The movie, “Two Killer”, tells the story of a police (Li) and a killer (Zhuang) working together to fight off bad people. It has an ironic twist because the police was supposed to help the bad people to catch the killer. Instead, he helped the killer to escape and later joined him in killing the bad people. The ‘bad people’ in the movie was led by a wealthy man named WangHai, whom order the killer to assassinate his uncle. He did not keep his word and refused to pay Zhuang. Unlike most killers, Zhuang had a good heart. I think he was forced to kill for a living. He only accepted the offer to kill Wanghai’s uncle to raise enough money to cure for Jenny’s eyes. He had felt bad for wounding Jenny’s eyes accidently, and had wanted to make up for it. The other main character, Li, had something in common with Zhuang. Even though one would never think they would become friends, they somehow managed to fight alongside against the bad people. Li abandoned his duty as a police for Zhuang’s friendship. In addition, I was also very touched when Jiang betrayed his boss to get Zhuang’s money. He kept his promise of giving Zhuang the money even if it meant that he was going to die. Overall, I enjoyed this movie and was touched by their friendship.
I saw the movie “Rouge” or “Yin ji kau”. I enjoyed it a lot more that I thought that I would. The beginning was a bit slow and very dated looking. However once a few things were explained it became pretty interesting. It’s clear from this movie that Chinese traditional ghosts do not fit all the “ghost” stereotypes we have in the U.S. For instance she doesn’t walk through walls and it seems like anyone can see her, even feel her. I thought that the scenes in the brothel were interesting as well. The girls seemed exceptionally well treated sometimes lavished upon, and able to turn away men if they so choose. In fact I became so invested in her story that after I missed the end (because we got it started late) I went home and watched the rest on YouTube. It ended very well! I felt like everyone got some sort of closure. I feel like the moral was quite a bit about not judging other people’s pain. She was mad at him for not dying with her, but he still suffered, just differently than her, perhaps even more so. I was wondering a bit if the movie has a reputation for being cursed! I think in the U.S it would start some kind of conspiracy theory, since both main actors died so young. I read that she died at 40 from cancer, and he died at 46 from suicide. Here there would defiantly be rumors about that sort of tragedy with people who were together in such a tragic movie.
This movie tells the story of a cop and an assassin becoming friends. These two characters are set to be opposite forces. The killer, Zhuang, had a good heart, but was forced to assassin others for a living. During one of his tasks, he had accidently wounded an innocent girl named Jenny. As a result, her eyes were blinded. Unlike most killers, Zhuang felt bad and wanted to make up for it. I think Zhuang took his last job for Jenny. He had wanted to make enough money so he could send her to the United States to cure her eyes. Another thing I found interesting in this movie was friendship. The cop somehow trusted Zhuang and became friends with him. He went against his responsibility as a cop to help Zhuang escape. In addition, Zhuang had another friend who died for him. His friend promised to give Zhuang the money he deserved. In the end, Zhuang’s best friend died when trying to get the money. All in all, I think this movie very was touching and is a great example of true friendship.
On Thursday, September 26, I went to see "A Celebration of Music and Dance" at the Singletary Center. As I had never before been exposed to Mongolian arts or culture, I did not know what to expect. The show included four instrumental numbers, three of which included Mongolian performers. There were also three dance numbers, two of which featured Mongolian dancers and one of which featured American dancers. The show did an excellent job of showcasing the two cultures’ dance and music styles while highlighting the differences between the two. I noticed several ways that Mongolian musical performance is different than American. The style of dress is an obvious one. The American musicians wore simple, modern clothing while the Mongolian musicians wore bright, traditional clothing. I’m not well versed in music theory, but I can say in a vague sense that I could tell which parts of the melodies drew from American jazz influence and which parts drew from traditional Mongolian style. Horse elements were present throughout the Mongolian performances, which was not surprising to me, as I knew beforehand that horses are an important part of traditional Mongolian culture. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the performances, American, Mongolian, and dual-cultural, in particular the dance numbers.
I went to the Music and Dance Performance of China on Wednesday night, the performance is pretty incredible. To be honest, I knew little about Inner Mongolia, and the impression is just about the horses and cows. I never thought the dancing could be such impressive. The clothing matches the grass ground pretty well. The solo dance and group dance with the traditional instrument also left me a deep shocking. Especially I was amazed by the throat song, the sound came out from the man is unbelievable, the long echoed made me thought of the star sky and green grass. This is a good chance to know about Chinese national folk art. As ethnic Han, the traditions lost a lot during the history, and I strongly agree the movement called "Hanfu movement", which is a recall for traditions for ethnic Han. The art, music, cloth, and fantastic traditions can never be lost.
“The killer” tells a story of a killer and a cop first in opposition to each other, with the development of event, both of them find they have lots of similarities. Finally they become friends and against the bad guys. Actor Zhou Runfa has shape the character “killer” very successfully. The killer is not just a killing machine, he also have abundant emotions. Director Wu Yusen used a 110 minutes movie show us a complete Utopia Jianghu world.
I really like the technique of expression of this movie. Some people may think this movie looks too violence, but in my opinion, this is a special technique of expression, Wu Yusen named it as “violence aesthetics”. By showing exaggerative violence to sensory impact to the person. For example, the best scenario in this movie is The fighting in the church. Wu Yusen used pigeons and Madonna as background, also highlighted the bloody fighting scenes, performance peace and violence at the same time, really shocked me.
“Bloodshed of Two Heroes” is a Chinese action film. This story said Zhou Runfa a Chinese actor in an assassination mission killed a female singer ——Ye Qianwen, cause she was blind. To make up for the feeling of guilt, is employed to assassinate the Mafia leader decided to raise funds sent her to abroad to see a doctor. Meanwhile, Li Xiuxian, was ordered to seize Zhou Runfa, in the long-term follow-up to him, could not help but like this killer. Gangster Cheng KuiAn wanted to kill them, Zhou Runfa after running among in the killer and police, but he still planned to take Ye Qianwen to the United States to heal her eyes. Lee decided with Zhou Runfa to fight against the Mafia boss. Finally, Zhou Runfa unfortunately died, Lee killed Wang Hai gotten vengeance for Zhou Runfa. Although this movie ending is unfortunate, but it fully demonstrates the friendship between people. The director John woo in the choice of the story at the same time, also chose the violence. In his way to depict the remnants of the aesthetic feeling. In Ye Qianwen home, Zhou Runfa and Lee with a gun to each other, and goodwill cheat a blind woman. I am very moved for these two men. This is the power of justice.This is a very impressive story.
Shizhecun is a feeling of 1930s Shanghai is representative of the new writers, in the city at describing modern loneliness and alienation, particularly in urban public focus on mining the deep psychological world, the novel's story, although very simple (send ladies gentlemen rain), but reveals secret urban men and women and tortuous inner processes, describing their humble desire to write the Beginning and the silent shattered this desire to show the modern urban men and women love the unique way of yearning for true love. P126 with a touch of the first paragraph the words depict a vivid picture of the rain, feeling the taste of rain floated. P127 in "when I got outside, although the street was already all it up, the sky itself had in the meantime brightened up." Showed the characters of loneliness and the feeling of alienation, there was a damp smell Shanghai.p128 ~ 135 implied that his emotional reality of the situation , in which the girl is his emotional dream partner, but everything must not resort to reason , so he got home , the dream woke up immediately to after his wife, a lie , a natural sense of real emotional and sexual pent up again. Shizhecun to write psychological analysis , describing the flow of subjective consciousness characters emotional and psychological changes , the pursuit of strange feeling , the subjective feeling of integration to go to the object 's description and performance with the fast pace of city life morbid
The movie Eat Drink Man Woman is about the story of a family, the family members are father and three daughters. Lao Zhu is the greatest chef in Taipei, but after the death of his wife, he will have to shoulder the responsibility of raising three daughters, but they are different temperament, full of rebellious personality, has its own problems. Daughters were growing up, the old father has gradually powerless, but his hand consummate family cooking but still maintain the harmony. Has become a family reunion dinner only time communication, each accompanied by a different "declare", there is not the same accident. Every family has its cupboard. The whole movie to Chinese families and Chinese cooking combined together; there is an old saying in China: Food is, with this method to run through the whole movie, I feel good. The whole movie character relationships so complicated, but also demonstrated the concept of the old society before disappearing.
“Almost a Love Story” is a Hong Kong film directed by Peter Chan in 1996, ahead of Hong Kong return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. Maggie Cheung plays a hardworking woman, Li Qiao from Canton and Leon Lai plays a typical Northerner named Li Xiaojun. Maggie Cheung and Leon Lai are two Chinese mainlanders who come to Hong Kong to make a living and finally they fell in love. This film is not only to tell a love story, but also to describe the hard lives of the new immigrants in Hong Kong at end of the twentieth century. A famous song “Tiánmìmì” (very sweet) sang by Teresa Teng prominently throughout this movie. And the film is considered a love poem in memory of Teresa Teng.
