In a dark congested room filled with people and their over-buttered popcorn, my younger self would rather seek comfort in my father’s embrace and fall asleep than to properly enjoy a movie because I had never liked being in a cinema or watching a film. Maybe because I used to be afraid of the dark, or maybe because films did not entice me like words did. This dislike faded gradually as I grew older, but I still don’t find the excitement and enjoyment of films that I usually find in books. Due to mandatory social engagements, going to the movies seems inevitable. Even for my favourite Harry Potter series, I still think that the book is better.
In high school, I remember on the flight to Vancouver when going back to school, my friends and I watched the movie version of “The Importance of Being Earnest” on Netflix because we were too lazy to read the play. For the longest time, my impression of movies had been that they were a video-version of Reader’s Digest – only providing compressed information of a book. Most of the time, I feel like the emotion or fluency of the original work is lost in translation when it becomes a movie.
However, things changed after watching a film. For the first time in my life, I did not think that the book was better, instead I felt like what I saw was perfect, and the movie was “Crazy Rich Asians”.
You might disagree with my choice of film as the cinematography and storyline of the movie are not the Oscars definition of perfection but its beauty is in the eye of the beholder. From the raining scene in England where they were told to go to Chinatown, to Araminta and Colin’s lavish wedding, to the mahjong scene with Rachel and Elanor, every clip depicts the best parts and worst parts of being Asian American/ Canadian.
My favourite scene of all is definitely when Astrid Young Teo stands up for herself in front of her husband. Even though feminism has been a cliché in Hollywood movies, when she said “it’s not my job to make you feel like a man. I can’t make you something you’re not”, I have never felt more empowered. My best friend and I screamed “queen” out loud in the theatre when she said that. Something about her acknowledging that she should not be apologetic because of her husband’s weakness makes us understand that our value is not determined by men.
I tried to reread the book after the movie but it is different to seeing Astrid standing tall in front of Michael Teo, saying “I shouldn’t have kept things from you. Hidden my shoes, turned down jobs, charity work, worrying that it might make you feel lesser”. And this is the first or only time in my life, that I admit that filmography has power that is different to the power of words.
Although this movie has changed my perspectives of movies, I still think books hold some kind of prestige over films. Therefore, when I watched Knives Out, which is a mind-blowingly amazing detective movie, I could not believe that it was not based on a book. My friends and I were not sure whether it was because we watched it amidst exam season, and it was the only entertainment we had had in weeks after being in a library smelling like fish for most of the time, that’s why the movie seemed extraordinarily outstanding, or it was actually thrillingly awesome.
For me, a storyline as intricate as such must be based on literature. After watching the movie, my friends and I sat outside the theatre trying to find which book it was based on, and we were all shocked to find out it is an original movie. “It would be so much better if it was a book”, my friend blurted out. He seemed to be in a state of disbelief that the effect of the film was as powerful or even more powerful than books, and I hate to admit that I was as in awe as he was.
I cannot deny that recommending a movie to your friends is easier than persuading them to finish a book. For example, I have been telling my friends about “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” trilogy since I was in Grade 10, but no one wanted to read it until Jenny Han, the author, decided to stream it as a series of movies on Netflix that people started to debate whether they are on team “John Ambrose” or “Peter Kavinsky”. In modern society, while productivity is above everything, sometimes writers’ work must be turned into performances in order to reach a wider group of audience.
Slowly an anticipation builds in my mind that maybe one day my favourite novels will become films as exciting as the book. Maybe one day Madeline Miller’s “The Song of Achilles”, “Circe” and Leigh Bardugo’s “Ninth House” will be on the big screen, and finally there will be a larger group of people who can talk about my favourite stories. I guess, after all, film has some edge over literary work.
Photos courtesy of Unsplash
