I watched kundun. It's a movie about Dalai lama. It kept reminded me of many images and memories of the last emperor. I guess they really have something in common. They were both started in very early age. They were both brought up by men of unique professions. They were both separated from their family, although there's different level of separation. They both faced extra ordinary time in the history of Zhong Guo. The custom, the clothes, the many other everyday life things had many resemblance in the movies as well. There are differences between them, of course. The most stark one, I think is that I can see difference between Tibetan and Han, but not much from Manchu and Han.
I don't like the movie as much as the last emperor. I felt the last emperor presented a man with better clarity while kundun had many muddy spots. I don't think Dalai could separate himself from the secular life, mainly political, economical, aspect of tibetan government. But the truth was that this little boy could not really touch the sensitive topic of political and economical aspect of tibetan daily life. What I want to say is that the political structure of tibetan was murky at best while the movie focused on Dalai. And yet, a boy who has no power over political and economical daily life, the destiny was rested upon solely on his shoulders. When there was big decision to make, and Dalai wondered what his subjects thought, he could only get an answer like, "what do I know, I am nothing but a bug."
I am no Buddhist, but I don't think it is fair to put such decision on such a boy, only a teenager, no matter how smart, how spiritual he was. And I wonder how much was Dalai's decision made affected by the political core around him. Although his subjects would humbly saying they were bugs, but Dalai was raised by them, surrounded by them, and they are his only source for outside world...
It does not need to say much about how horrible communist party was. And yet, here we had a feminine Mao Ze Dong... It seemed weird. And I think just by doing this, the movie fell short.
The movie was still grand in terms of many ways. But murky political situation render the portrait of a man incomplete. I also would like to point out that the story seemed one sided. But if audience realized the one sided story, I think it's a valuable movie.
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My heart is unstable. Unrest and yet numb. I am scared, very much so. Very very much so. I have lost will to live, I feel there's nothing to hold me in this life, not even my mother, my sister, Bao Bao, or No No. I don't want to play video game, I play basketball alone. I can't interact with people. I felt a bubble around me when I am with them. I don't enjoy eating, or drinking, nor do sleeping and pooping. Reading seemed obsolete, movies lost its weight. Totally silent in my mind, dead would be a more proper word. I am a coward. A Coward. A dog with its tail between its legs. How much am I left?
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