2008 Woodie Awards
"Breaking the silence;" a Chinese film
Diana Dusheck
Issue date: 10/24/07 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
This year, the Chinese Film Seminar at Humboldt State University was presented by Professor Yan Huang. We saw two films, "Breaking the Silence", directed by Sun Zhou and "Shower", directed by Zhang Yang.
Breaking the Silence
As China industrializes, there are many victims of its success. "Breaking the Silence," tells the story of one of these victims just as Charles Dickens told the story of the victims of Britain's industrial age. Sun Liying is a young Chinese mother with a deaf son, Zheng Da. The father has abandoned the family. The local school refuses to accept Zheng Da because he can barely speak. Liying homeschools her son while she works every day delivering newspapers. But things do not get better and better. Zheng Da remains deaf. Liying is raped. They both remain incredibly poor. The city turns its back on their tears.
The actress playing Sun Liying is Gon Li, who is very famous in China, and she keeps this sober look at modern China both moving and thoughtful.
Shower
In Beijing, the Liu family runs a traditional bathhouse for retirees. One day, the eldest son, Liu Da Ming, returns home to his family whom he has not seen for many years. The sight of his old home awakens Da Ming's feelings of affection and duty, which he had suppressed as a young successful businessman. The name "Liu" means "to destroy" in Chinese and to a certain extent Liu has helped destroy his own family at the same time as he has helped modernize China.
Perhaps because the director, Zhang Yang, studied Chinese literature the film is rich in allusions and symbols. Modern China has money, but too little water and the film used the idea of water metaphorically. The old retirees are refugees from a modern, heartless, arid world that is closing in on their bathhouse as commercial development increases.
One patron is tracked down by gangsters demanding money. Just as he is about to be beaten up, the owner of the bathhouse (Liu's father) rescues him and tells the gangsters that "within these walls" his patrons are safe. The bathhouse is a sanctuary.
The film is dark and pessimistic and we do not see the bright sun of progress, only the huge Citibank skyscraper looming over China's capital city. In China, it is not just communists who hate western economics. Conservative Chinese also fear western culture because it destroys Chinese culture. Chinese identity is just as strong as Tibetan identity or Russian identity.
Liu's father dies and with him the bathhouse. The message of the film is very Chinese: to abandon the father is very bad Karma.
Breaking the Silence
As China industrializes, there are many victims of its success. "Breaking the Silence," tells the story of one of these victims just as Charles Dickens told the story of the victims of Britain's industrial age. Sun Liying is a young Chinese mother with a deaf son, Zheng Da. The father has abandoned the family. The local school refuses to accept Zheng Da because he can barely speak. Liying homeschools her son while she works every day delivering newspapers. But things do not get better and better. Zheng Da remains deaf. Liying is raped. They both remain incredibly poor. The city turns its back on their tears.
The actress playing Sun Liying is Gon Li, who is very famous in China, and she keeps this sober look at modern China both moving and thoughtful.
Shower
In Beijing, the Liu family runs a traditional bathhouse for retirees. One day, the eldest son, Liu Da Ming, returns home to his family whom he has not seen for many years. The sight of his old home awakens Da Ming's feelings of affection and duty, which he had suppressed as a young successful businessman. The name "Liu" means "to destroy" in Chinese and to a certain extent Liu has helped destroy his own family at the same time as he has helped modernize China.
Perhaps because the director, Zhang Yang, studied Chinese literature the film is rich in allusions and symbols. Modern China has money, but too little water and the film used the idea of water metaphorically. The old retirees are refugees from a modern, heartless, arid world that is closing in on their bathhouse as commercial development increases.
One patron is tracked down by gangsters demanding money. Just as he is about to be beaten up, the owner of the bathhouse (Liu's father) rescues him and tells the gangsters that "within these walls" his patrons are safe. The bathhouse is a sanctuary.
The film is dark and pessimistic and we do not see the bright sun of progress, only the huge Citibank skyscraper looming over China's capital city. In China, it is not just communists who hate western economics. Conservative Chinese also fear western culture because it destroys Chinese culture. Chinese identity is just as strong as Tibetan identity or Russian identity.
Liu's father dies and with him the bathhouse. The message of the film is very Chinese: to abandon the father is very bad Karma.
Be the first to comment on this story