The hype and over-exposed discussions on the internet eventually killed my viewing pleasure. Even the laughing-out-laud absurdity seemed not so funny. But I was still holding out hope for the battle scenes.
Stories of Three Kingdoms are very popular in China because it contains many political wisdom, cunning military maneuver, and personal heroics. The battle of Red Cliff is the most famous because it was a classical case of victory by asymmetrically weaker force and laid down the foundation of triangular balance of power.
However, those who look to the film for some oriental wisdom will likely be disappointed. Wait, there are some. Liu Bei is depicted as a model leader of "serving the people" slogan, as he directs his troops to protect the people at military cost. The underling philosophy is that a king without people is no king. Man power was an essential factor for a weak but ambitious state. In another scene, Zhou Yu orders his troops to run across a muddy pond, so that soldiers who stole the buffolo for food - presumably get some mud on their shoes - won't be singled out. It's an old trick to win hearts and loyalties. But these details don't save the overall blendness.
Not to be deterred, I waited patiently for the battle scene of The Eight Trigram formation. According to John Woo himself, his was the first successful attempt to reenact such battle scene in details. I was getting excited in anticipation. How could I not? My childhood dream was about to be filled - ever since I read about the mysterious Eight Trigram Formation in The Legend of Gods(封神演义）as a child, I've always wanted to see the real rendition, of its traps, decoys, morphs.
And here they came. Troops of Caocao, the powerful evil mandarin, queued into the formation, whose shape looked exactly like the pattern of tortoise shell, lined by iron shields. Why exactly did they willingly and orderly enter the formation without lifting a finger, not to mention weapons, and thus allow themselves being separated by stupid shields on both sides, I had no idea. But if you think that was how they were defeated, you are grossly wrong. Flag was waved and the formation was moving. Along came the generals of the opposition, they would battle the soldiers of Caocao - one versus hundreds at a time- in the narrow allay delineated by the shields on both sides, and won. You would think that the point of having a formation at all was to confuse and divide the enemy to form advantage in local units. But no, for John Woo, the point of having a fancy formation was to have a chance to fight one on hundreds.
It was common in Hollywood style movies to have dumb moments to create the drama. Scoundrels would have every opportunity to kill the heroes at their mercy but always rather waited and not to, only to be killed by heroes because of it. Battle scenes in John Woo's Eight Trigram formation took it to a new height, almost to a fault of insulting viewers intelligence. But, on a second thought, he did manage to plant the scene to show John McClane style heroics and Kong Fu moves. That's exactly what Woo wanted.
If you can call that oriental wisdom, or is that occidental?
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Red Cliff (2): Oriental Wisdoms
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Red Cliff, Panda, and Chinese Films
The newest buzz out of the Chinese film world is Red Cliff, a famous battle story out of The Three Kingdoms.
The general Chinese verdict seems to be "it's entertainment", also some of the entertaining attempts are so caricaturistic, borderlining absurdity. Amid the controversy and critiques, the film sells, amassing the top box-office receipt in China. Nowadays, China takes on a very American rule - controversy sells.
But sorry Chinese, I'm not sure your complaints are relevant. This picture, from the clips I've seen, isn't filmed with you as the key audiences, rather, it has the Western viewers in mind. Outside of the fact that John Woo has never been truly outstanding besides staging scenes and working the camera angles (see Mission: Impossible II), if you view the film from an angle of someone whose knowledge of The Three Kingdoms as heard passingly at best, you won't see all the absurdity and controversy. All you see are giant battling fields - reminiscent of Rome Army nevertheless, witty humorous retorts - if somewhat modern - between generals and warlords, caring and vulnerability, and love scenes - how can a Hollywood movie be complete without one? Look, it all makes perfect sense. It's just those of you who are too versed in the story and characters that are nitpicking.
Think of the last blockbuster, dreamwork's Kung Fu Panda. The sentiments were divided along the lines of resisting: how can Hollywood produce such crap about our beloved Panda? And alternatively, proudly embracing: it's really wonderful Hollywood can nail the Chinese cultural down so precisely in the film, with a by-line of why can't we make it? Although the latter thought makes very good point about education and creativity, the two views actually share the same psyche - that of lack of confidence. The glee over Hollywood's major production featuring Chinese stories and wits underlines the fact that most Chinese are still seeking being recognized and respected by the Western culture, despite the fact that Chinese cultural that's embodied in the film is actually quite shallow, nor is it ground-shattering. The film is actually very much hollywood, both in value - the underdog hero story, and production. We are not part of the world props up some of unduly praises of the film.
