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AnonymousI first saw this show while watching t.v. with my 11 year old son. I enjoyed the story line, which is about four distinct nations of people categorized by a specific element- earth, water, fire, or air. Well one group, the Fire nation, is taking over the world and eliminating individuals who refuse to obey their will. Some characters have super-natural abilities to manipulate and control either earth, water, fire, or air. People use these powers to fight and to help with daily life. One individual has the ability to use all of the elements, this person is called the avatar and with training is supposed to be able to save the world from the Fire Nation.
The show is intended for children, however it also appeals to adults who are able to identify the incorporation of Chinese philosophies and culture. The main character Aing is a monk who practices deep meditation and has a strong connection to the spirit world. Tea is a very popular drink among the elite. Martial arts have been modeled after multiple authentic Chinese styles.
How can this be used- there are many episodes, each conveying a particular story and aspect of Chinese culture. The episodes can be shown to support student understanding or even to bolster interest. View a couple to get the idea, or rent the whole series in order to find the right one. I will be buying the complete set so later I can update this post with the best episodes.
AnonymousI watched this movie last night and enjoyed it from the perspective of learning more about Buddhism however it is definitely not a movie for children/young students. It has earned it's R-rating.
The scenery was very beautiful and the buddhist message regarding suffering: that we all do, that it causes pain, and that such pain can be addressed by following the Middle Way, is staight forward enough.
AnonymousOne more Kurosawa film that everyone must see. This is my third, and final, review of the greatest directer of all time's work. You all should also see Rashomon, and Dersu Uzala, as well. But before you do check out Yojimbo.
Esentially this film spawned A Fistful of Dollars, Last Man Standing, and a whole slew of films with the "man with no name" characters who come into town with maybe selfish motives, but end up doing some good by pitting all the bad guys against each other.
Great film, pays tribute to the John Ford-type westerns. The main actor Toshirō Mifune is without a doubt one of the greatest Japanese actors of all time. He gives a great performance in this film as the man without a name.
I think the benefit of many of Kurosawa's films for teaching is that he always seems to have a central theme that can be universally applied to the world we live in today. You can also use many of his films to illustrate how the Samurai became mercenaries of a sort after the industrialization of Japan.
Great film! 
[Edit by="jfannon on Jul 28, 4:34:41 PM"][/Edit]
AnonymousImagine my surprise when a student came to me one day to tell me that the latest Jackie Chan movie borrowed heavily from the 16th century Chinese folk novel, Monkey, by Wu Ch’eng-en. I read Monkey in college in my Classic Hero Tales course and instantly fell in love with the mad-cap Monkey, a mythological hero with superhuman (supermonkey?!) powers and a penchant for messing up banquets and relieving himself at religious shrines. I began assigning the text to my 10th grade honors for summer reading last year.
There are many hints to Monkey in the opening credits—a poster which appears to feature Pigsy, Monkey’s snout-nosed sidekick, and other images of a superhuman monkey, played, surprisingly, by the ultra-serious action star, Jet Li. As I watched, I was excited by the depiction of Monkey’s crashing the peach banquet where immortals only are invited. His destruction of the banquet and drinking of the elixir is the beginning of his problems that set him on his quest in the text; however, in the movie, his punishment is to be literally set in stone for hundreds of years, only to be released by some weird Brooklynese teenybopper kid who apparently is the hero of the movie, even though, hello! I’m sure 99% of the audience was absolutely ready for Jackie or Jet to play the lead.
I would recommend showing the 5 minutes of the peach banquet scene, otherwise the rest of the movie is pretty tawdry. The fight scenes aren’t very good, and aside from that quick scene, not much else borrows from the book. I wish Jackie Chan’s and Jet Li’s first collaboration was a bit more interesting, but at least I can show something contemporary and relevant in conjunction with an “old book.”
😀
AnonymousMovie: Warriors of Heaven and Earth
Year: 2003
Starring: Jiang Wen, Nakai Kiichi, Zhao Wei, Wang Xueqi
SUMMARY: This complicated story can not be summarized in few enough words for this forum...but here's a brief overview!
