The Legend of 1900

The Legend of 1900 (La leggenda del pianista sull'oceano) is a 1998 film directed by the Italian filmmaker Giuseppe Tornatore inspired by a theater monologue, Novecento (Nine Hundred) by Alessandro Baricco.

Shortly after the Second World War, Max Tonney (Pruitt Taylor Vince), a jazz musician enters a secondhand music shop just before the closing time to sell his Conn trumpet. He is broke and badly in need of money. Clearly torn at parting from his prized possession, he asks to play it one last time. The shopkeeper recognizes the tune from a broken record matrix he found inside a recently acquired secondhand piano from a cruise ship that served as a hospital ship in WWII and now slated for demolition. While the record is playing and Max begins to tell the story of 1900.

On the 1st of January in 1900, Danny Boodmann (Bill Nunn), the mechanic of the transatlantic liner Virginian bound for America, finds an abandoned baby in a box on board the ship. He decides to keep him and name the boy Danny Boodman T.D. Lemon 1900 (a combination of his own name, an advertisement found on the box and the year he born). Everyone call him by his nickname, 1900, the boy grows up and raises in the engine rooms hiding from the ship's officers until Danny's death in an accident. 1900, at his eight is forced to survive aboard on the ship as an orphan and for many years, he travels back and forth across the Atlantic. In 1927, 1900 (Tim Roth) a charming, iconoclastic young man befriends with Max who plays trumpet and together they join in the ship's orchestra. Increasingly lured by the sound of the piano in the first-class ballroom, 1900 eventually became a gifted pianist. He soon becomes a virtuoso whose reputation spreads beyond the confines of the ship. Even the famous jazz piano player, Jelly Roll Morton (Clarence Williams III) of New Orleans jazz fame gets on board for a challenge with him to a piano duel.

With all his life living on the ship, Max has encouraged 1900 to go on dry land but he never leaves the ship. Apparently, the outside world is too "big" for his imagination and he rather stays current in it. Max leaves the ship's orchestra in 1933.

Back to the mid-1940s, SS Virginian is scheduled to be scuttled and sunk far offshore. Max who believes that 1900 is still on the ship and attempts to convince him to leave the ship. But he is too daunted by the size of the world and feeling that his fate is tied to the ship, 1900 cannot bring himself to leave the only home he has known.

The film is not based on true story but the character acted by Clarence Williams III was real. Jerry Roll Morton (October 20, 1890 - July 10, 1941) who claimed to have invented jazz outright in 1902, at the age of fourteen, he began working as a piano player in a brothel and in 2008, he was inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.

The Legend of 1900 is one of the best film with glorious music, beautiful cinematography and a terrific jazz piano duel that shouldn't be missed.

Movie Trailer:

Late Blossom (그대를 사랑합니다)

Love is always an open arms. If you close your arms about love you will find that you are left holding only yourself and relish love in the old age is like an aged wine; it becomes more satisfying, more refreshing, more valuable, more appreciated and more intoxicating!

Late Blossom (그대를 사랑합니다) is a 2011 South Korean film written and directed by Choo Chang-min about the love story of two elderly couples who live in the same neighborhood.

Four senior citizens, Kim Man-Seok (Lee Soon-Jae), Song Ee-peun (Yun So-Jeong), Jang Kun-Bong (Song Jae-Ho) and Jang's wife Jo Soon-yi (Kim Soo-Mi) living in a hillside village.

Kim is a widow and a cranky milkman with a short fuse and a foul mouth. He wakes the village early each morning with his noisy, battered motorcycle to deliver the milk in the neighborhood. One day when he goes up a slope, he meets Song, a lonely woman who scavenges for scrap paper to sell for her daily expenses while roaming around the town at daybreak. Both of them had a tragic post-love story; Kim had a loving wife but he neglected her and eventually led to her death due to an unattended cancer; Song believes she is getting bad karma for leaving her mother and not being able to save her sick child when her husband left them. As two of them meet again and again each days, Kim feels something special towards Song and they slowly develop the kind of love which makes Kim smile from ear to ear just at the thought of Song.

