At last. Congrats Winston!momopi wrote:I've meet middle aged taxi driver in Taipei married to a beautiful young Cambodian bride (photo in taxi).


I agree with you about American Beauty being one of the most powerful movies to come out of a Hollywood major, ever. Like all great works of art, it hit me on many different levels. It still ranks as one of my favourite movies, and its soundtrack is a recurring guest in my Spotify playlist.S_Parc wrote:I'd sent this as a PM, to someone on this forum.
The movie, "American Beauty" is an omen, it almost predicts the life of anywhere from 50 to 75% of men in this country.
In reality, Kevin Spacey's character had no way out. In America, if he pursued Mena Suvari's adolescent character, he's both a pedophile & a pervert. Next, his wife had decided that his rebellion (awakening, if you want to call it) had gone far enough, and was ready to kill him. In fact, the ex-marine saved her from facing the DA's office for 1st or 2nd degree murder.
When I'd seen that movie, I knew in my heart, that marriage and a happy family life in America was over. What Spacey did, upon the moment of his death, was justify a series of life decisions [ the life he'd created w/ Benning & Birch ], because for a brief instant, he'd believed that any appreciation, even if those things were destroying him on the inside, was the essence (call it the *beauty*) of his life. Well, in my opinion, it was his life ... a life wasted.
A decade later, folks at Happier Abroad, are now addressing those decisions and seeing that making one decision, not dating Annette Benning [ the AW], not accepting conformity, may help avoid one's death [ not just physical, but emotional & psychological ] . I'd started on that path, not too long after "American Beauty".
Ok, I'm going to bite on this one. Yes, "American Beauty" was a satirical black comedy and such, uses imagery, metaphors, and over-the-top theatrics to convey its message about the American family, esp in the suburban sprawl. Likewise, around the same time, "American Psycho" did the same thing for the vacuous culture of Wall St and how a raving psychotic could live among the proper banking elites w/o detection. Strangely enough, after seeing "American Psycho", I'd also felt that a major crisis was going to happen, as a result of this type of amoral, disconnected, *psychotic-leaning* culture of the Street. Well, then came 2008; AP proved to be a prophetic, if you really read between the lines, despite it being a lyrical black comedy.publicduende wrote:All this said, it's still a bit dangerous to generalise. American Beauty has enough evocative power to make the Burnham family a universal icon of what's wrong in suburban America, yet I don't believe the reality is that tragical. If anything, Sam Mendes was careful enough to give all characters' epiphanies a surreal, grotesque, at time comedic flavour. It's satyre at its best, and satyre always likes to distort and exaggerate.
I see American Beauty as a wake up call on what can, and will happen to a family when its member choose to stop communicating, when parents stop listening to the sound of their children growing and facing their age-specific issues, when an Italian silk upholstered sofa takes priority over the asses who sit on it. It's a warning shot, and a great one at that, yet warning shots are not meant to kill.
I see where you're coming from. Whatever the power of imagery of AB, I understand those metaphors resonated far deeper and heavier with you because:S_Parc wrote:Ok, I'm going to bite on this one. Yes, "American Beauty" was a satirical black comedy and such, uses imagery, metaphors, and over-the-top theatrics to convey its message about the American family, esp in the suburban sprawl. Likewise, around the same time, "American Psycho" did the same thing for the vacuous culture of Wall St and how a raving psychotic could live among the proper banking elites w/o detection. Strangely enough, after seeing "American Psycho", I'd also felt that a major crisis was going to happen, as a result of this type of amoral, disconnected, *psychotic-leaning* culture of the Street. Well, then came 2008; AP proved to be a prophetic, if you really read between the lines, despite it being a lyrical black comedy.publicduende wrote:All this said, it's still a bit dangerous to generalise. American Beauty has enough evocative power to make the Burnham family a universal icon of what's wrong in suburban America, yet I don't believe the reality is that tragical. If anything, Sam Mendes was careful enough to give all characters' epiphanies a surreal, grotesque, at time comedic flavour. It's satyre at its best, and satyre always likes to distort and exaggerate.
