Culture 03Shenzhen Daily Wednesday March 14, 2018

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Song of the WeekSong of the Week

“An Acre of Land”PJ Harvey

My father left me an acre of landSing ivy, sing ivyMy father left me an acre of landSing holly, go whistle and ivy

I plowed it with a ram’s hornSing ivy, sing ivyAnd sowed it all over with one peppercornSing holly, go whistle and ivy

Sing holly, go whistle and ivySing holly, go whistle and ivySing ivy

I harrowed it with a team of ratsSing ivy, sing ivyAnd reaped it with my little tooth combSing holly, go whistle and ivy

I sent it home in a walnut shellSing ivy, sing ivyAnd thrashed it with a goose’s quillSing holly, go whistle and ivy

Sing holly, go whistle and ivySing holly, go whistle and ivySing holly, go whistle and ivySing ivy

Sing holly, go whistle and ivySing holly, go whistle and ivySing holly, go whistle and ivySing holly, go whistle and ivySing holly, go whistle and ivySing ivy

Background“An Acre of Land” sees PJ

Harvey teaming up with fi lm composer Harry Escott for a composition that recalls a more pastoral take on the Gothic sound of her 2007 album “White Chalk.” As on that album, here Harvey sings about wildfl owers and windswept moors over plucking notes on a zither* and a lone-strumming* guitar. But she does so in her natural vocal register*, a difference that makes “An Acre of Land” exponentially warmer than anything on “White Chalk.”

The song was written for “Dark River,” Clio Bernard’s socio-real-ist psychodrama* about a pair of siblings trying to heal the wounds of the past as they come together to take over their late parents’ farm. The song is lovely, if also rather bleak.

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Children of Blood and Bone Orisha was once a kingdom of magic. Zelie’s mother could raise the dead and control the elements, from fi re to tides.

One night, magic deserted them and Zelie’s mother was brutally mur-dered by a tyrannical* king. Zelie is left to mourn not only her mother, but the birthright of magic she’s now lost.

A chance encounter with a rebel princess sends her on a dangerous journey that will give her the chance to restore magic but the cost will be higher

than she ever imagined.“Children of Blood and

Bone” is Nigerian-Ameri-can author Tomi Adeyemi’s young adult book debut, and comes with suffi cient noise to raise expecta-tions sky high: a six-fi gure advance*, movie rights sold to Fox 2000 and rap-turous* fi rst look reviews.

Rather than subverting* them, Adeyemi revels in fantasy tropes, giving us princesses, family betray-als*, power struggles and an epic world with a new system of magic to explore and enjoy. But it is

the vibrantly drawn, West African-inspired setting that makes this unlike any fantasy readers will have encountered before.

At 544 pages, the book is skillfully paced and well served by Adeyemi’s straightforward, vivid prose.

The alternating perspec-tives of Zelie, Princess Amari and Prince Inan, their pursuer, are cap-tured with equal depth and insight. The hate-to-love romance comes with high stakes, and the rela-tionship is realistically* and passionately realized. All of it is packaged in a tightly plotted, action-packed adventure. (SD-Agencies)

《血骨之子》

A lively trio of cartoons that are wacky*, heartwarming and wise, “The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales,” to be released in China this Friday, showcases an animal farm like no other: The fox is far less cunning* than he is both kind and nurturing, a duck has no idea how to actually swim, a lizard shows up out of nowhere and speaking Mandarin and a stork* is far too lazy to deliver the baby in its beak.

Those are just some of the charac-ters populating this second feature from director Benjamin Renner, whose “Ernest & Celestine” was one of the more memorable animated movies to come out of France a few years back, earning a Cesar Award and an Oscar nomination.

This time the source material is dif-ferent, with Renner adapting his own best-selling comic book in a tone that’s equal parts Tex Avery and Dr. Seuss, with a bit of Adult Swim thrown into the mix. The result is lots of fun, if less compelling and cohesive than the last fi lm, which should make it a shoo-in* with Gallic* tykes* as they head into the summer vacation.

Co-written by Jean Regnaud, all three stories feature animals that have a hard time fulfi lling their traditional roles, whether it’s on the farm or in the forest. They could all also probably use

a dose of Ritalin*; they seem constantly agitated* and incapable of chilling out for as much as a second.

In the fi rst tale (“A Baby to Deliver”), a stork leaves a baby in the hands of a rabbit, a pig and a duck, urging them to make the delivery in his place. The second and longest story (“The Big Bad Fox”), based on Renner’s comic, follows a fox searching for food and winding up — not unlike Seuss’ “Horton Hatches an Egg” — with a set of baby chicks to take care of, proving he may be better at child-rearing* than at hunting. In the

third part (“The Perfect Christmas”), the animals mistakenly think they’ve killed Santa Claus and try their awful best to replace him.

Each part offers an array of slap-stick* gags, snappy dialog and winks at pop culture — including a possible reference to “Fargo” in the “Christmas” story — though behind all the chaos lies a rather sentimental core, especially in the fable where the hungry fox is con-stantly tempted to eat the very infants he’s falling in love with.

(SD-Agencies)

The Big Bad Fox & Other TalesThe Big Bad Fox & Other Tales《大坏狐狸的故事》《大坏狐狸的故事》

PJ Harvey

A scene from “The Big Bad Fox & Other Tales.”A scene from “The Big Bad Fox & Other Tales.” SD-AgenciesSD-Agencies

wacky 古怪的 cunning 狡猾的 stork 鹳 shoo-in 必胜者 Gallic 高卢的 tyke 恶犬Ritalin 利他林 (中枢兴奋药) agitated 焦虑的 child-rearing 抚养子女 slapstick 闹剧subvert 颠覆 betrayal 背叛 realistically 逼真地 zither 齐特琴 strum 轻弹vocal register 音域 psychodrama 心理剧