Angry Indian Goddesses

Director Pan Nalin’s film Angry Indian Goddesses follows seven independent women reuniting after a long period of time. The film starts with each woman being introduced either by their work place filled with men, in the case of Frieda and Su, or being hit on by men. In between the introductions there are credits with the main actresses’ names as well as the director, producers and executives with pictures of different Hindu goddesses known for being ruthless. One by one each woman takes the situation into her hands by retaliating against the men. The film follows these women as they express emotions and themselves as well as facing the hardships of being a woman in India. Su and Nargis are getting married in the film and had to go through multiple hoops in order to have a church ceremony. Su’s father refuses to walk her down the aisle because she is marrying another woman. Joanna wants to be a Bollywood actress, but the parts that she is getting is because she is something to look at. Frieda is a workaholic and doesn’t spend a lot of time with her daughter Maya and it shows through the drawings that Lakshmi shows her. Lakshmi is the only witness to her brother’s murder and her trial keeps getting pushed back later and later. The film does a great job highlighting the problems that women face in Indian society. Just in the opening of the film Lakshmi, Pam, Mads, and Joanna get hit on or is somehow just seen as a sexual object to men. During the film when their car taking them all to the beach breaks down, men come and cat call them and harass them more, making sexual innuendos towards them. Lakshmi makes a point that whether a girl wears Western clothing, like Joanna, or wears a Sari like she does, men will still harass a woman. Once Joanna is found dead and raped towards the end of the film, Mads and Frieda take it upon themselves to go after her rapists because the police officer made the comment that they were all wearing revealing clothing. He was victim blaming. During the end of the film, Joanna’s death and rape is all over the news. Men and women alike are shown, the expressions on their faces of sadness and disgust about the statistics that are told. In the church where the ceremony is taking place, Joanna is shown in Su’s wedding dress that she loved so much as well as flowers surrounding her. Mads is back at Su’s house, not emotionally stable enough to go to the funeral when she gets a call from her boyfriend telling her to check her email. When she does, she finds that she has multiple emails from producing companies wanting to produce an album. The reason why is because the night that Joanna died, she recorded Mads singing a song about life and posted it to YouTube which became a huge hit. Mads then comes into the church singing one of Joanna’s favorite Hindu songs about a woman being sad that her love married another, but then became happy because they would share the same soil and Earth. Before she can finish singing, a police officer comes in and says that the dead bodies of the perpetrators had been found and the ones responsible were in the church. He announced that they should just turn themselves in. One by one each and every person, including Frieda’s daughter Maya, all stand up. The film ends there, but when I left the theater I felt empowered and saddened at the same time. I felt empowered to do something to change victim blaming and saddened that in certain places, women are still seen as sexual objects to just be looked at.
I would recommend this film to anyone. The soundtrack is amazing and the message that it is sending to women about taking a stand is phenomenal.

                         Mr. Six

   This film directed by Guan Hu is as epic as epic can probably get. It definitely gives off the Clint Eastwood Gran Torino feel. The story is about a 50-year-old man that used to be the punk of the area and protects the people that are in the area. Everyone calls him Mr. Six and gives him a lot of respect. He has a son named Bobby who hasn’t been home in a long time. The problem that Mr. Six finds with his son and many teenagers and young adults is that they have no respect whatsoever towards their elders. One day, Mr. Six finds out that Bobby got into trouble with a gang of kids from rich families. He goes to help him out and things only get worse from there. The original problem was that Bobby scratched the leader, Kris’ very expensive car and needs half of what the car costs to get a proper paint job. Mr. Six relies on the community that he has protected since he was a teenager to help him raise the money. Bobby is released and the money is given back to Mr. Six. During this time, he finds out that he has cancer. When the money was given back to Mr. Six important documents that were with the money were also given to him. Secret off shore bank account information was given to him on accident and Kris’ family wants it back. Mr. Six and his son get jumped about the information, leaving Bobby in the hospital with a serious head injury. Kris is imprisoned in his house and summons Mr. Six about the situation. If Mr. Six wins the battle, he gets to keep the information. If he loses, he has to give back the information. After Kris tells him that it was most likely his uncle that hit Bobby, Mr. Six doesn’t tell anyone that he is going to go to the gang fight alone. He shows up to the fight, dressed in what he used to wear and his fighting blade. He walks to the middle of the icy lake and lets out a battle cry before running towards the younger gang of people on the other side. Kris has a look of concern on his face and shakes his head, not wanting to fight. Once Mr. Six reaches the center of the frozen lake, his comrades from when he was younger show up for support and to lend help when he wants it. The whole scene shot on the frozen lake is absolutely breathtaking and shot beautifully. You can feel the crisp, cold air and the winter breeze on your face just from this scene. The film ends with Mr. Six collapsing in the center of the lake, Kris crying and Mr. Six’s comrades running onto the ice.

I was lucky enough to pick the day that a Q & A about the film was going to take place after the film. The director mentioned that what he wanted to portray in the film is the lack of respect and communication that parents and children have. He mentioned that China has grown exponentially in the last few years and it has caused a lot of problems about traditional mannerisms and traditions in general to be lost due to society not being able to keep up with the changes. I believe that he is right when he said that there is a lack of respect and communication between parents and children in today’s society. He also mentioned that this problem of communication and respect will never probably have a solution because society is constantly changing.

                 My Name is Emily

  My Name is Emily directed by Simon Fitzmaurice is a story about a sixteen year old girl and her new friend going to a mental institution to free her father. Emily was put in foster care when she was about eleven years old due to her father being admitted into a mental institution because of his ideas and work driving him to an unstable mental state. When Emily was younger, her parents got into a car accident that killed her mother. After not receiving a letter for her birthday, Emily takes it upon herself to invite new friend and classmate Arden on an adventure to rescue her dad. This film was shot in Ireland and the landscapes are absolutely beautiful. What really struck me in this film was how relatable to my own life it was. Emily has an interesting way of thinking and socializing due to her upbringing by her father after her mother passed. I would have to say that the same thing goes for myself. I may not be one hundred percent distant like Emily is for the first moments of the film, but I do tend to keep to myself and think through things differently than some other people would. The part that really got to me though was the part of the film where the truth about her father comes out. For the last few years, Emily’s father was a voluntary patient and he never told Emily. She goes to the one place she knows her father will be and yells at him for what he put her through. At this point in the film, I had started to tear up because this was a situation that I’ve thought of quite often due to the fact that my parents got a divorce when I was young and the last time I had talked to my dad was when I was eight years old. The anger and resentment that Emily was holding in and lashing out at her father with were the same feelings that I have gone through after I got older and found out the true reason for my parent’s divorce. The film ends with Arden and Emily getting together, as well as Emily slowly starting to rebuild a relationship with her father. At this point in the film I was bawling my eyes out because it gave me a small glimpse of a possible outcome that could have come with the possibility of reaching out to my dad.

The scenery of Ireland is absolutely beautiful and the large landscape shots are among my favorites of the film. The underwater shots are just as beautiful and my favorite shot is in the very beginning of the film. It shows Emily, played by Evanna Lynch, in a bathtub with her head under the water and air bubbles coming out of her nose. She looks so at peace in the shot and with the overlapping narration of Lynch’s voice makes the whole scene perfect.