A Series Of Unfortunate Events

No, i ain't talking about either of Lemony Snickett's version of "A Series of Unfortunate Events". But instead, i was talking about some unfortunate events that had happened to me on last Friday - Monday. In a real life, not in a some scripted world dispersed by talents upon the screen.

I'm not a supertitious man, and never been. But somehow i wondered myself did i woke up on the wrong side of the bed that Friday morning? Well, actually it was soothing to had someone (or in this case, something) to put your fingers at, to take the blame of whatever misfortune that follows. But again, i'm not a supertitious man, and never been.

I'm not sure when, but after a light breakfast that Friday morning, i felt something funny in my stomach. The mere feeling was slowly but surely climbed itself into a real terror on the afternoon, when i had to go to bathroom once in every ten minutes and literally - pardon my language - shitting liquid. And that was just beginning.

As some of you may have known, i was always a sloppy person. I had an above average tendency to give whatever things in my hand to the power of gravity. I had an experience to drop things - accidentally, which usually followed by a total inconsideration that i had things on the ground instead of held in hands - such as Hand-Phone, Wallet, Money, Computer Hard-Drive, Helmet, Keys, Water, Coffee, Mug, A Bowl of rice, and so forth. On some cases, i also tend to forget that i had dropped that thing, and that what had happened on Monday.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. On those four days, while struggling to stay away from the bathroom as long as possible - which was futile - i dropped a lot of things. I spilled a whole cup of coffee on the keyboard (both at home and campus), spilled a whole glass of water to the manuscript i've been working on, and as long as i remembered, i've always spilled some water whenever i poured drinking-water from the dispenser. Never before i had so many series of spilling on so short of time-span. Luckily, i didn't spilled myself while riding my motor.

Monday. I had planned to went to the mall, to do some grocery-shopping. So that afternoon, i got to the mall, parked my motor at the very usual spot (i've already had a usual spot at the plaza and Gramedia, as well) and do some shopping. Well, i didn't just shop. After about half-hour browsing the aisles and bought things which roughly 60% of them were un-necessaries, i sat on one of the fast-food restaurant to grab something to eat (again, i sat on the very usual spot). Half-way through i felt my pockets and after rustling with the content for a while, i found myself bemused when i only found one set of key-chain instead of two. So, which one is missing? it was the key to my motor, parked only one story below.

"There goes my bike", i say to myself at the time. With an hour passed since i parked my motor in the basement, i almost sure that the key had dropped in the vicinity of where my motor was parked and therefore, when i got to the basement, i would find a vacant on the usual spot (where i've always parked my motor whenever i went to the mall, remember?). So with an exact same pace, i finished my meal, and went to the basement.

I wouldn't lie about my feeling, even though i felt so calm and almost sure that the bike won't be there, but when i found that the bike was still there i felt a giant boulder weighed at least a ton sliding away from my shoulder. But almost that instant, the revelation that either the founder of the key didn't know which bike it belongs to or he simply waited for a chance to took it away, both of which resulted in keeping my bike to where it was (the usual spot), had made my heart pumps twice maybe thrice faster. I had a spare key for the bike of course, but obviously i had left it at home. So, as fast as i could i had to get home, took the key and back here before the founder of the key either had found the bike it belongs to or had decided to took his chance.

Analogous to "Janji Joni" or more relevant, "Run Lola Run", to my point of view, on that afternoon, everybody seemed to had a non-disclosure conspiracy to slow me down, i found myself cursing steadily in my head, tapping my feet like i had a whole pint of caffeine, mumbling indistinctively, glaring a rage look to the drivers, the passengers, yelling to the 'ojek' driver to drive faster, and so forth. The voyage back to mall was even worse, you know the traffic in Depok at the evening hour? it was unbearable! even humming a tune from Dream Theater won't help my nervousness, and my ever steady cursing. But at last, after literally shoving many slow-walkers that climbed the crossing-bridge, and at least once, by accident, i let the word "Osoi" (Japanese for "Slow" which i've always used to yell - in mind - at those slow-walkers that often blocked the road) audible, i came to the mall. And it was a great relief to see the usual spot hadn't been occupied by another bike.

