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Apr. 21st, 2011 09:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsHere are some movies I have seen recently, all of which probably deserve their own entry but are not going to get it, because that way lies madness.
Jane Eyre: I figured from the previews that this would be a version of the movie that played up the creepines and the Gothic aspects of the book, and in this I was not disappointed! I was actually really pleased with the emphasis on how limited Jane's experience has been, and how creepy the power dynamic with Rochester is as her employer, and as someone much older, and as someone with much more experience, EVEN LEAVING ASIDE the bigamy. (All of us who were seeing it started cracking up in the theater at the scene after she rescues Rochester from burning to death - the subtext of ALL Rochester's dialogue is pretty much "can we have near-escape-from-peril makeouts now?" and Jane is just like THIS IS AWKWARD AND I AM GOING TO LEAVE NOW. Rochester really did spend an awful lot of time in this movie making hilariously pathetic let's-make-out eyes at Jane.) The drawback to this of course is that then you get Jane with her new cottage and her teaching job and her independence and you think: WHY WOULD YOU GO BACK. Stay in your new career, Jane! Life is fine!
I was also impressed by the fact that the director seemed to be taking care to take account of the amount of light that would have been available - no bright floodlit interiors here, he makes you remember that in the winter, at night, with the shutters closed for warmth, you are stuck with a candle or fireplace and that's not actually very much.
I was not impressed by the sad loss of the scene where Rochester cross-dresses, which is one I always look forward to laughing at. Speaking of cross-dressing, here is a segue!
Mulan: This is the Chinese version that came out a year or two ago, which I have only just got around to seeing. Mulan herself was brilliant. I loved how the fear of gender exposure was only really an issue in the beginning, and then after that it's pretty much just about Chinese politics and MULAN BEING THE BEST FOREVER. She is pretty excellently badass!
I did not love her love interest, which from the reviews I've seen seems to be an unpopular opinion, but - oh my god, I hated him SO MUCH. Here are some possibly film-destroying spoilers, but a brief summary of his interactions with Mulan after they are both promoted to co-generals:
LOVE INTEREST: Mulan! I am disappointed by the fact that you tried to rescue me when we were in crisis, an unfortunate tactical decision that led to many deaths.
MULAN: I'm disappointed by this too! Actually I think war is terrible and I really don't want to be a general anymore -
LOVE INTEREST: No one wants to be a general, but you can't step down from your responsibilities!
BECCA: This is a good point and a good lesson for Mulan to learn -
LOVE INTEREST: So therefore, to teach you not to put your personal feelings above your duties, I'm going to fake my own death and wear angsty bandages for seven years so that you can cut all emotional ties to the world and grow into your full general-ing potential!
BECCA: But - what - you just said - personal feelings - responsibilities - WHAT?!?!?!
I was so frustrated by this SHEER HYPOCRISY that I spent the whole rest of the movie wishing he had died. If you are put in command of an army, you don't get to duck out of that job just to facilitate your girlfriend's personal growth any more than she does! I could not even forgive him when he came back seven years later to save Mulan's life by feeding her angstily on his own blood, because I was too busy thinking about all the people who should have recognized him and demanded to know WHERE HE HAD BEEN FOR SEVEN YEARS. Then at the end, after a delightful scene in which Mulan and a foreign princess team up to save everyone ever and make peace via political marriage, he tried to get out of his responsibilities again and run off with Mulan (who thankfully shut him down) and my poor opinion of him was forever cemented.
. . . but the movie is still worth seeing for Mulan herself! And here is another good segue, because we followed this up with Mulan's actress' other recent role.
Red Cliff: Maybe this is the wrong way to talk about an epic movie that concludes with a gory battle in which lots of people die, but this was just so much fun! Teamwork! Cunning plans! Cross-dressing battle princesses! (If you guessed that this was Mulan's actress, you would be correct.) Zhuge Liang swanning around looking enormously (and rightfully) satisfied with himself in nearly every scene!
Zhuge Liang, musing absently on his own awesomeness. Given that we spent most of the time he was onscreen musing on his awesomeness, we couldn't really blame him for this.
Two ladies, one a crossdressing tomboy and one a pregnant housewife, both of whom get to contribute to victory in significant ways. Rare and awesome!
We have decided that being a soldier in Liu Bei's army is one of the easiest career paths imaginable; all you have to do is stand around looking helpful while one of the main characters slaughters hundreds of people single-handedly. On the other hand, being a soldier in Cao Cao's army makes you extremely likely to be one of the hundreds slaughtered single-handedly, so clearly one has to be careful when being enlisted.
Hanna: I don't have much to say about this movie, which we saw last night, except that it was gorgeous. The imagery was superb, and I'm not just saying that because I am a sucker for fairy-tale imagery.
It's also unexpectedly funny, and open to interpretation in ways I did not expect (possibly more interpretation than many people would like, given how much ambiguity there still is at the end, but.) I can pretty much guarantee that anyone who likes stories about girl weapons coming into themselves as more than weapons will like this, but those are not the only people who will.
There are some theories about the Cate Blanchett backstory that I'm not going to put here, because spoilers, but would be up for discussing in comments if anyone wants to!
In other news: I'm off right after work today for Boston, where I will be staying with high school friends and then dropping in on Anime Boston with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
genarti, wickedtrue, sandrylene, and possibly assorted others. I'm also kidnapping dictator_duck to come home with me after that, so my presence may be limited over the next week.
Jane Eyre: I figured from the previews that this would be a version of the movie that played up the creepines and the Gothic aspects of the book, and in this I was not disappointed! I was actually really pleased with the emphasis on how limited Jane's experience has been, and how creepy the power dynamic with Rochester is as her employer, and as someone much older, and as someone with much more experience, EVEN LEAVING ASIDE the bigamy. (All of us who were seeing it started cracking up in the theater at the scene after she rescues Rochester from burning to death - the subtext of ALL Rochester's dialogue is pretty much "can we have near-escape-from-peril makeouts now?" and Jane is just like THIS IS AWKWARD AND I AM GOING TO LEAVE NOW. Rochester really did spend an awful lot of time in this movie making hilariously pathetic let's-make-out eyes at Jane.) The drawback to this of course is that then you get Jane with her new cottage and her teaching job and her independence and you think: WHY WOULD YOU GO BACK. Stay in your new career, Jane! Life is fine!
I was also impressed by the fact that the director seemed to be taking care to take account of the amount of light that would have been available - no bright floodlit interiors here, he makes you remember that in the winter, at night, with the shutters closed for warmth, you are stuck with a candle or fireplace and that's not actually very much.
I was not impressed by the sad loss of the scene where Rochester cross-dresses, which is one I always look forward to laughing at. Speaking of cross-dressing, here is a segue!
Mulan: This is the Chinese version that came out a year or two ago, which I have only just got around to seeing. Mulan herself was brilliant. I loved how the fear of gender exposure was only really an issue in the beginning, and then after that it's pretty much just about Chinese politics and MULAN BEING THE BEST FOREVER. She is pretty excellently badass!
I did not love her love interest, which from the reviews I've seen seems to be an unpopular opinion, but - oh my god, I hated him SO MUCH. Here are some possibly film-destroying spoilers, but a brief summary of his interactions with Mulan after they are both promoted to co-generals:
LOVE INTEREST: Mulan! I am disappointed by the fact that you tried to rescue me when we were in crisis, an unfortunate tactical decision that led to many deaths.
MULAN: I'm disappointed by this too! Actually I think war is terrible and I really don't want to be a general anymore -
LOVE INTEREST: No one wants to be a general, but you can't step down from your responsibilities!
BECCA: This is a good point and a good lesson for Mulan to learn -
LOVE INTEREST: So therefore, to teach you not to put your personal feelings above your duties, I'm going to fake my own death and wear angsty bandages for seven years so that you can cut all emotional ties to the world and grow into your full general-ing potential!
BECCA: But - what - you just said - personal feelings - responsibilities - WHAT?!?!?!
I was so frustrated by this SHEER HYPOCRISY that I spent the whole rest of the movie wishing he had died. If you are put in command of an army, you don't get to duck out of that job just to facilitate your girlfriend's personal growth any more than she does! I could not even forgive him when he came back seven years later to save Mulan's life by feeding her angstily on his own blood, because I was too busy thinking about all the people who should have recognized him and demanded to know WHERE HE HAD BEEN FOR SEVEN YEARS. Then at the end, after a delightful scene in which Mulan and a foreign princess team up to save everyone ever and make peace via political marriage, he tried to get out of his responsibilities again and run off with Mulan (who thankfully shut him down) and my poor opinion of him was forever cemented.
. . . but the movie is still worth seeing for Mulan herself! And here is another good segue, because we followed this up with Mulan's actress' other recent role.
Red Cliff: Maybe this is the wrong way to talk about an epic movie that concludes with a gory battle in which lots of people die, but this was just so much fun! Teamwork! Cunning plans! Cross-dressing battle princesses! (If you guessed that this was Mulan's actress, you would be correct.) Zhuge Liang swanning around looking enormously (and rightfully) satisfied with himself in nearly every scene!
Zhuge Liang, musing absently on his own awesomeness. Given that we spent most of the time he was onscreen musing on his awesomeness, we couldn't really blame him for this.
Two ladies, one a crossdressing tomboy and one a pregnant housewife, both of whom get to contribute to victory in significant ways. Rare and awesome!
We have decided that being a soldier in Liu Bei's army is one of the easiest career paths imaginable; all you have to do is stand around looking helpful while one of the main characters slaughters hundreds of people single-handedly. On the other hand, being a soldier in Cao Cao's army makes you extremely likely to be one of the hundreds slaughtered single-handedly, so clearly one has to be careful when being enlisted.
Hanna: I don't have much to say about this movie, which we saw last night, except that it was gorgeous. The imagery was superb, and I'm not just saying that because I am a sucker for fairy-tale imagery.
It's also unexpectedly funny, and open to interpretation in ways I did not expect (possibly more interpretation than many people would like, given how much ambiguity there still is at the end, but.) I can pretty much guarantee that anyone who likes stories about girl weapons coming into themselves as more than weapons will like this, but those are not the only people who will.
There are some theories about the Cate Blanchett backstory that I'm not going to put here, because spoilers, but would be up for discussing in comments if anyone wants to!
In other news: I'm off right after work today for Boston, where I will be staying with high school friends and then dropping in on Anime Boston with
genarti, wickedtrue, sandrylene, and possibly assorted others. I'm also kidnapping dictator_duck to come home with me after that, so my presence may be limited over the next week.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-21 03:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-21 04:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-21 05:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-21 05:25 pm (UTC)This one did not play up the humor at all really, which I was a little sad about (no cross-dressing!), but at the same time I do think it's a fair trade for the intensely Gothic sensibility that this one did manage. Like, it clearly wanted to be THE GOTHIC VERSION, the one where Rochester is as much the menace that lurks in the house as anything else, and it did that very well.
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Date: 2011-04-21 05:55 pm (UTC)Btw, Charlotte Brontë claimed there was a great (accidental) likeness between her book and Fredrika Bremer's The Neighbours, which I've never read - I'm quite curious to do so, though.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-21 05:57 pm (UTC)I have neither read nor actually heard of that book! So clearly you should, and report back.