Drama
1) Fight club review
Fight club is one of those movies I regret not watching earlier in my life. It showcases the problems men of modern society face. We are a generation of men raised by women. We have no Great War or purpose anymore. We live in a consumerist society where we are empty on the inside so we “work jobs we hate to buy shit we don’t need”. We let our products be our identity almost to the point that they own us. If we lose them, we feel a loss in our identity to the point we feel the need to buy them.
Individuality is lost as we are all just small gears running the machine we call society. Men have lost their masculinity, a few literally, but many figuratively.
The movie sadly doesn’t provide a solution to the loss of masculinity problem other than beating each other and causing chaos in society(which seems more like a tantrum than an actual solution).
I love this movie because I too struggle with this problem. The biggest problem in life I have is that I am a man who doesn’t know what it means to be a man in the 21st century. Does being a husband, a good boss, a father, or a friend make me a man? I don’t know. I am one of the many lost men who don’t know their place in this world.
2) Taare Zameen Par (Like Stars on Earth)
Review: This movie is an emotional one. It's plot mainly follows the struggles of a dyslexic student who has trouble reading words and numbers. His disability is misinterpreted as laziness which often leads to his punishment. This goes on until he meets an art teacher who understands him. I love the little animation segment which highlights Ishaan's (the main kid) vivid imagination. It varies from paint moving around to clay animation of him figuring out a math problem. Since it's a bollywood movie, it is almost 3 hours long and it includes a few song montages to highlight different aspects of the character. For example, the song is super-fast paced almost like a rap song which represents the rise and grind mentality most people have in a competitive world. When it comes to Ishaan, it slows down to almost a poem-like song showcasing that Ishaan just wants to enjoy life and not participate in the rat race. Overall, it's a masterpiece of a movie almost anybody will enjoy.
Personal stuff:
"I am looking at a mirror"
That's what the art teacher says about the dyslexic student. That's how I felt as a viewer when watching the movie.
Throughout the whole movie, I cried a lot but it wasn't at the heartfelt moments. It was at the scenes of Ishaan being outside class, being the class clown, and looking down from the rooftop. For the most part, this movie summarized most of my grade 3-7 experience in Hong Kong. It opened a lot of old wounds and I was looking away from the screen more times than when I was watching a horror movie with friends. It was painful to watch and I cried a shit load because it reminded me of the bad times of my childhood. A lot of it I covered up and forgot about until the movie reminded me about them. This is one of those movies that I needed to watch again. The first time I watched it, I was 8 years old just starting grade 3. It's been 14 years since and I understand the movie a whole lot better. I feel that the movie understands what I went through and that itself means a lot.
3) Everything Everywhere All at once
This is one of those movies that only happen once in a lifetime and I am glad that I am alive to be able to watch it.
Initially, I was hesitant on watching it. Most drama movies never appealed to me because most movies that I watch often involve action so I thought a movie like this would be too high class for me. I use google review ratings to decide whether I want to watch a movie/tv show and I want the rating to be at least 90% for me to justify myself watching it. That way I know that at least the large majority of the viewers enjoyed watching it. It had an 80% approval on it so initially, I just pushed it away. However, one of my favorite moview reviewers highly recommended it so I decided to give it a watch. I am so glad that I ended up watching it.
This movie will make you laugh, it will make you cry. Sometimes you are in awe of the action stunts they made, other times, you will be saying "What the fuck!" in your head due to how absurd it gets. A lot of times with the visual effects, I am left wondering, "how were they able to create this movie?"
To put it simply. This movie is a masterpiece. I recommend this movie in contrast to another masterpiece, Crazy Rich Asians, which I don't recommend. When I say a movie is a masterpiece, I mean it is a 10/10. It has an interesting story, amazing actors, and good art direction. It fills out all the checkboxes required for a good movie with no flaws. However, Crazy Rich Asians felt lackluster. It feels like a research paper or an essay with no mistakes but no passion or creativity either. It reminds me of a huge mansion with amazing marbling, pure white paint coat on the outside, and everything else ranging from a large swimming pool to an indoor cinema, while also being properly maintained with no architectural flaws. It's perfect.
