Susannah York And George Scott - The Best Jane and Rochester

To me (or to most Chinese people who were educated in 70s or 80s), the film adaption of Jane Eyre means only one: the one made in 1970, stars Susannah York and George Scott. It is the only one I watched, remembered and cherish since my teenage years.

The movie was relatively short, probably too short comparing with original, that's why I was disappointed the first time when I watched it. However, something dragged me back to theater, and after several times re-watching it, I had to admit, the power of the movie was almost equal to the book.

Saving Mr Banks - Conquering The Dark Past By Creativity

Again, I watched Saving Mr Banks by chasing Ruth Wilson's filmography, and was again satisfied. Not only I was impressed by Wilson's play, also I was surprised to see that another favorite actress of mine - Emma Thompson - was the leading actress of the film.

Saving Mr Bank is about the life of P.L. Travers, the author of Mary Poppins. The film focuses on the part of her life when she comes to America with hesitation to meet Walt Disney (played by Tom Hanks), working with other Disney film workers to adapt her book into Disney film. Prior to this point, Walt Disney has been begged her to adapt her book for 20 years, and Travers, who detests Cartoon culture, does not agree until her own financial situation is in trouble. During the teamwork in Disney, the movie constantly flashes back to Travers earlier life, reveals the childhood trauma that Travers carries all her adult life.

"Small Island" - An Underrated Masterpiece

I had not cried for long time, but recently I cried twice, both due to Ruth Wilson's powerful performances, one of which was in Small Island (another one is in Saving Mr Banks).

Small Island is a BBC TV movie that consists of two episodes. It tells a story about lives of 4 people during and after WWII: Hortense and Gilbert, two young black people who come to England from Jamaica seeking for new life; Queenie and Bernard, two young English people who married each other but soon they marriage is disturbed by the war. Hortense and Gilbert have grand dream about their new life in England, but after they come to the country, they not only have to endure poverty, but also racial discrimination. Queenie and Bernard also have to endure hardships brought by the war, but their different dreams and life attitudes seem to tear them apart even further.

"The Affair" - A Powerful Affair

Romance bores me, but affair doesn't... The Showtime TV drama series The Affair, is a story about a serious affair - both lovers - Noah and Alison - are married, with their respectively royal (at least so far) husband and wife, yet they fall in love with each other at the first sight, and get more and more passionate and comfortable about each other. There are quite many sexual scenes, played by both actors intensely and realistically, make their secret passion dangerously contagious. I can imagine that it must be disturbing for audiences with conventional minds.

Again, romance is not my type, but I am addicted into this show nonetheless because there is so much more than just "affair". There is humanity in their affair, which draws audiences sympathy "ruthlessly" to the characters, despite our moral principle; there are background stories with "secrets" from each side's family, being unraveled slowly, but intriguingly through each episode; there is suspense - a murder is going on, which we knew from the first episode, but still know so little about it after 6 episodes. So we keep guessing.

"Dam Street" - A Chinese Version Of Oedipus Legend

Cover of Dam Street

Yesterday my friend Marty (aka "nothingprofound") recommend me a Chinese movie Dam Street (红颜，literally translation: Rouge Face). He claimed that it was very different from other Chinese movies he had watched. I could not wait, found a streaming video online and watched it right away. After watching it I asked Marty what's the difference. He said that this movie "seemed to be more personal and universal at the same time". I feel exactly the same way.

As a Chinese American who lived in China for the first 30 years of my life, I feel the same way as my American friend who never lived in China, interesting, isn't it? I cannot speak for other Chinese people, but for me, this is the only Chinese movie I have ever seen that I would describe as "honest". From the beginning to the end, there's nothing pretentious, nothing were hidden or added for any different purposes from the needs of story line.

The story takes place in my hometown Sichuan province, the main character of this movie is about the same age as me, almost the same name as well (except Yun is not my legal name), so both geographic and cultural background are all familiar to me personally. Further more, the movie was shot in Sichuan dialect (or Sichuanese), which made it sounds more genuine to me than those made in Mandarins (maybe this is personal judgment, that I always feel the mandarin has "phoniest" accent among all Chinese dialects). The geographic environment is in some small town in Sichuan province, shabby and dirty. To my "horror", first time I saw "traditional" Chinese public restroom on screen (even just one shot, the "horror" cannot be missed). The brutal scene of killing of eels for meal brought me back to those days of my early life. The genuine touch on sexual life is refreshing, especially the boy's sexual fantasy, which was, and still is a "taboo" in Chinese culture.

