Persepolis Research

  

   Persepolis is a cartoon film that takes place in Iran and France and tells the story of a girls named Marji and life in the Islamic revolution. It's a fresh take on a girls life and the everyday struggles. She is sent off to suy in Vienna and must adjust to a new culture and a new life.

Run Lola Run Review/Research

  

     Run Lola Run is a German film that takes place in the city. Lola and her boyfriend Manni owe a man 100,000 dollars and if it's not given to him by 12pm, Manni dies. The movie follows that one stoy but has three endings. The first ending is when Lola dies, second is when Manni dies and the final one is when they both live and get the money to the man and have an extra 100,000. 

   The main points in the film is time and fate. Time is a very important thing in Germany and it's frowned upon to be late. Lola spends pretty much the entire film running to get places. Fate is portrayed in the three different endings, showing how everything is effected by everything and one small change will cause a whole another event. 

    The film has a soundtrack of a thumping beats, relating to either a heartbeat, or the clock ticking. This fast paced film is non stop action, making the events more interesting. In some scenes you are able to see the future of what happens to the characters after Lola rus into them which i thought provided to be interesting.  

Tsotsi Review

  

      Tsotsi is a movie about a young man who is a typical thug ganster living in South Africa. He beats people up, robs them and even kills some. His life is a fast track to disaster when one day he steals a car and soon discovers a baby is left inside. That begins his struggle to decide to keep th baby or let it die on the road side. He tries to take care of the baby but being the only thing in his life that he cares for, proves to be a struggle.

     He gets a single mother near by to take care of the child as he realizes that the child needs milk and food. While learning to care for the child he realizes the importance of life and the basis of humanity. With these lessons learned he is on the way to start over his life. The newspaper prints an article about the missing child and he is feeling the guilt.

     The movie ends with Tsotsi returning the child to the frantic parents. That was probably the hardest thing for Tsotsi to do because he had to surrender his reputation and do the right thing. It was a very emotional ending and every character was crying and upset. I thought this movie was very touching and well made. It really showed the difference in America to the poverty in south africa.

Chak De Review

  

    The film Chak De takes place in India and is a fictional movie about the womens national field hockey team. The caracters are the girls on the teas and then their new coach Kabir who has a reputation of betraying his team in his playing days. The team and coach don't get along at first but soon grow to be strong together after they realize that it didn't matter where they all came from because now they represent all of India.

   Kabir, now the coach of the womens team tries his best to teach the girls to play for India, then the team, and if anything is left then they can play for themselves. He uses the team to in a way get rid of his reputation by training them for the championships. When the head trustee doesn't beleive in the womens team and takes them as a joke, they are more determined then ever and they end up winning the championship and gaining their respect back.

   India is different in many ways to America, in that they take womens sports in a non serious manner while America is more equal with the support. Also, each girl who came to the team from their own state had pride in their place and felt superior. I enjoyed this movie, i thought it was very entertaining. 

The Host Review

     The host is a horror movie about a monster coming up and out of the water and running around eating poeple. It takes place in South Korea along the Han River. The story focus's on one family who looses a member to the monster. This girl is named Hyun-seo, a thirteen year old. The general plot is that her family including aunt, uncle, grandfather, and father missions to find her after getting a call from her that she is sill alive. The monster itself is a mutation from chemicals that were spilled on purpose from a scientist into the river.

   Seo-ri is a south korean term that was used in this fild that demonstrates a cultural bridge. The term means that it is acceptable to take food from anywhere if it is a case of survival. One cannot take money though, that is considered stealing. In America, taking ood or anything is still considered stealing. 

   I thought overall that this film was interesting and slightly gross. The small comedy in it adds some positive features and i appriciated that. The monster was very well animated i thought and looked fairly real. Good movie!

  

The Kite Runner Review

    The Kite Runner is a magnificent film and i was very surprised to like it as much as i did. I found it to be very sad at times, but the ending was bittersweet. There are many many differences between America and Afghanistan, probably the most out of all the countries we have viewed. Politically, Afghanistan is super dangerous in the film. Men are required to wear beards and women must be covered head to tow which in America we do not. 

    The plot begins in present day and we see Amir as a grown man and he is reliving his memory as a child. Then the story of when he was younger starts and we watch as Amir and Hassen become good friends until one day Hassen isn't able to defend Amir causing Amir to hate him and neglect him as a person. Not long after that, Amir and his family are forced to flee the country because of political turmoil. 

    He looses contact with Hassen and eventually moves to America. He find out shocking news that Hassen was his brother and he goes back to retrieve his nephew and son of Hassen who is now killed. All ends well with Amir and his wife accepting Hassen's child and they start a family together. Overall this movie was very touching and it was my favorite of the ones we have watched.

The Kite Runner Research

The Kite Runner is a feature film that takes place in politically tense Afghanistan. It's about a boy who is best friends with his fathers servants boy and they grow up together. Eventually the boy Amir moves to the united states. With his friendship broken with Hassen, he moves on with his life and gets married. He receives a call from his old friend telling him he needs to come back and he soon realizes that Hassen was killed and he had a son, which is also his nephew. Amir begins his mission to save the boy and bring him back to America. 

Maria Full Of Grace Review

    After viewing the film Maria Full Of Grace, i was very touched. This is a fantastic film and yet a little disturbing. The job of a drug muler looks down right awful and very dangerous. When showing her swallowing the huge pellots of drugs, it made me a little un easy. Besides the uncomfortableness in that scene i found it to be a great film.

   I enjoyed that it was't a documentary, andwith it not being one it made the story seem very real and intense. The stye that the director used made you sit on edge. When Maria makes it to America finally, her friend Lucy had one of the pellots break in her stomach causing her to become ill. Maria sees her dead in the bathtub and realizes she needs to leave the house they were in immediatly. 

   In the end, she chooses to stay in America and start her life over brand new. I think this was a good decision for her because her life wasn't great back home and she has more oppertunities here in America. I really enjoyed this movie!!