Author: Issa Adalia
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“Can You Hear the Music?”: How Contemporary Movies Use Film Music as a Narrative Tool
Music in contemporary motion pictures remains a highlight for casual filmgoers – with many people recognizing themes from popular franchises like Marvel and Lord of the Rings, and others creating playlists of their favorite film music on Spotify or Youtube. However, considered on a more scholarly approach, film music often acts as a driver for…
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The labyrinth of life and death: Filipino tragedies and how I overcame insomnia during COVID
Just two Sundays ago, an overseas Filipino community in Vancouver, Canada was having a Filipino cultural festival and celebration (the Lapu-Lapu Festival named after our hero), when a speeding SUV rammed into the crowd at the foodstalls and killed 11 people, including a 5-year-old girl. On May 1, in Tarlac, Philippines, 10 people were killed…
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On watching movies in the theatre
At film school last semester, I became attuned to the importance of the debate whether movie theatres will still exist or not in the future, and how it’s important to still watch movies in the theatre. (I guess the first time I heard about this debate was in 2021, through my Intro to Filmmaking class,…
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“You can’t perch here”
Plucking one of my stories from wattpad to here LOL. (as an attempt to go back to feeling like a teen writer, my golden years :P) It was from a few months ago. The prompt? Write a scene from the point of view of an animal. Note (also taken from what I put on Wattpad):…
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The Birdkeeper (a short story)
My wife was a free spirit, an independent soul. She had an iron will and was used to carving her own path. When I met her, I wanted her, and she came to me, she came to love me… She went down to earth to meet me. We built a home in the city, in…
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randomly remembering Robin Williams
I rewatched Good Will Hunting this week at our little cinema club between me, my sister and our Filipina neighbour, and I remembered I wrote something about Robin Williams on my journal some time ago. Here it is… I had a crush on him when I was a kid, seeing him in Hook, Jumanji, and…
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The Past, Present, and Future of Blogging (from my point of view)
I wish I could be a teenager again and blog the way that I used to. I often wrote about this on the old version of this Wonderfilled Issa blog, but yeah. I had so much time as a homeschooler just to rave about football, my favourite shows and computer games, Lord of the Rings…
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Nolan and the Villanelle (Cinema and Poetry)
So I realised that Nolan’s use of a villanelle for Interstellar is so fitting, considering the poetic form’s mechanics. It’s cyclical in nature, you could say you’re going back in time every stanza…
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The Odysseys of Homeschool Alumni
Homeschoolers are stereotypically characterised as misfits secluded from the world – some as socially awkward, some as geniuses, but mostly as black sheep who don’t conform to more conventional ways of schooling. So what happens to them once they’re pushed off the deep end into the “real world” – the world after homeschool?
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What It Felt Like to Watch “Interstellar” In the Cinema
I got in just as the trailers ended. I shuffled through my row in the dark, said goodbye to my friend who got the only seat left near the back – I myself didn’t manage to snag a middle seat, but thought it was okay to be near the side in case I needed to…