Chak De India, Why Why Love, and Bednaya Nastya, Hot men of the world, unite.

[dangermousie]

Went with smartylibrarian and tatterpunk to see Chak De India today.

Wow.

WOW.

It's a story of a ragtag women's field hockey team and their haunted, stern coach.

I never thought I'd love it in a million years, as I hate sports movies, and this also had no love story whatsoever. But. BUT. OMG. It was amazing. I was hyper, I was cheering, I was applauding, and I cried when Shahrukh Khan cried. I am so in awe of the man, not just because of this being one of his best performances (and that's a high bar), or because he looked incredibly amazing, but because it was the most feminist, incredibly assertive (but not a bit shrilly) of women being equal to men in every way. He always makes feminist movies, doesn't he? I love him SO MUCH.

I am going to have a detailed write-up when I am more awake, but run, don't walk to see this.

I have also finished ep 8 of Why Why Love so expect caps and meta later.

And to finish it off, a daily dose of Russian emo drama :) Browsing youtube, I found out that Bednaya Nastya seems really popular. It has over 600 vids, and I found Finnish, Roumanian and Arabic subs clips on there (no English so far, no luck. Though as I said, if I find out I like it once my DVDs get here, I think it might be fun to sub, if I can find a timer as I have no idea how to time.)

I have been watching so many clips on youtube and I find it fun to post and translate them. Let's see if the urge continues, but for now there it is. I have no idea if clips I'll do are in any order, but when has it stopped me?

Now, as everyone knows, in addition to being drop-dead gorgeous and angsting beautifully, 19th century noblemen liked only one thing better than kissing th hands of the girls they are in love with. And what is that something? That's right, A DUEL. Bonus points if it's over a woman, and the guys fighting are former best friends. Hey, this worked on film since The Flesh and The Devil, and that was John Gilbert and friend, over Greta Garbo, all the way in the 1920s! (They get bonus points for the ice).

Anyway, our former two best friends, Vladimir and Michael, are about to shoot each other over our beauteous heroine Anna. One feels a certain amount of pity for both of them, especially our hero Vladimir, who seems mentally damaged, as Anna is his serf but instead of doing the thing I always understood 19th century Russian noblemen to do (i.e. if liking her, taking her against her will, and maybe giving her a house of her own if he feels nice. She should be thankful he didn't sell her!) he seems to express his feeling by falling madly in love and treating her like procelain and courting her and eventually (but not at this point) marrying her. Yeah, I like fairytales too.

Basically, hot guys fighting each other. Over love. What more do you need?



Anna interrupts the duel:

Anna: Vladimir. Stop. Stop, put down the gun. Vladmir, put down the gun or I will shoot.
V: Your care is very praiseworthy, madam. But there is the Code Duello so I must take my shot.
A: You won't take it.
V: Madam, I will.
Michael: Anna, Vladimir is right, you can't violate duelling rules.
A: Is murder done according to rules? Why are you both saying such nonsense? I told you, drop the gun or I will kill you.
V: Why are you waiting? Shoot. Aren't you going to kill me?
A: Drop the gun
V: (with the gun against his forehea) All you have to do is squeeze the trigger, and you get rid of a hated person forever.
M: Vladimir, get back to position.
V: We are not playing by the rules today. (to Anna) Come on, it's a mere movement of the finger.
A: Stop.
*Michael comes and grabs Vladimir's gun*
M: Anna, Vladimir forgot to tell you. His gun is empty, he deloped earlier [how can he tell??? Also, way to go, angsty main character].
V: Doctor, we won't need your help.
Doc: Praise be, then I am going home.
M: Why didn't you shoot?
V: I don't have to explain it. (to Anna) Your appearance finished it all off. You made your choice. And to kill the man you chose would have been really unfair on my part.
M: Vladimir, we wouldn't have been able to shoot at each other anyway.
V: I can't pretend I am happy for the both of you. You shot dead me anyhow, Anna.
A: But I didn't pull the trigger [is she mentally challenged?]
V: Nontheless, Baron Kurf is done for. All that's left is his last will. [these are her freedom papers OMG. I guess he thought he was going to die] Take these. Be happy.
V: Stop!
A: Michael.
M: What? What is there?
A: He gave me my freedom papers.
M: Thank you.
V: No need. Be happy.
M: Give me yor hand, I am so proud of you [argh, they are all being so noble I want to gag]
V: Last night I realized how much Anna loves you. If a woman is prepared to sacrfice like that, nothing will change her feeling.
M: What happened last night? [heeeeee]
V: Doesn't matter now. And all of today's farce had only one goal for me.
M: What?
V: For you to kill me. Remember, Michael. Nobility isn't always a good thing, sometimes it ruins things.

