ESSAY TWO

The two characters i will choose to relate on staying true to themselves is Gang-Du from the Host and Olive Hoover from Little Miss Sunshine. I decided on these two protagonist not only because i like the movie and the character they play but i also believe that they had a goal and they both stayed focused on completing it but both of them fail but have something to gain from it.

Olive Hoover is a nerdy looking little girl who is clearly not made out to be a winner in a beauty pageant. Gang-Du is a silly immature father and he clearly isn't suitable to be a parent but he is a single dad and still tries to take care of her like Olive tries to win the pageant. They both are faced with a goal in the movie that changes there lives at the beginning of the movie.

Gang-Du lives in Korea helping his father with his small family business. Olive is the youngest in a dysfunctional family dealing with money issues. Gang-Du's live changes when a giant mutated monster comes from the river and takes his daughter. Gang-Du and his family then goes off and tries to find her. Olive gets a call saying that the first place winner in a beauty pageant has dropped out and that she has won first place. Olive and her family then set out to make it to the pageant before it's to late. Both families set off to meet there completely different goals.

Both families with odds against them run into many set backs that prevent them from getting to where they need to go. Olive's family not being able to afford a plane out to the beauty pageant has to drive there. They end up facing many challenges such as a dead grandfather and a car that won't start on it's own. Gang-Du family ends up becoming "infected" by the same disease the giant monster has and they are contained in a quarantined area. When they finally break free they are listed as "wanted" and everyone is after them.

Gang-Du finally meets the monster with his daughter head on and his family helps him kill the monster, the daughter is found to be dead after the monster dies but there was another little boy was found to survive the horror his daughter went through and he ends up keeping him and raising him as his own. Gang-Du remained to be immature and silly thought out the whole movie and although his family didn't approve of him in any way and blamed him for the death of his daughter he still was himself and he did the best he could.

Olive Hoover made it to the beauty pageant at the end of the movie and even hearing her family say that she couldn't do it and she was going to embarrass herself in front of everyone she still knew she could do it deep down inside. She went on stage and did sadly embarrass herself. She didn't think it was embarrassing though, she was doing what she wanted to do by staying true to herself. She also gained the respect of her family and they all jumped on stage with her and danced around also making themselves look stupid.

Both protagonist were put threw very stressful situations and they didn't come out on top but they stayed true to themselves adn over came there fears.

ESSAY TEST: Create a Culture Bridge

The film that i will relate to my life is Little Miss Sunshine. In the movie there isn't really a protagonist because all family members are almost equally in the film. I will compare all six family members to my self instead of picking one. I think each of the characters and i have something in common and are relate able in some way.

Olive Hoover and i are probably the least a like, but we do have some things in common. She doesn't really seem to care about what everyone thinks because she just wants to do what she wants to do regardless of what other people think. We have that in common but there's nothing i really want to do i just don't really care what people think and neither does Olive. She also seems to have a conflict with her dad but is really close with her grandpa. I don't have a relationship with my dad at all and i live with my grandfather and we get along like Olive does with her grandfather. Olive is also kind of a nerd and I've been told that I'm also nerdy so we have a couple things in common.

Richard Hoover is kind of full of himself and thinks he right about everything with his steps to live and all that. I personally don't think I'm full of myself but I've been told i also think highly of myself. I do however always think that i am right, even when I'm wrong i won't admit it. Richard also tries to wish for the best for his family but doesn't have a good way of showing it because he comes off as rude sometimes and highly annoying. I also don't have the best way for showing feelings and i come off as rude a lot. Richard and also tries to control situations and i do as well.

Dwayne Hoover's personality isn't spoken in words much but it shows in his actions a lot. I think i can connect with him the most in many different ways. He doesn't talk to his family in the movie at all and is going through a "phase". I had a "phase" where i wouldn't talk to my family for a good month freshman year. His reasons for not talking where very different form mine though. Dwayne laughs when his family is going through issues seems to not be effected by it. I also am the same way. He doesn't seem to have a relationship with his mother and seems to really not like his dad. I also am not close with my parents. Dwayne seems to be a typical teenager going through the phase of hating everything for no reason. In the end he comes to like his family and breaks out of his shell and dances on the stage which wasn't expected form him. I also love to embarrass myself in public but people don't except me to.

