The year 1972 was when I arrived in New York City. The city was bewildering and utterly foreign to this teenager raised in HK. Although adaptation took years, I soon voraciously took up American television. What amazing offerings, and a hugh number of old movies late night.
One of the most intriguing TV shows in that era was Kung Fu, and I was an avid follower. It starred David Carridine, who recently died an unnatural death in Bangkok. I don't know whether this TV series was ever shown in HK. So a little synopsis taken from a wikipedia entry :
"...In the late 19th century, Kwai Chang Caine虔官昌 (David Carradine) is the orphaned son of an American man and a Chinese woman. He has been raised in the Shaolin Monastery, and trained by the monks to be a Shaolin master.
In the pilot episode, Caine’s beloved mentor and elder, Master Po, is murdered by the Chinese emperor's nephew, and Caine retaliates by killing the nephew. In order to avoid execution for his crime, Caine flees from China to western America, where he seeks to find his half-brother, Danny Caine.
Although it is his intention to find Danny while avoiding notice, Caine's training as a priest has instilled in him a sense of social responsibility, forcing him repeatedly to come out into the open to fight for justice. After each such encounter, he is compelled to leave to stay ahead of the emperor's assassins..."
The quirky show is an amalgram of three main elements: (1) the old western, with its dusty border towns, corrupt officials and inevitable triumph of justice over evil; (2) kung fu, newly popular in the West, with all the pacifist philosophy behind the martial arts; and (3) the loner and fugitive in search of justice, and more.
The show was completely different from anything else. Sometimes it was tranquil to the point of boring; other times the pseudo-Eastern philosophy was a bit tacky. But it was appealing to me for its humanity and its Chinese element. Remember, this was from the era of "make love, not war". Today, it would be hard to imagine an American TV show with such a heavy Chinese element. Like Marco Polo's Travels, it makes one wonder if humans have progressed.
The fugitive element means each episode is tinged by sadness, the inevitable separation at the end looming large even when kindred souls first meet and love germinates. It also means there are guest stars in every episode. From the wikipedia entry above I found out two musicians who are familiar to hifi fans have guest-starred: Cannonball Adderley (he died soon after) and Jose Feliciano, . Here is a little youtube segment:
On Sunday March 8th, on a Korean Airline flight presumably with its route altered (to avoid flying over North Korea), I watched the excellent Changeling after lunch. Not able to fall asleep, I went over the wide choice of movies and came across Cadillac Records, a film I had not known about but was excited to find. I hope this film will be shown in HK.
This is a rather loosely assembled film about CHESS records, its founder Leonard Chess, and its artists that include many blues immortals: Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Chuck Berry, Etta James, Howling Wolf. Wow, just that list is enough to make you howl with joy!
The music is timeless (in covers by the actors, all bona fide singers) and the acting is fantastic. I was particularly thrilled by the portraits of Chuck Berry, Little Walter, Howling Wolf and Etta James, the last in a great performance by Beyonce! Smoking sexy!!
Check out the link above, and the youtube clip below.
--Beauty is in the details. 电影美指佳， 刻画细腻，不同年代的气息分明。 选角更是下过苦功，大小演员不单只好看（少年演员们甚至迷死人），更都对称角色， 提供了难得的连贯性， 令观众忘了剧情不可思议之处。不得不提的是 Tilda Swinton 演的英国大使夫人，清汤挂面居然能令人惊艳， 殊不简单。
「我的出生情況非比尋 常。」這就是美國作家費茲傑羅 (F. Scott Fitzgerald) 在1920年出版的短篇小說《The Curious Case of Benjamin Button》主角的第一句說話，他是一位生來便如一個八十多歲的老人，然後慢慢隨年月變成年青的奇人。他跟所有人一樣，都是沒有能力阻止時間流逝的凡 人。
兔年的祝福
我們在哪裏？Somewhere
