A Touch Of Sin : An Action Based Film Documenting Modern Day Exploitation

Hearts and Minds is an American documentary about the Vietnam war. This documentary presents the different sides of the argument on America’s involvement in Vietnam. In film various interviews with military figures and other men are shown. Also interviews with the point of views of the Vietnam people. Many tones and moods are present in the film to show how the Americans role was in the conflict with the vietnamese. The film goes on to show the men that survived the physical wrecks.

     Mark Salzman’s purpose was to take you to China and introduce you to the people he had met on his journey. He had published this book only two years after he had gone to China. He desperately wanted to share an outsiders look into China and what influences were in his life. Mark wrote so fluidly that it was person to person.

Zhang Yimou’s To Live is a powerful indictment of communist authoritarian rule and blind patriotism. The film places the viewer in the position of an insider as the Communist Revolution alters the political and social landscape of China. By using dramatic irony, Zhang Yimou appraises communist collectivist culture, class structure and power in revolutionary China, and the Cultural Revolution. In addition, by using shadow puppetry as a symbol of indoctrination, Zhang Yimou examines the link between political change, personal tragedy, and bureaucratic incompetence.

China during the Cultural Revolution was a place where you were told what to do, and what to say. Today I will be speaking to you about Mao’s Last Dancer, the film adaption of the autobiography of Li Cunxin. To begin with, I will speak about the Cultural Revolution in China, where the story is set.

Throughout the film Do the Right Thing, we continuously observe racial conflict that builds up to such an extreme point that it leads to a fight for power. This movie portrays the struggles and realities of a neighborhood with white and black African American people. This can be seen in many instances for example when Buggin ' Out, Radio Raheem, and Smiley march into Sal 's and demand that Sal change the Wall of Fame. Another vital instance shows the height of power struggle. It is when the huge fight starts in the street and results in Raheem being killed by a white police officer.

This memoir of Ma Bo’s sent shock waves throughout China when it was published and was even first banned by the Communist Government. This passionate story paints a clear picture for what the Great Chinese Cultural Revolution was really like. Many Chinese living today can attest to similar if not identical ordeals as expressed in Ma Bo’s story. The toils of being a young Red Guard in inner China were experienced by many if not millions. The horrors and atrocities were wide spread throughout the country, not just in Inner Mongolia. The experiences illustrated in Blood Red Sunset uniquely belong to Ma Bo’s entire generation of mislead Chinese. As expressed in the books dedication the Cultural Revolution

In Jan Wong’s entrancing expose Red China Blues, she details her plight to take part in a system of “harmony and perfection” (12) that was Maoist China. Wong discloses her trials and tribulations over a course of three decades that sees her searching for her roots and her transformation of ideologies that span over two distinctive forms of Communist governments. This tale is so enticing in due part to the events the author encountered that radically changed her very existence and more importantly, her personal quest for self-discovery.

There are many different forms of justification for violence. When analyzing two different pieces of work which represent different time periods, one must consider the source of violence in each story and how that violence comes to be justified. In a novel such as True Grit, a product of the western genre, the justification of violence comes in the form of frontier justice. Frontier justice was a practice in early 19th-century America that was utilized when justice, or law, was unsatisfactory, or absent. A movie such as Goodfellas presents the justification of violence in an alternative way.

In recent years, China has become a worldwide superpower-seemingly out of nowhere. War-torn and sick of being trampled on by western powers, the Communist Party of China has given the almost 4,000 year old country a new lease on life. But all this newfound power and “prosperity” came at a price paid in sweat and blood. In the memoir Red Scarf Girl, Jiang Ji-Li recalls her experiences growing up during Chairman Mao’s “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution”, during a time where hundreds of thousands were unfairly persecuted and even tortured by their brainwashed friends and family. Although it is clear that my experiences and Jiang Ji-Li’s are very different, there are also some similarities.

