Contrast between “Mona Lisa Smile” and “And the Spring Comes”
Posted: Wed Apr 10, 2019 12:42 am
The dreams of women—Contrast between “Mona Lisa Smile” and “And the Spring Comes”
180104 吴桐
Last week I saw two films, one is “Mona Lisa Smile” (directed by Mike Newell) from America, the other is “And the Spring Comes” (directed by Gu Chang Wei) from China. Both of them depict the stories about the “new women” who got the ideal of being an artist in last century (The former was in 1950s, the latter was in 1980s,). Now, I’d like to make a contrast between two films.
As I have mentioned above, the main characters of each film, Katherine Watson from “Mona Lisa Smile” and Wang Cailing from “And the Spring Comes” are a kind of “new women”. In the beginning, they held an unyielding spirit towards the gender confine of conservative tradition. Wang, an old virgin in a small village, dreamed of being a singer in the capital theater. During her way to achieve the dream, she came across many men who pursued for art as well. Such as Hu Jinquan, who was a handsome dancer but was disgusted by other men for his homosexuality. While no matter what she had undergone with those men, she finally ignored them for chasing her dream. Just as she said, “I don’t want to fall in love in this city.” Katherine, a new young teacher in the department of Art History at UCLA never got marry too. When she was in UCLA, she tried to change the conservative thoughts of her students and spread the knowledge of arts by all means. Harsh though the process was, she eventually succeeded in influencing her students, a student named Betty even broke off with her fiancé.
Their inspiring stories remind me a word –feminism. As for me, feminism can boil down to a few words—“regardless of the limits of female gender, do as you want!” For thousands of years, women have always been in the underprivileged status, they couldn’t do many jobs and had to follow men’s orders. Gradually, they became the symbol of weakness. To prevent from being abused, they could do nothing but totally depended on husband’s protection. But women like Katherine or Wang battled this gender inequality, they didn’t want to be the subordinate of men anymore. These women are the “feminists”, they want to “fight” just like man. Their aim is to achieve their dreams even though they are alone, rather than being a vulnerable lady inside the house. What men can do, they will make it as well. I think it is the progress of society, men and women are gradually becoming equal, which challenged the traditional men-dominant society.
While the ends of Wang and Katherine are quite different, which results in different emotions. After years of struggles, Wang finally lost her pursuit of being a “great singer” and submitted to secular life. She adopted a little girl to disguise herself as a “married mother”, and chose to become a “housewife” forever. In the end of the movie, she sang “Why are you so cruel and merciless” in a theater, which showed her desperation towards initial dream lively and dramatically. Her story was a “complex tragedy”. On the contrary, Katherine’s ending was a “sensational comedy”, because she won the supports from her students and colleagues when she left for Europe. It is obvious that both directors want to hold different attitudes toward feminism. Director Newell shows great confidence towards the development of feminism in America. By describing the inspiring and happy-ending story of Katherine, he tends to show people that with enough efforts, women can be no less successful than men. Director Gu shows us the efforts of a woman too, but his attitude towards feminism seems ambiguous. I am not sure if he wants to tell us that feminism is hopeful in China. If he does, I suppose that Wang’s ending would have been as perfect as Katherine. Actually, the liberation of female spirits in china was just at the beginning. Traditional thoughts and customs are still limiting many Chinese women. Some persons or companies even hold the idea of gender discrimination, which causes women to face many obstacles through their ways to dream. Wang Cailing is not only an individuality, she stands for thousands of Chinese women who failed to achieve their dream because of reality, unbowed but unable to change their future. Therefore, I think Chinese government still needs to enhance the propaganda of women liberation, to give them more chances to achieve their great dreams.
