The Flowers of War

Directed by Zhang Yimou, this epic film is about courage and sacrifice set against the ravages and horrors of war in 1937 in Nanjing, China. This film also marks the first time that a Western Actor has the lead role in a Chinese production.

The film has a limited opening playing only in a short list of select cities (just 21 theaters nationwide) beginning on Friday, January 20th, 2012.

Since it is not playing anywhere in Florida, I have to hope that it will achieve a wider distribution later on, or I’ll have to wait for the DVD to review it.

Christian Bale (an Oscar winner for The Fighter and he starred as Batman in The Dark Knight) has the lead role. He plays a traveling mortician, attending to the dead, not an adventurer, yet he’s kind of a wayfaring dissolute man who happened to find himself in Nanjing, and at the church, when the Japanese troops attacked the city in December of 1937.

By circumstances unknown to me, so I’ll call them luck and fate, he and a group of frightened Chinese Catholic schoolgirls and another group made up of a dozen beautiful courtesans, find themselves trapped inside a walled cathedral – which they hope will afford them safety from the marauding soldiers. Bale’s character, John Miller, will take up the role of the church’s priest, donning the clothing and vestments of a recently killed priest

That’s about all the set up I can provide not having seen the film. Zhang Yimou’s cinematic pedigree – Raise the Red Lantern (1991), Shanghai Triad (1995), The Road Home (2000), Hero (2002), House of Flying Daggers (2004), and Curse of the Golden Flower (2006) are amongst his best known films that have garnered interest, praise and adulation from western audiences.

He’s worked with Gong Li multiple times (at least 5 films), and with Zhang Ziyi at least three times. So he’s got the talent and the rep to attract China’s most beautiful and best known actresses.

The reviews have been mixed, but if you are attracted to Asian beauties, love going to the movies, and you live in or near LA, San Francisco, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington DC, Houston, Honolulu, Seattle, or Atlanta – then you will have an opportunity to see the film on the big screen as soon as Friday, Jan. 20th.

I will be happy to help you publish your review if you do happen to take in the film in the near future, wish to contribute a review, and you don’t already have author status on this blog. You can contact me on the Scanlover Forum via Private Message.

For interviews with Director Zhang Yimou and lead actress Ni-Ni, visit Sidewalks.

To view a calendar with The Flowers of War beauties as the models visit Beijing Shots.

The trailer for The Flowers of War is below:

He’s not only an eligible bachelor, but he revels in it. He’s unofficially – the hottest guy in the office. He’s also a male chauvinist, and his skill is in selling products to men. Girls working there fawn all over him, that is when they’re not flirting with him, or creating scenarios where they can bump into him.

On his way to the office one day – he meets a beautiful woman in the elevator. He offers to buy her a coffee, and she says she only drinks water. You can see the attraction. His for her is written all over his face, and she’s intrigued too, only she’s not so outgoing about it that you can easily tell what she’s thinking. She is Li Yu-long and she’s played by Gong Li. Lau’s Mr. Sun doesn’t know it, but she’s just been hired by his firm to become the Executive Creative Director of the firm – a position that he thought he would be promoted into that day.

After his boss, the firm’s CEO’s broke the news to him that Li got the job instead of him, he heads back to his office, where his staff had a surprise party set up for him – a celebration on his promotion. That he didn’t get. He dismisses them. Sorry guys, not today. Maybe sometime in the future.

The next morning, there’s a big meeting scheduled in the conference room to introduce this Li. Sun makes a bet with one of his buddies, that this Li, whoever she is, will look like a man. Soon after Li walks in and sits down. Sun goes over to chat her up.  He still hasn’t a clue as to who she is. He only knows that she is the woman from the elevator from yesterday. ”Oh – you also work here?‘, he says, amping up the wattage of his smile.

When Li takes off her glasses, Sun says, “You look good without your glasses.”

She replies, “You also look good … without my glasses.”

So that’s how these two – who are China’s two biggest film stars begin the 2011 romantic comedy film, What Women Want. If that title sounds familiar to you, that’s because this is a remake of the 2000 American film of the same name that starred Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt.

Well Gong Li’s character is introduced and she has a game plan at the ready. She’s been hired because the ebb and flow of money has dictated that women are now China’s biggest consumer group. So Li has prepared a box of female products for each of these male execs (most of the creative staff are men – in this agency). She wants them to get in touch with their female side, their ‘anima’ and get familiar with the products. Because that’s what they’re going to be selling going forward.

