The Chinese National in Chinese Movies
The essential theme of “National” has been virtually reflected in a greater percentage of Chinese film and a number of propositions have been put forward to back up this trend. Probably due to the political history that has patterned China right from the empirical and feuding lord epochs to the now predominant nation-state mechanism of government. Thanks to the Han Dynasty that had a precursor vision of unifying China as one people; probably the earliest of enthusiast to envision the Chinese people as people from one fabric. Chinese film, even though can logically be differentiated from Taiwanese and Hong Kong film and cinema, where mainland China with a critical media base at Shanghai has often been
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Recap on selected movies
Durian Durian
Produced in the last quarter of 2000, Durian Durian was directed by Fruit Chan and produced by Carrie Wong. It features a deep national theme that is manifested in the inland China-Hong Kong contention, a feature that has been prevalent throughout the modern years of China. The plot centers around two sharply contrasting female characters, Fan, who is a Hong Kong native and Yan who is from Northeast China and her illegal neighbor. Yan is illegally residing in Hong Kong for the economic reasons and involves in prostitution with the hope of a better future. Fan on the other hand, a local, becomes close friends with Yan since they are close neighbors and they share their personal stories. The story ends with Yan finally packing up and heading to the Northeast to reunite with her ex-fiancé and invest the hard earned cash she has acquired as an illegal immigrant in Hong Kong.
Rush Hour
Rush Hour has been developed in three parts with the initial version featuring in 1998. Starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, the film is produced by Roger Bimbaum and five other skilled personnel and directed by Brett Ratner. Even though the plot is decentralized into fighting major crimes such as terrorism, kidnapping, robbery and gang affiliation, the national theme
The films Stage Sisters and Yellow Earth were made twenty years apart in different political climates in China. The films have similarities drawn from policies and ways of thinking that were set in place during the Cultural Revolution and have differences that show the progression filming style and acting post Cultural Revolution thinking.
Shanghai Noon is an action comedy starring Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson that was released in 2000. The Tom Dey directed film combines action and comedy as it follows two “misfits” throughout the wild west. While the movie’s action concept primarily comes from Jackie Chan’s stunts, comedy in this movie is mostly derived from addressing many stereotypes about the cultures within the movie in a comical way. Shanghai noon uses common stereotypes to portray a story of an imperial guard shocked into the wild west who must now go against his own culture’s beliefs to save his love, Princess Pei Pei.
The representation of diverse people and experiences in comics is important to expand the thoughts and minds of readers. Yang and Wilson, the minds behind American Born Chinese and Ms. Marvel, use the medium of comic books and graphic novels to help bring a new sense of belonging and acceptance to marginalized people. They do this by applying a “millennial mindset” to their respective stories. What this means is that the characters they have created, whether they are based off real people or are fiction, address the problems of race, religion, or sexuality that we are facing today. These characters also act to threaten the current atmosphere of the comic book industry. Typical comic book characters and superheroes, before now, were mostly white and from a typical American background. Heroes that were women were generally over-sexualized and unrealistic. These two authors hope to challenge the current status quo of the comic book industry by creating characters whose background is much different than previous superheroes.
Te Wei’s Conceited General (1955) was exceptional in being one of the first Chinese animations to have color. Under Mao’s reign, the film was a stepping stone towards a more cohesive style of animation that was distinctly Chinese. With a strong moral and nationalistic aspect, Conceited General was an example of an attack on the values of the old system of feudalism and the integration of the values of Mao’s talk at the Yunan Forum (1946).
American Born Chinese was a book that I would have initially missed reading because it didn’t appeal to me then. However, it wasn’t until the three narratives intertwined at the end that I realized that this was a great read. Jin, Danny, and the Monkey King all have one thing in common; they try to become something they are not, and they lose their sense of identity until the realization of the truth that we cannot fight who we really are. Jin comes to America and desperately tries to fit in with his classmates and assimilate. The Monkey King tried to become something greater than himself, and become an equal with the other deities. Danny is what looks to be a normal high school student, but is plagued by his Chinese cousin’s visits
The Mardis Gras: Made in China film was a way to shed light on something that as american we take for granted. The film took place in two parts of the world focusing on the consumers and the producers of the famous beads. Both groups of people knew very little about the others. The consumers were Americans using the beads as a clothes bartering system, throwing them out like they were rice at a wedding. The consumers had little knowledge about the work that went behind the beads. On the other side of the spectrum the people that were making the beads were treated as if they were indentured servants. The working conditions were horrible with bad pay as well as mistreated workers. The owners of the company did not see anything wrong with the way they were treated. They claimed that the workers were “having fun” and
The Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, collected and put into text by Chinese scholar Pu Songling, is a collection of tales of mostly alchemic, supernatural, and paranormal nature. One of the common threads that runs through the collection is that of the sexual encounters and sexual relations between people, people and creatures, and people and supernatural beings. These stories deal with the subject of sexual indulgence, and clearly connote sex as a negative and dangerous aspect of human desires. Stir-Fry, the last story in Strange Tales, however, forcefully deviates from that trend of the perception of sexual desire. In Stir-Fry, Pu glides over the topic of the dildo and treats it as if it were just any normal other object that would be ridiculous to cook and serve guests at dinner. A scholar’s sexual desires are no less strange than the tales of sex in stories such as “The Fornicating Dog,” “The Painted Skin,” “Snake Island,” and especially “Lotus Fragrance.” The sexual nature of the toy Pu ignores completely, and he enforces the idea that sexual desires or encounters are not as strange or taboo as Pu himself makes them out to be in his earlier stories in the Strange Tales collection.
