Tea Beats Swords - Red Cliff and The Tea Master

J wanted to see Red Cliff because she studies tai chi and there was supposed to be some good sword moves.  I was more skeptical.  I'd seen the previews and it looked like an artsy war flick that would require a trip to the blood bank afterward.  I was right.  A friend afterward said,  "but it had an anti war message."   I'm not sure saying "Today there are no victors" after almost two and a half hours (total 147 min) of blood, via arrows, lances, and a whole array of pointy weapons I couldn't name, plus lots of fire, typhoid victims floated into the enemy camp as a weapon, to name a few, qualifies it as an anti-war movie.  The desensitization to all those severed and burning body parts, the normalization of human destruction is a visual message far more powerful that those few words.  And the Red Cliff website touts this dubious reviewer comment:

"The spectacular battle scenes are the engorged heart of the delirious adventure..."

This sort of Chinese historical epic plays on several channels every night on Beijing television, so it's not particularly new for me, though the story is good and the film is well made. I just don't need to spend what time I have left in this world watching people killing each other.  And I just don't think this is an effective way to end warfare.

But there was one scene that reminded me of one of the films at the Anchorage International Film Festival that I particularly liked, but in the rush of movies, never got to mention - The Tea Master.  It was one of my favorites.  A short, well-made film with a great story. It turns out the filmmakers were able to concentrate on other aspects of the production because they already had a good story:

The Tea Master is Aaron Au’s rendition of a Japanese fable titled “The Samurai and the Tea Master”. The story has been told for hundreds of years and there are numerous versions.

The Tea Master's story is told at hubpages:

A humble chado, or tea ceremony master was challenged to a duel by an unscrupulous ronin who was confident of winning with ease. The chado knew he was no match for the master-less samurai but could not refuse without losing honour, so he prepared to die.

He therefore went to see his neighbour a Kenjutsu (sword) master, to ask how he should best prepare to die with honour. “ How honourable your intent neighbour” he says. “but before we talk of such things we must drink some tea together”

The chado set about the task of preparing the tea in his usual manner. He was clearly relishing this, probably the last, time he would be able to perform his life long art. As he became absorbed in the ceremony the sword master was greatly impressed by the serenity that this supposedly doomed man was demonstrating. (You can read the rest of the story at hubpages. Picture from The Tea Master web page.)

The tea ceremony is an important part of Japanese and Chinese culture and has a powerful effect on people who can appreciate its art.

In Red Cliff, a tea ceremony also plays an important role in distracting the power hungry prime minister/general Cao Cao just long enough for the wind and the war to change direction.  

Perhaps in the next fifty or 100 years,  enough research will be completed that we will better understand why some people have such a strong need to control others and to destroy those who get in their way.  My suspicions are that the secret lies partly in genetics but that genetic disposition doesn't need to show itself if children get the love and support they all need to become whole people.  I'm guessing that when the Rush Limbaugh story comes out on film, we will learn about an abused fat kid who spent his formative years fantasizing his revenge on all the hip people of the world who ridiculed him as a kid.  Too bad he didn't learn the tea ceremony.