Sun then aks her if women have a male side. ‘Sure they do’ is the answer – ‘And it’s called animus’.

Okay, there’s your start – boy meets girl. She’s now his boss, and she got the job he wanted but – no problem. That night while he is experimenting with the female products – a tampon applicator, birth control pills, lipsticks, high heels. stockings, etc etc, there’s an accident and Sun suffers a severe electrical shock when a lamp falls into the tub while’s having a bath.

When he wakes up, in the hospital, to his surprise and horror, he finds he can hear in his head, whatever women are thinking. He’s not sure about it and he thinks maybe he’s mistaken. But he isn’t.

Before you know it, he’s stealing the advertising ideas that Li Yu-long is creating. He’s submitting them and he’s gaining favor with the CEO. So far this is pretty much the exact same story that Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt gave us in What Women Want circa 2000.

I’m not going to give you any more of the plot details. Suffice it to say, that with two of China’s biggest movie stars in this film, it had tremendous production values. Everything about this film was beautiful visually. Seemed to me like nothing was too costly – from the sets, to the clothes, to the apartments – even the cars were expensive, and all of it beautifully presented.

But something was missing and it was sex. Simply – there wasn’t any. Not the before, nor the after, and certainly not the ‘during’. Lau’s Sun may have had many women in his bed – but we never saw them. Closest we got to that was when his Mom, who came by make sure he got to work on time, sniffed the air in his bedroom and said, “Hmmm, Chanel, the last one wore Dior” – before finding a female panties beneath the covers. As far as Sun & Li – not only did not they not go to bed, we never even saw them in a bedroom.

So the film, which was directed by Chen Daming, is a virtual scene for scene remake of the original. The Chinese version added in a side story about Sun’s father, but otherwise it was the same. This one wasn’t quite a failure – I mean after all,the two stars are wrapped up in a sensational looking package. But most people have said that there’s a lack of chemistry. I won’t agree to that. I’ll go as far as saying – the sparks really didn’t fly. Maybe we can thank SARFT for that.

SARFT is China’s State Agency for Radio, Film, and Television. In short Big Brother is watching. So while we witnessed some desire, and the stars looked at each other with passion nearly pouring out of every pore – nothing happened. Not only did nothing happen, but we got no indications that something had happened either.

The other thing that I thought worth mentioning is that film is set in China, as well as made and performed by Chinese people. But the flavoring wasn’t the least bit Chinese. This ad agency could have been set in Manhattan or Chicago or Century City. The buildings were all glittering sky-scrapers, the apartments were all worth many millions, and no one rode the subways, or carried a lunch box. Every woman was dressed to the nines and tens.

In the end, I’d say that this was more of a coming to grips with reality for Lau’s character. Gong Li was more much more than simply an attractive woman for Lau to chase. Because as the picture plays – he’s more interested in getting the job that she got rather than having a relationship with her. Only he can’t stay that course because love does intrude. On that note – we might say that this isn’t really about what women want. Instead it is more about what Andy’s Sun Zi Gang wants.

By the way, if you care to gaze at Gong Li and Andy for about 90 minutes, you can see this via Netflix streaming. Below is a trailer for the film.

In 2005, Lisa See wrote a novel called Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. This book would become a best seller. In the book, a character describes a laotong thusly: A laotong relationship is made by choice for the purpose of emotional companionship and eternal fidelity. The book opens with the following sentence:

I am what they call in our village “one who has not yet died.”

The speaker of these words is an 80 year old widow. She’s outlived her husband, and her future is limited. So she spends much of her remaining time looking at her past, filtered by memories that are hers alone, or those memories shared with her laotong.

From those 14 words, the story of a specific laotong would be told. The novel is more than 250 pages long, and in 2011, this story will be released as a motion picture. The director is Wayne Wang, who also directed the film version of the Amy Tang novel – The Joy Luck Club.

The film stars Li Bingbing, Gianna Jun, Vivian Wu, and Hugh Jackman. Filming began in China in early 2010. The North American film rights have been acquired by Fox Searchlight Films, and the planned release date in the US is July 15th.

