Inception : Conclusion

"What's the most resilient parasite?

- An idea."

So, I watched Inception a few days back.

It was... mind-fucking!

I must say, this is the BEST movie I have ever watched.

I didn't even realize it was a 148-minutes movie.

It left me wanting MORE.

I couldn't take my mind off the movie even after I left the cinema and even accidently went into the male's toilet.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

*WARNING : Spoilers ahead!"

You wouldn't understand what I will be talking about if you didn't watch the movie anyway. LOL!

The ending of the movie was unclear whether Dom Cobbs (Leonardo DiCaprio) was still dreaming or in a reality because the spinning top did not stop.

I wished that he was in reality because I've always liked happy endings.

Hehe.

Anyway, I researched about it and I don't think the director did published the ending anywhere.

The movie ended in such a way so that we can end it the way we wanted.

Based on many opinions in the web,

these are a few points that needs consideration before making a conclusion :

1. The spinning top is not his, it's Mal's.

In Mal's dream the spinning top never fell, but it could be different for Cobb.

Cobb first touched the totem in a dream world also.

Besides that, remember Arthur (Joseph-Gordon Levitt) told Ariadne (Ellen Page) that you cannot let other people touch your totem because you should be the only one who knows its weight etc?

The older version of Saito (Ken Watanabe) and his security guards also touched Cobb's totem when they captured him.

2. The children did not seemed to age BUT in the credits, there are 2 people hired for both characters :

Claire Geare - Philipa (3 years)

Magnus Nolan - James (20 months)

Taylor Geare - Philipa (5 years)

Johnathan Geare - James (3 years)

However, I didn't see any difference about the kids including their hairstyle and clothes and they were at the exact same position.

BUT, the movie did not specify how long he left his home, maybe it was just a month or so, that is why there were no changes?

I read a comment somewhere saying that the children on the beach looked smaller, maybe that is why they have 2 sets of casts (not sure).

It could also be because the kids in the telephone are different.

3. It wasn't shown whether Saito killed Cobb and himself, 'kicking' both of them into "reality".

4. There are many debates on whether the ENTIRE film was just a dream after all.

Cobb is performing inception on himself.

He is the architect of the dream but he used another architect inside his dream.

Besides that, in the dream phase 1, hitting the water was supposed to be the kick to bring them back to the plane ("reality") and yet we saw them swimming out of the van, sitting on the side of the water and talked some crap.

Not only so, the unstoppable projection army that is just above them on the bridge is letting them be.

This is because Cobb wants to see Robert Fischer come to the decision and it can't happen in the "real" world of the airplane where Robert Fischer will think it as a dream.

On top of that, there wasn't any complete scene in the movie and it kept jumping,

like what a dream is supposed to be.

5. If the whole movie was a dream,

it means Mal jumping down the building 'kicked' her into the REAL world.

BUT, if she really did, why wouldn't she wake Cobb up?

6. The last time we saw the spinning top fall was in Paris.

MAYBE, the master of inception, Miles (Michael Caine) manipulated the whole event so that Cobb forgives himself about Mal's death.

The rest of the crew are not projections but real people probably working for Miles perform inception in Cobb's mind that he is not responsible for Mal's death.

Besides, the rest of the crew also hardly questioned Cobb's decisions although he did put them in danger in the dream.

7. Ariadne could be the movie's real extractor.

Miles hired the best extractor he knew of (better than Cobb) to perform inception on him.

Her skills was so good even in the first exercise and she was able to manipulate the streets of Paris to fold up onto themselves.

How could she be so skilled in the first round?

Because she is a professional extractor of course!

8. It was mentioned that Robert Fischer was trained to protect his sub-conscious

(with the projections of army etc).

Who trained him?

Could it be because they were in Cobb's dream all along and since Cobb is a profession extractor, he has been trained to protect his sub-conscious?

Or, Ariadne trained Robert Fischer?

