glimpse of Colossus, Kitty Pryde, Iceman, Pyro, and Juggernaut etc. In the third movie we also had a glimpse of the Sentinels, which was one of the very important story arcs in the comics. After the first trilogy, we had some spin offs such as the Wolverine movies and “X-men: The First Class” that tell us more about the back-stories.

In “X-men: Days of Future Past” the Sentinels finally took centre stage and the scene was not pretty. Mutants are being hunted ruthlessly including humans who have the potentials to produce mutant offspring. The weapon once designed to protect the human race became a tool to oppress whoever is different or has the potential to become different. In order to save the day Wolverine was sent back to the past attempting to change the course of history. He needs to enlist the help of other mutants (the cast of “X-men: The First Class”) to change an important event so that mutants in the future (the cast of the original X-men trilogy) could avoid a complete extinction.

It is really exciting to see that director Bryan Singer did attempt to bring back most of the original cast members for continuity. After all a lot of them are now more expensive and well known. It is also very cool that these now super stars are willing to reprise their roles but some of them in a smaller capacity. Halle Berry reprises as Storm so did Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen as Professor X and Magneto. They together with Ellen Page’s Kitty Pryde and Shawn Ashmore’s Iceman formed the pillar of the future arc. When Wolverine was sent back to the past, he encountered the younger version of Professor X and Magneto (played by James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender), Beast (played by Nicholas Hoult) and not to mention Mystique (played by Jennifer Lawrence). New comers to the series included Evan Peters’ Quicksilver, Bingbing Fan’s Blink, Omar Sy’s Bishop and Booboo Stewart’s Warpath. It was a strong cast with a huge variety of personalities.

One thing I like about Bryan Singer’s X-men movies is they do have great humour despite a lot of times they are talking about serious issues such as discrimination, fear and oppression. It is good that in this movie, humour is not just exhibited by Wolverine but also the younger or past version of the X-men. James McAvoy proved once again that he is no an inferior version of Patrick Stewart’s Professor X and can hold his own ground. Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique had matured and now more and more similar to Rebeca Romijn’s famous interpretation. Michael Fassbender’s ruthless Magneto made sharp contrast to the older repenting Magneto who is fighting for his survival. Ian McKellen commanded most of the heavy weight story line with Patrick Stewart and you could see how a friendship bond by similarity then torn by differences came back in full cycle. Hugh Jackman as Wolverine is as great as ever and I think when this character is thrown into the array of other X-men, it became more interesting than just him as Wolverine holding a full movie together. However I must say the short appearance of Evan Peters’ Quicksilver had stole quite a bit of limelight from his other fellow X-men. His scenes were just brilliant.

“X-men: Days of Future Past” is not a particularly uplifting movie as oppression and discrimination are at their peak with the sole intention of elimination and extinction. However, the story was so tightly woven together that you do not want to miss a single moment of it no matter how heavy the tone is. Also the story tied up a lot of loose ends in other X-men movies and wrapped up different storylines nicely by referencing them skilfully throughout the story. I personally hope that there won’t be another X-men movie coming out any time soon so I can relish this feeling for me for a bit longer. As for the movie itself, it was a full house of applause when the credits roll, so you know what that means and I rest my words here. 

Validation Acting

Had a really good audition the other day. I was a bit anxious to be honest as it was an important audition for me. I spent two weeks preparing the pieces and took a special voice session with my teacher to make sure I approached the text from all angles.

The artistic director of the Company held the audition, together with one of the resident artists for the year. I believed I displayed my anxiousness during the chitchat but then it was down to the business. It did two monologues from two Australian plays (it was a requirement that they are from Australian plays as it is a Company that supports and promotes local artists) - one from "A Manual from the Trench Warfare" by Clem Goman and the other from "When the Rain Stops Falling" by Andrew Bovell. The first one was an intense masculine piece about surviving Gallipoli. The feedback was "that was very intense". The second is a confession piece that opens the play. The response was "That was completely beautiful! I was transported to your world and I did not want you to stop".

I was cautiously happy about the response. It is something important and precious for me, this audition, so I tried to do my best under all the pressure I consciously or unconsciously put on to myself. Now that it is done I tried not to expect too much to avoid potential disappointment. I have now been in this business long enough to understand this. That said I was really appreciative about the feedback as it meant a lot to me.

