My sister's keeper

Movie Review #1: My Sister's Keeper

Official movie trailor:

"Most babies are accidents. Not me. I was engineered. Born to save my sister's life."

This line by Anna, the narrator of this movie, simply summarizes what this movie is all about. Anna is a younger sister of Kate, who was born to cure diseases of Kate by implanting all kinds of her organs to Kate's body whenever needed. Kate innately had terrible health, slowly dying from leukemia. She often choked up with blood, and was often suffering from medication treatments. I was even worried that her blood would soon be depleted as she was excreting too much blood from her body. Due to this, Anna received unwanted surgeries over ten times, by her age of 11.

At this age, she started to acknowledge what was happening to her and finally came to understand that their parents were violating her rights over her body. Not only that but her sister Kate also suddenly said she wants to stop all these. All the surgeries, chemical treatments, hurts and fights going on over her parents because of her.

Therefore, Anna finally chooses to file a law suit against her parents for violating her rights to make decisions over her body.
Later in this movie, the doctor feels that it would be better to just give up and make Kate comfortable until she dies. So her father and brother Jessie takes her to the beach, a place where Kate likes the most. However, her mom becomes nuts about this and wants her to get medication and keep on trying until she cures. Nonetheless, the family all just go down to the beach and enjoys the beautiful and pleasant ambience of the beach. When Kate comes back to the hospital where she had been staying almost all of her life, she receives a photobook, filled with photos she and her family took, all of them smiling.

That night, Kate and her mom cried themselves to sleep. And that night, Kate died.
Right after the movie ended, what came to mind was, life is so transient. I've been thinking about death a lot recently, and this movie seemed to just put all my scattered thoughts into order. You NEVER know what will happen just one second later, and your life just goes by.
I think the reason why human beings are so afriad of death is because they really don't know how they will feel or what will happen after they die. Humans have knowledge boundaries that are so wide and deep that it is impossible to become aware of all of them during lifetime. However, there are also plenty of things we do not know, like death. As everyone has to go through death and nobody knows what will happen, it is quite natural to be afraid of it. But, whatever happens in the future, I think going against nature is always wrong. Anna's birth, at the first place, which was also against the nature, was the start of all the conflicts and fights and pain. Of course, in terms of birth itself, it should be celebrated, but it certainly brought lots of anguish. Moreover, at the end of the movie, the mother keep on tries to continue the chemical medication, which hurts Kate so much, she wants to stop and give up. This, making a frantic last-ditch effort, did not work in the end, and it only brought fights and pain to everyone. Thus, I think we should never go against the nature of what will happen, especially if it is impossible to be controlled with human power.


Rating :

Reflective Essay of Kim Gi Duk's movie, Spring

    In the movie, the teacher teaches a boy a lifelong and valuable lesson by making him experience what the animals have went through. The boy tied up a fish, a frog and a snake with a rope to a stone so that they wouldn’t be able to move properly, so the teacher did the exact same thing to the boy, instead of beating or yelling at him at all. The teacher made the boy a new person without saying much words or effort.
    My mom used to use this teaching method a lot to me and my sister, which greatly changed how I behave and act towards others. Back in my first grade in elementary school, I used to visit a lot of my friends’ house for birthday parties. Since they were my closest friends, I simply thought I could take some toys or books from their house without asking and return the toys back when I’m done playing. I simply thought it wouldn’t really matter if I gave them back and place them where they were. When my mom found out about this, she didn’t show any outrage or anger towards me nor said anything harsh to me. However, suddenly my top priority objects were constantly taken away and put back again, and it infuriated me. They weren’t there when I needed them, I didn’t know where to find it because I didn’t know who was the thief, and this was utterly uncomfortable and annoying all the time. Sometimes I was so angry I was yelling, jumping around all over the house, calling, “Who’s the thief! Who’s the thief!”. But slowly I came to realize that the thief was my mom and she did this to teach me that taking things without telling is same as stealing even if you take them back where they are, and it annoys the owner even though you put them back right in. If, just hypothetically, my mom yelled at me for stealing or beated me, I wouldn’t have known why would that we stealing and argue. Then I would have done it repeatedly until I grow up enough to know what is the difference. From this experience, I personally think this teaching method is very effective and useful.

Reading Journal #1. Shawshank Redemption and Rita Hayworth

Reading Journal #1. Shawshank Redemption and Rita Hayworth

10b2 Park MinSun

First Draft: October 12^th, 2011.

As Red narrates the story of Andy Dufrense and the lives Shawshank prison, all I could think about was how Andy would really look like if he actually existed. Andy is portraited like a hero in this story, and I think I fell in love with this guy, just like many other times when you would fall in love with a character in a book or a movie. He is a prominent banker outside Shawshank, which premises that he is very smart, plus he helps all the other men in prison to avoid taxation with his extraordinary ability. He has this calm, stoic-like attitude even at court when DA kept raging him to the limits. I still remember the lines when he said, ‘Given the fact that I am innocent in this crime, I feel very uncomfortable that he gun was never found.’, or something along those lines. He was smart enough to threaten the sisters at prison who tried to rape Andy by scaring them using his knowledge. He also quietly hurt sisters badly at night, breaking into their cells, this time also using his smart brain. The most admirable thing about Andy is how courageous he is. First of all he was described by Red that he ‘Never made a sound’ on his rough first day at prison even though he was truly innocent. Second he planned the most dangerous thing at prison; an escape. He knew very well that Shawshank guards would beat him to death when they find out that he was planning to escape the prison. However, he believed in HOPE, which made Red change his mind, and dugged a huge tunnel through the prison wall with his small rockhammer. He kept his huge hole covered with such a weak defense mechansim, a poster of girls, which he changed over time. Red predicted that it would take Andy to dig a hole over 300 years, but Andy did it within about 20 years in time.

