Film: Seven Pounds

In an earnest effort to reduce the China-related posts, here is a post about a film that I watched the last couple of days and which impressed me for several reasons...

The film is "Seven Pounds", and though produced and filmed in the United Stated is unconventional for an American movie. Apart from the incredibly talanted performance of Will Smith, the beautiful music, great direction (the same director who made the very beautiful movie "The Pursuit of Happiness" again with Will Smith as the lead actor), etc. the most important that makes this film stand out is the story.

It's a story about goodness, self-sacrifice for the sake of the well-being of others and love. And while I'm sure that the makers of this movie are perhaps completely unaware of it's Buddhist connotations, for me it touched on topics that I am very much emotionally or academicaly interested in...It's actually very closely connected in a way with the topic of my theses - bodily self-sacrifice in order to safe someone else's life...It's also a very unconventional gentle love story involving self-sacrifice. Me, being uncurably romantic and naive as I am, find such story moving, touching and "real".I don't wish to give out more of the plot because it is interesting to watch without knowing what is actually happening.
Highly recommend this film.
It's a film that is very human and thought provoking. The best kind.

'Empire of the Sun' author J.G.Ballard passed away

British author J.G. Ballard, whose boyhood experience in a World War II internment camp became the novel and film "Empire of the Sun," died today at age 78, CNN reports. He had suffered from cancer for several years.
Ballard was born in a Western enclave in the Chinese city of Shanghai in 1930. The Japanese occupied the city in 1937, and Ballard and his family were placed in a civilian internment camp in 1943.
"Empire of the Sun," his semi-autobiographical account of the war years, became his best-known work, and it was made into a film by director Steven Spielberg in 1987.

I remember as a teenager first seeing the film and vividly remember how deeply it touched and impressed me. It is one of the most thought provoking films I have seen. I saw the film many times during the years. The direction (Steven Spielberg) , script (Tom Stoppard), production, cinematography, etc. are all excellent, but the most important is the incredibly brilliant performances of the actors, especially of the very young then Christian Bale. Because of the film I discovered also the book, which is also excellent.
"Empire of The Sun" is an emotional account of the Japanese occupation of Shanghai as seen from the eyes of a 12 year old foreign boy and is an account of the great changes that he undergoes as a result of his disturbing war experience. It is perhaps the best "war movie" I have ever seen. It has a heart.

If you haven't seen the film or read the book I recommend them strongly!!!

Links for the film on the Chinese Youku site:
part 1 http://v.youku.com/v_playlist/f1881268o1p0.html
part 2 http://v.youku.com/v_playlist/f1881268o1p1.html
part 3 http://v.youku.com/v_playlist/f1881268o1p2.html