Black Comedy

I was happy to read about Jim Thorpe getting his gold medals back at long last. The Olympic committee had stripped him of his medals because he violated their amateur rules, but many white athletes weren't punished for the same thing, according to that Smithsonian article. The whole amateur rule wasn't for love of the sport, but to keep poor lower class people from being able to compete with wealthy elites who could afford to train and compete without earning money for it. It's also the reason why Duke Kahanamoku couldn't become a professional swimmer and had to take odd jobs to support himself.

Meanwhile, I went to see a play at a local theater. It's Peter Shaffer's farce Black Comedy. It has a convention that when the stage lights are dim, the characters act as if normal lights are on, but when the lights are fully bright, the actors behave as if it's a blackout. This is so the audience can see what's happening in the darkness, as various characters start feeling around or doing sneaky things to deceive each other. It's pretty funny, but it took me a minute to remember that British people say "torches" when they mean flashlights. This is apparently a one-act play, so I don't know why we had an intermission. Just to sell more drinks? I guess so. I'd be more willing to buy snacks if there were sandwiches or something, but chips and pretzels is not worth it.

Mrs. Mopps

I've never read the novel Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris, but I have watched the 1992 TV movie starring Angela Lansbury. It was charming and sweet like a fairy tale, though I'm told the ending was changed to be happier than the book. 

I don't normally care about fashion, much less luxury like Dior, but I did like Jenny Beavin's costumes for Cruella so I figured I would see the new Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris movie, if only to compare to Angela Lansbury. It is still a charming fairy tale, but there's a melancholy element too, as we see Ada Harris's normal life, missing her dead husband and being unfairly taken advantage of by her rich employers. The film also expands her working-class friends, adding the bookie Archie and some train station drunks. Anyway, all of the sudden Ada falls in love with a Dior dress and has to have one.

I can understand that sudden impulse. I myself usually dress in casual shirts and pants for comfort, yet I fell in love with Rachel Chu's blue tulle dress in Crazy Rich Asians. Sometimes you just want to own something glamorous even if you have no occasion to wear it. Mrs. Harris scrimps and saves for her own Dior dress, and even does some gambling based on what she thinks are signs from her late husband.

Miss S mysteries

I found a new show on HBO Max called Miss S. At first I wondered if this was the Japanese Miss Sherlock show with genderbent leads, but actually, this is a Chinese adaptation of the Australian show Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. Instead of Melbourne, it's set in 1930s Shanghai with all the style and devotion to fashion as the original show. All the characters are there under different names, with slightly tweaked backgrounds. They speak Mandarin, but you can pick different languages for the subtitles. At first I wondered why she called her detective agency "Miss S" when her name is Miss Su; it seems a pointless abbreviation, but then she explains that the S also stands for Shanghai. I love seeing all the business cards and the Chinese script on screen.

It's very sexy and entertaining, with a few interesting changes for cultural reasons. For example, they changed a show about Zionists into one about a political movement to try to restore the Qing dynasty. Also there are references to the Chinese war with Japan, with mentions of incidents such as the invasion of Mongolia. So it does feel like new mysteries are being solved. So far I like it, though I wish that the mysteries were not two-parters. I'm mostly just confused by the story of the Russian woman Natasha being in trouble for being a Communist.

Edited to add comments on Dr. Mac

I worried that there might be some Chinese censorship, but not all gay characters have been suppressed. There is a very sympathetic storyline of a gay couple being blackmailed in one episode, and the Inspector eventually allows Miss Su to destroy the blackmail photos. The Dr. Mac character is no longer a lesbian; still, she wears men's clothes and remains a feminist, teaching other women about contraception and abortion. Dr. Mac has only been in a few episodes that I've seen. But that was true of Miss Fisher, too, when I kept wondering where Mac went (and why the adopted kid was written out). Inspector Luo does sometimes point out that "this is Shanghai, not Paris" when Miss Su is annoyed with conservative morals.

Thor Love and Thunder

Ugh! More 100+ degree days. I hope all of July and August won't be this bad.

Meanwhile, I saw the new Marvel movie since Taika Waititi directed it, and it also featured Jane Foster as a Thor, based on a comic storyline. Since Marvel already did the story of Thor Odinson being unworthy of Mjolnir in his first film, they didn't repeat it here. The hammer simply bonds to Foster because she is dying of cancer, and Thor Odinson once told the hammer to always protect her. I do like that Jane got to bond with both Darcy and King Valkyrie, and they had talks about her health and heroism. She also insisted on not being called "Lady Thor" but "Mighty Thor," just as Thor had often called himself previously. Meanwhile, Thor was especially clumsy and destructive during a lot of his battles because he had no direction or focus until he saw Jane being a hero.

I had skipped a lot of Thor films and Avengers films previously, but Taika's Korg character helpfully narrated much of the backstory, and the actor Asgardians staged a play summing up recent history as well. I didn't recognize Sam Neill playing Odin until after I looked up the cast later. So I watched it again to see him and the post credit scenes.

SPOILERS

Mr. Malcolm's List

Meanwhile, I was not able to find Lost Girls close to me, and the movie reviews were very poor, saying the filmmaker illogically cast herself in the main role. Oh well. I guess I'll stick with the 2003 Peter Pan that I like.

I was able to find Mr. Malcolm's List, though, and enjoyed it. Very Jane Austen-ish and great fun to see we get the full treatment of swelling music, horseback riding, and sunlit kisses, just like any other period rom-com. Plus, there was a painting of Mr. Malcolm's Black family at his estate, and it reminded me of the famous painting of Dido Elizabeth Belle. People today incorrectly think that people of color didn't exist in Western society in the past, but Britain has had immigrants for centuries due to its conquering Empire, and sometimes money can indeed overcome race or illegitimacy when it comes to social class. Plus, the French had Alexandre Dumas pere and Joseph Bologne. Apparently colonialism didn't preclude some Europeans from raising their mixed race children with the same privileges they'd give to white kids. I can't wait for the Joseph Bologne movie!

Diversity is not historically inaccurate. Hollywood has just whitewashed the past. And besides, our fiction should reflect our modern tastes, rather than be stuck to some rotten outdated rules. Even the King Arthur tales and Shakespeare had Saracens and Moors.

Queer and Asian-American history

I meant to spend this 3-day weekend trying to write my Arrested Development fics again, but it's just been so hot. At least the gas prices have come down 30 cents recently in my area, so maybe Biden finally got the gasoline industry to stop price gouging.

I watched a couple of HBO documentaries as well as their 1995 movie the Tuskegee Airmen. Apparently there was only 1 real-life person depicted in that TV movie, while other characters were fictional. I'd previously seen the movie Red Tails on the same subject, and that was fictionalized too.

Equal is a four-part documentary on the history of LGBTQ rights in America. Even before the Stonewall riots, queer people had tried to organize and help each other against police abuse and legal discrimination. Not only did the documentary talk about Christine Jorgensen, but they depicted trans people I'd not heard of before like Lucy Hicks Anderson and Jack Star. They also covered intersectional issues of racial discrimination within the movement, and how the civil rights movement was embarrassed about Bayard Rustin being openly gay, despite how much he helped MLK.

Meanwhile, HBO's documentary on Yellowface discussed Hollywood's racist casting of Asian roles. It's apparently a few years old, as it says that Crazy Rich Asians has not premiered yet, but it's still new to me. They do mention Anna May Wong and discuss the casting of The Good Earth, but it's brief. They mentioned progressive films I'd not heard of previously such as Sam Fuller's The Crimson Kimono, and a British-made movie about Japanese internment camps called Come See The Paradise. I'll have to see if I can watch those anywhere.