@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @
@ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @
@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 02/18/00 -- Vol. 18, No. 34
Chair/Librarian: Mark Leeper, 732-817-5619, mleeper@lucent.com
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper, 732-332-6218, eleeper@lucent.com
Distinguished Heinlein Apologist: Rob Mitchell, robmitchell@lucent.com
HO Chair Emeritus: John Jetzt, jetzt@lucent.com
HO Librarian Emeritus: Nick Sauer, njs@lucent.com
Back issues at http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County meets on the
second Saturday of every month in Upper Saddle River; call
201-447-3652 for details. The Denver Area Science Fiction
Association meets 7:30 PM on the third Saturday of every month at
Southwest State Bank, 1380 S. Federal Blvd.
===================================================================
1. I cannot believe that it happened again. Well, yeah, I say
that, but I do believe it happened again. What can I tell you? It
just happens to Evelyn and me. Over and over. It started with the
trip we made to Eastern Europe. At least that was the first time
we noticed it. This was in May of 1991. Now we knew that there
was some chance of trouble while we were in Yugoslavia. We were
going to be in a country where there was some difference of opinion
about whether it should break up or stay together. And sure, we
knew that there were people not very happy with each other in the
country. There was rumors that war might be coming to the region.
But we trusted our luck. And the people seemed relatively
sanguine. And our luck held up. We went home of flying from
Dubrovnik in Croatia to Belgrade in Serbia and then on home. We
got home and called my worrying parents to say they needn't have
worried. People were just talking in Yugoslavia. Well, the very
next morning Slovenia seceded and the country was at war. At the
time I figured it was all just interesting coincidence. It could
not have had anything to do with us. Right?
Well the war made news and we watched it wondering what were the
chances that big news would come out of a place we had just been.
And in the middle of this watching suddenly riots broke out in
Bangkok, Thailand, one of the most peaceful countries in the world.
The rioters made their base of operations the lobby of the Royal
Hotel. Hmmm! Eventually the military stormed the Royal Hotel. On
the news we saw the lobby. Yup, there at the back was the big
stairway. Our room during the previous trip had been just at the
top of it. Interesting coincidence that two places we had been had
serious problems shortly after we left. Also a little bothersome.
We decided we have to watch a little closer the news of the places
we visit.
Two big government upsets were enough for us, however so we decided
that we would play it safe. We went to Arizona and New Mexico.
Both places had been stolen from Mexico fair and square and the
residents were happy to remain part of the US. And we had a great
time. And we went home. And a few months later a strange and
deadly virus that would come to be known as "Hanta virus" broke out
on the Navajo reservation. The tribal elders met in Window Rock to
discuss the problem. Hey, Evelyn, look. We know that reservation.
We have been to Window Rock. Uh... did we do it again? Well, yes,
we seem to have done it again. But at least we know it is not just
political upheavals. Where should we go next?
Our next vacation was to northern India. We traveled a loop that
started and ended in New Delhi. It was the same New Delhi that a
few months later had an outbreak of Bubonic Plague. Yup, the old
Medieval Black Death broke out in New Delhi. And we missed it.
Thank goodness. We just didn't miss it by much.
Next it was off to the Baltics. What is going to happen in the
Baltic republics? These countries average about one exciting news
story every ten years or so. When was the last time you saw a
media event in Lithuania? How about a headline about what was
happening in Estonia? The Leeper Curse had to be stymied. Well,
we saw the Baltic republics and we left and took a ferry to
Finland. Nice comfortable peaceful little trip. You just sit and
you read. It is very relaxing. Not always of course. If they
happen to leave the doors to the lower section open it is a lot
less relaxing. Then the entire ferry sinks with all on board. I
didn't even know that was a possibility until a few weeks after our
trip the Leeper Curse reached out sank a ferry going almost the
same route.
We saw the Tokyo subways a few months before the Aum Shinrikyo cult
attacked it with Sarin nerve gas. It turned out they had been
trying for months without success before that. Perhaps it was even
during our visit. But you cannot worry about that when you travel.
I mean, it crossed my mind while I was in Tokyo that a strange
religious cult might be experimenting with killing people with
nerve gas and three-foot long Zulu spears. It never occurred to me
they would try it without the spears. Yup. Anyway, the curse was
now almost expected.
I won't bore you with all the details. Suffice it to say we were
in the middle of our Australia trip last year not even thinking
about our trip the year before to Turkey. And the Turks were not
thinking about us. They were thinking about how the ground was
shaking and buildings were falling apart.
Actually this was the first of two trips we took last year. About
Thanksgiving time we went to Paris to see Notre Dame, etc., while
we still could before France had unprecedented storms with
hurricane force winds ripping about places like Notre Dame, etc.
