I decided to watch two movies for this class and actually have a few more from the library still to view. The first movie I watched was The Curse of the Golden Flower, directed by Zhang Yimou and produced by William Kong, Zhang Weiping, and Zhang Yimou. The second movie I chose to watch was Raise the Red Lantern, directed by Zhang Yimou and produced by Hou Hsiao-hsien, Chiu Fu-Sheng and Zhang Wenze. I did not realize Nanzi watched this movie as well until completing my blog.
The Curse of the Golden Flower is story based in China, during 10th Century of the Late Tang Dynasty. The plot involves a story about a dying love between two powerful people, which leads to deceit, infidelity, and conspiracy. During the ending years of the Tang dynasty, the Emperor (Chow Yun Fat) returns home from the war, on the eve of the Chong Yang Festival, with his son Prince Jai (Jay Chou). The festival falls on the 9th day of September in the lunar calendar. According to the traditional theory of Yin and Yang, both the 9th month and the 9th day of the month belong to Yang, which means positive and masculine, and Chong means double, thus it is called Chong Yang. People often gather for a party, appreciate chrysanthemums, and pin the leaves of Cornus on clothes.
In the movie, the Emperor fills the Imperial Palace with golden flowers and requests a formal dining arrangement atop the palace. The pretext to the celebration is that the Emperor wishes to spend the holiday with his family, but his current relations with the Empress make it difficult to enjoy. In the same respects, the Empress is eager to see her son, but gives a chilly reception. This unpleasant reception is a result of her marriage becoming deeply bitter, because of a love affair she has taken. For many years, the Empress and Crown Prince Wan (Liu Ye), her stepson from the Emperor's first marriage, have had an illicit liaison. Feeling trapped Prince Wan dreams of escaping the palace with his secret love Chan (Li Man), the Imperial Doctor's daughter. The Emperor, meanwhile, has his own plan for dealing with his failing marriage. He's ordered the Imperial Doctor (Ni Dahong) to find an exotic drug that will drive the Empress insane and administer it to her without her knowledge. However, the doctor's ethical dilemma is intensified by the fact his daughter Chan (Li Man) has fallen in love with Crown Prince Wan and the two wish to elope.
As the Emperor and Empress allow their estrangement to sink into violence and retribution, their youngest son, Prince Yu (Qin Junjie), struggles to keep the peace in the household. Everyone involved in the story has a secret plan for either escape or domination, which results in an explosive ending wherein the darkest family secrets are finally revealed. After the turmoil raised by Jiang's Family, to everyone's astonishment, the youngest Prince Yu abruptly kills Prince Wan, and attempts to oblige the Emperor to abdicate the throne to him. He confesses that he also learned of the plot of the Empress and Prince Jai, and feeling that no one had cared about him, he had to act in advance to gain himself the throne. The Emperor's assassins-in-black eliminate Prince Yu's tiny rebel force easily, and the Emperor lashes Yu to death. The Empress, already caught in madness, doesn't seem to notice the violence and walks off, consumed in her plan.
As the Imperial Family continues its elaborate charade in a palatial setting, thousands of golden armored warriors charge the palace, which are sent by the Empress. Prince Jai is the commander of the army and ignores a warning, in the form of a banner, his father has placed. As they charge forward, the Emperor's personal assassins attempt to stop them. Although Prince Jai's men take various casualties, they manage to eliminate all the assassins and move forward. As the golden-armored army marches into the imperial square, they are boxed in by moving walls operated by the Emperor's men, the Silver Armours. Attempting to break the hold on the army, Prince Jai orders the army to charge forth, only to be cut down by thousands of arrows. Against a moonlit night, thousands of chrysanthemum blossoms are trampled as blood spills across the Imperial Palace. The Prince, the lone survivor, continues to fight in honor of his mother. Many fall to his pole-arm, but it is not until the Empress nods, that the Prince surrenders, their rebellion etched into the memory of the city and its inhabitants.
After the battle, the courtyard is swiftly cleaned up as if it never happened. The Emperor reveals to the Empress it was Prince Wan who informed him of their plot. The Empress simply states that she had a feeling he would. The Emperor confirms that she has truly lost her mind to continue such a redundant battle. Prince Jai is captured and the lords who assisted the Empress in building her army are executed. The Emperor brings his wife and bloodied son to the terrace for all the subjects to see. With two sons dead, a mad wife and a traitorous rebel for a son, the Emperor calmly reminds Jai to not take what isn't given to him. Jai confirms that he knew he couldn't win the battle but it was not for the throne, but for his mother.
Silently furious that his son's loyalty was usurped by his enemy wife, now completely mad, he orders Prince Jay to daily administer the poisoned medicine to the Empress, in the exchange for not ending his life. Prince Jai apologizes to his mother for his failure. The two share a tearful goodbye and Jai kills himself, his blood spilling all over the Empress's medicine. It shows the Emperor's silent shock at the act when he pauses to reach for his food, but no words escape him. The Empress, in shock and grief at losing her sons, her mind and still faced with the poisoned medicine in front of her that now contains Jai's blood, lets out a furious shriek and slaps the plate out of the servants’ hands. It is shown that the medicine contained an acid that upon spilling on the wood begins to rapidly dissolve, eating away at the engraved chrysanthemum symbolizing the foul corruption and madness that the festival brought upon the entire Forbidden City.
I thought both of these movies were alright. They both seemed to have a plot that revolved around the fact that men could get away with any actions they deemed tradition. In the Curse of a Golden Flower, both the Emperor and his sons betrayed everyone involved in the family. The Emperor felt it was alright to poison his wife, his first son had two love affairs; one being with his step mother, the 2nd oldest son waged a war upon his father, the youngest son killed the oldest son, and the Empress also tried to overtake the father. The amount of deception involved in the plot was over the top for me. Also, the fact the majority of people ended up dead, confused me on the true moral of the story. I believe it portrays that the male of the family will establish the value and traditions on what he deems is correct.
In Raise the Red Lantern, I feel it portrays the same views as the prior movie. The Master is allowed to have various mistresses, concubines, and does not even stay faithful to them. He fools around with a servant, who he apparently has feelings for. The concubines are therefore forced to compete for his attention, and I believe that he enjoys this competition. He displays on hand who has won his attention for the day through visual, physical, and oral presentations. In the end, the women are once again punished for crimes the master determines are outside the tradition of the residence. I believe both these movies portray a Chinese culture that is male dominated. They make, enforce, and determine the rules that the women shall live bye. Incidentally, the only reason the women seem prevalent within their culture is for the purpose of providing a son to follow the master’s rule. I understand that culture has changed in China, but these movies were not made so long ago. This also makes me think that the more traditional cultures probably view these practices as to be acceptable. In the end, I have watched various Chinese based movies in the past and they all follow the same theme. I believe that this culture will change slowly over time, but they must pay respect to it through film.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Based on your choice of the movies (traditional/historical fare), I understand why you conclude that the culture is male dominated. However, now that we are armed with first hand experience of modern China, I would be interested to know if you still adhere to this opinion or not and why.
ReplyDeleteYour grade is 4 points.