Tag: amazing

The Scoreboard: Look Back

As everybody else on this planet, I have an opinion. As many people do too, I like to write about it. Share it generously. And I am excellent at keeping score (mentally), so I will try tallying up my fondness of things according to balance.

Look Back

I’ve always admired a passion that people can have in certain activities. Generally, I’m quite cerebreal when moving through life and it is an amazing feat to me when someone seems to be able to lose themselves in the moment and think singlemindedly about one thing. Such a passion and drive are at the heart of this films.

This is a surprisingly short film, but it packs quite the punch. Starting from a compelling premise, Fujino is being praised for rather mediocre art until Kyomoto’s more impressive creations come along which bruises her ego and almost wants to make her give up. It is only after accidentally being saddled with the task of bringing Kyomoto her diploma that she realizes how much work goes into her craft. And also how much of a need to draw Kyomoto has. Of course it also helps that Kyomoto confesses to be her biggest fan after daring to come out.

This transition from indignation to cynicism, being flattered and then driven to improve is portrayed very compellingly. We see Fujino and Kyomoto hunched over a lot, but the process somehow still feels dynamic. We see them working and growing together, and then separating again by choosing different paths and then one getting cut off.

The ending makes the whole film even more bittersweet, showing an alternative storyline, but with the same need for both of them to create and draw. It is a testament to the innateness of certain things. Regardless of circumstances, there are things that will always matter to you and thus always be done, albeit in a different matter.

And although that may almost seem slightly fatalistic, it also provides some comfort. That you can trust on your needs and have faith in your ways to get them realized. It is a way of celebrating the joy you can have when allowing yourself to be in the moment of satisfaction. Even if it is something that you can only see in hindsight, that does not diminish its value.

I rate it a highly emotional movie that will leave you raring to create something as soon as you finished it.

Daily tidbits: Why not make things more complicated?

I have been in touch with customer service quite a lot these days. That is always a frightening thing, although I have had my fair share of better and worse experiences. However, in this case it was Chinese customer service, because I needed to arrange some things for my phone number.

There is something amazing about the way everything is so interconnected in China. When you have an issue, there is always a way to address it. You can chat with customer service or give them a call, basically 24/7. At the same time, it never ceases me to amaze me how complicated they can make things at the same time.

When I still lived in China, I moved to Shanghai and got a new phone. I needed a new simcard, a nano one instead of the mini I had. after calling my provider’s customer service, which is totally separate in Shanghai from Beijing and provides no way to be redirected, they told me that I needed to come back to Beijing for a new simcard. So just to get something with a little bit less plastic, I needed to travel more than 1.000 kilometers. Which I did and found ridiculous.

Now that I am in the Netherlands but still using my Chinese phone number for certain occasions, it’s a different issue. I had freezed my number, but was unable to easily recover it again due to forgetting my password. I again chatted with different officers at different times in the Chinese night but in the end I was only able to finalize the process by contacting a friend in Beijing and having her directly call them.

I am not sure if this is arranged in this way for a specific reason. Is it to ensure that the physical staff still has a role to play? Is it because they want take customer service difficulty to the next level? Is it because they are available 24/7 that all staff is so tired they cannot think of any customer-friendly alternatives? To be honest, I think it is just another way for us to remain grounded. That we remember we can do great things, and also make simple things impossible.