My all-time favorite as a child was Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory starring Gene Wilder. It’s a story about hope and integrity. Remember poor Charlie who thought he didn‘t have a chance in the world to get a golden ticket to enter Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory? Despite the great odds of being poor and disadvantaged, he was able to secure one golden ticket out of only five distributed in the entire world! Which child wouldn’t want a drink from a river of chocolate or see an oompa loompa up close? This movie so inspired me as a child because I felt that if a boy like Charlie could conquer the world and make something for himself, then maybe a little girl like me from a small country like the Philippines could also strive to achieve greatness by emulating Charlie’s perseverance and sincerity.
Molly Ringwald’s hit movie Pretty in Pink defined my teenage years. Her character Andie personified every teenager’s need to fit in and yet be an individual. Her uniqueness — she loved everything pink; even her beat-up car was pink— didn’t necessarily make her one of the popular girls but it made her more sure of herself and what she stood for. As teenagers, it would be so easy to conform so as to fit in. This movie taught me how it’s okay to be yourself no matter how different other people think you might be. This means being comfortable in your own skin. Hey, Andie did get the gorgeous guy in the end after all! I loved this movie so much that I named my own daughter Andi.
As an adult woman, Bridget Jones’s Diary definitely tops my list of all-time favorites. This movie perfectly showed me the single woman’s concerns about her looks, her job, and most importantly, her love life. I’m sure women out there, at one point or another, have been able to relate to Bridget’s struggle with her weight, her insecurity about how she looks, and not to mention her single status. It was also funny how the movie showed older women being treated like pariahs. They don’t do that to men, do they? I liked it that in the end, Bridget found happiness not because she found a man but because she glorified in all her finer qualities. The movie spoke to me about acceptance and not relying on other people to make you happy and fulfilled.
So there they are – the three movies that have chronicled my life. As varied as these three movies may be, they have one thing in common: they all empowered me to face life’s challenges head-on, pretty much like the way the lead players in these movies did. Each of these three has influenced my life in a great way. So how can I possibly choose just one?
‘Til the next movie...