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I was able to watch Perfume yesterday in Glorietta despite the fear I still have that it might blow up any second again. The original plan was to watch it in Greenbelt but I rode the wrong bus so instead of getting off in Paseo (because I’ll be more comfortable in getting to Greenbelt that way, never mind the long walk) I got off in Ayala. I was not that familiar with the place so when I saw Glorietta, I thought, what the heck, I can get to Greenbelt faster this way.

Yes, I did that even though I already got lost in Glorrieta before for God knows how long. Basically, same story happened yesterday, I was walking aimlessly in Glorietta trying to find the way out to Greenbelt but it has been 15 minutes already and the film will be shown in Greenbelt in about 45 minutes. So I said, it’s shown here as well, I’ll just find the darn cinema here.

Another 15 minutes later, thinking twice if I really want to watch Perfume (I do, I do!) and aching feet, I was able to find the cinemas that are located in Glorietta 4, level 6 (darn clickthecity.com said it was in Glorietta 3, or maybe I was thinking about Greenbelt 3? hmm…). So, 45 minutes after 2, I’m in the cinema with Iced Tea and popcorn in hand. Ah, Perfume at last!

If you’re planning to watch it then don’t read any further.

Perfume is about Jean Baptiste and his unusual gift, his very keen sense of smell. Keen as in he was able to locate where a red-head girl is staying just by following her scent. He was orphaned the day he was born because all his older siblings died when they were born, but he lived. When he cried, the townspeople found his mother trying to flee and she was sentenced to death. He was then put in an orphanage and that was where he first realized how special he was — but when he got older, the orphanage doesn’t have any use for him anymore so he was sold to the tanner. The woman facilitating the orphanage was killed when she was held up by two goons. Basically, whenever he leaves a place he’s been in for a long time, the person who sold him (or lets him go) dies, so do you still think you bring bad luck? hehe

He was in the tanner for a very long time, even though it was said that the life expectancy there was just 5 years, until he got into Giuseppe Baldini’s perfume shop where he showed the old man how gifted he was. He was bought by the perfumer the next day and was told to create perfumes for him, in return, Giuseppe would teach Jean Baptiste everything he knows. Jean Baptiste became obsessed with scents and wanted to go to Graz so he could further learn about scents. On his way there, he realized one ironic thing.

He doesn’t have a scent of his own.

So he continued his way to Graz to show the world the he was someone and that he was great. There he started his weird experiments and he knew that there was one thing that smells good. Young virgin girls. And the one thing that smells the best? A young, virgin red-head girl who was well-guarded by her wealthy father. Here he became a serial killer, just to be able to create the best perfume in the whole world.

It was gross really. There were moments in the film where I had to look away because I just couldn’t take the scene, but overall it was great! The scenes were well executed and the characters are very believable, especially Jean Baptiste. In this movie where the antagonist was also the protagonist, you can’t help but feel disgusted, awed, and sorry because of all the things that he had to go through and that all he wanted in life was to be recognized, to be someone, to be noted.

What I read somewhere about perfume was right. No matter what your preferences are in terms of movies, you would still find yourself appreciating this because everyone wants to be someone and be recognized for something. Everyone has his or her own passion and it just depends on how we pursue those passions that makes us different from the next man.

I definitely want to read the book it was based on just to see how different it was from the movie. Oh, this is also what happened with Pride and Prejudice, I watched the movie first then read the book. I then realized that I can appreciate a movie based on a book better that way because I don’t have any prejudice yet, but if I have finished read the book already and watched the movie again and again, then that’s when I look for the missing scenes :)