Kung Fu Panda 2: The Kaboom Of Doom

[doug maverick]

I'm not the only one scratching their heads about Hangover 2's success last weekend.

cause todd phillips made a pact with the devil. nobody expected hangover 1 to be as big of a monster as it was. and warners pushed their luck with the second. but when you have something as monstrous as the hangover was, especially on on demand and dvd. and you give the second part enough space to breath from the first one, you build anticipation, i know people who have watched the hangover 20 times over the last two years which is insane ive only seen it twice all the way through. as for kfp2 like i said disney forgot to use their star power to correctly promote the film. they relied tro heavily on 3d sales forgetting how expensive it has become, 3d has gone from a novelty to a luxury, and nobody is to blame save greedy studio and theater owners, they shot themselves in the foot. i

[Zenshiite]

cause todd phillips made a pact with the devil. nobody expected hangover 1 to be as big of a monster as it was. and warners pushed their luck with the second. but when you have something as monstrous as the hangover was, especially on on demand and dvd. and you give the second part enough space to breath from the first one, you build anticipation, i know people who have watched the hangover 20 times over the last two years which is insane ive only seen it twice all the way through. as for kfp2 like i said disney forgot to use their star power to correctly promote the film. they relied tro heavily on 3d sales forgetting how expensive it has become, 3d has gone from a novelty to a luxury, and nobody is to blame save greedy studio and theater owners, they shot themselves in the foot. i

Doug, does Disney now own Dreamworks or something? Because I thought KFP2 was a Dreamworks production...

[doug maverick]

nooooo disney doesnt own dreamworks. i just made an era. because they use to have a partnership i thought disney was still the distributor.

[GeneChing]

#1: X-Men. So I was twice wrong in my article, but I was distracted.

I went to see it again this weekend with my family. I enjoyed it the first time, but I wound up liking it more the second time. I could pay more attention to the spectacle of 3D. Also, the comedic timing worked better on the second viewing. Maybe I was just exhausted after our tournament and that made me more receptive.

[David Jamieson]

3D is a headache for me. The glasses are crappy, the experience is always flawed etc.

so, I will await the 2D version and watch at home I guess. The theatres seem to be all up and into this 3D "re"-craze.

fwiw, 3D technology really hasn't changed. It's still about optical illusion achieved in virtually the same manner as it was in the 50's for the cheesy sci-fi movies that overused it back then.

[GeneChing]

I understood the tofu connection, but raisins? Po doesn't eat raisins. He eats radishes.

Sun-Maid partners with Kung Fu Panda 2
06/09/2011 11:23:39 AM
Don Schrack

[IMG]http://media.thepacker.com/images/217*100/Sun-Maid-Kung_Fu.jpg[/IMG]
Sun-Maid Growers, the 99-year-old Kingsburg, Calif.-based dried fruit cooperative, has unveiled a summer-early fall promotion with “Kung Fu Panda 2.”

Quick response codes appear on Sun-Maid raisin six-packs and 24 oz. canisters, according to a news release. Shoppers who use the codes will be able to view movie trailers, learn more about the movie’s characters, download computer wallpaper designs and enter a contest to win a grand-prize trip for four to Zoo Atlanta.

“Through our work with DreamWorks Animation to promote Kung Fu Panda 2, we are excited to engage Sun-Maid consumers and Kung Fu Panda fans in a fun, new way by using QR codes,” Rick Bruno, vice president of brand management, said in the release.

One hundred consumers will also receive plush toys.

The promotion ends Oct. 1.

[SimonM]

3D is a headache for me

3d doesn't give me a headache but it does tend to muddy mass-action sequences which is annoying.

[doug maverick]

3d doesn't give me a headache but it does tend to muddy mass-action sequences which is annoying.

only when its post pro 3D. look at avatar, none of those action scenes were muddy. there is a giant difference.

[SimonM]

Yeah, too bad that dances with blue wolves was such an awful movie!

[GeneChing]

International box office: 'Kung Fu Panda 2' kicks 'Pirates' off top spot
Relaxnews
Monday, 13 June 2011
'Kung Fu Panda 2' topped the international box office.

The weekend's top spot - the position Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides held for three weeks in a row - was taken by Kung Fu Panda 2, collecting $56.5 million in 45 territories around the world, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The 3D sequel of the animated family film, starring Jack Black, opened in 17 new markets, including Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, and the UK and Ireland, where it reached number one. This second installment of Panda shot past $331 million worldwide.

