I found a translation of that "Yellow" cover, and yes, the lyrics don't match Coldplay's lyrics at all. It's more metaphorical and poetical, focused on stars and yearning and torrents of feelings. The title, "Liú Xīng", means meteor or shooting star. Apparently these Mandarin lyrics are based on a version by Zheng Jun, later performed on China's The Voice show. So there's been a history of Chinese singers covering this song. Katherine Ho's version for the soundtrack is really lovely.
I also went to see that IMAX Pandas movie from back in April, because they re-released it this week for some reason. I might go to see the Alpha movie next time. Really, I spend so much money on movies and food that I might as well sign up for a subscription again. Maybe this one will work better than Moviepass, and at least it lets me see a movie more than once if I really like it.
Also I spent the weekend making screencaps and trimming video from that Hogan Family episode where David has a puppet Clifford and does magic badly. Jason Bateman is so goofy and funny in it. Now I gotta see where I can upload them.
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
Monday, August 20, 2018
GoldOpen
I finally saw Crazy Rich Asians on Saturday. I've never read the book, so everything was new to me. I loved Constance Wu and the whole cast. Michelle Yeoh plays Nick's mother Eleanor, and starting from the first scene in London, she does get some depth and complexity beyond being a villain. Eleanor gave up her career as a lawyer to marry into the Young family, but even after all these years she never seems to satisfy her mother-in-law (even though she gave her son to Ah-Ma to raise). You'd think that would give her some sympathy for Rachel wanting to still have her career, but no, Eleanor's sacrifices mean nothing if she thinks that Rachel wouldn't make the same sacrifice for Nick. (It does rather remind me of Victorian romance novels; I recently watched an Edith Wharton adaptation where an old matriarch resents the younger generation of women shirking their responsibilities and not sacrificing like they were expected to.)
So that, along with tensions about class and cultural differences, provide lots of conflict among the characters. But there's also plenty of romance and humor. The soundtrack is gorgeous, and I recognized some of the songs right away, but it took me much longer to recognize Coldplay's "Yellow" when sung in Mandarin. Very beautiful cover, and I've since read some articles about the director loving that song, as a way to reclaim pride in his Asian identity. It's strange because I never associated that song with my being Asian, because I always misheard the lyrics. The lines where he sings about "your skin and bones" I've always heard as, "You're still, yeah you're still the one" or "you're still the force" as in a celestial force like the stars he keeps singing about. It never occurred to me that he was talking about her "skin and bones" because frankly that's a weird, somewhat creepy way to describe someone you love. I wonder how literal the Chinese translation is.
There's a lot of opulence on display in the film, but money doesn't always buy taste, because Rachel's college friend lives in a family mansion decorated like Trump's bathroom, and there's one guy Bernard whose shirt is always open, and he throws a tacky bachelor party on the ocean. The $40 million dollar wedding is so over-the-top, and I'm sorry but I do agree that decorating the church like a rice paddy was tacky as hell. (If you want an outdoor wedding, then make it outdoors!) Flooding the walkway for the bride might be an impressive feat, but is she saying she doesn't give a fuck about ruining the church floor? Ruining her dress and all the bridesmaid dresses in the water? Fuck. Crazy rich indeed. Money doesn't buy happiness either, as we learn in Astrid's troubled marriage, but at least she has Rachel to confide in and finally finds her voice. I will say, though, that Rachel let Nick off the hook too easily about omitting the truth from her for a year and not preparing her for his family before the Singapore trip. Don't throw her into the lion's den without warning.
Anyway, I'm so glad the film did well at the box office, and that lots of people celebrated the diversity before and behind the screen. I hope there will be a sequel, and they continue to keep it in theaters, not on Netflix where they can hide viewing numbers. Gotta keep it up so it becomes normal business, not a fluke or a "hot trend" of the moment. Can't let Hollywood keep getting away with whitewashing or yellowface again.
So that, along with tensions about class and cultural differences, provide lots of conflict among the characters. But there's also plenty of romance and humor. The soundtrack is gorgeous, and I recognized some of the songs right away, but it took me much longer to recognize Coldplay's "Yellow" when sung in Mandarin. Very beautiful cover, and I've since read some articles about the director loving that song, as a way to reclaim pride in his Asian identity. It's strange because I never associated that song with my being Asian, because I always misheard the lyrics. The lines where he sings about "your skin and bones" I've always heard as, "You're still, yeah you're still the one" or "you're still the force" as in a celestial force like the stars he keeps singing about. It never occurred to me that he was talking about her "skin and bones" because frankly that's a weird, somewhat creepy way to describe someone you love. I wonder how literal the Chinese translation is.
