Placement Exam results, comments on "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"
Placement Exam
Well I got into D class which is a relief - D3 to be exact. I couldn't see anyone else from 'Western' countries who had got into the same class so I'm assuming my classmates will all be Koreans and Japanese again. I saw that one girl with a very English name was in E14 which is very advanced. Se Hyun got into E2 which is no surprise given that as mentioned he took on supplementary classes since term began last semester and has 6 hours with a language tutor per week.
D3 is means that it's D 'ordinary' class and not D+ which is more advanced. The difference is that in the textbook, D standard will start from chapter 1 whereas D+ will probably jump to the middle and start from chapter 6. If I pushed I know I could be bumped up to D+ but I'm thinking it might be better just to remain in D standard class. Unlike Se Hyun I don't need to do this to get a job so I can afford to be a bit more relaxed in my approach to the studies. I have my first class tomorrow at 8am, if it's too easy I'll ask to get bumped up, otherwise I'll just stay. Anyway, I'm just as glad that I didn't do as badly as I thought I had in the exam.
Comments on 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'
I decided to watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory this morning because I had a bit of time to kill before I got my exam results. Besides, I had to post it to Lauren and dad today and was curious about it and wanted to see it before I sent it off to Australia.
Willy Wonka, played by the wacky Johnny Depp is a famous, eccentric, reclusive candy-maker. He has hidden golden tickets inside the wrappers of five of the millions of Wonka candy bars sold around the world. The winners will be treated to a tour of the Wonka candy facility, which is the largest chocolate factory in the world.
The first winner is the "fat kid" Augustus Gloop. The second is Veruca Salt, the most spoiled girl in England - her father denies her nothing. Her father bought millions of chocolate bars and dedicated his factory workers to opening the wrappers just so that his daughter could get a golden ticket. The third winner is Violet Beauregarde, an athletic an overachiever who is always competing. She's been chewing the same piece of gum for three months just to be the person to have chewed gum for the longest. She also sticks it behind her ear which is kind of gross. The fourth is Mike Teavee, a brainy little video game addict with poor social skills. I think the little kid who played Mike Teavee was adorable but well, we all know that he's not going to meet a good end.
Charlie Bucket the hero of our story is a Londoner. His family is incredibly poor and he is only able to have one chocolate bar a year - on his birthday. It's one of those poor but loving families, much like Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colours tale ;) Eventually through a stroke of 'luck', Charlie purchases a candybar which contains a winning ticket. His grandfather Joe accompanies him for his journey through the Wonka factory. It has been a very long time since I saw the original Gene Wilder film or read the Dahl book so my memories are very sketchy.
I'm not going to post a review just comments.
Well I got into D class which is a relief - D3 to be exact. I couldn't see anyone else from 'Western' countries who had got into the same class so I'm assuming my classmates will all be Koreans and Japanese again. I saw that one girl with a very English name was in E14 which is very advanced. Se Hyun got into E2 which is no surprise given that as mentioned he took on supplementary classes since term began last semester and has 6 hours with a language tutor per week.
D3 is means that it's D 'ordinary' class and not D+ which is more advanced. The difference is that in the textbook, D standard will start from chapter 1 whereas D+ will probably jump to the middle and start from chapter 6. If I pushed I know I could be bumped up to D+ but I'm thinking it might be better just to remain in D standard class. Unlike Se Hyun I don't need to do this to get a job so I can afford to be a bit more relaxed in my approach to the studies. I have my first class tomorrow at 8am, if it's too easy I'll ask to get bumped up, otherwise I'll just stay. Anyway, I'm just as glad that I didn't do as badly as I thought I had in the exam.
Comments on 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'
I decided to watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory this morning because I had a bit of time to kill before I got my exam results. Besides, I had to post it to Lauren and dad today and was curious about it and wanted to see it before I sent it off to Australia.
Willy Wonka, played by the wacky Johnny Depp is a famous, eccentric, reclusive candy-maker. He has hidden golden tickets inside the wrappers of five of the millions of Wonka candy bars sold around the world. The winners will be treated to a tour of the Wonka candy facility, which is the largest chocolate factory in the world.