Everything Everywhere All at once feels like a small log cabin. On the outside, it doesn't seem impressive. When you walk inside, you immediately see the artistry in each room and floor. The carpets are hand-sewed with the names of each resident. There are frames of photo on cupboards and walls alongside different oil paintings, drawings, hand-glazed mug, and clay dolls. The fireplace is painted to depict it as a giant dragon mouth breathing fire from the wood you throw in. The house seems to have a soul of its own. The people who built it had an idea in mind and they poured their heart and soul into it. They didn't build it to sell it to a rich tycoon, rather they built it because it was always a dream of theirs and they wanted to bring their idea to life and have others enjoy it as well.
Both movies are masterpieces, but one feels like a business product while the other feels like a genuine piece of art coming from somewhere sacred. For that reason, I highly recommend this movie. This is my favorite movie after my favorite animated film: "The Night is Short Walk On Girl".
6) 3 Idiots
If you had to watch one life-changing movie with your friends, this would be it. Most other movies that challenged my way of thinking, they are often best if watched alone. When I am with my friends, I love to watch action or comedy movies that are a blast to watch or movies that make us laugh. These are the type of movies that don't require your full attention 100% of the time and you can share some banter or discussion during the movie without being thrown out of the loop. These movies are there to give you a good time and not to leave a lasting impression.
3 idiots is a movie that both gives you a good time and leaves you thinking about it after the movie. I may have watched this movie 4-6 times so far. I love the different song segments that highlights what each of the characters are feeling whether its being in love, having a carefree attitude, or feeling hopeless. I also love the foreshadowing throughout the movie. Initially, you see some of the jokes as being absurd or random, but as the movie goes on, the pieces start joining together and everything begins to make sense.
A movie is nothing without character development and this movie has a lot of it. There are a lot of tear-jerking moments that will move you as the three friends go through engineering college from first day of school till graduation.
Highly recommend to watch for anyone.
7) The Whale
"The ugliest truth is better than the prettiest lie"
The Whale is best summarized by the above quote.
I love this film. The main character is just a representation of all the dark embarrassing secrets we keep hidden from others whether its by keeping the camera off or refusing to go outside one's home when others are around. Revealing the ugly truth to others is difficult and very painful. However, only by doing so can we move forward in life and create trust with others. It's not healthy often creating secrets from those around you. They begin to lose trust in you and you yourself feel guilty and burdened by having to keep secrets from them. We begin to run away from our problems and isolate ourselves from others out of shame. It's a downward spiral from there.
This movie isn't for everyone. It's a depressing film. A lot of people including myself will feel disgusted watching it. However, that is the point the movie is trying to make. It makes us as the viewers confront the ugly truths in front of us. That is why I love it. I think everyone in this world has something they are keeping secret or something they are running away from. For me, it was my edge-lord personality. Ever since becoming a teenager, I have always been a very hateful person, especially towards others who are more successful than me. There is a sick part of me that wants to watch them fail and it gives me pleasure out of their failures. My jealousy and my desire to make up for my disappointing teenage-hood and young adulthood has influenced majority of my actions and thoughts. I have kept this dark secret hidden from everyone and during very rare occasions, have I slipped out that side of me. I didn't want my friends nor my family to know about it because it's embarrassing and who would want to be associated with a fucked up person like me. After watching this movie and some late night walks pondering over my thoughts, I slowly began to accept this dark part of me. It's not something I can get rid of because it's been the primary motivation for my self-improvement. It gives meaning to my suffering whether its that at the gym or at work. It gives me hope that one day I will be able to prove to others that I am not a disappointment like I was 10 years ago. However, it's a very negative way of approaching life and despite it, I can't let go of it. It will always remain a part of me, and I owe the people dearest to me the truth of who I am. I don't consider this movie to be a masterpiece but it holds a special place in my heart.
12) Didi by Sean Wang
August 4th, 2024
It’s my favorite movie because it’s personal.
This was the first time I felt that every scene in the movie mattered.
I cried three times throughout the movie.
