Reaction To The Host

The Host is a Korean movie about a creature that has become mutated by a doctor dumping chemicals down the drain. This causes a fish to become a human eating creature. When it attacks the people near the river, it causes panic. While the main character runs away he accidentally grabs the wrong girl's hand. Allowing the monster to grab the little girl. We find out that the monster has placed all the people he has grabbed into a sewer. The girls cell phone still works and she is able to call her father who has been placed in a hospital with the rest of her family because of their contact with the monster. The family breaks out and attempts to save the girl. They end up finding where she is but it is too late she has already been eaten. But one boy who had also been living in the sewer with her lives and the one survivor from the family adopts him.
           The biggest cultural difference I saw in this movie was the food. They would eat octopus legs and other things that are not common in the United states. They ate a lot of different types of noddles. It seemed easy for them to make. They were packaged and then they would add water.
    Family was a very important part of this movie. The whole family was willing to risk their own safety to rescue the girl. Part of this too was that the girl was a daughter who was born out of wed-lock. The mother had left and the young father has raised the girl. This is also a struggle that families in the United States have. Luckily they were able to be a loving family that would do anything for each other.
      Overall this movie was interesting and something fun to watch. The differences and similarities in this movie that stood out the most to me were the different foods and the same struggles within families.

Reaction to The Kite Runner

I really enjoyed watching The Kite Runner. It was one of those stories that is very sad but has a happy ending. This movie was based in Afghanistan before the Soviet invasion. It shows Amir's life story and all the ups and downs that he went through.

In his home Amir's father had many people working for him which can be the same situation here the United States. If you have the money why not pay others to do your labor for you. His home was also very similar to what a United States home would look like in the seventies. The difference was in the religious artifacts and the designs. The designs in their home were from the middle east. So you were able to tell that they were living in some place in the Middle east from their home. All the texts that were around their house was all Arabic.

The dress was very different from what we would wear, after the Taliban took over. Before the Taliban invaded the people wore western style attire. Pants and sweaters and the women were not all covered up. When Amir came back they all needed to have beards and wear Islamic wear. The women were completely covered you could not even see their faces. Here in America we are free to wear whatever we want, there is not a threat on our lives when we wear something original.
I feel like there were more cultural similarities in this movie than in the others we have watched. They were very modern before being invaded. Free speech also seemed to be in place before they were invaded and were forced to flee if you were against communism. Overall they seemed to be living a Western style life until they were invaded.
The Kite Runner was a very intresting movie. They seemed to be having a easy way of life before it was torn apart by the Soviets adn the Taliban. It shows just how easy your life can change.

Preview to The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner is the story of two boys Amir and Hassan and their life story. It begins with Amir in 2000 living in San Francisco when receives a call from an old friend, which causes him to flashback to his childhood. Amir's father is very wealthy and Hassan's dad works for him. Amir and Hassan are best friends and have been since birth. A big event in Kabul is kite flying. They will duel in the till one person is able to cut the others string. And Hassan is able to run down the cut down kites with ease. At the annual kite competition Amir and Hassan win using the kite Hassan got for his birthday. When Hassan runs down the last kite the cut, older boys stop him and rape him because he won't give up the kite he got for Amir. Amir witnesses this but does not do thing to stop it. When they return home niether mention anything about it. Amir reacts badly to it and tries to get his father to fire Hassan and his father. Amir's father refuses, but in the end Hassan and his dad leave.

Years later Amir is married and learns that Hassan was killed. And that Hassan was actually his brother and that his son is in Afghanistan. Amir decides to go and rescue him. In the end he is able to bring the boy back to the U.S. and adopt him.

Reaction to Maria Full of Grace

Maria Full of Grace was a dark look into the sadness that  is drug mules. It is very unfortunate that in some countries people need to become drug mules between America and their home countries. Here in America we see drugs as a bad thing and drug smugglers as awful people. This movie shows that the people that run it find people in poverty to do the grunt work for them. They are the ones who get arrested at the border and die when something goes wrong with the drugs.

The amount of poverty in their town was staggering. If you didn't work in the flower factory you didn't have a steady job. The conditions in the factory were bad and they were worked to the bone. You could tell they were working for minimum wage. From the horrible conditions and low pay you can tell there are not any labor laws in place here. But in the United States we have very distinct laws stating what kind of conditions people can work in and what people can get paid. Also our jobs are not based around one factory or natural source. We have a variety of jobs in our cities. Which means that if one company left we would still have jobs left. But in Maria's town if the flower factory left they would crash and everyone would need to move away to find new jobs.

There is also a lack of education in Maria's town. Maria is only 17 and is working to support her family. She should be in school getting an education so she can get a better job but unfortunately that can not happen because she needs money. In the United States it is required by law that everyone under the age of 18 must attend school. I believe that Colombia will need to create a law like this if they want to restart their economy.

 Compared to my life Maria has to make decisions that i could never make at 17. She needed to decide to take a job as a mule to make money for her family. I don't know i would be able to put myself in harms way just to make money. Also in the end she choose to stay in New York for the well being of her baby. I can not imagine staying illeagal in a new country but i would want to make the best decsion for my child's and my futures.

Maria Full of Grace opened my eyes to the struggles people have around the world. I was able to relate to some of the things that Maria chose to do. I enjoyed this movie and would recomed it to people wanting to understand the underground world of drug mules.