Once Lena and the team are inside the Shimmer, they start noticing mutations, and those mutations represent cancer (the tumor at the heart of the Shimmer) affecting other cells. It’s not that cancer is inexplicable, but rather our understanding of it is still evolving. Yes, we can talk about risk factors, but there are perfectly healthy people who still get cancer. Everything is normal, and then it’s not, and in its place is something that’s mutating and, like The Shimmer, expanding. The unexplained phenomenon makes a good stand-in for how cancer strikes. We then cut back three years earlier when a mysterious something struck a lighthouse in the Southern Reach and that thing started expanding. She talks about cell division, particularly how cells rapidly divide and mutate. I realize that isn't even an issue in SPL, but who knows, someone could read into it and get offended.We immediately settle right into the movie's core metaphor right from Lena’s first lecture at Johns Hopkins. By making the film take place while Hong Kong was under British rule, you can't blame the current China government for not having a better handle on the Hong Kong police force. In the case of something like SPL, which takes place before the Handover (even though someone is wearing a Vince Carter Toronto Raptors jersey - he was drafted in 1998), the filmmakers may have wanted to avoid concerns about police corruption. Just read your Twitter feed and you should find ten zillion examples of that.Īnother reason to set a film before the Handover may be to avoid potential political readings. To use a current western example, a person might react differently to the same stimuli now, post-Brexit and Trump's election, than they did previously. Hong Kongers living in pre-Handover times experienced a particular anxiety that might deepen their characters for a particular story. Minus specific events, the filmmakers may choose pre-Handover times to add psychological factors to the characters and their choices. It also was a huge flop.ĭepends on the film. As an early attempt at the postmodern martial arts movie its now somewhat dated and pretentious, but at the time it was an exhilarating and unexpected work. THE BLADE because its action is so awesome. Probably the closest we'll ever have to a Tsui Hark musical, unless you count bits of his other films. SHANGHAI BLUES because it does a lot of what PEKING OPERA BLUES did but adds romance, music and Sylvia Chang and Kenny Bee. I've called PEKING OPERA BLUES the "perfect Hong Kong film" and I'll probably never change my mind. Reasons for its awesomeness include its unique mixture of genres, its breakneck pacing, its action, its cultural flavor, its use of history and Chinese nationalism, its strong female characters, Kenneth Tsang's facial hair, and finally the actresses, the actresses and the actresses. PEKING OPERA BLUES because it distills everything that was great about Hong Kong Cinema into a single film. I'd ask for someone to make Hong Kong Cinema great again but that would likely be upsetting. Unfortunately, my answer to this question will reveal that I'm an old fogey who yearns for the "Good 'ol Days".
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