Song parks her handcart at a junkyard and gets to know Jang, the caretaker of the parking lot next to the scrap yard. Jang has a wife who suffers from Alzheimer's after their three children left them to start their own families. Jang works from dawn till late at night and takes care of his wife after work when he comes home. One day, Jang wakes up late to work and forgets to lock his house door and asks Song to fasten it for him. Meanwhile, Jang’s afflicted wife, Jo walks out from the unlocked house and wanders around in the town. Fortunately, Kim sees her in the playground and drive her around to find her home. Jo happily sitting on the back of Kim’s motorbike and thinking that is Jang who driving her in a blossom garden.

The film revolves around four of them, a simple yet truly endearing tale of beautiful twilight love. You will smile for the sweetest moments between Kim and Song and laugh for the funniest friendship times between them until the bittersweet ending of the two couples that makes you cry.

Towards the end of the film, Jang gathers all his three children, daughter-in-laws, son-in-law and grandchildren in his house just to see them the last time before he griefs to make the decision to commit suicide together with his wife after he finds out that she is suffering from a terminal illness. In an enclosed room with charcoal burning stove, Jang says to his wife, "I will still want to be with you again in our next life ... ..." The next morning, they were found died on the bed holding each other hands.

After attending the funeral, Song decided to leave Kim as she realised that death will happen to them in the near future too and she will not be able to bear the bitterness of separation with Kim. She wants to keep the sweet memories of them in her heart.

The film ends with a doctor removing the oxygen mask from Kim in the hospital while he smiling and imagines of driving Song on his back in his old motorbike ... ...

Life's greatest happiness is to have someone hand in hand in life. 

Movie Trailer:

               

山楂树之恋 (Under the Hawthorn Tree)

《山楂树之恋》是张艺谋执导的一部二零一零年文艺类电影，其改编于美籍华人艾米的同名小说。故事发生在文革时期(一九七五年前后)，讲述了一段真实纯真的爱情故事。

一九七四年的初春，上高中的静秋（周冬雨饰）原是一个城里姑娘，长得很秀气，但家庭成份不好(父亲是地主后代，文革中被打击)故而性格较为内向和自卑。静秋和同学被学校选中，参加编辑新教材而来到西坪村采访村民。在去西坪村的途中，村长向他们介绍了一株开红色花朵的山楂树。村长说，这棵树原本是开白花的，但在抗日战争期间，无数抗日英雄被杀害在树下而他们的鲜血都流进了地下，这棵树就开了红花。

‘静秋'原型熊音（1957年出生）
‘老三' 孙建新（1950年4月28日-1976年的5月4日） 

在西坪村，静秋被安排住在村长家，认识了英俊又有才气的军区司令员的儿子 ‘老三' 孙建新（窦骁饰）。老三喜欢上了静秋，静秋怕他欺骗她，起初常常躲避。老三是个极重情谊的人，他一直在鼓励静秋，甘愿为静秋做任何事。后来二人在交往中渐生情愫。老三期待静秋毕业，工作，转正，等待静秋所有的心愿都成了真。最后老三的愿望终于实现了，但他却得了白血病，最终离开了人世。那时候，一九七六年，老三他还很年轻。

老三走了，按他的遗愿，他的遗体火化后，埋在了那棵山楂树下。老三生前把他的日记，写给静秋的信件，照片等都交给他的弟弟保管，并对他说，如果静秋过得很幸福，就不要把这些东西给她；如果她爱情不顺利，或者婚姻不幸福，就把这些东西给她，让她知道这世界上曾经有一个人，倾其身心的爱过她。

老三日记本的扉页上写着：“我不能等你一年零一个月了，我也不能等你到二十五岁了，但是我会等你一辈子。”

电影预告片:

