Legend of Xiangxi finished with a big exclamation mark. All significant men roles died at the end and all died of fighting with the JAPs. Sannu’s death was the most heroic one because he died of protecting his loved one (using his own body as the bullet shield) from being shot by a Japanese officer. It appears that for most Chinese screenwriters/directors, when a story reached a point that all conflicts cannot be easily resolved in a smooth way, then one or both parties of the conflicting sides should either die or lose their minds completely (or became a nun/monk, etc). The difference for this story is that it got a good excuse for doing so because it was set in a war background so that death is sort of inevitable in a way.
I am kind of speechless at this moment. I still like this show, otherwise it would not have attracted me to stay so late every night knowing that the aftermath would be to go to work yawning with red eyes for over a week; however, my affection to this show is much more focused on my personal passion for the leading male role: Sannu. He has very consistent personalities throughout the show. His faithfulness and dedication to the loved one made him risk his life so many times (and eventually lost it) regardless how “badly” his former lover treated him during the second half of the show. When there was only one thing left for me to enjoy the show, I do not know whether or not I can still say that this is a great TV series.
There may be a few things that can be improved to make this show logically and emotionally sound:
1. A common mistake for Chinese movies/TV plays, as a way of making the story with more dramatic turns, is to have “bad” people almost always outsmart the “good” ones. When it is time for the “good” ones to realize the truth behind the disguise, it is usually too late because damages have already been done. In other words, there are shockingly lack of good surprises. As the result of this, audiences would be left with unbearable pain.
2. Suisui should not have married Suo Yunchao though the marriage itself was interrupted by Suo’s untimely death (or shall we say just the opposite). I think deep inside, Suisui knew how desperately Sannu was still in love with her and by marrying someone else, he would be hurt hardly and it would make the already very tensed relationship between Pai Bang and Suo’s army even worse. She should have treated Suo as her big brother and try to persuade Sannu to give up his hatred for any fellow Chinese but to join the Japanese-fighting unions. Making Suisui first marry Suo and then widowed, right before she lost another two men who loved her dearly, seem to make the story too unbelievable and not only for Suisui, nobody would be able to imagine what is the best way to swirl the emotional gear.
3. The war scenes need to be improved. It does not have to be very grand, but each detail is important. Comparing with American movies/TV series that have war episodes, the war scenes in Legend of Xiangxi were far too primitive and much less convincing.
4. Though I cannot think of a better ending, the show could be extended a few minutes just to give audiences a flashback of the touching and sad love story between Sannu and Suisui (it could include other types of flashbacks for other people). It could happen while Suisui was carrying Sannu’s body down the mountains. Lots of people have watched the movie Titanic, though the leading male role, also the leading female role’s true love interest while aboard Titanic, died close to the end, the movie did not stop there. It ended with a dream scene where Rose went back to Titanic and saw all those people that died in that tragedy including Jack. It gave an otherwise sad story a perfect ending - an ending with hope and satisfaction.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Saturday, December 15, 2007
How to act without acting?
After coming to America over 15 years ago, I watched tons of movies, TV plays, and sitcoms. On the sideline, I kept watching Chinese movies and TV series. The big difference I see is that American actors, either famous or unknown, acted more in a natural way so that we, as audiences, did not really feel that they were acting. On the other hand, the fellow Chinese actors, except a few well-known ones, the majority of normal actors just “acted” too much and made me feel either uncomfortable or nervous in a way that I could feel their frustration or pressure for trying to make their roles work.
It might relate to the fundamental cultural differences since American people appear to be more open-minded and care-free while we oriental people are more subtle and good at conceiving but not expressing.
Over the years, we have seen so many big-budget movies with all-star cast and captivating camera work, and most of them have very strong story lines as well. However, the effect is not very satisfying, one reason may attribute to the irrelevance of the content to real people’s lives when a movie tells a completely fabricated story from ancient time. For those movies, we audiences are at the mercy of the screenwriter and director because they can do pretty much whatever they want. Leaving alone those big screen movies, there were quite some TV series produced over the years that did tell stories of ordinary people’s lives. For those TV shows, acting skills would become really important.
Another interesting observation is that in a typical American TV or movie production, regardless of the importance of a role, big or small, actors would dedicate 100% and you don't feel that a story is broken into pieces because of inconsistent acting. But this is usually not the case for our fellow Chinese actors. We could easily spot a couple of non-professional actors who made us guess that they might be picked for a price, say, relatives of a sponsor.
It might relate to the fundamental cultural differences since American people appear to be more open-minded and care-free while we oriental people are more subtle and good at conceiving but not expressing.
Over the years, we have seen so many big-budget movies with all-star cast and captivating camera work, and most of them have very strong story lines as well. However, the effect is not very satisfying, one reason may attribute to the irrelevance of the content to real people’s lives when a movie tells a completely fabricated story from ancient time. For those movies, we audiences are at the mercy of the screenwriter and director because they can do pretty much whatever they want. Leaving alone those big screen movies, there were quite some TV series produced over the years that did tell stories of ordinary people’s lives. For those TV shows, acting skills would become really important.
Another interesting observation is that in a typical American TV or movie production, regardless of the importance of a role, big or small, actors would dedicate 100% and you don't feel that a story is broken into pieces because of inconsistent acting. But this is usually not the case for our fellow Chinese actors. We could easily spot a couple of non-professional actors who made us guess that they might be picked for a price, say, relatives of a sponsor.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Personal Review: Legend of Xiangxi
Comparing with many other made-in-China movies and TV series, Legend of Xiangxi is one of the best I have seen in many years. A drama with a strong story line set in a historical background. Not only leading roles made their marks in this show, many other "insignificant" actors also delivered their best performance. The story was told in a coherent way with little waste of time. The camera was captivating and the music was beautiful. The script was appropriate and clear.
