Curse of the Golden Flower

I went to see Curse of the Golden Flower last night.

I'm a huge fan of the director Zhang Yimou, Ying Xiong (Hero with Jet Li) is one of my all time favourite movies. Zhang has an amazing eye for imagery and a modern artistic sense that allows him to marry Asian iconography and symbolism with Western theatricality. When I was in Munich, Germany a couple years ago I nearly had a chance to catch Zhang's production of Puccini's "Chinese" opera Turandot, the same production he had staged in Beijing at the Forbidden City, I really regret not trying harder to catch it now. Golden Flower is a gorgeous film with one of the richest visual palettes I've ever seen in cinema.

The set design, costume design and cinematography are all decadent to the extreme. The film's leads, Chow Yun Fat and Gong Li as Emperor and Empress and heads of a highly dysfunctional royal family, give performances that are subtle yet intense. The film's pacing is a little un-even, the first half is very dialogue-heavy, Zhang uses it to really build the intrigue in the story and it's all an elaborate build-up to the action-packed (and often gory) second half of the movie.

As the story unfolded I was reminded very much of some of Shakespeare's works. There are obvious parallels to Hamlet; themes of royal corruption, incest, plots to usurp the throne, but as the second act unfolded I was reminded more of Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare's gruesome revenge-tragedy and his bloodiest and most-violent play.

**Spoiler Warning**

While Zhang was obviously influenced by Western sources the film is very Chinese in its themes. The story follows a revenge plot by Gong Li's Empress character as she plots to usurp the throne from The Emperor not necessarily because she is power-hungry but more as a means of self-preservation as the Emperor is slowly poisoning the Empress by forcing her to take a special "medicine" to cure her supposed anemia. At the end of the movie, the Empress' bloody coup has failed, all three of her sons are dead and she is still forced to drink the medicine that will eventually kill her, she is completely broken and defeated.

I couldn't help but think that if this were a Western movie, the Empress' coup would have succeeded, there would be this great "girl power" message and she'd go on to live happily ever-after (roll credits with an Evanescence song in the background). Hollywood movies are so formulaic and predictable nowadays that when you see a tragedy where there isn't a happy ending it feels odd, though because it was so different the ending to this film actually felt like a breath of fresh air.

The ending also begs the question posed by the vast cultural differences between China and the West. In the West the triumph of the individual is of the utmost importance, in most Asian cultures the success of the group is more important than the success of any one individual. This may be why most Western movies are some variation of the Hero (or Heroine) fighting and triumphing over "the Man". In this frame of reference the message of Golden Flower seems to be, "no matter how hard you try to fight to overcome your circumstances tyranny will always triumph". Or maybe the ultimate message of the film is "below the beautiful exterior of Power there is corruption to the core". But then again, maybe this film isn't trying to be as didactic as its Western counterparts, maybe this is just a drama/action/tragedy with no pretenses of a greater message.

Overall I really enjoyed the film, there are some phenomenal action sequences, although they are less balletic and slightly more gory than in Hero or House of Flying Daggers. The sumptuous visual feast that this film provides is reason enough to see it.

Threatening Bank Letter

. . . Okay, maybe "threatening" is a tad melodramatic but still annoying nonetheless.

I have two main credit cards; a Mastercard (from Citibank) and a Visa (from Scotiabank). The MC is a Citibank Driver's Edge card so basically I get 1% back on all my purchases toward the purchase of my next vehicle. Ergo, I charge as much as I can to it and it is my card of choice.

I basically keep the Scotiabank Visa for "backup" and for the odd-place that only accepts Visa. I've also had the Visa card longer.

Anyway, I get a letter from Scotiabank today:

Since your No-Fee Scotiabank Value Visa card has been inactive for a while, we want to remind you of its many useful features and benefits . . . Please note that each year a $10.00 fee is charged to keep inactive accounts open. You can avoid this fee and rediscover your card's value and convenience simply by using it to make a purchase or cash advance within the next 60 days.

Um . . . if I'm not using your lame product maybe you should give me some incentive to; lower my interest rate, increase my interest-free grace-period, give me cash-back on my balance. Instead, they basically resort to threatening to charge me to keep the account open (which basically costs them nothing).

I realize $10.00 is nothing but out of principle, I think the concept of paying to pay is ridiculous, I refuse to do it. I may be cheap but does the bank honestly think this is a good business practice? They're basically trying to weed me out as customer because I don't have a massive credit debt on that account that they can make money off of.

Ugh, I'm done with this bank

Riding the Shortbus to school . . .

