2 movies

The King's Speech is an amazing movie, and I don't use that word lightly. Colin Firth totally earned the Best Actor Oscar. His performance was as believable as Leonardo DiCaprio's in What's Eating Gilbert Grape?. That is to say, I could have easily believed that he had a stammer (or stutter, which ever is "correct"). The story was pretty interesting too. I'd never thought about the royal family as the voice of the UK. Of course, this makes a little sense considering that I'm American, but it's not the kind of thing you learn in school either. Ten years before George VI became king no one expected the king to be a public speaker in the way that he would need to be. And Lionel Logue gave the king his voice w/o any formal training or qualifications beyond experience. Very cool. I enjoyed this movie very much, and would recommend it to anyone.

I know, I know, enough already, right? ;) I've wanted to read the book Mao's Last Dancer for awhile now, and was delighted when I  saw this at the library last week. It is based on the story of Li Cunxin, who was chosen to go to Beijing to train at Madame Mao's dance academy (or whatever it was called) during the Cultural Revolution. He is a mediocre dancer and lacked passion until one of his teacher's is taken away, most likely to be "re-educated." After that sort of defining moment, Li becomes one of the best dancers at the school and catches the eye of an American ballet director who manages to get Li to go to Houston. It's an interesting story that unfolds and it was awesome to see the dancing; and it had a touching ending. I want to read the book even more now!

The Commoner by John Burnham Schwartz

So basically, I wasted 1 week and 2 days reading, this book. The only thing that I got out of this book was that I learned about the Japanese Imperial family, and what is (was?) like on "the inside."
     Briefly, the story is about Haruko, a commoner (from the title), who meets and some how manages to fall in love w/ the Crown Prince. After which, her life becomes complete and utter crap.
    She's pressured to have a son, naturally, and fortunately for her she does, but then he is taken away from her b/c the Crown Princess is supposed to be a mother in name only, never in practice.
     One morning, after Yasu (her son) is born, she wakes up and can't speak. Not just b/c she doesn't want to but b/c she's too depressed to. At a time (1960s) when postpartum depression was not widely understood or accepted as a medical/mental condition, there's little that can be done to help her.
     Something snaps her out of it, about a year later, and she decides she's gonna stand up to the ugly - in attitude and behavior - Empress and her soul killing minions, I mean ladies-in-waiting.
     Fast forward 30 years - wait, what? Um, ok. Right . . .
     So anyway, now Haruko's Empress and her son, Yasu is the Crown Prince who wants to marry a commoner; but this girl, Keiko, is smart and says no twice.
     But then for some bizarre reason, Haruko convinces Keiko, who does care for Yasu but was unwilling to give up her life as she knew it, to say yes, promising to be there for her to make it easier. Guess what? Haruko doesn't help and poor Keiko falls into an even greater depression than Haruko had. Keiko was only able to have 1 child, a girl, and even then she needed medical intervention to to conceive and carry the child to full term.
    When Keiko's daughter, Princess Reiko, is 2, Haruko helps them "disappear" from court b/c Keiko will never be happy being apart of the Imperial family. Seems like Haruko should have told Keiko to run before she got married. She knew what it was like. She knew how unhappy Keiko would (or at the very least could) be. I mean, what the heck?
     Terrible ending. Terrible story.
     And riddle me this, what purpose does the Japanese Imperial Court serve nowadays? Assuming it's still around, I haven't checked Wikipedia yet. They were all concerned, in the story that is, about the importance Yasu and Keiko having a son to continue the Imperial line, but for what point and purpose? Seems like an antiquated and horrible institution to keep going. Why not let it die? Was that the point Mr. Schwartz's point w/ his ending?
     I was, briefly, in one of the worst book clubs ever, but on the rare occasion that we actually talked about a book, we had some great discussions. Though I thoroughly dislike this book now, it would have made an awesome book club book.
     But don't let my opinion keep you (who reads this blog anyway?) from giving it a try. I'm just 1 person  w/ 1 opinion, right?

Too many books about Asian-Americans

I have read many books about Asians and Asian-Americans. I think I first became interested in reading about them and their cultures after reading Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club. Apparently, I have read so many since then that I can't keep them straight (not just books by Amy Tan b/c she's only written 6). I decided to re-read The Kitchen God's Wife (also by Amy Tan) and didn't remember a blessed word of it save for the beginning. I confused the entire book w/ Tan's The Hundred Secret Senses. So I'm writing this to help me remember just what happens in The Kitchen God's Wife.

So, this book has Pearl, the daughter, and Winnie, or Weili in her Chinese name, the mother. Pearl has MS, but hasn't told her mother yet. The woman Pearl calls Auntie Helen, but isn't really her Auntie at all, tells Pearl that she (Helen) has a brain tumor and is going to die soon so Pearl must tell her mother about the MS or she, Helen, will. Helen does the same thing to Winnie who must tell Pearl the truth about their lives in China or she, again Helen, will. In this way, Winnie tells Pearl about her life growing up first in Shanghai and then on an island not too far from Shanghai. About her marriage to an abusive man named Wen Fu and the 3 children Winnie, then Weili had before coming to the US. And about how she met Jimmy Louie, the man Pearl knew as her father. It is a good story, but it is very long and much of what happens to Weili is repetitive. That is to say many bad things happen in her life and every time things seem to get better they just get worse. I'm not giving a bad review b/c the writing is very good and the story is interesting, but I had to read something fun and a little brainless to even things up a bit.

TV reviews (it's about time)

So my blog description says that I might give the occasional TV show review, but that has yet to happen so I thought I'd start off w/ a few new shows that I've started watching.

I'll start w/ Mr. Sunshine staring the delightful, Matthew Perry. This show has 3 things going for it in my opinion: Matthew Perry, Matthew Perry, and Matthew Perry. Did I mention Matthew Perry? But seriously forks, I loved Matthew Perry on Friends, and to be honest when I heard that he was going to be in a new comedy series, I was like, "When and where?" He plays, Ben, the manager of an entertainment facility called the Sunshine Center and the show revolves around the day to day wackiness that takes place there. But it gets better b/c his crazy boss is played by Allison Janney, and boy is she crazy. Then there's his assistant whose mental stability is questionable at best (she knows the layout of his apartment better than he does) and his boss's son, Roman, who's sweet, but more than a little dim. I love this show, not just b/c M. Perry is in it, but also b/c it is hilariously funny and it has a feel good quality à la an Adam Sandler or David Spade movie (think 50 First Dates, Joe Dirt or Dickie Roberts Former Child Star). Entertainment Weekly claimed in a recent issue that this one might be around next season. Here's hopin'.

Sometime after college (maybe it was during my senior year) I started watching more dramas, specifically crime dramas. Think Law and Order. Well, as I got older, I started watching more and more crime dramas (maybe they're called procedurals?) and lately it seems like all my usual dramas either ended or were cancelled. In the last year or so like 4 or 5 have been canned. And it hasn't been easy replacing them either. I'm not a fan of Grey's Anatomy or any shows like it. The only hospital show that I  liked was ER. Period. And I'm not a fan of the CSIs either. I like the original NCIS but it's not procedural enough for me. There's too much on going stuff to just jump in whenever and if I ask my mom to give me some background, she huffs and puffs and says it's too hard to explain. Well, anyway, I decided to give ABC's Body of Proof a shot. The descriptions made it sound a little like Crossing Jordan and I really liked that show. I've only seen 2 episodes, maybe 3, but so far so good. The characters are likable enough, there's some comedy to lighten the mood, and not too much baggage from show to show - so far. I'll keep tuning in for now.

Another drama, that I was just starting to get into was CBS's CHAOS, but I just read that it might have been cancelled already (and they had another 10 episodes in the can). But I'll say why I liked it anyway. But before I talk about what I liked, I'll mention that it was about 4 guys in the CIA, who ran covert opps and were like under, under cover. Like if they messed up, the director would be all, "I don't know anything about those guys." So on to the likes. First, it had Freddy Rodriguez in it. He played Gio on Ugly Betty and I loved that character. Second, it had Tim Blake Nelson from O Brother, Where Art Thou? among other films. So I tuned in the first night and thoroughly enjoyed the pilot episode. Minus Nelson, it featured some cute guys, great action scenes, and was witty and funny. It was like Ocean's 11 meets The Bourne Identity. Maybe CBS will show the remaining episodes this summer. . .

Kid's books are the best!

I read to my 5 year-old niece every day during the week before her nap/rest time, and every day she asks me if I've got new books. She loves being read to and she loves going to the library w/ me. As someone who loves to read, sharing that love w/ someone else is awesome, and even more so b/c that someone is my niece.

                                              
Today we read Then Giant Hug by Sandra Horning. This book is adorable! Owen, the little "boy" in the story wants to send his granny a hug through the mail, and he enlists the help of the local postman and all the postal workers along the way pass the hug all the way to Owen's granny. It's funny b/c the idea of hugging strangers is awkward and uncomfortable, but they do it any way. Lily, my niece, and I couldn't stop giggling, and it has a surprise ending!

We also read Arabella Miller's Tiny Caterpillar by Clare Jarrette. Arabella Miller finds a caterpillar in this book that rhymes, and at the end it gives a kid friendly overview of the life cycle of the butterfly. Lily wanted to find a caterpillar after reading this one.


Lily and I love the Elephant & Piggie books by Mo Willems. They make us giggle and Lily likes them so much that she asks to keep them so my sister can read them to her before bed. Our local library has a number of these books and ever since I discovered them, I pick one out each week. We'll be sad when we've read them all.

Pay it Forward

I love the intended message behind the idea of paying it forward. Someone does something nice for you, you do something nice for 3 other people, or whatever it was. OK, so I can't remember exactly. I guess I was distracted by the end of the movie. I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't already seen this (although considering it's been about 11 years, anyone who hasn't seen it yet isn't likely too), but I thought the ending sucked and ultimately, negated the message. I sure wish someone had spoiled the end for me. That and I didn't find Helen Hunt's performance as an alcoholic, white trash mom very believable. Julia Roberts did it better, minus the alcoholic part. And Bon Jovi as her alcoholic, abusive husband? Were they desperate? Well, at least I didn't have to pay to see this.

Love Happens?

Don't ask me why I keep getting "romantic comedies" when I go to the library. I couldn't tell you for sure. Maybe it's b/c I used to like them, and I keep hoping I still like them... ? Maybe? At any rate, I didn't find this movie either romantic or funny. The funniest part involved a bird toward the end. And the romantic, if you can call it that, didn't happen until the end too. The most notable and interesting part of of the movie involved Aaron Eckhart's character, Burke, helping others to overcome their grief but not confronting his own. I think my problem w/ this movie was that I felt like the love/romantic part was forced. That and Judy Greer had like 5 minutes of screen time. It's too bad Netflix doesn't have a an "it was OK" rating - 2 stars is "didn't like it" and 3 is "liked it." Maybe I'll rate it at Amazon. They do have a 3 star "it's was OK" rating.

Sirena by Donna Jo Napoli

     I've decided that I have too many books. More than I can possibly re-read in my life. Especially considering how much I enjoy reading new books. So, I thought maybe I should re-read as many of my books as possible, particularly the ones I loved the 1st time I read them. I also thought I'd write about them so I can remember what I loved about them. So, here's a "review" of a book I read 8 years ago! (I wrote the review today)
     I didn’t remember very much about this book at all. I remembered that a mermaid named, Sirena, fell in love w/ a human man, but that’s about it. I can’t even remember when I first read this book, but I know why I kept it. Ms. Napoli is very good at using the present tense when telling a story and the story itself is pretty compelling. Hmmm... I’m being a little too vague. It’s a good story. 
     Sirena and her sisters live in the Mediterranean Sea, and their life’s goal is to lure men through song to their island and make the men fall in love w/ them so they can gain immortality. Sirena goes along w/ this until a ship (possibly 2) is wrecked off the coast of their island, and eventually the men all die. One of her sisters was killed as well. Weeks go by and another ship comes close to their island, but though her sisters sing to bring the men in, Sirena refuses to sing and tries to warn the men on board. Failing to save the doomed men, Sirena leaves the island she has called home her whole life. 
     Always the odd ball of her school, Sirena swims to another island, Lemnos, thinking she will be far from humans and her deceitful sisters. The first few weeks pass w/o incident. No humans, no sisters. One morning, Sirena sees 2 sea serpents - 1 sent by the goddess Hera - and another ordinary one. Neither harms her, but soon after Sirena smells a ship near by. A group of soldiers had been ashore looking for fresh water. One of them was bitten by the serpent Sirena had seen before, and the men he was sailing w/ decide to leave him on the island to die.
     After observing him for awhile and seeing that he is different from other men she has encountered, Sirena makes the bold and potentially dangerous decision to help the man by nursing him back to health. Without going into too much more detail, Sirena and Philoctetes fall in love and live together on Lemnos for 10 years. Then Odysseus and some other men, including Achilles' son (Phil and Achilles were buds) arrive at the island. They try to convince Phil to go w/ them so he can help put an end to the Trojan War. Phil wants to go, but not if Sirena doesn’t want him to go. She’s convinced that, although she loves him truly, he is under an enchantment b/c he heard her sing by accident one day shortly after they met. She tries to get help from Mother Dora, a sea nymph, by asking to be made mortal or making Phil immortal, but Mother Dora refuses to help. Sirena returns to Lemnos prepared to let Phil go but is surprised to find that he is prepared to stay for her sake. Unable to go on w/o knowing the truth, she asks Phil when he first loved her. He tells her he has always loved her, since the moment he first saw her, but she knows this is not so. She asks if it was when he heard her sing and he says no. It was when she built her first fire. At that moment, she knows that they truly love each other, and that she must let him go. He says he’ll return, but she tells him not to. He gives her one of the arrows that Heracles (Greek for Hercules) as a symbol of his undying love for her.
     It’s a sweet love story w/o being sentimental or smutty. One of the reviews on the inside talks about it having a bittersweet ending and I think that’s a good way of putting it. It’s a quick read so it’s worth keeping. 

Love and Other Diasters

I just finished watching Love and Other Disasters, a British movie from 2006. As you can see, it stared, Brittany Murphy. It's a pretty cute movie, and it made me laugh.

Two things I felt like pointing out (and the reason for this blog post) were that 1) Orlando Bloom has a scene at the end of the movie w/ Gwyneth Paltrow; he does not have a major role, like it said in the description. That's not why I decided to watch it, but nevertheless, I was a little disappointed. Shame on you Netflix. 2) Brittany Murphy starts the film w/ a British accent and drops it about 10 minutes in. We learn that Emily "Jacks" Jackson, Murphy's character, had a British father and her mother was Spanish, but Jacks grew up in American. So why the British accent? One of Jacks favorite movies is Breakfast at Tiffany's. Maybe she's supposed to be like Audrey Hepburn?

The movie also had a very strong Emma and/or Clueless vibe, but seeing as I like those movies (and Emma the novel), it's all good.