There's a lot of opulence on display in the film, but money doesn't always buy taste, because Rachel's college friend lives in a family mansion decorated like Trump's bathroom, and there's one guy Bernard whose shirt is always open, and he throws a tacky bachelor party on the ocean. The $40 million dollar wedding is so over-the-top, and I'm sorry but I do agree that decorating the church like a rice paddy was tacky as hell. (If you want an outdoor wedding, then make it outdoors!) Flooding the walkway for the bride might be an impressive feat, but is she saying she doesn't give a fuck about ruining the church floor? Ruining her dress and all the bridesmaid dresses in the water? Fuck. Crazy rich indeed. Money doesn't buy happiness either, as we learn in Astrid's troubled marriage, but at least she has Rachel to confide in and finally finds her voice. I will say, though, that Rachel let Nick off the hook too easily about omitting the truth from her for a year and not preparing her for his family before the Singapore trip. Don't throw her into the lion's den without warning.
Anyway, I'm so glad the film did well at the box office, and that lots of people celebrated the diversity before and behind the screen. I hope there will be a sequel, and they continue to keep it in theaters, not on Netflix where they can hide viewing numbers. Gotta keep it up so it becomes normal business, not a fluke or a "hot trend" of the moment. Can't let Hollywood keep getting away with whitewashing or yellowface again.
Tuesday, August 14, 2018
Movie stuff
Yay, a new picture from the Mulan movie, and news of more actors joining the cast. I hope it will be good. Still a long wait until 2020. The Crazy Rich Asians movie will have to do for now, but I won't be able to see it until Saturday.
In the meantime I saw BlacKkKlansman this weekend. It was riveting, especially the intercut between the Klan meeting and the Black Student Union meeting. The ending showed footage from Charlottesville; Spike Lee had chosen this release date for the anniversary.
I'm thinking of signing up for the AMC subscription thingie because I spend too much money on movies. I don't like being limited to one theater chain, but I guess there is an AMC near that sometimes has the smaller indie movies I like to see. I never got Moviepass to work for me so I cancelled it long ago, and now it's seriously sounding like it's in its death throes.
In the meantime I saw BlacKkKlansman this weekend. It was riveting, especially the intercut between the Klan meeting and the Black Student Union meeting. The ending showed footage from Charlottesville; Spike Lee had chosen this release date for the anniversary.
I'm thinking of signing up for the AMC subscription thingie because I spend too much money on movies. I don't like being limited to one theater chain, but I guess there is an AMC near that sometimes has the smaller indie movies I like to see. I never got Moviepass to work for me so I cancelled it long ago, and now it's seriously sounding like it's in its death throes.
Sunday, August 5, 2018
Representation Matters
Lately I've been reading a cozy mystery called A Gentleman's Murder by Christopher Huang. It's set in 1924 London, and the protagonist is a half-English, half-Chinese man who belongs to a prestigious gentleman's club. He counts being accepted there as validation that he's English, but some people still discriminate against him and treat him as a foreigner, asking "Where are you from?" like I've experienced so many times in my 30+ years in America. Eric Peterkin also reviews murder mysteries for a living, so of course a murder happens right in the club.
According to Deadline, it's going to be developed for television, and I'd be glad if we finally get an Asian detective on TV who's not a Charlie Chan stereotype or the token diversity in a procedural starring white people. I'd love it if he appeared on Masterpiece Mystery! but it seems like PBS is far more interested in period dramas to find their next Downtown Abbey, than mysteries lately. I hate that they keep showing Grantchester, which is just a glorified soap opera, not really a detective show like the classic Agatha Christies they used to do. With my luck, the show will end up on Amazon or some cable channel. At least I can enjoy the novel.
Reading it, and watching Kim's Convenience on Netflix, makes me wish that the Brits had made Wok into a show. I loved that pilot and would have enjoyed seeing more about the Chinese immigrant experience in London.
And where the fuck is the Chloe Kim Barbie that Mattel announced months ago for Women's Day? They were going to make a whole line of inspiring women Barbies, but so far I've only seen 3 of them released for sale. Where are the rest, Mattel?
According to Deadline, it's going to be developed for television, and I'd be glad if we finally get an Asian detective on TV who's not a Charlie Chan stereotype or the token diversity in a procedural starring white people. I'd love it if he appeared on Masterpiece Mystery! but it seems like PBS is far more interested in period dramas to find their next Downtown Abbey, than mysteries lately. I hate that they keep showing Grantchester, which is just a glorified soap opera, not really a detective show like the classic Agatha Christies they used to do. With my luck, the show will end up on Amazon or some cable channel. At least I can enjoy the novel.
Reading it, and watching Kim's Convenience on Netflix, makes me wish that the Brits had made Wok into a show. I loved that pilot and would have enjoyed seeing more about the Chinese immigrant experience in London.
And where the fuck is the Chloe Kim Barbie that Mattel announced months ago for Women's Day? They were going to make a whole line of inspiring women Barbies, but so far I've only seen 3 of them released for sale. Where are the rest, Mattel?