I see American Beauty as a wake up call on what can, and will happen to a family when its member choose to stop communicating, when parents stop listening to the sound of their children growing and facing their age-specific issues, when an Italian silk upholstered sofa takes priority over the asses who sit on it. It's a warning shot, and a great one at that, yet warning shots are not meant to kill.
I'd brought this up in a PM but I believe "American Beauty", despite its overall sense of theatre, has much more to say about our society then we care to admit. In many ways, like "American Psycho", it's a distorted mirror of its topic matter. From my own life, I can see that my dad's a blend of the ex-marine & Annette Bening, a mix of unrelenting power/control & vanity/narcissism. My sister was his female counterpart, the Femi-Nazi histrionic personality disorder but with no academic nor vocational know-how to back it up. My mom was more like Thora Birch, feeling hapless & unable to free herself from the chaos that my father and sister would create around her, a depressed person. I was definitely the [ science/engineering version of ] Wes Bentley & I was out the door at 17, just like him in the movie. And if my dad were gay, like our marine friend, I'd be proud of him because at least I'd understand that he was living in a closet. Instead, he's both straight and a difficult person to deal with at all times. Thus, in the 14 years since AB was released, I'm seeing more and more dysfunctional households arise over time. Like "American Psycho", it also foreshadows its topic matter, the gradual fall and decline of the American dream but with its focus being the family of the suburbs.
I think you've pretty much validated my initial assertions. Remember, Kevin Spacey's character didn't have the foresight to have seen (and discussed) "American Beauty (w/ the HA crowd), before he'd started dating Annette Bening. He's in that world of *hindsight is 20/20*, in the weeks prior to his death. Also, in terms of general demographics, the urban population of Boston & Cambridge cities have stayed constant for decades, however, the greater Boston suburban sprawl has grown from 2M to some 4M residents during my lifetime. In total, my state has only 6M residents, many of whom, live in some sort of suburbia so thus, the pressure to fit in, to conform, etc, has only exasperated over time. Realize, AB is a predictor for 50-75% of American men, some obviously slip through the cracks.publicduende wrote: Though worrying it is, a trend can be reversed, and even when it cannot, it should always be possible to find pockets of our society where that degradation hasn't assumed tragical proportions...yet. That is again depending on where one lives. I lived all of my childhood and teenage years in the relatively closed-knitted community of a Southern Italian town. If I had been born and brought up in Rome or Milan I would have seen more shit, more spoiled rich kids, more dysfunctional and broken families. I am obviously aware that that reality exist, however by pure luck I didn't experiment it. By experience I can't say the whole of Italy is like that. And by extension, US is an ever bigger country and it should surely be just as hard, if not harder, to generalise and spell doom for oneself and the rest of mankind.
At least in the UK, families that originate from more traditional and "inertial" backgrounds, like India, the Middle East and Asia, usually have better adjusted offspring. Perhaps that's one pocket of salvation. Looking for transient foreign citizens who are in the country to study or work may be another. That's exactly what happened to me with Monica, in Cambridge in 2007. Going abroad to find a more traditional woman is obviously another option.
So abroad outside of the Western feminized World a man that was dating a sixteen or seventeen year old adolescent girl wouldn't be labeled as such and would be acceptable?S_Parc wrote: I'd sent this as a PM, to someone on this forum.
The movie, "American Beauty" is an omen, it almost predicts the life of anywhere from 50 to 75% of men in this country.
In reality, Kevin Spacey's character had no way out. In America, if he pursued Mena Suvari's adolescent character, he's both a pedophile & a pervert.
