Neon Angel

As I’m sure it’s already abundantly clear because I can’t shut up about the things I like, I love Asian cinema. Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, Thai – you name it. I’m mostly a fan of horror films, documentaries, historical and period dramas, etc. and rarely watch the for-no-reason soap opera drama no matter what language it’s in.

I also happen to be a big fan of many Asian stars like Chiaki Kuriyama, Lee Sin Je, Kensaku Watanabe, Jyoji Shibue, Yun-Fat Chow, Miyuu Sawai, Li Gong, Yeoh Michelle, Qi Shu and of course, Ziyi Zhang. Well, apparently Netflix knows where I live because when I logged in today I was met with the suggestions of a Ziyi Zhang film I’d never seen before, a film from 2000 named The Road Home.

The Road Home is the love story of eighteen year old Di an her village’s new teacher, and the lengths they went through to be together. The story is 40 years old, and is being narrated in the present day by their son who’s come back to their village to help his mother to carry out a seemingly impossible tradition after his father’s death.

Di has asked the village to carry her husband’s body back along the road back to their village, shouting at him the whole way that this was the way home, so he wouldn’t get lost and wouldn’t forget. But her son soon finds out that all of the strong young men in the village have left, and there’s no one who’s fit to carry his father home. But his mother is stubborn and insistent on getting her way. It’s not until her son begins to retell the story he’s heard from his parents that he and the audience start to understand why.

This film beautifully illustrates what I would consider to be actually romantic, without all the trumped up drama and bs you see in a lot of other films. They tackled the subject delicately, and I can’t think of anything wrong with this film. The acting is amazing, the scenery and score are beautiful, it was wonderfully shot and extremely moving. I wish I could give it more stars than five out of five. There are a few film stills below.

Originally published at Neon Angel. Please leave any comments there.

Last night Yvonne and I went to the Rigney to see the latest Harry Potter film, Deathly Hallows Part One. I can’t say enough about it, it’s my favorite of the Harry Potter films so far and if this one doesn’t at least get an Oscar nod then the awards are all rigged.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has, by far, the loneliest feel to it. It’s broad and expansive, and if J.K.R. isn’t trying to put a mirror up to society then she’s getting extremely lucky. I’ve heard a lot of schlock about it being too long, or being boring and that’s just not the case. HP7 is easily the best of the films, and I’m glad now that I put off reading the 7th Harry Potter book until I’d seen the Deathly Hallows (still have to wait for part 2 before I can read – might make me crazy).

Dan Radcliff, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint all put in their best performances in this film, and you’d think by now they’d have stopped trying, wouldn’t you? The rest of the cast is amazing, the only time I was bored during the entire film was during the preview for Red Riding Hood (which looks like a bowl full of dog doo, to me).

HP7 is scary, moodly, thoughtful, touching and exciting.
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Originally published at Neon Angel. Please leave any comments there.