After knowing and settling to fact that my key had positively gone after i made a thorough search on the area, and assuming the worse that whoever found the key had marked my bike so when someday he found it, he would surely going to 'steal' it, i went to the plaza straight away to bought an extra padlock - not just one, but two! well, talking about paranoia - and also on impulse, after that shocking experience, i felt that i had all the rights to pleased myself. So i went for Pizza - take away order - while pretend i didn't heard the screaming from somewhere in my back pocket. On second thought, i didn't pretend didn't heard the screaming, i simply didn't heard it screams.

I went to the Pizza booth first, i was shocked when the cashier mentions the price. What the __ ? it was so expensive! i didn't tought that it would be so expensive, but i paid for it anyway. Now, folks, i had to admit that at the time i've been a victim to maybe the most vicious monster that laid dormant on every human-being, 'greed'. It was terrible. So, the Pizza settled, that leaves the padlock. Or padlocks, since i bought two.

In a matter of minutes i found what i'm looking for. I grabbed for two and without even taking a peek to the price tag, i went to the cashier. At the time, i felt that my luck has tilted its way back to normal when i see two cashier-aisles lined with people with their shoppings. But these two doesn't interest me, there's one aisle that apparently just about to open. Obviously, i went there, and found myself first in line.

People dont realize when they had made mistake until they suffer the consequences. I had made a grave mistake when i didn't even bother myself to peek into the price tag of the padlocks, and how i'm suffer! The money in my wallet doesn't cover the padlocks, but i know that the money on my bank-account would be more than enough. So i paid with my card, or at least tried to. It turns out that even my card won't let me end the day peacefully. The card-reader on the cashier didn't want to read my card! And after the third swipe, i said to the sympathetic lady-cashier (whose probably the first fortune i had during the day) to postpone my purchase until i came back from the ATM.

The misfortune continues! I was more surprised than angered when i found that every single ATM Machine (every single ATM Machine that could read my card, and there are at least three different machines on the basement that could do it) are down for one or another reason. What a tragedy. So i went upstair to the ATM Machine near the Pizza booth, thankfully it worked. But before i got the cash out of the ATM, i found myself on a moral battle between me and the evil-me. There was this lady in front of me when i got to the ATM. She was i guess in some kind of undecisive condition, her mind was obviously somewhere else, she had finished her transaction in a flash, and still looking dubious to herself she walked away. I was frowned to the question on the screen "Do you wish to have another transaction?" and soon realized that the lady's card was still inside. The evil-me had immediately took place in my consciussness, he urges me, insisting me to press the "Yes" button encouraging me to nag one-two millions (if there any) from the lady's card and bought that Nintendo Dual-Screen (which costs 1,3 mills rupiah) i had really wanted. But, fortunately, i guess, the real-me (don't laugh) won't give up easily, he fought fiercely, and resulted in maybe the second fortune i had that day, as i ran to the lady and handed her card back.

Okay, got my Pizza, got the padlocks (did i tell you that they were soo expensive?), i could went home joyfully. Am i? or am i not? They say, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. When i did my grocery-shopping, i also bought a voucher to my hand-phone, and when i had a meal after the shopping, i rubbed the black marker of the voucher, dialed the 888 number and inputted 14 digits of code appeared on the voucher. Well, that, folks, is what happened if my battery doesn't went dead. When i punched the 888 number, my battery went dead, and it was too troublesome for me to input the 14 digits to the dark screen. So, i had turned off my hand-phone, and tucked the voucher card somewhere.. which still remains a mystery to me since when i got home, one question had been remained unanswered. "Where the hell was that voucher?".

2046 (2004)

Hong Kong, 2004
Cast: Tony Leung, Zhang ZiYi, Gong Li, Faye Wong, Takuya Kimura
Director: Wong Kar-Wai
My Rating: **** / ****

Ini film yang memberi penghargaan buat mereka yang sabar, gw tidak kuat menahan godaan untuk berbaring sepanjang satu jam (mungkin lebih) pertama film ini, sampai akhirnya gw pending untuk tidur sebentar. Setelah bangun, makan, dan nulis bentar, gw lanjutin nonton separuh akhir annnnddd... what a joy-ride! *whisper* I had a good cry in the end, as well.