In second, X-Men: First Class made $42.2 million in 66 markets, for a international total of $124.2 million in less than two weeks.

The reboot of the comic and fifth installment of the franchise, starring James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, landed on top in France for the second weekend with $3.25 million.

Slipping to third, On Stranger Tides still took in $41.1 million in 72 territories for a total of $886.8 million, making it the 19th biggest film of all time.

The fantasy adventure starring Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz totaled $678 million internationally - more than three times the US draw - making it the biggest Pirates installment. Tides also ranked first in Japan, where it has tallied $74.5 million.

In fourth place, The Hangover Part II made $38.3 million across 55 markets, and took the top spot in Germany this weekend. Over 18 days, the comedy has surpassed the original 2009 version with a total of $431.3 million worldwide.

For the fifth spot, Super 8 opened in nine markets, primarily in Asia, earning $6.7 million and debuting in first in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

The sci-fi thriller, directed/written by J.J. Abrams (Star Trek) and produced by Steven Spielberg, premiered at the top in North America with $38 million, for $44.7 million worldwide.

Upon reflection, my ezine coverage was too myopic, too American-centric. Ah well, live and learn.

[GeneChing]

THR fills in the details...

‘Kung Fu Panda 2’ Commands $56.5 Million Internationally
3:00 PM 6/12/2011 by Frank Segers

The DreamWorks Animation feature bests 'Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides' on the foreign circuit.

DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda 2 made its debut in the weekend’s No. 1 box office spot on the foreign theatrical circuit, grossing $56.5 million from 11,025 screens in 45 territories.

The tally was buoyed by the 3D animation sequel’s solid openings in 17 overseas markets. Total foreign gross for Panda 2 has exceeded the $200-million mark (cume is $205 million), as per distributor Paramount.

Panda 2 took the top spot in the U.K. and Ireland with an opening tally of $10 million from 516 venues. A Mexico bow delivered $8.3 million from 527 sites. Brazil kicked in $5.8 million from 404 situations while Argentina generated $2.3 million from 118 spots. Panda 2 in its Peru opening grossed $1.3 million from 52 locations for a $25,000 per-screen average, the biggest market opening of 2011.

With a tally of $41.1 million—down 41% from the prior round—Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides ended its three-stanza hold on the No. 1 overseas boxoffice title.

Ranking No. 3 this time, the Disney release starring Johnny Depp played at 14,602 venues in 72 markets, moving its foreign gross total up to $678 million—more than three times its domestic take. Top market remains Japan where Tides drew a No. 1 ranking with a weekend gross of $6 million, pushing the market cume to $74.5 million.

Tides is easily the biggest-grossing Pirates title of the four franchise installments thus far, handily outpacing the previous foreign frontrunner, 2007’s Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, by $24 million. Worldwide cume stands at $886.8 million, making Tides the 19th biggest global grosser of all time.

Super 8, which premiered No. 1 in the U.S. and Canada, opened in nine mostly second-tier Southeast Asian markets on the weekend, drawing $6.7 million from a total of 652 screens and ranking No. 5 offshore overall. Opening weekend worldwide comes to $44.7 million

The sci-fi adventure, written and directed by J.J. Abrams and produced by Steven Spielberg, premiered No. 3 in Australia to what distributor Paramount described as “an excellent holiday weekend gross” of $2.7 million drawn from 652 sites.

Super 8’s Hong Kong bow drew a No. 1 marketing ranking with $575,000 yielded from 42 situations for a per-screen average of $13,690. No. 1 openings were also recorded in Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. Openings in 16 territories loom this week including Russia, Sweden and South Korea.

Finishing second on the weekend was 20th Century Fox’s X-Men: First Class, which tallied $42.2 million from 10,643 screens in 66 markets.

Overseas cume now stands at $124.2 million after only a dozen days of release on the foreign circuit. The latest installment of the billion-dollar comic book franchise took the top spot in France for the second consecutive weekend, grossing $3.25 million from 687 sites for a market cume of $11.5 million.

Warner Bros.’ The Hangover Part II crossed the $200-million foreign gross mark (cume is $215.5 million) thanks to a $38.3 million weekend at some 7,200 screens in 55 markets.