Back to Red Cliff, why doesn't a Chinese made film focus more on Chinese audiences then? You can just look at the numbers. Kung Fu Panda has earned $19.29 million in China between its June 21 opening and July 6, making it a box-office smash by Chinese standards. Comparatively, it earned more than $350 million world wide. So there is little wonder Red Cliff shifts its market focus elsewhere.
China has proved it can produce quite fine art films. It is no stranger in the international film festival circuit. China can produce some entertainment "big picture" also, when it really put money into it. What's mostly lacking is the in-between and blending of the two. Both the amount and variety are far more to be desired. It is on this ground that we can come to understand the paradox of Red Cliff, both of under criticism and hugely successful commercially - because good films are too few, and far in between.
[不管时间是如何把岩石染上颜色的，毫无疑问赤壁正红。
网上的评判大致是可悦，可色，可恶，虽忍俊处可谓极致出另见天地，但终究还是比较娱乐的。票房则大有斩获。就算中国的电影没学到家，于争论处见销售利好却已是一板一眼。
不过同胞们的口水大致是用错了情。据我的有限观察，赤壁的主要目的观众群本不是国内的大众。吴宇森虽然长处仅限于场面的展现和镜头的控制，却 也应本无意于为网络流行语丰富词汇。但如果你想象自己是一名西方对三国一无所知的观众，也许仅有的模糊印象也来自隐约的耳闻，那么这部影片就很容易被理解 和接受。你将看到的是宏大的战争场面，甚至很容易和印象中的罗马人的战场联系起来；看到幽默急智的大将谋事，虽然他们的对话有点现代感，但无伤大雅，也和 心理预设并不冲突；他们甚至有多面的柔情和脆弱；当然还有爱情场面，没有女色的好莱坞片还叫好莱坞片么？总之，这会让网上所有自作多情的“很强大”的评论 没有用武之地。无疑，赤壁是拍给西方观众看的。
不如回过头来看看前段时间热门的功夫熊猫。极端的观点无非两种。鄙视之抵制之者有，捧上天欣喜欣慰者也不在少数。甚至听说有引发为什么中国不 能拍出功夫熊猫的感慨。这样的感慨虽然有健康的关于创作力和教育的讨论，但终究还是建立在对影片对中国文化“准确地把握”上。其实，两种态度都反映了一种 相同的心理状态--对文化的不自信。好莱坞大片用中国熊猫和对中国文化的结合运用是让某些人如或钦点的原因。我们终于被承认了，我们成了世界的一分子。而 其实功夫熊猫是再典型不过的好莱坞片，从underdog hero story到故事的叙述方式。其中中国文化只不过皮毛，早已进入西方的知识领域。
现在回到赤壁，为什么中国拍的大片却不是以大陆观众作为主要假定观众创作呢？答案看看功夫熊猫的数字就行了。熊猫作为大热片，在中国的前两周 收入是$19.29百万。而相比较，它的全球收入是$320百万。赤壁，已经作了好莱坞人的吴拍的电影，把主要市场盯在国外就毫不奇怪了。
中国已经证明自己能拍出好的艺术片来。国外大大小小的电影节中国艺术片拿过的奖也不少。中国也似乎证明了所谓“娱乐大片”能拍的马马虎虎-- 只要能投入足够多的钱，国外电影市场也能分很小的一小勺。中国缺少的，是这两者之间的，和把这两者结合起来的电影。以及相称的电影市场。目前的电影市场无 论在数量上还是种类质量上都乏善可陈。那么也就不难理解主要并不为中国观众所拍，“很娱乐”，很受争议的赤壁，票房走红也就很容易理解了--我们的可看的 电影从数量和质量上都太少了。]
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Clapping
Two relatively old news: One, Beijing Olympic committee issued clapping guide of Olympic cheers; Two, in the 110 hurdle of Goodwill games, clapping was very sporadic when an athlete from an African country was introduced and he raised his hands to gesture.
Yes, both are a bit hard to get used to, but both are aspects of China. And they are related in understanding the colloquial "why do they do that?".
Talking about clapping, I'm glad no one clapped at the end of showing of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, including a battalion of kids in the theater. It would have made me feel aged.
I was a huge Indy fan, having watched all Indy movies, many twice. I'm not sure how it got 77% percent rotten. All that action and the plot failed to engage me, to a point I began to wonder about why they kept a silly posture striding two moving vehicles through the Amazon, wasn't it easier just to swirl the car to shake the enemy off? or how come Indy and his troop survived three trips over the waterfall without a bruise. I know, it's a cardinal sin of watching an action movie, but that can't be all my fault, can it? Is that because Harrison Ford seemed to have lost his joie de vivre, or because I'm getting too old for this? Probably both.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
The edge of Heaven
This is probably the best film I've seen in at least 3 months.
-"Do you do French?" he asked her.
