The positive comments I heard from my Chinese friends and relatives, as well as the negative reviews in the press on Zhang Yimou's movie "The Flowers of War" made me quite intrigued. Having been a fan of Zhang Yimou for as long as he has been in the movie business, I try to see all his films. Indeed his recent movies have been disappointing, most notably "Curse of the Golden Flower" (even the translation of the movie title sounds ludicrous). I remember I was once so fanatically enthralled by his movies that I told my mom that one of my biggest dreams would be to meet Zhang Yimou in person - this was right after I saw "To Live".
Ironically, in recent years, his movies are not only allowed in China, but also celebrated to great fanfare. This is in direct contrast to the days when his movies were deemed too subversive and too critical of China's past. One could not help but wonder if it is because he is now making movies which are largely in synch with the government agenda. "Hero" is the least subtle of all of them, preaching the idea that tyranny and oppression might be necessary for the sake of unity and peace.
"The Flowers of War" is about a story that occurred during the Nanking massacre. The World War II provided the context and background for numerous movies in the west, ranging from epic battle movies with lots of explosions and gunfires ("Pearl Harbor", "Saving Private Ryan", "Flags of My Father"), to rather personal stories with the war as the background ("Atonement", "Au Revoir Les Enfants", "Life is Beautiful"). While there is a a high level of awareness about the holocaust in the west, manifested by the Holocaust Museum in D.C. and the Academy Awards showered on the holocaust movies ("Schindler's List", "The Pianist", etc), what the Japanese armies did in China and especially in Nanking (then capital of China) was relatively unknown to the western audience until the publication of Iris Chang's book "The Rape of Nanking".
Actually there have ALSO been numerous movies made in China about the atrocities of the Japanese armies during World War II, and I can think of at least three which were made specifically about the "Rape of Nanking" - a phrase coined by Iris Chang. They were not cinematic masterpieces, and served mostly an educational role, if not a bit too propaganda-like. Therefore, "The Flowers of War" marks the first time that a movie about this painful episode is shown to the western audience.
Perhaps it explains why Zhang Yimou has tried his best to cater to a western audience. He has not been known for subtlety when he wants to deliver a message (e.g. "Hero"). With this movie, he is clearly trying to inform the audience about the atrocities committed by the Japanese army in Nanking.
Frankly, the story has many flaws, many of which obviously are attributed to the writer, as opposed to the director. The characters were thinly built and ill developed. The moral transformation of the American guy played by Christian Bale in the movie was simultaneously unbelievable and predictable. The credibility of the twists and turns of the events would not stand a closer look by anyone with an average intelligence.
Yet despite all that, Zhang Yimou has managed to appeal to his Chinese audience in a way that perhaps only he knows how. He has not done so well with the western audience. The reviews in China have been much more positive than here in the US. His meticulous attention to details such as how his actresses must speak an authentic Nanking dialect and must learn how to walk in the way that prostitutes back then walked, perhaps can only be rivaled by Steve Jobs with his fanatical emphasis on the details of the Apple products. The title of the film in Chinese "Thirteen Beauties in Nanking" is a clever play on the famous Chinese classic novel "Dream of the Red Mansion", which is utterly lost in translation. The scene in which the prostitutes played the quintessentially romantic song of that era from that region has a huge emotional impact on Chinese people with appreciation for folk operas, which does not translate emotionally to a western audience. In the end, despite his effort to appeal to a western audience with more than half the original dialogues in English, he has won over his Chinese audience, who found his cinematic approach to the subject of Nanking massacre unique, refreshing, poignant and less preachy than previous films.
Of course, as the director who discovered Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi for the world, he does not disappoint with his selection of the leading actress. With Ni Ni, he has made us believe that no one else could have been playing the character of Yu Mo more believably, even if the role is not a believable one to start with.
Zhang Yimou is more of an artist than a storyteller. It helps that he has had a deep appreciation of Chinese history and culture, and access to a wealth of materials for him to make movies. He brings the best element out of his actresses, so that they find to their own surprise how much they embody their fictional characters. That is perhaps where he is better than other directors known more for their style than substance.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Rational Winston
I made an impromptu trip to Shanghai right before Christmas. It was just for a few days. While I was gone, my mom and Michael were home with Winston. It is interesting how kids are different from each other. Even from early babyhood, he has never developed too much emotional attachment for his own good. When I am around, he would not let anyone else but me to put him to bed or feed him meals. But when I am not around, he does not question why I am absent. He would ask, "where is mommy?" My mom would say, "Mommy is in Shanghai right now." Upon hearing that, every time he accidentally mentioned me, he would answer for himself, "mommy is in Shanghai right now."
