Procrastination

[thedeadlyhook]

Have the terrible urge to post just something rather than doing any of the ten other things I should be doing - working on my cover letter to another job application, writing and/or researching articles I'm meant to be doing, digging into the next fic chapter, tackling any of the number of other fic projects I have on the back burner, organizing my paperwork, whatever, all of which I'm putting off because Toys is still sleeping and the weather's too darn cold. Actually do have about twenty-eleven things I'd like to talk about, but having a hard time organizing thoughts lately. Feeling introspective and weird. (edited to add cut tags, because scrolling bad)


House of Flying Daggers. 'Effin rocks. There may be a day when I finally wax lyrical about Hero and how awesome that was - super kudos to director Yimou Zhang for finding intensely effective metaphorical ways to discuss how spin control affects one's view of world history, pretty subtly, considering its subject matter and political hazards as a mainland Chinese film (my one shorthand comment on this matter - note that not even the Emperor's segment is immune from the color-coding that gives the viewer cues to the varying Rashomon story variations, suggesting that not even the "official" history is free from being retailored for narrative satisfaction, to tell the story its own "heroes" want to tell), but House of Flying Daggers is less with the big political overview and chess-piece-moving, larger-than-life quality of Those Who Sacrifice For the Greater Good and more with the ground-level view of those people doing the sacrificing on a very personal level, their little relationships and petty feelings. It's a tighter, more intimate movie, visually gorgeous, and emotionally fab. See it, please. Makes for a great companion piece to Hero, almost as if the two were meant to be seen as a pair.


Last couple days, Toys and I have been giggling over this, which about every Maxxim reader in the universe and plenty of other hipsters have already probably seen, on the Hollywood trend of trotting out images of lesbian kissing to turn on the audience. And although, okay, I admit I was getting chuckles out of their matter-of-fact ratings on whether or not a make-out session was deemed boner-worthy (it took me awhile to figure out that there are two reviewers, a guy and a girl, even though it says so right up front on the main page, I guess I'm easily distracted or confused by the way the anatomies kept suddenly changing) and the about-halfway-down-the-first-page rant-a-thon on Willow's character, and how she in that reviewer's opinion jumped a little too quickly into Kennedy's "vertical Hellmouth," I was charmed to see the tone abruptly shift in Part 6, for some reason not visible from the main page (bad html coding), in which the female reviewer has a huge ethical crisis over becoming part of the problem, in embracing snickering-over-girl-kissing as a way for the male audience to further disenfranchise females and absorb even lesbianism into serving the all-important male gaze. After which, the article turns to rating instead scenes of kissing boys - Rating the Homos. Take that, male gaze! There are indeed times when our society seems cluelessly innocent, sexually speaking.


One thing I forgot to mention in my quickie recap of our belated New Year's festivities with the extended family was Toys' and my sister-in-law (his brother's wife) SpellGirl, reading our fortunes for the new year by casting lead. I'd never heard of this practice before meeting her, but she's an expert at it, and Toys's brother, MindReader, is on his way to becoming one too, having seen so many of SpellGirl's readings. It's really quite eerie. Toys's was foretold be "very, very busy," but every project he is involved in is very close to his heart - his lead casting had, "the largest 'heart' in it she'd ever seen. That does indeed sound like my Toys. I'm meant to be starting and working on many, many separate projects, all of which I feel "very protective of" - they all looked like sharp daggers - and it was predicted that it would likely take me most of the year to find my new direction. A little depressing, that, but not unlikely - I have indeed been feeling less than directed lately. But my final direction of choice has a "heart," so it will be something of personal meaning to me.

Back to bicycle riding again, now that the rain has stopped. Now we'll see how much winter weight I can slough off while keeping these old bones working. Why must I love baked goods so much? Why?

Comments

[bogwitch.livejournal.com]

House of Flying Daggers was fabulous, but I still much prefer Hero.

[thedeadlyhook.livejournal.com]

It was rather neat to see how Toys and I split on this. I think I'm more in your camp - Hero impressed the hell out of me on every level. HoFD he liked more, because it was more down-to-earth, constrained to the smaller, personal stories. I like both films, but their "flavors" are very different.

[bogwitch.livejournal.com]

You'd think it'd be the other way round, with HOFD as a more 'female' film. I think my problem there was that I couldn't see what she saw in either of them (did her choice even matter?).

Hero was beautiful, poetic, tragic, surprising, clever...

[thedeadlyhook.livejournal.com]

Toys and I can be weird that way sometimes. He can be quite the mushier romantic than I on many an occasion.

Right there with you that Mei's choices were pretty much no difference in HoFD - she was trapped either way, as was everyone in the film, by their various factions. I found the ending to be an interesting illustration of this, the way people find themselves in traps, or even make their own traps for themselves through their emotions. I found it psychologically interesting, but yeah, nowhere near the scope of Hero.

[zerographic.livejournal.com]

Haven't seen Rating The Lesbians, but now I must read it all! :D

FAVORITE LINE EVA!: Masturbating to Selma Blair is like masturbating to a concentration camp filmstrip.

bwah hahahahahahahaha so bad, so wrong, and sooo good ;)

[thedeadlyhook.livejournal.com]

It's next to impossible to get through the whole thing in one sitting, but I dare you not to laugh your own face off when you get to Part 4 and they start talking about Christina Ricci. Oh. My. God. Internet porn desensitizes us all.

[kathyh]

Makes for a great companion piece to Hero, almost as if the two were meant to be seen as a pair.

