Month: March 2019

Passion Blog II: Narcos

Grace Wang2 Comments

I’ve recently watched a couple episodes of “Narcos” which is a considerably popular show on Netflix. It’s based on the very well-known drug cartel and trade in Colombia in the late 1900s. A lot of the show surrounds one of the most famous drug lords: Pablo Escobar. It includes many real videos, photos, and evidence that was found during that time. The show captures a lot of the tragic and horrific events that took place surrounding drug smuggling and revealed a lot of the corruption in Colombia at the time. The most recent episode I watched had a scene where Escobar was running for a congressman of Colombia, but the prime minister exposed his drug stealing in front of the entire senate and HOR. An epic but embarrassing moment for Escobar. Needless to say, the prime minister was shot to death in his car a few days later.

The show begins with a DEA Agent named Steve and his partner Pena. They’re very aware of the drug smuggling businesses that Pablo and his ring were running, and they set out to arrest him. Throughout the show, it’s revealed how people were controlled by addiction, money, and power. Pablo and his gang of drug lords were constantly using their money, drugs, and position to manipulate and torture the people around them. All for the sake of trying to become richer. For example, in episode four (spoiler alert), Steve and Pena had finally managed to get evidence of Pablo’s crimes on paper. They had mounds and mounds of paper trails and evidence from Escobar’s accountant relating to his transactions and selling and it was all stored in a room in the Supreme Court of Colombia. Pablo made a deal with a communist group, hiring them to attack the court and they burned all the evidence. It’s crazy because some of the it just showed how reckless and how much power Escobar had. Regardless of all the people chasing after him, he continued to show no mercy and continued to kill everyone in his way. Throughout the show, since he was so rich, he was paying people off left and right. It shows the harsh reality of what money can do for the bad guys.

Generally speaking, the show itself is a bit explicit. A lot of the show is actually in spanish because it highlights the interactions of Escobar with his friends and the people around him which is good in terms of a different perspective. I’d definitely recommend it for someone who is looking for a good history lesson that’s a little more exciting. The dramatization enhances the horrid drug cartel in Colombia but it definitely depicts accurately a lot of the gruesome things that took place behind the scenes.

Passion Blog II: Gook

Grace Wang1 Comment

This movie is an independent film that actually got into the Sundance Film Festival in 2017. “Gook” was directed by Justin Chon and inspired by his personal connection and interest in the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Several youtubers and very young actors made their debuts in this film that’s now on Netflix. In all black and white from beginning to end, the movie has a very raw and nostalgic feel and brings the audience back to a frightening and sad time for LA.

For a little background history, the LA riots was essentially a time of hostility in certain areas of LA due to misconduct within the LAPD in the Rodney King case. Similar to modern day concerns, the verdict of this case revealed the forgiving of severe police brutality against African Americans and many people were not happy with this. Consequentially, many riots broke out in LA involving violence. Many Asian stores were targeted during these riots because of the tensions between the two ethnic groups. Over 60 people died and over 2,000 people were injured through the duration of these riots, creating a huge bump in the history of Los Angeles.

The term “gook” is actually a derogatory term for Asians, usually Koreans, Filipinos, and Vietnamese people. The name of this film plays a large role in the actual plot of the movie. The movie takes place during the LA riots and surrounds two young Korean brothers who run a small shoe store in a very run-down predominantly African-American Community. They had lost their parents earlier in life and were trying to keep the store alive in honor of their father as well as to make a living. A young black girl who lived near the shoe store would often skip school to hang out and help out at the shoe store. She sought out loving figures in her life, as her parents were absent, and her older brother and sister were not very caring. The three soon formed a bond and became like family. However, with the surrounding tensions, soon many issues arose with the girl’s older brother and the Korean boys. As anger, hatred, and fear from between the two groups and there are many negative consequences.

Watching the bond form between the three in the midst of the peculiar and horrible circumstances was so special because it showed that they completely disregarded the boundaries that were supposed to be set for them. I loved this film because it perfectly encapsulated the beauty in tragedy as well as the tragedy in tragedy. This film was educational, boundary-breaking, emotional, and real.

Deliberation Reflection: Classroom Conundrum/Promoting Healthy Minds in a Complex World

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Generally, the deliberation my group facilitated went smoothly and served as a good setting for people to get their points across. It was a smaller group, which allowed for people to be able to speak more often. The other deliberation I attended was composed of a larger group that broke up into smaller groups that discussed the different approaches separately.

