Babel

This movie shows different stories from different places namely Morocco, Japan and United States Mexico. The cennection between the characters tie thier stories together.

-----Japan-----

Chieko Wataya is a deaf teenage girl and is sexually frustrated. She witnessed the death of her mother who jumped off their apartment. Her father, Yasujiro Wataya is a skilled hunter and travels from one place and another. He gladly met Hassan and gave him a rifle.

-----Morocco-----

Hassan sold the rifle to Abdullah, a goat herder, to hunt the jackals who are feeding themselves with his flock. Abdullah's sons, Yussef and Ahmed were the ones who look out for the goats thus they carry the rifle with them.

-----United States and Mexico-----

Richard and Susan Jones left their twin children with their nanny, Amelia. Because the Jones wouldn't be able to come home on the expected day, Amelia took the twins with her on her son's wedding ceremony at Mexico without permission.

The wedding was festive and everyone was already drinking including Santiago who will take Amelia and the twins back to their home. When they were travelling back, the border guards became suspicious to Santiago and Amelia leading to Santiago's anger. He drove fast to pass the border guards to escape. He then left the twins in the dessert.

COMPONENTS OF A CHARACTER

PHYSICAL BACKGROUND

Name: Chieko Wataya (Rinko Kikuchi)

Age: 18-25 years old

Features: White complexion, Japanese eyes, short black hair with bangs and some strands of purple hair, wears uniform

Health: Deaf but can lip read

SOCIOLOGICAL BACKGROUND

Status: Single, Daughter of Yasujiro

Education: College 

PHYSIOLOGICAL BACKGROUND

-Sexually frustrated

-Upset with her father

-Loves being with her friends

PHYSICAL BACKGROUND

Name: Yussef (Boubker Ait El Caid)

Age: 12-15 years old

Features: Brown complexion, messy black hair, wears jacket

Health: Good

SOCIOLOGICAL BACKGROUND

Status: Single, Son of Abdullah

Education: Doesn't go to school

PHYSIOLOGICAL BACKGROUND

-Sharp shooter

-Arrogant

-Sexually frustrated, peeps at his sister getting naked

-Loves his family especially Ahmed, his brother

PHYSICAL BACKGROUND

Name: Ahmed 

Age:12-15 years old

Features: Brown complexion, black hair, wears dirty white clothing

Health: Good

SOCIOLOGICAL BACKGROUND

Status: Single, Son of Abdullah

Education: Doesn't go to school

PHYSIOLOGICAL BACKGROUND

-Loves his family

-Responsible in looking out of their goats

-Jealous of his brother, Yuseff, in terms of shooting

-Concern with Yuseff and his sister's affair 

PHYSICAL BACKGROUND

Name: Richard Jones (Brad Pitt)

Age: 40-50 years old

Features: White complexion, brown hair, has mustache

Health: Good

SOCIOLOGICAL BACKGROUND

Status: Married to Susan Jones, Father of Debbie and Mike Jones

PHYSIOLOGICAL BACKGROUND

-Family is a priority

-Loves his wife very much

-Wants to fix their relationship issue with Susan

PHYSICAL BACKGROUND

Name: Susan Jones (Cate Blanchett)

Age: 40-50 years old

Features: White complexion, long blonde hair fixed in a pony tail

Health: Good

SOCIOLOGICAL BACKGROUND

Status: Married to Richard Jones, Mother of Debbie and Mike Jones

PHYSIOLOGICAL BACKGROUND

-Loving mother

-Has relationship issue with her husband

PHYSICAL BACKGROUND

Name: Amelia (Adriana Barraza)

Age: 40-50 years old

Features: Brown complexion, black short hair

Health: Good

SOCIOLOGICAL BACKGROUND

Status: Widow, Nanny of Debbie and Mike Jones

PHYSIOLOGICAL BACKGROUND

-Loves his son very much

-Good nanny to the twins

-Caring woman

PHYSICAL BACKGROUND

Name: Santiago (Gael Garcia Bernal)

Age: 30-40 years old

Features: Brown complexion, black hair, has a mustache

Health: Good

SOCIOLOGICAL BACKGROUND

Status: Single

PHYSIOLOGICAL BACKGROUND

-Problems with drinking

-Arrogant

Little Miss Sunshine

Little Miss Sunshine is a comedy film. It is a pageant for little girls who dream to become a beauty queen and Olive is one of them. This movie is about her family's travel to get themselves to the hotel where the pageant will be held. During this 700 mile journey, they met problems along the way. Their Volkswagen bus just broke, his father's nine steps to success failed to publish, his brother turned out to be color blind and his dream of becoming a jet pilot is out of reach, his suicidal uncle met his former boyfriend with the latter's new lover and his grandfather died of too much heroine. But amidst all these, Olive was able to compete thou she messed the pageant really well. As taught by his grandfather, she danced a stripper routine on stage. 

MIS-EN-SCENE

SETTINGS

Interior of the Hoover's house

Interior of the Volkswagen

Interior of the police station

ANGLES

Medium Shots

Full Shots

Close-up shots

COSTUMES

Sheryl Hoover wears different kind of outfit. Her look is fit to her motherly role.

Dwayne Hoover wears white shirt and brown jeans with rubber shoes. It's a teenage look and just fit perfectly with the age his in and the role he plays.

Uncle Frank wears white long sleeve polo paired with white pants and brown shoes. He has a strap bandage in his wrist where the marks of his attempt suicide is seen.

