(9) : The Simpsons (SE5 E14) 'Lisa VS Malibu Stacy' (1994)

(9) : The Simpsons (SE5 E14) 'Lisa VS Malibu Stacy' (1994)

The Malibu Stacy is such a big hit in the town. 

It is the name of a brand new doll like Barbie.

Every girl wants it and wants to be like Malibu Stacy. 

But Lisa Simpson is different. 

She thinks the image of the blonde is degrading 

due to the funny comments have been made by the dolls. 

Here, Lisa was an ordinary American kid 

who also plays with the doll 

but thinks the comments aren't fair to women 

and she tries to meet the founder of the Malibu Stacy doll 

and wants to change the comments of the doll.

So she made an action:

Lisa tracks down the company of the Malibu Stacy

 and meets Stacy Lovelle, the founder of Malibu Stacy 

and asks her to create a brand new doll name Lisa Lionheart. 

But during the process, she faces the problem 

that the company tries to make profit ‘only’ no matter what. 

She tries to make a protest against the sexism. 

 I think the main theme of this episode is that 

there are Sexists exist. And  women are not having the equal rights at all.

The main social issue was the sexual harassment 

happening between women and men in the work place. 

And also that companies are only thinking about the profits

 and not considering their image does a big role in the society. 

By watching the episode, 

it was easy to see that how MNCs' or the big companies 

easily deceive the general public and only think about making the profit. 

And thru Lisa, 

I learnt that action and words are really important 

when it comes to kids because they learn quickly, especially the bad things. 

And even nowadays, 

there are many companies shouting for the equality but in reality, sexism still exists.

(8) How I met your mother: (SE6 E5) ‘Architect of Destruction’ (2010)

(8) How I met your mother: (SE6 E5) 'Architect of Destruction' (2010)

This is one of my favorite TV show. 

Recently, new episode has been broadcasted. And I can't wait to watch them.

Due to classes, assignments, and also upcoming final exams, I am counting on my summer holidays to watch the episodes which are left.

So far, I have posted about movies. 

This is the very first time posting about TV shows.

Anyway, 

the story flows among two main characters.

Main character named Barney Stinson, acted by Neil Patrick Harris, 

is a CEO of the big corporation. 

He wants to renovate the old creepy Goliath National Bank's new skyscraper. 

His slogan is simple with just four words. 

“New is always better.”

Another main character, Ted, acted by Josh Render is an architect that his friend hired. 

As Barney has asked to renovate the GNB’s building,

 he was having the thought how to build newly, he meets one girl. 

And he thought that she is really impressive and that they have quite similar in common.

By talking with her, 

he has learned that the site of the building is where the old Arcadian Hotel stands. 

The Arcadian was grand building which were a landmark once in the past.

 

 But later he found that she is an activist who opposes of the GNB buildings new skyscraper. 

And she also finds that he was pretending to impress her.

Overall, this episode shows that the pros and cons of old and new things to be. 

This can be shown in the president election these days. 

There are two party easily distinguished as, 

one supporting the old and another party supporting the new things.   

 In my opinion, old is not always bad and new things also can’t be always good. 

 I think it is case by case. 

And from the episode, they wanted to rebuild the building. 

This reminded of Seoul City Hall. 

The old City Hall was abandoned because it seemed out dated. 

And modernized building has taken its place behind.

I think it is also a good way to maintain traditional things rather than having all stuffs in modern.

(7) : Avatar (2009)

(7) : Avatar (2009)

 

I am sure almost of everyone in the world have watched.

There were many parodies made by people who watched this movie.

Despite the movie became a box office hit, I have watched this movie recently.

To be honest, I don't like sci-fi movie. This was one reason that I pushed aside this movie,"Avatar". 

But this movie was a huge sensation and the movie was directed by James Cameron, also a director of "Titanic". So this made me watch the movie, even it was too late.

Main character, Jake Sully, acted by Sam Worthington , who was former US marine corps is disabled due to the accident.

He takes up his brothers' research and there he finds his freedom of walking via his avatar. 

The project was to search for the new energy sources for the future. So they traveled to far planet called, Pandora.

Jake Sully, as he takes part of the Avatar research project, he discovers lots of new things. He learnt how the Navi native people live. His mission was to held infiltration operation among Navis'.

As time goes by, 

he becomes "one" with the NAvis' and starts to struggle with his identity. 

While Jake was struggling, 

the corrupt leader started to destroy the Navis' place with the high-tech weapons.

 

 As human destroying the Navi people's home tree, Jake Sully tries to find the way to protect the nature. But unlike Jake, the leader of the program continued to destroy the home tree. So the war started between the human and Navi people.

In the movie, it shows that human being destroys the home of the Navi people. It reminded me of the people destroying the environment these days; they cut down lots of trees and build up new buildings, for example.

Although it was a sci-fi film, I think that director wanted to give us the message of 'save the environment'. When military destroyed the home tree of Navis', I felt sorry about it and made me think twice.

We need to keep the environment as it is without destroying for our posterity.

(6) : Crossing Over (2009)

(6) Crossing Over (2009)

My friend suggested this movie long ago. He was a big fan of Harrison Ford. But I decided to watch this with different purpose, Jim Sturgess also starred in this movie.

