Word: tale
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...into pop culture. Last year one of the most popular television shows was a weekly drama entitled Wo Ju (literally "Dwelling Narrowness"), which focused on the plight of a young couple who spend two-thirds of their monthly income keeping up the mortgage on a tiny Shanghai apartment. Their tale is all too real. As economist Xie points out, residential prices in China relative to per capita income are far and away the highest in the world. The housing price-to-income ratio in urban China is over 20, which means it takes the average citizen's total wages...
...Tiger Re "Tale of the Cat" [March 1]: During a visit to a Shanghai animal market in 1999, I observed a man sitting at the kerb cutting small pieces from a tiger's paw, mixing them with different herbs and then making small parcels of the mixture and selling them. While I was watching, two policemen turned up and also found interest in his business. One of them even bought a packet! Obviously they had not heard about the law banning trade in tiger parts. Unfortunately, as long as greed, poverty, corruption and old culture exist, there is very little...
...Greenberg as a portrait of the terrible insecurities and needs that bring the lovely person and the stinker together. But I doubt that Baumbach intended to make a dramatized version of Smart Women, Foolish Choices. It seems out of character, and the tone is not that of a cautionary tale. I worry that he sees Greenberg as a modern, ennui-filled love story and believes, like Florence, that Greenberg can be saved by the love of a good woman. Not a chance...
...throughout the stories yet keep them fresh is a sign of his mastery. The title story of Lost Souls is a timeless romance hinged on filial impiety. From the book's less topical third section, written just after the Korean War's end, it's reminiscent of the classic tale of Chunhyang, often likened to a Korean Juliet, that's still a pansori and cinema standard. (Im Kwon Taek's 2000 film version was a blockbuster.) But the ending of Hwang's reworking is all his own. As are the livelier scenes, in other stories, of a jazzy, prewar North...
Wonderland's Joan of Arc Screenwriter Linda Woolverton and Burton made two big changes to the text. One was to transform Carroll's episodic tale into an epic quest, based on the poem "Jabberwocky." Alice must seize the vorpal sword and slay the fearsome Jabberwock. In assuming this challenge, she becomes a female Frodo, Wonderland's Joan of Arc. This twist legitimizes the feature-length running time but also risks turning this jovially anarchic enterprise into your standard action-adventure. The film is better at reveling in eccentricity than at replaying Excalibur. (See the top 10 movie performances...