In just 18 days of foreign release, the comedy sequel has surpassed the $191.6 million overseas gross total recorded by 2009’s original, The Hangover. The sequel ranks No. 4 on the weekend overall. Top market was Germany where Hangover 2 grossed $7.9 million from 872 sites, ranking a dominant No. 1 in the market.

Universal’s Fast Five hoisted its foreign gross total to $378.3 million thanks to a $5.9 million weekend at 5,450 playdates in 63 territories. The overseas cume to date (a Japan opening is due in October) makes the latest installment of the car action franchise the biggest-grossing title of the series, besting previous foreign frontrunner, 2009’s Fast & Furious, by $170.3 million.

In the U.K. Universal opened Honey 2, a dance drama from Marc Platt Productions, in the market’s fifth spot. Opening tally was $850,000 from 301 sites. An opening in Germany is next on June 23, while a France bow is due July 20.

Other international cumes: Sony’s Priest, $44 million; Fox’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2, $15.6 million; Universal’s Hop, $67.3 million; Sony, Focus Features and other distributors’ Hanna, $14.8 million; Universal’s Paul, $55.1 million; Fox’s Rio, $329.5 million; Universal’s Senna, $4.8 million from seven territories; Fox’s Black Swan, $216.8 million; Universal’s The Adjustment Bureau, $59.8 million; Fox’s Water For Elephants, $55.3 million.

[GeneChing]

'a record-breaking film in China'

Chinese Culture and the Politics of “Kung Fu Panda”
By Andrew Lam
– June 20, 2011Posted in: Arts-Entertainment, Voices from The Community

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — In the age of globalization, there’s a caveat that often rings true: “You know your culture is a big hit when somebody else is trying to sell it back to you!” Nowhere is this more obvious than the example of the run away box office smash, Kung Fu Panda, and its sequel. A wildly successful animation produced by Steven Spielberg in 2008 about a panda who wants to learn kung fu and his bumbling way toward greatness, the movie became the biggest box office hit in China’s history. Its sequel, Kung Fu Panda 2, released last month, again became a record-breaking film in China.

If the Chinese are in awe as to how their own cultural heritage is being successfully repackaged by Hollywood and sold back to them, some artists and thinkers are rather peeved. In an open letter to the public, the artist Zhao Bandi encouraged Chinese moviegoers to boycott the film as well as other movies from the West that exploit Chinese cultures. Kung Fu Panda films “twisted Chinese culture and served as a tool to kidnap the minds of the Chinese people,” he wrote. “Don’t turn it into a money-making day for Hollywood, and don’t fool our next generation with American ‘fast food’.'” Back in 2008, some government officials also considered censuring the first installment, but to no avail.

After all, Chinese moviegoers love Kung Fu Panda and want more of it. Which also set the Chinese blogospheres abuzz with soul-searching questions along the lines of “Why can’t we produce such brilliant movies ourselves?” and “How can we leave it to foreigners to tell our stories while we make movies that are steeped in melodrama?” and “What is it about our society that creativity is so stifled?” and so on.

Those who find it odd and upsetting that others are now impersonating them (and many are very successful at it) have yet to come to terms with the Information Age, which seems to come with an inevitable a.k.a. the Appropriation Age. For ours is a world in which traditions exist side by side for the borrowing and taking, and ultimately, the mixing. Indeed, from religion to cuisine, from medicine to music, from dance to literature, from agricultural practices to filmmaking, all are available to the contemporary alchemists to reshape and re-imagine. So much so that it now seems self-evident that the energy that is fueling the major part of the 21st-century global village is that of the hybrid space in which re-invention is key.

Which beckons this question: If others reinvent your culture and sell it back to you, what is gained, and what is lost?

On the Food Network last year, Rachael Ray was teaching television audiences how to make Vietnamese pho—beef noodle soup—and she got the recipe wrong. Besides calling it a Thai-inspired dish she used –gasp!– pork instead of beef, and didn’t include fish sauce. Ray caused a stir among pho purists and the Vietnamese Diaspora, and this response from Vietnamese American chef and food author Andrea Nguyen: “Pho is in the dictionary…I’m rather appalled that the producers of the Rachael Ray Show would do such an injustice to pho noodle soup. I wish that her show producers would go the extra mile for Asian food.”

Yet, a couple decades back, the soup itself was but the private cuisine of refugees in Little Saigons across the world. It certainly wasn’t in the American English dictionary, nor taught on national television. So while it’s understandable for those who grew up with pho to be upset when their tradition is exploited, and especially have the story of the soup’s origin misinterpreted, one can’t help but wonder: Well, is the new recipe any good?

