The Best & The Worst of 2018

This should be the 6^th ‘The Best & The Worst’, meaning ‘Almost Buddhist’ has been around here for 6 years. It’s never been easy, because I thought of giving up from time to time, like a man hoping things to come on right but they were never really quite what he expected! Truth is, it took a lot of correct, precise causes and conditions to allow me to have made it so far, and therefore I so much appreciate it!

I pray everyday that I’m almost there. That I’m on the right track to the right place! That after I’m gone, some of my words here would give people courage and direction to go on when they feel like giving up and lost, and also be able to upset and disappoint those who are so full of themselves! That all the Buddhists out there would know the fact that the Buddha has never wanted us to be religious, to be narrow-minded, to be biased and proud, to be so called a Buddhist, because being such one could be just another trap that pulls us much more further away from being enlightened, if we somehow take it too seriously!

5-star films are rare here, but 0-star films are more like once in a blue moon. If my memory serves me well, there’s been only one here that is Martin Scorsese’s ‘Silence’, and it was explained. This year I was lucky enough to come across the second one. It is terrible for sure, but what seems more terrible is me actually that would rather self-abuse than self-reflect!

The Best:

Men undergoing darkest hour would either be destroyed pathetically or be reborn the strongest. Gary Oldman’s Churchill is an imperfect great man, who is iron-willed, far-sighted and witty enough to be able to finally lead the British people to victory against the Nazi during the Second World War. Said that every cloud has a silver lining! But only few would be apt to see and believe it during the worst of times. Let alone the courage to keep on fighting! If you feel like weak and insignificant, ‘Darkest Hour’ is to make you feel strong and appreciative.

The set is simple but how it plays out is incredible. 'Den Skyldige' is one of the rare films in recent years, that is so engaging and breathtaking throughout that you don’t want to miss a second of it. The idea is daring. The technique is ingenious. The director is clever enough to put it together to make it look like a piece of cake but it certainly is not. What you think it is, is just not what it is! And it’s always up to you to make it right, or much worse!

The Worst:

'The Predator' is a mess, and a shame! I don’t know what I expected to get from it. I don’t know what was wrong with me to want to check it out and even finish watching it. Maybe I was afraid of loneliness and boredom that are supposed to be like relatives to wisdom itself. So shame on me!

If only miracles had a shape so that we could recognize and study it, then duplicate and make it happen over and again. But sadly they don’t! So we count on our luck but miracles are nothing about luck! In fact, luck doesn’t really exist from a Buddhist point of view. All I want to say is, you have no idea yet what miracles are if you’re still busy looking for one! All right, Merry X’mas & Happy New Year to you guys. Wish you’d see and seize all the miracles around. Stick around y’all. Peace!