Things I Learned From The Movie : Memoirs Of A Geisha

Memoirs of a Geisha is a 2005 American epicperioddrama film directed by Rob Marshall and adapted by Robin Swicord from the 1997 novel of the same name by Arthur Golden.^[2][3] It tells the story of a young Japanese girl, Chiyo Sakamoto, who is sold by her impoverished family to a geisha house (okiya) to support them by training as and eventually becoming a geisha under the pseudonym “Sayuri Nitta.” The film centers around the sacrifices and hardship faced by pre-World War II geisha, and the challenges posed by the war and a modernizing world to geisha society. It stars Zhang Ziyi in the lead role, with Ken Watanabe, Gong Li, Michelle Yeoh, Youki Kudoh, Suzuka Ohgo, and Samantha Futerman.

While the book arguably, will be as piercing as the movie, if not even more, it is one of those that I had always wanted to read, but am yet to. Letting a spectacular movie, such as this, on the other hand, be simply looked at as a piece of entertainment, is such a crime. So, here we are with our tradition of finding three life lessons from the movies

Life Takes Us To A Path Of Surprises, We Make The Most Out Of It

Life has a will of its own. For some reason, in the most peculiar and uncanny of ways, it frequently takes us to a reality far removed from what we, in childhood, envision, had been told or pretty much reared for. How many of us look back at life and say in our most silent and vulnerable of moments that this was not where we wanted to be, that this was not the life we envisioned or simply this was not how we imagined life?

Perhaps, it is merely an assumption that even the most successful, in the deepest inclination of their imagination, has their hearts knocking on their wills, gently whispering, unsettling reminders of a childhood vision, desire or dream, far removed from the current. But who is courageous enough to admit in this generation of make-believe? If you are truly, in your most sincerest of consciences, are where you had always wanted to be, please be grateful, savour it, live it and pay it forward. For many, if not most of us, wallow through the years of life, coursing through it and all the while, travelling the path of the lost.

The opening scenes was truly heartbreaking for me. How life robs us of our dreams, when we least expect it. Of how, at times, with varying speeds, slowly, yet surely, life dims the bright shining star we had always held out as landmark for our individual futures.

There in a small fishing town, two young girls, glanced by their evidently depressed father, just across their acutely sick mother, will unknowingly be sold to an unknown man who will whisk them away from everything they are used to, far from all that they had dreamed of or anything familiar, to a life of high art, music, poetry, ceremony and mysticism. The life of a Geisha.

I can only imagine the dreams those girls had. What did they think they would be when they grow up. Did they have the chance to scheme of great things for themselves in their minds or where they simply waiting for life to take them to the same fate they found their mother in. Whatever the case, none of those certainly mattered then. As they, abruptly, had to navigate life, away from the comfort and hope of even having the leisure to dream.

Separated from her sister and enduring the life she was totally unprepared for, the misdirected girl grew to be a woman, who reluctant about her place in life, strove and rose to the heights of sophistication, glamour, decadence and intrigue.

Saiyuri learning the high art of the Geisha from Mameha. A beautifully crafted moment that communicates how art, discipline and purpose can redefine almost anything.

Something about this metamorphosis felt close to me and should to many of us.
We probably do not have our dream jobs, we are not living in the houses we wanted to, the salary we were told we can have nor around the people we had excitedly imagined we will be. Yet, we push on, farther to the raging waves of life, pressing on, while relentlessly finding ourselves some meaning and making the most out of it.

I had in this career, met many individuals, who had taken up education to be in the field of medicine, art, music, engineering, architecture and many more. But similarly, the harsh truths of life, had pulled them, severed us, away from those trajectories and into some of the most inconceivable of functions and roles we are in. Then again, in a profoundly inspirational way, these people, continue to make a mark in what they do. They are unrelenting in making their case against life, the lot it had given them and they rationale they had maintained for their purpose and existence. Just like the young girl, who turned Geisha.

Purpose Is About Paying It Forward

Life blows us to places, it too, in with the same apathy, leaves us to chance, the choices we make and the resolve we have. In the same context, the success of the girl who turns out to be the top Geisha of the district, was not by mere chance alone. She was given a chance, she made her choices and took it with passionate determination.

There in the busy district of the opulent, the scenes take us a to a momentous moment, when the previously decorated Geisha of the same house that the girl belongs to, takes her to her wings and tutelage.

Whatever influences they were that moved, Mameha, the previously celebrated Geisha of the same house, Saiyuri, the little girl from that fishing village, it is in bad taste to not appreciate the beauty of the human soul to feel, share and be and be magnanimous simply because, one is in the position to.

It must truly be a rewarding feeling to be in a situation to help others and being able to do so without any consideration of future reward, recognition or anything in exchange. Again, this reminds me of some of the wonderful people that had been patient, kind and believed in me along the way. They were not my family, they had nothing to gain from helping a teenager bordering on the clueless to find himself amidst many and frequent shortcomings, yet they continued to be there, in their own fashion and thankfully, I have had the privilege to do the same for those whose current circumstances resonated with mine and experience what they had–and find it fulfilling.

Truly, the measure of any man, is what he does for another, notwithstanding any reward and without any other reason, other than, they did it, because either they had once been in the same situation or that they feel others would have done the same.

