Film Festival

[Anonymous]

I am in full agreement that the Seven Samurai is one of the greatest films produced by the human mind. I also agree that Kurosawa is one of the best film directors. I do not agree with the statement that, and think it too closed minded, Kurosawa is the by fsr the greatest film director of the 20th century... further, much the less would I place Star Wars in the same category as Kurosawa's films. We have had, in the 1940's, '60's, 70's excellent film directors of the highest caliber representing pressing and universal human issus on an individual and on a social context perspective. The problem with mentioning names is that it automatically becomes and "excluding" list.. therefore, in order to avoid this exclusion deficiency of my statement, I will end the statement with .... These directors are Burnel, Almador, Bergman (whom you mentioned), Pasolini, Fellini, DeSica, Polanski, Méliès, Melville, Jean Renoir,François Truffaut, Agnès Varda, Alfonso Cuaron, )Guillermo del Toro, Antonio Banderas, Pedro Almodovar, Luis Bunuel, Robert Rodriguez, Carlos Saura .....
All of these and plenty more directors are true artists performing a universal service to humanity by representing art in such a way that it exilerates emotions and passions of a sensitivity not easily aroused. Alas, however, the Hollywood cinematographic conglomerate builds gargantual walls around the US markets preventing any incursion into its super-controlled movie-theatre markets... all to the continuing poverty and regressive, conservative forces of our population.

[Anonymous]

There's a 1996 film called "The Pillow Book" that uses Sei Shonangon's book of the same title as both inpsiration and segue. The main character, Nagiko, is played by Vivian Wu. She's close to her father, who is a writer. Every year on her birthday, he paints calligraphy on her face, while telling her the story of creation. As a young girl, Nagiko's aunt reads to her from the Pillow Book, and she decides to being a Pillow Book of her own. The story follows her through her life as a model and writer, searching for men to write on. While much of the story is very sexy, and possibly not appropriate for even older students, there are segues in the film that show "Sei Shonangon" writing the Pillow Book. At the beginning of the film there's an spoke excerpt from the book, with visual pictures of duck eggs, ice cream in silver bowls, young children eating strawberries, etc. These parts of the film could be shown in conjunction with lessons on the Pillow Book.

[Anonymous]

Wow.

I came into this movie with absolutely no expectations. All I knew was that is was a story about revenge and was hugely popular in Korea and loved by American critics. To call it a revenge movie is too simplistic and doesn't give the filmmakers enough credit. It is based on a Japanese manga of the same name.

Personally, I was surprised to see this type of movie come out of Korea. I've always thought of Korea as a bit more repressed and conservative than America. I've seen quite a few Korean dramas, and the raciest those get are when the leads kiss. To see a movie with simulated sex scenes, torture, and knives in people's backs was shocking.

Oldboy is a story about Oh Daesu, a man who has been locked up in a prison-like hotel room for 15 years. He is suddenly released by his captor, Lee Woojin, and given the assignment of finding out why he was locked in there. This gives Daesu a chance get revenge on the man who kept him in a prison for those 15 years. Without giving too much away, Woojin is exacting his own revenge on Daesu for something that Daesu did to him years ago.

This is definitely not a movie to show to students! It is very violent, has coarse language, and female frontal nudity and sex scenes. That being said, I would recommend this movie to adults. It is a modern noir movie, with ambiguous heroes and villains, complete with a femme fatale (sorta). The director, Park Chan-wook, did a wonderful job of telling a story with so many twists and turns (especially the final cringeworthy twist) and leaving it up to the audience to decide who is the hero and who is the villain. However, I think the real star of the movie is Jeong Jeong-hun, the cinematographer. The whole movie is exquisitely shot, and is really one of the most beautiful movies I've ever seen. Even at its most violent scenes, I couldn't get over how beautiful the movie was. Watching this movie has made me want to see all of Park's and Jeong's movies.

There was talk of an American remake, but it's been put on hold, which I think is a good thing. Inevitably, I think an American filmmaker or film company would try to make it more appealing to a mass audience by watering down the story and violence.

