Pondering: A priest forever

 Pondering: The Lord as sworn and will not relent. You are a priest forever. Just like Melchizedek.

This is said twice in Scripture referring to Jesus.

So what can we understand?

First: Melchizedek is a priest forever. If Melchizedek's priesthood is forever and unchanging, so is the priesthood of Jesus. God doesn't change his mind. So...is Melchizedek still doing his priestly work? Or has he been, so to speak, retired?

Second: God has given to Jesus a name above all names and everything and everyone must bow their knees to the name of Jesus. So whatever Melchizedek is or is not doing now, he is in no way equal to Jesus.

Third: Jesus is the high priest of our confession. We have been made kings and priests in his kingdom (definitely on earth but will this continue in heaven and the New Jerusalem?) How many eternal priests are there? A high priest is over many priests. 

Fourth: No man comes to the Father but by Jesus. This is very important. The Bible doesn't say that no man comes to a good afterlife or to heaven without Christ. It says no man comes to the Father. So we have Lazarus in Abram's bosom. We also have Ezekiel speaking of those who serve the prince but never see his face forever. We have people outside the gates of New Jerusalem. We have the book of Romans and the concept that where there is no law there is no sin. Although sin and death rule over them, there is the law of their conscience. And we have Jesus speaking of those who didn't know the will of God being beaten with fewer stripes. We also have the Great Commission because even unsaved ignorant people who live by their conscience will sin against their conscience. I wonder if Melchizedek is the priest whom God has appointed over these people. But all will be Christ's and at last everything that is Christ will be God's.

Just going through a Biblical rabbit hole. We have to be careful when it comes to rabbit hole theology and doctrine.... especially if ultimately some theory doesn't matter to our own life. It's okay to ponder but our ponderings must always bow to Scripture and this is why we need to know Scripture. So many deceptions have come about in the church because someone missed a Bible verse. I remember a pretty famous preacher going on about God creating many humans in the beginning and calling their name Adam, as a collective. He decided on this because he figured the world couldn't have been so quickly populated. But he missed the verse in Genesis that says Eve was the mother of all living. And he missed the verse which states that through one man sin came to the earth. If Gid had made many Adams then did all the Adams eat the fruit? And if one of the Adams didn't eat the fruit, why didn't God use that tiny remnant? The same way of missing or ignoring or misunderstanding a Bible verse can be found in theology  where hell supposedly doesn't exist, or even in the idea that Satan represents collective human evil and tendencies. So when they say Jesus battled Satan's temptation in the wilderness, they forget the verse that the Bible says Jesus knew no sin. This kind of thing goes on in small things...like those who believe in the Sethite theory (as if two different kinds of humans could be good and bad and marrying into the wrong race of humans could create strange beings.)

Anyways...all this is to say that Scriptures are our guidelines in all our ponderings. Or else we'll wrestle scriptures to our destruction.

Mini review of Mr Harrigan's phone on Netflix

 I just saw Mr Harrigan's Phone. I really liked it. Don't expect anything horrific. Man speaking from the grave notwithstanding. It's just a good little coming-of-age YA story.  It has a quiet spirituality to it. Vengeance is such a part of Stephen King's stories and here is a story where the entire idea of vengeance is challenged. It shows the futility of getting back at evil. 

The moralism isn't mostly about phones as some reviewers are saying. Yes, phones affect human connection. But the stories he reads are about power and the ability to use money or power to avenge oneself or to fight against the evil in the world. Craig has only a dead person to help him fight against evil. In the end, he grows and accepts that the world is full of wounded people and of wounds and perhaps having the power to redress evil isn't for him to decide. It's an anti-superhero kind of story. And for Stephen King who has created so many stories about vengeance, it's almost like an old man (old writer's) admittance that he has written a lot of vengeful tales and perhaps that isn't the way to go. I really loved that relinquishing of power.  The protagonist basically noped out of being an avenger. 

I'm one of those Stephen King fans who loves his YA and or mainstream slice-of-life stories. Having seen my share of Christian movies, I'll say that it's got that Christian vibe that i could never imagine a regular evangelical writer writing. Gently religious, gently supernatural, a subtle message in a slice of life ya story. Well, in this case "slice of supernatural life" story.

I loved loved loved it. It reminded me of Nope by Jordan Peele. We come to a Stephen King story looking for bloodshed and vengeance and Stephen gives us a character who learns the guilt and futility of vengeance. Literature in the film, Scripture in the film, are all about using power, money, etc to destroy those who want to destroy us. Power makes us play God. Our protagonist has the ability to avenge and destroy evil. Writers can uphold morality or socialism or vengeance or ....not. Stephen King showing literature s power makes me feel he's challenging himself. And perhaps apologizing for making a spectacle of vengeance. In the long run, protag learns that perhaps we should not be judge, jury, executioner, and CCTV camera. And we shouldn't indulge in literature that emphasizes our  thirst for vengeance. A quiet antispectacle noping out.