-"French, Italian, Greek, I'll do it international for you," she replies.
And a few days after:
-"I'm looking for a woman to live with. I would pay as much as you earn here. In return, you only sleep with me. Agreed?"
- "Have you fallen for me, old man?"
With that, the story begins.
But I mislead you. The film isn't mostly about them, a brash German old man and a prostitute from Turkey. The story evolves around three single parent families. Ali the old man accidentally kills Yeter, which led his son, Nejat travels back to Istanbul to find her daughter in order to help her. Ayten, the daughter, is in Turkish resistance group. She befriends and beds Lotte (yes, it's girl-girl), with her predatory charm, when crossing the border to Germany in her failed attempt of seeking asylum. Lotte tries all she could, even defying her mom's admonishment, to help Ayten after she is send back to Turkey and prison, only to be killed by freakish violence. Susanne, Lotte's mom, after reading Lotte's dairy decides to take on her daughter's mission of freeing Ayten... It takes tremendous story-telling skill to weave all this convoluted lines together with controlled pace.
And if you think I am telling too much spoilers, worry not. The film is so compelling that it urges you to watch on even if you already know the plot. In fact, the writer and director is confident enough that he pronounces the outcomes of characters' fate with captions before each segment.
I didn't intentional mislead you though. One of the merit of the film is that it depicts life, not just sells cheap emotions and exhorts values with coincidences. Although it's about tragedy and how people deal with it, it has plenty of light-hearted moments. It doesn't try to weight you down. It doesn't make the film less power. The scene where Susanne cries for the loss of her daughter in a hotel room just shatters your heart. Each character is lively, having faults of their own, which makes the virtues in their action more convincing.
The generational relationship is at the center of the issues covered. It also touches on the political reality of Turkey and Germany in the dawn of Turkey's admittance into the European Union. But most importantly, this film is about forgiveness and the power of love comes with it: Susanne's forgiveness towards Ayten, Nejat's forgiveness towards his father. With Nejat's telling of Koran story of Abraham and Issac, you realize forgiveness is the passage to the edge of heaven.
- "Only God is entitled to solitude."
- "Bravo."
中文版
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Nanking, Armageddon in Retrospect
The most powerful film I saw last few days was undoubtly Nanking.
I didn't have stomach for it. Then I had to.
The basic theme is familiar for a Chinese, the unimaginable crime of the rape of Nanking (Nanjing) committed by imperial Japanese army. The story though is told through a fresh angel, through the lens of group of foreigners who chose to stay and tried their best to protest Chinese civilians by attempting to establish a "safety zone". The events are streamlined with diaries and letters of the foreign observer, intertwined with interviews of actual Chinese victim and Japanese soldiers.
In one of the most powerful interviews, an elder - he was 7 at the time - described how his mother breastfed his infant brother even as she was dying from being bayoneted through the chest. Blood oozed and mixed with breast milk, but his brother was too young to know.
The weight of the events must have been heavy. Minnie Vautrin, Dean of Ginling College, and one of the eyewitness narrators, committed suicide after she returned to the States in 1940. Iris Chang, the author of the book from which this documentary is based on, also gave up her life at age of 36.
It's important to note Nanking isn't an indictment of Japanese people in general. In China today, there are people who are so anti-Japanese, for what they had done and for their lack of sincere apology, so much so that they frown upon the use of Japanese language in public. Hello! the Japanese is based on Chinese characters. Don't hate on the language. There are also people, especially young folks who are so enamored in the Japanese culture. Little do they know some of the pervert-ness enlarged by war is actually in the Japanese culture. For example, raping is tolerated in Samurai culture, sexual discourse of stressfulness is reflected in Hentai.
The sad truth is, the story wouldn't have received the same credibility if it were not told by Westerners, reconstructed from diaries of foreigners of the time. I always wondered why there isn't a Chinese version of "Schindler's List" from Chinese film makers, since many in the West are still not aware of the existence of such crime to this day. The answer given by my friend was, it wouldn't be credible enough for a Chinese filmmaker to do it. 
Did I mention bookstores are the best place to read things you normally wouldn't have patience of?
It was filled with insights, wits and humor. Kurt Vonnegut mused at the state of humanity, offered his opinion on jazz as "safe sex on the highest order", advised on young aspiring writer to use less semicolons ("they are useless except maybe to indicated you have been to college."), remarked on strength of African Americans for "the thing they've been through" and offered religious faith as part of the reason. And yes, he did cite Carl Marx's "opium to a man". [update5/15/08: I just learned there is book club of Vonnegut in Guizhou university.]
In this sometimes madly world we lives, as Kurt points out, a little humor helps.