I know what you mean. I always say that sixteen and seventeen year old females are biologically developed and finished with puberty. They are adults and traditionally were married to older men. It was common to for a man in his twenties or early thirties to be dating one, and she would be gaining security, stability, and begin a family. It was also common for that man to be her only boyfriend/husband which made her value him and feel more of a connection to him. It's common psychology and sociology that girls who have only been with one person are more loyal, especially since they are more impressionable when they're around sixteen or seventeen. The more they bond with a man at that age, the more they will want to remain with him and feel they need him. However, most girls in the Western Feminized World have been brainwashed from a young age and exposed to psychologically damaging pop culture that turns them into sluts, so most don't want a real relationship and many don't want what a normal girl should want: stability, security, a nice guy, and the ability to begin a family sooner. Most Western girls want wild, bad boy, gangster, wigger scum and will be used over and over again. It's usually the girls that end relationships and many of those girls give reasons like "He's too nice" or "Not enough excitement" or "I'm getting bored." Relationships can have plenty of excitement if the girl wants them too. What most feminist girls means by "those statement are there isn't too much wildness, craziness, and illicit things going on. If he respects her and there aren't any major fights then he's too nice. If she's getting bored then there isn't enough drama. So even if the Western girls are biologically adults they have been brainwashed too much that they will be psychologically messed up and have the mind of an irresponsible, entitled, and immature child that has no comprehension of consequences with the two differences being: 1. The Western girls will be ruining themselves and their value as women by being sluts, and 2. They will never be able to recover from the psychological damage.Cornfed wrote:Right. Seventeen year old females are generally fully developed and fecund adult women and are regarded as such in sane societies. It is only in feminist asylums that they are said to be children while at the same time tacitly encouraged to have sex, thereby effectively reserving them for dirtbags.Tsar wrote:So abroad outside of the Western feminized World a man that was dating a sixteen or seventeen year old adolescent girl wouldn't be labeled as such and would be acceptable?S_Parc wrote: I'd sent this as a PM, to someone on this forum.
The movie, "American Beauty" is an omen, it almost predicts the life of anywhere from 50 to 75% of men in this country.
In reality, Kevin Spacey's character had no way out. In America, if he pursued Mena Suvari's adolescent character, he's both a pedophile & a pervert.
The point was not about the age of consent, or even if he played, let's say a lawyer, and waited till the exact date that she turns 18, in order to avoid the men in blue.Tsar wrote:So abroad outside of the Western feminized World a man that was dating a sixteen or seventeen year old adolescent girl wouldn't be labeled as such and would be acceptable?S_Parc wrote: I'd sent this as a PM, to someone on this forum.
The movie, "American Beauty" is an omen, it almost predicts the life of anywhere from 50 to 75% of men in this country.
In reality, Kevin Spacey's character had no way out. In America, if he pursued Mena Suvari's adolescent character, he's both a pedophile & a pervert.
Well, if you want to dissect AB, the last scene of Lester dead in his kitchen table talking about his last instants before death, does include a few flashbacks of Lester and his wife being smiling and happy (on a merry go round if I remember well) and his daughter as a child. I guess the last message he gives the audience is not that he should have never married his American wife or should have been happier abroad instead, but that he failed in recovering that old state of grace for himself and his family. His memories flowing away from his body say that they did use to be a happy family, and their happiness was hooked on the simple things of life. This, until materialism, conformism and routine sedimented and forced every family member to lose focus on what matters the most.S_Parc wrote:I think you've pretty much validated my initial assertions. Remember, Kevin Spacey's character didn't have the foresight to have seen (and discussed) "American Beauty (w/ the HA crowd), before he'd started dating Annette Bening. He's in that world of *hindsight is 20/20*, in the weeks prior to his death. Also, in terms of general demographics, the urban population of Boston & Cambridge cities have stayed constant for decades, however, the greater Boston suburban sprawl has grown from 2M to some 4M residents during my lifetime. In total, my state has only 6M residents, many of whom, live in some sort of suburbia so thus, the pressure to fit in, to conform, etc, has only exasperated over time. Realize, AB is a predictor for 50-75% of American men, some obviously slip through the cracks.
Desire to integrate with the (white Caucasian) majority may be a big source of pressure and frustration for an ethnical minority kid. Yet, that's what I believe at least, if the family upbringing is solid enough, those little issues can be ironed out over the course of the formative years, and later. I agree with Lone Yakuza when he wished Hollywood and the media industry started to offer more and better potraits of positive Asian characters, associating them to qualities usually found in their white American counterparts: loyalty, heroism, adventurous spirit, charisma and good looks... I read the story of Sessue Hayakawa, and he does have a point! Any stereotype of exotic lover was completely erased from the American cinematic imagery after those early hearththrobs. Hayakawa was one, but I could put Rudolph Valentino in the same camp.S_Parc wrote:I can't comment for all rural towns in my regions but many of those kids, also aspire to move to the "Big City" for better opportunities. They too, look forward to a life in the suburbs. Small towns seldom sustain themselves, except for tourism or organic farming like up in Vermont. In addition, a lot of kids of Asian [various regions there, as well] backgrounds also have this pressure to fully Americanize. I've known countless kids who've lived a double life... they behave one way in front of their old fashion inertial parents and completely different with their American friends & colleagues. There's also some not observed dysfunctionalty there as well, but because of the *keeping face* routine, a lot of white folks don't know about it. I've known a few Asian kids who'd committed suicide, while I was growing up. In contrast, I'd only met one white kid who did, during that time period. Well, Asians are 10-15% of a suburb, whereas whites make up at least 70% of a typical suburban region.
