Hollywood Philosophy
Whew, long time no blog, here's a quick update on the center of the universe:
-I turned 25
-I had ankle surgery last Tuesday to get rid of some bone spurs and scar tissue. The surgery was far more intensive than anyone expected. Consequently, I've been in a lot of pain, but I am glad I did the surgery. It's clear my ankle would never have returned to any sort of normalcy without it.
-I still work
-My house is starting to look like a house. I have an $8 Christmas tree with one ornament and a star my girlfriend made from pipe cleaners.
-For Thanskgiving, the gf and I went to visit my parents. We had three busy days; Sonoma and Napa, San Francisco, and Yosemite. Good times.
I just finished hooking up a new DVD player that I bought my gf for Christmas. As all geeks are wont to do, I wanted to try it out. I put in my copy of House of Flying Daggers (beautiful cinematography and choreography) and watched the last few minutes.
It seems Eastern films and books portray hereos, not as super natural freaks, but more as humans that are maximizing their every potential. Superman was an alien, Spiderman was bitten by a radioactive spider, the X-Men are mutants...Batman and Ironman were both normal, however, both were born filty rich. But the heroes in eastern films like HoFD, Crouching Tiger..., and a lot of old kung fu are just human. They may have trained for years, or edured incredible hardships. For those watching Western movies the theme becomes: I cannot do incredible things without lucky difference. The Eastern heroes suggest: Work hard and anyone can take down the Leader of the evil Jaguar clan.
Asian heroes that do have super powers also seem to have a higher chance of living in a fantasy world. I suppose the western genre that proves me wrong are the Schwarzennegers, the Stallones, rarely possesing super powers, but still saving the day.
Anyway, this is the view from my seat... I'm curious to hear comment, especially from those with more exposure to Asian culture than I.
-I turned 25
-I had ankle surgery last Tuesday to get rid of some bone spurs and scar tissue. The surgery was far more intensive than anyone expected. Consequently, I've been in a lot of pain, but I am glad I did the surgery. It's clear my ankle would never have returned to any sort of normalcy without it.
-I still work
-My house is starting to look like a house. I have an $8 Christmas tree with one ornament and a star my girlfriend made from pipe cleaners.
-For Thanskgiving, the gf and I went to visit my parents. We had three busy days; Sonoma and Napa, San Francisco, and Yosemite. Good times.
I just finished hooking up a new DVD player that I bought my gf for Christmas. As all geeks are wont to do, I wanted to try it out. I put in my copy of House of Flying Daggers (beautiful cinematography and choreography) and watched the last few minutes.
It seems Eastern films and books portray hereos, not as super natural freaks, but more as humans that are maximizing their every potential. Superman was an alien, Spiderman was bitten by a radioactive spider, the X-Men are mutants...Batman and Ironman were both normal, however, both were born filty rich. But the heroes in eastern films like HoFD, Crouching Tiger..., and a lot of old kung fu are just human. They may have trained for years, or edured incredible hardships. For those watching Western movies the theme becomes: I cannot do incredible things without lucky difference. The Eastern heroes suggest: Work hard and anyone can take down the Leader of the evil Jaguar clan.
Asian heroes that do have super powers also seem to have a higher chance of living in a fantasy world. I suppose the western genre that proves me wrong are the Schwarzennegers, the Stallones, rarely possesing super powers, but still saving the day.
Anyway, this is the view from my seat... I'm curious to hear comment, especially from those with more exposure to Asian culture than I.
posted by Brady Beckham at 11:00 AM
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