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Not wanting what I saw at the terminal, a dilapidated van, I headed to Alabang for the third straight day. There was a bus filling with passengers but I lined up for the Jayross bus. I sat at the very first row and asked for assistance from the conductor to train the aircon vent on me. My seatmate gave a helping hand too and directed the other vent to me. I had all the chills I can take.... it was too much but I didn't want to dismiss the effort of my helpful seatmate so I endured the cold temperature.
The conductor loaded a movie in the DVD player just before collecting our fares. That should make me forget my chills. I think it was the same movie I watched
before on the lady assassins, China Dolls as I thought then........but it's Naked Weapon as I learned today. I got to watch the start of the movie. The plot follows the evil travails of Madame M as she snatches pre-pubescent girls, including Charlene (Q), who show aptitude in sports or combat, hordes them on a remote island and forcibly enlists them in her assassin masterclass. After six years of grueling Pygmalion-esque training, the girls compete in a caged fight to the death; the winner graduates to become the Madame’s premium prize-fighting assassin, to be released into high society like some postgraduate femme fatale. I knew I wouldn't finish the film once again. I watched a longer portion of the film the first time I watched it in a Jayross bus also. There is another Chinese film I watched twice but couldn't finish also. I am thinking of taking a leave of absence and having a joy ride from Alabang to Fairview to complete one movie...... an inexpensive way of getting entertainment.... maybe I should pack snacks and lunch. Who knows I might be able to watch three or four films if the conductor wouldn't mind my lingering.My unfinished movie watching in the bus actually results in frustration because I'd like to finish what has been started..... I'd probably not know how the movie ended and it will hound me eternally. Even if I can probably find a copy in one of those sleazy pirated DVD havens in Quiapo, I won't have the time to go there or sit to watch a film like that. I'd rather reserve the pleasure to one of the many must-watch films and those kinds of films do not make it to that list. Then again, it's very rare that I get a chance to watch any movie.
Many, many years ago, I borrowed the film, The Insider, from a video rental. That was the time, renting VCD was still considered the cheaper form of entertainment until the age of piracy and downloadable files set in.
Based on a true story about a CBS 60 Minutes-episode in 1994 on malpractices in the tobacco industry, that was not aired because CBS parent company Westinghouse objected. "60 Minutes" producer Lowell Bergman (played by Al Pacino) sniffs a story when a
former research biologist for Brown & Williamson, Jeff Wigand (played by Rusell Crowe), won't talk to him. When the company leans hard on Wigand to honor a confidentiality agreement, he gets his back up. Trusting Bergman and despite a crumbling marriage, he goes on camera for a Mike Wallace interview and risks arrest for contempt of court. As matter of conscience partially prodded by producer Lowell Bergman, he revealed that, the tobacco industry was not only aware that cigarettes are addictive & harmful, but deliberately worked on increasing that addictiveness. Unfortunately, both protagonists of this story learn the hard way that simply telling the truth is not enough as they struggle against both Big Tobacco's attempts to silence them and the CBS TV Network's own cowardly complict preference of putting money as a higher priority over the truth. Westinghouse is negotiating to buy CBS, so CBS attorneys advise CBS News to shelve the interview and avoid a lawsuit. "60 Minutes" and CBS News bosses cave, Wigand's hung out to dry, Bergman is compromised, and the CEOs of Big Tobacco may get away with perjury. Can the truth will out? I was glued to the TV enjoying a quiet Friday night (the start of my movie watching days as it's the beginning of the weekend) as Wigand torn between self-preservation and the truth while his marriage crumbled was set to reveal inside information. It was about half of the film as I just replaced the first vcd with the second one, when in a snap there was static and then nothing on the screen..... $%^&*!@#$%^&**..... I silently cursed and hurled invectives like I have never done. I wanted to scream and kick except that I might wake up my young son and the neighbors might think a crime in being perpetuated in our home. I bit my lips as I breathed heavily unable to release my fury.
When I returned the VCD to the rental shop, there was no other copy.... darn again. Buying VCD at that time could be expensive expensive. I could only hope to buy it on sale some other time. I have since forgotten about this film, even the title such that when I searched for it in video shops I would not know what it is exactly I was looking for. I had to search Russell Crowe's file to look for the right title of the film for this post. Such good films are not seen in your friendly Muslim DVD vendor either. I am just reminded of this incident because of my recent experiences in being unable to finish a movie. I don't think the Jayross personnel are open to suggestions on movie choices.
I think I have to take matters into my own hands. I have decided I am buying a new LCD TV set this weekend. I also have a DVD player I got through a raffle at our school Christmas party just hanging in the cold. My room will be one glorious theater this weekend. I think I might just finish these movies that have kept me yearning and gnawing all this time....
PS: Dami nakatambak na kailangan gawin. Di ko malaman ang uumpisahan ko. Sa totoo lang ayoko umpisahan pero kailangan ng gawin at baka masita na ako ng mga bosing. Kaya kailangan nang magpanggap.......
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