After I returned home, he woke up in the middle of the night asking for Michael, whereas he always asked for me before my trip. It shows how fast he adapted to the change over the few days I was away. Now that my mom has gone back to Beijing, he would say to himself, "Grandma has gone back to Beijing." Yesterday, I asked him, " do you want Grandma?" He said, "yes". "Do you want to go to Beijing to see Grandma?" "No." "Well, in that case, do you still want Grandma?" "No." "Do you want Grandma to come back to 307?" Our house number is 307 so he knows that 307 is home. He said, "yes." He is such a logical boy!
One of my friends said that almost everything about a kid is genetic. I don't know. But it's true that from an early age Winston has been rational. He would get fussy and cry and make unreasonable demands. But he gives up when he realizes that he is going nowhere. That perhaps has negative consequences in that he does not try very hard to learn a new toy. He gives up when something is too hard. Maybe that is typical of a 2.5 year old boy. After all, I was doing nothing at his age.
After I returned home, he woke up in the middle of the night asking for Michael, whereas he always asked for me before my trip. It shows how fast he adapted to the change over the few days I was away. Now that my mom has gone back to Beijing, he would say to himself, "Grandma has gone back to Beijing." Yesterday, I asked him, " do you want Grandma?" He said, "yes". "Do you want to go to Beijing to see Grandma?" "No." "Well, in that case, do you still want Grandma?" "No." "Do you want Grandma to come back to 307?" Our house number is 307 so he knows that 307 is home. He said, "yes." He is such a logical boy!
One of my friends said that almost everything about a kid is genetic. I don't know. But it's true that from an early age Winston has been rational. He would get fussy and cry and make unreasonable demands. But he gives up when he realizes that he is going nowhere. That perhaps has negative consequences in that he does not try very hard to learn a new toy. He gives up when something is too hard. Maybe that is typical of a 2.5 year old boy. After all, I was doing nothing at his age.
Older and Dumber
I am sure that many people get the same feeling at times. I feel as if I had been super busy forever, and yet when I think about what I have been busy with, I can't pinpoint to any concrete accomplishments.
Of course, the cold/flu season has a lot to do with this sense of "much ado about nothing" - Winston got sick, and then I got sick. Now that finally everyone is healthy, I am almost bracing for another round of sickness to start again. Well, I will keep my fingers crossed. I do believe that people who are used to a constant state of perfect health are particularly vulnerable in times of sickness. I even remember friends from elementary school who were used to having fevers once in a while, whereas any fever would knock me out completely.
I did end up watching quite a few movies. I watched the latest "Mission Impossible" film starring Tom Cruise and it was fun. I watched the Roman Polanski film "Carnage" based on Yasmina Reza's play. I have the feeling that one is supposed to enjoy the dialogues, because they are funny and make caricatures out of the people who utter those dialogues. I am positive that I would have given it a glowing review had I watched it a few years ago, when I was placing much emphasis on "culture". Those were the days when there was no work outside of work, which means that even entertainment needed to have a certain intellectual challenge. Now that there is even more work outside of work, I have come to understand why some of the best-educated people I know choose to stay away from any type of thinking in their leisure time. Yasmina Reza is a talented writer. Kate Winslet and Jodie Foster acted with such ferocious intensity that made their characters even more real than real, but I would rather escape from reality with my movies.
That is why I greatly enjoyed watching Tom Cruise bounce off skycrapers in "Mission Impossible". That is why I laughed my head off watching "Johnny English Reborn" - a mockery of the James Bond films. And that is also why I had fun watching a truly silly comedy "Sophie's Revenge" starring Ziyi Zhang. I would have imperiously laughed them off as having absolutely no substance a few years ago.
It is interesting how we as people change and evolve, and how we get older and wiser - or shall I say "older and dumber", since I am watching "dumber" movies now than before?
Of course, the cold/flu season has a lot to do with this sense of "much ado about nothing" - Winston got sick, and then I got sick. Now that finally everyone is healthy, I am almost bracing for another round of sickness to start again. Well, I will keep my fingers crossed. I do believe that people who are used to a constant state of perfect health are particularly vulnerable in times of sickness. I even remember friends from elementary school who were used to having fevers once in a while, whereas any fever would knock me out completely.
