I was thinking last night, this is sort of funny, that Anna Kendrick in that movie Mr. Right, where she and the other guy were doing that affected and animated personality, I am sure learned that from watching Asian cinema.
She has sort of become famous for doing that. But if you watch a lot of Asian films, you will see that Lucille Ball's affected personality with the exaggerated facial expressions and emotions is common.
I would bet there are hundreds if not thousands of actors in Asia that do that exact same thing, and just as well. I would be willing to bet a dime to a dollar she watches those movies and got the idea from that and studied it.
And within a couple of hours after that thought came into my mind, I saw in a C level movie I was watching at the time, someone wearing little devils ears, almost exactly the same as the little cat ears she wears in that movie.
I keep thinking of why I'm so attracted to these movies and it is simply because they are so rich in content and so often portray humanity to the max.
I have been thinking for a while that having all these very righteous movies produced that show the youth as healthy decent kids with empathy and attendance to education, hard work, clean living and all the other things many of us believe is a good way to live your life is going to go a long way to helping people of the world see a better way to live.
It gives them something specific to look at. I keep contrasting American cinema with Asian cinema. And American cinema is too often shallow and violent and stupid. They started producing movies that are pretty much nothing but car chases and fighting and just sort of dispensed with the story altogether.
And whereas virtually every Asian movie I watch, regardless of whether it is A, B, or C -movie, will have references to sophisticated psychological and philosophical ideas. It will have references to the great thinkers and artists around the world.
The C movie I was looking at last night, having gone through most of the A and B movies, still was so rich it kept me glued to the TV and I noticed every kid's room had a book shelf loaded with books, and they made constant references to literary and artistic giants around the world i.e. they were aware of the world's great thinkers and artists and made them part of their life.
It is up to the individual to develop a rich complex mind, if they want to live a rich complex life. From the hundred plus movies I've watched in the last couple of years, there's a large contingent of people in Asian cinema that understand that concept and it is almost a complete void in Hollywood. Hollywood movies are too often simply stupid without any redeeming qualities e.g. superman versus batman. To the developed mind complexity is fun, not boring.
How often, will you see a Hollywood movie refer to ideas of the great thinkers and artists, seldom, or show something as simple and profound as a little girl tenderly taking off the shoes of her drunken father, or giving a passer by a cool glass of water out of concern? They reference The Dog of Flanders and we reference Dog Day afternoon :)>.
We too often sell violence and the east very often sells humanity. I find humanity more interesting than violence.
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