I put the feedback on to my Facebook and people commented that it was a great validation of my skills. This got me thinking about the importance of validation in this acting business. For me a simple validation of my skills is already extremely satisfying at an audition. I am not an actor with constant flow of work, or even a constant flow of audition or casting. My skills have been highly commended by teachers I respected and look up to including Peter Andrikidis and Colin Friels when I took classes with them, though I wonder whether they would still remember me. Colin Friels told me during the break on one of the days that he had no notes for my work as with the calibre of work I was doing I should be working and not taking classes. This did not really translate in the real world. However I continued to work hard on my skills with my voice classes, as I believe when the opportunity comes I have to be ready. Being given an opportunity to an important audition is huge for me not to mention such a validation.

However I am also pragmatic enough to understand not to seek for such kind of validation actively. Validation for me is icing on the cake in this acting business. For me it is not something you can actively look for. Acting is an art form. For me it is an expression of how you relate yourself to the world around you, thus makes your art unique to your audience. Actively seeking validation would tind this freedom up with invisible chains because it is no longer about who you are and how you think as an artist. This is because you are actively trying looking for what other people want. The whole perspective became muddled and then you end up with something that is not true to who you are as an artist. Not that it won't work in the industry, as I did hear successful stories of people doing so. Some even went to distance in the industry with this approach and I feel happy for their success stories. Just that it is not my way of approaching acting. For me if acting is not about understanding the world around you and thus your character and it's world, it is no longer interesting.

I might sound naive or stupid in thinking so as I should be in this field long enough to understand this is a business after all. That might also be a reason that I am not as constantly working as an actor as others (or even as successful in my other working life). But for me if it is not something I believe in, what is the point of doing it? If it is not real acting it is just "acting". It would no longer have relevance to me. If it is not a real life what is the point of living it?

I understand that not everyone could afford this kind of indulgence about art and life. I do not know how long I could hold on to this either. But as long I could afford to do so, I am willing to fight for that self-indulging purity of art, acting and life.



 

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Watching The Grand Budapest Hotel does give you a feel of reading a book through someone else’s eyes. It is very stylised but suit its context. At times it feel Tim Burtonish but with a slightly more colourful palette. It also feels very Baz Luhrmann but a lot less over the top.

The film recounts the events of a lobby boy turned millionaire through the recounting of the writer who via a chance encounter came across the story. And this recounting was done through another person reading the book wrote by this writer many years later. Sounds complicated on paper but in fact it was done quite ingeniously as each layer was peeled off like a Russian doll.

Under the lenses of Director Wes Anderson we were able to read this book chapter by chapter and let our imagination run wild. The good thing about this movie is that you do feel like images are leaping off the pages as you imagined when you are reading a book. This approach opened up a lot of possibilities in terms of how shots could be framed. Honestly it might not be everyone's cup of tea but personally I admired how the director managed to balance imagination with story telling. This is extremely important for The Great Budapest Hotel because it is telling a story. The imaginary in the movie are vivid and relevant. Sometimes you feel like you are watching a sequence in a video game, sometimes a dark tale by Tim Burton and sometimes a Baz glamour fest. But no matter what kind of technique was employed they all tied in to the context of the story perfectly. That I think is what is good about The Grand Budapest Hotel.

The Grand Budapest Hotel has recruited a number of who's who in the current acting industry. It is basically a hotel with Oscar winners or Oscar nominees in every room. Some of the big names include Ralph Fiennes as one of the leads to cameos of Tilda Swindon, Adrian Brody, Willem Dafoe, Edward Norton, Jude Law, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Murray and the list goes on. The great thing is that this is truly an ensemble piece. Everyone was just doing his or her part without attempting to upstage anyone. I think this is what great acting is about, know your part and do your part properly. Ralph Fiennes as one of the central characters M Gustav was particular and eccentric. This is a huge departure from his menacing performance as Voldermolt and his heavy and intense workmanship in The Reader. Gustav is a surreal character in a surreal environment. His popularity among older women was uncanny when compared to his pride in maintaining the meticulous high standard of the hotel for those who stay there. The Lobby Boy Zero was played by newcomer Tony Revolori. He is kind of fit for the part but then sometimes you do feel his performance is kind of one-dimensional. There are only a set numbr of looks from him most of the time. However, I have not read the original story so I could not pass judgement whether he is doing a good job or not. However, he did have good chemistry with Ralph’s Gustav, which is important. To be fair he did have some good moments to show the depth of his character. As for great cameo moments from other acting greats in the movie I could never forget Adrian Brody's dark velvet rope in bright red shoes. Those shoes really highlighted his status as a wealthy prick who cares about nothing but his own inheritance. Tilda Swindon's brief moment as the flailing Dowagers was also outstanding. Initially you didn't even notice that it is her. And her comic moments in just a few scenes were just right on the dot.

