bsn4-A-methystians: Hero- Code colors: What's the meaning?

bsn4-A-methystians: Hero- Code colors: What's the meaning?

Hero- Code colors: What's the meaning?

RED Punctuating the flying swordplay of "Hero" is a love story between two fabled assassins: Broken Sword, played by Tony Leung Chiu-Wai (above) and Flying Snow, played by Maggie Cheung. Red was the first color Mr. Zhang chose, which presented Mr. Doyle with an immediate problem: in his work with Hong Kong directors like Wong Kar-wai, Mr. Doyle had made a conscious effort not to use the color. "Up until `In the Mood for Love,' " he says, "we avoided red at all costs. I think I've probably said on at least 25 films, `No red,' because it has too many associations in Asia." Then he had to find a way to produce images that would match the unusual red of the hand-dyed costumes. To do this he decided to switch from Fuji, the film brand used for most of the film, to Kodak. "The red is a Kodak red," he said. "It's a much more saturated solid red."

WHITE In the third section of "Hero," When Maggie Cheung rushes to save her lover in the third section of "Hero," she rides by a dramatic backdrop of cliffs that, Mr. Doyle says, "look like old walls falling apart." Having decided to shoot a key part of the third tale in a desert near the border with Kazakhstan, the filmmakers picked the white of the desert at noon for the costumes in this section. When it came to actually shooting there, however, the crew found the desert at noon beautiful but unendurable; they had to wait until later in the day to shoot, when it was cool enough to work. "The white became a little bit warmer than white," Mr. Doyle notes, "because of the evening light."

BLUE The filmmakers decided to stage the climax of the second story on a magnificent lake in the Jiuzhaigou cq region of China, and the color of the water, they say, inspired them to make this section blue. As Mr. Doyle explains: "We knew that one section should be red, but we weren't sure what the other colors were. And so we wandered around China looking for spaces that were interesting or unexpected or perhaps hadn't been shot before. And we said, `Oh, this might work for this, therefore this section is this color.' It kind of evolved organically." The resulting lack of contrast between characters and setting was intentional. "The thing about color is that it's like light," Mr. Doyle says. "In order to see darkness on film, you need a bright spot in some part of the frame. In other words, you need a contrast. In this film you're totally surrounded by one color, and that's very rare."

GREEN Woven through the variously colored stories of "Hero" are green flashbacks — in the one above, Mr. Leung enters a palace hung with floating green curtains. While most of the movie's bold colors were achieved by using filters and processing the film in unusual ways and using filters , the curtains had to be color-corrected on a computer to get the exact shade the filmmakers were after. Mr. Doyle, an Australian who made his name in Asian cinema, is impatient with universal theories of color like the one offered by the Italian cinematographer Vittorio Storaro: "Storaro says green is the color of knowledge. Well, I've done many films where green was the color of memory, and that's just a personal choice. Actually, in `Hero' we used green for the flashbacks because we ran out of colors. We'd done all the other stuff. So we had the red, we had the blue, we had the white — there was only green left, basically. You're not going to do anything in orange or pink."

Source:
http://www.helloziyi.us/Articles/Hero_Color_Code.htm

CHINA'S COMMENTS ON HERO

The movie contains a number of martial-arts sequences, and none of them seemed overly long to me, as has been the case in other films we've seen. The action sequences are well integrated into the story, and they are not overly violent but we think it comprise a little violence.hehehe

The use of color in "Hero" is stunning, and was very impressive, the sets and costumes. There are also some glorious locations, including a desert, a forest and a lake near mountains. We liked the music as well.

For the Different Colors

Black (Jet Li) = indicates bereavement, loss and grief

White (Broken Sword & Flying Snow)= indicates calmness, peace and tranquility..

REd (Flying Snow and the Apprentice) = indicates eagerness, fury and rage.

Green (2 Assasins & the Emperor) = indicates transformation, change and revolution.

The grand theme of the film is the heroism of individuals who willingly sacrifice themselves for a cause. In the movie that cause is the transformation some 2200 years ago of a bunch of separate states into a unified China. But I have to wonder is the film intended to have modern-day implications for China?? I think it has. and it was a great and inspiring movie!!!

You better watch it!!! or you'll miss half of your life!!

CHINA'S DISCUSSIONS:

For our Goal #3:

Q: What is a dynasty and what were some of the dynasties of Ancient China?