The story is from the anthology is "If it bleeds" and that comes from the old journalistic adage, "if it bleeds, it leads." People like spectacle and they want bloodshed because it is more exciting. But King is very courageous in challenging his readers who expect bloodshed from him and who get bored with normalcy. I thought it was a great coming of age story for a culture that loves spectacle and revenge porn horror. It's not meant to be scary in a give me blood spectacle kind of way. Every quote in the story hints at stopping the misuse of power. Having the power to do harm is not the way to go. And if one uses power to do harm then that is what is horrific. Our hero is not in Death Note or even in Chronicle. He knows how to retain his humanity. By restraining his power... Even in the face of injustice, he's come of age. And if King's readers have come of age, they will understand that addiction to vengeance is not the way to go either.

 Interestingly, one of the subtexts of the story is malice, gloating, vengeance, forgiveness. Which was one of the things we discussed when we talked about Obadiah in last week's Bible study.

Watching: A Romance of the Little Forest

 Watching "A romance of the little forest" and wondering if the writer ever stepped aside to really study her characters. Heroine is a cute girl who bullies her way into the life of a curmudgeonly professor played by the absolutely exquisite Vin Zhang. Heroine is played by the absolutely adorable Esther Yu. 

Trouble is, though, the cute bullying pushy heroine trope can also be reframed as a stalker trope and it can be quite triggering if one has been watching way too many true crime dramas. Writer has also included another character who is bulldozing himself into hero's life. Bulldozing quiet shy person for shy person's own good is a common trope in Asian dramas but it's an unquestioned trope. The fact that heroine is determined to make the hero love her and that she does so many pushy, cruel, underhanded things is NOT cute. And showing her backstory seven episodes into the story is not going to help because if your mind is already against this girl, it's too late to quell one's annoyance with the heroine. Truth to tell, I don't know why I keep watching it. Maybe because i like both actors and i do have the ability to see the writer's intention despite how the story's playing out. 

Of course there will not be (and there has never been) a moment in any of these rom-coms where the bullying ditz apologizes for being manipulative and pushy. So the heroines often get away with selfish narcissistic aggressive behavior. When you start a story never questioning your heroine or your trope, you're bound to be unable to see how other folks outside of the trope will see such a story. At this point, all the pushy cuteness is just triggering and feels stalkerish and cruel to me. 

I do wish this trope would change but aegyo is a thing in patriarchal societies apparently. Not to mention the whole vindictive petty back-and-forthing in their fake dating. But my major trouble with this drama, though, is that heroine's mother is such a good cook. I keep wanting to go to the Chinese restaurant...or at least to make some of the dishes the mom makes. That chicken dish looked sooo good.

Movie Review: SPOOR -- Amazon Prime Video

 

 Spoor was quite good. A slooooow burn and not the horror movie i expected it to be. 

The heroine is definitely a wise woman stereotype but the depiction works. The bad patriarchy guys also work well too. So it didn't come off as a screedy polemic. 

The story takes place in Eastern Europe. Our heroine is an older woman who loves animals. We're dealing with patriarchy here. In fact there's a young orthodox priest who is a nasty piece of work. He says stuff about animals that many-but-not-all Christians would have problems with. Women are also treated like crap. Our heroine has a connection with nature, the stars, etc and she lives near hunters, poachers, and a cruel research lab on the outskirts of the village. She's surrounded by men who basically think anything weaker than an adult man pretty much can be treated any kind a way  - the law be damned. Her best friends are her animals, but the priest says it's a sin to call animals friends, to say animals have souls, and that burying animals is a sin of pride. 

Well, suddenly heroine's pet dogs disappear, strange deaths keep happening, and deer start getting attitude. Heroine is already battling ageism, patriarchy, and a world that belittles and oppresses everything that is weak. The only mercy in this town is patronising the weak. The patronizing is no joke. Sadistic lab guy is being horrible to a girl in town and hunting season is on. Heroine is always showing up at dead bodies and animal tracks are near the corpses of murdered hunters. I liked this movie

Still...there were things that were problematic for me. 

First: the patriarchy was represented and upheld by a christian priest. Of course, this often happens in real life but just because christendom does patriarchy and nature cruelty badly doesn't mean that the Bible affirms that kind of patriarchal cruelty. But alas, the history of Christendom does have a lot of cruelty to women, animals, the weak, etc. So that depiction was bothersome, but somewhat fair.

