Monday, March 10, 2014

Tang Wei in 'The Golden Era'



Xiao Hong was one of most important writers of contemporary China. The life of this writer of the 30's of the past century has now been captured on film. No one less than Tang Wei will star in this film: 'The Golden Era'. After her magnificent performance in Ang Lee's 'Lust, Caution' the acting heart will always beat a little faster when she appears in a new film!

Sunday, March 9, 2014

The Reluctant Fundamenatlist and how the attacks on the Twin Towers (9-11) and the actions of Russia's Putin in Crimea earned respect




The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a nice film, maybe not the best but some nice scenery and music will make you pass your time easily. But that is not want I want to talk about today, there is an interesting conversation in this film that may raises some eyebrows:

‘Didn’t you have, only for a split second, some respect for the terrorists who are responsible for the attack on 9-11?’

It is an interesting thought because there is a sense of truth about it. Ofcourse the act was horrible and so many innocent people died but that is not the subject around here. People may feel bad about it but in my opinion most of them will have thought about this. How is it possible, such a brilliantly coordinated attack from a terrorist cell which hits the Americans right in their heart? And yes, when you think about it, it is rather amazing end almost highly intelligent. 


Back to the present where exactly the same thing is happening:


Russia’s and Ukraine’s conflict in Crimea. Though a military conflict can never be seen as right and Russia has probably to be condemned for it…. There is also this awwww factor and idolization of Vladimir Putin. Haven’t you thought, only for a split second, how brilliant Putin’s moves are? He is bold but knows nobody or any country can touch him. At the moment he is a statue of absolute power. He may have violated international law but he acted in such an intelligent way that the West and USA can’t crank a hair of his head. And he knows it, you can see it in every picture of Putin, he is in complete control and forces the West to throw sanctions at Russia where in the end the West will pay the biggest for these sanctions. Though maybe wrong, an act of Putin’s Russia that quakes the earth and shows the immense strategically power Putin is capable of. For that he owes much respect.

This is an very difficult subject but one of the things 'the Reluctant Fundamentalist' makes you think about. It doesn't have to be a taboo.