With your Tiger(PART 1)
(pi001b.jpg)
Kato, you had a nightmare last night, didn't you?
What makes you think so?
It's obvious that you were eaten by a tiger in your nightmare.
Looking at the above picture, you've just come up with a wild guess, haven't you?
Well ... if anyone takes a look at the above picture, he or she will get a picture in which you're devoured by the tiger in another second.
You've got the wrong idea, Diane. I viewed a movie called "Life of Pi" at VPL (Vancouver Public Library) last night.
Was it a free movie?
Yes, it was. As usual, a librarian introduced the "Life of Pi" at Alice MacKay Room on the lower level.
(pi007.jpg)
Life Of Pi (Trailer)
<iframe width="500" height="350" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/j9Hjrs6WQ8M" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
(vpl010.jpg)
(vpl009.jpg)
Why didn't you tell me? I might've come with you to see the film.
The film started at 6:30 in the evening, and I just happened to notice the bill posted in the evelator around 5:30 p.m.---which was too late to ask you to dash to the library.
Why didn't you notice it much earlier?
Beat the hell outa me. Anyway I enjoyed it profoundly.
Was it a good movie?
You bet on that, Diane. It is one of the most dangerously and awe-inspiringly hilarious and mind-boggling movies I've ever seen.
You're making a mountain out of a molehill, aren't you?
No, I'm NOT. Believe me, I really mean it. If you take a look at the following page, you can certainly believe it.
(lib30719.gif)
■"Actual Catalogue Page"
You see ... 517 people are waiting to borrow the DVD, and 42 people jotted down their comments.
Kato, you haven't borrowed the DVD, have you? How come you've made a comment on the DVD?
...'Cause you'll be convinced that this film is superb if you see the above page.
Tell me Kato what impressed you so much.
Well ... read the part of my comment.
(pi005.jpg)
Pi is the sole survivor of a sunken ship after a fascinating and tragic series of events.
Eventually Pi washes up on the shores of Mexico, 227 days after the ship sank.
Two insurance agents for the Japanese sunken ship come to interview him in the hospital and Pi recounts his story.
Pi is the sole human survivor on a lifeboat with a zebra, hyena, orangutan and a huge Bengal tiger called Richard Parker.
This is the version you see on the screen.
Two Japanese agents don't believe his story and ask Pi to tell the true story.
He tells a less fantastic yet quite brutal account of sharing the lifeboat with his mother, a Buddhist sailor with a broken leg, and the cook (played by Gérard Depardieu).
The cook kills the sailor in order to eat him and use him as bait.
In a later struggle, Pi's mother pushes her son to safety on a smaller raft, and the cook stabs her and throws her overboard.
Later, Pi returns, takes the knife and kills the cook.
The above two versions are told in a flashback.
Now back to the present, Yann (the author) notes the parallels between the two stories: the orangutan was Pi's mother, the zebra was the sailor, the hyena was the cook,
and Richard Parker, the tiger, was Pi himself.
Pi asks the author which story he prefers, and the author chooses the one with the tiger because it "is the better story."
(pi004.jpg)
Now, after the movie, you might wonder, "Which version is the real story?"
The subjective interpretation of the film is intended to serve as moment of theological reflection.
Are you a person who prefers to believe in things that make sense?
Or are you a person who can believe in miracles and has faith to believe in some magical or spiritual being?
I see... so, you're the person who believes the brutal account that makes sense, aren't you?
Oh, no... As I always jot down at the end of my mail, I'm a romantic Bohemian.
So ...?
So, naturally, I like a romantic and adventurous story in which more fantastic events take place. I'd certainly like to travel with Richard Parker in the lifeboat, rather than with the brutal French cook.
(To be followed)
