Bend It like Beckham- Film Review.1


     Bend it like Beckham, the title of film that was shown in the English class had something drawing about.The opening of the movie took place in the large, crowded foot ball field, with thousands of crowd going wild. There, our main character stood, Jesminder, the Indian girl. She was the fastest on the field; the game was rising up, as she dribbled toward the opponent's goal post. Then, her right foot crossed the green grass. Without any unnecessary movement, the ball was sucked in to the goal. The film was very energetic and exiting. The angles of the camera made me think that I was watching actual foot ball game!

    As the game ends, the scene changed. The young Indian girl is in her room, that was decorated with posters about football. Among them, the poster of David Beckham was the largest, taking places in right above her bed. Jesminder was high school girl who have emigrated from India to Britten. Her mother, who had very strong Indian accent was dressed in traditional Indian cloth, while her elder sister has complete British accent and was dressed in jeans. The contrasts between the old and young generation of Jesminer's family seemed very ludicrous. I was able to predict that the two generations, traditional Indian cultured and the western-influenced cultured, were going to conflict in any time soon.


Bend It like Beckham - Film Review.2

   Jesminder appeared to be a very talented foot ball player. She would play foot ball with her fellow Indian boys in the park. As the foot ball game took a place, the camera angle switched into the action mode. I could feel the eagerness of Jesminder toward soccer! Then, the British girl, blond and white named Jules, came to Jesminder, asking whether she was interested in playing for girl's foot ball team. Of course, Jesminder was interested and became part of soccer team. There, she met a coach Joe and worked hard to fit in the team. Because of her great talent in foot ball, she became valuable player in team in just a few weeks. However, she was not able to tell her parents about the soccer team as they would never let their girl to play soccer, which will be not appropriate thing for girl in her age. I had a feeling that there was going to be conflict between Jess, Jesminder for short, and her parents and I became very curious about how it will going to turn out.


Bend It like Beckham - Film Review.3

   Jess was not a essential member of the girl's team. She became best friend with Jules and Joe also saw potential in Jess about foot ball. For Jess' sister, Pinky, wedding date was coming up and whole family was excited. Jess' parents wanted Jess to stop playing soccer or hang out with boys since that wasn't considered as best behavior for girls in her age in Indian culture. They also knew that if Jess was to keep these kinds of behavior, she would bring her family a disgrace! I thought that wasn't fair. Jess was very talented in soccer, so why not let her play?
 
   One day, Ms.Bhamra found Jess playing foot ball in park with boys and she became very angry about it. She lectured to her and insisted that she should learn how to cook, not how to play soccer. Jess was forced to confess about her girl's soccer team during the process, which made her parents even more upset. Jess, however, did not stopped playing soccer, despite of her parent's expectation to behave like traditional Indian girl. At this point, I was bit disappointed at Jess: she lied to her parents instead of convincing them. I know that it might be tough to do so, but she still shouldn't had lied!


Bend It like Beckham - Film Review.4

   The days has passed, and so many events had happened to Jess. It was too much for her to process all the expectation for her: expectation from the team to play as an ace in final match, expectation from her parents to behave like normal Indian girl, and expectation from her sister to attend her wedding which was same day as her final foot ball match. She was also expected to reply to her upcoming results for the college. She was tired and worn out. Still, she wanted to play soccer. However, family came first. She decided to attend her sister's wedding instead of going to her life-time chance to become woman soccer player in U.S. Even in the wedding, she couldn't stop thinking about the final. Then, like miracle, her father, Mr.Bhamra gave approval to play soccer. He finally made a decision that she should do what she want instead of obey to her restrictive culture. As the Jess entered the foot ball match, the fast and exited angles of camera were shown. I was happy for her. Just like Beckham, she bent the ball into goal post, kicking away all the expectation and restriction from her culture.

Book Conversation - Throwaway daughter - MJ and Rojer

Conflict between Grandfather Chen and Chen mei

Grandfather Chen - Man Jae Kim

Chen mei - Roger

the

Two days after birth…

Chen -Baby girl is not acceptable in our family. Loyal is the only son in the family and we need a seed to pass on the generation. I was dreaming to have a grandson for years, and  you are giving me the girl. This is unacceptable!!!!!

Chen mei - How can you say that?! It is your son’s blood. Do you want to throw away your only son’s child? You are cold blooded animal! I am not allowing you to take my baby away!

Chen - I am the ruler in this family. The decision has been agreed by loyal and your mother in law. This is for sake of our family!

Chen mei -  I won’t give up the baby. You can tell the village authorities that my daughter was stillborn, or whatever story you wants to make up. But you will not take my baby!

Chen - How dare you! If it wasn’t for Loyal, I would be kicking you out of this family!

Chen mei - Do as you wish.

Chen - I know this is hard for you, but think of Loyal and our family. Who will inherit the name of Chen?

Chen mei - If thats what you really want, give me two days, and you will never see my baby again

Chen - Finally you have learned the meaning of family! I know this is suffering but we should be ready to sacrifice for one another. Loyal will be pleased with your decision too.

Chem mei - You have misunderstood me. I will divorce with Loyal and leave this heartless place.


Oral Link :
https://voicethread.com/share/5155518/

Hl English B. Throwaway Daughter. Book Review.

Throwaway Daughter - by Ting-Xing Ye 

Book Review

Man Jae Kim

2013-11-16

The book Throwaway Daughter is all about finding identity. Grace, the abandoned Chinese girl because of the one-child policy, seeks the answer for the question “how am I?”

Going through teenage, Grace was forced to face her root, China. She denied the fact that her origin was in China and kept the denial as hostile feeling toward it. She was completely satisfied with her life with new family, the Parker family.

However, some events turn her upside down and make her wonder about her identity. She starts her journey toward her motherland, China. There, she finds her root and changes. Her identity changes her life.

Throwaway Daughter wasn’t the most exiting book I ever went through; however it did had something that inspired me. Through the book, I could sympathies with Grace. The mind of girl who was abandoned when she was born, the girl who could not belong to any society, made me ponder about myself.

The book Throwaway Daughter contains multiple views and perspective of different characters. This was very interesting development. The author of the book, Ting-Xing Ye, was able to do this because she was multi-cultured person as well. She did not get caught to one single idea or concept. She could glide through ideas, connecting them to one another. This really spiced up the whole book for me.

As I read the book, I could not stop wondering my identity as well. I was born in Korea, but lived in U.S at the age of 13 to 16 and before that, I was all around the world. Some say that that age is when people start to build up their identity and metal maturity. Those it makes me “less Korean” than others? These interesting ideas started to build up as I went through the book. Throwaway Daughter is certainly a profound book and I recommend all the teenagers to read this.

Diary. 1

Dear Diary

2013-10-30

I’m so upset. No one understands how I feel!

I just had this idea of not having a real birthday. I mean… the birth day that my parents

celebrate for me isn’t real birth day, is it? Speaking of parents, I don’t even know if my 

parents are alive or dead! I am the loneliest person in whole universe. Everything is so 

annoying. Even my mother bothers me so much these days. Why doesn’t she let me 

change my own name? It is my name! She doesn’t know how it feels to be outsider from 

this world. I believe that I have right to be called as I want! As you see, I am not in good 

mood these days. I don’t know how to make my feeling better. Noting can make me feel 

better.

Speaking of the name, my mom told me that I shouldn’t change my name because the 

name is like a root of mine. She also told me that it is important for me to know where I 

belong and where I came from. I don’t understand. Do you think she is right? Should I 

listen to her? I don’t want to hart her feeling. On the other hand, I feel very upset 

because of her attitude toward me.

I dont know....