Error: I'm afraid this is the first I've heard of a "trackback" flavoured Blosxom. Try dropping the "/+trackback" bit from the end of the URL.
Raise the Camels
"Raise the camels" is apparently what you say when it's time for a caravan to get moving, because when they stop to rest they lay down to chew their cuds (or whatever camels do instead of chewing cuds). There's a lot of raising of camels in the movie I just watched.
My back has been complaining a little, so I dug my yoga DVDs out of the travel crate this morning. (I think I am either losing a little weight or it is rearranging itself: I got in my own way less than the last time I did the last time I did yoga.)
Next to the yoga DVDs in the crate was Warriors of Heaven and Earth which I bought when I was living in Boston last and never watched or unpacked. I watched it this morning.
The movie is an excellent "Chinese Western" set along the Silk Road in 700AD, with swords instead of rifles and Turks instead of Indians. You can tell it's a Western (and aimed at an international market) because not quite all of the main characters are deadat the end. I've gotten used to the fact that Chinese movies tend to have body counts that would impress an Elizabethan tragedian, so it's refreshing to have someone survive.
The scenery and costumes were gorgeous. (Including some of the fanciest male hairstyles I've seen since the elves from Lord of the Rings). And there are lots of excellent sword fights, major battles, and horses (and camels). The battles were sort of John Wayne stylized, not over the top wu xia style.
According to the 'making of' special, the "helicopter" shots were done with an ultralight aircraft and a hot air balloon, since they were out in the middle of the Gobi.
And it's nice that the female lead got to take part in the climactic battle, not just serve as a love interest or baggage. (She was in charge of setting off ballistas and rockets, etc. while the men fought with swords and bows and arrows. Very reasonable.)
I will want to rewatch this on my big screen TV when I get home. I'm sure there are details I missed on the smaller screen.
I also find myself wanting to learn some Mandarin. One of the characters (Played by Kiichi Nakai) is a Japanese warrior whose letters home had Japanese voiceovers. Chinese movies are generally subtitled, sometimes in more than one dialect, even for home consumption, so the Japanese parts would not bother the audience. But it made me miss being able to follow along with the subtitles, which I can do, to some extent, in Japanese and many European languages.
The DVD comes with soundtracks in Mandarin, English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese, and subtitles in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese... I watched in Chinese with English subtitles, but it might be interesting to mix and match. Watching a Chinese movie with a Spanish dub and Spanish subtitles might be an interesting way to refresh some of my very rusty Spanish. I seem to be able to read it better than I hear it, these days.
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