Baohulu

Filed under: Film — purplehsiaoling at 9:51 am on Sunday, October 14, 2007

     I love cartoons.  1. Cartoons make me feel good to the extent of being deliriously happy (sometimes).  2. Cartoons are colourful and delicious to the eyes (something I still appreciate despite being puzzlingly blind to images and more receptive to words).  3. Cartoons feature adorable characters that make you go absolutely ga-ga over them.  4. Cartoons ALWAYS have good endings- yes, siree..  Aside from chic lits, happy endings are guaranteed here too.  I can’t stop at 4, so I’ll just add this to make it 5.  5.  Cartoons are for everyone!  Haha..

     When it comes to movies, there are good ones and there are rotten tomatoes.  There is no excuse for a bad movie with a bad storyline, bad lines or bad acting.  But when it comes to cartoons, has there been any rotten tomato?  Okay, this might be a case of over-generalization.  Nonetheless, the point is if a cartoon is corny, so what?  Cartoons are meant to be like that.  I opine that cartoons are a form of escapism from our dreary world, just like fantasy and everything else imagined.  And cartoons are appealing because they remind us (or me) of being a kid all over again.  When anything was possible and nothing was impossible.

     Hmm..  I didn’t mean to write in defence of cartoons here.  I’ve just watched The Magic Gourd (Baohulu) this afternoon.  And I’m absolutely ga-ga over baohulu!  I will not do any justice to the cartoon if I attempt to describe it here but the scene in which baohulu first makes its appearance is incredibly ingenious.  Okay, roughly..  Boy fishes a weird-looking thing from the river.  That thing lands on ground away from the boy.  Boy inches cautiously towards it.  Don’t know what possesses the boy to do this but..

     Boy throws a stone at the weird thing.  Weird thing sprouts an arm to catch it and also says, wow, that’s a good shot.  Then, baohulu shows itself- arms, legs, a very lovable pair of eyes and a mouth.  If you haven’t seen the posters, you must google for a picture!  Baohulu is simply adorable and more so, when it starts moving after that.  All throughout the cartoon, I anticipated baohulu on screen and the bonus is it has all the wittiest lines!  Cute and witty, what more can I ask for?  Haha..


     For the uninitiated, The Magic Gourd revolves around a boy who wants to achieve a lot of things at school but is too lazy to do anything about it.  He’s contented with dreaming of greatness but one day, his desperation to amount to something leads him to a chance encounter with my current obsession, baohulu!  The story goes along pretty nicely (or not so for boy) as the relationship between the pair develops but at the end, moral of the story is: nothing good just falls down from the sky.


     What I actually want to write about here is how I think that all of us actually have our very own magic gourd- something or someone that helps us along in life.  Of course, not in the very magical way like in the cartoon but still, we get help consciously or unconsciously, small or big from our baohulu.  All right, I don’t know about you out there but I did have my very own baohulu. 


     I could count on my baohulu for anything, anytime, anywhere.  Just like what baohulu in the movie told the boy but there’s no master or servant in my relationship with my baohulu.  My baohulu was no magic gourd but to me, my baohulu did magic for me.  When I am stuck, when I have problems, when I am at my wit’s end, my baohulu comes to my rescue.  No glue is too strong for me to get unstuck from a sticky situation, no problem is too big or too small and my baohulu’s wit is more than enough to compensate for the lack in mine..  When I had my baohulu.

     My baohulu was not known for the virtue of patience but to me, my baohulu had all the time in the world for me.  My baohulu always made me believe in myself.  When I fell, my baohulu made me get up again.  My baohulu said if other people can do it, I can do it too, if not better.  Most importantly, my baohulu believed in me, even at times when I don’t believe in myself.  Once when I was very sad and thought no one cared, my baohulu told me that when I am sad, my baohulu is sadder still.  I knew then that I was not alone.


     I was (or am still?) a strong believer in everything good and fairy tales and foolishly, I believed that I would always have a wonderful world with my baohulu.  If something bad comes along, my baohulu will turn it into something good.  If I have questions, my baohulu will give me the answers.  If I am frightened, my baohulu shows me that there is nothing to fear.  If I am in doubt, my baohulu erases every trace of it.  If I ever find myself alone, I must remember that I am not alone because I have my baohulu.  My baohulu is my source of inspiration, strength and courage.  


     But one day, my baohulu was taken away from me without a warning.


     In the cartoon, Boy tells baohulu to leave because it was creating a mess in Boy’s life by trying to help but ended up not being much of a help.  The cartoon was trying to show how Boy has to take responsibility for his own life and if he wants successes, he has to start working for them.  It is strange that I thought of my source of inspiration, strength and courage when I watched The Magic Gourd and ended up writing about my baohulu.  There is no similarity between my story and the cartoon but the essence is there, I guess.


     I am left without my baohulu.  I was lost, I am still lost and I haven’t got everything figured out.


     At the end of the cartoon, Boy achieves a moment of triumph and he runs off to baohulu to share his joy.  He was especially overjoyed to know that baohulu hadn’t done anything magical to help him but I think that baohulu was nonetheless instrumental in Boy’s success because without it, Boy would never have gotten out of his rut.


     In my story, I want to think that my baohulu is still here with me even though I have to start facing the bad, answer my own questions, conquer my fears, erase my doubts but..  I know that I am never alone because I had my baohulu and will always have my baohulu. 


     Just like in the cartoon when baohulu tells Boy before flying off that it will call him once in a while, there is no real separation between Boy and his baohulu.