Hidden Good Actor in Hollywood (2)

European movies are always able to demonstrate the message about human relationship in depth. Among all the American actors in the last twenty years, Ethan Hawke is the only one can truly demonstrate this beauty of the European movies as an American actor. 

He knows how to mix these two entire different cultures into his play.  A drama Before Sunrise in 1995, The San Francisco Times praised Ethan Hawke as, “He interacts so gently and simply that you can feel certain that he helped to write the dialogue. He seems to have something personal at stake in his performances.”

Also, in 2006 there is a French move named “Paris, I Love You”, consists of 18 short stories which was premiered at the Cannes Film Festival as well as the Toronto Film Festival. In 2009,

Hollywood adopted the story board and turned it to a romance movie named “New York, I Love You.” Many actors got the wrong idea, they tried too hard to play the European style, the problem is, it is about New York.

 Ethan Hawke, he was able to remember his role, a single American guy living in a fascinated New York City working as a writer, but applied the French mood and style in dealing with his role.

Hidden Good Actor in Hollywood (1)

American should be really proud of them as the United States has the oldest and largest film industry in the world; that is what is known, the Hollywood movie industry.


Ethan Hawke has already played over 40 movies since his age 14. His first film role in 1985’s Explorers.  When the time he was in high school, he aspired to be a writer, but developed an  interest in acting. He made his stage debut at age 13 in a school production. After high school graduation he studied acting at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, eventually dropping out after he was cast in Dead Poet Society in 1989.  He enrolled twice in New York University’s English program, but dropped out both times to pursue acting roles. Who has made such a sacrifice?

Audience should use the number of box office and the times of nomination to define how good an actor is, because these things are involved in commercial interest. These are unreal. One of his highlight movies was Reality Bites in 1994. He acted as Troy, a slacker who mocks the ambitions of his girlfriend. Roger Ebert, a well-known American film critic and screenwriter, said that Ethan Hawke’s performance was convincing and noteworthy.  Even The New York Times noted, “Mr. Hawke’s subtle and storing performance makes it clear that Troy feels things too deeply to risk failure and admit he’s feeling anything at all.”

Another highlight for his is the movie Training Day in 2001 with Denzel Washington. Denzel Washington won the Best Actor in the Oscar.  So many reviews mentioned that “Ethan Hawke is perfect for Denzel Washington”.

This is what makes a great actor.

Religious Freedom In China

The acceptability of China to the gospel is still arguable.  Generally, the China government has changed its attitude on the freedom of Christian beliefs even the gospel can’t be preached at the moment, at least some kinds of church meeting are still allowed on Sunday.  

“There is still some restrictions on church meetings on Sunday,” said Dr. Shen, a Chinese Language Professor. “The congregation of the local Chinese people and the foreigners are not allowed to gather together in the same congregation. They need to have their own.”  Because of political reason, the China government aims to avoid the aggression and influence from the foreigners to the government body through the local citizens.  Missionary work will still need to wait until the release of all these restrictions.

Beside the invention from the government, the gospel spreading is also being affected by the Cultural Revolution.  There was secondary and primary schools set up by Christian parties; but after the revolution, all these schools were forced to change to private basis.  Students do not have any way even to learn about God.  Dr. Shen explained that the newer generation who lives and studies in this system is practicing “no such things of God”. 

Kwong Chun Wah, a clergyman who teaches at Hong Kong Baptist Theological Seminary, says that the new Hong Kong government will not tackle religious issues in the near future, because too many other important issues are demanding attention.  He also says that Christian leaders in Hong Kong saw the main focus of the handover as a crisis of identity.  But Tung Chee-hwa, the first new leader of Hong Kong after 1997, has provided assurance that he will protect and preserve religious freedom in the nation.  Tung, a multimillionaire Hong Kong businessman chosen by Beijing to run the territory, stressed that churches and church organizations would not suffer because of the change that took place July 1.  

 “The Basic Law stipulates that the Hong Kong SAR government shall not restrict religious beliefs, interfere in internal affairs of religious organizations or restrict religious activities that do not contravene the laws of Hong Kong,” he said.

A Good Bad Movie

Fight Club is a 1996 novel by Chuck Palahniuk.  The book follows the experiences of an unnamed person struggling with insomnia.  The director David Fincher adapted the novel into a film of the same name in 1999 starring two of the most favorite actors in the Hollywood film market.   

This movie is mentioned about a thirty-something young office guy, the Narrator, with somewhat materialism attitudes from his emptiness inside looking for a solution to cure his insomnia.  The director was able to present the message concerning the human being about the dark and psychological weakness within.  All the plots were described in details and projected to a big screen; the emotions of the audiences were persuaded by the realistic audio and video effect with magnifying the sense of anti-reality, violation and sexuality.

With all these elements, Fight Club received many nominations from different awards including nominated as the Best Film, the Best Actor, the Best Editing and the Best DVD in 1999 and 2000.  Ironically, it is also nominated as the Best Fight by MTV Movie Award for the actor in the movie fighting against him.

In fact, some critical receptions were reported. When Fight Club premiered at the Venice International File Festival, an oldest file festival in the world, it was debated critics. Another newspaper reported, "Many loved and hated it in equal measures." Some critics expressed concern that the film would incite copycat behavior.  Upon the film's theatrical release, The Times reported the reaction: "It touched a nerve in the male psyche that was debated in newspapers across the world.” Although the film's makers called Fight Club "an accurate portrayal of men in the 1990s", some critics called it "irresponsible and appalling". 

Another newspaper charged, "Fight Club is shaping up to be the most contentious mainstream Hollywood meditation on violence.”

Your Music Could Be Illegal

Many products from the mass media are legally protected from freely published to the producers, as long as they have the copyright. But once all these media products are uploaded online, everyone can access to these products.
 


Music is a very good illustration to explain. In the Asian cyber world, there is a program, Foxy, users can download for free, which allows users to connect to those possess the same program and share the music together. For an example, if someone want to look for the songs of Michael Jackson, he/she just has to type his name into the searching box, for those users who are at online status have any song of Michael Jackson, all the songs will be shown on the screen. They can choose and download for whatever they have. Normally, it can generate up to thousand results and even more. Not only the music can be found, but also the video, TV show and movie can be saved into the computer. 

As a result, an original copy of a song now can be owned and shared by thousand and thousand people in the cyber world. The industry of movie and music production is in crisis, less and less people are not willing to pay to watch a movie to a theater or to buy a DVD, they are not willing to buy a new CD album for one to two songs they heard from radio channels as they believe that they can download it from the Internet later.