Silent film: The Lost Girl

Background tune: Cannonball by Damien Rice
Four-color scenes:

Scene 1: At the bus terminal, gate 15
The clock hung from the ceiling says 11:30 am. Waiting in line, short-haired girl in a white t-shirt, light brown khaki, black jacket is chatting with her friend, passenger stops by talking to them, her friend nods and points out at the end of the line. The clock says 11:50 am. The girl waves to her friend, gives the ticket to the agent at the gate, the line moves slowly, passengers enter the bus.

Scene 2: Inside the bus
The girl sits next to the window, the bus leaving the terminal, the girl searching for her cell phone in her bag, she making a quick phone call, smiling. The bus leaving the city, the girl looking outside the window, big lake, bridges, fall scenery, dry, red-orange-yellow trees. The bus drove past the graveyard in the green lawn, and there is one big red maple tree in the middle. Camera zooms in to her face, tears coming out of the girl’s right eye. Fade out.

===================================
Background tune: What If by Coldplay
Black-and-white scenes:

Scene 1: At her office,
The same girl but with shoulder-length hair style, slightly chubby, sitting at her desk at the corner with her headphone, reading a pile of paper in front of her, quietly sobbing, one female colleague approaches her, gently pats her back, she nods. Fade out.

Scene 2: At her tiny apartment
The girl sitting on her bed holds a glass of red wine, desperately crying, two girls sitting next to her hug her, talking to her, she nods but still crying.

Scene 3: At the gym
The girl running on the treadmill, the screen shows 3 miles, 33 minutes, camera captures her toned body, strong shoulder and triceps, and then zooms out to see her running.

Scene 4: At the bar
The girl sitting comfortably surrounded by a group of people, crowded, dance floor in the middle, a guy stands up and takes a bow, and she accepts his hand and dances with him beautifully. Camera’s lens zooms at them with dancing crowd at the background. A well-built guy in black sweater, dark denim is standing in the dark staring at her. The girl’s eyes meet his eyes. Suddenly, she stops dancing and walks toward him. She whispers to him, he says something, she smiles, he smiles. She holds his hand, exchangeable conversation, he smiles, she smiles. She walks back to her table, writes a note and gives it to him. She goes back and dances with her friends. He keeps staring at her. Party-goers keeps coming in, it’s getting crowded. People are dancing and having fun. The girl and her friends are running out of the bar and getting in the car parked in front of the bar. Inside the bar, the guy is walking and looking around, panicking. He hurriedly runs out of the bar. The car isn’t there. Looking at the piece of paper, he dials his cell phone, anxious. Camera shows a glimpse of his worried face. He hangs up his phone, pacing back and forth, and then enters the bar.

Scene 5: At night in the city
The girl walks on the street with the guy, whom she met at the bar prior night, calling a cab.

Scene 6: At the park
Sunny afternoon, the girl sits on the bench with the guy who has curl hair and big nose, reading.

Scene 7: At the corner of the bar
The girl kisses a guy in the dark, his face is unrecognized.

Scene 8: At her apartment
She sits on her couch looking at her cell phone on her coffee table. She deeply sighs, staring at the cell phone. The camera freezes at her sad face, tears coming out of her right eye. Fade out.

==========================================
Background tune: Maybe Tomorrow by Stereophonics
Four-color scenes:

Scene 1: At the destination bus terminal
The girl gets up, gets her bag and walks out of the bus. She’s waiting in front of the terminal. The car pulls over. She enters the car, smiling. The driver is an old guy, white hair, small lips, wearing black sweater. The old guy points to the scenery as he is driving. The girl nods, smiling and talking to the old guy. The camera shows the scenery of countryside, color-changing trees, big river, hills, and old houses.

Scene 2: At the old guy’s cabin
The car pulls over in front of the cabin. Sitting at the porch, the teenage boy is waving. The girl and the old guy get out of the car walking toward the boy, a little chit chat. The old guy shows the girl around, his yard, and small garden. They walk further into the woods behind the cabin. The old guy shows her the gigantic rock, hills, mountain. The girl is laughing. They both are walking back to the cabin. The old guy enters the cabin; the girl sits at the porch by herself. The camera pans to the oak tree in front of the cabin. Fade out.

The scene of an airplane in the sky, spring color, green-branch trees, sunshine, breeze, happiness, kids running in front of the modern house, the girl watering plants, her parents playing with kids, laughing. Fade out.

The scene of the same oak tree in front of the cabin, the girl sits at the porch by herself, a flash of her smile. Fade out.

THE END.

Atonement

As we briskly walked under the rain to the movie theatre, my friend asked me if I knew the meaning of the word ‘atonement’. I said I didn’t know exactly what it meant. “It is something about false accusations.” I replied. “You would know after watching this movie, I guess.”

