Let me assure at the outset that when it comes to China the political enemy of the country I am no less than any patriot worth his salt. But lock down somehow has mellowed me down as far as common man on the Chinese street is concerned. He too must be bogged down by the official political stance but does not dare to express anything against the official dictates. He is not Rahul Gandhi!
It so happened that during the longish period of lock down I was absolutely bored after watching shows after shows from Hollywood with their beloved motto, at times overtly[ most of the times] at times covertly, to purport ’ The American dream’ and “American way of Life’ ,how it’s the best in the world. Even if the aliens attack our planet, it’s none other than America or Americans who are going to sacrifice their lives to save the planet, in other words us the poor ones from the third world countries. And that joker at the helm of the affairs did not allow us to forget that there could be alternative and world can survive without America.
By sheer chance I switched the Netflix on to watch a Korean serial,’ More than Friends’ followed by ‘A Love So beautiful’. Very simple stories about youth and the problems they face coming of age without any unnecessary convolutions, an integral part of Marathi serials, two love stories unfolded in most lucid style. Most of the Korean serials start from the high school levels. And to one’s surprise the lead actors look like school kids. 20 plus Varun Dhavan, Siddharth Malhotra and above all Boman Irani’s son masquerading as high school students was most difficult to digest. At the most Alia Bhatt could have passed the bill. In ‘A Love So beautiful’ the protagonist Kim Yohan in actual life was 18 years old when the serial was shot. Same for ‘More than Friends ‘ 4 yrs ago the lad Ong Seaong- Wu was just about 20 or 21. Same for the leading ladies. They LOOK their age. And so one can easily relate with them. And not like Rajendrakumar embracing mother less than his age and proclaiming, ‘Mother I stood 1st In BA’
I don’t know why but the yellow race males do have less facial hair so they do look much younger than their actual age but both the above boys now really are in their early twenties. The most pertinent criterion for such type of lead roles is their ‘Cuteness’ quotient. Kim Yohan has it more than 200 times. Though he, also Ong Seong-Wu, at times wear too much of makeup especially pink red lip steak, it does not let you down. And you feel cuddling them like stuffed teddy bear!
And it led me to watch some Chinese serials too. Some shot on the main land China but the rest in Taipei, Taiwan! It so happened that while watching such a serial, it came to me as a surprise when a character says that he is being transferred to Beijing! From Korea to Beijing? Then it suddenly dawned upon me that it was a Chinese serial and was from main land China. All those intricate signs in Korean, Japanese and Chinese languages look so similar and the intonation of the speech also is so similar that it makes difficult for you to differentiate them one from the other. The serial was ‘Wait My Youth’.
Again a serial about school children maturing in to young adults and trying to achieve what they dreamt of and pursuing their childhood crush and succeeding in winning the lady love! Ji Liaqui the leading lady, why lady, the leading girl is so petite that she may pass as your next door pig tail girl. Her suitor, Zhao Yiqin too is extremely handsome boy and I wondered how a Chinese can be that tall, around 6 feet and with so grandiose with sharp features. And then I remembered the group of Chinese film crew we had come across while travelling in Santorini! Initially both are reluctant but finally coming together to fulfil their dream.
One thing led to another and I got hooked on the ‘Chin Pong Yaw’ languages. Surprisingly we on this part of the world are not aware what is transpiring on the eastern horizons, especially in countries like Korea, China, Japan and Taiwan. Like down south in India, all the four Dravidian languages borrow themes and keep on making remakes from one language to another, ditto same happens in these pictorial languages. And the results are surprising. What succeeds in Chinese may not work in Korean, or the flopped theme borrowed from Japan becomes block buster in China. I happened to watch two versions of the same theme in two different languages and it came to me as a big shocker. ‘Meteor Garden’ in Chinese though lengthy was far more superior to the Korean and the Japanese version, ’Boys over Flowers’ on the same story line. The ‘boy and the girl’ team in the ‘Meteor Garden’ was far superior to their counterparts in other languages. They looked natural for their age, surprisingly for their age, around 19, showed superb command over their craft, acting. The story line was fluent without unnecessary additions of the episodes ,delineation of characters was to the point e.g., Girl coming from poor background was feisty without melodrama and the boy coming from rich aristocratic family looked every inch smart, handsome and equally arrogant without overtones. And here I felt may be common man on the Chinese street might be as good or bad as any poor soul on anywhere on the Back the Earth, because they have shown the Girl coming from the ‘Underbelly’ of the Shanghai and Shanghai is not only about much tomtomed ‘Bund’ or ‘Maglev’ superfast train!
What I noticed glaringly in all these serials is the normal life the normal Chinese on the street is having. If you put aside your political views, the malls in China are overstocked with the daily needs. The people talk about having coffee at Star Bucks or Burger at McDonalds. The traffic on the roads is extremely organized with ultra modern Luxury cars zooming across and hardly there is any chaos on the roads even with the traffic jams. The buses, the metros are spic span clean and shootings are done when the normal life is flowing on by the sides! Not on the sets erected in the film city. People talk about literatures, movies, going for the outings, outdoor camping and trips like any other citizen of any other country in the world. Why, a music teacher renders entire ‘Tagore’ poem while deliberating on a specific point. Even the yoga is held in high esteem and the women from well to do families are shown to practise it on the regular basis!
Though politically they are two different countries, not from China’s point of view of course, Taiwan too has its own independent entertainment industry. And curiosity took me to the Mega star of the industry. Having alternative sexual orientation, which is normally, actually accepted in Taiwan, the poor boy was ostracised for it from middle school to college, practically for 10 years, so much so that his parents too were not ready to accept their only son, and father tried to commit suicide to bring the boy back on the normal[?] track. After achieving successes after successes and awards after awards in all the Asian countries, including Japan and Main land China when he established himself as talent par excellence, in multiple fields, Cinema, TV and Music he now is allowed to live normal life. Soaked in Hollywood trivia, how many of us are aware of such tragedies occurring on the eastern front?
Last but not the least, of all the serials I watched from East, I would highly recommend ‘Refresh Man’ from Taiwan. The term ‘Refresh Man’ is used for a person who just goes to the office to sign the muster and then do nothing. How a hard working brilliant CEO transforms such nincompoops in to a best team is the crux of the story. It is the epitome of how an entertaining serial should be! Right from the taut script to direction, to character delineation everything is above the highest benchmark. The leading pair is so endearing and real that you want to fall for it. I was surprised that those chinkey eyes can express so many emotions and those faces can convey innermost turmoil to the last detail. In the end what counts are ‘Human emotions’, they are same all over the world. Only point here is, they did not require any prop ups to reach your heart. Every event, every thought directly hits the heart. If one goes by the translation even, the language even though it may be mandarin in this case, has such an enormous power to shake you from the core, that one really wonders what just happened? The suspense in the end when the serial ends brings forth the ugly as well as brilliant side of the power play between the higher ups. I would suggest, Just Go ‘Binge watch’ it!
Thanks to Netflix which has opened so many vistas to the discerning Cinema lovers like me. Not to boast but I watched movies from all over the world, thanks to subtitles in English and am grateful to it to allow me to watch Sophia Loren in her ?late? Early 80s in poignant Italian movie based on Old Matriarch and her adopted Moroccan boy, directed by her own son, Jr Carlo Ponti. Not to miss the movies from South American countries along with Spain, France and South East Asia specifically Malaysia and Philippines.
Lock down did not go waste on many fronts! Thanks to Netflix!
No comments:
Post a Comment