Welcome back! Please respond to the film The Postmodern Life of My Aunt and the Ann Hui interview in Speaking in Images by Monday
12/2 at 8 pm. Comments to two other responses are due Monday 12/2 at 10 pm. Please write one short paragraph responding to the film and one responding to the interview, use visual and textual evidences (cite minutes or page numbers whenever available) to support your point of view. How do you compare this film with previous films? What is the most memorable scene for you? I look forward to reading your
responses and hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving break. Please be prepared to update the class with your final project in class on Tuesday.
Sunday, December 1, 2013
The Postmodern Life of My Aunt response
Welcome back! Please respond to the film The Postmodern Life of My Aunt and the Ann Hui interview in Speaking in Images by Monday
12/2 at 8 pm. Comments to two other responses are due Monday 12/2 at 10 pm. Please write one short paragraph responding to the film and one responding to the interview, use visual and textual evidences (cite minutes or page numbers whenever available) to support your point of view. How do you compare this film with previous films? What is the most memorable scene for you? I look forward to reading your
responses and hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving break. Please be prepared to update the class with your final project in class on Tuesday.
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"The Postmodern Life of My aunt" told the aunt's daily life in Shanghai. She thought herself as a upright person because she is a college graduate. There are several important people appeared in aunt's life, Kuan-kuan, her neighbors, the nanny, a middle-aged handsome man-Pan Zhichang. But they all leave her and some of them even cheat her for her money. Finally she realized that it is time to go back home and see her Ex-husband and daughter far away from Shanghai, which is also pretty different from the mordern city. Northeast China followed behind Shanghai far away in iconomical fields. After sending Kuan-kuan abroad, aunt backed home and began to sell shoes.
ReplyDeleteIt is a interesting movie to me. Unlike the films we saw before, it is the film talking about normal characters, without the exactly history background. But it looks like someone like aunt living at the corner of every city. They tried to be positive, live happily, but failed at last. The huge gap between generations made them confusing. Like the author Marchetti said, it is like a mirror reflected the society. "The texture of The Postmodern Life of My aunt mirrors the fragmented, disoriented lives of characters and the cities depicts. The film vertiginously crosses genres, and narrative moves from light comedy to farce to satire and on to melodrama and even tragedy vacillates between Pop Art excess and social realism."(Marchetti, p.125) Also I want to talk about the generation gap. The film just focus on the aunt's life, but in some scenes, we can see teenagers who looks fashion and enjoy in some cool stuff. But for aunt, her entertainment is Peking Opera. It is a huge difference and impressed me. Some of the traditions, like Peking Opera are dying out. Young people are pursuing new things every minute. The society is walking so fast to catch up for people like aunt.
This film is light comedy but I don't think the director want to satire something. It just reflectes a part of life in the city. A city likes a small society. It is full of comedies and tragedies. The film describes Aunt Ye's disoriented city lives. So she gave up her city lives in the end.
DeleteThe aunt is an intellectual in the film,she was pompous and lofty.In additional she can speak perfect British English, but she was dissmed by the employer. Thus it can be seen, the aunt is person of Is a can not keep up with the trend of the times, so it determine the outcome is tragic.
DeleteI think its a wonderful point that you mentioned the gap between the generations.
DeleteIt's interesting that you talk of the generation gap. I feel like this is an under-appreciated aspect of this film and a few others we've seen.
DeleteThis film complements the migrant worker films in a way. Although the aunt is educated, and socially-savvy, unafraid to speak her mind, she too is beaten by aspects of the city. With her life-savings wasted, she must return to her old home with a family she chose to desert in hopes of finding a new, better life in Shanghai. I think the most impactful moment for me was the first scene of Dongbei (1:33:20), and how different it was from Shanghai. My first thought was: "No wonder she left." (which is exactly the goal of the film) Another (of the many) relevant scenes was the one where she is denied the tutoring position because her English wasn't "American" enough. She's another one of the people dropped by the wayside in the relentless momentum of the nation.
ReplyDeleteI was most struck by Ann Hui's attitude towards her categorization as part of the 'Hong Kong New Wave'. "I don't really know, and actually I don't care." (434) This is similar to the attitude expressed by Li Yang as well. In the Steven Teo Interview on sensesofcinema.com, he says, "As for the Sixth Generation or the Fifth Generation, my own thought is that there isn’t a Sixth Generation…" However, Li Yang does express a certain degree of concern about where he belongs generation-wise. I think it's interesting that the filmmakers with what feel like the most fleshed out characters from the selections this semester both seem shy of defining themselves as part of a movement or generation.
