english@kkc

More on ‘The Kite Runner’ film. Here is James Croot’s review from The Christchurch Press.

Kabul, Afghanistan, 1978. While the country faces a growing threat from Soviet-backed communists, the only worries best-friends Amir (Zekeria Ebrahimi) and Hassan (Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada) face are the local bullies. Whether it’s watching The Magnificent Seven for the umpteenth time (admiring the performance of their favourite “Iranian actor” Charles Bronson) or using Hassan’s slingshot skills to annoy neighbourhood canines, the pair are as thick as thieves. Their teamwork is particularly evident during kite battles, where they combine to see off all comers.

However, there are those who feel their friendship is inappropriate. While Amir is a well-to-do Pashtun boy, Hassan is a Hazara and the son of Amir’s father’s servant. Amir is taunted about his friendship, with other boys suggesting Hassan is really only an “ugly pet”. And while Hassan would gladly put his life on the line for his best mate, Amir is more reticent.

That’s put to the test when Hassan is cornered by some hoodlums and physically assaulted and humiliated. Amir sees the incident but does nothing, leading to a falling out between the pair which escalates to the point that Hassan and his father leave the household.

Shortly afterwards, with the Soviet invasion imminent, Amir and his father move to America, but the boy can’t help feeling a sense of guilt and unfinished business in his homeland, something that will haunt him for decades.

Based on Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini’s 2003 novel of the same name, this fine film is illuminated by David Benioff’s faithful adaptation, frill-free direction (barring Forster’s overuse of kite-flying symbolism) and some terrific acting.

Kite Runner provides a fascinating insight into Afghan culture and ethnic variety, as well as the country’s recent historical background - from the arrival of the Soviets to the Taliban - before invasion by American forces. And although the storyline is regret-filled, it never descends into melodrama.

While youngsters Ebrahimi and Mahmidzada have stolen all the headlines, it’s Homayoun Ershadi who deserves the acting plaudits. Disapproving fathers tend to be fairly one-dimensional, but his Baba is more nuanced and complex - a man unafraid to speak his mind and disappointed that his son won’t do the same. “If you won’t stand up for yourself now, you won’t stand up for anything,” he chides Amir.

Such is the power of his performance that most audience members will sympathise with him rather than his charge. Credit also must go to China’s oasis city of Kashgar for its performance standing in for Afghanistan, the latter sadly proving far too risky a prospect to film in.

If you are looking for some good holiday reading give ‘The Book Thief’ by Markus Zusak a try. The novel is set during World War II in Germany and it is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meagre existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist-books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbours during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.

moar funny pictures

Here is a timely post from Daily Writing Tips:

The word Christmas has been around for centuries. Some dictionaries say it belongs to the late Old English period; others that it dates back to the 12th century. Old forms include cristes masse and christmasse, meaning the festival (mass) of Christ. Christmas actually replaced a number of significant pagan midwinter festivals when the church was trying to persuade Romans to convert to Christianity.

In the phrase Merry Christmas, the word merry does not refer an excess of seasonal good cheer, nor yet to drunkenness. Those meanings date from the 14th century onwards. However, the original meaning of merry was pleasing or agreeable. That meaning is also found in the phrase God rest you merry, gentlemen (NOT God rest you, merry gentlemen), where rest is used in the same sense as in rest assured.

The use of the abbreviation Xmas drives some people crazy, yet it is not a modern aberration, but an ancient usage. X was used to represent the Greek symbol chi, which is also the first letter in Christ. That usage has been around since Roman times.

Go here to play a festive flash game that is curiously addictive. The game comes from Framestore.

It won’t be long until the film of Khaled Hosseini’s novel ‘The Kite Runner’ is released in New Zealand. It has opened in the US and I have posted a few snippets from the the first reviews to give you some ideas about how the film has been received.

According to critic Richard Schikel at Time “The Kite Runner flies”. “The movie version of Khaled Hosseini’s best selling novel doesn’t feel like it has been, as people used to say, “ripped from headlines.” It instead has about it something of the air of a big, rich, very old-fashioned novel, telling the far-ranging story of two boys, one of them rich and well-favoured, the other a servant in his household, growing to manhood in an increasingly violent world… It also features a heartbreaking betrayal, a disappearance into disparate refugee voids by both of them and the inspirational working out of one of those deep family secrets that were the great specialty of Charles Dickens and, for that matter, of American movies in their classic age, when they so often made first-rate entertainments of second-rate popular fiction.”

For Laura Flanders at AlterNet, “Khaled Hosseini’s moving novel and film hits on all the right themes for a tale about the West and Afghanistan.”

She felt that, “Within the first five minutes of the newly released film The Kite Runner, the leitmotif is laid out in a Karachi-to-California telephone call. Come home to Afghanistan, the protagonist, a young writer “Amir” is told by an ailing uncle. It won’t be an easy journey, the uncle explains, but it’s not too late: “There is a way to be good again.”

She also noted, “At the level of metaphor, the film adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s best-selling novel is right on target. Abuse of power, remorse, shame, grief, guilt and the dream of redemption: They’re exactly the right emotions to stir in a movie about the United States and Afghanistan. The Kite Runner is a tear-jerker for the politically conscious. Unfortunately, when it comes to real-life U.S.-Afghan relations, the metaphors hit more bases than what’s actually on the screen.”

Ron Wilkinson at Monsters and Critics thought the film was “A sweet and masterful story of survival, transcendence, loyalty and friendship told with striking cinematography. A spiritual piece of work.”

‘The Kite Runner’ has not impressed all the critics but as you can see from the comments above there are some very positive comments on the film. I am looking forward to seeing it and making my own mind up.

This maildog not only delivers your mail, but he drives and gives directions! A cute prank from Canada.

It was really sad to read that popular author Terry Pratchett has Alzheimer’s disease. Pratchett is suffering from a rare form of early Alzheimer’s disease and he said in a statement that with forthcoming conventions and the need to inform his publishers it would have been “unfair to withhold the news”. He told fans the statement should be interpreted as “I am not dead”. “I will, of course, be dead at some future point, as will everybody else,” he said. “For me, this may be further off than you think. It’s too soon to tell. “I know it’s a very human thing to say ‘is there anything I can do’, but in this case I would only entertain offers from very high-end experts in brain chemistry.”

From the BBC.

Frank Kelly’s parody version of The 12 days of Christmas. Frank is also known for playing Father Jack in the TV series ‘Father Ted’. The clip is not much as a video but just listen and enjoy - it is very funny!

from www.youtube.com posted with vodpod