Archives For movie classics

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You cannot kill me. You cannot kill China. Not even a million deaths could crush the soul of China, for the soul of China is eternal. When I die, a million will take my place, and nothing can stop them, neither hunger nor torture nor the firing squad.

We shall live on until the enemy is driven back over scorched land and the armies of decency and liberty are on the march. China’s destiny is victory. It will live because human freedom will not perish. Out of the ashes of ruin and old hatreds, the force of peace will prevail until the world is again sane and beautiful.

This quote is taken from Robert L. McLaughlin and Sally E. Parry’s We’ll Always Have the Movies: American Cinema during World War II because the audio of Lady from Chungking isn’t very clear.

I don’t know what they’re waiting for to make an Anna May Wong biopic with Tang Wei, and Joan Chen as director.

I’ll champion anything Vidya does. This goes hand in hand with her Mother India cover!

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Todo lo que se diga de mí es mentira, no soy Doña Diabla, ni una mujer sin alma, ni mucho menos China Poblana que se queda con lo que no es suyo. Con la imagen que el público tenía de mí, no hubiera podido vivir, me conformaba con que dijeran que soy la mujer más bella del mundo, salí de El Peñón de las Ánimas y llegué a París como La Bella Otero, he sido una eterna enamorada, pero no soy una diosa arrodillada. He sido La Generala de mi pueblo en Sonora, así como Doña Bárbara, La Mujer de Todos, me conocieron como La Devoradora porque todos eran los ambiciosos que querían a la Maclovia de Pátzcuaro.

Maria Felix: Rostro del Cine Mexicano

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Everything that’s been said about me is a lie, I’m not Doña Diabla nor the Woman Without a Soul, much less a China Poblana that keeps what’s not hers. With the image the audience had of me, I wouldn’t have been able to live, I settled for them saying I was the most beautiful woman in the world. I came out of The Rock of Souls and made it to Paris as La Belle Otero, I’ve been A Woman in Love, but I’m not The Kneeling Goddess. I’ve been La Generala of my hometown in Sonora, just like I was Doña Barbara, One Woman for All. They knew me as La Devoradora because everyone else were the overambitious that wanted the Maclovia from Patzcuaro.

Oh, Happy Chinese New Year! Let’s start my (supposedly) bad-luck Goat Year with the now-mandatory Letterboxd list of my film collection~

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I have a really weird history with films– born in the late 80s, you’d think I would’ve grown watching loads of 90s kids stuff, but I actually grew up with a lot of Silly Symphonies (which were released in the 30s) and loads of Disney 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s stuff, plus a lot of more grown up 80s movies. Poltergeist, The Thing, The Fly and The Stuff were particularly scary stuff (and I’m pretty sure I was scared of yogurt or white stuff at some point).

I don’t ever remember buying any original VHS tape, except for the rare birthday gift of a Disney’s Sing-Along Songs chapter or that X-Men tape I have. My first DVDs buys were Coyote Ugly, She’s All That and Loser — you can’t blame me. I was a 15-year-old girl. The collection grew bigger, and possibly exploded during my years abroad. I’m nearing my 500th movie.

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I would get a time machine, go back in time and have a torrid affair with 1930s Joan, if I could. xD I know this is a Sadie McKee still, but she was so good-looking in Dancing Lady.

It’s another double feature!

La Doña has been in the mood for fighting this week [1], and this time she’s taking Deepika Padukone- or I suppose El Peñon de las Animas (The Rock of Souls) is taking Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Ram-Leela, where both balas and golis are exchanged nonchalantly, and music is spared in between two families that have been warring for generations.

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Though Maria Felix is playing much more of a señorita role on this one (than usual), and this western musical (that’s what all rancheras are, right?) gets some pretty nifty cinematography and sassy moments and lyrics, there’s one thing that Ram-Leela has~~~ and that is Supriya Pathak.

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Are! Mashallah, mashallah~

Oh.mah.gosh.

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It’s a battle of the horse-riding sword-brandishing tough ladies that -actually- existed in real life, with lives brought onto the silver screen, beautified while being personified by THE faces of their own Golden Eras.

In the case of Greta Garbo, of course, with Hollywood in her most fun and most relaxed Queen Christina, often mistaken for a man and featuring the infamous scenes of Garbo kissing a lady and being romanced by John Gilbert while in mannish get-up. Then there’s the Mexican and Latin movie classic diva La Doña Maria Felix as Catalina Erauso, escaping a convent and dragging it up as Don Alonso, making the ladies of the Peruvian Viceroyalty swoon in La Monja Alferez, with a twist ending to match Some Like It Hot.

And to quote Toni Collette:

We’re women dressed as men dressed as women!

This is a tough one. I do have a terrible Greta Garbo bias, but I think I’m handing it down to La Doña on this one. Maria Felix is like the awesome fusion of everything that’s good with both Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford.

I obviously didn’t know about this cover because it predates my Indian movie journey… but it’s just so damn good, you gotta put it out there, you know? Mother India is so the quintessential Indian movie that every single person (in Peru) that has ever spoken to me about what Indian films they’ve seen, they’ve all name-checked Mother India. Regardless of social status… university professors, business owners, bloggers, taxi drivers, waiters… they all name-check “Madre India.”

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It’s been a few years since I did a “what I like about” post [1][2], and considering that it’s been one full year since I officially started watching Indian films, I thought it’d be great to look back to see What I Like About Bollywood– pardon me, Indian Films.

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Sridevi’s lovely crowd-pleasing English Vinglish is going to Japan [Trailer, if you don’t believe me], and for a moment there I thought they might actually super-dub it [1] but no~ Japan is getting it subbed after 3 Idiots got a nod for Best Foreign Film in the last edition of the Japanese Academy Awards. For promotions of the film, they want to use this image of her 1993 film Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja:

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OH~ GODDDDDDDD

And it’s serious too- like, they totally mean to promote EV with Sridevi in yellow-face without a hint of irony. I wonder what Japanese people would think other than “oh, these silly foreigners,” I don’t know who the audience for the film is in Japan, somehow I don’t picture Japanese housewives going to watch a non-Japanese non-Hollywood (ft. Depp or DiCaprio or Pitt or Cruise) flick with subtitles, but maybe I’m underestimating them.

For casual watchers of “this is Chinese/Japanese/Korean” arguments online or real life, Sridevi’s attire though wanting to be Japanese is obviously more Chinese-inspired, like Disney’s Mulan’s match-making attire wanting to be Chinese but obviously Japanese-inspired.

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