The Grand Budapest Hotel is not the easiest of the movies to watch and understand. It does require undivided attention to understand the relationships and events. Not that the story is complicated but you would certainly enjoy the movies more when you pay attention to all the tiny bits of details planted by the cast and crew throughout the movie. It is a comedy with its own quirk that distinguishes itself from the pack. Great performances from a great cast is a selling point (as you can see from the movie poster) but be sure to bring an open mind into the theatre before sitting through this production. However, if you are looking for a straightforward comedy, this is not something for you.

 

Music (that) Makes the People

Was trolling through my music collection on my iPod over the weekend. During the process I re-discovered a lot of songs that I haven't listened to for quite some time. That Sailormoon theme song; those good old Cantonpop songs that I still miraculously remember not just the tunes but also the lyrics. I was surprised that I was still able to play that sing-along thing to those songs. However at the same time I noticed that I haven't updated my music collection for quite a while.

I used to buy a lot of music. It has always been an important part of my life. I never was the person who stick to a particular kind of music. I listen and buy music according to the pleasure of my ears and my heart. As a classically trained person I always love classical music and have a sizeable collection. Growing up in Hong Kong without a doubt I got hooked on to Cantonpop. Some critics may classify most of them as sickly sweet candy tunes, which in my opinion is a sickly over-generalised view without understanding the music and it's culture. Then there are English pops. Some of them introduced by my radio days, some of them from the school's music club and some of them by accident. I also got into Japanese anime songs as these were stuff I grew up with. I even learnt Japanese because of that. With the "invasion" of Japanese drama I got into J-Pop, which for most of my friends I was a late bloomer. When I developed my interests in video games, I started listening to video games music too. To top all of these, there are also Latino music, French music and musical theatre. So with such wide spectrum of musical interest (or according to some people lack of specialisation) my music collection should be growing continuously. How did it happen that I am spending less and less of my disposable income on buying music?

With the advance of technology buying music had never been easier. Long gone are the days you need to go to the shops to get a CD. I still enjoy browsing on the shelves flipping through racks of CDS enjoying their packaging and covers. But then online shopping is now complimented with digital download purchase, which means I can virtually buy any music I like at a click of the mouse. So why isn't my music collection growing as it should?

I believe my love for music has not waned but probably as I grow older, I get a lot more picky on what to buy. This probably due to that fact that not all my disposable income is that "disposable" anymore. As I moved out of home, expenditures rises. Bills that were dealt with by parents are now my stuff. Utilities, food, car and now a mortgage they all inevitably shrunk my share of disposable income. So I have to rationalise my spending across all categories of things that I like - theatre, cinema, concerts, music, videos, video games, books etc. As a result I began to play safe in my purchases. Some of my adventurous attitude to music and cinema was eroded and leading me to restrict myself to all the safe purchases instead of just buying anything that seemed interesting. For me this is not healthy as it starts building fences around my interests, which is not great when you work in a creative industry. I believe you always need new catalysts to stimulate your creativity.

Radio used to be a main source for exposing me to new music but nowadays radio is so boring that I eventually just switched it off. One thing I sometimes cannot understand about radio in Australia is that a lot of time it is about the shock jocks not the music. Maybe the industry had moved forward and I was left behind.  The fact is on any day I prefer to listen to music broadcast than wasting my time listening to the babbling of some radio hosts who think they are funny and relevant to the society. Radio seemed to have lost its function of promoting music.

