Movie Review: Divergent

A Divergent series...

Divergent opened recently in cinemas and Warren and I went off on Sunday to watch it. Having thoroughly enjoyed The Hunger Games (I devoured the books in about 4.3 seconds) I was super excited to check out Divergent which is similar in genré, being a Dystopian fiction. Whereas Utopian Fictions create perfect societies, Dystopian Fictions create degraded societies (usually in a post-apocalyptic setting).

The setting for Divergent is in post-apocalyptic Chicago - the city is divided into five different factions - and people are categorised into the factions based on their inherent virtues. The five factions include -

   ,
Each person, when they reach 16, must take a test which determines which faction they should join. After hearing the test results the candidates must then choose, in a public ceremony, whether to remain in the faction of their birth or to transfer to a new faction.

When the lead character, Beatrice Prior, takes her test - it come back with inconclusive results - the test places her in several factions simultaneously, making her a "divergent". Divergents are problematic for the ruling government in that they cannot be easily "boxed" into a particular faction and they have a much higher degree of free will and thought - which in turn, may begin a collective revolt. The government are looking to eradicate any known Divergents in an effort to protect their (skewed) system, which therefore places Beatrice in danger of her life.

I spent the first 20 minutes of the movie trying to decide which faction I would place myself in and decided that I would most definitely be a Divergent. I then spent the remainder of the movie picking up tips on how to survive as an aforementioned Divergent. And trust me, it's not easy.

Apart from the amazing costuming which distinguishes the factions and incredible set design, Divergent also has a 
because what great movie is NOT complete without a little sprinkling of Cupid? I presume that Beatrice's little love interest with "Four" (Theo James) spanned way longer than the actual film -

but one cannot blame her, because watching Theo James take his shirt off - 

is a MOST welcome thing.

The movie keeps you on the edge of your seat as we go on the adrenalin pumping and dauntless ride into the destruction of a society, bent on eradicating those with free will. (There are SO many hectic themes in this movie, that I can't even begin to cover them all in this blogpost!) I absolutely LOVED the movie soundtrack - ( THIS SONG - too beautiful!) and so many other incredible tracks from the likes of Ellie Goulding and Snow Patrol.

Divergent is out now both in SA and in the UK - and definitely one of those movies that is better on the big screen -  so I suggest you load up on your popcorn pronto!

Check out the trailer here.

*sponsored post.

the road trip to Busan...

So the past three days I have been on a road-trip down to Pusan/Busan (it's interchangeable) for the International Film Festival with my lovely friend Kristi. (Hence the lack of blog posts but hopefully this will help cure the withdrawal symptoms.)


We left Seoul after work on Sunday night and got onto the train. Little did we know that we had chosen the creep train. Our carriage was filled with grimy old men stinking of soju, someone having a full sign-language conversation (with himself) and a few Zombies. One of the Zombies approached Kristi and wanted to sell her some gum. 


Kristi (being the good samaritan that she is) bought the gum from scary zombie:

so we got addicted to the cigarette gum and chew-chewed all the way to Busan. (also we took the train.) *did you see what i did there. chew chew. train. get it? it's funny. *

Anyway. we got to Busan around midnight-ish and booked into a (creepy) love motel. complete with red lights and dead hookers hiding under the bed. (just kidding about the hookers - that was the imagination of Kristi and me)

Had an early start to the next day - and decided to stop off and get some breakfast at the coffee shop "coffine guru" down the street.

me: hello coffee man, can I please have a chicken sandwich.

coffee man: oh, sorry we dont have that.

me: ok then, no problem, can i have the tuna sandwich then?

coffee man: sorry, we don't have that either.

me: vegetable sandwich?

coffee man: no sandwiches.

me: but its on your menu.

coffee man: but no ingredients.

me: ok. can you recommend something?

coffee man: we have bagels.

me: ok. one bagel and cappuccino with low fat milk please.

coffee man: no low fat milk.

me: ok. just bring me whatever you have.

*so they didn't have any ingredients. but they did have a WINE ZONE. yes, a curtained off WINE ZONE section. in the coffee shop. WITH a disco ball.)*

Here is my breakfast. (it was delicious-i'm so glad i chose it.)

and also... we got FREE MATCHES! (these will come in handy later.)

Kristi did a lot of hard work making sure all the movies we wanted to watch didn't clash and that we had enough time to get from one movie house to the other. i just annoyed her with taking pictures.

For those people who were unable to attend the Film Festival.
Here is Che's fantastic (personal opinion-ed) guide to all the films we saw.

DAY ONE:

As with most film-festival/artsy-thing-a-migs there are always the fair share of obnoxious/"i'm-way-better-than-the-average-joe" {in this case "i'm-way-better-than-the-average-asian-who-doesn't-speak-fluent-english} people.

The Q & A Session with Viv Fongenie went something like this:

Whatever. we didn't know what she was asking. but neither did the director. it was awkward.

and also very fun.

We also watched a collection of international short films that night. I have no comment on those films since we found a restaurant with a wine buffet right before we watched it. 

yes. that's correct. WINE. BUFFET. a BUFFET. of. WINE.

Moving on to CHE'S FILM REVIEWS DAY 2:

After Day 2 of movies we went to get drinks and nachos from a great mexican place Taco El Puebla. (it's near to Fuzzy Navel, tucked away in a building behind a family mart- you'll find it if you try.)

Then we decided we needed to win couple-shell necklaces from the Dart throw game.

Let me explain the rules:

1. You pay for a set number of darts.
2. You stand behind a counter and throw the darts at the balloons.

3. The more balloons you hit, the better your chance of winning a prize.

OK my turn:

well done che. you won a necklace! OLLEH!

OK Kristi, your turn.

and then something awesome happened:

* * * 

(no further creatures were harmed in this incident. the bear sadly was completely stuffed and didn't make it.)

we won those matching shell necklaces we were after (and some fireworks for our efforts).

HOORAY!

that's me. on the beach using my fireworks wand AND handy FREE MATCHES from Coffine Guru (see i told you they would be useful) to channel Harry Potter and wizard duel with Voldemort (aka Kristi-innocent-bear-slayer).

We watched two more movies on the last day and got in some beach time and an awesome photoshoot... oh and ALSO! we met Lowell... but that's a whole new story...

* what a fun time with Kristi! *

Watch a movie tonight.