Chinese Film

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

Shower (2000) Director Yang Zhang. This is a fabulous human interest story that deals with the razing of villages in China in the name of progress. The film is about a son who has removed himself from his father and mentally challenged younger brother by moving to Beijing. When he receives news from his brother that the father has died he goes back to the home village. Once there he finds out that the father has not died, but that the village is going to be razed to make way for new construction. The film is a metaphor for all that is wrong, and right with China. It is a film about human relationships, and the larger constructs of society and how we deal with both the humane and inhumane ways in which we treat one another.
The father and brother run the bathhouse in the village, maintaining the traditional cultural rituals that revolve around an important center of public gathering. The older son comes to realize the importance of family and begins to value them in a new and enlightened way. Having embraced the urban milleau he is forced to confront his contratdictory ideas about the village life that formed him as a young man.

[Anonymous]

Shower (2000) is rated PG 13 for nudity and language so it may need an administrative ok for middle school. The film presents the human dilemma that confronts the individual as they reach adulthood, what is our responsibility to our parents? The economic forces that drive people away from their villages into the cities is occurring in China now, but occurred with the post war generation here. How has that effected life in the U. S. ? The film can be used in social study classes, or in English classes as a stepping off point for a creative writing project dealing with intergenerational change., growing up with a sibling that has special needs, or how the student would react to a forced move.

[Anonymous]

While I have given up any thought of showing a movie - I teach independent study and my district is very restrictive - I have embraced watching foreign films again. I did watch this movie too and loved it. For me it gave me the cultural insight, the traditions and how "modernization" affects so many aspects of life. We have discussed the transition from traditional to "modern" in the various countries we have read about. I do spend time talking to my students about the shift from traditional to bi-cultural to assimilated culture. This is a common problem with my students. Sometimes you see a family with the older children being traditional, the middle children being bi-cultural and the youngest kids being totally assimilated. Of course this causes huge communication problems. Often students do not have the language skills in the home language to express difficult problems so they come to us to talk. This movie would be a nice example for students to see the effects of those cultural shifts. I think these cultural shifts occur all over the world.

[Anonymous]

In high school I had a teacher get around the "what you can/cannot show" rule by suggesting it as extra credit. In the beginning of the year he had a whole list of movies that he tied into history. He even told you when you should be watching them so they would tie in with our lessons. If your parents let you watch them at home great, if not then you would just hear about the movies in the class disussions. But at least it would make history come alive to us.

[Anonymous]

This is a good idea. I think I will try it in the future.

[Anonymous]

Wow...I really like the idea of having them watch the movies as extra credit. It seems like we never have time in class anyways and if they are just suggested it leaves the approval up to the parents. I am going to try this out next year. Thank you for the idea!

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