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Monday, January 26, 2009

The Year of the Ox


{Lucky Red at Night, originally uploaded by sachman75.}

Happy New Year! Today marks the beginning of the Chinese Lunar Year 4706.

I am intrigued by Asian culture, a fascination fueled in recent years by a peek behind the red curtain via films such as Ang Lee's Eat Drink Man Woman and the gorgeous Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and books like Lisa See's Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and Martin Booth's Golden Boy. On Sunday I watched the almost-too-beautiful Curse of the Golden Flower, about a 10th century emperor and some pretty dangerous family dynamics inside an impossibly gorgeous (and well-staffed) palace. Plot aside, the budget for costumes, sets and extras probably rivaled that of the 2008 Olympics opening ceremonies. If you enjoyed Memoirs of a Geisha (the book) I recommend all of the above.

6 comments:

Raina Cox said...

I loved Golden Flower. That last half hour was mind blowing. The sets - holy cow!

Anonymous said...

I've always been drawn to it too...another movie that is very simple (no ornate sets here) is The Scent Of Green Papaya...and only because there is something so elegant about the way she simply prepares the food---something clean and elegant...

Anonymous said...

Happy Chinese New Year!

Fifi Flowers said...

Memoirs of a Geisha (the book) was SOOOOO GOOD... I was soooooooo disappointed with the movie.
Happy Chinese New year to you!

please sir said...

Sounds like a good year approaches!

Pseudo said...

My husband is part Chinese and Chinese New Year is a big deal over here.