What impressed me most deeply in this film are two images. One is at the beginning of this film, when Li Xiaojun met Li Qiao in McDonald’s. Li Qiao can speak Cantonese and Mandarin, but Li Xiaojun only can speak Mandarin. Li Qiao was afraid of people to see that she speak Mandarin to Li Xiaojun and she didn’t want people to know she is a mainlander. From this we can see that at 1986, Hong Kong people looked down on the mainlanders. The other one is at the end of this film, in 1995, Teresa Teng dies and Hong Kong would soon return to China, Li Qiao met many travelers in New York. Those travelers were rich and they told to Li Qiao that “people always wanted to leave back in the 80’s, now, they all go back. Many Hong Kong people work in the mainland now.” The director arranged this ending to show that in the decade before Hong Kong returned to mainland, mainland china had huge development.
Peter Chan directed almost a Love Story in 1996. The title refers to Tian mi mi, a song by Teresa Teng, whose songs are featured in the film. The film shows two people fell in love with each other, but they cannot get married because man has a fiancé in Mainland China. At the end of the film, two leading characters meeting each other in front of an electronic shop that has a display TV playing a Teresa Teng video, after news of the singer's death broke. During that period, a lot of Mainland Chinese wanted to go to Hong Kong because Hong Kong is more advanced than Mainland China. They tried their best to fit in society of Hong Kong, but it was hard. They had to study English and Cantonese first. Although they spoke Cantonese likes as Hong Kong people, they still were looked down upon. Different languages and different surroundings made them feel loneliness, and they started to get cares from other people who had the same experience as them. I think it is the reason that two leading characters fell in love each other.
The movie “Rogue” narrates a tragic story between two lovers in 1930’s Hong Kong. A rich young man (Shier Shao) falls in love with a prostitute (Ruhua). Man’s parents refused to accept her, and cut off his all allowance. He tried to find a job, and lived with Ruhua. However, he went back home, and married with another girl because of poor life. In the end of the story, they make a suicide pact. Ruhua died but he loses his courage at the last moment, and he survived.
Ruhua is a legendary woman during that time. She tried her best to struggle with feudal minds in order to get her lover. In her mind, the world has only two colors, which are white and black, no gray colors. She cannot accept polygamy. Her love is drastic, unsophisticated, and is difficult for common people to bear. Shier shao is just a common people. He doesn’t have courage to struggle with his parents all the time.
The movie “Woman Demon Human” was set in the 1950s in Mainland China. The environmental and social forces change Qiuyun, and shaped the path she taked in life. As a young age, Qiuyun’s mother ran away with another man that caused shame in Qiuyun’s life. The society looked down upon Qiuyun’s dad and saw him was a failure. Qiuyun secretly learns the art of acting in Beijing Opera and later joins a professional Beijing Opera band. She became a famous actor in the end. An important thing to note in this movie is the painting of faces when acting in Beijing Opera. The face painting seems to cover the actor’s real face, and is often hard to identify the sexuality of the actor. Qiuyun seems to enjoy covering her face up, and acts like the role of Zhongkui. I think this is most likely due to the fact that she does not like her real life, and can only find happiness in acting. The fact that Qiuyun likes to act male character is also an important thing in this movie. Women are not given much status during this time period in China. Through acting, Qiuyun is able to feel equal to her male counterparts. Otherwise, her father does not want her to act female because of her mother. During the Cultural Revolution in China, Qiuyun was not able to act. During that time, she got married and had two kids. After Cultural Revolution, she returned to acting and became very famous. Cultural Revolution is the worst time in new China. A lot of famous people died during this time.
“Almost a Love Song” tells the story of two people falling in love and the struggles they went through. It was not a simple love story because society played a big part in this movie. Li Qiao and Jun both moved to Hong Kong in hopes of a better life. The lonely lives of a big new city caused them to fall in love with each other. However, Jun already had a fiancé back in Mainland China. Their different goals in life and the path they took to achieve those goals caused the two lovers to be apart. An important theme in this movie was immigration. The two main characters sought ways to make their lives better by moving to more advanced places. They first moved to Hong Kong because it was more advanced than Mainland China. Then they moved to the U.S because it was better than Hong Kong. The scene of Li Qiao and Jun meeting in U.S in front of a TV playing the Tianmimi Song was very touching. After all the struggles they had went through, they still met each other. Fate had brought them together.
The movie “Woman Demon Human” is centered around Chinese drama Jinju. Qiuyun’s mother, whom had been an excellent Jinju actor, had run away with another man. As a result, Qiuyun’s father discouraged Qiuyun in becoming a Jinju actor. The society looks at this as a very shameful event. Qiuyun was often made fun of by her friends because of her mother’s actions. Despite her father’s opposition, Qiuyun secretly learns how to act in Jinju and joins a professional Jinju band.
In one part of the movie, Qiuyun was being recognized as a male and was accused of going to the female’s restroom. The public had wanted to pull her pants down to check if she was a male. In addition, her friends all walked away and did not help Qiuyun. This shows how the Chinese society in the 50s is very selfish and immoral. The people should not have wanted to publicly pull a person’s pants down, and Qiuyun’s friends should have helped her.
Another event that caught my attention was the fact that acting in Jinju became a haven for Qiuyun. Qiuyun did not get to marry her teacher, whom she loved. She married a man that became addicted to gambling and often had Qiuyun to pay his debts. As a result, Qiuyun was not happy with her family nor did she have anyone that would understand her. Qiuyun was only able to find happiness when she paints her face and becomes someone else while acting. In front of the public and her audiences, she pretends to have a perfectly happy family. This shows how conservative the society is. Women at that time period is often afraid to let others know the negative aspects of their lives. Divorce was not an option because divorced women was negatively looked upon in society during that time. Overall, this movie has been very enjoyable to watch, and has made me feel sorry for Chinese women living in that period.
The movie “Rogue” tells the story of a ghost, Ruhua, coming back to the human world searching for her lover. Throughout the movie, she was dressed in a traditional Chinese dress that was popular in the 1930s. After waiting for fifty years in the underworld for her lover, Ruhua decides to return to the human world to find out why Master 12 did not commit suicide with her. The climax of this movie was when Ruhua and Master 12 decided to commit suicide by eating opium. The Chinese society, at that time period and even today, looked down upon prostitutes. Master 12’s parents did not agree on their marriage because Ruhua was a prostitute. Her status was too low and was not good enough Master 12. As a result, the two lovers decided to elope. They were not able to financially sustain themselves and decided to commit suicide. An important object in this movie was opium. The existence of opium in the Chinese society meant that Western powers were influencing China. Toward the end of the movie, Ruhua finally finds Master 12. He had not died during the suicide. Ruhua felt that Master 12 had betrayed their love because he did not die with her. Seeing how he is suffering in the human world, Ruhua forgives Master 12 and gives back the necklace he had given her. This shows how weak their love was when confronting death. Master 12 did not have the Confucian mindset of obeying parents and had left them for a prostitute. In the end, their young love ended in tragedy.
The Beijing Bicycle tells story about a seventeen year old boy Guo Lingui from the countryside who came to Beijing to seek work himself. He finds a job in Feida express company, which assigns him a bicycle. He works hard and wants to earn that bicycle, but the bicycle was stolen before he earns that. In order to keep his job, he began to search for his missing bicycle. At the same time, the other boy, Jian buys Gui’s stolen bicycle from a second-hand market. Jian is a city boy, but his family is very poor, he stole money from home and bought that bicycle. One day, Gui found his missing bicycle and asked Jian to give it back, Jian refused. Finally, they decided to use the bicycle together.
In this story, Gui and Jian are both young and poor boy. Gui is from countryside and works in Beijing, although he works hard, he is difficult to integrate into the city life. When Gui fell in love with a “city” girl, his uncle told him: “Come on, Gui. We have no sorts of fate.” But after his uncle knew that the “city” girl is just a nanny, he said: “If I knew she is from countryside too, I would…” Jian is a city boy but his family is poor, he stole money from home in order to satisfy his vanity among his friends. After Jian bought the bicycle, he was trying to impress his friends and played with them. The other impressive plot for me is that Xiaoxiao left Jian and chose a bicycle skillful boy at the end of the story. I think this movie reflect really modern social phenomenon in China and just like a mirror.
The Blind Shaft tells a story about two coal miners Song and Tang, who use the perfect but brutal scam to make money. They murder one of their fellow mine workers, make the death look like an accident, and pretend the relative of the dead. Then they extort money from the boss to keep the incident hushed up. They do that again and again, so they are very skillful. But the last time, they choose a naïve sixteen boy Yuan, who search for a job from a village. After Tang met Yuan, he began to carry out a new plan, but things changed. Song doubted that they killed Yuan’s father, and Yuan has the same age as Song’s son. So Song felt guilty and sympathy, finally, he gave the plan up. Tang killed Song, but Tang still failed and Yuan survived.
For me, this movie is horrible and many words in this film give me a deep impression. “China has a shortage of everything except workers”, the mine manger said. He also said: “When they go down to the coal mine shaft, they may go to kill.” This is the human tragedy of it all. When Song changed his mind, Tang said, “If I feel for him, who feels for me?” And he also says that he will eliminate anyone who gets in his way. Tang is looking out for his own welfare, and there are no ethical limitations on how he ensures his own prosperity. Although Song is a bad man and he killed many people, he found moral bottom line after he met Yuan. He often think of his wife and son, and he even give money to the student who can’t afford the tuition.
