Ipinapakita ang mga post na may etiketa na buddha. Ipakita ang lahat ng mga post
Ipinapakita ang mga post na may etiketa na buddha. Ipakita ang lahat ng mga post

Miyerkules, Abril 9, 2014

Movie Review: The Twelve Animals (新十二生肖)

   Today is a holiday, so as usual, I just spent the day at home. I've watched another movie entitled, 'Xin shi er sheng xiao' 新十二生肖. It's a fantasy film about the Chinese Zodiac animals. I was interested because it was mentioned by my Chinese teacher in our class. She said that Chinese people often ask someone's zodiac sign. In that way they can somehow know the personality of a person by basing it on the year the person was born.

    At the beginning of the movie there's an explanation of how the 12 animals came to be assigned.

Long time ago the humans don’t know how to count the date.They ask heaven’s help. Buddha decided to use heaven’s river as the line to have an animal’s marathon. To pick the first twelve animals arrive the finishing point. As the human being’s guard of the year.

      My animal sign is a monkey. I remember, I really like the monkey character before. The monkey character designed by Paul Frank apparel became even famous when Barbie Hsu wore it in the hit series Meteor Garden.

     My Chinese animal year of birth sign is 'hou' . Like the monkey, I really like bananas. Before I would always bring a banana with me at the office, and my officemates would sometimes makes fun of me calling me, 'banana girl'. My former boss told me that I should not eat banana always because she read in a newspaper that there's a chemical or component in the banana that attracts the mosquitoes. I had dengue thrice already, so I'm a bit alarmed by what she told me. Anyway, I still eat bananas up to now, for I've read they're very nutritious. My aunt even gave me a monkey fancy ring when I was still a teen but I lost it.

    Anyway, back to the movie. The movie is about a pretty young girl called 'Bai Ma', who's in search for the 12 animals, to fight the evil leader in the devil island. Her guardian who is always at her side and who protects her like a loyal guard dog is called 'Kan Chu'.  Even if the film is quite old I really enjoyed watching it. There's an animation that was shown at the beginning of the film. I'm just not that overjoyed since the monkey was not given a very good role and exposure. As we all know the dragon is said to have been the luckiest of all in the Chinese zodiac animals, so in the movie the dragon is one of the leading characters. I also like a bit of twist at the end of the movie, I never expected it to be like that. Overall the movie was good.

Linggo, Abril 6, 2014

Movie Review: The Fox Lover (White Fox 白狐)

  I had the chance to watch some good Chinese 'wuxia' or martial arts, fantasy, romance and suspense movies. The first movie that I have seen was Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame. I was reminded of the 'Guan Yin', statue near the South Sea of China, when I saw the 'Buddha' statue that the first Empress of China Wu Zeitian,  commissioned her workers to finish it just in time for her coronation. Anyway, I won't talk about that movie anymore since, my movie review is about 'Bai Hu' 白狐 (white fox), the English promotional title of the movie was called, 'The Fox Lover'. For a person like me who's a sucker for love stories, I was really interested to watch this film, and it has been a long time since I have watched a Chinese fantasy movie.


According to a review in IMDB (movie database) this film is about: 

Pu Songling's 蒲松齡, "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio." It is a collection of nearly 500 mostly supernatural tales. The Fox Lover is about white fox spirit Xiaochui (Gillian Chung), who is irrevocably in love with a mortal fool Wang Yuanfeng (Chilam Cheung). In the universe resides the largest bat demon that strikes terror amongst the people. Inside Wang’s soul, there is a hidden power able to destroy the fiercest demons. When Xiaochui’s loyalties are tested in the clash between humans and demons, she is willing to sacrifice her life for love. 

  It was a very good movie. I also liked the costumes that was used in the movie. Very colorful costumes, for the 'fox sisters'. My favorite costume was the one worn by the lead character, named Willow, because I really like the color blue. Nice combination of blue and white. I've included a photo of all the 'fox sisters'. Here are their names.

Gold is the one holding a rabbit, and of course the color of her clothes is gold.
Dream is the one in an orange colored clothes.
Plum is the girl with a brown or earth color clothes.
Ling is the earthly daughter of Madame Fox, she was adopted, she's wearing a colored tan with a dark green inner clothing.
Lotus is the one with scarlet colored clothes.
Bamboo is the one wearing green.
Peach is the one wearing pink.
Jade and Flower have the same color of light purple clothes.
Willow is the one wearing a sky blue and white clothes. 

I haven't watched the other movie version of the 'White Fox', so I can't really say if this movie was worst compared with the other movies. For example, I have seen a tv special of 'The Monkey King' movie remake, and for me, Jet Li and Jackie Chan's version still remains the best. I have yet to see Donnie Yen and Chow Yun Fat's version.

 The movie was a tear-jerker! I cried in some of the movie scenes! Best of all I also like the soundrack. I will include the music video here for everyone to see. I also typed the English translation taken from the movie. If you haven't seen this film I suggest you check it out. 

Some memorable quotes from the movie:

Willow: Yuanfeng, do you love me?
Yuanfeng: What does love mean?
Willow: It means embracing with you forever, or if you love one girl. You want to stay with her, and take her in your arms and never leave her.

Willow: Don't leave me.
Yuanfeng: No.
Willow: Even a knife in your back?
Yuanfeng: No. I won't leave you.
Willow: Even if you are hit by an arrow?
Yuanfeng: No.
Willow: Even with fire to burn you?
Yuanfeng: No. I won't leave you! 

Yuanfeng: The thing of love is interesting.

Yuanfeng: Willow!
Willow: Do you know me? Who are you? It seems I have met you before.
Yuanfeng: I was the fool named Wang Yuanfeng.
Willow: Wang Yuanfeng. Why are you crying? Oink! Oink! A piglet will never cry. Who are you?
Yuanfeng: I am Yuangfeng, who loves you the most. 
Willow: Love... What is love?
Yuanfeng:  It means embracing you forever. It means if you like her, you'll want to stay with her and embrace her no matter what happens. Never let go. Even a knife on the back, or hit by an arrow, burnt by the flame. Never let her go. Never...

 



The Fox Lover OST
(sung by: Lin Bi Zhen)

 
I’m lonely a fox
Keep cultivating for a thousand years
Does anyone hear my weeping?
While I'm dancing in the dim light…

I’m a fox waiting for a thousand years
Keep waiting and being lonely
In the human society who’s bewitched
And poisoned by love

I fall in love when you were a poor scholar
I left you when your career was in boom
Can I dance again for you?
The white fox you set free thousand years ago

Look at the dress floating in air
The solemn vows are gone forever

Can I dance for you again?
Just want to hold your last glimpse

Look at the dress floating in air
The solemn vows are gone forever