Reviews have raved about Life of Pi by academy award winning filmmaker Ang Lee as the next Avatar and so I'm really excited to be able to preview this movie in 3D at GVmax® Dolby® Atmos™, Vivo City. To have the perfect movie experience of both visual and audio, it is a must to watch this movie in stunning 3D with the new Dolby® Atmos™ sound system. This movie happens to be the next movie I wanted to watch too and now I got to watch it for free. Big thanks to GV Movie Club for the pair of tickets. 
If you look back at Ang Lee's filmography, the movies he directed were of different genres ranging from Chinese sword-fighting thriller Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2000 to Superhero flick Hulk in 2003 and the more recent gay romance Brokeback Mountain in 2005. Now this movie, Life of Pi allows Ang Lee to explore the boundary of technology with the 3D special effect.
Life of Pi is adapted from Yann Martel's fantasy adventure novel of the same title. Read the story in short chapters in this blog here. The movie is a retrospective first person story with the adult Pi as narrator recounting his life story to a writer, Rafe Spall who wanted to find inspiration for writing and also to find back the faith to believe in God.
("What has mamaji already told you? He said you had a story that would make me believe in God.")
("What has mamaji already told you? He said you had a story that would make me believe in God.")
In the first part of the movie, we were brought back to the time when Pi was a young Indian boy. His real name was named after a beautiful swimming pool in France called Piscine Molitor Patel but he got teased by his classmate for Piscine sounds like "Pissing" to them. One year, he decided to turn the whole situation in favour of himself and so he shorten his name to Pi as in the mathematical number π (3.142) and in turn changed the views of others on him.
("With one word, my name went from an elegant French swimming pool to a stinking Indian latrine - I was pissing everywhere.")
("With one word, my name went from an elegant French swimming pool to a stinking Indian latrine - I was pissing everywhere.")
The second part of the movie recounts back to his teens days as we see how Pi came into contact with different religions. In the end, he puts great faith in Christianity and Islam, on top of his family religion of Hinduism.
("Faith is a house with many rooms. But no room for doubt? Oh plenty, on every floor. Doubt is useful, it keeps faith a living thing. Afterall, you cannot know the strength of your faith until it is tested.")
He also falls in love and got into a sweet relationship that needs to end when his dad decided to start a new life in Canada. The whole family and all the zoo animals which were in the plan to be sold away were onboard a Japanese Cargo Ship. Halfway on the journey, the ship met with a strong storm and sunk.
("We will sail like Columbus. But Columbus is looking for India!")
The next part of the movie is when the real adventure started. Pi was the only one who managed to get into the lifeboat together with an orang utan, a hyena, a wounded zebra and a Bengal tiger (Richard Parker, his name got mixed up during administration with the person who found him). After a few days, the rest of the animal died and Richard Parker became Pi only companionship. They drifted on the lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean for over 200 days and we see Pi's survivor skills and how he tried to trained the tiger so that both can lived together in peace.
("I can eat the biscuits, but God made tigers carnivorous, so I must learn to catch fish. If I don't, I'm afraid his last meal would be a skinny vegetarian boy.")
Richard Parker and Pi sailed on and landed on a Mexican beach. The tiger stood in front of the jungle for a while and without turning its head went into the jungle, leaving Pi on the sandy beach. Pi was later sent to the hospital by the people.
("I suppose in the end, the whole of life becomes an act of letting go, but what always hurts the most is not taking a moment to say goodbye.")
When Pi was in the hospital, the Japanese insurance agents asked him to give a whole account of the shipwreck. They found Pi's story too unbelievable and insisted that he tell them the truth so that he can write the report for submission. Pi with no choice gives another account of four human survivors instead and how it ended with him alone and the agents begins to write down.
("Bananas don't float. You said the Orang Utan floated to you in a bundle of bananas, but bananas don't float.")
How Pi re-enact the story for the Japanese insurance agents make us think that in everyone of us, there's an animal inside it. It's a question of truth and belief and also gives us the space to derive our own interpretations of life's mysterious wonders.
(So which story do you prefer? The one with the tiger. That's the better story. Thank you. And so it goes with God. It's an amazing story.")
So, yes, this is truly an amazing movie. I would say it's by far the best movie I've watched in 2012. Enjoyed the great animations effect and also did some reflection on the things that were said. There were many memorable scenes like the one at night time with the glowing jelly fishes lighting up the whole calm sea. The other is the mysterious green island they chanced upon that was filled with meerkat. I rate this movie 5/5!
Note: Italic fonts represents quotes mentioned in the movie.
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