Since reform and opening up in China, many privately owned mines arise in China. This is a good thing originally, but it became a nightmare for the mine workers. Children and adults squeeze into rat hole like tunnels in thousands of privately owned and unregulated mines, extracting coal with their hands or primitive tools and no safety equipment. The small miners use the money to offer a bride to officials. The more ironic in the movie is that when Song and Tang in the Karaoke, they sang “socialism is great”. I hope and believe that China will have a better future.
“The Postmodern Life of My Aunt” tells a story about “my aunt” Ye Rutang from the “nephew” Kuankuan’s perspective. Ye Rutang is an old-fashioned Chinese woman, with little money, living alone in modern Shanghai. She left her husband and little daughter and came to Shanghai to seek her fortune many years ago. “The people in this building are all wretches… Very few are college graduates unlike me!” That’s what she thought of herself, and she was not reconciled to live in the Northeast China with her worker husband. But her values challenged when she encounters three people: Kuankuan, Pan Zichang and Jin Yonghua. Finally, she decided to fade away and come back with her daughter.
Kuankuan is Ye Rutang’s nephew. He visited his aunt during the vacation and lived with his aunt for couple weeks. After that, he has new understanding of her. At the beginning, Kuankuan thought her aunt is an old-fashioned, mean and ridiculous person. Such as she told Kuankuan she has rheumatism so she could not allow Kuankuan to use air-condition, but she used the air-condition herself. But after Kuankuan got into trouble and they were invited to the police office, she stood and shouldered the responsibility. Although she is mean and little selfish, she has sense of justice and kind heart. When she met somebody throw the trash on the road, she said: “Please clear up that mess. You’re being anti-social.” She also said she is a citizen and it’s everyone’s duty to protect the environment. When she first met Jin Yonghua, a homeless woman with an ill child, she tried to help Jin till she found Jin cheated on her. Pan Zichang is an attractive man like her age, and she fell in love with Pan and gave him money to “invest”. But she was tricked out of her money.
She undergoes a crisis of faith in human nature, culminating in falling down and breaking her leg. Reflecting on her misfortune in hospital, Ye is visited by her estranged daughter and her whole approach to life changes.
“Blind Shaft” tells the story of two men, Song and Tang, making money by treacherous acts. They would murder a mineworker, then pretend to be his relative to collect money from the management. They had done this numerous times and were never caught. However, Song begins to doubt himself and his actions when Yuan appeared. Yuan’s innocent and naïve character reminded Song of his first victim. Guilt begins to fill Song’s heart. His good side showed up and morality struck him. This movie reminds me of how materialistic a society can be. Song and Tang did this because they wanted easy money. Money has blinded of eyes of Song and Tang. They are not only stealing money, but also the lives of innocent people that may have a family at home. How grieved would the family be when they learn that their sons have died in coalmines? Morality seems to be the main theme in this movie. The murder of people by Song and Tang showed no morality. I think this movie has a very negative effect of the Chinese society. People that don’t know China well might conceive China to be this moral-less country. It may be true on some aspects because it has always been that way in China. However, China is trying to change for the better. Whether if its working is ambiguous. I believe that the government has banned this movie in China because it demonstrated possible real life situations in China. I really enjoyed this movie and wish that the Chinese government would openly face these “negative” topics. Avoiding the negatives will not solve the problem.
I went to the lecture held by Doctor Richey named "Seeing Confucianism in Chen Kaige's Together" on November 15 at the Student Center in the University of Kentucky. For me, it is quite interesting that the film is combined with the traditional Confucianism cultures. He talked about humaneness, filial piety and integrity. As far as I am concerned, no matter what kind of art form in Chinese history, the Confucianism played an important role. As the lecture talked about in the film "Together," conflicts between Xiaochun and his father is a kind of the discussion of filial piety. In addition the last secret in the film showed that Xiaochun is not the real son of his father, but finally, he still went to his father, gave up the competition. And Xiaochun's father, who suffered to work hard for his "child" for almost fifteen years, in my opinion, is also a good case of humaneness. I saw this movie before, but when I listened the lecture, I learnt more than before.
The Blind Shaft is a movie about two mine workers, Song and Tang, making money by murdering people. They would make it look like as if the person had died in a coalmine accident. The management team would compensate the family of the dead worker. Song and Tang will pretend to be the family member. Their scheme seemed flawless and no one caught them. That changed when Yuan appeared. Yuan reminded Song of the innocent days he used to live in. The murder acts have left a dark spot in Song’s heart. He wished to stop murdering people. Tang, on the other hand, had no morality. He continued and urged Song to follow their original plan of murdering people. In the end, Tang murdered Song and Yuan escaped from Tang’s hands. I think morality is a main theme in this movie. Song begins to felt bad when he meets Yuan. Tang continued to be heartless and used his family as an excuse. He needed to provide for his family so he needed to kill people. This logic does not make sense and is very selfish. I really liked Yuan’s character because his good heart can easily influence people. Because of him, Song changed from bad to good. The author may be telling us to be more like Yuan. Yuan was always very nice to others and never thought about harming anyone.
“The Postmodern Life of My Aunt” mainly tell a tragedy about ideal and reality. Aunt Ye Rutang lives alone in Shanghai. She abandoned her husband and daughter to come to Shanghai. She wants to adapt to living in Shanghai, she doesn’t resigned to live like a “small citizen”. However, aunt Ye encountered a city slicker Pan Zhichang. Aunt Ye fell in love with Pan, she thought she finally found her love. Pan used aunt Ye’s trust cheated her money. Aunt Ye totally lost faith and she backed to her family. This movie tells a ordinary story, aunt Ye wanted to changed her life but she finally failed. Not every story has a perfect ending, and life is like that. But even so, we still need to work hard, to fight, to make our lives meaningful.
“Let the Bullets Fly” is the film directed by Jiang Wen, a famous Chinese actor and director. The film’s cast is well chosen, with particularly good work by his four very capable lead actors, including himself. Chow Yun-Fat, a very famous actor, plays against type as a villain, Huang, the mob boss of Goose Town. Ge You, one of China’s favorite cinema clowns, plays a comic conman role named Ma Bangde. Carine Law plays a coquettish female role as the widowed governor’s wife. Jiang Wen himself plays the valiant and smart bandit leader Zhang. This is a funny, classy and satirical film, and I watched this film many times.
Zhang robs a train with a man on it named Ma Bangde, played by Ge You, an “aspiring” politician. Ma Bangde has bought himself a governorship and is on his way to collect. During the robbery Ma's counselor dies and Ma faced with Zhang who is looking for a rich governor. So, Ma lies saying he is the counselor, and that his dead counselor was really the governor to be, hoping Zhang will let him go. With that information, Zhang decides to use Ma's expertise to take on the governorship Ma was supposed to take over for himself. Upon arriving at the city Zhang is immediately pitted against the local crime boss, Master Huang, played by Chow Yun-fat. They engage in a battle of wits and will for the life of the poor little place called Goose Town.
The classic movie dialogue among Huang, Ma and Zhang interested me most in this movie. Some of Zhang’s words are classic and meaningful, too. "I do not care about being rich but I must come up with a game plan to rid of Huang once and for all. Give me time, Pop will avenge your death." When bandit chief "Pocky" Zhang comes to a remote Chinese village he says he is the new mayor. After things go too far and someone ends up dead a battle for revenge begins between him and Master Huang (Yun-Fat). I think this movie uses a bizarre and convoluted story to reflect the current bizarre and convoluted social climate in Mainland China. And this is one of the excellent Chinese movies.
Eat Drink Man Woman; it is the film which instantly portrays the sense of family and the generation gap. Moreover, the film in the Directors' Fortnight in Cannes, France, firstly regarded as the opening film of the Chinese film. Its director is the famous Taiwanese director Ang Lee. The plot outline, a retired chef prepares for dinner every weekend to wait for his three daughters, facing family problems and conflicts between the generations. This movie borrows from each other's lives and conflicts to construct the values of different ages, different occupations. Watching it, I have many thoughts. In China, Chinese food culture focuses on the combination of color, flavor and yin and yang. In the beginning of the film, along with Chinese classical music, Lao Zhu does a variety of delicious dishes in the kitchen. The reason why Chinese food spread throughout the world, because of its color, but also because of its taste. Delicious produce is to reconcile the various materials. On contrary, Western food culture pays attention to day intake of calories, vitamins, protein, and so on. Dishes of Chinese pay more attention to the expression of mood. Western cuisine is just used to fill their stomachs; they eat a large piece of meat, the entire chicken and other hard vegetables. The differences between Chinese and Western diet culture are determined by the Western philosophy and way of thinking. I learn a lot from Eat Drink Man Woman.
