bentley wrote:
http://chineseculture.about.com/library/gallery/hangzhou/pages/blgwlake02.htm
Theres the one Bentley
ty
I know this is not about China and not trying to compare Asian cultures, I dont know how they compare. But, tonight I was watching Jodie Foster's Anna and The King. Have any of you seen it? Do you remember it? Yes I loved the King and I too,the Yule Brenner one but I really liked this non musical version Jodie did of the true story. What I was noticing while watching it tonight, I had bought it when I found it on sale, was just how beautiful the places were that they filmed it. I loved that the first time I saw it.
This time, I looked at some of the buildings, of the palace, and the parts that I would call the pavilions on the water's edge, where they did things like at one point watch a play performed. I thought about Peony and her home and it all seemed so lovely. I want to check the credits on this and see where it was filmed, they really do look like the pavilions we see on some of those links. Two things in the movie made me think of this book, (taking a break from the movie for a minute so may be more lol) One is about death. In the movie remember how the King loved the little daughter of his,probably the best of all 68 children including the prince, and how affectinate he was to her? Remember how you never see this affection shown openly to the main wife,she is always just standing by the children. Well do you remember that the little girl gets very sick and is dying and he calls for Anna to come because the little girl is so attached to her. They tell her the little girl is dying and you hear the men who line the halls on their knees chanting prayers. This one man who is bringing Anna to them and tell her about it, says, they have begun already, they are sending up prayers to her to remind her to go to heaven. He says, this is why you must not cry when you see her, show no sadness, if you do, her spirit will see it and become attached to the sadness and stay here trying to be a comfort, you must let her go on. I don't know if that is truly what they say or do, her version was supposed to be researched. But I find that an awefully loving way to look at it and caring about the dead. Her father the king, does not show any sadness, he holds the little girl in his arms, while the mother is still off to the side in the room, in her place I guess, and he smiles at his little girl as she dies. When she is gone, then he cries over her body, holding her one last time and then gets up and leaves. The next thing you see is many down at the water at dusk sending off little boats of leaves and flowers (not wooden i dont think) all with candles in them, as they go out in the tide, hundreds of them. They never say why or what it meant but it was visually touching.
The other thing I thought about in the story, which was a big deal and I remembered it, how one who thinks their culture is so superior can inadvertantly cause such pain to another in their haste to fix things. Remember the king took one young girl to wife who was in love already. She had no choice (sound familiar?) In this version, I dont remember how it came about in the musicals, but in this one the young man sends her love letters but then sends her one saying, I cant have you so I must follow Buddha and his teachings so I am dedicating my life to him. He becomes a monk, she is desperate, nd cuts her hair and dresses as one too, to go and be with him, they are caught and of course the punishment is death for such a thing. Anna hears, feels responsible, runs into the court and proceeds to scream her protests, understandable, to the king, who tells her to stay out of it and leave but she tells him what he MUST do! In her haste, she has now condemned them for sure because A king can never be told by a woman what he MUST do, even tho he has valued her advice on things before. She doesnt trust the customs, she is angry and scared and she inadvertently caused what she was afraid was going to happen. The king tells her after their deaths,that he had a plan, he could have done something, sell her back to her family, to the young man, something but because she didnt trust him and stormed in on traditions she didnt understand, she left him with no choice, only the one he did not want to make, or he would not be seen as king to do anything else now that this woman had stood and TOLD him what he MUST do.
I thought about that a lot. I think the movie does a good job too of not only showing the love of a family, the life of Anna (cant remember her last name) who went there, but also at times, sometimes more subtlety how as a "modern english" she thought her ways better, even tho she thought the king was a fine man and he was. Its there in the way she explains some things to her son, not in a mean way at all but in what she thinks of is an enlightened way. I have to admit. Of the two characters, the young woman who had no choice and Anna who does. I think I would have been both. I think I would have been the young woman trying to escape my fate for one of my chosing and lose my head for it and I think I would have been Anna, screaming out of fear and rage without thinking first of what my actions might cause in another culture. It is a bit humbling.
Anyway, even if its a very romanticized version of the true story, I think it was better than the musicals in making you feel things and man, is the scenery beautiful! Chow Yun-Fat aint bad scenery either lol . I have liked him as an actor anyway and thought he was perfect for the part. Did any of you see it when it came out?
This time, I looked at some of the buildings, of the palace, and the parts that I would call the pavilions on the water's edge, where they did things like at one point watch a play performed. I thought about Peony and her home and it all seemed so lovely. I want to check the credits on this and see where it was filmed, they really do look like the pavilions we see on some of those links. Two things in the movie made me think of this book, (taking a break from the movie for a minute so may be more lol) One is about death. In the movie remember how the King loved the little daughter of his,probably the best of all 68 children including the prince, and how affectinate he was to her? Remember how you never see this affection shown openly to the main wife,she is always just standing by the children. Well do you remember that the little girl gets very sick and is dying and he calls for Anna to come because the little girl is so attached to her. They tell her the little girl is dying and you hear the men who line the halls on their knees chanting prayers. This one man who is bringing Anna to them and tell her about it, says, they have begun already, they are sending up prayers to her to remind her to go to heaven. He says, this is why you must not cry when you see her, show no sadness, if you do, her spirit will see it and become attached to the sadness and stay here trying to be a comfort, you must let her go on. I don't know if that is truly what they say or do, her version was supposed to be researched. But I find that an awefully loving way to look at it and caring about the dead. Her father the king, does not show any sadness, he holds the little girl in his arms, while the mother is still off to the side in the room, in her place I guess, and he smiles at his little girl as she dies. When she is gone, then he cries over her body, holding her one last time and then gets up and leaves. The next thing you see is many down at the water at dusk sending off little boats of leaves and flowers (not wooden i dont think) all with candles in them, as they go out in the tide, hundreds of them. They never say why or what it meant but it was visually touching.
