Clay --

I am going to review Rashamon.

Might I suggest the film The Emperor and the Assissin.I really enjoyed the film and it fit into the sixth grade curriculum.[Edit by="jlopez on Jul 28, 2:19:32 PM"][/Edit]
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Film Review: "a Geisha" by Kenji Mizoguchi is a Japanese classic from 1953 which explores the life of a young girl who wants to become a geisha, like her dead mother. It's black and white; 86 minutes. The time is post WWII offering a contrast between the entrenched exploitation of the geisha and the social changes of post war Japan in the early 1950's. With no money of her own or family financial support, Eiko, the young geisha apprentice, ends up in a tangeled web of obligations that her sponsoring geisha, Miyoharu, ultimately sacrifices herself to repay.

The photography is a work of art, subtle but powerful. This is not a contemporary, high tech film! This movie offers a visual knowledge of the training necessary to become a geisha. All illusions of the cherished existance of a "kept woman" quickly fade. Being trained in music, dance, deportment, flower arrangement...to become a geisha on one hand, and being also a thing of pleasure (ultimately sexual) for a man creates an insolvable tension. No explicit sexual scenes are shown--(how refreshing!)--so the film could be shown to students.

The viewer sees authentic daily rituals and the milieu of the Kyoto Gion District This section remained much the same 10 years ago when I was traveling in Japan--juxtaposition to bustling modern Kyoto. The geisha is really a national treasure-- tourists expect it as part of their exotic view of Japan.

Highly recommend--2 thumbs up.
Emily Smythe[Edit by="esmythe on Aug 2, 9:15:47 AM"][/Edit]
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Chunhyang - a recent South Korena romantic drama was recently shown on the Sundance channel (2000). It was directed by Im Kwon Taek, and apparently the story is an adapatation of a classic 13th century fable. It's a "woman torn" film, in this case, between the boy/man she loves and a provincal governor who has the hots for her, and threatens to kill her unless she gives in to him.

The film opens with a modern day narrator, standing on a stage, dressed in white, who tells Chunhyang's story, accompanied by a traditional drummer in front of a live audience. The film has flashbacks between "the story" and the narrator.

The most amazing sequence for me was the boy/man taking the state examinations. Mongryong Lee sits on the ground, framed between rows and rows of students, in formal dress (narrow black funnel hats with wide brims hide many of their faces. The exam question is posted on a scroll, written in I assume, Chinese characters, and the students answer it on their individual scrolls with pen and ink. He wins the competition with the highest score and is made an "ethics official" and presented to the king.

Chunhyang, a commoner, is the daughter of a prostitute, and the son of a provincal governor.
The couple had fallen in love with each other and secretly eloped, but very soon afterwards, Mongryong Lee is forced to leave with his father.

While he is gone in Seoul, a new governor comes to power and demands that Chunhyang give in to him. She refuses and is jailed, pending her execution at the governor's birthday feast. Meanwhile, Mongryong returns, disguised as a beggar, and tells Chunhyang's mother that misfortune had befallen him, that he couldn't take the exam and has been begging. She begrudgingly feeds him a huge meal and tells her about Chunhyung's fate. The visit her in jail and she declares her love for him but tells him she'll be executed the next day after the birthday feast.

The spectacular affair is attended by magistrates and noblles from the surrounding towns, and Mongryong attends, still in disguise, but as a nobleman who looks like a beggar. He is challenged by the governor to write a poem of love and does so, but when it is read to the nobles, they leave the feast, worried about the poem's "poisonous" message about the governor.

Mongryong reveals himself, castigates the nobles for stealing from the peasants and arrests the governor. He sends his ring to Chunhyang, and when she realizes he's her husband, she faints. He tells her the king forbade him from telling anyone who he really was -- the king's emissary.

The narrator tells the audience that afterwards, Mongryong goes from town to town and returns to Seoul, reporting to the king about the country and thus, saves the country from war. "Who knows what will happen after?" the narrator asks to audience's applause.

The film is 121 minutes and will probably be repeated -- worth watching, from many points of view.

It's a great example of an "oral storytelling" session of what I assume is a very traditional style; it's also a very visual representation of a classic story, which shares the same themes as many covered in the standard curriculum of English Literature.

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Review of "Da hong deng long gao gao gua" aka "Raise the Red Lantern"

Directed in 1991 by Zhang Yimou, adapted from the novel of the same name by Su Tong, who also collaborated on the screenplay, this fantastic and gorgeous film stars the always-described-as-"luminous" Gong Li (here she's both luminous and intense). Her character, Songlian, in 1920's China, is forced by her father's death to leave college and become the 4th wife to a wealthy man. The red lanterns of the title are raised and lit in front of the house within the master's compound of the wife with whom he's sleeping that night. Another privilege of the slept-with wife is to receive an unusual foot massage to relax her before his visit. (I wonder about the issue of bound feet, but Songlian arrives at her new home on foot, carrying a big suitcase, so clearly hers are not). The much older 1st wife's position is secure because she has a grown son (about Songlian's age). The 2nd wife also has a son, but is not so complacent about her position, and thus is not so happy about the addition of a new wife to the household. Wife #3 is an elegant, cultured, talented former opera singer, who after bristling initially, takes Songlian into her confidence. Another conflict besides those among the 4 wives is between Songlian and a servant girl with whom the master also dallies.
Beautifully photographed and organized by the 4 seasons, "Raise the Red Lantern" shows the low status of women in the culture, even wealthy,educated women. I used this film in conjunction with Margaret Atwood's novel The Handmaid's Tale,and even though it's long and in Chinese with English subtitles, my 12th graders were rapt and enthralled.