 Given that Andy was given a life sentence even though he literally didn't do anything, I really admire him for how he really kept holding on to his life. If I were him, I would have killed myself already when I'm accused of murders of two people I never did and given life sentence for it. Andy never lost hope and kept spreading it to the other guys at prison, and he finally achieved what he always wanted to do. I feel ashamed of myself when I think of him. I always sing about my little failures at school. 'Oh god, I ruined my quiz today! I'm sooo dead. I'm not even going to go to university anymore'. 'Tomorrow's my midterm and I haven't studied at all! I really want to kill myself'. Well, it does not pertain only to me. Almost everybody in this school says that everyday. Maybe I should start fixing this and start to say positive things! 

Revised Vers.-Chain Writing+Metafiction

Partner system of Minjok Festival must be abolished!

16th wave, Female, Park MinSun

2011-10-09, 5:54:58 p.m.

Page Number 15540, Viewed 1530 times.



     After the mid-tern exam ends, in a cold winter, in the end of October, some students are bringing their partners, having fun, laughing and cheerfully talking to each other to the school party. However, you, unable to get any partner, walk lonely to the party alone, feeling sad and depressed. Do you really think the partner system of Minjok Festival is appropriate for everyone in this school and create more fun atmosphere than depressing ambience? Really?!
    
     Please post a comment if you agree with this idea!

15th wave, Male, -------, 2011-10-09, 6:06:38 p.m.
     This is a school party to let students enjoy between all those long and boring studying for mid-term exam of SAT. However, if there are people who would be depressed from not getting any partner, this party does not serve its purpose.

16th wave, Male, -------, 2011-10-09, 6:29:42 p.m.
     We do understand that the partner system has some sorts of merit, like being able to get close to the other sex. The essential problem occurs when no one asks you out, because it not only makes you discouraged to go th the party and enjoy, but also makes it difficult for you to concentrate on your studies. Feeling embarrassed, you try to go and find a different boy that possibly might take you out, but all of their answers are things like, 'no', 'sorry', 'maybe next time'. Not only girls, but boys also encounter the exactly same problem. Action must now take place, I suppose, for the sake of enjoying the party we are just about to ruin.

15th wave, Female, ------, 2011-10-09, 7:02:23 p.m.
     Another problem that occurs because of the partner system in the Minjok Festival is the after-effect of the party. After a night partying with your 'partner', you will likely to develop a nice feeling towards that person. This may lead, and develop to a relationship. Especially concerning the fact that KMLA forbids dating and relationship, this will be a big problem. Teachers will have a hard time restricting and punishing students.

... (omitted comments)

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     I pioneered on making a suggestion on KMLA online, and it was then that all the other students started to post comments on my post, at its peak reaching 55 comments, all of them long enough to become essays. I was so shocked by this passion and I decided to directly contact the student board as soon as possible to let them know about how students feel about this partner system of Minjok Festival.
     The elected President of KMLA kept trying to dictate over all the students and keep the partner system, just because it would be entertaining and create a lot of couples and would eventually make this school life much more energetic and lively, which was obviously his own thoughts. However, I kept on arguing with huge pacts of students' ideas and how majority of students feel about this. Also, I told them that the President should put this into vote before he decides on anything. In the end, the President finally abolished this system, making the Minjok Festival much more entertaining for everybody!

Chain Writing: Are you SURE you want to do this?

Partner system of Minjok Festival must be abolished!

     After the mid-tern exam ends, in a cold winder, in the end of October, some students are bringing their partners, having fun, laughing and cheerfully talking to each other to the school party. However, you, unable to get any partner, walk lonely to the party alone, feeling sad and depressed.
     This is a school party to let students enjoy between all those long and boring studying for mid-term exam of SAT. However, if there are people who would be depressed from not getting any partner, this party does not serve its purpose.
     We do understand that the partner system has some sorts of merit, like being able to get close to the other sex. The essential problem occurs when no one asks you out, because it not only makes you discouraged to go th the party and enjoy, but also makes it difficult for you to concentrate on your studies. Feeling embarrassed, you try to go and find a different boy that possibly might take you out, but all of their answers are things like, 'no', 'sorry', 'maybe next time'. Not only girls, but boys also encounter the exactly same problem. Action must now take place, I suppose, for the sake of enjoying the party we are just about to ruin.
     Another problem that occurs because of the partner system in the Minjok Festival is the after-effect of the party. After a night partying with your 'partner', you will likely to develop a nice feeling towards that person. This may lead, and develop to a relationship. Especially concerning the fact that KMLA forbids dating and relationship, this will be a big problem. Teachers will have a hard time restricting and punishing students.
     The ultimate problem of Minjok Festival is that some boys have to be partners together. Yes, a gay couple. I abhor homosexuality. It shouldn't be introduced into our sacred school if it can be avoided. Okay, I understand that some people like someone with the same gender. One the 'Freshmen Welcoming Party', a boy whose name should not be revealed, proposed to another guy, although he was rejected. That is understandable, because people may have diverse predilections. But promoting homosexuality? No, that should never happen. We should only promote "English Only Policy".