The storyline as described by Fox Searchlight films:

In 19th-century China, seven year old girls Snow Flower and Lily are matched as laotong – or “old sames” – bound together for eternity. Isolated by their families, they furtively communicate by taking turns writing in a secret language, nu shu, between the folds of a white silk fan. In a parallel story in present day Shanghai, the laotong’s descendants, Nina and Sophia, struggle to maintain the intimacy of their own childhood friendship in the face of demanding careers, complicated love lives, and a relentlessly evolving Shanghai. Drawing on the lessons of the past, the two modern women must understand the story of their ancestral connection, hidden from them in the folds of the antique white silk fan, or risk losing one another forever.

From the looks of the trailer, this film will be very special. I have every intention of seeing it and enjoying it.

“Our destinies are tied forever. We will be laotong – sisters for 10,000 years.”

Though this film was produced in China, it is an English language film. Originally Zhang Ziyi was to star in the lead role, but a scheduling conflict caused her to back out.

The China Lover

The subject of the novel, or maybe it should be called a historical-fiction book based on real life events, is Yoshiko Yamaguchi who was also known as Shirley Yamaguchi, Li Xianglan, and Ri Kouran. Yoshiko was born in Manchuria in 1920 to Japanese parents.

Following the Sino-Japanese War. The Japanese had set up a puppet Manchurian government. By the late 1930′s, she’d grown into a very pretty and talented young woman who soon caught the eyes of the Japanese working there. Yamaguchi wanted more than anything else to be a singer and a movie star.  The Japanese believed they had struck gold with this talented young woman, because she was fluent in both Mandarin and Japanese. Her movie career began and her career seemed to be fast tracked. But there was a problem.

Yamaguchi, was asked to pose as a Chinese girl by her Japanese handlers. Though born in China, and raised in China, she was Japanese. She was even given a Chinese name, Li Xianglan, to attract the Chinese audiences.

The agent makes a pitch to the director

As I said above, she wanted to be a star. But her films were in actuality propaganda pieces. Yes, even in 1940, the terms ‘win the hearts and minds‘ was in full use; nearly 30 years before this term was used by the United States in their efforts in Viet Nam. The roles she played under the name of Li Xianglan were all about Chinese girls falling in love with Japanese men. This was part of the propaganda plan that the Japanese used to help the Chinese to begin thinking of the Japanese occupation as beneficial and paternalistic.

But there was a lot of pressure on her. She found it difficult to live under an assumed identity. She chafed about having to act Chinese when she was really Japanese. As the pressure mounted, Yamaguchi realized she’d never be a star in  her own right. She also realized that she was a political instrument, though she hadn’t realized it at first. She threatened to quit. She was told to forget those notions and get back to work. When again she threatened to quit, she was told no chance. Back to work and shut up.

making nice to the military

But the Chinese were not fooled. When one particular role showed Ri Kouran as a Chinese woman was being beaten, belittled and abused by the Japanese character, a huge controversy arose.  The Chinese resentment about the Japanese rapidly and publicly increased. When Japan was ultimately defeated in WWII, the Japanese plans for China were publicly reviled as simple global aggression. Li Xianglan/ Ri Kouran/Yoshiko Yamaguchi was arrested by the Chinese and charged with treason and collaborating with the Japanese. She was on trial for her life. She ultimately revealed that she was in fact a Japanese and not a Chinese National and was cleared.

A promo image for the TV Series

But that’s not even close to the end of her story. After the war, Ri Kouran relocated back to Japan and relaunched another film career. She caught the attention of Hollywood and came to the USA and starred in a few films. She even did a Broadway musical in New York. She would later marry the famed Japanese-American architect Isamu Noguchi.

A scene from within a movie from a scene in the TV drama

When that marriage floundered in the middle 1950′s they divorced and Yamaguchi went back to Japan. Once more she launched another career, this time as a TV News anchor and talk show host. She became successful in this phase as a crusading TV journalist. This lead to her marriage to a Japanese diplomat Hiroshi Otaka.

Ri Kouran at a live performance meeting an old friend from the audience

In 1974, she was elected to the Japanese Parliament and she served for 18 years (3 terms). This was certainly a thrilling life. One that a film writer or novelist did not create. nor even dream of creating, yet, Yoshiko Yamaguchi actually lived it.

Buruma’s novel is this same story told through the eyes and ears of three different and separate men who came into contact with her at various stages of her life. Buruma’s book has a ctreative and interesting structure to it. One woman’s story as told over a 50 year period,  by three separate men is not something you read very often.

