"High Fidelity"- Questions to Ponder

1. What is the movie about?

“High Fidelity” revolved around the story of its leading man, Rob Gordon (John Cusack) who faced miserable love relationships in his life and was ready to face the facts that lead to all the breakups he suffered. Rob had never thought of reinvestigating his love life until he broke up with Laura (Iben Hjejle). The movie started with a scene of arguments between Rob and Laura, which then ended with Laura leaving Rob and ends their relationship. Suffering from another breakup, Rob decided to include Laura in his top five memorable breakups, and is ready to recall all the five stories again in order to know what has happened to his former girlfriends, and also to know the real reason on why they have left him.
In order to re-examine his failed relationship, Rob finally comes to the decision of seeking all the girls back to know how they are doing. In order to really get over his past, Rob decides to revisit the places where he had gone with his past girlfriends. By being in touch with them again, Rob sees them differently. In other words, maturity has hit them. In one part of the story, Rob could not believe that he had fall in love for all of them back then. This was obviously evident when Rob, in present accepted Charlie’s (Catherine Zeta Jones) invitation for dinner party at her house. Charlie was his college girlfriend who had left him for another man. Seeing Charlie again after many years, Rob admitted that he had great admiration for Charlie in the past, and can now see her as how she really is. Rob had certainly matured through the years and realized many things that he had not discovered before that.
Besides the struggle of overcoming his past failed relationships, Rob suffers deeply due to his breakup with Laura. In contrast to his other ex-girlfriends, Rob felt that his love towards Laura was pure, and he needs Laura in his life. The fact that Laura is now with another man (Rob’s former neighbor) adds to his restlessness. Rob realizes the impact of Laura leaving him, and it makes him heartbroken. Thus, Rob decided not to recall his love story with Laura as she leaves the greatest impact in his life.
The climax of the story comes when Laura’s father died. Rob was invited to the funeral ceremony since Laura’s mother liked him a lot. With the grief surrounding Laura, she badly needs Rob for a fling and after that realized that she needed Rob in her life to help her continue living and to cope with the fact of losing her father. Rob finally saw that his relationship with Laura was impartial, and proposed her in marriage. That was the greatest fulfillment and happiness in his life that had helped him get through his miserable past.
Besides focusing on the life story of Rob, “High Fidelity” also includes the story of Rob’s two workers, Barry and Dick. Both of them have different personalities, and their discussion revolves around their interests in music.


2. How is the story different from other common fiction?

This movie is different from other common fiction as it breaks the stereotype of love stories we often see or experience. By watching the movie, it reflects to us that not all love stories, or human’s love relationship can end happily. Besides that, “High Fidelity” also makes the audience understand that not every individual has the lucky opportunity to meet their soul mate early in life. A very evident example is the protagonist himself. He had to go through so many breakups before finally settling down with Laura. The movie also showed us that even when we have someone special that we love, people tend to take things for granted. A saying said that relationships can be compared to growing up. We learn many things, many things needs sacrifices and change, in order to be able to understand and appreciate our partner more. Good and long lasting love relationships are built, and everyday it grows. Being able to really appreciate our partner and the ability to change in order to improve our life is the recipe of happiness in a relationship. One example that can be taken from the movie was when Laura decided to leave Rob. She had been in a relationship with Rob for several years, but she saw nothing changing in him. She does not feel so attached to Rob, thus contribute to her decision of leaving him. Eventually, with Laura breaking up with Rob, she managed to open Rob’s eyes on the need to change and become a better and successful person in life.

3. Who is your favourite character? Why?

My favourite character in the movie would be Liz (Joan Cusack). She is Rob’s best friend. I think that her character plays an important part in the maturity of the leading man, Rob Gordon. We can see how important her character was in helping Rob discovers his flaws and change. As a friend, Liz was always there for Rob, consoling him after his breakups and always tried to make things better for him. She is very understanding, and a supportive figure in Rob’s life. Rob turns to her with his problems, with the intention of asking for opinions and help. For example, a scene where Laura and Liz was sitting together having tea at a restaurant. Liz met Laura in order to know the real factor on why Laura left Rob. Even though she is a friend of Rob’s she admitted that even Rob made a mistake that led to the breakup. She realized that she has the responsibility to help Rob solve his love problems. In a way, by having Liz as his friend, Rob has a way of understanding women better. Liz provided Rob with opinions regarding the opposite gender, and it can be seen as a possible turning point in Rob’s life in realizing his flaws. Although her appearances were as a minor character in the movie, I obviously believe that she played an important part to the evolvement or continuation of the plot to the story.

