Film Festival

[Anonymous]

Film: The Way Home
By: Jeong-Hyang Lee

Many of us have written about this wonderful film that transcends culture, language, age, and time. The simplicity of the scenery, the universality of the moral, the intensity of the non-verbal communication all work to create a heart warming, thought provoking film. Sang-Woo, the little rascal, incites such angry disbelief in all of us because we know kids like him, we see them everyday. Grandmother, on the other hand, is so excruciatingly patient, she is only a figment of our imagination. Are there people out there with such a forgiving and resilient spirits? The movie works because it draws deeply on our emotions.
It is exactly that pull on our inner feelings that most attracts me to bring this film into the classroom. The art of non-verbal communication portrayed through such a powerful delivery lends itself to insightful discussions with students. Although, the few verbal lines that are spoken come in Korean, students would not loose a single iota of the meaning behind the words. Helping students understand the universal connections between people of all ages, cultures, and beliefs is a simple task with this film. Using it in a unit that focus on the idea that many factors influence our identity and our choices would be appropriate.
Asking students such questions as Who is he with his mother? Why? Who is he with his grandmother? Why? Will he retain those ideals he comes to know while leaving out in the wilderness? After viewing the film, what would you say shapes who we are?
I will be using this film in the next couple of weeks with my own English I (9th grade) students. I believe that it will work wonderfully towards answering those questions while at the same time exposing my students to a little East Asian Culture.

[Anonymous]

I showed my students "Where the Hell is Matt?" in order to introduce a geography assignment I had my students do at the beginning of the year. I gave them a blank world map and had them write down all that they know in terms of continents, countries, bodies of water, etc. Unfortunately, some students this year could not even label the U.S. for me!!!

However, before I gave them the blank map I showed them Matt dancing around the world to get the students thinking globally. It definitely ignited a passion for geography, as well as, humble the students because they realize how much they do not know. And about Matt dancing in front of the guard at the DMZ... those students who know what the DMZ is are amazed but in hysterics also!

[Anonymous]

JSA

I have been on a quest to try and find a video to incorporate into my lesson on the Korean War. After being exposed to some of the foreign films during the seminar, I think it would be a wonderful opportunity to incorporate a Korean Film instead of a traditional war documentary. Unfortunately I was unable to watch Joint Security Area when Professor Dube provided us with the opportunity, but I have since purchased it with the hopes of being able to work this one into the lesson. After viewing the film I realize that language and some pictures of topless women will keep me from showing the film in its entirety, but I do believe that some of the scenes could be used to demonstrate the tension that exists at the DMZ.

From the moment the movie begins, one can experience the tension between the two sides. As the movie rolls forward you can see subtle gestures from the main characters on both sides suggesting that they would like to see the tension alleviated. Through their undisclosed meetings you can see the regret for the past; they know that their “brother” is their enemy but because the war was fought by previous generations they can’t understand the emotion of hate that is supposed to exist. As the relationship of “brother” develops through the course of the movie, the viewer experiences anxiety, laughter, understanding, and sadness. The film would have ended on sadness and a feeling of great depression had the director not included the last cut of the still photo. How clever… As a viewer those few seconds of scanning caused the major moments of the movie to replay in my head.

[Anonymous]

You have to preview this, of course, (it is violent) but try "Taegukgi: Brotherhood of War" ( this is the American release). You can read a synopsis here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taegukgi_(film). A good documentary is "Korea: the Unknown War" which can be found at most public libraries.[Edit by="jwyss on Sep 14, 8:40:33 PM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing. 1955. 20th Century Fox.
Director: Henry King
Stars: Jennifer Jones and William Holden

Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing is remembered today primarily for its title song, which won the Oscar, and was the opening theme for Travolta and Newton John's "Grease" (1978), which is also long in the tooth but definitely a cult film. The movie is based on the best-selling novel, A Many-Splendoured Thing by Han Suyin, the pen name of Elizabeth Comber.
Jones plays Han Suyin, the Eurasian widow of a Nationalist general, who returns to Hong Kong in 1949 after being educated as a physician abroad. She meets a British journalist, Mark Elliot (Holden), who is separated from his wife. Despite the opposition of her friends and his, their affair continues and they find their spot high in the hills over the city. She is encouraged by one of the doctors, a Communist, on the staff at her hospital to return to China which is her home; would the widow of a Nationalist general be welcome? She seeks where she belongs by going to visit family in Chungking , but Elliot convinces her to return to Hong Kong. When the Korean War breaks out, Elliot is assigned to cover the war and we know that this hitherto meandering tale is going to end tragically or happily. Who made this? Hollywood or Pinewood? He is killed by an errant bomb as he gazes at a striped swallowtail butterfly that has lighted on his typewriter. She seeks solace at their hill spot and there finds the same species of striped swallowtail, though we know it's larger than the one he saw. The man /butterfly dream tale?

In its day it was pretty hot stuff winning the Golden Globe for Best Film Promoting International Understanding. Aside from the theme song, this has to be the main reason for even giving the film a second look unless one is a Jones (an Oscar nomination for the film) or Holden fan. Inter-racial love/marriage was certainly controversial in Fifties America; the treatment of it in this film seems very tepid today, but struck a chord then.

The other reason to view the film are the scenes of Hong Kong itself. It looks as if it could be quite livable unlike the megalopolis it has become.

[Anonymous]

Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War. Showbox 2004
Dir.: Kang Je-gyu
Star.: Jang Dong-gun
Won Bin

This ultra-violent war film begins with a phone call to an old man that goes something like this: Hello, is this Jin-seok Lee? We've just found your bodily remains on a battlefield memorial site, and we'd like you to come and identify them.
Upon his arrival at the forensic excavations, the story flashes back to the Seoul of June 1950 where the Lee family struggle to make a living after the death of their father. The oldest brother, Jin-tae, shines shoes to pay for Jin-seok's education since he is sickly but the hope of the family. Their mother runs a noodle shop and is helped by Jin-tae's fiance'e. There is a touching scene where the boys race home to tell father about what has happened that day and place food at the family shrine. With the invasion of the south by North Korea, Jin-seok is forcibly conscripted from the streets of Seoul as is Jin-tae when his attempt to remove him from the train fails. Jin-tae refuses to accept that his brother must serve and volunteers for any dangerous assignment to win the Taeguk Cordon of the Order of Military Merit, hence the film title, which will allow him to request the release of his brother from the army.
The action is extremely violent and bloody, in fact so ultra-real it is surreal, and follows the retreat to Pusan, the landings at Inchon of the Americans, and the linkup for the drive to the Chinese border. Jin-tae finally wins the coveted medal, but Jin-seok believes he has done it all for glory, has sacrificed friends along the way, and refuses to have anything to do with his brother. When the Chinese drive them back through Seoul the brothers are re-united briefly as they try to return home. Unfortuneately, Jin-tae's fiance'e has been picked up by Singman Rhee's Nationalist death squads and is going to be executed. She is killed during a fight when the brothers try to rescue her, and they are imprisoned, where Jin-seok blames his brother for the death. Jin-tae is questioned about such behavior by a hero, but insists that his brother be released. A Chinese attack causes the Nationalist commander to set fire to the prison; Jin-tae tries to rescue his brother but fails when artillery renders him unconcious. Due to his prison garb, the Chinese believe Jin-tae is a Communist giving him a chance to bludgeon the commander to death for the death of his brother. He proceeds to become a war-hero for the North rising to command the elite Flag Unit.
Jin-seok is not dead and seeks to rejoin the fighting around the 38th parallel and find his brother. The brothers are reunited on a mountain battlefield at the "end" of the hostilities. Fifty years later they are united again. The film ends in flashback with Jin-seok in Seoul returning to his mother and the younger children, carefully packing into the family shrine the shoes his brother had started, and walking out into a devastated Seoul.
The story is absolutely riveting but not for the faint of heart. The introductory and concluding scenes are certainly usable for classroom purposes to explain and illustrate the psychology of Confucian Korea and the destruction of Seoul, but the battle scenes are way too graphic for K-12 viewings.

