Movie minute

My newest hobby- watching videos from Video Ezy… Weifeng just told me that it’s really expensive- but ah well I made an investment with them some time ago already, so till that runs out, I’m gonna stick my head into the video shop every now and then to catch up on the movies I’ve missed..

So here’s just to sprawl a couple of contributions my new hobby has made recently (not a self-acclaimed movie critic like some, so don expect anything more than my random thoughts)–

Fast Food Nation
Manure in my burger patty, an angry cook’s spit in my food? Surprisingly, that didn’t make me gag too much. Perhaps it’ll make me lay off burgers for a while, but as Bruce Willis said in the show “we all gotta eat a little shit sometimes” (more true figuratively than literally…)

But what really chilled me in this movie though, is this one single scene. When Sylvia was sitting there crying because her husband Raul got his leg amputated when he accidentally fell into this chopping machine. So with her husband lying on the operation table, she could only wait helplessly outside. The company’s HR officer wasted no time in getting to her. Speaking though a translator, he introduced himself, expressed his regret at the company’s inability to compensate the poor Mexican couple because her husband was tested positive for drugs, and all too eager to “show her the positive test results” when poor Sylvia shook her head in disbelief.

It made me feel so so cold. Like an eagle sweeping to its helpless prey. Seeing someone crying so badly in front of you, all you do is to absolve the company’s responsibility in their circumstance. Not withstanding that it is the foreman who introduced the drugs to these workers, and how can one expect the Mexican with his poor English understand a single word of that “Safety first” video?

MNCs. Company policies. Unethical exploitation of workers. The disregard of another human's dignity in life. Luring them to the glitzy world and extinguishing their hopes like killing a fly. The world out there is turning into a mean machine, and treating people like they are bolts and nuts.

"White-washed tombs" (Jesus) cannot be more apt a description. Under the sophisticated packaging, it's just a heap of decay. Shame on you.

Babel
Artistic. It’s the details in the last few scenes that make you understand what you’ve been watching for the last 120 minutes or so. Very nice.