Menu
close
Home › Forums › Teaching About Asia Forums › Film Festival › Film Festival
Anonymous.
AnonymousI too enjoyed The Twilight Samurai; the film was a complete opposite what I expected from a Samurai film. Instead of the fierce warriors of years past, the Samurai depicted in this movie have been reduced to bureaucrats who work in unexciting and unassuming positions. Heroic feats and tales have now been replaced by the men of the office gathering after work to drink, something the lead character cannot afford to do.
The film set before the Meiji Restoration, tells the story of a debt ridden low ranking Samurai Seibei Iguchi who tries to care for his daughters after his wife dies of tuberculosis. The story reveals the struggle that Seibei has between his duty to his clan and to his family. Instead of seeking glory and fame, Seibei seeks only to provide for his family and give his daughters a future. Seibei character reveals a gentle soul who delights in seeing his daughters growing up.
The images and metaphors in this story proclaim the last days of the Samurai; Seibei sells his Katana to pay for his wife’s funeral (something unheard of only a 100 years before) or he arrives before his lord unwashed and unkempt, an act that would have cause great shame in the past.
Instead of the swashbuckling action films of fearless warriors (which history recounts many), this film gave a human side to the Samurai, revealing ordinary men who faced uncertain times.
AnonymousThe little bit that I saw in class seemed quite comical, it definately interested me. I know over our winter break I will be viewing some of these films. I believe students do need all the different modalities to have information sink in. I can't wait to watch the whole movie "Shower" 😀
AnonymousHere is another interesting Samurai Film: Samurai Rebellion (1967) directed by Masaki Kobayashi The film stars Toshiro Mifune who plays Isaburo Sasahara, a vassal of the daimyo of the Aisu clan and is set in the Edo period of Japan.
First I have to say that I enjoy watching Mifune performance, he is a superb actor. The story centers around Isaburo and his elder son Yogoro, who is forced by their clan leader to marry the daimyo's ex-concubine, Ichi, even though she is the mother to one of the daimyo's sons. Although the family is extremely reluctant at first, they finally agree and a short period later Ichi and Yogoro fall in love and they have a daughter named Tomi.
When the daimyo's primary heir dies, and he orders his ex-concubine to rejoin his household to care for their son and heir. They family refuses which sets in motion the main struggle of the story, which forces Isaburo and his son to take sides against the rest of the clan and family. Isaburo’s decision jeopardizes the existence of the entire family and clan.
The film deals with the themes of love, devotion, personal happiness versus the well being of the family, the Confucian cocept of order and the limits of one’s duty. Although Isaburo and Yogoro fight for a just cause, the movie’s premise seem to say that we are all bound by Karma and if we disrupt the natural order of things, no matter how unjust, we must pay the price.
The film brings to mind Hamlet’s predicament: “The time is out of joint. O cursed spite,/That ever I was born to set it right” In the process of setting the universe correct the samurais must also pay for their disobedience.[Edit by="jgonzalez on Dec 19, 8:07:23 AM"][/Edit]
AnonymousI just watched the documentary titled "Nanking". It has been mentioned a few times already, but I still wanted to comment on the effectiveness of the film. It is very graphic at times and would not be appropriate for my fourth graders. It is actual footage and includes readings from diaries by actors. There are also very moving interviews with actual survivors. I found it interesting that Japanese soldiers are also interviewed to give viewers the opportunity to tell about Nanking from their perspective.
I am always on the lookout for documentaries, and I am sure there are a slew on East Asia...just not sure how many are age appropriate for elementary school students.
AnonymousBig Mac: Inside the McDonald's Empire
I use this CNBC video in my Economics class. It talks about the origins of McDonalds, how they had to re-vamp their company when they were posting losses and their expansion into foreign countries. There is about a 8-10 minutes clip on entering into the Chinese market. In doing so, the company needed to acculturate the Chinese into a "fast-food" way of life. Simple things like which way to drive through the drive through (not starting at the exit) were a foreign idea to the Chinese. Also, at first, the Chinese thought that they were supposed to go through the drive through to order then take their food into the restaurant to eat.
Students enjoy the deocumentary as they are familiar with the company. But, they are most intrigued by the China component.
I use the movie to prepare the students for a project where they need to build a business. Using a the ups and downs of a business they are familiar with helps the students understand this project better. Understanding foreign explansion is important, as many students think that dealing internationally is the same as dealing nationally.
AnonymousA news report cited that China is banning Avatar from their theatres in order to prevent competition with their own cinema. Avatar banned in China
It seems very interesting that the article states that China has kept foreign cinema down to 20 films a year. Is this an effort to preserve their culture?
Anonymousto mlaughlin:
Is it just Avatar or other mainstream blockbusters as well? I wonder if other foreign movies also experience the ban, in lieu of competition with mainland cinema. I wonder why they chose 20 as the quota for foreign cinema. Also, did Titanic have the same ban? It would be interesting since both Avatar and Titanic were huge box-office hits by the same director.