To mention shortly, it is some kind of omnibus that shows different nationalities(South Americans, Middle East, South Korea etc.) immigrants struggling to make their American Dream come true in the United States. Some of them face difficulty till their naturalization.

Harrison Ford, who acted as Max Brogan deals the illegal workers working without work permit in the United States. He attacked one of the factory and caught one young female worker and he found that she has her son. Even he dealt many illegal workers, somehow he felt sympathy for her and decides to take responsibility and takes her son to his grandparents house, in Mexico.

Second person was about Australian female actress living in the U.S.

There was a person who works in the custom department. He is greedy and he abuses his power as a person works in the custom. He meets one Australian woman who desperately wants the green card. He uses his power and makes her as his paramour.

And Islam family also appears in this movie. An Islam girl, she is having a hard time getting along with the classmates in school because of the Al-Qaeda and the 911 terror incident. While she was presenting her assignment, she announced that people should also hear the terrorists voices, reason why they terror. From here, she becomes the hot potato among people in her school and her teacher and principal reported her to the police and she became arrested. 

Lastly, Korean family appears. It was interesting to see how Korean family lives. It showed the general Korean family living in United States. Parents were working in the laundry shop. They live day to day life but they were happy that they live in United States and they were hoping for the day to become the U.S citizen. But their son joint in criminal activity, he broke into the supermarket with his friends. one detective was in the situation but listens to him that he is about to become the U.S citizen, he helps him to escape.

And finally becomes the U.S citizen.

Basically, it is about mixed raced and immigrants of different nationalities in the melting pot to get the green card. It showed various ways of people are trying to become the citizen of the U.S. These days, people working illegally still exist and they are deported back to their country, just like the Australian woman in this movie.

As I have lived abroad before, I also have seen many people setting up the illegal business to get the permanent residence of the country that they were staying. Somehow, I understand them but I think it seemed really dangerous because once you get caught, you are not able to visit the country for certain period of time.

And this movie reminded me of the news article saying that the record shows the number of "Maternity trips" to U.S has recorded 5,000 a year. This is very popular among Koreans to go to U.S to give birth to their child. I have friends who were born in United States but not in this way. Going to United States just to give their chile a birth seems negative.

By watching this movie, the scene that people living hard made me resolve myself to do my best at my current position.

(5) : North Country (2005)

Film Review : North Country (2005)

To talk shortly about the plot of this movie, it is based on a real story. 

A single mother, Josie, acted by Charlize Theron, is raising her two kids. 

During her early life, she had a sexual harassment when she was just a high school student by the class teacher during the detention class. 

From then, her life has been ruined and she became the gossip among the neighbors.

She decided to do something for feeding her children. 

While working as a hair dresser, she meets her old friend and hears that working in the mine can earn a lot more than at the hair salon. 

Including her, there were several female new-comers at the mine but the male workers treat them badly as if the female workers are their playmate. 

From there, Josie felt displeased and tries to find the way to solve it.

She wanted to work equally like man and equally get paid 

but there was discrimination to the women.

She even gave a try to visit the headquarter of the company to let the seriousness of the problem happening in the mine. But this didn't worked at all.

So, the story flows to the law court, she decided to sue the company.

While searching for the lawyer, Josie meets a neighbor, who is a lawyer, at the ice-rink, where her son had an ice-hockey match. He decided to help her case because it was the very first case during the time. 

Whereas Josie hired the male lawyer, 

the company hired the female lawyer and pointed out Josie’s youth and her sexual life. 

Despite the opposition from the company, 

at last, the female co-workers agree 

and raised their voices that the company treated them badly. 

So, Josie won the case at last  

and the law about the sexual harassment has been made in the United States.

 To sum up, this movie, 'North Country', is  dealing the sexual discrimination happened in the United States during the late 70s~80s.

Here, the sexual harassment happening 

between women and men in the work place is the main social issue.

Personally, as a woman, I felt sorry for Josie that she had a sexual harassment when she was young. I heard that aftermath of sexual harassment is so huge that it can't be imagine. 

Today, we can face many similar cases from the news. 

While watching this, it reminded me of the sexual harassment case happened among the disabled children in special- education school few years ago in Korea. It has been made as a movie called "도가니"("Silenced" in English title.) 

The hideous truth, concealed far too long.

The movie 'North Country' and 'Silenced' were not that easy and enjoyable to lay back at the couch while watching it.

I felt angry as a woman, and also as a daughter.

P.S 

I would like to give applause to Jeremy Renner, I hardly recognized it was him in this movie. Because, he looked charming in the recent movie like 'Avengers', unlike here.

He acted the character 'Bobby' in this movie. 

Bobby was the very character that I really hated while watching this movie. 

He was high school ex-boyfriend of Josie.

 He was a coward, he didn't helped Josie 

when he saw her suffering sexual harassment from the high school teacher. 

 Later on, he recognizes Josie at the work, and tries to treat her badly. 

I think the problem of men and women's 

'gender equity' is a hard problem to solve even these days. 

The world has changed a lot, towards women

 but there are, still discrimination happening.