Movies....and its message

I was invited to a movie by a friend. She said it was a movie by Michelle Chong. So I asked what's the title of the movie...and it is "3 Peas in a Pod".

We arrived at the cinema to realize that it was opening night and needless to say the casts were there and companies who booked various Halls to entertain their customers/ friends. I was curious and without much expectation I sat through the show.

The three young casts were truly armatures and there is nothing wrong with it. When you are young, you get away with anything. It dawned on me that GOSH! what sort of Mandarin is a Singaporean girl speaking. A new style of Singapore Chinese slang? A bit weird to me. The storyline is no different - boy like girl and girl like another boy.

Actually if you asked me whether I like the show... I will say NO! NO! NO! I do not know what message is Michelle driving at? I am surprised that Australia Tourism Board support this show...giving Michelle face? or desperately trying to show off this Kangaroo Island. Beautiful scenery with a distorted story...a suicide at sunrise???!!!

I am picking flaws. I think the whole movie is really a distorted one. Three beautiful young students just completed Uni, beginning of life with a beautiful friendship ends up one suicides, two break off as friends.

The worst, the suicide have to take place on Kangaroo Island at a place called Prospect Hill. What a place to die and at sunrise. What prospect does this movie have? The breaking of dawn is the start of a new day and a new beginning and it started with death!

What message is given to young adults who watched the movie...that life is cheap? Being a young adult, there are many possibilities that this movie can end. The movie can celebrates another phrase of life i.e passing out from Uni to a new world of opportunities. It can also celebrates a life long friendship which ended with the three friends meeting together again in their retired age.

Anyway the person directing the show gives me an insight on her, she had distorted views. She is full of negative energy and some parts of her are not happy. All laughter do not mean that person is happy or most important peaceful. If a person cannot be peaceful with herself and her surroundings, how can she produces something that is positive.

I wasted my time on this movie, even though it is free. I could have invested my time in better movies. I ended up negative tooooo...... with so many negative remarks! Remember.....Message....is.....contagious! I caught it from “3 Peas In A Pod”.

For information, I have actually written this post long ago and should have posted it immediately but I do not want to explode at that point of time...give face to the 3 young actors, not the director!

Journey to the West

…. is a great classic Chinese literature written around 16th Century. The said author was Wu Chen En and I give kudos to him as to how did he fabricated such an entertaining, magical and successful novel?

 

When people refer to the title, people cannot help but remember the Monkey God, SiWu Kong. The story circled around a Monk and his three disciples – the Monkey, Pig and Sandy. The white horse is actually a Prince of the Dragon family. 

 

This Classic has been made into movies, TV series and of course translated into simplified Chinese version as well as English books. It never fails to mesmerize the audiences and the readers with episodes of battles between good and evils. There are many characters in the story of animals spirits that after practicing of hundreds and thousand of years can turned into human and have magical powers. All these creatures craved to eat a piece of the Monk's flesh because it will give immortality.

 

It was said that the Monk, named XuanZhang did really existed. He was send by the Tang Emperor to India to bring back teachings of the Buddha so that it can benefit the people of China. During those days, travelling is by foot or horse and it takes months or years to move from one place to another.

 

My friend’s late father said that there are two possibilities and I believe many people think alike. The story was written by XuanZhang. Since he was on a spiritual journey and stopped at many places, he must have met many kind of people – the kind, the wise, the spiritual, the wicket, the cruel, the immortal etc. Instead of directly referring to them, he used different animals to represent these people and weaved a story around them. XuanZhang has a Royal Pass given by the Emperor so he was also the Diplomat of China at that time. He collected stories of various lands, culture and people and these will be stories that he will repeat to the Tang Emperor. To me this possibility is somewhat farfetched. To Buddhists practioners especially monks, they spent most of their time on spiritual learning and meditation so to write such stories is time wasting as it will not bring about Enlightenment. 

On the other hand, I felt that the possibility of Wu Chen En writing it was higher. The Author left his home town for Imperial Examination in the Capital. He was a filial son and his mother who lived her life in the village requested him to record what he saw on the way and tell her when he returned. Apparently the scholar passed the Imperial Examination and became an Imperial Officer. On his way home, he suddenly remembered his promised to his mother and fabricated these stories to entertain her.

