aria: ([slings & arrows] ART)
valinor spider party ([personal profile] aria) wrote2010-09-16 07:56 pm

a quick tour of aria's psyche

I have lately (and by "lately" I mean "at various points over the last year or so") been absently tracking down and rewatching favorite childhood films. Among other things, I have discovered that [a] The Lion King is still totally awesome and [b] lots of those childhood films, especially the live action ones, make me cry. Large bits throughout Matilda made me tear up. The end of Homeward Bound made me sob! My inner child is totally bewildered, but apparently my inner child took for granted that the animals would get home or that movie narratives totally understood me and also, obviously, my brain would give me superpowers.

The point is, though, that when I was a kid, the only goddamn movie in the world that made me cry was The Land Before Time, when Littlefoot's mother dies. (You all cried. Don't lie.) I was always mildly embarrassed and totally bewildered when my parents cried at movies, especially at happy endings. But now ... I really love crying at things. I am working through how to phrase that without sounding odd? I think it's something about how I want to function as a sane adult, which means that occasionally I also want to bawl my eyes out because it's the end of Toy Story 3, and know that it's a good emotional outlet. I love good emotional outlets! It probably comes down to how I'd much rather cry because I've been emotionally touched than just because I'm stressed about something.

Some things that make me cry:

+ Vienna Teng songs (City Hall, Grandmother Song, & Lullaby for a Stormy Night)
+ vids to Vienna Teng songs (Lullaby for a Stormy Night, Doctor Who, EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.)
+ most vids about awesome ladies being awesome (most consistently One Girl Revolution)
+ many films! Lilo & Stitch (anyone says "ohana means family" and I run for the tissues); Homeward Bound (the endiiiing); Return of the King (it's the Grey Havens! quick, run for the tissues!); Toy Story 3 (the endiiiiiiing, I COULDN'T EVEN SEE); Star Trek reboot (the first five minutes! and now that I have watched lots of TOS, I start crying at the end too, oh self).
+ the ending of Big Fish YES IT GETS ITS OWN BULLET POINT I THINK MY FRIENDS AND I COLLECTIVELY WENT THROUGH A WHOLE BOX OF TISSUES

So ... does anyone else do this? And by 'this' I mean either cry at any of these things also, or actively keep track of go-to things to cry to because emotional outlets are great. (Honestly I just like keeping lists of things that elicit emotional states. For instance, I also have a mental list of Hottest Things Ever, although eventually it'll need more on it than just a lieutenant colonel is being beaten. Strangely I don't have a mental list of Things That Always Make Me Happy, although the answer to that one might be "due South." Hm.)
gominokouhai: (Default)

[personal profile] gominokouhai 2010-09-17 01:41 am (UTC)(link)

My list used to go:

  • Bambi (I was five)
  • My Girl (I was twelve)
  • Spock's death in Star Trek II
  • One scene in A Few Good Men
  • Lower Decks (season 7 TNG)

The list has significantly expanded since then, to the extent that I can't keep track of it. But Spock's death still does it every time.

ellen_fremedon: overlapping pages from Beowulf manuscript, one with a large rubric, on a maroon ground (Default)

[personal profile] ellen_fremedon 2010-09-17 01:56 am (UTC)(link)
Wrath of Khan is still my no-fail tearjerker movie, and has been for years.
gominokouhai: (Default)

[personal profile] gominokouhai 2010-09-17 02:46 am (UTC)(link)
I have been... and always shall be... your friend.

It's just lovely, isn't it? The glass. The dialogue and the callbacks. The bromance. The horrendous overacting that, for once, doesn't simply just work, it's actually required. I don't know what I was thinking when I was fourteen and loved this film, but now, it's just a marvellous piece of cinema.

Now I come to think about it, it may be two scenes in A Few Good Men.