I felt like this movie was made for me specifically.
My favorite scene is when he is walking alone on the street at night and we see him from a Birds Eye view. Just watching that scene filled me with immense feelings of loneliness. It reminds me of the night walks where everything is quiet and dead. All I have is myself alone to my thoughts.
This movie perfectly encapsulates my experience growing up as a teenage boy. I felt pain and embarrassment when Didi couldn't kiss the girl because I failed that too before. Always feeling like an embarrassment, a failed trophy because my cousin has better grades or better extracurriculars than me. Trying to figure out how to date, how to be cool because your immigrant parents don't understand how your American peers work. That feeling of all hope is lost when Didi loses his friends. Life seems like it's over. I felt all of those things because they all happened to me too.
Another scene that made me laugh is when he gets a black eye. The grandma says if he has a black eye, he won't go to school, no school means no good job, no good job means no beautiful wife, no wife means no grandkids, no grandkids = the end of the wang bloodline. That one made me laugh because it's so relatable with my parents and grandparents
I loved the bittersweet ending. Even though Didi fucked up his chances with the girl and lost his skater friends, there is a feeling of hope. He is starting high school and there is a chance for new beginnings. A reset on life to make new friends and try out new things without the baggage from middle school.
13) her (December 18th, 2013)
September 6th, 2024
I finished watching the “her” movie a few days ago. It’s an interesting take on humans developing relationships with artificial intelligence (A.I.).
Initially, Samantha (the name of A.I.) acts very human when speaking as it banters, makes jokes, and has its own wants and needs when interacting with Theodore (the main human). She also takes short breaths when feeling anxious even though she is an A.I. with no physical body requiring oxygen.
However, as the movie progresses the differences between Theodore and Samantha becomes more and more apparent. Many futuristic films and video games show a world where robots and humans live equally. This movie contradicts that. Humans live for 70 or 80 years on average but robots can live almost forever. Their consciousness can be stored, replicated, or edited. Humans can only be in one place at one time. Robots can be everywhere simultaneously. This becomes a problem as Theodore finds out Samantha is talking with and in love with hundreds of other people. Humans have flaws but robots have almost none. They can read a book in a nanosecond while reading it takes us hours or days.
This brings up an important question, is their relationship genuine? We humans can love another and have feelings. Samantha or A.I., they are coded to react in a certain way to different situations. Did she naturally fall in love with Theodore or was it coded in her digital DNA to have somebody like Theodore be her perfect type. After all, in the beginning, Theodore has to answer a few questions about himself before his A.I. is created.
A.I. is still in its early stages but it's developing rapidly. Some people are utilizing chatbots to be their digital romantic partners. It's not as advanced as Samantha yet. However, A.I. is already taking place in our daily lives and relationships. People are more lonely than ever before as a larger part of our lives are spent on the web.
An interesting example are children. Children are supposed to be raised by their parents. However, many parents are busy with work or too tired so they give their kids a smartphone or ipad to keep them entertained. A lot of the content we see are controlled by algorithim which serve the company's best interests. As a result, we are seeing a generation of humans grow up with A.I. influence in their development.
It's scary to think about.
14) American Psycho (2000)
11/09/2024
American Psycho is in my top 5 movies. It is a weird, psychotic, and gruesome film.
I was weirded out by how robotic and inhuman some of the characters interactions were as if it was strictly transactional. Then I was horrified as Patrick Bateman’s killings grew more gruesome and bloody.
American Psycho is an example of how dark and twisted one’s thoughts can become in a modern society where everyone is constantly comparing themselves to each other in a competition for status and recognition. Patrick’s killings were a catharsis to relieve himself of pain as his desire for individuality and creativity conflicted with his desire to surpass his peers in the status game.
Beneath all this madness, there is an important warning. Like Patrick I have often felt these dark thoughts in my own mind as I too often felt unrecognized and constantly wished to beat my peers. Yet, I felt suffocated as I was trapped to follow trends and what others wanted. I wanted others to feel the same pain as I have. Patrick Bateman is what I will become if I surround myself in a hyper consumerist and hyper competitive culture where everybody is a tryhard trying to surpass each other.