The movie is about a 13-year-old disturbing girl (Briony Tallis) accuses her older sister (Cecilia Tallis)’s lover (Robbie Turner) of a crime he did not commit. The casting of this young girl is perfect. Her short hair, round big eyes, and the use of her gestures indicated that she is nothing except trouble. She is such a small little monster who helplessly has a crush on her own sister’s lover. After all she is just a kid who did commit an innocent crime that she would regret for the rest of her life.

I don’t have fond memories of Keira Knightley’s performing. On top of my head she is associated with Pirates of the Caribbean epics. But in this movie she has shown her talent brilliantly. Her little green dress in an early scene reminds me of Gwyneth Paltrow in Great Expectation. Another great actor who has bright future is James McAvoy who plays a wrongly-accused guy. I could feel his strong love behind that straight face coming out of the screen.

Besides these fantastic casting, I gave five stars for cinematography. Everything was just great. I can’t even find a word to describe it. We agreed that every single scene was shot thoughtfully, beautifully and artistically. We were talking about the following scenes afterwards:

- At the fountain when Robbie touched the water where Cecilia just came out of.
- The 4.5 minute long shot through the Dunkirk beach scenes.
- The beach scene where Cecilia sits and thinks of her lover.
- The scene in the reading room where Cecilia confronts Robbie.
- The scene in the café.

Last scene needs to be elaborated. It took place in the café where Cecilia met Robbie. When she put her left hand on his right hand and asked him, ‘come back to me’, his left hand which is holding the coffee spoon dropped down immediately, showing that he was so ready to return to her. He, instead, moved his right hand off of hers and told her that he couldn’t do what she asked for because of his military duty. A picture certainly says a thousand words.

I will return. Find you, love you, marry you and live without shame.

Happy Holidays!

Norwegian Wood

"You remind me of the girl from Murakami’s book.” This guy told me when we first met. Never heard of this author before, I asked, “Which book?” He replied, “Any book, those girls are pretty much the same. They share some trait.”

Certainly, I read the book. I picked the well-known one, Norwegian Wood. When I opened the first page and started reading the book, I couldn’t stop. All I wanted to do was to keep reading it. Sometimes I slowed my reading speed because I didn’t want it to end even though I wanted to know how it ended. I read the book when I was on the train, when I had lunch, and before I went to bed. That explains how much I like this book.

This book is such a page turner, developing story as you read along. Every character has strong personalities—deep, depressing and unhappy in a way. A good friend of mine said to me once, “You would want to kill yourself after you finished the book.” I found the advantage of reading translated manuscript which is you can learn a different culture, lifestyle and importantly the way of thinking which I found from this book very fascinating.

Here is the quote: “I hate waiting at home all day for a call. When I spend the day alone, I feel as if my flesh is rotting little by little—rotting and melting until there’s nothing left but a green puddle that gets sucked down into the earth. And all that stays behind are my clothes. That’s how it feels to me, waiting indoors all day.”

One time I was favorably reading this book on the train. The stranger sitting next to me asked, “Is this the author who wrote the vanishing elephant? I didn’t know the answer on top of my head; however, I said yes to her. When I got off the train, I looked at the title page. The book is called The Elephant Vanishes which I think it will be my next book to read.

To that dude: I can see myself share the common trait with these girls in the book. So do you! Anyway, wherever you are, thanks for introducing me to this great piece of work.

Songpracharoen

Songpracharoen in Thai means Long Live the King. His birthday is in December 5th and that is also a father's day. There will be a big celebration in Thailand, fireworks, lighting everywhere like Christmas, but this is even more spectacular because we unconditionally love our King.

This year he will turn 80. There is a group of designers, art professors, artists and private sectors created this Songpracharoen event which encourage people who are interested in designing logo to celebrate the King's birthday. All submitted works will be displayed at Siam Discovery Center between December 14 to 17.

Above is the logo designed by my creative friend, TK. He wanted to have a not-an-ordinary Long Live The King. I was totally in awe with the design; however, I strangely like it. Nice job, TK.

Unbelievably, it's also my mom birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM. Thank you for being a cool mom. I might not be an ideal daughter, might walk the wrong path, might jump off the cliff. But everything I do, you are always there for me.

I LOVE YOU, MOM.

The Reader

I bought The Reader in 2001, but never finish the book. As I recall, I only read half of it and then put it aside. It could be because my ability of reading English literature was low. Like other Thai students who study English in school, I wanted to understand every single word in the book. But that was just impossible. When I did no longer understand the story, I stopped reading.

Many years have gone, in other words, I am getting old. I have seen, learned and read a lot. I won’t give up good books. I would keep reading it if I didn’t entirely understand the story. Eventually I would get it.

The Reader is the book about the love of a young boy who falls for a much older woman. It takes place in postwar Germany. War and love never go together so you get the gist of what the book is going to be. The first part of the book is about the young boy’s relationship. It is very touching. I was hooked right away. The later part was more about the old lady’s trial, and how the boy deals with his new-found knowledge.

Don’t be afraid of the book that once you put aside. The feeling when you finished that book was incredibly amazing.