June 7th, 2009
The Lonely Island - Like a Boss / The Lonely Island - I'm on a Boat

I know I haven't updated for a couple of days, but I have a few things to blog about in this entry, so that's okay! I'll start off with a movie I recently watched, called Journey from the Fall. It's an indie/low-budget film... but it's beautiful.

"Journey from the Fall (Vietnamese: Vượt Sóng) is an independent movie by writer/director/editor Ham Tran, about the Vietnamese reeducation camp and boat people experience following the Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975."
Wikipedia

I had always heard good reviews about this movie, but it was hard to find and I never found the time to sit down and watch it when it came into my possession. Well, my sister and I were on a trip to the library when we saw this movie on the shelves. She and my mother had already seen it, but I hadn't, so I asked if we could borrow it from the library.

That night, I set it in the DVD player, unsure of what to really expect from the movie. I knew it was supposed to be heartbreaking and that this story is my family's story, but... I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, or how I would react to it. It was different, hearing a movie in my native language. When the scene of the Fall of Saigon played, I cried.

It's hard to specify the exact reason why. Maybe it was hearing the heart wrenching sobs of the lead characters. Perhaps it was the image of a family being torn apart, of watching my native country falling into shambles. Whatever the reason was, it struck home for me. The progression of the movie was a little difficult to keep up with at first, since it alternated between the husband (Long Nguyen)'s story and then to his family's, and also involved time jumps. I had to keep reminding myself that Long's story occurred in the past while his family's was in "the present."

Throughout the entire movie, my heart cried out at the injustice that was being dealt within the re-education camps. I have relatives who were put through those heinous ordeals, who can't bring themselves to talk about it, and will never be the same again after what they went through. It cried for the story of the boat people, who are made fun of in current times and completely misunderstood.

The true incidents of what these people had to endure had me reduced to tears.

This movie is definitely one of the best I've seen and ranks as one of my favorite movies. It's a beautiful story that jerks at your heartstrings and makes you wonder, "Why? Why did no one ever realize this?"

People don't seem to know what happened after the Americans withdrew from Vietnam. They don't seem to understand, let alone want to understand it.

It disturbs me when people complain about how their lives are absolutely terrible, that they're the worst off in world history. I believe they should watch this movie, be forced to see what the Vietnamese had to endure, and re-ask themselves that question. In short, I give this movie an A+.

Anyway, there's that. I'll move onto a much lighter topic now. =) Sorry if that transition seemed rather sudden!

Yesterday, Katherine had her 18th birthday party. She's turning 18th on the 9th, but she wanted to celebrate early/when everyone would have more free time! I went to her apartment and got there around 1:30/1:45 PM. Turns out Chris and Tim were already there, so we all decided to play some Jenga.

Chris stacking the tower.

It was fun and everyone collapsed the tower at least once, except for Katherine. We kept trying to sabotage it so it would collapse on her turn, but it must've been her magical powers, because she always managed to get through her round without much trouble. Eventually, more people came to her place (Amanda, Timmy, Anna-Kay, and then Natalie).

We moved onto greener pastures and decided to do Taboo instead! That was pretty exciting, except there were no teams. We just kind of free-styled it a little bit, but stuck to the "you can't say any of the following words to describe it!" rules. Eventually, we got bored of that, and decided to watch The Mummy 2. We had some pretty amazing commentary going on, so that was exciting.

At 5:30, Katherine opened Tim's present, since he wouldn't be coming to dinner with us and he wanted to see her reaction. He made her think he got her a Hannah Montana backpack (haha!), but in actuality, it was a cute Pandapple plushie. She squealed like a mad-woman and hugged it to death. Afterwards, we all got ready to leave for Macaroni Grill.

Timmy and the birthday girl!

Ally and Tiff, except Tiff wasn't looking at the camera. Sad panda. ):

An upside to Macaroni Grill is that they give you crayons to draw on paper. Obviously, everyone had a lot of fun with that, as you can see in the following picture:

Drawn by both me and Timmy.

Anyway, dinner was absolutely delicious and it was also the first time I had lasagna! I'm totally addicted to that now, so if I ever go out and eat and there's lasagna on the menu... well, consider it ordered. After dinner, we decided to just walk around the mall since no one really wanted to watch a movie and because we all felt fat. Walking => calorie burning.

lol @ Virgin oil & at awkward pose!

Ally in a shopping cart!

We mostly just went around different shops and whatnot, but no one really bought anything. It was nearing 9 o'clock, too, so we couldn't stay in the shops too long. We were eventually reduced to prowling the food court/taking over by playing Taboo and telephone with Twilight. (Chris brought it along, blah!)

After almost two hours (I think) of that, everyone got ready to part ways. I went home with Katie and we just talked about random crap. All in all, it was a really fun day and I hope I get to see everyone again soon!

Also, I fixed a few things on this site. I need to get everything else up. Blah.

Cheers,
Clare

tags: site, review: movie, friends

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