Love Moves People, Hope Gives Strength, But Purpose Gives Meaning

Saiyuri, Mameha and Hatsumomo. An almost Freudian or Jungian set of characters, each communicating powerful emotions, profound perspective and eternal lessons in an exciting backdrop of westernization of an ancient tradition.

One of the things that makes the movie beautiful, is how it weaves, Love in the backdrop of personal grief, societal change, war and the constant threat of change. Rewind to the first few scenes, when the little girl from the village, Sayuri, was merely a kid attending her lessons, we see, what we would initially count as a lovely encounter between a gentleman, who recognizes the pain of a girl and a girl who, for the first time, was visited by the soothing caress of love, of being loved and of perhaps loving back.

While I was watching, it struck me as an important meeting, one of those that you know would have a significant impact to the narrative. Little did I know that the same encounter, will demonstrate one of the most vivid expressions of love in the state of being forbidden, in the name of propriety. When it is unrequited, not for the lack thereof, but for the love of another. Then, when it was withheld, not due to fear of responsibility or any other hindrances, but for its multifaceted perspective and the intricate waltz it plays on the human soul. Truly, Love moves people.

Love was not the only thing intimated by the movie in a subtle, yet profound manner. A shameless plug to this serious journal, is the fact, that when I think of hope the closes I can remember are the Green Lanterns, I just had to say that. Anyway, moving back, the movie, beautifully, permeates to all of us the perspective of how the human heart and our soul, regardless, how the person is disposed, spring eternal.

While we see hope shown in the multiple attempts the young Saiyuri does to get to her sister and how amidst its failure she continues to hope to find her, we are also introduced to one of the primary characters of the plot. It is very easy to categorize Hatsumumo, the current primary Geisha of the house, as the antagonist, it is difficult to just simply box her in that. The movie had taught me that while many choose to be kind amidst the unforgiving circumstances life deals to us, some, give up on hope and end of the simply be the thorns in the rose that they are.

Hatsumumo, to me, was a rose, who continually choses to be the thorns. I will never understand why she deliberately wanted to inflict so much sadness on a young girl who had done nothing to her. The movie, will hint at it as her seeing Saiyuri as competition, but the more I think deeply about it, I come to the realization that at times, we want others to give up on things we had given up on, and Hatsumumo, to me, had given up on hope–thus, she her inner demons revolt at the site of a young girl who just seemed inherently filled with hope.

I could be wrong and what her reasons were, is for any one to say. Maybe I will understand it better as I get to read the book. I will definitely make the needed supplementary journal, once I complete it this March of 2022, but until then, to me, when we start to give up on hope, it becomes but an impulse that we want others to do so, too. For the more they strive, the more they hope, the more we feel regret, vulnerable and tortured by our conscience, because–hope, springs eternal.

From Love to Hope, this time and in the final minutes of the film, I think we were given a glimpse of the Japanese culture of Purpose. It is like in that file, the Last Samurai, where Capt. Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise) says something about why the place was magical, that everyone, from the moment they wake up to the moment they sleep, focus on the mastery of their craft, that the determination, attributed meaning and purpose of the Geisha, made Saiyuri, Mameha and the rest of the women who had vested themselves of the fabled moniker, Geisha, truly remarkable.

I will always remember that scene, when Saiyuri gets to Mameha, to rekindle what it the Geisha truly stands for and why amidst the flamboyant, easy and convenient entertainment of the west, the Geisha still holds it allure, then, now and perhaps even until the future. Many of us live life in such routine that we forgivably simply go through the motions.

Mameha communicating life lessons to Saiyuri, of which she in turn, will have the opportunity to the same for and with her

The unbearableness of life has pushed many, if not most of us to simply go through life as a routine. It is easy to feel that a moment’s thought about the why we do what we do, why we wake up and our place in the grand scheme of things can easily feel cumbersome and unnecessary trivialities in the rat race many of us find ourselves in. Yet, what a sad excuse it is when we compare ourselves to magnificent women we come to find in the movie (the book, too, maybe, I have not read it, maybe there are some difference so just saying), who amidst the stringent confines, strict constraints and virtually never-ending charade of rituals, were able to gather the constitution to find their place in society, life and most importantly–purpose in the grand scheme of things.

This, I think, is what makes, the movie, its characters and it plot, not simply a story about the Saiyuri, the Geisha, but of all of us.

Corporate Hacks From The Series : The Mandalorian

Star Wars undeniably, will eternally hold a special part in our hearts, minds and souls as a species (okay, I may have taken this a step romantic here, but forgive me, it just feels good to say it). If you are a fan, needless to explain, if you are yet to watch a movie or any of the series related to it, you are strongly encouraged to do so.

As a kid, what took my imagination the most is the conflict between Jedi and Sith. Later on, it was the mythos of the Force. Eventually, as age caught up with me, the interest shifted to the characters–their lives, history, struggles and personal take in the great divide between universal freedom or monocratic despotic rule.

This blog, however, is not about any of that. This is about the latest addition the great epic tale, that had been faciltated by Disney since its purchase of the franchise. This time, as interesting as it is to talk about the old accepted cannonical story line, we will digress to glean lessons, corporate lessons, to be exact, from the series, The Mandalorian.

