THOMAS PODVIN’S FREELANCE WORK
Freelance writer - translator - Editor

The original Franz Ferdinand wasn’t a Glasgow rocker with an attitude. Rather he was an Austrian archduke, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, whose assassination in 1914 triggered the outbreak of World War I and changed the world. Franz Ferdinand, the indie-rock band, however, aims for world impact of another sort: since their 2001 debut, they’ve made music “that girls can dance to”. Indeed, their brand of post-punk, garage rock and stomping new wave is an open invitation to shake your booty (“This Boy” and “Outsiders”). Influenced by the 1960s Kinks and Beatles, David Bowie circa Boys Keep Swinging, 1980s rock and new-wave acts like XTC (despite their denial), the band features scratchy guitars, percussive sounds and jerking techno beats. Their lyrics are intentionally cryptic, many of which have a double meaning (“The Fallen”). So cryptic, that the lyrics have to be explained to the band members before they play the music. This release, even tastier than the debut Franz Ferdinand, might not change the rock world but it’s a chart-topping good-humored album with better things to come: Franz promise to record an even greater third album after their massive 2006 world tour. Domino

(c) that's Shanghai Magazine
Chief editor: Steven Crane
February 2006 issue

Guanzhou Chief editor: Christopher Cottrell
February 2006 issue

In March 2005, Shanghai-based music producer Liu Xing embarked on a ten-day journey to the Miao ethnic communities of southeastern Guizhou province. There, life is as basic as it gets. Nevertheless, Liu, the devout musicologist, recorded various Miao songs using what equipment he could find. And in the process, he discovered just how important music is to Miao culture. Their high-pitched melodies have a higher purpose than mere rhythm. Indeed, the 5,000 years of Miao history is transmitted from generation to generation by song. The Miao culture is an oral one. As such, music is everything: a means to convey history and wisdom, and also an act of celebration, recitation or commemoration of national accomplishment. This release includes a 26-page bilingual booklet (Chinese/English) with a brief introduction to the Miao’s culture, their history and, of course, their music. It also includes a diary that provides insight into the recording session, the reclusive Miao lifestyle and the warmth of the people. Above all, the music speaks for itself: with the delicate sounds of the lusheng, a reed-type wind instrument, entering into the rich cultural heritage of the Miao people is a luxury we all can afford.
Bandu Music,1/F, Bldg.11, 50 Moganshan Rd (6276 8267)

(c) that's Shanghai Magazine
Chief editor: Steven Crane
February 2006 issue

Guanzhou Chief editor: Christopher Cottrell
February 2006 issue

Chen Kaige (Farewell My Concubine) is no longer a fifth-generation director; he’s become a maker of the blockbuster. Nothing wrong with that; The Promise (Wu Ji) is an exhilarating romp, with great care exercised in all departments. Photography, sets and costume design provide eye candy, while the SFX and action scenes will delight the most demanding audiences. Wu Ji’s a Chinese fantasy tale about a love triangle involving a slave, a general and a concubine, which gives moviegoers plenty to chew on for 128 minutes – about what you’d expect from the most expensive movie ever made in China (USD 42 million). The film reportedly broke the China opening weekend box office record pulling in USD 9 million (total earnings in China are expected to reach USD 25 million), which is good news for the marketing team. Premiere tickets were sold at an exorbitant (RMB 2,000), while ordinary tickets were 30 per cent dearer than usual – which is probably not the best way to fight piracy. Evidently designed for foreign audiences or the Chinese newly rich, The Promise doesn’t seem to fit the definition of cinema as “entertainment for the masses”.
China Film Group

(c) that's Shanghai Magazine
Chief editor: Steven Crane
February 2006 issue

Guanzhou Chief editor: Christopher Cottrell
February 2006 issue

A Chinese Tall Story contains all the necessary ingredients required for an amusing festive-season movie. The RMB100 million production provides some of the most eye-popping scenes ever seen in a Chinese film. But there’s also lighthearted comedy, eccentric characters, and a touching romance. The plot is thus: 500 years ago, a monk is looking for his three disciples; along the way he falls for a lizard imp and battles evil in the form of UFOs, a bizarre Buddha and assorted monsters. Ten years ago Hong Kong filmmaker Jeff Lau explored the legend of the Monkey King with two successful, hilarious movies starring the SAR’s number-one comedian Stephen Chow (Kung-Fu Hustle). Lau’s proven to be capable of delivering witty situations with a sense of anything goes. Yet this episode is less convincing for lack of a really talented comedy artist (Chow does not appear). Indeed, what’s most interesting is the eagerness of the various production companies to show off their prowess within the Chinese film industry. No question the movie is ambitious: it’s an over-the-top show piece, with an excessive number of visual effects, and nearly every actor signed by the Emperor Motion Group (a branch of Emperor Motion Pictures) makes an appearance.
Emperor Motion Pictures/H. Brothers

(c) that's Shanghai Magazine
Chief editor: Steven Crane
February 2006 issue

Guanzhou Chief editor: Christopher Cottrell
February 2006 issue

In his introduction to The Flower Drum Song, Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang states that Asian-American literature has long been marginalized in mainstream society. Perhaps, but this novel, originally published in 1957, might be considered a groundbreaking work of popular Asian-American literature; one that is a page-turner even today. This bittersweet tale follows an array of eccentric Chinese characters in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Wang Ta, for example, opts to study medicine rather than join the ranks of the employed, and ends up entangled with a number of equally unconventional young women. His younger brother, Wang San, longs to become a ‘normal’ American teenager; he plays basketball and makes sandwiches using Chinese food, all to the consternation of his old-fashioned, rather stubborn father, Master Wang, who misses China and tries to maintain his Confucian principles in the US. Charming, sexy, poignant, cynical, The Flower Drum Song is an astute depiction of the cultural gap between generations and between Chinese and Western society. An instant bestseller, the book was made into a successful musical and feature film in the 1960s.
Penguin Books

(c) that's Shanghai Magazine
Chief editor: Steven Crane
February 2006 issue

Guanzhou Chief editor: Christopher Cottrell
February 2006 issue

With this compelling book, blending autobiographical elements with elements of fiction, Shanghai-born US-based university teacher and writer Yuang-Tsung Chen delves deep into the lives of China’s peasants in the 1950s. And in the process, he exposes the myth that life in the countryside is, in contrast to its urban counterpart, honest, straightforward and happy. The novel begins in the city, circa 1949, at a bourgeois home located in Shanghai’s French concession. Ling Ling, raised by a wealthy uncle, is tired of the good life and joins a group of cadres who wish to take part in the agrarian revolution. Together they bring the concept of “land reform” and hope to Longxiang (Dragon’s Village), a tiny village in the Northwest province of Gansu. However, they soon discover that village life is less than idyllic; indeed, it revolves around outmoded traditions, superstition and secrecy. Full of drama and suspense, The Dragon’s Village offers an intriguing look at the life of peasantry as it undergoes one of the greatest societal changes in its history.
Penguin Books

(c) that's Shanghai Magazine
Chief editor: Steven Crane
February 2006 issue

Guanzhou Chief editor: Christopher Cottrell
February 2006 issue