What is gained, if it’s any good, is a new flavor, a new way of looking at a beloved classic. What is lost is of course a cherished tradition, a way of life altered by newness. But such is the recipe of invention, isn’t it, that it entails a pinch of spontaneity, and a tablespoon or two of betrayal?

No one owns culture, in the end, and the most popular tend to transgress borders, and in time, shed old skin for a myriad of rebirth. Think about it: while a pho purist might be upset that his sacred broth is “perverted” by someone else, he himself has no qualms about drinking filter café sua da—filter coffee with condensed milk—and eating his banh mi pate –the popular Vietnamese sandwich made of baguette and ham and pate that’s been for generations the staple of the Vietnamese and is now sold in major cities across America. Never mind that the entire convention, with the exception of cilantro and chilies and pickle and Maggi sauce, is borrowed heavily from Vietnam’s former colonizers, the French, with whom many still have a love-hate relationship.

A culture that needs preservation may very well be a culture ready for the museum. Which is to say, yesterday’s bold experiments are today’s classics and what betrays today’s tradition may very well find its place in tomorrow’s sun. As to the controversy of pandas and Kung Fu, some may be surprised to find that Chinese kung fu is not purely Chinese. Historians may disagree but the 5th-6th century figure, Bodhidharma, a Buddhist monk from South Asia, looms large among Chinese martial arts practitioners as well as Buddhist scholars. Legend has it that, along with being the patriarch of Zen Buddhism, the reportedly ill-tempered but holy sage taught monks at the Shaolin Temple marvelous ancient yoga breathing techniques (which enabled him to scale tall mountains to arrive in China in the first place). Boddhidarma’s disciples and their disciples went on to invent a myriad of kung fu fighting styles.

Recently, a writer for Asia Times chimed in on the issue as to why some can sell you your own image better than yourself with this: “Perhaps it is just that it takes distance to grasp some essential elements. The best historian of modern Italy is an Englishman, Dennis Mack Smith—not an Italian.” Speaking of Italian, the traditional pasta is a culinary anagram from elsewhere. Noodles from China—grazie, Marco Polo!—and tomato from South America, the combination of which makes up a traditional dish cherished by a European nation. Which is to say, the borders have been porous all along.

In an essay titled “My Kitsch is Their Cool,” the writer Sandip Roy, an Indian immigrant to America, talked about how the world changed. “Madonna wears a bindi,” and “The Kronos Quartet reinterprets Bollywood composer R.D. Burman,” and “Body-hugging T-shirts worn by gay guys in the Castro say “San Francisco” in Devanagari script.” There are even Bollywood appreciation classes at universities, Roy noted with amusement. “Our Krishnas and curries are now public property to be sampled, remixed.”

The most creative people of our times seem to be those who can immerse in apprenticeship in others’ cultures while retaining elements of their own. They are aware that nothing—neither identity, nor traditional dishes nor classical songs—is meant to be etched in stone, but that new art demands appropriation, integration and reinterpretation. And with the Internet shrinking the globe, and with the world defined by mass movement, rendering geography obsolete, the whole world becomes a virtual library of Alexandria. It follows that the other has become us; and that, naturally through cultural revolution, that the mute, loveable panda should stand on two legs, talking jive, and doing some marvelous, kick ass kung fu.

Andrew Lam is author of East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres and Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora. His next book, “Birds of Paradise” – a collection of short stories- is due out in 2012.

[GeneChing]

In the U.S. it's down to #6 according to boxofficemojo.com - Worldwide: $423,670,468

1. Green Lantern
2. Super 8
3. Mr. Popper's Penguins
4. X-Men: First Class
5. The Hangover Part II
6. Kung Fu Panda 2

Box Office Report: 'Kung Fu Panda 2' No. 1 Again on Foreign Circuit
4:00 PM 6/19/2011 by Frank Segers

The DreamWorks feature pulled in $52.5 million at the foreign box office, pushing its gross total to $280 million overseas.

DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda 2 decisively seized for the second consecutive round the weekend’s No. 1 box office spot on the foreign theatrical circuit, generating $52.5 million from 10,267 venues in 55 markets and pushing its overseas gross total to $280 million.