刻骨銘心 - 常石磊

他哪裡走 我哪裡跟

心中的相思說不清 

我唱的歌 他拉的琴

山楂樹連兩顆心 

紅花如是血 白花就是情 

滿束的鮮花卻看不見他

天呀 地呀 你不要帶走他 

 風呀 雨呀 你不要傷害他 

我要變做山楂花 隨他化作泥土 在這裡安家

完整版 Full Movie With English Subtitles

山楂花 - 陈楚生

走过了这一片青草坡 有棵树在那等着 

它守着你和我的村路 站立成一个传说 

山楂树开满了花 落在你羞涩脸颊 

山楂树开满了花 我等你一句回答 

可是我先走啦 纵然太不舍 

别哭我亲爱的 你要好好的 

在时间的尽头 你定会看见我 

唱着歌在等你 微笑着 

就算我最后碎成粉末 也有你为我而活 

只要我还能为你记得 我就是不朽的 

山楂树开满了花 像你在对我说话 

山楂树开满了花 我就是不朽的 

可是我先走啦 纵然太不舍 

 别哭我亲爱的 你要好好的 

在时间的尽头 你定会看见我 

唱着歌在等你 微笑着

50 First Dates

A woman suffered severe head injuries in a road accident, wakes up in every morning and then forgets everything the next day found her happiness. An American romantic comedy film, 50 First Dates directed by Peter Segal released in 2004.

Henry Roth (Adam Sandler) is a womanizing marine-life veterinarian at Sea Life Park on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. One morning, Henry meets Lucy Whitmore (Drew Barrymore) who is an art teacher in a cafe and they hit if off instantly and agree to meet in the cafe the next morning. The following day, when Henry goes back to the cafe, Lucy fails to recognize him and shows no recollection of ever meeting him. The cafe owner, Sue (Amy Hill) explains to Henry that Lucy suffers from Goldfield Syndrome (a type of anterograde amnesia) after a serious car accident a year ago on her father's birthday. Her condition has left her with short term memories loss between the day of the accident and the present. Every morning, she loses all memory of the past day and wakes up thinking it is Sunday October 13, 2002, on her father's birthday. To save her from the heartbreak of reliving the accident, her father Marlin (Blake Clarke) and brother Doug (Sean Astin) attempt to re-enact the activities of October 13 everyday including putting out October 13th's newspaper, watching the same Vikings game, singing the birthday song, eating the same pineapple cake and refilling Lucy's shampoo bottles.

Realizing that he is beginning to fall in love with Lucy, Henry sheds his philandering ways and begins devising new ways to meet her again every day, hoping that one day she will retain her memories and feelings for him. Henry comes up with an idea to make a video explaining to Lucy her accident and their relationship and play it every morning for her. They go on many dates and overtime, Lucy begins to reciprocate Henry's feelings even going so far as to accept his marriage proposal.

The film ends when Lucy wakes up in a strange bed and plays the video tape marked "Good Morning Lucy". She watches it and cries as she relives her accident while the tape explains everything that has happened and ends with her and Henry's wedding. She then looks out the window and is shocked to find herself on a boat. She goes up on deck and sees Henry as well as her father and her young daughter sailing on Henry's boat where their dreams fulfilled.

MICHELLE & LAN PHILPOTS

The case of Michelle Philpots echoes the film 50 First Dates who lost her day-to-day memory in 1994 after two separate road accidents and wakes up thinking its 1994. She married to Lan Philpots in 1997 and since then, Lan has to convince her they are married everyday. Some days he has to get out the wedding photos to prove to her that they are husband and wife and is not just loved ones that Michelle is struggling with, she uses hundreds of Post-It notes and reminders on her mobile phone's calendar to keep her informed of appointments and every day activities. Anything she has done or anyone she has met must be logged for future reference and on the rare occasions she ventures out of her home in Spalding, Lincolnshire, she goes armed with SatNav system that marked the location of her address.