Life isn’t about being No.1. I don’t want my life to be like that. I want my life to be fun where I am constantly exploring new things while feeling free and my authentic myself with others. I don’t want to be a Patrick Bateman where he is constantly putting on a mask in front of others to the point where the real Patrick Bateman doesn’t exist anymore.
15) Archie’s Final Project (2009)
June 18 2025
The movie is ok, a solid 7/10. Compared to traditional cinema films, this feels like a raw, home-made project movie with the weird hand-made digital effects and vlog style clips.
My main focus is on suicidal people and on the way we think. We humans are one of the few living beings to commit suicide as most other animals are instead killed by natural causes.
"suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem"
I hear this quote a lot and I partially agree with it. From the outsider perspective and people who have survived suicide, the quote makes perfect sense. We were suicidal for a brief period of time because of immense physical or emotional pain. It could be due to the death of a loved one, feeling extreme pressure all the time, or feeling nothing. One of the side characters, Corey, talks about feeling alone, miserable, unloved, misunderstood, and withour purpose all the time. Sometimes that suicidal pressure comes all at once. Other times, it is adding up slowly over time until out mind can't take it anymore. For me, it was the latter as my insomnia and physical joint issues gradually cumulated until I couldn't take it anymore.
For suicide survivors, this quote works because they survived and they are in a better place. That suicide pressure and feeling was temporary.
However, when we are suicidal and we are constantly thinking about ending everything, our problems don't feel temporary. They feel permanent. I was in a state of mind where I didn't believe things would get better. It's been 2 years and my health conditioned hadn't improved despite going to the doctors and doing treatments. My life was falling apart. If my life was going to continue like this, I would rather commit suicide and save myself the pain.
The worst part about suicide isn't the ending of our lives but rather the pain it causes around us. We don't want to hurt others. In Corey's final video, he talks about wanting others to move on with their lives. In Cyberpunk's suicide ending, V commits suicide to avoid getting his/her friends killed. However, V's friends are hurt and devastated by that choice. Many of the friends and family members of suicide victims end up with increased chances of being suicide victims themselves (WOW player Reckful, who's older brother's suicide had a huge influence on him prior to his own suicide). Us suicidal people don't want to hurt others, but we don't want to continue being in pain ourselves. Sometimes, the guilt is enough to keep us alive. Sometimes, all we can say is Sorry before doing so.
Near the end of the film, Archie becomes a "suicide refugee" and visits Vargas. Vargas' main lesson is "rather than killing yourself, kill the part of yourself you hate living with". This reminds me of a movie "Perfect Days". It is implied that the main character, Hirayama, used to hate his life. He worked at a company with a lot of working hours, hated his job and often drank alcohol to cope. He contemplated suicide often before deciding to leave everything behind to be a secluded toilet cleaner.
Even now, I struggle a lot of with suicidal thoughts and urges. I have a few things to keep me going in the meantime such as my Germany study abroad, my future plan to be fluent in Japanese and visit my friends in Japan again, etc. However, my insomnia and joint pain often causes me distress. I am a very competitive person. Often seeing myself falling behind and feeling inferior compared to others produces these fucked up thoughts.
Compared to before, my thoughts are getting less worse. However, that is because my priorities have shifted more. I have given up on being good at video games because my reactions are horrible. I have given up on working in large-tech companies or making six figures immediately because my body and mind can't handle the extra stress. My priorities have shifted more towards to traveling, having more adventures and exploration, and focusing on my health (essentially not getting myself killed).
16) How to Get Rich (Netflix Show by Ramit Sethi)
July 15, 2025
The goal isn't necessarily to make more money or save more or invest more.
The goal is to be conscious and aware of how much you are making and where your money is going. Once you find out, you can make better decisions. If not, you are unconsciously spending money where you don't want to be. If my dream is to travel to a different country every year, then buying a home can get in the way of that as mortgage, maintenance costs, and property tax can be more expensive than rent (equals less money for travel).
The same philosophy can be done with time and energy. We only have so much time and energy in this one life and we should increase self-awareness to efficiently use them.
