by Chu Chin Kwok

Created on: August 10, 2009   Last Updated: August 11, 2009

I must confess that I am a great movie fan: I have been going to the cinemas since my pre-teenage days, days when cinema going was a big family and social event. I have been in love with the movies ever since and I have watched movies of all genres, though my focus is on English (read American) and Chinese movies.

I was enthralled by the spectacular chariot scenes in Ben-Hur, starring Charlton Heston and other famous Hollywood legends; I was also held spell-bound by the intricate design and settings of more contemporary works of Tim Burton - Corpse Bride, Nightmare Before Christmas, Sweeny Todd - and I await eagerly his new production, Alice in Wonderland.

I was moved and saddened by what became of the two heroines in Thelma and Louise; so did my heart bleed for the 2 young characters in the Japanese anime (and later live action movie) 'Hotaru no Haka', otherwise known as the Grave of the Fireflies, a movie that brought into sharp relief the pain and suffering caused by war.

So, indeed I have watched a great many movies, both in the theatres and at home on my DVD player and home theatre system. I have watched horror movies (e.g Friday the 13th), period movies (e.g. Elizabeth) , kung-fu flicks (e.g. Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon), romances ( e.g. Ryan's Daughter, French Lieutenant's Woman); I have also been attracted to movies that depict powerfully the ethos and psyche of a society or community or a whole generation - a generation of angry men and women who are disappointed and disillusioned by the pseudo, moral high ground and hypocrisy manifested by mainstream apologists (e.g. The Graduate, starring Dustin Hoffman). So I think my interests in the movies are not restricted to any particular genre.

But I as I age and mellow (in the hope that I have grown slightly wiser ), I think I have more or less found my favourite movies. I find myself more and more drawn into movies that describe colourfully and intensely the love between two people. I shall name 2 movies of this genre that I find highly enjoyable: Dr Zhivago, starring Omar Sharif, Julie Christie and Geraldine Chaplin; War and Peace, starring Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda. Dr Zhivago is a movie set in the Russian Revolution, chronicling the life and tribulations of Dr Zhivago, a Russian doctor caught in the tussle for power in post-Czarist Russia, who found love and solace in his wife as well as his mistress, played skillfully by Julie Christie. War and Peace was a movie based on the novel

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