Sunday, February 26, 2006

The Legend of 1900


A good friend of mine told me about this film last year and I was so intrigued by the story that I have been looking for the movie ever since. Everytime I pass a video store, I walk in and search for it but I never found a single copy in this city.

I finally decided to order it on Amazon (the Emerald City of DVD's where all your dreams can be found) and true enough there it was in a 2 for 1 sale at $6.95. It was bundled with some other forgetable movie and the funny thing was if I were to purchase 1900 by itself it would've cost me more than double the amount. Anyway, I asked my sister to include it with her order and I'll just pay her back, but she became curious about it and so decided to buy it herself.

We'll for the first time today, I got to see the film and it was well worth the wait (and certainly worth a lot more than what my sister paid for it). The story centers on a musical (piano) prodigy named '1900' who lived his entire life on a ship and never stepped off it. What interested me is how his best friend kept trying to convince him to get off the boat because "the real world" was out there waiting for him.

It's quite striking how people often tell us to go out and experience the world as if we have never done so. Maybe they are looking at someone who is only 8 years old, or someone who has never left the country they were born in, or even someone who has never dared to try anything extraordinary in their lives. It would be so easy to tell that person that they don't really know anything yet about the world; But the truth is no matter how small a place you have lived in, how few risks you have taken or even how short a time you've known a person, you have already experienced the world.

That's because the world is a relative thing. It may be small, it may be big, it may be long or may be short, but it means most to the one who is experiencing it. I guess the lesson is not to be so quick to pass judgement on things when we know so little about it. Instead put your trust in the person experiencing that 'world' and be glad for them that they have that bit of happiness in the palm of their hand.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like my kind of movie. It's like it's telling me something too, hahaha. Gotta get a copy of that one. I've heard of this flick before, but it didn't come out here.

Unknown said...

yeah, it didn't come out here. we have this thing about showing only films that sell well...

Anonymous said...

waaaah!!!! finally you've seen it!!!!!!!!!! how'd you like it?? tell me tell me!!!

but i still think cinema paradiso is a better tarantino film

Unknown said...

tarantino?? as in quentin? i always thought they were tornatore films =p

LiberalArts said...

borrow naman! then I will order it....

: )

Unknown said...

hehe. cge i'll tell leah.