Tian Mi Mi The movie was made in In the movie 1996, people have a Hong Kong dream. Jun goes to Hong Kong to find a job. Everything is different in Hong Kong from mainland. When Liming was hopeless, he met Zhang manyu. Zhang Manyu can speak English and cantering. She helped Liming to get used in the Hong Kong. Several famous event happened in this the movie. The first event is Transfer Of Sovereignty Over Hong Kong. A lot of young people immigrate to the Hong Kong. Because Hong Kong was colonial by British. In this movie, I could see the Hong Kong has a lot of British Culture. Such as people can speak English can find good jobs. Even though Hong Kong belonged to China, no body spoke mandarin. The movie also mentioned the Financial Crisis in 1998. In the movie, every one bought stocks to become rich. Zhang Qiao had $30,000 in her account. However, later, she just had $ 80 in bank. Today, every large American city has Chinatown. Majority of people are from Hong Kong. They were illegal to immigrate to the US. This was the American dream. The US was very top at that time. I also saw the China was not strong at that time. Qiao’s husband was shot in Manhattan. The policeman didn’t assert the criminals. The police focused on that Qiao’s passport would be expired. If this happened today, I think the American government must deal with in different way.
Living Landscapes I went to the “Living Landscapes”. This is a collaboration of “the University of Kentucky College of Fine Arts, the UK Confucius Institute, the Art College Inner Mongolia University and the Inner Mongolia University Autonomous Region International Culture Association”(UK). This is a concert of traditional music with students of the IMU. I think this is a good chance to know about the two countries’ cultures. As Elliott stated, “people use ‘art’ to embody and transmit ‘culture’: ‘the sum of attitudes customs, and beliefs that distinguishes one group of people from another”(Elliot, 147). UK and IMU shows cultures during the concert. The UK plays traditional western music. What I really like is that the concert combined two countries’ cultures. IMU students showed that Inner Mongolia’s traditional music instruments. I think the concert is valuable. After the concert, I was so proud of my culture. I think a lot of UK Chinese students had same feelings as I had. I also think Chinese universities should hold the kind of concerts. The event could help young people know about own cultures and other cultures.
UK Confucius Institute Chinese Culture Club is an interest club newly founded by the UK Confucius Institute. It is a project of the UK Confucius Institute. It was proposed by the UK Confucius Institute and approved by the funding body in China, Hanban. The club hopes to bring Chinese and American students, as well as any others who wish to join, together for fun activities and shared interests. The club also aims to provide support for students of UK’s Chinese Studies program as well as the UK Chinese Students and Scholars Association (UKCSSA). The club envisions creating an environment where students from all different cultural backgrounds can come together to experience, appreciate, and enjoy Chinese culture. By far, UKCI Chinese Culture Club has already offered a wide array of programs to fulfill many different interests. There are 5 people on the board of directors: one Staff Advisor Cassandra Hardin, co-presidents Xie Xiang and Brian Reifert, Vice President/Secretary Anne Marie Vaughn, and Treasurer Ben Freeman. CCC promotes the understanding of the Chinese Language and Culture through free fun-filled cultural events, Chinese Language Table, and various other opportunities. By far, there are about 35 people on the mailing list, between 6 and 15 people usually show up for activities. For me, one of the most unforgettable activities I have ever joined in Chinese Culture Club (CCC) was the Game Night. Some of the members gathered together and played a very traditional Chinese game -Mahjong.
“Almost a Love Story” is a 1996 Hong Kong film starring Maggie Cheung, Leon Lai, Eric Tsang, and Kristy Yang. It was directed by Peter Chan. The title refers to “Tian Mimi”, a song by Teresa Teng whose songs are featured in the film. The film is centers on two Chinese mainlanders who migrate to Hong Kong to make a living, but end up falling in love. Leon Lai plays a naive Northerner, Li Xiao-Jun, and Maggie Cheung plays an opportunist/entrepreneur from Cantonese speaking Guangzhou, Li Qiao, who takes advantage of mainlanders like herself for financial gains. The loneliness of living in the big city inevitably brings the two into a passionate love affair. But their different ambitions (Li Xiao-Jun wants to bring his fiance to Hong Kong; Li Qiao wants to get rich) mean that they are unable to be together. Eventually, Li Xiao-Jun marries his fiance (Yang) in Hong Kong and Li Qiao winds up in a relationship with a mob boss named Pao (Tsang). Li Qiao also becomes a successful entrepreneur, achieving her Hong Kong dream. Despite their seemingly separate lives, however, they are still in love and they have one final tryst in the room they used to share before they are separated again. I think the end of the film, is a fairy tale ending. Li Xiaojun and li Qiao were dramatically reunion in the last. But in real life, such a coincidence of reunion really very few, more is pass by fate. Therefore, don't put your love in the distance. If you love her, take her go.
The Postmodern Life of My Aunt The movie is a 2006 Hong Kong serio-comedy film, directed by Ann Hui. The aunt is a single-living woman in her late life. She divorced with her husband and left her daughter and came to Shanghai. She is living alone in an apartment. She is pragmatic, frugal and self-reliant. I remember in the movie. She doesn’t allow Kuan Kuan using air conditions. However, her old fashion mind makes her hard living in Shanghai. She trusts love. After she met Pan Zhichang, she falls love in Pan. She used all of her life savings investing on cemetery spaces. However, she lost all of money in this investigation. Until the end movie, I am not sure if Pan is a fraudster. After she suffered from the victims several times, she had mental illness issue. She decided to leave Shanghai to live with her ex-husband. In the movie, there is one part plays the aunt leave Shanghai. From the aunt’s facial expression, I could see that she doesn’t want to leave the modern life. Kuan Kuan visit the aunt after few years. The aunt is not mean anymore. She changed to be very nice. I think the movie shows the real life situation. The metropolitan people are aloof and self-reliant. Even though they have hard time in the big city, like Beijing or Shanghai, they still feel proud. A lot of people want to live in Beijing and Shanghai. A lot of college students choose to stay in the cities. They may have much better paid jobs in their hometowns, but they still choose to harder life in Shanghai or Beijing. They said there more chances in big cities. However, is this true?
Beijing Bicycle The movie directed by Wang Xiaoshuai. Gui left his hometown and went to find a job. He was lucky that he found a job in post office. The company provided him a bicycle. After he earned 600 yuan, he can own the bicycle. Gui worked hard to get the bicycle. However, he lost the bicycle later. When he was depressive, he saw Jian rode his bicycle. Jian stole his father’s money and bought the second hand bicycle. The theme of the movie is about the bicycle. Gui worked hard because of the bicycle. Jian was very proud in front of friends because of the bicycle. Jian had a beautiful girlfriend because of the bicycle. Beijing Bicycle had a common point with The Postmodern of My Aunt. In the both movies, they mentioned that city people look down upon the countryside people. The theme of movie is how outside low class people struggle in the big cities. The movie was very poplar. However, the movie did not public in China because there are too many poor-area appear in the movie. Government considered that the pictures were not beneficial to apply Olympics.
"Almost a Love Story" is a 1996 Hong Kong film, I think, this film should have another end. Two people lost in the vast sea of people, living their own life, their own track, there may be a trace of regret, but ultimately so old it. "Almost a love story" like a fairy tale, the princess married to the prince will end up, from both the United States and the United States indicates that full happy life, resolved to no longer count the next mundane. But if the movie is like life in general can not stop at some point, we then read on, that is not good, the plot is just like a newspaper headline, picture appears they quarrel at home, or whether the two gossip personality clashes, or a third party came the scandal became full soap opera. Even if they met again, who can guarantee that will not be separated.
“The Postmodern Life of My Aunt"is a 2007 Hong Kong film. 12 -year-old nephew Kuankuan, during the holidays to visit his aunt after retirement living alone in Shanghai . In kuankuan eyes, my aunt is a quirk lot of people . Aunt is a slightly mixed in Shanghai do not fly little people . Some cultures , some good, some petty, some lonely , some crazy, some dream. Aunt of a person living in Shanghai , possessor of fourteen beautiful birds , cats hated neighbor , likes to brag about his daughter in the United States. Aunt studied opera , will draw traditional Chinese painting, went to college , been married to a yokel , after leaving her husband abandoned female , came to Shanghai this fast-paced world . With early experiences , aunt still remains a fantasy for many of the spiritual dimension . Back to reality , the aunt is not clear what they seek is in the end . Pan Zhichang appeared like a giant soap bubble beautiful , true and completely cover inside the aunt , her aunt was looking forward to for a long time the bubbles get mesmerized until watched Pan Zhichang backs away , only to find no have more money. Aunt decided to leave. Aunt is very clear that she will face is vulgar husband, dilapidated housing , do not fly daughter 's daughter objects do not fly more , bad weather , poor Dong Bei. Even so , she chose to leave, to leave the bustling metropolis , the big Shanghai . The Night Shanghai , is particularly charming . Like a busy night sky , like a beautiful dream , and dream of Pan Zhichang, she put it all aside , nothing taken away. The story in the end, his aunt and her husband sets up a stall , eating her face lightly with bread pickles , this time coming out of the radio to hear other people 's opera music , it sounds as if from another world .
The movie, “Two Killer”, tells the story of a police (Li) and a killer (Zhuang) working together to fight off bad people. It has an ironic twist because the police was supposed to help the bad people to catch the killer. Instead, he helped the killer to escape and later joined him in killing the bad people. The ‘bad people’ in the movie was led by a wealthy man named WangHai, whom order the killer to assassinate his uncle. He did not keep his word and refused to pay Zhuang.