Top ranked domestic title on the weekend, Warner Bros.’ Green Lantern opened No. 5 foreign circuit spot, drawing a mild-mannered $17 million from some 3,250 screens in 15 markets. The film recreation of the DC comics superhero, starring Ryan Reynolds, took the top spot in its U.K. bow ($4.9 million from 907 locations) while landing No. 2 in Russia ($3.2 million from 771 spots).

Panda 2 via Paramount took the top spots in each of its 10 new markets with France leading the list with $7.2 million derived from 760 sites, beating the 2008 original comparable market figure by 4%.

Germany tally for the 3D sequel was $6.8 million from 690, 45% more than the original drew in the market. Spain provided $2.8 million from 403 locations while Belgium opened at 115 spots to $1.2 million. Panda 2 opens in Australia this week.

Weekend action offshore was spiced somewhat by the introductions of three fresh comedies at the outset of their foreign box office forays.

Sony’s Bad Teacher, an R-rated comedy costarring Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake about a foul-mouthed junior high school teacher, made its foreign debut in the U.K., finishing No. 2 in the market with $3.4 million drawn from 520 locations. Openings in over 20 overseas European markets are due this week.

Fox declined to report weekend gross figures for Mr. Popper’s Penguins, the Jim Carrey comedy, which opened No. 3 in the U.S. and Canada. Overseas bows were in five small markets – Jamaica, the Philippines, Singapore, South Africa and Trinidad.

“Besides the fact that we expect no more than $500,000 to $600,000 combined gross box office this weekend from these early release, we won’t have actual (box office figures) until Monday,” said the distributor. A “long, slow rollout” offshore lands June 23 in Germany followed the by bows in Australia and Brazil next week.

After playing several miniscule markets, Universal’s Bridesmaids broadened its foreign exposure with openings at 339 sites in seven markets including Australia and New Zealand.

Weekend take was $7.3 million for the female-oriented comedy coscripted by and costarring Kirsten Wiig. Its No. 1 debut in Australia generated $6.8 million from 234 locations while the No. 2 New Zealand bow produced $360,000 from 55 situations. Foreign cume is $7.6 million. U.K. and Russia openings are due this week.

No. 2 on the weekend was Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, which continues to enlarge its foreign gross total with a $25.9 million weekend at 10,450 venues in more than 100 markets.

Overseas cume stands at $731.9 million, with Disney predicting that the Jerry Bruckheimer production starring Johnny Depp will overtake this week 2003’s The Lord of the Rings:The Return of the King (cume of $742.1 million) as the third biggest box office hit ever to play the foreign circuit.

On Stranger Tides has rolled up a worldwide gross of $952.2 million, qualifying for the No. 11 spot on the all-time global box office chart. Biggest foreign market remains Japan, where the film has grossed a total of $87.5 million.

Third on the weekend was The Hangover Part 2, which grossed $21.4 million from about 5,800 screens in 55 markets, hoisting its foreign cume to $256 million. Distributor Warner’s notes that with a $488 million worldwide take, the sequel beat the $468 million generated by 2009’s The Hangover to become the biggest-grossing R-rated comedy of all time.

The weekend’s No. 4 title was 20th Century Fox’s X-Men: First Class, which pushed its foreign gross total to $163.2 million thanks to a $21.2 million weekend generated from 9,086 screens in 67 territories. A No. 3 weekend in South Korea resulted in $2.1 million drawn from 379 spots for a market cume of $13.5 million.

Director J.J. Abrams' Super 8, produced by Steven Spielberg, has registered $22 million in foreign box office after its second round offshore. Weekend contributed $12.5 million from 2,252 spots with a Russia debut offering $4.1 million from 596 locations.

In France, Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris and Terrence Malick’s Cannes Festival Palme d’Or winner Tree of Life are fading at the boxoffice. Mars Distribution’s release of Midnight finished in the No. 10 spot in its sixth market weekend, drawing an estimated $500,000 from 400 screens for a local cume of $12.4 million.

Also in its sixth France week, Tree of Life via Europa Film grossed an estimated $300,000 from some 300 playdates for a market cume of $6 million. Overall on the weekend, Tree generated $2 million at 1,040 screens in 15 territories. Total overseas cume stands at $15.9 million, with the U.K., Australia, Spain, Japan and South Korea yet to play.

Taking the No. 7 spot in France in its second round was Memento Films release of Nader and Simin, A Separation, Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s domestic drama which won the top Golden Bear prize at this years Berlin Film Festival. Weekend provided some $700,000 from 105 screens, down a mild-mannered 30% from the opening stanza. Market cume stands at $2.3 million.

