sushipanda

Unfortunately, because I don’t travel back to the States very much I have to rely on a steady stream of bootlegged DVDs to catch up to movies back home. Add to that the fact that I’m extremely picky about picture and sound quality when I watch a film in any setting, and basically I’m stuck waiting for the DVDs of the films I want to watch to get officially released so that Chinese bootleggers can rip matching copies for us unscrupulous buffs in China. Therefore, nearly three months after the end of 2007, I finally feel like I’ve seen enough of last year’s films this year to write about the list I’ve been compiling in my head the past few months: my top 10 films of 2007.

Yes, the Oscars are way way over, friends of mine have seen some of these pictures twice over, and no one reads this blog anyway, so why bother? Well, it’s fun for me, I guess, and in the spirit of Juno MacGuff, “Phuket Thailand!” Here we go:

1. There Will Be Blood – Paul Thomas Anderson has created a masterpiece through the story of the professional but ferociously single-minded oil tycoon Daniel Plainview. Tension runs through the veins of the entire narrative, surfacing for the occasional eye-popping scene of emotional or physical violence. Daniel Day Lewis deservedly wins the Oscar for his performance as a man whose decay as a human being is just as vicious and throttling as the obsession that eventually engulfs him. A wonderful thing to look at and remember.

2. Once – Two adrift characters who begin to care and maybe even love each other through the pricelessness of shared music. A musical and a romance for those of us who’ve dealt with sadness and optimism, often at the same time. Great songs and great performances by people who seem real and too good to be true at the same time. To be all of these things is an impressive feat, and “Once” is a real treasure of a movie.

3. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly – Kudos to Julian Schnabel and cinematographer Janusz Kaminski for creating a visual world that is lush in color and composition, all from the point of view of one man’s single, functioning eye. The true story of a fashion magazine editor in France who becomes crippled and unable to move any part of his body save for his left eye, “Diving Bell” succeeds in highlighting life’s impermanence, all against a backdrop of poetry and irony and music and color that shows Schnabel’s an artist of uncanny depth and innovation.

4. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days – A story of a woman’s persistence and loyalty in securing an illegal abortion for her roommate and friend during Romania’s communist regime. All the action takes place in less than one day, and a sense of dread permeates the film from beginning to end as the audience braces itself for calamity. Finally, there is less inspiration found in the commitment one friend makes to another as there is a sobering sadness at what she has had to give up to do so. A fucked up, powerful piece of work that’s hard to forget.

5. Ratatouille – One film critic I read referred to Brad Bird as animation’s favorite Ayn Randian. Sure, he values talent and superiority, but probably because he’s an uber-man himself when it comes to crafting perfect narratives. The scene where Anton Ego bites into that first bit of ratatouille and is suddenly thrown back into the innocence and purity of his childhood is how I felt after watching this movie.

6. No Country for Old Men – Every scene with Javier Bardem as the unforgettable psychopath Anton Chigurh is each worth the 10 RMB I paid for the whole film. Perfectly composed and paced and acted, it is Chigurh that makes me want to watch this over and over again. The Coens created a villain so scary that all we want to see is him; not an easy accomplishment for people who are used to heroes; there really aren’t any in this one.

7. The Bourne Ultimatum – Not a second is wasted in this frenetic, heart-thumping third Bourne film. But it’s the quieter moments that I’ll remember, including when Bourne asks Nikki why she is still helping him, and she hints at a history that never surfaces on screen, but makes total sense for those of us who have invested in Bourne’s lost journey. And why wouldn’t she help him, he’s a badass! And this is a badass film befitting Bourne, raw but smart and intense and crazy fun.

8. Juno - I really didn’t think I’d like this film going into it, and for the first forty minutes I was pretty confident that I hadn’t. But then a funny things happened: Juno MacGuff became less annoying and more real (and she also stops talking like a snarky 30 year old for a while), and before I knew it I was grinning ear to ear watching her realize who she really loves and why she hadn’t recognized it before. Ok man, I’m a softy when it comes to underdog love stories, but “Juno” does hit some lovely notes in the second half (when she runs into the Jennifer Garner at the mall, when she tells Pauly how she feels, the ending) and thus justifies its spot here in the Panda Top 10.

9. This is England – I can’t testify to the authenticity of this period film that takes place during the urban downside of England in the early 80’s; there’s a lot that I can’t reference or identify with. But this is still a great coming-of-age tale, a loss of innocence that turns out not be cheesy but remarkably sad and mature. Nothing too stylistically fancy here, but the great acting and its attention to how greater forces can push and pull bonds and beliefs apart make this one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time.

10. Michael Clayton – This is Bourne in reverse; people who lose their humanity and die meta-deaths while their bodies keep on ticking. The real acting gem in this movie is not Clooney or Tilda Swinton (who won the Oscar), but Tom Wilkinson as a lawyer who pays the price for finding his true self again. Very slick and frightening, just like a corporate lawyer should be. The ending felt a little too implausible, but was still satisfying.

Honorable mentions include: Into the Wild, Across the Universe, The Lookout, No End in Sight, Away From Her, Knocked Up, Before the Devil Knows Your Dead, Gone Baby Gone.

