Sunny

        

Seven girls. One group that will last, as one of them says, “beyond their death”.

That’s what Sunny the movie is all about: Sunny the group, then and now. Back in the 1980’s and still stuck in the present.

The movie manages to capture the essence of a friendship between middle school girls that reunite later in life, when their leader dies. The friendship doesn’t. It is beautifully directed, as the scenes that show the past and those that show the present do not look mismatched; they shift smoothly and quite beautifully. It also has so many clichés but still captures them differently. Like the beautiful girl of the group, the “popular” one, is actually the silent one, that surprises when she proves to be a fighter when it comes to her friends. Or how much first love can hurt. Or the little ironies that are sprinkled all over the movie; how the “best” ones end up being in the worst state being one of them. I also love the subtle ways the movie shows how some relations (wife – husband, parents – daughter) work in nowadays’ Korea or how everyone’s addicted to dramas (the hospital scenes in the beginning really made me laugh).

Simply put, this movie is amazing. Breathtaking. It has so much of a plot and substance and does not fail in putting it together. And I love this. I also love how well matched the actresses are with their characters, which I adore. They play their roles so well, that I found myself crying towards the ened because they gathered as seven again only after the leader was gone. I mean, here we have the leader that acts as tough as a boy, but has the heart of a girl (Kang So-Ra plays young Ha Chun-Hwa, Jin Hee-Kyung plays mature Ha Chun-Hwa), the daughter of a teacher that could be called as “Queen of swearing” (Park Jin-Joo as the teen Hwang Jin-Hee, and Hong Jin-Hee as the mature one), the not-your-skinny-type of girl that can’t wait to get a double eyelid surgery ( Kim Min-Young and Ko Su-Hee play the young and not so young Kim Jang-Mi), the girl that dreams to be a writer, but proves to be quite the fighter as a teen(Nam Bo-Ra and Lee Yeon-Kyung play Seo Geum-Ok), the girl that lives her life as the pageant queen she will be one day (Ryoo Bok-Hee, played as a teen by Kim Bo-Mi and as a woman as Kim Sun-Kyung), the beautiful girl that everyone knows will become a model(Su-Ji, played by Min Hyo-Rin as a young girl – Su-Ji the woman only appears for the last couple of minutes in the movie and I’m not sure who plays her yet) and the newcomer, the girl from the countryside that lastly joins the band(Shim Eun-Kyung and Yoo Ho-Jeong play Lim Na-Mi in the two very different moments of her life) that put up with other bands of girls (ironically named “Girls’ Generation” – I doubt there’s any connection to this Girls’ Generation , but it’s not the only time the director uses popular band names nowadays in the movie, as the girls initially wanted their group name to be Wonder Girls). I admit it would have been interesting to see the WG vs. SNSD back in the 80’s as teen groups :)

And don’t get me started on the cinematic aspects of this movie or the fashion. It’s just…well, I’ll let you judge for yourself.

                                               

You can watch it (and I highly recommend you do so) with English subtitles here, here or here.

Photographs from here or screen caps of mine.

P.S. The soundtrack is also quite amazing!

Words are not enough

 

Funny how ironic life can be sometimes. Just a week ago I was talking about milestones, about the fact that everything has an end. And just a few days ago someone’s life ended. Someone I really loved and cared for, someone I didn’t expect to leave me at this point in life. Or at all. I guess we really take things for granted, don’t we?

Now that one of my grandpas is gone, I just feel my heart is filled with regrets. The regret that I didn’t go see him on Sunday, that I didn’t call him like at all and that it seems an eternity since I’ve last seen him, the regret that I actually never told him how much I love him and how important he is to me. That I admired, and still admire, him. I can only hope that, as an understanding and patient grandpa that he was, he understood what I had never actually told him. I also hope that he really is in a better place right now, watching over us and forgiving us any mistake we could have possibly made. And if he’s not there yet, I’ll make sure he will go there, because he deserves it. That’s the only thing I can do for him right now, pray.

You see, I don’t really believe in the so-called “it’s Tuesday, 13 or Friday, 13 so it’s bad luck”.

But it was Tuesday.And 13. 

