I watched Red Cliff today… three hours before I attended a press conference with John Woo, Chang Chen, Lin Chi Ling and Zhang Feng Yi. I thought the movie was absolutely fantastic, though I should also add that I’m a huge fan of Tony Leung and Takeshi Kaneshiro. For non-fans, I’d tone down the adjectives by a couple degrees, but it’s still a great movie.
I’d be happy to watch Tony Leung and Takeshi do nothing but stare at each other because I find their onscreen charisma so mesmerising, but I suppose that wouldn’t have been a very interesting movie. Luckily, Red Cliff is set in the context of the Three Kingdoms so there’s plenty of action to go round. Oh, and there’s a sequel. I probably should tell you that because I didn’t know beforehand and when the movie ended abruptly I almost swore out loud in the cinema.
I love watching Chinese movies. Good ones, obviously. I feel as though I’m immersed in another world, because the circle that I currently inhabit is so far removed from a world where everyone speaks Mandarin. In fact, hardly anybody speaks to me in Mandarin on a regular basis.
I love listening to the actors speaking Mandarin, and I love that I understand what’s going on. It’s like I get to be a part of that world for a while and share their jokes and follow their lives when no one else can. By ‘no one’ I really mean Y and most of our close friends, of course, though Y does take an interest in Chinese movies if a gem comes along. I reckon Red Cliff is one of those gems.
I love that I recognise the names of the characters; I love that I remember bits of the context from high school Chinese history lessons; I love just listening to the language being spoken by Taiwanese and mainland Chinese actors because it’s different from how we speak it here (kinda like how our English has a different accent from Americans and Brits I suppose).
The press conference (PC) also marked a major milestone for me. I asked my first Mandarin question at a PC. I hardly attend non-English PCs and when I do, I usually leave all the question-asking to the real Chinese press even though I understand everything that’s going on. Today, I decided it was time to break that mental block. After all, I am perfectly capable of conversing in the language, no?
I’ll admit it: I was nervous as hell. I formed the question in my head and rehearsed it mentally a couple of times to make sure I didn’t sound like an idiot in front of the entire roomful of people. And when I was finally called upon… I blanked and totally forgot my carefully constructed sentence!
Well, the floor was already mine so what’s the worst that could happen? I’ll probably never speak to John Woo (or any of the others) again anyway. After a couple of uhms while I waited for my brain to resume working, I got my question out. It was a bit choppy in the beginning but I did it. And I didn’t sound like an idiot. And I did it without my pre-constructed sentence so I guess I am capable of holding my own after all. I swear there was a massive smiley face floating around inside my head. I think I’m going to be fine from now on.
I don’t have any photos from the PC because R was my photographer. And I didn’t even get anywhere near the foursome so no pictures with them either. Security was way tight – sometimes I think Asian celebs are more particular than Western ones though we’ve certainly come across a couple of divas from the latter group. Anyway, just go watch the movie.