The other thing I thought about in the story, which was a big deal and I remembered it, how one who thinks their culture is so superior can inadvertantly cause such pain to another in their haste to fix things. Remember the king took one young girl to wife who was in love already. She had no choice (sound familiar?
) In this version, I dont remember how it came about in the musicals, but in this one the young man sends her love letters but then sends her one saying, I cant have you so I must follow Buddha and his teachings so I am dedicating my life to him. He becomes a monk, she is desperate, nd cuts her hair and dresses as one too, to go and be with him, they are caught and of course the punishment is death for such a thing. Anna hears, feels responsible, runs into the court and proceeds to scream her protests, understandable, to the king, who tells her to stay out of it and leave but she tells him what he MUST do! In her haste, she has now condemned them for sure because A king can never be told by a woman what he MUST do, even tho he has valued her advice on things before. She doesnt trust the customs, she is angry and scared and she inadvertently caused what she was afraid was going to happen. The king tells her after their deaths,that he had a plan, he could have done something, sell her back to her family, to the young man, something but because she didnt trust him and stormed in on traditions she didnt understand, she left him with no choice, only the one he did not want to make, or he would not be seen as king to do anything else now that this woman had stood and TOLD him what he MUST do.I thought about that a lot. I think the movie does a good job too of not only showing the love of a family, the life of Anna (cant remember her last name) who went there, but also at times, sometimes more subtlety how as a "modern english" she thought her ways better, even tho she thought the king was a fine man and he was. Its there in the way she explains some things to her son, not in a mean way at all but in what she thinks of is an enlightened way. I have to admit. Of the two characters, the young woman who had no choice and Anna who does. I think I would have been both. I think I would have been the young woman trying to escape my fate for one of my chosing and lose my head for it and I think I would have been Anna, screaming out of fear and rage without thinking first of what my actions might cause in another culture. It is a bit humbling.
Anyway, even if its a very romanticized version of the true story, I think it was better than the musicals in making you feel things and man, is the scenery beautiful! Chow Yun-Fat aint bad scenery either lol
. I have liked him as an actor anyway and thought he was perfect for the part. Did any of you see it when it came out?
vivico1 wrote:
I know this is not about China and not trying to compare Asian cultures, I dont know how they compare. But, tonight I was watching Jodie Foster's Anna and The King. Have any of you seen it? Do you remember it? Yes I loved the King and I too,the Yule Brenner one but I really liked this non musical version Jodie did of the true story. What I was noticing while watching it tonight, I had bought it when I found it on sale, was just how beautiful the places were that they filmed it. I loved that the first time I saw it.
This time, I looked at some of the buildings, of the palace, and the parts that I would call the pavilions on the water's edge, where they did things like at one point watch a play performed. I thought about Peony and her home and it all seemed so lovely. I want to check the credits on this and see where it was filmed, they really do look like the pavilions we see on some of those links. Two things in the movie made me think of this book, (taking a break from the movie for a minute so may be more lol) One is about death. In the movie remember how the King loved the little daughter of his,probably the best of all 68 children including the prince, and how affectinate he was to her? Remember how you never see this affection shown openly to the main wife,she is always just standing by the children. Well do you remember that the little girl gets very sick and is dying and he calls for Anna to come because the little girl is so attached to her. They tell her the little girl is dying and you hear the men who line the halls on their knees chanting prayers. This one man who is bringing Anna to them and tell her about it, says, they have begun already, they are sending up prayers to her to remind her to go to heaven. He says, this is why you must not cry when you see her, show no sadness, if you do, her spirit will see it and become attached to the sadness and stay here trying to be a comfort, you must let her go on. I don't know if that is truly what they say or do, her version was supposed to be researched. But I find that an awefully loving way to look at it and caring about the dead. Her father the king, does not show any sadness, he holds the little girl in his arms, while the mother is still off to the side in the room, in her place I guess, and he smiles at his little girl as she dies. When she is gone, then he cries over her body, holding her one last time and then gets up and leaves. The next thing you see is many down at the water at dusk sending off little boats of leaves and flowers (not wooden i dont think) all with candles in them, as they go out in the tide, hundreds of them. They never say why or what it meant but it was visually touching.
The other thing I thought about in the story, which was a big deal and I remembered it, how one who thinks their culture is so superior can inadvertantly cause such pain to another in their haste to fix things. Remember the king took one young girl to wife who was in love already. She had no choice (sound familiar?
I thought about that a lot. I think the movie does a good job too of not only showing the love of a family, the life of Anna (cant remember her last name) who went there, but also at times, sometimes more subtlety how as a "modern english" she thought her ways better, even tho she thought the king was a fine man and he was. Its there in the way she explains some things to her son, not in a mean way at all but in what she thinks of is an enlightened way. I have to admit. Of the two characters, the young woman who had no choice and Anna who does. I think I would have been both. I think I would have been the young woman trying to escape my fate for one of my chosing and lose my head for it and I think I would have been Anna, screaming out of fear and rage without thinking first of what my actions might cause in another culture. It is a bit humbling.
Anyway, even if its a very romanticized version of the true story, I think it was better than the musicals in making you feel things and man, is the scenery beautiful! Chow Yun-Fat aint bad scenery either lol
Wow: Vivian, that really sounds good! So it was a movie?
bentley wrote:
On Lisa See's site there was a reference to footbinding and the following urls. Very amazing; it may be difficult for some to see. Be forewarned.
http://hvattum.net/index.php/2007/05/19/chinese-foot-binding
An interview, etc. (NPR) Excellent insight.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=8966942&sc=emaf
Oh my goodness. Now that I see the pictures, it's worst than I imagined.
