Subject: Re: ASHES OF TIME/EAST EVIL, WEST POISON Newsgroups: alt.asian-movies From: greenie@uclink2.berkeley.edu (Greenie the Delighted) Date: 1 Aug 1995 08:55:15 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley In article <3usj02$4c6@agate.berkeley.edu>, Edmund H. Wong wrote: >Some questions: > >* why do Leslie and Jacky end up killing each other? Or is this just some >loose thread cut off from Louis Cha's work? Actually that was taken straight from the novel The Eagle Shooting Hero. In the novel, the West (Leslie) and the North (Jacky), who are now probably in their late forties or early fifties, has several encounters where they fight vigorously. The West, being the villain, ultimately gets the worst of the ordeal, becoming insane near the end of the story. Thus Leslie is right when he says "seven" is his unlucky number. Because even though the North didn't actually kill him, he is the one who comes up with the plan to destroy the West's mental state. I thought it was interesting how Ashes of Time humanizes, and in some ways, sympathizes with the West. When Jin Jong wrote TESH, he presents the West as downright replusive. Such as he committed adultery and fathered a son with his sister-in-law, and how he always carry snakes wherever he goes... But in AoT, the affair between the West and his brother's wife (Maggie) is interpreted as true love, and their intimacy most likely happens BEFORE and NOT after Maggie's wedding as the novel suggests. >* What was Charlie's significance? What was she/her situation supposed to >symbolize? Literally speaking, there is one scene in TESH where the curious heroine asks the North how he lost his finger. The North, who has a weakness for delicious cooking, replys that his lust for good food was what caused him to lose that finger. In AoT, that event is interpreted as a battle between the North and the swordsmen, and that his "good food" is actually a basket of Charlies' eggs. This interpretation makes the North's reply in the novel seems almost sarcastic. Very interesting indeed. -- Alvin >Edmund, who now owns both Ashes of Time posters :) -- ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' HAVE A DAY. MAKE IT A GOOD ONE. ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' Subject: Re: ASHES OF TIME/EAST EVIL, WEST POISON Newsgroups: alt.asian-movies From: greenie@uclink2.berkeley.edu (Greenie the Delighted) Date: 1 Aug 1995 09:37:28 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley In article <3v398k$bki@jhunix1.hcf.jhu.edu>, Dzung Pham wrote: >Does anyone know if the character played by Brigitte Lin in the film is >also a character later on in Jin Yong's novel ? I get the sense that she >might be, like many of the other characters, but can't figure out which >one. Lin's character is Tuc Gu Kau Bye (Defeat-Seeking Loner). The character is the greatest swordsman ever, but the Loner is only mentioned briefly in The Eagle-Shooting Heroes because the character is already dead when the story begins. However, the Loner plays a more prominent role in TESH's sequel The God Eagle Couple (bad translation?) where the main character finds a manuscript by the Loner and learns to become a great swordsman as well. The catch here is that most readers (myself included) thought that the great swordsman is a man. -- Alvin > >-- Dzung > >----------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Dzung Luu Pham The Johns Hopkins University > (pham@mail.ece.jhu.edu) Electrical & Computer Engineering Dept. > (http://iacl.ece.jhu.edu/~pham) Image Analysis and Communications Lab >============================================================================= > -- ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' HAVE A DAY. MAKE IT A GOOD ONE. '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''