 

Other than the literature, the Theme Song of Journey to the West is another Classic. No Journey to the West does not use this music score. Just by listening to the music/song you know the name to the movie immediately. Like the Classic Theme Song of Butterfly Lovers, this is another fantastic score. 

The title of the Theme Song is ‘May I asked where is the Path’. I love the music and the lyrics. I shall share this irreplaceable song next time when I decided to post music.

 

“Dare I asked where is the Path…the Path is beneath our feet…..”

 

The above picture is taken from the Internet and credit goes to the Artists/ Studio who created such beautiful animated character of the novel. Thank you.

Through the Eye of Movies....

Because of my interest in fairy tales, supernatural beings of ghosts and vixens, magical effect and most of all the education and moral teachings behind every story, I watched a movie on my DVD. The movie titled - Painted Skin or Hua Pi (画皮) in Chinese.

This story arrived from the popular Chinese Classic 'Liao Chai Zhi Yu' or in short 'Liao Chai'. This classic contained various stories about supernatural beings and human beings. The author was known to have used such to show the various sides to human characters and weakness and how some human are even scarier than ghosts or vixen.

For 1-1/2 hours I was engulfed in the emotions between human and demons - the love, loyalty, temptation, trust and friendship were all carefully planned. It moves the heart.

It has been a long time since I saw Donnie Zhen Zi Dan. He always reminded me of martial art expert that he acted in many shows. However in Painted Skin he is a sentimental general who loves Zhao Wei. He left the army because of her and he returned in time to protect her from demon(Vixen) Zhou Xun. Such unfailing love/ and platonic relationship do not need too many words to express.

Zhou Xun acted as the hearts eating demon vixen. She needs to eat this to keep herself young. She fell in love with Zhoa Wei's husband Chen Kun. I admire her for her unfailing determination to get the man she loves. Finally she sacrificed her 1000 years of Tao practices that enable her to turn into human form to save the man she loves. The first time I saw Zhou Xun was in 'Perhaps Love' with Takashi Kaneshiro.

Zhao Wei is the wife of the general and the man who fell for the demon. In Chinese virtues, she is a good wife. She knew from the instinct of a woman that the demon/vixen came for her husband. She tried to warn him but he did not believe her. She has to seek help from Donnie. Finally she is willing to sacrifice herself in exchange for her man’s safety. Zhao Wei is famous because of Huan Chu Ker Ker and her hyper character in that series stagnant her role as always being noisy and talkative. However in this movie, she is a 180 degree changed in character which is refreshing.

Qi YiWu, the boy from China who makes it to the television screen in Singapore. He has gone from 'square box' to the big screen. When I first saw him in Singapore made series, I told my friends that this actor will make it big. He did. He acted in 881 and 12 Lotus, both a Singapore box office production. Both movies were very successful as it depicted the life in Singapore in the early 1960s. However in Painted Skin he was the Lizard Demon who loves Zhou Xun dearly. He killed and collected hearts for his love. He finally died fighting to prove to his demon/vixen that human and demon can never be together. I love his makeup in this movie...he looked different with the silver hair and scaled face.

Chen Kun..someone I am not familiar with. I saw some shorts of him in series but he did not attract me. He has very tanned look and I find him funny acting in ancient Chinese drama. He looks a misfit. However in this show he is the General - Zhoa Wei's husband and Zhou Xun's (demon) heart love. Both women are willing to die for him. At time when I see movies like this or in real life stories... I really hate such man! WHY...must they be so privilege to be sandwiched between two women and let them fight over him? I also think that women are so SAD. WHY must they kill each other just for a man and they do not know whether this man really love them? Chen Kun in this show exhibits the weakness of men - he married Zhoa Wei out of love and remains loyal to her because she is his wife. On the other hand, he loves Zhou Xun the demon! I hate him when he did not believe his wife. With his stupidity, he caused a few of his loyal followers’ hearts being eaten by the demon.

On the other hand, Sun Li acted as the demon catcher. She is another China actress (all the three actresses in this movie are from China). Given time, this girl will make it big too.

Thus..summarizing the story - the demon vixen gave up her inner energy to save the life/lives of the man she loves and his people. With this energy gone, she turned back into a vixen. The man and his people lived happily ever after. That is the different…the greatness of a vixen demon and the selfishness of human's love.

I normally just enjoy the movie and leave the critics to do all the ratings.