But the story of Yoshiko still has more to it. A Japanese tv mini-series called Ri Kouran was produced and aired in February 2007. All of the images, other than book jackets and another TV production, are of Aya Ueto and are from the DVD made from the Japanese TV series production.

Meisa as Kawashima with Ri Kouran as a supporting character

There was In fact, a second tv series involving Yamaguchi that was produced and that aired in 2008. It was called Dansou no reijin. Meisa  Kuroki starred as Yoshiko Kawashima, a woman in the military during the Japanese occupation who befriended Ri Kouran.

Ueto looks gorgeous in the period costumes, and I simply could not resist sharing them. The Youtube below is a music video of the Ueto song Namida no Niji which will show you some small segments from the Ri Kouran TV show mixed with the new music.

When I saw this bit of news this morning, I couldn’t believe it. But not only does Anri Suzuki have a doctorate in history, but as a way to apologize for the Japanese invasion of China, she has been offering free sex sessions to the Chinese students who are studying in Japan. While focused on the Japanese invasion of China, Anri was shocked to learn about her country’s past, so she’s atoning for those past wrongdoings by offering sexual compensation.

If I was a Chinese student studying there, I would take her up on this offer in a heartbeat. You’d be silly not to. But I hope that this bit of news brings some attention to the readers here who are also unaware of the Japanese invasion of China, which is a history that doesn’t get much attention and when the Japanese government has repeatedly try to deny and remove from textbooks.

Links:
Free sex for China to apologize @ Korea Times
Anri Suzuki @ Softcore Sanctuary
Second Sino-Japanese War @ Wikipedia | Nanking Massacre @ Wikipedia

The story basics start with three characters, Wai-Tung and Simon, a gay male couple, living in Manhattan, and Wei-Wei, a beautiful struggling artist who is a tenant in a rental apartment property in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, that is owned by the portfolio diverse Wai-Tung.

Wai-Tung has not told his parent that he is gay. Said parents continue to harangue him about getting married and presenting them with grandchildren. And Wei-Wei is facing deportation from the US unless she can marry an American.

Well, Wai-tung is a naturalized American citizen, so a ‘marriage’ of convenience between he and Wei-Wei is designed by the threesome. This should allow Wai-Tung and Simon to continue as they wish, and Wei-Wei would then be granted a green-card to allow her stay in the US. Or so they thought. Wai-tung announces this to his parents in Taipei, and to his shock and dismay, they promptly announce that they are flying in to meet the bride, and arrange the wedding, as a civil ceremony only just won’t do.

So the structure of the funny and yet heartwarming film is set in motion. We watch in glee as various subterfuges are created to deceive Wai-tung’s Taiwanese parents;  the father a retired Army General, and his mother, a very proper Chinese matron.

Wei-Wei and Wai-Tung

One of the film’s tag-lines is: A little deception at the reception. Another tagline is: Everyone at the wedding wanted to kiss the bride – except the groom.

Wai-Tung

Ang Lee has done a marvelous job with the script, which he co-authored with Neil Peng and James Schamus. The production is quite sumptuous and looks far better than you would expect from a production budget of less than a million dollars.

The grand plan is conceived

As for the cast, Winston Chao portrays Wai-Tung. This was his first role as a movie actor. And he turns in an excellent performance as a man who is struggling to be happy himself as well as making his parent happy. He’s caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place: his own sexuality, and his desire to placate his parents.

Wei-Wei and Wai-Tung, along with Simon, meet the parents

Simon, is played by Mitchell Lichtenstein, and he is truly the odd-man out. As Wai-Tung’s significant other, he is always around and he needs to be presented (to the parents) as an integral part of Wai-Tung’s life, yet the actual truth cannot be revealed.

Finally, there is the gorgeous Wei-Wei who is played by the beautiful Taiwanese pop-star, May Chin. Her role is the most precarious because she knows Wai-Tung is gay, and she knows that the marriage is a sham, and despite this, she develops strong feelings towards him. It is way more than a crush.

The honeymoon begins: maybe...

There you have it. This is not La Cage aux Folles, despite beginning in a somewhat similar mode. The film is enjoyable and easily crosses cultural and sexual lines, and is very accessible to all adult viewers, Chinese or American, gay or straight, as well as those looking for a film that has a comedic side as well as a dramatic side.