I did end up watching quite a few movies. I watched the latest "Mission Impossible" film starring Tom Cruise and it was fun. I watched the Roman Polanski film "Carnage" based on Yasmina Reza's play. I have the feeling that one is supposed to enjoy the dialogues, because they are funny and make caricatures out of the people who utter those dialogues. I am positive that I would have given it a glowing review had I watched it a few years ago, when I was placing much emphasis on "culture". Those were the days when there was no work outside of work, which means that even entertainment needed to have a certain intellectual challenge. Now that there is even more work outside of work, I have come to understand why some of the best-educated people I know choose to stay away from any type of thinking in their leisure time. Yasmina Reza is a talented writer. Kate Winslet and Jodie Foster acted with such ferocious intensity that made their characters even more real than real, but I would rather escape from reality with my movies.
That is why I greatly enjoyed watching Tom Cruise bounce off skycrapers in "Mission Impossible". That is why I laughed my head off watching "Johnny English Reborn" - a mockery of the James Bond films. And that is also why I had fun watching a truly silly comedy "Sophie's Revenge" starring Ziyi Zhang. I would have imperiously laughed them off as having absolutely no substance a few years ago.
It is interesting how we as people change and evolve, and how we get older and wiser - or shall I say "older and dumber", since I am watching "dumber" movies now than before?
Aftershock
An American friend of mine told me about a Chinese movie available on Netflix "Aftershock", and said that he could not finish it because it was quite tragic. I looked it up and realized that I had heard about it before. It was made by the mainstream Chinese director Feng Xiaogang about the 1976 earthquake in Tangshan, China. In fact, I still vaguely remember it, as it affected Beijing as well. I recall being carried downstairs in the middle of the night. My mom told me that the buildings were shaking so hard that it was almost impossible to walk down the stairs. I suppose that were the tremors any bigger, the buildings would have collapsed and none of us would have survived.
Feng Xiaogang's real-life wife Xu Fan played a mother that lost her husband in the earthquake. She also had to choose between her twins when the rescue workers told her that only one of them could be saved from underneath some rubble. She finally picked the son, a decision that haunted her for the rest of her life. She kept saying to her son that only after you lost something do you understand what loss is like. It sounds simple, but it rings so true.
My mom just left to go back to Beijing after a two-month stay here. This time, I was really sad to see her go. While we have always been close, it has not been without heated arguments between the two of us. However, on this recent visit, we got along fabulously well, partly because we both got to appreciate having each other, and ignoring each other's imperfections. I also see a lot of my mom in myself, ranging from simple habits to personality traits, even though fundamentally we are really different people.
Indeed, we do not need any disasters leading to tragic loss to understand the importance of having something or someone. The movie might have been too stereotypical of a tearjerker, but the message is nonetheless valuable.
Feng Xiaogang's real-life wife Xu Fan played a mother that lost her husband in the earthquake. She also had to choose between her twins when the rescue workers told her that only one of them could be saved from underneath some rubble. She finally picked the son, a decision that haunted her for the rest of her life. She kept saying to her son that only after you lost something do you understand what loss is like. It sounds simple, but it rings so true.
My mom just left to go back to Beijing after a two-month stay here. This time, I was really sad to see her go. While we have always been close, it has not been without heated arguments between the two of us. However, on this recent visit, we got along fabulously well, partly because we both got to appreciate having each other, and ignoring each other's imperfections. I also see a lot of my mom in myself, ranging from simple habits to personality traits, even though fundamentally we are really different people.
Indeed, we do not need any disasters leading to tragic loss to understand the importance of having something or someone. The movie might have been too stereotypical of a tearjerker, but the message is nonetheless valuable.
Friday, December 9, 2011
Lucky Me
My mom has been here to help me with Winston for a month by now, and will be here for another month. While many people I know have troubled relationships with their parents, I have been most fortunate in having a great one with my mom, largely due to her.
I am perhaps overall more exact and demanding on many aspects of childcare and housework. That is a territory that usually creates the most conflicts. Many of my friends complain about their parents or parents-in-law for being either too demanding, too old-fashioned, too nagging, or too un-yielding in their own ways to the point that they are effectively a destructive and annoying presence, especially when they play the "guilt" card (i.e. we raised you and therefore how can you treat us like this, etc, etc). One of my friends once jokingly said to me, "most Chinese grandparents create trouble or misery for their kids, even though they think they are not. My parents don't, because they know never to voice opinions on my household matters or childcare, and that makes them perhaps the top 10 percentile of the Chinese grandparents. Your mother not only does not create any headache for you, she does everything better than you could ask for and all, and even help alleviate the mental stress in your life. That makes her the top 1 percentile of the grandparents."
