2016년 10월 4일 화요일

E-Journal #2 : The story and its location

E-journal #2 – Letters to Juliet (2010): Place – Verona, Italy
 Image result for letters to juliet quotes
‘What’ and ‘If ’ are two words as none threatening as words can be, but put them together side by side, and they have the power to haunt to for the rest of your life. “What if?”
-Letters to Juliet-

‘What if?’ It is the combination of two words, ‘what’ and ‘if,’ which amounts not much effect when they are set individually. But once they are set together, it creates the possibilities as much as the imaginations may limit. Everyone has that moment in life that makes them think of ‘what if I did so and so...’ usually out of regret, that they did not have enough courage to challenge the moment. The movie, Letters to Juliet, takes place in Verona, Italy, and it is the core element of the storytelling. The theme ‘what if’ sets in as a major theme, and the main plots are covered in relation to the location that the story takes place. Verona opens up the chance for the main character Sophie to write, untangles 50 years of mystery, and lets Sophie meet her true love.

To start, Sophie’s visit to Verona became an opening for Sophie’s writing career. Originally, Sophie was a fact checker who always wanted to become an official writer. Sophie came to Verona with her passionate fiancé Victor as a pre-honeymoon, because it was confirmed that he will be busy soon after their wedding for he would open up a new restaurant. But the tragedy was, Victor did not spare a bit of his passion to his fiancée. Because Victor busily meets his manufacturers instead of spending his time with his fiancée, Sophie gets lonely. One morning, Sophie steps into an alley without noticing how the very pace would change her destiny. The alley led her to the Juliet’s house model, where many tourists around the world came for a visit. Pinned into the wall, letter written in 1957 was found. A girl named Claire was desperately looking for an advice from Juliet, about what she should do for betraying her most beloved man, Lorenzo Bartillini. Claire and Lorenzo, the star-crossed lovers were planning a runaway, but Claire lacked courage to commit as the plan. She was sorry but she left him without notice, and went back to her country, England. Though it was a letter that was written 50 years ago, Sophie, touched by its sentiments, decides to write back to Claire. Sophie’s reply moves Claire’s heart, and Claire returns to Verona with her handsome grandson, Charlie. Claire, reflecting “what if” of her childhood love, asks if Sophie can help her find Lorenzo, the favor which Sophie openly accepts. They start their journey to find Lorenzo, and Sophie starts writing, which opens up her path for her writing career. She writes through the journey, what she felt and experienced through the journey. If Sophie did not came to Verona, she would not have encountered Claire’s letter and wrote a reply which became a starting point for writing her own story.

Furthermore, Verona became the core of the story because it was the beloved land of Lorenzo. That Sophie and Claire decided to meet Lorenzo, they were to trace back the clues to meet him. Since 50 years have passed, nothing was clear to Claire. So they decided to find Lorenzo in a painstaking way by visiting every single house which a man named Lorenzo resides. On their journey, Sophie gets to move around freely with Claire and Charlie, because her fiancé is all time busy with his business. Though every single Lorenzo seemed to be mesmerized by Claire, she did not find her one true Lorenzo. Then the whole plot moves to the peak when one of the Lorenzo turns out to be dead. Since it was unverifiable whether the Lorenzo under the grave is her lover, it brings the grave air to the journey. Charlie, Claire’s grandson, lost both of his parents in plane crash. That is why he was so close to Claire, and cherished her being. He enrages at Sophie, claiming that she is the reason that made the old lady’s heart break. But in fact, Sophie also had a similar pain. Her mother left her and her father with no reason and it was the bane in Sophie’s heart. Soon Charlie realizes what he has done, and delivers contrite apology. They start to open their hearts to each other while the journey was brought to the end. When all of them were on the verge of giving up, Claire observes a man out of the window, a man who gallops through the grape vineyard. Lorenzo never left the Verona, because he adored his land. Because it was Verona, Claire and Lorenzo were able to meet miraculously again.

Finally, Verona lets Sophie find her true love. Originally, Sophie was unable to leave her fiancé despite his ignorant manner, because she was still shackled under the wound of her mother’s unreasonable leave. The continuous conversation with Charlie during the journey healed her heart, and led her to the recognition of her true love towards Charlie. However, the journey comes to an end by the dramatic reconciliation between Claire and Lorenzo. Sophie also had to return to New York with her fiancé, due to the schedules. Claire looks at her grandson and advises that he must not regret like how she did over 50 years, but instead be courageous. When Sophie returned to New York, she breaks up with Victor, because now their love has come to an end. Invitation letter has been received, the one for Claire’s marriage. With excitement and anxiety, Sophie returns to Verona. There Sophie confesses her heart to Charlie and they live happily ever after. Because Sophie came to Verona, she was able to realize that her love with Victor was not a true love, but rather a longing heart to depend on someone, since she did not have mom when she grew up.

