3 weeks ago, Eppie & Taffy's Bak Leung came to stay and has been spoiling me since. I have been taken to yum cha a couple of times, which I haven't had since I came back. She has also bought me a bunch of char siu charn baus, bor lor baus and roast duck.
We went to see The Lion King with her nephew. It was an amazing spectacular of colour and sound. The actors use the aisles of the stalls quite a lot to enter and exit the stage so you get a really good look at the costumes, which are beautifully designed. The children were weak singers but made up for it with lots of energy. The best performances were the ones that had to act as well as manipulate their puppets. My favourites were Timon, Zazu & Scar.
Bak Leung also brought a DVD of Curse of the Golden Flower from HK. It is one of the latest from Zhang Yimou, who has literally completely lost the plot. He is the director who was responsible for the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. That is all he is good for these days. Style has triumphed over substance. His other recent movies include House of Flying Daggers and Hero, both with extraordinarily stunning visuals and both with tremendously stupid plots. Curse of the Golden Flower is even worse. I don't understand what actors of the calibre & reputation of Chow Yun Fat and Gong Li were thinking when they signed up for this rubbish. Zhang Yimou has run towards the arms of the Chinese government and away from his awesomely challenging films of the past, including Raise the Red Lantern, The Story of Qiu Ju & Not One Less.
I watched Quantum of Solace, the latest James Bond movie, last week, before it has been released in Australia. It is not as good as Casino Royale but is in the same vein of being very dark. There are none of the wisecracks that Sean Connery and then Roger Moore spouted after every death. Daniel Craig's James Bond just killed a person and moved onto the next one. [Spoiler Alert! Don't read on if you don't want to know the end.] It was quite incredible for the Bond girl to simply walk off into the distance at the end of this film. He gave her a kiss and dropped her off at the station! I must say that if Daniel Craig had black hair, he would be almost exactly as the books describe Bond. The book Bond is an incredibly hard man and that is how Craig plays him. I also loved the Bond/M relationship. Judi Dench is great.
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