Reviews
CD
Peking Opera in symphony
Beijing Symphony Orchestra (BSO) has released two albums under the EMI label. Conducted by BSO's artistic director Tan Lihua (pictured), one features Verdi's opera The Power of Destiny and Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, the other collects Chinese composer Tang Jianping's Sacred Fire-2008 and Bao Yuankai's Symphony-Peking Opera. BSO premiered Sacred Fire-2008 in 2006. The three-movement percussion concerto gives Li Biao an opportunity to fully display his amazing techniques with the drums, vibraphone and marimba.
Symphony-Peking Opera displays the spiritual world of the old Chinese art through Western symphony. Each of the four movements portrays a role of Peking Opera. Jing, the painted face, is a solemn andante showcasing the brass section with the motif adapted from the Peking Opera aria of General Guan Yu in the play The Long Broadsword. Movement two is chou, the comedian or the clown. It is a humorous presto with the woodwinds and it is inspired by The Green Willow Lady. Dan, the female role, is a profound largo employing only the strings. The motif comes from the passage sung by the White Snake of the play The Legend of Lady White Snake as she parts with her baby son.
The last movement is sheng, the male role. It is a splendid allegro using the percussion instruments and employing the varied combinations of different sections of the orchestra in a fast paced sonata form conclusion to the symphony.
Chen Jie
DVD
A Very Long Engagement
Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, starring Audrey Tautou, Gaspard Ulliel
At their best, the films of director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen, City of Lost Children) create enchanting environments. At their worst, they're downright twee. This is forgivable when the story is a bleak fairytale, something that would pass as an homage to the Grimm Brothers canon but what about when the tale focuses on the human miseries of a battlefield?
Watching exploding men's innards rain down on their comrades is not quirky. Sure, it's an effective scene in an anti-war film but that's not what A Very Long Engagement develops into. It's really an off-beat love story that has more in common with Jeunet's Amelie than All Quiet on the Western Front. Unfortunately, straddling the genres of eccentric romantic saga and horrific war drama is far too difficult a task for this joint American-French production.
Fans of Jeunet's unique touch will find moments of satisfaction. But these stylistic idiosyncrasies are the very reason why this simply does not work as a human drama. He may have had the right intentions but Jeunet's cutesy adaptation of Sebastien Japrisot's novel only serves to trivialize the atrocities it so colorfully portrays. And that's something that even Audrey Tautou's elfish appeal cannot rectify.
Ben Davey
300
Directed by Zack Snyder, starring Gerard Butler
This costume epic, which is making its way around China's circle of DVD aficionados, gets decidedly a love-it-or-hate-it reaction. While some of the media critics firmly believe that the Bush administration is funding this movie as a flag-waving attempt to rally support for its Iraq policy in a war of civilizations, comic fans have generally embraced it, brushing aside any political association as flimsy at best and ludicrous at worst.
The characterization is weak, and the story is not rousing much interest in the study of ancient history, unlike many of the Chinese period dramas. But it is generally agreed that the visual style is exciting and can serve as a model for similar domestic efforts such as John Woo's upcoming Red Cliff.
The heavy stylization, in the vein of another better appreciated Frank Miller adaptation Sin City, can be seen as an effective link between traditional Chinese opera and the present-day video game culture.
Raymond Zhou
(China Daily 05/11/2007 page20)
