Let the Bullets Fly response (extra credit)

Poster for Let the Bullets Fly, photo credit listal.com

Please visit Let the Bullets Fly website and read the New York Times film review after watching the film. After our journey from Stage Sisters (1964) to The Postmodern Life of My Aunt (2006), how would you analyze Let the Bullets Fly beyond this website and this film review? What approach would you take? What in-class films come to mind, and how would your experience with those films enrich your analysis of this film? Due Monday December 9 by 8 pm for one extra credit.

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.

Blind Shaft response

Blind Shaft (dir. LI Yang)

Please respond to the film Blind Shaft AFTER reading the Li Yang Interview from Speaking in Images on Blackboard. Read the optional interview from Senses of Cinema to aid your thinking and reflection.

What is the most memorable scene for you? How would you compare this film with previous films we dealt with in this class? Due Monday November 18 by 8 pm. Comments to two other responses due Monday by 10 pm.

Beijing Bicycle response

A still from Beijing Bicycle (dir. Wang Xiaoshuai)

Please respond to the film Beijing Bicycle and the Wang Xiaoshuai interview by Monday November 11th at 8 pm. Wang Xiaoshuai is one of the most interesting figures among the "Sixth Generation," and Beijing Bicycle is among his most celebrated films. Pay attention to the relationship between the city and the countryside as portrayed in the film, a film about two teenage boys' love stories with a bicycle. Write two concise paragraphs: one responding to the film (such as analyzing your favorite scene, discussing the symbolism of the bicycle, etc.); the other responding to the Wang Xiaoshuai interview, "Banned in China." Comments to two other responses due by Monday November 11th at 10 pm.

In the Mood for Love response

Film still from In the Mood for Love (dir. Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong, 2000) 

 

Which elements of the film are repeated to emphasize a point or a perception?

 Is there a pattern of striking camera movement, perhaps long shots, long takes, or slow motions? What point is such camera movement making? 

Which sequence(s), according to you, is (are) the most important in this film? 

How does the film make you feel at the end? Happy? Depressed? Confused? And why?

Address two of the above questions in two well-written paragraphs with supporting evidence from
“The Cinema of Wong Kar-wai, A ‘Writing Game’”

Cite any sources you quote or paraphrase. Due Monday November 4 by 8 pm. Comments to two other responses due the same day by 10 pm. 

Millennium Mambo response

Millennium Mambo, dir. Hou Hsiao Hsien, 2001

 

Please read Michael Berry's interview with Hou and Zhu before posting your response to Millennium Mambo. Use insights from the reading to help frame your response. Always cite sources (English or Chinese) with page numbers from readings and minutes from films when you are quoting or paraphrasing others. Due Monday October 28 by 8 pm. Read others' responses carefully and your comments to two other responses are due Monday October 28 by 10 pm. Your "talking points" about readings assigned for each class are due at the beginning of classes as usual. Enjoy reading and writing!

   

Comrades, Almost a Love Story response

Pleas read the Peter Chan interview from Speaking in Images before writing your response to the film. Use specific evidence (with page numbers) from the interview to support your specific film analysis.

 

Read Rey Chow’s “By Way of Mass Commodities: Love in Comrades, Almost a Love Story” from Sentimental Fabulations before coming to class on Thursday.

 

Screenings on Thursday at 5 pm in CB336 (alternative location CB331) and Friday at 1 pm in CB 333: Millennium Mambo (Qianxi manbo, 2001, dir. HOU Hsiao-hsien/Hou Xiaoxian, 119 min.)

 

As usual, your film/reading response will be due on Monday by 8 pm on our class blog. Your comments to two other responses will be due on Monday by 10 pm. Your one "talking point" from each reading with your name and date will be due at the beginning of each class.

East Drink Man Woman response (extra credit)

Eat Drink Man Woman, dir. Ang LEE, 1994

As your midterm paper will be due on Monday October 14 by 8 pm under "Midterm Paper" (post the title of and a link to your paper from your own blog) and your comments to two other papers (as a reply to the link) will be due on Monday October 14 by 10 pm, you are not required to also post film and reading responses here by the same deadline.

I am making this post available as an extra credit opportunity, as the film and its director for the coming week are too good to be missing out from our online discussion! You can certainly focus on this week's film for your midterm paper and combine the two tasks more effectively to receive credit for your paper and extra credit for film and reading response.

Please read the Ang LEE interview from Speaking in Images before responding to the film East Drink Man Woman. Use textual and visual evidence from the reading and the film to support your specific argument about the film. Due Monday October 14 by 10 pm for one extra credit. 

Once Upon a Time in China response

Please read the Tsui Hark interview and profile under Course Content Week Seven on Blackboard before writing your response to Once Upon a Time in China. Use specific evidence with page numbers from the readings to support your response to the film. Film response due Monday October 7 by 8 pm, you do not have to comment on other responses this week. Use the Sample Essays reading from A Short Guide to Writing about Film to help you brainstorming for your midterm paper update (due under "Midterm Paper Updates" on this blog by Monday October 7 by 10 pm).  

