How comfortable are we with ambivalence?

Every face tells of a story and every story is different from another. People often say 戲如人生, I couldn't agree more. Afterall, behind every good movie is a brilliant mind at work, the brilliance which comes from skilfully combining various day-to-day experiences, fantasies of the harrys and sallys. What better way to connect to the hearts of the street people than to portray their thoughts and lives on the big screen? Seemingly simple yet very difficult to do, to find the commonality in the different people yet being specific enough to touch the heart of the individual. Maybe that is why different movies appeal to different crowd :)

I like the predictability of the formula of each genre but I like better the twist or reality bites which comes at the end which often leaves me astounded in my seat. This is usually the part which makes the movie worth the money for me, rather than just the warm and fuzzy feeling I get at the end of a feel-good movie. The latter is definitely appealing but as I step out of the cinema, the reality sets in and the disparity between the two leaves me feeling almost disillusional. A feel-good movie just does not carry its effects that far for me.

To me, a movie which stimulates the mind at the end of it is exciting. I realised,however, that people do not like to be provoked or disturbed beyond their comfort level. The inability to form a conclusion or having the feeling of incompleteness leaves us with an unsettledness and discomfort. It feels like having knots in the stomach, not too troubling yet enough to bother us. The human response is simply not to entertain it or at least not long enough to make us insane. That's coping, the basic instincts of survival. If you do not understand something and is feeling stuck, move on.

"To truly live in the 'here and now' is a difficult and painful struggle, since having a realistic view of the world involves being conscious of our innumerable negative emotions as well as our positive ones...Living fully consciously in such a world can be considered as coping with ambivalence, and is a difficult task. "