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?