Movie Review: Quinceañera

I heard about this movie early last year through trailers on TV. I enjoy watching foreign movies as well as low-budget movies, as they have a charm of their own.
Being addicted to downloading most of what I watch on TV, supporting piracy for that matter, I recently persevered with the lowest rate of download for a whole week just to watch this film.

For those of you who do not know what quinceañera is, it is a coming-of-age celebration for girls who reach 15 years. This event is commonly practiced in Latin America and traditions vary from one country to the other.

Back to the movie, It was a refreshing, well portrayed exposure to a tradition that one doesn't hear about often. It starts really cute, with a lavish party for a rich 15-year old Hispanic girl and a bunch of old ladies slamming the tequilas. it quickly then diverts your focus to Magdelena, played by Emily Rios, who did a great job. Her acting was mature and natural. While watching the movie, you couldn't help but really feel it was a low-budget movie, I just couldn't get into it so well for me to forget that fact. I felt that its target audience were teenagers. It lacked the adult feel to it in the story-line (and I don't mean by that porn!), however you do come across homosexual references in the plot. I also was disappointed towards the end, when the movie becomes Americanised. By that I mean, script lines referring to things as 'Miracle' and a certain person as a 'Saint' and an attitude of 'I can conquer the world'. What I also couldn't understand in the movie was, how come Magdelena's bump grew bigger, yet her butt remained the same size!

This movie won 2 awards in the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and was screened in the 2006 Berlin Film Festival.

Will I watch it again? I don't think so. I actually trashed it.

The day & month of atonement

People around the world fast during Yum Kippur and Ramadan, yet neither parties can or know how to get along...

Images obtained from moos & MSN respectively.

Sumo

Below is an article from Reuter's website:

"TOKYO (Reuters) - A woman invaded a sumo ring -- a sacred arena from which females are banned -- in Tokyo during a major tournament, domestic media said on Thursday, then was pulled down by a referee and one of the sport's huge wrestlers.

The middle-aged woman dashed from the side of the Kokugikan sumo stadium on Wednesday and shoved away a female security guard before rolling onto the ring just as a bout was set to begin, the Yomiuri newspaper said.

The Japan Sumo Association insisted that though the woman did enter the raised platform around the batting ring, she did not set foot on the ring, or dohyo, itself.

"It's bad for the heart," said Takamisakari, a popular wrestler who helped catch the woman, told the Sports Nippon daily. "What was the person trying to do while we were wrestling seriously?"

It was not clear why she had attempted to reach the ring during one of the sport's heavily televised six big tournaments, but she was carrying a bundle of flyers saying "help, bad spirits," Nikkan Sports daily reported.

Such an intrusion would be a severe faux pas for the ancient sport, which is so serious about keeping females out that a female governor of Osaka had to delegate prize-giving duties to a male subordinate at a 2001 tournament.

Japan's giant wrestlers battle it out in a ring with a diameter of 4.6 meters (15 feet) set in the centre of a sand stage raised around 50 centimeters (19 inches) from the ground.

Tradition forbids women from entering the ring on the grounds that it is sacred and their presence, considered unclean, would pollute it.

"It's just the way it's been from the past," an official from the sumo association said.

Women were also banned in the past from climbing mountains or entering mines in Japan."

I beg to differ, I think this lady was trying to break the sumo taboo in Japan. Whatever the flyers were saying, I think this women was trying to tell the Japanese population, and the whole world, that we are not subordinates, dirty or pollutants. Men were just afraid that the whole world will witness no harm happening to the sport once a woman steps onto the ring. So as to protect themselves from ridicule, they shoved her to th side...

Islamic Swimathon

I recently got back into exercise, and I feel great. And so to avoid boredom with doing a routine workout, I included swimming into my weekly schedule. On my first day in the pool, I noticed that all the women, and I am not exaggerating, were wearing spandex shorts under a half-sleeved bathing costume and one or two were in the full attire as the picture. I initially thought that it is related to one's lack of self-esteem when it comes to exposing the famous Arab hips and thighs. However, I was very wrong. There were even slim women present who were wearing the same outfit. I am facinated by the surge in trend of what they call 'Islamic bathing suite'. It is originally designed to allow Muslim women to participate in outdoor water activities. Yet, I do not understand why a woman needs to wear it in an indoors all-ladies swimming pool. One has to bear in mind that, Islamically, women should conceal in the presence of other women the area from the naval to the knee. Therefore, it baffles me why ladies in Kuwait feel the need to cover from neck to ankles when going into the swimming pool. I am not implying that they should all go topless, however, there is no harm in being in an ordinary bathing suite...it is just easier on the eyes.

Note: apology goes to eshda3wa & lady says for the technical hiccup