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Moonlight Chicken and cradling pain
28 Mar 2024 08:57 pmMy fourth time through all of Moonlight Chicken, thanks to a new online friend who loves it in the same ways I do, and it's back to its rightful place on the top of my favourites. Knowing it so well, I had spare bandwidth to understand some of the how's of its magic as well as the why's. The phrase I've been using is "cradling pain".
In the third episode, Li Ming goes off on his own, fed up with school, his nagging uncle, and everything else. He ends up by the water. The scene isn't rushed, it gives the actor, the character and us time to be with his frustration, worries and pain. It's there, it feels so very real, and it's surrounded by the calm, gentle beauty of the night and the water and held by the calm, gentle beauty of the music. His pain, and ours, cradled by all of this.
The fourth episode has other moments of pain. There's an argument, a revelation, a montage of all the characters with their worries. And it's framed by a calm, gentle, beautiful, hopeful song, a montage of the characters' happiness in their closest relationships and a gentle voice speaking wise, gentle words. It's surrounded by love, cradling the pain.
Those are the clearest examples of this. And now I understand better how this exceptional series opens me up to so many of my griefs. They're in the stories, the moments of identification and lived understanding of what the characters are going through. I've always known the characters' support for each other in this found family carried over to help me grieve. I didn't know until now how deeply the director's choices supported that.
Much respect and appreciation for P'Aof, all of the actors, and this quiet masterpiece of emotion.
------
there always comes a time when #MoonlightChicken 's interconnected stories of loss and healing, of letting go and moving on, and the gentle, quiet beauty in which the music, acting and cinematography cradle pain, work their magic on me and I am so ready to move on... and once again I find myself up against the limitations of my health and my inability to find any way to do so within our transactional what can you do for me society
In the third episode, Li Ming goes off on his own, fed up with school, his nagging uncle, and everything else. He ends up by the water. The scene isn't rushed, it gives the actor, the character and us time to be with his frustration, worries and pain. It's there, it feels so very real, and it's surrounded by the calm, gentle beauty of the night and the water and held by the calm, gentle beauty of the music. His pain, and ours, cradled by all of this.
The fourth episode has other moments of pain. There's an argument, a revelation, a montage of all the characters with their worries. And it's framed by a calm, gentle, beautiful, hopeful song, a montage of the characters' happiness in their closest relationships and a gentle voice speaking wise, gentle words. It's surrounded by love, cradling the pain.
Those are the clearest examples of this. And now I understand better how this exceptional series opens me up to so many of my griefs. They're in the stories, the moments of identification and lived understanding of what the characters are going through. I've always known the characters' support for each other in this found family carried over to help me grieve. I didn't know until now how deeply the director's choices supported that.
Much respect and appreciation for P'Aof, all of the actors, and this quiet masterpiece of emotion.
------
there always comes a time when #MoonlightChicken 's interconnected stories of loss and healing, of letting go and moving on, and the gentle, quiet beauty in which the music, acting and cinematography cradle pain, work their magic on me and I am so ready to move on... and once again I find myself up against the limitations of my health and my inability to find any way to do so within our transactional what can you do for me society
