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In which I am nosy and interfering.
Apr. 25th, 2005 09:19 amDear father who was sitting behind me at Kung Fu Hustle yesterday afternoon:
It is very distracting for the other people watching the movie to hear a small child piping "Why did his head fall off? Where did the blood come from?" The movie has its fair share of (admittedly fairly bloodless) axe murders, machine-gun slaughters, decapitations, and slicing off of limbs. Also decomposing spectral warriors and a cat sliced in half. Also, oh yeah, subtitles, which I observe your child was unable to read. Thank you at least for not reading the entire movie out loud to him.
I realize that kids are tough, that it's none of my business how you decide to bring up your 3-year-old, and that I won't be dealing with any nightmares that may ensue. That's why I didn't add to your no doubt extensive collection of interfering-stranger stories by turning around and telling you off. That said, I do worry. I try to regulate my behaviour when I'm near small fry, at least to the extent of cleaning up my language and not jaywalking. When I'm driving, I try not to run them over. If it looks like they're going to run into traffic, I prepare to stop them. Somehow this extends to worrying about children seeing movies that, really, are too old for them.
I think these rules of thumb should probably cover the case: If your child is too young to read the subtitles, figure out for himself why the man's head fell off, or sit through a 2-hour movie without standing up and talking in my ear, he is too young to see a subtitled movie rated 14A and his presence there will probably make the other people in the theatre uncomfortable. I don't care how funny the trailer looked. Next time, just do us all a favour and go see Robots again instead, 'k?
Sincerely,
ELL
(Aside from that, I enjoyed the movie.)
It is very distracting for the other people watching the movie to hear a small child piping "Why did his head fall off? Where did the blood come from?" The movie has its fair share of (admittedly fairly bloodless) axe murders, machine-gun slaughters, decapitations, and slicing off of limbs. Also decomposing spectral warriors and a cat sliced in half. Also, oh yeah, subtitles, which I observe your child was unable to read. Thank you at least for not reading the entire movie out loud to him.
I realize that kids are tough, that it's none of my business how you decide to bring up your 3-year-old, and that I won't be dealing with any nightmares that may ensue. That's why I didn't add to your no doubt extensive collection of interfering-stranger stories by turning around and telling you off. That said, I do worry. I try to regulate my behaviour when I'm near small fry, at least to the extent of cleaning up my language and not jaywalking. When I'm driving, I try not to run them over. If it looks like they're going to run into traffic, I prepare to stop them. Somehow this extends to worrying about children seeing movies that, really, are too old for them.
I think these rules of thumb should probably cover the case: If your child is too young to read the subtitles, figure out for himself why the man's head fell off, or sit through a 2-hour movie without standing up and talking in my ear, he is too young to see a subtitled movie rated 14A and his presence there will probably make the other people in the theatre uncomfortable. I don't care how funny the trailer looked. Next time, just do us all a favour and go see Robots again instead, 'k?
Sincerely,
ELL
(Aside from that, I enjoyed the movie.)
