Largely swooning about The Painted Veil
I went and saw The Painted Veil yesterday.
Based on Somerset Maugham’s novel, TPV is set in 1930s China, and follows Kitty (Naomi Watts), an upper-class Englishwoman, who ends up in a rural, cholera-ridden area of the country, after her bacteriologist husband Walter Fane (Edward Norton) offers her a choice between going with him or divorce for adultery. There, Kitty and Walter discover love for each other, and a lot of sick people, and some cool nuns.
I LOVED IT.
LOVED IT LOVED IT LOVED IT LOVED IT.
And not just because you see a lot of unclad Edward Norton :D
smartylibrarian, if you are interested, I don't mind watching it again.
First off!
He died!
&^^%$^**^%$!!!!
This will teach me to ship a couple in an early 20th century British classic.
Grrrrr.
I confess I got wet-eyed (didn’t the author get the memo? If one member of the OTP nurses the other devotedly though dangerous illness such as cholera/plague/attack of fangirls, the other member will always recover however low the incidence of recovery is in general). But you knew nothing good was going to come of it, when he saw her sleeping with those children in the orphanage, and kissed her gently so as not to wake her up, and went to help out at that refugee camp.
And I love how their relationship is so transformed by the end of the movie. Earlier on, when he offers her the choice between an ignominious divorce and going into the cholera country, she is beyond appalled that he would suggest it and cannot cannot even comprehend the idea. But here at the end, she runs to that place, the very center of the epidemic, and she insists on nursing him even though that’s beyond dangerous (and she is pregnant!) and OMG, the bit where she falls asleep with him, on his bed, sort of cuddled up to him? Frell. And then when he wakes up and very quietly asks her forgiveness for bringing her to this area (I really love that Walter is a very quiet man. Passionate but quiet and very reserved) and she tells him, weeping “There is nothing to forgive.”
*dies*
And then when the servant starts putting away all his stuff back in the house: his notes and microscope and everything and she won’t let her? OMG.
You know what I love about this movie? When is the last movie you saw which was about a married couple discovering love in their marriage? Usually it’s all about the glories of adultery, but not here. Kitty married Walter for the stupidest reasons, to get as far away from her mother as she can, and he knew she didn’t love him but loved her and so wanted her anyway. But here, far away from everything, she doesn’t just discover her love for him, but they get to really know each other, not the images in their minds, and find forgiveness and ability to move past the adultery thing.
And when’s a last time you saw a woman fall in love with a man because “of his virtue?” Yup. Kitty ultimately falls for Walter in large part because however he is bent on punishing her and himself, he is doing all he possibly can to help the people of the town, people he doesn’t even know and who don’t even really like him much. She falls in love with him in part because of his selflessness and he only begins to open up to her again when she rediscovers that very same helpful useful quality in herself.
I have to say though, any woman who would be able to not be into Edward Norton, who is all reserved yet clearly deeply passionate shy scientist? Is from another planet.
And this thing has so much of what I love: UST, and quiet burning stares and angst and bitterness covering love and guuuuuuuh. A lot of it is all unspoken and I die.
There is also an interesting contrast between two lovemaking scenes that Walter and Kitty get (neither of them is explicit, and they cut out before anything happens, but I am talking about the ‘prelude.’) The one in the beginning of the movie is rather awkward and dull on her part: she is reading a book, he knocks politely, she gives a coded “OK” (by putting her hand on the bed) not appearing very excited. And reserved and shy and hemmed in on his: she suggests keeping the lamp on but he later turns it off anyway. They are two strangers, awkward with each other. And then we get one near the end, when they finally consummate all the UST. And there it’s quite different. There is no shyness or awkwardness or anything. He sees her undress and you can see his eyes just drink her in and the she notices him looking (they are still in separate bedrooms at that point) and so she turns towards him until she is full-face in front of him, and never taking her eyes off him, drops all her clothes to the floor and it goes from there. And the lights are on.
Hmmm, talking about another contrast. She asks him why he didn’t knock down the door when he heard her and the lover go at it, and at least give him a thrashing. But later, when she is in real danger from the rebelling people in the city, he rushes out heedless of danger to himself and literally stands in front of her, to protect her with his own body, even though there is a whole crowd of people so he won’t have a chance. The whole movie is, in a way, I think Kitty discovering the difference between important essentials and bare forms.
Oh, another bit I like? When she tells him she is pregnant and he is all giddy but then she basically indicates she doesn’t know if it’s his or the lover’s and he tells her it doesn’t matter and he hugs her and you can see it really hurts him but he loves her anyway.
