This is an experimental work about my research question: the female characters film. The idea came up from the loneliness and helpless of modern girls. I hope to express the contradiction through a story about how a girl struggles with the voice of herself when she is trapped into trouble and negative thoughts.
I haven't got enough time to edit the footage, this short clip is one scene from it. After the PGD presentation I will finish this and arrange few more experimental short films.
After the catastrophic Cultural Revolution
the film industry in China encountered the fresh air of the “new wave”. The 5th
generation directors include Yimou Zhang, Kaige Chen, Zhuangzhuang Tian brought
masterpieces like “Judou”, “Red sorghum” and “farewell my concubine” on the
screen. Due to reason that they was born in a special period of time in China, the
so called socialist cinema had sunk into their nature, the focus remained on the
peasants, works and solders. But what made the difference was without the government
control and restriction; they owned much more freedom to create their own
scripts and characters. ( In the time of socialist cinema, directors had to
make their characters “rule models” for the audiences in order to show their
absolute loyalty to the communist party and chairman Zedong Mao, the “wrong”
instruction were never allowed to appear on the screen to the public.) Rather
than extolling the great sacrifice female characters make for the country and
party, 90s’ films emphasized women as “human” and their emotional desire and
the right to pursue the life they dreamed of. “ Judou” as a classic of the
time, designate the women who has exhausted her whole life against the patriarchy
and the feudal ethic codes.
Judou is forced to marry a old rich man who
owns a dye house. After the first night of her marriage she finds out herself is
not only the birth-giving machine but a object of his sexual abuse. Due to the approval
of patriarchy system in her own subconsciousness, she suffers the pain day by
day and doesn’t even have the courage to make a change. Aside the “husband” in
this film, another male figure is the “nephew” of her husband who almost falls
in love with his “aunt-in law” the first time they meet. He is another victim
of the patriarchy, the only thing he dares to do is lurking around the peephole
when Judou is in shower. This scene, meets the theory of Laura Harvey about “male
gaze” in her book “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”; that is to say, “in a
world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male
and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy on to the
female figures which is styled accordingly. In their traditional exhibition
role woman are simultaneously looked at and displayed.” [1] This bold, unique
design in films at that time, obviously suit the taste of the international
market and committees as it won the awards from Cannes Film Festival and Chicago
International Film Festival in 1990.
In the Chinese conventions man is always the central of a family. If
husband dies the elder son will take over the responsibility to “manage” the
whole family, include his own mother. In this film, after Judou’s son ( whose
father is the nephew of her husband) accidently pushes his nominal dad into the
pool, he became the real owner of the family. He hates his genetic father for
ruining the reputation of his mother and the gossip around—although he is just
a 13 years old teenage boy, he shows his dark and despicable side to the
audiences. He, at some points, is another “ husband” for Judou. After he kills
his own father, Judou finally realized what makes this all happened is her recreance.
Like the English name of this film, it’s
about the ‘mood’, about the ambiguous tint of love. Without any sophisticated
plot and or conflict, director Wong Kar-wai limn a simple story with a subtle
emotion in his way, and it’s good enough to be called as ‘classic’. ‘I always
wanted to make a film about this period, because it's very special in the
history of Hong Kong, because it is right after 1949 and a lot of people from
China are living in Hong Kong and they still have their dreams about their
lives back in China. So like the Chinese communities in the film, there are
people from Shanghai and they have their own languages and they don't have
contact with the local Cantonese. And they have their own movies and music and
rituals. That is a very special period and I'm from that background. And I want
to make a film like this, and I want to recreate that mood.’
The story is about the love story between
two neighbors after they find out their spouses are having an affair with each
other. Lizhen Su, one of the most beautiful and elegant characters in the
history of Chinese cinema, never has the courage to express her true feeling
and pursue of happiness. She lives in solitude, endures the infidelity of her
husband without even an ask. What’s worse, she falls in love with the neighbor Mr.
Zhou, who just wants to take his revenge from her. Her love is implicit, subtle
and scrupulous, she is the subordinator, she gets nothing but disappoint at the
end. “ Everything from the music, to the glorious cinematography, to the
sublime performances echoes the longing and inner emotion felt by the two
protagonists.” [1]
Produced by director Stanley Kwan, this documentary focuses on a variety appearance of gender in Chinese films from 30s to 90s. By interviewing several successful directors from Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China such as Ann Lee, Kaige Chen, Tsui Hark, Jin Xie and Che Zhang, Stanley analyzed the relationship between gender and personality in each particular period of time. For example, before the heat of Bruce Lee, Chinese film industry was mostly ruled by female films. Due to his personal preference, Director Che Zhang brought a surge of "pure masculine" characters in his Kong fu and ancient films. Different from the western style, heros in his films share one same personality: the indifference to females but in some point they treasure the emotion( friendship or some say homosexuality） with other male they respect. Meanwhile, some ‘sensitive’ topics are able to be discussed such as transgender issues and the reflection of the thoughts from directors themselves.
As one of the most prominent directors in Hong Kong, Stanley himself is partial to female stories and characters. He explained his preference in the beginning of this documentary as he grew up in a family with mum and sisters around all the time( Chinese say it as ‘ An excess of yin leads to yang deficiency’) and the sexuality of his. ‘I my opinion girls are generally stronger and braver than men. The toughness and explosiveness on women beyond our imagination. Women are considered as the weak in our society but this make them stronger, stronger than you think they are.' He said.
< A simple life > is a tear-jerker
film in the year 2012 in Hong Kong by one of the most famous female director in
Hong Kong Ann Hui. Adapted by a real story, Roger Lee is a film producer who
lives with his servant Tao Jie, who served his family for over 60 years since
teenager. One day Tao gets a stroke and asks to live in a care home. The
highlight of the whole film is the life after Tao moves to the care house,
there isn’t any conflict in this film, and instead it persists the rhythm of
reality as much as it could. As the English name of this film, it is a simple
but real life, almost the circumstances everyone may meet in our life in China.
In order to integrate with the world market,
the film industry in Hong Kong nowadays lays great emphasize on commercial films.
Among 81 films which were produced and shown in 2012, < A simple life >is
the only one which explores the relationship between people and the social
phenomenon. The aged tendency of population, high property price, the attitudes
to new immigrants and so on. With the documentary-view shots throughout the
film, I see what life is like in a care home, lonely and helpless. The emotions
between Tao and Roger is subtle and implicit, in the beginning of the film,
Roger, as a master in the house, is accustomed to have Tao cooking and cleaning
for him, he even looks a little unconcerned about her. After Tao gets the
stroke, Roger starts to realize how she takes good care of him in the past, the
distance between them melts. We all have a ‘Tao’ around us, she may be our grandma,
nice lady in the neighborhood or the teacher at high school, they are selfless
to us, but we hardly pay back with our time and attention. As the director Ann
commented the film herself: “The younger generation ought to know what they
have lost.”
Ann Hui, as one of the greatest female
directors in China, has her own style of directing. She casts her story,
emotion, affection or even anxiety into films. As a 65 years old single lady who
lives with her mother, it’s oblivious to see the purpose she chose this script
at the first place. It’s no doubt a melancholy story, but we see hope, we see
the desire of finding the intimacy back among us, we are still working on it.
