Film Review

[Anonymous]

I recently watched the 2016 Korean film The Age of Shadows. It is a Korean language action/thriller set in the 1930s as Korea fights for independence from the Japanese. Many reviews highlighted the patriotic nature of this film. Though it does not explore the politics and historical context in depth, I think it would be a good accompaniment to a larger discussion on Korea and Japan. Paired with historical texts, I think the film would spice a lesson up and build interest. It’s intriguing, fast paced, and action filled. An analysis on what makes this film patriotic would be interesting, especially comparing it to what the Japanese have to say about this time period. Overall, its a great movie with good cinematography-- I'd recommend it for both inside and outside the classroom!
edited by lsetiarto on 6/15/2017
edited by lsetiarto on 6/15/2017

[Anonymous]

This film is a documentary about Eddy Zheng. Mr. Zheng came to the USA from China when he was 12 years old. He committed a home invasion robbery when he was 16 years old and was sentenced to 20 years at San Quentin State Prison. Mr. Zheng got out of prison, and became a community organizer, working with youth to help them stay out of the prison system.

After Mr. Zheng got out of prison and began his career as a community organizer, Mr. Zheng found himself in some more trouble. The immigration system was after him and seeking deportation. The film also profiles his romantic life post prison and him advocating for the Chinese community to get more involved in ending the school to prison pipeline.

The part of the movie that struck me the most is when the Asian/Pacific Islander prisoners talked about the shame that their families had because they ended up in prison. Many of the prisoners were disowned. Many families told lies to other family members, saying that the prisoners were off in school!

I will revolve my lesson about the experiences of Chinese immigrants and juxtapose their experiences to other immigrant population in the United States. I will teach this lesson in my Ethnic Studies class and I might teach it in my AP US History class.

[Anonymous]

Film Review on 13 Assassins

This film is a great description of the feudal society in Japan and how the loyalty of the Samurai to their Lords must be obeyed. It is extremely hard to watch in the beginning because of the violence, but necessary to the plot line. It has a great story and is very interesting to watch. I would recommend this movie to teachers trying to understand society in Japan during this Feudal time period, but not to use as a teaching tool.

For use in the classroom:
There is absolutely no way a teacher can show the whole film in his or her classroom. There is too much violence for this to be appropriate. There are a couple scenes that could be useful, such as the training of the samurai to go to battle against the evil heir to the Shogun, and the discussion about loyalty to the Shogun, but overall no.

[Anonymous]

Hello Amolina,
I will check this movie out. Bringing honor instead of shame is a big deal so I am not surprised that his family did what they did.
edited by ahuynh on 6/23/2017

[Anonymous]

I agree that this would be a fantastic film to bookend the unit of Feudal Japan and I will be using it in future classes!

[Anonymous]

I actually like this movie more than I anticipated. I do feel that the story would have been stronger told through the eyes of Katsumoto played by Ken Wanatabe. His character was the most interesting throughout the movie and the need for Cruises character merely serves the purpose of appealing to a western audience. Although there are several historic inaccuracies I feel it would be a nice opening for a unit on Warrior Japan via critical media literacy lesson. I intend to do this with my incoming 7th graders.
I really liked the setting and the focus on honor and the legend of the Samurai. I foresee students enjoying the ritualistic ways of this culture and see it being a lesson on citizenship and the importance of community. I will have them make the comparison to Feudal Japan and have discussions on why the shoguns and the samurai were able to rise to power.
edited by smaldonado on 6/23/2017

[Anonymous]