Of course, all these details are not as important as the story itself. It is about a teenager girl who gets pregnant when she is 16, and since then her fate is somehow "defined", not by herself, but by unseen fate. The story reminds me classic legend of Oedipus, the one from ancient Greece. How interesting it is, that we humans with such different cultures always embark the same voyage in this giant ocean of human life, from time to time, places to places.

This movie premiere was in Venice, won several awards which were not so recognizable. Not sure it's ever screened in China (I talked to my nephew in China and he said he never heard of it). Of course, this is not a surprising treat for a movie without famous actors and actresses, or famous director. However, I am profoundly moved by this movie, and I hope it continues striving for recognition. I also hope the director Li Yu will continue making movies like this, provide the world more truthful images of "modern" China.

"Out Of Africa" - An Epic Romance Between Karen Blixen And Africa

It took me 3 steps to fully enter the world of Karen Blixen: a poster, the music, and the video (of the movie).

It was 1980s. I was still in college back in China. Rumor said that Hollywood just produced another masterpiece, Out of Africa. I liked the name, though I didn't know why. Soon I saw the poster of  Karen (Meryl Streep) and Denys (Robert Redford) sitting on African plain. The harmony between the characters and nature was exotic and almost heavenly beautiful. Since then I knew I would love this movie. Later, I had chance to listen the soundtrack of the movie from audio tape (fancy technology!). The music was spectacular and it instantly made the movie more fascinating to me. Finally, I got chance to watch the whole movie in video. I still remember that I had "luxury" to watch it twice in a raw. I was totally overwhelmed.

My "obsession" with this movie has multiple reasons: the breathtaking African scenery, spectacular music, outstanding acting and story, exotic African culture, etc.. All of these elements were beautifully woven together. The cinemagraph and soundtrack of the movie were the most astonishing and up until today, they still remain as my favorite. Though the story line may not be everybody's cup of tea, it is definitely mine. The extraordinary life experience of Blixen, her adventurous spirit, independent personality, perseverance during hardship, all built up the rich aroma of my "cup of tea".

And the romance: Denys Finch Hatton, Blixen's friend and lover in real life, played by Robert Redford. From the first moment Karen meets him on the train to Kenya, Denys exhibits a wild nature, as if himself is an unseparable part of African wildness. I have to admit, Redford's role in this movie is the most handsome male figure among all men I saw in both movies and real life (Yes, very subjective!). He appeared to be perfectly physically fit and spiritually charming. He is too wild to tame, too beautiful to possess, even too ideal to pursue. Yet Blixen tried, succeeded, and still failed at the end, because ultimately, as she puts in the film: "He was not ours, he was not mine." Denys, as handsome as he is, belongs to Africa, to the wild nature and the spirit of Eagle and Lion.

Despite of the beauty or the handsomeness of Denys (or Redford), the true profoundness of this film lies all in Karen Blixen herself. Driving by her willful nature, she comes to Africa with ambition. She has her enterprise - coffee plantation. She teaches local natives English, educates them with European culture. She also help local natives with her knowledge in medicine, earns their trust and love. She becomes the owner and the mistress of her world. However, as Denys puts, "What exactly is yours?... We are not owners here, ... We are just passing through." As if he is a prophet, Karen indeed loses everything at the end. Even at the moment she could had Denys again, she loses him again. At the end of movie, she says farewell to his servant, by then her only friend, and goes back to Denmark alone with nothing, except her memory.

Blixen's memory of Africa is almost as infinite as Africa herself. It was there she faced challenge of wildness, of different culture; it was there she saw suffering of the poors, the cruelty of war; it was there she met the despair of life, also experienced the passion of true love; it was there, Denys took her in plane, flew above cloud, let her have "a glimpse of the world through God's eye". Yet in the end, it was in every beautiful moment she lived that she wishes she had left her marks, so Africa could remember her, in the same way as she remember Africa:

If I know a song of Africa, of the giraffe and the African new moon lying on her back, of the plows in the fields and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers, does Africa know a song of me? Will the air over the plain quiver with a color that I have had on, or the children invent a game in which my name is, or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that was like me, or will the eagles of the Ngong Hills look out for me?

Thanks Karen for passing along your memory!

You may also like: Memoir at the Foot of Ngong Hill - Isak Dinesen's "Out Of Africa"

"If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out"

Cover of Harold and Maude

As I was impressed so much by Ruth Gordan's character in "Try and Catch me" (one of "Collumbo" episodes), and two friends of mine (Nothingprofound & Tom) recommended the movie "Harold And Maude", I finally watched it, with a great pleasure!

