Showing posts with label movie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movie. Show all posts
Thursday, April 11, 2019
Tuesday, January 15, 2019
Hector and the Search for Happiness, Quote 3
We have to go through hardships & unhappiness to see what happiness really is. At the same time, sometimes, we also need to face or make undesirable choices; the choices, which we know, beforehand, will make us unhappy at that moment, but it is better to face that unhappy or undesirable moment than to keep suffering, while keep a "happy" facade on our faces.
Tuesday, October 9, 2018
Hector and the Search for Happiness, Quote 2
Sometimes, in life, it's indeed better to not know the whole story, because then, you lose all hope, & become hopeless & bitter in your attitude. You might even become pessimist. Even if we are suffering from a bad situation, we still hope for the best & pray for the good times to come. Sometimes, not knowing the whole story, helps us enjoy & appreciate the present moment. Perhaps, that's why, God kept some important information away from us, like, our time of death.
Tuesday, June 19, 2018
Avengers Quote
Only if American government, its military apparatus, & its people can understand this ...
Friday, February 9, 2018
Hector & the Search for Happiness, Quote 1
Similar to the advice Muslims have received in Islam that never compare your life with people who are above you (in social & wealth status) but always compare your life with people who are below you, so you may remain grateful to God (Allah).
We should never compare our life with other people, esp. wealthy people, because as soon as we start comparing our lives, we start losing our inner peace & gratitude, & become desperate to keep up with the joneses.
Tuesday, September 5, 2017
Saturday, June 17, 2017
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
Friday, September 23, 2016
Wednesday, August 10, 2016
"Jupiter Ascending" quote
Time is definitely the most precious commodity in the universe. As the famous idiom goes, "time and tide stops for no man," & everyone is also equal before it. Time doesn't discriminate among people based on financial, racial, linguistic, ethnicity, or geographic factors. Everyone is competing with another for nothing else, but essentially, for more time; time to add to their lives. Since, everyone wants more time than the next guy & no one can have more time regardless of how beautiful or rich or talented or influential connections he / she has, it becomes the most precious item in the whole universe.
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" quote
This line from the movie, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", says a lot. We don't need to do a lot of things in life just to draw attention to ourselves; be it taking a dangerous selfie or spending hundreds on branded clothes, cosmetics, new & flashy cars, & even a damn big house, because ...
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Sunday, December 6, 2015
Sunday, October 25, 2015
Thursday, October 15, 2015
Paranoia (movie quote 1)
Loved this line from the movie, Paranoia. By the way, Picasso actually didn't start this expression. But, regardless of who started this, this movie line exemplifies today's "innovation". Everyone in today's corporate & tech world loves talking about "innovation" but nobody is coming up with anything new or original. Heck, even the late Steve Jobs reiterated this Picasso line multiple times, & he is considered one of the greatest innovators of our modern tech age.
So, then the question arises: why our education system is so much against plagiarism when the corporate world, around the world, has its hands & heads deep in plagiarising someone else's idea?
Sunday, October 11, 2015
Crowe's 'whitewashing' sparks criticism from advocates
While, I was reading this news article, I was thinking, "but this happens in every industry in North America & Europe." Every race is stereotyped in the labour market, & hence, all, or at least, most, of the jobs in a particular industry goes to people of certain skin colour or ethnicity.
For instance, South Asians are hired mostly for computer-related work, whereas, sales & marketing roles, even in the same company (e.g. IBM) go to "white" people. Check out most of the sales & marketing jobs in any industry & you will find majority of those are filled by "white" people.
Another thing this story highlights is how much racism there is in North American & European labour market, esp. in such lucrative industries as movie & film industry. Even those roles which require ethnic & non-white actors are filled by white actors. The general public thinks that there is no or minimal racism in Western labour markets & people are hired on talent & competency.
These actors are obviously not being hired on the basis of talent, but what would the customer want. Using same logic, it is then understandable that sales & marketing, or even any customer-facing but lucrative, jobs mostly go to white people, since, the employer is thinking that that the customer would want. Although, most, if not all, employers advertise the fact to the world that they hire people on their competencies & try to reflect the diversity in the general public.