I was just stunned by how beautiful they both were, though if I had to choose I think I preferred Hero. I thought it was interesting that one film took place at the beginning of an era and the other took place at the end but all the characters were essentially trapped by their beliefs. Wonderful films.

[thedeadlyhook.livejournal.com]

I'm really anxious now to go back and look at some of the director's other films, like Raise the Red Lantern or Red Sorghum, about which I remember hearing good things, but I'd somehow missed when they'd come out. There really does seem to be a continuing theme in the work, of being trapped by one's circumstance.

[tesla321.livejournal.com]

Sweetypants, no one could love ya more than me, no one lives for your feedback more than me, but cut tags are our friends.

[thedeadlyhook.livejournal.com]

My bad. I gets to blabbing, and see what happens?

[wickedgillie.livejournal.com]

glad to hear "House of Flying Daggers" is all that. i have been super anxious to see it, especially since hubby surprised me with a copy of "Hero" on dvd the other day, since we unfortunately missed it at the theatre (thanks to the new bambina). i definitely want to try and catch this one on the big screen!

[thedeadlyhook.livejournal.com]

It's totally worth seeing on the big screen. We'd actually owned Hero on VCD nearly a year before it came out in theaters here (our neighborhood is largely Chinese, so such things are easily obtainable), but couldn't not see in theatrical release because it just adds so much more to see it bigger. I totally recommend it.

[asta77.livejournal.com]

I hope to see HoFD in the theatre (it just opened here last weekend). But, with the bitter cold hitting the Midwest, other than work, I've been pretty much confined to home. :(

[thedeadlyhook.livejournal.com]

It's been unusually cold here too, but thankfully without the huge piles of snow you've been getting back there. Stay warm!

[jwaneeta.livejournal.com]

casting lead. I'd never heard of this practice

Huh. Me neither. Interesting.

I had a computer crisis so I dodn't have much of a chance to FB you latest chapeter of the fic, which I loved. The flashback was excellent work -- sexy and emotionally charged. I loved seeing hints of vulnerabilty in Pre Soul Spike, the tentative demands quickly abandoned. Souled, resurrected Spike, by contrast, seemed a lot more centered and almost ... assertive. You know, for Spike-when-dealing-with-Buffy, anyway. He doesn't seem to have trouble being assertive with anyone else.

And I loved the fact that they were able to laugh a bit, at the end, and be easy with each other. Poor kids.

Also digging every single revelation about Spike's dangerous, sexay work. Yay for Spike having his own mission!

[thedeadlyhook.livejournal.com]

Oh, fooey, computer crisis. I can so relate. You have my sympathy.

Souled, resurrected Spike, by contrast, seemed a lot more centered and almost ... assertive. You know, for Spike-when-dealing-with-Buffy, anyway.

That's something I really wanted to establish, and I'm so glad if it's coming across. It seems at this point in time there should be a real sense of negotiation between these two, of being on at least close to the same level. It's something I felt upset by in the show that I wanted to address, the whole power struggle issue, and the way it was resolved. I'm just kinda, y'know, taking awhile getting to the point.

Also digging every single revelation about Spike's dangerous, sexay work. Yay for Spike having his own mission!

I was one of those people who actually enjoyed AtS Season 5 for that aspect. I liked the idea of Spike finding his own sense of mission outside Buffy, so that factor's still there. Plus I couldn't give up on all the Angel and Spike fun - there was just so much there to enjoy.

Thanks so much!

[fyrebryhte.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm.... Baked goods. I just need to move more. My brain takes its cues from my body, so a sluggish bod means a sluggish mind.

[thedeadlyhook.livejournal.com]

Y'know, that does indeed seem so obvious, but I keep forgetting it... I've been listless for months now, it seems, and yet today I'm all energy because I've ridden my bicycle two days in a row. (slaps forehead) You'd think I'd so something like that every day!

[fyrebryhte.livejournal.com]

The sad thing is I DON'T forget, and I STILL don't do anything. Bleh...

[(Anonymous)]

I was interested to read your comments on HoFD since I saw it this weekend and thought it visually exquisitely beautiful and stunning with the various scenes seeming like individual paintings. I’ve seen Raise the Red Lantern but, unfortunately, missed Hero in theaters because of trying to accommodate seeing it with my son, who kept procrastinating. Now, I’m all the more excited to see the DVD – especially with the background you’ve provided as to the theme running through the films. I just wish I’d made more of an effort to see it on the big screen.

(BTW, I hope to read and comment on the new chappie as well as your impressive essay on Christian images/philosophy in the Buffyverse within the next couple of days. Yes, very late on the latter…. What can I say – it’s me. :( Also, I read the discussion on the soul in Kassto’s LJ, which included Shipperx, Toys, and you, and thought the ideas laid out by all of you to be some of the most coherent and pertinent I’ve seen on the subject.)

Gail

[thedeadlyhook.livejournal.com]

Never fear - Hero will still impress you on the small screen. It's how I originally saw it. The large screen just adds to the "wow" factor, but there's plenty of that even on a regular TV.

Looking forward to your comments! Did you also weigh in over at kassto's place? I'd love to see your take on that topic as well.

[(Anonymous)]

Did you also weigh in over at kassto's place? I'd love to see your take on that topic as well.

I haven't. I'm always a bit reticent at commenting for the first time on someone's LJ. I'm not sure I have much to add as everything was covered so well, but I can always agree on points raised. :)

Thanks for assuring me about Hero on the small screen!

Gail