The Mandalorian is an American space Western television series created by Jon Favreau for the streaming service Disney+. It is the first live-action series in the Star Wars franchise, beginning five years after the events of Return of the Jedi (1983). It stars Pedro Pascal as the title character, a lone bounty hunter who goes on the run after being hired to retrieve “The Child“. The Mandalorian premiered with the launch of Disney+ on November 12, 2019. The eight-episode first season was met with positive reviews, was nominated for Outstanding Drama Series at the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards, and won seven Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards. A second season premiered on October 30, 2020, and a third season is in pre-production. (Wikipedia)

I have managed to find three corporate lessons from the series, that hopefully, will be helpful in a fun way.

Lesson 1 : Teamwork Needs A Just Cause

Bounty hunting is not a job that invites teamwork. It is dangerous business, and the level of risk goes ultrahazardous the more people are involved. While we can surmise, that Mandalorians, are not necessarily raised to be bounty hunters, their preference for solitude is evident,too. In the series, we see them operate alone, even when there are still a handful left of them after the destruction of Mandalore.

In Chapter 7, of Season 1, titled The Reckoning, however, we see that individuals, equally distrusting of each other, with differing agenda, experience, background and ethnicity/race can organically come together as a team.

This episode showed us how a rebel-fighter-turned-mercenary, Cara Dune and a former Imperialist, Kuiil living in solitude to enjoy his freedom and repay his faults from his association with the Galactic empire, enemies at best, work together in helping Mando and Grogu ( (the little Yoda-looking Padawan). This is revolutionary. Teams of today do not have to come from the same background as Cara and Kuiil, we do not have to be and will never be from opposing sides of an intergalactic war, but we face the same challenges of teamwork, trust, effectiveness, efficiency and fulfilment.

We have a skewed understanding of teamwork. The corporate world had misunderstood collaboration, cooperation and coordination as teamwork, whereas, these are all its component, teamwork is something more. Teamwork, is about people working for each other and together. It is about understanding our individual goals, perspective for success, difference and competencies acceptingly, compensating, adjusting in a safe environment of trust, mutual success and shared responsibility should the enterprise fail.

Leaders of today, must learn how Mando gathered his team–they must have something greater than financial goals, a task or an objective, they must have harken everyone to a just cause, an ideal, a sense of a terminal goal that will inspire, motivate and drive individuals to the pinnacle of human attainment–self-actualization.

In the case of Cara, Kuiil and Mando the just cause was not complicated. They gathered amidst their differences with the knowledge of certain doom, to protect Grogu and ensure his safety. Simple, yet potent enought to allow them to bridge wide divides of differences and for Quiil to give up his life.

Today, we do not have to protect anyone in our corporate settings, but we all have someone or something dear to us. Our families, dreams, aspirations and the search for meaning are seldom spoken, but are the actual motivating factors of our actions. These and many more that are actually unrelated to perks, salary and financial stability–should be the just cause, if the coporate setting is to create a team such as the motley crew of Cara, Quill and Mando.

Lesson 2 : People Can Suprise Us, If We Let Them

In the same Chapter, we see Mando vehemently protesting the company of the IG-11, that Kuiil had reprogrammed. Other than it was the same machine Mando downed to save Grogu, he has a particular prejudice over machines. Several times, he had doubted IG-11, only taking Kuiil’s word, that it has now changed.

More than we care to admit, we have similar predespositions with the people we work for. Not necessarily, that we had either a bad experience with them in the past, but perhaps, our collective experience had just trained us to take things with a grain of salt and people with mistrust.

It will do us well to remember, that after Kuiil died and the Cara, Mando and Karga where in no position to save Grogu, it was IG-11 who secured its safety. The most distrusted, turns out to be the most reliable. Ultimately, in a scene that was quite emotional, IG-11, made the ultimate sacrifice for Grogu and the team. In their attempt to escape the myriad of Empire troops and with no hope of fighting them successful, IG-11 did something, that only creatures with a heart and soul will do. He sacrificed his life, by detonating his self-destruct protocol, only after he had waded through thick lava and ensuring that Grogu, Mando, Cara and Greef were safe.

In coporate settings of today, where deadlines are always urgent, tasks oversimplified amidst its complications and challenges require upskill almost without preparation–it is too easy to judge the competency of a colleague, a teammate, based on how they adapt to the tides. A failure, miss or oversight, can easily be calculated as incompetence and lead to doubts. Leaders and teammates of today’s corporate world, can learn from the experience of Mando, who was disproven, in the most heartbreaking of ways by IG-11, by doing what he believed it can never do–change.

While IG-11 was repogrammed from a total package of destruction to a nurturing and protective robot, we too, have to believe that our colleagues, while not necessarily, reprogrammable by codes, can turn around by how collectively we make them feel safe, integrated, valued and a part of a greater purpose in the success of the team.

Lesson 3 : Leadership Is Influenced By The Culture Of Organizations

Today, Leadership comes together with the role and the title. Not, that this is wrong, a manager must have the leadership skills, if one is to help an enterprise succeed. A leader, likewise, will need to employ managerial techniques, for one to be effective and efficient. In the perfect balance of this is where the success of the team is hinged. Presumably, with the volumes of books written by experts, gurus and industry titans there should nothing more to be added on the recipe.

The Empire is not that different from any organizations. It has the infastructure, chain of command and employee network that make is operate exactly from how companies of today operate. Though, the financial capabilities of the Empire is not something we are privy to in the series of the movies, we can safely say that to employ such vast network or talent, manpower and technology will induce cost.