Kubo and the Two Strings could be used to teach the basics of Japanese tradition, their dress, music, story telling, and honoring parents. In the start of the movie, Kubo feeds and cares for his mother who seems to be in an almost hypnotic vegetive state. He earns money for them and keeps himself busy by leaving for the town below and gains the attention of the crowd by performing on a traditional Shamisen that brings his origami figures to life. In the shape of his father, Hanzo, he tells of his adventures fighting various enemies and ending, but never finishing, with the moon king. This is a way to introduce the warrior samurai part of history as it was prevalent and plays a role in the movie. Origami can also be an introduction to Japanese art and it’s influences throughout history and even today. His mother has always warned him to return home when a bell indicates that the sun us setting he is invited to stay by the villagers for a Bon festival which celebrates ancestors and their lives. He reluctantly refuses and is given a kimono that belonged to his father, who he has never met before, by his mother who wakes out of her lucidity at night for a few hours. The Bon festival in the movie could be used to teach about similar festivities and traditions in Japan even dealing with their traditional dress of kimono by both men and women. He is convinced to stay for the festival in hopes to reach out to his father by consequence of staying out at night his evil aunts confront him but his mother comes and rescues him using the last of her magic to send him to safety. He goes on a journey to find his fathers armor and is met by a monkey, who is his mother acts as to watch over him, that is his guardian and later a beetle with amnesiac memory, who his aunts later reveal is his father. After finding the pieces of armor and falling into a trap orchestrated his aunts kill his two parents and he is left to defend himself using his Shamisen to go back to his village to retrieve the final piece of armor. Once there we is met by his grandfather, the Moon King, who wants his eye in order to “relieve him” of the horrible aspects of human nature and inevitable death. He defeats his grandfather by saying that memories are the strongest kind of magic there is. Once again uses the shamisen using his mothers hair strand, his fathers bow string, and his own strand of hair turn him into a mortal and bringing ancestors of the village back for the festival. At the end of the film Kubo is joined by the spirits of his parents and feels peace. This fantasy story helps depict Buddhism by using ideas of enlightenment and portraying the stages of life. The idea of inevitable suffering in life until nirvana, enlightenment, is reached. The movie both demonstrates traditional Japanese folklore and a modern day lesson on family and culture.
edited by jmartinez on 6/24/2017

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

Film: Hero Ying Xiong (2002)

I chose this film because I really liked the idea of determination and dedication without a major payoff at the end. i feel like most of my students usually expect a reward or a praise after completing something. My teaching style does not really align with extrinsic motivation but it does tent to be more on the intrinsic motivation side. It is a beautifully shot film but I don't think I would be able to use really any of it in my classroom with 6th graders. Most scenes had fighting and death, I that is not really allowed at my school. I would use the film to talk about the determination Nameless had to go after Qin, that he dedicated ten years of his life to make sure he got close to him. He worked hard everyday without a guaranty that he would succeed.
Her are some things I noticed throughout the film:
The theme on fighting and dying for specific purposes is key throughout the film.
In the beginning, during the fighting scene, there was a connection to the fight with music.
Qin wanted to conquer all six lands and he wanted uniform language throughout all six conquered lands.
When Nameless was at the calligraphy school, connecting the brush and the sword. This connection was brought up again in later scenes.
This connection of brush and sword played a big role throughout the rest of the film. So did acting on what was honorable.

Overall, great film and I was very entertained.

[Anonymous]

I watched this movie twice, the first time since I was focusing on the story line and the my favorite actors and actress' performing. The movie director , Zhang Yimou's movie like always, are visually fascinating. The martial forms in the fighting are very beautifully made.
By the second time toward to the very end, I finally realized the theme of this movie which stays in my mind until now. In the movie, there were three killers who believed that killing the tyrant was the solution to end Emperor Qin's oppression. Qin also knew about them, so the tyrant king set a rule that if among the killers, if one were killed, the other could move 100 steps forward in the court while meeting the King. So the the two killers who were also lovers decided to sacrifice their lives for the third one who never miss to kill anyone within 10 steps.
However, at the day of mission, the last killer gave up the chance to kill the tyrant and lost his own life. The last word he said was the climax of the movie for which left me the impact till now " I can kill one tyrant, but there will be another one come out. The nation has just got away from wars, if Qin died, this nation will suffer again. So sacrifice my small life for the bigger peace of the nation.."

[Author]

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