Not now I'm Watching Something
I love movies and I'm a fan of Asian film. In early grade school when my family lived in Honolulu my Dad took us to Japanese movies. Early Kurosawa and others. While my former classmates in Portland, Oregon were watching Cowboys on Saturdays my sister and I were watching Samurai's. It stuck. I have (on DVD) all Kurosawa's films with Toshiro Mifune. Later I branched out.
Now I'm up to episode 47 of 53 of "All Quiet in Peking." It's set in the last months of the Republic of China (1949). I was 7 then, in Honolulu and oblivious to China's struggles and civil war. I'm watching it for the second time. It's on Netflix, in Chinese (Mandarin) with subtitles. The first time I spent A LOT of time backing up and re-reading the dialog for scenes that were visually involved. It is a great drama. Well done and visually interesting. But who were those people? How real is this? So I went to the library and online. There is so much going on with China now and it affects us in many ways. I can't pretend I know much. But now with some historical background, maps and a small history of our involvement with China during WWII and after it's like watching a completely different series. It's also got me staying up until the wee hours reluctant to let go of the story line.
It's overcast and blah here today so I'm going to see "Avengers, Affinity War" this afternoon. Both my sons and all my grandkids went, without me, bunch of weasels, I guess I was supposed go into sweet old grandma mode and say "that's OK sweeties." Fat chance weaselly offspring. They all want to talk about what happened but it's verboten, no ruining for me. Eleven year old Adam says "you're going cry." Probably, my Grandfather used to cry at some movies. Runs in the family. Oldest son wants to see it again so I'll have company.
Meanwhile I swept my patio, trimmed and finally remembered to water my only two (potted) plants, a hearty lavender and a tall, heat proof grass. Except for a couple of spectacular lightening storms with gully washers we've really had little rain. I need to be better about the watering. I kill off the weedy things that spring up in the rock covered edging by pouring boiling water on them. There aren't too many, mostly clover and boiling water leaves no chemical residue harmful to birds and small barefoot children. Later today I will take a break from "Peking" and start the second PD James novel I got from the library. Hope your weekend has been good.
Mifune and Kurosawa on the set of "Seven Samurai" - photo NPR 2016
Now I'm up to episode 47 of 53 of "All Quiet in Peking." It's set in the last months of the Republic of China (1949). I was 7 then, in Honolulu and oblivious to China's struggles and civil war. I'm watching it for the second time. It's on Netflix, in Chinese (Mandarin) with subtitles. The first time I spent A LOT of time backing up and re-reading the dialog for scenes that were visually involved. It is a great drama. Well done and visually interesting. But who were those people? How real is this? So I went to the library and online. There is so much going on with China now and it affects us in many ways. I can't pretend I know much. But now with some historical background, maps and a small history of our involvement with China during WWII and after it's like watching a completely different series. It's also got me staying up until the wee hours reluctant to let go of the story line.
It's overcast and blah here today so I'm going to see "Avengers, Affinity War" this afternoon. Both my sons and all my grandkids went, without me, bunch of weasels, I guess I was supposed go into sweet old grandma mode and say "that's OK sweeties." Fat chance weaselly offspring. They all want to talk about what happened but it's verboten, no ruining for me. Eleven year old Adam says "you're going cry." Probably, my Grandfather used to cry at some movies. Runs in the family. Oldest son wants to see it again so I'll have company.
Meanwhile I swept my patio, trimmed and finally remembered to water my only two (potted) plants, a hearty lavender and a tall, heat proof grass. Except for a couple of spectacular lightening storms with gully washers we've really had little rain. I need to be better about the watering. I kill off the weedy things that spring up in the rock covered edging by pouring boiling water on them. There aren't too many, mostly clover and boiling water leaves no chemical residue harmful to birds and small barefoot children. Later today I will take a break from "Peking" and start the second PD James novel I got from the library. Hope your weekend has been good.
posted by Celia | May 06, 2018
5 Comments:
We will go see the Avengers next weekend. Cry? I hadn't expected to cry. Oh well. I am denting my closet. I told G I would do his, but got a blank ear. lol You sound really good.
I enjoy foreign movies and series as well. Must check it out!
I enjoyed a diverse bunch of war movies as a kid. Maybe because Dad was a pilot in the army air corp.
Haven't seen many movies in recent years that were worth the cost of admission. I really need to get squared away with the whole Netflix thing.
Finishing reading, "The life & times of the Thunderbolt Kid" by Bill Bryson. What a hoot, memories of childhood, the things we did!
I guess I wasn't very much into samurai movies although I did watch them as a kid occasionally. I really loved Departures though. We took my mom, uncle and Aunt and we were all in tears at the beauty of it at the end.
I spend too much time watching TV as there is some good stuff out there and it is so much better than watching the nnews.
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