“In America, I will have a daughter just like me. But over there, nobody will say her worth is measured by the loudness of her husband’s belch. Over there, nobody will look down on her because I will make her speak only perfect American English. And over there, she will always be too full to swallow any sorrow.

The recent post on this blog about Ming-na Wen brought to mind her role as June Woo in the wonderful film adaption of the Amy Tan novel, The Joy Luck Club. The novel’s pedigree is impeccable. Published by G.P. Putnam & Sons in 1989, the book was on the New York Times best seller list for more than six months, it has been translated into more than 35 languages, and has sold in excess of 30 million copies world wide since its original publication more than 20 years ago.

After Amy Tan had a lengthy three day meeting with screenplay writer Ron Bass and movie director Wayne Wang, where they hashed out how the novel would be adapted into a movie, the three of them made a pact that they would not sell the book’s movie rights, or the screenplay, unless the studio gave them total creative control, meaning they would control the screenplay, the choice of location and actors, the filming, the editing, all the way up to and including the final cut.

They got their deal from Hollywood Pictures, with Oliver Stone listed as Executive Producer. And what a sweet deal it was; beyond being granted total creative control, which is nearly impossible to get in the movie industry, in addition to their screenwriting credits, Amy and Ron were also given co-producer status which likely gave them participation in the film’s profits.

Basically, The Joy Luck Club might be called a multi-generational film about the relationships between mothers and daughters. Simplifying even further, this film has been called a chick-flick, a woman’s picture, or a tear jerker about immigrant Chinese women and their American-born daughters. But while these labels are not incorrect, they’re over-simplifications. I mean who says multi-generational family films are limited to Chinese people. And where is it written that family relationships are restricted to mothers and daughters.

In my view, the book and the film transcend those arbitrary labels. I believe that relationships are universal and are not limited by ethnicity nor gender. All of you who are reading this were once children, and many of us today are parents, so I am sure you can connect with this film.

June played by Ming-na Wen

Think about this.  By the time you are well into your thirties, your parents are already middle aged or about to become elderly. How much do you know about their childhoods, or their teen years, their relationships with their parents, or even their adult years before you were born to them?

Lauren Tom as Lena

Have you ever thought about how your parents’ life experiences have influenced you, and will continue to do so throughout your own life?

JLC is about four Chinese women who left hardships, travails, and tragedies behind them as they arrived in San Francisco prior to the Chinese Revolution in the late 1940′s. They found friendships, then husbands and began families in their new adopted country, America. As each of them had daughters, they struggled to impart to their daughters their experiences and wisdom, their hopes, and their good wishes.

Rose as portrayed by Rosalind Chao

But daughters (and sons) can be rebellious. Daughters as well as sons can opt to not really put too much stock into what Mom said about what happened in another country, a very different country than their present-day America, and from a time so very long ago. And out of this comes parent-child friction and resentment.

Wavery (Tamlyn Tomita) is telling her mother for the 1st time that she is living with a man named Rich who Lindo (the Mom) has never met

The four older women met regularly to share stories, to commiserate, to enjoy food, and to play the ancient game of Mah-jongg where a turn of the tiles might bring joy or luck. They called themselves the Joy Luck Club.

from left to right: June, Waverly, Lindo, Ying Ying, Lena, An Mei & Rose

The frame work of the film is that all of the remaining members of the Joy Luck Club (Lindo, Ying Ying, and An Mei and their extended families,  met for the occasion of a send-off party for June (Ming-na Wen – below)

the daughter of Suyuan who recently died (four months before the film begins). June, who  has been asked to replace her mother Suyuan as the 4th at the mah-jongg table,  will be off to China to meet her older twin half sisters for the first time. Until very recently, June did not not know she had these siblings. And those girls in China,

had no idea about their real mother Suyuan, who long ago, was forced to abandon them as infants by the roadside while fleeing from the war, because she thought she was so sick that she was going to die, and no one would save infants unlucky enough to have a dead mother beside them. To our modern sensibilities, this seems surreal, and beyond possibility, but in the context of the times and place, we can and do understand it even though we might not support it. Only Suyuan doesn’t die. She’s found and taken to a hospital and saved. Eventually she makes it to the new world, America. And the twins don’t die either.