The Killer response

The Killer (Diexue shuangxiong), dir. John Woo (Wu Yusen, 1989)

Please respond to The Killer after reading "Enough to make a strong men weep" (PDF on Blackboard) and "Six approaches to writing about film" (master copy outside POT1453).

In your response, you must relate your film response to the readings. How did the first reading and its accounts on director John Woo's background and its detailed analysis of The Killer help you understand the film? How did the six approaches to film outlined in the second reading prepare you for your midterm paper UPDATE due October 7th? What approaches do you plan to take for your paper?

Your responses are due on Monday September 30 by 8 pm. Comments to two other responses are due on Monday by 10 pm.

Rouge and The Hong Kong New Waves

Love in a Fallen City, dir. Ann Hui, 1984

The Hong Kong New Waves: Genre, History, Identity

The "Moment" 

Tsui Hark (Xu Ke)

Zu: Warriors of the Magic Mountain (Xin shushan jiaxia, 1982), video source: Youbue

 

Peking Opera Blues (Daoma dan, 1986), video source: Youtube

Ann Hui (Xu Anhua)

Boat People (Touben nuhai, 1982), video source: Youtube

 

 

The Romance of Book and Sword (Shujian enchou lu, 1987)

How to define the New Wave?

Self and Other

Industry and Genre

Cinema City (Xin yicheng)

Tsui Hark and John Woo (Film Workshop, 1984)

A Better Tomorrow (Yingxiong bense, John Woo, 1986)

The Killer (Diexue shuangxiong, 1989)

Golden Harvest

Project A (A Jihua, dir. Jackie Chan, 1983)

The 1997 Anxiety and the "China Factor"

Love in a Fallen City (Qingcheng zhilian, dir. Ann Hui, 1984)

Shaolin Temple (Shaolin si, dir. Zhang Xinyan, 1982)

The Second Wave

Rouge (Yanzhi kou, dir. Stanley Kwan, 1987)


Love at Last Site

The mobility of woman

The gaze

The mirror

Like a Flower

A Chu and Yuan: the modern reporter couple

Technology and lack

Centrality of performance

Rouge response

Rouge (Yanzhi kou, dir. Stanley Kwan, 1987)
photo source: ent.sina.com.cn

Please post your response to Rouge (Yanzhi kou, dir. Stanley Kwan, 1987, Hong Kong) with reference to the two readings for Tuesday ("Regional Revival in Hong Kong" and "Spectral Nostalgia") by Monday September 23rd at 8 pm. Your comments to two other responses are due by Monday at 10 pm. 

Analyze at least one specific scene from the film in support of your response to the two readings. Cite page numbers from the readings and analyze formal elements (color, lighting, frame, camera work, choreography, music and sound, etc.) of the scenes to support your argument. 

Humanism, the Avant-Garde and Commercialism: Writing about the PRC New Waves

The In-Laws (Xi yingmen, dir. Zhao Huanzhang, Shanghai Film Studio, 1981, video source: Youtube)

 

Reign Behind a Curtain (Chuilian tingzheng, dir. Li Hanxiang, 1983, 

Mainland China and Hong Kong, video source: Youtube)

Tracing humanism

 

Political melodrama and the Xie Jin model

                                    

 

The Legend of Tianyun Mountain (Tianyunshan chuanqi, dir. Xie Jin, 1980, video source: Youtube)

The fourth generation

A Girl from Hunan (Xiangnu xiaoxiao, dir. Xie Fei, 1986, photo source: Asiapacificfilms.com) 

 

Old Well (Laojing, dir. Wu Tianming, 1987, video source: Youtube) 

Women directors

                                                                          

 

Sacrificed Youth (Qingchun ji, dir. Zhang Nuanxin, 1985, video source: Youtube) 

Woman Demon Human (Ren Gui Qing, dir. Huang Shuqin, 1987, video source: Youtube)

The fifth generation

    

Yellow Earth (Huang tudi, dir. Chen Kaige, 1984, video source: Youtube) 

Red Sorghum (Hong gaoliang, dir. Zhang Yimou, 1987, video source: Youtube)

Hey Sister! (Voice of China version)

Composition and the image

Sound

Sample writing

Woman Demon Human response

Read "Cinema and National/Regional Cultures" (Zhang 225-240) and continue reading "Film Terms and Topics for Film Analysis and Writing" (Corrigan 61-86) to help you frame your response to Woman Demon Human. Master copy of the readings for Tuesday 9/17 are available in the box outside my office (POT 1453) in case you need to make copies. Please return them to the box as soon as you are done.

Please post your well-written two-paragraph response to the film with attention to both content and form: cultural, historical, and political background as Zhang outlines in his book, as well as composition and the image, editing, and sound as Corrigan pushes us to carefully examine how a particular scene is composed.

Zhang asks in his history what makes Woman Demon Human a unique 'feminist' film from China and highlights the idea of identity as performance (Zhang, 234-5). What do you think? Do take this into careful consideration in your responses, which will be due on Monday 9/16 by 8 pm. Comments to two other responses due on Monday 9/16 by 10 pm. Feel free to raise your own question and find your unique voice in your response. Carefully edit your writings, always cite sources when you are quoting or paragraphing others to avoid plagiarizing. Cite specific scenes from the film and quotes from readings to support your argument.

Writing about Socialist Films from the Cultural Revolution and Beyond

Xie Jin (photo source: english.cntv.cn)

Review of Word Webs

Xie Jin (1923-2008), Stage Sisters, and the Complex Web of Cultural References and Criticisms

CCTV Documentary: Film director Xie Jin (2008, part three)

CCTV program: Xie Jin Retrospective (2008)

The Cultural Revolution and Beyond


Jiang Qing: Shanghai--Yan'an--Beijing

Lan Ping (Jiang Qing) Photo source: Wikipedia

 

Scenes of City Life (Starring Lan Ping, dir. Yuan Muzhi, 1935), video source: Youtube

Model Play Films and Three Prominences

The Morning Sun (a film and website about the Cultural Revolution)  

 

In the Heat of the Sun (dir. JIANG Wen, 1993), video source: Youtube 

From Class Struggle to Internal Struggle 

The Recovery Years 

Ideology and Subjectivity: Chunhua's questions


Film Terms and Topics for Analysis and Writing: 
Reconsidering Stage Sisters and Anticipating Woman Demon Human

Themes/thematic questions


Film and the Other Arts

Narrative, Characters, Point of View, Comparative Essays

MISE-EN-SCENE and (the illusion of) Realism

The theatrics of space as constructed for the camera

A Scene from Stage Sisters (photo source: asiasociety.org)

A Scene from Ren Gui Qing (Woman Demon Human) (photo source: showchina.org)

Cinema and Nation-State in the PRC

YUAN Muzhi (Photo Source: Wikimedia)

WU Yinxian (Photo Source: www.ionly.com.cn)

Three Phases

Nationalization

p190 Bureaucracy

p192 Thematic

 

The White-Haired Girl (1950) Video Source: Youtube

 p194 Toll on private studios: The Life of Wu Xun

The Shanghai and Yan'an Models

Toward Socialist Realism

p 202 Socialist Realism

The Song of Youth (1959)

p205 Hundred Flowers harvest

New Year's Sacrifice (1957)

p208 Genre Experiments

p212 Socialist Cinema in perspective

p 214-6 Stage Sisters (1964) and complexity 

Cultural Revolution and Beyond

Stage Sisters Response

Please post your response as a comment to this post after watching the film at the screenings. Due Monday by 8 pm. Please also comment on at least two other responses by 10 pm.

Your response should not be unprocessed notes. It can be a combination of a screening report and a critical essay, as suggested by our textbook. You may want to use the first paragraph to report on your viewing experience and focus on any particular scenes, and use the second paragraph to reflect and critique the film in the context of historical and contemporary China and world filmmaking after reading the two pieces required for Tuesday uploaded under Course Content Week 3 on Blackboard.

Bellow are some sample questions for you to choose to focus on in your responses; feel free to follow your own observations and to raise your own questions. 

1. What are the historical periods covered in the film? Why do you think a film made in the mid 1960s would venture back to the 1930s? How does Shaoxing opera function as a metaphor for the lives of the actresses on and off stage?

2. How are gender, class, and the nation integrated in this film highlighting female protagonists?  

3. Can you detect influences from the Hollywood, Soviet, and indigenous Chinese traditions in this film made during the broadly-defined Cultural Revolution period?

Make sure to cite sources when writing. Use exact minute to identify a scene such as (Stage Sisters, 10:05) and page number to cite a quote such as (Zhang, 215) to provide evidence for your argument.

Beginning to Think, Preparing to Watch, and Starting to Write on Chinese Film

Beginning to Think

p19 

Do not try to write about the WHOLE movie

What interests you?

p20 

Film as an art form

Film and technology

Film as industry

Subject matter and meaning

p23

Film as construction

Silent dialogue: talking back to the movies

p25

Prepare what to look for 

Taking notes (first or second viewing)

p27

Abbreviations of film terms

Cinema and the Nation-People, 1930-49

A "Golden Age" Period

p58

Three phases

p62 

State censorship

p63-69

Leftist film

The Goddess

(The Goddess, dir. WU Yonggang, 1934, video source: Youtube)

The making of the national anthem

p71

Hollywood domination

p73 

Transition to sound

Recommended reading:

p101-3

Spring in a Small Town

 

(Spring in a Small Town, dir. FEI Mu, 1948, video source: Youtube)

Conclusion: in the name of the nation-people

p111

A series of radical transformations:

Artistic

Conceptual

Ideological

Political

Consider it historically

Coming attractions:

New Year's Sacrifice (dir. SANG Hu, 1956, on reserve in the Fine Arts Library)

Stage Sisters, dir. XIE Jin, 1964, photo source: Goddess, Two Stage Sisters

Screenings of Stage Sisters:
Thursday September 5th at 5 pm in CB336
Friday September 6th at 1 pm in CB339 

On reserve in the Fine Arts Library after Thursday's screening
First response due Monday September 9th by 8 pm on this blog
Comment to two responses due Monday Sept. 9th by 10 pm here