Wednesday, August 1, 2018
Timeless and Kim's Convenience
NBC agreed to do a two-part finale for Timeless. I'm so happy we'll finally get closure; hopefully the writers will resolve everything efficiently and not try to over-extend the love triangle for drama. Apparently it will be a holiday movie, so I'll be looking forward to it. Finally some good news out of the summer press tour.
In the meantime, I found this Canadian sitcom on Netflix called Kim's Convenience. It's about Korean immigrants who own a convenience store in Toronto. Mr. Kim doesn't speak to his estranged son Jung, who works at a car rental agency, and the younger daughter Janet goes to art school to become a photographer. I like the most of the show, but I dislike the part that Jung's boss Shannon is attracted to him and abuses her position more than once (she tries to turn "mentoring" into a dinner date; another time she gives him basketball tickets as a bonus for good work, but she assumes that he's taking her on a date, instead of his best friend). This is especially egregious given that Shannon had to run a weird kind of sexual harassment/cultural sensitivity meeting when Jung's friend accused him of harassment as retaliation for criticizing his poor job performance. If she read the corporate policy on harassment, then she needs to stop violating it.
Stephen Colbert apparently addressed the allegations against Moonves, pointing out that he likes his boss, but he believes in accountability. #MeToo isn't just about going after people you dislike politically; it's for everyone who behaves inappropriately, so I appreciate Colbert making that point. That's the same thing about taking down Harvey Weinstein or Al Franken; it doesn't matter that they're liberals. What matters is what they did, and no I don't excuse Franken for it being a "joke" and claiming he doesn't remember.
I don't like that some news media have been reporting that Les Moonves denied the allegations against him. On the contrary, his statement admitted that in the past he "made women uncomfortable with advances" which he regrets; the only part he denies is abusing his office to end people's careers. However, he doesn't realize that he abused his power by making the advances in the first place during professional work meetings. If he sincerely wanted to date these women, the time to approach them is in a social setting outside of work, hopefully not in the same time period where he's making a deal to hire them, buy their show, etc. "Making advances" while at work implies that the job is dependent on the women giving you sexual favors. And by the way, you should start verbally with asking someone out or flirting; your first move should not be to immediately kiss or grope someone. If that's your idea of romance, then no, you don't understand that "no means no". Ok, maybe you didn't do a Harvey Weinstein maneuver of inviting them to a hotel room and raping them, but you still abused the vast power you had at the network. If you truly regret the "mistakes" then step down and get some counseling. I don't fucking care what power struggles are going on with the Redstones. Appoint a successor or have the board do it for you. I don't care. Fucking leave.
In the meantime, I found this Canadian sitcom on Netflix called Kim's Convenience. It's about Korean immigrants who own a convenience store in Toronto. Mr. Kim doesn't speak to his estranged son Jung, who works at a car rental agency, and the younger daughter Janet goes to art school to become a photographer. I like the most of the show, but I dislike the part that Jung's boss Shannon is attracted to him and abuses her position more than once (she tries to turn "mentoring" into a dinner date; another time she gives him basketball tickets as a bonus for good work, but she assumes that he's taking her on a date, instead of his best friend). This is especially egregious given that Shannon had to run a weird kind of sexual harassment/cultural sensitivity meeting when Jung's friend accused him of harassment as retaliation for criticizing his poor job performance. If she read the corporate policy on harassment, then she needs to stop violating it.
Stephen Colbert apparently addressed the allegations against Moonves, pointing out that he likes his boss, but he believes in accountability. #MeToo isn't just about going after people you dislike politically; it's for everyone who behaves inappropriately, so I appreciate Colbert making that point. That's the same thing about taking down Harvey Weinstein or Al Franken; it doesn't matter that they're liberals. What matters is what they did, and no I don't excuse Franken for it being a "joke" and claiming he doesn't remember.
I don't like that some news media have been reporting that Les Moonves denied the allegations against him. On the contrary, his statement admitted that in the past he "made women uncomfortable with advances" which he regrets; the only part he denies is abusing his office to end people's careers. However, he doesn't realize that he abused his power by making the advances in the first place during professional work meetings. If he sincerely wanted to date these women, the time to approach them is in a social setting outside of work, hopefully not in the same time period where he's making a deal to hire them, buy their show, etc. "Making advances" while at work implies that the job is dependent on the women giving you sexual favors. And by the way, you should start verbally with asking someone out or flirting; your first move should not be to immediately kiss or grope someone. If that's your idea of romance, then no, you don't understand that "no means no". Ok, maybe you didn't do a Harvey Weinstein maneuver of inviting them to a hotel room and raping them, but you still abused the vast power you had at the network. If you truly regret the "mistakes" then step down and get some counseling. I don't fucking care what power struggles are going on with the Redstones. Appoint a successor or have the board do it for you. I don't care. Fucking leave.
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