Weekend Update
On Saturday, Rose and I watched The Curse of The Golden Flower, a Chinese drama set in the 900's. The plot centers around the royal family, an emperor, his wife, and his three sons. Like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon or The House of Flying Daggers, the movie is visually stunning; the costumes and sets are exquisite. I was especially impressed by the recreation of the Forbidden City, the emperor's palace. The action scenes are fluid and fast and graceful; one early scene between the emperor and his son plays out more like a dance than a throw down. The film comes to life in these moments, but sadly they are few and far between until the end of the film which is overloaded with violence. The plot drags on and though there are several plot lines, character development was slim. Maybe wait to rent this one if you haven't seen it already.
On Sunday, I made my second foray into Ultimate in Korea. (For those of you who don't know Ultimate, you can find more info here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_frisbee.) My friend Aviam helped me get connected to the Ultimate scene here through koreaultimate.net. We met up at the Yeouinaru subway stop around 1:30PM. The field is right outside the entrance to the subway stop on the banks of the Han River. The weather was beautiful, sunny and 50, just about perfect for Ultimate. Now, the curious thing about this field was that it was already occupied by folks from koreaultimate.com, apparently a rival group to koreaultimate.net. They allowed us to play, but only when they were taking breaks. In my experience, this kind of rivalry is strange. Of course, there are Ultimate clubs that have big rivalries on the field, but sportsmanship and inclusiveness are among the sport's primary values. Usually, informal pickup games are open to anyone. At any rate, I had a good time being outside and even played decently well. Afterwards, Aviam and I met Rose at an Irish pub in Itaewon for post-game fish and chips. Good stuff.
On Sunday, I made my second foray into Ultimate in Korea. (For those of you who don't know Ultimate, you can find more info here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_frisbee.) My friend Aviam helped me get connected to the Ultimate scene here through koreaultimate.net. We met up at the Yeouinaru subway stop around 1:30PM. The field is right outside the entrance to the subway stop on the banks of the Han River. The weather was beautiful, sunny and 50, just about perfect for Ultimate. Now, the curious thing about this field was that it was already occupied by folks from koreaultimate.com, apparently a rival group to koreaultimate.net. They allowed us to play, but only when they were taking breaks. In my experience, this kind of rivalry is strange. Of course, there are Ultimate clubs that have big rivalries on the field, but sportsmanship and inclusiveness are among the sport's primary values. Usually, informal pickup games are open to anyone. At any rate, I had a good time being outside and even played decently well. Afterwards, Aviam and I met Rose at an Irish pub in Itaewon for post-game fish and chips. Good stuff.
Comments
Erik.
I've moved to Asheville.