A: Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China

A dynasty is a succession of rulers who belong to the same family for generations, at least cognatic. A (male-line) dynasty is also often called a "house". Historians traditionally consider a state's history within a framework of successive dynasties, particularly with such nations as China, Ancient Egypt and the Persian Empire. Until the nineteenth century, it was taken for granted that a legitimate function of a monarch was to aggrandize his dynasty, that is, to increase the territory, wealth and power of family members. Dynastic names may not be the same as individual surnames, in that titles are customarily used instead.
A ruler in a dynasty is sometimes referred to as a dynast, but this term is also used to describe any member of a reigning family who retains succession rights to a throne. It should also be noted that history is rarely as neat as it is portrayed and it was rare indeed for one dynasty to end calmly and give way quickly and smoothly to a new one. Dynasties were often established before the overthrow of an existing regime, or continued for a time after they had been defeated. In addition, China was divided for long periods of its history, with different regions being ruled over by different groups. At times like these there was no dynasty ruling a unified China..

History of China
ANCIENT
3 Sovereigns and 5 Emperors
Xia Dynasty 2070–1600 BCE
Shang Dynasty 1600–1046 BCE
Zhou Dynasty 1122–256 BCE
Western Zhou
Eastern Zhou
Spring and Autumn Period
Warring States Period
IMPERIAL
Qin Dynasty 221 BCE–206 BCE
Han Dynasty 206 BCE–220 CE
Western Han
Xin Dynasty
Eastern Han
Three Kingdoms 220–280 CE
Wei, Shu & Wu
Jin Dynasty 265–420 CE
Western Jin
Eastern Jin	16 Kingdoms 304–439 CE
Southern & Northern Dynasties 420–589 CE
Sui Dynasty 581–619 CE
Tang Dynasty 618–907 CE
5 Dynasties & 10 Kingdoms 907–960 CE	Liao Dynasty 907–1125 CE
Song Dynasty 960–1279 CE
Northern Song		W. Xia Dyn.
Southern Song	Jin Dyn.
Yuan Dynasty 1271–1368 CE
Ming Dynasty 1368–1644 CE
Qing Dynasty 1644–1911 CE
MODERN
Republic of China 1911–present
People's Republic of China 1949–present	Republic of China (on Taiwan)

CLinK Link: Dynasties in Chinese history

Initial rating of your blog: 10 out of 20

I mentioned in class that your class blog will be 30% of your grade. This means that you have to consider well the rubric that i posted in the share box. In any case, to get the ball rolling for you guys, here is an initial rating of your blog.

Content - 2

I couldn't really see the purpose of your blog. All i know is that it's all about Asia (i think). A lot of your posts (i believe) are complete copies of other web pages. It would have been easier to paste the links to those pages; what would have been more helpful was if you had provided your content based on what you think of those links.

Interest - 2 to 3

I think that you have certainly put a lot of information in your blog. In some case, there's a little too much information that makes the reader lose interest.

Navigation - 4

Using the free blogger templates helped you a lot. It's easy to navigate around your blog. It only becomes difficult when you are reading one of the long posts. When you get to the bottom of a long post, you'll have to scroll up so far before you can actually click on some links to navigate to different pages.

Again, if your posts are complete copies of other webpages, then just provide the link. This way, some (many?) of the long posts would have completely disappeared and in their place just one or two lines that link to other pages (unless you add a couple of paragraphs to give your thoughts).

Layout - 2 to 1

while you did use the free blogger templates, i see some areas that really, really need improvement. For one thing, using different colors, and fonts, and font sizes ... it distracts from what you are trying to say. In fact, it really makes your site look cluttered

CHINA'S DISCUSSIONS:

FOR GOAL #2:

Question: How does life in these regions differ from each other?

Answer:

China ranges from mostly plateaus and mountains in the west to lower lands in the east. Principal rivers flow from west to east, including the Yangtze (central), the Huang He (Yellow river, north-central), and the Amur (northeast), and sometimes toward the south (including the Pearl River, Mekong River, and Brahmaputra), with most Chinese rivers emptying into the Pacific Ocean.

In the east, along the shores of the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea there are extensive and densely populated alluvial plains. On the edges of the Inner Mongolian plateau in the north, grasslands can be seen. Southern China is dominated by hills and low mountain ranges. In the central-east are the deltas of China's two major rivers, the Huang He and Yangtze River. Most of China's arable lands lie along these rivers; they were the centers of China's major ancient civilizations. Other major rivers include the Pearl River, Mekong, Brahmaputra and Amur. Yunnan Province is considered a part of the Greater Mekong Subregion, which also includes Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam^[12].

