Quote:

I saw an exceptional version of Pericles done by a Japanese Theatre Company at the National in London last year. Most of the audience was on their feet at the end.

Pericles? Damn, that must have been risky. Especially when you consider that it has always been one of Shakespeare's least popular plays (and for good reason too.) But Japanese dramaturgy can be quite great at reinventing Shakespeare. (Have you seen Kurosawa's "Throne of Blood"? Effing brilliant.)

Risky? Maybe, but they pulled it off so flawlessly I wasn't thinking along those lines when I was watching it. For the travel scenes, they used bunraku puppets and cut-out waves & ships!

Throne of Blood is great, as is Ran. But that's because Kurosawa directed both. 8)

i think you are a bit harsh on zhang, some early films such as ju dou and raise the red lantern i'd be very happy to defend.

Yeah, he's done some great stuff in the past. But recently he's become an embarrassment. Between the Mao apologia "Hero" and the most recent wuxia schlockfest starring Gong Li's breasts, I have to say I couldn't be more dissappointed.

Darn, does that mean I can't put up a tree every Christmas then? :?

i think you are a bit harsh on zhang, some early films such as ju dou and raise the red lantern i'd be very happy to defend.

yeah, xmas in the west can be appalling too, but i really wish people who don't come from a christian tradition would just stop observing it. i don't see the point in participating in something you simply don't understand.

I saw an exceptional version of Pericles done by a Japanese Theatre Company at the National in London last year. Most of the audience was on their feet at the end.

Pericles? Damn, that must have been risky. Especially when you consider that it has always been one of Shakespeare's least popular plays (and for good reason too.) But Japanese dramaturgy can be quite great at reinventing Shakespeare. (Have you seen Kurosawa's "Throne of Blood"? Effing brilliant.)

Sorry, Si, I know you speak out of respect to The Bard (and there is some truth to the 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' attitude), but I'm going to have to disagree as well. If everyone felt that way, nothing would have ever been translated. Shakespeare doesn't just belong to the English dramatic tradition, but to the world's.

Well, yeah. But Christmas in the West (or at least in North America) is a pretty commercialised affair, too.

I haven't seen it neither. Nor do I plan to. I'm not a big fan of "Turandot" and even less of Zhang Yimou. He's still a first-rate cinematographer (a brilliant one, in fact) but a third-rate everything else.

i think the chinese should probably leave well alone....shakespeare is untranslatable

That isn't true. I saw an exceptional version of Pericles done by a Japanese Theatre Company at the National in London last year. Most of the audience was on their feet at the end.

The best Pericles I have ever seen.

the chinese pastiche of xmas particularly grates - they reduce the most important western festival into the most soulless, joyless thing imaginable.

i did hear zhang yimou's turandot was good, though. but i haven't seen it myself.