I just went to see Kiss of the Dragon and came awa…
I just went to see Kiss of the Dragon and came away rather disappointed. Piss-poor dialogue which served no other purpose than to let the audience know what was going on without showing anything, atrocious camerawork and editing, sappy music and a dubious storyline make this a waste of Jet Li’s talent. His action was good, but not portrayed properly by the camera. If you want to see Jet Li in action, go see Once Upon a Time in China. Tsui Hark knows how to capture martial arts. In Kiss of the Dragon, it was as if the director simply assumed that western audiences would be impressed by anything you threw at them, and judging by the reviews I’ve seen, they could be right. It’s pretty pathetic how the advent of so much technology in Hollywood has actually lowered audiences’ expectations. The story could have been good, but lack of direction and almost lazy filmmaking ruined it, and that pisses me off, because I’d like to see Jet Li getting better treatment.
For some reason, I woke up really early this morning. The sun was just coming up, and I took some interesting cloud photos from my balcony. On my way to work, as I was stopped at a traffic light, I noticed a woman with a ski jacket, heavy pants, a scarf and puffy winter gloves on a scooter in front of me. It was bizarre, as she is just asking for heat stroke in this weather. Maybe she was The Invisible Woman or something. I really need to find a place to put my camera so I can whip it out and snatch shots from the saddle.
At lunch I called Boogie, and it turns out that he is still teaching English at the Minsheng Branch of Hess. He’s been there for a long, long time, and he told me that it was as if time had stood still for him. It’s right near where I go to sword class, so I might meet up with him on Friday after class. Ronnie, who I know from the News, also called me today and said he’s having a party at his ex-ex-girlfriend’s house in Muzha on Saturday night. I don’t know what I’ll be doing on Saturday, and I probably won’t know anyone there, but I might still go.
After work I went up on the roof of our building and took some more pictures. It was a good cloud picture day. I’ll post a few to my photo page later on.
I’m still stuck in this quandry about my job and my plans for the near future. It sounds like a really interesting opportunity, so I’ll probably end up taking Doug up on his offer, as soon as he elaborates on a few questions I asked in my last email. The question is: can I do that job and still keep my present job? I might give it a whirl, but I doubt I will be able to. I suppose I could do a bit from the office, but I won’t really know whether it is feasible until I try. This also means I might have to push my trip up or even call it off. Everything’s up in the air all of the sudden, but I guess everyone could use a little shaking up now and then.