 Second: the pantheism and panentheism was a bit much for my Christian soul. Heroine is a true astrologer, more so than the typical stuff one sees in newspapers or hear from friends. The worship of the star? The stars ruling and controlling our fate. Heroine could love nature without going so far. But heck, it's not my movie. So why argue? 

Yes, why argue? Especially because i agree with so much of the socio-emotional issues in the movie. Thirdly: the ending. Again, problematic. A murderer gets away scotfree and i was happy about it. yeah, i know. My heart was conflicted. What can i say? I agreed with the filmmaker that the patriarchy had to be outwitted. Animals, the weak, and women were being treated so bad. I know that as a good Christian there are philosophies, story constructs, and story resolutions I'm supposed to dislike. But, the heart is the heart. I'm not saying it's wholly unredeemed aspects of my heart that made me like this movie. I think the redemmed and holy part of me also liked it. But these are stories and characters that American Christians don't deal with. We're kinda trained off certain things. For instance, how many evangelicals become anthropologists or feminist critics or climate activists? It is what it is. I so wish American Christian filmmakers would make movies like Spoor. But American Christian filmmakers rarely deal with matters of soul, animals, evil patriarchy. They deal with a totally different other set of americanized issues. Nothing spiritual generally. Anyways. Spoor. AmazonPrimeVideo. A slow movie but it really touched me.

Humble is the Way by David Jones

Humble is the Way 

 by David Jones 

Publisher: McDougal & Associates 

Pub. Date: July 2007 

ISBN-13: 9780977705368 

208pp 

 I usually just post the info about a book but I've decided that maybe -- I won't promise this, mind you-- I'll just give a little intro before I go on to post the book info. Last week I had a near run-in with my husband's boss. He's an okay person but let's just say that my husband has been the longest-employed guy at this firm. Because, well, the boss is a tough one. So I called hubby's office and the boss has this weird rule that if an employee gets a non-business-related call from family or friends -- and if the phone isn't picked up by said employee-- that the phoner should hang up the phone after the third ring. (yes, the guy is a bit on the anal side.) So I always follow this rule. But on this particular day I kinda faded out into a daydream while I waited for hubby to pick up the phone. When my mind returned to me, I realized the phone had rung about seven times. The secretary picks up the phone and says to me, "The boss said to remind you to not let the phone ring more than three times." I was so peeved with this jerk. I felt the holy spirit say to me, "you have got to learn to deal with folks who use authority badly. You have got to learn to be humble no matter how badly you are treated or no matter how cruel or stupid you think someone is." I realized, of course, that this was the same exact situation I had been in before...with asholey neighbor down the road. I hung up the phone. I wanted to call my husband later and tell him to quit this job (my husband is a super-asset in this company.) but then I thought, "Let's not think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. Do something out of anger and God might not watch your back." I wanted to tell this boss off and say, "Excuse me! Everyone who works for you has left you. You are not exactly liked. Do you know why?" But I didn't. It took a whole lotta strength. I can't say, though, that I won this battle of humility. I'm still pretty strongwilled and arrogant. Immediately after the secretary gave me that message from the boss, I called back the office and made the phone ring four times. Just to be a pain. I wanted to make it ring seven times. To really nag this guy. But I held back. Yes, yes, I know. Childish. My neighbor got a good laugh at it. Remember, she's the one who saw me being dragged off to the police station because I got pissed off at menacing gun-toting neighbor. I think that those of us who have been abused and treated really shabbily by family, racists, etc...tend to have a chip on our shoulder. But as Canon Jim Glennon has said, "The devil of resentment is that it's justified." I find myself getting very short-tempered with Christians sometimes. I still haven't forgotten how cruel they have been to me. (Imagine being in a great deal of pain about one's son's illness and some minister who is supposed to be praying for you saying that black folks shouldn't be married to white folks.) I suspect that the reason many black christians have had nothing to do with the church is because of white racism and the slave trade. But what if the power of God cannot be manifested if we aren't humble? Here it is on Barnes and Noble Here is the blurb:

Humble Is the Way: The way to what? The way to God's favor, the way to form and then maintain a relationship with Him and, as surprising as it may seem, the way to maintain our human relationships as well. Humility is not just required before God; it is also required before one another. Because of this, humility is one of the most needed characteristics and virtues in the Body of Christ today. The Bible clearly shows us that humility is indispensable in the Christian life. "The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom; and before honor is humility" (Proverbs 15:33). Jesus Himself demonstrated the greatest degree of humility in His earthly life and ministry, and in so doing, He set a pattern for us. The result was this: "God highly exalted him," (Philippians 2:9). So humble is where we must begin, and humble is where we must remain. In these pages, Pastor David Jones masterfully lays out, in the simplest of terms, what terrible consequences pride will bring and what glorious rewards humility will bring, and, best of all, he shows us what is required for each of us to walk humbly before God.