I was taking the bus home a couple of days ago and listening to NPR’s Talk of the Nation podcast from earlier in the week. The topic of that show was about the 4000 American lives that have been lost due to the Iraq war. People were asked to call in to talk about someone that they knew who had died, so that, for the smallest of fragments of time, we could get to know who some of these men and women were. The topic was clearly a supremely sad one, and I started tearing up when a man named Bill started choking up right away as he began to introduce his son Patrick, who would have been one year older than me had he not been killed in 2006:

I just think that were there any justice in this world, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and the other serial killer(s) that they surround them with would have climbed the gallows right after Saddam because they’re all cut from the same cloth. For what these people have done to our nation, these draft-deserters and chicken hawks that did not serve, is inexcusable.

He said he was filled with rage at how the war was managed, and of course I am one of an ocean of outsiders who agree. But I came to that conclusion a long time ago from a position too comfortably removed from the grief and pain into which people like Bill have been thrown. Hearing these people call in and speak of their nephews and sons and husbands and friends in a way that made me want to meet them was a tear-inducing experience. So sad, such a waste, such a crime.

And it put things into perspective for me. Why wallow in trivial matters of heartbreak, cheating, disloyalty, frustration, idleness, confusion when I get to wake up every morning and still have everything and everyone that is important to me a phone call or a taxi ride away? In the face of true grief and wrenching pain, the stuff that all of us hope we never have to go through, the things that truly matter are illuminated. Sometimes all we need is just a little perspective to find that will to be happy again.

We’re all lucky bastards.

Am I considered a snob for deriding this piece of travel writing that refers to xiao long bao as bao zi and manages to both misspell and misinterpret Cheng Huang Miao as an authentic guidepost to Chinese history? Maybe. But they lose all credibility with me when they write things like this (I’ve emphasized the offending bit):

For American travelers, Shanghai is also China’s easiest gateway. Many Shanghai residents speak English, traffic is orderly, and the city’s infrastructure is China’s best.

Yes, I’m a snob. So run me down with a taxi cab.

So I ended up taking this Shanghainese girl Maggie on a friendly date to hot pot, and then afterwards asked her if she wanted to go get some sheesha. Her eyes got really big. She asked me, “水烟？什么东西啊？从来都没有听过。” (Sheesha? What is that? I’ve never heard of such a thing).

We went to Barbarossa and she picked the peach-flavored sheesha, then cooed when the pipe was brought over. “Do I smoke this like a cigarette? Will I get high? is this addictive?” Everytime we had hung out previously she had played the whole “tough Shanghai chick” card, aloof and cocky, cigarette dangling from one finger and constantly patronizing with each bat of an eyelash. Suddenly, in the face of something she had never experienced before, the whole facade melted away and this little-kid type excitement came gushing out. It was pretty cute, when all was said and done.

On a side note, I’m impressed with how Barbarossa is still standing after all these years. One of the few bulwarks of the expat nightlife scene, to be sure.

I signed up exactly a year ago, but never actually used it. But now, thanks to Dan, I’ve been back at it these past couple of days, and find that it makes things a little less lonely and a lot more geeky. But it’s fun anyway, so sign up and start following me! My username is (what else) sushipanda.

Opening day in Major League Baseball is right around the corner, and once again, I’ve forgotten the painful lessons of playing in two fantasy leagues with a dozen fanatics last year and have set myself up for a run at the bottom of the fantasy baseball rankings for the next five months. That means that I’ll be forking over another $100 ($50 each) just so I can distract myself from my day-to-day responsibilities competing in a virtual baseball league with people who allow themselves to be even more distracted than I.

One sign that is foreshadowing this upcoming season for my team, the Barack Yo Mamas: My starting 2nd baseman in one of my leagues has an injured anus. Oh Lord, please it’s going to be a long season!

From Xinhua:

WELLINGTON, March 24 (Xinhua) — Air New Zealand plans to issue its Chinese staff with credit cards after it was revealed last week that Shanghai based cabin crew members received a quarter of their New Zealand colleagues’ pay.

Last year, 59 of the 64 Chinese crew wrote a letter to Air New Zealand complaining of inequitable work conditions and having their meal allowance restricted to the hotel they stayed in and one Chinese restaurant, the New Zealand Herald reported Monday.

In an internal memo sent last Friday, Air New Zealand’s Shanghai manager Darrin Curtis told his staff they would be given credit cards to solve the issue of meal allowances.

Their allowance is now paid only if they have meals at the Dragon Boat restaurant or the Crowne Plaza Hotel when they are in Auckland. He also said their pay review would be given “top priority.”

Other Air NZ crew received 175 NZ dollars (140 U.S. dollars) cash in the hand for every day they were away from home.

The newspaper reported Air NZ had warned its crew against talking to news media about pay disparities.

Who’s willing to bet that once the Chinese crew members get their credit cards, they’re going straight to the Dragon Boat restaurant and having a huge celebration banquet?

