127 Hours - the triumphing

Ok, this year my Valentine's Day was sweet and lovely. Nothing's better than spending a whole day with the love in your life, having a nice European Sunday Brunch together, and then took a walk along streets on Tsim Sha Tsui, held hands under the big screen in the new The One shopping mall, and finish with bowls of yummy Japanese noodles.

Last year our pick was The Valentines - a film full of love and warmth.

Surprisingly, in this day of love, Landico went for the emotionally-demanding 127 Hours, by the director of Slumdog Billionaire. Initially I questioned myself whether I should really book the seats in this special day. But on the aftermath, well, it is not a bad idea to break the conventional theme of Valentine's day, and experience the tense will of living with her, through a simple yet overwhelming powerful movie of the year.

---- [SPOILER warning: don't read further if you are going to watch!] ----

In fact, long before the filming work started, I have came across the shocking story of Aron Ralston, the all-alone hiker who've been trapped by a huge falling rock, pinning his forearm sealed with the sidewall, who spent a whole 5 days trying desparately to excape - but failed - and at the end, the strong will for life made him amputating his own arm, all by a short knife with 2.5cm blade, and now continuing his life as a sport trainer, a famous sport trainer.

I was so much curious about the story part - we all know its gonna be a one-man show with known ending, so I anticipated borebom as we entered. But I turned out to be so wrong.

Aron got stuck within 10 minutes from the start, and maybe I am being too empathetic, I almost put myself in the same desparacy he was facing - seeing the bottle of water running out bit by bit, eyes and lips went scaly and dry, mind went delirious and hopeless - but there were someone in life that keep the strong will to live. The strong emotion built up step by step, and I can't help ask myself: do I have the gut to make it?

Prompted by all the powerful emotions, the amputating scene came. Of course Landico was holding her hands on eyes (as almost half the audience did); over-estimating my medical experience, I kept them open and watched...

It is hard to explain. Watching the flesh, tendons and blood being chipped inch by inch, I almost FELT the same pain going-on on my forearm. This experience is so much different (I dont even want to make this comparison) with the bloody meaningless but horrifying scenes in Saw, I never fear about blood, but when having put myself into the character, the pain is excruciating. On one hand I wish so badly to escape, but on the other hand I got to finish vividly the stabs and cuts, I would indeed go mad if it was me.

James Franco played it so real that I started to sweat and got lightheaded when he puckled the last nerve he encounter. With the intense sound effect, right after he finished the job, I (for true) went blackout for a second or so - in the sitting position, yes, a genuine vasovagal attack.

The point is, the film in fact placed only a short focus on the very scene I just described. What makes the final shot such heart-pumping is the great job done on staging the inner emotion in the first hour. In fact, since the Cast Away played by Tom Hanks in 2000, 172 Hours is the second one-man film that I found strikingly well-played.

Stepping out the threatre, I hold her hands tight. Feeling the warmth from her palm, I feel grateful for what I have.

P.S. Here is the real Aron Rouston interview done years ago, it is amazing to hear his first person story, on what had happened in the 5 days within the slit of stones - all combatting alone. Watching it I realised, the film hasn't exaggerate anything, if not undertelling the story.