After watching the movie Shawshank Redemption ....

I don’t even remember when or where I watched the Shawshank Redemption for the first time. So it was a bit of surprise for me that as the movie started, I found myself remembering details to a great extent; how Boggs looked like, what kind of bird Brooks had, and even how many bottles of beer Andy asked for on the roof. Frankly speaking, if I hadn’t read the book, I wouldn’t have enjoyed watching it again.

It was quite amazing how the director made the book into the film. Not only did the movie include important details in the book, but it also heightened the message by adding some more episodes. I especially liked the music part in which everyone stands in awe as a beautiful song fills the whole prison, and Andy leisurely listens while the warden is infuriated. Though a minor event, I think it was an interesting mixture of tension and peace; while Andy and the prisoners are peacefully appreciating the music, the audience cannot resist feeling worried lest Andy be harshly punished. At the same time, however, the audience can still laugh because of Andy’s reaction, which effectively reveals his character.

Another notable difference between the book and the film was Tommy’s fate. I think this slight difference actually gives different insight into human nature. First, in the book, Tommy ends up going to a less rigorous prison under the condition that he mentions no single word about Andy’s false charge. Tommy, by compromising with the warden, is depicted as a betrayer. However, if I were to ask myself what decision I would’ve made had I been in his situation, I think I would have made the same decision, and I believe most people would have. Remaining faithful to Andy meant turning down an opportunity to see his wife and a young daughter, and risking his own life. Although he liked Andy, it was too great a loss to remain faithful to him.

In the book, however, Tommy is depicted as a faithful, heroic character. The warden takes an extreme measure of shooting him. The ordinary conception of prisoners as base and the rest as moral is completely reversed in this scene. In fact, when we think about the movie as a whole, people who act cruelly are the guards and people who seem to be unjustifiably slaved are the prisoners. While prisoners may have committed extreme violence driven by an impulse, some people out there are committing crimes but are only free because they are crafty and powerful enough to defend themselves.  

And just to mention a minor point about Andy, I felt that he wasn’t considerate enough of other people’s security when he escaped. According to a book, Andy didn’t escape right away after he was done with digging a hole. Then, wouldn’t Andy, a meticulous man to forge a new identity, have predicted that his escape could risk the people close to him, especially Red? Certainly, the guards would suspect that Red may know something. Red’s denying knowing nothing of Andy’s escape could have confined him to solitary, for instance. Considering the cruelty of guards and the warden, I think Red being released was a rather unrealistically fortunate ending.  

In general, the movie was a success in delivering the atmosphere and the theme of the book!

Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption... HOPE

I don’t remember exactly when, but as I read the book, I recalled watching the film “Shawshank Redemption” in still suspense. I considered the film as a prison break story of one clever man, but after reading the book, I could see that it wasn’t all about just one man. Rather, as the narrative states, “Andy was the part of me… that will rejoice no matter how old and broken and scared the rest of me is.”, it is a story of Andy and the narrative, and essentially of the universal personality that pertains to every human: the unbent hope for freedom.

At first, I was appalled by the graphic details of rape and violence in the prison and it felt as though the prison was a completely detached setting from our everyday world. However, I realized that after all, Shawshank prison may only be a microcosm of our world. Prisoners are indeed more physically restricted by bars and walls surrounding them than the “free men” walking freely outside, but the question of freedom brought me to a halt. Can we call ourselves free men?

We can’t deny that we are institutionalized in some way. Of course, we take it for granted that we can go to a shop or a bathroom, buy things, and meet people as we wish, but to a certain extent, we live bounded by the social norms, culture, rules, and small and big groups we belong to. Just as prisoners feel daunted to be allowed so much freedom when they are released after years in a prison, people need a period of adaptation whenever they are introduced to new environment.

