Movies in General

Re: Movies in General/ Star Trek etc etc

ys a user who berated the author for not mentioning something he spent a segment of the very video discussing, then selectively and willfully mistook a blatant joke from a comedian as a serious comment (even a non-English speaker would've been able to see that a joke was being made. This panel was made up of the host, an author, a comedian, and two or three politicians).

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Says the guy who is denial that they all were talking about nothing but China being the invader.

There's no point in being so ridiculously nationalistic and stubborn.
The questioner said that some people had interpreted the invaders as China and asked what their real identity was. He answered that their identity was deliberately ambiguous (it doesn't in fact fit with any real country). He was talking about China because he was asked.

I already mentioned he wrote a book about the settlement/invasion of Australia from an Indigenous perspective, which was mentioned in the video. You have absolutely no grounds for argument. Furthermore I wrote 'in our lifetime' for a reason.

As for Iraq, the original book was written a decade before that.

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Nationalistic is making movies about fictional invasion by other countries and then dedicating them to to people who've been invaded in real life. You're saying there's not a message there. If it were not serious, he would've dedicated it to no one. Was it a joke that the author talked about wanting to spur on national identity among the young in Australia? Sounds like Nazi Germany.

The author said it wasn't China.
The movie producers said it won't be any particular country.

You clearly have a hang-up in insisting that it is China so that you have something to complain about.

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He didn't outright say it wasn't. He intentionally left that as vague. He didn't refute any of the panelists who said it was China. And the movie has Asian faces as the enemy in the trailer. Pretty hypocritical for Australians to grip and whine being paranoid over invasion when they were invaders themselves.

You're the one angrily trying to deny something author is to the least pointing to the traditonal Australian historical paranoia towards China. I saw 60 Minutes. Australians didn't kidnap those British babies from England back during the 1960s because they loved babies. They stole them because they had a bizarre paranoid fear that they needed to populate in order to fight a future Chinese invasion. Talk about being hung-up on the Chinese...

So you're not advocating protests to stop the movie being seen, you're advocating distribution boycotts to stop the movie being seen. That is of the sort, and expressed in a sinister way.

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That's what all Western countries talk of doing if China doesn't bend to its will. That's why I advocate it because I know you guys don't want what you do being done right back at you. If that's sinister then guess who makes that even more sinister? Again... you get to do it but China can't? How hypocritical... and not surprising. Read again above on Australia's paranoia over China that they'll go to the crazy extent and kidnap children for the future army to fight China...

Re: Movies in General/ Star Trek etc etc

This is pathetic, a parody. You're not interested in reality, you just want to feel offended and under attack so you can strike out. Get a life - you are exactly what is primitive and infantile and ugly about nationalism.

Re: Movies in General/ Star Trek etc etc

Says the guy who thinks he can dictate what was and was not a joke in that piece. How convenient! Ask anyone about those books and I'll bet over 95% say it's China. The author doesn't need to be direct.

Re: Movies in General/ Star Trek etc etc

Ouroboros said:

The author said it wasn't China.
The movie producers said it won't be any particular country.

You clearly have a hang-up in insisting that it is China so that you have something to complain about.

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The implications, in the films trailer suggests the belligerents are Chinese - I don't think that's disputable at all, under the current fear of the PRC's development. (I mean, who else currently would even have the capability to launch an invasion against the aussies? And who else is a country which is constantly portrayed as aggressive and increasingly powerful (regardless of whether that's true or not)

I don't think that anyone's looking for something to complain about, but we're just annoyed at how aussies can make a movie on how they could be invaded where their country was effectively founded on invasion. And add to that the idea that China's never invaded a country... (assuming tibet and the indian/vietnam etc wars were border disputes)... well chinese people will feel pretty annoyed. Hypocrisy would be a good, overall word to use here.
I myself feel flattered that they think China can somehow penetrate all the way to australia and launch a full scale invasion, without fear of the US or anyone intefering.


(I love how whenever movies feature china in any way this thread always goes a bit off topic - ahem - anyone watch toy story 3? anyone being dragged to see eclipse with girlfriends or partners? (while the twilight movies are pretty cr*p, i gotta give kudos to stephanie meyer for naming the books with such cool titles))

Re: Movies in General/ Star Trek etc etc

Come on, guys! It's a movie. There have been many conspiracy movies about the corruption of the US govn't. "Bourne Identity" and the new "green Zone" come to mind. These movies especially focus on portraying how US agents and military ignore international laws, killing/assasinating people around the world at will, and definitely feeding the belligerent image of the US govn't. And this is the exact image that the US govn't DON'T want now when the US desperately needs support around the world. According to someone's logic, these movies would be hated in the US. However, you don't see the president making a big fuss about it. And you don't see the American people complaining and boycotting the movies. Instead, these movies have been extremely popular in the States. As a matter of fact, conspiracy novels about the dark side of the US govn't have always been big hits in the US.

