And no I said no I won't No

[flemmings]

Making me watch things is like pulling teeth. I donwanner. Here I am not watching Green Snake, the better to not watch Farewell my Concubine, both of which are due back tomorrow.

Neither benefits from being on VHS, not DVD. Green Snake doesn't benefit from being the usual grainy 80-90s HK film (which are grainy even on DVD) and having Chinese and English subtitles in white, English underneath, which half the time get cut off, and from being, well, a Tsui Hark film, which means lots of silliness. See what a humourless pedant mainland films have made of me; I used to like HK silliness.

Under different circs I might like this one because, well, it really is a film about a snake. Maggie Cheung slithers about on her belly, and slithers up columns to catch flies with her tongue. Extreme disjunction. You know that kitty-snake icon some people have? kitten head, snake body, and it undulates through the grass? That's what it's like, and has the same half-fascination half-oog. Alas, many years ago in one of the earliest Elric books there's a scene where Elric's SigOth has been turned into a snake, from the neck down, and it's not funny at all. It's quite horrid. Err, so yeah. Bad associations.

As for Concubine... I fancy I'd drag my feet on that one even if it was a DVD. Three hour films set during unhappy periods sound alarum bells in my mind. Film makers love to show horrors, damned if I know why. They show horrors even in children's films, so figure what you get in Japanese invasion films. This doesn't make for pleasant watching, or not for me. Everyone else seems to be utterly desensitized to it- loud bloody horrors in full technicolour are what's wanted, the grislier the better, so we can talk about the aesthetics of violence. I don't like violence, even in books; I seem to lack the filter everyone else has. There's a reason I don't watch films in theatres- always too big and too loud. If they still had Mommy Matinees I'd go to those, because there they mute the sound for the sake of the babies. As it is, I'm resigned to never seeing the last two Lord of the Rings films; and not sure I'm missing much. Whereas Concubine is probably visually gorgeous, but-- well, after reading the summary, absolutely no way. (Is also the reason I won't be watching Raise the Red Lantern and Ju Dou *ever*.)

Probably should go back to anime, if I must watch anything. HK silliness or mainland horrors, mh, had enough for the moment. TV series are different, but finding them at all, let alone subbed, is looking impossible, even here.

And otherwise, happy birthday, tammylee!

Comments

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Ahh, interesting. Thanks. I was mourning the old Bloor Cinema's Mommy Matinees but I'm glad others still have it, even if not repertory. The Rainbow Cinema looks promising, especially if they schedule Forbidden Kingdom as a Movie for Mommies. (Cineplex only offers it as such in Oakville.)

Now let's wonder why both chains think Baby Mama is what a new mother would want to watch. Because once you give birth you have no interest in anything but babies, natch.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Probably a very good idea not to confuse the word-story in your head with a visual-story (plus loud sound effects) on the screen. I regularly get eaten by the books I read and will sometimes go watch something as a counteractant, just to diffuse the atmosphere- because it's usually not a pleasant sensation; but if it *is* pleasant and engrossing, why muddy it?

[tammylee.livejournal.com]

I don't like violence, even in books; I seem to lack the filter everyone else has.
I used to be able to watch it to a degree but after working in the lab with real people bits and learning far too much about anatomy & physiology the grisly bits are far too real to me. The violence seems a hundred times worse now that I know the consequences.

Even at the lab, I could work on a toe that was amputated due to complications with diabetes but I'd get the heebees when a toe came in amputated by a lawn mower.

AND YET for some reason I can WRITE horror and violence and more often than not if I spontaneously write something it involves something horrific. =(

Ick. Snake person. Naga. Very freaky!

Thank you for the birthday wishes! My best friend made me a chocolate cream pie with light tofu instead of dairy! DELICIOUS! When she gives me the recipe I shall share! But otherwise my day has been filled with invoicing, preparing a massive mailout, downloading web sites, and trying to get a handle on what needs to be done by the end of this Wednesday.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

People bits in a lab? Aaaagh. Will take naga instead.

I had a recipe for chocolate tofu pie. Had to stop making it. Chocolate is chocolate is chocolate.

Your business venture has me pale with admiration and envy. Go you!

[feliciter.livejournal.com]

Green Snake was fairly WTF when it was released locally, even by Tsui Hark's standards. Maggie Cheung was the best(?) part about it, IIRC.

Three hour films set during unhappy periods

Umm. That pretty much constitutes a large proportion of some (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hou_Hsiao-Hsien) directors' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chen_Kaige) oeuvre.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Large proportion but not the whole. After the (from my pov) horrors of Farewell my Concubine and The Emperor and the Assasssin, Chen Kaige did do The Promise. I can see why everyone else was annoyed that he did, and that Zhang Yimou went from doing extended treatises on downtrodden womanhood to Wuxia for Fun and Profit, but me I'm just as pleased. Films are *entertainment* where I come from, and entertainment that makes you want to put your head in an oven still seems a touch odd to me- though I must conclude it's considered a virtue on the mainland.

[shalimar1001.livejournal.com]

Woh...
I think we have extremely different opinions about the film.
First, both Green Snake and Concubine were written by the same HongKong writer, Lilian Lee.
Second, Green Snake is mainly a feast for the senses. The costumes, the music, the settings, the women and men inside, were pictured in a way that everyone will know they will only be existent in fantasy.
Third, Green Snake was origined from White Snake, a Chinese old old tale.

In the Chinese old tale, the white snake leads a life like every other tragic heroin. The green snake is always second to the story line. But Green Snake the film is about desires. The white snake does not want to become a supernatural being, but to be a human. She thought human is the highest form of being. While the green snake is much younger than white snake. She does not understand white snake's motivation, but only to imitate human emotions. Actually, I felt it quite funny and lovely when Maggie acted like a snake, so wild and lively. The monk claims to extinct all demons for the goodness of human. But he realizes that he is not capable of judgements. His basic instincts prevail his belief. He asks green snake to help him to overcome his hollucinations, but he could not succeed...All in all, at last, green snake saw the death of white snake, she knows what means to be painful, that people just don't want to acknowledge what they actually are.
The theme of the movie is actually quite buddhist.
And I don't think Hsui Hark's films are silly. They are funny indeed, but not silly. Perhaps the themes and subjects of his films are too domestic, so there will be some misreading.

[shalimar1001.livejournal.com]

Also, the Chinese have a belief of 天人合一. Joint the mankind with Nature.
The nature is the perfect way of being. The mankind, 众生相, is by no means to be natural.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's the subtitles, but what I saw was

Monk is the enemy of all nonhumans
Monk learns better and releases the spider spirit he'd imprisoned
Monk allies with the snakes
For no reason at all monk stops being the snake's allies and tries to kill them.
Cue grand tragic finale.

Just a touch WTFey.

[shalimar1001.livejournal.com]

He released the spider because he saw the spiritual power lingering on the amythest bracelet. He started to realize that he had been too cruel made an mistake to wrong a good spirit and destroy the spider's thousands of years of harkwork.
He suddenly acted against the snakes was because that he thought that the snakes killed the man and stole the medicine, and the Green Snake actually succeeded in seducing him.