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tarigwaemirAd Mundo Exteriore,
::insane fit of giggling:: The film we were watching was actually a gay film. Well, kind of. This man falls in love with his "soulmate", who dies and is reincarnated as one of his male students. I was a little disturbed at first because Koreans are utter prudes, more so than the Japanese. (After all, we have the largest percentage of evangelical Protestants out of all the Asian countries.) But it was really cute, especially because the two male actors were very pretty. But they were so awkward around each other! After they go through the whole angsting sequence, they decide to jump off a cliff together, not because they're suicidal, but because they "know" that they will find each other again in the next life (hopefully as different genders). (You have to realize, Koreans will be Koreans, no matter how liberal they may try to be, so the movie constantly emphasized how the two men were actually straight, just in the wrong bodies so to speak.) Anyway, so they're holding hands (aw...) as they're about to jump, and they're supposed to be gazing into each other's eyes lovingly, right? Instead, they have these forced, panicked grins on their faces, and you can just tell that they're thinking, "Oh, I'm so going to kill my manager for this..." ^_^ Really cute! Definitely not out there or on the edge though. No sexual overtones between the two men, and constant reminders of how they're only in love because they were once in a straight relationship. Don't expect too much from Koreans just yet.
Actually, I was kind of bothered by the teacher-student relationship. It was rather squicky, when you considered the student was just 17. And throughout the whole sequence when the student starts remembering his former life and runs off to New Zealand to do the whole jump-off-a-cliff stunt with his teacher, I kept wondering where the heck his parents were and why they weren't causing any trouble by having the teacher arrested. (The teacher was fired from his job, but not sued. That's so unrealistic...) Well, I guess if the girl is reincarnated, there does have to be a huge age gap...but age gaps in romantic relationships really bother me. Too much of an unhealthy power dynamic.
Apparently, the film was the tenth top-grossing film in 2001. That's even more startling than the fact that the film got made in the first place. I think it's the H.O.T. phenomenon. Too many pretty boys. (I swear, Kangta is disturbing. His voice is higher than mine. >_<) And it gives such a wrong impression of Koreans too...I mean, most Korean boys I know in real life are not that girly and pretty. Or even just good-looking. Anyway, the whole movie was very funny and put me in a hysterical mood. Oh man, I have to find the DVD and show it to you, Tryo-chan...
Oh, and because Koreans are still prudes, almost all the pictures show the former straight couple, before the woman got reincarnated. Very few pictures of the two male actors together. What I could find:
the teacher
the student, i.e. soulmate of the teacher in former life
one of the few couple pictures available on the Internet
Ah, note how this "intimate" moment--and it doesn't get any more intimate than this in the movie, I assure you--is captured so that one of the male actors has his face hidden. Yes, prudes, I tell you. Although it was marketed as a GLBT film abroad, it's kind of impossible to classify it as such, because it's so adamant at suppressing the gayness.
In other news, I love my classes. They put me through torture, but I love them anyway. In math class, I finally understood the logic behind the theorem for calculating the surface area of a parametric surface. I basically just copied down the proof of the theorem without thinking what it meant, and today, in class, we looked at it geometrically, and suddenly, it all clicked! Oh, how elegant! How intuitive! Yes, this is the level on which math makes sense to me. I'm really glad I decided to take multivariable calculus again, because I'm internalizing the concepts now instead of blindly manipulating variables to make the if-then statements work out.
In biology, we were finishing up gene regulation, which is such a great topic and has so many chicken-and-egg, GEB-type "strange loops" in it. For example, the transcription factors that regulate the genes in a metabolic pathway are themselves coded by genes which are also regulated by yet more transcription factors and hormones. The hormones in turn are synthesized by yet more proteins which are encoded by genes which are regulated by transcription factors and hormones...to put it simply, within and across all levels in biology, you have this incredibly complex system of intersecting and interacting feedback loops. Isn't it beautiful? I don't think it's too much to say that I want to spend my life trying to untangle this elaborate web and figure out how it evolved from its simplest components.
I have a sudden urge to go read Gödel, Escher, Bach again. ::stares at bookshelf:: Ugh, but stupid HGDRP module. Well, the module itself doesn't sound so bad this time, but writing about neurofibromatosis is the perfect way to ruin my day.
Oh well. An education is a wonderful thing, despite all the stress it puts you through. Seriously, I've been telling people that college is stressful, but in a bizarre way, you enjoy the stress. I think it's because in the midst of all the midterm panic and competitive frenzy, you have so many moments of genuine inspiration. The structure of the universe is beautiful, and studying it is artistically fulfilling.