Very similar to Mark Manson's book: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck. Instead of deciding when and when not to give a fuck, it's about deciding when and when not to spend money. For this show, an important question is "what is your rich life?". That differs for everyone. For some people, it's having a large house or retiring early. For others, it's about going to nice restaurants twice a week. We all love nice and expensive things but we have to prioritize which gives us the most happiness and focus our money towards them. When we focus money towards them, we have to cut spending on everything else. If we want both, then we have to focus on increasing our income which could be changing jobs, getting a job promotion, or investing into positive cash flow properties like buying a house and renting it.
17) The Farewell (2019 film by A24)
07/22/2025
The movie is about Billi meeting Nai Nai for one last time (grandmother) before she dies from cancer. This is a metaphor of Billi saying goodbye to her chinese roots. Even though she was born in China, she immigrated to the US as a kid. Nai Nai is her last bridge to her chinese culture.
It prefectly resembled my experience as an Asian American. Even though I was Nepali and born in Hong Kong, I immigrated to the US when I was 13. Being in the US for 12 years, I have become more American than Nepali or Hong Kongese. All my friends are American, my hobbies and festivals I celebrate are American, and I speak English all the time. Only when I am at home with my parents, do I go slightly back to being Nepali because I speak Nepali and eat Nepali food with them.
Our parents brought us to the US for a better education and a better future than the one in Hong Kong and Nepal. They succeeded. I am studying at one of the best public universities and I can have a better career here. However, it's bittersweet. My parents see it everyday how their own children are becoming American and losing touch with their Nepali heritage. I can't read Nepali and my little brother can't read or speak it either. The only reason I celebrate Nepali festivals is because my parents remind and invite me to do them.
Once I marry and have kids in the US, they will be fully American. There is a price for everything and neither me nor my parents expected it to unfold in this way. However, I am glad my parents decided to immigrate here because I love living in America.
Especially with the Trump administration, some Americans have moved or are planning to move to foreign countries like Canada, Europe, or South America. I don't blame them because America isn't for everyone. America has a lot of issues it has to fix. However, I know that America is one of the most unique places in the world where you can be any race and be considered an American. Back in Hong Kong, I will always be a Nepali despite being born there.
18) Super Happy Forever (2024)
08/15/2025
Background:
It was in my trip to Hong Kong a few months ago where I found this movie’s poster. I was exploring the Tsim Tsa Tsui area and passed by the 49th Hong Kong International Film Festival. One of my favorite quotes is
“We’re smaller than dust
God doesn’t always see us
But it’s ok…
As long as we see each other.”
There was a large collection of film posters and this one caught my eye. My first reaction is who would title their movie “Super Happy Forever”. I watched a trailer and was hooked.
After coming back to the US, I tried to find the movie but it was not available anywhere. I couldn’t buy it, rent it, or watch it on any of the streaming platforms. I couldn’t find it on torrent download websites either. I put it in my bucket list to watch this movie.
I got reminded if this movie again recently and searched on the website. I found an old reddit post asking where to watch the movie. Some guy posted a streaming link and I finally found it.
Plot explanation:
The main character, Sano is going through grief because his wife recently passed away. The movie shows the depressing sad present in the first half before switching to the happier memories of the past in the second half of the movie.
My thoughts and analysis:
The title “super happy forever” is a trap. After watching the movie, I am reminded that life is anything but that. People change, get old, and die eventually. The happy memories I make are the same ones I mourn when they are gone. I hate it. After coming back from my 3 months in Japan, I cried because all the happiness I felt, the memories I made, and the friends I made were gone. That’s the cruel reality. Joy cannot exist alone without pain. Joy’s fleeting nature makes me cherish them even more. That is one of the reasons why I take pictures and journal more now.
I am scared of forgetting.
The other takeaway is with the film’s ending. It shifts back to the present but in the perspective of Anh (hotel housekeeper). She is wearing the red cap and the movie ends with her looking out into the ocean. It’s a reminder that life moves on with or without us. As long as we are alive, there is always room for new happy memories and new moments of pain.
