Ch4 Kato, Enter the Dragon

Global capitalism transitioning into the battle from colonial and imperial subjugation can be directly translated to the messages intended by the Kung Fu movement specifically movies like Enter the Dragon. There was natural strain and conflict with American and Chinese workers involved in film production. One being the language barrier and the animosity/degrading view the American had on the Chinese and vise versa. One example being on page 116 where the Chinese workers hated the American workers and thought they were incompetent but the Americans couldn’t understand and assumed they were getting along great.

There was an additional struggle with cultural traditions and values as stated on page 117 “The scripwriter’s singular act of resistance represented the collective resentment of Hong Kong workers at the denigration of their being in the film production of their own cultural heritage.” This being further pushed by the “kung fu dialect” in association with Bruce Lee performing martial arts. There is a disconnect between language and art.

In addition there was the relationship of how the Asiananic people were being portrayed in the cinema as antagonists in which Bruce Lee felt the same discomfort as the low-end Chinese workers. There is a form of resistance from the Chinese, Vietnamese and any other “foreigner” in association with forced change by a higher power. On page 144 Kato asserts “The antagonism against the “foreign power,” an essential narrative ingredient of the kung fu genre, is thus made inconceivable by the transnationalization of the narrative structure.” He later goes on to show how the personification of the villain can no longer be a foreigner but instead becomes the protagonist.

Enter the Dragon has a lot of super cool fighting scenes in the movie. I was really bummed that Williams was killed off so quickly. I noticed that there was a few stereotypes that we’ve discussed previously. One being the sexuality of the white guy, the black guy and the Asian guy.

 

My Name is Khan Placeholder

This film had a very powerful message to me about ignorance. I had a similar feeling last quarter reading about the war veterans from WWII and getting treated like outsiders. Just the general state of mind on logic goes out the window when any crisis occurs and the majority will quickly shun anything that “might” have the traits of the thing that presented the danger. In this case it was the Muslim people, or really anyone that looked Middle Eastern or spoke some Arabic language. It just baffles me that public schools actually taught that Islam was the most violet kind of religion, even in the context of the movie it was really hard to watch such blatant misunderstandings and disregard for treating people as individuals versus lumping them in with extremists which aren’t members of any specific religion.

I’m just reminded of how the mass public will always try to find a non-reason to be scared of a group. You didn’t see a mass panic towards Russians when the Boston Bombers origins were revealed. It comes down to the power of those in control and what they can get away with. It just makes it clear that ethics and morals are this constant changing thing based on the needs of those with power in order to justify their actions.

Ranting aside the movie was enjoyable but I felt the MC was too smart/perfect and felt extremely familiar to Forrest Gump but with a twist. It was interesting seeing the hatred and disdain the Hindus had for the Muslims. How they “ruined” their lives in America because a few crazy people that could of been any race/religion/sex went and crashed some planes. People seem to find a reason blame other people for their misfortunes rather than adapting. Being mad at others will only add fuel to the fire instead of accepting the situation and improving it. Of course I understand why they’re mad but I supposed I’m biased in the sense that I’m not living in their shoes exactly. I’m in the safety of calm thought and rationality only due to the privilege of my environment.

Numbers

In class we talked about loss, but when I got to thinking about it something else came to mind. While reading there was a mention of Ruth numbering Nao’s pages in the natural break, trying to reclaim her lost time, trying to closer emulate the time that she spent writing. So with this I began to think: What is lost reading the book in a linear fashion? What would be lost or gained if you read number to number? Read Ruth’s 1, read Nao’s 1, and so on.

What would be lost jumping back and forth between the past and the present. It feels like there’s a reason for the numbers, even though they’re for breaks, there feels like they could correspond to each other, and it would be nice to see if they do actually line up in any way, or if they’re just to create ‘natural’ breaks that show up in the story.