Other international cumes: Sony’s Priest, $46 million; Fox’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, $16.8 million; Universal’s Fast Five, $385 million; Fox’s Black Swan, $218.8 million; Universal’s The Adjustment Bureau, $61.5 million; Dox’s Water For Elephants, $56.7 million; Universal’s The Debt, opened in France for $600,000 at 210 sites; Summit Int’l./Alcon Entertainment’s Something Borrowed, $17.8 million; and Universal’s Paul, $55.5 million.

[GeneChing]

Chollywood needs to make a cartoon movie about an MMA eagle and sell it back to us.

China's culture clash over 'Kung Fu Panda'
Andrew Lam
Sunday, July 3, 2011

Jack Black's two "Kung Fu Panda" films have been popular in China.

In the age of globalization, there's a caveat that rings true: "You know your culture is a big hit when somebody else is selling it back to you."

Nowhere is this more obvious than the example of the runaway box office smash, "Kung Fu Panda." A wildly successful animation produced by Steven Spielberg about a bumbling panda who wants to learn kung fu, the movie became the biggest box office hit in China's history. So did its sequel, "Kung Fu Panda 2."

If the Chinese are in awe as to how their own cultural heritage is being successfully repackaged by Hollywood, some artists and thinkers are peeved. The artist Zhao Bandi publicly encouraged Chinese moviegoers to boycott the film. "Kung Fu Panda" films "twisted Chinese culture and served as a tool to kidnap the minds of the Chinese people," he wrote. "Don't fool our next generation with American 'fast food.' " Back in 2008, some government officials also considered censuring the first installment but to no avail.

Chinese moviegoers love "Kung Fu Panda" and want more of it. Which also set the Chinese blogosphere abuzz with soul-searching questions like "Why can't we produce such brilliant movies ourselves?" and "What is it about our society that creativity is so stifled?" and so on.

Those who find it upsetting that others are successfully impersonating them have yet to come to terms with what follows the Information Age: the Age of Appropriation. Ours is a world in which traditions exist side by side for the picking. From religion to cuisine, medicine to music, dance to literature, all are available to the contemporary alchemists to reimagine. Indeed, the energy that is fueling the major part of the 21st century global village is that of the hybrid space in which reinvention is key. Which beckons this question: If others reinvent your culture and sell it back to you, what is gained, and what is lost?

On the Food Network last year, Rachael Ray made Vietnamese pho soup and she got the recipe wrong. Besides calling it a Thai-inspired dish, she used -gasp! - pork instead of beef and didn't include fish sauce. Ray caused a stir among pho purists and this response from Vietnamese American chef and food author Andrea Nguyen: "Pho is in the dictionary ... I'm rather appalled that the producers of the Rachael Ray show would do such an injustice to pho noodle soup." Yet, a couple decades back, the soup itself was solely the private cuisine of refugees. It certainly wasn't in the American English dictionary nor taught on national television. While it's understandable for those who grew up with pho to be upset at Ray, one can't help but wonder: Well, is the new recipe any good?

What is gained, if it's any good, is a new flavor, a new way of looking at a beloved classic. What is lost, of course, is a cherished tradition, a way of life altered by newness. But such is the recipe of invention, isn't it, that it entails a pinch of spontaneity and a tablespoon of betrayal? No one owns culture, after all, and the most popular tend to transgress borders, shedding old skin for rebirth.

Think about it: while a pho purist might be upset that his sacred broth is "perverted" by someone else, he himself has no qualms about eating his banh mi pate - the popular Vietnamese sandwich made of baguette, ham and pate that for generations has been the staple of the Vietnamese and is now sold in American cities. Never mind that the entire convention, with the exception of cilantro, chiles and pickle, is borrowed from Vietnam's former colonizers, the French, with whom many still have a love-hate relationship.

Besides, a culture that needs preservation might very well be a culture ready for the museum. Which is to say, yesterday's bold experiments are today's classics, and what betrays today's tradition could very well find its place in tomorrow's sun. And for that matter, some might be surprised to find that Chinese kung fu is not purely Chinese. For martial arts scholars, the 5th century figure, Bodhidharma, a monk from South Asia, looms large. Along with being the patriarch of Zen Buddhism, the ill-tempered but holy sage taught monks at the Shaolin Temple marvelous ancient yoga breathing techniques. Bodhidharma's disciples went on to invent myriad kung fu fighting styles.

