reetwritesthhoughts

[reetwritesthhoughts]

Today I watched "Lost in Translation". This was my 2nd attempt of watching the film, the first one being very short spanned (lasted for about 5 minutes) till I gave into some distraction or other.

But today, I watched it from start to finish and I enjoyed the slow pace and sombre atmosphere juxtapositioned with bright neon lights and nightlife of Tokyo. Having said that, I wasn't completely hooked either. The movie seemed like it had lot to say but didn’t actually manage to say much.

The supposedly humorous elements of Japanese culture, the oblivion of the Japanese people towards the western tourists'  lack of apprehension fell a bit flat for me personally. It all seemed very contrived, shallow and almost making fun of their culture itself rather than the funny moments coming out of the misunderstandings. The scene of the whisky advertisement director being passionate and so emotive with his directions, for it being translated to single and at times not even full-sentences did make me chuckle a little.

It had a good buildup and the characters seemed like they had a lot of depth, which ironically was all left on the surface and we never really got to explore that. Who was Charlotte? Perhaps that was the question Charlotte was asking herself too and maybe it was a deliberate choice by Sofia Coppola to not give us too much about her as she was in the process of discovering her. I would have cared more for her had I been shown what's been keeping her up at nights, 

Loneliness very well ensues a desire to connect with people you just simply connect with, especially in a setting where everything is alien to you. Both the characters wanted something meaningful and were trying to scrape their way out of small talk with strangers and acquaintances. They wanted something more than the night life, strip clubs and capitalistic luxuries and perhaps they found that in each other's company. But we never got to witness that profound connection that drew them towards each other, other than a single scene of them, lying on the bed and a mere hint of the reasons of existentialism for both of them. It all felt vapid but maybe that was the point. As life can feel vapid at times, even when we are hanging out with people we connect the most with.

Having experienced a similar sense of ennui, when I visited my brother at the start of the year, living at his place in a city that I have been before but this time for a much longer period as opposed to weekend visits once a year, while he was extremely busy with work. Having lost my job and trying to make sense of life with new found freedom and abundance of time, I honestly felt completely lost and somehow depraved of connection. Maybe I would have latched on to any seemingly familiar individual to feel something, as the characters in this film did. Rather, I chose to stay in my solitude, reflected a lot about life and indulged in some good old fashioned crying.

Familiar experience, made this movie make me feel much more than it should have and perhaps that is also why I found it lacking as I wanted some profound or a satisfying thread to hold onto, but all I got was a very unsatisfying conclusion that totally ruined everything for me by choosing to portray their connection as romantic as opposed to platonic which I was very much rooting for. I would have appreciated the exploration of the connection that they shared and how they felt so close to each other within less than a week, much more without the romantic angle.

On a side note, how gorgeous is Scarlett Johansson in this movie!

#thoughts #movie review #movies #lost in translation #scarlett johansson

[reetwritesthhoughts]

A lot of “us” (read: me and my other personalities) have associated the life of aesthetics as shallow and not something you should strive for in life.

Having said that, more recently, I have been drawn more and more to different aesthetics (book reading, masc female outfits, dark academia, french classics, cottage core and what not ) as elements of these ways of living has helped me discover what my passions are and what kind of things my mind is attracted to. They can exist in the same space as me being an eco girly who doesn’t want to contribute to ever increasing demand / consumption of unnecessary material goods. This new found appreciation has pushed me to find creative ways to express all the facets of my dynamism.

Lately, I have had the privilege to come to the realisation that the inherent problem lies not with liking or wanting to live life through the lens of a certain aesthetic, rather making it about just that filter and how you want to be perceived by others through that, and how well you fit into the said aesthetic. It goes downhill when it becomes less about the small things of the persona that sparks joy and focusses heavily on the need to be seen in a certain way.

Ps. Perhaps it’s my late reflection from having read secret history last year -//-

#aesthetic #thoughts on life #aesthetic community #the secret history #richard papen

[reetwritesthhoughts]

oh to be a writer and live in europe

[reetwritesthhoughts]

A lot of the times I do not really know what makes me happy or the things I am passionate about. But I see other people really enjoying the things that make them happy, things like reading, playing an instrument, rock climbing, painting, dancing, crotcheting, knitting, pottery, writing and what not. So I latch on to the things that people I like enjoy doing. I don’t fully understand my motivations behind it, maybe it is to feel closer to them or it is to finally find something that I will feel passionate about too. But many a times, I end up not feeling as fulfilled or excited about those things after trying it for a while and I start to question myself as to why I didn’t enjoy it when I was supposed to. After spending hours ruminating about it, I found myself questioning the very thought of why I want to force myself to like certain things in the first place. Maybe I am not supposed to find love for a singular thing and maybe my love is supposed to manifest in my attempts to try other people’s passions. But it takes a lot of effort bringing that sort of self awareness when you are really going down the hole of devaluing your very thoughts and existence for merely not enjoying certain things as much as you thought you would or as much as you wanted to. I also feel like it’s akin to forcing yourself to love the people you feel like you should be loving because they love you and no matter how hard you try you just cannot feel the same way about them.

#spilled ink #spilled thoughts #passion #self awareness #thoughts

[reetwritesthhoughts]

Jo March was so iconic for expressing it out loud. I so truly relate to this sentiment and feel this to my bones, but still have such a hard time admitting even to myself that I feel lonely at times because everyone seems to be prioritising romantic love and I have always tried to chase the platonic love. Maybe because I am just too scared of romantic love shattering me and all I have to offer to the world or maybe I feel like I won’t be loved as deeply as I want to love others and it is easy to forgive your friends or siblings for not reciprocating equally whereas feeling less loved by a romantic partner really destroys your soul.

#spilled thoughts #spilled ink #romantic academia #platonic #romance #life #little women #jo march #classic literature

[reetwritesthhoughts]

[reetwritesthhoughts]

Vita carissima

[reetwritesthhoughts]

I never left my emo phase, it just matures into dark academia like fine wine

[reetwritesthhoughts]

Random thought of the day: We talk about human experience as if we are not actively (or passively) living and breathing it. We externalise the approach so much that it almost feels foreign whereas it should feel something close to home, something natural and intuitive. We are quick to validate some experiences as human and dismiss something that is out of the ordinary, whereas everything part of the norm or not and in between is the very existence of experiencing life.

#spilled thoughts #spilled ink #thoughts #life quotes #cognitive psychology

[reetwritesthhoughts]

Unpopular opinion, but falling for fictional characters as an escape from reality isn’t a flex as much as my younger self used to think it was. I would and I see many young people falling deeply and head over heels with multiple fictional characters via books or tv and it felt very rewarding. However, growing up has made me realise how much disconnected I am from the layers and complexities of regular people living their mundane lives as I do not have a manuscript to guide me to their most troublesome emotions or how these real worldly souls have evolved over their lifetime. I cannot flick through the pages of a book in one day or binge watch episodes, getting to know these equally amazing and richly layered personas is a daunting and excruciatingly time consuming process. But again that’s the beauty of it and as a self proclaimed slow burn lover, I really should be up for it.

#romantic academia #writing prompt #fic talk