Kato Chapter 5

People need to see this all from our eyes, from the right perspective. Too many of us let someone else have control of what we should have control of. Expression of self. – Vulcan

The first quote in the chapter of Kato started with Vulcan. He is a spray artist, disliking the term graffiti. He helped found Harlem’s Graffiti Hall of Fame. This article is all about him and his work.

Lee’s Jeet Kune Do, as seen in Game of Death, is an amalgamated art designed to be fast, fluid, and effective with as little movement as necessary.

Graffiti arts are similar in nature. Often leaving out some of the traditional conventions of other highly regarded arts. Rather than a physical reaction, they garner a textual political or emotional response.

is that sad?

For the Time Being, pg. 1 – 108

“It made me sad when I caught myself pretending  that everybody out there in cyberspace cared about what I thought, when really nobody gives a shit.” (Ozeki, pg. 25)

Though I am not the first to say so, life and death are certainly large themes in this book. But I think of the two, the better theme thus far would be life, and how Nao chooses to use hers. It has been stated more than once that she intends to end her life, but it’s rare that someone suicidal intends to do something before they actually kill themselves. It makes Nao’s decision seem like a labor of love, a persuing of activity, a connection to life. “I just have to do one thing” is kind of like a way of saying that you don’t necessarily want to die. Likewise, it’s a way of detailing all the small aspects that you don’t normally recognize. It’s my hope that by the time we are able to finish Nao’s story, her book, the end of her life, that hopefully she won’t have any desire to actually die anymore. Maybe in a roundabout way Marcel Proust will save her time.

When I saw the quote that I have at the start of the post (you’ll have to forgive me; it looks a bit nicer having it on the top like that), I couldn’t help but think about our actual blogs for this class. I know on Monday nights, much like I am writing currently (it’s 11:25pm as I write, this post due in about 34 minutes), many of us scramble to make sure that all of our posts are in by 11:59pm. I’m guilty of this every week myself. But it made me think of all the posts that end up lost in the clutter, never actually noticed, let alone read and replied to. It gave me a new perspective on this whole blogging thing, considering I was never much of a blogger to begin with. A bit like Nao, I never saw the point.

Jeet Kun Do/Hip Hop

Writing on the wall, a creative way of resisting. A man writes Chinese on public walls as a way to hold on to his culture. Spray paint adorns walls.

Jeet Kun Do and Hip Hop were both inspired and eventually inspired different cultures and arts. They were also inspired by life experiences, be it resisting colonialism or voicing issues with the police. Both were used to to push back against mainstream culture, to get their voices heard. Through film and songs, the world listened and watched.

Both continue to inspire film and music, as well as the individual cultures.

Ozeki

I think that communication is one of the key themes so far. Communicative styles like letter writing and storytelling are the major methods utilized.

I enjoyed the one-sided communication through Nao’s diary. She is writing to an unknown individual, and the individual, Ruth, has no way to reply. I think that the one-sidedness makes it more like storytelling or a letter that Ruth can’t reply to. Ruth, as a writer, is in a similar position. She writes to an unknown, and tells them a story, the reader can’t reply.

The use of text messages, email, and phone calls are the shown forms of modern communication. The letters from the pilot is a more traditional communication style. The verbal and nonverbal communication between the human characters and the animals is also prominent.

Ozeki (1-108)

I moved to Bellingham when I was 12 years old with my mom after she got into Western Washington University for graduate school. We lived in a two bedroom, one bath apartment that was down the street from the college and probably designed for younger college students. You know, it was meant to be someone’s ‘first’ apartment. It wasn’t meant for a mom and a daughter. But I loved it there. It was home and I loved it.

Reading Nao and her situation after moving back to Japan it was hard not to remember being the new kid. Honestly, my first days there were kind of a blur but I remember being like, one of ten black kids in the whole school. And I remember kids calling me Denzel because my last name was Washington. And I remember a kid (who would later become one of my close friends) asked me to tell him what a 50 cent song was saying. Because he was white. And he couldn’t possibly know what they were talking about. Because he was white. At the time it was all kind of funny to me because I liked the same things the white kids liked. We were only 12! We all liked the same things because we were kids! But I took it in stride and to this day I’m pretty sure that the only reason I was remotely known throughout middle and high school was because I was ‘that black girl with the dreads’. Which I’m okay with because reading Nao’s perspective I’m aware that my grade school days could have been a hell of a lot worse.