Adam weeping

 

How long did Adam weep

when he fully understood the totality of good and evil?

When he saw the fullness of it, i mean?

Tiny bullets, great wars.

Monstrous lies, subtle betrayals.

When he understood death in all its fullness

The grief and devastation of the dying

The grief and devastation of the bereaved.

Tiny cancer cells and the fear of them

Mass hidden graves

Broken hearts

He cried for himself, of course.

But for his children, grandchildren, great-greats

All the sorrows of his descendants before his eyes?

No doubt God comforted his regret eagerly

But regret is not so easily tamed.

All those pre diluvian years

With each new murder, calamity, woe

Weren't his tears renewed?

How could they not be?

How could the parent of all mankind ever grow numb?

Fractured Villanelle

 Myth is perpetual

Racism is stalwart

The past is changeless and therefore everpresent

Princes leave their kingdom

To find their destined bride

The myth is perpetual.

But kingdom must approve the far-off  Bride

And the Bride must always be fair.

Racism is stalwart.

 She enters the kingdom

A descendant of the conquered

Myth is perpetual

The populace remembers the greatness of its conquerors

They remember their ancestors' burden

Racism is stalwart.

There is wrongness in the truest love

if the myth of race and empire demand the perpetual

Because the past is stalwart, changeless and everpresent

Short-short

 Coffee – Whatever

It's a new taste for me - coffee.

Some other new thing to add to a week of new things.

He says, 

"This is what my father does..

.brings coffee to my mom. 

Every morning. Like clockwork. 

And yes, I guess it's like the clock because sometimes he even wakes her up to drink it. Sometimes not, though. He puts it on the floor or on the table near her head."

I am unsure what to think of this, this new thing on the first day of our marriage.

I've never liked coffee, but I could grow to like it. 

I smile, sip. As expected, it's bitter.

I am convinced I will resent having to grow to like it.

I'm not his mother. 

I like the tradition.

But he loves the tradition and he adores his mother.

I sip again and turn to him,

"Sweetie," I say, "all traditions grow and merge with the addition of new family members."

He nods, hugs my toes, waits.

"Can we make it whatever?" I ask him.

"Not chocolate?" he asks. Because he knows I love hot chocolate.

"No," I reply. "Whatever. Make it whatever. 

Bring me whatever every morning. 

Tea, chai, chocolate sometime, Ashwaghanda, ginger, lemon, peppermint. 

Whatever. Let's keep the tradition, but let's make it our own. Not too rigid or set in our ways." 

I wink. 

"Let's make this fluid fluid."

Bridgerton series on Netflix: Mini Review

 I forgot to post a mini review on #Bridgerton. 

Good points. Really good depiction of how eldest sons pretty much ruled everyone's life. Great multicultural take on Austen tropes. The costumes of the Featherington girls are amazing. 

Downsides: It seems as if the societal change happened only in recent generations. Which makes the multiculturalism somewhat unbelievable. The solid working class servants are pretty invisible. The lovelorn girl is intelligent but plump. Why oh why? The girls with questionable mores and ethics are dark complexioned and fall into the 'tragic light-skinned mulatto' basin. Heroine is only blonde among siblings. Eldest son's love for his mistress is shown as primarily sexual with no internal commentary or balance like a sweet gentle picnic. Diva, she may be but the depiction of mistress is seamy wallowing and slummy. Not sure if these are all in the book and meta or even commented upon but it all makes me wonder. Playing with a genre means being hyper trope wary and often i wondered why these things weren't changed, updated, commented on, or thought through.

Not a lot of depth here at all. I remember a professor of mine telling hs how tobspot the jewish, racially tainted unworthy heroine in one book. The line was "Her hair had no sheen." The literature major in me likes the playfulness of Bridgerton but the same lit major in me just cringes at how entrenched racism, patriarchy, and judgmentalism is in a book which is using the cloak of multiculturalism. Heck, we even have a gay storyline. But of course the gay folk is an artist and a pretty young lord. It feels free from racism in a blatant way but it retains racism in and unthinking way. It feels as if it's pro woman but the judgment of women is still in it, especially good and bad women and skin or hair coloring. It feels well thought out but it's really fluff. I did enjoy the fluff but i had to put away my mind and my offense several times.

 I hoped a black production company would have been more insightful and aware.