(ps: Here is an interesting war time film produced by the U.S. War Department. Notice the music used at the beginning of the film? Yup, that later became the current Chinese National Anthem.)
Saturday, April 19, 2008
From Juno to ?
If you use two films to sum up the current election, it's There Will Be Blood on the Democratic side, and No Country For Old Man on the Republican side. - Norman Ornstein on the China Town Hall of National Committee on United States-China Relations
The film that sparks this post though, is Juno, the cool teen pregnancy story. Hollywood may never guessed that the film would stimulate much cultural and political discussion among the Chinese youth. A review on the popular Chinese social website douban, which teems with so called the angry youth and the literate youth, sailed at the idealization and political correctiveness of the picture, apparently in response to the overwhelming adulation of American tolerance on the subject.
Rest assured, the author got her main points right. Juno isn't your typical pregnant teenager, she is ultra cool and wise beyond her age. Nor are her parents. Abortion is still a hotly debated issue deeply rooted in the religious and political spectrum in the U.S.
Case in point, school paper of Yale University broke out a story about an art student deliberately pregnant herself and then miscarry to make a strong statement. Only to be proved a hoax later. The whole parody only shows how the media today is clueless as in lacking common sense judgment. Not to mention the fact that most major news outlets today are under the entertainment division of big corporate umbrella. News programs' pampering of viewer inclination, rather than just reporting purely based on facts, contributed to the perceived anti-China biased that so many Chinese resent of in this election season. While average Chinese might have conspiracy theory about how the news agencies and governments of the West "out to get China", it's mostly news media out to get attention and politicians juggling to get political favor.
But I digress.
We were talking about political correctiveness in Juno, weren't we? While I personally think Juno is more idealistic and personal than PC, PC is certainly prominent in American culture. PC is the American English term for "harmonious society", 和谐社会. (Sorry, Hu jintao. You can't quite apply for patent yet.) PC is designed to appease social tension, at the sacrifice of personal freedom of speech non the less. It is more disguised, and doesn't require a government agency to administer.
However, political correctiveness doesn't extend to outside the nation. So it's OK for Juno to crack a joke about China handing out babies "like how they handing out free ipod. And the audience laughs (I admit I chuckled also.). No wonder China bashing becomes a new fashion when the election is heated.
PART II
For their part, many of the Chinese youth don't fully understand these, or very exposed to western style politics. Matthew Forney, a former Beijing bureau chief for Time, thinks young urban Chinese study hard and that’s pretty much it. That's probably not a fair assessment, but I do think youngsters under patriarch Chinese government have a tendency of swinging between over-zealous and totally apolitical. In between, you have also people who are opportunistic or simply naive. In that regard, Chinese education largely failed. One of the flawed product of the system, Wang Qiangyuan, or Grace Wang as her English names goes, shoots into infamous stratosphere her story reaches both NYT and Washington Post. Aside from her other character flaws, Miss Wang certainly doesn't understand what free speech is really about, despite her ambition for politics. Civil protests of two groups of opposite views simultaneously need no mediator, as she so flattered herself. What did she want everybody to "negotiate" about? Shut up and go home?At home, many Chinese are boycotting French products, with Carrefour being the easily accessible target. While Carrefour might temporary fall an undeserving victim, I think some of the overbearing bashing on the other side of this youth activism get it wrong also. For one thing, Chinese boycotter are already more measured and rational than some of the "boycott China" folks in the West struggling to find anything not labeled "made in China". Unlike those folks, Chinese protesters are calling for just 17 days of boycott and one day shun of Carrefour. A sensible boycott must be measured, achievable, and have a clear goal, which in this case is about sending a message. Judging by these standards, the current boycott call is actually pretty well thought-out.
Why bash them even if they don't get it all right, especially since we already accused them of not doing much beside studying and getting rich? Aren't they getting experience of political activism, which is an important aspect of all democracy? How else can they learn to express themselves with measured and civil actions and abidance of law?
*sorry for the long post. But I feel like I have many more to say on this topic. I'm also thinking this post should probably be written in Chinese. Related Content of This Rocking Post
Monday, April 14, 2008
Into The Wild
However, the young antagonist does make a point. What more thrusting ways a point can be made than giving up one's own life? His journey of discovering the truth in life in more about protesting the society we lives in than a young man's pursuit of his mecca. Interestingly, it is the people he meets along the way, not his own destiny, that provides the best answer of his question: the simple, kind, people who offer him plenty of company, guidance, and heart-warmth. In that, the movie does provide a memorable line: "When you forgive, you love. And when you love, God's light will shine upon you". And our young hero finally realizes that "happiness only real when shared".
So travel your travel, seek your seek, read your Lord Byron and Tolstoy, but always remember to come back.
Joie de vivre.
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