Starring: Andy Lau, Nicholas Tse with an appearance by Jackie Chan
Short Synopsis (via IMDb.com): After ambushing and killing his rival, losing everything in the process, dispirited warlord Hou Jie turns to a Shaolin monastery seeking salvation.
My Thoughts
My husband caught part of this movie on our Dish Network DVR, but was unable to find another airing of it to re-record the whole movie. Neither was it available On Demond from Dish Network. I did find it, however, available via Netflix streaming. We streamed it on a lazy Sunday evening. We’d spent much of the day being lazy thanks to a gentle fall rain which ended in a spectacular sunset:
I didn’t realize until after finishing the movie that this was a remake of Jet Li’s classic Shaolin Temple (1982), which I have not seen (or don’t remember watching) but will remedy that lack in the near future.
While I enjoyed the story and the martial arts in Shaolin, what struck me most was the performance by Andy Lau. I’ve now added at least four more of his recent and highest rated films to my Netflix queue. Many of the supporting actors turned in good performances as well.
Many of the themes resonate with my Christian upbringing and lead me to further research and reading into Buddhism. I need to foster tolerance and understanding, embrace our similarities and understand our differences. Knowledge is power and tempered with love and compassion, can make the world a better place.
This is almost the complete opposite of what Scalzi posted earlier today on his blog Whatever.
I’m on the fence. I don’t like intentionally harming anyone, including their feelings.
But when a religion or political entity fails the basic human rights test, what is our duty as members of said hunan race to heal that wound? Is it more bandages? Or surgery?
These questions keep me up at night. And we seem to be returning to the Cold War (the Sequel) and the threat of M.A.D. I had hoped my unborn grandchildren would not have to grow up under that doomsday cloud.
And on that depressing note, I’ll bid you ado.
Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon
Quotable excerpt from middle of Modesitt’s blog posting:
The consequences of such absolutist beliefs have always been deadly, and usually terrifying, and that hasn’t changed, either. That was a lesson the Founding Fathers understood, and understood well. Because they didn’t want an absolutist government, they did their best to come up with a system that required a certain amount of compromise to work.
Well… now no one wants to compromise, and guess what… the system doesn’t work. What about that, exactly, is so hard to understand?
But I will have to part ways with some of his thinking, at least as he sums it up in the last paragraph. I do agree that driving at high speeds, while drinking, texting, sleepy, distracted, etc. is a very bad thing, and in most of the United States is illegal, I can’t agree with his stance on guns. A gun is a tool and won’t fire itself. Any harm done by a gun (or any other weapon or bomb or poison or … you get the picture) falls clearly on the person wielding said weapon.
I knew there was a reason I never pined to be a philosophy major in college. Although Descartes gets my vote for being eminently mathematical and practical.
Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon
Addendum from my uncle:
There were five “proofs” in my day, and two arguments why there couldn’t be a God.
What all these arguments (pro and con) lack, even the ones which are “sufficient” is that they aren’t “necessary.” They might explain how God might be possible, or not possible, (some better than others) but they don’t PROVE the existence or nonexistence of God.
Therefore, they fail to accomplish what they purport to do: prove the existence of God.
My least favorite forecast includes ‘wintry mix’ concatenated with ‘winter storm warning’ culminating in excruciating commute times. My vanpool dodged that bullet (barely) on the return trip home last night, for which I am very grateful. It allowed me to watch and listen to my daughter’s first concert of the year, as a member of the Chamber Choir at the UNT College of Music. While she is also a member of the Collegium Singers, she enjoys the challenge of increasing her repertoire in those two choirs and in her vocal performance studies individually as well. Musicology is her primary focus as an undergraduate for the next year or so. Living eight or ten hours north (by automobile) from her concerts would be torture if it weren’t for the appeasement offered by the College’s live streaming of most of the concerts.
Even though the concert only lasted thirty minutes, Terry and I enjoyed hearing Rachelle’s voice across the aether of cyberspace.