I agree with your view. I also think the most impactful scenes is in Dongbei of China, because she was go back her really home, because of her family is in there, there have her daughter and husband, and that is her spiritual home. Although I do not like this end, because the end is tragic, but on the other hand I suppose this perhaps is a good end for the aunt!
DeleteThe migrant worker is also impressed me. Shanghai is quite a special city. The city contained people from anywhere, but for the local people, migrants did not do well in their city. Aunt is one of the migrants, she got well educated but finally lost in Shanghai.
DeleteI also think this film is similar to others we have watched because of its theme.
DeleteBefore I just started watching this movie, I have been wondering: what is the so-called "postmodern life"? And what is the concept? refined or vanguard? Maybe it is out of the ordinary, anyway I ‘m not sure! However although I begin to see this film, I still don’t understand, also I do not think she has the “postmodern life”. She showed in her nephew is the stingy, outdated, noise and absurd. After all this story and until her daughter tell the story about her, and let her go back home, I just can understand her. Aunt’s "postmodern" is about she be misfits the era of people's values, although she did not subvert the people’s values, but we can through the aunt to see that human beings have been kindness, respect for life, sincere and desire for life and love. Of course, the aunt not god she is also has the personality of evil and selfish for her own desires. However, this does not prevent us to analysis the aunt, because of the tropic is regarding “The postmodern life of my aunt”, that is show us her values are different with the modern people.
ReplyDeleteAs we all know, the aunt is an intellectual, relative to her age, she was the senior intellectuals, but her life is not satisfied. There are many reason s leading her married to a worker and gave birth to a daughter. When she had the opportunity to return to her home in Shanghai, she was back to her home with the head not back. So it seems, the aunt is not a good wife, is not a good mother. A family to rupture, she will pay the main responsibility. Because of her desire to return to the bustling hometown, therefore she abandoned the family. On the other hand, aunt’s daughter was appeared when her leg broken. But before this, aunt says that her daughter in Los Angeles with a lot of people, this is deliberately conceal the past life or aunt feel the guilty to her family and her daughter? Anyway aunt’s daughter did not forgive her, and the aunt fined herself was not suitable for Shanghai, she went to the northeast with a broken heart. She looking out of the window and in the car, perhaps Pan Zhichang's words is right: “some things will not belong to their own” When the aunt back to the northeast, she reduce her angry, and the sky is still vast, but life is declining, aunt face to family silently, when KuangKuang came, the aunt just has some smile and words.. At the end of the movie, aunt and her husband sitting in the market to sell shoes, her husband was smoke and cough. When he went away, the aunt took bread, while taking care of business while eating it. Suddenly, the aunt also likes her husband to cough. Perhaps life is always like this, influence character by environment change you. When the man has penetrating, may is out of control.
It is quite interesting for you discussion of "postmodern" in the film. Everyone wants to purse new things in the daily life. But for seniors, it is also hard for them to keep pace with time.
Deletealmost everybody from Shanghai is not satisfied with what they have at present, they want to get more, it is a good way to live, however, that feeling just cant get too strong, or everything will be ruined.
DeleteThis is a great movie. It talks about the daily life of a normal woman in Shanghai, and it is a reflection of lots of people in Shanghai. because people in Shanghai is one of the typical groups of Chinese people, they care more about themselves, they love money, and they are cheap, they can argue for a dollar for a long time,etc.
ReplyDeleteIn this movie, all the things that happened in the movie are so close to our lives, if it was a documentary of living in Shanghai, it is also very successful. I think the change of the Aunt is the most important thing in this movie, at the very beginning, she is so proud to be the only college graduated person in the neighbourhood, and it really tells that when she tells the woman cooking fish in the street to pick up the trash. And then, finally, she has to go back to her husband whom she abandoned years ago and live in that simple flat, and has to sit in the cold selling stuff.
after watching this movie, I insist my opinion about lives even more, I think life is not about who you are, what did you have and what are you going to get, it is about how do you treasure the things and the people you are having right now.
