dystopia (noun) – a society characterized by human misery, as squalor, oppression, disease, and overcrowding.
i saw children of men this evening, whilst dining on what i consider haute cuisine – maggi noodles, and i have to say after watching it, i’d gladly listen to a playlist which entirely comprises slit-wrist ditties. for an entire lifetime.
my first encounter with dystopia was in second form when our english reader was nevil shute’s post-apocalyptic on the beach. that was the worst three weeks of my life (we always had three weeks per reader, with a little comprehension test per 33% of the tale read). kinda rated it as bad as tolstoy’s anna karenina (my most hated book of all times), although i’ve to say, due to the science content, beach was more intriguing. the early 80’s were kinda the tail end of the cold war, and seeing grim celluloid reminders like the terminator and the day after really made me wish the apocalypse wouldn’t happen in my lifetime. one could only hope.
children of men is based on a book by p.d. james in which global infertility signalled the end of the human race. directed by alfonso cuarón, the film was set in an orwellian 2027 britain, similar to that seen in v for vendetta in a lot of ways. the story tells of an ex-activist, theo (ably played by clive owen), who tries to take the first pregnant woman in two decades, who happens to be a ‘fugee, (any foreigner in 2027 britain are regarded as refugees, hunted down by the state, and are subjected to holocaust/abu ghraib-like treatment) to safety. the film utilised a lot of single-shot action sequences and cuarón’s depiction of a fcuked up world in decline was grim and spot on, and would make blade runner‘s LA look like disneyland. ads for suicide tablets (called quietus – tagline: you decide when) are placed side by side with ads by GAP on red london buses. heavily armed police patrol the streets of london, filled with tuk-tuks. yup, as in siam tuk-tuks, the only difference is that they look more like trishaws. cages outside railway stations filled with ‘fugees (anyone – french, german, you name it) waiting to be shipped out if the country via concentration camps.
hence, political gesturing (gitmo, palestine) and religious references (nativity, the origins of man in africa) are aplenty in this film.
i’d like to listen to some emo now. please. just to make me happy(er).
Kudo is listening to the Fray. Ohmaigod.
You had such a cool class reader, in ‘the Beach’, dystopia or not. If we had that on our list, that would’ve been awesome had Leo Di Caprio already made that movie.. such a motivation for young girls to read, to see the movie later, haha.
I wonder what kids read these days as class readers.
nevil shute’s on the beach la, not alex garland’s the beach. the dicaprio film wasn’t the least post-apocalyptic! 😀
La, how did I miss that? Should’ve read it better, ‘On the Beach’ bukan The Beach. Hahaha. But they had a movie of that as well kan? Ke aku dah fikir menda lain?
Best movie of 2007.
That shot in the head. shit. damn realistic.