Do you sometimes feel a tinge of envy
watching other people’s holiday videos? Or perhaps you sat through a movie more
for the fantastic backgrounds and camera angles that swept the city skyline, than
for the storyline. Has a movie ever evoked your wanderlust to visit a country?
Because no matter how real it is onscreen, nothing beats going to a place
yourself so that you’ve ‘been there, done that’.
Paris-city of love. When we think of old
Paris and new Paris, the contrast is beautifully shown in Amelie and The Da Vinci Code.
Whimsical Amelie brings us on a journey to quaint cafés and quiet nooks of
Paris we dream of but don’t usually see. There’s humour too when a homeless man
declines her change as it’s his ‘day off’. Da Vinci Code however gives us a
quick-tour of the Louvre, chateaus, and fantastic architecture. Ok, so the
movie ends in London. But true to Paris, there’s love at the end of both
movies.
Bangkok-city of angels. In Bangkok Dangerous, we get to see much
of the city, and then some. We sit back as the film brings us to touristy
restaurants, tranquil temples and street markets. Now for the second part of
the title: courtesy of Nicholas Cage, we get to see Bangkok’s Water Market in a
whole different light, plus overturn a kingpin’s ruthless organization. Don’t
try this abroad.
Taipei-city of surprises. In Eat Drink Man Woman, the movie starts
and ends with a sumptuous feast. Not a bad way to portray a modern Asian city
that respects tradition. In between, we see everyday life through the stories
of the characters and their relationships.
Greece-country of gods. From the bright
colours, good company, lovely beaches and breath-taking mountains, Mamma Mia! invites us to join the
wedding celebrations as Sophie races to discover her real father. Faulty hostel
toilets are also closer to real life than we think.
Movies move us to travel. And if you have
an urge to start a travel-memoir, follow your heart. Because in the end, we
don’t want to be like Raphael (Amelie’s retired father) who had to be pushed to
fulfill his dream of travelling the world, via envious postcards sent home from
his globe-trotting garden gnome.