Obey Fu Manchu Or Every Living Thing Will Die!

The Face of Fu Manchu (1965)
Director: Don Sharp

A film like this, made in the 21st century, would be wrong by all accounts. Words like cultural appropriation and stereotyping would be hurled to shoot this film into oblivion. Many of its dialogue can be construed as offensive or downright racist. But then, in the 60s, when this film was released, it was pretty okay. In fact, it was such a hit that it earned four subsequent sequels.

The character Fu-Manchu is the brainchild of an English novelist, Sax Rohmer (Arthur Henry "Sarfield' Ward 1883-1959). His first short story in 1912 with the character took such a liking on either side of the Atlantic that it spurred follow-up novels, plays and even a movie in 1923 titled The Mystery of Fu-Manchu.

The average Englishman in the early 20th century UK had probably no contact with an Oriental person. They had probably read about the industrious Japanese and their effort towards modernisation via the Meiji Dynasty. This was perhaps not the case in the USA or continental Europe, especially Russia. Chinese and Japanese immigrants have been working on the Pacific coast and were subjected to the same mistreatment as the blacks. The Russians had been perpetually fighting with the Japanese for imperial ambitions over Manchuria and Korea. The British were sympathetic towards the Japanese in the Russo-Japanese wars.

Sax Rohmer

For the imperialists and expansionists amongst the British, the Far East was a lucrative avenue for business and wealth. Their entry into China was resisted by the Chinese dynasty's closed-door policy. The colonialists justify their involvement in the Opium Wars by vilifying the Chinese as a mystic race with evil exuding from their every orifice. The anti-foreigners and anti-Christian stance of the Boxer Rebellion further cemented the idea the Chinese were terrible. Maybe the Europeans had not forgotten the cruelties Genghiz Khan and Atilla of the Oriental race. The sentiments to paint the Chinese as bad was skyrocketing by the late 19th and early 20th century. Hence, characters like Fu-Manchu and the looming fabled Yellow Peril seem justified. The 1905 Japanese win over the Russians seems to defend their claim that that anti-White yellow race was out to rule the world. Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II was honoured to have coined the term 'Yellow Peril' (Gelbe Gefahr) to encourage Imperial German interests and justify European colonialism in China.

A racist cartoon of The Yellow Terror in all His Glory
(1899) depicts an anti-colonial Qing DynastyChinese
man standing over a fallen white woman who
represents the Western world. (Wiki)

The xenophobic outlook towards the Chinese and other Orientals never went away. The central involvement of the Japanese in the Second World War and the embrace of Communist by China made the Great White powers somewhat sceptical of them. I guess now with China's threat to the US hegemony of world affairs puts them back in the wrong light. Even the Australians who had overt anti-Chinese clauses in their White Australia have resorted to labelling China and CCP as the Southern Continent's number one enemy of the State.

The yellow peril has had many faces, but Fu Manchu epitomised them for mass culture. A hugely popular icon, he even has a full facial hair is named after him - Fu-Manchu moustache, a wiry well-oiled moustache that almost touches the chin.

'The Face of Fu Manchu' is a predictable offering that mimics many supervillains often seen on the silver screen with megalomaniacal ambitions of world domination. Like the baddies of James Bond, Fu Manchu is an evil genius with tonnes of knowledge into the mystical world of hypnotism and herbalism, escapes execution in China only to appear around River Thames. With his convoluted plan to weaponise Tibetian poppyseed to poison all lifeforms around London, he kidnaps a chemistry Professor to extract the toxic concoction.

In come Dr Fu Manchu's nemeses, Dr Petrie and Nayland Smith of the Scotland Yard, to thwart his plan.

Fu Manchu

Two points piqued my interest here. Firstly, it is the catchy 'Younghusband' documents. Such a document actually existed. As in most British expeditions where surveyance is used as a guise to the British imperial ambitions, it compiled British exploration of Tibet, probably an economic assessment of conquest of that land.

