Babel ! True Oscar Contender of 2006 !

Couldn't resist adding my bits after watching the stunning (and bit disturbing too ) Babel !

Basics of Movie : Catch it on imdb (7.8) or wiki pls !

Meaning of Babel : The Biblical story of the tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) begins by imagining a time when "the whole earth had one language and the same words." After mankind dares to challenge God by building a tower "with its top in the heavens," the Lord punishes them by introducing the confusion of multiple languages, thereby scattering humans around the Earth.

Relevance of Babel in today's world : It starts with the assumption that the human race is already irreparably scattered, and things only get worse from there. Communication is once again the drawing the lines that both separates and bonds a group of multifarious people across the earth. They are bought into a strange form of contact through a single incident in the Moroccan desert, an event with global implications stretching from the dusty back roads of Mexico to the high-rise cityscape panoramas of Tokyo. It is a movie about isolation, grief, intimacy, love, compassion and forgiveness, these emotions and more hurtling towards a plethora of heterogenous characters all looking to overcome their own personal tragedies amidst the chaos of a single day.

Best Sequence in the movie: Undoubtedly the virtuoso nightclub sequence in which we alternate between the throbbing music of the strobe-lit dance floor and the silence of Chieko's inner experience.

Best storyline of the movie : The most poignant and personal story is that of Chieko. By occasionally showing her perspective (with an eerily silent soundtrack) and juxtaposing it with the strobe lights and thumping dance music of Tokyo's night scene, Director builds her segments into something deeply affecting. As good as all the performers are - and they include the likes of Brad Pitt, Cate Blachett, and Gael García Bernal - young Rinko Kikuchi steals the spotlight. Her work is heartbreaking and haunting. As much as we feel for the other characters in Babel and the tragedies that fate brings into their lives, Chieko is the one I wanted to cry for..

Rinko Kikuchi aka Chieko : I think Cheiko was frustrated at being in two worlds. She had her friends in the deaf world. She had what appeared to be a good life too. She was on a volleyball team and she took it seriously. Her teammates seemed to like and respect her. She and her friends hung out at places where kids her age hung out and they did a lot of the things kids their age do.The scene in the dance club where the song September by Earth Wind and Fire played seemed to sum up a lot of her life. She could not hear the music, but she could see people having a good time. She could see one of her friends having a good time. But Cheiko wasn't quite making the same connection. What she had with her deaf friends wasn't happening in the "hearing world". It seemed the only person who paid attention to Cheiko and understood her was her mother.
Cheiko in my opinion wanted a male (any male/father figure) to pay attention to her. Her need became so extreme she resorted to sexual seduction to get attention. Even sexual attention from any male was better than no attention at all.
Whatever, Rinko Kikuchi definitely deservers an Oscar for the role.

Ending of the movie : Chieko embraces the contradictions of her existence in a wrenching scene at a Japanese disco. One of her senses is immune to the glorious explosion of an Earth, Wind & Fire song, but the rest of her is open to the throb of the crowd and the ecstasy of the lights.
She is desperate for the comfort of a man, but distrustful of what it means to become a woman. She licks her dentist, flashes schoolboys and even strips for a police detective, yet becomes herself only in the safe embrace of her father.
At the close of "Babel," Chieko stands with her father at the railing of their Tokyo penthouse, soaring over a city, a country, a world they comprehend lesser and lesser each day.
Yet they are allowed to cling together as the screen goes dark, and from Inarritu and Arriaga, that is the best ending to hope for, a small connection atop a tower of misunderstanding.

Now some trivia :
1) Regarding the phone call at the end. How'd Amelia get back into the US?
The answer is she didn't. The story is told non-linearly (Remember memento!) Amelia's story happens after the Moroccan story. Both stories, however, are told at the same time. Additionally, the phone call at the end is the same phone call that is shown at the beginning of the film.
2) What's there in Chiekos note ?
I guess she wrote about her pent up feelings, denial and explained why she lied to him about her mother jumping off the verandah.