In subsequent years following the establishment of the People’s Republic of China came a revolutionary new approach to not only producing films, but also film’s very role in communist society. During this period the state gained complete control of the filmmaking industry, decreeing that the utilitarian functions of art and literature were to become a powerful weapon in serving the revolutionary struggle. In an otherwise artistically stifling period in which socialist realism pervaded all creative outlets, Xie Jin managed to retain some autonomy and emerged as one of the cleverest Chinese directors in the early 1960s. In his 1961 film Red Detachment of Women, Jin provides a classic revolutionary melodrama, yet also displays elements of formalism so that the viewer becomes conscious of the manipulations of his film technique. To analyze this film, I will use Mao Zedong’s 1942 “Talks at the Yan 'an Forum on Literature and Art,” clip #10 “Landmark 2,” and clip #6 “We are joining the red army” to elaborate on the major themes and cinematic style that distinguish Xie Jin’s work from his contemporaries.
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.
No one can deny from recent news that there has been a strong surge of Chinese nationalism, and that this nationalism has turned heads in the international community. The nationalism that the CCP has affected is taking on a life of its own. In its strategy of pragmatic nationalism, the CCP tried to blur the lines between love of country with love of the state and governing body. What has resulted is a whole new breed of nationalism that is very much independent of the Chinese Communist Party and in fact has caused the CCP great concern. This new form of nationalism is much more vibrant, passionate, virulent and uncontrollable than the government had intended with its post 1989 strategy of obtaining legitimacy through nationalism. This
As cultural identity being questioned in global screen due to the influences of transnational cinema and Diasporas in different places, this clip question further the possibilities in future transnational cinema. Through the emergence of cinema styles, all films are to be considered transnational. This essay will argue that transnational cinema could be emerging to a new level in the film industry. The clip provided with the essay explores the potential of transnational films with the context of films studied included in this subject.
The movie chosen for this research is “Rush Hour 2”, which compactly contains set of various stereotypes of Asians, African-Americans, and Latinos in American film as well as provides examples of portraying sexuality in movies. It’s a comedy action film; it’s also a classical buddy story with unorthodox for that time buddies: African-American and Asian characters. The movie was directed by Brett Ratner, produced and distributed by New Line Cinema, story written by Ross LaManna and Jeff Nathanson. Soundtrack is written by a famous Argentinian composer Lalo Schifrin. The movie was released in 2001 as a part two of a sequel, continuation of a successful story about two detectives, one from Hong Kong and another LA, solving international crimes together. The movie was shot in Santa Clarita California, starring Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, John Lone, Alan King, Roselyn Sanchez, Harris Yulin and Zhang Ziyi. "Rush Hour 2" is rated PG-13 for action violence, language and some sexual material (IMDB). The movie’s budget was $90 million and the box office was around $347.3 million, which is considered to be a huge success for a movie, where both main characters are non-white, which was not the case back in 2001. The movie was nominated twenty one times and won ten awards, including MTV Asia Awards for a favorite movie.
culture. This movie clearly brings out the cultural clashes and conflicts between the high context Chinese culture and the low context American culture.
The Chinese Mayor is a controversial documentary film that is from China. Datong is a historically important city in China, but it was fall into a decline. The mayor Yanbo Geng has a transformation plan for this city. The birth of the documentary is associated with the social situation of China. This documentary film shows a different mayor with his distinctive thinking in China and the things he does in his tenure of office. Creators create is because of a need to change thinking. They want to take the new ideas to challenge the old ones to push the And also, the reason of this documentary film born will be discussed clearly in this essay.
The last emperor is a very famous film about Pu Yi's life story. The film is directed by Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci (1). The film uses time and space staggered dramatic structure, with flashback, narrative, narrative way of telling stories. Respectively, is part of the memory and reality, the two space-time continuous switching, the formation of the rhythm-sharp story. Bernardo Bertolucci, with his unique shooting style, conquered all the audience. In 1988, sixtieth Oscar won the award for best film, best director, best-adapted screenplay, best photography, best art, best costume design, best editing, best sound, the best original music, nine awards. In this article, we will discuss how the Chinese and Western cultures in the film