...Tari
::insane fit of giggling:: The film we were watching was actually a gay film. Well, kind of. This man falls in love with his "soulmate", who dies and is reincarnated as one of his male students. I was a little disturbed at first because Koreans are utter prudes, more so than the Japanese. (After all, we have the largest percentage of evangelical Protestants out of all the Asian countries.) But it was really cute, especially because the two male actors were very pretty. But they were so awkward around each other! After they go through the whole angsting sequence, they decide to jump off a cliff together, not because they're suicidal, but because they "know" that they will find each other again in the next life (hopefully as different genders). (You have to realize, Koreans will be Koreans, no matter how liberal they may try to be, so the movie constantly emphasized how the two men were actually straight, just in the wrong bodies so to speak.) Anyway, so they're holding hands (aw...) as they're about to jump, and they're supposed to be gazing into each other's eyes lovingly, right? Instead, they have these forced, panicked grins on their faces, and you can just tell that they're thinking, "Oh, I'm so going to kill my manager for this..." ^_^ Really cute! Definitely not out there or on the edge though. No sexual overtones between the two men, and constant reminders of how they're only in love because they were once in a straight relationship. Don't expect too much from Koreans just yet.
Actually, I was kind of bothered by the teacher-student relationship. It was rather squicky, when you considered the student was just 17. And throughout the whole sequence when the student starts remembering his former life and runs off to New Zealand to do the whole jump-off-a-cliff stunt with his teacher, I kept wondering where the heck his parents were and why they weren't causing any trouble by having the teacher arrested. (The teacher was fired from his job, but not sued. That's so unrealistic...) Well, I guess if the girl is reincarnated, there does have to be a huge age gap...but age gaps in romantic relationships really bother me. Too much of an unhealthy power dynamic.
Apparently, the film was the tenth top-grossing film in 2001. That's even more startling than the fact that the film got made in the first place. I think it's the H.O.T. phenomenon. Too many pretty boys. (I swear, Kangta is disturbing. His voice is higher than mine. >_<) And it gives such a wrong impression of Koreans too...I mean, most Korean boys I know in real life are not that girly and pretty. Or even just good-looking. Anyway, the whole movie was very funny and put me in a hysterical mood. Oh man, I have to find the DVD and show it to you, Tryo-chan...
Oh, and because Koreans are still prudes, almost all the pictures show the former straight couple, before the woman got reincarnated. Very few pictures of the two male actors together. What I could find:
the teacher
the student, i.e. soulmate of the teacher in former life
one of the few couple pictures available on the Internet
Ah, note how this "intimate" moment--and it doesn't get any more intimate than this in the movie, I assure you--is captured so that one of the male actors has his face hidden. Yes, prudes, I tell you. Although it was marketed as a GLBT film abroad, it's kind of impossible to classify it as such, because it's so adamant at suppressing the gayness.
In other news, I love my classes. They put me through torture, but I love them anyway. In math class, I finally understood the logic behind the theorem for calculating the surface area of a parametric surface. I basically just copied down the proof of the theorem without thinking what it meant, and today, in class, we looked at it geometrically, and suddenly, it all clicked! Oh, how elegant! How intuitive! Yes, this is the level on which math makes sense to me. I'm really glad I decided to take multivariable calculus again, because I'm internalizing the concepts now instead of blindly manipulating variables to make the if-then statements work out.
In biology, we were finishing up gene regulation, which is such a great topic and has so many chicken-and-egg, GEB-type "strange loops" in it. For example, the transcription factors that regulate the genes in a metabolic pathway are themselves coded by genes which are also regulated by yet more transcription factors and hormones. The hormones in turn are synthesized by yet more proteins which are encoded by genes which are regulated by transcription factors and hormones...to put it simply, within and across all levels in biology, you have this incredibly complex system of intersecting and interacting feedback loops. Isn't it beautiful? I don't think it's too much to say that I want to spend my life trying to untangle this elaborate web and figure out how it evolved from its simplest components.
I have a sudden urge to go read Gödel, Escher, Bach again. ::stares at bookshelf:: Ugh, but stupid HGDRP module. Well, the module itself doesn't sound so bad this time, but writing about neurofibromatosis is the perfect way to ruin my day.
Oh well. An education is a wonderful thing, despite all the stress it puts you through. Seriously, I've been telling people that college is stressful, but in a bizarre way, you enjoy the stress. I think it's because in the midst of all the midterm panic and competitive frenzy, you have so many moments of genuine inspiration. The structure of the universe is beautiful, and studying it is artistically fulfilling.
...Tari
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(no subject)
Date: 2003-11-17 02:53 pm (UTC)Well you should come over and watch Bishonen..., because (well, they're actually gay in that one..XD) I love guys in uniform and I think you should too (^_^), but really, it's sad and one of the main characters really reminds me of someone, and the last scene thingy is really sad and cute and is on one of my icons.
BTW, why is it that though I change between the three icons I have, when I take a look at other people friend's icons, they're all the same? But other people get to keep their different ones?
O.o
(no subject)
Date: 2003-11-17 03:50 pm (UTC)And yeah, I repeat, Koreans are prudes. I'm amazed they got even this far...
...Tari
(no subject)
Date: 2003-11-18 02:08 pm (UTC)I've re-checked it. It's just that all my previous journal entires with a "default" picture, which used to be my Reservior Dogs one, have been replaced with the Harry Potter Trailer one since it's my current "default" one..
O.o
(no subject)
Date: 2003-11-17 02:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-11-17 03:51 pm (UTC)...Tari