The Disneyfication of Life

I loved reading comics on superheroes when i was young.the Marvel comics of superman,batman,the incredible hulk and spiderman.they had superhuman powers to fight the villains in the universe and as in all fairy tales,good will win over evil in the end. i also loved the disney fairy tales like cinderella,snow white,peter pan etc. so from young,we were brainwashed by fantasy and get a rude awakening when we grew up and faced the harsh reality of life.reality sucks.there is nothing romantic in being poor,ugly,stupid and fat. so our romantic delusions are shattered when we realise that ultimately bad people will win,that the rich control our lives and the powerful oppress the weak.injustice,inequality,discriminatiom are part and parcel of the real world. so to prevent the poor deluded sods from rebelling against the status quo,hollywood and disneyland manufactures and sells these downtrodden masses beautiful dreams and fantasy that offer them hope and ideals and escapism from reality. when discrimination against blacks and black lives matter see a rising awareness of racial injustice,hollywood recreates the fantasy of wakanda and black superhero black panther to give them a sense of empowerment over being unfairly discriminated.when there is rising anti Asian hate especially against east asians whether chinese,japanese,korean ,vietnamese etc,,hollywood makes an asian superhero Shang Chi using Mandarin as the medium to counter the evil Fu Manchu stereotypes of Chinese.they play to the stereotype of invincible kung fu skills but should have employed real kung fu consultants to teach the actors and actress real martial arts moves,not dance like sequences.some shaolin or tai chi master will have the last laugh out loud moments viewing unconvincing fighting skills of shang chi and the superheros.bruce lee,jackie chan,jet li would have been better role models for shang chi. the movie was entertaining with superb hollywood cinematography and computer graphics.like kung fu panda,hollywood has the knack of telling good stories that let us suspend our beliefs for two hours. but last nite i viewed an excellent latin american movie at a foreign film festival.it was a Chile indie movie called the Mole agent which was a documentary fiction .this is the best movie ive seen for 2021.the theme is on how the elderly residents of an old folks nursing home felt abandoned by their loved ones and forgotten by the world.a concerned daughter employs an undercover detective to spy on the operators of the nursing home to uncover suspicion of neglect and abuse of elderly residents.the acting was good,funny and convincing but the residents were not professional actors.they were real people who were secretly filmed pouring their hearts out to the spy about the deep loneliness,alienation and disappointment with their children.although the directors were from Chile,the language was foreign and the actors chilean descent,the scenery chilean but it resonated with me as an Asian audience because despite cultural differences in context,what was universal was the human emotions that transcend time and space.as a person with aging issues n recovering from a fall,i can empathise with the elderly ladies who fall sick,have difficulty walking,feel frail,dizzy and have memory lapses.i can share the pain of feeling cut off from the young,healthy working population,of waiting for a loved one to contact them,to savour the small joys in life like singing,dancing and celebrating birthdays.what the spy revealed was not abuse by the caretakers but emotional and mental neglect by their children and siblings that hurt these old people the most.they felt unwanted,unloved and useless after devoting their time and energy to look after spouse,children and grandchildren.the Chinese place so much emphasis on xiao en as they say when you have made it in life,dont forget the source of your success.when you drink water,dont forget the source of the spring. the movie has financial support from america and europe and altho it may not earn big bucks like hollywood movies,i think i will always be an ardent supporter of alternative or indie movies because they have so much invaluable lessons and impact on how we view the world.they open up our mind to some hard truths whether on love,friendship,religion,injustice or the environment.so i support the freedom film fest and the environmental movies like the 11th hour.