The most creative people of our times seem to be those who can immerse in apprenticeship in others' cultures while retaining elements of their own. They are aware that nothing is meant to be etched in stone but that new art demands appropriation, integration and reinterpretation.

With the Internet spreading worldwide, and the world defined by mass movements, everything is available for renewal. It follows that, given the new cultural revolutions, the mute, lovable panda should stand on two legs, talking jive and doing some kick-ass kung fu.

Andrew Lam is author of "East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres" and "Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora." His next book, "Birds of Paradise" - a collection of short stories - is due out in 2012.

[GeneChing]

Good ol' Epoch Times. They really know how to deliver the goods.

China's 'Panda Man' Defeated by Kung Fu Panda
Epoch Times Staff Created: Jul 2, 2011 Last Updated: Jul 5, 2011

LIFE LESSON: Shifu (Dustin Hoffman, right) teaches Po (Jack Black, left) the value of inner peace in Kung Fu Panda 2. (Courtesy of DreamWorks Animation)

DreamWorks' animation film Kung Fu Panda 2, released May 26, is also playing in movie theatres in Mainland China. In addition to competing with the regime's large-scale political propaganda movie Beginning of the Great Revival, the Hollywood import is also being boycotted by a Chinese artist who claims to be defending China against “cultural invasion.”

Zhao Bandi, a Beijing artist, has the nickname “Panda Man” because he often depicts pandas in his art. In May, Zhao put an advertisement in Beijing News and Guangzhou's Southern Metropolis Daily, telling fellow Chinese that they should boycott the U.S. panda movie. The ad showed Zhao wearing a panda hat and holding a toy panda.

But it appears that “Panda Man” was no match for the kung fu of the U.S. panda. Kung Fu Panda 2 grossed over 340 million yuan (about US$52 million) during its first nine days in theaters.

The first episode of Kung Fu Panda, released in 2008, grossed 180 million yuan (US$27.8 million) and set a new box office record for an animated film in China.

The film is set in old China and filled with animated animal characters. The hero, Po, is a clumsy and lazy panda who aspires to become a kung fu master. The story takes off when Po is chosen to save the land from an evil kung fu warrior.

In addition to staying faithful to East Asian cultural elements, Kung Fu Panda 2 includes a lion dance, firecrackers, a shadow show and other Chinese traditions.
'Cultural Invasion'

Zhao, the “Panda Man,” was not charmed. On May 27 he sent an open letter via express mail to more than 300 theater managers nationwide asking them to boycott the film, Media China reported on May 28.

Zhao said his goal was to keep the box office income of Kung Fu Panda 2 under 300 million yuan (US$46.4 million) because Kung Fu Panda 2 is “a cultural invasion.”

Zhao's initiative received support from Kong Qingdong, a professor at the Chinese Department of Beijing University, and allegedly a Confucius descendant.

Kong blasted Hollywood movies, saying they are indeed a cultural invasion, and that World War III had already begun a long time ago.

“Our territory has been invaded, because some idiots are brainwashed by American movies. Hollywood, is the U.S. Ministry of Culture and Propaganda,” Kong went on.

Another supporter of Zhao's is the Dean of the Department of Animation at Beijing Film Academy, Sun Lijun. Sun went so far as to ask for government support to protect China's animation industry and the banning of “foreign invaders.”

But Chinese people didn't seem to agree with the cultural invasion theory. One moviegoer told Media China, “There's no need for a boycott. It's merely an animation film and far from being a cultural invasion. For us, watching a movie is just entertainment.”

Overall, Kung Fu Panda 2, like Kung Fu Panda two years ago, was received with enthusiasm in China.

The Chinese-regime mouthpiece People's Daily said on May 19 that the film was the first movie to earn 400 million yuan (US$61.9 million) this year, and the first movie to bring in over 100 million yuan (US$15.5 million) per week after three weeks.

Hao Yaning, CEO of Beijing Union Pictures said: “The story of Kung Fu Panda is really good. Whether or not it has been packaged with Chinese elements to better deliver an American theme to the Chinese audience, audiences love it, and we need to explore its magic.

“Chinese peers cannot make a film like this, mainly because we lack the imagination. We dare not find a duck to be the father of a panda,” Hao added.

That last line is the kicker. A duck the father of a panda?! We dare not!!