Charlotte Sometimes: A Film by Eric Byler. After a break from this Asian-themed blog, I am glad to be back and to be able to say that the Asian-American literature course that I developed and taught as a graduate student at the University of Georgia was approved by my department chair to be taught as a special topics Asian-American literature course, so I am teaching it at GPC this term. In addition to reading various novels, we are watching some old and new Asian-American films as well. The next film we will be viewing in the course is Charlotte Sometimes, by director Eric Byler and starring Michael Idemoto, Jacqueline Kim, and Eugenia Yuan. Instead of posting in my web-course, I have asked my students to post their reactions to the film on this blog, so as the posts come in, read and enjoy.
posted by Liam Madden | 6:30 PM
30 Comments:
The first part of the movie we have seen illustrates that there is a love triangle between Lori, Micheal, and Justin. Lori loves Justin , but she also feels something for Micheal. Micheal also notify Darcey that he is attracted to Lori at times, but he just sees her as a friend. The stable love triangle is between Lori, Justin, and Micheal, where as Darcey seems to be the one that wants to break up the stability of that triangle.
I completely agree with Jimmy. So far, the movie is about a love triangle between Lori, Michael and Justin. Lori seems to have a really strong relationship with Justin; however, I feel that she has some feelings for Michael, too. She goes to see Michael almost every night after having sex with Justin & he falls asleep. Michael seems very reserved kind of person. Michael meets Darcey at the club. When Michel refuses Lori to come in when Darcey was at his place, Lori feels hurt from inside of her heart. I feel that Darcey is a very strong woman. She is brave and smart. She is trying to break the love triangle in the first part of the movie. At the end of the 1st part, Darcey leaves Michael, Lori and Justin. Can't wait to see the second part and find out what happens next.
I don’t really get this movie that much. I know that this movie is about love triangle between Lori, Justin, and Michael. I still don’t get that why Michael lets Lori in the house after she and her boyfriend $. It is get excited when Darcy met Michael. I can’t wait to watch the second part so I can understand more.
When Professor Madden said the triangle was stable he was correct, what causes the instability is human beings and their emotions. I don't understand the relationship between Lori and Justin,there is some need he is not meeting or she wouldn't keep going to see Micheal after they have sex. I think that Lori and Darcey know each other, maybe she was the girl Lori tried to get Micheal to double date with. The second part of the movie should be very interesting.
This is one interesting movie. Viewing this love triangle between Lori, Michael, and Justin seems too much. I don't understand why Michael lets Lori come into his place almost every night. Personally, I believe he should tell Lori how he feels, and Lori should choose what to do afterwards. Lori has to make her decision wisely because this can not happen all her life. Once Darcey came along, I noticed how Lori and Michael began to act differently in a way. I am wondering what will happen during the second night of the film.
Somehow I see a strange relationship between the Cure's song and this movie! They sort of seem to relate ... Well this movie is based on human relations and uncertainties that makes everything a bit more complicated than it already is... Each character has his/her own twist... What makes this movie even more enjoyable is the fact that characters don't explain themselves in long, boring dialogues. Darcey has a past that Lori knows about... Micheal is the mechanic who reads. He is so comforting and safe for everyone around him, specially Lori, while inside he is a mess!
Justin is the least interesting person in this circle! Maybe is his simplicity that Lori seeks.
I hope the second part of the movie doesn't reveal more.
I am so confused. I wonder if Lori is using Darcey to find out if Michael truly has a thing for her. If that is true then it proves that women can be far more harsh than men. Overall i think the film is great it keeps me on my toes.
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After watching the first part of the movie you can tell there is a big love triangle going on between Lori, Justin and Michael. It seems that Lori acts like she really cares for Justin but how can she when she runs upstairs to see Michael everynight, I feel this is wrong.