Some people may think this is a mid-life music crisis - you live to a point in life that most musical contents became irrelevant to you. You can no longer relate to those puppy and silly love songs the newer and younger artists are talking about. Yet you refuses to admit that you belong to an older generation of musicians. As a result you become the void generation on the dichotomy of music appreciation. I personally do not agree. I am still open to new music just that I do not know where to find them sometimes, or worse still do not have as much time to find them. Maybe my appreciation levels and standards are now more refined with all these years, good music is still good music. By that I do not mean music that complies with certain composition structure or marketing blitz, I mean music that pleases my ears. Once a colleague made a comment on me saying "I would never expect you to listen to this kind of music" and there was another friend who once said, "You could play such beautiful classical music why would you listen to any Madonna stuff?". For me if I like the music it is relevant to me. I don't need to build a framework around it.

So the question remains - how could I continue to expose myself to new music? Maybe I just need to find time and make the effort, as with all things you love, you need to work hard to keep the love going.

The Real Blah Blah of Blah Blah Blah

Woke up from my afternoon nap on a picture perfect Saturday afternoon outside. I dozed off while watching something on cable TV and it was still on when I woke up. I was pretty tired after a whole week of work and after all the housework and swimming in the morning. As I woke up the TV was showing one of the reunion shows for one of the “Real Housewives” shows. I personally never follow those shows, as they don’t really interest me. At the end of the day why would I want to watch shows about a bunch of ridiculously wealthy women whose face are faker than most Barbie dolls on the shelves? However, that reunion show I accidentally bumped into completely blew me off the water.

You might think is it that good? The answer is no. But it is more dramatic than any of the scripted dramas you can find on any channels. These women from the “Real Housewives of New Jersey” were so feisty that you think you are watching “Daniel inside the Lion Den”. All the accusations, arguments, scheming and betrayals put soaps like “Days of Our Lives” and “Bold and Beautiful” to shame. Certainly these rich New Jersey women were living days of their lives being bold and beautiful but the compound product was just dramas after dramas that choke you to death. While watching it I was wondering how could these women survive that much drama they stirred up within a few months of filming?

However, my accidental encounter of this show got me to think about something else: why are there so many of these shows about the bitchiness of women to each other? And why are there no such shows about the immaturity of men? Doing a bit of research on this topic, the “Real Housewives” series currently has the follow locales: New York City; Orange County; Atlanta; New Jersey; Beverley Hills; Miami; Vancouver; and the latest addition Melbourne. Please feel free to add any more that you know in case I missed out any locations. And on top of that, we have all the modeling shows like “ Next Top Model” and the latest “The Face ”. These so called reality modeling competitions have on different occasions claimed to spark the approval of inappropriate behaviours among these contestants (who are mostly young girls), specifically the bitchy bullying of other contestants. Surely the latest (?) season of American Top Model had included guys in the mix but from the advertising materials it seems it is going to be about the girls drooling all over those six pecks and what lies below it, and in order to achieve that cat fighting among each other (and why is it women’s fighting are cat fights when people named these women “bitches”?).

Surely there was one show about guys called “The A-List New York”. But cast of the show was a bunch of gay guys in New York, not your average straight blokes. So talk about stereotypes on gay guys being the bitchy bunch in the society. I do not know whether this actually improved the image of gay guys or it further cemented the stereotypes.

Maybe someone would argue that straight guys are just not interesting to watch. Maybe but then how would you know if you don’t have a show tested? Just throwing some ideas out there for some stereotypical “reality” shows – what about a show about a bunch of surfer dudes who do nothing most days but training their six packs, surf on the beach and picking up girls along the way? Them fighting over any female being walking into the bar or working at a bar would be good to watch. There could so much action when they throw punches at each other and got thrown out of the bar? What about a show about Rugby players in Australia? People would love to see them training shirtless all the time, hitting on girls or maybe even each other, not to mention getting drunk in the public and putting their contracts on the line. The stress and anxiety they caused on themselves but blaming on the society would be so cool to watch. If we can have “Housewives” shows about their litigations why not a Rugby player show about how many times they got sent to the courts to defend their career because of what they did outside the field? I would prefer to watch these on these shows instead on national news, which for me has no intrinsic social news value at all.

