RIFLE RANGE BOY

**  POST # 3000  ** Kundun (1997) Director: Martin Scorsese Even though this movie is honoured with a string of accolades, it does not ring a bell. There is a legitimate reason for this. Disney regrets financing this movie and considers it their greatest faux pas. They kept the film in cold storage and only had limited screenings in the US. Disney did not promote this movie commercially. It was at the time when Disney was trying to venture into mainland China with the plan to build a Disney theme park there. After making a string of Mafia movies, Scorsese wanted to make one about something close to his heart - tackling the true story of the 14th Dalai Lama. After making the movie, Disney discussed their plans with CCP regarding Disney Park, and they were informed that China was infuriated about the film. In the Chinese eyes, Disney was interfering with China's internal affairs. Tibet was Chinese territory, and the Dalai Lama was a dissident who wanted the region to break away....

Shang-Chi and The Legend of Ten Rings (2021) Gone are the times when Hollywood made movies that overtly mocked cultures other than Western ones. Typically Indians and Chinese were portrayed as bumbling fools. Their cultures were made to look ridiculous, and their followers were mere bufoons. Perhaps they still  do that but, alas, in a more subtle way.  Just try to remember Amrish Puri as a Kaali worshipper enjoying human eyeballs as a delicacy and the faithful and spineless follower of Fu-Manchu plunging to their deaths in Hollywood's Fu-Manchu series. For that matter, even the Russians and German were made to look like headless chickens running aimlessly in espionage sagas and combat movies. Shang-Chi was a character introduced by Marvel in 1973 to spice up the series and satiate the appetite of comic fans the world over. Shang-Chi was presented as a long lost son of Fu-Manchu, who had been training in Tibet. In the earlier films, his daughter Lin Tang was characterised as hi...