Movie Review of Secret (2007 Taiwanese Film) Essay Example for Free

Movie Review of Secret (2007 Taiwanese Film) Essay Casts: * Jay Chou as Ye Xianglun A music student majoring in piano and lives with his father * Kwai Lun-mei as Lu Xiaoyu A music student who lives with her mother * Anthony Wong Chau-sang as Xianglun’s father Xiangluns father and the discipline teacher at his school * Alice Tzeng as Qing Yi Xiangluns classmate who is in love with him * Yuhao Zhan as Yu Hao A music student and talented piano player, nicknamed Prince of the piano, he had a piano battle with Xianglun Secret is an amazing movie to look at and to listen to. The film tells a simple but very beautiful love story which is tied between past and present. The story, the music, the talent you’ll really be amazed and be in love with it when you see it yourself. You can’t imagine that it would be magical. It’s a unique story, unpredictable and interesting. Whats more interesting is there is more to it than what meets the eye. Careful attention must be paid to all scenes, or else the story wont click and the end wont be as good. Heres the spoil. Ye Xianglun is a budding musical genius whose way with piano keys makes him a hit with the ladies, and even the guys, who recognize talent when they see it. Ye arrives at Tanjiang Art School and already hes being watched, but his eyes and heart are immediately stolen by Lu Xiaoyu, an elegant, charming flirt who first happens upon Ye in the schools aged piano room. The two begin a cute, casual romance thats defined by secrets. Basically, Lu keeps them, starting with her name, then extending them to other things like where she goes, what she does, and why shes always absent from class. Since shes so effervescent and attractive, Ye is immediately smitten. Ye has a secret too, but Ill give it away: his dad is a teacher at the school, and hes played by Anthony Wong in an amusing performance thats vintage Wong. Ye also has some friends at school who arent as amusing, and even qualify as annoying and bothersome. Some of these characters are played by Chous Taiwanese pop music pals. Since this is a Jay Chou (Ye Xianglun) production (besides starring and directing, he penned the original story and contributed the music), its only understandable that Chou make room for some of his buddies  as well as his pet obsessions, especially music. Ye becomes the class celebrity when he kicks ass in a piano battle, which is as entertaining as it is patently manufactured. Basically, Ye outfoxes his opponent on the ivory keys , winning the hearts of the girls and the guys, while still remaining cool and sheepish in that inimitable Ye Xianglun way. Chief among his admirers is the pretty Qing Yi, who starts to crush on Ye big time. But Ye only has eyes for Lu. Or does he? Despite getting along swimmingly with Ye, Lu soon gets the idea that Ye is two-timing her with Qing. This is due to your standard crossed wires and mistaken circumstances, but the misinterpreted event is enough to throw a massive crush-killing wrench into their puppy love. That would probably be a terrible thing to behold if not for the fact that the relationship up until then was hardly inspiring. Ye Xianglun and Lu Xiaoyu have decent chemistry, but the relationship between their characters never seems that deep. Theres a manufactured quality to the dialogue that makes their supposed love a bit unconvincing, and without more acute emotions the film begins to drag. Sadly, part of this is the fault of Ye Xianglun, the actor. Ye possesses a certain likable charm, but his presence hardly screams passion. His demeanor is just too remote; Ye tries hard, but he cant convey a complete range of emotions. Shoring things up, however, is Lu Xiaoyu. When she initially appears, she acts too much like an idealized good girl flirt to be real; its like shes some manufactured idea of what perfect high school romance should be. However, as it turns out, theres a reason for her bizarre flirtatious behavior, and as the film divulges more of the how’s and why’s, Lu is given a chance to convey emotions that prove heartbreaking. Her screen presence is refreshing and her emotion’s genuinely moving; if Secret manages to affect, Lu Xiaoyu is a large reason why. The revelation of the films eponymous secret is what gives Lu the chance to really affect the audience and yet its also when the movie starts to lose its credibility. The mechanism behind the films secret is never known, but the logic of how it works is explained explicitly, such that every incident and action in the film needs to fit a set of rules explained by the characters and depicted by the events themselves. But the film ultimately doesnt adhere to its conv ictions, eventually twisting events to fit desired emotions and skirting around the rules that theyve laid out for us. The film gives us a denouement, but its  only touching because it fits some sort of predetermined audience expectation, and not because it surprises or really affects. Some people may be happy with how Secret ends. But does the film earn its ending? I dont think that it does. At least Secret is a very pretty ride. On artifice alone, the film is aces, serving up beautiful art direction, cinematography and music. Ye Xianglun (Jay Chou) really knows how to compose a tune; the films original music is genuinely stirring, and preexisting pieces are well-chosen and evocative of the films innocent romantic mood. Secret serves the senses exceptionally well so much so, that its almost tragic when it ultimately throws logic out the window. Ye Xianglun and company have created a nice little valentine, but their desire to give the film more weight eventually leaves it adrift. The film barrels towards its intended goal with little regard for common sense, leaving the audience with nothing besides the pretty pictures and people to shore it up. Amazingly, that gambit is more successful than not, and Lu Xiaoyu (Kwai Lun-mei) practically drags the film across the finish line herself. Without her the film would probably sink beneath its own self-importance, as its manufactured sheen and occasionally miscalculated choices render the film little more than a superficially gorgeous pure love diversion for teen girls and the boys they drag to the cinema along with them. Thatll probably do just fine for most, since manufactured diversion seems to be a standard expectation for many modern moviegoers. Secret will probably score well with its intended teen audience, especially if they take in the film as a single, one-off experience. Further viewings would only reveal the films holes to be gaping and perhaps intolerable, but upon first glance, Secret is pretty and polished enough to charm. You should watch it too!

