The Duckling

Funny night last night. We went downtown to watch the "Abduction"... a movie about a Japanese girl who gets kidnapped by the North Korean government (a true story)... So I went to pick up Sammy from his house and we, along with Sam Kim, trekked downtown to pick up Hyal and head to the Nadal Jewish Community Center (the Al Green Theatre) to watch this documentary. I was so excited! Down we went on the DVP south... Sam was telling me about his grandmother and how she was doing... I was so into what he was saying that I missed our exit (Don Mills South) and went down south further! I so wasn't paying attention and we were just about to be too late for the movie. We finally got off at Bloor Street and dropped off Sam (who ran like 3 blocks to get tickets and seats for us while we went back to pick up Hyal)... it was seriously so hectic... By the time we picked up Hyal, it was already 9:50pm (the movie was starting at 9:45pm) and Sam called us saying that tickets were already sold out (people were actually waiting in line to see this movie!). I was so disappointed... With our heads down and feeling really stupid, we decided to eat a late dinner downtown instead (just because we were already down here). Hyal suggested we watch a later film (check out other documentary listing at Hot Docs!) and so we said "okay!" We ended up watching "The Duckling."
Sam Chung joined us too (he was complaining the whole time, because he didn't know that we were watching an independent documentary film...fell asleep I think during most of the movie). The film was actually quite interesting. Sayaka (the main character) confronts her family members one by one, revealing layer upon layer of complex, conflicted and shocking relationships. By confronting them of the hurt she experienced from each of them, it seemed to really help her resolve her feelings of depression, anxiety and loneliness. Though there were leading questions and biased viewpoints, the movie was overall quite real and raw. Refreshing to see... The best part about it was at the end of the film, there was a question and answer session with Sayaka! She went on the stage and answered some of the questions that the audience had of the movie. That was pretty cool ;) Overall, it was a fun time (even though we didn't get to see what we orginally went down to see). Really showed and revealed lots about Japanese culture and family relationships... pretty educational (which is always good)!