Blue Moon's Dance

Author: Nie Shuang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-06-01
Features: 38 foreign and Chinese films + 38 elegant and sincere essays, depicting the same timeless theme: love. Nie Shuang uses her brushstrokes and dynamic words to immerse herself in the films. In her writing, Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar's understanding and portrayal of women are divine; Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang's gaze constantly roams the corners of the city, capturing the pain, confusion, loneliness, and despair of marginalized and lower-class individuals. She writes about Du's film The Lover, where in the eyes of that girl by the Mekong River, "youth is just a step away from old age." She writes about the controversial film Blue Gate Crossing, "It was a desolate and hopeless blue love, no different from any love between men and women."
Film is a conspiracy, film is a carnival, film is a fling, film is an illusion, film is a murder, film is a caress, film is a romance. In the history of foreign film, the author has discerned and compared these 38 love stories, pouring her heart and ink into them. They are not the author's, yet they are the author's. When she, with a heart deeply moved by emotion, cries with every film or sighs endlessly, she has identified with them—becoming the screenwriter, the director, the male and female protagonists, the ending of every film.
We see that whether it is heterosexual love or homosexual love, the author Nie Shuang's ability to interpret films allows her to describe and critique them with such brilliance. The profound love dripping from her every word flows like an indescribable, yet unstoppable, river. This is a textbook of love, a warm and empathetic fusion of film art and literary art. If you have also watched the 38 love classics that Nie Shuang has seen, you are blessed. If you haven’t or haven’t seen them all, this book will still move you and keep you up at night. Love is definitely there, and it is definitely beautiful.