Saturday, March 05, 2005

Constantine

*Phew* Finally have the time to sit down and write this and put that handsome face there I went to watch Constantine last Monday with Vivy (Finally). Okay, before I dwell on other things, my take on the movie first. Obviously the reason why I wanted to watch Constantine is because of Keanu Reeves. Not a horror-movie person myself, watching this movie kinda took me by surprise. Keanu Reeves played a guy named John Constantine, who had the power to see things which he called half-breed. These half-breed were basically angels and demons who roamed the earth to influence human in their lives. Before you say that this is pretty much fiction, remember the times when you were back in school or in your sunday school when your teacher told you that you have this angel and demon around you (one on your left and the other on your right, or perhaps sitting on your shoulder) and always tell you to do things, bad and good, and your teacher would always tell you to listen to the good. So basically the idea, though it was made much scarier with the special effect is actually something so basic and perhaps so internalized in our lives. So these angels and demons kinda in a way "whispered" to us and influenced us to do things. So John got so freaked out when he was young because he was seeing these things and nobody could understand him, and so he tried to do what most desperate people do to drown all their misery, he tried to commit a suicide. For a few minutes he went to hell, because apparently (especially as believed by the Catholic church) when you commit suicide, you go straight to burn in hell. This is truly something to think about in my head. So our dear John got even more freaked out with hell rather than the things that he saw on earth. Knowing that his little attempt caused him to be one of devil's most loveable potential to delight in his home, John tried his best to redeem himself to God so that he could get a place in heaven. So he did good things. He was on a mission to get rid off all the devils who were doing things which were out of line straight to hell. He thought by doing this, God would acknowledge his good work and granted him a place in heaven. Now our dear John smoked a lot and he was diagnosed with a terminal cancer and he was pretty afraid that he would not get to heaven. So he asked an androgynous angel, Gabriel, what his chances were. The answer was he was going to burn in hell. John was so pissed because he was doing all these good things for human and yet he still couldn't go to heaven. The thing is as Gabriel said, he didn't do this for the good of others, he was doing it for himself. He was not sacrificing himself for others, he was only thinking of hiw own ass. The other thing with John was he didn't actually believe in God, he didn't want to submit to Him, basically because he felt that God was not doing anything for the good of human being on earth, and he was the one who have to do all the shit of sending the devils back. Okay, I don't want to talk about the main story because I just want to focus on John Constantine. The theme for his character is what touch me the most, because in real life, we all do that. We do good so that others will good to us. We do good so that God loves us and be kind to us and gives us more blessing and grants us our wishes. We do good so that we'll get to go to heaven. Also the most common one, we do good thing, because ethically it was the thing that we are supposed to do. I don't even want to go into the people who do good so that they look good in front of others. The bottomline, of all the good things that we do, how many of them was actually done because of full compassion, because it hurts us if we don't do that good deed. I was reminded on the time when osHie gave me a reading about Mother Theresa to inspire me in coming out with a door gift design for MKP (Misi Kami Peduli) introduction. I remembered from the reading something like this (I couldn't remember the exact word), Mother Theresa wanted people to give and help the poor not because it was the right thing to do but because we feel the pain that these poor people were having and their suffering were also our suffering that we need to do something to help them, to make their life better. All comes down to sincerity. I guess, the simplest way to put it is if you strip off all the benefit that you get from helping a person, will you still do it? On another note, another thing that I take from John Constantine character. You may think, WoW God was mean for not letting him in after all the good things that he did. Well, actually just a simple thing to do to gain entry (especially for Christian) to heaven, BeLieVe. Believe in God and acknowledge Him. For Christian, believe in Jesus Christ and submit yourself to Him. Have faith.

Because of the above-mentioned things, I actually think the movie has a good theme. Keanu was ... typical Keanu? Well he is just good in playing a cool guy with some mysterious air about him. He also, as proven in the Matrix, looks good in suits Anyway, truly loves Mr.Reeves now Was pretty surprised to see Gavin Rosdale there. What else, the movie kinda spooked me, well because I never really watch horror movie in a cinema, all dark and with loud sounds. So I was kinda afraid that I couldn't sleep that night, because when I was a kid, after watching something a bit scary, I would not be able to sleep at night and I ended up have to knock at my parent's room and sleep with them. A trip to Lubang Buaya haunted me for 3 days. Knowing that I couldn't take it, I refrain from watching any scary movie, well, mostly refrain from watching movies with a lot of suspense in it. Though now I do try to watch this kind of movie on daylight, on my computer or VCD. For now, I will refrain watching any scary movie in the cinema except if Keanu is in it Anyway, that night, just to make sure I could sleep, I drugged myself with my cough medicine + panadol + 2 capsules of my sore-throat medicine. The panadol was because I was feeling a slight dizziness. Been feeling pretty dizzy all this week *sigH* The cough and sore-throat were from the doctor last week. I actually fell sick the previous will, hence the delay in watching Constantine. It kinda worked, I could sleep. But on Tuesday night, I got the creep back, especially after watching CSI, where there was a scene of a woman dying by hanging *sigH* I'm pretty okay now and I will be having a nice, quiet, relaxing weekend alone Anyway, last week when I was sick, I could sleep really well because of the drugs, that got me thinking about drugs and all. I guess I just need that time when I don't feel anything. I don't get that, not even in my sleep *sigH*

Okay, on other news. Vivy gave me a news which kinda shocked me a lot, but she looked pretty calm in delivering the news. I guess she was pretty determined. Talked to mas Boon Kiat a little this morning. Wah, he could really carry a conversation in Indonesian. I kinda feel proud about it I know he perhaps would like to thank his indonesian teachers rather than us, but I gues we all influenced him right What else? Marlisa's mom went to Bali, that's nice. I would also like to go. I heard there's this unexplainable thing happening in Bali, kinda mystical. But I've only heard it from a singapore paper, so perhaps it is not that big of deal in Indonesia. Perhaps being drown by the sentencing of Abu Bakar Basyir and the fuel price rising. Marlisa's birthday is today. Sent her an sms this morning. I hope she gets my present, last night I was wondering if I actually wrote the address correct. I was in a rush and perhaps quite a blur last week. Marlisa's b'day means my 23 is coming soon too *sigH* The song list is no more fitting and so I must change *sigH* Take care people. Hmmm...gonna see Tommy and Chucky from the Rugrats tonight. Love those kids, my mom couldn't comprehend how her big 22-year-old daughter can still watch this kind of cartoon

:) eKa @ 11:28:00 AM •