I went to see Shortbus tonight at the local art house cinema. Shortbus is the controversial new film by John Cameron Mitchell (the guy who directed and starred in Hedwig and the Angry Inch). Most of the controversy surrounding the film is because it features many non-simulated sex scenes. I first heard of the project a few months ago when one of the stars, Sook Yin Lee, a radio host on CBC, was almost fired for starring in a "pornographic" film, at the time a whole slew of her listeners and celebrities like Francis Ford Coppola and Yoko Ono lobbied the CBC on Sook Yin's behalf and eventually the CBC backed down. I've been curious about the film ever since.

One critic described the film as Woody Allen's Manhattan with money shots. Though so much has been made of the non-simulated sex, this movie is NOT a porn. The sex though presented in its full blown glory, is never gratuitous and is essential to the story and character development. It's the same argument made about the graphic violence being essential to Passion of the Christ (although for the record I thought Passion was Mel Gibson's pointless exercise in religious masturbation).

The movie is basically about a group of characters living in a post-9/11 New York City, each with unique sexual and emotional issues. Sook Yin plays a sex therapist who's is unable to achieve orgasm herself, there's a monogamous gay couple exploring the possibility of opening their relationship and a dominatrix who is longing to form a meaningful relationship. Their lives cross paths and intertwine (the same device used in movies like Crash . . . the overrated one that won the oscar not the brilliant David Cronenberg film of the same title) at a weekly underground pan-sexual club/cabaret called Shortbus.

Leaving the film I was really amazed at how much depth and character development there was, there were some definite heavy moments and there is lots of emotion. It was kind of awkward watching real sex on the screen in a theatre with strangers at first, there's a fabulous scene featuring a gay threesome where the characters are singing the Star Spangled Banner while going down and eating each other out that had the theatre simultaneously laughing and cringing (definitely a Borat-like reaction).

Although it's real, the way sex is presented in the movie it's not designed to arouse like in pornography, it's presented as part of the human experience, inseparable from love and emotion. The style of the movie is slightly surreal, it's funny, the dialogue is peppered with humour and there's a certain whimsical quality to it (much like Hedwig). I'm still figuring out how to interpret the different elements, the movie definitely makes you think and there are certainly undertones of social commentary though it's never didactic and in the end the movie is uplifting and life affirming. I'd definitely recommend it if you're looking for something different.

Gah!!! Stoopid Car!!!

So I had brought my car in for repairs a few weeks ago (after the speed sensor fried en route to Montreal) and at the time they patched up some holes in the exhaust pipe caused by corrosion. Anyway, I'm coming home this evening and my engine starts howling, it sounded like a cheap souped up Civic.

I pulled over and looked under the car and the exhaust pipe had corroded right off at one end and was dangling about an inch from the ground. I got some twine and tied it up a bit so it wouldn't hit the ground while I was driving and I brought it back to the garage. It sounded like a freakin' motorcycle it was so loud, people were staring.

This time they're just gonna replace the whole exhaust pipe instead of trying to weld all the corroded bits, the pipe would've never made it through the winter.

Ugh, I just hope it's not too expensive.

The East Village Opera Company

I just got back from this awesome concert by The East Village Opera Company. They're a band that does these covers of operatic arias in a rock style and they were totally awesome. Their arrangements are really interesting, always staying true to the original melodies and lyrics (most of the songs were in Italian or French) but tweaking the tempo and arrangements so that it sounds completely contemporary. Their show's an amazing good time. They had a standard rock band (two guitars, bass, drum kit and the band leader on keyboards and samples) plus a string quartet. They opened with a bitchin version of the overture from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro complete with a rock beat and screaming guitars.

The show was at a venue called Barrymore's music hall it's this awesome old building downtown that was once a vaudeville theatre and subsequently a strip club, an arcade and finally a great live-music venue. It still looks like an old style theatre inside with the bars and tables laid out on the diffrent balconies.

The lead singer Tyley Ross is from my home town, Ottawa. He's got an amazing voice that alternates from smooth and sweet to totally bad-ass rock 'n roll check out his rendition of Nessun Dorma from Turandot, Pavarotti must be turning in his grave ha ha ha.

They also had a new female vocalist who had a really powerful voice. The two sounded awesome on duets like the Flower Duet from Lakmé.

I think my favourite part of the show was when did a medley of La donna è mobile, which is basically a song about how fickle women are, and blended it into a hard-edged version of La Habañera from Carmen, probably the most kick-ass female operatic aria. I was bouncing and clapping by the end of the night, the crowd was really into it too. I bought their self-titled album it's a great listen. They're an awesome band you should check them out when they tour near you.