The Myth

Watched the Jackie Chan movie last night after work. Must be getting old, or overworked. Found the 9pm show to be pretty late.

It was different from his usual city-based action flicks in that all the action took place in ancient tombs, temples or out on the battlefield. He's still wowing fans with his monkey-like climbing abilities, but there is a lot less of the super-fast fighting scenes now. And Jackie Chan had 2 female co-stars instead of 1. So greedy. Or just practical? One's from Korea, the other from India. Everybody is going towards India now, even Jackie Chan's movies. Citybank Visa's latest advertisement shows Richard Gere in India, probably to win over the growing Indian market. But Jackie Chan raiding an Indian temple, dueling with Indian pugilists and helped by a Bollywood starlet? He returns to China eventually and fights a Taichi master who did not give him the chance to use his usual props in street battles. So the India trip was just an arc from the main story.

Not everyone can create a legend successfully. Miyazaki's Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke were highly acclaimed but just did not strike a cord with me. Not the way LOTR and the Matrix did. Or maybe those films just raised the barrier so high that all films will always pale against them.

This reminds me of something my secondary school Chinese teacher said, "Shen Hua (Myth) is Shen jing ping ren jiang de Hua. (The nonsense spouted by mad people.)"

Oh, nice barge though. I also want to live in a house with a rooftop that can scroll back at the flick of a button.