I agree with your opinion. We should you treasure the things and the people that you are having right now. In the film, Aunt Ye decided to go back to her family. In fact,her life is worse than in Shanghai but she doesn't complain this. She knows she should treasure the lives that she is having right now.
DeleteI also believe that the Aunt Ye’s life is normal live like everyone who are living in Shanghai. It is so true to show the details of daily life for a normal single lady in Shanghai.
Deletethis film is about normal life, but we also can how Aunt's life is being bended. Most people in my grandparents generation is like Aunt, they gave away their young but did not get what they deserve.
Deletei agree with you, it's a common story, but it showed us the traditional people in china.
DeleteI have mixed feelings about the Postmodern Life of My Aunt. I liked the subtle humor and the aunt’s practical approach to daily life; but overall it felt somewhat plain. I didn’t think much of Chow Yun Fat as an actor until I watched this film, as he is usually typecasted as an action hero. His chinese opera singing skills are also impressive. My favorite scene has to be the one where the aunt and the con-man (Chow) walk up around 10 flights of stairs instead of taking the one elevator in order to avoid unwanted rumors among the neighbors. The con-man accidentally drops a watermelon down the stairs, which shatters into pieces, and the aunt insists they eat what they can salvage of the watermelon so as to not be wasting perfectly good food. That was a very “human” scene that made the characters relatable.
ReplyDeleteStory of Woo Viet is one of Ann Hui’s first films. According to the interview with Ann Hui (pg. 428), the Story of Woo Viet was released in Taiwan with an alternate ending that sees the main character locked up (using still photos) supposedly because what he was doing was illegal. The director herself did not know about this until after the re-release, which I think is ridiculous. Someone at some point had to have thought, "This fictional character must to be arrested for committing a crime in a fictional universe." Another interesting tidbit is that Ann Hui intentionally avoids developing her own cinematic style, but rather adapt to the film she works on (pg. 436). This explains why the Postmodern Life of My Aunt seems somewhat plain to me -- there is a lack of distinctive style.
I like that you point out the film's "plainness," although it's not exactly how I viewed it. It's interesting to see how different people watch different films. I completely agree that Ann Hui's meandering style (or lack of distinctive style) plays a part in making this movie what it is. It does meander, it doesn't really have a lot of distinctive elements. But at the same time, I think that almost is the distinctive element. It's naturalistic, in a way (or that's how I viewed it).
DeleteI also like what you have to say about Chow Yun-fat. Again, I feel a bit differently since I've always kind of liked his work, but I also like to hear about a different perspective on what he's done. Thanks!
The film called ‘The Postmodern Life of My Aunt’ was directed by Ann Hui. It described a story of Aunt Ye. The story consists of four stories. The first story is about Kuan Kuan. He went to Shanghai to visit his aunt. It’s the beginning. In the story, he met a girl but that girl was disfigured by her grandfather. So he deceived Aunt Ye for money. He wants to use this money to let her surgically alter her appearance. Finally, Aunt Ye knew his lie but she forgave him. The second story is about a man named Pan. Ye met this man in the park. Ye fell in love with this man. It’s twilight love. However, Ye took Pan’s advice to invest cemetery. In the end, she lost all her savings and Pan left her. The third story is about a woman named Jin. This story happened in the second story. Jin came from countryside. She had a sick daughter but she didn’t have enough money to treat her. So Ye paid her for working at her home because she had mercy on Jin. However, Ye found Jin went outside to get money by racketeering. She dismissed Jin. The final story is about Ye’s daughter. Ye had a heavy fall because she lost all her savings and hospitalized. Her daughter went to visit her from her home state. After that, Ye went back to her home state to live with her family. In the end, Kuan Kuan felt something different from his Aunt when he came to visit Ye again.
ReplyDeleteIt’s a living story. Four stories’ main character is Aunt Ye. She abandoned her family and went to Shanghai many years ago. She graduated from university. She thought she is better than other people. She has a neighbor named Shui. Shui always liked to show something off to her. Ye always showed friendly in the face of Shui but she would say bad words behind her. It shows she is a narrow-minded person. However, she is compassionate. She paid her for working at her home because she had mercy on Jin. And she had a sense of justice. She dismissed Jin after she found her went outside to get money by racketeering. In short, she is an emotional woman.