[Anonymous]

One correction about "The Bicycle Thief": the correct name is "Beijing Bicycle" ... it's a fantastic movie with loads of realism. I very highly recommend it not only for us as teachers but also for students to learn how young Chinese kids live in China and how responsible they are.

[Anonymous]

there are several films that I highly recommend.

Shower- this is an excellent film where one can compare and contrast "new Beijing" and "old Beijing." Aside from the great acting one sees society changing in very new ways. In the old days people lives in Hutongs that had been turned into communes. People used public toilets and public showers, now however all that has changed. Now people live in apartments and people no longer "know" each other.
The elderly are trying to come to grips with this fact, since places where they socialized are being torn down. the young folks see modernization as something important for their society. Like the old saying, "get rid of the old to bring in the new."
The film can be used to show that china is not static, and that it is changing fast, but with change also comes loss. One can talk about how drastic change can people's like. For example a kid growing up in the city suddenly moving to the country side of Mexico. BUt not taking it as a societal shift.
the film is not about politics or whatever it is about peoples lives.

The Big Potato- this is a really cool film that i saw while in china. It talks about how regular city people live. Not those that have money or the dirt poor people, just common people who work in a factory. the funny thing though is that it is somewhat about politics and the democratization of china. If you pay close attention the main character is a really good guy, although he might be clumsy and mess up often. In the film his position is that of manage, and he utilises that position to lord it over people. However as the film progresses it revealed that he is a good guy. To make things nice and short. At the end all the workers exercise democracy and elect him to head manager.

To Live- this film ranks in my top ten list of all time. This film can be used to show the change that china underwent from the 50s all the way to the 80s. The film puts a human face to the suffering and senseless chaos. It is good to show clips to students in conjunction to topics about Mao's china, but also how people have a will to survive.

Beijing Bicycle- this is a good film because it shows the life of peasant workers in the city and the life of city people. A bicycle is used to show the different levels of society that are mixed in all the chaos of the city. There is a joke in Beijing, "if your bike has not been stolen more than 6 times then you are not a Beijinger." (or something along those lines)

[Anonymous]

"Shower"
This comedy shows lovingly how alike the people of world are.Movie depicts the efforts made by a sucessful grown son to settle the differences of his elderly father & his mildly retarded younger brother.At the same time movie raises the many core questions to changing china society.Movie has 3 main characters Da-Ming,Master Liu, & Er Ming accompanied by many small but strong relevent characters.
The basic plot of movie is Master Liu is running a traditional bathhouse which is a meeting place of neighbourhood elders .Here deals got made,disputes are settled,&community is knit together.He is helped by his son Er Ming .His other son Da Ming is urbanite ,living away from his father but came after receiving a postcard about bad health of his father.He falls into old rythum of bathhouse& start loving & enjoying it.Neighbourhood welcome him & slowly he became unofficial wise man of his father.Then came a modernisation plan with lot of questions.
The questions are very deep. What will happen to elderly father ,the retarded son,the wayward son&the community that has grown around bathhouse.A question not only to characters but for society as they remove old &embrace the modern .It could be a question to any developed country not having any such natural community gatherings.shower raises all such issues besides being warm ,wet pleasure to watch.[Edit by="aagarwal on Dec 27, 3:18:24 PM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

I saw this movie in the theater and the scenery alone was worth watching it. The story was a bit far out though.

[Anonymous]

I'm glad to hear that someone else has used the story of Mulan. Since I teach many English Language Development students (Latino from Central and South America, Persian, Korean, Cambodian, Philippino) I have found that animated movies are well-received and serve to inform students that require multiple intelligences approach to scaffolding historical thinking. In particular, I show Mulan after making connections to their prior knowledge relating to invasions of the Roman Empire causing weakness. Are the Huns the Mongols, is another topic. We talk about Geography first and the Great Wall. We talk about myth and historical evidence. In particular how new information can change history. Women's roles in China are addressed as well. I always use a media guide for students to complete while watching films. A good link is available at http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/5082/culture.html.