The movie did surprised me by its story - a young man falling in love with an 79 year-old woman. But my surprise was almost immediately replaced by a feeling of great "satisfaction": a boy falling love with an old lady, and he proposed to her! That's the whole point - we are free to love whoever we love! Needless to mention that Maude is absolutely irresistible.

This unorthodox movie is all about "life". For this purpose, it breaks "rules", smashes "common sense". How did Maude got away from "stealing" cars, violating traffic laws I don't know; how could a young man be so creepily obsessed with death? Is it possible for a man in such a young age (Harold appears to be a boy to me) to love a 79 year-old romantically? All these are not important and the movie didn't even care to explain, because (by my understanding) it only focuses on one thing: free ourselves from "unnecessary" bounds, thus we could feel the true joy of life.

And the joy of life is "love". At the end of movie we see more love continues, like Maude told Harold: "Then go and love some more." I think, all Maude  - an old lady that is about to die - brought to Harold's life - a young life that is so obsessed with death, is just this one simple gift: the joy of life.

"Life" is all Maude cares, as we heard from the conversation between them:
Harold: Maude, do you pray?
Maude: Pray? No, I communicate.
Harold: with God?
Maude: LIFE!

Another great thing of watching this movie is to listen again all those Cat Stevens' songs, with which I was obsessed during my college time. Gosh I did not know that all these songs were in such a wonderful movie! Interesting thing is back then, I hardly understand any lyrics but now, when I was watching movie, words came out almost crystal clearly. Also they are so simply written, just like the movie.

Yes, life is simple. If you want to sing out, sing out.

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Well, if you want to sing out, sing out
And if you want to be free, be free
’cause there’s a million things to be
You know that there are

And if you want to live high, live high
And if you want to live low, live low
...

 

I Love "Golden Girls"

I don't remember when was the first time I watched this sitcom, all I remember is whenever I saw this show on TV, those girls made me laugh!
I never felt tired about this show. Why? Not because of "brilliant" story lines, not because of any magnificent philosophy, or psychological stunts, but simply because of vivid "personalities" of those "golden girls": the always wise and sharp Dorothy; innocent and naive Rose; and that sexist woman of planet Blanche. Of course, I won't miss that "the older she gets, the naughtier she is" Sophia - who seems to be so disconnected biologically with her daughter Dorothy but psychologically she does have the best chemistry with her giant daughter.

Susan Harris was the writer of this show. She was also a victim of CFS/ME, which let her wrote an episode "Sick and Tired" - a humorous demonstration of a disease that is still yet to be understood. Below was the part of this episode when Dorothy "claims" she was sick but it ends out that Blanche is the "sick" one. I do think this is the best performance of Blanche (Rue Mcclanahan) in the whole show!

Really, each of these girls is a genius to me (with Susan Harris behind all of them). Words cannot express how much I adore their daily plain but fun life.

Columbo: Try And Catch Me - A Masterpiece of Mystery

Image by whatleydude via Flickr

I first heard of TV series Columbo was almost 15 years ago, when I was a student watching the movie "Wings of Desire" in graduate writing class. Professor mentioned that one of actors in the movie - Peter Falk also played Lieutenant Columbo in TV series of Columbo. I did not pay much attention untill 15 years later, when I finally started watching this show, and found it incredible. I actually have to rand this show as my #1 personal favorite mystery TV show (I like it even slightly better than Hitcock Presents. )

The episode I just watched is Try and Catch Me, with Ruth Gordon as killer - a well known wealthy mystery writer. I must say, while Peter Falk was just as good as usual (maybe even a little better), Gordon's performance is absolutely brilliant. She made the character so alive and pleasant, even though with a unthinkable murder she committed. Every conversation between murderer and lieutenant was witty and amusing, and how Columbo solve the puzzle at the end pushes the whole show to a breathtaking climax. It is truly an intelligent thriller! Without any bloody gruesome "special effects".

I have to agree with one of reviews of this show (from online), that the best part of Columbo is that from beginning of all episodes you "witnessed" the murders and know who are the killers, so the rest of show all your attention is channelled onto Columbo and the killers, watching how Columbo plays with them, and feeling tremendous satisfaction when Columbo - the seemingly slow-witted one - eventually outplays the bad ones - usually the arrogant hypocrites - and brings them to justice.

I enjoyed most of Columbo episodes I've watched, but this one - Try and Catch Me - renewed my passion to this TV show. I watched this episode twice with equal joy! Highly recommend for mystery fans!


P.S. just got the "news" that Peter Falk died in June of this year. R.I.P the best detective in history!

