A gravity-free giant glass pearl
A movie by one of my favorite directors, Tsai Ming-Liang, has the same title as an album by one of my favorites bands, Mayday. I was thrilled to learn a few years ago that this is not a coincidence. Both Mayday singer-songwriter Ashin and I are big TML fans. It was a double pleasure a few weeks ago to learn more about Ashin's film-buff life and read it in a blog entry that shows he can write prose as well as lyrics. (It's written in Chinese; I read a translation. But check out the link to see his photos.) This is Ashin's take on Universal Studios Hollywood, which he visited while on tour last month:
"In a corner of the city near the mountains, people have built a glittering, ornate amusement park. Ever since I was young I’ve really liked the idiom, “grotesque and gaudy (光怪陸離);” it’s the finest praise I can give it.
"Brilliant and dazzling, illusory and strange, like in this weekend’s average amusement park, ignoring gravity, ankles leave the earth.
"Thinking back on when I was a student, I would often head off by myself to the movie theater, determined to see independent films from all over the world, especially ones full of Third World, unusual emotions. I’ve always thought Hollywood films to be shallow and overly sweet; only the sort of completely angular, craggy production can give me a fierce shock.
"But, but, as I get older, actually I’m enjoying watching special-effects-filled Hollywood movies more and more, the more special effects, the better. It could be that there’s already too much reality in life; being able to make people happily speed through an illusion, really is a kind of good deed.
"If you call those independently produced films sharp crags, then those special effects films I liked later are colored glass pearls, rounded, luminous and worldly perfection -- as you leave the movie theater you absolutely won’t be carrying with you anything to trouble you.
"In the City of Angels there is just such a glass amusement park, a super movie theater, a grotesque and gaudy model paradise. It packages you up in a gravity-free giant glass pearl; everyday everyday, people are here heartily and playfully dreaming.
"A revelry like there is no tomorrow; it’s so good."
The translation is by Meredith Oyen of the Mayday fansite One Day In May.
"In a corner of the city near the mountains, people have built a glittering, ornate amusement park. Ever since I was young I’ve really liked the idiom, “grotesque and gaudy (光怪陸離);” it’s the finest praise I can give it.
"Brilliant and dazzling, illusory and strange, like in this weekend’s average amusement park, ignoring gravity, ankles leave the earth.
"Thinking back on when I was a student, I would often head off by myself to the movie theater, determined to see independent films from all over the world, especially ones full of Third World, unusual emotions. I’ve always thought Hollywood films to be shallow and overly sweet; only the sort of completely angular, craggy production can give me a fierce shock.
"But, but, as I get older, actually I’m enjoying watching special-effects-filled Hollywood movies more and more, the more special effects, the better. It could be that there’s already too much reality in life; being able to make people happily speed through an illusion, really is a kind of good deed.
"If you call those independently produced films sharp crags, then those special effects films I liked later are colored glass pearls, rounded, luminous and worldly perfection -- as you leave the movie theater you absolutely won’t be carrying with you anything to trouble you.
"In the City of Angels there is just such a glass amusement park, a super movie theater, a grotesque and gaudy model paradise. It packages you up in a gravity-free giant glass pearl; everyday everyday, people are here heartily and playfully dreaming.
"A revelry like there is no tomorrow; it’s so good."
The translation is by Meredith Oyen of the Mayday fansite One Day In May.
posted by Steve at
5:53 PM
2 Comments:
There is a big dispute going on as to whether the words the Shobijin sing in Mothra are Malay. At first I accepted this fact because the Wikipedia said so. But now I think the words are completely made up. And why not?
When you tell everyone about that wild, pants-free party in the Kennedy "compound," you're using a Malay word.
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