chinese movies i like

Was reading the Life section and it featured some classic chinese films like 'Farewell, my concubine' and 'Raise the red lantern'. These are very classical chinese films and i remembered them being aired on Channel 8 especially during festive seasons. Mediacorp (then TCS) always floods the programme list with chinese films like these but its mainly Wong Fei Hong movies for me. so Jet Li is like my favourite gongfu superstar! come to think about it, i have never watched 'Farewell, my concubine' and 'Raise the red lantern'. i tried to watch 'Farewell, my concubine' but that was when i was very young. it was a very traumatizing. imagine you see leslie cheung putting something into his mouth, face in grimace pulls out something bloody out of his mouth.. which 12 year old kid would continue watching that so? as a mature adult, i am ok with gory stuff so if anyone who see this dvds around, could you help me buy first? i will pay for it! but dun over charge.

My favourite asian movie has to be 'The Last Emperor' produced in 1987. though it was in english, there was not so much western influence, nor was it catered to the western audiences. Hence the costumes and settings were very chinese, very traditonal. i suspect this was the reason behind of my love affair with history and chinese period dramas. 'The Last Emperor' was probably one of the first serious china history films that i watched. most of the chinese movies i watched in my youth starred Jet Li and Stephen Chow. because the setting was very grand and filmed in the forbidden city so it gives you a rough idea of the kind of power royalty enjoyed at that time.

This show was actually about Pu yi, the last emperor and also the cultural revolution and the ending very sad. the contrast in the lifestyle. from riches to rag really made you feel for the emperor as things simply went out of control. **For anyone who at least paid some attention to their lower secondary history textbooks would know about Pu Yi, the last Manchurian Emperor of China who ascended the throne in 1908 at the age of three. *hint: some ppl actually don't know who is mao zhe dong and what sun zhong zhan did!* i prefer the older chinese movies because they are able to move you through all the small details. its pretty hard to find any these days, especially when everyone is trying to mimic "crouching tiger, hidden dragon"'s success.

Recently there was this Hongkong series about imperial concubines called ' jin zhi yu ye' that i really liked too! its english title is 'War and Beauty' quoting from wikipedia:

Phonetically, at least in Cantonese, the title sounds exactly like the Chinese phrase "jin zhi yu ye" (literally translates to "[A tree with] golden branches and jade leaves"), which is used to describe prestigious, unmarried women at the time. The phrase can also be used to vaguely describe a woman who has a prestigious background.

The title itself is effectively a pun on the original phrase, with the third and fourth character being replaced by two other characters which described the main themes of the entire series. The characters "yu" (jade) and "ye" (leaf) were replaced by "yu" (lust) and "ye" (evilness, nemesis). Thus, the title itself describes the entire plot, which roughly translates to "women from prestigious backgrounds with lusts for power and evilness".

see, even the title is so 'powderful'. all the scheming women and eunuchs backstabbing and people being backstabbed.. wah, i marvel at the skill of the script writer! the plots just blow you away. seriously, it is so much better than watching singapore serials. sorry to all who support singapore productions... our tv scripts simply need more substance.

Oh oh~ there is also the version of 'Liang Zhu' starring Nicky Wu and Charlie Young. Basically, it's a love story between Liang Shan Po and Zhu Ying Tai - the chinese version of Romeo and Juliet and the two lovers eventually turned into butterflies and got together - hence the name 'butterfly lovers'. No doubt it was really funny in the first half, the second half sent my tear glands working overtime. wah the scene where Ying tai was made to leave and Shan Po desperately trying to play the parting song is so touching. and the part where liang shan po died! so sad lor. i still tear when i catch the re-runs on Channel 8. =P

oh i am using my brother's new computer to blog. hee hee. this is super cool la~ i saw him playing soccer on the computer. so big and professional looking. but the screen is very blinding but that is how my brother likes it. or maybe it has something to do with my eyes. tsk tsk tsk..

oh ya everyone please go watch 'ye yan'! its really very nice~! even my dad said so. =) though i think the nudity was unnecessary, the fight scenes, setting, cinematograph was superb. here is a link to a website that provides some info about the movie--> link the opening scene was enough to take your breath away. the colours were very rich and it started of with alot of blood being spilled. on the whole there was alot of violence and makes your stomache roll over. too graphic as well. before i watched the movie, i read alot of reviews and there were quite a few that commented it was not properly filmed or things like its language was too modern. so before the movie, i was alittle doubtful how good it would turn out. i also thought the eyebrows were weird. i wonder why they needed to have them shaved off...

but this is really a movie that i would recommend everyone to watch. it is really worth your money - unless you get impatient and lose your patience watching the masked dance. =)

ps: parden the weird ^&%$56, it didn't turn out right.