Mildred Pierce (2011) - A Mother-Daughter Complex

I had a glance at Mildred Pierce on HBO a while ago and was attracted by the "look" of this TV show. After seeing Kate Winslet's winning Emmy award this year, I decided to watch this show from beginning to end. After I did it I was totally satisfied!

KW did a fantastic job on the rule of Midred Pierce - a hard working woman who put all her love on her daughter yet at the time spoils her daughter until it's too late. Her performing was so convincing that every moment of Mildred's appearance on screen was virtually real. I believe I saw one of the best acting on "mother" (another on I could recall was Night, Mother by Anne Bancroft).

Different from most other contemporary movies or TV shows that mostly focus on mystery, romance or violence, the story of Mildred Pierce focuses on protagonist's passion - passion for her daughter and her career, and eventually, the cruelty of fate. At the end, despite of the fact that all things go wrong, life of Mildred Pierce continues.
I think it is precisely this theme (passion) that gave KW plenty of room to display her talent of acting.

After I finished watching the TV series, I found there is an original movie in 1945 by the same name. I too watched the movie. I must say, KW's performance is not any less than Joan Crawford's, except KW's reached a deeper level of exploring the complexity of a mother's emotion.

Prior to watching Mildred Pierce, I watched Revolutionary Road and The Reader. KW's was leading actress in both movies and I was highly impressed. I will be totally proud of being called a Kate Winslet  fan. That's how much I love her. 

Jack Nicholson and His Movies

Cover of The PledgeJack Nicholson has been always one of my favorite actors. After watching three his movies in a raw, now I must say I am a huge fan of his. His acting is superb!

"About Schmidt", "The Bucket List" and "Pledge"(2001) are what I have watched recently. I absolutely love everyone of them, however, I would especially mention "Pledge", an unusual mystery directed by Sean Penn. The story is based on a novella written by a Swiss writer. This is not an usual mystery with fast paced story line, but rather a slow paced and drama-like movie, yet highly suspenseful, with an end that is unexpected, pitiful, and eventually thought provoking.

For me, this movie not only depicts an obsession of a detective to his promise, but also reveals a truth of life, which I personally more and more believe: real truth is often beyond our "masterful" hands. We are helpless on this fact.

Well, does this mean we better live in illusion? I don't know, but it might be.

Harry's Law

I was not much in TV shows but since my chronic health problems prevented me from more "meaningful" activities, I have to "condescend" myself to watch some and found them very entertaining. One of them is "Harry's Law".

Cathy Bates is my all time favorite actress. In this show, she plays the leading role Harriet Korn, a lawyer who is fired and starts her own law firm ("Harry's Law") in a very dangerous neighborhood. By several "interesting" accidents she encounters several "interesting" people and unwillingly hires them to work together. Each episode is about some different individual cases they deal with.

I am not that into law business. Personally I even had quite unhappy experience with lawyers, so I did not really count too much on this show, but Cathy Bates made it different. She is always so natural, cordial and intellectually funny, even in this boring lawyers' business. What also made me like this show even more is that this show reveals a fact/problem which I found is so true in this country, or elsewhere, that there is no "justice" in justice system (of course MUCH better than in China).

It's a good show. I have only watched a few episodes but already hooked.

Kill Bill

Cover of Kill Bill - Volume Two

Kill Bill is an action/Kung Fu moive, probably one of bloodiest movies ever made. Not particularly a Kung Fu or action movie fan, I was able to enjoy it from the beginning to the end.

The actress of leading role Uma Thurman is extremely charming. She is tall and strong, yet sexy and beautiful. But not only the charm of Uma Thurman, the incredible story of revenge, the extremely exaggerated yet professionally designed Kung Fu actions (however I don't buy any of those Pai Mei's sh*t), the believable passion stretched in between two professional killers, and finally, the unparalleled performance of Uma Thurman, both on Kung Fu technique and passionate personality, all of these, made this movie very interesting to me. As matter of fact, the end of movie was ridiculously touching.

I must to mention, the artificial visual effects made the violent scenes much less disturbing.

It was after I watched the two movies of "Kill Bill" (Vol. 1 & Vol.2) that I realized that Uma Thurman also played "June" in "Henry and June", one of my favorite movies adapted from Anais Nin's book. This certainly increased my fondness to this "violent" movie.

There will be a third volume coming out in 2014. I will make sure to watch it.

"A Thousand Years of Good Prayer"

This is a short/sweet/a little bitter movie about generation gap within a Chinese family: a father comes to America to visit her daughter who lives in US about 12 years and find he had to confront the "gap" between them.

