"hostage", two bucks since noon

Last night, I went to see "The Hostage" with Willis in it. Well, Bruce Willis' acting was standard. But personally, I believe it was Ben Foster as "Mars Krupcheck" who stole the show. Foster in "Hostage" reminds me of Brandon Lee in "The Crow". It's probably the long hair and the gothic outlook. Anyways, Foster was good.
Then the movie itself was full of slash-bam-bangs. Sure, the plot is so damn cliche, but juvenile deliquency always has its own mind.

The bitter taste was on the way from the office to the theatre. I hopped on a taxi and ended up having casual conversation with the driver, where the bitter taste begins. The taxi driver has five kids. One adopted child, two children from previous marriage and two more from the present marriage. The driver is a guy. He had to buy a taxi order to the airport from the taxi service operator. He left the house at around 04:00 AM in the morning, dropped his passenger at the airport, then another one to the Eastern part of the city. All this earned him around 200,000 IDR (Indonesian Rupiah. US$ 1 = 9,500 IDR) up to highnoon. We crossed our paths at around 19:30 PM. From 12:00 to 19:30 PM he only got 12,500 IDR, which is not even two bucks. "I can't cover the daily deposit of 300,000 IDR. I've been out since four in the morning, but from twelve this noon until now I only earned 12,500. 300,000 is so far away. Yesterday, I still could cover the daily deposit and it only leaves me 20,000 IDR. That's my wage for that day. What date is it today?" It was April 19. "My lease is due tomorrow. I haven't been able to pay it on time in the past few months. Oh well.. money is hard to find these days.."

The flag fall of a taxi is 4,000 IDR and the next kilometer is I don't know how much. But with 30% gasoline prince hike, everything else increased up to that much. I'm seeing less amount of food in my lunch at local roadside eatery. They did not increase the price but they reduce the amount of food. Taxi ride is a luxury in Jakarta, although internationally, it's probably the cheaper taxi ride. Don't compare Jakarta to London or Berlin *smirk*

I almost couldn't bring myself into the theatre, but I was already there and for sure I would have regretted the two bucks I paid the taxi driver if I had decided to cancel my plan.