XENA VS. LATIKAAA!!!
The other day I finally got around to watching Slumdog Millionaire, which was nominated for an Oscar this year and is about a boy from the slums who goes on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire so he can be reunited with the girl of his dreams. Consequently, he spends a significant amount of the film running around wailing "LATIKAAAAA!!!1one1!!" at the top of his lungs while chasing her around exotic locales.
This is both Hollywood and Bollywood, so *spoilers* boy gets the girl in the end. But then it occured to me that I didn't really know why the boy got the girl in the end. I mean, obviously he cares about her a lot, and they were childhoods friends. But throughout the entire film, Latika gets passed around from corrupt male to corrupt male the same way a particularly holographic Charizard* Pokemon card would be passed between a group of first-graders.
Who is she? Why does she like Jamal? Is it because he is nice to her? Is that really the only redeeming, necessary criteria? I mean, yes the newfound millionaire could have gone after a leggy Bollywood star instead of the poor, prostituted childhood friend. (Not that the actress who plays Latika isn't a bombshell.) But the character of Latika spends nearly the entire film as a sweet girl in distress or smiling benignly at Jamal. In fact, in a scene where she hops into a car and starts driving, Ken and I looked at one another and wondered how such a naive, oppressed and helpless character ever managed to learn how to drive.
Maybe it's a question of verisimilitude and the perfection of Latika conflicts with the plenty of forced realism in Slumdog Millionaire--the main character is waterboarded and electrocuted over something as trivial as a game show, for goodness sake. Ironically, in the book in which the movie is based on, the Latika character escapes destitution and becomes a lawyer who aids the Jamal character over the legality of his winnings. The film version of Latika can drive and operate a cell phone. =/
To cleanse the palate, I showed Ken the television series Xena: Warrior Princess for the first time in his life.
I think it may have traumatized him a little,what with the epic chanting Bulgarian women's choir and the cheesy Soul Caliber-esque (according to Ken) "She was Xena. A MIGHTY PRINCESS. FORGED IN THE HEAT OF BATTLE" and then the clipshow where they show her lacing up her boobs into armor.
And the chakram-frisbee thing, and the ai-ai-yi-yi-yah! battle cry. ::sigh::
Ken spent a lot of the episode indignantly harumphing "You idiot! Clearly she's into girls!" at the screen.
When I was a kid and I watched the show, I had no idea how many times the characters got 'almost raped.' Went right over my head. I also see a lot of lesbian subtext. hokay zen. I also did not realize how bad the mohawk hairstyle on the men were.
Anyhow. Xena > Latika. Jamal should have hooked up with Xena at the end. With Xena, you don't need no frakking Musketeers.
This is both Hollywood and Bollywood, so *spoilers* boy gets the girl in the end. But then it occured to me that I didn't really know why the boy got the girl in the end. I mean, obviously he cares about her a lot, and they were childhoods friends. But throughout the entire film, Latika gets passed around from corrupt male to corrupt male the same way a particularly holographic Charizard* Pokemon card would be passed between a group of first-graders.
Who is she? Why does she like Jamal? Is it because he is nice to her? Is that really the only redeeming, necessary criteria? I mean, yes the newfound millionaire could have gone after a leggy Bollywood star instead of the poor, prostituted childhood friend. (Not that the actress who plays Latika isn't a bombshell.) But the character of Latika spends nearly the entire film as a sweet girl in distress or smiling benignly at Jamal. In fact, in a scene where she hops into a car and starts driving, Ken and I looked at one another and wondered how such a naive, oppressed and helpless character ever managed to learn how to drive.
Maybe it's a question of verisimilitude and the perfection of Latika conflicts with the plenty of forced realism in Slumdog Millionaire--the main character is waterboarded and electrocuted over something as trivial as a game show, for goodness sake. Ironically, in the book in which the movie is based on, the Latika character escapes destitution and becomes a lawyer who aids the Jamal character over the legality of his winnings. The film version of Latika can drive and operate a cell phone. =/
To cleanse the palate, I showed Ken the television series Xena: Warrior Princess for the first time in his life.
Click to viewI think it may have traumatized him a little,what with the epic chanting Bulgarian women's choir and the cheesy Soul Caliber-esque (according to Ken) "She was Xena. A MIGHTY PRINCESS. FORGED IN THE HEAT OF BATTLE" and then the clipshow where they show her lacing up her boobs into armor.
And the chakram-frisbee thing, and the ai-ai-yi-yi-yah! battle cry. ::sigh::
Ken spent a lot of the episode indignantly harumphing "You idiot! Clearly she's into girls!" at the screen.
When I was a kid and I watched the show, I had no idea how many times the characters got 'almost raped.' Went right over my head. I also see a lot of lesbian subtext. hokay zen. I also did not realize how bad the mohawk hairstyle on the men were.
Anyhow. Xena > Latika. Jamal should have hooked up with Xena at the end. With Xena, you don't need no frakking Musketeers.
- *Me: Honey, is it spelled Charizard or Charzard?
Ken: What?
Me: You know. The Pokemon?
Ken: Char-e-zard?
Me: So with an 'i'? Or without an 'i'?
Ken: What? o_0
Me: Well, it's not telling me in spellcheck!