The Oscar project- The Last Emperor

When The Last Emperor won Best Picture in 1987, I was only 11 years old. I think my mother must have rented it on VHS and made me watch it. I know that I'd seen it before, and remember finding it terribly dull. The only details I remember were about the emperor as a baby.

This was the first movie to be filmed inside the Forbidden City, and it's quite the accomplishment. I'm glad that I took the time to rewatch this one, as I was obviously too young to appreciate it on my first viewing. Bertolucci's bio-pic about the life of the last emperor of Manchuri, Pu Yi, is a grand and visually stunning movie. I adored the lavish sets, costumes and fantastic soundtrack.

I was a bit bothered by what I saw as a smidge of Orientalism, and the fact that the movie was in English. (This bothers me about a lot of Asian movies, including "Memoirs of a Geisha") I also thought that the teenager playing Pu Yi sounded a lot like a robot.

On the other hand, I had a renewed appreciation for this film as a historical piece. I studied Chinese history in university and was completely fascinated by it all. This film does a good job illuminating some of the aspects of the fall of the Manchurian dynasty. I wasn't aware that Manchurians borrowed so much from Mongolians. In one scene, it looks as though the characters are wearing Mongolian style head-dresses. I'm compelled to go find some history books to see the differences and similarities between Mongolian and Manchurian dress.

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Last night was my final shift at the bookstore. It was sort of surreal. I did actually do some work, but I also spent a lot of time talking to my co-workers, and looking at books.

Today is my first shift at the Dance Centre . I'm going in to train on newsletter production and will be using my old friend, Quark Xpress, for the first time in 4 years.

Then I have to finish packing, call my mom and head to B*'s so that we can wake up early to catch our flight.

People keep on asking me if I'm excited or how I'm feeling, but to be honest, I have so much to do and so many little tasks to accomplish for each thing that's happening in my life right now so my focus is entirely on getting from Point A to Point B.

On the other hand, it's nice to have some many new things and changes happening all at once. I like it when this happens.

A little behind the times...

So what are your favourite sites for downloading mp3s