Wait til you are older

Just finished watching "Wait til you are older", a show starring Andy Lau and Karen Mok, just about 5 minutes ago. The show has got me moved, and I'm feeling all sensitive/ sad/ thoughtful/ happy and heartbroken all at the same time. It's a pretty shallow movie and badly pieced together really, but it attempts to bring out a handful of themes, although not very successfully, hits home with an emotional guy in the midst of a cold lonely night. A couple of spoilers if you intend to watch the movie, so my sincerest apologies.

Firstly, it tries to relay a message to those who live with the common thought of "I've got time". Andy Lau basically ages at accelerating speed through the show. From a boy who wants to grow up really fast cos he wants to leave his family, to a frail old man who finally wishes he could turn back the clock. There were a couple of other shows with such a theme, and to be honest, everyone one of them hit home with my heart. A very cliche message I should think we'll all agree, and to be honest many of us fall into the category of the countless who have at one point in their lives never lived for the present, but for the future. I mean we had always wanted to be like this and that, or to attain this and that at some certain point of our lives but we all live in the present. And truth be told, that's just about all we have now. Dreams are noble, yes and goals are vital. But consider the many copperstones around our feet now, though not as glittery as the streets of gold we have visioned in our dreams, they could very well be the start of the path that'll lead us there. Hope the best for the future, but reserve our vitality only for the present, take the steps we can take now and who knows what tomorrow brings?

A second theme of the movie was the idea of "judging". Andy, the young boy, used to think his father's second wife (his stepmother) was a vixon. He blamed his father's unfaithfulness, and his stepmother's immorality for the death of his blood-tied mother, who had committed suicide when he was at the tender age of 4. Hence he grew up bitter at his family, except for his half-brother who was much younger than he was. He hated his father, loathed his stepmother and took every opportunity to run away from home as his father would coax him home thereafter by giving him money, which he would stow away in a container for the one day he could save up enough to flee his family forever. For all his life after his mother's death, there was never one day he had joy in being in that household and he resented everything that the family embodied, his closest companion being an old broken toy his late mother had gave him long ago. Andy, the middle age man after coming in contact with a strange rapid aging substance, returns to that house under the pretext of being his father's new found acquaintance in an arcade game centre, founds out a heart wrenching truth. His late mother was the real 3rd party in the relationship between his father and "stepmother", and his father had kept that secret all these years from him to shield him from the painful truth. Not just that, but his stepmother, who had to put up with Andy's nonsense and abuse quietly all these years, had always tried to accept him as a legitimate son and not as one from an adulterous affair. Andy feels ashamed, heart broken and remorseful for the many pains he had caused his father and "stepmother", and hopes to return to the family to put things right, as the young good son his father had always hoped for. All this while he thought the world was against him, that his family had rejected but the truth was that it was their love that caused him to be shielded from what could be detrimental to his young mind.

A final theme of the movie was as the title suggests "wait til you are older". This is one that I can't really say I fully relate to, being just 23 years of age (though I keep saying I'm old). What qualifies me to say a line like "wait til you're older"? Each course of life has it's own meanders, the slows and quicks, the bends and straights, down flows and upstreams. What's there for anyone to say "I've been through all that there is to life"? There's plenty of hope for what comes tomorrow; however, like the first theme potrays, there's plenty of action needed today! I give thanks everytime I open my eyes for a brand new day to live for. I thrive for the fact that the obstacles I face today will be the stories I talk about tomorrow. What does not kill us, makes us stronger. A very paganistic way of speaking, but conceptually very logical provided if what does not kill us physically, does not kill us emotionally or mentally either. Now, in the middle of my youth, many problems not uncommon to people of my age (or eras past) are poaching my time and energy. A job, a degree, a girlfriend and for some, a pet. If I could, I would like to sing one day,"I faced it all.. and I stood tall.. and did it.. my way." Which brings us back to the first theme, and I reiterate - who knows what tomorrow brings? :)