Two Chinese films

[nineveh_uk]

Red Cliff Who would have thought a film based on a famous battle had so much fighting in it? Not me, apparently. Political strategising, too, but lots and lots of fighting, which I have to admit got a bit much. The film tells - at whopping length, I watched the +4 hours two-part original over two successive evenings - an incident from history /The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, in which Cao Cao, chief minister of a young puppet emperor, leads the imperial army southwards with the aim of capturing 'rebels'/the southern kingdom, and perhaps ultimately installing himself on the throne. Our trusty heroes must assemble their forces to defeat his implausibly massive army, with their chief strategist Zhuge Liang who even to my untutored eye is quite obviously the ur-Mei Changsu* from whom every later genius Chinese strategist is derived. Right down to the being a bit of a drama queen.

It was a bit more of an action film than I was expecting, but for something four hours long it nonetheless kept my interest, partly because - like CT,HD - it was extremely filmic. No need to put in every conversation, it worked with quite a different visual style and script from lengthy Cdramas, and a real sense of scale. Further to my post on terrible Cnovel translations, the DVD had different subtitlers for parts 1 and 2 and no agreed crib sheet. This meant that (1) was a bit more generous with inclusion of (translated) honorifics, (2) more inclined to substitute with names. (2) had more fun with a character's modestly claiming to know 'a little' about various subjects with 'a trifle', which felt more apposite with the character. But, being proper subtitles for a film, they were overall very decent.

I've also reached the point of going 'I recognised that actor, but have no idea what I've seen them in' that I do with Anglophone films, in this case especially with the actor playing Cao Cao, Zhang Fengyi, who I turned out to have seen in rather different roles in Farewell My Concubine, and The Emperor and the Assassin** , which was 20 years ago, definitely the one I recognised him from, and I'd really like to see again.

Anyway, interesting, long, and ultimately probably more emotionally engaging if you have cultural familiarity with the characters and can appreciate its specific take on a classic story, but well worth a couple of evenings' viewing.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon By far the most high profile of Chinese historical/wuxia dramas that showed up in the UK cinemas in the early 2000s, I saw this originally at Bradford's splendid Pictureville cinema, and certainly my television can't compare, but twenty years on the film itself holds up. We're in the nineteenth century, not that you could tell beyond the dreadful Qing hairstyle, with Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) running a logistics/security firm and suffering UST with her good friend and renowned swordsman Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-fat) with whom she can't get together because she was long ago engaged to his best friend, who died.

I loved this rewatch. It looks glorious, the cinematography is top-notch, it is full of emotion, a series of sequences, of pictures, in different settings, glorious to look at, at its heart is emotion, a poem of feeling. It's also very entertaining to watch having seen some of the wuxia tropes and actually knowing they are tropes. Oh look, here's a fight in a rural tavern! Here's a character jumping off a cliff! More subtitling interest, in that for western audiences the name of the young female character Yu Jiaolong was evidently felt too challenging, and she was renamed Jen Yu when it was released and remained so in the subs - but 'giang hu' went merely transliterated.

Rewatching it seemed to me a film about what it means to be true to oneself, to other people, and to ideals, and what it is to betray them. Yu Shu Lien and Li Mu Bai haven't married because they think to do so would be to betray the man they both loved, but in fact all this means is that they have been true neither to their love for one another nor to him. The theme resonates across the characters, as they attempt to fulfill themselves and are frustrated by each other and the duties/demands of society in a complex web. I'm sure for a viewer a lot more familiar with wuxia themes than I am it is in clearer dialogue with those, but it doesn't need that to work splendidly as a film. And of course it is all very Ang Lee. Watching it without being overwhelmed by one's first wuxia drama, the fingerprints of the man who five years earlier had made Sense and Sensibility are all over it.

*Also one general looked like he had a bad case of the poison of the bitter flame, so apparently ancient Chinese troops could cope fine with being commanded by yetis.

**Both directed by Chen Kaige, more recently known for The Battle of Lake Changjin, which I can live without.

Comments

[caulkhead]

Provided he's a strategically competent yeti, what's a bit of fur between friends?

