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furtechI finally started reading Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy
. I finished the first book on my trip and "The Golden Compass" lived up to all the expectations I'd built up from friends whose taste in books I trust. This novel hits the ground running, while still weaving in likeable characters and revealing an alternate Earth. As one friend told me, the book can't be distilled or explained: you just have to read it. Good advice! I haven't been so excited about a book series for ages!
I also recently saw Yimou Zhang's "Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles" . Zhang is the same director who brought us "House of Flying Daggers" and (Jet Li's) "Hero." Riding Alone is a major departure from these two films: this is very introspective-- a pure character piece. The one obvious detail carrying over to this film is the incredible photography and the spectacle or modern Chinese society that Zhang captures.
Riding Alone stars one of my favorite character actors, Ken Takakura . You might remember him as sad-faced manager in "Mr. Baseball" or the assistant inspector in "Black Rain" opposite Michael Douglas. In this film he plays a taciturn father, estranged from his son, and desperate (but clueless) to try and reconcile things with him. He hardly speaks at all in the film; when he does, the lines are simple and poignant.
In a lot of ways, Zhang is paralleling the career of Akira Kurosawa. While Kurosawa was most famous for his samurai epics, he also made a number of seemingly mundane character films. The most famous (and my favorite Kurosawa film) is "Ikiru", about a man who had lost purpose in life, only to gain it just before his death. Powerful but simple character piece.
I hope Zhang continues to try new things, like Ang Lee did with the similarly quiet, if controversial, "Brokeback Mountain." I will say that Zhang's films are worth seeing in the theater because of his spectacular cinematography.
. I finished the first book on my trip and "The Golden Compass" lived up to all the expectations I'd built up from friends whose taste in books I trust. This novel hits the ground running, while still weaving in likeable characters and revealing an alternate Earth. As one friend told me, the book can't be distilled or explained: you just have to read it. Good advice! I haven't been so excited about a book series for ages!
I also recently saw Yimou Zhang's "Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles" . Zhang is the same director who brought us "House of Flying Daggers" and (Jet Li's) "Hero." Riding Alone is a major departure from these two films: this is very introspective-- a pure character piece. The one obvious detail carrying over to this film is the incredible photography and the spectacle or modern Chinese society that Zhang captures.
Riding Alone stars one of my favorite character actors, Ken Takakura . You might remember him as sad-faced manager in "Mr. Baseball" or the assistant inspector in "Black Rain" opposite Michael Douglas. In this film he plays a taciturn father, estranged from his son, and desperate (but clueless) to try and reconcile things with him. He hardly speaks at all in the film; when he does, the lines are simple and poignant.
In a lot of ways, Zhang is paralleling the career of Akira Kurosawa. While Kurosawa was most famous for his samurai epics, he also made a number of seemingly mundane character films. The most famous (and my favorite Kurosawa film) is "Ikiru", about a man who had lost purpose in life, only to gain it just before his death. Powerful but simple character piece.
I hope Zhang continues to try new things, like Ang Lee did with the similarly quiet, if controversial, "Brokeback Mountain." I will say that Zhang's films are worth seeing in the theater because of his spectacular cinematography.