People go to 2046 to recover their lost memories
2046 dimulai dengan dua adegan yang sama sekali tak masuk akal, tak bisa dikorelasikan satu sama lain, apalagi terhadap keseluruhan cerita. Dikisahkan Takuya Kimura *gw ga inget nama tokoh-tokohnya so instead i'm goin' with their real names instead* di sebuah dunia yang terlihat nun jauh di depan masa ini, sedang menaiki kereta yang meninggalkan sebuah tempat bernama '2046'. Ditemani voice-over yang mengatakan bahwa orang-orang pergi ke 2046 untuk mencari ingatan mereka yang hilang dan hidup di sana, dikisahkan pula (oleh voice-over juga) bahwa tokoh-nya Takuya Kimura adalah orang pertama yang pergi meninggalkan 2046. Untuk alasan yang mungkin hanya Kimura sendiri yang tahu (untuk sekarang).

Di kisah kedua, kita melihat Tony Leung yang terlibat hubungan emosional dengan seorang wanita (Gong Li), ditemani dengan narasi Tony Leung yang terlalu filosofis buat gw untuk mengingatnya, dan sama sekali tidak ada tanda-tanda yang menunjukkan bahwa siapa sebenernya si Gong Li ini dan bagaimana hubungan mereka berdua sebenernya. Cuman ada gambar-gambar dramatis yang terbukti berguna untuk diingat karena akan muncul kembali nanti di akhir film sebagai bagian dari klimaks.

Selanjutnya, film ini berfokus kepada karakter Tony Leung. Dimulai ketika ia datang ke Hong Kong (apparently he came from S'Pore, a fact which may proof itself significantly important) dan menyewa sebuah apartemen. Dia secara spesifik meminta kamar '2046' untuk alasan yang hanya Tony Leung yang tahu (untuk sementara). Namun karena kamar '2046' sedang direnovasi, Tony Leung mendapat kamar '2047' yang kemudian menjadi kamarnya di sepanjang film.

Tony Leung di sini berperan sebagai seorang penulis yang setiap akhir bulan selalu berpesta pora. Kehidupannya ini juga kemudian membuatnya populer di kalangan wanita penghibur, termasuk karakter Zhang ZiYi yang kemudian menempati kamar '2046'.

Selain itu ada juga karakter Faye Wong sebagai putri dari induk semang Tony Leung yang tidak rela putrinya berkencan dengan pemuda Jepang (Takuya Kimura). Karakter Faye Wong ini yang kemudian membantu Tony Leung menulis cerita fiksi-ilmiah 2046 yang sebenernya merupakan penggambaran dari hidup Tony Leung sendiri.

So? What With That 4 Star-Rating?
Seperti sudah gw sebutkan sebelumnya, gw berjuang untuk tetap terjaga di satu jam pertama film ini sampai akhirnya gw menyerah. Namun ketika gw melihat separuh film kedua, gw really-really hooked up with it, sampai-sampai gw ga percaya kalau film telah berakhir. Di separuh film terakhir, kita bisa melihat semua hal yang memenuhi pikiran selama satu jam pertama pelan-pelan dirangkai oleh Wong Kar Wai melalui perjalanan Takuya Kimura (sebagai tokoh rekaan Tony Leung, bukan sebagai kekasih Faye Wong di dunia nyata) meninggalkan 2046, dan bagaimana Tony Leung mengasosiasikan tokohnya tadi dengan dirinya di dunia nyata.