[Anonymous]

I just watched "Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles” directed by Zhang Yimou. He directed “Raise the Red Lantern” which I have not seen but hear about often. Riding Alone takes place in Japan (urban and northern rural coastline) and in Yunnan Province in China with some scenes of urban China. The psychological growth of a Japanese traveler as he tries to complete his estranged dying son’s documentary about Chinese Folk Drama is reminiscent of Ingmar Bergman films. The technical filming is cast in a blue solar lens making the colors very rich. There is a moving subplot about an orphaned boy being cared for by committee in the village. This is a rich tapestry of ideas, gestalt, color, and art and parent-child relations. It is PG and I highly recommend this film.

I like the idea of being able to show different topographies and scenes in east Asia. The story may move a little slow for my middle school students but I will try it since it shows modern Japan and China and also has some universal father and son themes. I would expect a lot of questions and since I am TRYING to get my students to write down questions as they think of them to teach them inquiry skills and hypothesis in history this might work as a good vehicle. There's one scene outdoors where the boy defecates and it might be a little too much information but it's brief.

[Anonymous]

I sent this email to Clay and am posting his answer:

Do you know of any films that represent either the Tang, Song, Yuen, or Ming? I know the Tang dynasty is becoming very popular in China. I know "Hero" reflects the Qin which is representative of Imperial periods. Just wondered if there was anything else you know about.

from Clay:

There are many mini-series about some of these periods but few films. One that is set in the Tang, but based on a Ming novel, is Journey to the West. Another novel turned into a mini-series is Outlaws of the Marsh. It’s set in the Song, but was also written in the Ming. The Chinese name is Shuihu zhuan. Pearl Buck translated it as All Men are Brothers. I am not certain these are available with sub-titles, but I think they might be. Neither of the films are really historical epics though both have some basis in China’s past. A Chinese monk did travel to India to study Buddhism in the land where it was born (this is part of premise of Journey to the West, a novel full of magic, translated and abridged by Arthur Waley as Monkey) and there were bandit gangs who sometimes built local followings by defending farmers and antagonizing rapacious officials (one of the themes of Outlaws of the Marsh, which is heavy on martial arts).

Of course, documentaries about these periods are more plentiful. You can locate some of these in the film index that Miranda and I worked on years ago:

http://www.international.ucla.edu/eas/web/asiafilm-web.htm

An even richer database now exists at the University of Illinois:

http://www.aems.uiuc.edu/
[Edit by="eamador on Jan 11, 4:48:48 PM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

I have not seen Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles but I definitely like Zhang Yimou's films. In fact, I have seen his The Road Home and find it a good film to teach culture, tradition in China's inner village, perhaps, even in some cosmopolitan societies about marriage arrangements. Nonetheless, I plan to use this film to teach social skills to my students, aside from those reasons already stated in the foregoing. I also intend to show on the significance of teacher's respect and how successful obedient students can be. I have attached my review which I did on a separate Word page document.

Thanks.

Noel

[Anonymous]

Film: Red Beard, (1965); Black and White film
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Starring: Toshiro Mifune (As Red Beard) and Yuzo Kayama (as Noboru Yasumoto, the young apprentice doctor)

The story takes place at the end of the Tokugawa period where a young resident doctor named Noburo Yasumoto returns to the city of Edo after having completed his medical studies at a Dutch medical school in Nagasaki. From the beginning, Yasumoto shows his unbridled ambition and arrogance by his gait and his gruff way of speaking to others. He pays his respects to the Koishikawa Public Clinic where he meets Kyojio Niide (Red Beard) who is the head of the facility. It is one of the classic themes of the rash and unpredictable apprentice meeting his wise and reticent master. As a recent graduate from a prestigious Dutch program, Yasumoto is expecting to garner apprenticeship in the Royal Court. However, he learns that he is to serve in the public clinic, an appointment that greatly flabbergasts and infuriates him. In response, Yasumoto does everything in his power to rebel against his present circumstance; not wearing the mandated medical uniform, refusing to attend to patients, and the like. Meanwhile, Red Beard calmly waits for his apprentice's steam to wear off, always the foreboding Confucian master.