On the topic of leadership and using the Empire structure as an example, we are introduced to Moff Gideon, who also happens to be the main antagonist of the story. A ruthlessly effective, efficient and calculating task master, whose determination, drive and aim was solely to secure Grogu, for whatever reason it is that he has for the Padawan. All of those in corporate leadership roles would scream foul just thinking about what Moff had and is willing to do to complete his objective, as we all certainly would. It is not far, however, for any of the leaders of today to be like Moff, and perhaps, we all, at some point had operated like he did, outside the realm of our conscious–merely justified by some leadership or business dogma.

See, Moff, as portrayed in the series, was obviously a bad person. He was an Emperial officer and for all we know, the empire seeks to dominate the universe under the rule of Sith, which are a bunch of dark, despotic and cruel force-weilders. This is, however, a one-sided take on things, to dare say.

If it were, in the Star Wars universe, a truly general fact that the Sith and the Empire is awful, how could they have troops, line managers and supporters? Some of them even, willing to fight and give up their lives in battle for the Empire. The Mandalorian was set at a time after the fall of the Empire, it is like, when an organization went bankrupt, but people still choose to work for it scenario. Surely, the opinion around the Empire being the epitome of evil, was subject to debate and perspective in that universe. So, along the same argument, we can say, that Moff, was operating and leading his team, not in the mainstream idea of leadership, as so we see it, but around the culture of the organization he was employed or aligned to.

And so, we can condemn Moff for his evil deeds and claim, we shall never be like him, but truth be said, we had been Moff’s at some point, hopefully not too often. That employee who requested a leave for some family event that we talked out, becuase we need them, that vacation leave where we still called colleagues because we needed something, that wedding we never even gave the employee time to enjoy or that sick day, where the employee had to check a roster of possible ailments as an excuse, because they cannot tell us, they are just stressed and needed some sanity break because they obviously believe and think we will not allow it. These are, but a few of our Moff moments. How rewarded and fulfilled we must have felt, when we had to convince folks to be like us, operate in the same manner and think like us in these times, when we obviously truly do not understand their personal struggles and perhaps we do, only at a perspective of our own and aligned to the need of the enterpise. Yes, we had been Moff’s at some point.

Organizations of today have a choice. To mould immensely successfuly Moff Gideon’s based on the culture of the Galactic Empire ran by the Sith, or to have a heart and allow people to be people like the Bounty Hunter’s Guild of Greef Karga. Leaders have a responsibility to their people. Something, Moff Gideon, while definitely a leader in his own right, may have initially reluctantly chosen to overlook this responsibility, until eventually, slowly, yet surely, he had mastered the art of disregarding it for the high of the next mission, promotion of completion of task, objective and goal.

21st century leadership will continue, hopefully not, down the path of the Empire, lest leaders of today, consciously choose to veer away from operating under the same playbook for success and leadership as Moff Gideon. Leaders of today, are primarily leaders of the people in their care, before employees of the corporations, not the other way around. Until , this becomes the new playbook, we should all stop watching Star Wars in support of the Jedi and tattoo the Galactic Empire’s logo on our bodies.

May The Force Be With You!

Things I Learned From The Movie : Tenet

Tenet is a 2020 science fiction action thriller film written and directed by Christopher Nolan, who produced it with Emma Thomas. A co-production between the United Kingdom and United States, it stars John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Michael Caine, and Kenneth Branagh. The film follows a secret agent who learns to manipulate the flow of time to prevent an attack from the future that threatens to annihilate the present world.

Nolan took more than five years to write the screenplay after deliberating about Tenet‘s central ideas for over a decade. Pre-production began in late 2018, casting took place in March 2019, and principal photography lasted six months, from May to November, in Denmark, Estonia, India, Italy, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema shot on 65 mm film and IMAX. Scenes of time manipulation were filmed both backwards and forwards. Over one hundred vessels and thousands of extras were used.

Delayed three times because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tenet was released in the United Kingdom on August 26, 2020, and United States on September 3, 2020, in IMAX, 35 mm, and 70 mm. It was the first Hollywood tent-pole to open in theaters after the pandemic shutdown, and grossed $363 million worldwide, making it the fifth-highest-grossing film of 2020. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, and won Best Visual Effects at the 93rd Academy Awards; it was also nominated for Best Production Design. (source :https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenet_(film) )

Nolan in this movie, proved to be a visionary. He will have to be so, to present something so spectacularly brain-draining, in such a beautiful combination of chaos, thrill and suspense. Personally, watching it once or twice, may not be enough to truly grasp what the message or event the plot is. Not to mention, the more recent fan theories that have enveloped it. This article, however, is not about that, so lucky break for us.

If you had not watched it, please, this is a warning, there may be some spoilers that would make you hate me and we do not want that. If you have not watched it and want to know about it, well, you will not also be getting a lot from this article, so feel free. Trying to do a smooth segue here, but if this is your first time reading an article from this blog site, you may want to read the previous articles which highlights why I am trying my best to find some practical lesson from movies (if you had, thank you for doing so!).

So, here are three things I learned from the movie.