Dari situ kita juga tahu secara pelan-pelan kerapuhan Tony Leung, and have i told you that i cried in the end? i believe i do. Well, semua karena somehow ketika di akhir film kita kembali ke adegan Tony Leung - Gong Li gw bisa konek sama karakter Tony Leung dan didukung oleh ekspresi Tony Leung sendiri dan tone dari Wong Kar Wai membuat gw bisa memahami pergulatan batin yang dialami si tokoh utama. Jarang-jarang reviewer anda ini bisa bener-bener konek dengan karakter di layar. Didukung oleh karakter-karakter unik yang dimainkan dengan apik lainnya, bahkan Zhang ZiYi yang selama ini hanya gw nikmati karena fisiknya, bisa gw rasakan perasaan depresifnya. Therefore, gw ga ragu-ragu untuk memberi nilai sempurna untuk film ini.

...? *Can't Think of a Title*
Gw tahu 2046 dari forum maya, gw juga tahu Wong Kar Wai dari situ. Secara keseluruhan, mereka yang sudah menonton karya-karya Wong Kar Wai lainnya akan menganggap 2046 sebagai karyanya yang paling lemah, meskipun tetap unik dan menyentuh, dan juga paling mudah dicerna (ow!). Gw sendiri belum lihat karya-karya Wong Kar Wai lainnya. Also, 2046 juga ternyata dimaksudkan menjadi sekuel dari "In the Mood for Love". Apparently, apartemen tempat Tony Leung tinggal juga menjadi setting dari "In the Mood for Love". Tapi, tidak ada masalah (seperti yang dibilang temen2 yang lain juga) untuk menikmati 2046 tanpa terlebih dulu menikmati "In the
Mood for Love".

Point of Interest
Faye Wong. Kita mengenalnya sebagai penyanyi dari lagu yang cukup 'known' pas jaman kuliah. "Eyes On Me". Kualitas aktingnya cukup menarik, tapi above all yang sangat menarik adalah ekspresi wajahnya yang so inviting whenever they shot her from the side. Ketika mukanya di ambil gambarnya dari depan, entah kenapa dia kehilangan daya-tariknya (at least buat gw). Apparently, Wong Kar Wai juga sadar, sehingga seinget gw cuma sekali Faye Wong diambil mukanya dari depan.

Layer Cake (2004)

United Kingdom, 2004
Cast: Daniel Craig, Colm Meaney, Kenneth Cranham
Director: Matthew Vaughn
My Rating: ***1/2 / ****

Salah satu film yang makin menjustifikasi kalo film-film non-Hollywood itu punya ide yang lebih 'fresh', therefore, lebih bisa dinikmati. Gw punya standar sendiri untuk menentukan apakah sebuah film layak mendapat rating minimal ***1/2 - ****. Salah satu parameter standar itu adalah apakah sepanjang film gw sempat melihat jam atau mencek berapa menit lagi sisa waktu dari sebuah film. Dan ketika menonton film Layer Cake ini, selama 105 menit durasi film tidak sekalipun gw meninggalkan pandangan dari layar. And that was a rarity, i tell you. *i had to stop using that phrase too often*.

+/- 30 Menit Pertama: Stereotip Film British?
Film dibuka dengan narasi tokoh kita, Daniel Craig, aktor yang juga menjadi kandidat pengganti Pierce Brosnan di serial James Bond, mengenai bisnis yang ia lakoni (kokain), aturan-aturan-nya dalam berbisnis (jangan berkhianat), dan hidup yang ia jalani (kriminal). Tokoh kita ini berada di tengah-tengah rantai peredaran kokain, dengan kata lain, ia masih bekerja pada orang tertentu, Jimmy (Kenneth Craham), tapi juga cukup jauh dari para 'end-user' so to speak.

Suatu hari, tokoh kita ini merasa cukup dan ingin pensiun. Dan tentu saja, seperti sudah diduga, tidak mudah. Jimmy memberi tokoh kita ini satu tugas, mencari putri salah seorang gembong narkoba yang lebih kuat dari pada Jimmy. Motivasinya? well, i think i'm gonna spoiled the fun if i spilled the motivation that led these film's casts (which was huge) to did what they did.