AnonymousHello,
I just watched both, Korean and American, versions of My Sassy Girl. Both versions are available on You Tube for free.
The Korean version was so much funnier! I know I missed some of the humor of the original version because I don't know all of the cultural nuances, but it was still great. The American version toned down most of the jokes. The scene on the subway is terrible. The original version had me falling out of my chair with the silly gross-out jokes. The American version cuts all of that.
The original actors were better than the Americans. Both male and female leads were much more expressive in the original. They also had better comic timing.
I'm considering using the original version with subtitles in my classroom later in the year.
AnonymousIn middle school, we are only allowed to show "G" rated films and I thought of a great one, Kung Fu Panda! The main character "Po" is a big, fat clumsy giant panda with passion for food & Kung Fu, he wants to go watch a tournament to see who will become the Dragon Warrior, when he accidently ends up in the area & is pronounce the Dragon Warrior himself. He goes through many challenges that he never thought he could accomplish, but with faith he was able to over come many obsticals. I was able to discuss with my students the idea to never give up. That there is no "secret ingredient, but to believe in yourself" and this can help you to succeed. My students & I found it a very fun film.
Five of the characters are homages to some of the styles of Chinese Martial Arts- The Snake, Praying Mantis, Crane, Monkey & the Tiger. The students LOVED this. Action/adventure films are always a plus with children but I was a little worried about the film being animated. Thinking that maybe my students might feel it was too "baby-ish"- but that was not a problem, they loved it! They were cheering for Po and at times the expressions on their faces were classic.
I also found it quite impressive of Hans Zimmer- who scored Kung Fu Panda- went to visit China to absorb the culture and visited with the China National Symphony Orchestra. I enjoyed seeing accurate scenes in the movie. I wonder how China felt about this movie?
Anonymous“Please Vote For Me”
Video In the Classroom
US Government / Comparative Government
I have used this film as a case-study introduction to the study of election campaigns, the culture of elections, the democratic process and the role played by the ‘human’ element in a democratic society. You might want to go beyond the obvious election issue here and explore other issues particular to China, such as the “One Child Policy”. The lesson guides cited below offer other ideas as to how to implement this excellent and engaging film into other curricula.
Here is a blurb from a movie data-base website about the film:
“Wuhan is a city in central China about the size of London, and it is here that director Weijun Chen has conducted an experiment in democracy. A grade 3 class at Evergreen Primary School has their first encounter with democracy by holding an election to select a Class Monitor. Eight-year olds compete against each other for the coveted position, abetted and egged on by teachers and doting parents. Elections in China take place only within the Communist Party, but recently millions of Chinese voted in their version of Pop Idol. The purpose of Weijun Chen’s experiment is to determine how, if democracy came to China, it would be received. Is democracy a universal value that fits human nature? Do elections inevitably lead to manipulation? Please Vote for Me is a portrait of a society and a town through a school, its children and its families.”
There are several lesson guides and plans on the web which I have mined for ideas to use with my students.
Here are the ones I consider the best:
Lesson Guides:
“Please Vote for Me” Video Questions Handout
Video Question Handout
[Edit by="sbartosiak on Jan 26, 12:26:39 PM"][/Edit]
[Edit by="sbartosiak on Jan 26, 12:28:19 PM"][/Edit]
AnonymousA word about Ang Lee: What an amazing director! It baffles me how someone can direct such diverse films as Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; or Sense and Sensibility and Hulk; Eat, Drink, Man, Woman and The Ice Storm. All of his movies are well made and beautifully shot and, speaking of the above, to have a kind of sensibility for the characters and their internal lives. And now this, one of his most recent, Lust, Caution.
For a while the title put me off from seeing it. I read that the movie is based on a novella by Eileen Chang and maybe the title comes from her work and is a direct translation--maybe it is two characters juxtaposed...? I don't know why at the very least it couldn't have been named Lust and Caution in English. As a line of poetry I wouldn't mind that comma, but for a movie title, it's irritating. But I got over my fussiness about the title and finally saw the movie since I am kind of an Ang Lee fan and since I had been learning about China's history.
The film in its entirety could not be used in the classroom because of the very explicit sex scenes, but they actually don't occur until a good way into the film and though long, and did I say explicit? I think there are only a couple. A clip or even a good portion of the film could work really well to supplement the teaching of this period in Chinese history. It really seemed to me to capture that time period well, really bringing to life the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, the internationalism of Shanghai, the different tensions and conflicts, the ostensible one between occupier and occupied, but the deeper one pushing to the surface between classes.
The film tells the story of a group of students who plot to kill a Japanese collaborator. One of them, a young woman, is the decoy, posing as an upper crust lady and beginning an illicit relationship with the sympathizer to win his trust until he lets down his guard in a moment allowing the others to assassinate him.
