I have spent about twelve hours outside so far this week, either exercising or reading a book or playing guitar. Southern California has welcomed me warmly with its monotonous relentless sunshine and I do not resist.
I sit in the sun and attempt to get skin cancer. I can't help it. I have been away in gloomy, overcast, foggy San Francisco for so long that I must enjoy the presence of ultraviolet rays as much as I can.
I am convinced a stair doesn't exist. I have never heard a single step of a set of stairs be called one stair. Singular. It's either, I had trouble getting up those stairs, or I left my backpack on that step. I will attempt to incorporate the word stair into my regular vocabulary. Bringin' it back.
Mm. Look at all dem stair.
A couple as a marker of quantity means two. It doesn't mean several. How many people are in a couple? Two. Otherwise it would be a threesome or some kind of polyamorous relationship.
Pictured: A couple of M&Ms.
Pictured: Not a couple.
I watched the new Karate Kid yesterday. I hadn't seen the original, since I wasn't born when it was released, and the premise of a white kid learning martial arts didn't sound like an appealing enough classic for me to revisit the past. I enjoyed it, especially Jackie Chan's performance, which would have brought me to tears if my friend wasn't already bawling next to me and I felt pressured to 'man up'.
Ignorant of the original, however, I feel I was still sensitive to this modern adaptation's contextual translation with Chinese culture. I felt the film's representation of Chinese culture was respectfully accurate, barring the emphasis on both the violent and mystical side of kung-fu. My favorite part is when Jayden Smith's love interest, Wenwen hua, an innocent-looking violin-toting Chinese girl, kept ending their conversations with "I have to go practice." Man, if I had a nickel...
In this picture: Not practicing.
Now I am going into nerd mode for the following paragraphs. Also I will discuss a minor spoiler, so if you want to maintain your film integrity, skip on. Highlight to read.
Jayden Smith (I will refer to him by his real-life actor name because I forgot his name in the movie) lures her to skip school the day before her big audition for the Beijing Academy of Music to have fun, saying "too much of a good thing is bad". He actually takes her orange violin case from her, which I suppose the directors thought was a cute gesture - oh, look, he's carrying her instrument for her - but I have never known a string player who took music even half as seriously as she did who would have been fine with me holding their case, and especially without their permission. Maybe you might not understand, but if my marimba were compact enough to fit in a handheld case, I would never let someone else carry it. This was the first oversight of the directors regarding musicians.
Then, he downright trashes the case. Look at the picture - it's on the ground in the middle of a water attraction, for crying out loud. Why don't you just throw it into a swimming pool, Wenwen Han?
Their impromptu date is cut off by a phone call from Wenwen's dad, saying her audition was moved to today from tomorrow. Alright, first of all, that kind of schedule change will NEVER, ever happen - it would be blatant sabotage to force a musician to perform immediately, a day in advance. Sure, it was a gripping turn of events, but I thought that was just unrealistic.
The scene cuts to her running on stage just as her orchestra accompaniment finishes tuning, and she pulls out her violin and begins playing immediately. I don't think she even had time to tighten her bow, much less tune - and remember, her violin had just taken a Beijing tour in the hands of an ADD teenager, and suffered temperature changes from the humid Chinese summers where it averages human body temperature, overcast, into air-conditioned indoor arcades, and into her parent's car which is no doubt air-conditioned as well. I could not have been the only one who noticed that she didn't tune, and, I admit, I thought that was going to be the plot twist - her rebellious city-wide jaunt left her no time to tune for her life-deciding audition, and she would suddenly realize what a bad influence Jayden Smith was on her life.
I prepared my ears for a clashing dissonance right at her entrance... but no. The overdub of Chopin's Nocturne No. 20 washed over her (lip? bow?)-syncing, and washed away my mental image of her sudden cathartic grimace, widened eyes looking down at the neck of her instrument, realizing her fatal mistake. Nope, she plays at her very peak, even without warming up.
"Pul-leaze. The orchestra tunes to me."
(Pictured: not Wenwen Hua from Karate Kid.)
My only other gripes about the movie mirror that of my friend Chris's, when he complained that they used kids for the movie - twelve-year-olds, or so they say. He feels averse to their age because he doesn't feel comfortable with the notion of "toddlers" kissing or going on dates; I find it troublesome because I can't imagine sixth graders being able to punch very hard. That, and that Jackie Chan doesn't fight more.
All in all, very entertaining and worth the ticket. The sun is coming up soon so I will attempt to sleep, again.
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