Author: Rosalynn Try-Hane

Red is the colour of love and death and this season 3 of Game of Thrones is awash with red.

Love, Duty and Betrayal are the order of play in season 3 of Game of Thrones. It’s grown just a little lighter but not necessarily brighter in Westeros and the plotting that happened in the darkness of season 2 is now coming to light. What happens when you betray someone close to you as Theon did to Robb Stark in season 2. Karma comes for Theon in a dramatic way in season 3. Maybe he should send a raven to Varys to find out how to manage.

Tywin Lannister played with gleeful malicious magnificence by Charles Dance rules over the Lannister house. The majority of the action of season 3 focuses on the Lannister’s in King’s Landing and now that Stanis Baratheon was defeated at the Battle of Blackwater they must hold onto that power. “Do you think the person who wears the crown holds the real power” he asks Tyrion. It’s certainly not if Tywin is standing behind the crowned one and his withering put down of King Joffrey: “The King is tired” is one of my favourite scenes especially after nobody bothers with Joffrey’s rants of having Tywin locked up.

Young doomed love – Jon Snow and Ygritte couldn’t stay in that cave forever no matter how good his kisses were. Jon must now choose love or duty – in scenes full of pathos and Ygritte doing what any woman in love would do shooting him down in arrows – does he survive or succumb to the hail of arrows – tune in to find out. Betrayal comes to King’s Landing when Shae who feels Tyrion no longer wants her now he is married to Sansa Stark. However, she may be mistaken perhaps Tyrion is trying to protect her from the evil around her but will she understand that.

Then there is love and what better place to celebrate love than at a wedding saying goodbye to an old life and hello to a new one except in true Game of Thrones style. Betrayal comes in many guises and the colour red bleeds profusely all over the wedding but just who survives at the wedding of Lord Walder Frey at which Robb Stark and his mother Catelyn are guests.

Lest we forget that there is still a battle for the Iron Throne and Daenerys wants it but she’ll need an army. As she ponders about buying the army of the Unsullied. It her love for her dragons that reigns supreme in her mind but do they still love her is real the question.

The writers based some of season 3 on A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin and they don’t disappoint in taking the base material and ensuring that the series is as engrossing, witty and heart rendering as per the previous two seasons. As previously discussed the writers have no problem killing major characters even if they are still alive in the books after all the books form the basis of the television show and are viewed as an inspiration source – this is fantasy after all.

As well as every episode of Game of Thrones, NOW TV offers no contract access to the best in movies, sports, and entertainment. Whether you want to dip in and catch up on the latest shows, watch your favourite Sports team or entertain the family over the holidays, the NOW TV Passes put great entertainment at your fingertips –  just like magic. Simply put: NOW TV gives you the TV you really want, without any of the stuff you don’t.

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In the run up to the launch of Season 5, NOW TV will be celebrating each Season by watching one per week before Season 5 airs on 13^th April. So whether you’re a fan already or have never seen the show, there’s still time to catch up on the show that everyone will be talking about come April. Join NOW TV on the sofa from 10am each Saturday and midday each Sunday and make sure to follow @NOWTV, they’ll be giving away prizes each day. And to make the weekend of marathon Game of Thrones watching more bearable, NOW TV have given us x5 catch up kits to give away which include NOW TV Entertainment month passes, Game of Thrones official merchandise, a mug and snacks galore!

All you have to do to win one is follow us on twitter @brwc and tell us your fave GoT episode and why with the hashtag #GoTNOWTV.  Easy!

Don’t forget to join the conversation with #GoTNOWTV

In The Absence Of The Sun maybe but this sublime, witty and realistic portrayal of life in busy, brilliant and anonymous Jakarta is luminous.

In the bustling, anonymous metropolis where there’s little sun writer, director and editor Lucky Kuswandi gives us a story of one night following the lives of three different women from the different social strata of Indonesian society when they all end up in the same place – the Lone Star hotel. They may be of different ages Gia in her 30s, Indri in her 20s and Mrs Surya in her 40s who just lost her husband but they are all struggling with universal themes of: identity, sense of belonging and looking for sun a metaphor for warmth and attention.

This is a sublime film with laugh out loud moments shining a light on modern life in Indonesia despite it’s advancement in all areas and technology is still quite traditional. The scenes in the restaurant and at Gia’s mother’s house where they are all on their cellphone is both hilarious and tragic.

Lucky Kuswandi manages to capture and translate for western audiences what it means to be Indonesian and yet a foreigner in your own land through the character of Gia. In Indri we see someone who wants to improve her situation the only way she knows how by dating older, richer men no matter how repugnant they may be. However it is in Mrs Surya that the universal truths of betrayal and feelings of a wasted life are richly drawn out not by long monologues but imagery and actions that leave the viewer with enough room to fill in the gaps. The style of film reminded me of Magnolia by Paul Thomas Andersen and if Lucky Kuswandi carries on making films of this calibre we will be seeing a lot more of her.

This is the opening night gala film of the Asia House Film Festival and rightfully so – it captivates – with the fluidity in which it’s shot, the realistic language used and the different subtexts in this comic drama.