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Words can be fatal in China. Zhang Zhixin, a young Chinese woman, was executed in 1975 for “opposing the Great Helmsman Chairman Mao, opposing Mao Zedong thought, opposing the revolutionary proletarian line and piling offense upon offense.” To ensure that Zhang could not cry out at her execution, her vocal cords were cut.
Jonathan Mirsky in a short essay on Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo in A Hero of our Time in The New York Review of Books P.7, November 11, 2010
Swaminarayan Mandir Sweets – What Gods Like Us Eat
To hell with Cholesterol issues. Continue reading »
Man, you got to watch this Oriental Western made by South Korean film-maker Kim Ji-woon to understand the difference between the Indian bilge and the films made in the small corners of the world.
As even you schmucks would realize, the South Korean film The Good, the Bad and the Weird is inspired by Sergio Leone’s old spaghetti Western The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
The movie was playing in theaters in the U.S. a few months back but we missed it in one of our bad decisions.
Hence, when the DVD appeared on Netflix we leaped at the opportunity to see this South Korean film.
We just finished watching the movie and, boy, we got to tell you this – there’s not a single Indian filmmaker among the teeming clowns in Bollywood and Kollywood who can pull off a feat like Kim Ji-woon.
When you are following in the footsteps of an old classic like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly it’s easy to fall short.
Deo gratia, Kim Ji-woon doesn’t stumble, not for one moment.
The Good, the Bad and the Weird is a wild ride and a thoroughly satisfying entertainer.
In Sergio’s Footsteps
The South Korean film broadly follows the outline of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Essentially, the movie is about three gun-slingers in pursuit of a buried treasure.
The difference is in the setting, details and the Asian cast.
Eschewing the Wild West of America, the film’s makers have opted for the barren deserts of Manchuria in China during the 1930s.
And the three key actors are Song Kang-ho, Lee Byung-hun and Jung Woo-sung.
Of the three main characters, Song Kang-ho gets the most screen-time as Yoon Tae-goo, the Weird; Lee Byung-hun is Park Chang-yi, the Bad and Jung Woo-sung plays Park Do-won, the Good.
All three deliver the goods but it’s Song Kang-ho, with a face that only a mother could love, whose image in his funny costumes is indelibly etched in our mind as he goes about fighting various elements in his relentless pursuit of the buried treasure. Song Kang-ho proves that you don’t need finely chiseled features or a doting father with the last name of Bachchan to make it as an actor in the movie business (not that the bozo Abhishek has made it).
All you need is talent and dedication, both qualities in short supply in the Indian movie business.
With its train heist, horse-chases, the relentless pursuit of Yoon Tae-goo by all for the map, the Jap soldiers, the many fights and escapes and the final Mexican standoff, The Good, the Bad and the Weird moves along at a super-brisk canter that keeps you glued to the screen. And that’s not a mean feat considering the story in its outlines is not new.
The action scenes, and they are a plenty here, are very well executed and a couple of twists keep the movie from being completely predictable for those who have seen Sergio Leone’s work.
SearchIndia.com recommends The Good, the Bad and the Weird. You can get the DVD from Netflix in the U.S. As for the folks in India, well, need we say more. 
Hey, hey, we’re back again with a new edition of Incredible India, those only in India blood-curdling stories.
* It’s no secret that India’s policemen are notoriously corrupt scoundrels, rapists, thieves, encounter specialists a.k.a murderers and big-time crooks.
In the past, some Indian policemen were even known to pour acid into the eyes of arrested youths and then poke a needle in the eye to make sure the victims were blinded (remember the Bhagalpur blindings?).
But some Indian cops have now taken their sadistic acts to a whole new bizarre level.
You see they have gotten into the bobbitizing business. A bunch of criminal cops were recently sentenced to jail by India’s Supreme Court for cutting off the penis of an innocent man with a barber’s razor for allegedly having an affair with the wife of a cop’s relative.
The criminals a.k.a policemen were let off by a lower court.
Here’s an excerpt from an Indian newspaper on the incident:
The brutality of the case, in which cops of the Sadar police station in Rajasthan’s Barmer district chopped off the penis of an innocent man for allegedly being in an illicit relationship with the wife of a cop’s relative, angered the Bench comprising Justices Markandey Katju and T S Thakur. Some uniformed personnel are still suffering from a “colonial mindset”, said the judges, seen to be a reference to the cops’ apparent certainty that they could get away with the savagery.
The main accused, constable Kishore Singh, who is said to have used a barber’s razor to chop off the organ of the victim in 1994, got the maximum punishment — five years in jail and a fine of Rs 50,000. ASI Sumer Dan, who had caught hold of the victim was sentenced to three years in jail and asked to pay a fine of Rs 50,000. SHO Sohan Singh, in whose presence the crime happened inside the police station, was sent to jail for six months and fined Rs 10,000. The fine amount would be paid to the victim as compensation, the SC directed.
Source: SC jails cops for bobbitizing man
Folks, the next time you makes eyes at a pretty girl in India make sure she’s not the wife, sister, daughter or friend of a cop’s relative if you want to keep your dick. Continue reading »
Fasten your seat-belts, folks.
Your favorite vigilante hero Batman is coming.
Again.
As in The Dark Knight Rises.
Yes, the third installment in the popular Batman series is scheduled to hit the screens July 20, 2012.
As with the earlier Batman films, this one too will be directed by Christopher Nolan.
Apparently, the movie will not, not be in 3D.
Good.
We’re not great fans of 3D.
Often the gee whiz effects of 3D mask the absence of a solid, gripping story like all those song-dance sequences in our Bollywood and Kollywood movies in Iceland, Peru, Namibia, Switzerland et al are intended to hide the lack of a story.
Related Stories:
The Dark Knight – Heath Ledger’s Dazzling Swan Song
Hundreds of millions of dollars seems destined to go down the drain in the great Table rush of 2010 and 2011.
It seems every little digital media twit has got his knickers/her panties wet over the Tablet phenomenon.
We can’t scour over a publication without reading another gushing, drooling piece on these cool new Tablets.
Blame it all on the Apple iPad.
Ever since Steve Jobs launched the iPad in late March 2010 and the device gained some traction, there’s been no end to the hype about these consumer electronics devices.
With few exceptions like the HP Slate 500, most Tablets are targeted at the consumer entertainment market.
Often, these tablets (iPad) also double as e-book readers. Some like the Dell even include a phone. But who buys a Dell phone. Really, who?
Here are the major Tablet vendors:
Will the Tablets Fly?
No.
Despite all the hype by the digital media twits and the journalists (triggered largely by the iPad’s initial success) we expect to see a bloodbath in the Tablet segment. Continue reading »
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