Movies in General

supersnoop

Major
Registered Member
Frankly I think China is just screwing with American film studios with their demands for cuts. Removing the Statue of Liberty...? Americans think it's serious because they think the Chinese need to watch their movies when Beijing is just creating an excuse to not have them shown in China knowing they're not going to be cut out. Disney seems to get Beijing's ire the most. Hiring Chloe Zhao and Simu Liu who've made anti-China comments doesn't help because everyone knows if they shutting up now about how they feel, it doesn't mean a changed position. Since 20th Century Fox is owned by Disney now, it'll be interesting how the Avatar sequels will be received by Beijing.
Was this ever proven? I have suspicions that this wasn't just some NY Post level BS that caught on due to the extremely weak vetting news outlets do nowdays.
China is probably the number 1 producer of little plastic statues of liberty, and it's not like Chinese nationals are banned from NYC.
I think China and Disney have a good relationship overall. There are 2 theme parks in China after all. Both probably accept each other's political realities as the cost of doing business.
 

AssassinsMace

Lieutenant General
Was this ever proven? I have suspicions that this wasn't just some NY Post level BS that caught on due to the extremely weak vetting news outlets do nowdays.
China is probably the number 1 producer of little plastic statues of liberty, and it's not like Chinese nationals are banned from NYC.
I think China and Disney have a good relationship overall. There are 2 theme parks in China after all. Both probably accept each other's political realities as the cost of doing business.

Yes it could be an example of which came first... the chicken or the egg.
 

ficker22

Senior Member
Registered Member
I watched Mononoke Hime - Princess Mononoke in original again and it still moves me a lot.


I must say the old Ghibli films have educated alot of things to me thru out my childhood. I can only recommend.

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One day China will create art of equal value.
 

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OppositeDay

Senior Member
Registered Member
I watched Mononoke Hime - Princess Mononoke in original again and it still moves me a lot.


I must say the old Ghibli films have educated alot of things to me thru out my childhood. I can only recommend.

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One day China will create art of equal value.

I usually have a "great artists steal" attitude but given so many Chinese animations/pop culture works are unfairly sullied by accusations of plagiarism by fans of Japanese pop culture (not implying you are one of them), I want to point out that a case can be made that Mononoke Hime is basically a Japanese adaptation of the first two books of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earth Sea cycle.
 

ficker22

Senior Member
Registered Member
I usually have a "great artists steal" attitude but given so many Chinese animations/pop culture works are unfairly sullied by accusations of plagiarism by fans of Japanese pop culture (not implying you are one of them), I want to point out that a case can be made that Mononoke Hime is basically a Japanese adaptation of the first two books of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earth Sea cycle.


I just glossed over wiki synopsis of both books. It is true that Miyazaki liked the Earthsea Chronicles, but I dont quite see large 1 to 1 plot and story translation towards this work in particular.

Can you please elaborate where Monoke it intersects with the earthsea cronicles, I havent read the books only online synopsis so I definetly dont know things.

Spoilers.

From what I see is that Monoke is deeply rooted in japonic cultural setting and beliefs, less so in magic and personal strife, as in earthsea's 1&2 books.

Set in a time, late Heian, early Kamakura, where mythical beasts still roamed the vast forests of japan (even today 68% of japan is forest) and the conflict between Emishi, Nature and Yamato boils to a lethal convergence.

With the dying Emishi/Ezo people and their male heir being cursed by a deadly disease, this reflects the vanishing of the emishi people ( same can be said about the hayato and later ainu and ryukyu).


Then the internal strife between warlords (Taira and Minamoto wars), also deeply japonic as is zhanguo shidai is deeply sinic.

Lady Eboshi, being a strong female lead, outclassing any male character in the film even ashitaka maybe, very uncommon at that time , 11th century in the story, and even by inception of the film, 1980s.

The treatment of the poor, former prostitutes, slaves and the leprose by lady eboshi.
All very unusual, yet very forsighted.

The conflict between man and nature in terms of Iron town vs. the Cedar forest, a leitmotif even for today. In it intertwined mankinds conflict with itself, see Eboshi vs. Asano's Samurai/The Mikado.

Mononoke Hime, a feral Child, born by human, raised by the Wolf Spirits of the forest, having seen mankinds transgressions against nature, sees herself not as man but as beast.

Reflecting an immigrants view towards their roots. For example ABC or overseas Chinese in general.

Mononoke frequently denies herself to be human, insisting to be wolf, only the cataclysm leads her to change.

Young Ethnic Chinese, who dont know where they belong neither white nor chinese (in cultural terms) have the same internal fights as mononoke, denying, even hating their chinese-ness and whoreshipping white culture. Maybe they to, can embrace their roots, as mononoke in the end did.

The destruction of the forest by humans, causes ailments to its inhabitants, the apes get insane, wanting to eat humans, the boars lose their sapience and ability to speech, rendering themselves to mear lifestock. The wolfs die out.

Religion and superstition being the poison it is, is the main antagonistic factor towards the end. With emperor mikado wanting to consume a gods head to become immortal, while his delusional wish is causing the deaths of a many thousands.

In total I see a deeply rooted connection to japanese mythology and philosphy, many of which have importance in the sinic world too.

Many of the aspects are 1 to 1 also in chinese nature, culturally, historically, and in frequent times with enviromental protection.

And I wish that chinese animation can achieve an equally capable way of telling the Chinese story, with Nezha: New Gods and Jiangziya we have to good contenders, but they just scratch the surface in comparison to what mononoke revealed.
 
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supersnoop

Major
Registered Member
I'm still debating whether to watch top gun but I think this settles it. Not gonna watch propaganda of US military industrial complex.


Kinda cringe though as she is Singaporean
I don't mind over the top non super serious rah rah USA-USA-USA MIC fictional propaganda.

What I despise is the more serious "biopic/based on a true story" stuff. After watching "Charlie Wilson's War", which was the true version of "Dedicated to the brave Mujahedeen fighters..." meme (not Rambo III
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), I swore off things like "Black Hawk Down", "Zero Dark Thirty", etc.

Charlie Wilson's War was cringeworthy even before the Afghan retreat, so looking at it now it's aged like whatever is worse than an open bowl of milk in the sun with animal turds in it.
 

AssassinsMace

Lieutenant General
How does a movie mean America is back? I'm amazed that the alt-right isn't complaining about the diversity of "Top Guns" in the movie. Maybe because they're still in the background. Highly unrealistic in reality where most fighter pilots in the US are white. Non-white fighter pilots are few and far between let alone being Top Guns.
 
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