"Ka"-- the most beautiful nigtmare

As you may or may not know, I am unquestionably "Chinese" even by Chinese standards. Except for maybe one count--gambling. This traces back to when I was probably about 7 years old on one Chinese New Year, and each of us kid got a handful of red pockets. One of our uncles, maybe in the hope of winning back some of the money he just gave away, suggested that we play cards with "real" money, starting with harmless NT$10 (equivalent of US$0.30). Instead of playing it the childish way, like pinching cheeks or see whose palm gets hits, we were getting a peek of the adulthood. So everyone was game...except for me, I didn't want to play in $10, I'd play more comfortably in $1, I said. They refused at once, so I reluctantly joined as I didn't want to miss the fun. First round started, I was painfully sorting through my red pockets finding a $10 coin, while my little brother Alvis, who was 4 at the time, briskly pulled out $100 note and threw it on the table. Of course at the time we didn't quite understand that it all didn't matter as Mum was going to take away all our red pockets at the end of the day. I do remember the game sort of came to an abrupt end as mum pulled Alvis away from the table.

Now that is one horrifying thought, that I was simply 100 times cheaper than my brother!!! It's just that even at the age of 7, I knew I didn't have much luck to win much things anyway.

But here's the thing. Other than my very righteous mother who do not like gambling, I am the only Chinese who do not like gambling. But how come Chinese are known to be very frugal, and at the same time it is no denying fact that Chinese are the biggest clientèle in the gambling industry? Maybe we are frugal by nurture, because we were not blessed with abundant resources. But maybe gambling is also something we learn by nurture too, as there were not much to lose in the first place?

Anyway, luckily for me, Vegas is not JUST about gambling anymore. And even if I can't find a good restaurant in Vegas (have I mentioned about my bad luck?), there are still abundant things to do. So Paul and I got ourselves two tickets to Ka by Cirque Du Soleil at the MGM Grand.

We paid $150 each ticket at the category 1 section, only to find ourselves sitting at the last row on the left end corner. Well, I can't really claim my bad luck here as there was still one very sorry couple sitting to our left. But as shown in the photo here, where you sit really doesn't matter as this is truly a 3D theater. As I sat down, some villains were dangling over my head looking like someone's about to get hurt. I was impressed at once.

As the show was about to begin, an annoying guy took a photo with his camera--with flash, and his cell phone rang. The villains stopped at once, grabbed the guy on stage, threw his camera, his cell phone, AND the guy himself into the bonfire! Sorry if I spoil the fun, but that gives you a glimpse of how originally creative this performance gets.

From many aspects, Ka is heavily influenced by Asian cultures--Japanese kabuki, Chinese opera, martial arts... in fact, many lead actors are Chinese athletes. But as Paul very well puts it, somehow it transcends all its influences and becomes a unique performance of and by itself.

The storyline is a bit like Korean drama at times (here, another Asian influence), and the entire story was told and sang in gibberish, so for simple minds like Paul and I, there were some lost moments here and there, our exchanges in whisper went like, "Why's the villain up there dancing like the little girl?" (that's coz he likes the little girl), to "What has this got to do with the whole story?" (Nothing?), or "Wait a second, who is he and where did he come from?" But nevertheless, we were watching sincerely in awe.

I felt really bad to admit this but I actually fell asleep towards the end of the show (I had a very~ long~ day at Death Valley), which made the storyline even harder to follow (but Paul was wide awake and that didn't seem to help), and the visual scenes seemed a little bit nightmarish (just take a look at their costume and make-up!!), but all in a very wonderful way, I must say. It is like the most unimaginable nightmare one could ever dream of, so much so that it makes you want to close your eyes and going back for some more.