I Recommend: Seven Pounds

I am not a Will Smith fan. But my perspective of him was changed by this movie. I won’t call myself a fan still, but he has earned my respect as an actor.

Seven Pounds is about a man who intricately plans to give hope, joy and a new sense of life to seven people (based on the universal standard of goodness, which he follows to the “T”) before he commits suicide. Quite a morbid twist on “paying it forward”. Morbid but moving.

The theme may be commonplace and cliche to some, but to most people i suspect it will be dramatically inspiring (it was to me, at least).

Except for the cliche theme, the remarkable thing about the movie though is Will Smith himself, the actor. I’ve never seen Will in any of his films with this great depth and sensitivity. His character just swells in deep loneliness and you are strangely attached, hoping that somehow he will break free of it and continue to live a happy life. You see him giving hope and joy to people, thinking that it would somehow ease his pain, but no. The pain and the loneliness just stays and becomes even more affecting until that one last breath.

Reason to see the movie: If you’re feeling down and you need some lifting up, this movie is a good watch. Strangely, even with it’s tragedies, you still feel the hope and love for life that the film wants to put across. And of course, Will Smith’s performance couldn’t be counted out.

A roadtrip to Pampanga

A few weeks ago, Jun and I decided to join our friend, Ate Sally and her family in a short visit to their Pampanga home. Jun and i just wanted to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city and the Pampanga Roadtrip became the perfect avenue for us to satisfy that wanting. The trip was absolutely charming and we had a genuinely nice time with Ate Sally’s family; her kids are wonderful! Plus, their house in Pampanga is just a quaint and pretty work-in-progress (the architecture, by the way, was done by our dearest friend and Ate Sally’s brother, Architect Puroy, who now works in Bahrain).

I Recommend: The Love of Siam

It is always a pleasant feeling whenever i find a great and meaningful movie. But sometimes, the opposite happens: this great and meaningful movie finds you, speaks to you; and you are taken aback, overwhelmed, affected, changed.

I did not plan to watch the Thai film The Love of Siam. I thought it was just another gay-themed film where the highlight would be that one hot love scene between the two male protagonist. I did not even think its worthwhile to watch; thus, for the first 30 mins of the film, i did not focus and went on to do my usual computer work.

Until it caught me.

Chronicles of our Ilocos Norte Visit

One of the best, i mean THE best places to visit in the Philippines is Ilocos Norte. The place is filled with visual poetry and history. And we were so blessed to have been invited by my mom and my dad to experience it with them. My Dad Steen has a rest house in Pasuquin, just a few minutes from Laoag and that’s where we stayed for the two short days of our stay (our work schedule was really, really tight at that time but because of our desire to see Ilocos, we made a great and worthwhile effort to slip it in our schedule).

I and Jun left for Ilocos Norte at around 9pm via the Florida Bus Lines (they’re the pink and periwinkle buses) and arrived at around 6:30am the following morning. So thats roughly 9 hours of travel.