What a little-known Chinese movie “Electric Shadows” shares in common with the international hit from Italy “Cinema Paradiso” is how powerful movies can be, especially for impressionable children. Quoting something rather trite from a Landmark Theatres commercial, “the language of film is universal.”
While “Cinema Paradiso” was about a naughty boy Toto finding a father figure in the projectionist of the local movie theater, “Electric Shadows” is about a little girl who eventually did find herself the reluctant stepdaughter of the projectionist. Both kids were mesmerized by movies. However, the fate of the Italian boy was much better – after his heart was broken by a beautiful girl, he left home and became a famous film director. He only returned home 30 years later, when his father figure died, and that was when he rediscovered the power of movies, as well as how much this seemingly grumpy old projectionist loved him. The little girl in the Chinese movie, however, started out quite happy, but turned melancholy after the departure of her best friend, the marriage of her mother to the local projectionist, and especially the birth of her half-brother, whom her mother and her stepfather favored. She became grouchy and resentful, and even bullied her little brother. But this little boy was such an angel that he kept his own sister’s bad behaviors away from the parents. When she was told to study instead of watching a movie with the rest of the family, the little brother lied to the mother and said that he wanted to go back home to go to the toilet. So the mother gave him the key, and he opened the door to let his sister out to watch the movie in the open-door theater. The sister decided to take him up to the top of the roof, where she and her best friend used to watch movies through a pair of binoculars. As they were taking turns watching the movie with the binoculars, she again got impatient with the little brother hanging onto the binoculars too much, so she pretended to leave. When the little brother got up to follow her, he lost his balance and fell from the roof to his death. After that, the girl left home and became quite eccentric. Eventually it was a semi-happy ending in that the girl was reunited with the parents, after time had healed all the pain, or most of it at least, in the setting of an outdoor movie theater again.
Obviously, the story is a bit of a stretch, and there are many aspects of the film that could make one roll her eyes. The message is perhaps a little too loud and clear. It is about the power of movies – its power of inspiration, power of intoxication and power of redemption.
However, I found myself dwelling over a peripheral aspect of the movie – the little brother who fell to his death from the roof, after sneaking away to let his bitter and jealous sister watch the movie together. What an angelic little boy! – I thought to myself. Needless to say, every time I see a little kid, especially if it’s a cute little boy, my thoughts return to Winston. I simply cannot imagine the kind of pain a mother has to bear for losing a little kid. I am glad that at least now and here there is a lot of awareness about child safety, because I would otherwise be terrified of having Winston out of my sight for a minute!
He is so sweet and angelic. Yesterday at the doctor’s office, his chubby thighs got three(!) pokes from a needle for the three vaccines, and he only cried when the needle poked him. The minute I held him up, he stopped crying. He laughed the whole way back home, even though he was really tired and sleepy as it was past his nap time. He is so ticklish (like me) that he’s often laughing his head off if I blow air to the back of his neck, massage his belly, or tickle his armpits.
No comments:
Post a Comment