Lan Yu

[flemmings]

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.

Comments

[paleaswater.livejournal.com]

See, the thing is, the movie was a gay Hong Kong film maker's take on a three-hanky grand romantic Chinese BL tragedy. Later it emerged that the writer was actually a gay man, but trying his hand at BL rather than gay lit. So there's more than one disconnect here. I think the ending made a little more sense in the novel, just because it was so obviously meant to be a tragic opera, and someone just HAD to die. But of course when played by real people and not anime characters it comes across as DFS.

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.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

a gay Hong Kong film maker's take on a three-hanky grand romantic Chinese BL tragedy

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...

[paleaswater.livejournal.com]

Where he is not seedy at all? Ahmm, can't think of any, though of course I'm not a great fan or anything, and haven't seen a lot of his stuff. The other historical he was in he played Xiao Feng, who was a Song dynasty yakuza leader if there ever was one.

[paleaswater.livejournal.com]

Also all Beijing actors are seedy to some degree. Ge Yu is seedier in his own way. Chen Dao Ming is not. That's because he's from Tianjing.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

all Beijing actors are seedy to some degree.

Why? I thought they'd be the Chinese version of Parisians. "It's the capital, d'oh."

[paleaswater.livejournal.com]

Ahhm, no. That would be the delicate Southern gentleman from the Yangtze region. Cultured and refined. Men from Beijing are cultured louts, a combination that's quite unknown in the west. They should be comfortable squatting on the side of the road and slurping down a bowl of offal stew, and also be able to converse intelligently on any topic imaginable and be vastly entertaining in company. They should also preferably be a little eccentric.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Men from Beijing are cultured louts, a combination that's quite unknown in the west.

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.

[shalimar1001.livejournal.com]

I like the novel much better.
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.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Umm. Joey Wong yes, I'd say, Maggie Cheung no, or not here. That wedge-shaped face of hers is just... too.. **appropriate** for a snake. Gave me the fantods. And then she snaps up flies...