Secondly, it is Fu Manchu's daughter, Lin Tang. She is Fu Manchu's faithful sidekick. Shang-Chi only appears in 1973's edition of Marvel's comics. He is said to be Fu Manchu's son, but due to the non-renewal of rights and probably portrayal of a Chinese character in a bad light, Shang-Chi's father is depicted as Xu Wenwu. Shang-Chi's sister is Xu Xialing (not Lin Tang!). It would just go contrary to the producer's idea of including minority groups as superheroes to tap the lucrative Chinese market, would it not?

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Fight fire with fire?

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

We always associate destruction with negativity. Erection and construction, on the other hand, is hailed as the epitome of prosperity. Hence, annihilation, collision and termination are scorned upon. Unfortunately, life is not so simple. There can never be peace without prior anarchy; no construction without demolition and no shanthi without ashanti. Life, with its ups and down, are aplenty with cyclical loss and gains.

That was the same dilemma when I came to discover about Lord Shiva, one of the main component of the Trinity in the post-Vedic Hinduism. The trident-bearing Lord is revered for his greatness and ferocious power to destroy and is invoked for peace on Earth. It baffled me how damage can lead to prosperity. Herein lies the profound philosophy of life. Someone or something who jolts the equilibrium, the status quo, has to or to be destroyed before life can proceed in a just manner. The evils do not necessarily come from without to spew negativity. It could be within; an ill-thought good intention, a self-serving need, blinded vision of what is right and the list goes on. We need to kill the roaches to take control of our house. The roaches do not know that they are doing any wrong. They are just performing the tasks they were programmed to - to find territory, food, procreate and ensure continuity of species. Their biological mission is only a hindrance to us, not them. In their compound eyes, they are doing the right thing. We, from our perspective, spring at them with fear of disease, filth and loss of territory. Probably dominance too as we know cockroaches can resist a nuclear meltdown.

Thanos with his Infinity Gauntlet.

Like Shiva, is a destroyer. Vapourised up to half
of the population of the Universe.
If the population explosion is leaving a long
and an ugly trail of carbon footprint, then
Thanos' actions should be lauded.

We always think that colonisation, wars and enslavement are only found in the confines of our history book. The truth is far from that. Even though we are living in an era where education and knowledge had never been so freely available, we are all far from wise. Forget Nazi Hitler and Pol Pot. Even in the 21st century, we have people like George Soros and the Cabal who are hellbent on destroying societies. Soros, the leading globalist is still actively trying to re-organise the community which has evolved itself into a steady state. It looks like he will not stop till anarchy prevails. The Cabal, with its web of destruction, spreading through the world over with the cooperation of the Bank of London and fellow similar minded magnates, have been linked to many well planned and well-executed significant tragedies. There is a concerted effort to destroy the sovereignty of nations, open borders, restructuring societies and make communities godless.

One wonders whether Gandhi's passive resistance would save the day. Do we fight fire with fire, douse with water or practice self-immolation?

To enjoy Avengers: Endgame, one has to have a little background that brought the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe into turmoil. Thanos, the unstoppable destroyer, has in possession the six Infinity Stones (that controls time, space, mind, reality, soul and power) and had sent many of the superheroes into cold storage. With a little push from Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel), the ingenious mind of Iron Man, time travel, Hulk's scientific know-how and a lot of kissass action from the Marvel heroes, sanity prevails. 

To the uninitiated, without a background of the various characters, the film would appear a tad confusing. With so many different heroes with different suits swerving past the villain throwing ammunitions of different hues and explosive potentials, everything would seem like a fiesta of pyrotechnic display. Then, one would be wondering who those cute animals and weird looking ladies are and how they get pulled into the melee. 

The movie also gives the millennials a crash course in time travel, just like what Back to the Future did for the Generation-X in the 80s. Time travel comes with it its own benefits and peculiarities. 