I had a clear memory when the mother goes on the street and tries to get money by racketeering. When Aunt Ye saw that happened, she was angry and disappointment on Jin even Jin really need money avidly to save her daughter.
DeleteThe Postmodern Life of My Aunt, at the beginning of this film, I thought it was a comedy. But after the story between Aunt Ye and nephew Kuankuan, Aunt Ye and neighbor Shui, Aunt Ye and Mr. Pan, Aunt Ye and the sad mon, and Aunt Ye and her daughter, I found it was a tragedy and made me feel sad in the end. Aunt, women as the leading role in this film show us the status of women in Chinese society. Aunt Ye has high education but outdates. She cannot follow the steps in the modern developing society. She was enthusiastic, warmhearted and virtuous, but cannot live conformable in the big city – Shanghai. After watching the film, the moon in the film leaves me a memory, and I want to figure out what the moon represent in the film, in different people’s mind. I think the moon is the hope in Aunt Ye’s mind. She saw the hope after she lost all her money, lost her neighbor, saw the mother she helped is a liar, and Mr. Pan disappeared. She needs hope, so she saw the moon when she was injured and lied on the bed.
ReplyDeleteReading the Ann Hui Interview, I know, Ann Hui made the successful transition from television to the big screen from 1979 with The Secret, a complex psychological thriller about madness, murder, and ghosts starring Sylvia Chang. And Ann Hui as a directress feels more and thinks more than men director about women in society. Even she does not feel that she really have a distinctive cinematic style, and she think her style changes for different movies, depending on the subject matter and the crew that she was working with. But she has exquisite feelings, and she put those feelings in her movie, especially on the women roles in her films. She play more attentions on the role of women in our society, no matter mainland or Hong Kong
I think it's interesting to think about the paradoxes of Aunt Ye's character. Like you said, she is well-educated, but has a hard time living in the present. She doesn't really fit into "modern developing society," as you said. In a way, I thought this made her less relatable, but probably more charming as a character.
DeleteLike what I mentioned in my passage, the post modern life is ironic. Aunt have a hard time living in the present and she can not get the future she wanted. I thought this contradiction stand lots of people's statue in this country
DeleteI thought the exact thing in the beginning: that it was a comedy! As you did, I realized it wasn't as the film progressed. I also find it interesting how you say she has a hard time living in the modern time of society. This does make the title ironic. You can even see her difficult living in this time as she is walking through the crowd. She's not good at it and can walk with the flow. She struggles, making sure she doesn't get in somebody's way. It's as if she's lost.
DeleteI feel the exact same way about the film. The film was funny until I realized how lonely of a person she was, that is the moment it became a drama/tragedy for me.
DeleteI think it's very difficult to categorize it as either a comedy or drama, so then the question becomes do we call it a "dark comedy" or a "dramady".
DeleteIt struck me as interesting while reading the Ann Hui interview to realize that the director herself is aware of the fact that her filmography is rather varied and both creator and audience alike may find it difficult to track a theme in the films she has helmed. She attributes it to being "naturally impatient and curious" when the interviewer points out that she has "worked in almost every possible cinematic genre, from horror films to comedies, from fantasy martial arts films to dramatic period pieces, and from heart-wrenching dramas to documentaries" (Speaking in Images, 433). The interview was conducted before The Post-Modern Life of My Aunt was released, but I would be curious to see how she addresses this film amongst the others she's made. It seems there is some thematic crossover, much like the crossover between Summer Snow and July Rhapsody, as highlighted on page 432 of the interview.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of crossover, though not necessarily thematically, I found this film to be visually similar to In the Mood for Love. It has the same kind of moody lighting in many scenes and the second article for this week points out, for instance, the green umbrella as a highlighting element. It made me think of Maggie Cheung's iconic qipaos in the Wong Kar Wai film. The first scene in which Aunt Ye is introduced uses this element to an interesting end. Though her voice is impossible to miss, repeatedly calling her nephew's name, the umbrella draws your attention to her even moreso. Later, at about seven minutes and forty seconds into the film, there is an overhead shot where the umbrella is, again, plainly visible. Even when the scene is dark (13:45) we can still see her umbrella clearly. These kinds of visual references stand out to make the character memorable beyond what might have been possible had we only heard her voice calling out in a crowd.
I find it interesting how you talk about the umbrella as a highlighting element. I didn't even think twice about the umbrella as I watched it. I do agree that it identifies who the character without seeing any of her facial features. I wonder if they purposely did that.