There's something i encounter in stories. The missing character. Even worse than the missing scene, the missing character can make or break a book. The thing that could have made Bridgerton more racially balanced i think would be if there were a young black duchess in the story as someone looking for a suitor. In Thackerays Vanity Fair , there was Miss Schwartz a bi racial daughter of a Jewish character. She was mentioned in passing, with a bit of a sneer but her presence in the story intrigued me. I strongly believe that if the Duke had a sister the story would have to question some of its tropes of race, morals, and beauty. The duke would still retain his bitterness against his dad who was obsessed with having a son. The older sister would have issues too, and Duke would be protector of and friend to an aristo sister. And duchess would be a good balance to the biracial country cousin. I understand country cousin issues in regency novels but i dont like the fact that the country cousin who had such loose morals was black and was thus technically pushed away and deemed unworthy of the marriage pool. Duke's protector is also unmarried. This kind of subtle putting away people from the wrong race ethnic group or religion is done a lot. I remember for instance how they dealt with the Jewish character in The Big Chill. It's so dang common and it shows the writers subtle disdain and racism even though they try to seem enlightened.There's something i encounter in stories. The missing character. Even worse than the missing scene, the missing character can make or break a book. The thing that could have made Bridgerton more racially balanced i think would be if there were a young black duchess in the story as someone looking for a suitor. In Thackerays Vanity Fair , there was Miss Schwartz a bi racial daughter of a Jewish character. She was mentioned in passing, with a bit of a sneer but her presence in the story intrigued me. I strongly believe that if the Duke had a sister the story would have to question some of its tropes of race, morals, and beauty. The duke would still retain his bitterness against his dad who was obsessed with having a son. The older sister would have issues too, and Duke would be protector of and friend to an aristo sister. And duchess would be a good balance to the biracial country cousin. I understand country cousin issues in regency novels but i dont like the fact that the country cousin who had such loose morals was black and was thus technically pushed away and deemed unworthy of the marriage pool. Duke's protector is also unmarried. This kind of subtle putting away people from the wrong race ethnic group or religion is done a lot. I remember for instance how they dealt with the Jewish character in The Big Chill. It's so dang common and it shows the writers subtle disdain and racism even though they try to seem enlightened.

The Fan: Control, Disorientation, and the Genre of Regret

 

As an eleven-year-old kid sitting in front of the TV watching PBS’ weekly Janus film festival, I was deeply affected by two movies. The first was The Heiress with Olivia De Haviland (which has nothing to do with this review) and the other was Rashomon, the great Japanese movie that explores experience, perspective, and self-serving humanity’s inability to see truth clearly. The repetition of scenes with large or slight changes in narrative was a perfect visual representation of theme and variations, and the fact that the story ended without giving the viewer a clear final truth was sheer perfection. So, as a kid I had discovered the great truth of “he said/she said.” This is a great truth to know.

I also was a lover of puzzles, read a lot of Edgar Allen Poe, and an avid studier of Bible prophecies. Thus I was primed to become a lover of time travel movies and films about psychological confusion and the giddy carnival that are part of movies about disorientation.

Disorientation movies often fall into three categories: Self-observance, the splintering of the self, and the Dante-esque idea of suddenly finding that one is suddenly lost in the woods.

Time paradox movies follow this pattern also, but there is that additional aura of regret and cachet of quantum physics and multiverses.  Thus we have stories where main characters are mired in returning to the Road not taken, characters who worry about the moment when their lives went askew, and the human passion for puzzles.

Movies such as Enemy, Inception, and The One I Love fall into these categories. Recently, I got so caught up in studying time-travel that, like a chocolate addict who finds herself in Hershey Pennsylvania, I had to throw off all fears of wasting time and calories and delve into the substance I love abusing: time.

The more stories I see about time, the happy I am at how time paradoxes are emerging as a genre. And when those stories are filmed – as opposed to books—the riches of the genre become even more magnified. With the camera’s ability to focus, misdirect, and hide, we can end up with stories that confuse while simultaneously clueing us in to the themes, games, and characters. For instance, 11 Minutes Ago and Coherence are both indie films with characters who attempt to understand time travel. But whereas the sophisticated characters in Coherence are terrified at the prospect of time being out of joint and get utterly bent out of shape in their desire to control the singularity, the characters in 11 Minutes Ago are pretty chill with a main character who is attempting to sort out the secrets of time with the help of bystanders who discover his secret. The folks in Coherence, on the other hand, are fueled by fear. And fear of what? Themselves. Because examination of the self is often one of the aspects of multiple worlds. What kind of person would we be if we were in another world or if we had walked another path. So time travel is quite often futuristic, psychological, historical, spiritually existential, thriller, and puzzler all in one. Hence, my love of it.

 

Having glutted myself on time-loops, time paradoxes, and singularity I can assure you, Dear Reader, that I will not be overwhelming you with yet another article on time-travel movies. At least not anytime soon. Books await me and time must be put aside for the time being so I can use my time in a timely manner for better things.

