Month: August 2018

The Shape of Water

/ Kay Loke / Leave a comment

20/08/2018

Proverbs 21:1

“The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will – (ESV)

Last year, La La Land (received 14-Oscar nominations) (1) was widely predicted to be the Oscar Best Picture for 2017, in an Oscar finale, the announcement says that ‘the Best Picture goes to La La Land. ‘ In the end, MOONLIGHT wins the 2017 Oscar Best Picture “after a mishap occurred during the announcement.” (2). Finally, the people behind La La Land graciously passed the Award to the people behind MOONLIGHT. 

If what says that ” Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows (James 1:17), then, who was the one that gives the award, in the Oscar night? This year, at the 90th Oscar, ‘The Shape of Water” that received 13 nominations won the Best Music (Original Score), Best Production Design, and the most precursor awards of the Best Picture and Best Director (Guillermo de Toro).

I have never been a fan of science fiction films. The entire cast of ‘The Shape of Water,” was unfamiliar to me, except the former Oscar winner Octavia Spencer who was again nominated for this film. The story was about a single, mute cleaning lady forms a bizarre relationship with an amphibious feature. At first, I found that the amphibious feature was not pleasant to look at, and as shallow as I have been that I puzzled why “The Shape of Water” is the movie title? 

If I would cast my emotional ballot, with my love for fashion, ” Phantom Thread” would be my best picture.  Just to watch fashion parades in the film is like having a spa for my eyes. The winners of “Lincoln (2013),” “There Will Be Blood (2008),” “My Left Foot (1990)” with multiple nominations, such as “Gangs of New York (2002),” it is hard for me to relate Daniel Day-Lewis now to act as Haute Couture designer to construct fashions, and he performed well in the movie.

Recently I spent 3-weeks on my US revisit. One of the great ways to fly with Singapore Airlines is the chance to keep my backlog of movies. I rewatched ‘The Shape of Water” to fill up my two hours during the flight. And I was hoping to see Jesus in the film. And I  saw God’s sense of humour that with the issues of ‘hate crime,‘ ‘fake news,’ ‘white supremacy,’ ‘Guns.’ and ‘MeTooism,’ are much in vogue, in the US. And we have an African American woman, a mute janitor, a gay and the amphibious creature are the principal characters in the best movie of Oscar 2018.

For the box office, producers have to put in the suggestion of a historical Cold War background; the highly secure government research facility as the set. Rusian espionage who has infiltrated the lab, the person in charge of the facility with his mean spirit following the cruel torture has continually inflicted on the creature and with a hidden intention to kill him. With compassion, it triggered Elisa (Sally Hawkins – nominated for the best actress) to stage a “Great Escape” at the end. 

The plot is centred around the extraordinary relationship between Elisa, the isolated, mute janitor and the amphibious man. But it also includes Elisa and Zelda (Octavia Spencer), her co-worker, whenever trouble posted, Zelda was indeed faithfully to stand by her until the end. And also Elisa and her gay neighbour who is a father’s figure to her and for her. I easily relate Jesus’  attributes in every Elisa’s relationship with others. And if this film is a heartwarming love story, and Jesus is all about love and compassion.

As for water, the first miracle of Jesus occurred in the Bible was when Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding banquet (John2:11); the story of the woman at the well, is how Jesus reached out to the social outcast, is about the water to quench the physical thirst but also the living water as the gift of salvation (John 4). The movie starts with Elisa soaking in a bath, does the film try to remind us that all of us need to be touched by that ‘Water, the living Water’ to be able to live and deal with our lifelong ramifications?  

I am sure that many would like the ending of “The Shape of Water” as a love story. I take comfort to cheer that the concept of the story is like a breath of fresh air in the time we live in, right now. I like the poem at the end of the movie, which can be a poem that I could borrow it as a Psalm for my Maker and my daddy God. 

” Unable to perceive the shape of you, I find you all around, your presence fills my eyes with your love, you humble my heart, for you are everywhere.” – The Shape of Water

My thanks are to my BFF, Linda Lai for her forever encouragement. Thus, I was led to rework my piece that was being published a few days ago. In God’s faithfulness, I was given two passage scriptures to be reflective upon. ‘The Shape of Water” is a movie, a fantasy. Is Guillermo de Toro, the Best Director of Oscar, 2018 trying to use it to point us to a promise from the Almighty, when there’s no hope to be hopeful, like Elisa, Zelda, the gay artist and the amphibious man occurred in the movie? 