It's a sad story, definitely without any satisfying closure or resolution. It's hard to know what the message is, other than to simply portray the complexities and ambiguities of the time period, which it does very well. And it also shows how the heart can go against the head, the clash between the personal and the historic. Maybe it is just the American raised on Hollywood endings in me, but I would have liked to see it go one way or the other, either for their plot to be successful or for her to throw over her friends and just be with the guy if she loved him. In the end, neither is he killed nor is their relationship allowed to continue. It seems sad that these young people with so much talent and intelligence rather threw their lives away and hers was perhaps sacrificed more than any of the others, but maybe historically, outside the context of the movie, we could say that was not the case--that young people like the characters in the film were ultimately successful in bringing about a profound change in their country.
[Edit by="zskalkottas on Jan 31, 6:30:53 PM"][/Edit]
AnonymousI saw a film entitled, "The Forbidden Kingdom."
In it a young teenager is transported into China during the time of the
legend of the "Monkey King."
Jackie Chan and Jet Li battle for control of the kingdom.
In the end, the young teenager returns to earth, gains confidence and self esteem.
If one is teaching about Chinese mythology, the last 20 minutes is sufficient after
a brief introduction about the "Monkey King" myth. A side bar about self esteem
can be used in the lesson.
Cheryl Watson
AnonymousKurosawa certainly does Shakespeare well. I love his version of Macbeth, Throne of Blood, and have used it indirectly in my classroom in the past (as an extra credit extension assignment after our reading of Macbeth). King Lear I haven't read and saw it performed when I was too young to appreciate it or to remember, so I don't have as much of a point of comparison. But the full scope and range of the tragedy comes through in the movie.
This movie could work well with my teaching of Beowulf. We talk a lot about the warrior code and the premium the tribal warrior cultures put on loyalty, but I point out the numerous examples in the text of treason and betrayal and ask my students how the contradiction can be reconciled. Do the values we hold up and cherish actually speak to a lack of such values? This film would illustrate the contradiction perfectly. Set in 16th century Japan among warlords, loyalty and obedience were of course expected and highly valued within families and kingdoms. There are so many betrayals though--the son against his father, both sons against their father, one brother against another, warriors against their lord, the father presumably of many people in the past. But then there is the extreme loyalty of the third son after being banished, of the character Tango both for the third son and the father, his "great lord," and perhaps most strikingly of the court jester character. Though his role is that of the fool, by the end of the movie he has acquired almost heroic traits, unlike many of the so-called honorable warriors.
Kurosawa films can sometimes be hard to sit through. There were in my opinion far too many shots of warriors being shot off their horses in this movie. But the cinematography is exquisite, too. His movies are visually rich, of course, but in Ran I noticed the auditory lushness even moreso--the sounds of the horses galloping across a field, of the banners whipping in the wind, of the rustle of a silk kimono as a woman shuffles into a room and kneels or unkneels.
TextMacbethMacbeth
AnonymousI saw Letters from Iwo Jima first and I thought it was the better movie. At first I thought it was a good movie, but not a great movie, but now I don't know. I kept thinking about it; certainly it seemed to resonate so much because the great dose of history and cultural context I had been given. I wonder how Japanese have received this movie. In the end, I had to really admire Eastwood for refusing to fall into cliches about war--neither movie is very comfortable to watch. Also, as I already commented before, I think the films could be used in the classroom to teach perspective and point of view.
Perhaps because it's easy enough to fill in the American perspective while watching LFIJ, I wasn't acutely aware that I was getting "one side" or that this view was somehow skewed. Indeed, that seems part of the point in Eastwood's endeavor. Not only did he make two different movies, one ostensibly the American story and one the Japanese, but you get different sides within each picture. For example, in FOOF the suggestions that the heroes being lauded were not all the heroes or even the right ones and that the heroes were killed by friendly fire or in LFIJ the depiction of both sides killing prisoners; in both movies, the realization of how formidable their foe was; in both movies, as is probably the case in all wars, the disconnect between the people on the ground and those making the plans.
As I already commented in another post, LFIJ connected in so many ways to the lectures and readings on Japan, which really helped me understand it more. Still I don't think any amount of background can really prepare you for the number of suicides in the movie, especially the group suicide by grenade. That just defies understanding or knowing whether it should be thought admirable or just crazy; it's hard to believe that that degree of honor or indoctrination could trump survival instinct.
clay dubeStan's picked up on a very interesting video. I like it a lot and wrote a review of it:
abridged version: http://www.aems.uiuc.edu/downloads/Fall2008.pdf
While you're at AEMS, roam a bit -- Asia Educational Media Service is a wonderful resource for teachers.
the longer version of the review is at: http://china.usc.edu/ShowArticle.aspx?articleID=1201
I look forward to hearing what others think and how Stan's and other students react to the video.