[Anonymous]

Giacomo Puccini Turandot at the Forbidden City UFA International Film/BMG Classics
1999

Conductor: Zubin Mehta
Director: Zhang Yimou

If you watched the Opening Ceremonies for the 2008 Olympics you were probably impressed by the mass drumming that opened the ceremonies. The precursor appeared nine years earlier when Zhang Yimou used drummers to introduce Turandot. It was a Ming tradition to use drummers to announce all public appearances of the emperor.

In 1987 Puccini's Aida returned to the place of its setting, Luxor. Now Turandot comes to the Forbidden City and it just does not get any better, opera fan or not. The opera was staged next to the Palace of Heavenly Purity (People's Cultural Palace). The director, Zhang Yimou, pulled out all the stops. Huge pavilions, that could be moved by hand, were erected on stage to assist in the change of scenes. A 15th century Ming theme was imposed on everything-banners, flags, stage props, and costumes. Zhang Yimou went to Shanghai where 300 families were involved in the production of 700 costumes with hand embroidery. Dancers from the Peking Opera and other schools were recruited to perform in the instrumental and choral interludes; the military provided men for the soldiers on stage. The spectacle is absolutely mind-blowing; the carnival of color on stage is eye-popping.

Zubin Mehta's direction of the musical aspects of the production is top-notch. There are problems with the fact that it was recorded outside with less than superb acoustic conditions. This is especially evident on the DVD where there is also a PCM audio track to hear. All in all, however, it seemed that the musical and stage direction enticed maximum effort from all of the performers.

I introduce middleschoolers to all kinds of different musics. Two days ago it was Byzantine secular music. Soon it will be cuts from Turandot, maybe an entire aria or duet. I can't wait.

This is great! Don't miss it!

[Anonymous]

The title of the movie, Curse of the Golden Flower, is taken from a poem from the Tang dynasty and is attributed to the rebal leader Huang Chao's failure to pass the Imperial examination.
"When autumn comes on Double Ninth Festival, /my flower[the chrysanthemum] will bloom and all others perish./ When the sky-reachingfragrance[of the chrysanthemum] permeates Chang'an,/ the who city will be clothed in golden armour

This is a Chinese historical epic drama directed by Zhang Yimou in 2006.
This film had a budget of $45 million an a lot of publicity during its making which also coinsided with the sandstorms of 2006 in Beijing. The term golden armour has since become a metaphor for sandstorms amoung locals.

The plot of this movie is based on a 1934 play called Thunderstorm by Cao Yu.
The plot is complex but it is based in the imperial court of the Later Shu, which was during the trubulent five dynasies and ten kingdoms period. Emperor Ping takes a wife, Empress Phoenix and the action goes on and on.

I watched this in hi def T.V. and my eyes were bugging out of my head. The beauty of this film in incredable, I could not take my eyes off the screen. Half of the time I didn't know exactly what was going on but didn't care. The sets, color, action, special effects were wonderful. It is a real saga and if I watched it again the story might mean more to me. See this movie.

[Anonymous]

I in fact used "Eat Drink Man Woman" in my classroom recently and we did a KWL (what you knew, what you want to know, what you have learned aftermath" activity with the students exploring the idea of Chinese cuisine and its essence in the culture.

Recently I watched two movies that might be interesting to you. "Double Happiness" is about identity, growing into adulthood, family values, and Chinese immigration in USA. "Nobody knows", a Japanese movie, is about siblings abandoned by their mother and how they struggled to survive; it is an utterly touching movie. "Nobody knows" is a great children movie, with scenes of school, home, city views in Japan, and some hint of social problems. But still the movie transcended the shared values, such as brotherhood, sisterhood, family, friendship, and life-long struggle. The camera amazingly presented the body language and facial expressions of the main characters (who happened to be all children) . Anyway I love this move, "Nobody Knows"; here is the link from International Movie Database-http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0408664/

[Anonymous]

I too love the film and would have to edit it to show it in high school. But what I have found that in such films showing clips excits the students to seek it out on their own. I always tell me students, mine is not a film class but an English class that exposes them to different cultures.

