Captive Society

In Captives: How Stolen People Changed the World archaeologist Catherine M. Cameron provides an eye-opening comparative study of the profound impact that captives of warfare and raiding have had on small- scale societies through time.

Bears are iconic animals, playing a variety of roles in human culture. They have been portrayed as gods, monsters, kings, fools, brothers, lovers, and dancers; they are seen as protectors of the forest; symbols of masculinity; a comfort for children; and act as symbols for conservation and environmental issues. They also symbolise wilderness, reinforcing and maintaining our connection to the natural world. And stories abound of cultures that gathered berries in the same fields as bears and fished on the same rivers; consequently a wealth of myths, legends and folklore has informed us of our place in the world and the deep connection we have with bears.

It's about time Donnie Yen made an impact yet again in the fantasy wuxia-pian genre, given the rather recent dismal films with Painted Skin (where he only had a supporting role), An Empress and the Warriors, and Tsui Hark's Seven Swords back in 2005. Most of us went ballistic with his more modern action roles ranging from SPL to Ip Man, and his 14 Blades character of Qing Long (Green Dragon, thanks to those mean looking tattoos adorned all over his upper torso) here looks quite set to become yet another memorable role similar to his morally ambiguous one in Bodyguards and Assassins.
Here, Yen's Qing Long is the General-in-chief bodyguard to, and assassin for a Ming Dynasty king, who had set up the Jin Yi Wei (the Mandarin title), or the Brocaded Robe Guards, a special army known for its dogmatic principles in fulfilling mission objectives, whose loyalty is to the king only, and are at his beck and call to do just about anything the king commands. That of course leaves room for evil eunuchs to manipulate, especially when they can get the king easily distracted with wine, song and plenty of nubile women.

In the late-17th century, as white settlers in the New World pushed further and further west, Native Americans suddenly found themselves fighting for both their territory and their lives.