Indeed on that front, I have been very lucky. I can't imagine what life would have been like this past month without my mom being here to help take care of a sick Winston meticulously (and in many ways even better than I have, which I cannot say about anyone else), while cooking nice meals (she thinks that we don't eat well enough) and keeping the house clean and tidy. Except for when Winston is sleeping, my mom never rests. And most importantly, during this month of constant sickness of Winston (he went through a bad cold, a thrush and a most nerve-racking case of obsessively chewing the inside of his mouth as an aftermath of thrush), she's been providing a ton of emotional support and sharing her wisdom on life.
When I told my mom that my friend considers her the top 1 percentile of the parents of our generation, she characteristically dismissed it as impossible. She has no idea how many people in our generation are miserable because of the parents! :)
I am perhaps overall more exact and demanding on many aspects of childcare and housework. That is a territory that usually creates the most conflicts. Many of my friends complain about their parents or parents-in-law for being either too demanding, too old-fashioned, too nagging, or too un-yielding in their own ways to the point that they are effectively a destructive and annoying presence, especially when they play the "guilt" card (i.e. we raised you and therefore how can you treat us like this, etc, etc). One of my friends once jokingly said to me, "most Chinese grandparents create trouble or misery for their kids, even though they think they are not. My parents don't, because they know never to voice opinions on my household matters or childcare, and that makes them perhaps the top 10 percentile of the Chinese grandparents. Your mother not only does not create any headache for you, she does everything better than you could ask for and all, and even help alleviate the mental stress in your life. That makes her the top 1 percentile of the grandparents."
Indeed on that front, I have been very lucky. I can't imagine what life would have been like this past month without my mom being here to help take care of a sick Winston meticulously (and in many ways even better than I have, which I cannot say about anyone else), while cooking nice meals (she thinks that we don't eat well enough) and keeping the house clean and tidy. Except for when Winston is sleeping, my mom never rests. And most importantly, during this month of constant sickness of Winston (he went through a bad cold, a thrush and a most nerve-racking case of obsessively chewing the inside of his mouth as an aftermath of thrush), she's been providing a ton of emotional support and sharing her wisdom on life.
When I told my mom that my friend considers her the top 1 percentile of the parents of our generation, she characteristically dismissed it as impossible. She has no idea how many people in our generation are miserable because of the parents! :)
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
The Occupy
I might be one of the least informed people in America. It was not until after a friend of mine in Boston who mentioned the Occupy did I look up the web to see what it was all about.
As a PhD student at Harvard, she has been observing the Occupy and listening to the various lectures given there. With her characteristically confessional style, she wrote, "Having been an "elite" all my life, I have found it hard to admit that I have failed on multiple fronts in the past few years. However, a populist movement like "Occupy" makes me realize that people with failures not only must work hard to win victory in the end, but also must realize that in fact, this is an experience shared by 99% of the people. There is nothing shameful about it; instead that's why we need each other's "solidarity." And most importantly, these social standards of success and failure should not influence personal relationships, which are built on totally different parameters of commitment, understanding, and selflessness."
We human beings like to measure everything. There is always a 99 percentile in every measurement. I find it interesting that the Occupy is a big thing at Harvard, whereas here at Stanford I don't see anything. Is it possible that the Stanford students are fancying themselves to start the next wave of Facebook, Google and Apple that they would never consider the possibility of themselves being part of the 99%?
I am not proud of myself when it comes political involvement. I find it too frustrating to get involved. On the one hand, I abhor the callousness of the Republican agenda, and lament how effective they have preyed on the fears, bias and insecurity of the poor Americans to vote for a party that actually never will take care of them. On the other hand, I am dismayed at the ineffectiveness of government, as well as the widespread abuse of various welfare programs. The finances are getting bankrupt, first and foremost by the unnecessary wars, and then by the bleeding programs that take care of people who have never and will never generate a positive return on these investments from the government. Not that I have any great solution, but every time I am frustrated by politics, I think of Winston Churchill's quote, "One way to turn you against democracy is to talk to a few people on the street." Indeed - people care about their own personal welfare TODAY, instead of what is right, fair and good for the long run. No wonder the officials they elect can only implement policies that cater to the short-term desires or paranoia of the people. I support taking care of the poor and implementing programs to lift them out of poverty. Ironically, the cheap solution is to give them checks, whereas the expensive solution is to provide the means to help those who want to gain a skill and get a job do so. But we all see inefficiency and sometimes ineptitude at all levels and branches of government.
Then I thought, " if the top 1% of the country would choose government service instead of being turned away by politics, we should have much better policy-making and policy-implementation, and that in turn will be best for 99% of the population."