DeleteYour point about the rather varied filmography really drives things home for me. When I think about the film I still struggle to have a 'feel' for it since it has so many different sides to it.
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ReplyDeleteThe term “postmodern life “in this film is so ironic。 Aunt in this film represent class of intellectuals. They are educated and have high expected on their own. Like Aunt, she like Beijing opera, and she can speak a fluently English. But in the real world, she married a labor work .Aunt is not satisfied with her life, but she has no chance to change her life. Her opponent from Lu to Zhao Wei, Zhou Ruinfa. They all play an important role in Aunt Life. They look Cunning, cruel, rude. But still they combine the low bottom of society. These episodes are just the dark side of social reality.
Zhao wei role leave a deep impression on me. She resent the Aunt's old life. Aunt think she is different form her but actually we can easy find Zhao also expect a new life in big city. She criticizes Aunt Abandon her daughter and husband, while still complaining her husband can bring her to a big city. The environment they stay force being hypocritical and ignorance.
This Film also remind me another group of people "Ant" 蚁族。They are group of young people around 20-30 years old, and lives in big city like Beijing or Shanghai. They can’t bear the peace of small city but they still cannot adopt in the big city. They chase their dream but no one can tell where their future is.
I have the same thought about this film talks about the people who got high education but they still need to suffer from lives because they are really far away from the modern life.
DeleteI think that you name the main struggle that this film deals with and that would be that Aunt is not happy with her life. Although this is not ideal for anyone to not like their life, she knows that she cannot do anything about it. Interestingly enough, she only hangs out with people like her and never tries to find more happiness in her life.
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ReplyDeleteThe movie goes like this: Siqin Gaowa (The Day the Sun Turned Cold) stars as Ye Rutang, the eponymous aunt of the title, who lives in Shanghai alone, but happily. Her fortunes change, however, as she soon fall victim to scam after scam, perpetrated by a series of surprising con men, including her own nephew (Guan Wenshou) and a would-be opera singer (Chow Yun Fat) who attacks her weakest point: her heart. With so many people valuing her money over her as a person, how can this strong woman maintain her stalwart, but increasingly outdated dignity? My Aunt is not a film that is all too concerned about the plot, but rather as the title suggests, it is about the journey of one's life. It is an interesting and fascinating adventure to witness through Siqin Gaowa venturing through one scam after another, until finally noticing how much the world have changed. Shanghai has become ultra commercial and the urban myth about the obsession of money is fast becoming the truth than a random saying. The scenes of Siqin in the car as she look out the window of the commercialize lighting in the night time as well as millions of car lights roaming across the screen like ants coming in and out of their nest. It is a sight that she can never imagine seeing 50 years ago. Ann Hui smartly produces the film in a satirical manner and in many ways the beauty of the film lies in Hui's use of images to speak louder than words. Perhaps the most shocking scene of all, apart from Chow Yun Fat bedding Siqin, is when we encounter a typically hot chick, before realizing that half her face is burnt. It is a shocking yet sympathetic sight as the audience realize the imperfect nature of humanity and emphasizing on a theme that Hui is stressing upon, what we see if not always what we get.
All in all, The Postmodern Life of My Aunt is by no means accessible to everyone, but it is ultimately an art flick about the seemingly reality of old age and life. It ponders the audience to question about their future and the fears of old age. The parallel struggles of Gaowa are as close as grandchildren will understand the struggles that our grandparents are going through, until the audience experience it themselves. It is a frightening process to imagine about what was once cool is now totally out of date, but then again who knows what will happen in 50 years time. Perhaps, cars will be flying across the universe, people can walk across the ocean or everything may remain pretty much the same. Ann Hui is to be applauded for creating something so real and so affecting. It is by no means Hui's strongest work, but it is a film that allows us to explore and journey into the unknown
“The Postmodern Life of My Aunt” tells the modern urban life in Shanghai as the background about a knowledge woman dramatic story full of joy and sorrow fate after retirement. I think this film is different from other films we watched. This one put the female as the first choice. It should be the director Ann Hui’s own style, I also look for her other films, and those films were also similar. Screenwriter Qiang Li is the same, he thinks women are always the most emotional animals; they have a strong emotional upheaval.