You may ask: “Katherine succeeded in achieving her dream, so Wang failed, didn’t she?” As for me, Wang neither succeeded nor failed. It was a kind of reconcile. We always say “No pain, no gain”. However, not everyone can gain something by efforts. When the society may not allow you to achieve your dream, why not “change” your dream then live another kind of life. Katherine’s college was tolerant, which gave her an open atmosphere for her teaching. That is a necessary factor for her success. Wang was nearly forty when she went to Beijing for her dream, she didn’t have a family to support her or get enough financial sponsors. Worse, she was an ugly countryside woman, while the facial appearance and social background was essential for a woman to become a theater singer at that age. Her spirit was respectable, unfortunately her dream was ridiculous. A “good dream” shall be based on subjective and objective situations. Fighting for the dream which is not practical is only a waste of time and strength. Luckily, it is never too late to change. Just like Wang, choose to compromise between dream and reality, avoid further losses and pains. In that case, it may be a better choice to “abandon” your “initial dream”.
Moreover, I‘d like to talk about the details on both movies. Both stories in the films took place in last century, while the scenes are attractive, from which you can get a sense of history. Both directors chose the background with classic buildings and vehicles. The characters’ dresses were designed follow that period. What really attract me are the dialogues in “And the spring comes”. The characters spoke local dialect each other even though the actors didn’t know how to speak at first. It makes me feel as if the stories were really happened instead if created by people, which is an excellent way to show a nation’s culture. They treated the details of film conscientiously, and it’s an essential reason why they got high praise. It also teaches Chinese directors an indispensable lesson: If you want to make your historical movie popular, you must try your best to avoid mistakes about details.
Stories are often based on reality, both films also reflect some “diseases” of modern society. For example, when Wang wanted to find a singing job in city, she had to get the residence permit from the city. However, it was difficult for a citizen from the countryside to get that, so she “bribed” her friend to help her. In “Mona Lisa Smile”, the college just wished their female students learn how to be a good wife after marry and live a happy life as soon as possible. From these details, we can learn that in the society of commodity economy, money is so “important” that even emotions concern about money. The aim of studying in the college is to have a rich family after married. The dream of being a theater singer will never come true without “paying” money. I believe it is a terrible problem and we should ponder it seriously.
In conclusion, both movies are impressive. They not only focus on the liberation of the women, but also concern about the philosophy of dream. If you want to learn more substantial meanings of feminism and dream, you ought to watch both of them thoughtfully. (1265 words)
180104 吴桐
Last week I saw two films, one is “Mona Lisa Smile” (directed by Mike Newell) from America, the other is “And the Spring Comes” (directed by Gu Chang Wei) from China. Both of them depict the stories about the “new women” who got the ideal of being an artist in last century (The former was in 1950s, the latter was in 1980s,). Now, I’d like to make a contrast between two films.
As I have mentioned above, the main characters of each film, Katherine Watson from “Mona Lisa Smile” and Wang Cailing from “And the Spring Comes” are a kind of “new women”. In the beginning, they held an unyielding spirit towards the gender confine of conservative tradition. Wang, an old virgin in a small village, dreamed of being a singer in the capital theater. During her way to achieve the dream, she came across many men who pursued for art as well. Such as Hu Jinquan, who was a handsome dancer but was disgusted by other men for his homosexuality. While no matter what she had undergone with those men, she finally ignored them for chasing her dream. Just as she said, “I don’t want to fall in love in this city.” Katherine, a new young teacher in the department of Art History at UCLA never got marry too. When she was in UCLA, she tried to change the conservative thoughts of her students and spread the knowledge of arts by all means. Harsh though the process was, she eventually succeeded in influencing her students, a student named Betty even broke off with her fiancé.
Their inspiring stories remind me a word –feminism. As for me, feminism can boil down to a few words—“regardless of the limits of female gender, do as you want!” For thousands of years, women have always been in the underprivileged status, they couldn’t do many jobs and had to follow men’s orders. Gradually, they became the symbol of weakness. To prevent from being abused, they could do nothing but totally depended on husband’s protection. But women like Katherine or Wang battled this gender inequality, they didn’t want to be the subordinate of men anymore. These women are the “feminists”, they want to “fight” just like man. Their aim is to achieve their dreams even though they are alone, rather than being a vulnerable lady inside the house. What men can do, they will make it as well. I think it is the progress of society, men and women are gradually becoming equal, which challenged the traditional men-dominant society.
