I was blown away by the opening ceremony of the Olympics last night then stayed up into the wee hours watching the beginning of the U.S. women's soccer match against Japan. I finally turned it off after a spectacular goal by Karli Lloyd for the U.S. team, knowing that our VCR was grinding away recording it.
Today after picking up Lingling's Sing Tao Saturday magazine at the Pacific East Mall down the block, I watched the end of the U.S. women's volleyball team's successful match against Japan, then the 3 U.S. female fencers taking all three medals. Since I missed the first 20 minutes of the NBC broadcast last night, I rewound the tape and began watching. I couldn't stop watching - it's playing behind me as I write this, with Zhang Yimou's production absolutely mesmerizing. Impressive last night, it is hypnotic today when I can appreciate more deliberately what Zhang has contrived. All the guys under the moving blocks just came out smiling broadly and waving, reminiscent of the opening gambit with the 2,008 drummers in perfect coordination drumming on magnificent drums, the 2,500-year-old prototype of which was discovered in a tomb near Shanghai only three years ago. 
They were told to smile so as to be less intimidating in this country of 1.3 billion, but I gotta say that those two thousand drummers in exact unison was unnerving, if not specifically threatening. Interesting that director Zhang Yimou cooked up the perfect combination of harmony, power, poetry, enormity, and smiling individual faces of people all seemingly at peace in the ancient culture in which they are living.
They were told to smile so as to be less intimidating in this country of 1.3 billion, but I gotta say that those two thousand drummers in exact unison was unnerving, if not specifically threatening. Interesting that director Zhang Yimou cooked up the perfect combination of harmony, power, poetry, enormity, and smiling individual faces of people all seemingly at peace in the ancient culture in which they are living.I've spoken to Lingling and Ouwen by phone several times in the last couple of weeks, and as excited as she has been about the impending Olympics, her reporting has been mixed. Frustration at the pollution, the traffic jams, the extremely tight security mixed with anticipation and perhaps a little apprehension that China could pull this off. She even mentioned wishing she could post something to this blog. A family friend managed to procure a single ticket to an opening ceremony rehearsal last Monday evening (you have to have connections), and Lingling insisted Ouwen attend with her cousin.
Ouwen gave it 3 out of 5 stars (we've seen way too many movies) and seemed ambivalent about the fact that is was all about Chinese culture and history - I guess he thought it should be more international. I assured him that was the usual approach. Yesterday after work I talked to them after they watched the real thing on TV the night before, which was Friday night China time (8-8-08 at 8:08 p.m. - eight [ba] is a lucky number in China). They seemed both impressed and perplexed at how it would be seen outside of China. Lingling thought Zhang Yimou went too far over the top. Many Chinese think he's gotten too commercial with films like House of Flying Daggers, Hero, and Curse of the Golden Flower. They like his older, more classical films like To Live, Raise the Red Lantern, and Red Sorghum, but I confess I prefer the new Zhang Yimou, including what he hath wrought at the Beijing Olympics.
Ouwen gave it 3 out of 5 stars (we've seen way too many movies) and seemed ambivalent about the fact that is was all about Chinese culture and history - I guess he thought it should be more international. I assured him that was the usual approach. Yesterday after work I talked to them after they watched the real thing on TV the night before, which was Friday night China time (8-8-08 at 8:08 p.m. - eight [ba] is a lucky number in China). They seemed both impressed and perplexed at how it would be seen outside of China. Lingling thought Zhang Yimou went too far over the top. Many Chinese think he's gotten too commercial with films like House of Flying Daggers, Hero, and Curse of the Golden Flower. They like his older, more classical films like To Live, Raise the Red Lantern, and Red Sorghum, but I confess I prefer the new Zhang Yimou, including what he hath wrought at the Beijing Olympics.
Well, now I must find out what happened with that middle-of-the-night soccer game!
Update: Good news! The U.S. women's soccer team did beat Japan 1-zip, so now they're 1-1 after losing to Norway. I believe the U.S. men's basketball team plays China and Yao Ming tomorrow (Sun.) morning in real time (Sun. night Beijing time). That should be very interesting. Yao looked tired during the opening ceremonies but perked up when the cute little kid who survived the Sichuan earthquake and then rescued two of his friends showed up waving a couple of flags. Yao picked him up and carried him part of the way.
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