Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Powerful time-travel movies

The most famous one is Back to the Future starring Michael J. Fox. However, I've watched a few more that have made a great impact on me.

Disney Channel's recently concluded Black Hole High showed the workings of time-travel using the law of physics. It was a fascinating series.

A classic movie is Somewhere in Time starring the late Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. I love the theme song. It brings out the poignancy of the sad ending.

Reeve's character willed himself to travel back to the 1920s in the same hotel where he was staying at. He closed his eyes as he lay on the bed and kept chanting "1920s".

He did and saw this beautiful actress played by Seymour. He fell in love with her and tried to get her attention. She saw him and almost got together with him, if not for her director who liked her too.

Reeve's character had a 1980s item with him unfortunately and he was inevitably brought back to his time. He tried to will himself back to the past a second time but failed. This scene saw him crying tremendously and his pain was conveyed to me so powerfully.

Another movie, this time a Chinese one, has Stephen Chow and Gong Li as the lead actor and actress. I believe it is called God of Gamblers 2.

Chow's character is a gambling prodigy and has special powers. When he fights with people of similar talents, they get transported from HK 1990s to Shanghai 1930s. There, he meets the gambling legends he read about in his own time and even works for one. He meets his grandparents as well.

He falls in love at first sight with Gong Li's character. She plays twin sisters, one of which is mentally retarded. He falls in love with this sister but mistakes the other for her. He almost snatches the other sister away from his boss who is engaged to her. The other sister is tragically killed while trying to warn her fiance against her father who is a traitor.

When he realises the truth of the sisters, he can't bring himself to love her. He does eventually, with encouragement from his grandfather. When he is about to go back to the 1990s, he tries to bring her along in order to cure her. She ages however, because she belongs to her own time. He has to push her away and the parting scene is poignant. He goes back to the 1990s alone.

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