Today I'm planning on downing some beers and baijiu and watching the patriotic film 我和我的祖国 (Transl: Me and My Motherland, English title: My People, My Country). It is kind of an anthology of short stories meant to show the spirit of Chinese people for the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China that was celebrated last October. It intrigues me because it is kind of a patriotic film - people here would say a "main melody" film, meant to convey emotionally the Party's message - that is more low-level and personal than your typical patriotic films which are filled with war and grandiose stuff. Might post about that later if anyone is interested.
Continuing on "My People, My Country", it's very impressive how the film manages to tie in small stories about regular people into many of the most important events in the history of the People's Republic. One story is about some Chinese ambassadors' insistence that the handover of Hong Kong occur at midnight (ie, at the soonest possible time) and the ceremony around it. Another very good one is about a scientist working on the first atomic bomb in China who sacrificed his life for this development, and his saying goodbye to his former lover. The later ones were some of the best - one about a man giving a ticket to the Olympic opening ceremony in 2008 to a boy whose father passed away in the Sichuan Earthquake, and another is a great story about two delinquent kids born into poverty who see Shenzhou 11 spacecraft land in China and are very emotionally moved by it.
You can see how it falls into the category of Chinese "main melody" films in that each of the stories seems to tie in, in some respect, to one of the Communist Party of China's flagship accomplishments, and more significantly: how these events affected common people. The story about the delinquent kids ties into the CCP's poverty alleviation program, to give one example. The film almost perfectly reflects the concept of
the Chinese Dream in Xi Jinping's political thinking.
Last night I watched
The Dreamers, a French/American film about an American student in Paris in the late 60s, his involvement with the French new wave junkie scene as well as student activism. It's hard to say a lot about it, the ethos of the film in general, reminds me greatly of the time I spent in Russia and the friends I made there. I highly recommend it, but I wish I had more of a concrete way to do so.
Tonight, probably:
Lost in Translation.
