The film opens with gentle falling snow and a montage of faces on a bus. Each person has his own story and each plays his own role. Korean actor, Ji Jin Hee, narrates the story which we are about to be presented. He compares life to a film wherein each of us is the lead actor in the movie. Some may assume that they are a co-lead in the film of someone else, but in reality their role might be much more diminutive. In the end, we can never know for sure (Chan, Perhaps Love). This postmodern approach to identity and memory sets the tone for an emotionally-driven musical love story in Peter Chan’s Perhaps Love. However, the true success of the film is the role it plays outside of its diagesis. With the film’s conscious casting of Pan-Asian actors, …show more content…
The film ends in a very similar way that it begins. There is a bus full of people that leads out into the distance as the scene fades and the ending credits roll. It gives the impression that another bus will make it stop here too. Another group of people with their own stories (life films) will arrive. The story of Sun Na was merely one story of many human stories that exist. Her specific experiences are not universal, but her film presents the emotions and themes that are global recognition. The literary design of Perhaps Love places the film in postmodern formalism that eliminates the notion of true authenticity/originality and opens the door for global identity. The film’s sound design promotes a universal interpretation of music and sound that creates a mood and atmosphere applicable to all nations. The visual design reminds us that we are all human and that there are encompassing truths beyond the limitations we have placed upon ourselves. Perhaps Love serves as a triumphant reunion of people and identities in a world where memories and history are our most important contribution to the
Throughout history, Americans have always been intimidated by immigrants. The idea of an immigrant coming to America and easily being able to get a job scared Americans. Americans feared that good jobs would be taken from hard working Americans and given to immigrants for less pay because they required less money to live on or were used to no wages or lower wages in their Country of origin. People would immigrate to America in search of a better life, and often times they could find homes and jobs that made them want to stay. A melting pot is described as being a mixing of different cultures into one universal culture. In Erika Lee’s, The Chinese Exclusion Example, immigrant exclusion helped re-define the melting-pot
Distinctively visual language and cinematic techniques highlight to the responder the particular literal and metaphorical experiences characters are faced with, within a text. Peter Goldsworthy’s novel Maestro, Don McLean’s song ‘Vincent’ and the intriguing film Australia by Baz Luhrrman, explore the ways in which the human experiences of an individual’s connection to landscape is fundamental in shaping one’s sense of identity, personal growth and development. Composers further explore the realisation that our lives can be enriched by an understanding and appreciation of art as well as a deeper understanding of the importance of love and lust. The depiction of characters is conveyed through distinctively visual images to highlight the subsequent development of courage and resilience leads responders to a deeper understanding of how human experiences can create a sense of individuality.
In The Pathos of Failure, Thomas Elsaesser explains the emergence of a new ideology within American filmmaking, which reflects a “fading confidence in being able to tell a story” (280) and the dissolution of psychologically relatable, goal-oriented characters. He elaborates that these unmotivated characters impede the “the affirmative-consequential model of narrative [which] is gradually being replaced by another, whose precise shape is yet to crystallize” (281). Christian Keathley outlined this shape in more detail in Trapped in the Affection Image, where he argued that shifting cultural attitudes resulted in skepticism of the usefulness of action (Keathley). In Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller and Roman Polanski’s Chinatown, this crisis of action is a key element of the main characters’ failure, because it stifles the execution of classical narrative and stylistic genre conventions.
In every story, there is a protagonist and an antagonist, good and evil, love and hatred, one the antithesis of the other. To preserve children’s innocence, literature usually emphasizes on the notion that love is insurmountable and that it is the most beautiful and powerful force the world knows of, yet Gen’s and Carmen’s love, ever glorious, never prevails. They each have dreams of a future together, “he takes Carmen’s hand and leads her out the gate at the end of the front walkway… together they… simply walk out into the capital city of the host country. Nobody knows to stop them. They are not famous and nobody cares. They go to an airport and find a flight back to Japan and they live there, together, happily and forever” in which their love is the only matter that holds significance (261). The china
Most films captivate the audience’s interest in the main character. This film did just that. Through the main character Li Cunxin, I was able to notice the amount of hard work and dedication which led Li to become a famous ballet dancer known worldwide. The film, based on the autobiography by Li Cunxin, “Mao’s Last Dancer” directed by Bruce Beresford, is about a Chinese boy named Li Cunxin who was born into a large family of 6 boys. At the age of eleven, Li was selected from a poor Chinese village by Madam Mao’s cultural representatives to leave his family and study ballet in Beijing.
Through these, the portrayal of the complex nature of happiness is shown to contribute to the enduring value of the film through the realistic style of the film and by showing different perspectives on the same person showing the audience that different people view actions in different
This analysis draws focus on the differences between Hua’s novel and Zhang’s film by juxtaposing two key themes and dual-symbolism that had changed from one format to another. The paper is broken up into two parts and begins with an introduction and analysis of Yu Hua’s novel and Zhang’s film. Finally, the second part analyzes the film and novel’s representations of two themes and symbolism that tie in with the GPCR. This paper posits that while Zhang’s film does contain many adjustments based on its adaptation, those changes were not simply a means by which he would meet the status quo, rather they were a means by which the film could become more realistic and exploits the true nature of the GPCR.