To conclude, the location, Verona became the core of the whole plot to open up the chance for the main character Sophie to write, untangle 50 years of mystery, and let Sophie meet her true love. The main message was that one must follow one’s heart instead of letting the times go wasted in regret. Rather than thinking “what if,” it is better to commit into the present time, challenging for the one’s best. As the result of visiting Verona, Sophie gets aspired to start her writing career, and later publishes the writing herself. Also, Claire meets Lorenzo, her first love, due to the land being adored. Finally, Verona gave Sophie the chance to realize what true love is. All of what could have stayed as “what if” was brought to the reality. Matthew Donnelly once quoted that, “Life is a balance of hanging on and letting go. In the moment, shut down the mind and let intuition give you the answer. Have no regrets.” After all, life is conglomeration of different choices and perspirations. Perhaps, the best way to live a life is to leave less regrets.


2016년 10월 3일 월요일

E-Journal #1 : The positive effects of tourism in Jeju Island

Image result for jeju dol harubang
In June 2007, United Nations Educational and Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) included Jeju's dormant volcano Mount Halla, and 182 meter high coastal crater Seongsan Ilchulbong(Sunrise Reak) as World natural Heritage sites. Kim Tae-hwan, Jeju’s governor envisioned the increase in tourism, reflecting the effect the Halong Bay in Vietnam had when it was enlisted in the UNESCO just as Jeju; the number of tourists in Vietnam jumped from 236,000 to 850,000 just within two years. As expected, Jeju’s tourism rate dramatically increased and broke its mark of 1,000,000 within a year. As explained earlier, Jeju is well known for its natural sites and cultural values, and they are well preserved. Geotourism, which means to let environment coexist with tourism and further advance the area, is a well-suited term to explain the current status quo of Jeju’s tourism. Some may claim the word to be only an idealistic term in reality, but it is happening. The three main ways that tourism positively affected Jeju Island were helping Jeju sustain the culture, activating the local economy, and protecting the environment.
 Tourism in Jeju helped it to sustain the culture within the area. Anyone who visited Jeju would have been fascinated to see small antique houses located near transaction roads; those houses let tourists picture how the buildings back in years would have looked like. In 2014, Jeju Tourism Organisation set a new route from the Dragon Head coast to the Mountain Sanbang. The main goal for this site was to let tourists communicate with Jeju’s culture, so tourists were led to meet the people and watch the daily lives of the area along the paved route. In order to activate tourism, the area had to preserve the houses and residential area as the way it is. If it was not for this reason, then many of the Jeju's culture could have been damaged by the effect of ignorance. Therefore, the tourism provided an important reason for the area to sustain its cultural characteristics. 
Furthermore, Jeju’s tourism activated the local economy. As more tourists fluctuated into the Jeju Island to view the natural sites, the finance started to fluctuate by the effects of increase in the demand, the consumption, and the relocation. The local residents were able to sell more specialty and indigenous productions like black pork, Hanrabong(Jeju's orange), and Dol hareubang (magical stone) accessories, by the increase in demand. Duty free and Shopping centers show amazing retail sales rate, which in comparison three times higher than national average 3.6 in 2016 (Chosunilbo, 2016). Also, due to the tourist’s use of vehicles, oil sales have risen by 16.9 percent recently. Its natural beauty and sight became a huge motivation to people to relocate into Jeju, amounting the continual population growth. Even major companies’ headquarters are moved into Jeju, mostly game or IT businesses like NXC or Kakao. As a result, Jeju is thriving with its productivity and wealth. If natural beauty has not been known to people, then such blessings could have been falling on other areas of the world.
Lastly, the environment in Jeju was able to be protected by the tourism. As mentioned earlier, Jeju earned its environmental renown through being listed in UNESCO. As much as this became the main factor of global visits, Jeju had to start protecting the area.  The places like Sulbong has an astonishing beauty, created by the nature. It is about 77 meters high, and it formed from ground, water, and magma’s mingling which is estimated to have happened 18,000 years ago. People who have visited the area exclaimed that they felt as if they saw the minimized version of Grand Canyon. It has been said that sunset at the Sulbong is the most beautiful site of all Jeju tour places, as the colors of the rock sentimentary rock changes by weather and time. In order to preserve the places like Sulbong, Jeju Self-Governing Province declared to strengthen the environments by tightening the environmental law. Jeju also promulgated in 2014 that they will set a fine dust monitoring and an air quality control strategy to strengthen its environmental standards. As much as Jeju is known for its natural beauty, the government body has been motivated to protect the area to sustain its value.
To conclude, the tourism advanced the area by sustaining the culture, activating the local economy, and protecting the environment. The enlistment in the UNESCO’s cultural heritage became an effective catalyst for its renown and it must be kept in such pace for the further glorious future.