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In Aloha, Cameron Crowe's latest film, Emma Stone, a American actress with blonde hair & green eyes, was cast as Allison Ng - a junior fighter pilot who was part-Chinese, part-Hawaiian & part-Swedish.
Soon after the release, there was an uproar of criticism from social media against Crowe's casting choice.
Both Asians & non-Asians asked why they didn't pick an Asian actress to play a character who is part-Asian.
One advocacy group called Aloha "a whitewashed film" that failed to portray the ethnical diversity of Hawaii.
The Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) noted 60% of Hawaii's population is Asian-American Pacific Islanders & 30% Caucasian, a fact not reflected in the film.
Crowe apologised on his website but said he based the Ng character on a real-life redheaded Hawaiian who felt compelled to constantly over-explain her unlikely ethnicity.
"I can understand what Crowe said about his intention that he based his character on someone that didn't look Asian but identified with the culture but you could have casted someone who was part Hawaiian," Guy Aoki, the founding president of MANAA, said.
...
Hollywood has been accused of whitewashing Asians for decades.
In the early days of big budget film, directors put eye & cheek prosthetics on actors to approximate Asian facial features. This is how Marlon Brando filled the role of a Japanese interpreter in The Teahouse of the August Moon, John Wayne became Genghis Khan in The Conquerors, & Mickey Rooney was cast as Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany's.
There was a lack of Asian actors in Hollywood in the 1950s, Lisa Nakamura, a professor of American culture at the University of Michigan said, but it is not an excuse today.
There are a multitude of Asian actresses who could have played Ng in Aloha, she said, including Kristin Kreuk, a bi-racial actress seen in the US TV show Smallville.
But Hollywood continues to cast popular white actors for economic reasons.
"They need to have names that most Americans recognise above the title," Nakamura said.
"Taking a risk on an actor that is not famous but fits the character's ethnicity is not a sound strategy to make money."
And so Hollywood casts famous white actors to attract the crowds, such as George Clooney who played Hawaiian lawyer in The Descendants, or director Ridley Scott who said he chose Christian Bale to play Moses in Exodus: Gods and Kings to get his movie financed.
But even if this strategy is profitable, Nakamura said that white actors playing Asian roles are not convincing, effectively breaking the movie's "fourth wall".
It's not only odd, Aoki said, it's also insulting to Asian actors, who struggle to find roles in a predominately white Hollywood.
"A white actor does not need to play an Asian person to survive in this industry," Aoki said.
He added the outrage over Emma Stone's casting might mark the beginning of a change in the industry but he believes white people need to speak up & "say that this is not right, this is ridiculous".
But whitewashing still appears to be prevalent in today's Hollywood.
When Scarlett Johansson was cast as Motoko Kusanagi, a Japanese character in Ghost in the Shell, angry fans launched a petition calling for the actress to be dismissed from the role. And Tilda Swinton's negotiation to play the role of the Ancient One, a male Tibetan mystic, in Dr. Strange has also been criticised on social media.
Nakamura said the industry will start changing when casting decisions are made based on talent & character's accuracy, but for now Hollywood will continue to cast famous white actors to bring in the audience.
"I think in the US this strikes a sensitive subject," Nakamura said. "But casting is important as it represents how viewers see themselves & that still matters."
For instance, South Asians are hired mostly for computer-related work, whereas, sales & marketing roles, even in the same company (e.g. IBM) go to "white" people. Check out most of the sales & marketing jobs in any industry & you will find majority of those are filled by "white" people.
Another thing this story highlights is how much racism there is in North American & European labour market, esp. in such lucrative industries as movie & film industry. Even those roles which require ethnic & non-white actors are filled by white actors. The general public thinks that there is no or minimal racism in Western labour markets & people are hired on talent & competency.
These actors are obviously not being hired on the basis of talent, but what would the customer want. Using same logic, it is then understandable that sales & marketing, or even any customer-facing but lucrative, jobs mostly go to white people, since, the employer is thinking that that the customer would want. Although, most, if not all, employers advertise the fact to the world that they hire people on their competencies & try to reflect the diversity in the general public.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In Aloha, Cameron Crowe's latest film, Emma Stone, a American actress with blonde hair & green eyes, was cast as Allison Ng - a junior fighter pilot who was part-Chinese, part-Hawaiian & part-Swedish.