Top Left & clockwise: Lindo now, Lindo at 15 being told by her own mother that she is to be married into a neighbor's family, and would be sent to them immediately, a few years later Lindo's unconsummated marriage ends as her 'husband' was only 10 at the time of the wedding, Lindo's grown American daughter Waverly

The other JLC members have their own stories, and secrets, about their relationships with their own mothers and their early lives (pre-America). Some are tragic, or heartbreaking. Some discuss bravery, sacrifice, and devotion. And some of these stories, still simmering years later, still impact the relationship between these now senior citizen women and their modern American daughters.

From left An Mei (Lisa Lu) and Ying Ying (France Nuyen)

Through the use of flashbacks and stories told and stories heard, we learn about each of these women and the 4 modern now adult American Chinese women who are the daughters of these Chinese immigrants. We see them and learn of their struggles as children and as adults. We also see the remaining now elderly Chinese immigrants as children, or young adults in China,

Ying Ying now and Ying Ying back then

Left -Ying Ying, played by Feihong Yu, faces her husband who has brought his mistress into their home, Right - Ying Ying after drowning her own infant son, taking from her husband that which he cared about most...

and we are told of their struggles and misfortunes. We learn of the hardships that their own mothers had to endure.

Clockwise from top left: An Mei now, her daughter Rose, An Mei as a young woman, An Mei's mother played by Vivian Wu

But the wonder of the film is how well these stories fit together. How one flows into the next one or how it so smoothly followed the one that came before it. Yes, this is contrived to a degree, but this is only a two hour eighteen minutes movie, not a daily television drama series that has been running for years.

Vivian Wu as An Mei's mother

Why am I bringing you a look at this film? This is the Asian Beauty Appreciation Blog, and with certainty I can say that this film was beautifully made, and there are a number of Asian beauties on screen in the film.

Above Top and above - Lauren Tom as Lena, Ying Ying's American daughter. She worked for her husband in his firm. His earnings were 7 times what she made, yet he billed her for half of every household expense meaning that despite the differences in earnings, her miserly husband forced this 'equality' on her.

But this is not the sole reason. As I said above, the stories and emotions are universal. We’ve all fought with our parents or our children. Who we are now has a direct connection to the experiences of our parents. Who our children become has a direct relationship with who we are.

Tamlyn Tomita as Waverly Jong, Lindo's daughter

There are many memorable quotes from the film which I could share with you, to give you a feel for the film beyond the beautiful actresses. Try this one first:

An-Mei  played by Lisa Lu, says to her daughter Rose who is played by Rosalind Chao:

“I tell you the story because I was raised the Chinese way. I was taught to desire nothing, to swallow other people’s misery, and to eat my own bitterness. And even though I taught my daughter the opposite, still she came out the same way. Maybe it is because she was born to me and she was born a girl, and I was born to my mother and I was born a girl, all of us like stairs, one step after another, going up, going down, but always going the same way ... “

... all of us like stairs, one step after another, going up, going down, but always going the same way ...

Or this exchange between Suyuan played by Kieu Chinh and her then 9 year old daughter June:

Too late to change this...

June : You want me to be someone I’m not. I’ll never be the kind of daughter that you want me to be.
Suyuan: Only two kinds of daughter: obedient or follow-own-mind. Only one kind of daughter could live in this house: obedient kind.
June: Then I wish I wasn’t your daughter. I wish you weren’t my mom.
Suyuan: Too late to change this.

After fighting for what seems like hours, we find Lindo  played by Tsai Chin and her daughter Waverly at the beauty parlor on the eve of Waverly’s wedding, her second marriage.  How about this passionate statement to Lindo from Waverly who is portrayed by the stunning Tamlyn Tomita:

Waverly Jong: You don’t know, you don’t know the power you have over me. One word from you, one look, and I’m four years old again, crying myself to sleep, because nothing I do can ever, ever please you…

After a moment, a smile began to creep onto Lindo’s face,  and then she said, “Now … now you make me happy …”

The hurt and the regret melted away into smiles and laughter because in that moment the anger crystallized into love when the mother heard the magic words that her daughter was still trying her best to please her.

And one last one between June played as an adult by Ming-Na Wen, and her Mom, Suyuan:

June Woo: I’m just sorry that you got stuck with such a loser, that I’ve always been so disappointing.
Suyuan: What you mean disappoint? Piano?
June Woo: Everything: my grades, my job, not getting married, everything you expected of me.
Suyuan: Not expect anything! Never expect! Only hope! Only hoping best for you. That’s not wrong, to hope.

