Third Cinema in China: Yellow Earth Essay

Pearl S. Buck’s character, Wang Lung, in her novel, The Good Earth, is one who acts and thinks immorally. His morally ambiguous nature is evident through many incidents involving himself and his family, which mirrors the theme of complicated situations brees irrationality and immoral decisions.these desperate and newly found situations in Twentieth Century China allows the audience to easily sympathize with Wang Lung when in current society, many of his thoughts and actions would create an immense hatred for his complex

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.

In “A Century of Cinema”, Susan Sontag explains how cinema was cherished by those who enjoyed what cinema offered. Cinema was unlike anything else, it was entertainment that had the audience feeling apart of the film. However, as the years went by, the special feeling regarding cinema went away as those who admired cinema wanted to help expand the experience.

This film highlights the flaws of humanity in a western world. The films ability to touch on topics of classism, prostitution, and alcoholism makes the content mature and unlike typical western films. This revolutionary and innovative western created a foundation for many future films. The sophistication of the content, and lack of adherence to the production code makes this film an “adult”

Development and adaptation of the western genre has occurred throughout the twentieth century in relation to the shift in context, this is still relevant. Stereotypes of a western genre and the context are determined by the time in which the film is being produced. The time in which they were produced determine how social construction, gender ideas, values and attitudes, the setting and SWAT codes are demonstrated. I have chosen to present this speech by looking at the film studied in class, and a film of my choice and how the difference in context has changed in the tie of these two films.

In the essay “Hollywood Warms to Asian Movies, American-Style” Renee Graham talks about how Hollywood remakes Asian movies. There are many advantages and disadvantages of these remakes. One advantage is that the remakes bring attention to the original version. Another advantage is that people in America get exposure to foreign films. A disadvantage is that these remakes are not as good as the original ones.

Though the movie King Kong could not possibly cause anyone to lose sleep after seeing it today, it was certainly classified as a horror movie when it firstly went public in 1933. On the one hand, the director’s intentional blurring between the boundary of a documentary and a fiction added to the horror effect. On the other hand, besides the use of cutting-edge cinematic technology, the era of Great Depression and thus the unusual psychology of people during the crisis also contributed greatly to the huge success of King Kong. Just like Carl Denham expects towards the end of the film: “The whole world will pay to see this! The eighth wonder of

The peasants in Yellow Earth struggle hard to survive against the hardships of the land. Now the difference in these child brides lives is that Chunhua escapes from her in-laws and finds a better life as an opera singer but we are unsure about whether Cuiqiao escapes or dies trying. Also like Chunhua, Cuiqiao befriends a person (brother Gu) who is a communist who changes her worldview and perspective. There are also men also oppress Chunhua and Cuiqiao. Comparing the two films, we know that they both are child brides, oppressed by men, and meet someone who influences them to

Natural colour grading is not often used through the entirety of a film. More often than not, it’s used as a technique of emotion or to manipulate an audiences attitude towards the scene. However, Bruce Beresford, the director of the 2009 film “Mao’s Last Dancer,” chose it as the primary colour grade of his film. The film centralises around the early to mid life of Chinese ballet dancer, Li Cunxin and the progression of his career, life, family and relationships. The film presented the audience with a variety of techniques to convey emotions and feelings and these fall under four categories of which will be discussed; they are music, visual motifs, colour and lighting, and cinematography.

"Yellow Earth" is adapted by kelan "ravine echo", starring by the Chen Kaige, Wang Xue Qi, Xue Bai. It tells the story of rural poor in northern Shangxi, a young girl Cuiqiao brought up by her dad who primary set young marriage for Cuiqiao which is a form of farmer’ rule, Cuiqiao could not get rid of bad luck. The film uses "Xin Tian You" which is a type of folk songs as a throughout clue to express Cuiqiao and more similar Shangxi women’s unsatisfactory and struggling about their own lives. The whole story comes from the real world and shows a profound philosophical and indicates a strong visuality (FU Shou-Xiang, 2004). Yellow earth redefines the cultural spirits and formalization of the fifth generation of movie.

In the film, The Yellow Earth directly addresses a relationship between the nature of the land that underlies the Maoist revolutionary. Peasants in The Yellow Earth struggle hard to survive against the hardships of the land, as they have done throughout their tradition and that tradition is questioned by a soldier that brings them the idea of Communism. Communism was meant to improve the lives of these peasants and create equality for all. In Chinese culture there is the ‘Theory of the Five Elements’ that is represented in the film as each representation of nature in the film is presented in a way to show this theory as that Earth is the color of yellow. Another example, is such as the girl in the opening scene, who spends a lot of time carrying

Gary Snyder along with a few other Beats started the practice of Zen Buddhism in order to live a simpler life, not only to get in touch with each other or themselves but to also get in touch with the world and the beautiful things it has to offer. Zen Buddhism can be tough to define but it can be seen as the practice of meditating daily, laughing, seeing but not taking much in, not giving into the unskilled habits of the mind and realizing the characteristics of existence, as well as following the Noble 8 Fold Path. Gary Snyder practices the Zen and reflects what he’s learned in his poetry in poems such as “Mid-August at Sourdough Mountain Lookout,” “Piute Creek,” “Water,” “A

Hess and Zimmermann mention that conventional categories have blurred and there’s demands for new political and aesthetic responses in transnational cinema (John Hess 2006). These transnational films I believe would be growing significantly in the film industry as a part of film history.

A landscape painter “tended to be a recluse, an individualist, and a Daoist (Morton and Lewis 2005).” These artists thought of landscape painting as the “grandest and most satisfying way to represent nature as a whole, to feel a sense of communion with nature, and to know oneself to be part of an orderly cosmos (Morton and Lewis 2005).” Thus, one can see the implications of landscape painting lay not just in its beauty and simplicity, but also in its spiritual connection with Nature, and thus had wide appeal. The point of view in landscape painting was also of paramount importance. The Chinese artists understood that Western artists took in scenes from five or six feet from the ground. Chinese artists worked from a raised viewpoint, so that they are not bogged done by small details in the front and get a better sense of the whole scene (Morton and Lewis 2005). Every part of the image that is created has its own innate interest, and yet it all comes together and works well as a whole (Morton and Lewis 2005). It is clear that landscape painting was a cherished and important art form in Song Dynasty culture.

Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou’s Yellow Earth is a meaningful and controversial film that highlights the young and old, realist and idealist, as well as the ideal utopia and bounded bureaucracies – touching on the notion of fate. Set in early 1939 in China, Yellow Earth follows the story of Gu Qing, a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) soldier sent out among the peasants in Northern Shaanxi to collect folksongs, to which the Communists intend to rewrite new lyrics to help inspire soldiers and peasant followers to fight the Japanese invasion and work towards the revolution. Gu Qing comes across a village holding a wedding procession and is