Immediately prior to the concert, while I shook off the last dregs of the work day, Terry tried a new recipe for stuffed tomatoes, which we barely got in the oven before the singing started. Twenty minutes later we sampled his latest savory culinary comeuppance. Delicious!
We opened the front door to near white out conditions. We couldn’t see across our court to the houses on the opposite side. Thick snow blanketed the steps and driveway, even though just ninety minutes prior there had been less than a half inch of icy, slushy, sleety mess. We promptly closed the door and return to our regularly scheduled DVR programming.
Snow Accumulation in just 90 minutes Thursday evening
Due to some systems maintenance performed overnight, I overslept by thirty minutes, awaking at 5:30 a.m. Barely stopping to slap on some socks, I jammed on my boots, grabbed my coat and gloves and opened the garage door to an even thicker blanket of snow. And while it looked fluffy and airy, it proved to be heavy and wet. I began to doubt my ability to shovel just half the driveway to the street in the thirty minutes before I needed to dress for work. My white knight came to my rescue and helped vanquish the snow dragon. He even volunteered to do the steps while I finished my morning ablutions.
Terry drove me the two miles north to the Hallmark plant in Leavenworth so I could catch my ride to work. As we were passing by the IHOP in Lansing, I commented that we should have had breakfast when I was awake between two and four o’clock earlier this morning. Being such a considerate husband, he drove in a circle around the van chanting ‘na na’ at me because he planned to stop at said restaurant for breakfast on the return trip home. True to his taunting, we saw him parked front and center at the IHOP as we headed south on K-7/US-73 (aka as Main Street in Lansing).
Our commute to Kansas City’s Midtown and Plaza regions remained uneventful, if a bit slow. We observed several cars languishing in the medians and ditches, but we deigned to join them. And for once, I made it to work when some of my team members decided to turn around a go home due to the icy road conditions in their part of the metro area.
Finally, and in closing, in perusing the blogs I follow as part of my morning tea sipping ritual, Modesitt posted a rebuttal to his previous blog (from earlier this week). The earlier post, entitled ‘The Problem of Truth/Proof” generated several comments (a couple of which were mine), which then spurred Mr. Modesitt’s posting this morning, entitled “True” Knowledge is Not an Enemy of Faith. I will monitor this blog throughout the day to follow the next wave of comments, but will probably refrain from commenting myself.
I did purchase a new battery for my pedometer, hoping the predicted snow for later this week leaves only a dusting so I and my Rotts can get back in shape. We could all benefit from a brisk walk and fresh air to invigorate our outlook on life.
My outlook dimmed after reading L.E. Modesitt’s recent blog post about the problem of proving truth. I attempted to comment, probably not very eloquently, nor diplomatically, but again, my fug lens needs cleansing.
I do have my daughter’s first concert of the spring semester to look forward to tomorrow evening. One of the choirs she’s a member of (Chamber Choir) performs a short concert at 6:30 pm, streamed live over the Internet. She’s listed in the program under the Altos as Rachelle Moss, mostly because the color of her voice lands her in that section nine times out of ten. I do miss hearing her rehearsing at home.
I’ll get little rest, peace or quite tonight (so I might as well walk the dogs) since it’s practice night for my husband’s rock band. I just wish it wasn’t dark so early, because I could take my camera with me while walking and probably snap a few interesting photos. I don’t want to start yet another book (on audio via my phone) nor do I want to re-hash all the old MP3s I’ve let languish there. Guess I’ll just talk to Roxy or Apollo until they howl me silent.
I did finish my third crochet project of the year, but haven’t had a chance to photograph Terry modeling his new scarf. He did wear it yesterday when he was out and about, but said it was so warm he had to remove it. At least he won’t be cold the next time we have a frigid blizzard in February.
Today I wish my mom a very Happy Birthday. Here’s a photo of her from 1965 helping me celebrate my first birthday:
