beijing opens
11 Aug 2008 12:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mayoraaseiHonestly, I can't be the only Chinese who thinks the opening ceremony was the grandest display of tasteless costuming extravaganza. Or colour use in general.
I have to admit, I'm biased against Zhang Yimou before it even began, especially since his latest movie "City of Golden Cleavages" (officially known as Curse of the Golden Flower, by the way). He seems to have a fetish for singular colours and often would use one colour to exhaustion.
The countdown was pretty cool, at least up until the point you realise it's not as difficult to coordinate as it looks LOL. Nevertheless, it was a nice touch, and drums are always good to open any performance as they instantly bring the mood to a high.
And then the lights went up and their costume was revealed =0=;;;;;;; What is with that ghoulish silver-white cloak? White in traditional China is the colour of mourning!!! And that bloody red streak between their brows? Then that red cloak lining that went down the middle of their costume? They looked like people who were chopped in half and then risen from the dead! The twisting and howling was totally imi wakannai.
Following that there was singing (of a Communist song, ahem) by a girl wearing the fakest smile ever to be broadcast simultaneously to billions of audience. (One line in the lyrics, which wasn't sung, says "We love peace, we love home, we'll destroy anyone who messes with us!" W00t! That's exactly the sort of self-contradicting ideology we get to see in Gundam 00!)
And then that terrifying flag raising, where the entire stadium was bathed in blood red light. Seriously. Okay, I get that you Commies love red, but...god, it looked like the whole place was drenched in blood.
The scroll was probably the highlight of the show, though it could have been worked more naturally into all the programs, instead of randomly referring to it and then just ignoring it as other programs went on.
I've never had a thing for modern dance. The concept was nice, but it's not like ancient China doesn't have its own dance system THAT LOOKS SO MUCH BETTER than people twisting and writhing about like they're in heat. Or pain. What's wrong with using traditional dance, huh? Why was there only one traditional dance in the whole thing, and that was done by ONE girl for a total of 3 minutes and didn't involve anything more complex than throwing some silk around =__=
Did I mention that the guys' costumes are fugly? What's with the grey smoky wispy girly-looking costume for the "Confucian scholars" and their broom-head hats? Taking liberty with traditional costume is fine but.....fuglifying it? Putting Confucian scholars on the stage is also a bit rich coming from a Party whose leader Mao famously said, "The First Emperor of Qin is nothing. He buried 460 scholars, we buried 46 thousand scholars." Politics aside...the movements were once again imi wakannai. When people 作揖 they bow forwards. What's up with bowing over backwards? =__= And can't they read the scriptures properly instead of sounding like they're singing a requiem? Why does the whole thing stink of 鬼气 and totally lack the 正气 one would get from reciting lines such as 朝闻道夕死可矣? =__=;;;
The moveable type was nice if only it lasted longer. "Peace" is also a bit rich...
The entire puppet show was imi wakannai (trans: wtf). As if anyone sitting in the stands could actually see what's going on. Can't they have real people acting it? Holding a puppet show in the centre of a football stadium is just retarded. At least this time the guys' clothing looked normal, albeit bland, not that it explained what they were doing.
The Zheng He boat trip was nice, with the people running around waving (really heavy) paddles. The Tang dynasty representation was absolute horrors =0=;;;;;; The women's makeup was absolutely garish (Channel 7 also managed to capture the creepiest smirk on international broadcast). Are they supposed to be 花旦? 妓女? 巫婆? The costuming...once again. I don't know if it aims to show people Chinese history, or just some twisted reimagining of Chinese history. The choice of colour was once again questionable. Green is always a dangerous colour to use, and that night there was plenty of creepy ghostly green and unglorious construction net green. The only shade of green used well was the costuming of the girl doing the Silk Road dance, although that costume looks suspiciously similar to NTDTV gala costumes =___=
I don't remember much of the rest except there continued to be lots of questionable colour use. Eerie green and creepy blue and bloody red? ==; Maybe it's the TV. The Taichi was possibly the only part that showed any form of 正气. It's the hellish lighting, I swear, and the ghoulish music and the creepy costuming of some parts =___=;; People looked like 鬼魅
The "theme song" was nice but sounded like a lullaby. Liu Huan dressed in a T-shirt looked so out of place next to a sparkling Sara Brightman. I also wonder why they couldn't have invited a CHINESE singer to sing that song. There are plenty of Chinese stars who can manage English (some of them quite well). It would have had a better symbolism "we're making an approach to the western world on our own terms" rather than "we're still relying on westerners for our bridge".
