Chocolate Factory

Everybody! Go watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! It's fiendishly good stuff!

Went to watch after Lit S yesterday with Chern, Chunlong, Soph and Shiq. Me, I was craving something to do that would eliminate all possibility of thinking about work and universities. Even though it's only been a two-day week, it felt rather tense...like I was expecting something to happen, anticipating something decisive. Well, nothing decisive has occured yet. But the movie...magnificent!

Heh, I have to say it's quite rare when the movie of a book actually matches what you see in your mind's eye, but Charlie managed to achieve that, I think. The factory, wonderful and amazing and whimsical, also had a dark side. It was desperately whimsical, even delusional, and Willy Wonka's genius is tainted by a shadow of darkness that give the image that he has some kind of compulsive disorder. I didn't remember being so disturbed by a dark side when I read the book...so I conclude that rather than taking something out of the plot, the movie actually added something into it. Now how often does that occur? =P

The dark side...several haunting moment, like the extravaganza at the factory gates, when the singing dolls get set on fire by the fireworks finale and start melting to bits. And the mysterious Oompa-loompas, who seem to know exactly what calamity will befall the children before they occur, and are vindictively hilarious in their taunting musical numbers. And at the end, all the kids end up deformed after their strange and wonderful industrial accidents, their egos and appetites defeated in a fable-like fashion.

One wonders whether or not Willy intended for the kids to be picked off one by one, in order for him to make an heir of the last one.

There was a brand new subplot, about Willy Wonka's childhood, which was positively Freudian. Hehheh, he apparently had a dentist for a dad, so go figure...so Willy has this complex involving family and parents, because he never learned the love of a parent. I thought the plot was rather ingeniusly done. When Willy threatens to run away so he can fulfill his dream of becoming a chocolatier, his dad warns him that he won't find him when he comes back. And sure enough, when Willy does change his mind, he finds that their terrace house has disappeared, leaving a hole in the row. Years later the Great Glass Elevator brings Willy and Charlie to the dad's house, which is incongruously plonked in the middle of a desolate snowfield. If the removal of the house is not a clever metaphor for an emotional gap, then I should stop doing lit =P

But despite all the hints of darkness everywhere, the whole movie was still a fantastic thing to watch. The soundtrack rules! Hehheh, especially the wacky Oompa-loompa songs. But the symphonic pieces were also suitably whimsical and loopy to match the world of the factory. And the factory itself, imposing and awesome on the outside, is a great example of industrial architecture, while inside it hides all sorts of wonders that border on decadence. And the ideas! What kind of mind do you need to come up with Everlasting Gobstoppers, Three-Course Gum, chocolate mixed by waterfall, telechocolate and the Great Glass Elevator?

Hmm...I think there's a lot of clever cinematography in that film. Enough to do a full analysis on. It may be a tract against the decadence of Willy's self-absorption, a moral story against ego and greed, family-friendly propaganda and even an investigation into exploitation of primitive people for cheap labour. Hmm...you can see even death making a guest appearance in Willy's first grey hair. But that, I shall leave until such a time when I'm done with Lit S...

And anyway, such films are best enjoyed with a light heart. Like Charlie says, "Candy doesn't have to have a point. That's why it's candy."

All in all a great film! I shall buy the soundtrack. Heh, Chern says that she'll show this film to her kids. I say, why wait till you have kids? Everyone should go see it right now =)

* * * * *

It's a strange position, the one that I find myself in. On the one hand, everyone is sure that I'll get a place in the university that I want to go to, wherever that is. And everyone's sure that I'll get a scholarship. And to be sure, the realistic side of me has to agree with them that my chances, like the chances of all Humans people, are better than average.

On the other hand, it'd be stupid to look at it like it's an assured thing. I'd believe it when I see it. Strange things have been known to happen, and anyway, it's hard to make a prediction when you don't know all the rules of the game, especially what the admissions people and the interviewers are exactly looking for. It'd be a mistake not to prepare for the worst, and I have to say I've been neglecting that. Living with my head in the clouds, as it were. I should do some research on NUS, just to have all my bases covered. And anyway, it's worldwide ranking is quite good at 17. The only real problem with it, as I always say, is that it's in Singapore.

It's stressful to try to strike a balance between acknowledging my own strengths and not going overboard with it. And it's quite hard when everyone takes so much pleasure in pointing them out to me. Increasingly I realise that I deal with it by pretending that they're telling lies, but that approach has its own dangers. I know I need confidence, but too much of that can cause other problems too.

And anyway, there's the new problem of deciding exactly what I want to do. History or Sociology? And where? If it is the case that I can go anywhere I like, then what criteria should take precedence in the final decision? Cambridge or London? US or UK? And which scholarship? It's time to find people who've been through the process, and to talk to them about this.

But to be fair, it's not like it's a new problem. There have always been too many choices, too many interests, and no clear preference, and too many implications to work out. But for this particular choice, the choice of course and university, I don't think I can allow myself to delegate to other people. Strange, how when choices become more and more important, you want to have other people make them for you because so much is at stake, and simultaneously you know that you can't allow that to happen because so much is at stake. But I don't think it'll be a dilemma about whether or not I should take the choice. It's time to seize the time, like Robbie in Atonement. Time to seize it before it passes along.

pondered by phoenican @ 13.8.05