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Dec. 19th, 2015 04:40 pmThe sleep test worked this time! The red light on my finger was lit all night. Maurisa had to wait until she got her car back and we went to Loma Linda to get it back. I forgot to nap in the afternoon, but caught some before I went to get the bus to Nalo's reading.
It was nice to hang out although there was... kind of a definite split between the POC of the event and everybody else--I spent most of my time talking to the Black people who attended, because we somehow decided to crowd around? Hopefully I'll run into her again tonight at Eric's show!
I watched two movies last night: Ringing Bell, which is every bit as fucked up as I heard, and Peking Opera Blues.
Ringing Bell: You know, Lambert, the Cowardly Lion? OK, so imagine a story that goes the opposite way: Chirin's mother dies, and Chirin hunts down the wolf that killed her to seek vengeance. After some tenacity and demands to be taught how to be a wolf, the wolf agrees to train him and make him strong. Cue time-lapse sequence where Chirin grows in horns and busts through trees and eventually grows into a bishounen ram that runs alongside his wolf mentor terrorizing the countryside. And starts seeing the wolf as a father figure instead, until the wolf takes him back to his meadow of birth to re-enact the traumatic scene of his mother's death. Instead of helping the wolf kill the sheep (after a sequence where Chirin has kill all the guard dogs), he fights and kills the wolf, who's all "in this world only the strong survive, and I am proud and grateful that you are the one to kill me" and I just could NOT with the logic. Like, I wanna say something about toxic masculinity and homosocial relationships, but, man.
Peking Opera Blues: So I watched this as a young child and the only thing I really remember from it is: Brigitte Lin being really really butch and hot, and there is a scene where she's tied up (which is also really hot) and then through some shenanigans, she and another woman, a singer, convince some soldiers that their general (which has been shot dead) is actually having sex with the singer.
Flailing over Lin's masculine femininity aside, there are a LOT of things going on in this movie that I clearly was not smart enough to pick up at the time: the lead actor of the all-male opera troupe who plays female characters who is then pressured to marry the commissioner (??? or at least sleep with the commissioner??) and thus escapes because he feels this will ruin his chances of being married in the future; the very real resentment of the female characters at how they are treated (there's a wannabe actress who is the daughter of the theater owner and is constantly berated for wanting to be on stage; there's the singer who hates singing and really wants to get rich or get out; then there is Lin's character who is a rebel who always has an upset face when she sees her father with a young woman her age every night); the male rebel character who's obviously meant to be read heroic but really he's rash and causes problems and holy shit is incompetent; the fact that Lin's character is referred to as "Miss" or "Madam" but she gets to be treated like she's a male authority figure and walk in and out of the no-women-allowed theater at all??? What is going on!
The actress and another character, a common soldier, gets caught up in the action just due to the goodness of their hearts; the singer was originally trying to recover some missing jewels she'd stolen; the rebels are trying to get secret documents that will implicate the general-father in a shady deal with foreigners. Lin is the patriotic rebel who is driven by duty to the nation but also recognizes she's betraying the one family she has left in the world. It all ends up being really interesting with how the three female characters are clearly central (even on the posters the biggest faces are usually the women), and they're all SO different and are hanging out and getting fond of each other only because of a stroke of fate. There's a lot of affection and resignation that the affection isn't enough to keep people together. Then there are the telegraphed romances (between the rebel dude and the actress, and the soldier and singer who have a meet-cute because she had actually knocked him unconscious early in the movie) (and there is the misunderstanding from the actress who sees rebel dude comforting the rebel lady and misreads it as him doublecrossing).
It's all very fantastic, and looking back, I guess I really just had this thing for Brigitte Lin's character that was both a sexual awakening and a PURPOSE IN LIFE, a recurring theme I call "Do I want to DO her or BE her" (it is the same feel I got watching Queen Latifah in The Wiz Live).
Three books down! RAGAMUFFIN, CALIFORNIA BONES, and now DIVERSE ENERGIES. I, uh, did not like the last one. I finally posted my GR reviews of all three.
I'm also doing the unwise thing of reading reviews of "Liminal Grid" because I'm a masochist, maybe. Anyway, most people I know have been reading Chien as female, but TangentOnline's reviewer read Chien as male!
This review from a Malaysian warms the cockles of my heart, even though it's super short.
Surprisingly, Lois Tilton of Locus Online also liked it:
I mean, it IS hard to resist plants. Plants are love!
Anyway, tomorrow starting 4pm PT, I'm going to be in a watch2gether chatroom watching "The Dark Crystal," "Labyrinth" and "Return to Oz" with some folks so if you'd like to be part of this movie marathon chillout, let me know.
It was nice to hang out although there was... kind of a definite split between the POC of the event and everybody else--I spent most of my time talking to the Black people who attended, because we somehow decided to crowd around? Hopefully I'll run into her again tonight at Eric's show!