Feel tremendously sorry for the cheerleading girls who danced and clapped for 2 hours in humid heat. My hat to them.
Oh...and I think the poor Cauldron lighter was the only one ever not to have gotten a front-on closeup of his face before he lifted off. Too much wire use, by the way!! Damn Zhang Yimou-ness!!! A bit of a letdown for the cauldron lighting too >_>; So much suspense running around...and then....."WHOOSH". Give me Sydney's malfunctioning climbing cauldron any day XD
I have to admit, I'm biased against Zhang Yimou before it even began, especially since his latest movie "City of Golden Cleavages" (officially known as Curse of the Golden Flower, by the way). He seems to have a fetish for singular colours and often would use one colour to exhaustion.
The countdown was pretty cool, at least up until the point you realise it's not as difficult to coordinate as it looks LOL. Nevertheless, it was a nice touch, and drums are always good to open any performance as they instantly bring the mood to a high.
And then the lights went up and their costume was revealed =0=;;;;;;; What is with that ghoulish silver-white cloak? White in traditional China is the colour of mourning!!! And that bloody red streak between their brows? Then that red cloak lining that went down the middle of their costume? They looked like people who were chopped in half and then risen from the dead! The twisting and howling was totally imi wakannai.
Following that there was singing (of a Communist song, ahem) by a girl wearing the fakest smile ever to be broadcast simultaneously to billions of audience. (One line in the lyrics, which wasn't sung, says "We love peace, we love home, we'll destroy anyone who messes with us!" W00t! That's exactly the sort of self-contradicting ideology we get to see in Gundam 00!)
And then that terrifying flag raising, where the entire stadium was bathed in blood red light. Seriously. Okay, I get that you Commies love red, but...god, it looked like the whole place was drenched in blood.
The scroll was probably the highlight of the show, though it could have been worked more naturally into all the programs, instead of randomly referring to it and then just ignoring it as other programs went on.
I've never had a thing for modern dance. The concept was nice, but it's not like ancient China doesn't have its own dance system THAT LOOKS SO MUCH BETTER than people twisting and writhing about like they're in heat. Or pain. What's wrong with using traditional dance, huh? Why was there only one traditional dance in the whole thing, and that was done by ONE girl for a total of 3 minutes and didn't involve anything more complex than throwing some silk around =__=
Did I mention that the guys' costumes are fugly? What's with the grey smoky wispy girly-looking costume for the "Confucian scholars" and their broom-head hats? Taking liberty with traditional costume is fine but.....fuglifying it? Putting Confucian scholars on the stage is also a bit rich coming from a Party whose leader Mao famously said, "The First Emperor of Qin is nothing. He buried 460 scholars, we buried 46 thousand scholars." Politics aside...the movements were once again imi wakannai. When people 作揖 they bow forwards. What's up with bowing over backwards? =__= And can't they read the scriptures properly instead of sounding like they're singing a requiem? Why does the whole thing stink of 鬼气 and totally lack the 正气 one would get from reciting lines such as 朝闻道夕死可矣? =__=;;;
The moveable type was nice if only it lasted longer. "Peace" is also a bit rich...
The entire puppet show was imi wakannai (trans: wtf). As if anyone sitting in the stands could actually see what's going on. Can't they have real people acting it? Holding a puppet show in the centre of a football stadium is just retarded. At least this time the guys' clothing looked normal, albeit bland, not that it explained what they were doing.
The Zheng He boat trip was nice, with the people running around waving (really heavy) paddles. The Tang dynasty representation was absolute horrors =0=;;;;;; The women's makeup was absolutely garish (Channel 7 also managed to capture the creepiest smirk on international broadcast). Are they supposed to be 花旦? 妓女? 巫婆? The costuming...once again. I don't know if it aims to show people Chinese history, or just some twisted reimagining of Chinese history. The choice of colour was once again questionable. Green is always a dangerous colour to use, and that night there was plenty of creepy ghostly green and unglorious construction net green. The only shade of green used well was the costuming of the girl doing the Silk Road dance, although that costume looks suspiciously similar to NTDTV gala costumes =___=
I don't remember much of the rest except there continued to be lots of questionable colour use. Eerie green and creepy blue and bloody red? ==; Maybe it's the TV. The Taichi was possibly the only part that showed any form of 正气. It's the hellish lighting, I swear, and the ghoulish music and the creepy costuming of some parts =___=;; People looked like 鬼魅
The "theme song" was nice but sounded like a lullaby. Liu Huan dressed in a T-shirt looked so out of place next to a sparkling Sara Brightman. I also wonder why they couldn't have invited a CHINESE singer to sing that song. There are plenty of Chinese stars who can manage English (some of them quite well). It would have had a better symbolism "we're making an approach to the western world on our own terms" rather than "we're still relying on westerners for our bridge".
