Him and their stars.

Chapter 2252 Unity City Film Studio's "Rock Corner No. 9"

Synopsis of the movie "Number Nine Rocky Point"

Genre: Romance/Drama/History
Production Companies: Imperial Royal Blossoms Film Company, New Continent Unity City Studio, Alliance Seven Dimensions Pictures
Director: Ridley Coppola
Release date: 867 AD (Common Calendar)

Plot Summary 1:

In the year 866 of the Common Calendar, to celebrate the victory of the Omnic War and the opening of the new Enlightened Archaeology Theme Park, New Jade Gate held its first "New Continent Music Festival," inviting many famous local singers and bands, including evergreen artists like Selena Mao who had been popular for thirty years.

Because the Imperial Canaan Consortium is the largest private investor in the Archaeological Park, the music festival is jointly organized by both parties.

The Empire wanted the opening act for the music festival to be Vissan Canat (Aggie Perrin), a newly famous Empire teenage singer, but the New Jade Gate government insisted on using locals, and even organized a large sandstorm band composed entirely of locals.

They consist of a seasoned shepherd from the desert, an elite machine gunner from Lumina, a retired fitter from the arsenal, and a third-rate rock singer named Ah-Guan (Lei Cheng-Sheng) who had to return to his hometown to work as a postman because his band broke up and he couldn't make it in Nefic. Their average musical level is just above that of someone who dropped out of prenatal education.

After a lively discussion, the two sides decided to perform together on the same stage.

The meticulous Visan felt that A-Guan and the Big Sandstorm Band were insulting music; the latter, however, felt that the pretentious Imperials were insulting the enthusiasm of the people of Xinyumen.

Amidst the chaos and battle of wits, preparations for the music festival are proceeding at a fever pitch, and the conflict between the two sides is escalating.

However, what no one expected was that when the music festival's Empire agent, Claire Moretti (Rem Nielsen), arrived in Xinyumen aboard the Rock Point 9 cargo ship, a love story from thirty years ago would lead to a transnational love story 30 years later.

Plot Summary 2:
In the year 835 of the Common Calendar, the Galactic mainland was still engulfed in war, but this planet located on the New World entered a peculiar state of truce.

Apart from minor skirmishes between a few guerrilla groups and Imperial patrols, large-scale warfare on the planet has ceased.

Major Collain Morenty (Jimmy McCorvey), the operations officer of the Imperial garrison, is critically wounded and falls into a coma after an attack by guerrillas.

Just as he was about to be swallowed by the desert, he was rescued by a young girl named Delilah Hall (Amy Watson) who came to scavenge on the battlefield. They couldn't understand each other's language, but a cup of hot water, a bowl of ginger soup, and their shared love for Selena Mao's singing brought them closer together, and a love blossomed in the desert.

They didn't talk about war, nor did they ask about positions; they simply awkwardly discussed music, beauty, and the future during the long winter in Xinyumen.

They learned each other's languages ​​and remembered each other's faces.

In 838, as the empire lost control of the South Heavenly Gate, the imperial army withdrew from the New Jade Gate.

Coleon boarded the Rockhorn 9 transport ship, watching his lover's figure disappear into the gray sky of Turon hidden among the crowd.

When Colin returned to Xinyumen 30 years later, he had long since resigned from his military post and was engaged in cultural exchange work between the two countries.

With the help of young singers Vivian and A-Guan, he tries to find his lover from his youth, but everything has changed.

Film Review 1: Thirty Years After the Snowfall – On Love and Time Across Borders in "No. 9 Rocky Point"

This is a film about waiting, and also a film about transcendence—transcending war, transcending borders, transcending violence of time, transcending ideology and political intrigue.

It was completely unexpected that Ridley Coppola, who was skilled at telling epic stories and praising heroic legends, would suddenly reach a new level in his later years.

This nearly 70-year-old director has displayed a delicate touch completely different from his past style, constructing an emotional monument spanning thirty years in 150 minutes.

Throughout the film, the tone thirty years ago was sand and snow, while thirty years later it is fire and light. All emotions, whether cold, distant, repressed, flickering, or fiery, candid, yearning, or passionate, are perfectly unified through the magnificent music.

The most spectacular moment of the music festival was the surprise appearance of Selena Mao. This "eternal goddess of song," the "fairy of stardust," delivered the most captivating audiovisual feast of the entire film in her own performance.