In war, everybody loses, but the winner takes all, whatever is left. In the war to end all evils, the protagonist also faced heavy casualties. You have to watch to find out. The audience goes back with a sombre feeling that this outing could be the last for the Avengers. Bearing in mind that the MCU is a make-believe one, anything is possible, especially when the fans (a.k.a. suckers) feel nostalgic and the filmmakers feel a need to fill their coffers.

Talking about fans, while watching the movie, as and when various superheroes appeared on screen or landed a blow Thanos, I had a certain feeling I am watching a Tamil movie. The viewers were upstanding cheering and even giving hearty laughs to the tongue-in-cheek dialogues uttered by the characters. This is a new experience in Malaysia. The usual cinema going crowd here pay to see bigger-than-life explosions, gore and flesh, not dialogue. And to top it, a large portion of the audience was reluctant to exit the hall even after the credit finished rolling out. As if the 3-hour long movie was not long enough! I later found out some even wept at the ending when.. (oops, no spoiler alert!)

Avengers: Watch This Before You See Endgame

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The many worlds of Captain Marvel?

Captain Marvel (2019)

The ancient Greeks believed in re-births. They used to think that before birth, the memory of the yet-to-be-born infant is erased clean. All old thoughts of their last birth are wiped out, like a white sheet of cloth. After birth, the young mind observes, learns and re-'minds' itself of 'new' things. In a way, nothing is new but are old tricks, packaged to be re-programmed. 

This is what that went through my mind as Carol Danvers struggle to find herself. With so many recurring thoughts, dreams and nightmares tormenting her all the time, the search for self-discovery proved to be a Herculean task. It is made worse with the multitude of contradictory inputs that are channelled through her senses. For Carol Danvers to come to terms that she is indeed Captain Marvel, it must be pretty confusing. For ardent followers of Marvel comics, they must surely be knowing that before this, many other characters have been trying to claim their stakes on being the real Captain Marvel. As we recalled in another post, Shazam!  used to Captain Marvel at one stage but he had to relinquish his title after a legal tussle. Danvers was once Ms Marvel, and another Captain Marvel was there who died. Even Yon-Ragg was the Captain in one edition of the comic!

Most of the newly churned movies, be it superheroes' movies or any other regular ones, there is a concerted effort to subtly change the fabric of society. If members of Gen-X and Babyboomer generations were used to have blockbuster movies with white male actors taking lead roles in them, now they have to familiarise themselves with members of the minority class and the previously unempowered to lead. Of late, many box-office films have a lead female cast; male characters are portrayed as redundant, shallow and can be disposed of. Not all viewers are receptive to this deliberate shoving of current agendas down their throats by the big establishments. 

Nevertheless, the radical social reforms by the Trotskyite are being recognised at the grassroots level. There is massive pushback. Recently it was shown that @RottenTomatoes was 'mass nuking' audience reviews of the abysmally rated 'Captain Marvel' in order to juice its audience rating. It apparently nuked up 47,000 reviews over the weekend to bump the score by 6%. 

Capt. America & Capt. Marvel

Maybe it was portraying Captain Marvel a big no-no with comic fans. As it is, of late, members of the 'subaltern' sect of the community have been represented as superheroes (Wonder Woman and Black Panther). Do we need another? And to have Gwen Stefani's 'I'm just a girl' playing in the music score to drive home the point?

I also could not help but entertain the thought that Captain Marvel's fatigue has an uncanny resemblance to that of Captain America. It is no brainer to guess the choice of colour as this Hollywood blockbuster stream rolls through to the four corners of the world. Perhaps, now that Thanos had virtually crippled the Avengers team and put the Universe in limbo in his quest for the Infinity Stones, the Marvel Comic Universe has to respond. Guess who will save the day in the 'Endgame'?

Only the hardcore would understand!

