Sunday, August 24, 2008

As the Olympic Games Close, a Hamlet Derivative Set in Ancient China Comes to Mind

The Legend of the Black Scorpion. [a.k.a. The Banquet (Ye Yan)]. Dir. Feng Xiaogang. Perf. Zhang Ziyi, Daniel Wu, Zhou Xun, Ge You, Ma Jingwu. 2006. DVD. Dragon Dynasty, 2008.

The Legend of the Black Scorpion was mentioned earlier—and even earlier—in this Microblog's history, but I think it might be the ideal film to watch on the iTouch. It's subtitled, so I can watch it even when earphones would be too obvious—like during faculty meetings.   Just kidding!  Ha, ha!  For the most part!

It's beautifully filmed, demonstrating the clarity of the iTouch. And it's Hamlet-related—but with some very interesting plot variations. It's the Goldberg Variations of Hamlet, in fact, constantly taking us in new and exciting direcitons but never losing the beauty of the original.

Unless I'm convinced otherwise, I'll start that film when I have time.

(I'm operating under the assumption that the "One touch of nature" comment was not a suggestion to watch a version of Troilus and Cressida first.)

Tomorrow, Lear Week at Bardfilm begins!

Links: Previous Post One. Previous Post Two.

Click below to purchase the film from amazon.com
(and to support Bardfilm as you do so).

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Bardfilm is normally written as one word, though it can also be found under a search for "Bard Film Blog." Bardfilm is a Shakespeare blog (admittedly, one of many Shakespeare blogs), and it is dedicated to commentary on films (Shakespeare movies, The Shakespeare Movie, Shakespeare on television, Shakespeare at the cinema), plays, and other matter related to Shakespeare (allusions to Shakespeare in pop culture, quotes from Shakespeare in popular culture, quotations that come from Shakespeare, et cetera).

Unless otherwise indicated, quotations from Shakespeare's works are from the following edition:
Shakespeare, William. The Riverside Shakespeare. 2nd ed. Gen. ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
All material original to this blog is copyrighted: Copyright 2008-2039 (and into perpetuity thereafter) by Keith Jones.

The very instant that I saw you did / My heart fly to your service; there resides, / To make me slave to it; and, for your sake, / Am I this patient [b]log-man.

—The Tempest