Never expect! Only hope!

Beautifully performed, and beautifully written. A very worthwhile way to spend a few hours. I’ll close with this. I took my Mom to see this film in 1993. At the end of the film, June meets her long lost twin half sisters for the first time on the pier in Shanghai.

June can speak some Putonghua (Mandarin). They cannot speak English. But the emotionality of this meeting was so strong and powerful, as June had to tell them that their Mother had died which they didn’t know thanks to Lindo’s false letter, that nearly everyone in the movie theater must have teared up. I mean you could hear it clearly, a hundred times over,  across the filled theater. A few days ago, when I watched this film again, 17 years after seeing it that one and only time, once more my own tears flowed.

I don’t get the opportunity to watch much television these days, but I might have to start watching Stargate Universe after finding out a couple of days ago that Ming-Na is a part of the cast.

Ming-Na is one of those few actresses that I need to check out whatever she is in because not only is she talented, but beautiful as well. She now stars on Stargate Universe as Camile Wray who is a human resources officer and part of a group that becomes marooned on an ancient starship on an unknown course that is billions of light years from Earth.

Ming-Na is also the first Asian American actress to play a lesbian character on cable or network television. So not only does her character have to deal with possibly never returning home, but also leaving behind her partner Sharon played by Reiko Aylesworth.

Below, I embedded the trailer and two other videos. I used to watch Stargate when it first became a syndicated television series back in the 90′s, so I will give this new series a try. New episodes air on Friday, April 2 on SyFy. You can also watch some episodes online via their website, so if you are interested, be sure to check it out.

Links:
Ming-Na @ Celebrity Channel
Ming-Na @ IMDB
Ming-Na @ Twitter
Stargate Universe @ SyFy
Stargate Official Site

As general Wang Sheng fights his way through, he comes upon a graceful and stunning beauty (Xun Zhou) amid the dirty bandits. She lies barely covered by an animal pelt next to a murdered man and as the general makes his appearance, she is noticeably intrigued by him. He carries her to safety and as his army make their way back, a lone lizard looks on almost as an omen as the titles come up.

At the army’s return to their city, Wang Sheng’s wife Chen Peirong (Wei Zhao) appears and is instantly and understandably wary of the young looking Xiaowei’s proximity to her husband. This early sense of danger leads her to future revelations regarding the newly rescued damsel.

As evening settles, two new visitors make their appearances not only on the unsuspecting town but the minds and memories of Wang Sheng and Peirong.

First the army chases down a dangerous and stealthy killer but as he vanishes, a familiar soul is waiting outside the city gate. It turns out to be the former army general Pang Yong. He had turned his back on his legion two years prior when the woman he loved married Wang instead, and has since been a drifter and vagabond. As thoughts weigh heavy on Wang’s mind, his wife attempts to console him and they end up making love but afterward Wang awakes suddenly after having a wet dream of Xiaowei. These ominous dreams continue as they slowly change his attitude towards her.

Zhou Xun

Brother Yong awakes the next morning, visibly experiencing a hangover and leaves despite everyone’s invitations. He makes his way to a neighboring town where he attempts to find future drunken solace in a local restaurant.

There he meets a young woman by the name of Xia Bin who shares her meal with him. I initially wanted to review this film for the beauty of Xun Zhou and Wei Zhao but then another appears in Betty Sun Li .

Her look is dressed down to give off a rough and tough tomboy charm as she is a Demon Buster on the look out for a cunning fox spirit/demon who her grandfather hunted at one time. Her skills soon come into play as Peirong enters the establishment and explains to her former love Yong how she suspects Xiaowei to be a demon set out to part her from Wang. Bin and Yong eventually team up to unmask the demon but this is not the only union to come from this section of the film.

As a demon, Xiaowei wears human skin as we wear clothes, but it ages quickly and must be sustained by the eating of human hearts. For this dirty little task she employs a lizard demon, the stealthy killer mentioned earlier, who obviously loves and worships her.

