Change Your Image
aarondodo
Reviews
The Story of China (2016)
Informative and Insightful
This new BBC series on Chinese history was full of pleasant surprises.
First surprise: the level of bias, for what I can remember as the first time in BBC or even the whole of western history, was as neutral as it gets. It is so often that we see strong bias against anything Chinese in the past few decades. Sometimes aggressive, sometimes defensive, most of the time suspicious and condescending. So much so that the joy of watching a good documentary - the exploration, the admiration, the feeling of opening up a door to a brand new world - were all lost. Nowadays "documentaries" about China are no longer documentaries, but excuses for us to criticize it. But that is not true for this series. It takes as little political position as possible, it speaks of China in ways that both the host and the Chinese themselves can agree with, all with understanding eyes instead of suspicious ones. And that, is the top notch documentary that so many of us are drawn to.
Second surprise: The host is so cheerful and charming, not to mention he seems utterly fascinated and awed by his subject matter, and that definitely leaves a mark on all of us watching. I see so much sincerity in his interest and joy, that I can't help but get excited too.
Third surprise: I knew that Michael Wood is an experienced and well known host/historian, but for anyone who have studied eastern cultures/history it is simply amazing that he can go through the history of China in 6 episode yet still point out the essential and important turns of events. It takes more than just knowledge to condense such a long story into a compact one, it takes years of refinement and understanding, years of critical analysis and discussion to find out the absolute key points. It simply amazes me how well he was able to incorporate not only "what happened", but also "why and how" into the story. There are threads of Chinese philosophy in all its plethora of forms dabbled throughout, in a way that reminds us time and time again that the essence of China has always been kept the same throughout history. It's just so much insight, in a way that is artistic and moving. In the first episode, I was impressed but not sure if he was able to pull off this series using themes and even philosophy, but now after watching episode 5, I am very confident that he can... And very, very impressed by it!
Cucumber (2015)
Packed and Loaded
Why do we watch drama? Why do we watch movies, read books, listen to news? And why is it that the imaginary lives of distant people not even remotely related to us often bring us into deep thoughts or emotions?
Because that is what we do. We extract and we associate. We learn. Because truth, the universal truth, MUST ring true wherever you look.
And sometimes, because we're so adapted to our mundane life, it takes a story slightly outside of our comfort zone to illustrate these universal truth to us. Make no mistake, Cucumber is sarcastic and intense. It puts on a satiric or even comedic voice, but it should be immediately obvious to the audience that there is an incredible intensity behind it. Some people may be confused, thinking "a suicide is not funny" --- Exactly. It is not. It is not supposed to be. The suicide should make you feel uncomfortable, should make you question Henry's choices, and should make you question MORE than just Henry's choices. That's what satires are supposed to do, it should make us think and think BIGGER than what's shown on the screen. Seeing flashing moments between Henry burying himself in his own daily worries and fantasies, and the problem that others are facing, should shake us: it's not just him, it's all of us, so buried in the thoughts of picking up our children and saving 50 cents on the next grocery purchase that we don't bother to look up into the world. Then you should stop and wonder: can we change that? And then, some of you will be more optimistic, others may come to the sad conclusion that no, not all the time. The mundane WILL drown out the worldly voices as many of us have noticed in our own lives, and it doesn't matter how much you fight it, it's bound to happen at least occasionally. And THAT, is a powerful message, one that transcends simple do and don'ts and illustrates reality. It's a very sad message. So don't be confused, if you feel uncomfortable watching that part of the episode, it means you've picked up the right feeling that they're trying to send out.
Throughout the whole series, there's a lot of very dark messages. For those who try to bound these messages to only gay men or gay men of a certain age, make no mistakes, what was described in the show can apply to anyone and everyone. Like the show said, we make roads, we make grids, and as long as we are confined in certain grids we are safe --- but anyone who ventures out of that grid either voluntarily or not, will find that it is you versus the wild. These gay men on the show just illustrates this point better, because they're often closer to the side curb than your typical happily married straight couples, hence they have a greater chance of venturing outside of the norm and discover the nature that we are not supposed to discover. The idea of "possibility", the illusion of a "dream", the enormous social pressure that many of us have already molded our lives for, and the fragile mind that cannot grasp at a few themes at any given moment, these are problems that are in EVERYONE's life. Or they will be.
So, I disagree with some other reviewers that this show illustrates the dark side of gay life --- it illustrates the darker side of what humans typically praise, period. Lust. Envy. It's everywhere. And it's here to stay.
Bottom (2012)
Almost Over the Edge
From a first look, this film looks more like pornography than a documentary. But there is a provocative undertone that jumps out and asks the audience: why, why, why. Why does he do that, why do others do that, why do you feel the way you do when you watch it. The documentary doesn't tell you the answer, in fact I don't think anyone on the planet is able to give a detailed answer to these questions yet. It's got to do with the darker side of our very being, an almost self-destructive drive that overwhelms us with or without us noticing it. It's got to do with that haunting desire that rules over every single aspect of our society and our individual lives from the shadows: sex. To answer these questions without prejudice, we need to look in-depth into psychology, into physiology, into sociology.
It brands itself as "disgusting", "shocking", and to that end it has achieved what it was aiming, hence I'm giving it a high score. Staying rather true to the documentary format, the film maker was presenting a glimpse into something that many of us may not be familiar with, without judgment. And that's what documentaries do best, they show you something that's happening somewhere on earth yet you don't often hear about, you are free to feel disgusted or violated all you want, not everything on earth makes people feel good about themselves. The point is, if it's there, and it's significant, and they've captured it and shown to us, then it's worth considering, it's worth evaluating and if you don't like it, it's worth trying to figure it all out so you'd know what are some possible ways to stop or prevent it instead of brushing everything off to the side of the table and call things "bad". And this documentary has done just that, granted if you have the stomach to stay till the end.
Ultimately, it showed one thing to the viewers: bareback gay sex is prevalent. There are many who enjoy it. It's got risks that we all are very aware of including those engaged in it, but this desire can't just be brushed aside. Do they get these psychological thrills from media, from porn? Or is it something innate and biological? How do we go about preventing STDs in these men? Simply saying "you just stop" is being responsible, it's just like telling someone "you just don't eat sweets" or "you just don't have sex" and expect it to be easy, or even achievable at all. Perhaps there's better ways to bring control to the scene, by first understanding what it is that they're truly after, and what factors may go into changing the scene. To do that, documentaries like this, though controversial, can certainly shed some light into the mentality of the target population.
You get enough people talking, and you get enough people shouting angry slurs without any constructive suggestions, and eventually you can get a few rational experts on the scene and really work at trying to change things for the better, be it social engineering, media control, or technical support.