boredNeedless to say, my perspective has changed a bit and it's due to Kung Fu movies. My movie-watching jamboree has continued unabated. Even though I quickly ran out of recent blockbusters I was interested in seeing, I decided to look up some lists of martial arts flicks and I've been snagging those. It's amazing how many of them have the same plot. It's always evil foreigners, either the white devils or the Japanese, oppressing the Chinese people by taking over land or stealing antiquities or otherwise lording their might over China. You'd think this might be a common theme in old movies, but even recent ones made in the past couple of decades often feature the same idea. The people are being oppressed and nothing can be done until one man can't take it any more and gives those foreign dogs whatfor.
I can only assume that the whole rape of Nanking and the gunboat diplomacy of the Opium Wars really left their mark on the people. Of course, it's funny coming from my point of view. I always found the loathing of the Japanese sort of humorously antiquated, but then again, I didn't exactly live through the time when they were running around like crazed assholes slaughtering everything in sight. The Japanese I know make wonky cartoons and disturbing fetish films. I imagine it's kinda like how Germans must still make some Jews nervous.