Betty Sun Li

As the plot thickens and the hunt continues, a discrepancy in Xiaowei’s background is called in to question. This allows Yong and Bin to enter Wang’s household and watch her more closely, causing her to speed up her plans to become the general’s wife. Her new plot not only puts Peirong in mortal danger but Wang’s loyalty to his wife is severely tested. This is where the final battle is staged and the final love is chosen. The fantasy element of the film is done well with decent special effects and fitting set and costume design.

At first I was turned off by the cinematography for it is not aesthetically impressive, but this aids in not focusing too much on the beauty of the setting but more on the story and weaving turns of the plot. The editing at times makes the film feel rushed but to a certain extent this is a plus, so the viewer doesn’t have to deal with a 120-150 minute film but instead a mere 100 minutes. Painted Skin has its faults in a lower than average production value but makes up for this by focusing more on an entertaining story than on sparkling visuals.

Director: Jingle Ma
Cast: Louis Koo, Cherrie Ying, Tats Lau
Synopsis: He’s great looking. She’s gorgeous. They meet in Beijing, China, and it looks like love will blossom. Or will it? This isn’t boy meets girl, boy loses girl. Instead this is boy meets girl, then boy can’t remember girl.
Tagline:
Classification: Romantic Comedy
Release date: April 10, 2003
Running time: 97 minutes
Language: Cantonese or Mandarin with English and Chinese subtitles
Studio website:
Links: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379975
Categories: Comedy, Romance

I wonder if ideas are just floating around in the atmosphere like radio waves waiting to be found. For example, on February 13, 2004 (just in time for Valentine’s Day) a rom/com called 50 First Dates was released in the United States. This followed the April 10th, 2003 release of a rom/com called Why Me Sweetie? (aka Sat Yik Gaai Lui Wong) which was shot in Beijing, China, and released first in Hong Kong.

I am fairly certain that the former did not play theatrically in Asia except for Japan, and that the latter did not get a theatrical release stateside.

But looking at the DVD cover of Why Me Sweetie?, you can see the legend: The film that inspired the Adam Sandler comedy 50 First Dates. Ok, maybe that’s just savvy marketing, or maybe ideas are tuned in, action is taken, and then the idea goes back into the atmosphere and becomes available again for someone else to select at a later date.

50 First Dates starred Adam Sandler in pursuit of Drew Barrymore. She had memory issues, so each time he met her, it was like a first date. Got that? Why Me Sweetie starred Hong Kong heart throbs Louis Koo and Cherrie Ying and it was the same story, only in this case, Koo had the memory problem which they called Selective Memory Disorder.

Since I’d much prefer to look at Cherrie Ying than Adam Sandler, we shall do a review of Why Me Sweetie which was directed by Jingle Ma.

Right out of the box, I’m going to tell you that despite the glossy look to the film itself, and the decided eye-candyness of both Ying and Koo, this is not a great film.

It has its moments, and the images are beautiful. But neither the script nor the performances by the stars are really that good.

A little back story first: Ying’s character, called DingDing, is an ABC (American born Chinese) in Beijing studying acting at a university. Koo’s character is called Dong. He runs a very successful bake shop in town. But he is even more successful at attracting women. And why not? Even if he had a great memory he’d have trouble keeping track of the bevy of women that he’s dated.

But he does have the memory disorder, so he dates you today, and doesn’t recognize you tomorrow. DingDing finds this out the hard way of course. But there’s a Greek Chorus type of character that appears and fills in the details for us. This would be Dr. Chie played by Tats Lau.

He’s known Dong forever, so he gives DingDing and us the lowdown. An old girlfriend tragically died. She happened to look just like DingDing. So the plan will be to get Dong to remember loving the old girl friend to get him to love the new girl friend. Got that?

Yes, it is a rom/com device with all the substance of cellophane, and lack of substance is nothing new for the genre. Okay – we don’t dwell in spoilers here, announced or otherwise, so that’s as far as we’ll go plot wise.

Koo certainly has the looks for romantic leads, and he has a flair for romantic comedies. Ying is so good looking I’d be happy watching her read a newspaper.

But the script works like a pendulum swinging bacl and forth between funny and dramatic. In other words, the problem is that the film doesn’t know what it wants to be, so it attempts both.

And ultimately, this is what makes the film neither a hit nor a miss. You will likely pull the DVD out of the player when it’s over, and feel charmed by Koo and Ying. And the next day, you’ll remember the beauty of the leads in detail but for the film itself – selective memory disorder is likely to kick in.