It's usually hot and humid here in the good old summertime, but things have certainly been taken up a notch or two this week. Detroit was flooded badly on Friday night and Saturday, though we escaped the worst. We ended up with just over 3" of rain for the week (so far). Some parts of Detroit got more than twice that at one go. Google traffic maps showed almost the entire freeway system over there flooded, and filled with stranded cars. The forecast for the rest of the week reads like the monsoon season somewhere near the equator-hot, humid, with frequent storms each day and night. During a welcome break from rain yesterday I managed to cut the two lawns that border the house, so I am caught up for now. But the weeds in the garden are growing a foot each week, and there are too many mosquitoes to even think about going in there. On top of this, it is fish fly season, and while cutting the front lawn I was surrounded by about 7 billion of them. They don't bite, but they fly into ears, eyes, nose, and mouth. Parts of my tractor ride could have been filmed for a horror movie, only I would never have been paid enough to do it.
In movie news, I combined my two choices last week into one big one, a four hour version of the 1991 Taiwanese film A Brighter Summer Day, directed by Edward Yang. Using a lot of adolescent non-actors, the first half of the film talks about the situation in Taipei in 1961. Street gangs roamed at night, fighting for territory as the adults around them are mostly unaware and/or unconcerned about their behaviour. The second half of the film narrows it down more to one family. The 2nd half seemed to be smoother and more story-centered than the first half, which quickly (for me) became quite tiresome. This is one of the international films restored by Scorcese's film preservation society, the full version being shown in a pristine print since 2015, once thought lost. It was unseen in any version for over 20 years. Definitely worth watching, especially for the camera work and composition, and the way the director uses his space with his actors. The central incident in the film, a young boy killing his girlfriend, is based on an actual event in Taiwan. The movie came with hours of features, but so far we watched only three, including a wonderful interview with the adult version of the boy who plays the lead role.
Deb's first film choice for this weekend was The Revolt of Mamie Stover, from 1956 and directed by Raoul Walsh. It stars Jane Russell and Richard Egan, who meet as the only passengers on a freight steamer from San Francisco to Hawaii. She has just been escorted out of town by the police, and is looking for a fresh start. They fall in love on the boat, and even more once in Hawaii. She works at a dance hall, on commission for how many drinks she can sell. He is a rich man living in a mansion on a hilltop. The time is 1941, and one fine Sunday the Japanese decide to bomb Pearl Harbor. He enlists, and she promises to quit the racket. They will be married after the war. However, she doesn't quit, making even more money. When he finds out, he returns to break off the engagement. With fine acting, a beautiful colour print filmed in Hawaii, and a strange ending, the film is not at all what people might expect from a Jane Russell film. Definitely worth catching.
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