Persepolis

Persepolis is a French animated film based on the comic with the same title, created by Marjane Satraphi. It is a loosely autobiographical film that talked about how her life experience in different countries, and how she thought about her family and her country.

Marjane Satraphi is a French graphical novelist who was born in Tehran in the year of 1969. The movie focused a lot politically with the government that overthrew the Shah during Iranian Revolution in 1978. Marjane was born in a middle class family. They were scholars who enjoyed their freedom until the Iranian Revolution, when women were required to wear veil by laws, alcohol was forbidden, and Islam was made the official religion.

Marjane was an outspoken person during her college year. She asked many questions regarding why females were not allow to do certain things that men could. Marjane's parents had sent her abroad to Austria to experience a new life. She felt homesick and went back to Iran. Eventually the political crisis in Iran forced her to move to France, where she was allowed to express herself.

Overall, Persepolis is an emotional film because Marjane faced many different problems throughout her life, such as drug, men, and the problem of her homeland. The style of this film is black and white, then it became colorful toward the end, when the film went to "present-tense", to where Marjane was thinking about her childhood when she was in the airport.

Whether this film has a political motivation or not, this film showed how Iranian Revolution had changed people's live forever. People could no longer enjoy their freedom, and they can be arrested by talking about the government, drinking alcohol. This film is banned in Iran, saying that this film has given an incorrect image of the country. Whether you want to watch this film is up to you. For me, this film is definitely worth watching. (8.3/10)

Okuribito (Departures)

Okuribito is a Japanese film that is known for the "Best Foreign Film" in 2009's Academy Award. After hearing the film from a friend, I've decided to take a shot. This is a film about an introverted married man named Daigo Kobayashi (played by Masahiro Motoki) pursuing his life long dream. After Daigo felt he failed as a celloist, he decided to move from Tokyo to Yamagata, where he grew up in. After realizing that Yamagata was a hard place to find a job, he saw the ad from a newspaper and interviewed for a job that he thought he would become a travel agent, but only end up as an encoffiner, a job that takes care of the funeral service. Although it is a relatively high paying job, it is considered as a dirty job in Japan (from the reaction of Mika and Yamashita), as death is considered a taboo in most Asian countries. This film is loosely based on an autobiography from Aoki Shinmon, a real-life encoffiner who wrote a book about his job.

The thing I like about this film was the idea of making a film that talks about people after their lives. As death is considered a taboo and dirty in most Asian countries, the film gave another perspective to audience how people view the death of their love ones. The film also talked about how conservative people are, when Daigo's old friend and wife, Yamashita and Mika, felt the job Daigo has was not a "real" job that normal people should have. Daigo felt happy and satisfaction when he noticed the death's relative gave gratitude of his work. He realized death is a part of life for everyone, and it should treated respectively.

I found Mika's role (played by Ryoko Hirosue) kind of boring in the beginning, because she was opposed to Daigo's job, probably afraid to the fact that Daigo would be discriminted by other people, or that she could not accept a husband that has a "dirty job". She was basically an obedient house wife that tried her best to make her husband happy, as her own happiness comes from Daigo. At first, she could not accept Daigo's job, until Tsuyako died in the bath house. From that point she started to understand Daigo's feeling about the job. Her support has made Daigo open his heart to other her, as he felt that he has something to be proud of. There is a lot of stuff that I did not talk about, you should go watch the film if you are interested. (7.8/10)