All the audience members could then understand why, in that era, her singing could serve as a bridge of communication.

However, what moved me the most was Aggie Perrin's performance of "Turlon Holiday" during the opening act. It was the creation of her uncle's life (the film is actually based on the true story of her uncle, Colonel Kogo Perrin), and it served not only as a bridge between the two countries but also as a bridge of emotions between two generations.

At the music festival, she was passing on a legacy of love.

Without her foundation, there would have been no subsequent appearance of the "Stardust Fairy," which further elevated the grand fusion of music.

Some commentators have called it "a cultural symbol of reconciliation between empire and republic," or "a variant of political propaganda." However, as a conscientious journalist, I prefer to see it as a story about ordinary people—caught in the torrent of history, powerless to control their own destiny, yet still protecting what is most precious to them in the simplest of ways.

What Klein is protecting is the memory of redeeming himself in the desert.

What Daisy was protecting was the warm light in the backyard of the hardware store.

What Wei-shan is protecting is her uncle's song and the obsession with the love she was born with.

What Ah Guan is protecting is that moment of heart-fluttering emotion.

What the director is protecting is the most precious legacy of the galactic civilization—that love can still sprout on the ruins of hatred.

Waiting itself is proof of love. If love is only worthwhile if it has a result, then it is not true love.

Love can transcend war.

Film Review 2: Have the invaders lost their temper again? — A critique of the historical nihilism in *No. 9 Rocky Point*
The most talked-about romance film of the year has to be "No. 9 Rocky Point," right? The overwhelming publicity and rave reviews are everywhere. After all, it's a big-budget production with a big director and big stars, so this level of hype isn't surprising. But the question is, are you guys really not going to act anymore?
Amidst the chorus of praise, I must voice a different opinion: this thing—I can hardly call it a film yet—is a serious distortion of history, a romanticized embellishment of colonial atrocities, and a shameless glorification of the unequal relationship between occupiers and the coerced.

If films like this qualify as "celebrating love," then a slave-owning, racist empire ruling half the galaxy must be an ideal state of universal harmony. All Dragon Kings must be selfless saints, their ancestral tablets enshrined in shrines, receiving offerings from countless families.

I urge all the cultural figures who fawn over them to quickly replace the ancestral tablets in their homes with the names of the imperial lords.

The film portrays the first encounter between an Imperial invading officer and a young Earth immigrant girl as an "encounter," "the only fragrance amidst the bloodshed" (a famous film critic's words). Although their meeting takes place right after a battle, Ridley Coppola films the scene with such beauty that it feels less like occupied territory and more like an interstellar social gathering.

I must say, this great director truly lives up to his reputation; he is a master at manipulating people's hearts through the language of the camera.

But we must ask, why is this Imperial officer, Mr. Corleone Morenty, carrying a weapon at Xinyumen?

Let's not forget that the movie is set in 835, when the New Jade Gate Empire's invading army suffered a defeat in its southern continent campaign. In retaliation, they used rail bombardment to wipe out four Sand People city-states, with preliminary estimates indicating that more than 80,000 people were killed.

Is love born from power inequality love or just a relationship?
Let us confront the power dynamics within this "love affair": Major Colin represents the occupying forces and wields the power of life and death over all civilians.

Daly was a civilian in the occupied territory and had no ability to resist.

Did she rescue the occupying officer out of compassion, or out of fear of imperial retaliation for failing to help? It's worth noting that after the Imperial army occupied New Jade Gate, all citizens of the original community residing around Tulong were issued "Imperial Reserve Citizen Identity Chips."

Their every move is under full surveillance.

Major Claire Morenty, of noble birth, was gentle, refined, and multi-talented. He could play the piano and guitar, repair old-fashioned robots and ventilation ducts, and was even a fan of Selena Mao, a new pop singer who had not yet entered the mainstream.

The fact that this noble young master was so down-to-earth dispelled any hostility.

The film draped him in layers of "humanity," making the audience forget his true identity—an officer of the occupying forces. The film endowed him with so many talents, yet seemed to overlook the fact that an occupying force officer was even arrogant enough not to speak a common language.