The issue of cultural stereotypes and misconceptions thematically runs throughout David Henry Hwang’s play M. Butterfly. The play is inspired by a 1986 newspaper story about a former French diplomat and a Chinese opera singer, who turns out to be a spy and a man. Hwang used the newspaper story and deconstructed it into Madame Butterfly to help breakdown the stereotypes that are present between the East and the West. Hwang’s play overall breaks down the sexist and racist clichés that the East-West have against each other that reaffirm the Western male culture ideas. The stereotypes presented in the play revolve around the two main characters, Gallimard and Song. The play itself begins in the present with Gallimard, a French diplomat who has been incarcerated in a Beijing prison. He relives his fantasies for the past with his perfect woman and shares his experience with the readers throughout the remainder of the play. Upon Gallimard’s arrival in China, he attends the opera and meets Song, and Gallimard immediately describes Song as his “butterfly”. Gallimard falls in love with the “delicate Oriental woman” that Song portrays (22). He then buys into the Western male stereotype that Eastern women need protection by strong, masculine Western men. Gallimard ends up falling in love with Song and has an affair with her to fulfill the stereotypical idea of a dominant Western male controlling an Eastern woman. Throughout Gallimard’s relationship with Song, the readers discover that Song is in reality a male spy for the Chinese government. Song had manipulated his looks and actions to mirror those of the ideal Chinese woman in order to earn Gallimard’s affection. M. Butterfly’s main issue arises from the cultural stereotypes of the masculin...
The quest for identity quickly finds its place in the construction of the notion of ‘Hong Kong-ness’ in films. The local cinema has remained as a powerful cultural institution, both reflecting and intervening in the discourses of alterities and selfhood. It is therefore not surprising that in local films, the cinematic representations of Hong Kong have been seen as inextricably interwoven with the triangular relationship between the British coloniser, the Chinese motherland, and Hong Kong itself. Since its inception in the 1910s, the Hong Kong film industry has enjoyed much independence from colonial control, yet simultaneously much association with Western culture. Many films openly deal with the theme of ‘East meets West’ in which ‘Hong Kongese’ identity is often expressed in "transnational settings" against the existence of a Western Other, in particular through the portrayal of Westerners visiting Asia, and vice versa. After the handover, "Hong Kong" as a geopolitical en...
Gallagher, T. 2002. Senses of Cinema – Max Ophuls: A New Art – But Who Notices?. [online] Available at: http://sensesofcinema.com/2002/feature-articles/ophuls/ [Accessed: 8 Apr 2014].
Released in 2000, and called the "…love story of the new millennium" (Time Out New York), In the Mood for Love (2000) is one of the best and most underrated foreign film. From its nostalgic depiction of the 1960s to its artistically appealing cinematography, this film has become a staple in the ever evolving, fast-paced film industry. Consequently, after having watched it I was in a daze for days, day dreaming about the characters, reimaging their fates, this movie could not leave me. I wouldn’t let it. Furthermore, I was more inclined to analyze In the Mood for Love after having watched another Wong Kar Wai masterpiece, Chung King Express (1994), because the resonating power both these films have had on me are immensely powerful. It is extremely rare when a filmmaker has the ability to really leave a mark on your life, twice. The film, In the Mood for Love is produced under the shroud of the Hong Kong New Wave movement (1978-2000), in particularly the Second Wave. This film movement analyzes major social issues grappling Hong Kong such as decolonization, social class, and the importance of women in a rising global economy. As a result the following analysis will chronicle the details of the Hong Kong Second Wave film movement, along with a detailed description of Wong Kar Wai’s film aesthetics, and a deep evaluation of the acclaimed movie, In the Mood for Love.
Mao’s Last Dancer, directed by Bruce Beresford, is driven by Li’s experiences in the clash between American and Chinese culture and the journey to discovering his own identity. Through Li’s eyes this film shows us his search for identity which can sometimes be helped or hindered by the difference in cultures. These themes are shown during the film through the use of Symbolic, Written, Audio and Technical conventions (SWAT).
The genre of romantic comedies sets up a framework of generic conventions for each film. Although they usually have the construction, each film is developed in their own unique way. The amusing, comical, and dramatic movies follow the basic structure of the unfulfilled desire of love in the lives of the main characters, a situation that they are put in that provides a chance for potential romance, and then though several obstacles, a realization that they are a perfect match and live “happily ever after”.
I would like to begin my analysis first with Marchetti’s essay, “White Knights in Hong Kong” taken from her book Romance and Yellow Peril: Race, Sex, and Discursive Strategies in Hollywood Fiction. In this piece she studies the two films Love is a Many-Splendored Thing (Henry King, 1955) and The World of Suzie Wong (Richard Quine, 1960). Her main argument ...
As an audience we are manipulated from the moment a film begins. In this essay I wish to explore how The Conversation’s use of sound design has directly controlled our perceptions and emotional responses as well as how it can change the meaning of the image. I would also like to discover how the soundtrack guides the audience’s attention with the use of diegetic and nondiegetic sounds.