Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by jamesgarvin (A) on January 11, 2005 at 08:45:10

In Reply to: Tonight's treat - Zhang Yimou' "Happy Times" posted by Victor Khomenko on January 1, 2005 at 19:46:59:

I did like this film, though my praise would a little more muted than yours. I read Ebert's review of this film, and while I disagree with his conclusion, he raises some good questions about the film. Like, why would anyone think that a blind girl would want to be duped into thinking that she is being led into a hotel room, and providing massages to middle aged men, who pay in fake money? He goes on to wonder if the same film had been made in America, what would have been the response.

He too, apparently, was curious about whether the cultural differences between China and the United States made the subject matter more acceptable there than here. According to him, he logged onto the Chinese film datebase, located in China, and there is no reference to the film, which is most curious.

In any event, I would suggest a film called "Shower", which is a delightful human story about a group of men in China who spend their days at a suana, which is very important to the Chinese male culture, and the loss of that suana when it is razed to make room for new development. A very poignant story about the new China supplanting the old China, and that in their zeal to build, maybe they are loosing the old traditions.

A colleague of mine recently returned from a China on a three week vacation, and informed me that be believes that within fifty years China will have the biggest, and most important, economy in the world. Apparently, the level of construction and modernization taking place there dwarfs that taking place in the United States. Which adds relevance to a film like Shower.