Edwin Hoover, also known as "grandpa" and i are a like in very few ways. He doesn't reallt care what he says and he speaks his mind. This i actually really like about him because i myself, don't watch what i say. I say whatever i want regardless if it should be kept to myself. I don't go around saying evrything but i definially need to watch what i say every now and then. I however don't swear every two seconds like Edwin. I actually rarely swear unless i'm really mad but every now and then everyone slips the "s" word. He also has a sick sense of humor to me clearly based off the dance Olive was doing.

Sheryl Hoover and i have some relate able traits. She seems to do things last minutes like dinner choice, i make this assumption because one character says "Fried chicken again" seeing that you can buy fried chicken on the go. I also tend to do things two seconds before it's do for school and i always stall things off. She tires really had trying to keep the family together and making sure everyone is happy. She always keeps her cool even though everything is not alright with there money and dieing grandpa. I also don't show it all the time but i try to keep everyone happy. I also tend to keep my cool to make everyone seem less worse than it actually is.

Frank Ginsberg and i have a couple things in common. He is unhappy with life at the start of the movie and i think i can speak for everyone when i say I've been there before. Frank comes into the family and it kind of the outcast at first because he's not custom to them. I also always kind of felt like an outcast with both sides of my families. I remember my family comparing me to "Meg Griffin" from Family Guy, and if you haven't seen Family Guy before that is a really bad thing. Frank also has a lot of issues like suicide and everyone has issues of there own. He has a problem with the guy he likes liking the guy he hates and i can relate to that because in fifth grade i liked a girl who end up dating the person in my class i really didn't like. That was fifth grade though and it only lasted two days so it was all good for me. Frank is very sarcastic and likes to argue with Richard which i love to argue all the time and sarcasm is a second language to me.

Over all i can relate to every member in the family and i really like each role they play. I think that i can relate most to this movie because it's kind of a typical Caucasian family. Also it's a film made form the United States where i was born and raised. Every family is crazy in there own way and this movie is a great way to laugh at our own faults.

The Triplets of Belleville

The Triplets of Belleville is a movie about a grandma whose grandson gets kidnapped during the tour De France. She ends up looking for him with her dog Bruno. They end up meeting three singers from the old days who eat frogs. The five of them team up together to take down the mob that kidnapped her grandson.

This movie is a cartoon and most of the people are very odd looking. The grandma has a bulldog looking face and the grandson has a huge long nose. The grandson also has really huge legs and an extremely tiny body. No one in the movie really talks but over all it had a good story line. It was very unclear at the start of the movie but then it starts to unwind and you realized the over all plot to it. The movie was a little weird at first but it over all was really funny and i thought it was a really good movie.

The movie starts out where we see the grandson training for the race. The grandma, dog and grandson have a daily routine going on. When the grandson starts the race he isn't really able to keep up and a mob kidnaps him along with a two other racers and they are used for illegal gambling. The dog traces his smell and she ends up meeting three singers and stays with them for a while. They then see the mob and plan to get the grandson back. Which they successfully do.

There isn't really a culture difference i can compare because the movie was a cartoon and everything was mellow dramatic. The movie also seemed like it could have taken place anywhere except for the race that was taken place for a few minutes. I would suggest this movie for little kids but it has a adult them to it that may not be suitable for young ages.

Billy Elliot

This is a UK film about a young boy, Billy, wanting to be a ballet dancer but his father and older brother don't approve of it. This is a cliche story about doing what your parents want you to do and doing what you want to do. The movie was pretty funny but i wouldn't recommend watching to anyone. Unless your into girly dancing movies.

Somethings that were different about America and UK from what we seen in the movie is the way there neighborhoods are structured. In the movie the neighborhood is kind of like a maze, it is really tight together and it seems like there are houses on houses on houses. I think it looked really cool. Everyone in the movie seemed to be poor and everyone was on strike from mining.

After Billy's father finds out that he is dancing he gets really angered and tells Billy that he can no longer dance. When billy's father sees that he is actually good at dancing then he approves of Billy and lets him go to a dancing school. He even gives up on his strike to afford it.