If we commit ourselves to one person for life, 
 this is not, as many people think, a rejection of freedom; 
 rather, it demands the courage to move into all the risks of freedom, 
and the risk of love which is permanent; 
 into that love which is not possession but participation  

Movie Trailer:

      

I Love You Phillip Morris

Steven Jay Russell (born September 14, 1957) is a US con artist known for escaping from prison multiple times. The film, I Love You Phillip Morris tells about his real-life story during 1980s and 1990s. A true story of life, love and prisons break directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa released in 2009.

PHILLIP MORRIS

Steven Russell (Jim Carrey) who is a law-abiding citizen, plays organ for the local church and volunteer as a deputy police officer in Virginia Beach with his wife Debbie (Leslie Mann) and a young daughter. Steven spends his off hours searching for his biological mother who gave him up as a child. Later, he tracks her down only to discover that she had remarried his biological father and given birth to three other children, each of whom his biological sibling but his mother rejects him without explanation.

After surviving from a car accident, Steven decides to live the rest of his life as his true self. He confesses to Debbie that he is gay which he had been hiding it from her. While he pursues a new life as an openly gay man, Steven realizes that "being gay is really expensive" which leading him to become a con man (insurance fraud, credit card fraud, passport fraud and so forth) to support his lifestyle. He is caught and sent to prison where he meets a sweet and soft-spoken inmate, Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor).

 STEVEN JAY RUSSELL           

The film tells the story of an inveterate conman and a gay man who just can't stop conning his way through life in a humorous manner. It may looks unbelievable when watching it but in 1993, Steven Russell disguised himself as a workman with a walkie-talkie, wearing a pair of women's black trousers stolen from the prison infirmary and walked out of the front gates. And three years later, he stockpiled green felt-tip pens from prison art classes, squeezing the ink from the cartridges into a sink of water to dye his overalls the color of surgical gowns and simply escaped the second time. The most daring escape ever was in 1998, over a ten months period, Steven tried to feign the symptoms of Aids to show that he is dying. Don't know how he do it but he claims to have an IQ of 163 which is over 140 than a genius.

In the end of the film explains that the real-life Phillip Morris was released from jail in 2006, but Steven is still currently serving a hundred forty-four years sentence (till July 12, 2140) on twenty-three hours lockup with only having one free hour a day for supervised showers and exercise.

Movie Trailer:

     

The Vow

Life is all about moments of impact and how they change our lives forever. But what if one day you could no longer remember any of them? Can a once in a lifetime love find a second chance?

The Vow is a romantic drama film directed by Michael Sucsy released in 2012. The film begins when Paige Collins (Rachel McAdams) and her husband Leo (Channing Tatum) come out of a movie theater, on their way driving home, a truck rams their car from behind and Paige crashes through the windshield. When Paige regains consciousness in the hospital, she has lost all her memories of the past few years and thinks Leo is her doctor. Later her parents learn about the accident and come to visit her and it is for the first time that Leo meets them. From going back to being a stranger, Leo works to win Paige's heart all over again, through all the obstacles and heart pain in this heart-warming tale of love and second chances.

It may looks like another Hollywood romance film but the film is based on the actual relationship of a real couple, Kim and Krickitt Carpenter who endured the same terrible tragedy that Paige and Leo did in the movie. In 1993 (ten weeks after their wedding), Kim and Krickitt Carpenter were in an automobile accident in which Krickitt suffered brain trauma, which erased memories of her past eighteen months of her life all of which included Kim. Kim, however, refused to give up and continued to show Krickitt his love, although she viewed him as a stranger after the accident. On May 25, 1996, their faith in Jesus and their wedding vows before God kept them together again and they are now a happily married couple living in New Mexico with two kids.

Marriage vows are sacred promises a couple makes to each other during a wedding ceremony. Today, many couples see the wordings 'till death do us part' in the marriage vow as 'till we love and live together', hence they only fulfill their promises as long as they love and stay with one another. As I re-watched the film again and the real story of Kim and Krickitt Carpenter, marriage vow is not only on a promise to one another until one (or both) is dead but a life long unconditional commitment to each other in all adversity (even when it is against you) as well, just like what Leo said in the film, "I vow to love you and no matter what challenges might carry us apart, we will always find a way back to each other."