Thank you for breaking down the scenes comncepts within the film. It is inspiring me to watch it again to earmark the scenes with the times for future plans.

[clay dube]

Hi Amanda,
James has noted that computers can play vcds, so can most dvd players. VHS machines never took off in China and elsewhere in Asia. VCDs deliver similar picture quality as VHS and were widely used in China. Since they are digital copies, duplication was fast, simple, and copies did not suffer the degradation in quality that plagued tape to tape copying.

This site offers some help:
http://www.videohelp.com/play

[Anonymous]

Chunhyang is a Korean movie that is performed by a singer and drummer as well as by the actors. It starts with the singer and drummer on stage and then switches to the actors in the movie and back to the singer and drummer. In some parts, we see the actors, but we hear the singer. I watched the film directed by Im Kwon Taek, and although I was slightly confused at the beginning, I think this technique worked well. I would use this movie in conjunction with a fairytale/Renaissance unit in middle school or with The Odyssey in high school. It would be a good tool to show different story telling techniques. For me, the part of the movie I would show as a brief segment would be the part where Chunhyang is caned because she is faithful to her husband and will not have an affair with the new governor. It masterfully mixes the singer with the actors. In fact, I was more moved by the singer than I was by the actor. There is some nudity and a sex scene, but it is isolated in one section and would be easy to skip.

[clay dube]

It's great to read your response to Chunhyang and your thoughts on how it might be used. Could you say a bit more about the era it is set in and the values it discusses? What does it mean that this story still resonates with Korean (and foreign) audiences. I love the idea of discussing story telling methods with students. Could they utilize this approach in telling their own morality play?

[Anonymous]

Chunhyang is set in the 18th century, and during this time period, Korea is under the Choson Dynasty. One of the historical elements that can be seen in the movie is the Confucian relationship of ruler and subject, superior and inferior. Mongryong is the son of a magistrate and Chunhyang is the daughter of a former courtesan; therefore, their love is forbidden. Another historical aspect is that Mongryong is studying to take the civil service examination so he can obtain a government position. Once he has passed his test, he will have enough power and influence so he can be with Chunhyang even though they are not of the same social class. The most obvious value the movie discusses is loyalty. Mongryong left Chunhyang for several years before he passed his test, but Chunhyang stays faithful to him. It’s a classic love story that still resonates with all audiences because it is still relevant. We can still relate to forbidden love and loyalty, and just like a fairy tale, Chunhyang has a happy ending. As far as using a singer or narrator during student morality plays, it is definitely doable. I haven’t tried it with my classes, but I think it would produce interesting results.

[clay dube]

Here's a summary of June Tsai's article in Taiwan Journal about this film.

Wei Te-sheng's feature film debut Cape No. 7 was released in August, but is still in theaters. It has already earned US $13.5 million in ticket sales, some 8% of the total box office. It is rare for a film in Taiwan to surpass 3% of the total box office. Wei's Cape No. 7 has outearned Ang Lee's Lust, Caution in Taiwan. In an unprecedented show of respect for the film, even the pirates have elected not to make it available via the web. The film's title refers to a an address in Hengchun, in southernmost Taiwan. A Japanese man loved a woman who lived at the address. Leaving Taiwan at the end of the Pacific War, the man writes seven letters to the woman. He never sends them. After his death, the man's daughter finds the letters and decides to send them. In Hengchun, meanwhile, a town leader is determined to have his stepson lead a band that will open for a visiting Japanese group. The film has moved audiences to laugh and cry. C.S. Stone Shih of Shoochow University argues the film's popularity can largely be attracted to its accurate representation of ordinary life. Wei, the director, is 40 years old and previously worked as an assistant to Edward Yang (1947-2007), one of Taiwan's most acclaimed directors. The film's popularity has stimulated travel to Hengchun.

Tsai's article: http://taiwanjournal.nat.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=46100&CtNode=122

Here are a couple of interesting links about the film:
http://www.culture.tw/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=812&Itemid=235

Brian Hu of Asia Pacific Arts has written about the film:
http://www.asiaarts.ucla.edu/081031/article.asp?parentID=99915

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