I Miss the Happy Endings

I’ve been watching a lot of movies recently that leaves me quite disturbed or sad. Not that I don’t appreciate the value of darkness in films. I think that sometimes, the depiction of darkness could prompt us to seek the light. But I just miss those times when there were still happy endings in the movies.

Are We Afraid of Happy Endings?

When I was younger, I have watched a lot of films that had happy endings. It was as though there was a formula where the hero or heroine of the movie would first encounter many difficulties and then after a certain turn of events, they would finally reach their reward. Things would be resolved, the audience would be satisfied, and the main characters would have their happy ending. In many local romantic films, this would all culminate in a wedding where everyone would joyfully celebrate with the main couple.

These days, however, I’ve noticed that more movies refuse to have such endings. More and more films choose to show either a tragedy or an ending that doesn’t resolve every problem presented in the movie. For an award winning film, it seems almost impossible to expect any happy ending at all.

Why the change in our preference for a movie ending?

Perhaps people thought that those happy endings fail to tell the truth about the real lives of people. It could also be that the world has grown darker and in experiencing so much pain, we could no longer relate to that hope presented by the older films.

I’d like to agree that there is so much more to this life than the happy endings shown in many movies. Not everyone marries the man or the woman one loves. Not every hero lives after fighting for a cause. We must accept so many defeats and injustices in this life and not cling to the illusion that everything will work out in our favor if we only continue to do our best.

But I think there are still some things we should never throw away so quickly. In our desire to present one side of the truth, we must never neglect the other side that could also teach us something in life.

For while this world is truly filled with suffering and pain, it is also filled with beauty and goodness. While we experience many defeats, we are also given various occasions for triumph.

The happy endings presented in the old movies need not be an insult to the tragedies that happen in this life. They could instead foreshadow the eternal triumph of those who will never give up despite all the darkness in the world. In the eyes of the world, one life may end up as a failure. But in the eyes of God, even death could be a victory. In the eyes of people, a person may have lived a lonely life. But in the eyes of Him who sees, that person has lived a life of true and lasting love.

Let us not be afraid of happy endings. Let us instead be strengthened in hope and believe that even in the most disastrous life, God can still weave an everlasting good.

“Therefore we don’t faint, but though our outward person is decaying, yet our inward person is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory, while we don’t look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” — 2 Corinthians 4:16–18, WEBBE

We need to believe in happy endings once again

We need to believe that light can overcome darkness and that good will always triumph over evil in the end.

It is not wishful thinking. It is hope. And in times of despair and trouble, hope needs to be rekindled in our hearts.

We have learned many valuable things when we were children. We only need to remember once again — to see the world again with eyes that know how to dream and hearts that know how to fight to make those dreams come true.

The world we grew up in may be complicated, but the most important things remain simple, and heaven is always within the grasp of a little child.

Things are not perfect yet but they will be. Times are troublesome, but all such troubles shall end.

Night is passing. It will always surrender to a brand new day!

“It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered, full of darkness and danger they were. Sometimes you didn’t want to know the end, because how could the end be happy. How could the world go back to the way it was when there’s so much bad that had happened? But in the end it’s only a passing thing, this shadow; even darkness must pass.” — Samwise Gamgee
(J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers)

When There Is No Happy Ending

There used to be a happy ending
There used to be forevermore
There used to be a twist defeating what is evil
When the love of the hero conquers all.

But now everything is in shades of grey,
And the story ends as we all walk away.
Now the villain laughs, and the darkness wins
And no knight comes to save the day.

There used to be a wizard,
And there used to be a witch
There used to be a fairy
And we could tell which is which.

But now the bad guy is the hero,
And the prince is a monster in disguise,
Now we’re afraid to face the prophets,
Because of all the darkness that they hide.

We should be happy now,
We should be satisfied,
When everything has fallen,
Like the world we feel inside.

But I guess there is no ending
That can satisfy our hearts,
When what's broken can't be mended,
And what's dark can't be put to light.

We need to face the shadows,
But we need not fear the night,
We can still defeat the monsters,
If we fight with all our might!

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