Saturday happenings

As we had planned, Fujian Gal and I saw Curse of the Golden Flower tonight. Before that, we had dinner at Bamboo Thai restaurant on Commonwealth Ave. The food there is decent, but pricey with small portions, like other Thai restaurants. Maybe we should go American or Chinese next time. Ha, that's what I get for suggesting Thai... Our waitress was ok, but seemed a bit brusque. Fujian Gal was a bit quick to label her the b-word, and I was taken aback. Maybe women are quick to use that word in making a judgment?

*runs away from angry mob*

I actually thought the waitress was cute, even if it might have been due to the makeup. She was a bit shorter than me... I don't know about the attitude, it did seem like she was trying to rush us. At least she did it with a smile? haha

We got to talking about dating, since I was mentioning various people as I gave the update (this being the first time seeing Fujian Gal since I returned to Boston). Evidently Fujian Gal is not really motivated to meet the people her friends and family have lined up for her. As for the doctor who had asked her out a couple of times, she had to say no because friends were visiting and she now thinks he may have given up, since he hasn't contacted her for a while. Besides, he was still a client so she didn't think it would be right, though she is being 'transferred' so it might be ok now. Nonetheless, she thinks he might be a bit odd, or have some sort of 'yellow fever'--she thinks his ex-'s are Chinese, the last one also being from Fuzhou.

Anyway, she did say that she doesn't like guys who look typically Chinese--they remind her too much of her father, and hence there are a lot of bad associations. Even if non-Chinese guys do something to remind her of her father, she will have a bad reaction or lose interest. It's what I thought, and when I told her she was surprised that I had made the connection. Ah well, I guess it's not easy to dissociate. Hopefully she'll find a nice Catholic guy regardless.

Haha she showed me her new LV bag. I suppose the Lady Downstairs will have to ask to see it.

As for the movie... it was ok, but too much over the top. A lot of exaggeration, especially with respect to the action sequences (and the last one!). I don't know if they used cgi to replicate people or if they did have a cast of thousands (since it is still possible in the Mainland to find inexpensive extras). Sure, the movie does have a point to make about tyranny. But other than that? Hmm... the servant girls do have some appeal.

As Bob Dole would say, "Easy, boy."

I would have preferred something stretched out a bunch of episodes and more subdued, like a Chinese Mainland drama about a dynasty (those tend to be ok), or a Japanese historical drama. The emperor has no concubines that we know of, no other children--that sort of simplification may be necessary to compress a storyline such as this into 2 hours, but it's not that historically accurate, as far as I know. How many emperors had only one wife and one mother for his children? The acting is generally good. The ending song (sung by Jay Chou?) was out of place though, and almost ridiculous. Would I see the movie again? For the colors and the depiction of life in the palace, perhaps. Otherwise... I hope if Zhang Yimou directs another historical drama/epic he'll pick a better script. One wonders if Tsui Hark's Seven Swords (MP) sequel will be an improvement over the first.

Fujian Gal did look cute tonight. *shrugs*