9. Cobb and Mal were in the dream world for 50 years.

It was said that 5 minutes (real world) = 1 hour (Dream Phase 1).

Thus, the calculation should be :

It would be illogical that they slept for 4 years.

It is also humanly impossible that their body can be at that stage for that long without food and water.

(I don't remember what's the ratio for Dream Phase 2 though, sorry!)

That being said, this means they should be in deeper dream phases.

10. Limbo : a state of uncertainty.

Since the sedate was so high, when they die in the dream, they will not wake up but be in a Limbo instead.

Cobb died simultaneously in four dream stages

(drowned in the second, then blew up in the elevator, blew up in snow place in third, and Mal stabbed him in the fourth).

It means he was in a limbo.

11. It could be possible that Cobb never woke up from the chemist's place in Mombasa.

When Cobb "woke up" after using the new potion, he went to the toilet and tried to spin the top but Saito interrupted him and it wasn't shown whether the top fell.

This is so that Saito learnt about Cobb's plan to incept Robert Fischer and at the same time, make Cobb believe he "returned" home.

12. Cobb performed inception on himself but refuses to accept his current state as a dream because he believes it as a reality.

13. Someone also pointed out that Cobb always has his wedding ring during the dream world but never in the real world.

He did not have the ring in the last scene.

OMG. NEW DISCOVERY!!!

Cobb's wedding ring could be his totem!

Read this!

14. The top wobbled in the end and we did not get to see if it actually fell after that.

Earlier in the movie, it was shown that in the dream world, the top has a perfect spinning motion once it is up to its full momentum.

Flaws :

1. Cobb and his people incepted in Robert Fisher's (Cillian Murphy) mind that his uncle, Maurice Fisher (Pete Postlethwaite) kidnapped him.

So why did Robert still saved him from the sinking van?

Furthermore, Cobb and the gang mentioned that they were destroying one relationship but building Robert Fisher's relationship with his dad.

2. How could Robert Fisher didn't recognize Saito when they are supposingly head-to-head competitors?

3. Okay, this is not a flaw but just another question in my head :

Why was Mal at the opposite window of the hotel room?

4. Why isn't there any other projections in Mal and Cobb's world?

Conclusion :

The director, Christopher Nolan introduced rules and limitations to the story and structured itself within the same confines.

The debates about the conclusion can go on and on and on like the Penrose Staircase.

Personally, I think he was still in a dream. =(

Cobb told Ariadne not to recreate reality in dreams but in the end, he was embedded in a world of his own memories.

He was able to see his children's faces because his sub-conscious was finally free of guilt over Mal's death.

So, what do you think?

Was Cobb awake or dreaming in the end?

"You're waiting for a train. A train that will take you far away. You can't be sure where it will take you. But it doesn't matter - because we'll be together..."

Sources : 1,2,3,4,5,6

Sex & the City 2 sucks

First of all, I would like to apologize for not blogging for like "forever". Haha.

I'm very busy with uni, having finals next week. X.X

(wish me luck!)

Anyway, yesterday I watched Sex & the City 2.

It was rather disappointing.

Reasons why it sucked :

1. Half-funny jokes.

They tried to crack some jokes but it wasn't funny enough.

It was like "haha?" instead of "HAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!".

(If you get what I mean, LOL)

2. The casts are old but they are trying to be young.

*Put some pants on please, aunty.*

3. Unrealistic fashion.

I mean, I love beautiful clothes and shoes etc but it's just too much.

Even at home or in the hotel room or in the market, they were wearing long gowns that touches the floor, put on heavy make up, wear accessories etc which obviously doesn't make any sense to me.

*Carrie wore this to the market.*

*Charlotte and Miranda in the bar in their suites.*

On top of that, when they were in the deserts, they changed their wardrobe thrice?

a) On the way there 1 outfit

b) When they have to sit on the camel, they had changed to another outfit

c) When they have lunch, change to another outfit again

4. Bad karaoke.

If they can't sing, don't make them sing!

