telophase: (Default)
telophase ([personal profile] telophase) wrote2005-05-23 10:38 am

(no subject)

Random things:

One day I will learn that staying up until 1:30 AM on a Sunday night is not, in fact, a good idea, no matter how good the picture is and how much I want to post it online before I go to bed.

The cat is very suspicious of the new standing fan I bought. But not suspicious enough to let it stop her from getting her daily treats. I feed her these hairball-treat thingers daily, which do seem to keep her from yarking up all over the place, and yesterday I could see the thoughts going through her head: "The big blowy thing is on ... I have to walk by the big blowy thing ... But there are treats ... big blowy thing ... treats ..." She compromised by slinking very hesitantly around it, staring at it so that the moment the big blowy thing leapt upon her, she could escape. She made the journey without incident, I am happy to report, and spent every other moment of the day curled tight in her kitty condo, safe from the rampaging fan.

I love Saint-Saens' Danse Macabre but unfortunately the CD I have with it has the peppiest version of the Danse Macabre EVAR, and manages to crank it out in seven minutes flat, while a version I used to have on tape, ganked from a former roommate, took eleven to finish. I shall have to get another version of it one of these days.

The best part of summer is that parking on campus is EASY.

Still liking Bangkok 8.

Are there any Chinese non-kick-flick movies that aren't meant to be Deep Dramas and yet have happy endings? It seems that every Chinese movie I watch that doesn't involve people attacking each other with a variety of exotic weapons has some sort of sad ending and I'm starting to get skittish about them.

In TV cop dramas, why is it that all witnesses who are being interviewed all have things to do and turf the cops out ASAP. I know the real reason is to have the scene come to a natural close, but when you've been mainlining Law & Order: SVU for a week like I have, it's annoyingly obvious and artificial to have every single witness be barely cooperative and say "Excuse me, I have to get back to work" after dropping the next clue to the mystery.
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[personal profile] camwyn 2005-05-23 04:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, there's Shadow Magic, which is about the introduction of film to China. I'm not sure if that counts as Chinese or another country's since I think it was a collaboration between filmmakers, but it's a start, at least.

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2005-05-23 04:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Certainly worth a try, thanks! *adds to Netflix queue*
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[identity profile] batwrangler.livejournal.com 2005-05-23 05:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Have you seen Wasabi? It doesn't really fit your criteria (being French-Japanese and involving some kicking but not-so-much exotic weapons -- I only remember guns and kicking, actually), but it's fun and has a happy ending (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0281364/). Be sure to watch the sub, though: The dub is horrendous.

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2005-05-23 08:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah, hey, Jean Reno! Worth it just for that. *adds to Netflix queue*

[identity profile] thomasyan.livejournal.com 2005-05-23 05:48 pm (UTC)(link)
How about "Shower (Xizhou)"? If I recall correctly, that had a happy ending.

[identity profile] thomasyan.livejournal.com 2005-05-23 05:51 pm (UTC)(link)
My officemate also suggested "The Wedding Banquet", which reminded me of "Eat, Drink, Man, Woman" (heh, I am [livejournal.com profile] rachelmanija's copy editor, AICMFP; I don't remember there being so many commas in the title, but I feel that it needs at least one).

[identity profile] elfiepike.livejournal.com 2005-05-23 06:03 pm (UTC)(link)
oh! i second this recomendation. (both of them, though i saw eat drink man woman when i was young so i only remember liking it, not what it was about.)

[identity profile] homasse.livejournal.com 2005-05-23 07:00 pm (UTC)(link)
I second "The Wedding Banquet"!

And in general, no, there are no happy endings. I was on a Chinese movie kick a few year ago, and wow, all of them were just heeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2005-05-23 08:37 pm (UTC)(link)
I havne't even seent hat many, but they all seem to go "Great movie! Funny ... touching ... funny ... aaaaaaaarrrrrgggghhhhhhh someone died!"

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2005-05-23 08:39 pm (UTC)(link)
I think I've seen part of The Wedding Banquet, but I'm not remembering much else. Ah well. *slaps on Netflix*

I sow commas throughout my prose with abandon, then in rewriting very carefully consider them and painstakingly remove all the ones in the correct position, as far as I can tell.

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2005-05-23 08:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Heh - apparently I'd just added it to my queue a couple of days ago. (I've been renting and watching Chinese and Japanese movies, so their suggestions things keep throwing more at me.) Glad it know it probably has a happy ending.

[identity profile] elfiepike.livejournal.com 2005-05-23 06:02 pm (UTC)(link)
you could always try IQ dudettes which is, um, remarkably bad? ^^; what can i say, i'm fond of things that cost less than ten dollars.

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2005-05-23 08:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Couldn't find it on Netflix under that title or under the title the IMDB gives. Ah well. :)

[identity profile] elfiepike.livejournal.com 2005-05-23 11:33 pm (UTC)(link)
oh! oh, you're netflixing. hmmmm. gen x cops? :D it's so awesomely awesome and full of prettiness and, yeah, kind of atrociously bad.

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2005-05-23 11:54 pm (UTC)(link)
XD Well, there's no other way to get any decent non-top-50 movies here without driving for 45 minutes to a decent video store. :) I've had so many Chinese and Japanese movies on my queue that Netflix keeps suggesting more. :)
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[identity profile] sub-divided.livejournal.com 2005-05-24 04:23 am (UTC)(link)
Ah, damn, what was that series again. The comedies about an undercover Chinese agent that were so, so bad and and so, so good. In one he infiltrates a high school (it ends like Counterstrike), and in one he pretends to be the husband of a very rich woman (because they're magical movie doubles). From HK, of course. I think there are three? Seriously blanking here, but most Chinese comedies follow a formula and they frequenly don't have kung fu, so if you don't mind lots of dumbness and physical comedy you could look into something along those lines.

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2005-05-24 01:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Yah, I may have to go for dumbness and physical comedy - the very very good movies all want to kick the comic footing out from underneath themselves with the ending, and I don't want to spend the movie trying to pick out who's gonna die. XD