Movie Review: a Passage to India

Last night, after the morning exam, I was trying to dig out a worthwatching movie from my almost-50-g movie collection. Unfortunately most of the movies are crime or action themed which are so boring that you wouldn't expect much shock or taste after you watch them. But luckily enough, I found I've got a copy of a Passage to India. The exotic name itself was persuasive enough for me to denote my night into this piece of motion picture.

I never work out how to write a proper movie review. How to handle the ratio between the storyline and my own opinion? How much depth should I get into the movie story especially most the readers have not watched the movies themselves? This thinkings are, very often, the obstacles of my production of movie reviews. And often I go into exploring the historical background of the movies, which could be inappropriate in a movie review itself.

I am afraid this movie review will fall into a similar pattern, less analyzing the movie itself, more of telling historical stories. For though who are not interested in stories, this is perhaps not your cup of tea.

This movie, A Passage to India, is based on the story of E.M. Forster, whom I will talk about later. The story is based in British India, where back then English were the rulers and Native Indians were second-class. A local Indian doctor, Dr Aziz, a warm and friendly father-of-two, 'admired' the English and dreamed of becoming friends of them. Meanwhile, two English ladies, Adela and Mrs Moore, fob (Fresh-off-the-boat), were eager to mean some Indians to know more about the country. After their first met, Dr Aziz arranged a picnic with the two English ladies on a hill with some mysteries caves. The trip ended up with Adela screaming and running down out of the cave with Dr Aziz standing there without knowing what happened. Then Dr Aziz was accused of harassing Adela. The trial attracted petitions and riots from Indian who were questioning the justice. In court, Adela finally realized what happened to her was a combination of echos and illusions so she withdrew her accuse towards Dr Aziz.

The book was published in 1924, after the WWI, when Gandhi's Indian independence movement just became well-known-ed. The author showed his sympathy toward this oriental country, where racism, discrimination and suppression were common.

I once read an article talking about the virtue of British Empire. It said that the voices of freedom and anti-colonization were raised together with the expansion of the empire. The voices, however, were barely suppressed by the authority and sometimes even became mainstream. These voices made Great Britain the first European countries abandoning black slavery. However it should be acknowledged that the independent of India is not a result of the mercy of colonizers. It is the result of struggling of Indian people. (As it was stated in my high school history text book.)

What made me sad in the movie, was not the segregation between Indians and British. It was the segregation between Indians and Indians that shocked me. When there was a riot on street, it was the Indian policemen who beat up Indian protesters. When Dr Aziz was invited to visit the British Club by Mrs Moore, he said 'no Indians are allowed'. Then we found the Indian guardians standing in the club, judging the visitors by their colour.

Anyway now it's 100 years over. And I am visiting India in about three weeks. I am expecting to see a new modern India with its friendly people.

Now it's time to talk about the author. E.M. Forster, the author of this novel, was also the author of A Room with A View and Howards End. The author also wrote a novel, published after his death, Maurice. While the former two were about traditional English middle-class lives, the latter one, Maurice, was about a forbidden homosexual love between two Cambridge students and a working class gardener. Forster himself was homosexual. He stopped writing heterosexual-themed novels after he had a relationship with a police officer, which was quite irony because homosexual was illegal back then. This story was published in The Australian last week.

ADMIRAL Movie Review: A Rehabilitation of White Russian

Admiral, a blockbuster of Russia in 2008, tells a story about the rise and fall of Kolchak, a leader of white russian movement. He went to the Russo-Japanese War, WWI, then became the commander of the white russian army in the russian civil war. After 'liberating' several major cities, his army was not several hundred kilometres from Moscow, the red capital. Lenin then started his propaganda to launch a counterattack of some 200,000 people, most of which are workers and peasants. Then Kolchak was defeated and sentenced to death.

A movie about a civil war is always sad. Especially this one. The Red army fought so hard against the alliance of former upper classes. But what for? Ten years later, most of them were wiped out by Stalin.

The movie, of course, didn't say anything good about the Red army. It seems that they were a group of bogans wanting the power. While the White army represents the elegancy, the beauty, the order and the courage. There was one scene in the movie that when all the ammunition run out, the White army just march to the fierce gun powers with their bayonets.

The movie, however, didn't say a work about the dictatorship and brutal about this commandar. It didn't say anything about the strategy he used at all.

Kolchak was never rehabilitated in Russia. Two requests have been denied by court.


I'll talk more about the White Russians. After russian revolution, the people who were 'revoluted', who were normally military officers, nobility, the rich, fled overseas. Some of them went to China. Harbin, a major city near China-Russian border, once was full of Russians. These russians then had difficult times in the Japanese occupation time in the puppet state Manchukuo. Many left China and went back to Russia, only to be arrest in the Great Purge. Others who remained then found them to be sent back after WWII when Russian army won the war and liberated that city.

Russians in Shanghai was a different story. Days were tough in this big city so some women ended up with being prostitutes. Others who were well-educated joined Ballet groups or orchestra. After WWII however, red China forced them to leave. Some of them fled to Australia and other countries.


In addition, the movie shows how wonderful the Russian rail network was. Simply there was train from every major city to every major city. Taking trains in winter is an extragvagance. The whole world was covered by snow while the carriage is warm as spring.

image: here

 The love story, I have to say, is pretty boring. The last scene apparently was set to dedicate to the Titanic. However it seems the director failed to develop the love story further and I don't see any relationship between the love story and the main story line.

Go West, A Lucky Luke Adventure - A Movie Review

French animations always have a fascinating sense of humour and beauty. Though the story itself is little bit of cliche, hero won, gangster lose, the greedy richman got what he deserved. The figures in this movie are very formulaic and predictable.

However, I still love this movie. It has a sense of humour what Made in Hollywood don't acquire.

The story was simple. It started in New York City in the period of California Gold Rush. Lucky Luke was a handsome and clever detective who was also a cowboy riding on his romantic horse. His role in the movie was to catch the Dalton Brothers and send them to prison. The Dalton Brothers were a foursome gangster who were famous all over the country by their passion of robbing banks and playing guns.

After a dramatic and wild tram ride, the Dalton brothers managed to escape from the police under their eyes. They hide the money they robbed from the bank into a wagon and hope to pick it up the next day.

However the next day turned out to be a day with dozens of wagons gathering around the square. They were a group of fresh-on-boat foreigners who were deceived by a dealer, Crook. They bought a land from that Crook in California at a very low price under one condition, that they must arrive their within 80 days, which seemed impossible at that time.

Lucky Luke showed up and caught the Dalton brothers, who were actually relectant to leave in order to search their money among the wagons. The foreigners begged Lucky Luke to help them find a quickest way to California.

During their way to the west coast, they encountered the 19th century USA and all the cats and dogs. The Chinese couple who had a restaurant wagon was also entertaining.Another astonishing plot was the big 3D screen showing as a prophecy of modern lifestyles by a Indian wizard. Kids were somehow chewing pop corns.The whole movie was in French without a single piece of English conversation. I must say it can touch the softest part of your heart, awakening childhood memories.

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