ReplyDeleteUnlike most killers, Zhuang had a good heart. I think he was forced to kill for a living. He only accepted the offer to kill Wanghai’s uncle to raise enough money to cure for Jenny’s eyes. He had felt bad for wounding Jenny’s eyes accidently, and had wanted to make up for it. The other main character, Li, had something in common with Zhuang. Even though one would never think they would become friends, they somehow managed to fight alongside against the bad people. Li abandoned his duty as a police for Zhuang’s friendship. In addition, I was also very touched when Jiang betrayed his boss to get Zhuang’s money. He kept his promise of giving Zhuang the money even if it meant that he was going to die. Overall, I enjoyed this movie and was touched by their friendship.
I saw the movie “Rouge” or “Yin ji kau”. I enjoyed it a lot more that I thought that I would. The beginning was a bit slow and very dated looking. However once a few things were explained it became pretty interesting. It’s clear from this movie that Chinese traditional ghosts do not fit all the “ghost” stereotypes we have in the U.S. For instance she doesn’t walk through walls and it seems like anyone can see her, even feel her. I thought that the scenes in the brothel were interesting as well. The girls seemed exceptionally well treated sometimes lavished upon, and able to turn away men if they so choose. In fact I became so invested in her story that after I missed the end (because we got it started late) I went home and watched the rest on YouTube. It ended very well! I felt like everyone got some sort of closure. I feel like the moral was quite a bit about not judging other people’s pain. She was mad at him for not dying with her, but he still suffered, just differently than her, perhaps even more so.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering a bit if the movie has a reputation for being cursed! I think in the U.S it would start some kind of conspiracy theory, since both main actors died so young. I read that she died at 40 from cancer, and he died at 46 from suicide. Here there would defiantly be rumors about that sort of tragedy with people who were together in such a tragic movie.
This movie tells the story of a cop and an assassin becoming friends. These two characters are set to be opposite forces. The killer, Zhuang, had a good heart, but was forced to assassin others for a living. During one of his tasks, he had accidently wounded an innocent girl named Jenny. As a result, her eyes were blinded. Unlike most killers, Zhuang felt bad and wanted to make up for it. I think Zhuang took his last job for Jenny. He had wanted to make enough money so he could send her to the United States to cure her eyes.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing I found interesting in this movie was friendship. The cop somehow trusted Zhuang and became friends with him. He went against his responsibility as a cop to help Zhuang escape. In addition, Zhuang had another friend who died for him. His friend promised to give Zhuang the money he deserved. In the end, Zhuang’s best friend died when trying to get the money. All in all, I think this movie very was touching and is a great example of true friendship.
On Thursday, September 26, I went to see "A Celebration of Music and Dance" at the Singletary Center. As I had never before been exposed to Mongolian arts or culture, I did not know what to expect. The show included four instrumental numbers, three of which included Mongolian performers. There were also three dance numbers, two of which featured Mongolian dancers and one of which featured American dancers. The show did an excellent job of showcasing the two cultures’ dance and music styles while highlighting the differences between the two.
ReplyDeleteI noticed several ways that Mongolian musical performance is different than American. The style of dress is an obvious one. The American musicians wore simple, modern clothing while the Mongolian musicians wore bright, traditional clothing. I’m not well versed in music theory, but I can say in a vague sense that I could tell which parts of the melodies drew from American jazz influence and which parts drew from traditional Mongolian style. Horse elements were present throughout the Mongolian performances, which was not surprising to me, as I knew beforehand that horses are an important part of traditional Mongolian culture. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the performances, American, Mongolian, and dual-cultural, in particular the dance numbers.
I went to the Music and Dance Performance of China on Wednesday night, the performance is pretty incredible. To be honest, I knew little about Inner Mongolia, and the impression is just about the horses and cows. I never thought the dancing could be such impressive. The clothing matches the grass ground pretty well. The solo dance and group dance with the traditional instrument also left me a deep shocking. Especially I was amazed by the throat song, the sound came out from the man is unbelievable, the long echoed made me thought of the star sky and green grass. This is a good chance to know about Chinese national folk art. As ethnic Han, the traditions lost a lot during the history, and I strongly agree the movement called "Hanfu movement", which is a recall for traditions for ethnic Han. The art, music, cloth, and fantastic traditions can never be lost.
ReplyDelete“The killer” tells a story of a killer and a cop first in opposition to each other, with the development of event, both of them find they have lots of similarities. Finally they become friends and against the bad guys. Actor Zhou Runfa has shape the character “killer” very successfully. The killer is not just a killing machine, he also have abundant emotions. Director Wu Yusen used a 110 minutes movie show us a complete Utopia Jianghu world.
ReplyDeleteI really like the technique of expression of this movie. Some people may think this movie looks too violence, but in my opinion, this is a special technique of expression, Wu Yusen named it as “violence aesthetics”. By showing exaggerative violence to sensory impact to the person. For example, the best scenario in this movie is The fighting in the church. Wu Yusen used pigeons and Madonna as background, also highlighted the bloody fighting scenes, performance peace and violence at the same time, really shocked me.
“Bloodshed of Two Heroes” is a Chinese action film. This story said Zhou Runfa a Chinese actor in an assassination mission killed a female singer ——Ye Qianwen, cause she was blind. To make up for the feeling of guilt, is employed to assassinate the Mafia leader decided to raise funds sent her to abroad to see a doctor. Meanwhile, Li Xiuxian, was ordered to seize Zhou Runfa, in the long-term follow-up to him, could not help but like this killer. Gangster Cheng KuiAn wanted to kill them, Zhou Runfa after running among in the killer and police, but he still planned to take Ye Qianwen to the United States to heal her eyes. Lee decided with Zhou Runfa to fight against the Mafia boss. Finally, Zhou Runfa unfortunately died, Lee killed Wang Hai gotten vengeance for Zhou Runfa.
ReplyDeleteAlthough this movie ending is unfortunate, but it fully demonstrates the friendship between people. The director John woo in the choice of the story at the same time, also chose the violence. In his way to depict the remnants of the aesthetic feeling. In Ye Qianwen home, Zhou Runfa and Lee with a gun to each other, and goodwill cheat a blind woman. I am very moved for these two men. This is the power of justice.This is a very impressive story.
Shizhecun is a feeling of 1930s Shanghai is representative of the new writers, in the city at describing modern loneliness and alienation, particularly in urban public focus on mining the deep psychological world, the novel's story, although very simple (send ladies gentlemen rain), but reveals secret urban men and women and tortuous inner processes, describing their humble desire to write the Beginning and the silent shattered this desire to show the modern urban men and women love the unique way of yearning for true love. P126 with a touch of the first paragraph the words depict a vivid picture of the rain, feeling the taste of rain floated. P127 in "when I got outside, although the street was already all it up, the sky itself had in the meantime brightened up." Showed the characters of loneliness and the feeling of alienation, there was a damp smell Shanghai.p128 ~ 135 implied that his emotional reality of the situation , in which the girl is his emotional dream partner, but everything must not resort to reason , so he got home , the dream woke up immediately to after his wife, a lie , a natural sense of real emotional and sexual pent up again.
ReplyDeleteShizhecun to write psychological analysis , describing the flow of subjective consciousness characters emotional and psychological changes , the pursuit of strange feeling , the subjective feeling of integration to go to the object 's description and performance with the fast pace of city life morbid
The movie Eat Drink Man Woman is about the story of a family, the family members are father and three daughters. Lao Zhu is the greatest chef in Taipei, but after the death of his wife, he will have to shoulder the responsibility of raising three daughters, but they are different temperament, full of rebellious personality, has its own problems. Daughters were growing up, the old father has gradually powerless, but his hand consummate family cooking but still maintain the harmony. Has become a family reunion dinner only time communication, each accompanied by a different "declare", there is not the same accident. Every family has its cupboard.
ReplyDeleteThe whole movie to Chinese families and Chinese cooking combined together; there is an old saying in China: Food is, with this method to run through the whole movie, I feel good. The whole movie character relationships so complicated, but also demonstrated the concept of the old society before disappearing.
“Almost a Love Story” is a Hong Kong film directed by Peter Chan in 1996, ahead of Hong Kong return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. Maggie Cheung plays a hardworking woman, Li Qiao from Canton and Leon Lai plays a typical Northerner named Li Xiaojun. Maggie Cheung and Leon Lai are two Chinese mainlanders who come to Hong Kong to make a living and finally they fell in love. This film is not only to tell a love story, but also to describe the hard lives of the new immigrants in Hong Kong at end of the twentieth century. A famous song “Tiánmìmì” (very sweet) sang by Teresa Teng prominently throughout this movie. And the film is considered a love poem in memory of Teresa Teng.
ReplyDeleteWhat impressed me most deeply in this film are two images. One is at the beginning of this film, when Li Xiaojun met Li Qiao in McDonald’s. Li Qiao can speak Cantonese and Mandarin, but Li Xiaojun only can speak Mandarin. Li Qiao was afraid of people to see that she speak Mandarin to Li Xiaojun and she didn’t want people to know she is a mainlander. From this we can see that at 1986, Hong Kong people looked down on the mainlanders. The other one is at the end of this film, in 1995, Teresa Teng dies and Hong Kong would soon return to China, Li Qiao met many travelers in New York. Those travelers were rich and they told to Li Qiao that “people always wanted to leave back in the 80’s, now, they all go back. Many Hong Kong people work in the mainland now.” The director arranged this ending to show that in the decade before Hong Kong returned to mainland, mainland china had huge development.
