thaumazein

some films never disappoint. especially that of christopher nolan.

a friend asked me, what made you like the odyssey so much? i said, i was a classics major in college, and that’s how much i love it.

love is a lighthearted theme with regard to hobbies, passions, or interests. some persons are fueled by this kind of love. i’m lucky to be one of them.

what am i talking about anyway?

the film is the embodiment of homer’s epic—perhaps the most important epic in the history of the humanities, said my biased mind. it’s a theme as eternal and universal as a man searching for home.

in classics, we call that nostos.

coming home could largely mean arriving at a sense of belonging. in some way or another, the ultimate destination of a person’s journey is home. for most of us, it’s the most important uncomplicated destination. for some of us, unfortunately, it’s the most complicated, heart-wrenching one. whatever it ends up being, it gravitates toward the heart of our individual identity, and paves for our trajectory onward. it’s kinda like the theme of a piece of music. it lays the groundwork. at least to some extent.

for the rest of the time, perhaps we’re doing nothing other than drifting.

well, at least Homer’s Odysseus is doing that. when he’s away from home, he’s virtually drifting on the mediterranean. like for a decade. from one island to another. from one lover to another.

don’t you think it’s a life well lived? freedom and love, what more can you ask for?

however, that person can’t resist home. she wants to go home to see what has changed, what has become, and what has remained the same.

so why doesn’t that person simply stop drifting?

imo, the subject in question is too obsessed with the sea. speaking from personal experiences, i can’t resist the mediterranean. i’m bewitched not just by the nature itself. i also wonder endlessly—what’s beyond the sea, across the sea, and alongside the sea.

perhaps i wonder the most about what the sea brings out: courage. a famous chinese documentary once pinpoints the source of that culture’s misery to its geography: half of it is not connected to the ocean. because of that, infighting becomes central, rather than exploring the outer world. and perhaps the same reason gives rise to the absence of courage. the spineless mind is the despicable mind.

why does a film review end up being another social commentary in disguise?