January 10, 2017
11:15 pm
Beijing, China
Dad asked me today if I was ever going to write another blog. I guess I didn’t realize how many days it had been since I last wrote to you all. Oops, sorry. There just hasn’t been all that much of interest going on. It has been almost a week, though, and there’s no excuse for that. Thursday and Friday were pretty normal. I had classes to teach and that was that.
Saturday was my fun day. I only had two classes, so work was obviously pretty light. Around lunch time, people started talking about Rogue One, which came out in China on Friday. It was playing in the theater upstairs and a few people were mentioning how excited they were to see it. I joined in and at some point we decided to look into seeing it that night. I, being useless otherwise, offered to purchase the tickets. Remember how I mentioned that WeChat is life. Yeah, guess how I ordered the tickets. Afterwards, I ran upstairs with one of our new local teachers to get the physical tickets from the kiosk. Very exciting to read about, right? The rest of the work day went on and then it was time for the movie.
If you have not seen Rogue One, go see it! It’s amazing! If you have watched the other Star Wars movies, you’ll love seeing all of the connections to the original movies. Unlike The Force Awakens, it’s not a similar storyline. It’s a completely new plot and the character backgrounds are different. If you have not seen any of the other movies, this is okay as a stand alone or a place to start. Sure, you’ll miss some of the Easter Eggs and references, but it’s still a good movie that you don’t have to know the entire series to enjoy. I really recommend it!
SPOILERS BELOW Skip the next 3 paragraphs
Quick review of the movie, because why not. I absolutely love Jyn’s story. I missed the first couple minutes of the movie, so I didn’t get the full background, but I did see her father’s arrest. I like that she knows what’s going on in the world, even if she’d rather avoid it. She’s strong and courageous. She doesn’t take crap from anyone! And the idea that her father is the engineer of the Death Star was such a great idea to fill the ever looming plot hole of the single target system failure. That said, I’m still a bit confused on her adoptive guardian’s story. I know the reasoning for it—it was the reason she was important to the rebels—but I feel like there wasn’t enough back story there for his bad health and eventual death to really be that profound. Again, I somewhat understand the reasoning behind his death, but it seemed a bit unnecessary. I felt like there were a lot of expendable characters in this movie whose backstories were so briefly mentioned, but not developed. Of course, it’s only a single, 2.5 hour long movie, so they didn’t have time to explain everything. Yet it seemed as though they teased us with these little snippets of relationships and attachments, but didn’t follow through on their promise.
I enjoyed seeing the little hints to the other movies. For example, the two guys they see in the square are the same guys who Luke runs into in the bar in A New Hope. The footage of “Red Leader, go” is from the original. The inclusion of Leia’s adoptive father and the end scene. I really enjoyed the little tidbits that a person who had seen the other movies could catch and notice. It really made this movie feel like a part of the Star Wars universe without pushing it over the line. While I did love The Force Awakens, there were times that the Star Wars-ness was a bit overdone. Rogue One had the perfect balance of new and old to make it truly work.
My favorite part of the whole movie, though, was Jyn and Cassian’s relationship. This was another perfectly executed storyline. Their relationship wasn’t at all forced. They gently grew closer over the course of events and in a reasonable, believable manner. It was interesting to see how their behavior towards each other changed over the course of the movie. In the beginning, there was definitely mistrust. They were constantly watching each other with apprehension, even if Cassian may have had some stronger feelings of protecting and admiring Jyn. Throughout the movie, they became closer. Their looks became more lingering and communicative. By the time they began their final mission, they were able to simply give each other a look and that expressed everything that needed to be said. Additionally, they began to rely on and trust in each other. The moment where Cassian holds Jyn back is a great example. He knows her. He knows that she doesn’t truly want the revenge that is clearly tempting her at that moment. The best part, though, was that they never said, “I love you,” and that they never kissed. The hopeless romantic in me just died a little as I typed that. But, seriously, it would have totally ruined the relationship. Instead, they left you with the question of, “What could’ve been?” It’s exactly what life is like. People die with unfinished business and stories that will never be told. Yet, that isn’t the end. Instead, they end the movie with hope as they pass along the Death Star plans.
OKAY YOU’RE GOOD
Sorry, I just really wanted to talk about the movie really quickly. Anyway, besides that, I haven’t done much. I’m still working on cleaning the Teacher’s Office cubbies to help make things easier with all the new teachers. I also went to IKEA today to grab a few more things. I got a new quilt, a set of shelves, and a few other things that I needed to help me organize and live life here. My housing envelope took a bit of a hit, but I’m still sticking to my budget. I’ve had a couple people at work give me a bit of crap for it, but I like that I’m being smart about what I’m spending. I don’t want to be in a position where I only have a few kuai left in my account and I’m desperately trying to get by until my next paycheck.
Anyway, there’s my update. Taylor and I are having a sleepover, so I’m going to head off.
Talk to you later,
Kristen
