I’ll likely make enough money when I sell the house to pay off my student loans, and my car. Then I’ll be completely and utterly out of debt.
Check out these pictures this guy took in Harajuku. I know I told everybody about them already.
Zhang Yimou, who’s been one of my favorite directors since the first time I saw Red Sorghum, has a new movie coming out called Curse of the Golden Flower, starring Chow Yun-Fat, who’s been the bizomb since Hard Boiled, and Gong Li, who I’ve lusted after since, well, the first time I saw Red Sorghum. I am so seeing that movie on opening night.
Zhang Yimou made Hero and House of Flying Daggers, and that’s what most people remember him for, at least in America, but this guy, along with Chen Kaige, pretty much revitalized Chinese cinema in the late eighties, producing some of the best movies ever made, and certainly some of the prettiest. The first movie he directed was the first leading role for Gong Li, his muse, an actress he discovered and had a scandalous affair with for years. She was in all of his movies up until 1995, and now she’s back in his latest one*. I wished for years that she’d get some roles in American movies, but it never happened. She was supposed to play De Niro’s girlfriend in Heat, but backed out because there were too many big names already in the film, and she didn’t want to be overshadowed in her first Hollywood appearance.
Recently, she was in Memoirs of a Geisha, playing Hatsumomo, which was a very serviceable flick, and in Miami Vice, which is probably the best action flick this year, and in which Michael Mann’s camera lingers on her at every opportunity.
I’m glad these people are all blowed up in the states now, because they’ve always deserved it. Their older flicks are fucking bad ass, and if you get a chance, you should check them out. Especially Shanghai Triad and Raise the Red Lantern.
I’m lonely.
I’m angry.
I’m going to sleep.
And when the day is done, and I look back
And the fact is I had fun, fumbling around
All the advice I shunned, and I ran
Where they told me not to run, but I sure
Had fun, so
I’m gonna fuck it up again
I’m gonna do another detour
Unpave my path
And if you wanna make sense
Whatcha looking at me for
I’m no good at math
And when I find my way back,
The fact is I just may stay, or I may not
I’ve acquired quite a taste
For a well-made mistake
I wanna mistake, why cant I make a mistake?
*–Zhang Yimou also discovered Zhang Ziyi, so I owe him thanks for a lot of wank fantasies. 
