Temptress Moon

Just watched Temptress Moon with Gong Li - what a dish. She is always convincing and engaging - whether she's playing an opium smoking slut or an arrogant princess. I'm sure the Chinese are sick of her, but at least she is a great actress - unlike many of our American leading lady counterparts - I won't name names and offend everyone.So many foreign films have engaging stories and great actors without the car chases and bloodletting. I can't think of an American film in recent history that can even compare to some of the anime films I've seen. The plots are hokey, the actors SUCK and the hype around the films is ridiculous. If it's not about gruesome murders, rogue cops, gangsters, sci-fi brutality, terrorism or espionage, it ain't gettin' made in America. Occasionally they come out with a drama, but they end up being sappy and everybody in the movie is from the South or is white trash dying of some horrible disease. Think about it.Lately they've been trying to pass off these corny WWII epics as great films. Movies like "Shaving Ryan's Privates", "Pearl Har-bore" are just watered down US propaganda films designed to give Americans a hard on for war - it seems to be working, too. From watching these films, one might believe that the rest of the world is filled with evil miscreants who stir up trouble because they are jealous of "our way of life" -- an "we" are just pure, self-less, liberty loving, divine beings who rush in to save the world in the final reel flying a tattered "Old Glory". If you want great films about war, see Rhapsody in August or Grave of the Fireflies. If America were a human body, Hollywood would be the a**hole.I hope you're all getting this. It WILL be on the final exam.