Peter Chan directed almost a Love Story in 1996. The title refers to Tian mi mi, a song by Teresa Teng, whose songs are featured in the film. The film shows two people fell in love with each other, but they cannot get married because man has a fiancé in Mainland China. At the end of the film, two leading characters meeting each other in front of an electronic shop that has a display TV playing a Teresa Teng video, after news of the singer's death broke.
ReplyDeleteDuring that period, a lot of Mainland Chinese wanted to go to Hong Kong because Hong Kong is more advanced than Mainland China. They tried their best to fit in society of Hong Kong, but it was hard. They had to study English and Cantonese first. Although they spoke Cantonese likes as Hong Kong people, they still were looked down upon. Different languages and different surroundings made them feel loneliness, and they started to get cares from other people who had the same experience as them. I think it is the reason that two leading characters fell in love each other.
The movie “Rogue” narrates a tragic story between two lovers in 1930’s Hong Kong. A rich young man (Shier Shao) falls in love with a prostitute (Ruhua). Man’s parents refused to accept her, and cut off his all allowance. He tried to find a job, and lived with Ruhua. However, he went back home, and married with another girl because of poor life. In the end of the story, they make a suicide pact. Ruhua died but he loses his courage at the last moment, and he survived.
ReplyDeleteRuhua is a legendary woman during that time. She tried her best to struggle with feudal minds in order to get her lover. In her mind, the world has only two colors, which are white and black, no gray colors. She cannot accept polygamy. Her love is drastic, unsophisticated, and is difficult for common people to bear. Shier shao is just a common people. He doesn’t have courage to struggle with his parents all the time.
The movie “Woman Demon Human” was set in the 1950s in Mainland China. The environmental and social forces change Qiuyun, and shaped the path she taked in life. As a young age, Qiuyun’s mother ran away with another man that caused shame in Qiuyun’s life. The society looked down upon Qiuyun’s dad and saw him was a failure. Qiuyun secretly learns the art of acting in Beijing Opera and later joins a professional Beijing Opera band. She became a famous actor in the end.
ReplyDeleteAn important thing to note in this movie is the painting of faces when acting in Beijing Opera. The face painting seems to cover the actor’s real face, and is often hard to identify the sexuality of the actor. Qiuyun seems to enjoy covering her face up, and acts like the role of Zhongkui. I think this is most likely due to the fact that she does not like her real life, and can only find happiness in acting. The fact that Qiuyun likes to act male character is also an important thing in this movie. Women are not given much status during this time period in China. Through acting, Qiuyun is able to feel equal to her male counterparts. Otherwise, her father does not want her to act female because of her mother.
During the Cultural Revolution in China, Qiuyun was not able to act. During that time, she got married and had two kids. After Cultural Revolution, she returned to acting and became very famous. Cultural Revolution is the worst time in new China. A lot of famous people died during this time.
“Almost a Love Song” tells the story of two people falling in love and the struggles they went through. It was not a simple love story because society played a big part in this movie. Li Qiao and Jun both moved to Hong Kong in hopes of a better life. The lonely lives of a big new city caused them to fall in love with each other. However, Jun already had a fiancé back in Mainland China. Their different goals in life and the path they took to achieve those goals caused the two lovers to be apart.
ReplyDeleteAn important theme in this movie was immigration. The two main characters sought ways to make their lives better by moving to more advanced places. They first moved to Hong Kong because it was more advanced than Mainland China. Then they moved to the U.S because it was better than Hong Kong. The scene of Li Qiao and Jun meeting in U.S in front of a TV playing the Tianmimi Song was very touching. After all the struggles they had went through, they still met each other. Fate had brought them together.
The movie “Woman Demon Human” is centered around Chinese drama Jinju. Qiuyun’s mother, whom had been an excellent Jinju actor, had run away with another man. As a result, Qiuyun’s father discouraged Qiuyun in becoming a Jinju actor. The society looks at this as a very shameful event. Qiuyun was often made fun of by her friends because of her mother’s actions. Despite her father’s opposition, Qiuyun secretly learns how to act in Jinju and joins a professional Jinju band.
ReplyDeleteIn one part of the movie, Qiuyun was being recognized as a male and was accused of going to the female’s restroom. The public had wanted to pull her pants down to check if she was a male. In addition, her friends all walked away and did not help Qiuyun. This shows how the Chinese society in the 50s is very selfish and immoral. The people should not have wanted to publicly pull a person’s pants down, and Qiuyun’s friends should have helped her.
Another event that caught my attention was the fact that acting in Jinju became a haven for Qiuyun. Qiuyun did not get to marry her teacher, whom she loved. She married a man that became addicted to gambling and often had Qiuyun to pay his debts. As a result, Qiuyun was not happy with her family nor did she have anyone that would understand her. Qiuyun was only able to find happiness when she paints her face and becomes someone else while acting. In front of the public and her audiences, she pretends to have a perfectly happy family. This shows how conservative the society is. Women at that time period is often afraid to let others know the negative aspects of their lives. Divorce was not an option because divorced women was negatively looked upon in society during that time. Overall, this movie has been very enjoyable to watch, and has made me feel sorry for Chinese women living in that period.
ReplyDeleteThe movie “Rogue” tells the story of a ghost, Ruhua, coming back to the human world searching for her lover. Throughout the movie, she was dressed in a traditional Chinese dress that was popular in the 1930s. After waiting for fifty years in the underworld for her lover, Ruhua decides to return to the human world to find out why Master 12 did not commit suicide with her.
The climax of this movie was when Ruhua and Master 12 decided to commit suicide by eating opium. The Chinese society, at that time period and even today, looked down upon prostitutes. Master 12’s parents did not agree on their marriage because Ruhua was a prostitute. Her status was too low and was not good enough Master 12. As a result, the two lovers decided to elope. They were not able to financially sustain themselves and decided to commit suicide. An important object in this movie was opium. The existence of opium in the Chinese society meant that Western powers were influencing China.
Toward the end of the movie, Ruhua finally finds Master 12. He had not died during the suicide. Ruhua felt that Master 12 had betrayed their love because he did not die with her. Seeing how he is suffering in the human world, Ruhua forgives Master 12 and gives back the necklace he had given her. This shows how weak their love was when confronting death. Master 12 did not have the Confucian mindset of obeying parents and had left them for a prostitute. In the end, their young love ended in tragedy.
The Beijing Bicycle tells story about a seventeen year old boy Guo Lingui from the countryside who came to Beijing to seek work himself. He finds a job in Feida express company, which assigns him a bicycle. He works hard and wants to earn that bicycle, but the bicycle was stolen before he earns that. In order to keep his job, he began to search for his missing bicycle. At the same time, the other boy, Jian buys Gui’s stolen bicycle from a second-hand market. Jian is a city boy, but his family is very poor, he stole money from home and bought that bicycle. One day, Gui found his missing bicycle and asked Jian to give it back, Jian refused. Finally, they decided to use the bicycle together.
ReplyDeleteIn this story, Gui and Jian are both young and poor boy. Gui is from countryside and works in Beijing, although he works hard, he is difficult to integrate into the city life. When Gui fell in love with a “city” girl, his uncle told him: “Come on, Gui. We have no sorts of fate.” But after his uncle knew that the “city” girl is just a nanny, he said: “If I knew she is from countryside too, I would…” Jian is a city boy but his family is poor, he stole money from home in order to satisfy his vanity among his friends. After Jian bought the bicycle, he was trying to impress his friends and played with them. The other impressive plot for me is that Xiaoxiao left Jian and chose a bicycle skillful boy at the end of the story. I think this movie reflect really modern social phenomenon in China and just like a mirror.
The Blind Shaft tells a story about two coal miners Song and Tang, who use the perfect but brutal scam to make money. They murder one of their fellow mine workers, make the death look like an accident, and pretend the relative of the dead. Then they extort money from the boss to keep the incident hushed up. They do that again and again, so they are very skillful. But the last time, they choose a naïve sixteen boy Yuan, who search for a job from a village. After Tang met Yuan, he began to carry out a new plan, but things changed. Song doubted that they killed Yuan’s father, and Yuan has the same age as Song’s son. So Song felt guilty and sympathy, finally, he gave the plan up. Tang killed Song, but Tang still failed and Yuan survived.
ReplyDeleteFor me, this movie is horrible and many words in this film give me a deep impression. “China has a shortage of everything except workers”, the mine manger said. He also said: “When they go down to the coal mine shaft, they may go to kill.” This is the human tragedy of it all. When Song changed his mind, Tang said, “If I feel for him, who feels for me?” And he also says that he will eliminate anyone who gets in his way. Tang is looking out for his own welfare, and there are no ethical limitations on how he ensures his own prosperity. Although Song is a bad man and he killed many people, he found moral bottom line after he met Yuan. He often think of his wife and son, and he even give money to the student who can’t afford the tuition.