5. The movie did not finish what they started.

For example, Samantha Jones's hottie in Abu Dhabi just disappeared.

So was Carrie Bradshaw's ex-boyfriend, Aidan.

6. Boring.

I found myself yawning throughout the movie (not because I was sleepy).

The first quarter of the movie was boring.

It only started to get exciting when they were in Abu Dhabi.

7. Too dramatic

When Carrie kissed Aidan, she went nuts and had to call all her friends to talk about it.

8. Too fairytale.

Even when Carrie kissed Aidan, Mr. Big forgave her without any fight and bought her a black diamond ring.

Come on, everybody knows that that doesn't happen in the real world?

9. Miley Cyrus was in the movie.

I think number 9 says it all. HAHA.

BUT, to give the movie some credit, I do love a few things :

1. A different scene.

I was quite surprised when most of the movie was set in Abu Dhabi which was unique.

*No, this was not the hotel they stayed. I couldn't remember the name. Haha.*

2. Love the wardrobe, as usual.

Ermmm, that's about it? XP

Movie fact :

The movie was actually not filmed in Abu Dhabi because the officials rejected after reading the scripts. They were also unhappy to be associated with the movie.

The real location was actually Marrakesh, Morocco.

Have a nice week!

=)

English vs Mandarin

Which language do you think is more important in our society?

English or Mandarin?

Before moving further, I would like to say that I'm not insulting any of these languages in any way, I'm just justifying their importance in my opinion. =)

Back to the main topic,

Did you know that Mandarin is actually the world's most spoken language?

This is due to the fact that population of Chinese makes up of 1/6 of the total world population.

Mandarin is said to have the most native speakers of 873 million

(meaning : the first language a person learns first) while

English have only have 341 native speakers.

However, 1.5 billion or 1 out of every 5 people knows English.

Now, the reason why I am writing this post is because I don't really know how to speak in Mandarin (I do know how to listen and speak basic Mandarin though) so I do get frustrated when I see people don't know English.

For example, this :

Okay, until now, I still don't know what did that guy said. Haha.

Can somebody translate that to me?

I know I sounded like a hypocrite because I'm not very good in Mandarin and other people don't know English but I get frustrated when they don't.

This is because I think English is a really easy language to learn and it is also very important as a language worldwide.

Besides that, it is also one of Malaysia's most spoken language so I find it a bit embarrassing for Malaysians who do not know BASIC English.

Some of the funny signboards regarding poor English usage mostly in China :

Whatt??

I didn't realize moles need rests too!

After "dying"... Haha!

Notice that the vegetable dish on bottom right is written "Black Mushroom RAPE".

Which "come" you are talking about? Haha!

Come on, so many people there but they didn't know it's wrong?

Although Mandarin has the most native speakers, it only has official status in the People's Republic of China, Taiwan and Singapore.

Meanwhile, English has official status in AT LEAST 30 countries.

Btw, having official status does not mean that it is the sole language in the country.

Furthermore, more than 80% of the pages on the Web are in English.

With the Internet era where Internet is the source of most FREE information,

not knowing English would be a pity.

That being said, I did learnt Mandarin in kindergarten and took extra classes in Standard 1 and 2.

However, I don't know what happened to the extra classes after that and I forgot how to use it. Haha!

I think schools should actually continue giving these extra classes because knowing an extra language is beneficial.

To be honest, I find our government's move to change Mathematics and Science from English back to Bahasa Malaysia is also questionable.

All subjects (except languages subjects) are taught in English when the students move up to college and university levels.

I studied Accounting in Bahasa Malaysia in secondary school and when I reached college, it was obviously taught in English and I had a bit of a difficulty learning it.

How about Science? Wouldn't it be worst with all those scientific terms?

Excelling in secondary schools does not mean a thing because you can't be a doctor by completing SPM or STPM.

I think there are many other alternatives to popularize Bahasa Malaysia besides this.