The movie shows that the family is really close because at the end the brother accepts what Billy does and goes and watches his Black Swan play.

Little Otik

Little Otik is a highly disturbing movie about a couple, Bozena and Karel, that want to have a baby but because of infertile bodies they are unable to. Desperate for a baby Karel makes a baby out of chopped wood and Bozena starts to think that the baby is real and becomes obsessed with it. Some how the baby then comes to life and it is obsessed with eating to the point where the baby goes on numerous killing sprees.

This movie is very awkward and weird, i personally wouldn't recommend anyone going to see it. This is a Czech film that is a spin off of a fairy tale. In the movie they have very disturbing eating scenes and most of the food is soupy and gross looking. There is a little girl in the movie named Alzbetka. Her family eats dinner a lot in the movie and they eat very sloppy and the sounds of them eating are also really gross.

The baby, Otik, is also really creepy. It's always moving at rapid speed and wiggles it's arms and legs a lot and realistically a baby does not move that much or like that in anyway. The baby also looks really creepy and whenever it moves it looks really fake. When it opens it's mouth it have play-d'oh looking teeth. It has a really creepy laugh and it laughs a lot.

I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone because it's just to weird for my taste. It's apparently it's a comedy and a horror movie when it's neither of them to me. It's just highly disturbing and uninteresting.

Little Miss Sunshine

Little Miss Sunshine is about a family that includes a full of himself dad, supporting mother, crazy grandfather, mute brother, suicidal uncle and a daughter with big dreams of winning a little miss sunshine beauty pageant. The family finds out that their daughter, Olive, got accepted into a little miss sunshine pageant after another girl dropped out. The family is low on money so they take a road trip in there VW bus. They run into a lot of problems on the way to get to the pageant like having there door fall off of the car and having to push it also the death of the grandfather.

I think that most Amerasians can relate to a lot of the problems in the movie. Some of the things in the movie that i can relate to is the son, Dwayne, not liking his family and doing his own thing. (so it seems) He is very annoyed with his mom and dad and he thinks that it's funny when his parent fight over issues like money and whatnot. i think most teenagers can relate to him in that sense. The Grandpa swears constantly and hes always screaming about something. I can relate to that because i have a grandpa who is also is really crazy and he yells and swears a lot also.

I have a little brother who also wants to be something, normally a different sports player. He is similar to Olive because all he does is wants to be a famous sports player to whatever sport he is playing at the time like Olive. The father is similar to my second oldest brother because he is completely full of himself and so is the dad. I think a lot of people can relate to Frank not getting the person he loves and losing that person to someone else. Some people don't go to the extreme level that he did but it's still relate able.

I think that this movie was really funny and it's one of my favorites. It's a good movie for all ages besides the swearing and i think most people would like it. It doesn't have any boring parts and it's really relate able to most people. The movie is really real and it has situations that many families face, maybe not having your daughter dancing to super freak but most of the situations in the movie. I would recommend it to anyone.

Hoop Dreams

In comments...

The Host

The host is a South Korea film about a family that loses a family member due to a river monster. The family owns a small shack next a river, the family is a grandfather who has three children. His oldest son is very immature and has a daughter. The movie starts out where we see two doctors pouring chemicals down a sink drain, which ends up going to the river. That's where this giant fish monster is formed. When it first comes out of the river it starts to attack people. The immature son then tries to fight it. The monster ends up taking his child from him where the main plot of the story takes place.

The rest of the movie is where the family is trapped in a hospital where they are claimed to be infected with a disease. They try to escape and fine the missing daughter. The movie isn't horrible but i thought it would be a little better and more serious. The movie has a lot of humor in it which i think made it a little better. I wouldn't suggest anyone to see the movie but it wasn't bad.

There isn't really a cultural bridge between America and South Korea based on the movie. There was no culture in the movie. The movie really could have been based anywhere. The whole time the family was trying to escape a hospital. Even the family didn't seem to have any different way of living. The only difference would be the different foods they at but it barely talked about the food at all.

Run Lola Run

This movie is about a girl named Lola who is trying to find a way to get a a lot of money in a short period of time to go save her boyfriend Manni. The replays its self three different times. The same things happen in all three stories except some of the peoples lives turn out a little different. This movie is basically watching Lola run over and over again. I personally think it would be better but it was an alright movie.

