Escape, from lots of places
Am back from a number of fun, but at times fun in a Spanish Inquisition sort of way do’s - a trip to and from India that involved being trapped on seemingly endless Kuwait Airways flights (one more serving of rice and dhal and paneer might have snapped the spirit forever), and a few days after my return, being trapped on Ellis Island for several hours, and finally being trapped (this last was voluntary) on the West Side, where I watched six movies over two days.
The India trip was, well, the closest to the Spanish Inquisition, and not of the comfy chair sort either. There was a wedding in the family, which gives one an excellent opportunity to meet lots of folks without having to travel even more, but does also give these assorted folks the opportunity to make inquiries about one’s own manless, childless and in their minds life-less existence. I ticked off those members of the family I could afford to tick off, with anything ranging from offering to shack up with the first man I met after I landed in New York to remaining single for the rest of my life. But mostly, I nodded a lot and let them believe that am waiting for them to find me the perfect man, which a number of them believe they have ready. The question of marriage, I find, is a bit like non-vegetarianism. Meat-eaters and pro-marriage freaks both seem to think that it’s all a question of finding that perfect chicken, and once you’ve had it, you’ll never go back to your old ways - conveniently ignoring the fact that there are millions of people who lead perfectly content lives that are chicken-free in every possible way. But since I’ve already bored all my friends with this rant, I shan’t crib anymore.
Moving on to Ellis Island. The office threw a party there last Friday. A grand affair, I admit. But the one principle that all office parties must abide by was thrown to the wind, literally, in this case. The principle, of course, being that escape is to be made possible at multiple points during the evening - after cocktails, after dinner, after dessert, during boring speeches, etc. By fiendishly shipping us over to an island and by dismissing all ferries back to Manhattan, all 1200 odd people (spouses and significant others included - suckers!) were trapped there till at least 10:30 PM. Of course, the palliative of an open bar was available, and many took full advantage of it. But since one had to risk a trip back on potentially choppy waters, one didn’t want to complicate matters any further. The folks at work think badly of me already, puking all over them won’t help one bit, come review time.
As for the West Side - the New York Film Festival kicked off this weekend. I caught four movies - short reviews will be put up are up on the other blog (don’t want to bore you fine folks, who being in possession of a more balanced approach to life are not into silent German versions of Hamlet) at the festival, and caught two more because I was in the neighborhood. I’ll confine myself to audience reactions to Lust, Caution here. The audience at the show I was in was 99% Chinese / Chinese American. Considering that this is an Ang Lee movie and a non-English one at that, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.
Till yesterday, I’d wrongly assumed that watching movies with highly inappropriate companions was an exclusively desi habit. One of my cousins watched Boys, sandwiched between an aunt and said aunt’s mother in law. A friend watched Omkara with her aged mother in law. I’m hardly guilt-free - I remember watching Carry on up the Jungle with my parents - fortunately I was a kid, so they were more embarrassed than I was. But that was till I noticed (and was noticed) by a teacher from school in the row in front of me, and then we were all embarrassed - by the movie, by each others’ presence… But it was interesting to see that Chinese families seem to have the same approach to big name movies as Indian ones do, which is to treat it as a family affair, MPAA ratings and reviews be damned.
Lust Caution provided plenty of those unenviable “kill-me-now” moments to young Chinese folks, trapped as they were between grandparents, or people who looked old enough to be great-grandparents. The saving grace was that they didn’t have to also deal with 6 year olds (remember, this is an NC-17 movie) who might have asked questions rather than stoically sit through the movie or pretend to be mature and treat it as a scientific experiment in how bendy the human body can get.
It was also odd to watch a non-desi movie in the presence of an audience that mostly didn’t need the subtitles. Several times, it was obvious that 99% of the audience was watching one movie, while the “me no speak Chinese” suckers’ illusion that they too watching the same movie was subtly undermined. While the English-speaking audience was being told perfectly bland things such as some character’s need to get a job, or a wife being glad that a husband was late from work, the Chinese audience was laughing out loud. And it’s a bummer that reading subtitles at desi movies won’t work as revenge - it’s the opposite with our movies - the subtitles are where the humor is. My 15 seconds of cheap thrills came from a single scene in which someone speaks a line or two of Hindi / Urdu, and there were no subtitles for that bit! Ha! Take that you gigglers, you!
All said, it’s good to be back.
Comments (5 comments)
[...] Oxbeeco wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptBut it was interesting to see that Chinese families seem to have the same approach to big name movies as Indian ones do, which is to treat it as a family affair, MPAA ratings and reviews be damned. Lust Caution provided plenty of those … [...]
Movies » Escape, from lots of places / October 1st, 2007, 6:02 pm / #
Totally relate to the sense of triumph from that one Hindi / Urdu dialog. Having said that, I’m unconvinced that the audience laughter was prompted by nuances of the film that the subtitles didn’t capture. Personally, I’m convinced that it was mostly because the audience, in the time honored tradition of ‘family’ audiences anywhere were a bunch of undiscerning idiots. I say this not only because they laughed at bizarre points where there was no dialog, but also because the chinese speaking gentleman sitting behind me kept violently shushing them and muttering about them under his breath.
Falstaff / October 2nd, 2007, 9:56 am / #
Hey there - great blog. Am seeing some stuff at the NYFF as well (I’m on the UES). Did you catch opening night? I am there for Actresses and A Girl cut in Two and also trying to fannagle my way into closing night. What about you?
Nits / October 3rd, 2007, 12:46 pm / #
Falstaff: Oh. I almost considered watching the movie again in the company of a Chinese-speaking colleague. Good to know that people were merely being idiots.
NITS: Am afraid I didn’t do the opening night. I wanted to watch Actresses, but didn’t get tickets. The Chabrol I decided to skip since am not a great fan - how was it? And as a fellow UES-er, isn’t it a bitch to get to and from the West Side? My sympathies. The only movie that remains on the list for me is the Oct 7 show of No Country for Old Men.
DoZ / October 3rd, 2007, 3:28 pm / #
Great blog, here - and one of the authors from NY. Happy to have discovered this…
Sunil Gangadharan / May 15th, 2008, 1:12 pm / #
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