All entries for February 2007

And the Oscar goes to…

And the Oscar goes to ‘The Departed’!
For a minute I felt speechless in front of the TV. It’s not that I dislike ‘the Departed’, but I do have a weird feeling.
To me, The Departed is simply an Americanized version of 2002 Hong Kong movie Internal Affairs. (By the way, I hate this translation of Internal Affairs, which totally burshed off the original buddist implication of the most unbearable way towards Nirvana.)
Like all the Hollywood production, The Departed has big star power: Jack Nicholoson, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, but beside that, it gets from Internal Affairs almost everything that is needed for the making a brilliant movie: the bone structure, the story line, the tension, the cat and mouse chase between characters…And yet I bet very few audiences outside China will actually be interested to see the original play: a tensely structured and beautifully acted picture, and more importantly, a more subtle story with witty ellipses which invites the audience to fill up.
This might be an unfair comment, since I watched Internal Affairs first, and I love the Hong Kong actors. But comparing with the big success and fame The Departed has got, I still felt more credit should have been given to Internal Affairs, as I firmly believe ‘good story makes good movie’.
Tonight in a most unexpected way, I realized what a translation can achieve.
What matters is not what has been translated, but the question of who, and how.
In other words, this is a game of power. And perhaps unfortunately, this is a game we all have to play.

Xiu Wang : 26 Feb 2007 16:50 |  Tags: Translation |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Piggy

Happy New Year!

Xiu Wang : 17 Feb 2007 09:30 |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Another PhD

Follow-up to Got it! from XIULU

Congratulations to Cristina Caimotto as well!
Let’s figure out a time go to the lake at warwick again---to celeberate your success with some wine and nice food, maybe together with our lovely quacking friends…

Xiu Wang : 09 Feb 2007 09:02 |  Tags: Study |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

007 royal casino

Absolutely redeemed! The best Bond ever! The Aston Martin flying in the sky! And the real casino experience! Or is it?!

These are the comments from our friends that drove us to the cinema for the Royale Casino yesterday. It does not turn out to be that thrilling though.
Maybe I am too obsessed with the high-tech stuff---the invisible BMW, the pen pistol, or the flying engine in the backpack---anything that does not seem real!
The Aston Martin looks gorgeous, but only equipped with a first-aid kit… Are you kidding me? Even I can do that with my Beetle! Of course I believe no one is going to poison me anyway.
And the Casino. Maybe I have been watching too many movies about casino and gambling, the scene and plot in Royal Casino is not well polished for me at all! Directors, if you do not like Hong Kong movies, at least go to Las Vegas for a night or two! Or at least watch the TV episode Las Vegas?
And the advertisment. ‘What are you wearing? Rolex?’ ‘No, Omega.’ ‘Good’. I laughed so hard at these lines. Come on, for God sake! The whole world knows James Bond wears nothing but Omega…Do you have to irritate Rolex fans? (Although I am absolutely no fan of both)
Daniel Craig looks great though. I absolutely feel amazed at how such an ‘ugly’ blond can actually appear so charming on the screen.

Xiu Wang : 09 Feb 2007 07:58 |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Got it!

Received an email from Yovnne this morning, with an exciting title: Illaria got the degree!

I first met Illaria at a conference in Belfast. Three of us, Illaria, Kostas, and I, sneaked out of the conference to have a walk around that beautiful old city of Belfast. It later proved to be a very stupid decision, as we missed the keynote speech of Terry Eagleton ;-((. Of course at that time we did not know, and we actually had a great time out in the city. We watched the Titanic show in Belfast city center, and took pictures like tourists everywhere. Then we sit in the sunshine in a Starbuck, and I asked THE really stupid question: Illaria, what is your research subject?
Illaria tried to explain, but obviously I did not have any idea about her topic. So she took out a huge (I mean really really HUGE) copy of her thesis out of her bag. It was nicey bound, with a proper cover page saying: as a partially fulfilment of a PhD degree, thesis submitted in April 2006. I was so happy and before a ‘congregations’ burst out, she added very calmly: “Don’t be too excited——it was rejected, and I was told to resturcture.”
I still remember at that instant, tears just welled up in my eyes. I could not imagine how I would handle this if it were to happen to me, in one or two years time.
Both Illaria and Kostas looked at me sympathetically and said: “Calm down girl, calm down. This is part of your life as a research student. Your writings get rejected, rejected and rejected; you just rewrite, rewrite and rewrite. Don’t you feel bad about it; this is your choice, isn’t it?”

It’s great to know she finally made it! Even today I can still remember her smile that afternoon, calm and confident, in front of the huge ‘rejected’ copy of her thesis.
Congratulations, Illaria! And thank you for showing me what do to if my writing were to go wrong: I will just rewrite, rewrite, and rewrite.

Xiu Wang : 08 Feb 2007 01:53 |  Tags: Study |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Trackbacks (1) |  Report a problem