March of the Penguins

Just came back from the movie: March of the Penguins. I went to watch this movie because of the exceptional review it received, and after watching it, I only agree with it stronger.

When I was a young boy, my father often told us the stories of the visiting penguins from South America at Shanghai Zoo. These penguins were from Chili, and they visited Shanghai when I was very young (maybe less than 3 years old). They didn't left me any impressions, but they surely left wonders for my parents. I always remembered the smiles my Dad had when he told us about them. “Cute, beautiful, and funny” he described them with a smile, and his enjoyment intricated strong curiosity inside my heart about these cute little animals. These visiting penguins were the stars at Shanghai Zoo in the early 80s, and brought many laughter to the children and adults in my hometown. But sadly, like many beautiful things, they didn’t last. Unused to the climate in Shanghai Zoo, many of them died, and the remaining was send back to where they came from. Leaving only the wonderful memories behind ...

I didn't get the chance to see real penguins until very recently at Canada. I saw them twice in the last six months: once at Montreal's Bio Dome, and once at Toronto Zoo. There were dozens of penguins displaying themselves vigorously in a small space behind the glass wall. It's amazing to watch them transform from slow and inexperienced walkers into lighting-fast swimmers after jumping into the water. They have this pure and friendly look, and they are never shy of displaying their unstable and sometimes awkward walking styles in front of the crowds. Yes, indeed: they are cute, beautiful, funny, and sometimes awkward, and they were always the stars among all the different animals in the Zoo.

The penguins in the Zoo are just like a group of comedian actors showing off at the stage with a few tricks and their humorous looks. But if you try to judge them based on the temporary observation from the stage, you will miss an entire world.

The penguins in the real life are much more than just "cute, beautiful, and funny". If they are loving comedians at the Zoo, they are the toughest athletes, the strongest-willed fighters, the most cooperative and disciplined co-workers, and the most loving and caring parents in the real world. They constantly face life and death situations, and furthermore, they demonstrate great love among the purest forms you could imagine from the human's world! Their love stories can easily match the intensity of any classical love stories in the human history.

Penguins are the only major residents at Antarctica: the most extreme conditioned land on earth. Every year, matured penguins take a 70-mile journey to reach their birth land to find their mate (actually they took this journey many times during the year). The trip can last about a week, and once they reach their destiny. They will find their mates and attempt to produce their offspring.

From the first step out of the ocean, to the birth of their child can take more than a month (maybe two months), and the female will lose 1/3 of their weight during this process.

As soon as the egg is produced, the mother penguin has to return to the ocean for food, and left the egg to the father penguin (who is also very hungry) to guide for another month or so. Penguin Dads are great fathers! I was deeply touched when Freeman narrated that the reason there are less male penguins than females are probably because the fathers wait longer than the mother for their turn to obtain food, and many of them couldn't finish the trip due to weakness after the wait. During this period of time, the weather becomes worse and worse as time marches deeper into the winter, and the male penguins kept losing more weight as they waited longer without food.

All the fathers guard the eggs against the freezing winter, and the only chance for them to survive is to group themselves into a body-to-body, shoulder-to-shoulder circle during the winter storms. The penguins are extremely cooperative and disciplined. Even during the worse winter storm, they will take turns to stand outside of the circle (which is colder than the inside of the circle).

One of the most touching scene of the movie is the time when the female penguins returned after they feed from the ocean. The male penguins, first in a quiet group, suddenly burst into a crowd of joy when they hear the approaching of the females. Thank God! Imagining standing in the harshest environment on earth without food waiting for your reinforcement day and night for several months, and suddenly you hear the steps approaching ...

But obviously, not all the mothers would return. Some of them died on the road, and some of them were eaten by their predators. Many of the male penguins will not be able to see his love again, and the new born chick won't survive without its mother …

Well, there are many other touching stories from the movie, and many extra-ordinary, extreme scenes waiting for you to discover and feel. March of the Penguins is indeed a wonderful movie, and I feel thankful to the "brave souls" who made this movie possible for all of us to take this vivid lesson in our lives!