Yes, this multi-talented noble officer was ultimately just part of the imperial war machine. He enjoyed the power that came with imperial conquest, and indulged in an arrogant sense of superiority without realizing it.

The film attempts to use the "individual" to dissolve systemic oppression and aggression—look, this imperial officer is a good person, so the empire isn't so bad after all—this is an extremely dangerous logic, and it's the kind of logic that reactionary rulers and aggressors are best at using.

Now that we've entered the second half of the ninth century, those of you who are still being fooled by this kind of logic should seriously reflect on your own level of understanding.
"Number Nine Rock" was a troop transport ship for the Imperial Army during the war and was converted into a cargo ship after the war. Claire Morenty, a soldier during the war, became a cultural event curator and entertainer after the war, as if this could express the Empire's urgency and sincerity in turning swords into plowshares. However, if it's portrayed too urgently, then it's no longer a film, but political propaganda.

The film portrays Daly's waiting as a kind of "unyielding love" and "the philosophy of waiting," as if this thirty-year wait, this unwavering devotion until death, is the highest praise for love.

I just don't understand, what else can she do besides wait?
You senile, bookish women, tearfully praising Daisy's persistence, have you ever considered that in such a thriving...
What's even more unsettling is that the director had Aiji and Aguan, two younger artists, "reconcile" at the music festival. The reconciliation between court music and folk rock, the handshake between empire and republic—how beautiful, how harmonious! Historical wounds are covered up, and history enters a new chapter.

Daisy waited thirty years for her lover, but he never came. So, thirty years later, her nephew and her lover's niece embarked on a new cross-cultural romance.

Thus, the ideal society of shared prosperity was achieved.

But history shouldn't work this way. The wounds of colonialism won't heal because of the love between two young people, and the blood and tears of occupation won't be washed away by a song.

A sham reconciliation, a fabricated love story, can never replace the reckoning of history.

The true history of the occupation of Xinyumen is one of hunger, resistance, suppression, and death.

But in the movie, we only see lights, snow-capped mountains, guitars, songs, and love. The violence of colonialism is erased, the evils of aggression are forgotten, leaving only a beautiful lie that "transcends war."

Thus, history was sacrificed.

However, history should not be sacrificed.

History cannot be sacrificed. All those who attempt to sacrifice history with ulterior motives will be judged by history. This has been true throughout history without exception.

I'm really looking forward to that day.

……

The Nefit Modern Times magazine interviewed Ms. Selena Mao after the film's release.

Reporter: "I heard you declined all promotional activities for 'Rockpoint No. 9'?"

Selena Mao: "Was I part of that movie? I was just a singer."

Reporter: "However, according to some statistics, the song you sang in the movie brought in at least two billion yuan in box office revenue for the film."

Selena Gomez: "Oh, thank you all for your love for a washed-up singer in her fifties. To reiterate, I never made that movie. I only authorized the production company to use footage of my performance at the New World Music Festival and also authorized them to make certain cinematic adaptations."

Reporter: "You seem to be less than satisfied with this romance film..."

Selena: "Ha, this is a romance film too? Then Mr. Qi's literature must all be children's literature suitable for all ages."

Reporter: "You know what, after Mr. Qi resigned from all his public office, his last work was indeed children's literature..."

Selena: "That's not the point. I'm not against romance films, nor am I against cross-border relationships. If I were to object to that, His Excellency the Grand Marshal wouldn't be happy."

Reporter: "Huh?"

Selena: "Cut this part out! In short, I oppose using love to cover up history and romance to whitewash violence! Ridley Coppola is definitely senile. No, actually, thinking about it carefully, this old bastard is just a quack who's never really been sober. From today onwards, he has lost all my respect! Also, I was scammed by my agency and agent, I'm waiting for the summons! I've won the Galaxy Song Award six times, I still have some influence!"

Reporter (suddenly excited): "You, you mean you're going to sue Qingniao Company and 9 Dimensions?"

Selena: "I'm going to sue both the Universal Embassy and the Imperial Embassy! They're the ones who've been causing the most trouble here! You know, fiction isn't just making things up, and adaptation isn't just making things up. The problem is, not only are they making things up, but they've also gone so far as to abandon all sense of shame and only care about their own interests! You should repent!"

As you can all see, the movies featured in the bonus episodes are actually my personal opinions and critiques. Please remember to subscribe from now on!