To have and to hold, from this day forward, 

for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health, 

to love and to cherish till death do us part.

Movie Trailer:

      

The Saint

The film had became one of my favorite after watching it fifteen years ago; fast paced and action oriented with plenty of drama, guns, explosions and also, I was fascinated with the intrigue in the film. It's like modern day version of Robin Hood.

Phillip Noyce directed The Saint in 1997, a romantic action film based on the character of Simon Templar created by Leslie Charteris in 1928 for a series of books published as "The Saint".

At the Saint Ignatius Orphanage, a rebellious young boy named John Rossi refers to himself as "Simon Templar" - the first name from Simon Magus and the last name from his childhood heroes, the Knights Templar.

Speed ahead and the young boy is now a professional thief dubbed "The Saint" for using the names of Catholic saints as aliases in bidding wars with countries for his services. Slick, debonair and a master of disguise, Simon (Val Kilmar) manages to outwit the police again and again. On his next job, Simon is hired by the Russian Mafia to steal a revolutionary cold fusion energy formula from a pretty and intelligent American electrochemist Dr. Emma Russel (Elisabeth Shue). Cold fusion is said to permit a nation to heat its citizens with only a few gallons of water. However, on this case, the mission backfires as he falls for her placing him in a quandary of fulfilling his professional obligations or staying with the innocent young chemist.

We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, 

who begin to interest us at first sight, 

somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken.

Movie Trailer:

                

The Terminal

The Terminal is an American romantic comedy drama film directed by Steven Spielberg released in 2004 and is partially inspired by the seventeen years stay of Mehran Karimi Nasseri in the Charles de Gaille International Airport, Terminal 1, Paris, France from 26 August 1988 to July 2006 when his refugee papers were stolen.

Mehran Karimi Nasseri

The film starts with an Eastern European man by the name of Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks) arrives at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and while he was air en route to America, a revolution was started in his home nation of Krakozhia (fictional country). With his passport, visas and currency issued by Krakozhia are no longer valid internationally and suddenly, he is a citizen of nowhere. Hence, Viktor is denied entrance to the U.S and he is also unable to return home but to lives in the terminal carrying his luggage until Krakozhia's situation is resolved.

As the days stretch on into months, Viktor finds the compressed universe of the terminal to be a richly complex world of absurdity, generosity, culture, ambition, amusement, status, serendipity and even romance with a beautiful flight attendant named Amelia Warren (Catherine Zeta-Jones).

Life is a challenge and it's natural that we feel sad, frightened and pained when anything adverse happens to us. In the film, we see how Viktor reviews the bright side of every angle of his problems in time of adversity when he doesn't speak English very well, with no valid citizenship, no cash and no one to help him around in the terminal. And while Viktor is rising to his life challenges, how he begins to befriends and helps some of the people around him who work in the airport.

The best things in life are worth waiting for, fighting for,

believing in and just never letting go of.

Movie Trailer:

      

The Notebook

The Notebook is a 2004 romantic drama film directed by Nick Cassavetes, based on 1996 the romance novel on a true story of the same name by an American novelist, Nicholas Sparks. The novel was originally inspired by the story of his wife’s grandparents who had a rare and beautiful relationship, one that withstood the test of time and circumstance for married over sixty years,

The film begins at a modern-day nursing home, an eighty-years-old man named Duke (James Garner) reading a romantic story from his faded, well-worn notebook open in his lap to a fellow patient, Allie Hamilton (Gena Rowlands) and starts telling her the story in 1940.