Lesson 1: The Past, Present and Future are intertwined

Time, a concept, an experience or the progression of events from past to present into the future. We have learned how to measure it, but truly, it is hubris to claim that we have gained the mastery of understanding it. Should you like a more explicit detail of time, you may check this link and read more, but this is not about time per se, but how the movie uses the beautiful mystery of time to teach us some lessons about ourselves, others and the orchestra of life.

Tenet, in all its convoluted story lines, intimates that the past, affects the present, and it in turn, ultimately shapes the future, but most certainly, too, the future has implications reaching our past and even the present. (I think I just lost all of you there, I even feel nauseated myself).

The movie begins with a CIA agent. The Protagonist, who was tested and entrusted by an organization called Tenet, with a mission to follow the trail of inverted bullets, bullets that deviate from the physical laws of nature (the second law of thermodynamics), which the organization thinks, together with other similar items, come from the future and are remnants of some future war.

In the course of this investigation our Protagonist, gets to meet his handler, who points him to an arms dealer in Mumbai, who happens to be a member of Tenet and informs them that a Russian arms dealer has the device that can invert items.

Fairly straightforward, until, we start seeing multiple unexpected events that course the movement of the Protagonist and his handler, directly in contact with their future and ultimately, shaping the ending of the movie which is in the past.

If you are about to give up on this article, what I am pointing to, is that it may not be quite literal that the future us can collide with our present selves face to face, but the actions that we do every day in our lives will ripple through time and oblivious to it, we may be,we are not exempt from its consequences.

Yes, that elevator we did not hold for another person, the garbage we did not segregate, is unlikely to haunt our past, but will definitely affect the future, which then, technically, once we get to that future will make us regret the past, for how socially irresponsible we are for the present.

Our perspectives then ought to change and may we always think, that every other man’s life affect another.

That what we do today, even the tiniest, will ripple throughout the ages. So, may we, daily, strive to do what is right, to secure a better future, where we shall not feel ashamed looking back at our past (from that standpoint).

Lesson 2: The Mind perceives, but the Heart Knows

The movie quite distinctly, in its creative intricacy of violating known science did not leave the part of being human. We get introduced to an art curator and wife, who amidst, what most would see, befit a the description of a happy life is trapped in the present, while hoping to have made better choices in the past and fearing the future.

Though, many of us, do not really give it much thought, but such is our daily life, is it not?

We may not always feel a sense of regret at everything and sure we may have trained our minds to be more positive in letting go of things in the past, to make sure it never happens again, but emotions, on the other, the feelings, we leave them at the specific moment and can only truly recover them in nostalgia.

So, we may move on from past experience, feel confident that we have learned from it to take action in the present, but the present nor the future, can never undo the emotional breadcrumb we have left in the past. That feeling, yes, that emotional state, that only nostalgia can bring back, is something that will be left in the time frame for posterity.

This is what makes our short lives on Earth beautiful. To know that we can do the same thing over and over, but we will never feel that same way about it, as the first time, nor the consecutive instances, because each passing of time is an experience that is not imprinted in the sands of time. Such is, we should make the most out of every day, for life being short is not the problem, but time, the human soul and life are battling forces that we should make the most of.

Lesson 3: We experience Time by our Choices

It is amazing, how the movie, makes us accept all accept the fact of time-travel to be as casual as boarding a plane. If you had watched it, I bet you never had the time to even question the science behind it, well, if you did, two thumbs up, you are one of the intellectually gifted, able to keep up.

Yet for those, who had just simply missed to consider how the science works, please do not worry. It may have slipped past us because, no matter how everybody else was just disrespecting time–we all see, that the time has little consequences compared to the choices we make at the time given.

To me, the movie, required astute attention because of the plot, but it harkened our attention–because, even with the inverter, the capability to move back and forth time, with nonchalant casualty–it was the actions of everyone that dictated the outcomes. It was as if, and perhaps, in reality, very well be, that time is merely the stage we are all in, by which we are tested by the decisions and choices we make.

Then, too, with these decisions, with time as a witness, our mettle is tested, by how we stand by the consequences of them. Life can be many things–beautiful, sad, happy, fulfilled. Time can be defined philosophically, scientifically or spiritually.

But our decisions and our actions, can only be right, wrong or unknown.

100 Best Movies Of All Time Series: Lessons From The Deer Hunter

This is the story of how Farrah and I, as a couple, complete the IMBD list of 100 Best Movies Of All Time.

Farrah’s and my selection of movies are aligned in some yet varied in most. Thankfully, though, we agree on one critical junction. That The Lord Of The Rings is a stupendous movie, (and I am using stupendous to sound less of a nerd), worth watching many times!

Anyway, I made the call to start from anywhere on the list randomly and we got The Deer Hunter.

A 1978 American epic war drama film co-written and directed by Michael Cimino about a trio of steelworkers whose lives were changed forever after fighting in the Vietnam War. The three soldiers are played by Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, and John Savage, with John Cazale (in his final role), Meryl Streep, and George Dzundza playing supporting roles. The story takes place in Clairton, Pennsylvania, a working-class town on the Monongahela River south of Pittsburgh, and in Vietnam.–Wikipedia

Here are a few things we learned from the movie.

