No sooner had Oliver begged in tears not to be sent away to the chimney than my worry was confirmed. However, it was certainly not my heavy eye-lids that should be blamed for. The child star is not lovely enough. The screen is nothing more than a showcase of stereotype black and white kindergarten-level skin-deep miserable and evil characters and sufferings. There was not a moment when I was touched. It is undoubtedly a tragedy, but I simply could not bring myself to pity any of the characters. I felt as if I was crammed with numbered events marked in bold type ˇ§Tragic Incident ˇ¨ in case I did not know I was watching a tragedy. It seems that the director felt his job done after enough merely in terms of quantity had been thrown at the audience.

I pressed on a button of my mobile to get light for the watch. 5:25, 6:00ˇK At last the film ended. The ticket was a redeemed voucher under a VISA scheme, but my time was wasted. It would have been impolite and ungrateful of me to say my true feelings. Anyway, as soon as the lights inside were on, my friend started grumbling about other audience flanking us giving commentaries, explaining things to a son and chatting on the mobile. I was too busy soothing her to say anything else. After a while, we parted. So I did not say anything about the film until now!

To my great delight, Lau Kit Wai expressed my feelings accurately in elegant English in his film review column in todayˇ¦s Sunday Morning Post. He says the film is not inspiring. On second thought, I would say the film is. It was not until I was in the cinema yesterday that I realized why some of our students would rather risk getting a demit than stay in the detention class after school. They cannot wait to fly out of the classroom. I would have left the cinema fifteen minutes after the show began if I had been on my own. I fidgeted in the seat, dozed off, woke up and closed my eyes again. I felt trapped and remanded in custody.

Another inspiring thing is that reviews are difficult stuff. I can only tell my feelings, but I donˇ¦t know how to explain why a film is good or bad. It requires some professional training, or at least a lot of formal practice. This understanding further confirmed my belief that I should ask my students to focus on personal feelings or how they can relate to a story instead of literary aspects when it comes to preparing reviews for SBA. Actually it is personal thoughts and feelings and awakening that are the essence of literature appreciation. It is the personal things that are unique and worth sharing. I would rather my students, whose academic standards are weak let alone their English standards, thought about themselves after reading or viewing something. In-depth analysis is beyond their capabilities and merely reciting expertsˇ¦ comments is neither right nor beneficial. After thinking about themselves and other people in Hong Kong or other parts of the world, they should prepare well to express their true feelings in simple English, which will ensure both a better grade and personal growth.