Vladimir after the duel. There is snow all over, but since this isn't a kdrama, he shall not freeze to death. Just be emo. Seriously, it's two minutes of hot angst:

Ghost of his Dad (I assume imagined, if not I'd call Buffy): It's hard for you today, my boy.
He: I thought I was hearing your voice, whenever I did something wrong.
Ghost: You don't need me any more.
He: I don't need anyone any more [what is he, a Goth centuries before they got invented?] I am going to live like a hermit, and not need much [OK, maybe he is 15?]
Ghost: Ehhh, you'll stop being blue, my friend. Don't be downcast, open champaigne bottles. [literally he says to shoot the champaigne bottle corks out to the ceiling. Dad used to to that :)]
He: Why did you come?
Ghost: To tell you I am proud of you.
He: So why am I feeling so awful? [Because you are a telenovela hero, duh]

Here is a vid. Luckily, it's a MV so I don't need to translate :) But it has two duels (man, Vladimir doesn't have a good life expectancy if he continues in this fashion, especially if one of the people he challenged is the Crown Prince) and a firing squad. All in a day's work for a hero :)

Anoher MV. I like being lazy:

Comments

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

All right, you've sold me on the Russian hotties in uniform. I'm thoroughly amused by the Playboy bunny servant though. Vladimir resembles Gaspard Ulliel.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Didn't you know she belongs to the Ye Olde Hugh Hefner society...

Who is Gaspard Ulliel? I keep seeing his name around.

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

Gaspard Ulliel is a French actor who most famously played Hannibal Lecter in the most recent movie and was also in A Very Long Engagement. He has some massively lovely blue eyes.

And I'll gladly take Vladimir, Michael, AND the crown prince off your hands, language barrier be damned.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info!

LOL, what are you going to do with all three of them? They probably need ten servants each ;)

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

Oh I'll think of something. Something truly devious and fun ;)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

You won't probably have to think of anything, they'll be too relieved you are unlikely to spend 1/10th as much on hair products as the heroine.

yay for CDI!!

[annous.livejournal.com]

GB , I can't tell how happy I am that you liked CDI, I like you saw it today , and I had a great great audience, that cheered, clapped, and was totally into the film.

SRK...what can I say , this was a great great performance...and he looked so unbelievably hot!\

Re: yay for CDI!!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Our audience was into it too. I admit we contributed to the noise :)

I really want to do a write-up for this movie because there is just so much there, but the one scene that really stayed with me was when the team won, and Kabir's face, it's as if despite it all, he couldn't believe it would happen, and the pride, and vindication and sheer vulnerability and yearning just...I started sobbing. At a victory in a sports film. Seems ridiculous but not when the movie is this amazingly made.

And I loved that we knew almost nothing about private life, physical or mental, of Kabir. We don't know if he has a gf/wife, what he did for the past 7 years, if he likes dogs, or eats his fries with ketchup on them. But because of SRK, and the direction, and the script, you really got to know him as a person, ot a character, saw how painfully real he was, from his desperate pride (he always seems ready for someone else to fling accusations at him) to his ruthless streak to his self-containment.

It's just. Just. I want to go see it again, but I am not free for the next too weekends, and just hope it will be there when I get back because it is just so amazing. It is going into my Top 5 Bollywood movies for sure (I think except for Fanaa they are all SRK movies so I guess it's a trend :P)

[fivil.livejournal.com]

CDI sounds like the new Lagaan - really well-told story in an otherwise typical sports movie format. Hmm. Maybe I ought to go see this with you in New York? I'm also planning on watching Marigold, but for that I was hoping to convince a fellow Heroes fan to go along, even though she's not into Bollywood (the lead actress is from Heroes).

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

CDI really was amazing. I don't even dislike sports movies, I hate them but this even made the matches interesting.