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Son of God vs. Bat of Gotham

Batman vs. Superman (2016)
Dawn of Justice

Gone are the days when superhero stories used to spur that feel good feeling, that warm feeling that assures us that the truth will protect us, that the good would always prevail over evil. That doing good is the only thing to do; that there cannot be any other way of doing things; that good would not hurt anybody. These days, however, we have come to realise that things in life are so straight forward, not so black or white, that they are not so cut and dry. Everything comes in shades of grey. We sometimes have to appear to be unkind to be kind in the end. Doing something seemingly good may turn out detrimental to another's intention. One man's meat may be another's poison. It may not pacify him to hear that the unfavourable action is actually for his good and that he should see the 'bigger picture'.

Part of this film delves with what is doing good and whether a good deed does indeed bring only a good outcome. Superman, who is seen here as a God-like creature who descends from the sky with his thunderous might to help humankind, does hurt innocent bystanders as collateral damage in his fight against evil. Just because his actions are perceived as done with purest of intentions, the pain is, nevertheless, hurtful. The rage, the feeling of powerlessness turns good men into monsters. Which lives count and which do not?

With this background, the story shows the gargantuan clash between Superman (who seem to portray God-like qualities, a two-dimensional view of life) and Batman (who represents the human cognitive faculty which tend to rationalise things rather than expect something wholesome). In between this clash, or rather in an instigating manner is the epitome of evil, the devil persona, Lex Luthor.

The media is the means of creating mass hysteria and fanning herd mentality to sway people here and there. People soon realise that they are not the centre of the universe and doing good is not a unilateral thing. It has repercussions. Criminals are like weeds, pull one, and it grows another. People hate what they do not understand, and they cherry pick what they like to hear. Everything believes that they are here for a reason, but some die before achieving anything. Others reach senescence without knowing they have completed.

In the modern world, God is said to be dead and the people through their mental faculties have killed Him. In this Godless world, Man is left to his own devices to fend for himself. With the constant lure of the evil forces that thwart him from his quest of taking the race to a higher level of civilisation, he can prevail. History has shown again and again that his race is a resilient one. Catastrophes after maladies have erased many more well-footed species on Planet earth, but he has survived it all.

Love will keep us together?

Wonder Woman (2017)

With dialogues like 'everyone has to fight his own wars', one can be forgiven to think that it is a feminist movie, highlighting the female species' struggle and the minorities. Furthermore, the male characters are most laughable and imperfect in every conceivable way. Men are needed only for procreation, not for emotional support, says one of the dialogues. Hey, were not women the objects of reproduction only in archaic societies?

Maybe the storyteller is trying to tell us in her own way (the director is a lady) how much the world has changed since the first World War. And a real paradise appears in the form of an all-Women mythical land of Amazon where women are sorceresses and men are non-existent.

Wonder Women's story starts with Princess Diana growing up in a guarded environment, forbidden to indulge with physical fighting. The society, the Land of Amazon, is reeling to build its defences after a war with the God of War himself, Ares. Ares had disappeared and is rumoured to return anytime. Diana, being the offspring of Zeus himself could not be restrained.

One day, an Allied spy infiltrates their 'force-protected' cocoon as he was ambushed by the German Navy. Thinking that it is Ares' dirty work, Diana leaves her paradise to defeat Ares. In her mind, she believes that peace can be attained by just beating the War God, that is all. Slowly she realises that life is not so straight forward.

Peace on Earth is not a simple matter. There is no one single hero and the other being the villain. It is not the question of one perpetrator and one victim. Sometimes one wonders whether mankind is inherently evil? They seem to be their own enemy. They orchestrate their own downfall. It is not the Gods that let catastrophe befall upon them, but it is their own doings.

Yes, people harm their kind and want to exert power over his neighbours, all the things forbidden by belief systems of the world. Every once in a while, despite all the nihilism that surrounds us, we do see a glimmer of hope. On the one hand, we fight, but on the contrary, we feel that Man has that one redeeming feature. We can love, they say.

The problem is 'love' that is shown is only directed towards their own kin, race, nationhood and of the same religions. Love stops short at the sight of someone who does not share our values or simply appear different. Without love extending to all of Nature's creations, animals, plants, landscape and all, peace on Earth will only remain a pipe dream.