The way I see it, the more people are relaxed about how they themselves are talked about and portrayed in fictional stories shows the openness of the said society and the confidence of the people in that society. The more nervous and responsive you are about these types of things, it looks more to the people that you got something to hide and also the lack of confidence.

So let's kick back and enjoy the movie and have a big laugh about it. Some people will take it seriously, no doubt. People will take serious about anything. Like I said in another post earlier, many people still believe US presidency is controlled by a bunch of alien/human/lizard hybrids (History channel made a show about it not long ago). If you let things like that bother you, the only thing I can say is you got some self-confidence issues...

Re: Movies in General/ Star Trek etc etc

Bltizo said:

I don't think that anyone's looking for something to complain about, but we're just annoyed at how aussies can make a movie on how they could be invaded where their country was effectively founded on invasion. And add to that the idea that China's never invaded a country... (assuming tibet and the indian/vietnam etc wars were border disputes)... well chinese people will feel pretty annoyed. Hypocrisy would be a good, overall word to use here.
I myself feel flattered that they think China can somehow penetrate all the way to australia and launch a full scale invasion, without fear of the US or anyone intefering.

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Virtually ALL nations in the world come from invasions. How do you think China became this big? Why do you think the borders of most of the countries in the world look so jagged? They were the final settled outcome of wars fought between two neighboring nations, in other words, the borders came from invasions. You want to know what the border would look like if it was settled peacefully? Look at the map of the US. The borders of many states and counties in the US were "decided", so they are straight lines (let's not get into how the Europeans took the lands from the native Americans in the first place. That was not the contributing factor in deciding where Texas ends and where arkansas begins).

So in my opinion, one country has every right as well as any other nations in the world to talk about invasions in a fictional movie.

Re: Movies in General/ Star Trek etc etc

Australia was never invaded by the Europeans, they immigrated there, just like what the Asians are doing now.

Neither was N.Z invaded by the Europeans, the Maoris themselves invited the British Crown to govern the place because the Maoris were decimating themselves through tribal wars, and the hunter gatherer type of society was becoming unsustainable, as seafood/ shellfish and other land mammals became deleted and their primitive methods were also proving incapable of coping.

I've changed the name of this thread to better reflect the subject matter. Great discussion gents! Enjoy!

bd popeye super moderator

When the Japanese started making new Godzilla movies, there were some Americans upset that one movie depicted a pre-Godzilla saving Japanese soldiers during WWII by stomping all over some American soldiers. Or again TV show 24 fans went crazy because the Chinese tortured Jack Bauer. As I mentioned before they wanted to start a boycott. Also they wanted to start a petition to force the show's producers to write a show where it explains, for those that haven't watched the show and know, how Jack Bauer had the right to invade the Chinese consulate where one of his men in his command killed a consulate member to which is why Jack Bauer was captured and tortured. It's just a TV show, right? But then some of the neo-cons pointed out the popularity of the TV show as America's endorsement over CIA tortures the agency is accused of. Or how about when Ang Lee directed the American movie The Ice Storm based on a book written by an American. There were US editorials and reviews questioning how can a foreigner depict Americans in that way.

Right now China's rules on filmmaking prevents such movies or TV shows from ever being produced by Chinese filmmakers. Hopefully someday Bejing will drop those puritanical rules they have in place if this xenophobic trend continues. But it doesn't stop foreign moviemakers since some of what Bejing allows to be shown in China definitely breaks those rules. Maybe someone in another country will see an opportunity and exploit it since China will be the number one market for movies in the future. Many foreign studios won't need Hollywood and can make those very international movies Hollywood would never make. Hollywood pisses-off the Chinese... the Chinese are gonna want to see them. This is epic. A whole new international film industry will be born that doesn't need Hollywood. And movies will be made that Hollywood would never do because you'll see no Westerner as the hero and opens the door for them to be the very bad guy they've been protraying foreigners all these years. Bollywood movies are already popular in China so its shows Hollywood doesn't have a monopoly there. It's not a matter of if. It's only a matter of when. And when that happens you won't be hearing from those today hiding behind freedom of speech or artistic freedom saying those things anymore because they're going to want to stop people from making or seeing those productions because they no longer have the final say anymore.

It was an asian director who infinged, my and many other peoples sensibilities by portraying cowboys as gay. I grew up with JOHN WAYNE for crying out aloud.