;D I can see how the non-Asian audience might go "hunh?" but I loved that movie. I grew up reading the stories and watching these kinds of films. The marshall art sequences were just beautiful to watch.
I loved this movie and I'm not Asian. I have to say, though, I don't remember any marshall arts sequences. Martial arts, maybe? ;)
OMG, I love martial art stories, and watches many many martial art movies. They have martial art stories in Thai, Nipith? Or you read them in Chinese. :o
EDIT: For spelling. Thanks, Leslie!
I loved this movie and I'm not Asian. I have to say, though, I don't remember any marshall arts sequences. Martial arts, maybe? ;)
they were translated to Thai. as well as the movies dubbed to Thai. There are some Thai martial art, but nothing as spectacular as Chinese.
Jiang Hu (江湖) (Gong Woo), (literally means "rivers and lakes") is the wuxia parallel universe - the alternative world of martial artists and pugilists, usually congregrating in sects, disciplines and schools of martial arts learnings. It has been described as a kind of "shared world" alternate universe, inhabited by wandering knights and princes, thieves and beggars, priests and healers, merchants and craftspeople. It corresponds roughly to America's Wild West period, or to the era of the Book of Judges in the Bible. The best wuxia writers draw a vivid picture of the intricate relationships of honor, loyalty, love and hatred between individuals and between communities within this milieu.
Wuxia=martial arts junk? or enduring archetype??
That's good to know that those martial art stories reached outside of just Chinese culture. I understand how ridiculous it can sound to people at times. But it’s a wonderful fantasy world that they created. Many well known Chinese scholars said they read and enjoy those martial art stories. The most famous martial art author is a well respected historian and scholar himself. After all, many of the great martial art stories/novels are a combination of many elements including fantasy, historical events, human struggle between good and evil, love and lost, etc. I read some of my favorite martial art novels as many times as I read “A Dream of the Red Chamber” (which is considered by many to be one of the greatest Chinese novels ever written).
We have to talk about the martial art stories that you like sometimes, Nipith. Maybe when we are all back from our vacation. ;)
WARNING: Unintelligent question ahead. Beware.
How do you pronounce 'wuxia?' I'm sitting here at my computer thinking, 'Is it like 'woojia?' or 'woozia?''
Are there similarly fascinating nuances in CTHD in comparison to the brilliant touches in Brokeback?
Repressed feelings, the love between Master Li Mu Bai and Yu Shu Lien, the deep need and longing, passion and regret.
and the theme of sublimating one's desire for the sake of social acceptance. As we see in Ennis as well as in the relationship between Mu Bai and Shu Lien
I have read all your comments with great interest and I now can say I still hated it. 'my bad? Sorry my cultured crew, but expressionless actors swinging from pullies over a blue screen just doesn't do it for me, even if there is a gorgeous carving knife and a lovely ivory hair rake involved! I still rate it equal with watching an electric drill entering my eye.
I have read all your comments with great interest and I now can say I still hated it. 'my bad? Sorry my cultured crew, but expressionless actors swinging from pullies over a blue screen just doesn't do it for me, even if there is a gorgeous carving knife and a lovely ivory hair rake involved! I still rate it equal with watching an electric drill entering my eye.
I have read all your comments with great interest and I now can say I still hated it. 'my bad? Sorry my cultured crew, but expressionless actors swinging from pullies over a blue screen just doesn't do it for me, even if there is a gorgeous carving knife and a lovely ivory hair rake involved! I still rate it equal with watching an electric drill entering my eye.
Wuxia film style has also been appropriated by the West. In 1986, John Carpenter's film Big Trouble in Little China was inspired by the visuals of the genre. The Matrix trilogy has many elements of wuxia, although the heroes and the villains of The Matrix gain their supernatural powers from a different source. Similarly, when Star Wars was released in the late 1970s, many Chinese audiences viewed it as a western wuxia movie set in a futuristic and foreign world (especially the duel between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi with lightsabers). The Star Wars prequels showed even more of a western wuxia style.
I hope I don't go on and on about this, but recently I mentioned that I thought Brokeback Mountain carried on the Wuxia tradition in Chinese arts in a new milieu, and I was just about drummed off the board. People were debating about it for days!! So, here is some information, and I would like to know what Nipith, Jenny, and all of you think about this. Wuxia=martial arts junk? or enduring archetype??
There is a long literary tradition in China called "Wuxia" that has to do with martial arts, chivalry, and historical epic storytelling. Wuxia novels and stories extend back to the early dynasties, and when the People's Revolution drove many Wuxia writers into exile the tradition was carried on in other places such as Taiwan, where Ang Lee was born. Wuxia stories have parallels to other cultures including the West. This is from Wikipedia:
“The world these heroes created for themselves has since taken on a life of its own, has become a sort of "shared world" alternate universe in which, the mundane laws of physics are suspended, and men and women of spotless virtue roam the landscape searching for fresh challenges.[11] It is a world that is so well known to all Asian creators and consumers of wuxia stories that it even has a name: jiang hu.” From Heroic Grace: The Chinese Martial Arts Film by David Chute Editor's Introduction to the catalog of the landmark touring film series curated by Cheng-Sim Lim for the UCLA Film and Television Archive, 2003.