Dong Zhuo: An nasty embodiment of Cause and Effect

Dong Zhuo

Is it okay to declare someone a living example of cause and effect? I think I have enough to justify that claim and it's still an interesting topic for what it's worth.
Dong Zhuo was a tyrannical Chinese warlord who can be considered either directly or indirectly responsible for the fall of the Han Dynasty and the many bloody battles that followed lead by the forces of Wei, Wu and Shu during the Three Kingdoms Era (known to most as the Romance of the Three Kingdoms on a fictional note). He was a hedonist and a sociopath who used and abused his power to fit his idea of "paradise" (basically paradise for him and no one else).

After years of corruption by various eunuchs and an inept emperor, the Yellow Turban Rebellion rose up and was inevitably destroyed by the troops by Hu Jin who is then killed by the eunuchs who are in turn slain by Yuan Shao. During this chaos the emperor Shao and the prince of Chenliu vanish.
They end up in the hands of Dong Zhuo who seized control under the guise of protecting the emperor. Dong disposed of Shao and instilled Emperor Xian who he controlled like a puppet. The reign that followed was brutal as innocents were put to death and those not rich enough suffered constantly.
After two assassination attempts, a full scale war began. However Dong had one trump card: his adoptive son Lu Bu. Lu Bu was a god among men who no one could defeat. As long as Lu Bu remained by Dongs side no one could touch him.

But a conflict grew between the two. Lu Bu, already losing patience with Dong Zhuo, fell for a maiden who his father also lusted after. The maiden convinced Lu Bu to betray his father and Lu Bu slew him, ending the tyrants madness.

Lu Bu attempted his own campaign against the emperor but was betrayed and executed by Cao Cao of Wei. Dong Zhuo's reign was short but the impact was great. He's generally considered the straw that broke the camels back as his death lead to the fall of the Han Dynasty and 3 men all with their own idea of paradise stood up and fought amongst themselves.

It's possible that Dong Zhuo is what caused these 3 men Liu Bei, Sun Jian and Cao Cao to stand up for their beliefs. What followed lead to the death of countless men and ended in pointless tragedy. Historically speaking none of the men "won" Cao Cao died in his bed, Liu Bei went mad after the death of his best friends and Sun Jian died during the campaign to overthrow Dong Zhuo. His sons Sun Ce and Sun Quan tried to replace him but Ce died of an illness and Sun Quan was killed years later during an invasion by the "true winners" the kingdom of Jin.

Perhaps had Dong Zhuo not committed his many atrocities the men may have worked together? Maybe they wouldn't have decided to act at all? History agrees that Dong Zhuo played a huge part in all 3 men's motivation but if he wasn't here who can say? The Han Dynasty was on its knees and chances are Dong Zhuo simply sped up the process.

On a final but by no means uninteresting note, Dong was so hated that they dragged his corpse out into public,set it alight and anyone who tried to put it out was killed on the spot. He was so fat that his corpse burned for three days straight. In the middle of winter.
Anyone who carried the Dong name was hunted down and killed including Dong's elderly mother who plead innocence as she was brutally murdered. That's how hated Dong Zhuo was by the people of China.

As I've said before,Dong Zhuo COULD have been the cause of the following war. His actions provoked a large number of men to stand against him and after his death they began to focus on one another. Corruption ran deep through the country at the time but Dong Zhuo was far from subtle about it.

It's an interesting aspect of history that eternal question of "What Could Have Been?" but that's exactly it. What could have been is a cruel aspect of life as reality will always ALWAYS disappoint to what we can imagine. And considering how many people died as a result of the aftermath it is a pretty disappointing reality.

The Darjeeling Limited

The Darjeeling Limited is a pretty interesting movie. Especially in regards to how it shapes its themes. All three leads in the film all have gaping flaws that shine out through everything else, Francis (played by Owen Wilson) throws money around like water from a fountain and its made very detached from the people around him. Peter (portrayed by Adrien Brody) has a wife who is extremely pregnant but he opts to go on a trip to india with his brothers without telling her (this is something that even shocks his two brothers). Finally, there's Jack(played by Jason Schwartzmen) who is.... really good at picking up women.

The three brothers reunite after a year away from each other and try to enjoy a trip around India. The problems between them kick in as Francis starts ordering everything for the brothers and is oblivious to their displeasure. Francis seems to disregard the feelings of pretty much everybody (a serious case of Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense). http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RichInDollarsPoorInSense

This reaches it's tipping point when Francis buys and smuggles a poisonous cobra onto the train they're staying on and even after being caught with it still tries to talk his way out of trouble. (Funny how Owen Wilson basically plays the same character in everything he's in but here he's actually meant to be dislikeable).

Another valid reason for the brothers many issues is their mother who abandoned them years ago and continues to lie about wanting to make things better not even attending her husbands funeral which took place a year before the film began. It turns out that the real reason that Francis reunited with his siblings is to find her and he has located her in a temple in the Himalayas. In any other movie it would be a tear filled reunion with happy endings for all but here it's build up and then she's gone again cementing her status as a horrible mother. Her dreadful treatment of her sons is probably a huge contributor for their own issues and when she abandons them again it's made clear to both the audience and the brothers that the whole journey was a wild goose chase. They may want to be with her but she has no interest in that. At the end of the film the brothers run for the train but realise that they won't make it carrying all their luggage (say another word for luggage is baggage isn't it?) so they start dropping their “luggage” and run to successfully board the train leaving their “luggage” in India. (Do you get it?!!!)