The first winner is the "fat kid" Augustus Gloop. The second is Veruca Salt, the most spoiled girl in England - her father denies her nothing. Her father bought millions of chocolate bars and dedicated his factory workers to opening the wrappers just so that his daughter could get a golden ticket. The third winner is Violet Beauregarde, an athletic an overachiever who is always competing. She's been chewing the same piece of gum for three months just to be the person to have chewed gum for the longest. She also sticks it behind her ear which is kind of gross. The fourth is Mike Teavee, a brainy little video game addict with poor social skills. I think the little kid who played Mike Teavee was adorable but well, we all know that he's not going to meet a good end.
Charlie Bucket the hero of our story is a Londoner. His family is incredibly poor and he is only able to have one chocolate bar a year - on his birthday. It's one of those poor but loving families, much like Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colours tale ;) Eventually through a stroke of 'luck', Charlie purchases a candybar which contains a winning ticket. His grandfather Joe accompanies him for his journey through the Wonka factory. It has been a very long time since I saw the original Gene Wilder film or read the Dahl book so my memories are very sketchy.
I'm not going to post a review just comments.
- The house that Charlie and his family live in is lopsided and amazingly intriguing. Tim Burton is so good with visuals.
- Charlie opens his first chocolate bar. It's dark chocolate. I don't like dark chocolate.
- Charlie's grandfather is kind of creepy-looking.
- Charlie is so cute and he's a good actor - not bratty at all. How come the English child actors are better than the US ones?
- Noah Taylor and Helena Bonham-Carter are surprisingly touching as his parents. Noah Taylor is looking .... old. It makes me sad ... I still remember when I first saw him in the tiny Aussie film The year my voice broke ... he was so young. For a while it looked as thought he was going to be young forever.
It looks as though, as Tomato Nation puts it, he has finally "hit the wall".
- No Candy Man song. Boohoo. It was one of the few songs from the earlier film version that I enjoyed - probably because we sang it in primary school choir.
- The Wonka factory has a lot of smoke stacks spewing smoke into the air. I hope that the Wonka factory complies with environmental protection standards.
- The little kid who plays the video game addict is so cute with his big eyes and spiky hair.
- I'll mention again that I really don't like dark chocolate. Why didn't they put the golden tickets into any milk chocolate or white chocolate bars?
- The welcoming scene at the factory is interesting - the cutesy dolls burn and then melt in a disturbingly horror movie fashion.
- Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka is very creepy. His skin is pale and almost greenish. I've read that he seems to be based heavily on Michael Jackson and now I understand why. The almost child-like manner, his pale thin face. Depp portrays Wonka as very disturbed, and unable to say the word parents. He has a paternal conflict issue like Tom Cruise in Top Gun. The old movie vamp style make-up is very creepy.
- The chocolate river looked more like mud than chocolate so wasn't very appetising-looking. Also, it's not very hygenic. Is it hygienic to have something edible that you can walk on and float on :) I keep thinking about Australian food and health standards. Even the grass they walk on is edible - even more unhygienic.
- "Everything in this room is edible. Even I'm edible. But that is called cannibalism, and it's frowned upon in most societies." Gosh he's creepy.
- When let loose in the confectionery garden of Eden all of the children and parents react in different ways which reflect their personalities and dispositions. Gorging, destroying, hording, stealing.
- No Oompa Loompa song here.
- Licking the knife after killing the giant bug thing was deeply gross. The Caterpillar mush is quite disgusting to watch and possibly more gross than the knife-licking scene.
- Unfortunately my dvd of the movie appears to be from Russia so all of the subtitles for "Oompa Loompa Dialect" and place names were all in Russian.
- OK it's very gross that Augustus falls into the chocolate, contaminating the chocolate for all. I am never, ever going to eat Willie Wonka chocolate.
