mantis tsai – Google

I found myself relating to Neil from the beginning. Throughout the film I found myself reflecting on my past experiences, and I’m willing to admit that my nose felt just a little sour, and my eyes slightly glistening, towards the end. I am a 11th grade student at an all-boys high school, one of the best here in Taiwan. The trope is real: most, if not all, Asian parents value grades above all else, and my parents forced me to drop out of a club where I was a prominent figure during the second semester of 10th grade. Just like Neil. I also love acting—another club I used to be in, also eventually sacrificed to scores and grades, was our school’s Mass Communications club. I was the male lead in my last, and most successful, short film during my stay there. One more similarity is that both of us had a love for poetry; every so often, when something tugs on my heartstrings or life becomes too pressing, I allow myself a rhyme, just like the Dead Poets Society. And I too had dreams of rebellion, of being who I could be without all that pressure to become what someone else wanted me to be. I could put myself in Neil’s shoes perfectly, and I rooted for him when he decided to—to some extent—revolt against the system. I felt as if it were my own revolution, and I wished so hard for him to succeed, to change, to find a voice through the Society and in acting. And perhaps it is precisely because of this that when I got to the part where he told Mr. Keating he had received permission to perform, my heart sunk with absolute dread and muttered aloud, “You never told him, did you, Neil?” This movie was a pristine mirror, hauntingly beautiful and reflecting my own experiences back at me. And for that I love it; and for more reasons than that I recommend it as a must-watch for children and students; for parents and teachers; for everyone out there. Watch it, and learn to suck the marrow out of life.