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Hi Daniel,

I'm glad to hear from you. Your suggestion is very useful to us. My partner and I are also exploring another way to compare and contrast the two films. And the word "feudal" is not appropriate. We should take your advice and use "archaic" to instead of. We also noticed that we should contact more movie content when we express. Which will make you more clear about our opinions.
But in your last point "you are what you eat ". I'm not very clear about that. I'm sorry. Could you explain it ? Looking forward to your reply.

Best wishes,
Song Xinran

Hi Xue Siwen, Li Lin, Natalie, Daniel,
This is the article we have modified, added more specific analysis of Mona Lisa Smile and the comparison between the two films. Various suggestions are welcomed. Thank you.
Be True To Ourselves
The film Mona Lisa’s Smile successfully portrays two types of women. One is the image of Katherine, a woman with free and innovative ideas who strives for women's personal future, freedom and happiness. One is the more conservative images of women like Betty who are still bound by feudal ideas. The movie opens with Katherine on a train leaving California, leaving her boyfriend, to go to Wesleyan college for women, where she thought she had advanced ideas, and aspired to be a distinguished professor. However, to her disappointment, the mainstream of college education was different with her own thoughts, the students were not friendly to her, but she still stood her ground and told the students in her way. The education to females is not to marry a good husband, but for her future and being respected by others.
After her husband’s betray and the divortion, Betty learned from Catherine that individuals cannot compromise easily and should search for truth and get rid of the bound bravely, which is applied equally to everyone.
This is a woman's boisterous happy nostalgia and a film between solemn drama and emotional comedy. The actors' clever performances and lively plots well demonstrate the opposition to the traditional power of students and the brave pursuit of women's freedom. The character is leading a revolution which is not only about the school system but also about the future of women. There was a spirit of fearlessness in her. Let us believe: there is more than one rule in this world.
The film is like a mirror reflecting the self-affirmation process of women. Women should be conficent, whether or not the Mona Lisa smile is beautiful. The film with soft with strong consciously awaken women's cognition; Make women think about Mona Lisa's smile: does it come from the heart? For whom do you smile? Or fake it?
This is a moving female inspirational film, with a positive expression of the bright side of humanity. Spring breeze changes the rain to inspire the life again. This movie tells us that we should stick to our ideals and never give up even though we encounter difficulties. Almost everyone has experienced a period when they are wandering between their ideal and reality, not knowing how to make a choice. Fortunately, among the students at Wesleyan, there is a teacher who can help them find their own value. I hope we can be like the characters in the film, possessing the courage to challenge the rigid future and life and to pursue dreams!
Go after what you want. Don't change yourself because of others. Please show the most real and happy smile whenever we want.
The film And the Spring Comes has a storyline that shocks the heart of the bumpy life. The image of the five small characters is the most moving.They use their own bumpy life to describe a great ideal and achieve great ambitions of the mentality with their own practical actions. The illusion about "living elsewhere" drives everyone to struggle to jump out of the art of the surrounding world. On the one hand it is full of enthusiasm and love, on the other hand, it also maintains awakeness and indifference.
The picture of the film is very realistic and simple. It seems like the scene and props are talking, and the character's situation is silently expressed. For example, glass cups and instant noodles are Wang Cailing's hand-held props, which is basically Wang Cailing on their own material requirements of the embodiment. She is not petty but she put all the money and energy into her own love of the dream. It's a remarkable film, though it's still a heavy, old topic about ideals and reality. People are always hovering between hope and bread, and the characters in this film seem to be able to live completely self-sufficient, except that the egos they have are hard to match with the town so they are seen as alien, rogue, immoral. For the indifferent and ignorant crowd, the value they exist is simply a post-tea talk or a catharsis used to scold and tout their virtues. And these men and women have a purer and kinder dream than anyone else, although in the end they have been uprooted and no one sings to the Paris Opera but the town has a more crookand and a butcher shop. They did not even reach Beijing to begin to drift on and lost the strength to float.
This film reveals to the audience two questions about the ideals of life and the psychology of human nature, only to cause the audience to think, but it does not explore the root of the causes of the problem, or give a clear attitude to help the audience to solve the puzzle. What should we do when the ideal can't be realized? There is a view that this ideal is to blame for the collapse of society. Nevertheless, in fact, is not objective. The society cannot let everyone with special skills to succeed. Fate and opportunity tend to play a more critical role. In the end of the film, Wang Cailing lived on the ordinary people and she can still be very happy. If the film can do more in the regard that Wang Cailing's singing brings happiness to her and the people around her, it will be more complete.
These two films both tell us that we need be true to ourselves. Although these two dream chasers own totally different endings, which means one never gave up the pursuit, and the other one finally gave in to the reality, they all made the decision fitting their situations. Whatever we are confronted with, we need to love ourselves. In the society, inequality exists inevitably. If we don’t love ourselves, then who will love us? We are all products of ourselves, not the products of the system.

Reflection :
​This interaction was very meaningful to us, and we learned a lot. It lived up to our expectations.

​In the first place, we have a better understanding of how to write a film review now. Mona Lisa Smile and And the Spring Comes, what these two films have in common is that they reflect the social problems at that time, which are mainly about women's freedom and pursuit. But they have different ways of expressing themselves. Such as shooting through the lens, the details of the placement of objects, the language, movements and expressions of the characters, and so on. By comparing and contrasting this style of writing, we also have a deeper understanding. What's more, we should look beyond the appearance to see the essence when writing film reviews. We can dig deep into the theme of the movie and what it wants to tell us. It's not just boring watching movies.
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In the second place, I understand the writing methods of my peers who speak English as their native language by reading their essays. Our article seems to focus more on technique, but it seems tedious and wordy. American students of the same age are more concise in their use of language. They pay more attention to the expression rather than the rhetoric. We also learned more appropriate expressions. For example, the American students corrected our word "feudalism". I don't think we'll ever get that word wrong again.

Actually, this activity is more than just an exchange of film reviews. What is more important, I think, is the collision of thinking and language between Chinese and American students. Behind this, the investigation is actually the collision of Chinese and American cultures. I am very grateful that this activity gave me the opportunity to communicate with American students.

Song Xinran