Okay, back to the original question,

which language do you think is more important?

A somewhat funny and irritating video for you guys to watch. =)

Enjoy!

Have a great day! =)

Sources :

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Tumblr

When I first heard about Tumblr, I thought it is a bottle tumblEr.

Seriously.

Haha!

Tumblr is actually a blogging platform, just like Blogspot, Wordpress etc.

However, I actually preferred using Tumblr more than Blogspot.

(Opps, I really shouldn't write this since I'm using Blogspot here? Haha.)

The reasons :

1. Tumblr is more user-friendly.

As you can see in the picture,

I can choose how I want to blog.

Different format gives you different layouts.

However, that also depends on how you customised your blog. =)

2. License to copy.

While all of us bloggers hate copycats,

In Tumblr, you are FREE to copy anyone's post by "REBLOG".

With this function, you can copy and acknowledge the original blogger.

People actually love it when you reblogged them because it is like free publicity.

For people who loves pictures like me, Tumblr is perfect.

My Tumblr is full of the pictures I reblogged from others.

By clicking on the circled button in blue, I can view the history of this picture until back to who originally posted it.

3. Convenient.

Similar to Blogspot, you can "Follow" people and receives their updates at the dashboard.

The best part is, at the dashboard itself, you can "Like", "Reblog" or "Reply" ("Reply" only works for "Text" posts I think) there and then.

4. Plenty of pages.

In Tumblr, I can follow the pages full of pictures of the celebrities I love such as Chace Crawford, Taylor Momsen, Britney Spears, Gossip Girls, Victoria's Secret Angels, blah blah blah... you name it.

There are also pages devoted to fashion (with all the nice clothings), architecture, animals etc.

All I have to do it search for Tumblr + ___ (Whatever you want) in Google.

5. Connected.

I am actually more connected around the world with Tumblr, not Facebook, not Blogspot.

This is because, Tumblr actually records the activities of a post such as who "Liked" it, who "Reblogged" it and so forth.

Then I can click on their pages and "Follow" them. =)

6. Themes

There are plenty of themes to be chose from.

When I just started Tumblr, I can spent hours on choosing the themes because I was spoilt with choices!!!

Each theme have different customization - Some allowed more, some allowed less.

But mainly it was on colours.

HOWEVER,

Tumblr has its disadvantages too :

1. I'm not sure if ads could be placed in Tumblr. =(

2. You can't really comment on other people's posts except their "Text".

Furthermore, the person who posted the "Text" can't reply you.

(It doesn't really work like Facebook)

3. Not all themes look good with a Chatbox in it.

Anyhow, I still love Tumblr. =)

Check mine out :

*click me*

Have a nice day!

=)

Funny Scenes in Ugly Betty

As you know, I'm pretty addicted to "Ugly Betty" now. HAHA!

Anyway, here's some of the funny things that I like about this show :

1. The guy singing in this video is called Jesse.

He was in a date with Betty (Betty actually likes him a lot) but he just kept talking about himself, so here's the song "Me".

The lyrics :

Yeah, it's me me me me, me me me me,

me me me, me me,

Not you, just me,

Yes me, not you,

What rhymes with me?

I know!

It's ME!

Yours truly, me, myself and I.

2. "Gene Simmons is my daddy" by Amanda again.

There was special guest star appearance by Gene Simmons also.

I know her singing is really bad but that's why it's so funny.

HAHA.

3. The cheerleading song that I've mentioned last week.

Marc and Amanda at time 1:15 until 1:30.

The lines for the cheer :

*click me*

I think they are both my favorite characters in the movie although they are not the main characters.

In the same video, Naomi Campbell also appeared.

It was especially funny when she took out her phone and everyone was so scared.

You did heard about the news on her throwing her cell phone on her assistant or something right?

If you didn't, here it is :

*click me*

That scene starts at 4:49 until 5:28.

Enjoy!

=)