film review, Judou ( 1990)

After the catastrophic Cultural Revolution the film industry in China encountered the fresh air of the “new wave”. The 5^th 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. 

Film review, In the mood of love

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]

Note

[1] http://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews/in_the_mood_for_love.htm ( 21/04/13)

Documentary: Yang ± Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema

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.

Reference

http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/136842/Yang-Yin-Gender-in-Chinese-Cinema/overview
(10/04/13)

Film review: A simple Life

< 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.  

Research reading, the definition of female films

The difference of female films between Chinese and western was growing within culture and social ideology. The fable from Milton’s <Paradise lost> explained the origin of women as a rib of man which is wild accepted in the western world. Thus it can be seen that the social status of men and women was delivered by the religious belief. French psychologist Lacan Jacaueo summarized it as the famous “Phallogocentrism”: The privileging of masculinity in the construction of meaning; phallocentrism with a view to logocentrism.” The Chinese folklore indicates that human beings were created by a goddess called ‘ nv wa’, she was kind-hearted and selfless, when there appeared a big hole in the sky, she scarified herself to fill it up. It can be regarded that the women was respected and admired in some way in ancient China. As time passed the system of enfeoffment had taken root in China, women were gradually placed in asymmetry, imparity and adverse position. Man dominated the society while women were on a passive position and be imprisoning in the structure of morality. In the 1900s the world was concussed by the feminist trend of thoughts, promote gender equality and oppose the perpetuation of gender discrimination in economic, political, legal, and social structures.

British feminist film theorist Laura mulvey came up with her analysis of female film in her thesis “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” as: “ Woman as Image, Man as Bearer of the Look ”. In her opinion, the pleasure films give us was due to the scopophilia. “There are circumstances in which looking itself is a source of pleasure, just as, in the reverse formation, there is pleasure in being looked at …Woman displayed as sexual object is the leit-motif of

erotic spectacle: from pin-ups to striptease, from Ziegfeld to Busby Berkeley, she

holds the look, plays to and signifies male desire. Mainstream film neatly combined

spectacie and narrative.” (1). Briefly speaking, female characters work as the function as a  ‘decoration’ in western films, for the gaze of male spectators.

In the history of Chinese film the definition of female film is controversial. Nowadays most think that a female film ought to signify Equality consciousness, express the evaluation and desire of women. Although many of male directors such us Xie Jin and Zhang Yimou( represent the 5^th generation director in the mainland China) has created many classic female characters such as Juer ( Red sorghum) and Judou ( Judou), some critics deemed that only female directors can transmit the “keenly-felt pain” as a woman to viewers. 

Practical work: love at the first sight

Sophie and I did this short film in the boots library.
Story by Sophie and me
Camera and editing by me

Ruan Lingyu：center stage （1992）

For more than a century film has been described as serving the function to “Catch reality on the wing”, it’s a blend of imagination which inspired from reality and the world of possibilities, reflects as a mirror of culture, society, economy and most importantly, the emotion shared by filmmakers and spectators. In China, motion picture was introduced around year 1896 but not until 1905 was the first film, a recording of a Peking opera “Dingjun mountain” was officially shown on the screen. My research topic is about female characters in contemporary Chinese films. The research is spitted into four parts: 1. the characteristics, features, development and transformation of female characters; 2. Directors of female films and their styles ; 3. The comparison of females characters from foreign culture (mainly about Hollywood and the UK film industry); 4; The difference among films from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

 

The post-1930 era is called the first "golden period" of Chinese cinema, where several talented directors, mainly leftist, worked. The period also produced the first big Chinese movie stars, namely Hu Die, Ruan Lingyu, Zhou Xuan, and Jin Yan. Among them, Ruan Linyu, as an icon of that age, left behind 29 silent films and a piece of posthumous paper with words: ‘gossip can kill’, committed suicide in Shanghai on March 8, 1935. In the year 1992, film <Ruan Linyu> was produced by Golden Way Films Ltd in memory of this legend actress after five decades; she is still popular and remembered by many, she is living in our heart. “Ruan's acting was so natural, accurate and graceful that, even after 70 years, her films still seem fresh. She was adept at conveying meaning through her whole body, thus overcoming the limitations of early silent films.” (1) From 1927—1935, she had successfully performed in 29 silent films, but only 9 copies of these left today.

                             Maggie Chuang and Ruan Lingyu

Due to the difference of social ideology, the appearance female characters in early western films were presented in an obvious distinction. As Mulvey, Laura wrote; “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. With their appearance coded in strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness.” (2) Traditionally, actress in Hollywood films in last 1930s served the basic two functions: 1. as erotic object for actors and spectators; 2. as a balance of the tune of a film. In Chinese philosophy male is called “Ying” and female is called “Yang”, only when “Ying” and “Yang” are in harmonious proportion can anything be composited in a right way. Actress in Hollywood in 1930s such as Greta Garbo and Ingrid Bergman were highlighted as features of beautiful, elegant and sexy, but few of them worked as a “leader” in a film. The hidden message was “Male honorable, female inferior”. The trend extended to the 1950s, when Marilyn Monroe’s maiden work “river of no return” (1951) was shown on the screen, it was like a blockbuster in the America and worldwide range. There were a big amount of close-ups of her legs or face as a burden of sexual objectification of male spectators. “Camera technology and movement combine with invisible editing, all tend to blur the limit of screen space. The male protagonist is free to command the stage, a space of spatial illusion which he articulates the look and creates the action.”(3) Either on the storyline or the technique wise the foundation was built up for the female characters.

When look back over a distance of 80 years, 1930 was the year of state awareness, political awareness and nation awareness for Chinese people, especially for women. More and more women were educated, commenced to fight with the feudalism and strive for the social states they deserved. The film ‘Ruan Lingyu’ is a biopic which combined drama and documentary in order to restore her 25 years legendary life, includes her splendent career and tragic personal life experience. As an actress, someone used to comment: "This is an actress who shows excitement down to the curl of her fingers, and whose face reveals every kind of mercurial change." She can be a seductive prostitute, a cordial mother or desperate nun, in the film ‘three modern ladies’, Lingyu concurred controversial voices and denials and volunteered to perform an Impoverished female factory worker who is seeking happiness and freedom in the cruel world, set a role model for female spectators. 

Ruan Played a prostitute in film 'Goddess' who can sacrifices herself for her child. This impressive scene of film is when she envisages the bully and tries to protect her little boy. The camera was set between the bully's legs, highlighted the brave of her and the pathetic fate of women lived in low-class.  

Compared to the life attitude of women in 30s and 90s, the difference is obvious. The film includes short interviews of Maggie Chuang and Jialing Liu, the main actress in this film. When the director Kuan asked Maggie if you were Ruan will you make the same decision to finish your own life, Maggie answered: “ As a actress, a celebrity, I totally understand the pain and pressure she was taking at that time, but I am a girl who never give up fighting, I am afraid I will let them disappoint.”

Bibliography

1.       http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/film/165476.htm (25/03/13)

2.       Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Film Theory and Criticism （1999）Mulvey, Laura

3.       Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Film Theory and Criticism （1999）Mulvey, Laura

Reference

1.       http://brightlightsfilm.com/64/64ruan.php (25/03/13)