Given that human beings are not naturally selfless, I am effectively proposing something that will never get done - make the government the best paying jobs so that we will have the best performing government to best serve 99% of the population.
As a PhD student at Harvard, she has been observing the Occupy and listening to the various lectures given there. With her characteristically confessional style, she wrote, "Having been an "elite" all my life, I have found it hard to admit that I have failed on multiple fronts in the past few years. However, a populist movement like "Occupy" makes me realize that people with failures not only must work hard to win victory in the end, but also must realize that in fact, this is an experience shared by 99% of the people. There is nothing shameful about it; instead that's why we need each other's "solidarity." And most importantly, these social standards of success and failure should not influence personal relationships, which are built on totally different parameters of commitment, understanding, and selflessness."
We human beings like to measure everything. There is always a 99 percentile in every measurement. I find it interesting that the Occupy is a big thing at Harvard, whereas here at Stanford I don't see anything. Is it possible that the Stanford students are fancying themselves to start the next wave of Facebook, Google and Apple that they would never consider the possibility of themselves being part of the 99%?
I am not proud of myself when it comes political involvement. I find it too frustrating to get involved. On the one hand, I abhor the callousness of the Republican agenda, and lament how effective they have preyed on the fears, bias and insecurity of the poor Americans to vote for a party that actually never will take care of them. On the other hand, I am dismayed at the ineffectiveness of government, as well as the widespread abuse of various welfare programs. The finances are getting bankrupt, first and foremost by the unnecessary wars, and then by the bleeding programs that take care of people who have never and will never generate a positive return on these investments from the government. Not that I have any great solution, but every time I am frustrated by politics, I think of Winston Churchill's quote, "One way to turn you against democracy is to talk to a few people on the street." Indeed - people care about their own personal welfare TODAY, instead of what is right, fair and good for the long run. No wonder the officials they elect can only implement policies that cater to the short-term desires or paranoia of the people. I support taking care of the poor and implementing programs to lift them out of poverty. Ironically, the cheap solution is to give them checks, whereas the expensive solution is to provide the means to help those who want to gain a skill and get a job do so. But we all see inefficiency and sometimes ineptitude at all levels and branches of government.
Then I thought, " if the top 1% of the country would choose government service instead of being turned away by politics, we should have much better policy-making and policy-implementation, and that in turn will be best for 99% of the population."
Given that human beings are not naturally selfless, I am effectively proposing something that will never get done - make the government the best paying jobs so that we will have the best performing government to best serve 99% of the population.
One Day
I wish that I were still reading books. But I am a slow reader, and as a result I try to watch a movie adaption if I have any interest in a book. The other day, I watched the movie "One Day" based on David Nicholls' novel of the same title. It chronicles the lives of two people over a span of 20 years, on the same day every year - July 15. The predictable element is that the two people were destined to be together finally after many twists and turns of events, but eventually it was not a fairy tale of "they then live happily ever after". I found the movie rather light and even sometimes a bit tedious. Yet on the other hand, I found myself drawn to it, only partly because of Anne Hathaway's wonderful British accent. Then it occurred to me - it was in a way much closer to real life than most of those Hollywood romantic comedies.
In fact, I just have to reference what the literary critics wrote about the book, in order to explain why I bothered to watch the whole movie from beginning to end. John O'Connell writes, "For, in spite of its comic gloss, One Day is really about loneliness and the casual savagery of fate; the tragic gap between youthful aspiration and the compromises that we end up tolerating. Not for nothing has Nicholls said that it was inspired by Thomas Hardy."
Yes, "One Day" may be a love story, but it’s no fairytale, as it portrays the dark side of growing up, the disillusionment, regrets and random cruelty of life.
According to Jonathan Coe, "It's rare to find a novel which ranges over the recent past with such authority, and even rarer to find one in which the two leading characters are drawn with such solidity, such painful fidelity, to real life."
In fact, I just have to reference what the literary critics wrote about the book, in order to explain why I bothered to watch the whole movie from beginning to end. John O'Connell writes, "For, in spite of its comic gloss, One Day is really about loneliness and the casual savagery of fate; the tragic gap between youthful aspiration and the compromises that we end up tolerating. Not for nothing has Nicholls said that it was inspired by Thomas Hardy."
Yes, "One Day" may be a love story, but it’s no fairytale, as it portrays the dark side of growing up, the disillusionment, regrets and random cruelty of life.
According to Jonathan Coe, "It's rare to find a novel which ranges over the recent past with such authority, and even rarer to find one in which the two leading characters are drawn with such solidity, such painful fidelity, to real life."
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