The first part was definitely interesting introduction to the movie. Lori seems like a needy person who doesn't get complete satisfaction from her stable relationship with Justin. While Lori gets emotional support from Michael, who allows her to crash at his place almost every night, she cannot really disconnect Justin from her life because of her physical attachment to him. By having both guys at her side, Lori feels somewhat complete about her fragile nature that often displays emptiness from love. When Darcy came along, Lori instantly reacts with defensive attitude that embeds subliminal jealousy, which reveals her true feelings for Michael to everybody involved in the awkward love triangle.
As Darcy noted, Lori consider her as a monster, I think it predicts upcoming tragedy where all these people are going to fall apart in some way because of Darcy. I can’t wait to see if there is going to be even one happy couple left by the end of the movie.
I found the movie very interesting. It is about a love triangle between Michael, Lori, and Justin. Lori is with Justin, but she hopes that one day she will be with Michael. When he started dating Darcy, who is a very smart woman with a strong personality, Lori becomes jealous. Darcy noticed immediately what is going on, and she start to play a game.
I can not wait to see how the movie is going to end.
To an extent I've been in Micheal's position before, and depending on who you ask I've been in Justin's as well. So far it's pretty true to life. It seems that Lori gets half a relationship from Justin and half from Micheal which results in everyone being cheated. It will be interesting to see what Darcey's relationship with Lori is, and what's going on with the secret they mention.
While the Triangle is stable, the is a hint of instability when Darcy comes into the picture. I have not yet figured out how the charcter of Darcy fits into the puzzle. Hopefully the later portion of the film will help my understanding of all of the relationships.
I have really enjoyed the movie so far. Like everyone else said, I understand that their is a love triangle between the three main characters, but I have several questions about the movie. I realize that Lori is together with Justin, but I can't figure out what Lori has with Michael. The movie hasn't really showed what goes on between Lori and Michael behind closed doors. I don't know if they are sleeping together or not or maybe it is just a fantasy of Michael's because of his actions when he heard Lori and Justin having sex through the wall. Once Darcey comes into the picture and you find out that Lori somehow knows her, I just get more confused. I wonder if that is the girl Lori originally asked Michael to meet when they were sitting in the car???
The first part of the movie was very interesting about the love triangle between first three characters in the movie. Lori and Justin relationship seems very strong between them. On the other hand, she also has feelings for Michael as well. She goes to his apartment every night after having sex with Justin. Michael seems very reserved kind of person. He does not even talk to her about any matter, she just comes to his place, and they watch television together. No conversation about anything. But it seems like he has something in his mind, but he does not want to share with Lori. I have doubt that Michael likes Lori, but when he noticed her relationship with Justin, then he try to ignore her. Movie got more interesting when Darcey came in there with Michael. Darcey seems very strong optimistic woman. She is trying to come up with a solution about the love triangle, but its suspicion why she leaves MIcheal, Lori, and Justin. Can not wait to see the second part and find out what happens next.
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I knew something would eventually happen between Justin and Darcey. In the first part of the movie, I felt that Darcey and Lori didn't get along, maybe they were sisters, or maybe they were close childhood friends, whatever their relationship was, Darcey went to the club even though she told Lori she wouldn't. Lori wanted to test Micheal to see what his feelings were for her. I think they didn't have sex but they had lots of talkings, and somethings when you talk a lot with a person, you could feel attached and like you know this person more.
So, even though Darcey said she wouldn't go to the bar, but did makes me think she wanted to get back to Lori about something in the past, probably wanted to make love to Micheal in the beginning to get Lori to know it and pay back from the past. But as it comes out, Darcey thought the pay back was through Justin. It's kinda hard to understand the ending of it, probably one should be in the position to understand the characters.
