Currently.
Watching
I was shocked by how much I liked the pilot of NBC's new crime drama Hannibal, which was beautifully scripted, acted, and shot. By making well-judged changes to the canon backstory - including the major one of having Dr. Lector being brought in by Crawford to monitor and protect Will Graham's sanity while he is on the Minnesota Shrike case, instead of Will crossing paths with Lector himself while he is chasing a lead on another case (Lector's own murders) - Hannibal has made the familiar new and exciting, and brought into focus the character of Will Graham, making him (for now, at least) the most interesting person on the show.
The dichotomy between how Crawford sees Graham ("a fragile little tea-cup, the finest china used for only special guests") and how Lector claims to see him ("the mongoose I want under the house when the snakes slither by", from the script released by NBC, although Mads' accent made that line somewhat indecipherable) sets up the fascinating dynamic between these three characters. Both Crawford and Lector are enablers of Will Graham, directing (or misdirecting) his near-psychic-like abilities towards targets of their choosing, but in very different ways and for different ends. Lector at this point, with no personal stake in the mysteries since he is not the target of the manhunt (yet), seems to be driven by curiosity over Will as much as anything. Crawford may see Will as fragile and unique, but that doesn't stop him from placing Will knowingly and calculatingly into situations of physical and mental risk; Lector might see Will as a hunter, but as the psychiatric consultant who is meant to be looking after Will, he is in a prime position of power to damage him. I cannot help but see parallels between Will Graham and River Tam. Although who is the Blue Hands in this AU? Crawford/the FBI, or Hannibal Lector?
Oh, and yesterday I saw Tang Wei's new rom-com in the cinemas, Meeting Mr. Right (which is called 北京遇上西雅图 in Chinese, or "Beijing Meets Seattle"). Tang was absolutely charming as Wen Jiajia, the young mistress (小三) of a very wealthy Beijing businessman who is going to the US to give birth to her baby by him because China doesn't legally recognise children born outside of marriage. And while the film first introduces Tang Wei's character as shallow, shrill, and incredibly annoying, she quickly subverts audience expectations and judgements and reveals Jiajia to be someone who is realistically flawed, but also brave, determined and still likeable. It's just a shame that the male lead/love interest is so incredibly lifeless and low-key to the point of vanishing from the picture entirely. The film is set (and shot?) mostly in Seattle, but deals with very "Chinese" issues, like the aforementioned dilemma of babies born to unmarried mothers, Chinese couples giving birth in the US to give their child US citizenship, Chinese government's harsh crackdowns on corruption, and the ubiquitousness of wealthy and powerful men having women on the side as an outlet for the severe pressures they experience professionally. It was interesting to me, from that point of view, and also surprisingly liberal-minded in many respects. There is, for instance, a supporting character who is half of a lesbian couple having a child via a sperm donor. The male lead is a divorced man in his 40s who already has a child, and this doesn't make him any less eligible. I'm pretty sure my mother and her generation wouldn't know what to make of the film, but the fairly young crowd I saw it with seemed to enjoy it.
Reading
Over the 3-day Qingming Festival break, I finished two new release historical/fantasy novels: Guy Gavriel Kay's River of Stars, and Jon Courtenaty Grimwood's The Exiled Blade. Both were sequels of a sort - the first to the excellent Under Heaven, set 400 years earlier in Kitai, which GGK based on imperial China, and the second the latest book in JCG's series of books set in an AU Venice ruled by the descendants of Marco Polo. I thoroughly recommend River of Stars, which was everything I could have wished for in a GGK novel. Maybe after Zhang Ziyi (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Hero) has produced her film adaptation of Under Heaven, she will move onto River of Stars. In fact, I can imagine these two books working as a diptych of films, utilizing the same main cast (like Cloud Atlas, but less ridiculous) to remark upon the differences and similarities between the two eras (Tang and Song, respectively), how the past casts its shadow over the present.
Eating
Pineapple, melons, vegetable soups (made with my new immersion blender, which i love). Homemade apple crumble, cookies and cinnamon scrolls bought online from CinnaScroll and at Jiashan Markets yesterday.
Wearing
Bright nail colours for spring on my fingers and toes: violets, mangos, aquas, and seafoam green.
This entry was originally posted at http://the-grynne.dreamwidth.org/980142.html and has
comments.