Soon after the release, there was an uproar of criticism from social media against Crowe's casting choice.
Both Asians & non-Asians asked why they didn't pick an Asian actress to play a character who is part-Asian.
One advocacy group called Aloha "a whitewashed film" that failed to portray the ethnical diversity of Hawaii.
The Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) noted 60% of Hawaii's population is Asian-American Pacific Islanders & 30% Caucasian, a fact not reflected in the film.
Crowe apologised on his website but said he based the Ng character on a real-life redheaded Hawaiian who felt compelled to constantly over-explain her unlikely ethnicity.
"I can understand what Crowe said about his intention that he based his character on someone that didn't look Asian but identified with the culture but you could have casted someone who was part Hawaiian," Guy Aoki, the founding president of MANAA, said.
...
Hollywood has been accused of whitewashing Asians for decades.
In the early days of big budget film, directors put eye & cheek prosthetics on actors to approximate Asian facial features. This is how Marlon Brando filled the role of a Japanese interpreter in The Teahouse of the August Moon, John Wayne became Genghis Khan in The Conquerors, & Mickey Rooney was cast as Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany's.
There was a lack of Asian actors in Hollywood in the 1950s, Lisa Nakamura, a professor of American culture at the University of Michigan said, but it is not an excuse today.
There are a multitude of Asian actresses who could have played Ng in Aloha, she said, including Kristin Kreuk, a bi-racial actress seen in the US TV show Smallville.
But Hollywood continues to cast popular white actors for economic reasons.
"They need to have names that most Americans recognise above the title," Nakamura said.
"Taking a risk on an actor that is not famous but fits the character's ethnicity is not a sound strategy to make money."
And so Hollywood casts famous white actors to attract the crowds, such as George Clooney who played Hawaiian lawyer in The Descendants, or director Ridley Scott who said he chose Christian Bale to play Moses in Exodus: Gods and Kings to get his movie financed.
But even if this strategy is profitable, Nakamura said that white actors playing Asian roles are not convincing, effectively breaking the movie's "fourth wall".
It's not only odd, Aoki said, it's also insulting to Asian actors, who struggle to find roles in a predominately white Hollywood.
"A white actor does not need to play an Asian person to survive in this industry," Aoki said.
He added the outrage over Emma Stone's casting might mark the beginning of a change in the industry but he believes white people need to speak up & "say that this is not right, this is ridiculous".
But whitewashing still appears to be prevalent in today's Hollywood.
When Scarlett Johansson was cast as Motoko Kusanagi, a Japanese character in Ghost in the Shell, angry fans launched a petition calling for the actress to be dismissed from the role. And Tilda Swinton's negotiation to play the role of the Ancient One, a male Tibetan mystic, in Dr. Strange has also been criticised on social media.
Nakamura said the industry will start changing when casting decisions are made based on talent & character's accuracy, but for now Hollywood will continue to cast famous white actors to bring in the audience.
"I think in the US this strikes a sensitive subject," Nakamura said. "But casting is important as it represents how viewers see themselves & that still matters."
Sunday, September 20, 2015
World War Z quote
So true. That's the same problem people have, for instance, with understanding the problem of climate change or cloning or economics or finance or any number of problems, on a micro or macro level. Regardless of how much an expert tells them that it will become a problem later on, people will hold on to their beliefs until that given event has happened. Watching it by their own eyes is the only way for them to believe. BUT, by that point, it's already too late for those people to save themselves from whatever that problem or calamitous event it is.
It's the same problem Quran mentions multiple times. Several prophets came & told the same thing to their people, but until & unless, God's punishment came down upon them, the public didn't believe those prophets. And by that time, it was already too late for any repentance. Be it Noah's people or Lot's, Shelah's (Saleh's) or Eber's (Hud's), they all didn't believe their prophets until God's punishment came down upon them.
Sunday, September 13, 2015
Tuesday, September 1, 2015
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Emperor movie quote
US goes into Iraq & kills thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians & then says, "oops, my bad ... I thought Iraq had WMDs." No criminal prosecution against American leaders. Russia takes parts of Ukrainian territory & North America to European leaders are up in arms.
**Disclaimer: I am not favouring any one country over another or one country's aggression over another. I am saying that international law, if it is being applied, then should be applied equally over everyone.
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