I could relate to her though. I spent a lot of nights alone, making my own dinner and putting myself to sleep because my mom worked at night. Or sometimes she was just studying at the library. And that’s get lonely.Or being the kid at school that doesn’t have the latest fashion because you can’t afford it. Or hanging out with friends when they go out to lunch and not being able to get any. But the difference between Nao and me is that I had friends.

I once heard somewhere that if you have one friend, just one friend, then you’re good. I believe that. Anyone that has been through middle and school school knows that. I don’t know how I would’ve survived without my friends. I commend Nao though, she still has this sarcastic and sometimes hopeful tone in her voice. I think its because she knows its only for a time being. You knows something that a lot of kids in high school don’t. That one day, this will all be over and none of it will matter. Take it how you will, whether high school won’t matter or if in the grand scheme of THE WORLD your actions make little to no impact. When times get hard that notion can be a double edge sword. Do you just give up because it won’t matter anyways? Or do you decide to make the most of it while you can?

API – Kamikaze Pilots’ Last Words

Kamikaze pilots’ letters to families or loved ones are trying to be recognized as UNESCO Memory of the World document. What is the trouble though? China and Korea are against the movement, saying that by doing this they are still “unrepentant of its past aggression in Asia.” Japan’s involvement in the Nanking massacre and the Imperial control of Korea have left bitter appeals still, even after 70 years of the Second World War. In my opinion, the Kamikaze pilots were heroes to their own country, a deadly threat to others, but that doesn’t mean we can’t stop acknowledging what they were doing was for their people and families. The only thing stalling this move is resentment that apparently will never go away for a long time. Guess time doesn’t heal all wounds?

Full article here.

Kato/Enter the Dragon

The readings in Kato have been so amazing because it was making the Afro Asian connections that I’d been making since last quarter. I think having Jimi and Bruce as the comparisons were excellent because they both broke out of a shell that the media put them into. Not only that, they took their careers and completely flipped them upside down and gave a new meaning to it. I was pumped to watch Enter the Dragon though because the readings were leading up to it! I mean, me personally I had read a whole book about the guy and had never seen any of his movies! Honestly, I never really knew anything about him until now. He was just the original Kung Fu movie guy to me. But I had no idea he was buried in Seattle! I didn’t even know how he died!

But the movie? Oh my god I loved it. I loved it. Do you know how cool it was to see an actor actually doing their own stunts and fight scenes? You don’t see that now a days, the fight scenes are from far away so you wont notice the stunt man’s different face. And actually being able to see and know that it was Bruce Lee made all the difference. That kind of fighting skill? How do you not respect that. Yeah sure, sometimes he was hitting a dummy but the fact that it was him hitting the dummy was refreshing.

Something I did find stereotypical was that the black guy was the first to die. Surprise, surprise. It’s nothing new, watch any action or scary movie and the black person is the first to go. I’ve always found this completely out of character because as a black person, I’m never the person that’s like, “oh? did you hear that noise downstairs? Let’s go investigate.” All you have to do is watch a scary movie with my family to know this. The whole time you’ll hear things like, “GIRL! WHY ARE YOU GOING DOWN THERE? YOU BETTER GET OUT OF THAT HOUSE! GIRL! See…now you dead.” I’m just saying that in real life I’d probably survive a scary movie because I wouldn’t go out the cabin in the middle of no where with no neighbors around in the first place. But that’s just me…as a black person. But you know, I don’t speak for the whole community.

It was especially annoying when I heard that Roper was supposed to die and Lee and Williams were supposed to be in the final fight scene. But you know, two minorities making it out alive and conquering the villain? That would be too much.

Overall though, I’d totally watch it again. You just don’t see afros and evil layers like that nowadays.