(a) What is your favorite type of movie? And why? (b) Recommend a movie and state the reasons why you like it. I like animation. However, it is a little tricky to choose animation as my favorite type of movie, because animation is more like a way to perform a story rather than to describe its content. Thus, animated works may contain action, comedy, romance, sci‐fi, horror, etc. The author of animation can also use some exaggeration to emphasize characters’ feeling. I like its complexity, liking it never constrained itself to become any kind of movie. Nevertheless, I also like its simplicity, because it always has clear message. When it comes to animation, I highly recommend Japanese type due to the culture and the way to think. Among this category, I always choose Fate/Stay night—the Unlimited Blade Work as my favorite. Seven masters summoned seven magical servants to fight with each other in order to win the GRAIL, which was able to fulfill any wish. Seven masters must be magicians. Seven servants must be heroes in the history; however, when the other six heroes had revealed their real identity, one servant still remained mystery. Because he came from the future, no one knew him. His real identity was the winner of this game, a 17‐year‐old magician who won this gory war and used the power of the GRAIL to make him become a hero. Nevertheless, this future hero regretted after tens of years, because he found that the justice he was looking for was based on the sacrifice of the minority. He hated himself so much that he decided to go to the past to destroy himself lest the tragedy should happen again. Servant Emiya. He uncovered his real name when he started to take revenge on younger him. Fortunately, fate stood at the right side. “I will always fight for my justice!” Being touched by these words, Emiya was defeated by his younger and weaker one. When not knowing what to do, this future guy overheard that the GRAIL was actually destructive. “There is no such thing as free lunch.” It burnt out thousands of hopes to fulfill one wish, and it is also the reason that he caused so many tragedies in the future. In the end, he sacrificed himself to break the GRAIL and told the younger one to become a real hero by his own hard work. This animation confused me for several days when I first watched it. I was wondering how much hatred could make a person go back to the past to kill himself at all costs. He must have blamed on himself again and again. However, here came my second confusion that under this kind of emotion, what made this guy touched
again? He must really want to do the right things for the world. After thinking of this, my third confusion appeared. How could a man with right mind cause so many tragedies? The shortcut, the seemingly powerful GRAIL gave him a plausible shortcut, which actually made him away from his wish. One moment of convenience might cost you an arm or a leg later. After three days, 18‐year‐old I solved all my confusions, realizing that every firm steps is what actually leads us to the destination. What was also impressing to me in this animation was the skill of Emiya: the Unlimited Blade Work. The way he conquered his enemies was by “thinking.” He first constructed the delusional consequence that he had defeated the opponents, and his unique ability would make it real. That was also why he could not destroy his younger and weaker one after being touched. After watching this animation, whenever I faced obstacle, his saying would appear, “If you don’t know how to overcome it, just imagine you have done it!” The scene of success made me seldom lose my confidence.