Like many of Kurosawa's films during this time, the hero is confronted with situations where his convictions are truly tested. He finally realizes his own limitation and humbly undergoes a transformative experience, via life and death circumstances, that leads to his self-actualization and a new outlook on life. Through Red Beard's careful guidance and brute honesty, Yasumoto transcends from a book learned doctor to that of a true hero. That he realized the schooling he had received in a controlled, insulated environment did nothing to adequately prepare him for the gruesome realities of life. Only through submitting his own ego for the betterment of others did Yasumoto receive a real education.

This is my favorite film by Kurosawa. All the characters are flawed but relatable. I was particularly impressed by Toshiro Mifune’s (interestingly, his last film with Kurosawa) portrayal of a master, whose mercurial temperament, vacillates between his vanity and the need to serve others. Even as an instructor, he is not above reproach.

This film covers a variety of topics including Confucian Ethics, master-student relationship as well as a history lesson on a changing Japan from that of a Samurai society to a modern, industrial one. For my present first and second graders, I would focus on the master-student relationship by showing clips of the hero’s beginning and how he changed at the end. It would be a great compare and contrast exercise for the students—Venn Diagram or a T-chart will be used to show the evolvement of the main character as he undergoes a significant internal change. The protagonist’s character development will be described by making a list of descriptive words (adjectives and the like) to express what he is in the beginning, middle and the end. Moreover, the students could also write about what they would do if they were in the protagonist’s place: would they stay with the master? Would they rebel and cause more havoc in the lives of many? What kind of life connection can they make with their experiences as students in a classroom? Did the master seem fair or not? Their replies would be quite interesting.

[Anonymous]

Film: Early Summer, "Bakushu", (1951, black and white)
Director: Yasujiro Ozu
Starring: Setsuko Hara (as Noriko Mamiya) and Chishu Ryu (as Koichi Mamiya)
Setting: Kamakura, Japan

Early summer is a story of an extended family, the Mamiya's, living under one roof and their different tribulations in dealing with generational, personality, and group/verses individuality conflicts. Ozu is famous for making films about ordinary family life; he is versed in peeling the layers of his subjects to reveal the true internal motivations that is universal to film viewers. Unlike Kurosawa's themes of rapid movement, grandeur, heroism and extroversion, Ozu's film permeates exactly the opposite--quiet, reflective, introspective and nostalgic. Interestingly like Kurosawa, Ozu retains the same actors/actresses for most of his films.

What's interesting about Ozu's movie is that the vantage point from the camera does not have much movement. Ozu was famous for setting his camera angle at a low position, as if one is looking at the charters from sitting. Most of the shots are full-frontal, rather than manipulated angles to illicit emotion from the audience.

The Mamiya family lives under one roof, where politics emerge as each generation grapples with their place in the family's infrastructure. The conflict of traditional vs. modern becomes apparent as each character tries their best to merge one with the other--there are other issues as well: Working women, group vs. individualism, modernization, and country vs. city. It is a story of one's ability to compromise and resigning oneself to the notion that the only constancy in life is change.

I recommend using this film as a comparative study of family life or exploration of any of the issues mentioned above. It's a must see.

[Anonymous]

The review sounds interesting. I had just finished viewing the The Road Home and posted my review here in the Film Festival forum. I was trying to find a DVD of Hero and that funny movie Eat Drink Man Woman but could not find one. I like this movie even though I just show a brief part of it during one of our sessions last Dec. I plan to use this film in teaching families in East Asia. Is the movie Earlu Summer also a good one to show to my 8 graders for introduction to my planned lesson about families in East Asia? If so, please advise as to where I can get a copy. Also, the Eat Drink Man Woman. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

The film deals with family dynamics and how modernity changes the politics within the members of one's family. Each member grapples with living under the patriarch system and adjusting their own life-perception to make it work for them. Also, you can visibly see the changing Japan during that time--for example, women no longer wear kimonos but skirts and curl their hair in a modern chignon. Gender expectations changes as women start contributing to the economic prosperity of the family. It's a film with multi-layers, worth watching. You can purchase it in Little Tokyo at the Kinokuniya Book Store. I'm not sure if they would have this movie in a regular rental place -- I hope you find it. (It's a wonderful movie to have as a collection, though.)

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