This move is based in Germany but it doesn't really show any type of culture or anything. It really could have happened anywhere. I wouldn't really say Lola and i are a like in any way. She seems to be involved in a bad crowd, i believe her and Manni help steal and sell diamonds or illegal drugs. Lola really doesn't say much in the movie but she seems to care a lot about Manni. Her father doesn't really seem to care about her because in all three parts of the movie he always says something like "why are you here" and the cop always says "it's about time you you showed up" and other things like that.

I don't really see a cultural bridge between this movie and life in America because they don't seem different at all. The movie was alright and but i wouldn't suggest anyone to watch it. i also don't see a connection because Lola and i ether. She seems kind of crazy with all her screaming in the movie.

Please Vote for Me

Please Vote for Me is a movie about three third graders in Wuhan, China who are tested in an experiment of democracy. They have three students compete against each other for becoming the new hall monitor.

In the movie there are three very different students who are running against each other. You have Luo Lei, who is a very immature strict students who uses violence as the answer to maintaining power. Cheng Cheng, who tries to win by being manipulative and making the other opponents look stupid. The last person is Xu Xaiofei, she is very calm and mature about this and she tries to run a clean campaign thought the movie.

It's interesting to see how these children acted in the movie over being hall monitor. They don't really act any differently than presidents do in the election of becoming president of the United States. I thought that this was a really good movie. It had a point to it and it was entertaining the whole time. Even if you don't like documentaries or politics you should still enjoy this movie.

There wasn't really any difference in the way things were in this movie compared to America. Besides obvious political views, one thing that was different was that families could only have one child because they were over populated. Overall i thought this was a great movie and i would suggest seeing to anyone.

MONGOLIA!

Mongolian Ping Pong

This movie is about a young boy named Bilike who lives without any electricity or running water. He lives in a tent along the steppe grasslands. He one day goes to the river and ends up finding a ping pong ball. He takes it to his grandma and she tells him that it is a golden pearl and that it is a treasure from the river.

Some things that i liked about this movie was that it was kind of funny. The actors were all good and all the story line was kind of dumb it turned out to be okay. I noticed that they were wearing the same kind of clothes that the people were wearing in the weeping camel. Not much was really different from the two movies culture wise.

Some things that were different about the movie compared to United States was that the kids all had horses. They used the horses to get around everywhere and they would often go to far away places. The parents didn't really seems to be watching over there children at all. They would just disappear for many hours and come home like nothing happened.

I would not suggest this movie for someone to watch because although it was decent for a movie you watch in school, i wouldn't waste my time watching it outside of school. The movie didn't seem to have a point to it at all, besides him finding a ball i don't really get why they would waste time with a movie like this. Compared to the other movies we watched i would say this is one of the best.

The Story of the Weeping Camel

This Movie is about a camel that has a white baby camel and doesn't want anything to do with it. It's filmed in Mongolia and follows the life of a family that herds camels and other animals. The family tries everything they can to get the mother camel to accept her baby so that it can feed it. Although this movie may not sound very interesting, it kept my attention and is overall worth watching. It is predictable but it is interesting to see what the Mongolia lifestyle is like and how it differs from American lifestyle.

One thing that i really enjoyed about the movie was that the family doesn't spend there time sitting around a T.V. or a computer, they spend time together by doing work with one another. They have fun by playing games with rocks and they sing together while sitting around in there huts. The family all lives next to one another in little huts. In the movie the family gets around by riding on the camels back, they have to travel a long distance to get to a town which has everything that you would need to live.

It's interesting to see how life is different from in Mongolia herders than it is as an American living in the city because they don't have many things as we do. The movie makes me thankful for the things i have and to not take them for granted. In the movie they don't even have a T.V., which the little boy in the movie really wanted. They also dress differently than we do because they wear robe like outfits and there pockets are on the inside unlike American clothes.

The movie was overall a good movie and i would suggest watching it. Although it might not seem very interesting, it is. If you enjoy watching documentaries then i would suggest this one. The ending however seems a little scripted because of the camel crying when accepting it's baby. Either way i thought the movie was touching.