Semester 2: PRO 4 - CON 2

Thursday morning, I opted out of a Modern China (elective) course and into a third year program called Introduction to Film Analysis which caused quite a kerfuffle with the university admin staff. Apparently not following MCU's four-year mapped out plan to an exact tee is considered unacceptable as this implies free thinking which isn't commonly practiced here in Taiwan.

The university urged us to change back to Modern China and most students did but I've always believed in pushing the limits so I decided to take my chances and opt for the course that interests me; this is university after all. Intro to Film was instructed by one of my favorite professors and I knew it would be a great course and that I would actually learn something.

I'm not much of a movie watcher so picking apart films was a new process for me and it was one that I quite enjoyed. We were introduced to many genres of films from Film Noir to Westerns along with Foreign Films and Anime cartoons. Most things he showed weren't of great interest but the class wasn't about how good the viewings were, it was more about understanding the meaning behind the director's ideas.

Although I still don't have much interest in film, I learned a lot over the 18-week course and managed to do very well on the tests which resulted in a near perfect grade on my transcript.  I will be studying with the same professor next semester for two different courses and am quite excited about that.  I like spending my time and money on things that are 100% worthy.  Life is short and learning is grand!