Author: yqouu

Hold Me Like A Mother Would – The Before Trilogy Then & Now

It has been 26 years since Before Sunrise was first released. I remember watching the movie for the first time around the early 2000s and it has been my favorite romance movie since then. The last time I had watched all three movies in the trilogy was back in 2014. The lock-down seemed like a great time to go back and revisit the trilogy and I have found that with time, my feelings and opinions about the movies have radically changed.

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Westworld S03E06 – Decoherence

Quantum decoherence is the loss of quantum coherence. Decoherence can be viewed as the loss of information from a system into the environment since every system is loosely coupled with the energetic state of its surroundings. So this episode is grappling with the theme of literal loss/ removal of data and the metaphorical loss of our sense of self. This has been by far my favourite episode of the series. Continue reading “Westworld S03E06 – Decoherence” →

Movies to Watch During the Lock-down

Movies and television shows are the ultimate forms of escapism that people have a habit of using all the time almost in an unhealthy way. I am guilty of this charge as well. But who among us hasn’t binge-watched 5 seasons of a show that we don’t even like that much just to get our minds off things that are going wrong in our life.

While there can be a tendency to bring this into an unhealthy level, at a smaller dose, using movies for escapism might not be such a bad thing. Especially in the global crisis that we are all going through. A lot of us are in a position where we are under lock-down and unlike the essential workers who are admirably fighting this thing at the forefront, the most our contribution might amount to is just staying in.

With the lock-down comes the feeling of boredom but also the feeling of anxiety related to being able to watch the whole situation unfold but not being able to make an impact on that situation. In these tough times, diving into the world of a great movie can be a great short-term escape from the current problem.

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Best Books to Escape into During the Lockdown

We are suffering from a global pandemic and while we all have the urge to refresh the news site to continue being updated on the latest news related to Covid-19, using a book to escape the situation for a while might be a good idea.

While escapist literature does not have a good reputation, escapism is not necessarily a bad thing. By escaping from the reality for a little while, we also ourselves to rest and then rejoin the world in a better shape than how we originally started. As C S Lewis eloquently put it, “The only people who hate escapism are jailers.”

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Revisiting Harry: Philosopher’s Stone, Chapter 1 (Dumbledore Parties for 12 Hours Straight)

Now that I’ve been confined to my home by the current state of things, I think there’s no better time to revisit my childhood. A specific part of my childhood to be exact, as well as the childhood of millions of others around the world; the Harry Potter series. Even if you are Patrick Star and live under a rock, under the sea, there’s zero chance that you don’t know this absolute juggernaut of a series. My plan here is basically to go through the series and try and see if the revelation that wizards used to shit themselves has ruined Hogwarts for me.

Speaking of shitting oneself, I’ll haven’t really been keeping track of Rowling’s tweets or the bits of canon that were added through Pottermore so the discussions will be limited to the Book Canon. Putting the quality of the additional bits of worldbuilding aside, this is more about taking another look at the series that I experienced as a kid and not about the series in its current state. Without further ado, let’s get right into Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (not the Sorcerer’s Stone, which is dumb)

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Izzy Gets the F*ck Across Town – An Almost Good Movie

Izzy Gets the F*ck Across Town is an indie movie released in 2018. I just watched it a few weeks ago and to be honest, I wasn’t that impressed with it and something about it kept bothering me. The movie hasn’t completely left my mind for weeks and I guess this review is my attempt to find out the reason.

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Millennium Actress and the Importance of Art

Directed by Satoshi Kon, Millennium Actress (Sennen Joyū) was released in 2001 to a generally positive reception. Much lighter in tone compared to the director’s previous film, Perfect Blue, this film is a masterful love letter to Japanese cinema and one of its most iconic figures, Setsuko Hara. There’s a lot you can take from Millennium Actress and much has already been said about it. In fact, I seriously doubt I can fit everything I want to say about the film in this post alone but I still want to highlight what made it memorable for me. There will be spoilers, of course.  If you haven’t watched the film yet, please go ahead and do so. It has my highest recommendation, whatever that might be worth to you.

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Game Recommendation: Pathologic

Pathologic is a genre-breaking game created by Russian developers Ice-Pick Lodge. Released in 2005, the game received quite a substantial amount of praise and acclaim in Russia but only managed a small cult following outside of its home country. The studio has stated in the past that their efforts began as an “attempt at a cultural experiment” and it really shows in Pathologic. To put it simply, there is nothing else quite like it.

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