a song from Yue
Saturday, it started earlier as I had to go for my every 3-months routine, sending my baby jazz for service. Honestly I was hell tired; thanks to such a hectic week and the Pudu Raya’s trip I had on Friday night. I continued my sleep as came back from breakfast with Asan around 11 and woke up around 1.30 pm to catch ‘Storm Rider’.
While felt that I had enough hibernation, and so laidback to go out for something, I had ‘The Banquet’ played, filling my entire afternoon till Maghrib. This the 2nd time I watched this movie and this time I had more space and time to delve each of the plot. Such a cliché to have myself spending the good time analyzing like a critics, and kept comparing the movie with ‘Curse of Golden Flowers’. And I came to a conclusion that ‘The Banquet’ is my preference, as a movie. I only have my preference for excellent job by Gong Li and Jay Chou, plus the fight scene, in COGF. May be I felt a bit irritated with the dirty incest issues in COGF.
‘The Banquet’ has this sort of art-movie feel, technically. Each scene, even the fight scenes looks like ballet things, but still beautifully done. I haven’t watched or read Hamlet, the work this story is based on, thus won’t go to comment further on such. The Banquet ends tragically, yet left us with the questions…that killed Little Wan, the Empress?
It took me to test my mind and I would say, it was the Emperor who was mistakenly thought dead by the crowd. I don’t know, may be to see Little Wan’s expression as turned back to see her killer hinted me with that. It couldn’t be the weak old minister who’s been vanished to the north.
The sad part, probably…the death of Qing and the lost felt by Little Wan, as Wuluan died due to the poison. The movie ends with this moving song...crafted by Wuluan on the scroll and sung by Qing in the banquet, continued as grieving for Little Wan’s death on the hand of unknown assassin. It is a sad-lonely song…
While felt that I had enough hibernation, and so laidback to go out for something, I had ‘The Banquet’ played, filling my entire afternoon till Maghrib. This the 2nd time I watched this movie and this time I had more space and time to delve each of the plot. Such a cliché to have myself spending the good time analyzing like a critics, and kept comparing the movie with ‘Curse of Golden Flowers’. And I came to a conclusion that ‘The Banquet’ is my preference, as a movie. I only have my preference for excellent job by Gong Li and Jay Chou, plus the fight scene, in COGF. May be I felt a bit irritated with the dirty incest issues in COGF.
‘The Banquet’ has this sort of art-movie feel, technically. Each scene, even the fight scenes looks like ballet things, but still beautifully done. I haven’t watched or read Hamlet, the work this story is based on, thus won’t go to comment further on such. The Banquet ends tragically, yet left us with the questions…that killed Little Wan, the Empress?
It took me to test my mind and I would say, it was the Emperor who was mistakenly thought dead by the crowd. I don’t know, may be to see Little Wan’s expression as turned back to see her killer hinted me with that. It couldn’t be the weak old minister who’s been vanished to the north.
The sad part, probably…the death of Qing and the lost felt by Little Wan, as Wuluan died due to the poison. The movie ends with this moving song...crafted by Wuluan on the scroll and sung by Qing in the banquet, continued as grieving for Little Wan’s death on the hand of unknown assassin. It is a sad-lonely song…
A Song from Yue
What blessed night is this?
Drifting down the river Qian
What auspicious days is this?
Dreaming beside my prince
Too bashful to stare
A secret I cannot share
My heart fills with longing
To know you, dear prince
Trees live on mountains and branches live on trees
My heart lives for your heart
But you do not see me
You do not see me
-------Qing died after sip the poisonous wine offered by the Emperor----------
The breathless whisper of a single verse
And loneliness blossoms within my heart
The shimmer of a single dream
And my world is undone
The memory of a single tenderness
And the sting of love reignites my wounds
In the moment when a single tear falls
All hatred becomes a distant blur
I can love you with all that I am
But even this cannot return you to me
From now on I will live as a shadow
Forever in the past
Forever in the past…
---as lamenting the death of Little Wan, The Empress, on the hand of unknown assassin--