The movie was a little annoying to me because everyone in the movie was playing games. Lori was playing the "I like you but I have a boyfriend that I really love game". Darcy was playing the "I like you but I am too busy to be in a relationship game" as well as the "I refuse to connect with you so I will sleep with my sister's boyfriend game". Justin was playing the "I want what I want when I want it game". Micheal was playing the "I don't mind being alone, but I want to have a relationship with you and allow you to take advantage of me in the meantime game".
hm....the second part of the movie was shocking to me. Darcey comes back in the town and comes to Michael's place. However, before she comes, Michael had seen childhood pictures of Lori and Darcey at Lori's place. Therefore, Michael knew that Darcey was there with some kind of intention. That night, Michael wanted to have sex with Darcey or may be he wanted to see if Darcey was going to let him do it after he finds out the fact of Lori and Darcey. As one can predict, Darcey refuses to have sex with Michael. And Michael tells her that he has seen childhood pictures of hers and Lori together. Darcey just leaves and says sorry. At the end of the movie, Darcey and Justin have sex together which was surpricing to me. Justin was getting enough of sex from Lori, I think. And Darcey refused to have sex with Michael, but was having it with Justin. To me it feels like in the end, Darcey does have some feeling for Michael. Darcey feels sorry for whatever she had done. Lori had sent Darcey to Michael for 2 reasons i think. first is that Lori wanted Michael to have someone in his life. Or She was just checking if Michael really does have feelings for her. At the end, Michael and Lori get together.
I don't think I liked this movie that much compared to the first movie for the class. Not only it's a movie that doesn’t explain anything, confusing the hell out of you, but it was sexually too graphic and made me feel really uncomfortable.
I’m still thinking what is so significant about this movie relating to what we are learning in this class. Is it just because it was love story about Asian Americans? I think this kind of love story could happen to any people in the world. The director is supposedly half Asian, so okay.. Maybe that’s it???
Still, it was something I didn’t expect to see it in American literature class for sure.
Maybe I’m just used to artsy Asian movies that overly describe love to be either depressing but beautiful or beautiful but tragic, not usually obsessive about sex. I know it’s silly sounding.
The way the characters were described in “Charlotte Sometimes” kind of remind me of this Chinese movie “Chung king Express”. Because those characters seem very lonely and empty in their own way and that is the reason why some of them are obsessed with sex. Well, as far as I could remember there was no sex scene from “Chung King Express”, but if you ever want to watch an impressionable movie about love that makes you so lonely and confused about what love is, definitely recommend it.
For I’m quite not sure what this Charlotte movie was trying to say, I assume the director wanted to show different shades of love within different kinds of love. But because he stressed on physical love way too much, the real meaning of the movie might have been lost somewhere. One thing I wanted to mention, the actress who played Lori was in this movie called “Mail Order Bride”, a very deceiving, disturbing movie. I wonder if anybody has seen it? After watching that movie, I already was biased about the actress’ sense of picking movie script for herself. So the character “Lori” really seemed shady to me already. The actress should stop picking a typical girly Asian character that seem like sexually taken advantage of in every movie; It really gets old!!
I really liked the style of the flim,it allowed the audience to think about what was going to happen next. Instead of telling the audience exactly what was happening and all of charcters identies.I think Darcy's purpose was to find out if Micheal was a user like Lori. Lori really liked Michael and she wanted to know if he was geniue. After Darcy found out Micheal was a good and guy,then learned that Michael had seen through her because he found the pictures of her and Lori.Darcy felt bad and slept with Justin, maybe it was her way of hurting Lori because Lori made Darcy hurt Michael.
One interesting thing was the actress that plays Michael's aunt,Shizuko Hoshi, was the same actress that played Lily's mother in Come See the Paradise.
I was thinking that Darcy was the only one who played her game, but in the second part of movie it looks like everyone was playing games. I am still wandering what was the relationship between Darcy and Lori. Did they know each other for long time, or maybe they are sisters, who do not look a like. Overall the movie was great and interesting!
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I liked this movie because it shows examples of real life love affairs that could happen to you or anybody. I would be devastated to find out that my boyfriend sleeps with another woman. I just hope it never happens. But anyway, Well i want to point out that Justin was just there for sex. That's the only thing that he has Lori for. And of course Lori was the same way, But as much as she enjoyed, she wa not in love with Justin either. Neither of them loved each other. On the other side I liked Maichael's character because he seems to be a pretty calm, nice understanding guy. But at the same time he's kind of stupid because i think he's in love with Lori and knows that Lori only seeks an understanding guy in him. While Darcey seems to be a good girl, also likes to play around. Throughout the movie Darcey and Michael seem to have chemistry, they look at each other and they seem in love. But from my understanding i think that Michael just wants to have sex with Darcey because he tells her "i wanna F*** you". That's the only thing he wants. While Darcey likes Justin more than Michael because at the end of the movie we can see how they loved each other. After all, there's so much left unknown and to the imagination. But we know that they were all involved with each other somehow.
