Word: melodrama
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Chunhyang, released in 2000, was adapted from a traditional epic and recounts the embattled life and tragic death of the titular courtesan. In the film, Kwon-taek combines the conventions of historical melodrama and musicals in ways reminiscent of Lars von Trier’s Dancer in the Dark, which, incidentally, beat Kwon-taek’s film for the Palm d’Or at that year’s Cannes Film Festival...
...never been to India, but I desperately want to go. It’s a land of luscious pageantry, beautiful beaches, and high melodrama whose every corner hides a veritable parade of colorfully dressed dancers just waiting for the chance to burst into a larger-than-life song and dance performance in celebration of just about anything...
...dance sequences of a Bollywood musical, Chadha introduces her viewers to both the Indian way of life and the Indian way of cinema. Essentially, Gurinder Chadha has had her cake and eaten it too; she has treated us to a movie with all the silly fun of Bollywood melodrama, while staying true to the understated grace of Austen’s original story...
...either disdainful or incapable of severe highs and lows. She wasn't one to spit out rapid-fire dialogue, a vocal reticence that would have limited her roles even in a color-blind Hollywood. Saucy comedy, of the sort Jean Harlow personified, was out, as was the scalding, wiseacre melodrama, Barbara Stanwyck-style. Wong could flash a regal hauteur and, when called for, that sensuality. She could have played grand-dame roles of the sort essayed by Garbo - she certainly could match the Swede for fascination, and self-fascination - but not, say, Marlene Dietrich, whose awareness of her power over...
...Joan's soon-to-be-corroded face, and Ronald cries for Ling Moy to stop. Very well she says. "Ling Moy is merciful." She barks at Ronald: "Kill her!" He must decide if his favorite white girl is to be etched with acid or stabbed to death. Great stuff! Melodrama is the art of knowing how precisely...