Movies

Another year, another Lego Lunar New Year set that's already sold out. I just got the Lego catalog in the mail, and multiple sets are all sold out on the website. I guess everything was bought for Christmas already.

I watched West Side Story again so that I could see the opening that I missed when I was late. It was still hard to follow without subtitles, so I only learned afterward that the Sharks were singing the Puerto Rico anthem to the cops and the Jets after the first fight. I still don't know what changed Tony's mind to go to the school dance since he already heard from Riff that they were already planning to rumble. I did see, though, a parallel between Chino, begging Bernardo to let him join the Sharks, with Anybodys begging the Jets to let him join. Chino didn't want to be the smart one who went to school and worked hard; he didn't feel useful, like he was helping protect his community. Meanwhile, Anybodys wants to be accepted as a guy, but the Jets dismiss him and still call him a girl. However, by the end of the movie, the Jets finally start to accept Anybodys and tell him "good job." Too bad that the gang will be destroyed by Riff and Tony dying, let alone the neighborhood getting demolished to build Lincoln Center. Well maybe, if we follow how Romeo & Juliet ended, we could imagine that the leftover members of the Jets and the Sharks might make peace and be friends. Except for Chino, who will go to prison for killing Tony. Just the kind of fate that Bernardo was trying to keep him from, by making him go to school and stay out of the gang. Yep, a tragedy just like Shakespeare.

As for new movies, I recently saw The 355 and mostly liked it except for how the villain was unkillable. Even when he was poisoned, it wasn't fatal. To be fair, the women spies also survived painful fights and shootouts that should have caused major injuries. I could also see right away that a character who supposedly died was just faking death and would return later. Still, it was kind of fun to watch.