Since reform and opening up in China, many privately owned mines arise in China. This is a good thing originally, but it became a nightmare for the mine workers. Children and adults squeeze into rat hole like tunnels in thousands of privately owned and unregulated mines, extracting coal with their hands or primitive tools and no safety equipment. The small miners use the money to offer a bride to officials. The more ironic in the movie is that when Song and Tang in the Karaoke, they sang “socialism is great”. I hope and believe that China will have a better future.
“The Postmodern Life of My Aunt” tells a story about “my aunt” Ye Rutang from the “nephew” Kuankuan’s perspective. Ye Rutang is an old-fashioned Chinese woman, with little money, living alone in modern Shanghai. She left her husband and little daughter and came to Shanghai to seek her fortune many years ago. “The people in this building are all wretches… Very few are college graduates unlike me!” That’s what she thought of herself, and she was not reconciled to live in the Northeast China with her worker husband. But her values challenged when she encounters three people: Kuankuan, Pan Zichang and Jin Yonghua. Finally, she decided to fade away and come back with her daughter.
ReplyDeleteKuankuan is Ye Rutang’s nephew. He visited his aunt during the vacation and lived with his aunt for couple weeks. After that, he has new understanding of her. At the beginning, Kuankuan thought her aunt is an old-fashioned, mean and ridiculous person. Such as she told Kuankuan she has rheumatism so she could not allow Kuankuan to use air-condition, but she used the air-condition herself. But after Kuankuan got into trouble and they were invited to the police office, she stood and shouldered the responsibility. Although she is mean and little selfish, she has sense of justice and kind heart. When she met somebody throw the trash on the road, she said: “Please clear up that mess. You’re being anti-social.” She also said she is a citizen and it’s everyone’s duty to protect the environment. When she first met Jin Yonghua, a homeless woman with an ill child, she tried to help Jin till she found Jin cheated on her. Pan Zichang is an attractive man like her age, and she fell in love with Pan and gave him money to “invest”. But she was tricked out of her money.
She undergoes a crisis of faith in human nature, culminating in falling down and breaking her leg. Reflecting on her misfortune in hospital, Ye is visited by her estranged daughter and her whole approach to life changes.
“Blind Shaft” tells the story of two men, Song and Tang, making money by treacherous acts. They would murder a mineworker, then pretend to be his relative to collect money from the management. They had done this numerous times and were never caught. However, Song begins to doubt himself and his actions when Yuan appeared. Yuan’s innocent and naïve character reminded Song of his first victim. Guilt begins to fill Song’s heart. His good side showed up and morality struck him.
ReplyDeleteThis movie reminds me of how materialistic a society can be. Song and Tang did this because they wanted easy money. Money has blinded of eyes of Song and Tang. They are not only stealing money, but also the lives of innocent people that may have a family at home. How grieved would the family be when they learn that their sons have died in coalmines? Morality seems to be the main theme in this movie. The murder of people by Song and Tang showed no morality.
I think this movie has a very negative effect of the Chinese society. People that don’t know China well might conceive China to be this moral-less country. It may be true on some aspects because it has always been that way in China. However, China is trying to change for the better. Whether if its working is ambiguous. I believe that the government has banned this movie in China because it demonstrated possible real life situations in China. I really enjoyed this movie and wish that the Chinese government would openly face these “negative” topics. Avoiding the negatives will not solve the problem.
I went to the lecture held by Doctor Richey named "Seeing Confucianism in Chen Kaige's Together" on November 15 at the Student Center in the University of Kentucky. For me, it is quite interesting that the film is combined with the traditional Confucianism cultures. He talked about humaneness, filial piety and integrity. As far as I am concerned, no matter what kind of art form in Chinese history, the Confucianism played an important role. As the lecture talked about in the film "Together," conflicts between Xiaochun and his father is a kind of the discussion of filial piety. In addition the last secret in the film showed that Xiaochun is not the real son of his father, but finally, he still went to his father, gave up the competition. And Xiaochun's father, who suffered to work hard for his "child" for almost fifteen years, in my opinion, is also a good case of humaneness. I saw this movie before, but when I listened the lecture, I learnt more than before.
ReplyDeleteThe Blind Shaft is a movie about two mine workers, Song and Tang, making money by murdering people. They would make it look like as if the person had died in a coalmine accident. The management team would compensate the family of the dead worker. Song and Tang will pretend to be the family member. Their scheme seemed flawless and no one caught them. That changed when Yuan appeared. Yuan reminded Song of the innocent days he used to live in. The murder acts have left a dark spot in Song’s heart. He wished to stop murdering people. Tang, on the other hand, had no morality. He continued and urged Song to follow their original plan of murdering people. In the end, Tang murdered Song and Yuan escaped from Tang’s hands.
ReplyDeleteI think morality is a main theme in this movie. Song begins to felt bad when he meets Yuan. Tang continued to be heartless and used his family as an excuse. He needed to provide for his family so he needed to kill people. This logic does not make sense and is very selfish. I really liked Yuan’s character because his good heart can easily influence people. Because of him, Song changed from bad to good. The author may be telling us to be more like Yuan. Yuan was always very nice to others and never thought about harming anyone.
“The Postmodern Life of My Aunt” mainly tell a tragedy about ideal and reality. Aunt Ye Rutang lives alone in Shanghai. She abandoned her husband and daughter to come to Shanghai. She wants to adapt to living in Shanghai, she doesn’t resigned to live like a “small citizen”. However, aunt Ye encountered a city slicker Pan Zhichang. Aunt Ye fell in love with Pan, she thought she finally found her love. Pan used aunt Ye’s trust cheated her money. Aunt Ye totally lost faith and she backed to her family. This movie tells a ordinary story, aunt Ye wanted to changed her life but she finally failed. Not every story has a perfect ending, and life is like that. But even so, we still need to work hard, to fight, to make our lives meaningful.
ReplyDelete“Let the Bullets Fly” is the film directed by Jiang Wen, a famous Chinese actor and director. The film’s cast is well chosen, with particularly good work by his four very capable lead actors, including himself. Chow Yun-Fat, a very famous actor, plays against type as a villain, Huang, the mob boss of Goose Town. Ge You, one of China’s favorite cinema clowns, plays a comic conman role named Ma Bangde. Carine Law plays a coquettish female role as the widowed governor’s wife. Jiang Wen himself plays the valiant and smart bandit leader Zhang. This is a funny, classy and satirical film, and I watched this film many times.
ReplyDeleteZhang robs a train with a man on it named Ma Bangde, played by Ge You, an “aspiring” politician. Ma Bangde has bought himself a governorship and is on his way to collect. During the robbery Ma's counselor dies and Ma faced with Zhang who is looking for a rich governor. So, Ma lies saying he is the counselor, and that his dead counselor was really the governor to be, hoping Zhang will let him go. With that information, Zhang decides to use Ma's expertise to take on the governorship Ma was supposed to take over for himself. Upon arriving at the city Zhang is immediately pitted against the local crime boss, Master Huang, played by Chow Yun-fat. They engage in a battle of wits and will for the life of the poor little place called Goose Town.
The classic movie dialogue among Huang, Ma and Zhang interested me most in this movie. Some of Zhang’s words are classic and meaningful, too. "I do not care about being rich but I must come up with a game plan to rid of Huang once and for all. Give me time, Pop will avenge your death." When bandit chief "Pocky" Zhang comes to a remote Chinese village he says he is the new mayor. After things go too far and someone ends up dead a battle for revenge begins between him and Master Huang (Yun-Fat). I think this movie uses a bizarre and convoluted story to reflect the current bizarre and convoluted social climate in Mainland China. And this is one of the excellent Chinese movies.
Eat Drink Man Woman; it is the film which instantly portrays the sense of family and the generation gap. Moreover, the film in the Directors' Fortnight in Cannes, France, firstly regarded as the opening film of the Chinese film. Its director is the famous Taiwanese director Ang Lee. The plot outline, a retired chef prepares for dinner every weekend to wait for his three daughters, facing family problems and conflicts between the generations. This movie borrows from each other's lives and conflicts to construct the values of different ages, different occupations. Watching it, I have many thoughts.
ReplyDeleteIn China, Chinese food culture focuses on the combination of color, flavor and yin and yang. In the beginning of the film, along with Chinese classical music, Lao Zhu does a variety of delicious dishes in the kitchen. The reason why Chinese food spread throughout the world, because of its color, but also because of its taste. Delicious produce is to reconcile the various materials. On contrary, Western food culture pays attention to day intake of calories, vitamins, protein, and so on. Dishes of Chinese pay more attention to the expression of mood. Western cuisine is just used to fill their stomachs; they eat a large piece of meat, the entire chicken and other hard vegetables. The differences between Chinese and Western diet culture are determined by the Western philosophy and way of thinking. I learn a lot from Eat Drink Man Woman.
Tian Mi Mi
ReplyDeleteThe movie was made in In the movie 1996, people have a Hong Kong dream. Jun goes to Hong Kong to find a job. Everything is different in Hong Kong from mainland. When Liming was hopeless, he met Zhang manyu. Zhang Manyu can speak English and cantering. She helped Liming to get used in the Hong Kong.
