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This is the blog of Ian Rosales Casocot. Filipino writer. Sometime academic. Former backpacker. Twink bait. Hamster lover.

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Thursday, March 08, 2007

entry arrow9:58 AM | Memories of Being Under the Rainbow

When you're a rabid cineast who has the gift of knowing the title of any movie from watching just one brief shot (even of movies I have not watched before), not being able to remember the title of a film you once watched (and still remembered) when you were a kid is the equivalent of a memory rash. My brother Rocky and his then college girlfriend (now wife) Efeb used to take me with them every time they watched a movie. I'm not sure why (because if I were part of a dating couple, I'd never bring my bratty baby brother with me -- I want romantic aloneness with my significant other no!). But they did take me out a lot, and we watched so many things. This one movie I remembered intensely because it was very colorful, very zany, and I remembered a lot of little people (dwarves) in it.

For years, I could not remember the title. It ate at me.

Today, I am reading a CNN article on Carrie Fisher, and there's a sidebar story about the bad films she made in her interesting career. She mentions a movie, "Under the Rainbow." Something clicked.



This is the movie of my childhood. That it is considered one of the worst movies ever made gives me a chuckle, because I remember really liking this movie. It stuck to my memories like a barnacle. I remember scenes from this movie the way I don't with real life.

This just goes to show that something does get lost in our evolution from carefree child to demanding adult critic. I've learned two things: (1) that it takes childlike abandon to appreciate some things, which can never happen when one is constricted by too much adult jadedness and formalism; and (2) many people today like bad movies or books (e.g., Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code) and stay away from good ones (Half Nelson) because their level of comprehension is stuck at that of a six-year-old. Take your pick.

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