- The Oompa Loompas are all played by an actor named Deep Ray and for this scene they're dressed in orange PVC. They sing and do synchronised swimming. Oh there is an Oompa Loompa song. They also dance on the grass and swim in the chocolate..... Did I mention I'm never, ever going to eat a Wonka product? :) It's filled with Augustus Gloop gunk and Oompa Loompa gunk.
- The chocolate river boat is very Ben Hur galley slave, powered yet again by the ubiquitous Oompa Loompas - this time in blue PVC.
- Johnny Depp really is very creepy in this. He's come such a long way since 21 Jump Street.
- Willie Wonka as a child. No wonder he's weird. His father is Saruman / Count Dooku / Dracula. Is it any wonder that he is traumatised? Christopher Lee as a father. Eeeeeeeek!
- The sight of little Willie Wonka with his head brace is kind of disturbing, as is his father's loathing of confectionery. I don't know why I feel so uncomfortable. It's not as if his father mistreated or beat him.
- Hair Toffee - candy that makes you grow hair, a beard and a moustache.
Mike Teavee: "Who wants a beard?"
Wonka:: Well Beatnix for one, folk singers and motorbike riders."
- Violet turning into the blueberry is kind of scary and disturbing ..... Lauren (who is six) might not have minded it but I'll bet that bro (who is 28) will be very disturbed by this scene if he ever watches it. He's scared of statues that come to life and talking cauliflower. There are some scenes in Sesame Street that scare the bejesus out of him.
The Oompa Loompa song for Violet is really cute actually - very disco with black and silver PVC suits. I actually love the nouveau Oompa Loompas, they're very funky. An improvement on the old ones who I remember as being kind of daggy things in orange Star Trek-like outfits with pageboy hairdos.
- Johnny Deep's 'Wonka' comes across as a very damaged man, troubled and twisted.
- For a person with a sweet tooth watching a movie about sweets and chocolate, I was surprisingly unhungry. The special effects are nice but they don't make the candy and chocolate look particularly delicious.....
- Oh the little squirrels who do the nutting are adorable but again unhygienic. I don't want to eat nuts shelled by a squirrel.
- The girl who plays Veruca Salt is amazing. She looks terrifyingly appalling. Terrifying - like she could be in a slasher film.
- The sight of Veruca being attacked by thousands of little squirrels is enough to give me squirrel trauma for the rest of my life. Honestly it's really scary. Willie Wonka looks evil.
The Oompa Loompas come out now in yellow PVC singing a sort of acidy, psychedelic number. I preferred the number for Violet, though.
- Watching the Oompa Loomps I find myself experiencing Hermione-like moments in relation to House Elves. Is it right for Wonka to use the drug-like lust Oompa Loompas feel for cocoa beans to persuade them to work in his factory?
- The puppet hospital and burns centre is just creepy. What the hell was that supposed to be?
- Not sure how I feel about the fact that Willie Wonka basically entraps the children, knowing what their weaknesses are he tempts them and leads them to their downfall if not destruction.
- 'Candy doesn't have to have a point' Charlie declares. I agree, but what does that mean?
- The 2001 theme music used in the television room when the giant bar of chocolate arrives is an absolute hoot. *giggle*
- The Oompa Loompa song for Mike is very heavy metal, thrash, seventies KISS with a nod to the Beatles partway through. Quite disturbing, and besides I like the little smartass despite his bad attitude.
- I wonder if I would like a glass elevator or if it would just make me feel nauseous. Also it's kind of inconsiderate of Wonka to put them through the glass elevator routine when Charlie's grandfather is so elderly. What if he'd had a heart attack?
- I just realised today that I have been misspelling confectionery and unhygienic for ages.
- The reconcilation between Wonka and his father is quite touching although I could have done without "Dental Mouth Cam".
- Willy Wonka's hair is really strange.
- Some of the lines are .... funny ...
Charlie's grandmother to Wonka: You smell like peanuts, I like peanuts.
Wonka: Thank you. You smell like old people and soap. I like that.
- The ending is nice .... I like the idea that Wonka was adopted by the Bucket family although I hope that helped him to banish some of his freakiness and his cannibalism fixation.....