A few months ago I got hooked on the first season of Friday Night Lights. I was a fan of the movie, directed by Peter Berg, who also executive produced the TV show. The show is impressive because it seems so real, even though it’s a TV drama and accordingly a lot of crazy shit must happen to all the characters to keep it dramatic. But the acting is solid and pretty much all the characters are really likable. I especially like the coach and his wife, who have one of those marriages that makes you envy fictional characters (kinda like how I thought Chun Li from Street Fighter II was really hot when I was a kid). I also like the shy, stuttering quarterback; he’s the hard-working underdog cliche, but the show doesn’t overplay it.

I downloaded what has been released so far from the second season (15 episodes), and have plowed through most of it so far. One thing that has popped into my head, though: how come so many older women in the show end up sleeping with high school dudes? If the show was about older dudes sleeping with high school girls, I doubt NBC would be broadcasting it.

Check out the show though, it’s good TV.

Slate’s “Dispatches“, in which writers contribute posts detailing their travels to far-off lands, is currently running a series about China’s Xinjiang province. Officially, the segment is called “Dispatches from China’s Wild West,” and has four entries so far. The first three posts have touched on topics related to China’s minority Uighur population, which is actually the majority in Xinjiang. The central and provincial governments have been importing the majority Han Chinese by the trainloads as they try to pry the region’s natural resoures while simultaneously clamping down on any inklings of separatism. The result is, well, pretty shitty for the Uighurs.

My favorite part of the piece is when the writer, Joshua Kucera, begins chatting up a “proud Uighur nationalist” named Ali during Ramadan.

As we sat in the plastic booth while I ate my spicy chicken sandwich and fries and Ali watched, I asked whether there was any special TV programming for Ramadan. I knew many Muslim countries rolled out big miniseries for the holiday. “No, it’s the opposite here,” he said. “I think the government puts on movies with kissing and things like that, especially during Ramadan.”

According to Kucera, the government also “restricts the use of the Uighur language, has closed many mosques and monitors clerics, and gives preferential treatment to the Han Chinese who migrate here in increasing numbers.” But if they’re really putting on movies that contain kissing and other forbidden expressions during the holy month of Ramadan, then that pretty much represents a massive cultural “fuck you” to a populace that is supposedly part of China’s great and respected diversity. And knowing how Uighurs are looked upon here in Shanghai by the Chinese, I’d say all the platitudes about China respecting its minorities is all a pile of rich, steaming yakshit.

I feel pretty torn up about what’s going on in Xinjiang. I saw the same thing in Lhasa when I went to Tibet a few years ago. The Tibetans were too poor, too Buddhist, and too overmatched. The Uighurs pose more of a nationalist challenge, which is why we’re seeing such massive investments and migration into the region (oh yeah, there’s also a ton of oil there). All of this gives me a sinking sense in my stomach, and I swear I won’t laugh anymore whenever my friends start cracking jokes about mistaking Uighurs for Chinese-speaking Mexicans. Though I’m not sure where else to get hashish.

Some thoughts while watching Hillary Clinton give her victory speech in Ohio on this mini-Super Tuesday:

- I admire her, I really do. I think she’s a crazy hard worker and has insane discipline; I can’t imagine what she has to go through every day on this campaign and still have the energy to do what she has to do, regardless of how canned and predictable she sounds.

- Her claim that her ability to win the big battleground states makes her the sensible choice for the Democratic nomination is so stupid and annoying. Are we supposed to believe that if Obama is the nominee, then a huge number of voters are going to sit out the election in protest? Yes, she won California and New York, but does anyone really think that if she isn’t the nominee that John McCain will win those states? Give me a break, stop speaking down to all of us (although her supporters seem to love it).

- Just listened to her go through all her victories, and there she goes, throwing Florida in again (was too annoyed to pay attention to whether she threw in Michigan as well). Last I checked, those were bullshit elections. Anyone want to take me up on the bet that if she had a commanding lead right now we wouldn’t be hearing anyone talk about the disenfranchisement of Michigan and Florida voters?

- So there it is, she just dropped the “phone ringing at 3 a.m. in the White House” line. If she ever ends up picking up the phone at the White House I hope it’s security asking her to leave since visitors aren’t supposed to be in the Oval Office. More mature standpoint: I would hope to think that my president is going to surround him or herself with capable, brilliant, and pragmatic experts and leaders so that in the event the phone rings at 3 a.m. in the morning, we are going to have those same people helping the president make the right decision. And as of now, I like Obama’s world outlook as well as his team.

- “Speeches versus solutions”. This refrain is getting really tiresome. “Tested versus inexperienced” is also getting really old. Obama should dust off his old line about how Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld were oozing experience out of all holes, and look where it got us. It’s a new world out there that requires a new way of thinking and doing things. Being “tested” in the ways of the old world, in my view, is not something that is going to move the U.S. further ahead.

- It’s going to be seven more weeks until Pennsylvania. I am really hoping that fantasy baseball will distract me in the meantime. This campaign is starting to wear on me, since it means seven more weeks of more Clinton negativity and these same ol’ same ol’ attacks and digs and whines. All the while, people my age are actually getting mobilized and energized and actually willing to make trade-offs in their lives for the sense of greater accomplishment. All of this is because of Obama. It makes me sad to think that all of this can get squashed because of HRC’s ruthlessness.