My mom took me out to this Asian Fusion restaurant over the weekend, and I realized that the menu serves as a pretty good guide to the movies I’ve watched recently.
Chicken Won-Tons: The Navigator: A Mediaeval Odyessy (1988)
A little, unexpected Indie film (much like our won-tons, which didn’t have anything in them besides dry chicken. Dry chicken does not a won-ton make). Apparently, this was the Indie Darling of the ‘80s: it won Fantafestival, Fantasporto, a whole string of Australian Film Institute awards, and was nominated for a Golden Palm at Cannes.
At a small Scottish village in 1347, there lives Griffon, a boy who can see into the future. His brother, Connor, has recently returned and informs the town council equivalent that the plague has arrived, and Griffon has a vision about their solution: They must tunnel through the earth to arrive at a great city and place a cross on the highest cathedral’s spire. Seems feasible when you live in a mining town.
About six of them go into the mine and start tunneling with their mediaeval “drill” and when they see light, they have arrived at Twentieth Century New Zealand. Which would confuse anyone, I’m sure, but they handle it marvelously.
I love seeing the characters react to modern day events, like crossing a highway. Everything is related back to their quest or to religion. There’s a great scene when Griffon breaks into an appliance shop and he’s staring at a wall of televisions, all showing these truly bizarre images that keep switching every few seconds. It’s a fun watch when the night is waning and you can’t get to sleep. Like watching a fairy tale with some modern depth.
Manchurian Shrimp: The Host (2006)
This was my mom’s dish. I tried some, but didn’t like it. There was this really complicated mixture of flavors in it and it was really spicy. In this sense, it was a lot like The Host, a Korean Horror-Family Drama. (To be honest, at first thought I figured these go together because the shrimp were butterflied and looked like the monster).
The full amalgamation of the movie baffles at first. It seems like too much to include, but c’est la vie. It opens up by introducing the monster’s origins (stupid decisions with formaldehyde at an American military base), but cuts to the family, a man (Gang-du) with his daughter (Hyun-seo) living with his father (Papa Park) and helping to run the family snack shack. The family comes together through the illegitimate daughter, who is adored on all sides by her father, grandfather, uncle (drunk, unemployed college graduate, Nam-il), and aunt (National archery competitor, Nam-joo). Their drama escalates with the first of the monster attacks, which drags Hyun-seo into the river after gobbling up a few dozen other people.
Sometimes the family interactions feel like I’m watching a dark comedy. They weep pathetically for the lost Hyun-seo, then fall down with journalists taking their picture in some comedic pose. They can’t help but bicker and fight while their being quarantined at the hospital (the greatest concern after the attack was the potential ‘virus’ spread by contact with the creature). Late at night in quarantine, Gang-du gets a phone call from his daughter. She’s alive! But trapped in the sewer by the monster. And thus begins phase two: the rescue.
There’s social commentary in this, on the relationship between family members and America’s involvement with other countries (after deciding that the Korean government wasn’t handling the situation, they come in with “Agent Yellow”). The combination of seeing the characters in a larger than life problem, combined with a sweeping score that emphasizes the emotional tension perfectly, The Host is an extremely powerful film.
Deep Fried Lamb Peking: Captain from Castile (1947)
I was surprised in the flavor and texture that I had with my Lamb, but I was also surprised by this movie. It is a stepping stone from the old epics to modern cinema, even back in 1947.
It’s a very involved storyline, from the opening to the conflict that leads our hero Pedro de Vargas to the New World, under the command of Cortez. I watched it day-by-day style, so for awhile I felt like they were just throwing together plot points so that Hollywood could produce another swashbuckling adventure flick.
That’s not the case. Remove one character flaw, it destroys the plot. Change one moment in time, the ending wouldn’t make sense. There’s still this 1940s feel to it, either coming from the costumes, sets, or style of acting, but there is that script with the modern feel to it.
Mongolian Beef: Mongol (2007)
Mongol. The dish I never had (but I greatly enjoyed the film). This is the story of Genghis Khan, first emperor of the largest land empire ever in existence. According to The Industry Rumors, there are two more sequels to follow, in order to span his entire life. So far, this was the beginning.
Temudjin, son of a rather powerful Khan, is taken by his father to pick out his bride (family bonding abounds in this menu, it would seem). His choice is the best Mongolian bride ever, apparently. More importantly, she picked him. That equality follows them through their whole relationship.
When Temudjin’s father dies, his family is thrown out of their clan while the powers that be fight over the vacuum left in the death’s wake. There, Temudjin starts to be filled with righteous fury and makes a blood brother in Jamukha, who is also looking towards becoming a great khan.
The story goes on like this: Temudjin grows up, marries his girl, and jumps through hoops in order to become the hero-leader that he lives up to. The filmmakers felt it necessary to include his family life a great deal in this opening and the violence takes a step down. Overall, it is very engaging, both as an action movie and as a biopic. The culture is well explained visually and through voiceover, mostly by watching Temudjin go through religious rituals and laying out his plans of government.
Everyone I talk to always likes to mention how international the cast and crew are, or they criticize it. I think they’re missing the point: yeah, it’s fun to notice stuff like that, but it’s more important to acknowledge the film separate. It is supposed to stand as a whole when we watch it, as a work of art or a person. It’s not supposed to be analyzed for where it came from, but then again, we do that with people and art a lot too.
Fortune Cookie: The Duchess (2008)
The Duchess is fun to watch while watching, but once the credits roll my mind went to “What? I just watched a movie? But… what happened?” The plot is so slow and languidly formed that I felt more like I was watching a fashion show than an actual movie. And I had such high hopes… ah, well. The costumes were pretty, expectantly, and I have greater respect for Keira Knightly as an actress. She had to really stretch her emotions for this one.
I feel now that I should have gotten more from watching the film—there are these high-strung emotional moments when you’re horrified or at least sympathetic to her situation. The problem was that I wasn’t all that sympathetic: I was horrified from my own perspective first, but I was never really rooting for her to conquer her husband or escape from that lifestyle.
I discussed this movie with my friend who saw it with me, and she got the same opinion out of it: A lot happened, but it doesn’t feel like much at all. I’ve seen this story before, I’ve heard it in history class every year since sixth grade. A woman is only as good as the children she bears, and in that society she didn’t have the capacity to rebel.
Well, whatever. Rebel away, or at least make the attempt. Please, just do something so that I don’t forget you after the credits roll and the taste of crispy cookie has left my mouth.
