Monday, August 15, 2005

Nepal in Hollywood and Foreign Pop Culture

It is interesting how Nepal is portrayed in Hollywood movies. Here are some examples (Please add more):

There’s Something about Mary

Mary (Cameron Diaz), the college heartthrob (of 70s?) loves Nepal. She develops a soft spot for Pat Healy (Matt Dillon) who tries to woo her by posing as an architect who’s has a condo in Nepal.
Pat starts the conversation with initially uninterested Mary by saying ‘Do you have a dollar? All I have are these odd Nepalese coins. What good are they?’

Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark

There’s an intro scene for the heroine of the movie. In a Bhatti somewhere in the mountains, with the Sherpas, she has a drinking game with an a huge guy who can apparently down bottles of local spirit with no effect; she eventually wins and still can keep her head straight while Indy Jones pays her a visit, and eventually rescues her from that Nazi guy.

In Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Indy, with a new girl and a kid, after a narrow escape from a run-in with a villain in China, passes over Nepal, and ends up somewhere in India, where he has an encounter with Mola Ram (Amrish Puri), who keeps intonating ‘Kali Ma! Shakti De!’ as he proceeds to dig into unfortunate people’s chests to root their hearts out, cackling fiendishly.

Tintin in Tibet

Tintin and his crew have interesting episodes in Kathmandu, the place incorrectly depicted as full of Indian people and culture, and speaking in Hindi. One porter Cap’n Haddock bumps into yells at his face ‘Arrey! Dekhte Nahin ho?!’. Also, Haddock has to race to a nearby well after he mistakes the ‘carpet’ of red chillies laid out in the ground as pimentos (?), his mouth afire, of course. He also has a hell ride with a sacred, white cow (?) when he tries to climb over it.
Probably because he is british, Haddock is too ‘cultured’ to holler ‘Who’s this gai?’, although he is full of colorful expletives like: Billions of blue blistering barnacles!, Ten Thousand Thundering Typhooons!, Bald-headed budgerigar! Blue Blistering Bell-Bottomed Balderdash! Miserable molecule of mildew! Purple profiteering jellyfish! Pestilential Pachyderm! Lily-livered landlubbers! Ectoplasm! Anthropithecus! Anthropophagus! Artichokes! Jellied eel! etc.

Monsters, Inc.

Nepal is depicted as a snowy, virtually uninhabitable place. In the monster’s world, it is a threat to every law-abiding monster; to them it represents a place for banishment from Monstropolis, when they do an especially dishonorable act, probably the ultimate punishment.
When Henry Waternoose, finds that his best employees, Sulley and Mike, have actually smuggled a live child to his 'Scream Processing Factory', and since children contaminations are highly frowned upon, he banishes the duo to Nepal.
In Nepal, Sulley and Mike meet the abominable snowman who, despite popular belief, is genial although low-IQ’ed, and keeps offering Snow Cones.

2 Comments:

Blogger Sid said...

Great topic, Milan.

I don't know about movies, but here's one from The Simpsons, Episode: King of the Hill.

Homer climbs the tallest mountain in Springfield to impress his son Bart. The company that sponsors him hires two Sherpas to help him. Stuff happens and they are later seen hitching a ride to Nepal outside Homer's house.

4:16 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi,
Interesting blog you goy here. Good information about Nepal. Keep 'em coming!

10:24 PM  

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