In Seabrook Island, South Carolina, local twenty-three years-old country boy, Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling) is smitten with seventeen-years-old heiress, Allie Hamilton (Rachel McAdams) after seeing her for the first time at a carnival and they share an idyllic summer love affair. Unfortunately, their relationship is disapproval by Allie's parents because of Noah's unwealthy family. The two break up when Allie's family returning home to Charleston.

Fourteen years later, Noah returned home from World War II, restoring a plantation home to its former glory and he is haunted by memories of Allie, the girl that he loved like no other. One day, Allie unexpectedly returns to Noah's town to see him once again. She is now engaged to another man, but realizes that the original passion she felt for Noah has not dimmed with the passage of time. However, the obstacles that once ended their previous relationship still remain and the gulf between their worlds is too vast to ignore. With her impending marriage only weeks away, Allie is forced to confront her hopes and dreams for the future, a future that only she can shape.

In the present, Duke asks Allie who she chose. Allie who suffers from Alzheimer's disease and suddenly remembers that "Duke" is Noah and he was reading the story of how they met. She remembers after finding out about her illness, she herself wrote their story in the notebook with instructions for Noah to "read this to me and I'll come back to you".

The next morning, Noah ("Duke") goes to Allie's room to find her lucid again. Allie questions Noah about what will happen to them when she won't be able to remember anything anymore and he reassures her that he will never leave her. She asks him if he thinks their love for each other is strong enough to "take them away together" and he replies that he thinks their love could do anything. After telling each other that they love one another, they both go to sleep in Allie's bed. The next morning, a nurse finds them dead in each others' arms and the last scene shows a flock of birds flying away.

What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined for life? 

There to strengthen each other and to be at one with each other 

in silent unspeakable memories. 

Movie Trailer:

       

Serenedipity

Serenedipity, a nice word and I kind of fancy with it. The word was formed from the Persian fairy tale, The Three Princes of Serendip, whose heroes "were always making discoveries by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of".

In 2001, Peter Chelsom directed a romantic comedy of the same wording as the film title. The story tells of a couple reunite years after the night they first met in New York City, fell in love and separated, convinced that one day they will end up together.

Jonathan Trager (John Cusack) meets Sara Thomas (Kate Beckinsale) by chance in the Christmas eve, in Bloomingdale's, both trying to buy the last pair of black cashmere gloves available for sales. Despite each being in a relationship with other people at the time, they spend an amazing afternoon together and attracted to each other. Jonathan wants her contact information "just in case", but Sara, a fatalist, plays games of fate with Jonathan to determine if they are indeed meant to be together.

Sara decides to write her contact information in a book, Love in the Time of Cholera and his on a five dollars bill. She gives the bill to a newspaperman and she says that she would sell the book in a New York used books store. If they are meant to be together, he will find the book, she will find the five dollars bill and they will find their way back to each other.

Life is not merely a series of meaningless accidents or coincidences, 
but rather it is a tapestry of acts that culminate in an exquisite, sublime plan. 

If we are to live life in harmony with the universe, 
we must all possess a powerful faith in what the ancients used to call "fatum", 
what we currently refer to as destiny.

Movie Trailer:

                

WHEN YOU KNOW - Shawn Colvin

When you know that you know who you love, you can't deny it.
Or go back, or give up, or pretend that you don't buy it.
When it's clear this time you've found the one, you'll never let him go
Cos you know and you know that you know.

When you feel in your skin in your bones and the hollow
Of your heart, there's no way you can wait till tomorrow.
When there isn't any doubt about it once you come this close
Cos you know and you know that you know.

You can feel love surround you like the sky 'round the moon.
This is how love has found you, now you know what to do.

When you know that you know who you need, you can't deny it.
Or go back, or give up, or pretend that you don't buy it.
When it's clear this time you've found the one, you'll never let him go
Cos you know and you know that you know.

And it's time you come in from the cold.
Haaa ...
And you know that you know.

      

When Harry Met Sally

It was almost more than ten years that I watched "When Harry Met Sally", a 1989 romantic comedy film written by Nora Ephron and directed by Rob Reiner. It stars Billy Crystal as Harry Burns and Meg Ryan as Sally Albright.

