Oldboy and The U.S. of A.

When you laugh, the whole world laughs with you
When you cry, you cry alone.

- Oldboy

We didn't cry when we walked out of the cinema, but we could have! The look on Mr and Mrs Love Muffins faces was exactly the same as mine: WTF? Oldboy was a bit of an exercise in perversion. Mr Love Muffin saw the characters as pawns in the director's hands to shock the audience. It was all a bit too much, really. Contrived shocks, gore and a live octopus. Mrs Love Muffin lit up a cigarette immediatly. I would have too if I still smoked. Shame that the pubs were about to close and we couldn't have a beer and talk about the movie.

Still, there were some beautiful scenes (like the suicide who jumps off the building with a white poodle, or the fight in the prison's hallway) that made the first-half of the movie enjoyable. Apparently, a lot of the scenes are reminiscent of some Japanese movies. I wouldn't know because I haven't seen many Japanese movies. Oldboy was good until the twists fell into place and the disgusting realizations came up... and the other viseral stuff too.

***

On the Sunday, I lounged around the apartment. Went briefly to the swimming pool in the afternoon. There were about 5 kids throwing swimming-boards at each other, diving into the pool and making a nuisance of themselves. The pool staff tried to control them, then kick them out, but to no avail. The roccus lasted for over 45 minutes and was still going on when I left. If it had been up to me, I'd have called the police and shipped them to the nearest station. Let the parents sort them out.

In the evening, there was a debate on BBC4 about THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Polititians and academics sat around a table discussing the U.S.A.'s influence in the world, and its future. No surprises for guessing that most people had a very negative and critical view of the U.S. I felt sorry for the one or two dissenting voices who tried to stand up for Bush (amidst general laughter I might ad.) It made me think that if George Bush Jr. gets re-elected maybe I should seriously consider boycotting American products. Would that be unfair? I can't vote yet the decisions made in the U.S. affect the world I live in... consequently, I shouldn't feel bad about boycotting and trying to make a stand against a country run by a government I don't believe in. I'm already looking into registering as a voter here so I can make sure to cast my vote against Tony Blair.

ATTENTION ALL BRITISH PEOPLE ----> There's this great documentary on BBC2 that started last week, on wednesday, called The Power of Nightmares. It's a three-part series (the second one will be this wednesday) and it's absolutely brilliant. It shows how similar the Neoconservatives are to the Taliban, and if that doesn't make you shit in your pants then I don't know what will.