The Role of Axie Infinity and NFT Gaming in the Philippines

Layout I Victor Serrano This 2013 dystopian fiction movie starts off with the main character, Curtis, who’s an in denial leader of the pack of the people that form the tail of the train. He is accompanied by Gilliam, a handicapped elder and adviser of the people; Nam goong - Minsu, an engineer of the train with his daughter whom are both addicts of the flammable industrial waste called “Kronole”; Tanya, a mother who got her son stolen by the woman of Wilford (the creator of the train); and Edgar, a youngster who looks up at Curtis. There are

SNOWPIERCER train letting the two kids survive but leaving Curtis and Nam goong dead. It’s now up to the two kids to survive the cold that is now melting. In plain view, one could just watch this movie and leave with a smile on their faces from the ecstatic feelHugo Elijah Majadas I Creative ing of the underdogs winning and getting what they want, but if someone was to look at this movie and compared it to the current reality we are living right now, one can see a lot more characters that have contributed to the how a lot of resources are limited and that the movements main goal which is to get to the head of the train of the people are monitored by the government. Wouldn’t but they are prevented by the soldiers who main- you be scared if someone told you that the tail of the train tain this way of living. If someone disobeys, he or represents the people who are just left there with two she would be punished by letting them feel the choices to die or to reproduce? Although they are given the cold from outside the train. This movie is all about chance to eat, the things that are given to them are blocks how the people form the tail of the train, and even- from insects that are ground up. In reality, due to the lack tually are able to conquer the whole train through of money, job, and opportunities, some people in the Philteamwork, strategy, and pure will (well those and ippines are forced to act like scavengers and find food at a a lot of dead bodies and eaten people). It all ends dumpster of a fast food restaurant to re-cook for the whole with a boom! A literal boom, an explosion of the family. Halfway of the spectrum, the people at the the middle of the train, have the chance to get a proper education, can eat sushi, can get their nails done, and can party without the thought of dying in their minds. Compared to today, these people are the ones who have enough to get their bills paid, which puts them in the impression that they can do whatever they want and that they feel superior even towards the people who maintain the system. This takes form in any kind, but in took shots at Curtis and their team, as well as, the bald guy who was giving out eggs up to the tails of the train, only to shoot the people from the tail with the reason of “maintaining balance”. This represents all the policemen, armies, or everyone who has a gun that follows blindly what the superior tells them what to do. Believe me when I say they would do anything just to make people believe that it’s their fault. Why are they getting rich by scaring people to the point where they would just listen to these gun slinging savages? All of these rules would change but it is only under Wilford’s decision. Wilford owns the train hence, all must obey. He represents the presidents, the people who actually can make a change with everything but choose not to for the sake of their power.

The explosion that caused the train to stop and left the two kids on a new journey is the one that also ended the system inside the train. With the older kid knowing what has been happening inside the train, he shouldn’t do the same thing when they try to rebuild a new society in that world. Although it may not have a direct representation in the reality that we are living in right now, someone could think of it as a solution to everything everyone has been experiencing for the past years -- all the climate changes, the abuse of power, and poverty not being extinguished. Maybe, the only thing to do now is to have a metaphorical “explosion” that would stop all these businesses and rulers from continuing the destruction they are currently maintaining: a system of keeping the poor, poorer and the rich, richer. In conclusion, this movie can serve as a wake-up call to everyone and the world we live in. Take what a couple of governments did during the quarantine, they have put their own respective countries in debt, war, and in a difficult situation especially for the people who are not able to afford to live. These instances should not be hidden from the citizens and people should know what they are worth for them to stand up for themselves against powerful people and for the people who can manage living they should have the empathy to stand for the people oppressed. This can also be a lesson to know what path should be chosen to prevent anything, like this dystopian movie, from happening.

Mikael Mijeno I Editor

Glamour, drama, and murder—three of the main themes in Ridley Scott’s 2021 blockbuster biographical crime film House of Gucci. Based on a 2001 book of the same name, the film follows Maurizio Gucci and his murderer wife, Patrizia Reggiani, and the descent of their relationship. The film started off with a simple and rather cliché premise—a rich boy with an inheritance waiting for him, fell in love with a girl of lower status, fought for their love against the boy’s rich family, and got married. But there is an overwhelming sense of dread with how their relationship was set up, as if something would go wrong any minute—and it will.

The drama comes from Patrizia Reggiani’s—played by the incredible Lady Gaga — slow regression unto obsession, greed, and madness. Notice how I didn’t say slow and steady, more on that later. Lady Gaga—whom I am a big fan of since 2009—played the hell out of this role. She perfectly encapsulated the gradual creeping in of greed to a woman who just can’t get enough. Gaga was a triumph, stealing the spotlight from every scene she was in, commanding the viewer’s attention whenever she came into the frame—that is something not every actor can do. Many people threw flack at her Italian accent, saying it sounds more Russian, but what people don’t understand is that Lady Gaga is Italian, she knows what she’s doing, and she’s not just doing an ordinary Italian accent, she was doing Patrizia Reggiani’s accent. People forget that Signora Reggiani is a real person—with hundreds of recorded videos of her talking with the very same accent Lady Gaga used in her portrayal.

What was not a good Italian accent though, was Jared Leto’s. He portrayed Paolo Gucci, Maurizio Gucci’s disgraced cousin. I initially thought it was decent, but as the performance went on, I had the impression that he was doing a caricature of an Italian man. Designer Tom Ford—someone who has actually met the real Paolo Gucci—compared Leto’s performance to a Saturday Night Live skit. Ford gave praise to the other performances though, but noted that Paolo wasn’t as crazed and mentally challenged as Leto made him seem to be.

And then there’s the powerhouse cast. Jared Leto from Marriage Story (2019), Salma Hayek, and the Al Pacino, all delivered compelling performances. But that leaves us to where House of Gucci went short. What is left to criticize? Remember when I said slow regression instead of slow and steady? House of Gucci’s pacing suffered a great deal from its editing. It dragged comfortably a lot in the beginning only to end up feeling a bit rushed towards the end. The film could’ve done better with an additional 30-minutes or so in the second and third acts. It seems Regianni’s madness meter was steadily going from 0-50 only for it to go to a hundred only a few minutes towards the end. Gaga herself said it at an interview, the final product seems to be entirely different from what she imagined it to be. And that was a waste, considering how committed she was to the role—going as far as writing a thesis-like study on Reggiani.

Despite some of its faults, House of Gucci is ultimately a good film, backed up by director Ridley Scott’s years of experience in the industry—being the person behind films such as Alien (1979), Blade Runner (1982), The Martian (2015), and Thelma & Louise (1991). While having issues with its pacing, it was good in showcasing the changes within the dynamics each character has with each other. It managed to turn Gaga’s initially likable portrayal of Reggiani into the greedy monster she is known today. With the film’s production and release within the global pandemic, House of Gucci still managed to hit it big on the box office, grossing a total of $151.8 million as of February 6, 2022. Because of the pandemic, the film is also now available to online streaming platforms such as VOD and Amazon Prime and will be available soon on Blu-ray

At the end of the day, House of Gucci is a film, a weirdly edited one, about a glamorous family drama that ended in murder. It is not as thrilling as some crime dramas, as we already know what happened to Maurizio Gucci, but the actors’ performances, especially Gaga’s and Pacino’s, were hair-raising enough to keep me at the edge of my seat. And with production and the cast— again, especially Gaga— taking award wins and nominations left and right, House of Gucci is set to be remembered as an unfavorably edited masterpiece.