You know, after I finished the movie, I realized I read the ending of the novel before, years ago. I really did love the ending. Kitty, back in London, with her five year old son whom she named Walter, running into Charlie, the ex-lover, the fling who inadvertently started her whole transformation into a useful mature woman, caused her to experience real love (with her husband), and loss and even gave her a child (Because, OMG, the irony! She named the kid after her husband and I am sure after he died she so wanted it to be his, but it’s quite clearly the lover’s). And they talk briefly, and she shoots down his discreet invitation to more of an affair, and as they walk off, her son asks her who the man was. And she replies ‘Oh darling, nobody important.’
BURN.
AWESOMENESS.
I’ve also watched the ending of Long Vacation (the jdrama) and OMG, cute!!
The running and the kissing (a lot of it!) on the bridge and the glee and the swinging around! *loves* Kimutaku dramas always have kissing, huh?
This said, I feel very sad because I am three eps in, and while enjoyable, I don’t get much love for LV. I know everyone loves it madly except for me, and I feel left out.
Mainly it’s Minami. I really dislike her. Immature. True, most drama heroines are that way, but they are 17. It’s OK to be immature at 17. But she is not 17, she is 30+! By that point you should know better. When compared with someone like Aki from Pride, who is in the same age bracket, but is a grown-up, an adult, Minami falls horribly short. I adore Aki but Minami exasperates me to no end. I think a big problem is the actress, who is just not charming or cute in the least. I don’t feel drawn to her at all.
And here are some thoughts on Green Rose, eps 5 and 6. Oh my, the angst never lets up, does it! Poor Soo-Ah, falling apart on finding out Jung-Hyun is dead (or so she thinks) and running to the river in the rain and fainting. But I love how she recovers and moves on to run the company.
And poor Jung-Hyun. Eating out of garbage bins, finding out the secretary he is looking for mysteriously vanished, walking for miles and miles (I was especially moved by the scene where he steals a wallet and the way he looks at his hands, in horror). I mean, I don’t blame the guy for literally starting to scream in the middle of the crowd.
I am pleased to announce though that part of his emoness includes him taking off his shirt to wash in the stream. Yum. Where was I?
I cannot WAIT until Hana Yori Dango 2 ep. I want the dl to be here yesterday! :) I read spoilers for the ep as it already aired in Japan, and gleeeeee. Someone on the hanadan comm has a text icon that says 'apples make your hair fall off' and every time I see it, I giggle. I want my fix, now!
Oh, and thank you everyone for Friday Night Lights rec. I’ll definitely check it out.
Based on Somerset Maugham’s novel, TPV is set in 1930s China, and follows Kitty (Naomi Watts), an upper-class Englishwoman, who ends up in a rural, cholera-ridden area of the country, after her bacteriologist husband Walter Fane (Edward Norton) offers her a choice between going with him or divorce for adultery. There, Kitty and Walter discover love for each other, and a lot of sick people, and some cool nuns.
I LOVED IT.
LOVED IT LOVED IT LOVED IT LOVED IT.
And not just because you see a lot of unclad Edward Norton :D
smartylibrarian, if you are interested, I don't mind watching it again.
First off!
He died!
&^^%$^**^%$!!!!
This will teach me to ship a couple in an early 20th century British classic.
Grrrrr.
I confess I got wet-eyed (didn’t the author get the memo? If one member of the OTP nurses the other devotedly though dangerous illness such as cholera/plague/attack of fangirls, the other member will always recover however low the incidence of recovery is in general). But you knew nothing good was going to come of it, when he saw her sleeping with those children in the orphanage, and kissed her gently so as not to wake her up, and went to help out at that refugee camp.
And I love how their relationship is so transformed by the end of the movie. Earlier on, when he offers her the choice between an ignominious divorce and going into the cholera country, she is beyond appalled that he would suggest it and cannot cannot even comprehend the idea. But here at the end, she runs to that place, the very center of the epidemic, and she insists on nursing him even though that’s beyond dangerous (and she is pregnant!) and OMG, the bit where she falls asleep with him, on his bed, sort of cuddled up to him? Frell. And then when he wakes up and very quietly asks her forgiveness for bringing her to this area (I really love that Walter is a very quiet man. Passionate but quiet and very reserved) and she tells him, weeping “There is nothing to forgive.”
*dies*
And then when the servant starts putting away all his stuff back in the house: his notes and microscope and everything and she won’t let her? OMG.
You know what I love about this movie? When is the last movie you saw which was about a married couple discovering love in their marriage? Usually it’s all about the glories of adultery, but not here. Kitty married Walter for the stupidest reasons, to get as far away from her mother as she can, and he knew she didn’t love him but loved her and so wanted her anyway. But here, far away from everything, she doesn’t just discover her love for him, but they get to really know each other, not the images in their minds, and find forgiveness and ability to move past the adultery thing.