13.12.2011

It was like a warm spring day, not a cold December one. Maybe this means it was better for him to go wherever he went; maybe this means that God, knowing through how much pain he’s been through during the last years, decided to ease everything, by taking him close to him without having him experience much pain, without him even expecting it. Maybe, and I really hope this is a sure thing, he now knows no pain or anger or anything; he must have his well deserved peace.

            

Milestone

 

It hurts knowing how it will end at one point. Your birthday, a bad day, a long class at school, being stuck in the traffic jam, your childhood… everything has an end. I guess this is why they say we should enjoy each moment of our lives. It is true that we will never be younger than we are at this very moment. So why waste the moment? Might as well spread our wings, open our minds and just go wherever life will take us. Yet, rather than doing so, rather than listening to my instinct that always proved to be right, I do the exact opposite. I plan. I over think. I don’t just let life happen; I make sure what I want to happen will happen at one point or another. And in the rare moments that I just let it be, I feel complete for that moment. But the moment being nothing more than that, a future memory lost in my little treasure box deep in my heart, sooner or later the regrets sink in. And the what ifs…    

             

Is there any way to beautifully close a chapter in your life and move onto the next one? I sometimes wonder of how my parents were when they had my age. When they tell me pieces of their life back then, I can’t help but notice how something in them changes. How their eyes have a tiny sparkle of happiness mixed with sadness, even melancholia, how they no longer focus on me and just look into space, how they relive those moments when talking about them. I wonder if this is how I will end up like. Talking about the youth I’m supposed to live now to my future children. In a way, it sounds like the best plan for  life. I will have my family. And I will be a role model for my children, just like my parents are for me. And I will make sure my parents, grandparents’ stories will live on. But there’s the other way around: realizing I will lose something. A part of me. I guess that it all comes down to this, after all. You take something from life and have something be taken away from you.

          

The Little Things

 

                   “People shouldn’t dwell on the past. It’s enough to try your best in all that you’re doing now.”

                                                                                      - Aya, “1 Litre of Tears” (Japanese drama)

 

Trying your best in what I’m currently doing sure feels good. It keeps me focused, it keeps me motivated and it gives me a reason to get up from your bad each and every day, knowing that  I am about to change something. Something about me or something about the others, something about the world we live in…anything.

Yet it sometimes feels so nice looking back and only being filled with happy memories. I feel… complete at those times. Because it means I haven’t lived in vain. It means I created something, and even if it will only remain in my memory or my closest friend’s memories, it doesn’t mean it is nothing. It can turn out to be everything.

At the end of our lives, aren’t memories the only way to judge our way of living? Aren’t memories those that brighten our days and remind us of the good and the bad we were through, the friends that stayed by our side, the fears we overcome with small steps, the things we learnt, the small things that made our life not empty at all?…

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

My past experiences are those who made me who I am. And I can only be happy for the recent ones, that only made my days better and heart filled with good feelings.

For lovely, crisp autumn days that I wish would never end. And the heart warming sound of stepping on to fallen leaves.

For joyful little girls that put a smile on your face only with their way of being all cute and beautiful and noisy and funny and extremely adorable and everything else that makes you all glow with happiness from a child’s simple gestures.

For weekend mornings spent with my family which should last an eternity and for school days that sometimes seem to never end…

For getting dressed up with no reason, getting compliments that suddenly increase your self esteem.

 

For getting to play with an adorable puppy (that shouldn’t be referred to as a puppy any longer) that simply won’t let you do anything without him because he just loves you too much and has to always be there for you( not that I mind him doing so).

For a bunch of pretty flowers and for late night study accompanied by too many cups of hot chocolate and rice&milk&cinnamon.

For finding beautiful poems to read an re-read, only to make me realize how far childhood seems to be and how adulthood knocks at my door, now with being eighteen and everything… (now, excuse me English speakers, but I couldn’t find a way to translate this poem without losing its meaning and harmony of words – I had to keep it in Romanian):

And, lastly, for a beautiful Korean song that manages to give me peace and tranquility every time I listen to it, while expressing some of my fears in beautiful written lyrics…

                    

 

Indeed, as someone recently said, autumn has been so good to me this far.

My project of goals

Not sure if I’ve shared this before, but I am person that loves making lists. Sticking to them is the most difficult part most of the times. The lovely Danni over at oh, hello friend came with this amazing idea of making a list of 12 things to do before 2012. Are you up for a challenge? I know I am.