ReplyDeleteSiqingaowa did a really good job in this film; she acted in a really different way. In my mind, she should be more serious, stricter and more powerful. However, in this film, she is like does not make sense, always in the state of being hurt but refused to accept to be a single old woman. I was surprised when she jumped into the pool wearing her sweater that really changes my thought about her. Director and screenwriter’s Talent and arrangements for this movie surprised me too. When I watched this film, especially the first half, I thought this should be a comedy but slowly, all the suspense about the aunt and conjecture - her family? She had what kind of experience? She exactly what worries? I felt the stressful and involuntary of the life. The film's cast luxury, Siqingaowa throughout the whole movie as the clue of aunt, Chow Yun Fat and Vicki became supporting roles but it does not matter, as long as he showed the essence of their role, and that was enough.
I also thought this film was unlike others that we watched before. It had the vibrant colors of "In the Mood for Love" and borrowed different themes from films about changing China.
DeleteAfter watching the film, I was somewhat confused about what category to place it. Although it contained comical elements (e.g. a disgruntled cat wearing a tutu), much of the film plot was rather tragic. Like many of the films we watched this semester, “The Postmodern Life of My Aunt” featured a protagonist struggling to catch up with modern and changing China. For instance, Ye Rutang is fired from being an English tutor because her accent is too British English and not “American” enough. In the end, she is simply too trusting and too gullible and becomes a victim of modern China. Many of the scenes were rapid, which is indicative of the pace of modern China. Although I typically enjoy a fast paced film, this one was too quick in its transitions and left me trying to quickly comprehend what happened. Colors in each scene were vibrant and richly diverse, further showing how
ReplyDeleteOne piece of information I learned from the interview with Anne Hui is that she used to work in television and then transitioned to film. (427) For her, the transition was a bit difficult and it was quite the learning curve for her. I think her extensive television experience shaped her movie directing career. For instance, in television, scenes must be fairly quick and squeeze a lot of information in a short amount of time. This ideology seems to reflect the film’s fast pace.
i thought this movie is interesting, because it included happy and unhappy things.
DeleteI agree with your categorization of the film. While I found parts of the film to be comical, I thought it was more of a drama. On page 433 of the interview, he talks about how dramas, he feels, are his most successful film; and I couldn't agree more with this.
DeleteI never gave her TV career much thought in how it translates to film, but after thinking about it and going back and looking at a few scenes, you can almost see how this film could be broken up and told in the form of episodes.
DeleteIn this film, I have noticed what a hard time Aunt Ye has. She seems to try hard to succeed, but she also seems to put others before her. We see this as she gives money to Pan to 'get his medicine.' She also helps out Jin, the woman with the large cut on her face. And yet, money is a huge part of her life. She doesn't have much, but she's frugal, seems to be jealous of her rich neighbor, and gets excited when she thinks she'll make some money from her and Pan's investment in burial sites.
ReplyDeleteI liked this film at first. But the ending completely ruined it for me. Once she's in the hospital, we never hear from Pan. I still wonder if he ripped her off with the burial site investment. Her daughter doesn't treat her well (has something to do with aunt Ye leaving them, which we don't get much information on). The film ends with her looking sad and depressed. I was hoping something good would finally happen to her. Sure, being reunited with her family could have been good, but it wasn't filmed that way. If so, she wouldn't have looked so depressed in the end.
In the interview, we find out that the director directed the film, "My American Grandson." The director says that the story of this film "dwells on issues of identity." I feel as if "The postmodern life of my aunt," deals with issues of identity. Even though Aunt Ye is old, she seems to still be finding herself: finding somebody to talk to, finding a way to make money and become successful.
I agree, i think that she is still having issues with identity which could be another reason why she chose to go to shanghai.
Deletethe movie The Postmodern Life of My aunt told us a story of aunt. she was living in Shanghai, and she went to a unviersity when she was young. there are some people important for her, such as Kuan and Pan. the aunt liked Pan at the first time, but at the end he went away. and the aunt helped a girl, but the girl was not a good person. the aunt felt unhappy, and she decided to leave Shanghai.
ReplyDeletein fact, at the end of this movie that we knew this film include comedy and sad event. i like this movie. when i heard the aunt said " there is one university student in this building is me, and others are not good." i thought there are many people thinking like this way today. i think the story of this movie is common and real.
on page 428, showed us another movie boat people. i thought people in boat people also had some bad things around them, and people choose to leave as aunt.
