Naga's Eternal Sunshine

It is a mad try at sanity. Over the looong weekend that featured lots of Z's and 15 hours at the beach i was able to (finally) pass by the little centro (or downtown) of Naga City last night to buy a few Naga-stuffs namely pinangat (frozen, a cross between laing and errr giniling seafoods i think) and pili-inspired chocolate bars (mazapan). And such the unavoidable vertigo happened, memories of an old-centro and what have you's (and not).

In multiple scenes in the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, there were the "reverse building" scenes--- a representation of the "deletion" part of Joel's (Jim Carrey) memory and how he struggled against such process--- maybe it's the denial part that he wants her (Clementine, Kate Winslet) gone or maybe the sudden realization that he really does not want her to be put away and forgotten for good...

For most who haven't seen the movie, well i think you just missed half of your pain-infested life. The flick's premise is as simple as it gets: One man decided that the memories are too much and he wants them gone... One valentine day, there's this innovation from a local doctor offering services of selective memory-deletion. It's February 14 so it was just so apt that the doctor had many customers (or "patients" if you want to look at it that way...) including Carrey's character.

And so it goes, Joel decides he hates her (or at least the memories) and chooses to undergo the procedure. He meets Clementine after the deletion meaning she's a new found friend though both of them had already spent a considerable amount of time together in this lifetime. (Sidenote: Clementine also underwent the same procedure) After the mighty struggles and sad, sad trips on memory lane (For how much will you forget if you can't remember them all...) the process is complete. Joel/Clementine gone from Clementine/Joel's life... But oh, art imitates life and life is a sucker to everything art... Suddenly the film (and most often, life) provides the unwelcome but necessary twist... One of the doctor's assistant (Mary, Kirsten Dunst) leaks out all the confidential information from recorded audio tapes and paperworks to the unknowing patients... Emotional-chaos ensues of course and the saddest sight in the history of mankind is viewed.

The movie title Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is actually a quotation from a popular poem by Alexander Pope Eloisa to Abelard? An excerpt from the poem which was also used as a line in the film:

How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd;

The Naga-reference wishes not to convey the thought of this melancholy--- forced or not. It's just a reminder that for all the things that is happening in our lives and for all the struggles with our inner-selves, one true thing remains: it's not a battle with the people you once spent your life with, it is simply that innate want of not letting go of the memories--- good, bad and everything in between.