Here’s my list…

1. Exercise on a regular basis, no more excuses!!!
2. Try to bake a cake.
3. Read at least 4  3 books by the year’s end. [one done, three to go…]
4. Spend more time with my family.
5. Take more photographs.
6. Take it easy.It’s my last year of high school and all I do is study and study and study some more.I need to learn to relax and take it one step at a time.
7. Be more active in terms of volunteering.
8. Mix and match clothes from my own closet; I have to learn to use what I’ve got.
9. Pray.
10. Take my driving license.

Personal Thoughts on Korean Beauty Standards

 

Korean High School (Documentary Preview) from Kelley Katzenmeyer on Vimeo.

 

Having spent so much time lately trying to learn more about Asian lifestyles, traditions and history, in particular about South Korea’s modern society, I find this video intriguing, unexpected but at the same time it seems as if I have already known everything that it contains.

After having read a lot on this aspect, watched many Korean dramas( though they do not exactly reveal a society’s true qualities nor flaws) and reality shows, as well as interviews of famous Korean people, I myself have identified those social issues.I may not personally know any Korean and I have not been through their educational system (in fact, I can only speak from an outsider’s perspective as I have not visited South Korea yet), but I can see those problems.And I can only wonder how can this be happening?How come, even though they are not a superficial people, artificial standards of beauty rule their modern society in an unimaginable way.How come there can be put so much pressure on those kids, which, by the way, are my age?It’s not like there is no pressure put on me, but I know my limits and I have the courage to say what I feel and how I should be doing things since it is my life in the end and I do not have to change my appearance for example just to get noticed.How come they can (mostly) look up to the so called “idols”( who, probably, create the delusional image of an “ideal” body/face/person while facing themselves the absurd existent standards of beauty and life, in general) and only wish to look like them? What happened to one’s character and moral values and beliefs, are those less important than having an “ideal” look?

Don’t get me wrong, I do not blame them for getting their inspiration from someone famous; I guess we all do so at one point in our lives.I just can not conceive the idea that they are not taught to love themselves the way they are and they are not taught what self respect and love is.We can not live by wishing every day to have I do not know what skin color or nose shape just because this is considered to be beautiful, or because we won’t get noticed by people of the opposite sex or future employer any either way.And the fact that they get plastic surgery like it would be a Christmas present( for example, the one for having double eyelids) is just so…so wrong.

I, for one, stand for individual beauty.And I know that things will hardly change in the near future at least, since , apparently, there is no one that doesn’t comply with the so called standards being in the spotlight and teaching them that there is a reason for God creating them the way he did.That it is not wrong to not have a model’s body or western eyes.They should be told how beautiful they are the way they are.And how special their features make them.

I do not want to be misunderstood, this post is only my way of expressing the frustration I have with regards to the way some things work over there.I may be wrong and I may also not have the needed knowledge to say such things.I am aware of that.And I may also not have the right to pinpoint other society’s flaws when mine has its own, but after having watched the video I just couldn’t hold it inside me.I just want to wake those students up from this illusion; I may not make it, but I can only try.

Anyways, I truly support those behind this documentary.I really hope they will succeed in putting across the message.

What are your opinions on this video?

Weekend in photos – The moments I am thankful for

Saturday morning.9am.

Spring sunny mornings seem to finally visit my lovely home.And what a would make the morning even better?Cooking.Something easy, yet delicious.And, hopefully, healthy.

And the feeling of excitement when you see the final result.And the feeling keeps growing when you eat it… 

And so the morning just goes by…and here comes the afternoon filled with reading for a writing a new article for Telluric Season magazine.Apparently, when I get the working bug I end up spending half of my night awake.Working on what I  have to do…

         

And so comes Sunday noon, with me and my family ready for a short trip to my grandparents in the countryside.The youngest member of the family surely enjoys the drive…            

               

And here’s for the amazing sceneries and nature coming back to life,for seeing your family having a good time, for playing hide and seek with the cat and enjoying the game of light and shadows, for imagining clouds are tiny elephants or giant marshmallows.

And for coming back home, where yummy food always welcomes me and fresh tulips my darling mother gave me earlier in the day rest peacefully in my little sanctuary.

Sunday evening.9pm.

