maladaptive personality

Rating: 10/10 (28 February 2001)

CTHD is a foreign movie from Taiwan with projected audience not just limited to those of the US. That has been said, I would like to respond to many harsh comments on this epic movie. First off, precisely because this is a foreign movie concerning a particular strata of subculture in historical China, we, as Americans, should adapt ourselves to the contents of the movie, not the other way around. It's our ignorance that we don't understand how people defy gravity in the movie, but not the responsibility of the director to fully explain an established subculture (namely, WuXia movies and novels)in the alloted movie time----it would be redundant and totally unnecessary to those who are familiar with these basic elements that sustain the subculture, and incidentally the very audience Ang Lee had in mind. Now if you have an open mind, even you had no previous knowledge on this flying thing (by using the word flying clearly shows our limited knowledge on this subculture, for anyone who is familiar with the genre knows it's just a established, fantacized Martial art called Qing Kung, or the martial art of lightness), you would regard this as more or less an expression of the mythic nature of the movie, and enjoy what's being presented. I suppose the people who criticized about the flying probably don't like abstract art either---it's boring, it doesn't reflect reality, or giggle at the seemingly randomized mixture of primary colors and be puzzled by the fact that how this artwork is adored by so many avantgarde art lovers. That basically leads to my conclusion, a person suffered from maladaptive personality disorder fails to adjust to its surroundings. The person lives in a rigidly formed reality, and when presented with new facts or situation, maladaptive defensive responses ensued including sweating, palpitation, dizziness, and possiblity fainting, on the other extreme, the disgruntled person will vehemently deny the surroundings, eagerly return to his/her comfort zone, and frequently accompanied with irrational emotions including hatred and extreme fear. It is okay that you don't know what Wudan or Qing Kong is about, an adaptive person would simply accept these facts or go back home and ask somebody more knowledgeable on East Asian Culture or do some quick research....a maladaptive person after experiencing the aforementioned physiological responses, comes to IMDB and writes a review to present with us his/her ignorance and the associated pathological manifestations. In the end, this is only a 2 hr movie, and do you really expect Ang Lee to explain everything that is taken for granted by the Asian audience just for us Americans? Well, after all, Ang Lee is going to make a Prequel and perhaps we would have a better idea about the mythical Qing Kung, WuDan, and the Green Destiny. After all it is going to take Lucas 6 episodes to tell the star war saga, right?