For our deliberation, I think we did a relatively good job of providing a solid information base. Though there wasn’t a whole bunch of solid facts that we could give, considering out topic, each team did well in laying out an introduction and basis for the audience to elaborate off of. For example, our team provided a research study that showed evidence that students at times felt obligated to conform in the classroom and other teams also provided different alternatives within each of their introductions. In doing so, we were able to brainstorm a variety of ways to solve the issue, as the conversation opened up and allowed people to voice different options. All of the teams in our groups set up the conversation so that it was easy for the audience to speak about their own experiences and other aspects of their own lives. The other deliberation I attended, which was on the topic of mental illness and CAPS, did not do such a great job in expanding on the different CAPS services because even through to the end of the deliberation, I was still confused as to what CAPS was. The conversation revealed a portion of what it was, however, I feel like they could’ve done a better job of setting up the basis of the topic itself.

Through paraphrasing, I felt as if other teams in our group were able to establish mutual comprehension between different participants, but I feel like my team could’ve personally done better as mainly it was moving from question to question. The mental illness deliberation I attended did a great job in establishing this as the moderators were very friendly and understanding towards everyone’s opinions and asked other questions branching off of what people had said. That being said, both deliberations did a good job of ensuring that everyone respected all opinions. In our deliberation, the ground rules established this very clearly but was more of an unspoken rule in the other deliberation.

I felt as if in both deliberations, there were very few dissenting opinions, if any. There were a few groups that disagreed with each other in the mental illness deliberation, but I felt as if people were very open to the idea of considering different opinions. As for the moderators in the second deliberation, they didn’t necessarily address the fact that people had different ideas and perspectives but regardless, people were very accepting of opinions that differed from their own.

Generally, both deliberations had loose conclusions which is understandable since a solid solution wasn’t the ultimate end goal to begin with. With our deliberation, we made a good decision in going over the options we discussed but not necessarily choosing a specific one to “carry out”. This allowed for all participants to have a brief overview of the entire discussion and what we got out of it. Similarly, the mental illness deliberation had all of the groups discuss what they came up with for each approach and everyone got to see what the other groups had said, compare and contrast the different opinions, and not necessarily find a solution to the issue but have a productive conversation.

 

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Passion Blog II: Us and Them

Grace Wang1 Comment

I recently had to start a free trial of Netflix for a Spanish assignment…. It’s a blessing and a curse. A blessing because now I can finally watch some of the Netflix original shows that everyone has been raving about and a curse because I can’t seem to tear my eyes away and my level of productivity has decreased more than I thought possible. Anyways, today we’re going to talk about an international Netflix original movie: Us and Them. The literal translation from the Chinese title is “the us we became”. A movie directed by a Taiwanese woman named Rene Liu and features two well-known actors in China.

This film is about two young students that are fresh out of college and have a dream to live in the big city of Beijing. They meet on a train and become close friends and then lovers (surprise). The film shows the heartbreaking moments of their relationship, and they both struggle to make money and find their passions. As the movie progresses, different seasons of their relationship are shown as they go through emotional and mental trials. This movie is definitely very heart wrenching, especially with the ending. Some parts may portray a typical love story, but the culture depicted in the film is definitely different from that of an American film.

Throughout the movie, different aspects of eastern culture, values, and familial issues are displayed. There are so many times I found myself relating to the characters which surprised me. Also, it did a very interesting job of showing some of the more realistic sides of living in poverty while pursuing a relationship. It’s most definitely not an only-show-the-good-parts-of-life movie. The struggle to find a job, the difficulties of transitioning into adulthood, and the treatment of parental figures in adulthood. The movie also shows the span of their lives in 11 years, so the timeline of the movie itself isn’t too dramatic and relatively sticks with reality.

Reading interviews of the main actors, it’s so interesting how they have things in common with the characters that they play. The female actress, now very popular, had similar experiences of poverty in Beijing growing up and found herself in similar situations with the character that she

plays in the movie. It’s the fact that these real people have real experiences similar to the experiences they face in the movie that make them so relatable and it’s seen as very intentional in their acting. Different life experiences do truly allow an actor to make themselves connect with the audience.

The movie itself teaches very important life lessons in a way that makes you want to cry (yes, this is definitely one of those movies). The passing away of a family member, an unhappy ending, etc. These are all things that happen in real life and this movie isn’t afraid to cover the most emotional and raw parts of it.