Spoiler Alert: Elysium

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Elysium, a science-fiction film brought to you by the same people that created the film nominated for four Academy Awards, District 9, is story set in 2154, when the rich have fled the Earth to live on a construct space station called Elysium, and left Earth and its inhabitants in shambles. The atmosphere in Earth is ridden with disease and pollution and the people neither receive the medical care nor the money to find similar care, and not even the right to try. The film, much like District 9, deals with socio-political themes such as immigration, over-population, poverty, corruption and so on. It follows the story of Max Da Costa, played by Matt Damon, as he is exposed to a harmful dose of radiation at his workplace and given five more days to live. Max does not want to die and decides to fly to Elysium to receive the necessary medical attention that can be provided there. Of course, everything has a price and so begins the epic journey to Elysium with its losses and its gains.

First of all, if you enjoyed D9, you must watch Elysium. The style is different and emphasis is placed on different things. I for one found myself extremely involved in the emotions that were being projected in D9, however with Elysium, I couldn’t relate to Matt Damon’s character at all, but instead I was looking at the bigger pictures, and I was being more critical about the facts. The premise of the movie is quite similar to that of Cowboy Bebop or Firefly – no matter how good the technology gets, and no matter how much of the universe we conquer, the rich will live well and the poor will suffer. In Elysium, people can use these “med-beds” to reconstruct their body completely to the point of curing any illness, and even changing their own appearance, people on Earth die of every disease you can think of and no help is provided. The story is set in future L.A. filled with slums and criminals. I find this location choice very interesting as for one thing, the USA – nation of immigrants, still filled with racism and this false idea of nationality – left in a state where they are trying to immigrate to Elysium. It is made even more interesting as it seems as though all the central characters either don’t speak English as their first language or at least have another language that they speak fluently – you put all these different races and nationalities together but at the end of the day, the rich stay with the rich and the poor stay with the poor. Secondly, just watching a city like L.A. in bits and pieces, the way it was shown in the film, you start to wonder what might have happened to the third world countries of today.

In the movie, everything is automated to the point where law and justice are handled by robots and droids. It was a nice and sly commentary, I think, on how workers of the law act even these days. You watch these droids man handling and breaking an ex-criminal’s arm while he was on his way to work because they confused a joke for abuse/violence. The ex-criminal then has to speak with his parole officer only to find that no matter what he says, the officer will extend his parole, and as the officer is also a machine, it will work on data provided to assume that the ex-criminal will become aggressive so immediate cautions need to be taken. It was the same way with the Prawns in D9, these people aren’t there to help them or listen to them, and they are just working in a pre-planned manner because they are programmed to assume danger. And when you watch people of law handling criminals and ex-criminals and any suspected criminal even today, you can see that robotic instinct in them to just assume the worst case scenario and make the job for themselves simple and easy.

Elysium is an amazing film that is basically slapping today’s politics, justice and immigration laws in the fact with a huge bat. It sheds light on many of the problems today and how the solutions may be a lot simpler than we think. Please watch the movie and if you have already, share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Spoiler Alert: District 9

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District 9 is an independent science fiction film released in 2009. The film was inspired by the events of district 6, Cape Town during Apartheid. It won the 2010 Saturn Award for Best International Film presented by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. It was also nominated for four Academy Awards in 2010. The film is shot in a mock-documentary style follows the story of Vikus, a man who works for MNU, who has been appointed to notify the alien inhabitants of district 9 that they were being evacuated and moved to a facility more suited to their needs in district 10. The premise of the show is that an alien ship crash landed in Johannesburg some 20 years ago and the aliens that came out of it, Prawns, as they were called, were left to fend for themselves in world where they didn’t understand anyone and no one understood them. They seem to have caused fear, and public discord and were segregated from the community.

The film seems to have been made as a form of pointing and laughing at the prudence of human society today, with their conceit about their acceptance of the “other”. It brings not only reminds us of the atrocities of apartheid using images of cafes and public spaces made only for humans and not for Prawns, and their “population control” but also brings to light the latent issue of xenophobia that many of us still hold. By showing mock interviews of people saying things like “If they were from a different country, we would understand, but they aren’t even from this planet.” And portraying the attitude with which the people speak with the Prawns as though they were just objects of observation and experimentation and not living beings, the film emphasised the problem with our understanding and acceptance of races and people that we do not understand. Even when we accept people that do not look like us, we only do so if they act like us. Today, a black man, wearing a suit and tie, holding a briefcase and off to his respectable job would be treated with awe – look at that man who was meant for a life of crime, changing himself and becoming better, becoming like us white folk (apologies for the racist stereotype used here, no offense was meant). A large population of our species still struggles to understand the difference between accepting differences and making up for differences. The film puts us face to face with violent aliens with stronger abilities than us, exactly what colonisers were faced with when they set off sail. Not because anyone who isn't white is violent, but because we see violence we don’t understand and we don’t seem to want to understand and we become afraid. No one stops to consider the fact they also have needs of their own.

