Movie Review: Big Fish and Begonia

'Begonia' is a type of flower symbolising caution, bringing with it ominous warnings of grave dangers and horrible consequences. 

Dull colours and dire opening monologue, foretelling us this is for those who have been touched by sadness: everyone. It's the kind of movie that leaves you floating on the ocean, surrounded by your own feelings which threatens drown you when the closing song plays and you're still stuck in the movie long after it ends.

There's a similarity with japanese anime especially Studio Ghibli's 'Spirited Away' but it's actually a Chinese animated fantasy movie. Before credits can be given to the movie itself, the story behind the birth of this presumed unlikely success, is enough to draw an oviation. It took more than a decade to produce this movie, with meager finance and powered by just a few people with nothing but talent and a dream. Perfection does not bloom overnight.

The sky beneath the sea is gloomy and it domes over the 'Other People'. People who at first look like you and me, but it is revealed that they have magic and some marked with peculiarities making them 'monsters' in our world. The concepts in the movie can be vague, with many questions left hanging in the air, but the made-up world seems so real and magical that one would be inclined to believe that it is their own fault for not understanding. 

The movie borders on two important questions: How far would one go to make right a wrong and how much would one pay in the name of love. The characters really go to the extremes to answer both: giving up life. The story weaves itself along a single core line: sometimes mistakes cannot be undone. 

Drumrolls please, as we move to the crude rant:

A love triangle. I find that love triangles only happen when it involves a stupid selfish one, a stupid loyal one, and a stupid who wins right from the start. In the order of Chun, Qiu and Kun. Chun reminds me of Bella Swan in Twilight. Jacob(Twilight) is too weird for me to compare Qiu with him. And Kun is actually innocent while Edward(Twilight) is ew. 

Let us get Kun out of the way first from this rant. He is innocent. I have nothing to complain about him. No one can complain about a big brother who loves her little sister and animals. Every girl swoons over a guy like this. But I don't think Chun loves Kun. She wants to repay Kun's kindness by reviving him and she feels bad for his sister, but I do think she's attracted to him. He's the first human she has ever seen, she's 16 and Kun is hot, no surprise. It's tragic that he died, should have just waited out the storm. This is why I said he's stupid. 

Personally, Chun is so unlikeable that I nearly did not finish the movie. I know she's 16, she makes mistakes and tries to make things right, but somehow she makes everything worse! She did not listen to her mother's advice to stay away from humans! I'd say our moral values differ and I cannot understand her. Okay, I'll just admit it, I just hate her because she makes Qiu so sad. When she pushed Qiu to dance with that Rat Lady or when she again pushed him away when Qiu released Kun, I was like "WTF, YOU PUSH HIM ONE MORE TIME, I'M GONNA SLAP YOU". 

Qiu has a very special personality, the kind that makes people want to give him all the love in the world. He's the epitome of the saddest person who smile the brightest and the loneliest person who loves the hardest. If he isn't so honourable and sad, I would have called him a simp. He's so selfless towards Chun and everything he does is for Chun. But somehow, Chun is oblivious to his feelings. But to be fair, Qiu didn't let her know and if it wasn't for the 'behind the scenes' that we viewers get to see of Qiu, I wouldn't have known Qiu loves her. 

Fine, I guess I can forgive her for everything else but when they were on some kind of island and Qiu was subtlely confessing, Chun did not even look at him! Couldn't she just fucking turn and look at him for a while? No, she fucking brozone him on the spot :) I cannot see how she didn't notice the sadness in his tone when he said 'okay' or his weird questions. Like hello? But if Qiu had hug her that night, the ending may have been different because she did want to go home with him and we don't really know how she feels about Qiu.

Chun is so obssesed in saving Kun, while Qiu is doing everything he can to make sure he saves Chun and that she's happy, even if it means defying nature and dying. *cries. Again, to be fair, Chun's mistakes seem to be innocent and she doesn't know how Qiu feels; she's not wrong in trying to make things better nor in not loving Qiu back. But I still hate her tho. 

In conclusion, Qiu should be with me. 

P.S. The theme song is so so good. I can't stop listening to instrumental covers of it.