As part of its International Cinema Sunday program a few weeks ago, the Film & Audio Department showed the East Asian film The Drummer. I missed it. Hey, I can’t get cultured continuously (as much as I try) and I watched the Steelers beat the Dolphins that afternoon.
Luckily, the library has the movie on DVD. Though I wished I could have seen on the big screen the mesmerizing scenes of Zen drummers on a mountain in Taiwan (the real-life U Theatre ensemble), home viewing had one advantage. Immediately after the film ended, I grabbed a pair of drumsticks and put my practice pad on the coffee table. So while my father isn’t a hotheaded Hong Kong gangster and I didn’t foolishly get caught in the bathtub with a rival gang leader’s girlfriend, it was still good to lose myself in rhythm like the protagonist of The Drummer does.
— Tim
Eleventh Stack 