In her paper, “The ‘revenge of history’: China’s collective memories and labor protests in north eastern China,” Ching Kwan Lee describes how China’s market reform has led to mass unemployment and poverty among state workers in the rustbelt of China. This declining standard of living has resulted a nostalgia for Maoist socialism, in what she calls “the revenge of history,” or the idea that those who have benefited the most from socialistic policies lost the most after the market reforms. The plight of these workers is dramatized in the movie “Blind Shaft,” where Li Yang tells the story of two con artists who trick migrant workers into joining them in the coal mines, only to kill them in the mines and reap profits in the form of “hush money” from the corrupt owners of the mines. Lee’s idea of the “revenge of history” is useful for interpreting this movie, because it provides context for the events depicted, allowing the audience to gain a better understanding of the motivations of the con artists. At first glance, the con artists are just greedy men, looking to make a quick profit. Looking from the Lee’s perspective, however, shows that these men are forced into this situation because of the poverty pushed onto them by capitalistic market reforms. Lee’s metaphor of “the revenge of history” allows the audience to gain a more complex and nuanced view of the characters Song Jinming and

The Sundance film documentary “Miss Representation (2011)” was written, produced and directed by, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, an American woman whose goal is to empower women. Newsom is a “filmmaker, actress, speaker, and advocate for women, girls, and their families” (IMDb). The documentary explores how the mainstream media’s denigrator depiction of women contribute to the under-representation of women in positions of leadership, intellect, and power. To persuade the viewer the author uses First, Pathos to express the emotional battles young and old women, and even herself as a mother of a daughter endure in society due to the negative media portrayal of women. Furthermore, she uses Ethos Secondary which builds on her moral character as she first hand has lived and experienced being objectified, violated, and even battled with an eating disorder herself.

Ang Lee’s Crouching tiger Hidden Dragon is probably one of the most successful foreign films to ever be screened in America. Being the number one film of the year in 2000. On the other hand it was reportedly considered a flop in China. While it was influenced by American film styles, it still kept true to many aspects of its Chinese film heritage. With very apparent love story, it lacked the Extreme amount of Kung Fu fight scenes eastern audiences have come to enjoy. This is a stunning love story between a monk and widow. While it does have its share of over the top fight scenes, when you start to dig deeper the films many social implications become apparent. With ties to subjects such as religion, martial arts, philosophy, love, and even gender issues. This film is a representation of the modern era and how long practiced traditions are being challenged. Each character and plot line allows a glimpse into the Social and Traditional understanding of a culture.

For the bulk of the mid- to late-20th Century, Eileen Chang’s name and literary prowess fell into obscurity as a result of events related to the Cultural Revolution and her own reclusion. In C.T. Hsia’s A History of Modern Chinese Fiction, he praised Chang for her use of "rich imagery" and "profound exploration of human nature.” In his book, he also claimed Chang to be “the best and most important writer” of mid-twentieth century China. Hsia’s remarks and Ang Lee’s film adaptation of her novella, Lust, Caution, have helped to bring Chang’s name back onto the literary scene.

It was released in the year 1993, covering the period of the Chinese social upheavals between the 1920s through to the 1970s in the setting of the Beijing Opera. The film raises the attitude of homosexuality in the most painful period of the traditional Chinese history, for the Chinese and Western viewers (Lau 1995, 22). Despite that, China holds a strong homosexual stigma within the twentieth century. According to Lau, this film was an opportunity to stimulate the inherent of the Beijing Opera in relation to the homosexual practices that were tolerated during the era (Lau 1995, 22). Zheng further suggested that the film was also a chance to understand the homophobic anxiety of the historical and political brutality in Chinese history (Zhang 1999, 101). The film attempts to illustrate that the Chinese cultural connections and homosexuality cannot coexist. The main protagonist, Cheng Dieyi, sense of identity is heavily reinforced by the power structure within the environment through harsh symbolic rapes. Lau suggested that the symbolic rapes, such as the loss of finger and getting a pipe forced into the mouth are indications of homosexuality (Lau 1995, 23). According to Zheng, the scene when Dieyi gets raped by the eunuch has exhibited Dieyi’s disruption towards the societal rejection of homosexuality (Zhang 1999, 104). Zheng also stated that Dieyi’s violent

In the film “China Blue”, a seventeen year old girl, Jasmine Li, works in a Chinese jeans factory. From this documentary we learn about the pay Jasmine was receiving for her hard work, half a Yuan an hour which is equal to about six US cents. We also learn about the condition of the factory and dorms, the rules that the workers have to abide to, and how important these factories are. From just these sweat shops we learn about the economic, social, and political problems that has arisen in China. It also shows us inequality and inequity of the society in China.