Bride in Shangrila 花腰新娘

Recently I have been watching lots of new Chinese movies. By new I mean movies coming out during the past 5 years. One movie that really intrigued me was Bride in Shangrila (English Title), directed by Zhang Jiarui, and played by Zhang Jingchu and Yin Xiaotian as leading roles.

The story unfolded in an ethnic minority (Flower Belt Yi 花腰彝) setting in Southwest China. The plot was not too complicated and it involves a young Yi girl Fengmei and her relationship with her husband, and her passion for dragon dance, and ultimately her rebellion as a woman againist tradition and the social stereotype between masculinity and feminine. The scenary of the movie was extremely beautiful, capturing the essential beauty of the exotic and pure mountainous scenary of Southwest China. The music was extremely wonderful with very high-pitched Yi folk songs going all the way through the movie.

There are a few thoughts about this movie that is worthwhile to articulate a bit more. Many western anthropologists, such as Dru Gladney and Raulph Litzinger etc, talk about the dipiction of ethnic minorities in China more in a way as a cultural criticism by Han Chinese of the repressive Han Chinese Confucian culture as well as the previous totalitarian socialist state. This might be the case for movies and books coming out during the 1980s in the genre called Scar Literature (伤痕文学) . Usually, the ethnic minorities are portrayed as exotic and primitive, and usually very feminine ans sexual. Although one has to admit that some of these still can be found in Bride in Shangrila, there are however quite a departure from previous ones.

First is that the macrosocial structure of the movie is totally set in reform period market economy China. Thus one tension in the movie is the challenge of market economy on tradition and social mores among ethnic minority groups. In the movie we saw the urgency to make money and the fact some people from the village have already gotten rich were catalysts for the unfolding of the movie. Thus we can argue that in the post-socialist China, the relationship between ethnic minorities and the Han Chinese are increasingly conditioned by the imperatives of the market. The commodification of minority culture is increasingly gaining ground.

Second, is the apparent rendition of the patriotic part of the ethnic minorities. Indeed, in the movie, the idea of being part of the Chinese nation was not questioned at all, but rather some grand ideal that minority people are striving for. This is demonstrated through the desire of the village dragon dance group to win a provincial level competition and later to Beijing and became a national champion. This is indeed a very interesting issue that touches upon people’s self-identification and layered identity as both a minority, in this case Yi, and being Chinese (zhong guo ren).

Third, is the theme of feminist thinking. Fengmei, the heroine, was depicted in a very tom-boyish fasion. She is never afraid of her husband, and can challenge anybody that is in her way for success. Several times in the movie, Fengmei encouraged her fellow female dancers to rebel againist the traditional stereotype of being women in a minority village.

All in all, this movie is quite a good one that combines both tradition and modernity in a fast-change post-socialist China. Highly recommended.

Shortbus

Yesterday I saw a very blatant movie Shortbus that combines mainstream cinema with nudity and real-life intercourse. The movie is full of scenes of people having sex, and very much like in a pornography way. Anyway, here is a review of the movie posted by James Rocchi.

Early buzz about John Cameron Mitchell’s follow-up to Hedwig and the Angry Inch was that it was going to be loaded with real sex — not the blue-lit, horizontally docking faces of mainstream movies but not the characterless coupling of porn, either. After years of buzz, actually seeing Shortbus leaves you wanting to invent new adjectives — Fucktastic! Cocktacular! Breastalicious! — but it also leaves you more than a little impressed by how funny and loose and, yes, emotionally engaging the film is. All the sex makes Shortbus kinda hot, but what’s surprising is how Mitchell’s sensibility and comedic charm makes it warm, too.

James (Paul Dawson) and Jamie (PJ De Boy) are a gay couple dealing with the monotony of monogamy — and, as we learn, the fact that one half of the couple is a bit more hopelessly devoted than the other. Couples Counselor Sofia (Sook-Yin Lee) is trying to help Jamie and James — although when she reveals she’s never had an orgasm with her husband Rob (Raphael Barker), the phrase “physician, heal thyself” flits through your mind. Jamie and James invite Sofia to a sex/performance space called Shortbus, where Sofia meets and befriends the Dominatrix Severin (Lindsay Beamish). Of course, these are contextual introductions: The film opens with James masturbating furiously before Jamie gets home, Rob and Sofia running through a gallery of positions like they’re proofing the Kama Sutra with an imminent deadline and Severin beating the hell out of an annoying-yet-appealing client in a hotel suite overlooking Ground Zero.

Shortbus isn’t just interested in how these characters have sex, even if they do a lot of it; it’s just as interested in the connections of hearts and minds as it is in the mechanics of inserting tab ‘a’ into slot ‘b’ (and ‘c’ and ‘d’ and rubbing tab ‘a’ against tab ‘e’ and much more). By and large, Shortbus has as much to do with real sex as Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory has to do with real confectionery: It’s a bright-colored, fanciful, fun world of pure imagination. Although thinking about it — specifically, a scene where a three-way includes a vocalization of The Star-Spangled Banner directly into another partner’s tender bits — ‘pure’ might not be the right adjective.

And Shortbus doesn’t lie to itself about how artificial it is, either: It features a brilliantly realized 3-D model of Manhattan that the camera zooms through to go from location to location. There’s a lot of physical comedy in the film too, believe it or not, like when Sofia takes Rob to Shortbus and gives him a remote control for her vibrator — which he first forgets and then loses. And there’s also a certain amount of emotional integrity as well: Severin’s not exactly ecstatic about her life choices; James used to be a hustler, a he looks back on with sadness; one of the characters is planning a suicide with meticulous integrity. It’s rare for a film to leave you aroused and amused, hopeful and horny, impressed by both the development of the characters and the flexibility of the actors — but the sexy, silly, startling, slight-but-sweet Shortbus pulls all those things off.

The Postmodern Life of My Aunt

Yesterday I saw a Chinese movie called “The Postmodern Life of My Aunt” 姨妈的后现代生活。It is played by Siqin Gaowa, Chow Yun-Fat, Zhao Wei, Shi Ke and others. It tells a story about a middle-aged woman and her struggle in the fast-changing life in contemporary China. The movie doesn’t have a single plot, but tells several small stories about her encounters with different people, her nosy/snobbish/showing-off neighbor, a poor woman who tries to save her dying daughter, a man how is overly flamboyant and finally ripped her off all her savings, and her daughter who holds grudge on her because she left her with her dat long time ago in Northeast China before she came to Shanghai. the movie ends with the aunt went back to the Northeast of China after her failure in dealing with all the changes in the contemporary Chinese society. I still don’t understand the postmodern part of it, as the director Ann Hui also admit that they used the word just because it looks fancy. The movie itself is however quite solid. Especially performance by Shi Ke and Zhao Wei are very powerful. Recommended.