So here goes:

 

11 a.m. South Korea 2013 CJ entertainment. Written by Lee Seung-hwan. Directed by Kim Hyun-Seok.

 

After dwindling down the choices from the many time travel flicks I’ve seen this month, the remaining contenders were Time Lapse and 11 a.m. So, the first: 11 a.m. because I like Korean (and non-US) speculative fiction.

 

The story is pretty basic. Our hero Woo-seok is leading a time travel research project called Trotsky -- so named because it concerns the past and alternate timelines and because Trotsky would’ve been the great Soviet leader instead of Stalin had if time had turned out differently. I need not tell you that Team Leader  Woo-seok has a past he wants to change, do I? We pretty much know that all Mad Scientists have some horrible event that happened in the past from which their passion came. So, yes, this passion for time travel originated in the death of our hero’s beloved wife. Ah, if he could only go back in time and fix things.

 

But her death happened waaaaaaaay back when. And so far the Trotsky team have only been able to (theoretically) go back in time for 24 hours. Not a bad start! But apparently not good enough for the Russians who have been backing this project and who now are on the verge of shutting it down.

 

Disappointed but valiant --and (as I’ve already stated) led by a somewhat obsessed Team Leader, our scientists decide to try to send Trotsky into the future. “For real, this time.” No more theories or transporting non-humans into the future. Woo-seok and Young-eun are sent a day ahead. At exactly 11: a.m. But when they arrive there, they find much amiss. The station’s ablaze, some crazy guy is attempting to murder Woo-seok folks have died, the CCTV tapes are scrambled and the walls are crumbling.  Dear me! What do these things mean? How did matters come to this pass? Have the Russians been doing shady things? Or has knowing the future caused this bad future to happen?

 

This is a fun flick. It’s fast-paced and it comes together well. I didn’t find any plot holes -- which is what one looks for in time travel flicks-- but it’s possible I was so caught up in the story I missed them. This film is streaming on the web.  

 

 

Time Lapse 104 minutes  USA 2014  Written by Bradley D King and BP Cooper. Veritas Production

 

Time Lapse is not exactly a time travel pic. It’s more of a fortune-telling advanced information pic. And it turns out to be the perfect complement to our Korean time travel piece, 11 a.m. We have three best buds -- consisting of Callie, Finn, and Jasper. Finn and Callie are dating and Jasper is well, hovering around them as best friends who are in love with their friend’s girl often do.

 

A neighbor goes missing. In their search for him, they discover a camera that takes pictures of coming events. Exactly 24 hours in the future. Dear me! What a difference a day makes! Well, for one, it can make a difference between winning a lot of money on gambling and winning a little. It can prevent -- or cause?-- murders. And if one or two of the main characters are obsessed with greed or lust or passion, well, who knows what will happen?

 

The funny thing about the course of events is that yet again knowing the future creates the future. In 11 a.m., the characters try to fight against what seems inevitable. In Time Lapse, the hipster ever-so-sure-of-themselves friends believe that since a future scene appears in a photograph, they are obligated to recreate what they see in the picture. But like the scrambled CCTV tapes in 11 a.m., these folks are working with incomplete information. I definitely recommend this movie. This film is available on DVD and is streaming online and on Netflix.  

 

The Beauty Inside 2015 South Korea. Yang Film. Directed by Baek Jong-yeol

 

Our third entry of involves not time, not space, but the human body and it has the feel of a transgressive fairy tale. Or perhaps it would be more transgressive if it hadn’t played it so safe. I will say though that some folks --especially those who are uncomfortable with non-normative sexual relationships-- might not find it such a safe watch. (This film is based on the original Intel and Toshiba “social” film, which I have not seen so alas, no way for me to compare.)

 

On his eighteenth birthday, Woo-Jin discovers that he is a monster. He wakes to find that he is not himself. Not externally anyway. He soon realizes that it is his fate to look differently every day. He wakes not knowing what sex, race, or age he will be. The only way he can keep any one face is to not go to sleep. But sooner or later sleep overtakes him and he awakes to a new self. One can imagine that this could be a problem. He lives an isolated life as a furniture maker with only his mother and his best friend privy to his secret.

 

Then one day he falls in love.  At first he is content to simply visit Yi Soo, the object of his affection every day. Since he looks like a different person, he can just pretend to be a customer. But after a while, he decides to show her who he is. After the initial shock -- and worry that she is dealing with a nutcase--  Yi Soo accepts him. But this acceptance takes a toll on her mental health and on her reputation. After all, her co-workers think of her as a man who sees a different man every day. And the poor girl only knows who her boyfriend is when he takes her hand in the morning or when he emails a photo of himself in the morning.  We come to understand that although human love is based on the beauty inside, there is comfort in the routine of seeing the same person’s face every day.

