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Lan Yu
So finally saw Lan Yu, the afternoon it was due back because I drag my feet about watching things. And yes, very nice. Hu Jun does look better without the fungus (even if Uncle Ming looks better with) and if that's the way China does manly men, I approve of China's standards. No Fu Chai dorkiness here. Of course, if Hu Jun were Japanese he'd be playing yakuza- his is the kind of face archetypal yakuza have there- with a punch perm, and my visual instincts kept insisting that he was a low-life yakuza even if he clearly wasn't supposed to be. (Couldn't keep his family and friends straight. Subtitles probably, though they weren't bad.) Liu Ye is also beautiful, so yes, fun all round.
Guys, guys, guys. Dead Faggot Syndrome doesn't play well any more. No truly, it doesn't. Specially when, as here, it's a totally arbitrary case of Dead Faggot Syndrome. I'm sure China has slightly different reasons for doing DFS than the States; no doubt here it's supposed to demonstrate the complete emotional committment Hu Jun's character has finally come round to having; but that, to me, quintessentially Japanese sentiment, 'I feel you're always beside me,' cuts little ice among roundeyes, who are apt to murmur 'and now there's nothing to stop him from catting around with other guys either.' Have cake and eat.
A low-key ordinary happi endo would have done just fine. No anticlimax at all. A happi endo for characters who traditionally aren't allowed happy endings is quite revolutionary enough.
Otherwise- I'm sure if it were snowing here as it is in Alberta I'd be hopping mad, having rescheduled the surgery precisely so I *wouldn't* have to be shovelling snow after it. (And ohh what a wise move that proved to be in the event.) Nonetheless a little cooler than these highs of 20 and 22 (high 60's, low 70's) would be appreciated. It feels all wrong when cherries bloom here at the same time they do in northern Japan, since they normally do it in early May.
And strike is off, stitch is pulled, thorn is removed from side. Only one front incision still grabs and pains now, and probably will for a while yet.
Guys, guys, guys. Dead Faggot Syndrome doesn't play well any more. No truly, it doesn't. Specially when, as here, it's a totally arbitrary case of Dead Faggot Syndrome. I'm sure China has slightly different reasons for doing DFS than the States; no doubt here it's supposed to demonstrate the complete emotional committment Hu Jun's character has finally come round to having; but that, to me, quintessentially Japanese sentiment, 'I feel you're always beside me,' cuts little ice among roundeyes, who are apt to murmur 'and now there's nothing to stop him from catting around with other guys either.' Have cake and eat.
A low-key ordinary happi endo would have done just fine. No anticlimax at all. A happi endo for characters who traditionally aren't allowed happy endings is quite revolutionary enough.
Otherwise- I'm sure if it were snowing here as it is in Alberta I'd be hopping mad, having rescheduled the surgery precisely so I *wouldn't* have to be shovelling snow after it. (And ohh what a wise move that proved to be in the event.) Nonetheless a little cooler than these highs of 20 and 22 (high 60's, low 70's) would be appreciated. It feels all wrong when cherries bloom here at the same time they do in northern Japan, since they normally do it in early May.
And strike is off, stitch is pulled, thorn is removed from side. Only one front incision still grabs and pains now, and probably will for a while yet.
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Great news on there remaining only one! Did you get some time off work or are you ready to go back already? ^__^
Hmm I hope you don't end up having to shovel snow!
It's been really muggy out here, and the one shot heavy torrential downpours are unseasonal. ( I mean we get rain anyways all year round but they are noticeably different sorts of rain.)
And then it stays humid aaarggghhh! Tooo hot! Glad its cool I love to have 20 degree weather! ^__^
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Whenever I think LRD sounds keen, I remember your weather.
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Yay stitch removal!
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Still- I'm impressed that a major actor could do a role like that without huge fallout. You couldn't do that in NAmerica- *could not*. And I always thought China as puritanical as America. Just in different ways, I suppose. (Fearless Leader, who hails from Taiwan, had a spiel about how the East generally has no difficulty keeping fantasy and reality separate: You can think whatever you want, we'll only pound you if you act on it. The west assumes a connection: if you read about incest that means you must want to screw your relatives; if you play a gay man that means you must be somehow gay.)
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I found Lan Yu's ending a bit tacked on, but was apparently faithful to the source. Perhaps they felt at the time that it was appropriate to the "liberalizing" (shudder) gay scene in China.
Wong Kar-Wai's Happy Together (1997) is a better movie.
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See, this is where I go Buh. DFS is a step backward here. Hollywood has no problem showing gay people so long as they end up sick, alone, dead, or all three.
Thanks for the rec. Shall get it when I've finished Farewell My Concubine and Green Snake, which is this week's haul.
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I suppose the filmmakers thought it was a compromise to show an explicit gay relationship without camp and not played for laughs, but with the DFS to show the powers-that-be that they were on the "right"(?) side after all.
Farewell My Concubine portrayed the dynamics of the het-gay triangle very well and acting was excellent all around, but one can see the ending coming (not necessarily a bad thing, since it was perversely satisfying to me). I didn't watch Green Snake, which must try to remedy.
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Hu Jun is so totally a yakuza. Now you've put the image in my mind I'll never be able to get it out.
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Turned into a low key slice of life drama. OK, /huge/ disconnect there.
Hu Jun is so totally a yakuza
He must have done roles where he isn't seedy at all? Historicals aside...
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Why? I thought they'd be the Chinese version of Parisians. "It's the capital, d'oh."
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You're absolutely right about that. Educated and informed louts, and witty with it? Maybe the brawling bravos of the Renaissance came close, but they were slumming aristocrats.
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Whenever watching the movie, I felt so uneasy that never able to finish it. Typically not because of Hu Jun, he is very masculine
(I want to say that he is very sexy..blush..). But Liu Ye, the player of Lan Yu. The author of the novel made his opinion clear that he does not like the role of Lan Yu to be played by Liu.Liu, he is so far away from my impression set for Lan Yu when reading the novel.
Green Snake is one of my favourites. Joey Wong and Maggie are very gorgeous inside. Hsui Hark is a very successful director of blockbuster movies. He also possesses a delicious artistic sense. His rendering of old Chinese tales and Wuxia novels are legendary independent of the originals.
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