Happy Autumn Equinox! Looking back on my postings for August and September, I see that they've gradually dwindled away to nothing. Chalk that up to heat and fatigue, but it's cooled down a bit and the tang of autumn is in the air so I'm back to blogging.
Yesterday Bob and I visited our friends Chris and Ingrid in San Francisco. We all went to see Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame because Bob and Ingrid like Chinese films and Chris is up for anything. Besides, Ingrid and I had memories of the Judge Dee books by Van Gulik We hoped this movie was based on them. It was not. It was a Chinese blockbuster with a plethora of special effects featuring martial arts encounters, the kind where people swirl through trees and leap up and down steep canyons and off rooftops into the sky or undergrowth. There were lethal red beetles whose poison caused the various victims to crumple up in flames and turn to black ash -- just like Halloween Jack O'Lanterns whose insides have melted and collapsed from too much heat.
It was fun. Lots of costumes, continuous action and never a dull moment. Shallow, though. Very shallow. Another in the puffed-up sequence of ancient empire sagas that the Chinese like to make now that they have a lot of national pride, professionalism and money at their disposal -- and government watchdogs.
Truthfully, I remember the old Judge Dee books as rather dull so I guess this is an improvement. As far as martial arts movies go, though, I'd much rather watch the old Hong Kong cheapies starring Jackie Chan. Charlie Chaplin is preferable to Cecil B. DeMille.
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