The answer, obviously, is an astounding yes. The question, perhaps less obviously, is about Gong Li. That said… less obvious? In the past few years of moviemaking we have seen a renewed interest in the visual and sartorial elegance of the far east. It can be said that most movies based in, on or around Eastern source-material in the west give the wrong image of Asian culture, and there is a certain merit to that point.
But what certainly can be said is that whatever the occasion, certain people thrive because they have a talent that seems to capture the spirit of an age. Cole Porter, the bisexual but prolific songwriter encapsuled in person and song the zeitgeist of his 1940’s joie des vivre. Kurt Cobain had not much to do to become the personification of the grumpiness of early nineties Seattle. A number of the reviled and revered have in their own way been able to so strikingly set an example of the time they lived in, that they are indelibly connected to an idea, a philosophy.
The green velvet of Oscar and the trailing scarves of Isadora stand a good chance of being joined by the kimono of Gong Li, who seems to have been taken up in the storm of events that can be described by one simple line that must’ve gone through the mind and come out of the mouth of a lot of producers in the last period:
Is there a Kimono in this movie? And if so, is Gong Li wearing it?
For really, has there been a movie coming out since “Memoirs of a Geisha” where a kimono was needed to be worn where it was in fact NOT worn by this woman?
Don’t get me wrong, those who know me, and those who don’t know me but know what Boyfriend looks like, know that I am a great appreciator of beauty, it might well be said it is one of the guiding principles in my life, and this woman looks good. In my mind, she will never be any more beautiful then she was as the courtesan Hatsumomo in the aforementioned diaristic endeavour, and in her version of that role she has without a doubt joined my personal list of appearances that define female beauty. But seriously, the joke is up now.
Last I have seen her in was in “Curse of the golden flower” which IMDB keeps telling me should be referenced as “Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia”, and who am I to deny it this due. And since I won’t be able to spell that title out all that often without going into carpal tunnel syndrome, this was all it is going to get.
The movie itself, a beautifully and colourfully shot drama to the backdrop of the forbidden city, about madness within the Chinese royal family. I won’t spoil this movie by going into details, but let’s be most certain about one single thing. She is in it, and there is kimono in it, and she is in that as well.
A sidenote… I have been using the word “kimono” as meaning “clothing” for most of this blog, it means “thing to wear” in it’s original language, and as such can be used in a piece about Chinese clothing just as well as it could have been used in a piece about Japanese clothing. Besides, Kimono was stolen from the imperial courts in China anyway.
Anyway, so far for now, I will strife to do more movie reviews from now on. This weekend is the “night of Terror” in Amsterdam, and Boyfriend and I are going to try and pull an all-nighter for this gala of gruesome gore. Most likely, I will have something to actually say about a movie after that again.
For now, stripes at half open,
Kevin.
