May 21, 2015

Stories that move the world


I always like movies that give you the sweet aftertaste as you walk out the cinema. The giddiness just overflowed non-stop and is heavily noticeable in the steps of the walk and in merriness of the talk for hours or even days after watching the movie. Whether the movie is a box-office or the one criticised by the critics as a flop, if the movie managed to move me, I consider it a movie worth watching.

I guess I am that type of person who is easily excitable. Movies, TV series, books - you name it. I remember after I finished reading Seven Minutes In Heaven from the The Lying Series by Sara Shepard (excellent books, I daresay - she wrote the Pretty Little Liars, too) I was heavily overcame with sadness that crippled my normal day functions. It is like I am losing something precious, like saying goodbye to the whole world that I have known all my life. Forget the fact that I was just introduced to that world merely a week before that (that is how fast I can read the entire series - you know you cannot stop once you have started).  

If you are a dreamer and have a pretty damn fantastic imagination (read: full time Mat Jenin or Walter Mitty), it is not difficult to stay enticed with the indulgences of your choosing. It is what supplies our dreams. The substances they supply is infinite and malleable. If you do not care much about imaginations and fantasies and now at a complete loss to what I am talking about, here is how the stories that can move us the dreamers.

One of the movies that moved me is Interstellar. Before you groan and moan about the complexity of the plot, here is the secret - it is never about the logic or the fallacy of the plot. Feelings that can be moved and stirred do not come from thinking how it got to happen the way it happened. People also do not ship movies or form a culture cult because of the explosives and testosterone-filled actions etc. etc. It just does not connect to us deeply. To simply love that movie and embrace the feels, I just look at the basic theme of Interstellar - the love between a father and his daughter. There is a tonne of messages from the movie - rekindle the exploration race, pioneer the pioneering projects, save the world and etc., but the world (or the ones who like the movie, anyway) was moved by its bell-ringing message: Love is the one thing that transcends time and space.

From there the imaginations and fantasies we generate become immortal. There is no limit to what the stories will go, and because it is up to us to create the stories that will continue to move and guide us further in life, it is forever changing and malleable all the time. We will begin to wish how nice it must be to have someone that trusts you so much even when you are separated by dimensions of universe or simply to a long-distance lovers, how much assurance and comfort that will give you. And the feelings that still linger are simply infectious. It does not matter if the fantasy does not correlate to your situation because whatever the thing is, it simply just assured you that if that character can do it, then so do you.

Suffice to say this afternoon movie (Tomorrowland) will give me ample time for daydreaming. Never underestimate the power of dreaming. In my case, even in my lowest moments (2010-2011), and even when I consciously daydreaming of the worst case futures (like working as a despatch guy in office after being kicked out of medical school - I know, it's so bleak isn't it?) I was amazed that I actually dreamed that I will emerged as a success in the end. To clarify, I dreamed myself going back on my two feet from a nobody to someone having his own business. Dream yourself to be at the peak of your dream. Even when your dream is shattered, dream a different one. Dream and dream. There is no limit to what you think you can do and how you can achieve it. Forget your mountainous hardship; dream about the eventuality and the inevitably of your success. It will come, and the least you could do if you are foolish enough to not overcome it is to dream that you were able to.

And if you are so much in despair and cannot dream, then watch a movie that can move your world. Then you will realise that your problems are not impossible to beat.

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