Skip to main content

Aeon Flux

Awesome movie. I really enjoyed it, though it doesn't seem to be doing so well at the box office. The gist of the movie: virus wipes out 99% of humankind. Scientist Goodchild comes up with cure, and this leads to the Goodchild dynasty that rules the one remaining city, Bregna, on Earth for 400 years. But something is wrong in this perfect city; people disappear and no one is allowed to leave. The Monicans, are a rebellious group that wants to overthrow the Goodchilds and open the walls of the city that enclose its people. They want to find out what's happening to the missing. Aeon is their top assassin, and she is sent to kill Goodchild. But there's a twist, as Aeon and Goodchild have a past...this is because the "cure" is really cloning. The virus wiped out fertility and no new human has been born in 400 years. What keeps the city alive is each time someone dies their DNA is recycled and secretly injected into a new mother to give birth to that same person again. Somehow though, the newborn retains a memory of the previous life! There's more twists in the movie, but eventually we find Mother Nature prevails, as the humans have once again regained the ability to naturally reproduce. This movie is based on a cartoon that aired on MTV some time ago. I've only seen a couple episodes, so I don't know how closely the movie follows the storyline of the cartoons, but definitely the whole feel and camera work captures that of the cartoons. Also, Charlize Theron is extremely hot.

Two other great movies I want to watch and coming out this weekend: Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Warddrobe and Memoirs of a Geisha. The second movie actually caused quite a stir in Asia since the leading role is played by Chinese star Zhang Ziyi. Apparently the Japanese movie goers have something against a non-Japanese playing the role, while the Chinese also have something against a Chinese playing that role. I'm actually slightly alarmed at the rise of anti-Sino sentiments in Japan; this is already leading to unwanted tenser situations in Asia.

Taiwan's local government elections just went by and the ruling party lost by quite a lot. I haven't been following the issues as much this time around, but all I can say is that this is perhaps part of the process in a maturing democracy. It's really time both parties stopped bickering and get to work, together.

The pic below is from the Florida trip, taken by stranger on Tomato's camera.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Youthful Reminisces

These past four days have been a trip down memory lane. I'm going to try to organize some of the memories for blogging, though not all in this post. My parents, M and I took a road trip to Hualien, partly as a family get-away, and also to introduce our Taiwanese hometown to a group of my brother's ( Albert Wu see here and here ) students from France. Albert and his wife are jointly teaching a course in history in Paris, and over the last few weeks they have been taking their students on an abroad research-coursework-fun tour of Taiwan. If you know my father, he tends to try to get involved in some way with any of his sons' projects, and from our perspectives, it's great to get his help and/or just advice (from time to time). My brother and his wife planned a historical, social justice introduction to Taiwan (I wrote about a visit to Dadaocheng ). Important components to understand the complex identities and mindsets of Taiwanese today involves understanding the Ea

Did X say that?

I was cleaning out old draft emails when I came upon these quotes. 1. “Set your goals high; make friends with different kinds of people; enjoy simple pleasures. Stand on high ground; sit on level ground; walk on expansive ground.” 2. In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit . -Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, musician, Nobel laureate (1875-1965) Both quotes resonated with me, and both quotes provide profound, provoking, prose projecting providence. But for the first quote I'm not sure who to attribute, and for the second, while I'd like to imagine he said that, I'm not really sure if Dr. Schweitzer did (because I have never met him!). In the internet age, I think it really behooves one to critically analyze everything read online. Does X make sense, did X say that? Sometimes it&

Just a few more quotes to post and share!

See the post title. ***** If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. -Antoine de Saint-Exupery, author and aviator (1900-1945)    "No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions d