It was really nothing special about a Chinese traditional festival, except for the holiday, which means nothing to me for work is still a daily obligation or sometimes a preferred pastime. Many friends have gone home for family re-union, and they should have my deepest sympathy. Being a migrant collared worker, white, grey or blue, in China, is the most difficult job to accomplish, especially during the time of holidays. Heavily loaded transportation and exhausted home-goers and their anxious faces, all lead to a conclusion that population is really the biggest issue China is having. If you don’t have to experience or encounter all these, thank God you are lucky!
I am lucky enough. I sent Moon cakes to my parents in advance, which saved me troubles going on a rough over-crowded train trip. Another luck is that I will be going home very soon after another boringly long National Day holiday. A wise decision to make, thanks to my best friend’s wedding on Oct. 10.
But anyways, Mid-Autumn Day makes no difference to me. It’s just another ordinary day out of 365 extra-ordinary ones. What value is there in a holiday when you spend half of it sitting or standing in a stuffy carriage along the blocked way.
Well, it makes all the difference if you choose not to go anywhere but stay home watching some really nice movies, like I did. As a movie buff, I really enjoyed viewing and re-viewing some inspiring, informative, perceptive, imaginative, insightful yet entertaining pictures:
Becoming Jane is a biographical portrait of a pre-fame Jane Austen and her romance with a young Irishman. I know Janeites may not agree with me about my calling this movie biographical, but you can’t deny the fact that Jane had a true love in her life though she died unmarried. Her romance with Tom Lefroy somehow parallels with some of Jane’s novels, especially with Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice. Jane, though sometimes in dilemma herself of marriage for love or fortune’s sake, was able to give her characters a happy ending – all female characters in the end are happily married to the men who they love and come with a large property. Mrs. Austen said at the pigsty, “Affection is desirable. Money is absolutely indispensable.” Jane, as a realist and feminist, rendered her heroines both.
In the movie, I happened to note some of my favorite lines written by Jane Austen:
Irony is the bringing together of contradictory truths to make out of the contradiction a new truth with a laugh or a smile. A truth must come with one or the other, or I account it as false and a denial of the very nature of humanity itself.
Novels, being poor, insid things, read by mere women, even God forbid, written by mere women? As if writing of women did not display the greatest powers of mind, knowledge of human nature, the liveliest effusions of wit and humor and the best-chosen language imaginable?
The Other Boleyn Girl is another creation inspired by the controversial Queen of England – Anne Boleyn, who remains one of the most mysterious figures in history. But the director seemed to have made the story a complete revisionist history. If you have some knowledge about the Tudor family, you will know that Anne Boleyn was as a matter of fact quite an innocent girl before Henry Tudor’s court. Her ambitious conducts were magnified and even distorted. The writer/director apparently has depicted Anne as the biggest antagonist. But one thing is for sure, women were always used as a bait for some ulterior intrigues or schemes. This somehow resembles the darkness in the depth of a Chinese royal court. Universal it is.
Despite the revision of history and stupid story-telling, one more thing is note-worthy: the acting. Look who are in. Natalie Portman (as Anne Boleyn), Scarlett Johansson (as Marry Boleyn), Kristin Scott Thomas (as Lady Elizabeth Boleyn). Are you still a secret admirer of the little girl in Leon the Professional 16 years ago? Yes she has grown up into an even more deadly sexy lady and her talents in acting from an early age help her tremendously with a directing career now. Scarlett Johansson impressed me the most with her role in Girl with a Pearl Earring. The purity and lucidity her innocent eyes deliver is unparalleled and that’s probably the reason for her just depiction of Marry Boleyn. I don’t think I will need to introduce the most talented British actress Kristin Scott Thomas here at all. Her performances have always been remarkable, especially in the Oscar Winning The English Patient.
I have to admit that feminist I am not, but these women all have an indispensable influence upon many people, or even the whole world, and their lives are just the best source of another form of artistic creation.
There are more to come tomorrow, if I have time for another around of film-reviewing. Stay tuned.
Loss & Discovery of the Post-80s Generation 
Posted on September 28, 2010
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