A Very BD Day

Not even the butterfly effect could explain why BD became the theme of the day.

My mom turned 50 yesterday. She called me up from Hong Kong and asked if she should give away the antique vase she bought as a raffle prize for their school's Valentine's gathering. I said that children don't care for antiques, although I wished I had kept my mouth shut.

At the end of the day she decided to keep it for herself as a personal gift. I wonder if the vase is at least 50 years old. Like my mom it certainly stood the test of time. I wish she could retire early and just enjoy traveling around the world and perhaps find more antique vases. But that remains a wish for now unless a genie suddenly comes out of that vase. I greeted her a happy birthday and she told me that she was on her way to the store to buy some chocolates. Since she's keeping the vase, she's giving away sweets instead.

In the meantime, five hours behind, I was waiting for Blood Diamond to start. I wasn't so sure I was going to like this movie. On its fifth minute I was hooked. There was so much going on in the movie, all things imaginable in a spectacular film. Action, heist, passion, family, romance, drama, love, and a more recent crowd favorite, gore. Each time there were scenes of bloody mutilation and genocide I feel sorry for the kids in the theatre. There were a dozen kids below ten years old when I watched and I can't believe their parents allowed them to watch such violence with caramel popcorn and blue slush.

The movie was terrific and moving and surprisingly, Leo didn't sound like his whiny self at all. He pulled it off quite well and I'm starting to feel nervous for my early Oscar favorite Ryan Gosling for Half Nelson.

Still thirsty for more, I decided to watch one more film, this time, Brian De Palma's Black Dahlia. I don't know if he's going for film noir. Chinatown and L.A. Confidential did a good job in this 50s Hollywood crime drama genre. Black Dahlia did not come close to the two greats. It was entertaining, but for the most part, the film seemed like an homage to 50s filmmaking rather than a film set in the 50s. Often I find myself noticing how great the set was or how authentic the costume was or how carefully the sequence was shot to mimic 50s style framing and staging. In LA Confidential you don't see these things because you are lost in the story and instead of seeing the era, you are feeling the era. Complete with detective narrator and wipe transitions, Black Dahlia never fails to remind the audience that the film is old. Black Dahlia was a grand scale costume party with supposedly heavyweight actors looking uncomfortable at best in their vintage Hollywood skin.

Our dear censors also made their presence felt. They cut out all the love scenes even the once that had narration which leaves the audience two steps behind the murder trail because of missing information. No wonder this world is perceived as violent, people here feed violence and gore to children but they hide the love and passion.

When I got out of the theatre, my mom called again. She said my brother in the Philippines tried to withdraw some money from an ATM but the machine did not dispense any cash yet his money was gone. Tough luck.

It's my mom's birth day, I watched Blood Diamond and Black Dahlia, and my brother had a bad day. It's a very BD day for the family in three parts of the world. OUT.