Following Soviet Trends

Once again, I would like to share useful information with cinema buffs. There are numerous examples, where Hollywood, willingly or unwillingly, followed in the footsteps of the Red Empire’s film directors.

«Год дракона» (Year of the Dragon, directed by Asanali Ashimov, produced by Kazakhfilm Studios, 1981) is a historical movie about the Uighur rebellion in China, which took place in the first half of the XIX century. Its title and anti-Chinese sentiments were repeated in an action drama Year of the Dragon (directed by Michael Cimino, produced by Dino de Laurentiis and MGM, 1985). The former one contains a scene, where Chinese militia disrupt an Uighur wedding. The latter one contains a scene, where Chinese criminals play havoc with multinational patrons of a Chinese restaurant.

«Одинокая женщина желает познакомиться» (Lonely Woman Seeks Lifetime Companion, directed by Vyacheslav Krishtofovich, produced by Dovzhenko Film Studios, 1986) is a drama movie about a single woman, who had posted her makeshift dating advertisements on the street. Her efforts to set up a family turned out to be futile. The topic of the movie and its scenes were repeated, to some extent, in a thriller Single White Female (directed by Barbet Schroeder, produced by Columbia Pictures Corporation, 1992). By the way, both films are representative for their times and countries. Lonely Woman Seeks Lifetime Companion, along with Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears (1980) and The Most Charming and Attractive (1985), deals with a burning issue of female loneliness in the Soviet Union. Single White Female, along with Fatal Attraction (1987), Misery (1990), and Basic Instinct (1992), exploits a popular Hollywood theme — a literally dangerous woman.

«Необыкновенные приключения Карика и Вали» (Karik and Valya’s Remarkable Adventures, directed by Vladimir Rodchenko, produced by Lenfilm Studios, 1987) is a sci-fi movie, based on a novel by Jaan Larri, published in 1937. Two kids — Karik and his sister Valya — inadvertently had taken magic elixir of a professor, which shrank them to the size of insects. Ah, don’t worry! With the help of Professor Enotov, the kids eventually managed to regain their normal size. No wonder that such amazing story found grateful followers in America, who made a sci-fi comedy Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (directed by Joe Johnston, produced by Walt Disney Pictures, 1989). The two movies have many scenes in common. Those, showing potentially fatal lawn-mowers and insect-riding stunts, are displayed in my videoclip.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)