Subtlety and symbolism don't exactly go hand in hand during certain scenes. The best example of this is a scene where the train the brothers are on is declared “lost” and Francis (with the subtlety of funnily enough, a trainwreck) outright states maybe we're they're the ones who are lost, thankfully Jack and Peter both look at him like he's grown a second head.

But apart from symbolism subtlety that is severely lacking the film definitely knows how to do itself very well and draws its audience in with strong character development and a genuine indication of the fact that these 3 brothers really are lost in a world that is doing zero to help them and it makes you care for them as a result and cheer when they conquer the things holding them down be it their egos, their horrid mother, the death of their father or everything else between India and their homes.

End of Year Film Blog Intro Entry

End of Year Film Introduction Blog

This is the introductory blog for my end of year film. Throughout the remainder of the year I intend to update this blog at the very least once a week (maybe more if I feel like I have something worth sharing but who knows when that will be).

For this introductory blog I would like to break it down into four categories starting with a discussion of the short film Hotel Chevalier directed by Wes Anderson a name I know but should really know more about (I'm a film student after all). Right off the bat the film shows of how it uses dislocation as a central theme our main male lead is shown to be an American living in France he is metaphorically dislocated as he's far from home and making himself settle in a hotel wasting a lot of money as a result. He appears to have a very sloth ridden life as he watches television, doesn’t dress very well and leaves his massive hotel room in a mess.

The theme continues as Natalie Portmans character shows up and is the lead's love interest girl though that's hard to tell because the conversation two have has all the chemistry and compassion of a loaf of bread in a big pond. Granted this might be intentional as he has shut himself off from the world and she's been trying to find him, their conversation is stilted and the romance takes a while to recover and it's not when they start making out because even then that feels awkward.

One interpretation presented to me by a fellow classmate is that they are friends with benefits (not the term she used but it's the closest I can get without using an expletive) which could explain why the passion between the two is loaf of bread like. It's only near the end of the short where the two see the view outside of the male leads room do they look like there is something more between them (or perhaps more accurately a DESIRE for something more). Whatever the case the romance itself seems very chaotic and their small talk is just as awkward. It just feels like nothing happens for 7 minutes because the two leads don't have a notion to go on.

Then after 7 minutes they start making out (if I didn't see how long the short was I would've been convinced that a scene had been skipped) the love scene starts off lukewarm and then reaches the astonishing boiling point of tepid. Then Portman's clothes start coming off and the film goes up a notch (or something went up a notch). Funnily enough after the love scene is done it starts feeling romantic thanks to the sweet music that plays (really lovely song it is) and the nice embrace the two have as the film ends. It's solid character development for something the length of a Dexter's Laboratory episode.

The second point of this blog I'd like to discuss is initial thoughts on the module. To be honest I don't have any reason to complain. I'm actually excited, I have a chance to use this theme to discuss things I like that I think work with the theme (I'm hoping to have something on Dong Zhuo a Chinese warlord who's evilness more or less lead to the destruction of the Han Dynasty and the war that followed but that's getting ahead of myself). The theme itself threw me off a bit at first mainly because I thought it was the literal interpretation of the word. I'm not sure what I can make for a film but I'm pretty eager to find out. This goes in line with my third point the theme of dislocation, how I intend to explore and interpret for my work. At the minute I'm not too sure but I certainly look forward to making something out of it.

The fourth and final point is my ambitions, job roles, influences and aspirations. Up until about 4 years ago the only time Scott and the word ambitious showed up together was if the words “is not” were in between. I envied the clouds (still do a little bit) but now I've found a desire to get into media as a script writer (preferably fiction but I've learned that reality isn't always boring so I'm willing to adapt). My film influences include Stanley Kubrick particularly his adaptation of A Clockwork Orange, Dr Strangelove and the first half of Full Metal Jacket.

I (rather riskily at that) also cite Paul Anderson as an influences simply because he managed to make a handful of movies based on games that didn't make me cough up blood I'd even go far enough to call Mortal Kombat great and not just because I can quote it word for word 14 years after I first watched it. That was until he got his wife into every Resident Evil film and destroyed all his credibility in a way Yoko Ono could only dream of. There's also Quentin Tarantino who made Pulp Fiction. Kill Bill Volumes 1 and 2, Django Unchained, Inglorious and Reservoir Dogs so saying anything else seems redundant. My other inspiration would be Ed Boon creator of the Mortal Kombat gaming franchise the man who can be held responsible for my reality is boring approach as he's the man I got it from because and I quote:

“ Reality is boring, no wants to pay for reality, we take everything beyond reality”

That quote has stuck for 14 years.

As for aspirations I only have one: To get far enough in life that I'm successful enough so that the people I care about need never work jobs they hate again. That and maybe sleep in more often but mainly the first one.