All and all, there's no bull's eye winning strategy here, other than to be vigilant and to question the assumptions around oneself.
My take on the final seconds of Lester's life or perhaps, the Bardo state (Tibetan Book of the Dead) between lives, was a "Citizen Kane" moment where in an instant, a man sees the totality of his existence and chooses beatitude. And yes, at any point in life: good, bad, or ugly, one can have that experience. For a man without much spirituality to lean on, it can be a vision of sleigh riding, *Rosebud*, for Orson Well's character or in Lester's case, the 1st year of his post-honeymoon period where aspirations were high, foresight was limited. I've also had that type of experience, believe it or not, being beaten up by a hostile bigger kid, as a child. I'd never blamed him for that attack but for some mystical reason, we got along afterwards. It was a state of bliss, meshed with physical pain but no mental duress. Perhaps it's a working out of karma or what have you, but the thing is that when you become more conscious, those experiences can find you whenever. Looping back to Lester's story, at that instant, he'd appreciated existence and stopped fighting but then again, it was already over so all he had was that moment, now frozen in time. When you put time back into the picture, it's too little too late.publicduende wrote:Well, if you want to dissect AB, the last scene of Lester dead in his kitchen table talking about his last instants before death, does include a few flashbacks of Lester and his wife being smiling and happy (on a merry go round if I remember well) and his daughter as a child. I guess the last message he gives the audience is not that he should have never married his American wife or should have been happier abroad instead, but that he failed in recovering that old state of grace for himself and his family. His memories flowing away from his body say that they did use to be a happy family, and their happiness was hooked on the simple things of life. This, until materialism, conformism and routine sedimented and forced every family member to lose focus on what matters the most.
Okay. In a way, this guy is making a good point. But I think the way some of the sentences were worded are a bit harsh. Other than that, here's my theory on the situation. I understand the frustration everyone is dealing with. But I think to keep posting about it is not going to help. We all know why we're here now and we all know what we need to do. I've seen the boycott movement has been going on for years. Honestly if American women have not changed then, they're certainly not going to change now. As far as beating a dead horse, he's also right on that. Last time I was on the dating sites, I can tell you right now. Nothing has changed. That is why I quit the American dating sites completely. The same applies when I was dating different AW's all Summer in 2012. Same thing. Nothing has changed.royalism wrote:I know that many people join this site because they want to find women abroad. Maybe they have a distaste for Western women. Okay that's fine. But it's seriously a waste of mental energy to keep on posting crap about western women over and over again. If you don't like them, okay move the f**k on.
Why don't you spend your mental energy to find a woman you like? Don't waste it on complaining about the women you don't like. You're not even engaged in a relationship with them.
and no, I'm not defending western women... its just that you guys need to grow the f**k up.
royalism wrote:Forced to live in an onion bin? When life hands you onions, make onion-ade.Jester wrote:Yeah, but let's say you were forced to live in an onion bin.royalism wrote:
Have you guys heard the phraase "preaching to the choir"? Most of the men here don't find western women attractive. That's fine. But you guys are like kicking a dead horse. Just move on. How can you complain about these women? Are you living with them? Are you dating them currently? If not, then I don't see why you guys are complaining.
Its like I f***ing hate the taste of onions. That's why i don't eat onions. Why the f**k would I complain about the taste onions if I haven't found any onions on my plate?
Not saying you're wrong. You're right. Focus on what you want, not on what you don't want.
But sometimes a guy needs to scream and smash things.
OK IMO as long as cold rational plan for jailbreak follows.