You Are Who You Decide You Will Be

The movie takes into the lives of three of five close friends, who had lived a careless life working together at a metal works factory and casually wallowing their days away with beer and deer hunting. There was Mike (Robert De Niro) the sensible one, then there was Nick (Christopher Walken) the boy-next door, Steve (John Savage) the adult who had not outgrown his teenage years.

It was truly masterful how the first few scenes that showed nothing but their partying, drinking, deer-hunting and juvenile shennanigans were abruptly given a striking halt by the horrors the three of the faced as they get deployed to Vietnam during the War.

_{The friends, before three of these five get to see action in Vietnam}

I have been definitively told that the movie was about the horrors of war, specifically, the most controversial at that time—Vietnam. However, I saw something different, like it impacted me on a different way than it did majority of the viewers.

As the scenes progress, it dawned on me that it may not entirely be the war that is being presented here, neither was it the outcomes of it, rather how a person either makes or breaks himself in moments of adversity.

In the film, Mike comes home rather normal. Of course, he was broken, but still able to adjust to move on with his life, compared to two of his other friends.

Maybe the movie is not about showing the horrors of war in the hopes of world peace, perhaps it was about how we can overcome the horrors we see as we close our eyes, the monster we let live inside us and the regrets we allow to fester in our conscience.

There is no telling, but Mike, being able to come home and managing to still be himself made me remember a lesson from late Dr Covey—that we are not a product of our experience/environment, but of our decisions.

Yes, we can chose to live our lives every day like we had seen action in Vietnam and justify the injustice of life for our actions, but that truly is no excuse for not having a purpose, a sense of meaning and living our lives to the full.

If Mike did it, perhaps, we, too, can.

We Need To Make The Most Of The Time Given Us

The quote is actually taken from The Lord Of The Rings, or maybe someone important said it, but I just did not know who, then again the awful ending of the movie rang the bells that got me scouring for the quote.
The middle part of the film shows us how while held prisoner by the Vietcong, Mike and Nicky were forced to play Russian Roulette as their captors bet on the outcomes. It was a riveting scene really, I remember watching it as a kid and now as an adult, the amount of trepidation I felt did not diminish.

Anyway, while Nicky was crying and being desponded, as anyone probably would. Mike, found hope amidst the hopelessness. He ups the game, by asking for two bullets to be loaded, instead of the occasional one. It added more spice for the game for the captors but increased the chances of either of Mike or Nick’s death in the process.

It was a smart move, however. As they are both dead anyway, having two bullets allows either of them to have one bullet after the other dies enough to shoot one of the five guards and hopefully take down the rest with the military training they had had.

Finally, with some luck, Mike feels his turn to be loaded and shoots at the enemy paving the way for the three of them to escape. Their reunion was to be cut-short, however, as they managed to get rescued but separated at the same time.

Before I get carried away and start writing an ugly synopsis of the movie, my point is—most of us see the situation for what it is and willfully play victim to it like Nick. Not that this makes any of us a lesser person if we have been so in the past, but if we keep on being so, we will never see the opportunities that present our way.

We should really be more like Mike (again, he is the cool guy in this movie), who regardless if he had lost hope or not, simply refused to let life win and took measures to play life’s game to his advantage.

All of us, do not have long on this earth and if we keep on playing victim to the circumstance, we will never make the most of the time that is given to us.

There are Friends, Then There Are True Friends

The scene that had the most profound effect on me was how Mike, decides to come bac to look for Nick. I mean, we all have friends, but going back to Vietnam as the US Military was pulling out and in chaotic times was hardly an easy decision.

_{Mike plays Russian Roulette to convince Nick to come home with him. The irony of surviving a game of chance when forced, only to be addicted to it}

He was home, he has a chance to live his life, but he chooses to go back and search for his friend. Add to it that the search was not easy. He probably had to pull some strings to get there and he spent an awful lot of money just to have a table with Nick.

And man, the fine acting you see, as Mike grieves the death of Nick on that same night they met, cemented De Niro for me as one of the greatest actors of all time, but this is not my point. I just could not stop but segue.

The point is, if you call yourself a friend to someone, the measure by which you should think you are, is what Mike did for Nick. Anything less and you are just an acquaintance.

Things I Learned From The Movie : The Adjustment Bureau

Had a day off from work to celebrate the 4^th of July and got the chance to skim Netflix for some movies. On top of the suggestion list was the movie The Adjustment Bureau.

I had watched snippets of this movie here and there, but never got to finish the entire film. I guess 2011 was just not my year for fiction romance.

The Adjustment Bureau is a 2011 American science fiction romantic thriller film written and directed by George Nolfi, based on the 1954 Philip K. Dick short story “Adjustment Team”.  It was premiered at the Ziegfeld Theatre on February 14, 2011, and received positive reviews from critics, who praised Damon’s performance and his chemistry with Blunt. It grossed $127 million against a production budget of $50 million, according to Wikipedia.

To make a practice of watching movies, I have managed to get three lessons from the movie.

Lesson 1, You are your choices

For those who had not gotten the chance to watch the film, I will attempt to make a quick synopsis, but my feeble attempt at this may not necessarily give justice to the beauty of the movie.

The story begins with maverick congressman David Norris (Matt Damon), losing his senatorial bid over a scandal that spread over the news. Graciously accepting defeat, he goes to the men’s room to rehearse his final speech only to accidentally bump into a curious woman who later get introduced to as Elise (Emily Blunt).

