House of Flying Daggers

I just got done watching this movie. I'm always impressed with Japanese martial arts love stories, but more with the former aspect than the latter. While American action movies make gross attempts at depicting realistic violence, and fail completely to engage the belief and imagination of the viewer, movies such as HoFD and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon achieve an opposite effect. They blur distinction between dancing and fighting, and allow you to momentarily forget what limitations are placed on the motions of the human body. It's like ballet for men! I fail to appreciate the gracefulness and beauty involved in most forms of dancing, but I'm in awe at some of the choreography involved here. And yes, it does seem unbalanced to only find wonder in the movement of the human person when violent intent is presupposed.

The love stories are always disturbing too. I don't tend to engage myself with much interest in most Hollywood love stories, but these can be gut-wrenching. Zhang Ziyi is the central love interest in most of the movies I'm thinking of, which might be why I'm so effected (ahem). There's always some conflict involved, either between the two opposing lovers or the priority of some other obligation or desire. And there is never any resolution of the conflict at the end of the movies, which is what is most disturbing. I suppose asian audiences can appreciate this, but I end up pissed off at the seemingly nihilistic conclusion to the story I've just invested so much attention and emotion in. I also tend to think that it's hard to understand and appreciate things like this due to a culture gap. Eastern religion and philosophy does seem to contain something like nihilism, so westerners are probably missing something.

I was looking for a quick read the other night, and grabbed James and the Giant Peach from my old collection of kid's books. Rhold Dhal is one messed up guy. I love his imagery, but he's pretty sadistic. I can see why Tim Burton likes him so much. The flow and quality of writing also surprised me. I suppose when an author intends his work to be read aloud, it allows him to write more simply and naturally. I'm curious if great writers like Tolstoy and Dickens imagined what their prose would sound like as they wrote. I imagine they'd feel somewhat embarrased and stuffy reading their works to a group of children. Not to find fault, it's just a random thought.