              

Day by Day

"Every spring is the only spring - a perpetual astonishment."

Ellis Peters

Goodbye winter, my dear friend.You've been there with me through tears of joy and happiness, through sorrow and broken hearts.I say goodbye to your silent night with whispering stars and to your cold mornings.Oh, how I wished the night’s embrace to never end.Yet everything in this world has an end.And an end is a new beginning.

So here I welcome spring and new daily rituals.The twinkling stars and the shinning sun shall be now my companions on this journey called life.The never ending mornings spent wrapped in bed sheets with a cup of hot coffee, a book and good music.The short nights filled with oh so many dreams.

Here I welcome a new chapter in my life, along with nature’s new face.May many episodes of friendship, love,special family moments,learning and daydreaming come.

And may God be with all of us!

For Japan with love

        I am sure most of you have heard about the disasters in Japan. Even if I do not live there, even if I have no connection with the Japanese people whatsoever, I have a huge respect and love for their culture.Their lifestyle.Their language. And I can not help but feel like the disaster affected me as well..

    I know there are many organizations where you can donate, but I found this one that is created by two bloggers: http://www.forjapanwithlove.com/. And that suggests that we, bloggers from all over the world, should have a day of silence.

    March 18th.

    Maybe you are not one of those who pray for Japan. Or who donated. Or who had a moment of silence for all the lost souls and some hope for those yet not found. Or who had lost someone during these last days. But you are human and you could have been one of them.

    This is the least we can do.

    March 18th.

    For Japan. With love,

                    Ruxandra

The story of a charming girl

     

 

this is the story of a charming girl

she laughs out loud, sings off key and believes in taking chances

she is quick and curious and playful and strong

she lets her imagination run away with her

she has never been one to stick to convention

she is fond of daydreams that take her places

she can order a cocktail in six different languages

she feels that understated is overrated

 

A film by Kinga Burza for Kate Spade New York

Style Diary: Almost midnight

Innocent snowflakes that travel around the world falling slowly into my hand.Lights guiding us through the night; careless whispers and lullabies singing for our souls.She twirls and smiles and tries to find a piece of quietness in this chaos of a world.Lost, yet without a future she breaths in and closes her eyes.Alive, yet dying slowly, fading into a shadow of what she’s used to be.What she's supposed to be.

But midnight is just before the dawn.Another day will come, another smile will hide the restless heart of hers.Good night, dear.Morning’s waiting for you.

Winter epilogue

               

 

It’s strange how we connect, as humans.It’s amazing to find that one person some would call best friend, some soul mate and some an angel sent from God.It’s enchanting to share moments.And create memories.And even more amazing is to value that friendship, knowing that person will always be there for you and vice versa.Because you were meant to find each other in this world that can be so confusing an chaotic.You were meant to have like an imaginary wire keeping you close, even when you’re apart.Keeping you connected to each other.

Still, it’s painful watching that other person fade away.You know what’s going on, but you just can’t recognize the person you once knew.And it is just a phase or a changing mood, you have them too.And being apart for a while is acceptable, but you feel the changes.And, in a way, you want to preserve the person you once knew, and not let the world change her.You want the innocent beginning of the friendship, yet you love the dynamic of its complexity.

It’s useless to ask for such things.We all change.We are meant to change.Life happens.People adapt.Friends…are always on the other side of the wire, waiting for the changes to be over or to help.

Twilight Over Hearts’ Orchid

 

They say that it’s better to learn from others’ mistakes.To have no regrets.To enjoy each and every moment of life as it was your last one.

But they don’t know what’s inside of your soul.A smile can hide an unimaginable pain and sorrow.

That is why it is better to take your time when it comes to people.And start by doing that with yourself.Love at first sight does not always last forever, because the passion of the youth tends to fade with time.But knowing each other before having developed that amazing feeling of love builds a solid base for a relationship and a life together.

So be your friend and loving yourself will come naturally.Small steps lead to great achievements.

Here’s to a New Year filled with tears of joy and , if necessary, sadness,new and old friendships and sleepless nights to make memories, laughter and photographs, words of wisdom and words of foolishness, acting like a child and turning into an adult, old and new lovers, family ties and finding yourself, books and music and everything else life has in store for you.

Hello 2011.Goodbye 2010.

Illustration: Nicolas Gouny