That accidental meet eventually turns their lives upside down as forces outside of the human realm attempt to separate them.

In more cases than we care to admit in our lives our decisions are made out of convenience. Sure, some of us still go through the logical process of thinking before you leap, but seldom do we apply this process to the little things we decide on.

What are we going to wear? Where to eat? How do we react to situations? How do we feel about things? How do we conduct ourselves? What do we put on social media?

In the movie, you see, Thompson (Terrence Stamp), one of the experienced officers of the Adjustment Bureau, have a word with David. He starts talking about how we really are making our choices, that we think we have free will, but in reality we only have the illusion of freewill.

To some extent, Thompson has a point. The film maybe fiction, but how many decisions in life have we really made with serious consideration to how it impacts the world at large? Just how many instances did we go with the bandwagon and decided because it is what is normal, accepted and common choice?

It can be scary when we soon realize that many of the decisions, we make are not entirely out freedom to choose, but rather programming from social media, conditioning from parents, acceptance from our clicks and status from the society. More often than we care to admit our choices are really swayed not by our freewill, but a desire. Oftentimes, too, this process of decision making had proven faulty at best.

How many times did we chose to purchase things more than we can afford to fit for an event, or buy a gadget whose functions we never really get to use, because it was popular or how many elections did we vote for a candidate who we may not entirely like, but just seemed to be the best option over someone who does not share the same religious or popular views, or simply he/she was likeable?

If we have done the same in the past, maybe we can learn from David as he started making choices and not follow those that has been made for him.

Lesson 2, We Write Our Story

Just this week, the office had wellness and development sessions. This week was about the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

Habit 1, Be Proactive, which points to being a product of our decisions and not our circumstances resonated with this movie.

In many scenes, we see the hatted agents, angels, if we are to really equate them to popular reference, view a notebook that somehow looks like a tracking mechanism that allows them to see if the plan is unfolding or deviating. Then we see David fighting so hard to go against it.

Sure he failed three times and nearly lost the opportunity to be with Elise, but when it mattered the most, he was willing to risk everything to write his own story and not live the one that was made for him.

Are you living your own story or living that of which was made for you? Are you letting people tell you otherwise when you share to them your dreams and aspirations? Do you succumb to peer pressure or ridicule in the process of learning something new?

This may not necessarily apply to all, but how many of us lived behind the shadows of our parents as kids. Did we also let go of something to be the man our parents wanted us to be?

I remember a friend once, who quit the things he wanted to do the most, because his parents wanted him to be a preacher. He would tell me how a part of him is enjoying it, while some parts of him are dying to. He was faced with a tough choice.

To live the life they wanted for him or to live the life he wanted for himself.

You will be happy to know he chose to live a life that he wanted. Did he have regrets, we will never know, but the next lesson I learned from the movie may help us.

Lesson 3, We Make Choices, We Accept The Consequences

Perhaps, the most somber of the scenes in the film was when Thompson was talking to David about what the plan holds for his future.

Thompson was presenting David the outcomes of his decisions, the consequences of his choices. If he were to let go of loving Elise, he would have a sure seat at the Presidency.  Now, honestly, that is not something that is offered to you everyday.

Should he choose to go otherwise, he was bound to lead a normal life. Like a true salesman, not even hearing David’s choice just yet, Thompson takes David to Elise’ performance and emotionally blackmails the poor man.

David’s choice to stay with Elise, according to Thompson, will rob her of her potential to be a world-famous ballerina to end up teaching ballet for sixth graders.

There is nothing wrong with teaching kid’s ballet, but honestly, it was an extremely precarious situation deciding the outcome of someone’s future for them.

The next scenes show David deciding to leave Elise so she could be what the Plan held out for her, only to find out that whatever it was that he wanted so badly before, seemed mundane to him—that there was nothing he could think of, but Elise.

With help from Harry (Anthonie Mackie), a peculiar agent who from the beginning of David’s discovery of the bureau offered assistance, David makes a daring move to defy the Plan and be with Elise.

Fastforward, David gets Elise and in a final act of love and defiance againts the odds they go to the centre of the bureau to talk to “The Chairman” (perceivably God), to ask for whatever was the Plan for the both of them to be changed.

I am not here to tell you how it ends, you should watch the movie for that, but if there is anything we learn from final scenes, it would be that—not until we realize that freewill is a gift that we have to fight for, will we truly appreciate it.

That we may choose to be careless in our choices, but we will never escape its consequences. So if all our choices, carefully chosen or not bear some consequences that we all have to pay, might as well give them more thought and decide wisely.

Things I Learned From The Movie: Chef

Trying to enjoy a weekend together, which has gotten harder than usual, given the current limitations on how dates were supposed to be, Farrah and I decided to stream movies this weekend.

Her choice, was the movie–Chef.

Written and Directed by Jon Favreau, released in 2014 and hitting the Box Office with $46 Million and scoring 87% on Rotten Tomatoes review, it was a good a mix of drama, comedy and some feel good moments.

The movie takes on the life of a creative and dreamer Chef, who quits after after several creative difference with the restaurant owner to eventually own a food cart, reigniting his passion for cooking and rekindling his relationship with his ex-wife and nearly-ignored son.

Again, as a habit, i found three things that I learned from the movie.