In the west, the north has a great alluvial plain, and the south has a vast calcareous tablelandhill ranges of moderate elevation, and the Himalayas, containing Earth's highest point, Mount Everest. The northwest also has high plateaus with more arid desert landscapes such as the Takla-Makan and the Gobi Desert, which has been expanding. During many dynasties, the southwestern border of China has been the high mountains and deep valleys of Yunnan, which separate modern China from Burma, Laos and Vietnam. traversed by

The Paleozoic formations of China, excepting only the upper part of the Carboniferous system, are marine, while the Mesozoic and Tertiary deposits are estuarine and freshwater or else of terrestrial origin. Groups of volcanic cones occur in the Great Plain of north China. In the Liaodong and Shandong Peninsulas, there are basaltic plateaus.

The climate of China varies greatly. The northern zone (containing Beijing) has summer daytime temperatures of more than 30 degrees Celsius and winters of Arctic severity. The central zone (containing Shanghai) has a temperate continental climate with very hot summers and cold winters. The southern zone (containing Guangzhou) has a subtropical climate with very hot summers and mild winters.

Due to a prolonged drought and poor agricultural practices, dust storms have become usual in the spring in China.^[13] Dust has blown to southern China and Taiwan, and has even reached the West Coast of the United States. Water, erosion, and pollution control have become important issues in China's relations with other countries.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China

CHINA'S DISCUSSIONS:

FOR GOAL #1:

China is a cultural region, ancient civilization, and nation in East Asia. It is one of the world's oldest civilizations, consisting of states and cultures dating back more than six millennia. The stalemate of the last Chinese Civil War has resulted in two political entities using the name China: the People's Republic of China (PRC), administering mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau; and the Republic of China (ROC), administering Taiwan and its surrounding islands.

China is one of the world's oldest continuous civilizations. It has the world's longest continuously used written language system, and is said to be the source of some of the world's great inventions, including the Four Great Inventions of ancient China: paper, the compass, gunpowder, and printing.

Background: For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences, but in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the country was beset by civil unrest, major famines, military defeats, and foreign occupation. After World War II, the Communists under MAO Zedong established an autocratic socialist system that, while ensuring China's sovereignty, imposed strict controls over everyday life and cost the lives of tens of millions of people. After 1978, his successor DENG Xiaoping and other leaders focused on market-oriented economic development and by 2000 output had quadrupled. For much of the population, living standards have improved dramatically and the room for personal choice has expanded, yet political controls remain tight.

Geography

China

Location:	Eastern Asia, bordering the East China Sea, Korea Bay, Yellow Sea, and South China Sea, between North Korea and Vietnam
Geographic coordinates:	35 00 N, 105 00 E
Map references:	Asia
Area:	total: 9,596,960 sq km land: 9,326,410 sq km water: 270,550 sq km
Area - comparative:	slightly smaller than the US
Land boundaries:	total: 22,117 km border countries: Afghanistan 76 km, Bhutan 470 km, Burma 2,185 km, India 3,380 km, Kazakhstan 1,533 km, North Korea 1,416 km, Kyrgyzstan 858 km, Laos 423 km, Mongolia 4,677 km, Nepal 1,236 km, Pakistan 523 km, Russia (northeast) 3,605 km, Russia (northwest) 40 km, Tajikistan 414 km, Vietnam 1,281 km regional borders: Hong Kong 30 km, Macau 0.34 km
Coastline:	14,500 km
Maritime claims:	territorial sea: 12 nm contiguous zone: 24 nm exclusive economic zone: 200 nm continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin
Climate:	extremely diverse; tropical in south to subarctic in north
Terrain:	mostly mountains, high plateaus, deserts in west; plains, deltas, and hills in east
Elevation extremes:	lowest point: Turpan Pendi -154 m highest point: Mount Everest 8,850 m
Natural resources:	coal, iron ore, petroleum, natural gas, mercury, tin, tungsten, antimony, manganese, molybdenum, vanadium, magnetite, aluminum, lead, zinc, uranium, hydropower potential (world's largest)
Land use:	arable land: 15.4% permanent crops: 1.25% other: 83.35% (2001)
Irrigated land:	525,800 sq km (1998 est.)
Natural hazards:	frequent typhoons (about five per year along southern and eastern coasts); damaging floods; tsunamis; earthquakes; droughts; land subsidence Source: http://geography.about.com/library/cia/blcchina.htm and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China