Silent All These Years
Every now and again, I get to see something unique, something that touches the heart. Today was one such day. I just saw Fly Me to Polaris.
I remembered watching it years ago. I’ve been harping about how beautiful the poster has been forever. Girls liked it. My cousin said it kicked major arse.
I watched it on that particular night, all those nights ago. That Cecilia Cheung and Richie Ren movie. Angels, saxophones, and meteor showers filled me mind. Knowing that Jingle Ma made Fly Me to Polaris really excited me. He was involved in Drunken Master II and Fong Sai Yuk. The idea of a director who is at the top of the food chain in terms of using soul and film to make stories that take us far away from the here and now. This was his debut feature and his riskiest film. Well, the movie nailed it for me, then.
So it was that today began. I awoke to put the finishing touches on some paper work. And I got my new Laptop Computer today. A new old laptop actually. You see, my cousin’s changing comps, and I’ve bought his old one. I was introduced to Windows 2000 (after five years) and a computer that will free me from my room. (Me old one, it’s mobile too, but it was heavy yo. )This will enable me to play Starcraft on the move. A real advance for me.
Tis mondo cool. I love it, I can update from the toilet now. No, I'm not writing this in the toilet. I spent some time fiddling with me new comp, installing some stuff n all that. Then I had dinner. Food. I had my fill of delicious laksa. And then, the Leeds vs. Newcastle match was on. That was cool.
Finally, after my belly started making sounds like the hull was cracking, I excused meself. As soon as I hit my room, I undid my belt to release the belly. I looked at the laptop staring back at me. I decided to try out some vcds. So I put on Fly Me to Polaris. The first vcd I could find.
I sat back and watched. I haven’t seen a good romantic tearjerker since Message in a Bottle and The English Patient.
When I was younger, I've pondered about the afterlife, well, some…I’ve contemplated heaven and hell. Heaven… What that would be like, would it be like a meet-the-stars session.. You know where you would go up to Monet and geekily ask for his autograph. What about meeting other fine, fine people. Is everything free and paid for so long as you do your part in the hereafter... Is it set up in a strata of goodness. With really great good people up top, while the rest of the merely decent types stare up thinking... "I wish I had the 1st class seats”.
Alright,…that strata of goodness thing… heh, I was just a kid. Back then, you don’t have to shave the stubble on your face and you have a squeaky voice. Now, you shave daily if you want to be stubble-free and spray stuff on yourself to cancel out male B.O. Whenever you open your gob and spew out words, your voice comes out deep and rough.
So now and then, different.
Would hell be a nightmare of paperwork and cubicles processing the moments of the living in nice easily readable text in preparation for ‘you know who’? Or it's being stuck in a place scarier that your scariest horror story.
Scary huh? Not exactly wonderful stuff to contemplate. I don’t think so much anymore.
Cecilia Cheung is awesome when she isn't doing a "for the money" gig. Here she is a human being, not a hamster on speed. She's tender, vulnerable, joyous, melancholy, bitter, loving and on and on and on. Her eyes, her smile, her wretched face... she's amazing. A portrait of someone who's life has been torn asunder. This is far and away her best role. She plays the flipside of the soul mate coin which she is joined with Richie.
That term soul mates... that's explored in this film. And when you watch the connection these two have you should believe it, at least I did, but I'm a notable dude cream puff remember. But it made me long to stare into a pair of eyes and for there to be an instant mutual acknowledgement of eternity. To be breathing the same breath from the moment of birth, till finally with your first embrace you share the breathing of that breath. A relationship where language is of no use, because the world is revealed in glances and stares, of hands trembling and baited breaths. To have someone with whom time does not exist, not because you're in the afterlife, but because so long as the other exists there is oxygen in your tank. They become your Ziploc air-tight bag, allowing you to weather any storm.
And this movie expresses that. It's also about being able to exist in life without the other. It’s about letting go. It's about being able to move on. It's a painful story, but then these stories always are. Pain never hurts so bad as when it matters.
We have here some of the most beautiful and stunning cinematography yet. This is the prettiest most magnificently lush looking Hong Kong movie that I’ve ever seen. Every shot had a nice polished and dreamy quality to it. The night scenes…wow. If they had tightened up the script, it could have been so much more than just a meaningful tearjerker.
Ya know…some movies, even good ones, should only be seen once. When we know how they turn out, they’ve lost their mystery and appeal. Others can be watched a thousand times. Like Sun Yan Zi’s songs or Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes , they improve with familiarity. Fly Me to Polaris falls in the 1st category.
It’s been a while since I last saw this one. It didn’t rock my world like it used to. I love silly melodramatics and I happen to be a firm believer that silly melodramatics happen in everyday life, but some parts were hard to stomach. Maybe I’m just older.
In our youth, we all drift in and out of a make-believe world. One day I’d be dreaming I was Batman, the next Bruce Lee, and quite a lot of time I imagined I was Diego Maradona, my hero. But you do grow up…and some things just had to be left in the toy-box.
So I’ve just had a very large dose of mushy sappiness. Too much of anything makes you feel ‘geli’ and ‘jelak’. I’m gonna go play some Sims now.
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