A Lunar New Year Celebration: What else…just Rocky I, III, & VI.

Revisiting the Rocky movies feels like revisiting an old friend. Against all odds, my particular friend has fulfilled his unbelievable dream. And of course set an example for a whole nation to follow. At the end of Rocky 6's credits, Stallone has tourist and kids running up the ROCKY STEPS at Benjamin Franklin Park, Philadelphia doing the Rocky wave.

Rocky was a movie of an underdog, who like all movies about underdogs, achieved what they thought could only be just a dream. When I heard that a new Rocky movie is in theaters, I was excited yet skeptical. If I were Stallone, I would have let the Rocky character die from a heart-attack in the boxing ring. Just to end the indignities of all the Rocky movies.

However after viewing Rocky 6 in the rainy, icy cold movie theater in Canada, some months back, visiting my sister, I tend to appreciate that son of a B****. Lets face it. Beneath the hype, the ridiculous sequels, the Apollo story, the Russian story, the bankruptcy that returns him to his old neighborhood, Rocky 1 and 6 are decent movies about fighting within one's limits and achieving within one's capability. Revisiting the movie on a Lunar New Year, feels like a decent story being told by a flawed, long distance relative.

Rocky was never much of an achiever. Choosing the worst kind of girl to be his wife, (an extreme introvert and shy girl) the character is imperfect with the decisions he made. His friend Paulie, brother to his wife, Adrain, was never a character that moviegoers like to watch upon. Who loves watching a drunk who beats his sister and drives his friend crazy every time he sees him. With things as bad as it is, Rocky always have the right phrase to say that means lots to a common viewer. In Rocky 3, he told Apollo that Paulie might be a pain in the ***, but all it takes is just “5 years to love the guy”. By the end of Rocky 6, Paulie has progressed to a good friend who mouths things that only an honest friend will.

As far as I see it, Rocky 1 & 6 are the only movies that made a good story. I will include Rocky 3 because a good friend of mine mentioned “there's Mr T. and Hulk Hogen”. Admittedly, the moment Rocky burst into tears in Rocky 6 about “something in the basement” that needs to be taken out, my heart just went all out to him. These are the other moments that make me fall into a silent weep for the character:

•  Rocky 1: The courage that the shy character Adrian took, just going out on a date with Rocky.

•  Rocky 1: Adrian step forward into his apartment 818 after much hesitation, which to me, was the bravest thing she has done and her best decision made.

•  Rocky 1: Adrian bought him a dog just to accompany Rocky train.

•  Rocky 1: Rocky thinking up a joke every time he goes into the pet shop to visit Adrian

•  Rocky 1: The first date with Adrian on a ice skating ring. She skates, he walks.

•  Rocky 1: Just before the fight, Rocky lying on her bedside, telling her that he is scared lot of his mind…

•  Rocky 3: Paulie having a fight with Rocky just because he needed a job badly and Rocky said “All you need to do is ask…”

•  Rocky 6: Rocky tearing out to Paulie about “things he thought was supposed to be alright without Adrian…is not”

•  Rocky 6: Rocky has “some stuff in the basement” that needs to be taken out

•  Rocky 6: Paulie's exclamation on “Ice skating is stupid…people walking on ice is more stupid!”

•  Rocky 6: The chair that Rocky places on a tree just above Adrian's grave so that he could sit and read to her grave, her favorite book.

•  Rocky 6: The way he waves good bye to Adrian's grave as if she's still standing there…

Stallone's character Rocky might have all the traits of an underachiever or a slow, straight thinking person, but in his own little ways, in his own little heart, he has ultimately created what no normal person could have accomplished in a lifetime. It mirrors to most of our life struggles which audiences could definitely relate to.