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BC, which also won the Pulitzer Prize in 1979, is one of the plays which he dedicated to his father Sam, who was in the military during World War II in Shepard’s early childhood years. Samuel Shepard Rogers III, born November 5th 1943 in Fort Sheridan, Illinois, is the oldest of three children. He was nicknamed Steve, since his name came down through seven generations of men. He then changed his name into Sam Shepard. (Sparr, 6) His play has been influenced by his personal life, especially by his father. In his play, the men are all alcoholics and bound to the darker side. Shepard lived in a family filled with aggression, where the men around him were mostly violent alcoholics. (Lahr, 27) Alcoholism goes far back in his life, to the point where he cannot remember one single sober man . (Howe, 14) Thinking about his father, he believes that he owes his father a large part of his identity and his damage. Shepard remembers that his father lost his farm in Duarte, after he starte d drinking, in order to forget his ruined life. (Lahr, 30) This can be put into comparison with Dodge not bei...

Song of Lawino- Imagery

Imagery –Song of Lawino By Me Originally set in African ideas, it is clearly challenging for the text to be turned into a foreign language, which in this case, is English. No matter, the words used are comprehensible and nothing much out of our minds’ imagination power. Lawino, the Acoli woman, the wife of an abusive husband and the main voice of this song uses this poem to sing out her thoughts. They involve a lot of imagery of different kinds to various everyday things surrounding us.She describes her husband, Ocol, the son of the Chief as spiteful and arrogant by comparing him to animals and natural sources. Ocol behaves like a child, his tongue bitter like the roots of lyonno lily, seeming like a hen that eats its own eggs. With the simple imagery given, yet so specifically chosen from the environment of the Acoli tribe, I could even understand what Lawino is saying despite being a non-native speaker of English. By imagery, I actually see how Lawino explains her bei ng treated like rubbish by her own husband that she still desperately loves.Ocol is completely filled with hatred towards Lawino with the way he insult, laughing at her as if Lawino is a salt-less ash, an ojou insect. Nevertheless, Lawino shows her hopes that the old Ocol will return to her after the sickness in Ocol’s head is thrown away. For her, things are simple and should be done according to how the elders do. Lawino also describes her anger and her loyalty with her Acoli culture while Ocol, her own husband walks around with a desire to turn himself into a complete English man, hating his roots. Both of them are truly complete opposites.Observant and knowledgeable, Lawino states on how an Acoli is different from an English man or woman. I like the way she sees differently in the English culture as we all should be seeing differently in hers as well. Besides all of those emotions from Lawino, I am very interested in how she describes a human body, her own figure mostly a nd the naked beauty of it. An Acoli does not need to cover up with silk material or any expensive accessories to look beautiful. Despite Lawino’s hair being thick and curly, she appreciates the way she is as an English lady would love her own straight her.Everyone is different and Lawino accepts that, unlike Ocol. Though maybe, for me, Ocol is imagined to be as the man who doesn’t feel like he belongs there in the Acoli tribe by the way Lawino sings on his awkwardness in dancing in the arena. So Ocol turns to a different culture that can provide him more comfort. On the other side, Lawino does not quite approve with the shameful dances and the normal odd routines of the English people but she does not do what Ocol does to his Acoli culture. Lawino does not insult and bear any hatred to the foreigners.She just would rather not be involved in those peculiar activities. Imagery becomes very interesting when Lawino uses unhygienic or ugly comparison to something we would s ee as clean like the hot water or pretty like the hairstyle of the English women. She is keen on describing every object used by Ocol and his mistress, Clementine like the stove to cook, their thick clothing and even the toilet. I, who live in a modern city in the 21st century, would never even dream of comparing those appliances with flora and fauna.In short, the use of imagery is the basic of the poem that makes the whole story so vivid, attached with plenty of emotions and nature of sarcasm. Those comparisons and descriptions from Lawino have shown me how Lawino is indeed clever in the way of how unique a human mind can see things. As for me, I can really do use my imagination easily to create the world where the Acoli tribe collides with the English culture, seeing plenty amusing scenes. (666 Words)

Ways of Computing the Value of Alternative Projects Essay...

Ways of Computing the Value of Alternative Projects When deciding whether to invest in a project an investor first will compare investment or sunk costs to the expected profit and based on this decision will decide what to do. Depending on the specifics of the project calculating of sunk cost and expected profit might be rather different and will play the main role in the decision to invest, wait and invest later or not to invest at all. More detailed consideration of the standard NPV rule: to invest if present value of cash flow is greater than sunk cost will show that some projects cannot be simply estimated using this idea. For the irreversible projects such as building a factory or buying an option NPV method may not be proper†¦show more content†¦Now, consider the factory that can produce some product. There is F=100 the sunk cost of building the factory and the price of the product is P=$10 today. In a year there are two possible options: the price will go up to $15 with probability 1/2 or will go down to $5 with probab ility 1/2 and then stay at these levels. Let us calculate net present value of the project if invested today (expected price will be $10, because 1/2 ·15+1/2 ·5=10 and the interest r=0.1 for easy calculations): NPV=-100+Ó0[10/(1+r)t]=$10 notice that in this case we have summation from 0 to infinity because the process starts on the step one, it means we invest in project right now. Using our parameters we can see that NPV if invested today is equal $10. Now let us calculate net present value, but in this case we do not invest right now, but wait and invest only if the new price is 15, which happens with probability 1/2: NPV=0.5[-100/(1+r)+ Ó1[10/(1+r)t]]=$30 we have to discount the value of the sunk cost and also sum not from zero as in the first case but from 1, since we wait for a year. 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