I also found this movie to be somewhat relateable for the audience with the feelings and actions of the Aunt. Her struggles especially as a college grad seem to be common thoughts in the way she is lost afterwards and never really seems to find where she is meant to be.
DeleteIn an interview, Ann Hui is quoted as saying, “I think those works that are generally considered to be my best films are dramas about people” (Ann Hui: Living Through Film, p.433). I could not agree more with this statement. From Eat Drink Man Woman to The Postmodern Life of My Aunt, these films always struck me as the most deep and meaningful. Perhaps this is due to the role that emotions play in these types of film – that of themes.
ReplyDeleteThe theme that stuck out most to me in The Postmodern Life of My Aunt would have to be loneliness. Towards the beginning of the film, when the aunt’s apartment building is shown, it is clear that everyone is lonely. From the lady that loves her cat more than anything, and uses what the cat is doing and looking at as a means of finding others to talk to, to the lady who is cramped up in her room with all of the fish tanks; these people embody the word loneliness. Every person in this film reminded me of the ‘crazy-“insert animal name here” lady’. However, the crazy-bird lady, or the aunt, is perhaps the loneliest of them all. From allowing her grandson to live with her for a while, to offering rent to the girl from the restaurant, to sharing meals with the man from the park; she just wants someone to spend time with. And even though these people simply take advantage of her, she continues to keep them in her life, for no other purpose than to keep her company – this is truly a very sad story in my opinion.
i also thought that since she is experienced with and like drama the most, it really showed in this tragic movie.
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ReplyDeleteThis film though it had its funny moments was rather tragic in my opinion. The aunt goes to the quick paced modern city life of Shanghai. Though she is fairly smart and had some college education, she was tricked out of her money by some bad people. In the end, she moves out of Shanghai. I thought that in a way, this film is somewhat similar to previous films such as Beijing Bicycle in the way that someone is moving into a new city and is having a hard time adapting to the new environment and its people.
ReplyDeleteIn the interview with Anne, she mentions that her preferred genre is drama (433). This is clearly seen in the film as the story is about the aunt and her survival in her new life in Shanghai and dealing with different human encounters. I also thought that she did a good job showing the main characters feelings and transferring those feelings to the audience.
You can see that as the movie progresses, she becomes less arrogant and cocky, almost like she was tired of the Shanghai and gave up trying to fit in.
DeleteI found this movie to be very interesting, to say the least. This film surprised me in many ways, some good some bad. But what struck me the most was the contrast of this film to Blind Shaft, in the fact of feminism versus dominant male figures and also the color contrast. The female versus male contrast with these two films is very apparent to everyone who watches these films. Likewise, the color difference is also clearly portrayed. The color in this film, just from the cover struck me from the beginning. I thought this might have had to do with the film trying to portray “modern” lifestyle and living in color is one way to show that?
ReplyDeleteThe interview was interesting as well. One thing that struck me was the truth in a statement early in the interview when they were talking about why she chooses film as her career. She says “my Chinese was never good as I wanted it to be. But at the same time, when I wrote in English I still felt as if it was not my language. I decided that film, which is an art that does not rely solely upon language, would be the best medium for me” (Hui, 425). I think this quote is very truthful and relatable because not everyone has an easy time finding their career choice, or what they would be best at in their life. I think in this way the Aunt in the movie relates to Ann Hui in this regards. Did Ann Hui design the character of the Aunt to resemble herself like we have seen other directors do before? I am not sure, but in regards to this quote and the Aunt’s actions through the film, it sure does seem that way.
I found myself more and more frustrated as I watched the Aunt's 'post-modern life' unfold. Not just new developments but her background. The Aunt left her family in a poor town in Northeast China to go to Shanghai and make it big. She did well for herself until, perhaps seeking to fill the emotional void left by moving so far away from home, she was scammed out of her life savings by a big-city con artist. It seemed like Shanghai didn't really care for her that much anyway: her neighbor was less than a true friend, and she failed to get a job tutoring English because hers wasn't 'American' enough. She seems like she would've been better equipped for life in one of the major cities in the Northeast rather than going so far away from home to get it. The main characters from 'Blind Shaft' and the migrant worker in 'Beijing Bicycle' come to mind. It seems that people migrating in order to work and then running into unexpected problems and hardship is kind of a theme in a few pieces of modern Chinese cinema.