Although it was very good for what it was trying to convey, it was nothing beyond. Some details were sacrificed for better effect. For example, when Suisui went to see Sannu while he was on a hunger strike, Sannu should have been starved for 7-8 days, not to mention that a normal person would have died by that time, at the very least, he should be semi-unconscious; however, Sannu only showed a little bit of weakness not enough to tear him apart during those tortures. It would be more believable if he had only been starved for 3 days or so. I know that the effect of 3 days versus 7 days is different, but if the director and screen writer cannot work miracles here, we audience will have to believe in one. Another regret of this story is that the tragedy from last generation had to be repeated in order to separate two lovers whose love had endured their own test of life and death. Can't we think of something else? On the other hand, the death of Tian Dayou, though meant to be heroic, was underlined with a pathetic nature. He could have died out of a good fight with the true enemies, or maybe, more dramatized, out of saving Sannu's life (while fighting with the true enemies) for his daughter's sake so that the inevitable hatred from last generation would become the ultimate gratefulness in this one.
This show was constantly testing the audience's limit. I anticipated bad things to come almost non-stop, and soon reached a point that I could no longer enjoy those very few love (and supposedly happy) scenes. I was deeply touched by the first couple of episodes when Sannu fell in love with Suisui at first sight and insisted in knowing her name. Those scenes were straight to the point with no string attached, very neat and natural. However, later on, when things got complicated, I did not quite sense the strong chemistry between those two love birds. They had little time to strengthen their love (or maybe the director did not give them enough time) but to jump into yet another mess and face a even stronger obstacle. When the time finally came that they could marry each other, almost everybody knows that it would be the end of their love story. There was one big failure in an otherwise touching scene when Suisui offered Sannu her hand to jump into arrays of knives together. Maybe both actors are too young and inexperienced to show emotions at a deeper level. They looked at each other, no desperate hugging, no tear-dropping kisses, the only thing I saw were two somewhat sad faces that could mean many things but not love at the final moments. At that time, they should be care-free and do whatever they wanted. At the bottom line, they did not make me believe that they really knew what they were getting into or they were about to die. I saw two people "act", that was about it. Another thing that could have been done to signify this scene is to use different daring angles of camera shots; however, before they started jumping, there was only one shot from the front with our main figures standing atop a table not revealing any significant feelings, or I could not tell any, simply because they stood too far away to be observed clearly.
I remember when I watched the TV Series 人间四月天 (April Sky on Earth?), I did not like most of it, but I was very much moved by one scene when Xu Zhimo went to see Lin Huiyin outside her home after they both went back to China. They looked at each other, knowing their love would have no result, yet the magnetic feelings were still so strong between them. The whole scene lasted several minutes without a single word, but I could feel tons of "words" from their facial expressions. My own emotions went along with theirs and I was completely overwhelmed by their grave mutual attractions entangled with common morality and unbearable hopelessness.
To be continued...
Although it was very good for what it was trying to convey, it was nothing beyond. Some details were sacrificed for better effect. For example, when Suisui went to see Sannu while he was on a hunger strike, Sannu should have been starved for 7-8 days, not to mention that a normal person would have died by that time, at the very least, he should be semi-unconscious; however, Sannu only showed a little bit of weakness not enough to tear him apart during those tortures. It would be more believable if he had only been starved for 3 days or so. I know that the effect of 3 days versus 7 days is different, but if the director and screen writer cannot work miracles here, we audience will have to believe in one. Another regret of this story is that the tragedy from last generation had to be repeated in order to separate two lovers whose love had endured their own test of life and death. Can't we think of something else? On the other hand, the death of Tian Dayou, though meant to be heroic, was underlined with a pathetic nature. He could have died out of a good fight with the true enemies, or maybe, more dramatized, out of saving Sannu's life (while fighting with the true enemies) for his daughter's sake so that the inevitable hatred from last generation would become the ultimate gratefulness in this one.
This show was constantly testing the audience's limit. I anticipated bad things to come almost non-stop, and soon reached a point that I could no longer enjoy those very few love (and supposedly happy) scenes. I was deeply touched by the first couple of episodes when Sannu fell in love with Suisui at first sight and insisted in knowing her name. Those scenes were straight to the point with no string attached, very neat and natural. However, later on, when things got complicated, I did not quite sense the strong chemistry between those two love birds. They had little time to strengthen their love (or maybe the director did not give them enough time) but to jump into yet another mess and face a even stronger obstacle. When the time finally came that they could marry each other, almost everybody knows that it would be the end of their love story. There was one big failure in an otherwise touching scene when Suisui offered Sannu her hand to jump into arrays of knives together. Maybe both actors are too young and inexperienced to show emotions at a deeper level. They looked at each other, no desperate hugging, no tear-dropping kisses, the only thing I saw were two somewhat sad faces that could mean many things but not love at the final moments. At that time, they should be care-free and do whatever they wanted. At the bottom line, they did not make me believe that they really knew what they were getting into or they were about to die. I saw two people "act", that was about it. Another thing that could have been done to signify this scene is to use different daring angles of camera shots; however, before they started jumping, there was only one shot from the front with our main figures standing atop a table not revealing any significant feelings, or I could not tell any, simply because they stood too far away to be observed clearly.
I remember when I watched the TV Series 人间四月天 (April Sky on Earth?), I did not like most of it, but I was very much moved by one scene when Xu Zhimo went to see Lin Huiyin outside her home after they both went back to China. They looked at each other, knowing their love would have no result, yet the magnetic feelings were still so strong between them. The whole scene lasted several minutes without a single word, but I could feel tons of "words" from their facial expressions. My own emotions went along with theirs and I was completely overwhelmed by their grave mutual attractions entangled with common morality and unbearable hopelessness.
To be continued...
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