Several famous event happened in this the movie. The first event is Transfer Of Sovereignty Over Hong Kong. A lot of young people immigrate to the Hong Kong. Because Hong Kong was colonial by British. In this movie, I could see the Hong Kong has a lot of British Culture. Such as people can speak English can find good jobs. Even though Hong Kong belonged to China, no body spoke mandarin.
The movie also mentioned the Financial Crisis in 1998. In the movie, every one bought stocks to become rich. Zhang Qiao had $30,000 in her account. However, later, she just had $ 80 in bank.
Today, every large American city has Chinatown. Majority of people are from Hong Kong. They were illegal to immigrate to the US. This was the American dream. The US was very top at that time. I also saw the China was not strong at that time. Qiao’s husband was shot in Manhattan. The policeman didn’t assert the criminals. The police focused on that Qiao’s passport would be expired. If this happened today, I think the American government must deal with in different way.
Living Landscapes
ReplyDeleteI went to the “Living Landscapes”. This is a collaboration of “the University of Kentucky College of Fine Arts, the UK Confucius Institute, the Art College Inner Mongolia University and the Inner Mongolia University Autonomous Region International Culture Association”(UK). This is a concert of traditional music with students of the IMU. I think this is a good chance to know about the two countries’ cultures. As Elliott stated, “people use ‘art’ to embody and transmit ‘culture’: ‘the sum of attitudes customs, and beliefs that distinguishes one group of people from another”(Elliot, 147).
UK and IMU shows cultures during the concert. The UK plays traditional western music. What I really like is that the concert combined two countries’ cultures. IMU students showed that Inner Mongolia’s traditional music instruments. I think the concert is valuable. After the concert, I was so proud of my culture. I think a lot of UK Chinese students had same feelings as I had. I also think Chinese universities should hold the kind of concerts. The event could help young people know about own cultures and other cultures.
UK Confucius Institute Chinese Culture Club is an interest club newly founded by the UK Confucius Institute. It is a project of the UK Confucius Institute. It was proposed by the UK Confucius Institute and approved by the funding body in China, Hanban. The club hopes to bring Chinese and American students, as well as any others who wish to join, together for fun activities and shared interests. The club also aims to provide support for students of UK’s Chinese Studies program as well as the UK Chinese Students and Scholars Association (UKCSSA). The club envisions creating an environment where students from all different cultural backgrounds can come together to experience, appreciate, and enjoy Chinese culture. By far, UKCI Chinese Culture Club has already offered a wide array of programs to fulfill many different interests. There are 5 people on the board of directors: one Staff Advisor Cassandra Hardin, co-presidents Xie Xiang and Brian Reifert, Vice President/Secretary Anne Marie Vaughn, and Treasurer Ben Freeman. CCC promotes the understanding of the Chinese Language and Culture through free fun-filled cultural events, Chinese Language Table, and various other opportunities. By far, there are about 35 people on the mailing list, between 6 and 15 people usually show up for activities. For me, one of the most unforgettable activities I have ever joined in Chinese Culture Club (CCC) was the Game Night. Some of the members gathered together and played a very traditional Chinese game -Mahjong.
ReplyDelete“Almost a Love Story” is a 1996 Hong Kong film starring Maggie Cheung, Leon Lai, Eric Tsang, and Kristy Yang. It was directed by Peter Chan. The title refers to “Tian Mimi”, a song by Teresa Teng whose songs are featured in the film. The film is centers on two Chinese mainlanders who migrate to Hong Kong to make a living, but end up falling in love. Leon Lai plays a naive Northerner, Li Xiao-Jun, and Maggie Cheung plays an opportunist/entrepreneur from Cantonese speaking Guangzhou, Li Qiao, who takes advantage of mainlanders like herself for financial gains. The loneliness of living in the big city inevitably brings the two into a passionate love affair. But their different ambitions (Li Xiao-Jun wants to bring his fiance to Hong Kong; Li Qiao wants to get rich) mean that they are unable to be together. Eventually, Li Xiao-Jun marries his fiance (Yang) in Hong Kong and Li Qiao winds up in a relationship with a mob boss named Pao (Tsang). Li Qiao also becomes a successful entrepreneur, achieving her Hong Kong dream. Despite their seemingly separate lives, however, they are still in love and they have one final tryst in the room they used to share before they are separated again.
ReplyDeleteI think the end of the film, is a fairy tale ending. Li Xiaojun and li Qiao were dramatically reunion in the last. But in real life, such a coincidence of reunion really very few, more is pass by fate. Therefore, don't put your love in the distance. If you love her, take her go.
The Postmodern Life of My Aunt
ReplyDeleteThe movie is a 2006 Hong Kong serio-comedy film, directed by Ann Hui. The aunt is a single-living woman in her late life. She divorced with her husband and left her daughter and came to Shanghai. She is living alone in an apartment. She is pragmatic, frugal and self-reliant. I remember in the movie. She doesn’t allow Kuan Kuan using air conditions. However, her old fashion mind makes her hard living in Shanghai. She trusts love. After she met Pan Zhichang, she falls love in Pan. She used all of her life savings investing on cemetery spaces. However, she lost all of money in this investigation. Until the end movie, I am not sure if Pan is a fraudster. After she suffered from the victims several times, she had mental illness issue. She decided to leave Shanghai to live with her ex-husband.
In the movie, there is one part plays the aunt leave Shanghai. From the aunt’s facial expression, I could see that she doesn’t want to leave the modern life. Kuan Kuan visit the aunt after few years. The aunt is not mean anymore. She changed to be very nice. I think the movie shows the real life situation. The metropolitan people are aloof and self-reliant. Even though they have hard time in the big city, like Beijing or Shanghai, they still feel proud. A lot of people want to live in Beijing and Shanghai. A lot of college students choose to stay in the cities. They may have much better paid jobs in their hometowns, but they still choose to harder life in Shanghai or Beijing. They said there more chances in big cities. However, is this true?
Beijing Bicycle
ReplyDeleteThe movie directed by Wang Xiaoshuai. Gui left his hometown and went to find a job. He was lucky that he found a job in post office. The company provided him a bicycle. After he earned 600 yuan, he can own the bicycle. Gui worked hard to get the bicycle. However, he lost the bicycle later. When he was depressive, he saw Jian rode his bicycle. Jian stole his father’s money and bought the second hand bicycle. The theme of the movie is about the bicycle. Gui worked hard because of the bicycle. Jian was very proud in front of friends because of the bicycle. Jian had a beautiful girlfriend because of the bicycle.
Beijing Bicycle had a common point with The Postmodern of My Aunt. In the both movies, they mentioned that city people look down upon the countryside people. The theme of movie is how outside low class people struggle in the big cities. The movie was very poplar. However, the movie did not public in China because there are too many poor-area appear in the movie. Government considered that the pictures were not beneficial to apply Olympics.
"Almost a Love Story" is a 1996 Hong Kong film, I think, this film should have another end. Two people lost in the vast sea of people, living their own life, their own track, there may be a trace of regret, but ultimately so old it. "Almost a love story" like a fairy tale, the princess married to the prince will end up, from both the United States and the United States indicates that full happy life, resolved to no longer count the next mundane.
ReplyDeleteBut if the movie is like life in general can not stop at some point, we then read on, that is not good, the plot is just like a newspaper headline, picture appears they quarrel at home, or whether the two gossip personality clashes, or a third party came the scandal became full soap opera. Even if they met again, who can guarantee that will not be separated.
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ReplyDelete“The Postmodern Life of My Aunt"is a 2007 Hong Kong film.
ReplyDelete12 -year-old nephew Kuankuan, during the holidays to visit his aunt after retirement living alone in Shanghai . In kuankuan eyes, my aunt is a quirk lot of people .
Aunt is a slightly mixed in Shanghai do not fly little people . Some cultures , some good, some petty, some lonely , some crazy, some dream. Aunt of a person living in Shanghai , possessor of fourteen beautiful birds , cats hated neighbor , likes to brag about his daughter in the United States. Aunt studied opera , will draw traditional Chinese painting, went to college , been married to a yokel , after leaving her husband abandoned female , came to Shanghai this fast-paced world . With early experiences , aunt still remains a fantasy for many of the spiritual dimension . Back to reality , the aunt is not clear what they seek is in the end . Pan Zhichang appeared like a giant soap bubble beautiful , true and completely cover inside the aunt , her aunt was looking forward to for a long time the bubbles get mesmerized until watched Pan Zhichang backs away , only to find no have more money. Aunt decided to leave. Aunt is very clear that she will face is vulgar husband, dilapidated housing , do not fly daughter 's daughter objects do not fly more , bad weather , poor Dong Bei. Even so , she chose to leave, to leave the bustling metropolis , the big Shanghai . The Night Shanghai , is particularly charming . Like a busy night sky , like a beautiful dream , and dream of Pan Zhichang, she put it all aside , nothing taken away. The story in the end, his aunt and her husband sets up a stall , eating her face lightly with bread pickles , this time coming out of the radio to hear other people 's opera music , it sounds as if from another world .