I enjoyed the nice flow of the story line. The conversations jumped around different languages was amusing and how the father communicated with his neighbors and even made friend with a "foreign" lady (who had quite similar family experience) was very interesting. It was nicely done. I like the father a lot (wish I had one like that:-)). How he describes he gave name to his daughter made me tear up a little.

However, If this movie convince people that this type of problem represents most of Chinese families' problems, I would disagree. There are much worse "problems" exists in Chinese families between generations. This movie ascribes the cause of problems to external: the job, society, etc., which doubtlessly is the case, but I believe the real "Chinese" family problems are "internal", far beyond this common "human factor".

The real "Chinese" family problems come from Chinese tradition, "Tiger mother" alike, which is the lack of true love on parents side, the retrogression (not sure if this is the right word) of human nature caused by so call "culture", or "tradition". This type of parents may not necessarily "majority" but their ideas prevail within Chinese communities (both in China and oversea) and the damage it made on Chinese people is beyond repair.

I would love to see this side of stories revealed one day. It would be real dark, almost black, and I suppose many Chinese people will not like it.

Jack Bauer, a bloody "God of Justice"

Image by K!T via Flickr

I have never been fond of any type of EXTREME patriotism, nor anti-terrorism, such as the TV show "24" conveys, but I had been enjoyed watching this show like nothing before. 8 seasons, 192 episodes total, I finally finished watching them with a feeling of emptiness. This is truly the best action show I ever watched, albeit I have not watched many.

Living in chronic health condition and often feel inadequate for simple tasks, I found it perfectly meaningful to indulge myself into all those impossible missions and surreal heroes.

The show is incredibly intense, fast paced with complicated twisted story lines. I highly enjoyed all of these, include many of supporting rules like Nina, Tony and finally the best Chloe, however, what really stroke me was the protagonist's "extreme" temperament, his almost faithful insistence on "justice" and "truth" - Jack Bauer (an agent of "CTU") does not negotiate! He has passion for vengeance! And he is always right and he always wins!

"Revenge" has never been a concept supported by any cultural ideologies or religions, but it is such a instinct nature of human that no one can deny the experience of it. Since I am from a culture that is good at self denial, maybe just as good as or, even better than any other cultures, plus my own experience tells me things quite differently from those boring moral teachings, I found this show extra attractive.

Another striking element of this show was that Jack Bauer was always alone: he was often alone during his missions, he was always left alone after the missions. He was easily misunderstood by government and his country, even sometime by his fellow agents. He saved the country millions times and he saved millions people's lives, but the country and people still hated him, still tried as hard as possible to eliminate him.

"Deja vu!" One against all! For me, this is another perfect truth in real life.

One negative aspect I found from Jack Bauer is that he virtually was just a tool of government. He was used every time when the country was in needs of him (once the country even handed him to terrorists for death, in order to save "millions people's lives"). And after missions impossible were done, he was not protected at all and often had to run alone. For his job, Bauer paid immeasurable price - he lost love ones and could not have a normal life. But still, he was loyal to his country, put his life aside from his missions, just like a perfect model of patriots.

This reminds me communist government back in China. They are doing exactly the same thing in their propagandist art. As an individualist, I despise such political propaganda.

Nevertheless, this show overall is a tremendous success. I am in love with Jack Bauer, and Kiefer Sutherland will never be forgotton as Jack Bauer - a bloody "God of justice"!

History of the world part 1: Last supper

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by Mel Brooks:

"History of the world part 1: 10 Commandments"

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by Mel Brooks. hilarious:

Dexter

Image via Wikipedia

I would recommand this show to whoever enjoy mystery, crime and suspense movies. I knew this show from an online friend. Now I am totally hooked. It is absolutely addictive. If you really want to have a good time, start watching it from season one.

Mel Brooks, a genius filmmaker

Image via Wikipedia

After having great fun with "High Anxiety", I started looking for Mel Brooks' films. "History of the world: part 1" just proved my impression of him, he really is a genius filmmaker! He is not only one of greatest filmmakers, but also a great thinker. He put some very serious subjects into comedies and made your laugh and think at the same time.

Watch these clips and see if you would laugh:
Last supper
10 Commandements

"Dressed to kill", a "must watch" suspense movie

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Just watched "Dressed to kill". Totally NOT disappointed! It is one of the best suspense movies ever made. Erotic, fun, kinky, suspense and scary, it is a Hitchcock like film but not any less than Psycho. The story line was carefully crafted and full of surprises until the end. Not only just fun and scary but also it shows a complex distortion of human mind. Absolutely an unforgetable piece!
Too bad we don't see many this type of movies anymore.


The openning soundtrack was amazing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQZ2NYqSovA&NR=1

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