Message from tbarbarossa

[Anonymous]

Movies
Posted: 01-08-2006 11:42 AM
Ang Lee's 1994 movie, Eat, Drink, Man, Woman is a feast of the senses! This is the first film in which the director and writer, Ang Lee, was able to use true cinematographical means to achieve more depth and richness of portrayal. His former movie, The Wedding Banquet was a public success which gave him the means to develop technically. This film is on my top-ten list of great films of all times!
The story setting is modern day Taipei, Taiwan, where a generational clash is depicted in a new and inventive way. A widower of 16 years is a renown master chef who brings his culinary talents to the habitual Sunday dinner table with his three daughters who live at home but go to work daily in Taipei, leaving their father to attend to domestic duties. The food is beautifully prepared and reflects the ancient ways of cooking Chinese dishes. The viewer salivates to the close-ups of recipes in their prepratory stages and finally at the 12-course display at the dinner table every Sunday. The daughters' casual responses to the tantalizing dishes at first garner sympathy for the father and seem insulting to him after watching his long days of preparation. But Ang Lee wants the viewer to see in the character of the father a Confucian patriarch who is using food as a substitute for emotional closeness and
communication. Mr. Chu loves what he does, but it is rote for him at this stage in his life. Moreover, food seems cathartic for Mr. Chu who has repressed inner desires to lead his own life. His daily routine also reflects Confucian adherence to discipline and correct acts of parenthood. For example, every morning he runs, even though running hurts his back, and he washes his daughters' clothes, but unconsciously, or not so unconsciously, places them in the wrong drawers. Mr. Chu has no wife to ameliorate the emotional needs of his daughters, who care for him because they have been taught to be dutiful and obedient, but are frustrated by their own needs for love and independence. There is little understanding and communication between generations. The movie, then, becomes a journey for understanding and enlightenment for all involved, particularly the father who must change to adapt to a modern view of reality.
Ang Lee's own background is fascinating. In the DVD interview he tells of being the first son of a father who fled to Taiwan during the Communist Civil War. His grandparents had been executed in China. Therefore, Lee felt overwhelmed when he failed the college entrance exam, dashing his father's expectations, especially since he had been educated at a top school in Taiwan. Nonetheless, Lee was now able to pursue his life-long passion for filmmaking (not looked upon as a high profession in those days). It wasn't until Lee was 37- years-old that he made any money at all. Seems amazing for such a talented director, doesn't it?
If you haven't seen this film, please do so. You won't be disappointed. Ang Lee, who gave us the film version of Sense and Sensibility is a true master of family drama!
Edited by - tbarbarossa on Jan 8, 4:14:22 PM

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Total Posts: 33
The Joy Luck Club

tbarbarossa

Joined: 30 Aug 2005

Re: Movies
Posted: 01-08-2006 02:37 PM
Some thoughts on another movie: If you haven't revisited Oliver Stone's The Joy Luck Club, now is a good time while we are studying East Asia. What a family drama this one is! The ever-engrossing clash of generations is played out in mother-daughter relationships, the older generation molded by Confucian values and painful heritage in China, and the younger generation expressing Western values. The interweaving of the symbol of the swan feather throughout the story with the daughters' failures to meet their mothers' expectations suggests how instrumental heritage is in directing the lives of progeny. The swan feather represents the conveyance of good intentions, but good intentions are never enough; it's action that expiates. The choices which were made by the mothers in the past influence almost genetically the choices made by the daughters. When June travels to China to reunite her mother's family at the end, her mother's expectations are exceeded in a way her mother could never have imagined during her life. The story comes full circle with her daughter's act of expiation for her mother when the twins are reunited with their sister.
This film may be used to teach literary elements, such as, characterization, theme, symbol and much more for the 8th grade (gifted, I think) to adult English or history classes. The film is a rich source for the classroom either in clips or otherwise.

Edited by - tbarbarossa on Jan 8, 4:14:44 PM

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A Great Wall

tbarbarossa

Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Total Posts: 33

Re: Movies
Posted: 01-08-2006 03:14 PM
One more movie I want to comment on, and I'm not sure I'm doing this thread thing correctly, but here goes again.
In the 1986 film A Great Wall, Peter Wong directs and stars in this meeting-of- cultures comedy. The film crosscuts events happening in a poor section of Beijing with events occurring in upscale San Francisco. A younger brother loses his job with a computer company and is at last free to take that month's vacation with his wife and very Americanized son to visit his older sister and family in China. The film underscores lively differences in culture, but also presents universal similarities between generations, while seemingly outweighing the factor of cultural dominance. Some interesting highlights include:
*The generational gap in both cultures
*The insouciance of youth
*The wage differences of the time
*The role of discipline through exercise, i.e., Tai Chi Chuan (spelling?) vs. the fast run
*The competition between cultures represented in a championship table tennis game
*Bored teens in the classroom
*Prejudice across the board
*The importance of college entrance exams, especially in China
*Varying customs, especially in the expression of the relationship between the sexes
The movie reveals how Confucian principles guide the customs of the older generations in Beijing, but even have a residual effect on the brother, too, who has been living in America since he was ten-years-old. The Boston Globe called this film, "A comedy of culture collision," but I think the director was portraying more similarities than differences. What's your opinion?
Edited by - tbarbarossa on Jan 8, 4:15:10 PM

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