 

So then, the safety and discomfort factor. True, there are scenes where we see two girls lying in a bed caressing each other’s faces but that’s pretty much it. Not that I wanted a full-on gay sex scene but if the filmmakers are going to challenge society, they really should step up and make some of us conservative folks in the audience cringe or cover our eyes. But perhaps some conservative folks in Korea had that reaction. It would’ve been neat too to have an interracial kiss on one of the days when our hero is a Black person. Heck, I wouldn’t have minded a scene showing him as a Black person walking around town.  But the biggest problem in this incredibly sweet and wonderful angsty movie is how incredibly sweet and wonderful and angsty it is. And you know what that means, don’t you? While there are the occasional ugly, old, plain, middle-aged folks thrown in as our main lead, the guys who play our heroes are all incredibly hot and gorgeous. Korea’s culture of beauty obsession is not challenged at all. So, how can one dislike a movie when all of one’s favorite Korean stars are in it? Highly recommended. I suppose the film does say something about love and appearances. I just don’t know what. But it is beautiful and touching to watch.  This film is showing in art theaters.

 

ROWS  Runtime: 82 minutes

 

The opening shot of Rows, is a row of modern houses. Heroine’s dad is a real estate developer who wants to destroy the creaky old house on the property. Trouble is, an oldish woman named Haviland lives there and she won’t leave. Dad wants heroine to give Haviland the writ of eviction. Because he has decided he must be freed from her irrational fears of the house’s inhabitant.

 

Before we go any further, let’s pause a moment to ponder the heroine’s name. It’s Rose. Yep. And in addition to the rows of houses, there are rows of ominous corn fields. Unlike Coherence, which gives the viewer some clues before it sends us into the plurality and which tells us early in the plot that we are dealing with some wrinkle in time and place, the viewer of ROWS is floundering like its heroine. We wonder what the heck is going on throughout all the rows and rows of repetitions. 

Is this some intuition or some spell caused by the aged woman who might be a long-lived witch? Is our heroine having flash-backs or premonitions? When did heroine’s “time of trouble” begin?  

 

Was all that time-looping representative of Rose’s memory? Premonition of future events? Is it the result of breathing in too much pesticides and chemicals? Why is our heroine on a bed? Is she mentally-ill? Was there something in the cookies the woman gave her? Is this movie for or against our desire to be rational? Is it against living by intuition? Are dealing with a maze of mind? A maze of time? Or badly-done film-making manipulation? Some films do confusion well, and some not so well. Sure, there are nods to Hansel and Gretel and even a wink to Dante, but I don’t understand this film. I won’t go so far to say the filmmakers did a crappy job in clueing the viewer in because they might have wanted to leave us clueless. But I felt seriously lost in the corn.

 

Signal  2015 Streaming online at Dramafever and will probably end up on Hulu or Netflix.

 

Signal is a Korean drama I’m currently watching about a profiler cold case cop in the present who teams up with a cop in the past to solve past crimes. Easy enough one would think, right? But no! Turns out, messing with past time can cause havoc in the present. Do you really want to arrest the cold case guy back in the past? And what happens if you arrest the wrong guy in the past and he gets out of jail in the present and goes after the people who gave him grief in the past—leading to modern deaths? How does one undo all one’s undoing? I will add that the detective in the past whom the modern profiler cop’s talking to has died, and there is a chance we could save him…ya know..if we go back far enough in time. I will just say that this is one seriously fun drama and you definitely should catch it.

 

Til next time: happy times!

Review: Gift of Revelation by Robert Fleming

Gift of Revelation (Urban Books) Kindle Edition

by Robert Fleming  (Author)

Here's the blurb:

In this third installment of the Gift series, Reverend Clint and Addie
are finally settling down in Harlem following their Alabama adventure, during which they help black farmers. Addie, a former schoolteacher, loves New York City, with its glittering tourist sites. When she meets Dr. Bentley Gomes, a missionary just back from Africa, she is alarmed to learn of the worsening human rights crisis in Sudan. Addie is intrigued by the need for volunteers to aid those caught in the bloody war in this region. Meanwhile, Reverend Clint encounters African refugees, and their stories of suffering and pain tug at his soul.

Before Reverend Clint realizes what is going on, Addie volunteers to go to Sudan. The pastor follows her on this unforgettable journey of discovery and revelation, into the dangerous region, where they confront famine, violence, and religious persecution. As Addie plunges into this hell, she wants Reverend Clint to make a lasting commitment to her. She wants something solid but wonders if they'll make it out alive. Will the Sudan adventure transform their admiration for each other into fully realized love? Or will Sudan, with its violent extremists, corrupt politicians, heroic doctors, and long-suffering refugees, derail them from intimacy and trust?

