Sunday, 23 January 2011

Once Upon a Time in China
(1991)

RATING:60%
FORMAT:DVD

British Empire was a Racket

A fine showcase for Jet LI’s impressive martial skills but rather a feeble, elliptical and impressionistic drama that fails to engage the emotions as it should because of weak characterization. The implicit romance, especially, never really goes anywhere much and the rather broad and unsophisticated humor is not successfully integrated into the drama as a whole.

What is far more expressive is the argument against the foreign colonialism of China in the nineteenth-century by both England and the United States. The Mafia-rackets’ mentality of such colonists is usefully compared with the local Triad criminal gangs whose goals and aims are identical with that of the foreigners: Wealth creation without too much effort. This extends to the cultural colonialism of Chinese people speaking English and wearing Western-style clothes, along with the resultant fear that not only are ones physical resources being stolen but ones very culture.

Not as good as Jing wu ying xiong (Fist of Legend).

Copyright © 2011 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.
Posted by Frank TALKER™ at 14:30
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No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.



Jacob Bronowski… (1908 - 74), British scientist, author. Encounter (London, July 1971).


Sleep of Reason:



The dream of reason produces monsters. Imagination deserted by reason creates impossible, useless thoughts. United with reason, imagination is the mother of all art and the source of all its beauty.



Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes… (1746-1828), Spanish painter. Caption to Caprichos, number 43, a series of eighty etchings completed in 1798, satirical and grotesque in form.


Humans & Aliens:



I am human and let nothing human be alien to me.



Terence… (circa 190-159 BC), Roman dramatist. Chremes, in The Self-Tormentor [Heauton Timorumenos], act 1, scene 1.


Führerprinzip:



One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves… There is no organ of conciliation or mediation interposed between the leader and the people, nothing in fact but the apparatus - in other words, the party - which is the emanation of the leader and the tool of his will to oppress. In this way the first and sole principle of this degraded form of mysticism is born, the Führerprinzip, which restores idolatry and a debased deity to the world of nihilism.



Albert Camus… (1913-60), French-Algerian writer & philosopher. The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt: New York: Vintage Books, (1984; page 182.)