People who have had Dwayne Johnson as an upstairs neighbour have literally been living under a rock
you spell glory by challenging the sun and the stars and anything else that dares to call itself fire. boy, do you cry red? boy, do you cry?
all i’ve seen in your eyes have been fevered flames. or are your tear ducts dry - the world nothing but crumbling pillars and ashes all around you.
detonation heart beats to a ticking time bomb - to the pace of the sky falling under you. let it burn, everything you see is on fire, the ocean just becomes one burn wound when the sun collapses. your candle is melting under the light. this is love wounded.
i’m sorry the burns haven’t healed but when do you walk away?
heart - no, muscle flayed and straining - can you hear or have you become numb to the screams? do you hear yourself screaming?
explosions run down the streets like wildflowers and i know you can love but i also know this is what you love.
does your ache feel feral? or is it not enough. is your ticking heart begging for an excision - to be cut out? are you?
Marx: How does a poem come into being?
Sexton: Oh, that’s a terrible question! I don’t know. Sometimes you get a line, a phrase, sometimes you’re crying, or it’s the curve of the chair that hurts you and you don’t know why…what you’re doing is hunting for what you mean, what you’re trying to say.
Anne Sexton, from an interview with Patricia Marx featured in No Evil Star
I want to talk some more about Crazy Rich Asians because I LOVED IT. Some of this is reiterating my gushing from my other post but it needs to be gushed over again
- THE FULL ASIAN CAST. I have never seen that many faces that looked like mine on an American movie screen and I damn near cried. I’m not as skinny as they are (and that’s an issue I’ve dealt with all my life) but THEIR FACES ARE LIKE MINE. I do that with my hair and my hands and my face!
- THE DISTINCTION MADE BETWEEN ASIAN AND ASIAN AMERICAN. Omg. AND THE DISCRIMINATION. The feeling of not belonging because you’re too asian or not asian enough.
- THE LANGUAGE. Omg. Do you know how amazing it was to hear Chinese being spoken casually and not like… as a punchline or as a diversion or as a secret code or any other bullshit? Just slipped in and out of conversation because that’s what you DO in a multilingual household. Some sentences are english, some are another language, and then you go back to english. My parents slip in and out of Thai, English, Lao, and Chinese.
AND.
Constance Wu’s Mandarin vs Everyone else’s Mandarin.
She understands. She speaks. BUT YOU CAN TELL IT’S SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT. She’s not as smooth or as fluent and IT SHOWS and I went “THAT’S LIKE WHEN I SPEAK IT”. And she uses simpler phrases and language and I UNDERSTOOD IT. I could understand MOST OF THE SPOKEN MANDARIN and I think a decent amount of the Mandarin songs and I was so proud of myself
AND THEN. They were like: Oh but you don’t speak Cantonese? AND SHIT. How many times have I been asked that question too? Like, no. A lot of people don’t speak both Mandarin and Cantonese but SHIT. NOW THAT YOU’VE SAID THAT OF COURSE I FEEL LACKING IN THAT AREA. Constance Wu’s micro expressions are amazing in every scene but man I felt it there.
- THE MUSIC. It starts off with Chinese music and AGAIN. It’s not a punchline or a way to exoticise a scene but to add to it. It’s just a part of the narrative as any english song would be.
AND THEY USED MY FAVORITE ELVIS SONG DURING THE WEDDING SCENE. SUNG BY AN ASIAN AMERICAN SINGER I ABSOLUTELY ADORE.
AND YELLOW BY COLDPLAY.
A CHINESE COVER OF YELLOW.
CAN WE TALK ABOUT THIS
CAN WE TALK ABOUT RECLAIMING THE WORD “YELLOW”
HEAVILY USED AS A SLUR AGAINST ASIAN PEOPLE AND NOW WE HAVE THIS BEAUTIFUL SONG THAT TALKS ABOUT HOW YELLOW IS BEAUTIFUL LIKE A STAR, LIKE OUR SKIN, LIKE LOVE
THE CHINESE VERSION IS TITLED “LIU XING” - “SHOOTING STAR” AND THE DIRECTOR SAID “WE’RE GOING TO OWN THAT TERM. IF WE’RE GOING TO BE CALLED YELLOW WE’RE GOING TO MAKE IT BEAUTIFUL.”
I’M GOING TO BE CRYING ABOUT THIS FOREVER.
- The cinematic/art style: fun, quirky, SO CUTE, and SO INNOVATIVE. I ADORED the way they presented texting and gossip and the flow of information
- The sexualization of the males. Ok that sounds weird but listen. Asian males in Western cinema have been so aggressively non/de-sexualized that it was so lovely to have the camera make these long lingering appreciation shots of these REALLY good looking Asian actors. AND to have their attractiveness commented on TEXTUALLY, ON CAMERA by the other characters in the film as well.
- ASTRID’S STORYLINE. HOLY SHIT. I kept expecting them to fake us out but then they played it straight and I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT HER. SHE WAS SO GOOD.
- PEIK LIN. Omg i loved her too. She was HILARIOUS.
- It wasn’t just a diverse movie because of the full asian cast but ALSO A DIVERSE CAST OF WOMEN. From Constance Wu to Michelle Yeoh to Awkwafina to Gemma Chan. Each woman had a distinct character, had their own distinct viewpoints and challenges and motivations. It’s like they were allowed to be REAL PEOPLE WITH THEIR OWN THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS. CAN YOU IMAGINE THAT?
It’s just SUCH A GOOD MOVIE. Is it perfect? No. IS IT AMAZING AND WONDERFUL AND SHOULD EVERYONE GO SEE IT? YES. ABSOLUTELY. GO THROW ALL YOUR MONEY AT IT.
And it’s based off of a trilogy.
Sequel please
let’s talk about the fact that despite an initial rejection from coldplay and concerns from warner brothers, jon chu still wrote a personal letter to the members of the band asking them to grant permission to use their song “yellow” in crazy rich asians to help reclaim a word that has so often had a negative connotation for asians, and now we have this gorgeous mandarin cover of that song sung by katherine ho.