"Warriors of Heaven and Earth" is about Lai Xi, an Imperial agent for the Tang government, who has been sent to eliminate Lt Li, a fugitive wanted for disobeying orders to kill Turkish refugees because they were mostly women and children. Li, who had become known as "Butcher Li", had been living on the outskirts of civilization, working with his gang of soldiers as guards for camel trains along the Silk Road for a time. However, by the time Lai Xi was sent to kill him, they had all given up their violent lifestyle to settle as farmers in a small commune-style village. Li was caught in a violent sandstorm and feels indebted to a soldier who saved him. The warrior was guarding a Buddhist monk, and Li agrees to help him bring the monk safely along the rest of the route to his destination.
The plot thickens when Li and Lai Xi battle and come to the agreement that Li will be allowed to bring th monk (who is carrying valuable sacred texts and a pagoda) to the capital, where they will fight to the death, and Lai Xi ends up traveling with Li and his men.
Throw in amazing sword-fight scenes, an overlord working for the Mongols, Li's one-eyed right hand man, a young orphan, and the daughter of a general who acts as the narrator, and you have quite the complex movie.
MY REVIEW: One thing is for sure: you must pay close attention to figure out all that is going on in this movie! I think that the plot itself needed either less going on or more explanation of certain characters, but overall I did enjoy it. If you like the type of movie where you have to rewind several times to figure it all out, I believe that it is certainly worth renting!
The movie has a lot of deep and intricate plays on the themes of loyalty, honor, and duty. Each of the main characters struggles with the confusing combination of these themes and what it means to them. I enjoyed the fact that is no clear "good" guy...each of the characters shows that few decisions in life are easy, and none are black and white.
IN THE CLASSROOM: I would not show this movie in my middle school classes, and I believe it has too much violence for even high school, but there are definitely scenes that I would use to show scenes of the Silk Road and the time period. The cinematography is amazing, and I couldn't help but write down the scenes I may show to supplement my unit on the Silk Road. Here are a few:
9 mins- great desert scene with camels
35 mins- desert scene with horses
36 mins- camel caravan in desert
49 mins- camel caravan in desert
52 mins- rocky terrain and mountains (through 60 mins, though there is a fight scene you would have to omit)
There are others, but these clips are a great start. I am not sure if it was shot on location, but I believe that it is certainly a good collection of clips to show students a little bit of what it was like to travel the Silk Road.
AnonymousHappy Times
Happy Times is a delightful movie about a man who is retired and has no source of income.
He falls in love. In order to marry the woman of his dreams he has to prove that he is financially stable.
So, he lies and tells her that he is the owner of a hotel. With the help of some of his friends he is able to
pull it off. Happy Times is a great movie. The movie has all of the elements of a great story. It is the type of movie that you can watch several times. I enjoyed this movie very much and I have already recommended it to many of my family members and friends. I would love for my students to see it just because it's a good movie but I can't seem to fit it into the curriculum.
AnonymousTo see FREE full-length movies and TV shows, go to Surf the Channel. http://www.surfthechannel.com/[Edit by="clawson on Jul 29, 11:16:36 AM"][/Edit]
AnonymousI saw this movie in the theater and absolutely loved it! A stirring story of a father of a violin prodigy son who move to Beijing to find success. The film deals with the relationship between father and son, showing the love, tension and sometime embarrassment that go along. At one point in the film, the son becomes distraught and mean regarding the father's peasant lifestyle, perhaps not realizing the sacrifices he has made to bolster the son's musical success. There's great music, too. Could be shown in its entirety or show clips to highlight the different settings or rural versus urban.
Also recommended:
-"Tears of the Black Tiger"
-"In the Mood for Love"
AnonymousIn June 2008, the Shanghai Television Festival included the following nominations for best tv series.
Chuang Guan Dong
China
Corner With Love
China
Gebi Mother
China
Golden Wedding
China
Soldiers Sortie
China
AnonymousI recommend this film for contemporary Chinese history.
Xiao cai feng (2002) - Plot summaryXiao cai feng on IMDb: Movies, TV, Celebs, and more...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0291032/plotsummary - 32k - Cached - Similar pages
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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0291032/plotsummary
The setting has beautiful scenery around Three Gorges of Yangtze River before the Dam was built.
The time is during cultural revolution. Two young men were sent to the location. Both re-educate a beautiful young girl who is a seamstress for the village.