I just started watching CT:HD yesterday. Interesting to know that it is 19th century; I missed that entirely, though I was wondering what on earth was going in with the hairstyles.

[nineveh_uk]

No one looks good in the Qing dynasty plait. It's terrible.

I'd no idea CT:HD was C19 until I read it on wikipedia, I had assumed it was a bit earlier.

[legionseagle]

I have to say, my overwhelming emotion when watching CT:HD the first time round (I've not re-watched it) was absolute fury that the junior female lead gets admitted into Shaolin and then leaps off a waterfall for love: "You idiot: they're going to use that to justify claiming that women are inherently too unstable to practise martial arts from now until the end of time!"

[caulkhead]

I didn't read it that way; I read it as 'now good enough at improbable martial arts to actually fly'.

[nineveh_uk]

Yes, I didn't think she was doing it for love, because she could have her lover if she wanted. I read it oe as all her options are compromised, this is the mythical way forward and she's that good at martial arts she really might make it.

[azdak]

My first (and so far only) Qing dynasty c-drama was "The Story of Yanxi Palace" and I was surprised by how undisturbed I was by the haircuts. I mean, they ought to have looked ghastly but I got used to them really quickly.

[nineveh_uk]

That's good - it would be a long way through if you didn't! How did you find Yanxi palace in the end, did it stay good?

[azdak]

It did such a radical shift in tone from rebellious to reactionary as our heroine climbed through the ranks that I found it completely fascinating (and there are one or two moments where I wondered if they were deliberately trying to undermine their ostensible support for the hierarchy or if the plot was just all over the place - I mean, it definitely is all over the place but sometimes it’s possible to read a deliberate choice into it, if one is so inclined. I keep meaning to post about it and then being too lazy to, but I would say it’s generally entertaining and it’s implications are often fascinating but it definitely pulled a bait-and-switch on me.

[nineveh_uk]

That sounds both interesting and frustrating. Id love to read a post about it.

[azdak]

I really am afflicted with terrible laziness at the moment. I do very much want to post about it, but not enough to actually do any writing. Perhaps the summer holidays will produce the necessary level of boredom.

Re. the ur-Mei Changsu, perhaps we should refer to him as Mei ChangQ? (theology joke).

[nineveh_uk]

Laziness is truly the most terrible of afflictions. I am a chronic sufferer, too badly affected even to seek a cure!

I have to admit that as a theology joke that flies straight over my head (unless it is manuscript versions?)

[azdak]

"Q" stands for "Quelle" (source) and is the ur-text from which the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke are derived. It is not a piece of information I have ever needed since doing Theology as a Subsidiary Subject at university. Until now!

[nineveh_uk]

Ah! I've seen "Quelle" for springs on maps, but would never have made that connection on account of total lack of theological education. Just goes to show, a broad education fits you for all sorts of things in life. Zhuge Liang is definitely the Mei ChangQ.

[legionseagle]

"I don't care if he's a yeti, he's our yeti."

[azdak]

This is the only rational attitude to have towards a competent military commander.

[nineveh_uk]

A competent yeti is worth ten incompetent princes. /ancient Chinese proverb

[legionseagle]

Plus, you know he's a yeti. The other side do not. Much can be made of the Surprise!Yeti effect,

[azdak]

I have literally just this second realised that the reason they can’t shave him is because of the prohibition on cutting your hair. So yes, you might as well make a virtue of necessity and go for the “WTF is that and will it eat us?!!!” effect.

[nineveh_uk]

In a world in which attractive young men simply don't grow facial hair and older men have naturally very neat beards, it is particularly tough to be a yeti!

Though it does seem a bit harsh that it's OK to perform major plastic surgery that totally removes the hair and all the rest of your skin, but not apply a pair of clippers. Though perhaps we're meant to assume that terrible guilt for that failure of filial piety is a given for Mei Changsu.

[azdak]

Now we understand why Consort Jing's "You used to look so like your father!" is so terribly wounding.

[nineveh_uk]

I can only assume that she had used up her lifetime supply of tact on the Emperor, because really that was not what he needed to hear just then!

[nineveh_uk]

Good point. He would definitely be a surprise to the enemy troops, even without the drinking blood thing.