I mean at the end of the day if you have worked in the media long enough you would know that these so-called reality shows are portraying “edited realities” that do not necessarily be the “real thing”. However, what I found disturbing is that these shows seem to perpetuate certain social stereotypes while claiming to show people a “real” side of these participants. Maybe some of the participants do think it is a good opportunity to leverage their “Housewife” career or such, but is it doing the society any good? I doubt so. But then in a world about ratings and income, who cares about social good? At the end of the day, in this volatile industry, most of the time the good may not prevail.

I think I better shut up.

Oscar, Gender, Sexuality and Ethnicity

Another year of Oscar had come and gone. This year's Oscar managed to celebrate diversity across its major categories. "Gravity", a movie about a female astronaut stranded alone in space took out the Best Dierctor (Alfonso Cuaron) gong. "12 Year a Slave", a movie about an African American in New York being tricked and kidnapped into slavery in the South took home the Best Picture and Best Supporting Actress (Lupita Nyong'o). "Dallas Buyers Clubs", a movie about AIDS and those who tried to survive it scored the Best Actor (Matthew McConauhey) and Best Supporting Actor (Jared Leto) categories. "Blue Jasmine" successfully claimed the golden statue for Cate Blanchett in the Best Actress race.

At their acceptance speeches most of the winners made references to their movies. Jared Leto reminded us of all the people who suffered because of who they are and who they love. Lupita Nyong'o spoke of how her happiness was built on those who suffered for her in the past. Cate Blanchett stood up to movies with women as the main character can money because people do want to see them.

While Oscar is and has always been some distant dreams for me, this year I do appreciate the diversity in terms of nominations. If we look at the actresses who were nominated for the best actress category, four out of five were from women-centric movies. "Blue Jasmine" was so. "Philomena" was so. "August: Osage County" was so. And even "Gravity" was so. These female characters were no longer attachments to male leads but they were telling their own stories from their own angles. Some people think Cate Blanchett's speech was over-whining but was it so? Or are the criticisms to this speech just a reflection of some people's determination to maintain the easy common tokenism?

I can't speak for women in films because I am not one of them. However I do regularly hear my actress friends moaning over the restrictions imposed on them in terms of age and looks. Much too often female characters in movies were there as objects of interests for male leads. From time to time their importance were determined by their hotness index. More interestingly when a female character became the centre they usually have past their hot twenties and into their thirties or upward. The ladies in "The Hours" were so, Helen Mirren in "The Queen" was so, "Blue Jasmine" was so, "August: Osage County" was so, "Gravity" was so, Sandra Bullock in "The Blind Side" was so, Julia Roberts in "Erin Brockovich" was so and the list goes on. Otherwise it involves actresses taking up roles that make them beyond recognition to score, such as Hilary Swank in "Boys Don't Cry", Hally Berry in "Monster Balls" and Charlise Theron in "Monsters". It seems that strong female characters that take charge of the plot cannot come from beautiful young actresses. Maybe because the film industry is still an industry about beauty so when beautiful actresses start to age it is the time to start to make them interesting to prolong their shelf life?

This interesting approach also at times applies to sexuality. Many a time actors and actresses were lauded for playing gay, bisexual and transgender characters. They will be praised for being brave and bold for taking up something so opposite to their real life preference. They will be scrutinised at press events as to how they managed to do that. Some of them were even rewarded with a golden statue. However for me they were just doing a job. You get a paycheck so you get it done. You know the terms for the job so you get it done according to the brief. I am not saying their works were not good but I find a bit double standard when openly gay actors do not get the same degree of accolades when they were playing straight characters. Weren't they doing something completely opposite to what they preferred in real life? In that case are their works being scrutinised and appreciated at the same level as their straight counterparts? That is the question I always have when straight actors were being rewarded for playing gay characters. I do appreciate what Jared Leto said at his acceptance speech but I do wonder whether that would change the uneven landscape for actors in terms of their sexuality.