Anonymous"Metamorphosis, A Rock Fantasia" Director and Writer, Takashi Masunaga, Producers San Rio Films, Circa, late 70s.
Is anyone familiar with this film, I had some envolvement in it back when I worked in the animation industry in Hollywood. It would be fun to communicate with anyone who worked on this film or has seen it. It incorporated Greek mythology along with music by Joan Biez, etc.
I am now signing off due to experiencing an earth quake in a high rise building.
AnonymousChina's Stolen Children is a documentary about how babies and young children (under the age of five) are bought and sold in China. This documentary was on HBO Sunday and is available on Showtime.
Taped in secret, and at risk of the director and crew being deported and the Chinese with who they spoke and filmed being jailed, the director Jezza Newumann explored three story lines.
The first was of a couple (late twenties) whose son, aged five, was kidnapped while in the care of his maternal grandmother. A neighbor lured the boy away to buy an ice cream. The police have not done much because they say there is not enough evidence to pursue the case. The couple seek help from a private detective who retired from the police force in order to help people like this couple. The angst they feel is palpable. They must admit that they will never se their son again. The husband speaks straightforwardly of his shame that he cannot live up to his father's expectation of a good son, one who produces a male heir. He and his wife do not blame her mother. The grandmother, a rice farmer, prays to the gods daily and burns offerings while crying out to them to bring the boy home.
The second story is that of a young girl and boy, underage to get the permit for marriage, and therefore, also unable to get the required permission to have a baby. They chose not to abort. If they keep the child, they must pay a heavy fine. If they keep the baby a "secret" from the State, the child will be "paperless" will have no ID and will not be able to go to school. The only solution they find is to sell their daughter. They will get about $500 for her.
What is interesting is that they face this dilemma together and have plans to get married when they reach legal age.
The third story line is of a trafficker. He agrees to be filmed as he brokers a deal between a woman who has sold several of her children and a wealthy couple who cannot have a baby. The trafficker is just doing business, the only work that he is skilled enough to do. After his own wife died, he sold his youngest son because he could no afford to keep both sons. He is a callous man. He sees himself providing a service.
There is a problem with the one child policy. Many girls are aborted, sold, abandoned, or placed for adoption by women from the West/USA. When these children reach marriage age in the next decade or two, men will outnumber women by more than 40 million.
This documentary unearths a problematic situation for China that will not be easily solved. The narative is kept objecive but alarming frank. I do not think this video is appropriate for viewing in any social studies class. It will be difficult for many adults to view. That being said, I do recommend it to those of you who are interested in the problems related to family planning/marriage laws in contemporary China.
This show has been nominated for and Oscar (HBO) and has won awards in Great Britain (imdb.com).
[Edit by="jchristensen on Jul 29, 3:06:13 PM"][/Edit]
AnonymousThe Way Home
Rated PG
In the movie, The Way Home a young boy is sent to live with his grandmother. The boy is from the city and his grandmother lives in the countryside. Throughout the movie the boy struggles to adapt to his new home. There is a generation gap, cultural gap and simply trying to communicate becomes a challenge.
I think my students would enjoy this movie. Even though the movie is in Korean you can follow it without reading the subtitles. One of the main characters in the movie is not able to speak and uses gestures to communicate so there is not much dialogue. Students can follow the movie easily. I believe many of the students will be able to relate to the boy in the story. I don't think any of them would survive a day without their phones, mp3 players or other hand held devices. So this could be a conversation we could have as a class.
AnonymousAnother movie I want to recommend is called "The King of Masks" (Bian Lian)
http://www.flixster.com/movie/the-king-of-masks
Plot: Wang Bianlian is an aging street performer known as the King of Mask for his mastery of Sichuan Change Art in a true story. His wife left him with and infant son over 30 years ago. The son died from i...
This feature film can be used partially in the class to illustrate the art of "Changing Faces", or the whole movie illustrating different views of Chinese society. The idea of "being a girl" can be quite a "put down" in Chinese society.
AnonymousWow, I really liked watching this movie and I think most everyone else this evening did, too. I concur that our students would find it difficult to live even a day without the modern conveniences that they love. It would be an interesting exercise: go a week without TV / iPod / computer / cell phone, etc. Or pick one to abstain from for a week. My students freak out when I tell them I don't own a cell phone...