The Painted Veil stars Edward Norton and Naomie Watts as Walter and Kitty an ill-fated couple who marry in Shanghai in the 1920’s. He’s a middle-class doctor and bacteriologist, and she’s a seemingly vapid member of the British upper crust. Walter and Kitty meet at a party at her parents’ home. The doctor falls immediately in love with Kitty, a woman on the verge of spinsterhood, and blurts out a marriage proposal days before he is to return to his civil service post in Shanghai .She accepts the proposal mostly to escape her boring family life, especially her nagging, overbearing mother who wants her daughter to marry.
During there stay in Shanghai Kitty has an affair with the British vice consul and when Walter gets wind of the affair he accepts a job in a remote rural village ravaged by a cholera epidemic. Kitty is pressured to accompany him to avoid a scandal.
The two westerners arrive in a remote, lush, mountainous part of China. As they wait for the arrival of porters and sedan chairs to scurry them to their final destination the viewer is offered a visual palette of the rich beauty of rural China. They are carried in sedans by the villagers and pass through lush, foggy landscapes to a remote Chinese village. The colonists arrive in the Far East and are confronted by anti-British Chinese peasants, but the doctor because of his selfless devotion to the sick becomes the peoples’ hero. Kitty achieves redemption in the story as she and Walter deal with the challenges they face fighting the epidemic. The Painted Veil is a love story that sweeps you away to China in another century.
The film is unusual in that it is a co-production with the Chinese. Whatever difficulties this imposed on the Western filmmakers, the reward is a period film that feels authentic to its time and place. The director was able to create a film in a country notoriously difficult for foreign filmmakers. The cinematography draws the audience into the Guangxi Province, the 800-year-old town of Huang Yao. There they are swept away into a strange land the intrigues and baffles its foreign visitors.
The movie is rated PG13 for some mature sexual situations, partial nudity, disturbing images, and brief drug content. It would not be appropriate to show in its entirety to students. I could see value in showing clips of the movie because of the beautiful landscapes of the interior of China that are depicted. It would also be interesting for students to see the contrast between 1920’s life in Shanghai and life in rural China. It would be interesting to do some research and compare the Shanghai of the 1920’s to the Shanghai of today. You could find out how much life has changed or stayed the same in the town of Huang Yao. Internet pictures of the two places would be interesting to share. This movie made me want to see the interior of China. The filming was magnificent. I love historical fiction so for me this was a movie well worth seeing. There were no martial arts scenes and no fast paced action. The movie dealt with two characters trying to piece their lives back together juxtaposed against China as the exotic and beautiful setting.

Movie - Iron Monkey 2001

This movie is a pleaser for all. It has action to please the action movie lover. It has love and devotion to please those less interested in kung fu movies. And it is historically based to please the intellectual.

Beautifully choreagraphed, the movie is set in a small town in governmentally corrupt China. I believe the time frame is in the late 1800s or early 1900s. The premis is this:

There is a Robin Hood-like Character who steals from the corrup beauracrats and then gives directly back to the poor. The masses love him, but the government hates him. Unable to capture the Iron Monkey, a travelling doctor is forced to search him out when the governor learns of this travelling doctor's kung fu skills. The doctor's son is held captive under threat of death if the doctor cannot produce the Iron Monkey.

In searching for more information about the true characters, I learned that this movie is a remake at least one time over. In 1993, a movie of the same title came out of Hong Kong under a different director.

I am a fan of this style of Kung Fu movie. Jackie Chan movies are humorous and entertaining in their own right. But Iron Monkey is made more of the school of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon - the very popular kung fu movie starring Chou Yun Fat (sp?). Instead of trying to outdo each stunt to be more dramatic, the drama of the fighting is produced by making the moves more and more elegant and refined based on the character's role in the film.

I would recommend this movie to anyone. The only type of movie watcher that might be turned off would be those that refuse to watch a movie in subtitles. On DVD, one does have the option of listening to the Enlgish soundtrack. But, for me, that 90 minutes would not be worth it. The meaning behind the words is lost in the translation and greatly takes away from the movie.

I do not want to spoil the ending for those interested. I will say that the ending is a good one. And there is a historical twist to the movie that is revealed in the final scene.

