七 步 城 思 Life is beautiful Life is a struggle Life.... is a beautiful struggle (A line by John Coltrane. I learned it from the ’Marxism festival 2006’ in London)

1,511愛的鼓勵 9訂閱站台

Going to movies, in the same way as going to museums, is a thought provoking exercise. How much the perceiver can derive depends on one’s sensitivity to history, cultural difference, social context, political and religious influence, philsophical knowledge, music background, movie history, etc. This list has never been exhausted and that is why both watching movies and going to museums are so interesting. As one accumulates more knowledge in certain area, of course the perspective will change accordingly, right?

BTW, I think London museums are free of charge. After decades of elite education when native Brtish could naturally judge a person’s background from his/her accent, in the same way as the professor in ”My Fair Lady”, even BBC is trying to recruit staff from other nationalities so as to show their openness to multi-culturalism. Besides, I have watched a TV interview with Hugh Grant recently and this Oxford alumni is still able to recite Chaucer. Obviously the modern society of the UK is tremendously different from what it was in the time of JRR Tolkien (before WWII) when ”hobbit” is a British sterotype.

It is my personal opinion that movies, in the same way as arts, should be diversified and opened to the public. One does not necessarily need to be a painter so as to understand western paintings, in the same way that technological analysis is only one aspect of movie criticism.

Both HK & Macao are a bit of the extreme, as serious movie-goers have the tendency to watch more art house movies by oneself. Will you be surprised if I tell you that Woody Allen’s ”Melaine & Melaine” is showing in Tokyo last year and it was full house despite the fact that most Japanese do not speak English? Maybe, the Beatles have got it right: We all live in a yellow submarine.

HI CL,
又見到你了.好嗎?
Melaine & Melaine在日本滿座嗎?在大院線還是art house影院?
anyway,雖然日本社會強調紀律性,不鼓勵個人主義,
但我一直不懷疑日本包容非主流文化的能力.
有次我跟一個日本談起女性運動,她就輕輕的說起她的那間大學出了不少著名的女性主義者.我當時很汗顏,別說澳門,在香港有什麼”女性主義者”可言?
英國的階級文化真的是非常有趣的議題.
在英國時我旁聽了英國電影一課,發現英國電影史上的重要作品大部分甚具階級意義,包括mike leigh, ken loach, linday anderson等等.最近woody ellen去英國拍的match point竟也是個階級寓言,這才叫我震驚呢!

Hi Pan,

Melaine & Melaine is showing in an art house in Ebisu (恵比寿). When compared with HK and Macao, Japan has got more art houses and the audience range does not limit to University students at all. The negative side, however, is that the dialogue will be original language with Japanese sub-titles. A real challenge for my Japanese reading ability indeed.

Feminists in Japan have to work very hard indeed, as this nation has got the tendency to market even consumer goods according to gender. Red/pink is thought to be the female colour, what a narrow perspective, right? To make things worse, even the Royal Family finally is able to produce a male heir so that there is no need to change the constitution to admit a female heir. This is so awful.

I recalled that at one time I was saying ”hello” to my new neighbour and I mentioned accidentally that I was working and my neighbour just stared at me as if I have done something wrong. This nation still perceived that women should be staying at home... According to statistics done by foreign firms, women employment is the most under-used resource in Japan and the GDP could be climbed up by 1% if women participation in labour force is permitted.

Both my husband and I are movie buffs, although neither of us study movie in University. In my point of view, Woody Allen’s early works have more focused on philosophical discussion and his Jewish inheritance, and his later works are a bit senile. Match point is his turning point, and the opera sang by Enrico Caruso is superb. I also got one at home.

說起日本文化,想請查你:在日本的大男人社會中,為何對女性化的男性那麼寬容?我曾一個曾在日本工作的白人聊天,他說日本男生外型的女性化叫他很驚訝,例如他們大多會修眉等,而日本藝能界中的當紅年輕男星亦常常甚為中性.
我剛看了MATCH POINT,也很喜歡,尤其是他結合階級去談”幸運”的問題.片中有一小節我印象特別深:出身階級較低的男主角相信運氣,而富家女則反而說努力比較重要.