Feel tremendously sorry for the cheerleading girls who danced and clapped for 2 hours in humid heat. My hat to them.
Oh...and I think the poor Cauldron lighter was the only one ever not to have gotten a front-on closeup of his face before he lifted off. Too much wire use, by the way!! Damn Zhang Yimou-ness!!! A bit of a letdown for the cauldron lighting too >_>; So much suspense running around...and then....."WHOOSH". Give me Sydney's malfunctioning climbing cauldron any day XD
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annie
Date: 2008-08-10 11:07 pm (UTC)seriously it took me forever to figure out what the heck it was then someone told me it was a dove im like HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE? IT LOOKS LIKE A KITCHEN STAIN! LOL
omg whenever those people talked or chanted whatever it was soo creepy =.= seriously! they should just not talk its just too scary! i had no idea what they were saying anyways just sounded like some whispy scary chanting like i was thinking a cauldron was going to pop out of no where and they would throw potions into it LOLOLOL!
and yes those smokey scholar peoples =.= i thought they looked like exhaust fumes. LMAOLMAOLMAOLMAO!
no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 08:15 am (UTC)Btw, is this true???? -- One line in the lyrics, which wasn't sung, says "We love peace, we love home, we'll destroy anyone who messes with us!"
LOL!
Do you happen to have the whole lyrics to the song or link?? Would like to see/read it XDDD
=p
no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 08:39 am (UTC)And I think it's a personal bias against Zhang Yimou the director as well. He's typically reliant on
bad costumes and ugly makeupspecial effects and wires and giant sets. Somehow it feels like the ceremony became his plaything, and it exposed all his shortcomings with indulgent extravagance. Apart from the high-tech scroll, the only other thing the programs had going for them were the number of people. Practically the entire thing was reliant on a huge cast screaming (or moaning) in the stadium, and the visual effect generated by giant expensive sets. None of the performances showed any skill, apart from the Taichi, whereas there's so much skill to be shown in traditional Chinese dance and opera - both of which was reduced to a miniature version that no audience in the crowd could possibly see.And it's such a 哭笑不得 (don't know whether to laugh or cry) matter that the organisers have come out and declared two major falsehoods as though it's something to be proud of: the 29 "footprint" fireworks broadcast was computer-generated (it looked pretty dodgy when I saw it too...I thought it glitched and they were showing fillers), and the little girl singing was lip-synching to a 7-year-old's recorded voice - apparently because the music director thought the 7-year-old "wasn't pretty enough" OMG.
Will get back to you on the song. LOL.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 09:00 am (UTC)It's in Chinese =P
Rough translation below:
(Chorus) The Five-Star Red Flag flies in the wind
How loudly the sound of victory song sings
Singing praises for our dear motherland
From today on walking towards glory and prosperity
Singing praises for our dear motherland
From today on walking towards glory and prosperity
Over high mountains, over plains
Across the leaping Yellow River and Long River
The vast and beautiful soil
Is our dear homeland
The heroic people stood up!
Our cooperation and friendship is strong as steel
(Repeat Chorus)
Our hard work, our courage
Independence and freedom is our ideal (Sorry, gotta interject here with a loud "PFFT")
How much hardships we have conquered
To obtain today's liberation! (*Cough* Capital Liberation...reference to China's notorious Liberation Army)
We love peace, we love home,
Whoever dares mess with us, we will wipe them out!
(Repeat Chorus)
The sun in the east, is currently rising (In case you didn't know, this is a VERY classic Chinese Communist expression)
The People's Republic of China is currently growing;
Our leader Mao Zedong
Is leading the way forward
Our livelihood are going up day by day
Our futures are full of a thousand leagues of brightness
As I said, it's a Communist song. As soon as it started, my dad was like "they make us sing this all the time ="= *walks away*"
I read somewhere that for the sake of the opening ceremony, they changed a few words so that it was singing praises of "China" rather than "the Party". Bleh.