Friday 25 January 2013

Hong gao liang
[Red Sorghum]
(1987)

RATING:60%
FORMAT:DVD

A simple storyline overwhelmed by its poetic telling: Here, the treatment is everything; the plot nothing.

In truth, this is a neophyte movie from a filmmaker who has little of value to tell us yet says it beguilingly through the bold and constant use of the color red. Red is used to convey passion towards life, unrestricted vitality and spirited emotional enthusiasm. The visual impact of such a color fully justifies the director’s choice of filming in rich colors since there could be no other way to show blood, wine, anger, revenge, sex, youth - the life-force itself.

Gong LI is as lovely to look at, as ever, and actually embodies the film’s visual themes in her perfectly understated way. But this film is really all show and no go and amounts to little more than extremely beautiful wallpaper.


Copyright © 2013 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.co.uk) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.
Posted by Frank TALKER™ at 14:12
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Science:



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.)