001 K-PAX

It's not a movie that will appeal to many. Most people may find the sessions between Prot (Kevin Spacey) and Dr. Powell (Jeff Bridges) overly lengthy. Or they may get disturbed by the genre--drama? sci-fiction? comedy?--too much of a hybrid.

Yet, I love Kevin Spacey's acting plus the very cunning dialogues between the "doctor" and the "patient." If you are the kind who get provoked by words easily, it's worthwhile take a look at K-Pax.

001.1 "I am a K-Paxian"

Prot, who claims himself from a planet called K-PAX, appears in a train station in New York and is later taken to the Manhattan Psychiatric Institute.

The movie is hovered by lots of dialogues between Prot and Powell, who has a difficult time to regress to Prot's past in hope of dugging out the origin of his problem, or to disprove that Prot's a K-Paxian.

At the long last, when Powell believe that a Prot's indeed Robert Porter, a guy who's believed to have been through a big trauma in New Mexico. Powell wants Prot to recognize of his "identity."

Powell: "You are Robert Porter."
Prot: "I will accept to be Robert Porter, only when you will accept me as K-Paxian."

Who are we, afterall? Is it what we think we are, or what we really are, determines the identity of us? Not quite, it's what others claim, in this societal structure, of us, make who we are, absurdly.

001.2 "On my planet, I am the doctor, and you are the patient."

After the doctor has learnt that Prot's trying to "heal" the patients in his ward, Powell confronts Prot in the garden of the hospital.

Powell: "Prot, on my planet, I am the doctor and you are the patient."
Prot: "Dr. Powell, isn't it absurd that, on your planet, you have the distinction between doctor and patient?"
Powell: "Now, you are the patient, and you are not coming here to cure others. I am the one who should cure them."
Prot: "Why haven't you done so?"

The fact that Prot helps Dr. Powell discover his own personal problem and the doctor becomes the one who needs to be cured is a theme quite cliche. Yet, it's worth pondering upon the notion between--the healer and the healed.

In the bible, God claims, "Blessed are the poor." He never says--blessed are the one who help the poor.

It takes me some time to realize that to so-called "help" others isn't for the sake of blessing those in need. The need are the ones who will bring me blessing.

The poor are the blessed ones.

By poor, I mean those who lack love, who lack confidence, who lack money, who lack warm, who lack company.

They often bring me more than I offer them.

When Prot is about to part on July 27, back to K-PAX, as he claims, he says, "Thank you, Dr. Powell, thank you for your hospitality...oh, hospital, oh...hospitality."

Hospitality is not about having a cocktail party, finger buffets, well-chosen music, or elegant house decoration. Hospitality is simply about offering the very minute things that you can offer with opening arms.

The puns in many dialogues of the movie are stunning. Hospital, hospitality, and if I would write the script, I may add one more--hostility.

I have been to the some psychiatric wards in hospital (well, visiting friends), and oftentimes I felt very disturbed by the hostile feeling, not hospitable feeling of the ward.

The movie, though very cliche-like, denotes that only when we turn hostility into hospitality, we begin to see something.

Being a hospitable host, we invite the people to be your house as guest.

Just like the movie, the closeness of Prot and Powell is reflected by the time when Prot asked Powell to come into his house for a party. Powell is the host and Prot is the guest. In our life, how often do we welcome people who run into us with open arms?

Coming back to the very original issue, the distinction between doctor and patient is absurd, claimed by Prot. And in the bible, the distinction between host and guest is absurd too. When Jesus was invited to dine with the tax-collectors, tell me--who's indeed the host and who's indeed the guest? Who's getting and who's giving?

Yes, on our planet, we like to distinguish things into dichotomy.

001.3 "On K-Pax, there's no law and there's of course no lawyers."

Oh man, when this line was delivered by Prot, my friend Bruno, a solicitor himself, who's sitting next to me, uttered a word--"oh, shit!" Tere and I, almost at the same time, turned our face to Bruno, and laughed. Ha, ha, on K-Pax, Bruno would be flunked because there's no need for lawyers. We still laughed at this idea when we were enjoying our post-movie coffee break at Pokka-Cafe in Shatin.

Powell, "Hmm... Prot, what's the societal structure in K-Pax? Are there laws on K-Pax?"
Prot, "No, on K-Pax, there's no law and there's of course no lawyers."
Powell, "Oh...no laws, but how can that work?"
Prot, "Isn't it true that everyone of us has the sense of what's right and wrong?"
Powell, "Oh well... but without laws, how can you punish those who do the wrong things?"
Prot, "You human on your planet always believe in an eye for an eye, a life for a life. Didn't Buddha and Jesus tell you not to do that? You human won't listen to that, even the Buddhist and the Christian."

But I think Prot is very right (can't help loving his words), "I don't quite understand how you human make it till today."

001.4 "Dr. Powell, you aren't listening."

Prot tells Powell that on K-Pax, there's no family. Being quite confused and overwhelmed, Powell wants to explore the idea further."

Powell, "You mean on K-Pax, there's no marriage?"
Prot, "Dr. Powell, you aren't listening, I said that there's no family, no marriage, no husband, no wife on K-Pax."

Ha ha, I love Prot! What a line--you are not listening!

That's what I find most psychiatrists or counselors, and myself do when talking to others. They hear what the patients or clients or friends say. They hear because that's what they are supposed to do. But they don't listen because they don't believe in what they are to hear from them.

There's a difference between hearing and listening.

001.5 "Who goes to bed now will get an extra credit!"

Tere and I thundered a blot of laughter at the same time when Prot says that, with the patients rushing to their bedrooms.

Yesterday my little three-year-old refused to pick up a little napkin he threw on the floor at home. My sister-in-law insisted that the little guy had to pick it up and put it into the bin. With his pride much bigger than his size, my nephew struggled not to pick it up. The mum and the child had a little cold war over a napkin on the floor.

The napkin remained unmoved, so did my sister-in-law and nephew.

Five minutes, ten minutes and fifteen minutes pasted. No one wanted to give in.

My nephew did not see what he could get out of picking up the rubbish.

People, be they little kids, or mental patients, or boyfriends, or wives, or parents, or anyone, will not do what you tell them to do unless they realize the credits behind those actions themselves.

When they know what's good about doing something, they will do it without you telling them.

001.5 Solitude

K-Pax is not what people will call a great or even good movie. Yet, it fits my taste perfectly well. Kevin Spacey's action, as usual, is stunning. What I like most is his ability to be living in solitude amid clouds of people. He looks at the surrounding and is being in the situation as if he's off the context.

Leaving in solitude isn't too difficult if you are in the deserts in New Mexico. Yet, being in solitude amid the bustle Manhattan inside the hectic psychiatric hospital with a roomful of mentally disturbed patients isn't easy. But Spacey acts that out confidently.

Sometimes I want to get into his eyes, Spacey's eyes, to look at the world. If the director would like us to see from the sunglasses of Prot's, the effect may be quite different.

Talking about the ability to observe the world slowly, Ah Ja and Fatty, I think Spacey's the one to look for. Never the duck.

I have talked so much of the movie simply because the dialogues repeat in my mind involuntarily. I did not jot them down while watching the movie and so the dialogues may not be the exact wordings of the script. Who cares.

I am from a planet called K-PAX.

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