Movies: "The Ring" and "Beijing Bicycle"

Since today is Easter Sunday (Happy Easter everybody!) I thought I'd post a cartoon Jenn sent me that I thought you'd enjoy.

Finally watched "The Ring" which is an English (American) adaptation of a popular Japanese movie called "Ringu". Both should be available for rent at your favorite local or online rental store.

I won't post a comprehensive movie review of "The Ring" since there are already so many out there already. In fact, I highly recommend Rotten Tomatoes which aggregates reviews into a convenient "Tomato Meter Reading" from 0%-100%. Anything with less than a 60% rating is considered a rotten tomato and thus probably not worth watching. I liked "The Ring" a lot. It's the third scariest movie I've ever watched behind "The Sixth Sense" and "The Others".

The other movie we watched was "Beijing Bicycle" which is a 2001 Chinese film. It's an interesting snapshot of the some of the social issues in modern day Beijing. For all the modernization that has occurred in the city, most people are still living modest lives and are struggling to make ends meet. Regardless, there is a daily massive influx of "wai di ren" (country folk) who come to Beijing in the hopes of striking it rich. The movie reminded me of the time I spent in Beijing learning Mandarin.