I’ve also had an interestingly similar experience of being gradually institutionalized. When I first came to KMLA, I was suffocated by strict rules. I hated having to wake up at six o’ clock in the morning, dragging myself to go to morning exercise, being not even allowed to eat during self study time, and getting penalty points for sleeping when I couldn’t resist it. I thought, “For sixteen years, I’ve managed time and study well. Why do I have to follow these rules when I can do well on my own?” To me, the rules seemed unnecessary. However, now, I don’t find so much discomfort adjusting to KMLA life. Instead, when I become lax at home, I wish I were at school because it’s easier to self-control. The fact that there are rules, routines, and people to guard you can be comforting in a sense because self-control is hard for most people. In that sense, though the prison seemed too horrible a place to live, I could understand some prisoners’ resistance to being released.

Another question I had was, “What keeps people to live even in horrible conditions like prisons?”. While contemplating on this question by thinking of differences between Andy and other prisoners, I found that it was a possibility and hope of making a change. Andy wasn’t discouraged by a life sentence perhaps mainly because he figured a way of escaping, but I think that the library business also served a significant role as his mental support. He contributed to improving the library condition and making it the best prison library in the state. The fact that he could still make things change was hope and enough reason for his existence. There is a real-life example as well of how important one’s ability to make changes is. Shi Chang Won was imprisoned for life for murder and since the capture, he has lived in solitary for more than ten years. In prison, however, he was a model prisoner, working and learning hard, and not committing any single act of violence for ten years. He also sent letters to an official to explain his determination to improve prison conditions and read books and papers to specify his plan. But he soon found no hope, and attempted suicide. Hope of making changes on the basis of freedom to conduct one’s plans to realize the hope is, I believe, a major motivation for people to live.  

As the last comment, the most memorable line was “Hope for the best and expect the worst,” by Andy. Neither optimism nor pessimism is good. I tend to be pessimistic in many situations, but with this quote in mind, I’ll be able to deal with the problem at hand with reasonable optimism and preparedness.

1st Assignment

Group: Five

Film: The Spiriting Away of Sen and Chihiro
Why we chose it:
This is the only movie that all of us have watched which includes the element of hero's journey

<ACT1>
1.Ordinary world:
- an ordinary japanese town
2.Call to adventure:
- a strange tunnel on the way to the family's new home
3.Refusal of the call:

- Chihiro's family is lost in an unoccupied town. Hungry, Chihiro's mom and dad eat the food gregariously without paying for the food.
Chihiro, however, chooses to look around the town and when she comes back, she sees pigs instead of her parents.
4.Meeting the mentor:

-Haku appears to tell Sen to leave the town immedately
5.Crossing the threshold:
-Chihiro, failing to find the way out with her parents, steps into the world of Ubaba by getting a job at spa town.

<ACT2>
6.Tests, Allies, Enemies:
-Test: In the spa town, people are gradually subjugated by Ubaba as they eat the food of the town and forget their original name.
Since Chihiro is unaware of such danger, she initially eats the food people give.
-Allies: Haku warns Chihiro of the danger, and she therefore manages to keep her identity.
She also becomes friends with the faceless ghost (Gaonashi).

-Enemies: Ubaba & her loyal eagle

7.Approach to the innermost cave:

-One day, Sen discovers Haku soaked in blood.
8.Ordeal:

-Chihiro discovers that Haku got hurt because he tried to steal the stamp from Ubaba's twin sister.
To ask for forgiveness and save her parents and Haku, she takes the Train of Death and arrives at Ubaba's sister's home.
9.Reward:

-On Haku and Chihiro's way back to the spa town, Chihiro suddenly remembers Haku's original name, thus liberating him from
Ubaba. Chihiro also saves her parents.

<ACT3>
10.The road back:
-Haku accompanies Chihiro in her way back to the ordinary world.
11.Resurrection:
-Chihiro finds her parents who were waiting for her at the tunnel.
12.Return with the elixir:
-The value of family
Points of contention (ifs/ands/buts):
Resurrection is a little unclear