Lesson 1, Work For What Makes You Happy

At the start of the movie,  we see Casper (Jon Favreau), a creative and maverick chef, brimming with excitement to change the old menu in preparation for the visit of a popular blogger and food-critic. The plan, however, goes awry as, as Riva (Dustin Hoffman), the owner, persuades Casper to stick to the old menu which cost them a poor review.

There is a Casper in all of us. We all have that desire to do something out of the ordinary, to do something new. It may not be just entirely because we are bored, but it is human after all to challenge the status quo, experiment and innovate.

There, too, is a Riva, in all of us and at some point we have to had been a Riva in someone’s life. To me Riva symbolized the adult world. That thing, situation or individuals, often close to us, that attempt to silence our wild imaginations, that make us stick to what we know, stay where we are and situate ourselves to what is certain—because it is safe.

Like in the movies, Riva succeeds to persuade Casper, in real life. Ask the next person you meet and see if they had become the people they wanted to be as kids. Should you find three in a row, that says, they have, you are in a much better place, but drawing from experience many had forgone their dreams as children, abandoned what they really wanted to do and settled down for what is safe.

Safe is good and there is nothing wrong with that. We all have responsibilities and safe pays the bills.

But, when we start letting safe take to rule our lives—when we stop chasing our dreams, trying to improve ourselves, neglect the things that make us grow, fulfilled and happy—this is where the Riva in all of us wins.

Sadly, unlike Casper getting the review a few hours after the big visit, we do not get the review of our lives after we check out and it may be too late, by then.

So, find a job, earn, stay safe, but never let go at working for what makes you happy.

Lesson 2, Learning. Mastery. Decay.

Architecture school taught me that.

It did not make too much sense back then, but this movie made me remember it.

The quote’s premise is that all art styles and movement even civilizations reach these phases. A phase where we are so eager to learn, a phase where we become masters which then takes most artists to  that plateau of producing a work so immensely sublime, it leaves the artist clueless about how to take it further, which then contributes to his skill’s decay.

Casper, loosing his cool after seeing Tweets of the critic he challenged and being unable to do the menu he planned, after being sacked

In the scene where Casper reads the review, we hear the first few lines were reminiscent of the critic’s first review of the chef. It pointed out his potential, his revolutionary take and his fresh ideas. While the rest of the review tells an awful denouement, this scene made me think of the lines shared atop.

Learning, Mastery, Decay.

Like Casper, when we are new to our jobs, we get through a phase of learning. This stage gets us pumped up, excited and enthusiastic. Eventually, depending on the effort we put at it, we get to a level where what was so hard at first, is now routine, something we barely even put much attention to.

That report that we worked for an entire day, after a year, or maybe less than that, becomes something we finish in an hour, or less—we have reached Mastery.

This new level puts people at crucial junctions. Once a person reaches mastery, they are offered two choices, to either continually seek room for growth or situate and just stay for the ride.

Those who choose the latter, sooner reach decay. You see that someone who started work like a superstar descend to low depths of productivity, creativity and energy. Like routine they go to work and like robots they go home—it was same thing, different day.

Then, there are those who realize that they see themselves decay, those that, though, clueless about what is next to Mastery never give up to go back to learning to avoid staying at the plateau of mastery only to roll down to decay.

The neat solution we have created around this was to continually push mastery by putting a number to it. So, you are a master if you have reached this salary, this degree or this income. Then, to avoid decay, you just simply have to do more, if you earn this much, you strive to get this much. If you have a PhD, you can always get two.

While this works for most, this is not the way out of the plateau of Mastery and certainly not a way to the phase of re-learning. This is just an escape, a distraction we all to readily accept.

As Casper continually searched for a new menu, that new taste, that perfect food (if there is such, I do not intend to be an expert in the goals of those in the culinary world)—you also see, that he barely spends time with his kid, he is divorced and broke.

How many times did we miss out on family, to chase that next thing? Have we occupied ourselves seeking that next promotion, higher pay, new car, higher degree than what we already have thinking it will give us a sense of fulfilment in the eyes of the critics?

Learning one thing is good. Mastering it is another.  Decay, however, comes for those who fail to nurture the other things in their lives, chasing a next level of Mastery over something they have initially mastered.

Rightfully, we see that Casper, becomes the happiest, when he goes back to Miami, does business on a foodcart, selling food, that was not something he would normally do in a fancy restaurant with his kid and friend.

This is what we all need in life. Balance.

Lesson 3, Happiness is fleeting, make those moments possible

Amongst, the many scenes I liked, what stood  out the most, was Casper stopping his son from serving a burnt sandwich and telling him about how passionate he is with cooking, how it makes him feel and how for him he touches lives through it.

I bet we all have something we are passionate about. That thing, we always wanted to do. While these things may not always pay, it does not mean they are less important, nor does it mean that we should give up on them.

Life is always a struggle, but it does not mean we should not leave time to do the things that make us feel happy.

As the world is transformed by this pandemic, it is true that we are left with very few options to do the things we want, we may have been struck by unfortunate times, but it is our decision, at the end of the day, that is the difference between being miserable and being happy.

We ought to take ownership of our emotions, understand that there are things outside our control and stressing over them is a waste of energy. Meanwhile, there are things that we can definitely do something about that is a much better way of expending our attention and our best efforts I.

Life is about choices and how you decide can make the difference.