Just like its title suggests, tugasnya ternyata tidak semudah yang terlihat, seperti kue lapis (Layer Cake), alur film ini dibangun secara vertikal, melibatkan jutaan pil ekstasi, gangster Serbia, pembunuh bayaran nekat, penjahat amatir, dan seterusnya, dengan tokoh kita sebagai sentra semuanya. Sedikit mengingatkan gw terhadap film-film yang juga kebetulan dari Inggris, yang juga melibatkan unsur-unsur sedatif yang terdapat di dalam narkoba, dan juga melibatkan banyak alur yang bersinggungan. Perbedaannya, mungkin karena film ini diangkat dari buku, alur-alur yang bersinggungan bisa disampaikan dengan lebih smooth dan lebih cerdas.

Details! Details!
Film ini punya efek yang lebih efisien untuk dinikmati orang-orang yang not-so-attentive tapi juga tidak ignorant terhadap detil. Dalam perjalanannya, kita melihat banyak tokoh, banyak nama, dan masing-masing tokoh, masing-masing nama, bagaimanapun sedikitnya waktu di layar punya motivasi dan agenda sendiri. Gw sempet nyaris ketinggalan track ketika tokoh kunci yang muncul di awal film selama tak lebih dari dua detik kemudian tiba-tiba muncul di nyaris akhir film untuk menyampaikan aksi penting yang mengantarkan film pada klimaks-nya.

Tapi kelemahannya, dengan banyaknya tokoh, kecuali untuk beberapa tokoh tertentu, karakter-karakter yang dibangun jadi sedikit kurang berkesan dan nyaris terkesan seragam. Tapi (lagi), untuk beberapa tokoh yang mendapat perhatian utama, dibawakan dengan bagus oleh para aktornya sampai-sampai kau bisa merasa yakin kalau mereka adalah memang drug dealer di dunia nyata. Pengecualian untuk Eddie Temple (Michael Gambon) yang secara total tampil tak lebih dari 10 menit tapi dia mengantarkan beberapa 'punch-line' yang ngena banget termasuk definisi dari 'Layer Cake' itu sendiri.

Sedikit kejutan di akhir film
So the movie ends, with a rather predictable outcome dan tokoh utama kita menyampaikan narasi penutup-nya. Yang bikin gw terhenyak adalah ketika di tengah-tengah narasi, gw baru nyadar kalau ada satu hal kecil yang gw tidak tahu film ini, dan gw lebih terhenyak lagi ketika si tokoh utama kita menanyakan pada kita (penonton) apakah kita (penonton) tahu hal kecil yang dimaksud. Hal kecil, remeh, yang ga signifikan sebenarnya, tapi ketika sampai luput dari penonton, itu berarti film ini disampaikan dengan skrip yang bagus dan cerita yang memikat sampai kita ga peduli sama hal kecil tersebut. At least, that was the way i see it.

P.S Point of Interest
Satu adegan yang memorable buat gw, ketika adegan kekerasan yang brutal disampaikan dengan lagu 'Ordinary World'-nya Duran-Duran. I found the scene was totally funny in a most satiric way possible, that i actually managed to gave a few chuckles even while the brutal action took place.

I loved this movie, and i plan to re-watch it just to make sure that they really didn't mention that 'small things' during this 105-minutes joy-ride. And by the time i watch this movie (that was at least 10 days ago), the film was also brought to U.S theatres and had a good reviews.

TV Series

Didn't watch any movies at all after 'Layer Cake', an above average British movie about crime of which the review was still in the middle of writing, but instead i gobbled up a whole episodes from 2nd season of TV serie 'Monk', a defective-detective, super-genius-you-won't-believe-that-such-man-could-exist, an obsessive-compulsive with enough paranoias that if it was given away to the group of people - one paranoia for each - could make a medium-sized mental instituion into a havoc. And also the 1st season of 'X-Files', well, i assume everybody knows X-Files. Kinda cute and nostalgic to see such serie from the mid-90's, i mean, the soundtrack, the way they dress, the way they talked, by golly, it seems like already a million years ago when i feel so anxious to see if my parents would let me stay awake until 11 p.m, probably more, every Thursday night (school night) to watch the serie. But thankfully, only if i had done something very-very terrible (and it was a rarity, i tell you), they had always let me watch the serie. And i also watched the 2nd season of 'Alias'. Point of interest: It was very interesting to see how such strong of a woman, could break down.