I watched two movies last night: Ringing Bell, which is every bit as fucked up as I heard, and Peking Opera Blues.
Ringing Bell: You know, Lambert, the Cowardly Lion? OK, so imagine a story that goes the opposite way: Chirin's mother dies, and Chirin hunts down the wolf that killed her to seek vengeance. After some tenacity and demands to be taught how to be a wolf, the wolf agrees to train him and make him strong. Cue time-lapse sequence where Chirin grows in horns and busts through trees and eventually grows into a bishounen ram that runs alongside his wolf mentor terrorizing the countryside. And starts seeing the wolf as a father figure instead, until the wolf takes him back to his meadow of birth to re-enact the traumatic scene of his mother's death. Instead of helping the wolf kill the sheep (after a sequence where Chirin has kill all the guard dogs), he fights and kills the wolf, who's all "in this world only the strong survive, and I am proud and grateful that you are the one to kill me" and I just could NOT with the logic. Like, I wanna say something about toxic masculinity and homosocial relationships, but, man.
Peking Opera Blues: So I watched this as a young child and the only thing I really remember from it is: Brigitte Lin being really really butch and hot, and there is a scene where she's tied up (which is also really hot) and then through some shenanigans, she and another woman, a singer, convince some soldiers that their general (which has been shot dead) is actually having sex with the singer.
Flailing over Lin's masculine femininity aside, there are a LOT of things going on in this movie that I clearly was not smart enough to pick up at the time: the lead actor of the all-male opera troupe who plays female characters who is then pressured to marry the commissioner (??? or at least sleep with the commissioner??) and thus escapes because he feels this will ruin his chances of being married in the future; the very real resentment of the female characters at how they are treated (there's a wannabe actress who is the daughter of the theater owner and is constantly berated for wanting to be on stage; there's the singer who hates singing and really wants to get rich or get out; then there is Lin's character who is a rebel who always has an upset face when she sees her father with a young woman her age every night); the male rebel character who's obviously meant to be read heroic but really he's rash and causes problems and holy shit is incompetent; the fact that Lin's character is referred to as "Miss" or "Madam" but she gets to be treated like she's a male authority figure and walk in and out of the no-women-allowed theater at all??? What is going on!
The actress and another character, a common soldier, gets caught up in the action just due to the goodness of their hearts; the singer was originally trying to recover some missing jewels she'd stolen; the rebels are trying to get secret documents that will implicate the general-father in a shady deal with foreigners. Lin is the patriotic rebel who is driven by duty to the nation but also recognizes she's betraying the one family she has left in the world. It all ends up being really interesting with how the three female characters are clearly central (even on the posters the biggest faces are usually the women), and they're all SO different and are hanging out and getting fond of each other only because of a stroke of fate. There's a lot of affection and resignation that the affection isn't enough to keep people together. Then there are the telegraphed romances (between the rebel dude and the actress, and the soldier and singer who have a meet-cute because she had actually knocked him unconscious early in the movie) (and there is the misunderstanding from the actress who sees rebel dude comforting the rebel lady and misreads it as him doublecrossing).
It's all very fantastic, and looking back, I guess I really just had this thing for Brigitte Lin's character that was both a sexual awakening and a PURPOSE IN LIFE, a recurring theme I call "Do I want to DO her or BE her" (it is the same feel I got watching Queen Latifah in The Wiz Live).
Three books down! RAGAMUFFIN, CALIFORNIA BONES, and now DIVERSE ENERGIES. I, uh, did not like the last one. I finally posted my GR reviews of all three.
I'm also doing the unwise thing of reading reviews of "Liminal Grid" because I'm a masochist, maybe. Anyway, most people I know have been reading Chien as female, but TangentOnline's reviewer read Chien as male!
The tone was one of melancholy, probably more than I could handle, but the second person point of view the author used to introduce Chien provided me with an intimacy toward him, which brought me closer to him and his difficulties.
This review from a Malaysian warms the cockles of my heart, even though it's super short.
Oh yes, it is made in Malaysia, for Malaysia. Set in a futuristic Malaysia, I am glad that it is relevant and with a fresh appeal. Truly an exciting read and written well with good descriptive feel.
Surprisingly, Lois Tilton of Locus Online also liked it:
I like the grandparents, the way they’ve made this future existence work for them, despite setbacks; I love their bountiful hydroponic garden. But mainly, as a gardener, I’m seduced by the landscape, the verdant spaces. And as a pessimist, I have to wonder with Chien if it’s worth risking all this.
I mean, it IS hard to resist plants. Plants are love!
Anyway, tomorrow starting 4pm PT, I'm going to be in a watch2gether chatroom watching "The Dark Crystal," "Labyrinth" and "Return to Oz" with some folks so if you'd like to be part of this movie marathon chillout, let me know.