I am going to try to see what dates are available for me to come up. I come back on the 9th which is a sunday and you leave on friday (14) right? I am going to see if I can wrangle a day off...

[fivil.livejournal.com]

Yep, leaving on the 14th.

That would be awesome. ♥

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

Here via tatterpunk, and I just wanted to say thank you for introducing 'Why Why Love' into my life, and tempting me with Russian telenovelas.

Now I just need to find some way to get people to watch Middle Eastern telenovelas with me. And acquire subtitles (my Arabic, it's not great).

I've friended you if that's okay?

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Hi!

I'll friend you back!

I am very game for Arabic telenovelas (but then I am sure you can tell, I am game for anything with melodrama) but my Arabic is nonexistent so either I have to learn it (together with Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Hindi) or kidnap an Arabic speaker and force them to translate. I am too lazy for the former and the latter is illegal :)

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

Arabic telenovelas are the best!

An actual conversation I had with my mother:

Me: Why is that boxing kid so emo?
Mum: His parents were killed and his family fortune taken from him as a child.
Me: Okay, but why does he have a giant poster of that one-eyed man on his bedroom door?
Mum: Because that one-eyed man is the one who wrought destruction upon him.
Me: Ahhh....

Later:
Me: That makes no sense.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

This sounds like some Bollywood movies I've seen (Koyla, anyone? About SRJ who is a mute slave of evil Amrish Puri who falls in love with AP's new wife who wastricked into marriage by thinking she was married SRK. There is restoring voices by sewing the cut throats with fishhooks, giant drums, brothels, and cannabis-laden laddoos. I adore that movie).

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

...what's that film called?

(I'm watching episode four of WWL. The towels! His and hers toothbrushes!)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Koyla. It's ridiculous and awesome.

Episode 4 is incredibly adorable. But it gets better!

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

On reading your previous comment, you already said the name. My reading comprehension, it seems to have deserted me.

They're so in love! I want to figure out how to write their names and then draw hearts around them!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

One of the things I love the most about WWL is that in every other drama, Huo Da would be 'the other guy,' the goofy one heroine is friends with and who supports her and she eventully ends up with the angsty repressed one. But not here! :)

I love your icon btw.

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

It's like HYD! The hero is the goofy idiot. Although Doumyouji could give anyone a run for their money in the angst department. Not so much 'repression', but angst.

I miss London so much (even the underground)! I'm only in Brighton, but I need to get back home soon.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Poor Domyouji definitely has it rough.

And I can definitely assure you that Huo Da gets plenty of angst later on. It seems impossible to be a drama hero without having an angst sandwich on a regular basis!

I've been to London but not Brighton, even though I wanted to go. Hopefully some day :)

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

He already has the accident. Is it wrong that I was hoping that he'd never walk again, so that there'd be a drama with a disabled romantic lead?

You must come for that special rock with 'BRIGHTON' written all the way through. And the full english breakfasts made out of rock. Don't eat them, just look. Your teeth will thank you.

I still have half an hour left of episode four, so I'm signing off, bye!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Oh, he'll walk. But worse things are in store :)

[yavannie77.livejournal.com]

Ah, Vladimir and duels. He's up against his third (I think - there was the one with Alexandr and the one with Mihail and now this one, yup, three), at the moment here. He's very good at getting into trouble like that.

And re: your question about why it took so long for them to fight the duel? Sheesh, the amount of statuesque posing and angsty closeups alone kept them at it for two solid eps. :P

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Third???? And he is still in his 20s? Heh. He really seems to be hell-bent on leaving his future wife a widow :) Doesn't he know that is how Pushkin bought it? He really better move to the country and see no one :P

Sheesh, the amount of statuesque posing and angsty closeups alone kept them at it for two solid eps. :P


ROFL. It's like a DragonBallZ (anime), where they make a single fight last for eps and eps :)

[srkfanatic.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you went to watch CDI after all. I know you were saying you were going to skip it. It's a wonderful movie that should be seen by everyone at least once.

P.S. - I see you signed up at the forum. Come by sometime and tell us how much you really loved CDI. :D

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

It was a really really wonderful movie. I was literally moved to tears.

And I definitely will!

[aliterati.livejournal.com]

Liked the guys, but, uh, what's with her porn star tan?

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Hey, a girl's got to eat while she makes up her mind between her suitors...