Kingdom of Heaven (2005)

United States/United Kingdom/Spain 2005
Cast: Orlando Bloom, Liam Neeson, Jeremy Irons, Eva Green, Edward Norton, Ghassan Massoud
Director: Ridley Scott
My Rating: *** / ****

Agak sulit buat gw untuk menilai film ini lepas dari pemikiran prinsipil gw karena latar belakang sejarah yang diambil untuk kepentingan film ini, "perang salib", perang berkepanjangan untuk memperebutkan Jerusalem antara kaum Muslimin dan Nasrani yang bahkan masih berlanjut sampai sekarang. Review ini akan singkat.

Best Epic since The Lord of the Rings
Setelah trilogi The Lord of the Rings, tidak bisa dipungkiri kalo moviegoers pada akhirnya akan secara tidak sadar membandingkan sebuah film epik dengan trilogi tersebut. King Arthur, Troy, dan Alexander adalah film-film epik pasca The Lord of the Rings yang kalah telak, babak belur ketika dibandingkan karena secara kualitas mmemang mengecewakan banyak pihak. Untuk Kingdom of Heaven sendiri, meskipun masih cukup 'menderita' ketika dibandingkan dengan The Lord of the Rings, terutama ketika adegan peperangan (pengepungan kota Jerusalem), Kingdom of Heaven bisa kabur dengan pembandingan itu dan alih-alih kemudian dibandingkan dengan tiga film epik yang gw sebutkan sebelumnya. And it was no contest.

"A man who in France has not a house is in the holy land the master of a city,"
Tahunnya, 1184. Tokohnya, Balian (Orlando Bloom). Evennya, Perang Salib ke-3. Balian dikisahkan lay low di sebuah desa di Perancis sebagai seorang pandai besi ketika Godfrey of Ibelin (Liam Neeson) yang ternyata adalah ayah kandungnya mengajaknya pergi berperang. Tentu saja Balian pergi (kalau tidak tentu tidak akan ada yang bisa diceritakan, kan?) tapi setelah berkonfrontasi sejenak dengan sub-conscius-nya whatever that is. Balian juga pergi berperang dengan alasan sendiri, salah satu cara Ridley Scott untuk menyampaikan sejarah yang sensitif dan rawan kontroversi dengan aman. Well, the story goes rather staightforward from here. Yerusalem diperintah oleh seorang raja muda yang terkena lepra, Baldwin IV (Ed Norton). Raja Baldwin ini ternyata menginginkan supaya umat Islam dan Kristen bisa hidup berdampingan. Tentu saja para ekstrimis (di sini direpresentasikan oleh tokoh Knights Templar, Guy de Lusignant (Marton Csokas)) yang menginginkan semua orang Islam dibantai. Pemimpin tentara Arab di sini juga digambarkan sangat bijak, lebih bijak malah dari pada raja Baldwin. Dia adalah Saladin (Massoud) yang citranya kemudian dijaga baik-baik di sepanjang film oleh Scott.

History when it came to Hollywood
Sejarah buat gw adalah masa lalu, bisa diceritain sesuka hati. Lagipula siapa yang bisa memverifikasi-nya kecuali sang pencipta waktu sendiri? Karenanya, meskipun pada akhirnya banyak diskusi mengenai sejarah perang Salib yang diangkat oleh Ridley Scott dan betapa banyaknya dia memangkas sejarah, memendekkannya supaya bisa dijadikan film sepanjang dua jam, gw sih ga peduli. Sebagai film yang berdiri sendiri, gw enjoy sama dialog-dialog di film ini. Adegan perangnya sih tidak ada yang benar-benar baru, i've seen it somewhere else before, tapi cukup enak dilihat. Cukup senang juga melihat penampilan Orlando Bloom yang akhirnya bisa keluar dari citra 'boyish'-nya. Meskipun ketika dia dijajarkan dengan Liam Neeson dan Jeremy Irons masih suka keteteran, dia bisa mengambil peran utama dengan bagus karena memang kebetulan film ini berpusat di sekitar Balian. Yang paling mengecewakan tentu saja si Eva Green. Entah kenapa Hollywood selalu merasa perlu menyelipkan adegan ranjang di film-film yang ia produksi. Padahal jaman segitu lepas kamu Nasrani, apalagi Muslim, perzinahan bukan sesuatu yang bisa lolos dengan mudah, tidak seperti sekarang. Bahkan seandainya gw disuruh menyebut sisi lemah dari film ini, gw bisa dengan gampang menyebut "setiap adegan yang ada si Eva Green". Maaf, Eva, kecantikanmu tidak banyak membantu.

