![[Weekly Update] December 8th, 2019](https://img5.samsuka.com/storage/7/gk/ch/c6f9d9-019e86f1-f778-7b53-9e1c-3256b682b2e0.jpg)
[Weekly Update] December 8th, 2019
Added 2019-12-09 00:53:43 +0000 UTCHope you enjoy the last episode!
ABOUT THE CHANNEL:
- I fully expect to be roasted alive by the Star Wars fandom, but I got almost nothing but constructive criticism and civil discussions. What a fandom. I guess we all grew up quick after we experienced Jar-jar Binks.
- Next episode, we are going back to individual film highlights once more. I have a very special film for you guys, and it is not what you expect.
- I also want to make a Christmas special, but since Asia don't celebrate Christmas outside of a commercial sense, I'm not exactly sure what to do. Any suggestions?
ABOUT MEDIA:
- I finally buckled up and watched The Great Wall
- It's not god-awful, but it's pretty bland.
- For those of you don't know, The Great Wall is a movie about two European soldiers. They travel to China, trying to acquire gun powders, but ended up helping China saving the world, defeating an horde of alien beasts.
- It is the first film that makes me truly feel uncomfortable about the white saviour narrative. Outsiders visit a different culture, gain their respect, and help save the tribe. It is such a tired trope, modern films don't even do it any more, and we don't talk about it in school either.
- In the film, Imperial China is portrayed as this (fantasy driven) advance civilizations, high philosophy, high technology. It is practically flawless.
- Yet, I can't help but feel a sense of condescension towards Chinese culture. Even though the director is none other than Zhang Yimou.
- If I have to put it to words, it feels like it's a flawless woman character who, at the end, finds happiness by marrying a man. In theory, there is nothing wrong. But cultural context is what makes this so uncomfortable.
- But what do you think? Do you have any experience with this troupe? Am I overly sensitive?
ABOUT LIFE
- Winter in Montreal is as dreadful as ever. The temperature is low enough that I don't have the will to go outside and watch movies, especially not alone.
- Some of my friends are also emotionally affected by this season. It's Christmas, but it's also cold and dark outside. Take care, everyone, both physically and emotionally.
So, that's my week. Monster Hunter World is going to have special events coming up, so I might not be very active online. Nerd life, right?
Thank you all for your continuous support! I'll see you next update!
Comments
The point raised about Wall-E is interesting. I have never thought about it that way, but it does make sense. The only reason I didn't pick up on it is probably because neither of them speak. It's a fun little topic, just in time for Christmas, too. Recently read a reddit post on how love songs' sung by men are always about how their girl is the best in the world. But love songs' sung by women are "I don't want much for Christmas, all I want is you", "He's not much, but he is mine", which the more you think about it the more they sound like backhanded compliments. Always find that hilarious.
Accented Cinema
2019-12-09 18:00:50 +0000 UTCI can always look for some Japanese Christmas movies, those do exist. Would be interesting to see how much it differs from American Xmas movies. Although I have a sneaking suspicion the difference is minimal. It's not like US celebrates Xmas in a religious context all that much.
Accented Cinema
2019-12-09 17:57:26 +0000 UTCFor a Christmas recommendation, how about a documentary on how the commercialized Christmas has spread and its various manifestations around the world? If this exist to begin with.... Or a fictional film that explores this topic? For the movie Great Wall, I have not seen it because it looks like it was made for the Chinese domestic audience with the express reason to showcase how magnificent the Chinese civilization is/was. And the West destroyed it starting with the Anglo-Chinese war of 1840s. And it is on its way back to its former glory. The movie is still on my agenda, but I just don't think I will get to it anytime soon. Calgary has Chinook : )
Tina
2019-12-09 07:32:47 +0000 UTCOne potential idea for a holiday special would be to see if there are any Chinese films that incorporate Christmas as a theme and discuss the way it is viewed. If nothing else it could be a reason to discuss 2046, one of the Wong Kar-Wai films I almost never see being discussed. Another idea might be to see if there are any cultural touchstones that were created for China by marketing for specific holidays or events, such as the KFC Christmas obsession in Japan. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/why-japan-is-obsessed-with-kentucky-fried-chicken-on-christmas-1-161666960/ As for the 'perfect woman is completed by an unlikely mate' trope you aren't alone - I hate the crap out of it. In some form or another this trope has run rampant through Hollywood for decades that I'm aware of, probably more. The most obnoxious version of it that always springs to mind for me is WALL-E. EVE is the perfect robot for her job. Most robots other than the antagonist have a 'standard robot' design made out of assorted boxes, wires, gizmos and the like. Instead of that EVE is a single oval - a perfect egg with parts that merge in and out of the shape, connected by some kind of energy instead of wires or screws. The rules of the film universe completely bend themselves for this design: digital display for a face instead of emulating a face with lights and shaped parts, flight without limb or external port when most other robots are stuck with tank tread based movement, communication options that put to shame everything that isn't human or the main antagonist, an integrated defense system that takes up little space, seemingly limitless strength unrestricted by frame damage, etc. And every bit of this is thrown away when the plot demands it, because love interest. If you cut the last 30 seconds off of the movie in which the camera pans over the fields of healthy plants the entire film changes to a dystopian nightmare in which the 'perfect female robot' risks both the 'jewel of the BnL Fleet" and a large portion (if not the entirety) of the remainder of humanity to go back to Earth so she can repair her robo-boyfriend / sugar daddy (what would that be in robot terms? oil daddy? sprocket daddy? i get that it's robots but still, the age difference makes this feel like a seventy year old man with multiple medical problems drooling over the hot athletic and intelligent first grader he saw one day when visiting schools looking for pictures to draw...) using the limited supply of parts he has accumulated. Without that final pan over the plants proving everyone is going to be fine the movie ends with the possibility that Humanity goes extinct due to starvation since the damage to the ship seems like it will strand them there. There are definitely others, but this is the one that my mind always snaps to mind because it comes close to ruining what I feel is still Pixar's best work.
Michael Everett
2019-12-09 06:21:06 +0000 UTC
