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Sometimes, especially when I am freaking out about things, my train of thought can be as random and as odd as the movies on my Netflex queue, but when one of those “I forgot why I put it on my queue” movies showed up in the mailbox, sometimes, I am uplifted by the stories. How? Why? Most of the time, I can’t even explain.

I watched The Kite Runner last night and I can’t stop thinking about it all day today.

This foreign film is based on Khaled Hosseini’s famed novel, “The Kite Runner”. I have not read the book, but judging from the movie, I can imagine how satisfying the reading experience must be.  The movie centers on the lives of two Afghan boys who were bonded together by close friendship but divided by social class. Amir, the only son of wealthy man, enjoys all privileges in life but lacks the bone to stand up for himself, or for anything at all. Meanwhile, socially inferior Hassan, is the tough, loyal friend that always defends Amir. Hassan is the son of Amir’s father’s faithful servant, Ali. Amir’s father has an odd fondness of Hassan, which was explained in the later part of the film.

One day, after winning a kite flying contest, Amri witnessed a terrible assault of his dear friend Hassan in the back alley by older neighborhood bullies, but he was too cowardly to take any action. Amir kept silent about the assault, but he stopped befriending Hassan as he couldn’t face the reminder of his own cowardice. Eventually, Amir covered his shame and guilt by telling a terrible lie to get rid of Hassan and his father as their household servants.  Well, he might have gotten rid of Hassan, but he did not erase his guilt. Later, Amir and his father fled Afghanistan on the eve of Soviet invasion. They then immigrated to the U.S., where Amri finished his education, married a beautiful woman, and realized his dream of becoming a writer.

Twenty years later, Amir was given a chance to set things right. One day, successful novelist Amir received a call from his father’s business partner that triggered the self-serving Amir to make an unlikely journey from his comfortable life in San Francisco to war-ravaged homeland, Afghanistan. He discovered a family secret that brought new meanings to honor, betrayal, trust, and friendship.  At the end, he risked his life to find Hassan’s orphaned son from a cruel orphanage, and snuck him out of the country under the nose of Taliban gunmen, and brought the boy back to the US with him to raise as his own. The film ended with a scene of Amir teaching the young boy how to fly kites in a beautiful park in San Francisco.

It’s a story of childhood cowardice and adult redemption. The story itself is loaded enough. The foreign culture, the human suffering, and the social hierarchy, plus the use of five different languages and shifting time periods added to the complexity of it all. It was a movie of authenticity rather than marketability — a memorable, small, authentic film rather than a big, forgettable one.  Of course if I were an Afghan I probably won’t like the movie, because when the story deals with your country, your story, no method of storytelling will ever be good enough to present the facts.

What I wanted to say is that I really, really enjoyed the movie. The compelling story provided the distraction I needed from my anxieties. In some odd ways, this movie helped to “kind of” put things into perspective for me.

So what is it that I am anxious about? Truth be told, I am freaking out about the future because lots of good things have happened. Is this contradictory? Admittedly, I am a very sheltered person. Troubles and hardships haven’t come too close to me for my entire 31 years of existence thus far. I’ve claimed the same quiet suburban city as my permanent address for 16 years already, and I know it’s time for a change, but I am freaking out about all that’s involved with it.

Then I remembered laughing about other people’s cowardice to step out of their comfort zones, and realizing that I might be becoming one of them. But wait, I have really legitimate reasons to be worried! Yet again, life is not a color book. We don’t get to paint it with our favorite colors all the time. We should just take it easy, live in the moment, and it will all be fine at the end. I can’t just sit at home, worrying myself sick because I can’t plan things out for the next 20 years. I am supposed to live each day as a gift, right? 

Anyways, I highly recommend renting “The Kite Runner”. But if you have young kids, don’t watch it in their presence.

Ok, next time I’ll find myself some lighter, funnier movies.

Posted on June 16th, 2009 under Simple joy • RSS 2.0 feed • You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed