Delicacy (2012) (French: La délicatesse) is a movie about moving on. A girl named Amélie, played by Audrey Tautou, finds her life crashing down after her husband passes away. After a decent period of mourning, she meets two potential men who might just help her to move on.

With an undertone of sadness and doubt, just like how people often feel after losing a lover, the film still manages to charm and tug on your heartstrings. Amélie's journey to move forward from the trauma of the death of her spouse brings hope to others who have experienced the same.

This is the kind of film to watch on a rainy day, with a warm drink and comfy sheets. You'll find yourself wanting to get close to the characters in the film and get to know them like you're making a friend, just like when you're reading a novel and you get attached to the characters.

Best Quotes from Delicacy (2012) 

5. If I could build up a sun, an empire

Without thinking twice
100,000 times I'd do it for you;

If I could change everything

and I could challenge death

I would go to seek for you

Never to leave you again;

If the light of dawn

Could bring back your handsome body and your warmth, my love

I'd no longer be afraid when I close my eyes;

I hear your voice and I hope to find you again at last

My sweet love for all eternity

I have never enjoyed running. When I was younger, I ran only because I was forced to by the school for Physical Education. However, I still run for the obvious physical and health benefits, albeit the process being excruciating. In fact, running is the only sport I do nowadays because it works up a good sweat in a short period of time. Also, it is a good distraction from my thoughts - this works only because of the fact that I find running torturous, and I cannot fathom anything other than the pain with each step taken. 

Thus, as someone who doesn't like running, I am dumbfounded when I meet running enthusiasts. As hard as it is for me to wrap my head around the idea, there are people who actually love the activity, and my favourite author, Haruki Murakami, is one of them. 

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is almost like Haruki Murakami's personal memoir.  It is the most profound book of his that I've read so far, and I love how intimately personal it is. It is the chance to take a peek into the life of this reclusive author.

Someone's hobby reveals a lot about the person. From his running, we learn about his growth as a writer, his sleeping habits, previous career, and even about his wife who has a sweet tooth; As for Murakami himself, he believes that “most of what I know about writing I’ve learned through running every day.”

Likewise, I've experienced numerous epiphanies through baking - pieces of myself I've never known, things that brings me joy, and some revelations that are too embarrassing to be posted on this space. It has also reaffirmed several things I already knew about myself. Maybe one day I would publish a book titled, What I Talk About When I Talk About Baking. Haha.

Ramblings aside, I have even deeper and greater admiration for marathoners and triathletes. The pain they experience and their sheer determination make them feel more alive than ever. And I think that's what we all need, something that reminds ourselves of our existence. It is up to us to find something that evokes such raw emotion. 

"People sometimes sneer at those who run every day, claiming they'll go to any length to live longer. But don't think that's the reason most people run. Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live life to the fullest. If you're going to while away the years, it's far better to live them with clear goals and fully alive then in a fog, and I believe running helps you to do that. Exerting yourself to the fullest within your individual limits: that's the essence of running, and a metaphor for life — and for me, for writing as whole. I believe many runners would agree."

Favourite Quotes from the book:

1. For now all I can do is put off making any detailed judgments and accept things as they are. Just like I accept the sky, the clouds, and the river. And there’s also something kind of comical about it all, something you don’t want to discard completely.

2. Emotional hurt is the price a person has to pay in order to be independent.

3. The most important thing we ever learn at school is the fact that the most important things can’t be learned at school.

4. Sometimes the world baffles me. I can’t believe that people would really do things like that.

5. Where did their thoughts, their hopes and dreams, disappear to? When people pass away, do their thoughts just vanish?

6. You make do with what you have. As you age you learn even to be happy with what you have. That’s one of the few good points of growing older.

7. So from the start, artistic activity contains elements that are unhealthy and antisocial. I’ll admit this. This is why among writers and other artists there are quite a few whose real lives are decadent or who pretend to be antisocial.

8. Beside, the road cows are lazily chewing grass. They show zero interest in the runners. They’re too busy eating grass to care about all these whimsical people and their nonsensical activities.

9. It’s a strange way of thinking and definitely a very strange feeling—consciousness trying to deny consciousness. You have to force yourself into an inorganic place. Instinctively I realized that this was the only way to survive.

10. Just because there’s an end doesn’t mean existence has meaning. An end point is simply set up as a temporary marker, or perhaps as an indirect metaphor for the fleeting nature of existence.

11. In this instance, relief outweighed happiness. It was like a tight knot inside me was gradually loosening, a knot I’d never even realized, until then, was there.

12. I don’t care about the time I run. I can try all I want, but I doubt I’ll ever be able to run the way I used to. I’m ready to accept that. It’s not one of your happier realities, but that’s what happens when you get older. Just as I have my own role to play, so does time. And time does its job much more faithfully, much more accurately, than I ever do.

13. Ever since time began (when was that, I wonder?), it’s been moving ever forward without a moment’s rest. And one of the privileges given to those who’ve avoided dying young is the blessed right to grow old. The honor of physical decline is waiting, and you have to get used to that reality.

14. On the body of the bike is written “18 Til I Die,” the name of a Bryan Adams hit. It’s a joke, of course. Being eighteen until you die means you die when you’re eighteen.

15. But in real life things don’t go so smoothly. At certain points in our lives, when we really need a clear-cut solution, the person who knocks at our door is, more likely than not, a messenger bearing bad news. It isn’t always the case, but from experience I’d say the gloomy reports far outnumber the others. The messenger touches his hand to his cap and looks apologetic, but that does nothing to improve the contents of the message. It isn’t the messenger’s fault. No good to blame him, no good to grab him by the collar and shake him. The messenger is just conscientiously doing the job his boss assigned him. And this boss? That would be none other than our old friend Reality.

16. I’ve always done whatever I felt like doing in life. People may try to stop me, and convince me I’m wrong, but I won’t change.

17. It doesn’t matter how old I get, but as long as I continue to live I’ll always discover something new about myself. No matter how long you stand there examining yourself naked before a mirror, you’ll never see reflected what’s inside.

18. Of course it was painful, and there were times when, emotionally, I just wanted to chuck it all. But pain seems to be a precondition for this kind of sport. If pain weren’t involved, who in the world would ever go to the trouble of taking part in sports like the triathlon or the marathon, which demand such an investment of time and energy? It’s precisely because of the pain, precisely because we want to overcome that pain, that we can get the feeling, through this process, of really being alive—or at least a partial sense of it. Your quality of experience is based not on standards such as time or ranking, but on finally awakening to an awareness of the fluidity within action itself. If things go well, that is.

19. Whether it’s good for anything or not, cool or totally uncool, in the final analysis what’s most important is what you can’t see but can feel in your heart. To be able to grasp something of value, sometimes you have to perform seemingly inefficient acts.

20. I’ll age one more year, and probably finish another novel. One by one, I’ll face the tasks before me and complete them as best I can.

21. From out of the failures and joys I always try to come away having grasped a concrete lesson. (It’s got to be concrete, no matter how small it is.)

22. In other words, let's face it: Life is basically unfair. But even in a situation that's unfair, I think it's possible to seek out a kind of fairness. Of course, that might take time and effort. And maybe it won't seem to be worth all that. It's up to each individual to decide whether or not it is.

2. It seemed unreasonable, unfair, that a woman so young and beautiful should be so exhausted. Of course, it was neither unreasonable nor unfair. Exhaustion pays no mind to age or beauty.

3. It left me wondering how the ancient Egyptians filled their days, what little pleasures they enjoyed as they whiled their weary way to death. Learning to swim, wrapping mummies. And the sum accomplishment of that you call a civilization.

4. How I managed to support myself. Yet never managed to go anywhere. Never went anywhere, but aged all the same. How nothing touched me. And I touched nothing. How I'd lost track of what mattered. How I worked like a fool for things that didn't. How it didn't make a difference either way. How I was losing form. The tissues hardening, stiffening from within. Terrifying me.

5. Tendencies. You got tendencies. So even if you did everything over again, your whole life, you got tendencies to do just what you did, all over again.

6. You gotta dance. As long as the music plays. You gotta dance. Don't even think why. Start to think, your feet stop. Your feet stop, we get stuck. We get stuck, you're stuck. So don't pay any mind, no matter how dumb. You gotta keep the step. You gotta limber up. You gotta loosen what you bolted down. You gotta use all you got. We know you're tired, tired and scared. Happens to everyone, okay? Just don't let you feet stop.

7. The things kids can memorize. Always the most meaningless, idiotic lines.

8. Some people say that's escapism. But that's fine by me. I live my life, you live yours. If you're clear about what you want, then you can live any way you please

9. I'd never eaten with a movie star before. What was one supposed to wear anyway?

10. Maybe because as you get older, things fall apart, so something needs to help hold things together.

11. “You're not such a bad cook," Yuki said.
"No, not true. I just put my heart into it. That's the difference. It's a question of attitude. If you really work at something, you can do it, up to a point. If you really work at being happy, you can do it, up to a point."

12. You really know how to depress people, don't you? Is that what you call being adult?

13. The world was doing very well without me.

14. Could pigs distinguish between a Maserati and Subaru?

15. "And I'm not a burden on you?" "Maybe you are and maybe you aren't. Don't worry your pretty little head about it. I want to be with you because I like you.

16. Sometimes when I'm with you, I remember things I lost when I was your age. Like I remember the sound of the rain and the smell of the wind. And it's really a gift, getting these things back. 

17. As time goes on, you'll understand. What lasts, lasts; what doesn't, doesn't. Time solves most things. And what time can't solve, you have to solve yourself.

18. People die all the time. Life is a lot more fragile than we think. So you should treat others in a way that leaves no regrets. Fairly, and if possible, sincerely. It's too easy not to make the effort, then weep and wring your hands after the person dies. 

19. When I was little, I had this science book. There was a section on "What would happen to the world if there was no friction?" Answer: "Everything on earth would fly into space from the centrifugal force of revolution." That was my mood.

20. I guess it was a dream. Either that or some act akin to dreaming. What, you may ask, is an "act akin to dreaming"? I don't know either. But it seems it does exist. Like so many other things we have no name for, existing in that limbo beyond the fringes of consciousness.

21. I don't want to be alone anymore. Without you I'll be flung out to the far corners of the universe. Show your face, please, tie me down somewhere. Tie me to this world. I don't want to join the ghosts. I'm just an ordinary guy. I need you.

22. “You still want me, now that it's morning?" she asked.
"I still want you," I said. "I want you more than I wanted you yesterday."
"I've never had anyone want me so much before."
"No one's ever wanted you?"
"Not the way you do," she said. "It's like being in a nice, warm room. Nice and cozy."
"Well, stay put. There's no reason ever to leave."
"Are you going to stay put?"
"Yes, I'm going to stay put.”

23. If you listen carefully, you can hear these things. If you look carefully, you'll see what you're after.

24. And someone was crying for me. Crying for me because I couldn't cry.

25. I cried inside. I cried for all that I'd lost and all that I'd lose.

It is the opening scene. Like a fly on the wall, we observe our lead, Zia, tidying his humble room. Like a routine, there is nothing out of the ordinary. And before we know it, we have witnessed a suicide - Zia has slashed his wrist and entered the after-life. 

But in Wristcutters: A Love Story (2006), all suicide victims are trapped in limbo in a bizarre after-life. In this place filled with the sorrows of all who had prematurely terminated their lives, there are no smiles and stars. Everything is gray-washed, desaturated, and more depressing than it ever was. Zia departs on a journey to find his ex-girlfriend in this depressing place, and everything else uncovers from there on.

While the storyline was not particularly fantastic, the film was entertaining with its depiction of the absurd after-life. However, it is borderline sadistic that these people are being punished for committing suicide. They thought their miseries would end along with their lives. Instead, they are punished to be stuck in this melancholic hell-hole. How much pain must one take before it is acceptable to leave?

This film would set you thinking about what happens when we die. As depressing as the movie might sound, it is strangely light-hearted with a bit of humor. That's black comedy for you. Watch this film for an undoubtedly unique experience. 

Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami is an emotional and though-provoking novel about loss and moving on. The protagonist, Tsukuru Tazaki goes through a traumatic event, whereby his four closest and dearest friends leave him without any form of explanation. Unable to deal with the sudden loss, he is crippled with the fear of forming close relationships with anyone new. He has drifted through life ever since. 

Being an avid train lover and train engineer, Tsukuru surveys the wave commuters entering and leaving the station. However, he realizes that unlike these commuters who are all heading to a certain destination, he himself has nowhere to go. 

Tsukuru's emotions are hauntingly familiar, feelings most of us have experienced. He grieves from loss and is bewildered and scarred by the departure of his friends. He has barricaded his heart and numbed his emotions. and has developed a fear of falling too deeply in love. He questions the very meaning of life. 

Above all, this traumatic loss caused him to feel incredibly alone and invisible. Sometimes loneliness draws a veil over us, causing us to forget that this isolation we feel is not unique to ourselves. So, if I can seek solace in one thing, it is that Murakami reminds me that I'm not alone when it comes to being lonely. 

While reading the book, I was half expecting something surreal and supernatural to occur. Surprisingly, this book is more grounded and was more focused on being philosophical, thus making it Murakami's most profound book to date. It bears themes on loss, self-identity and existential meaning, which were explored in his previous books like 1Q84 and Kafka on the Shore. 

For the souls out there who have experienced loss, this book is your ticket to join Tsukuru in his journey to moving on. 

Noteworthy Quotes from the novel:

1. I really should have died then (...) Then this world, the one in the here and now, wouldn't exist. It was a captivating, bewitching thought. The present world wouldn't exist, and reality would no longer be real. As far as this world was concerned, he would simply no longer exist—just as this world would no longer exist for him.

2. I felt alone, but not especially lonely. I guess I just took that for granted.

3. Maybe you needed to talk with somebody. More than you ever imagined.

4. Tsukuru lived at death's door. He set up a tiny place to dwell, all by himself, on the rim of a dark abyss. A perilous spot, teetering on the edge, where, if he rolled over in his sleep, he might plunge into the depth of the void. Yet he wasn't afraid. All he thought about was how easy it would be to fall in.

5. Because I really am on the brink of death. I've survived, but barely—I've been clinging to this world like the discarded shell of an insect stuck to a branch, about to be blown off forever by a gust of wind. But that fact—that he looked like someone about to die—struck him again, forcefully.

6. Talent might be ephemeral.

7. It's just that, for me, what's worthwhile in life has become a burden, something I can't shoulder anymore.

8. People came to him, but in the end they always left. They came, seeking something, but either they couldn't find it, or were unhappy with what they found (or else they were disappointed or angry), and then they left.

9. Words don't come out when you're hurt that deeply.

10. Whatever the circumstances might have been, she didn't deserve to die like that. But at the same time I couldn't help but feel that the life had already been sucked out of her, even before she was physically murdered.

11. Still, being able to feel pain was good, he thought. It's when you can't even feel any pain anymore that you're in real trouble.

12. "It sounds kind of complicated."

"Maybe too complicated for me to explain in English." Olga laughed.

"Some things in life are too complicated to explain in any language."Tsukuru nodded.

13. But something was definitely abnormal. It wasn't like I was confused, though. My mind was perfectly clear. Utterly still, with no static at all. A very strange condition, now that I think back on it.

14. And in that moment, he was finally able to accept it all. In the deepest recesses of his soul, understood. One heart is not connected to another through harmony alone.

15. We survived. You and I. And those who survive have a duty. Our duty is to do our best to keep on living. Even if our lives are not perfect.

16. That amazing time in our lives is gone, and will never return. All the beautiful possibilities we had then have been swallowed up in the flow of time.

17. All sorts of dark thoughts come to me. No matter how much I try to avoid them.

18. A formless, transparent sorrow. A sorrow he could touch, yet something that was also far away, out of reach. Pain struck him, as if gouging out his chest, and he could barely breathe.

19. And for him right now, losing sight of where he actually was felt good.

20. It honestly and delicately expressed, in a full, tangible way, what it meant to be alive.

21. His body was covered in sweat, his heart still beating out the dry cadence of time passing.

22. All the lost possibilities, all the time that was never to return.

23. “The parent birds are teaching their babies how to chirp,” Eri said. And she smiled. “Until I came here I never knew that. That birds have to be taught how to chirp.”

24. Why must the workings of people's lives be so convoluted?

25. How much of one's life was snatched away to simply vanish as a result of this (most likely) pointless movement from point A to point B?

26. The heart apparently doesn't stop that easily.

27. But there are countless things in the world for which affection is not enough. Life is long, and sometimes cruel. Sometimes victims are needed. Someone has to take on that role. And human bodies are fragile, easily damaged. Cut them, and they bleed.

28. Not everything was lost in the flow of time.

29. It was a wonderful thing to be able to truly want someone.

Sociopathy has long been associated with negativity. Think about sociopaths, and infamous criminals like Jack the Ripper comes to mind, who terrorized the streets of London in the 1880s with gut wrenching (literally) murders.

It's known that sociopaths tend to lack social conscience and the capacity to love. However, M.E. Thomas, the author of Confessions of a Sociopath: A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight, brings a fresh and positive perspective to the term "sociopath". She argues that the traits of a sociopath are not necessarily negative, some being neutral or even positive. 

Sociopaths tend to be charming, fearless, confident, charismatic and independent due to their failure to conform to social norms - all of which work to making them successful in business. Thus it is not surprising that sociopaths make extremely good CEOs, lawyers, and salespeople. We could learn a couple of things from these are the high-functioning sociopaths, who live undetected among us, tactfully carving their way towards success. 

Based on M.E. Thomas' book, here are some of the Things We Can Learn From a Sociopath:

1. Do not seek affirmation from others

Stop caring about what people think of you, and you'd experience a newfound sense of freedom. You'd finally feel free, like a prisoner who has been unshackled from the chains of judgment. You'd be happier that way. 

2. Do not confuse love and understanding

Sometimes, we think we love someone just because they understand us well. But don't mistake their understanding as affection, as their desire to uncover every inch of your soul does not equate to love. And just because someone truly comprehends you, it doesn't mean that they love you.  

4. Love is the way to one's heart

People are starving for love. We want it, we crave for it. While sociopaths might make use of this knowledge unscrupulously for manipulation, we can choose to be kinder to others just because the world is in deep need for love. 

5. There is rationality in morality

The line between what constitutes an immoral and moral action is often blurred; The same action might be accepted in certain societies, but frowned upon in others. But as M.E. Thomas points out, behind every "moral" argument, there is a rational explanation. So if you ever find yourself confused, turn towards rationality for some clarity. 

Time to embrace our inner sociopath.

And there you have it, the meaning of life straight from an aged vampire who has lived long enough to know better.

Having had the luxury of time, Jarmausch's vampires are well-read and cultured, spare Eve's bratish sister. Eve is passionate about books, and Adam about music. They quote great literary works like Shakespeare's Hamlet.

The Double (2014), a British black comedy film, does its take on the issue of self-identity in which the protagonist, Simon, finds his life getting uprooted by his doppleganger, James. James is the exact image replica of Simon, but strangely, no one notices it except for Simon himself. Set in an uncomfortably queer world, the highly charismatic James gains popularity and causes Simon to lose his footing in the world.

This film raises goosebumps, where the unsettling opening scene (on a seemingly harmless rattling train ride) marks the start of all bizarre things to come. Simon struggles to maintain his identity, going to the extent of screaming that James "stole his face". It makes one feel like they were caught in those kind of dreams, where one is screaming at the top of one's lungs, but nobody hears a sound.

Director Ayoade's use of stage lighting intensifies the nightmarish quality of this film, making Simon's life seem like just a ridiculous theatrical act. Simon even describes himself as feeling like Pinocchio, "a wooden boy; not a real boy". Brings to mind Shakespeare's quote that "all the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players."

"I don't know how to be myself. It's like I'm permanently outside myself. Like, like you could push your hands straight through me if you wanted to. And I can see the type of man I want to be versus the type of man I actually am and I know that I'm doing it but I'm incapable of what needs to be done. I'm like Pinocchio, a wooden boy. Not a real boy. And it kills me." - Simon

To Simon, and I believe to most of us, losing one's place in society is catastrophic. It is not enough to merely be present; there is a need to exist and amount to at least something.

 

To Whom It May Concern: I have decided to end my life because I no longer exist. A person should amount to something and not float around this earth like a ghost. I am a ghost. 

But while Simon generally lacks confidence in himself, the one thing he never questions is his uniqueness. And this is not uncommon, as most of us take pride in our individuality/"weirdness", and we certainly do cherish our voice in society. Hence, it is a great blow to him to being degraded to merely just a being. 

After all, we all deserve a little bit of attention sometimes.