While the ends of Wang and Katherine are quite different, which results in different emotions. After years of struggles, Wang finally lost her pursuit of being a “great singer” and submitted to secular life. She adopted a little girl to disguise herself as a “married mother”, and chose to become a “housewife” forever. In the end of the movie, she sang “Why are you so cruel and merciless” in a theater, which showed her desperation towards initial dream lively and dramatically. Her story was a “complex tragedy”. On the contrary, Katherine’s ending was a “sensational comedy”, because she won the supports from her students and colleagues when she left for Europe. It is obvious that both directors want to hold different attitudes toward feminism. Director Newell shows great confidence towards the development of feminism in America. By describing the inspiring and happy-ending story of Katherine, he tends to show people that with enough efforts, women can be no less successful than men. Director Gu shows us the efforts of a woman too, but his attitude towards feminism seems ambiguous. I am not sure if he wants to tell us that feminism is hopeful in China. If he does, I suppose that Wang’s ending would have been as perfect as Katherine. Actually, the liberation of female spirits in china was just at the beginning. Traditional thoughts and customs are still limiting many Chinese women. Some persons or companies even hold the idea of gender discrimination, which causes women to face many obstacles through their ways to dream. Wang Cailing is not only an individuality, she stands for thousands of Chinese women who failed to achieve their dream because of reality, unbowed but unable to change their future. Therefore, I think Chinese government still needs to enhance the propaganda of women liberation, to give them more chances to achieve their great dreams.
You may ask: “Katherine succeeded in achieving her dream, so Wang failed, didn’t she?” As for me, Wang neither succeeded nor failed. It was a kind of reconcile. We always say “No pain, no gain”. However, not everyone can gain something by efforts. When the society may not allow you to achieve your dream, why not “change” your dream then live another kind of life. Katherine’s college was tolerant, which gave her an open atmosphere for her teaching. That is a necessary factor for her success. Wang was nearly forty when she went to Beijing for her dream, she didn’t have a family to support her or get enough financial sponsors. Worse, she was an ugly countryside woman, while the facial appearance and social background was essential for a woman to become a theater singer at that age. Her spirit was respectable, unfortunately her dream was ridiculous. A “good dream” shall be based on subjective and objective situations. Fighting for the dream which is not practical is only a waste of time and strength. Luckily, it is never too late to change. Just like Wang, choose to compromise between dream and reality, avoid further losses and pains. In that case, it may be a better choice to “abandon” your “initial dream”.
Moreover, I‘d like to talk about the details on both movies. Both stories in the films took place in last century, while the scenes are attractive, from which you can get a sense of history. Both directors chose the background with classic buildings and vehicles. The characters’ dresses were designed follow that period. What really attract me are the dialogues in “And the spring comes”. The characters spoke local dialect each other even though the actors didn’t know how to speak at first. It makes me feel as if the stories were really happened instead if created by people, which is an excellent way to show a nation’s culture. They treated the details of film conscientiously, and it’s an essential reason why they got high praise. It also teaches Chinese directors an indispensable lesson: If you want to make your historical movie popular, you must try your best to avoid mistakes about details.
Stories are often based on reality, both films also reflect some “diseases” of modern society. For example, when Wang wanted to find a singing job in city, she had to get the residence permit from the city. However, it was difficult for a citizen from the countryside to get that, so she “bribed” her friend to help her. In “Mona Lisa Smile”, the college just wished their female students learn how to be a good wife after marry and live a happy life as soon as possible. From these details, we can learn that in the society of commodity economy, money is so “important” that even emotions concern about money. The aim of studying in the college is to have a rich family after married. The dream of being a theater singer will never come true without “paying” money. I believe it is a terrible problem and we should ponder it seriously.
In conclusion, both movies are impressive. They not only focus on the liberation of the women, but also concern about the philosophy of dream. If you want to learn more substantial meanings of feminism and dream, you ought to watch both of them thoughtfully. (1265 words)