This year "12 Year a Slave" made huge waves across the award season and put racial issues back on the radar again. There is no doubt African American actors have gained quite a bit of respect in recent years. I have huge respect for that in Hollywood. Even actors of other ethnicities are gaining momentum and their playground had become a lot fairer in terms of ethnic diversity in Hollywood. Actors of different ethnic groups are no long playing token stereotype characters in Hollywood. This did not come overnight but it is coming together. The success of films such as "The Help", "The Butler" and "12 Year a Slave" have proven non-Anglo-centric movies do have markets as long as they were done properly. In Australia, the success of movies such as "Rabbit Proof Fence", "Bran Nue Dae" and "The Sapphires" also proved so. However the change of the DVD cover artwork in the States still showed that there is still a degree of conservatism when it comes to relating diversity with sales. As for me my personal experience as an Asian actor in Australia says it all. Things are changing for the better but sometimes you do wonder whether the steps are too slow considering the cultural landscape and actor profiles of Australia had changed so much in the last two decades. Why are new productions like "Wonderland" is still all white considering one of the directors is actually an Asian woman?

This year's Oscar really got me thinking about the changes in Hollywood and the continued yearning for changes in a predominantly straight white male industry in the west. Things are getting better, but is better good enough? That is the question I have in my head.

Because I Am Just A Kindergarten Teacher!

Was catching up with my "How I Met Your Mother" watching the other day. I have never seen Season 8 so bought it the other day when it was on pretty good discount.

In one of the episodes it was revealed the Lily Aldrin (played by Alison Hannigan) stole an extremely expensive ashtray from an art collector simply because he said "you are just a kindergarten teacher" (so what do you know about art?). When her husband Marshall (played by Jason Seagel), who is an environmental lawyer applying to be a judge found out, he confronted her. During the heated argument Marshall asked Lily why was she so upset about the comment, she replied in tears, "Because I am just a kindergarten teacher!". She went on elaborating the disappointment about how she let her dreams of being an artist went because other priorities came up. She did not regret her choices but she regrets giving up her dreams and now the same dream will stay as a distance dream making her feeling unfulfilled for the rest of her life.

Her comment led me to think about my life and some of my friends' lives. A lot of us were brought up and being taught we can do anything when we grow up. We thought and wrote about our ideal jobs and professions when we were kids. If you are in a traditional Chinese family, you would be taught as long as you work hard dreams could become reality. Some of us even made it to the university or vocational training that we hoped for. But then how many of us did make a success from our ideals?

Becoming an actor is what I always wanted. I missed a chance because of family objection when I was young but I was lucky enough to have another chance after I grew up. During the process I get know a lot of other actors and artist friends. We all struggled to get a foothold in the industry but we continued to work hard. Eventually some gave up and went doing something else because life, or as some put, reality kicked in. A lot of time it is because of relationships and family that one must be responsible and be more selfless. This is exactly the case with Lily Aldrin, who gave up art to become a mother. She was happy most of the time until she got reminded about her unfulfilled dreams.

I felt extremely shaken when I watch that scene. While we all tried to be strong on the outside, inevitably there will be moments we feel fragile and exposed with our inadequacies in life. I cannot say that I am happy with where my acting career is going at the moment. But I am grateful I have a caring agent who managed to get occasional work for me so when tax time comes I can still say I am an actor. However I do have moments I thought "I am just something else". I can relate to Lily completely.

Life has ups and downs and so do career. However if you want to be in an art industry as a performer or artist, the chances are probably lows will be more than highs (by this I don't mean getting high on drugs...). However this is still a rewarding industry when your hard work paid off because this is an extremly subjective industry and a lot of time it is not "may the best actor win". Acting is not computer programming where you can run a beta to ensure its success. When I decided to become an actor I was well aware of this. Even teachers at the Theatre School reminded us of this when we graduated. As a result like most actors I have a day job to pay expenses while working hard and waiting for that break that may or may not come. I don't complain about it even at times of frustration because this is how the industry works. However this does not stop those "kindergarten teacher" moments from happening.

For me these moments usually happen when seemingly certain and stable situations became uncertain. When this happens I would think "I wish I were already a constantly working actor...but I am just a (fill in the blanks)" These could be depressing thoughts and sometimes dangerous if you are an artistic person who tend to follow your heart over your mind. However when we think deeper we know that we made certain decisions to become who we are now because we thought in the past this is best for us. For me understanding this helps me to minimise any unnecessary regrets. Is this the perfect recipe for everyone? Absolutely not. We were all trained and brought up in different ways and each of our situation would be different. But I do believe understanding yourself is the key to beat regrets in life.

It hurts to realise your dreams are bettered by reality but the dagger of life won't stab and twist as much if we have a strong defence for our heart - and this comes from self-understanding. That's how I see it.