4. Provide an alternate ending.

In my opinion, as the scriptwriter and producer of this movie aimed at providing audience a story that breaks the stereotype and common features of a love story, they might as well make it more uncommon of a love fiction by having a tragic ending for instance. We know that many love stories would have a “happily ever ending” note at the end of it. The same goes with “High Fidelity’ where Laura and Rob, the leading characters of the story in the end managed to confront their problems and lead a blissful life together. An alternate ending that I suggest would be whereby Rob, who has had so many failures in love, would have given up hope and loses his interest in women as he feels that they are just making his life miserable and complication. After Laura had left him and his successful attempt to know the causes of his failed relationships, Rob could be someone who learnt his lessons well, and would stay out of the love business. What will happen to Laura? I think that although Laura knows her needs for Rob, she can only be friends with him. Rob is not a romantic type of person. The way he proposed Laura, as seen in the movie was not like any typical leading actor in a love fiction. So when Rob proposed, Laura realized that she can only accept him as her close friend, but not as a lover due to the various conflicts that she faced while still with him. When this movie has a tragic ending, it proves to the audience that not all love can last together until the end.

It's Hard to Become a Good Writer...

Mr. Jaferi asked the class to come up with a blog about the difficulties we faced during writing. Thank you very much sir, this is a very good way of understanding why students have difficulties in writing, especially poems.

From my experience, in order to come up with a good and adorable piece of writing, the subject matter, or idea is essential. And, the idea must be great. How do I get the best idea to present in my writing? That is the important part that I think is a factor that hinders me from the ability to write better. I always find myself in a situation where I have mind block, and I just could not think of a good idea to write about. Actually, there were times when my mind works eficiently, but in writing literature works like poems, it just did not come to my head.

Another problem that I do face during writing is wordlessness. No words comes to mind. I admit that I don't like reading books very much, and I think that is the contributing factor towards my lack of vocabulary. Well, how do I overcome this? I would like to be able to read books everyday, especially novels. But, I don't quite have the time. I do read novels during semester breaks though. Well, I think I have to push and encourage myself to make reading my routine. Although I seldom read novels, but I do read newspapers everyday. Can that help? I've heard that "Readers Digest" is also a good form of megazine to read in order to be good in English composition. I'll try every way I can to improve myself.

Hmm, I think those are the two major things that lead to my difficulty in writing in English. Writing poems are my greatest worries, since the words needed to be used should not be too straight forward. I hope that my friends can help me in overcoming myworries and difficulties.

Wow!! The New Semester..

Compared to last semester, this new semester had been a totally different experience for me. Not everything changes, I still get to register in classes same with my friends, but other things are a wholly new challenge for me.

The last semester break was a whole lot of fun. Since my family had moved to Kota Kinabalu for several months, my break was spent discovering the many interesting places there. Besides, I also had the chance to try riding on a jet ski, scuba diving, jungle tracking, and lots more. Everything had been fantastic.

I’m kind of sad that the break is over, as I have to leave my family and stay in Shah Alam. But what can I do. These are sacrifices that need to be made. Now that the new semester has begun, time to start waking up early and spent the days going to lectures.

The most interesting start to this semester is the fact that I’m not staying in the hostel anymore. HOORAY!! Wow, did I just say that? Haha.. Not that I don’t like staying in the hostel, but I am quite excited with this new experience. Imagine, this is my first time living in a compound where I don’t have to abide by any rules whatsoever. I can say that I have the freedom now. I can do whatever I like at home. Eventhough it’s a rented house shared with 3 other friends, but it always feels like home. I cannot hide the fact that I miss my life in hostel, and all my friends there, but still, we can always meet each other during class right?.. Hmm. Although it’s fun, I always remind myself not to indulge in the “fun” so much. I always need to know my priorities staying here, and that is to study.

The first week of the new semester has been quite hectic for me. The rented house needs cleaning up to make it a comfortable place to live in. Household items need to be bought to clean the house as well. Hmm, I went to Giant Hypermarket in Seksyen 13 nearly everyday last week to buy the items the house needs. That was fine for me as I really love shopping (very much). But it makes me think how I have grown up so much. Now I need to pay the house rent, to buy groceries (we plan to do lots of cooking this semester), and pay the bills. Well, that’s life.

This new semester, the most challenging thing for me would be to wisely spend my money. I was not required to pay anything while living in the hostel, but now that has changed. I want to be independent, and I hope that I can manage every month just by spending the scholarship I receive, not the monthly allowance from my parents. I want to save it to buy the car of my dreams.

Well, classes have begun. Not so much of learning yet, but only introduction to the new subjects of this semester. Still there’s time to enjoy and have fun, and the great thing is, the scholarship is in!! Double enjoyment and fun I guess, but always need to remember to budget my expenses wisely. After a week, my life has become less hectic and things have started to settle down a bit. And now, my focus should be on my studies. What can I say? The first week left me tired, but happy and excited. I cannot wait to experience what’s in store for me this semester. Hope to be able to study well, to get new friends, and wish that this semester brings success, fortune and happiness to me..