losing a bet

Last night Alexander and I watch the Golden Globes.  To make it interesting, and because we are both competitive, we make a contest out of it. 

I print out a voting ballot, including only the fourteen film categories.  The winner will — will what?  I won’t bet money with my son.  He suggests that if I lose, I make his bed for a week, and if he wins, he will make it.  Nice try.  I suggest the loser makes dinner and cleans up after. Alexander is not confident enough he will win and definitely does not want to be on the losing end of this bet, so he nixes this idea.  Finally we settle on this:  the winner gets to pick a movie and the other has to watch it.

To my dismay, Alexander wins the bet.  Rather than going to bed when the Golden Globes finally ends, Alexander gets busy researching movie possibilities.  I go to sleep.

This morning Alexander is up by 10:30, early for him.  He is excited.  “Ok, I’ve decided,” he announces.  “Oldboy; it’s a Korean movie with subtitles but you’ll love it.  There’s one really gruesome torture scene, but other than that, it’s not too violent, and it has a nice twist.” The poster for the movie doesn't convince me of its merits.

But a bet is a bet, so today we watch Oldboy. It’s actually a creepy little movie that sneaks up on you.  Despite its many complexities, I can follow the plot, unlike The Selfish Giant, a movie we watched yesterday.  The main character in that film is from Northern England; we could not decipher a single word he says.

I may not understand Korean, but at least I can read.  Plus, I have my son to explain the characters I confuse.  I enjoy Oldboy.  The ending is eerily powerful.  And, it’s a lot better than watching Alexander's  second choice movie, Robocop.