un pensamiento para ti...
"He aprendido que todo el mundo quiere vivir en la cima de la montaña, sin saber que la verdadera felicidad está en la forma de subir la escarpada. He aprendido que cuando un recién nacido aprieta con su pequeño puño, por vez primera, el dedo de su padre, lo tiene atrapado para siempre. He aprendido que un hombre sólo tiene derecho a mirar a otro hacia abajo, cuando ha de ayudarle a levantarse..."
~ Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Last night there was a documentary on the Discovery Channel that was entitled 'Hong Kong Cinema'. Ooo... looks interesting... Not! The documentary started off with showing clips of (what else?) Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Seriously, I've seen much better sword-fighting movies than this one. CTHD had highly unrealistic wire-works and fighting, and a sleep-inducing storyline. Ok, maybe I'm not 'artsy' enough, but don't tell me that 99% of American audiences belong to the 'artsy' sort.
After the narrator talked about how CTHD opened Western audiences to Eastern cinema (thing is, CTHD is NOT characteristic of HK sword-fighting cinema), the documentary then went about to talk about the pioneers in sword-fighting movie-making, like the actors and directors and stunt people and mainly (in fact, only) about Shaw movies. Not that it's not important. Problem is, it stops there. Truth is, to the West, Eastern cinema is only about kungfu and wuxia. And that disturbs me.
The saddest thing about Asian cinema is that the only movies getting recognition in the West(albiet in a good or bad way, I'm not sure) are those that are characterized by John Woo and Jackie Chan - kungfu, action, and unrealistic sword-fighting. Fellow Asians all know that Asian cinema is more than that, and there are many other genres where gems can be found. I'm thinking of movies like An Autumn's Tale, Cageman, The Mad Phoenix; genres like black comedy and dramas. Whatever recognition they get, instead, are remakes or horrible horrible English dubbings, like what they did with Shaolin Soccer and what they're gonna do with Infernal Affairs and My Sassy Girl (oh yes, that's Korean but think Ju-On and movies like that and u get the picture...)
Sad.
3 comments:
Actually now I could care less whether the west appreciates asian movies. I don't use to think that way. Especially when an asian film gets nominated for an oscar. I'll get all excited. Now, it's like if they can't appreciate it, too bad for them.
Asian filmmakers must develop their own market first. They must make films asians want to watch first, not what the west wants to watch. Rather than making something that flops in both markets.
So to me what's more important is whether asians appreciate the films our own filmmakers make.
I appreciate Stephen Chow's movies and he made them for Asians. Unlike Jackie Chan although he doesn't like to admit that.
Ang Lee makes very good movies, it just so happens I hate CTHD. I love Sense and Sensibility.
Zhang Yimou is in a class of his own. Hero is simply a marvel in every aspect, unfortunately not many Asians appreciated that movie.
I love many of Lee Ang's films as well, like Sense and Sensibility, the Wedding Banquet and Siao Yu. I haven't got the chance to watch The Ice Storm and Ride With the Devil though I would love to. But CTHD just doesn't resonates with me. And I HATE The Hulk.
As for Hero, I guess I'm one of those who can't appreciate it. I marvel at the use of imagery, no doubt. It was visually stunning. However, story development-wise, it was a disappointment for me. Left me kind of dissatisfied.
It's true that Asian filmmaking is not at all perfect. I would say that only 1 out of 10 movies that get churned out each year in the Asian industry can be considered excellent. Yes, Asian filmmakers must dvelop their own market first which sadly isn't the case. I'm speaking particularly in the case of HK films because I'm more familiar with that. It looks as if ideas are getting stale and filmmaking has become a mere tool to earn profits. I sometimes do get embarrassed by the trash that gets produced by HK filmmakers and remnisient about the golden age of HK movies in the late 80s and 90s where more movies (note not all, but more than what there is today) were of better quality with better acting, story-telling and direction. Nowadays, there's only one director whose films I appreciate most and that is Johhny Toh.
I guess it's just a kind of displeasure when seeing something you grew up with getting butchered by a group of audience who can't appreciate and accept the film the way it is, with the cultural backgrounds and all. If we can do the same for their productions, why can't they do the same for ours?
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