Sunday, March 13, 2005

why i stopped watching romantic comedies

i don't watch romantic comedies anymore. i stopped two years ago; the last one i watched from start to finish being "how to lose a guy in 10 days".

they're all way too sweet for me. too fairytale-like. too happy ending happily-ever-after.

nothing ever works out that way. the perfect guy never suddenly decides to see you as more than "just a friend", not even after you come out in a gorge dress and sing a sweet song on stage (ref: "dawson's creek" and "a walk to remember"). the perfect girl doesn't fall for you after you spend the night trying to convince her that the jerk wasn't worth it anyway (ref: "clueless"). most of all, there will never be a true rags-to-riches cinderella-ish story in this world, nothing along the lines of "maid in manhattan".

all these movies only accomplish one thing: to make me more and more disillusioned than i already am.

i made the mistake of watching "a walk to remember" a few moments ago.

just 15 minutes into the show, and already all the ridiculous ideas i had about life before i stopped watching romantic comedies came back.

the ideal life i envisioned. the endearing scenarios i used to dream about. the diabetes-inducing way each milestone of my life would progress: the perfect university. the perfect guy. the perfect wedding. the perfect cherubic kids. the perfect job, complete with cute episodes of trouble ala "the brady bunch" or "family ties". the perfect 50th anniversary party. and, of course, the perfect ending, which never includes death, but with two wrinkled hands holding one another, and two pairs of eyes looking out into the sunset.

cue: camera pans outwards.

yes, that is what a romantic comedy can do to me. hence the abstinence from all things sugar and spice.

i never did watch "a walk to remember" in one go. i watched the entire movie spaced out in several accidental occasions ie. while channel surfing. however, i do know enough about the movie to understand why the guys i know from sajc tell me that it's the one and only romantic comedy they will watch.

it's about the perfect girl, with the perfect tragic story, the perfect obstinate personality, and who still looks absolutely darling in a floral dress, dreaming about being married in her mother's wedding gown. the perfect girl who changed an imperfect boy into a perfect young man who does all he can to fulfill her hopes before she dies.

how sweet.

how deceiving.

it's not that i'm not a hopeless romantic. deep down i believe in fairytales and riding into the sunset. it's just that believing in such magic is dangerous. i became an idealist because i believed in happy endings. i had an ideal of my life in my head, and everytime i encountered something that didn't fit into the picture, i became frustrated and went into denial. it robbed me of my sanity, and it made me miserable.

deciding to stay away from romantic comedies kind of...set me free. it sounds stupid, but it's true. i now know that life is never that sweet, never that nice, and never full of pleasant "serendipity" (another romantic comedy). and most important of all, i don't expect it to be.

but i still want it to be.

anyway. that's just why i stopped watching romantic comedies. this is just a pointless directionless entry.

lishun at 9:31 AM

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