Dudes. Oh my dudes.
Last night, in recognition of Adam's (sister's roommate-slash-boyfriend) birthday, we graced the AMC 25 at 42nd Street to see "Curse of the Golden Flower." (Afterward, we went up to their apartment in Washington Heights and played "Gears of War" on his new XBox360. I only mention it because I am terrible at console games [thumb issues {also don't touch-type...COINCIDENCE?}] and eventually actually found myself not embarrassing myself around every corner that night.)(Merely every-other corner.) How was this movie, America inquires with fervent anticipation...?
Bad.
So bad.
It was bad.
Now, I confess that I may be missing the point here, somewhat. It's always difficult to be entirely well-informed about the creative products of cultures one is not necessarily a part of. (China, in my case, for instance.) Perhaps this movie was actually a brilliant send-up of a semi-obscure form of technicolored water-torture that the folks out east engage in for entertainment purposes. Maybe the dialogue was rife with puns, analogy and metaphysical ponderances, but the donkeys who translated it for us have the collective IQ of one-and-a-half...er...donkeys. Maybe I missed the point.
I doubt it, though.
It seemed to me to be a movie that eschewed convention and decided to accomplish very little with a whole lot. It seemed to me to be a weird blend of quasi-kung-fu/art film, with Beijing Opera added for eye-bleeding visuals. It seemed to me that Shakespeare might have stolen from it for one of his tragedies, then thrown away the draft and pounded his ink-stained hand to his already-balding head and muttered "Even Titus moved better than this stuff." It seemed, to sum up, like a complete waste of time.
But my sister liked it.
Oddly enough, I just received an emailed response to my request for feedback on myself as an "artist." David Zarko has always given me excellent advice on my craft, and an opportunity presented itself to ask him for an update on his opinion on me, where I was and where he thought I ought to go. To sum up his critique in my own words, he feels I should do what I can to work with simple, vulnerable aspects of myself, rather than a certain priority he sees in me to entertain or make beauty with my acting.
It's a matter of opinion (and very limited one, since so few have seen enough of my work to have a reasonable one) but I agree with him. I only wonder if the crew behind "CotGF" might heed such advice...
