Fearless + Idea

 

Saw FEARLESS last night, and liked it just fine.  It was a good movie, though not a great one.  The transitions were a bit abrupt, and the ending forced, but the cinematography was good and the story interesting enough, if simple.

And, of course, it had some good Kung Fu.  But that's to be expected.

Didn't leave me with as much questions as Hero did, or as many concerns, but it did leave me thinking about China and what their people think of their government.  In some ways, a movie like this expresses some very cool ideals--protecting the weak, harmony of spirit and body, focus on contest in order to better yourself, not beat the other guy.

And yet, China is a scary, scary place when it comes to some of their human rights issues.  The concept of giving up of yourself for the state is a part, even, of a movie like this.  And that makes me worry, just a bit. How far would they be willing to go for state? At what point does their need to unify people, and bring peace to them, turn into a desire to conquer the world for its own good? People in their movies can be perfectly serene and respectful toward you while at the same time beating the crap out of you--for your own good.

Either way, we went out for Chinese food afterward, and the movie spawned an idea in my head.

Write a story about a person who's sole job is to play music for other people while they work. 

There's a scene in Fearless where everyone is working the rice fields except for one woman, who sits and plays music for them.  I liked the scene because it made me think about that person.  What is their life like?  How do the others regard them?

I know that work (particularly manual labor) is A LOT easier for me when I have music to go along with it.  We always read stories about minstrels playing in taverns and the like, or perhaps shepherds playing flutes by themselves in the fields, but you don't commonly hear about people who played music FOR the workers.  There are so many different ways you could go with this that I see plenty of cool stories coming from this one idea. 

It's always nice to come up with a job for your main character that is different from what people tend to see.  I've been guilty of using the standards myself too often, and so I'm looking for other things.

Annotation tomorrow.