for people who like staring dramatically out windows

Everyone knows that when your life feels so devoid of intrigue and romance and beauty, one of the best thing you can do is watch a good film. Especially a good period drama. The age we live in, unfortunately, is not one we equate with romance. What hope is there of locking eyes with a stranger in a crowded ballroom? Or writing to your lover off at sea? (okay, the latter scenario, ridden with sadness, is perhaps less appealing). I've complained a thousand times before about how unromantic modern dancing is (although I find "krumping" hilariously awesome, and mention it whenever I can. Also do not get me started on MC Hammer style dancing--Love.) So what we have... well, film, and books--our escape. And imagination.

But music too. Sometimes all you really need is a good movie soundtrack. Often heavy on the classical, the dramatic, the emotion-wrought, they're wonderful for getting introspective about your own life. Turn up the volume and let it sweep you away. As Jackie, longtime roommate, can attest to, I'm a big fan of staring out of windows dramatically. All the better, of course, if you're listening to heart-wrenching soundscapes, especially if it's on a train, watching the world around you speed by. (I heavily romanticize train travel and the age of steam, in general. Because when you are aboard a train, you almost aren't anywhere at all, but you're in a perpetual state of going somewhere. And you yourself don't control where the train goes--it's out of your hands--so you just sit there, turning over this thought and that, awaiting your arrival.)

Anyway, one listening recommendation I can make is from Ang Lee's 2007 film Lust, Caution, which I watched a number of months ago.  There is not only a great soundtrack but ESPIONAGE involved (everyone loves that) and it is based off a story by Eileen Chang. I read her short stories in "Love in a Fallen City" and just adored them, despite how truly pessimistic the woman is about love.

 (I love that during this time women were so astonishingly stylish in their body-hugging cheongsams and painted red lips, while men wore sharp Western suits. Of course, neither look is complete without cigarettes/cigars, glamorous and unhealthy).

Well, here--because wikipedia does such a good job of explaining the allure of Eileen Chang: "She is noted for writings that deal with the tensions between men and women in love, and are considered by some scholars to be among the best Chinese literature of the period. Chang's portrayal of life in 1940s Shanghai and occupied Hong Kong is remarkable in its focus on everyday life and the absence of the political subtext which characterized many other writers of the period."

I can't recommend her work enough. Although, because I am probably an eternal optimist at my core (people might not believe this about me. I do have pessimistic, cynical tendencies, I admit, but it's a shield of sorts), it is no wonder that my favorite story of hers is one that offers a "happy" ending for its characters. I should say, Eileen Chang's version of happy--dubious, transient, and unsettling happiness. Similarly, I love E.M. Forster's A Passage to India for an honors seminar I took freshman year ("Romantic Love, East and West") but I really love A Room with a View, which is considered his one non-pessimistic work. It's like I appreciate and understand the "let's face it, life is brutal and unkind" attitude, but when even the most hardened types can admit there's a flicker of hope and happiness sometimes, well... how can I resist? Talk to me about it again in 30 years, when perhaps life's gotten the better of me, and we'll see if I've changed my mind.

Oh goodness, there are a million digressions in this entry. I just get so excited about this sort of stuff. And I'm glad I can be excited about it, because it lets me know that I picked the right major. Even though I sort of picked "East Asian Studies" haphazardly, not really knowing what it would entail. And even if I'm not really sure what I'll do with this major, or German Studies, either.

So, sidenote #29382: I love something about British imperialism, whether in Hong Kong or, as with Forster's work, in India. Imperialism in general just intrigues me. I guess that explains my love for Out of Africa as well.

Without further ado, from the Lust, Caution soundtrack  by Alexandre Desplat (of course, if you're going to compose glorious soundtracks for films, you should be French).



The film, by the way, is good although rather sexually graphic. But I can save my discussion of Ang Lee films for the future, haha.