And when’s a last time you saw a woman fall in love with a man because “of his virtue?” Yup. Kitty ultimately falls for Walter in large part because however he is bent on punishing her and himself, he is doing all he possibly can to help the people of the town, people he doesn’t even know and who don’t even really like him much. She falls in love with him in part because of his selflessness and he only begins to open up to her again when she rediscovers that very same helpful useful quality in herself.
I have to say though, any woman who would be able to not be into Edward Norton, who is all reserved yet clearly deeply passionate shy scientist? Is from another planet.
And this thing has so much of what I love: UST, and quiet burning stares and angst and bitterness covering love and guuuuuuuh. A lot of it is all unspoken and I die.
There is also an interesting contrast between two lovemaking scenes that Walter and Kitty get (neither of them is explicit, and they cut out before anything happens, but I am talking about the ‘prelude.’) The one in the beginning of the movie is rather awkward and dull on her part: she is reading a book, he knocks politely, she gives a coded “OK” (by putting her hand on the bed) not appearing very excited. And reserved and shy and hemmed in on his: she suggests keeping the lamp on but he later turns it off anyway. They are two strangers, awkward with each other. And then we get one near the end, when they finally consummate all the UST. And there it’s quite different. There is no shyness or awkwardness or anything. He sees her undress and you can see his eyes just drink her in and the she notices him looking (they are still in separate bedrooms at that point) and so she turns towards him until she is full-face in front of him, and never taking her eyes off him, drops all her clothes to the floor and it goes from there. And the lights are on.
Hmmm, talking about another contrast. She asks him why he didn’t knock down the door when he heard her and the lover go at it, and at least give him a thrashing. But later, when she is in real danger from the rebelling people in the city, he rushes out heedless of danger to himself and literally stands in front of her, to protect her with his own body, even though there is a whole crowd of people so he won’t have a chance. The whole movie is, in a way, I think Kitty discovering the difference between important essentials and bare forms.
Oh, another bit I like? When she tells him she is pregnant and he is all giddy but then she basically indicates she doesn’t know if it’s his or the lover’s and he tells her it doesn’t matter and he hugs her and you can see it really hurts him but he loves her anyway.
You know, after I finished the movie, I realized I read the ending of the novel before, years ago. I really did love the ending. Kitty, back in London, with her five year old son whom she named Walter, running into Charlie, the ex-lover, the fling who inadvertently started her whole transformation into a useful mature woman, caused her to experience real love (with her husband), and loss and even gave her a child (Because, OMG, the irony! She named the kid after her husband and I am sure after he died she so wanted it to be his, but it’s quite clearly the lover’s). And they talk briefly, and she shoots down his discreet invitation to more of an affair, and as they walk off, her son asks her who the man was. And she replies ‘Oh darling, nobody important.’
BURN.
AWESOMENESS.
I’ve also watched the ending of Long Vacation (the jdrama) and OMG, cute!!
The running and the kissing (a lot of it!) on the bridge and the glee and the swinging around! *loves* Kimutaku dramas always have kissing, huh?
This said, I feel very sad because I am three eps in, and while enjoyable, I don’t get much love for LV. I know everyone loves it madly except for me, and I feel left out.
Mainly it’s Minami. I really dislike her. Immature. True, most drama heroines are that way, but they are 17. It’s OK to be immature at 17. But she is not 17, she is 30+! By that point you should know better. When compared with someone like Aki from Pride, who is in the same age bracket, but is a grown-up, an adult, Minami falls horribly short. I adore Aki but Minami exasperates me to no end. I think a big problem is the actress, who is just not charming or cute in the least. I don’t feel drawn to her at all.
And here are some thoughts on Green Rose, eps 5 and 6. Oh my, the angst never lets up, does it! Poor Soo-Ah, falling apart on finding out Jung-Hyun is dead (or so she thinks) and running to the river in the rain and fainting. But I love how she recovers and moves on to run the company.
And poor Jung-Hyun. Eating out of garbage bins, finding out the secretary he is looking for mysteriously vanished, walking for miles and miles (I was especially moved by the scene where he steals a wallet and the way he looks at his hands, in horror). I mean, I don’t blame the guy for literally starting to scream in the middle of the crowd.
I am pleased to announce though that part of his emoness includes him taking off his shirt to wash in the stream. Yum. Where was I?
I cannot WAIT until Hana Yori Dango 2 ep. I want the dl to be here yesterday! :) I read spoilers for the ep as it already aired in Japan, and gleeeeee. Someone on the hanadan comm has a text icon that says 'apples make your hair fall off' and every time I see it, I giggle. I want my fix, now!
Oh, and thank you everyone for Friday Night Lights rec. I’ll definitely check it out.