Olive Hoover wears a cute fit top shirt paired with a short and red boots. She also wears sweatbands and colorful straps in his wrist. This outfit shows how young she is and indicates her cheerful and enthusiastic personality. During the pageant, her face was simple and so is her hair. This shows her simplicity as a kid.

Granpa wears a white shirt covered with a black vest, paired with a light blue jeans and slipper on foot. He always wear a black waist bag with him. The vest he's wearing let the audience see how young he think. His pair of jeans could also indicate his age.

Richard Hoover wears a polo shirt paired with a slacks and rubber shoes. His formal look reflects his perfectionist and formal personality. His profession as an motivational speaker is also shown in his look.

ACTING

The whole cast was able to act their part very well. Grandpa was able to really portray his young, naughty kind of attitude. Olive in the other hand acted also perfectly. Her acting matches her age and her personality as a child. Dwayne has a challenging role because he has to give so much effort on his facial expressions because he can't talk on the first part of the film still he did it very well. 

LIGHTING

The lighting of the whole duration of the film was bright. It shows the positive aura of the movie. The positivity to be able to get themselves to the hotel where the pageant will be held.

Minsan Lang Sila Bata

MINSAN LANG SILA BATA

A documentary film showing the realities face by children coming from poor families. Young as they are, they were forced by their financial situation to work instead of enjoying their childhood and feed their knowledge at school. They think and talk like old people. Having food on their table and paying their family’s debt is what they always worry about, which is sad. A parent’s duty became theirs.

In Cebu, Dio and Tikbo slaughter pigs late at night in return of fats scrape off from the animals. They hold sharp knives in a very untidy workplace regardless the possibility of getting cuts. 

In Ormoc, Delena and Cito work in a sugar haciendas to pay their family’s debt. 

The third story was about Bobbi, Liting and Moklo who unload sacks of cement from ships in 12 hours. These boys no longer go to school because of shame. In their pitiful situation, they still have simple dreams and wanted to get out of poverty.

The beauty of this documentary is that everything is natural. We saw what really happen at that particular time and place without pretentions. Just like in the first story presented, the place where children work was very untidy and there were flies all over them. If this was not a documentary film, the place will really be slightly cleaned that will hide its true identity. Another thing that made the documentary very amazing is the interviews. Everything said were real. Their words and expressions were all spontaneous. How they act and react was all natural. 

Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros

Maximo is a carefree homosexual who lives in a slum. Since his mother passed away, he acts as the light of the house. In contrast with his innocent and happy life, he grew in a world of violence and crime. His father steals mobile phones and sells them to survive a day with food in their table. To make the situation worse, one of his brothers, Boy, unintentionally murdered a 16 years old teenager.

Maximo Oliveros

As he enjoys his day to day living, he met and fell in love with Victor, a police officer. Like a hero, Victor saved him from being teased by bystanders in the middle of the night.  

Maximo with Victor

Maximo meeting Victor posed problems to his family’s living. It came to a point when Victor forced Maximo to confess the crimes done by his family. After days, Maximo wrote a love letter to confess what he really feels and this led to his first heartbreak.  As revenge, his father and his two brothers ganged Victor. Maximo then came to the rescue and took care of him.

Boy, Bogs, Maximo and Paco

After few days, a new chief led the police station and had Victor as his assistant. This new chief, along with Victor, shot Maximo’s father and Maximo saw everything. This ended Maximo’s love for Victor. The story ended with his brothers preparing lunch and anything else he needed as he goes back to school.

DIEGESIS

The shots of Maximo’s mother in a picture frame tells us how important she is in the family. It can also imply that she was a great wife and a caring mother to his children. In one scene, Paco reminded Maximo about his mother’s death.  

“Papasok ako sa factory, kakayod ng parang kalabaw sa katiting na sweldo. ‘Tapos may magkakasakit, ‘tapos hindi ako makakapagbayad sa ospital. Hindi na! Hinding-hindi na mababawasan ang pamilyang ito.” Paco said. 

Even if the scenes were not shown, it tells us that Maximo’s mother died because they have no money for her medication. This was his reason why he got himself to a dirty job. He doesn’t want it to happen again. There were no scenes showing wake and burial after the new chief shot Paco but it was understood that he died at that specific moment. He wasn’t also shown afterwards. 

West Side Story

 The story is about the two rival gangs and a love story of us against the world. The sharks were the Puerto Ricans and the jets were the Americans. Maria is Bernardo’s sister, shark’s leader, who fell in love with Tony, a former jets member. 

Maria’s love for Tony became stronger and stronger even after knowing that Tony was able to stab his brother, Bernardo. The story ended with Tony’s death and peace between the two rival gangs in the west side.

The division of the two gangs was a form of being racist. Both teams would not go for an open relationship. Men were very arrogant and dominant as well. They think that they are better than the other. They were very chaotic too. They solve their problems through bloody rumbles.

There was a scene when the jets were inside Doc’s place. Before they made a plan, they made sure that their girlfriends were able to step out of the place. This shows how women that time were deprived of joining man conversations. Women were very inferior. They were not given the privilege to choose who to spend the rest of their lives with. Like how Maria was forced to marry Chino even if the former doesn’t love him. 

"There's a place for us, 
A time and place for us. 
Hold my hand and we're halfway there. 
Hold my hand and I'll take you there 
Somehow, 
Some day, 
Somewhere!"

Pride and Prejudice