In a film that begins in 1899, with titles indicating the impoverishment of the Qing Dynasty and the growing power of the Boxers to expel foreigners from China, Empire of Silver (Baiyin Diguo) describes the banking system, with currency backed by silver, which emerged earlier but was on the verge of collapse when Nationalist Forces […]
Beginning of the Great Revival (Jian Dang Wei Ye) is epic in scale, beginning with the overthrow of the monarchy in 1911, formation of the Chinese Community Party on July 1, 1921, and leaps forward to 1941 without any mention of Chiang Kaishek. As Western powers have capitalized on the weakness of the empire, carving
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IS TAKING CHANCE AN ANTI-WAR FILM? Only those who subscribe to HBO on cable had an opportunity to see the awardwinning film Taking Chance on Memorial Day 2011. Directed by Ross Katz, the film is a true story based on a journal written into a screenplay by Lt. Col. Michael Strobl, who volunteers as military
THE TREE OF LIFE PUZZLES SOME FILMVIEWERS The Tree of Life, written and directed by Terrence Malick, may provoke single members of audiences to walk out, as they did recently at a screening in chic West Los Angeles. Those who are married and have kids will remain, transfixed. Memories of childrearing combined with a lyrical
COURT INTRIGUE FEATURED IN THE PRINCESS OF MONTPENSIER In 1567, there was an ongoing civil war in France. Government forces were suppressing the Protestants (Huguenots), even going from door to door in a manner resembling the persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany. Marriage within the aristocracy is controlled by parents to advance themselves so
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LEGEND OF THE FIST PAYS HOMAGE TO CHINESE NATIONALISM While some 150,000 Chinese fought in Europe to defeat the Germans, Japan seized German concessions in the Shandong Peninsula (including Shanghai) while engaging its navy against Germany in Asia. The Treaty of Versailles, rather than recognizing the role of the Chinese soldiers, awarded the German concessions
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THERE BE DRAGONS IS ANOTHER KILLING FIELDS Roland Joffé, who won a Political Film Society award for The Killing Fields (1984) has gone back to a bloody battlefield, this time the Spanish Civil War. There Be Dragons is a biopic of Josémaría Escrivá (played by Charlie Cox), the founder of Opus Dei, who was declared
PLENTY OF PROPAGANDA IN ATLAS SHRUGGED Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged (1957) has been updated in a film directed by Paul Johansson. The movie begins in September 2016, two months before President Obama’s successor will be selected by voters. Socialism is the response to Great Depression II, which occurred sometime after Obama’s reelection. After the initial
JANE EYRE: THE FIRST FEMINIST? If novels by the Brontë sisters were the opening salvos of modern feminism, then Jane Eyre (1847) is the finest masterpiece in opening that debate. In the film adaptation, directed by Cary Fukunaga, Jane Eyre not only unmasks how feminism can liberate both sexes from nonsensical stereotypic roles but also
THE LINCOLN LAWYER REVEALS SECRETS ABOUT BEING A LAWYER IN LOS ANGELES Aside from the twists and turns of the entertaining plot in The Lincoln Lawyer, we view pick-up bar perils, the going rate for high-class prostitutes, benefits of being a part-time mob attorney, prosecutorial misconduct to get convictions by any sleazy means, the rich
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