Now all of this has to be coincidence. It has to be just a matter
of watching the places we have been really closely. Probably any
place I just picked at random would have a good chance of having
some sort of disaster in a few weeks. Just the same, I am going to
watch Australia really carefully. And if anything happens to
Sydney or Canberra or Melbourne then I am planning my next vacation
for Iraq. [-mrl]
===================================================================
2. THE EMPEROR AND THE ASSASSIN (a film review by Mark R. Leeper):
Capsule: This is unlike any other film you have
seen from People's Republic of China. THE
EMPEROR AND THE ASSASSIN is an action film that
has real historical sweep. It features
spectacular battle scenes and an intricate and
engaging plot. The story is of how the first
emperor of China came to unify China and of his
relationship with his childhood friend and now
lover, played by Gong Li. Rating: 8 (0 to 10),
low +3 (-4 to +4)
From the beginnings of film one of the highest goals of cinema has
been to transport the viewer in space and time to see something he
would never be able to see otherwise. I suppose that might be why
most of my favorite films are either fantasy films or historical--
the two genres are linked. To some extent both appeal to the same
kind of people. And of particular interest are the great
spectacular scenes of history involving thousands of people: the
exodus from Egypt, the Oklahoma land rush, the Zulus besieging
Rorkes Drift, the Battle of Austerlitz, that sort of thing. The
noblest goal of cinema is to act as a time machine to make us
eyewitnesses to those events of world history really worth seeing.
But film is a business and one has to be able to shoot epic scenes
where extras will work for an affordable amount. One place where
labor is cheap is in heavily-populated China. Yet until now
Chinese historical films have been very personal films shot in
medium close-up. The sweeping events of Chinese history have been
too expensive to film, so generally have never been used as the
subject of films.
It has been foreign filmmakers who have recognized that inexpensive
labor in China give the potential for filming the huge scenes in
Chinese history. In 1987 Steven Spielberg filmed the rout of
Shanghai for EMPIRE OF THE SUN and Bernardo Bertolucci filmed the
grandeur of the Forbidden City for THE LAST EMPEROR. At long last
the Chinese themselves, in conjunction with French and Japanese
investors, have seen the potential they have to paint history on
the grand scale. And if epic history could be made about the last
Emperor, what better choice could there be than telling the story
of the first Emperor? That would be Ying Zheng, one of history's
true larger than life characters. At age 13 he inherited control
of the Kingdom of Qin. This was 245 B.C.E., about the same time
Hannibal was born. He took seven warring kingdoms and forged them
into a single empire. Though his reign was a short one he was
responsible for the two greatest artifacts of Chinese history, the
Great Wall of China and the huge terra cotta army of soldiers he
had buried with him to protect him in the next life. He also
burned all but the most innocuous of books to have greater control
of his subjects' minds and so that Chinese history would start with
him.
In THE EMPEROR AND THE ASSASSIN, Ying Zheng (played by Li Xuejian)
comes to power as a boy of thirteen in 245 B.C.E. with a dream of
unifying the seven warring kingdoms under one benevolent emperor.
[Actually historical opinion is that he inherited rather than
originated the dream and that all the conquering but a few mop-up
operations had been done by his predecessors.] His childhood
sweetheart Lady Zhao (Gong Li) joins him to aid him. Ying Zheng
wants to conquer the Kingdom of Yan without appearing to be the
aggressor. Lady Zhao has a plan to get them to make the first
move. She will appear to be a prisoner escaped from Ying Zhang
fleeing to Yan. There she will convince them to send an assassin
to attempt to kill Ying Zhang. But the King will be ready, kill
the assassin, and use the incident as an excuse to destroy Yan.
The story centers on the story Ying Zheng (whom we should know will
succeed in the end if we are up on our history) and on his assassin
Zhang Fengyi as Jing Ke. Each is sympathetic is his own way. Ying
Zheng wants to end 550 years of warfare and create an empire he
expects to run for the good of his people "with grain growing
everywhere." Jing Ke was a great assassin, now guilt-ridden over
the deaths he has caused. He wants nothing to do with killing
again, but is being manipulated for another job. The style is a
real change of pace for director Chen Kaige who experiments with
bits of style borrowed from samurai films, Hong Kong action film,
Japanese historical epics, and Italian Westerns, bringing them all
into perhaps the most entertaining film to come from the People's
Republic of China. Not all the battle scenes are as exciting as
they might have been staged, but considering the source they always
beat the expectation.
Clearly there is much more of a "give the public what it wants"
attitude than we have seen previously coming from the PRC. If this
film is successful and that attitude catches on, it can only be
healthy for the Chinese film industry. This is a film gives the
audience a history lesson and has them enjoy getting it. The one
problem being that with most of the rest of the world knowing so
little Asian history, they probably will not know where fact leaves
off and fiction begins in this story.
Films from China are usually edifying experiences. For once we
have one that is also fun. I rate THE EMPEROR AND THE ASSASSIN 8
on the 0 to 10 scale and a low +3 on the -4 to +4 scale. [-mrl]
Mark Leeper
HO 1K-644 732-817-5619
mleeper@lucent.com
A woman will always sacrifice herself if you give her the opportunity. It is her favorite form of
self-indulgence.
-- W. Somerset Maugham
THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT ALMOST BLANK