The plot start in 1977, when both Harry and Sally met to share the drive to New York City after they finished college at the University of Chicago. The film jumps through their lives as they both search for love but failed and bumping into each other time and time again. Finally a close friendship blooms between them, and they both like having a friend of the opposite sex. The underlying theme of the film is the argument about male-female relationship; can men and women be friends or does always sex get in the way?

Nevertheless, "When Harry Met Sally" is a great new year love story that stay all time.

"I love that you get cold when it's 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."

Our life is just like an open book with pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves and its first chapter is New Year's Day. Dont keep it blank as it will never able to fill it back again and make sure it worth reading.

God bless!

Here's the links:

Movie Trailers

Sliding Doors

"Sliding Doors" directed by Peter Howitt and released on June 1998. The film follows the life of Helen Quilley (Gwyneth Paltrow), who is arriving at work one morning and discovers that she had been unjustifiably sacked from her PR job.

The film's plot splits into two parallel universes which run in tandem. In one universe, Helen catches the tube train, meets James and arrives home to find her loathsome Lothario lover Gerry cheating on her with his ex-girlfriend Lydia. In the other reality, Helen misses the tube train, gets mugged, goes to hospital and eventually arrives home to find Gerry alone in the shower. The two realities move forward in tandem; in one Helen leaves Gerry and forms a happy, new, loving relationship with James; in the other Helen's live becomes more and more wretched as she takes on two jobs to support her worthless, cheating boyfriend as he supposedly writes his novel but in fact carries on a torrid affair with Lydia.

"Sliding Doors" is one of the best films that Gwyneth Paltrow has done. Humour, anger, sadness, love, compassion and a lot of lying in this film and the most special of this film is for the way the two storylines overlap, making a very original movie. It uses the concept of time by showing what a significant difference a few seconds can make in one's life.

Though life is like a sliding door, it closes one end but opens the other but the result is much alike as everything in our path and destiny is preordained in the book of providence.

"Expect nothing, live frugally on surprise. And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh."

TURN BACK TIME - Aqua

Give me time to reason
Give me time to think it through
Passing through the season
Where I cheated you

I will always have a cross to wear
But the bolt reminds me I was there
So give me strength
To face this test tonight

If only I could turn back time
If only I had said what I still hide
If only I could turn back time
I would stay for the night.
For the night...

Claim your right to science
Claim your right to see the truth
Though my pangs of conscience
Will drill a hole in you

I seen it coming like a thief in the night
I seen it coming from the flash of your light
So give me strength
To face this test tonight

If only I could turn back time
If only I had said what I still hide
If only I could turn back time...
I would stay for the night

The bolt reminds me I was there the bolt reminds me I was there
If only I could turn back time
If only I had said what I still hide
If only I could turn back time
I would stay for the night

Here's the links:
Movie Trailer

Titanic

Can't really remember how many times I have watched this film - Titanic, directed by James Cameron when it was released on December 1997. At least seven times in the theatre at that time I guess and indeed Im a Titanic buff. Well, this is one of the most wonderful films of the 20th Century that I have had watched which will never forget.

As I re-watched the film again after so many years later and I still transfixed with it eventhough it was not based on historical of the sinking ship, Titanic (the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters), many of the characters were not real and the fictional love story in the film, yet I love every details in it.

It brought me back to 1997 when I can remember how captivated I am to this film even now. It felt like you were on the ship, how you might have reacted had you been in that situation in time of crisis of live and death when the ship hit the iceberg on the starboard side and about to sink.

Despite the tragic love story of two different social classes of Rose Dewitt Bukater and Jack Dawson, there are many expatiates in the film shows everyone reacts differently in time of lives and death. Officer Murdoch turns his gun on himself after shooting two passengers who are rushing a lifeboat (took a pride and lack of integrity in the film - fictional), a third class mother attempting to sing her children to sleep (as being hopeless), gates locked which barred the third class passengers below the ship to stop them from taking a first class passenger's seat on a lifeboat (a different treatment of classes), Captain Smith enter the bridge and grasp the wheel as water crashes in, Titanic's band continue to play as the ship went under (by the way, Jonathan Evans Jones, the actor who portrayed Wallace Hartley in the film is a professional violinist).

It was a breathtaking when seeing the ship slowly go under the sea, people jumping off from the ship and a hundred freezing people screaming for help that never comes ... ...

In the end of the film, an old couple embracing in bed as water pours into their cabin. Found out that this old couple was non-fictional and in real life, they were both offered a place on lifeboat, but the old man chose to stay on the Titanic so long as there were women who remained on the ship. His wife refused to abandon her husband and said, "We have been living together for many years. Where you go, I go." The couple was last seen sitting on a pair of deck chairs (not lying in bed like in the film). I was totally being moved by this old couple (even there is no script for them in the film) for they have truly show "till death do them apart".

One thing amazed me about this film after so many years, in fact it was Director James Cameron did the sketch of Rose wearing the necklace. It is actually Cameron's hand, not Leonardo DiCaprio's in the movie. James Cameron also drew all of the pictures in Jack's sketchbook. That's impressive!

Movie Trailer:

MY HEART WILL GO ON
Celin Dion

Every night in my dreams
I see you, I feel you,
That is how I know you go on

Far across the distance
And spaces between us
You have come to show you go on

Near, far, wherever you are
I believe that the heart does go on
Once more you open the door
And you're here in my heart
And my heart will go on and on

Love can touch us one time
And last for a lifetime
And never let go till we're gone

Love was when I loved you
One true time I hold to
In my life well always go on

Near, far, wherever you are
I believe that the heart does go on
Once more you open the door
And you're here in my heart
And my heart will go on and on

You're here, theres nothing I fear
And I know that my heart will go on
We'll stay forever this way
You are safe in my heart
And my heart will go on and on

City of Angels

City of Angels is a romance film directed by Brad Silberling in Year 1998 and cast by Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan.

As I re-watched the film and I was being moved once again by the character, Seth who played by Nicolas Cage, "I would rather have had one breath of her hair, one kiss of her mouth, one touch of her hand, than eternity without it."

Seth is one of many angels who watch over humans and protect them in an unseen ways and his main responsibility is to appear to those who are close to death and guide them to the next life. One day, he met this surgeon, Maggie Rice, felt fascinated with her and decided to become human by way of the free will granted to angels. Both Seth and Maggie felt in love with each other, unfortunately, their happiness is short as Maggie died in a road accident. Now, Seth is alone, grieving and mourns for Maggie but he has never regrets for his decision to become a human.

One day, we will be in the arms of the angel, so make each moments count and matter! Experience, appreciate, cherish and value life for the most priceless assets that have been fortunately bestowed with to us.

Make sure its worth watching.

Here's the links:

Movie Trailer

ANGEL - Sarah McLachlan
Spend all your time waiting for that second chance

For the break that will make it ok

There's always some reason to feel “not good enough"?

And it's hard at the end of the day

I need some distraction, oh beautiful release

Memories seep from my veins

They may be empty and weightless, and maybe I'll find some peace tonight

In the arms of an Angel, fly away from here

From this dark, cold hotel room, and the endlessness that you fear

You are pulled from the wreckage of your silent reverie

You're in the arms of an Angel; may you find some comfort here

So tired of the straight line, and everywhere you turn

There's vultures and thieves at your back

The storm keeps on twisting, you keep on building the lies

That you make up for all that you lack

It don't make no difference, escaping one last time

It's easier to believe

In this sweet madness, oh this glorious sadness

That brings me to my knees

In the arms of an Angel, far away from here

From this dark, cold hotel room, and the endlessness that you fear

You are pulled from the wreckage of your silent reverie

In the arms of an Angel; may you find some comfort here