After viewing both parts of the film, it ended up being an interesting movie. There were different twists in the movie. For example, I do not know how Lori and Darcy know each other. Are they sisters, or are they childhood friends? I liked this movie because it was a movie that could happen in real life. Seeing different perspectives of the characters in the film was also a plus because we got to see how they reacted with one another during the love triangle. I’m glad in the end that Lori ended up with Michael instead of Justin, because he was basically using her. He really did not feel like going out in public with her. However, I do not think that Lori and Michael will last very long in their relationship. In the mean time, I felt bad for Michael not having Darcy because they had similar hobbies. I did not like how Darcy and Michael hooked up at the very end, though. They should have both suffered for what they have done with Lori and Michael. Overall, the movie was good and interesting!
This movie demonstrated not only a love triangle; it also shows a betrayal in a relationship. This love triangle is certainly there (Michael, Lori and Justin). Lori wanted Justin to be a sex partner, although she did showed her affection toward Justin by her telling him that she loves him. Also, she has feeling for Michael and wants him to be there for her. This is a confusing relationship because Justin knows Lori has feeling for Michael and he is fine with it. And Michael knows Lori and Justin are together and Michael still wants Lori to be with him. Referring back to the love triangle, I thought it is suppose to be a secret between the three parties, but in this case is not. And when Darcey comes into the picture, this love triangle has ended. Because Justin is attracted to Darcey, he left Lori for her. After Justin left Lori, the only man left for her is Michael and I can guess that they will live happily ever after... unless someone will step in and starts another triangle.
In this chapter, Kingston pretends to live the life of Fa Mu Lan. She follows a bird into the mountains, and she is met by two old people. They teach her to become a great warrior. Once she has become a great warrior, she returns to her family and fights the baron’s army. She ends up being a great warrior among her peasants.
The second part of the chapter explains about Kingston’s life compared to Fa Mu Lam’s life. Women are worthless, and they mean nothing to other people. Her bosses who she worked for were racist people.
If I had lived during that period of time, then I would not stand the fact that women were worthless. Women actually do a lot. I would do something about it and fight with words, just like Kingston.
I don't really like this movie I don't think. I don't really understand what it has to do with Asian-American Literature besides the characters being asian but i don't really know that much about asian american lit yet i guess. In this movie, I didn't really understand what Lori wanted. She seemed to like Michael but I know if I liked someone regardless if I was with someone else then I wouldnt try to hook him up with someone else especially not my sister or friend. Was Darcy her sister? And on top of that, obviously Darcy is a liar and I don't really know about her past because it didn't explain in the movie but Lori knew something and why would she want to hook him up with someone like that. I mean Darcy ended up taking Justin, which was one of the things Lori asked her not to do. Obviously she is not trustworthy. Im glad Lori nd Michael ended up together because that is what I wanted.
The movie was interesting but confusing on the other hand. It was extremely strange that Justin did not mind about Lori sleeping over at Michael’s house. There was love triangle between Justin, Lori, and Michael, but I think Darcy would be added and make a love square. The relationship between Justin and Lori was only about physical, but the relationship between Lori and Michael was only about mental. And I want to see how Darcy would get into that love triangle. I think Darcy will fall in love with Michael, not only physical or mental, but a true love.
It was more confusing at the end of the story. The last talk that Lori and Michael had gave me a lot of question marks. Such as: What did Lori tell Darcy about Michael?, What was the relationship between Lori and Darcy?, and would Michael and Lori being end up getting married or just same cycle will happen? However, I hope that Lori become sensible and realize that there would not be a man like Michael and get married with him and be happy ever after.
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