You might question the fact that because the species spoke a different language, humans and them would not be able to understand each other. To be honest, I felt similarly while watching the movie as it seemed as the when the MNU workers talked to the Prawns, they didn’t seem to understand each other’s words but relied completely on body language. Later in the film this conjecture of mine was proven wrong. The humans and Prawns although can’t physically verbalise each other’s languages, they could understand each other perfectly. The humans always just assumed that they were violent and dangerous and worked under that assumption. They never stopped to actually listen, or even talk to these aliens directly. They treated them exactly like a lab rat, acting as though they knew better, and the pain inflicted was for the greater good. The most astonishing and enlightening part of the film was when a human started to mutate into one of the Prawns, the MNU took him into custody and experimented relentlessly on him. He begged and pleaded in a language they understood and was happy to co-operate if they would just listen. However, no one even stopped to hear him out. The film slapped across my face the reality that many of us walk around the place believing so strongly in our opinion and beliefs, we never even stop to listen to others, even when they are simply trying to help us.

The characters written in this movie were all layered and multi-dimensional – both human and Prawn. The final point that this movie left me with was – power corrupts, no matter in whose hands, power over another life is corrupted and will corrupt. The film also has great action scenes with brilliant special effects. Please make sure to check it out if you haven’t already and share your thoughts in the comments

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Spoiler Alert: Paradise Kiss

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Paradise Kiss is an anime about Hayasaka Yukari, a final year highschool student, who has spent her entire life studying alone. She is scouted by four students from YSD, a school of design, who want to make clothes and open their own shop, to be their model for a school competition. The four students include Arashi, (a punk, guitarist with a body filled with piercings and tattoos) Miwako, (a girl entrapped in the shadow of her older sister who is an established designer) Isabella, (a transgender woman who adores glamorous and eccentric styles) and George (a bisexual, designing prodigy, perfectionist and idealist). They call their brand, Paradise Kiss. When Yukari, a girl who has never had an original thought in her life, or wanted something of her own volition, meets these four outgoing people who are following their dreams with passion and hard-work, she finds herself wanting to become a part of their world. As she spends more time with them, she grows and gradually starts to find her own will and desires and dreams.

The anime is only 12 episodes long and the story itself happens in a short frame of time. However, it pulls you in and enwraps you in its fantastical fabrics, intricate embroidery and patterns created with passion. While dealing with themes like highschool romance and young love, you might find yourself in a nostalgic space, reminiscing about the precarious nature of that time or the constant insecurity that seemed to have rented a room out in your heart permanently. The story depicts intense, intoxicating romances between the main characters in a world filled with gorgeous pieces of clothing. However, while these young blooming artists weigh the reality of needing to make clothes not just for art but for the purpose of being worn by people every day, the anime shows the characters in school having to face harsh realities of life and livelihood. Despite the show being all about appearances, the focus isn’t beauty but rather knowledge and understanding. And although it takes academics and education off their pedestals, it values them equally to knowledge gained from experiences and from meeting new people.

As the show portrays students about to graduate from their schools and step out into the “real” or “adult” world, it balances the difference between fantasies of childhood and responsibilities of adulthood extremely well, valuing each feeling and emotion equally as paradise for these children changes as they grow up.

Please watch the anime and share your thoughts!

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Spoiler Alert: Yumeiro Patissiere

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Yumeiro Patissiere is a feel good anime about a girl, Amano Ichigo, whose only talent is her ability to eat infinite amounts of sweets. During a sweets festival, Ichigo stumbles upon Henri Lucas, a genius patissier from Paris, who discovers her amazing taste-buds and invites her to join St. Marie Academy to become a patissiere. Ichigo, decides to transfer to the academy without realising the level of excellence expected in the classes. She has trouble adjusting but with the help of the Sweets Princes and her Sweets Spirit partner, Vanilla, she soon learns to hone her skills and with practice, tries to catch up to everyone else.

Now, I know what you’re thinking – this is just some mindless, cutsie, shoujo for five year olds still into fairies and tiaras. To be honest, the anime almost makes an effort to make sure that image never leaves your mind. On the surface, it is a reliable anime to watch when you need your spirits lifted and what a bit of fun. However, this anime is extremely layered and deals with stories and characters with several dimensions. The story is consistent and characterised extremely well. Unlike anime such as Uta no Prince-sama, Ichigo is constantly learning new things about sweets and hasn’t miraculously become the best patissiere in her year. Of course, there are some talents that are discovered, of course, they weren’t ever hidden, just unacknowledged. The story uses sweets to solve its problems and express many an emotion.

We are often too focused on the bad things in the world, the negative traits that people posses. The question these days always seems to be, what’s wrong? Yumeiro Patissiere, in its subtle ways reminds me that it’s not about the bad or the negative, those aren’t actual entities. It’s about the good and the positive. Every character in the show is flawed in more ways than one and some seem more flawed than other, but, at the end of the day the flaws are just there to make them human and relatable. What they are is the collection of the good. They are incredible at making sweets and many other things.

I would recommend giving this show a chance. As much as we all like to portray dark things and serious and important and cheerful things as silly and shallow, the world isn’t black and white and Yumeiro Patissiere does a good job of reminding us that. It is cheerful and cutsie, and it is serious and full of valuable “lessons”.

Share your thoughts in the comments.

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