I hope you enjoy. 😛

The Blue Kite is a movie about a Chinese family and what happens to them during the political and social revolution in China in the 1950's and 60's. The main character is a little boy who is adorable named Tietou. He is always getting into trouble and his parents don't know where he gets it from. His father is taken away and accused of being a counter revolutionary and expressing views against the government (which may or may not have been true). But he is accused and the father is taken to a labor camp where he ends up dying. While he was alive, he made Tietou a blue kite and showed him how to fly a kite, which is where the name comes from.

The movie shows other situations involving the control of the government in people's lives. One lady who lives in the neighborhood gets taken to a labor camp because she wishes to date a man, but the government recommends she be a dancer in the army, and she ignores their recommendations. The army takes away the teacher of the local school and cuts off her hair because they suspect her of saying something against the government. Another lady who lives in the neighborhood saves her food allocations sfor a long time so that she can make some dumplings (a rare commodity at this time since people ate rice for every meal). While they are cooking, the army comes in and accuses her of stealing flour and takes away her food.

Tietou's mother marries another man who is a family friend and the movie follows this family through more hardships. Tietou keeps his blue kite as a reminder of his father and an image of hope and freedeom throughout the movie.

I won't tell you the end, but it was a very good movie that shows you what China was like during the revolution. It was originally banned in China because the director made the movie without government authorization.

This is a PBS video I wish we could watch before going to China. It's a contemporary doc about the major issues facing developing China.

China From the Inside

Episode 1, "Power and the People," focuses on the Communist Party's rule of China. Topics include government opposition to separatism in the heavily Muslim province of Xinjiang; the Party's efforts to create a prosperous society; the governance of Tibet; the National People's Congress, which puts the Party's decisions into action; the election of a village committee; and corruption in the Party.

Episode 2, "Women of the Country," focuses on the difficulties faced by Chinese women, especially in rural areas (where two-thirds of China's population lives). The episode examines birth planning, marriage, women who live in the country while their husbands work in the city, women in Tibet, the hopelessness of many young women in China, the Muslim women of Xinjiang, and the opportunities and hardships for women in cities.

Episode 3, "Shifting Nature," focuses on pollution brought on by rapid industrialization and on massive water diversion projects that involve resettling the populations of entire towns.

Episode 4, "Freedom and Justice," examines the limits on religious freedom and freedom of the press, AIDS deaths that the government could have prevented, the displacement of poor people by land "development," and injustices in the justice system.

This is an interesting, informative, and thought-provoking documentary.

This weekend I wathced HERO for the second time and will now do a movie review on it.
The Movie is about a failed assination of the Chinese emperor. The assination is made possible only the sacrifice of a propd warriors life. HERO was a film that showed the complexity of the aincent chenese government as well as the power and force the Chinese military had over it's people. In the end the unity of china is valued more than the assination of the emporer. The HERO realises the importance of a strong government and a unified country.
In my classroom I will compare HERO and his value of a unied country with Lincoln and his values towards a unified united states. I have writen it into my notebook and today 4-25-07 made a refrence to HERO nad Linciln's similarities. Next year I will dedicate an entire class period to the comparisons.
Michael Wanmer

I too thought “Hero” was an outstanding movie… The comments by my esteemed
colleagues are an echo in my mind. As far as I am concerned, it is right up there with “Shindler’s List” a movie to rock your socks off.

Movie Review: Director Zhang Yimou

Viewed the movie a couple days ago. This is a movie that I may have to watch again. There is a lot that occurs during the movie and I hope at this time I can make sense of it.

It takes place during the Tang Dynasty. The emperer and the empresses relationship is not strong. Due to the ill relationship between the emperor and empress the emperor attempts to poison the empress over a series of medication dosages. Meanwhile she is having an affair with the eldest son whom is not her biological son. Although the eldest son has fallen in love with a servant and is plotting to leave the palace and to take her with him. The empress discovers their secret as well as the emperors secret to kill her. With this knowledge she plots an attack against the emperor as her revenge and the middle son helps her to carry it out. The eve of the Chong Yang Festival the eldest son finds out and tells his father who perpares his army in anticipation. While waiting the youngest son kills the oldest and tries to defeat his father but fails. The attack begins, there are many killed except the middle son. At the end the father demands the middle son to feed the medication to the mother in which he does not and kills himself.

Wow, lots of great close angle shots during fights to see facial expression. Also the fight scenes are slowed down to catch the use of weapons. Lots of color and many different costumes.