ReplyDeleteAnn Hui mentions that she doesn't want to experiment with much new since Hong Kong's film industry has been doing poorly (433). I feel like Ann Hui reflects this outlook in 'the Post-Modern Life" by portraying the Aunt's time there as a failure.
interesting comparison with "Blind Shaft" and "Beijing Bicycle"; I also feel like her situation was also similar to the characters in the two movies, while all experience different problems, but similar outcome.
DeleteI thought that this movie was interesting because it was hard to grasp on to a feeling while watching it, in terms of personal emotion and the tone of the movie. Throughout the movie, different layers of emotions are expressed through the experiences of Auntie Ye. She presents herself as a self-centered and arrogant person, yet genuinely a good person. Looking past the comedic part of her interaction with people throughout the movie, such as her interaction with Kuan-Kuan and her conversation with her neighbor (like when she comments on her cell phone being international as she was leaving), you really feel the sense of loneliness that she expresses, as she has repeatedly been looking for people to accompany her (First it was Kuan-Kuan, then Jing Yonghua and Mr Pan). The movie was also hard to follow because there are times that two connecting scenes; the latter doesn’t always related back to the context in the former scene. I found two examples of the in the movie: first was when Kuan-Kuan was leaving on the train. The plot made him look like he didn’t enjoy his stay with his aunt (he left and also tried to con her, with good intentions), but while he was waiting for the train to leave, he was upset that he is going to leave Auntie Ye all alone (0:27:17). The second time was when her daughter got mad at her when she said she want to eat crab. Her daughter was angered by her request and yelled at her disrespectfully, and the next scene is them eating crabs. Auntie Yi wanted someone to be around her when she was alone, but was miserable once she was reunited with her family.
ReplyDeleteOnce the interview mentioned Chow Yun Fat (Page 428), and how he has been big in television, I immediately thought about the change of character that we are used to seeing with him in this movie. I haven’t watched all of his movies (because there are so many), but most of the characters he is known for are either the protagonist, or a powerful man in so way. But in this movie, his role was so different; he was in maybe about half the movie, and played a pitiful con-artist who had to con a miserable, lonely old lady. Obviously he is a great actor, as Ann Hui mentioned, and I thought he did a great job playing a much smaller and different role than he is used to.
After viewing this film, pondering for 30 minutes what it was about, I have finally come to the conclusion that I enjoyed the film, and that it is a fairly accurate portrayal of modern China (and the world in general) and its growing urbanization. It's difficult to pick out a single overarching theme, but if I had to choose, I would say this is Ann Hui's attempt to comment on fast paced 21st century life for a Chinese woman that seems to be stuck in a bygone era, isolated and confused by everything that surrounds her. There was one scene in the beginning around the 15 minute mark where Kuan-Kuan was wearing the exact same soccer jersey I own, and then he arrives at his friend's house where they were listening to a popular Eminem song. No wonder Aunt Ye feel's out of touch, she's frugal in a world of consumerism, trusting in a world of anonymity, and old in a young city. It's little wonder she eventually left (only after being conned).
ReplyDeleteOne quote in Ann Hui's interview that stuck with me is on page 425, she states, "I was sent to an English primary school to study, which caused great concern at home on the part of my father and grandfather about the state of my Chinese language ability."
She then goes on to explain that she never felt comfortable using English either. Maybe this uncertainty and feeling of loneliness is manifested in Aunt Ye's character in the movie. It certainly feels that way. The movie exhibits the plain reality of everyday life, and in contrast with the little Chinese philosophy I know, that life doesn't preordain winners and losers, and that life isn't partial, but it can sometimes be overwhelming.
In watching the film and reflecting on various scenes in class, it's refreshing to see a film in which the characters' emotions are quite obvious. In the majority of the other films that we've watched, I am always left guessing how the characters feel. In this film, it's blatantly obvious in each scene how the characters feel. This is due to the exaggerated acting of the various characters.
ReplyDeleteOne of the messages I think the director might be trying to portray is that you often meet two kinds of people in life- one who is too serious and never relaxes and takes a joke, or one who takes things too lightly and is never genuine. I know I can think of several people on the extreme ends of the spectrum.