Bukan Untuk Mencari Siapa yang Salah
Film ini juga mendapat kredit lebih karena dia lebih menggali sisi humanity dari para pelaku perang, bukan berkutat di perseturuan tanpa akhir untuk mencari siapa yang salah selama perang salib berlangsung. Digambarkan betapa tokoh-tokoh macam Saladin dan tentu saja Balian sendiri tidak begitu tertarik dengan konsep "Kill everyone, left none alive!". Menjelang akhir, ditemani dengan aerial shot dari Scott yang cukup mantap menangkap aftermath dari perang, kengerian yang ditimbulkannya, the absence of glory untuk kedua belah pihak, Balian dan Saladin akhirnya bertemu untuk mencari jalan damai. And that's how the movie ends. But definitely not how the war ends. Di sini, pesannya cukup jelas bahwa perang tidak akan menghasilkan apa-apa kecuali kerja ekstra untuk para penggali kubur (itupun kalau mereka masih hidup).... ada satu tambahan lagi sebenernya, dari film ini, seandainya memang benar diadaptasi dari sejarah, membuat gw merasa menyesal, bahwa dulu gara-gara seorang-dua orang ekstrimis, langkah awal untuk menciptakan perdamaian Islam - Kristen di Yerusalem jadi tidak terlaksana. Tapi bagaimanapun juga, emang sudah ditulis bahwa tanah itu selamanya akan jadi sengketa.

Rebirth (from Yahoo! 360 latest entry)

Screening Log shall be back in a Flash! yes, i shall see to it be materialized later this week. So this would be my last entry here on 360.

Actually, i had a whole lot of rather fortunate conditions when my computer died away. I had more time to deploy my mind to work harder even during the night when i usually slumped away watching movies or doing some unnecessary works on PC. During the period when my computer died away, i had read at least 3 long novels, i had improved my Japanese language so much that i'm quite confident in taking JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) level 2 this December. FYI, JLPT was divided into 4 levels with level 1 being a level below Native. I also picked up the pieces and starting to work (again) on my long abandoned novel. I wrote it longhands, which means that i wrote it on a scrap of paper with mere pencils, and small scripts. I loved my novel (that's one thing that matters, right?) that i dont even care if that wether it would get an attention from publishers or not, all i care is how does Ruthless Rembhoek, Inspector Mi'hen and his daughters, Lina the bartender, Mama Reni the p.i.m.p and whole casts of Red District would see the end of the holocaust. Hell, even now i can't wait to get home from office, had dinner, and sitting in front of the papers, to start writing. If and only if it get fortunate enough to ever get published, it would be a start of a series (that's why i shifted the background of my story, from Jakarta to a totally imaginative city i invented myself. It was easier that way), if it's not, then i would simply wait until i'm rich enough to start my own publishing company.

Anyway, i'm starting to send out applications. But i'm sending them only to the oil companies, regardless if they had a vacancy or not. After all, i loved to work in here, minimum supervisions, unlimited internet, a whole lot of vacant times, unlimited access to movies, mangas, and animes, and friends that never says 'no' when i asked them to play a computer game, or a card game, what else could you ask for more?. But with everybody (my parents, my future parent-in-law) urging me to had a life (i HAD a life!) i'm just sending those applications to satisfy them.

See you at Screening Log