English articles

Everything Everywhere all at once

I was never interested in sci-fiction drama. The movie “Everything Everywhere all at once” is a surprise exception. I felt dizzy sometimes watching the scenes jumping around different universes, but I found it the director meant to tell us to be kind, to be brave, and to love each other. 

To find peace in this complex and chaotic world, it is tiresome to keep fighting and create emotional conflicts.  

Because of the information explosion, our life had never been that busy. Many of us tried to keep track of the internet updates, gossip, 24/7 work life, family life and personal issues. Having a part-time job or a side interest while studying is a must as young people want to start the race early. It is so important to obtain as many skill sets and experience right before your 20s. Isn’t it university life should be fun and carefree? Not anymore.   

In a critique written by the LA Times, it quoted the director Kwan stating, “The internet had started to create the alternate universes. ” The movie was part of a product of the “contradictions and emotional whiplash” of being very online at the time. 

There was a time when I felt like I could keep up the speed Internet expanded. A professor told me, “Just say I don’t know, and I am only focused on my strength and interest area.” 

Yes, there is nothing to be ashamed of if you do not know certain things. We could call ourselves “Master of the Universe” 20 years ago when information was confined to newspapers and books. Not anymore. Maybe our strength, nowadays, is to learn how to ask and where to seek the information that we need, instead of adding all useless information in our head. 

To avoid information overload, I feel alright not to keep track of all the news, especially bad news. It is smarter to filter and digest useful information, make connections and take part in activities that are meaningful to me.   

Life is too short to get upset when you feel bad about not knowing the latest gossip or Netflix movies.  I stopped joining the information race but became focused and open to new ideas and creative thoughts.

English articles

Going back in time: Press Play

Going back in time creates a million storylines, including love interactions between couples. In the movie Lake House, Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock built an incredibly deep connection through the exchange of letters, despite the fact that they lived in different years.

The Time Traveller’s Wife challenged a couple in which the husband randomly travelled through time without control. Their love life was unconventional. The husband missed important occasions, and the wife was frustrated sometimes. They met each other in different eras and appreciated each other’s beauty. There was a perfect man, but he was not always around.

Can we change our fate by going back in time? The science fiction romantic film Press Play talks about the love story of a cute young couple. They were set up by the young man’s stepsister and met in a record store where there was a wall of unwanted cassettes. People created their own cassettes with a collection of songs in the old days, usually the songs we heard on the radio. 

I was earnestly waiting for my favourite songs and then pressing the record button when I was young. It took a few weeks to make a mixtape. But the tape gave me great joy. 

The couple created their own mixtape by recording the songs they listened to together and what they loved to celebrate. Unfortunately, the young man was killed by a car, leaving the girl with a broken heart.

A few years later, the record store’s owner gave the girl the mixtape, and she realised once she pressed play, she was transported back on her date briefly with her love, whom she could still not forget. She tried to save him several times. He just died in different ways. Even the owner persuaded her to resolve with such ideas and just enjoyed seeing her “boyfriend” again.

After a few attempts, her “boyfriend” gave up the idea of trying to escape the next death incident. Why? 

We do not want to let go of some fond memories that keep our hearts warm and make us feel great love. We live for the pleasant moments. Love, drive, joy and objectives keep us alive.  

For the last song she pressed play, the girl decided not to meet the guy at all. Can he be saved this time?