I was shocked by how much I liked the pilot of NBC's new crime drama Hannibal, which was beautifully scripted, acted, and shot. By making well-judged changes to the canon backstory - including the major one of having Dr. Lector being brought in by Crawford to monitor and protect Will Graham's sanity while he is on the Minnesota Shrike case, instead of Will crossing paths with Lector himself while he is chasing a lead on another case (Lector's own murders) - Hannibal has made the familiar new and exciting, and brought into focus the character of Will Graham, making him (for now, at least) the most interesting person on the show.
The dichotomy between how Crawford sees Graham ("a fragile little tea-cup, the finest china used for only special guests") and how Lector claims to see him ("the mongoose I want under the house when the snakes slither by", from the script released by NBC, although Mads' accent made that line somewhat indecipherable) sets up the fascinating dynamic between these three characters. Both Crawford and Lector are enablers of Will Graham, directing (or misdirecting) his near-psychic-like abilities towards targets of their choosing, but in very different ways and for different ends. Lector at this point, with no personal stake in the mysteries since he is not the target of the manhunt (yet), seems to be driven by curiosity over Will as much as anything. Crawford may see Will as fragile and unique, but that doesn't stop him from placing Will knowingly and calculatingly into situations of physical and mental risk; Lector might see Will as a hunter, but as the psychiatric consultant who is meant to be looking after Will, he is in a prime position of power to damage him. I cannot help but see parallels between Will Graham and River Tam. Although who is the Blue Hands in this AU? Crawford/the FBI, or Hannibal Lector?
Oh, and yesterday I saw Tang Wei's new rom-com in the cinemas, Meeting Mr. Right (which is called 北京遇上西雅图 in Chinese, or "Beijing Meets Seattle"). Tang was absolutely charming as Wen Jiajia, the young mistress (小三) of a very wealthy Beijing businessman who is going to the US to give birth to her baby by him because China doesn't legally recognise children born outside of marriage. And while the film first introduces Tang Wei's character as shallow, shrill, and incredibly annoying, she quickly subverts audience expectations and judgements and reveals Jiajia to be someone who is realistically flawed, but also brave, determined and still likeable. It's just a shame that the male lead/love interest is so incredibly lifeless and low-key to the point of vanishing from the picture entirely. The film is set (and shot?) mostly in Seattle, but deals with very "Chinese" issues, like the aforementioned dilemma of babies born to unmarried mothers, Chinese couples giving birth in the US to give their child US citizenship, Chinese government's harsh crackdowns on corruption, and the ubiquitousness of wealthy and powerful men having women on the side as an outlet for the severe pressures they experience professionally. It was interesting to me, from that point of view, and also surprisingly liberal-minded in many respects. There is, for instance, a supporting character who is half of a lesbian couple having a child via a sperm donor. The male lead is a divorced man in his 40s who already has a child, and this doesn't make him any less eligible. I'm pretty sure my mother and her generation wouldn't know what to make of the film, but the fairly young crowd I saw it with seemed to enjoy it.
Reading
Over the 3-day Qingming Festival break, I finished two new release historical/fantasy novels: Guy Gavriel Kay's River of Stars, and Jon Courtenaty Grimwood's The Exiled Blade. Both were sequels of a sort - the first to the excellent Under Heaven, set 400 years earlier in Kitai, which GGK based on imperial China, and the second the latest book in JCG's series of books set in an AU Venice ruled by the descendants of Marco Polo. I thoroughly recommend River of Stars, which was everything I could have wished for in a GGK novel. Maybe after Zhang Ziyi (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Hero) has produced her film adaptation of Under Heaven, she will move onto River of Stars. In fact, I can imagine these two books working as a diptych of films, utilizing the same main cast (like Cloud Atlas, but less ridiculous) to remark upon the differences and similarities between the two eras (Tang and Song, respectively), how the past casts its shadow over the present.
Eating
Pineapple, melons, vegetable soups (made with my new immersion blender, which i love). Homemade apple crumble, cookies and cinnamon scrolls bought online from CinnaScroll and at Jiashan Markets yesterday.
Wearing
Bright nail colours for spring on my fingers and toes: violets, mangos, aquas, and seafoam green.
This entry was originally posted at http://the-grynne.dreamwidth.org/980142.html and has
comments.