File Size: 1115 KB

Print Length: 288 pages

Publisher: Urban Christian (March 1, 2015)

Publication Date: February 24, 2015

My Review:

Christian Books that are written by Black American Christians often deal with subjects that white Christian Americans rarely touch upon.  In addition, many Christian books written about country folk often depict rural America as a kind of pure Eden. In Gift of Hope, Robert Fleming shone his passionate and honest spotlight on racism in southern Christian America. Now the third installment of his series is more concerned with more global issues and often with Africa, the Black diaspora, racial and clan wars, and with inter-tribal, inter-clan African warfare.

The book is informative, well-researched and searingly honest. Which is a good and a bad thing. Mr Fleming, a well-known journalist and author, wants to put so much of his heart and passions into the novel that the book often comes off like a thinly-veiled journalistic article.  His skills at writing horror are well used here as he writes about the horrors of war in Africa. 

The main character, Reverend Clint, is a sympathetic character in the way most Christian fiction protagonists are sympathetic. And while the writer does lay it on thick that the main character has suffered, Reverend Clint is shown to be such a holy sufferer that he almost feels like a symbol instead of like a living breathing person. The same can be said for Addie, his love interest, who seems like a manic pixie dream girl wish fulfillment character. I know the character is still recovering from his wife's suicide and her murder of their children but I don't feel the suffering or the recovery. We are told repeatedly that his experience with his now-deceased crazy wife has damaged him, but we rarely see him missing or grieving for his kids. It makes me feel as if the writer didn't mine the personal aspects of the situation portrayed in the story. I found myself wondering if the story would have felt more real to me if the writer had simply made the wife kill herself and not the kids as well. 

The main thrust of the novel feels less personal and intimate. For the first parts of the novel, the main characters are hearing a lot about Sudan and the hearts of the main characters seem somehow distanced from the reader even though the author keeps telling us about their hearts. Fleming's depiction of the violence and the disturbing images the protagonist sees feels realistic, but the depiction of the hero's suffering feels unrealistic here in the third installment as it did in the first two books of the series. There are moments when characters will suddenly start discussing religion, race, religious wars, and journalism that feel wedged in. I've read several of his novels and he truly is a good writer but his transition to Christian novel writing is still ongoing.

Christian fiction is stagnant in many ways and Fleming is taking it into new territories. Having read his excellent serial killer novel, Havoc After Dark,and knowing the skill of his horror collection Evil Never Sleeps I would like to see him tackle a Christian urban horror novel. Fleming has changed Christian fiction by giving us realistic books about racism and war and I believe he is that author who is able to merge his horror talents with Christian fiction.

Three out of five stars. Recommended for church groups that may want to discuss African warfare.

Robert Fleming Bio:

Biography

Robert Fleming, a freelance journalist and reviewer, formerly worked as an award-winning reporter for the New York Daily News, earning several honors including a New York Press Club award and a Revson Fellowship. His articles have appeared in publications including Essence, Black Enterprise, U.S. News & World Report, Omni, The Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, and The New York Times. His non-fiction books include Rescuing A Neighborhood: The Bedford-Stuyvesant Volunteer Ambulance Corps, The Success of Caroline Jones, Inc., The Wisdom of the Elders, The African American Writer’s Handbook, Free Jazz, Rasta, Babylon, Jamming: The Music and Culture of Roots Reggae. His fiction titles include Fever in The Blood, Havoc After Dark, Gift of Faith, Gift of Truth, and Gift of Revelation. He edited the popular anthologies After Hours and Intimacy. He has taught journalism, literacy, and film writing at Columbia University, Marist College, City University of New York, and The New School.

The Scarred King by Rose Foreman

"From the moment he could walk, Bowmark has trained for a fight to the death. The Disc awaits him: a giant bronze platform suspended over a river of lava. He dreads the day of proving—when he must kill or be killed—to claim the throne.

His people have hidden from the rest of the world for generations. But when the discovery of a mysterious Atlas reveals forgotten lands and peoples, Bowmark begins to question his culture's traditions and laws. His unavoidable future seems grim and pointless when contrasted with another world full of unique civilizations populated with other intelligent species and marvelous creatures.

Meanwhile new threats arise from the depths, hidden enemies emerge from within, and soon everything and everyone Bowmark knows and loves will be changed forever.

Torn between a desire to fulfill his duty, and his empathy for others, Bowmark must use all his intelligence and courage to navigate an uncertain future."



I read some of this book in beta. I really like it. Soon to be up at amazon. Here is her page.

https://www.amazon.com/Lelia-Rose-Foreman/e/B001KHO3KU%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share