Psalm 65:5 (ESV)

” By awesome deeds…, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas…”

 

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_La_Land_(film)
  2. MOONLIGHT WINS BEST PICTURE AFTER 2017 OSCARS ENVELOPE MISHAP BY. JIM DONNELLY

 

 

 

 

 

Lin-Sanity​, Jeremy Lin

/ Kay Loke / Leave a comment

07/08/2018

For two weeks, I have been praying for God’s word to speak to me regarding what to post for this week and the news about Jeremy Lin, the Basketball player came to me this morning. Through the Google search, I found it says that ‘Jeremy Lin open to playing for China in FiBA World Cup‘ by Paolo Songco Aug 4, 2018 (https://clutchpoints.com/hawks-news-jeremy-lin-open-to-playing-for-china-in-fiba-world-cup/) I was led to dig out and rework on what I wrote in 2012. How time flies and being an ethnic Chinese, I feel very proud because of him.

17-02-2012 – rework

2 Timothy 1:6 ESV

For this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

It was within a day apart while fans around the world still in mourning for the sudden and mysterious death of the gifted singing artist Whitney Houston, then the ‘Nobody to Lin-sanity’has swept up the NBA over last Friday, 10/02/2012 and now it seems like the sensation that has gone worldwide:

‘A Harvard grad, a starter, Jeremy Lin had a 38-point performance for the New York Knicks against the LA Lakers last Friday. He miraculously steered his team to four straight wins.’

 Basketball was the only ball game, which I understand and love to watch when I was studying in the US, in the 80’s. Later I have lost the interest to watch it for more than a few decades. My cousin, Archie emailed me from San Francisco last night saying that he never followed the NBA, but now he is checking scores …and he is hooked. He also said that ‘it is hard to not root for the guy, a Chinese Harvard grad who can play basketball too? I was moved not only because Lin is Chinese American, but also is a Christian.

The best of all that he has shown his maturity in his walk with our heavenly Father that he has never tapped into HIS glory with his given success. And it is refreshing to see a young person, a young Christian that continually praises and to testify the goodness of his Heavenly Father in public with such boldness. I tuned into TVBS, Taiwan wanting to find out more about Jeremy.  One TV anchor was openly praising Lin’s technique and his brilliance in the game.

However, the anchor said it sincerely that he had respect for Lin’s Christian faith, but feeling uncomfortable to hear/witness Lin has reverted too much of his glory to Jesus. He even casts his doubt, the significance as Lin usually rallies his team players to pray together before each game. Again, there is no room to argue with any pre-believer over things like that. Especially when there is only less than 2% of the total population are Christians in Taiwan.

I wondered whether or not that Lin is God’s chosen instrument to win souls? To bring more Taiwanese people especially the young people into HIS kingdom as Lin originally was from Taiwan. In the mirror of Yin/Yang, People would marvel at how impossibilities (Y-)could have turned into possibilities (Y+) for Lin to be the player of NBA.

Take, for example, his height of 1.91 and body weight of average 91 kg could possibly be the hindrance (Y-) for him to play in the American Basketball Arena(Y+). Lin had a 4.2-grade point average (GPA) in high school, but two of his dream universities didn’t (Y-) offer him sports scholarships.  Even his admission to Harvard has only guaranteed him a part of their basketball teams but without providing him (Y-) sports scholarships.  As a Harvard grad and a starter, Lin’s basketball career was like on a roller coaster ride (Y-) before he joined NBA (Y+).

Evidently, Lin is proven a gifted basketball player (Y+). And it is easy for people and basketball enthusiast to cheer his success as the end result without looking into the process of his bumpy rides (Y-) such as the sense of denials (Y-) and setbacks (Y-) that he had to go through before he is at what he is now. Lin and all of his fellow believers around the world would share one common conviction that is what every good gift is from our heavenly Father (James 1:17). Lin knows that he has to rely on God’s power to go through vigorous training and to keep a sober and abstemious lifestyle as a player.

He definitely is in great needs of Father’s hand of protection to keep him from sports injuries and HIS healing virtue to be immediately upon him whenever unavoidable injuries occurred. Finally, HIS living word would always be his shield as he is in the limelight being a public figure and a star basketball player. As fellow believers, it is our privilege to cheer for Lin’s given success, but it is also our spirit of purpose to pray for him and with him that he would always be able to experience in unison with His Heavenly Father to stand firm and gain wisdom.