Movies#
Barbie#
I finally had time to go to the cinema, only to find it had already been taken off the screen. I casually found a less outrageous resource to watch, and aside from the impact of video quality, the overall movie was quite disappointing. The entire cast was greasy, and the ending's dialogue about saving the Barbie world felt very lazy. However, once I saw the director, it all made sense; this lady really likes to make feminist films but never quite understands what feminism is. I can understand now. 😌
Barry Lyndon / Paths of Glory / Dr. Strangelove / 2001: A Space Odyssey#
I've always heard about Kubrick but realized I hadn't watched many of his films aside from A Clockwork Orange, so I caught up a bit. I absolutely loved Barry Lyndon; it has a texture like an oil painting, and its three-hour runtime has ups and downs, perfectly telling the story of war, love, and humanity from O'Neal's perspective. It's so good. The other films might feel a bit simple now due to their age.
The Matter of Me and the Ghost Becoming Family#
A comedy that plays with same-sex elements is being criticized for offending the LGBTQ community, lacking depth in its themes, while a film filled with marketing feminism, which is also shallow, is continuously defended by women. I can only say that nowadays, women’s films can just be casually made, and there are plenty of people willing to buy into it.
Series#
Settling Down#
I read the original work in elementary school and didn't expect there to be a TV series. After watching, I was completely impressed by Li Jie’s acting, while Fan Bingbing seemed absent throughout. The earlier plot was engaging, but it gradually fell into clichés, and the ending was just a complete praise song, so I abandoned it.
The Heavenly Mirror / The Child I Recommend#
I watched it, and it was quite outrageous.
Books#
The Beer Murder Case#
Very old-fashioned; the plot is quite common now.
Killeban and the Witch#
Definitely worth a read... it helps us better understand the close relationship between modern patriarchy, the rise of nation-states, and the transition period from feudalism to capitalism.
I got a glimpse of the origin of the domestic feminist movement's daily "burn the witches," but I feel like the sisters who read this book missed the point. The main theory in the book is that the development of capitalism led to the labor achievements of lower-class women being seized and deprived by lower-class men. This only proves that women indeed lost in this capitalist resource distribution; as the losing side, they should strive to gain their rights. Isn't it unrealistic to expect the beneficiaries to just give up their cake? As a result, the domestic pastoral feminists understood nothing and only learned to say burn the witches!
Goodbye, Eri#
A very short manga; I don't like short stories and completely didn't get it.
Don Quixote#
It took me three months to finally finish it. The second part felt like it was just padding for word count; the first part was much more interesting. However, I find it a bit puzzling that the original work only has a couple of pages about the giant windmills, yet whenever Don Quixote is mentioned, it always comes up. There are plenty of similar clueless plots later on, which makes me wonder if some people have only read the first few pages. Personally, I still prefer the little stories in the book; they are very interesting.