Review of Mona Lisa Smile & And the Spring Comes
18010110 黄雪晶 Xuejin Huang
I have seen two movies last week. These two movies are from different counties, different environment and even have different themes, but they all focus on how female protagonists fight with the world in pursuit of their dreams.
On the one hand, all costumes in both films reflect the psychologies of the characters. For instance, when she thought Huang Sibao loved her and they have fallen in love, she painted her lips and put on a yellow silk scarf with her face glowing with health. There's a metaphor for the yellow silk scarf that it symbolizes the firmness and greatness of love, so it’s not hard to know that she’s extremely excited at that time. The moment Huang Sibao shoved her to the ground and said he didn’t love her, she’s desperate for love, jumping off a building with her homemade costume. And in Mona Lisa Smile, women were required to wear a bundle of chest straps, indicating their fogyism.
On the other hand, pots in the films are well used to highlight the motifs. Wang Cailing bought ticket for the opera twenty minutes after it began just because of a lower cost. She spent a large sum of money on Beijing hukou as well as went to the theatre for interviews over and over again. For Katherine, she used her rich savings in history art to convince her students that she was quite a competent teacher. Believing that women were able to balance academic and family, she applied to Yale for Joan. All the pots assembled into the process of how two women pursued their dreams.
They both struggled for their dream. However, one achieved her dream but the other didn’t. The social and political implications here are thoroughgoing. Katherine, as an avant-garde intellectual, was able and had ability to choose, whatever job and love. Although she hasn’t been to Europe, the thought of European emancipation was fixed in her mind. Therefore, when required to teach following the syllabus, she made her mind to leave to Europe to experience real liberty and emancipation. Compared with Katherine, Wang Cailing was a miserable woman. Living in such a small city, her art dream was not worth mentioning in that era. Her poverty forced her to make do with in a small school. As you known, Wang Cailing’s ugly face and low education level limited her role, whereas Katherine used her knowledge as a weapon to achieve her dream. As such, both female protagonists were assigned roles.
In Mona Lisa Smile, it encompassed the theme of women’s rights for education, liberty and career but its costumes and painting-style were very old-fashion. It formed an extremely strong contrast with the theme with the camel cigarette ads interspersed in the film.
In And the Spring Comes, Beibei, who has cheated Wang Cailing’s sympathy as well as her money, has won in the opera competition. After informed of the truth, Wang Cailing was deeply offended by her conduct. In contrast of Beibei’s success, the failure of Wang Cailing’s art dream seemed ridiculous. This is one of many examples in the films of how contrastive techniques affect theme prominence. Although they contrast different aspects, they are all intended to extrude the subject.
Unlike Mona Lisa Smile is known for its bright hue, And the Spring Comes applied a darker hue, which set the tragic tone for the whole film. It seems to be hinting at the tragic fate of the protagonist Wang Cailing and that’s actually the truth. Finally, Wang Cailing compromised to the fate, raised a harelipped kid and made living by selling beef.
For me, the word “aroma” is able to represent Mona Lisa Smile totally. It not only comes from every delicate picture, but also from the soundtracks, which join in the frame. And in And the Spring Comes, there is no ups and downs, no thrilling, even no suspense. There is only the trivial and struggle of every humble small potato, just like you and me in life. But when it comes to every detail in the movie, every shot in the film is full of tension.
Review of Mona Lisa Smile & And the Spring Comes
Re: Review of Mona Lisa Smile & And the Spring Comes
Hi Xuejin,
Thank you for sharing your paper. I really enjoyed reading about how you see the female protagonists pursing their dreams and how the movies use stylistic elements like colors and the soundtracks. I have a few suggestions for your paper, but I think you are off to a very nice start.
In your first sentence, where you say you have seen two movies, you could mention the names of the movies. Also, just make sure to change "counties" to "countries." I would also add more to this first paragraph and tell your readers what you are going to argue or analyze in your paper. It seems that your paper is about how the movies use motifs and stylistic elements to show how the female protagonists struggle to achieve their dreams. Your last sentence of the first paragraph should be your thesis, or statement of purpose and argument. It is helpful for readers to see how you plan to argue something in your paper. I think your argument is "female protagonists fight with the world in pursuit of their dreams" but you could just explain a little more of how you see that happening.
In your second paragraph about costumes, I think you did a very nice job both explaining what was important and how it was important to the movie. I had never thought about the color of the scarf or the handmade costume she wore when she tried to commit suicide. I appreciated this detail and I think it adds to the strength of your paper. Very nice.
In the next paragraph, I am not sure what you mean by "pots." I think you are trying to say plots, but I am not sure so let me know if you meant something different and we can talk about it. I am also not sure what "hukou" means, and I would like to know more in your essay about what that means and why Wang Cailing spent money on it.
In the paragraph about struggling for dreams, you could change the first sentence to "Katherine and Wang Cailing both struggled for their dream." While I would assume that is who you are talking about, there are a lot of characters in the movies and it helps the flow of the paper to start a paragraph with a specific subject. I also think you could add more specific examples from the movies in this paragraph. I would like to hear about certain scenes in Mona Lisa Smile showed that Katherine wanted to incorporate European paintings in her syllabus. I think more description would answer the question of why that is important. What did European paintings help the students learn? In my opinion, the answer would be that the students learned to think critically instead of just memorizing facts, but I am interested to hear about what you think as well.
My last suggestion would be to refocus your last paragraph. In the beginning, I thought you were going to talk about the female protagonists but the last paragraph talks about aroma and the analogy to the humble potato. I like what you are saying in this paragraph, and I think you do a really nice job of looking at how the soundtracks and frames are important to the plots of the movies. I would maybe use these details in other paragraphs, perhaps the first one about the yellow scarf and visual images of the movie. Instead, I would use the last paragraph to talk about how all of the things you have mentioned are important to how the movies show the female protagonists and how the movies end.
Very nice job! Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you for sharing your paper. I really enjoyed reading about how you see the female protagonists pursing their dreams and how the movies use stylistic elements like colors and the soundtracks. I have a few suggestions for your paper, but I think you are off to a very nice start.
In your first sentence, where you say you have seen two movies, you could mention the names of the movies. Also, just make sure to change "counties" to "countries." I would also add more to this first paragraph and tell your readers what you are going to argue or analyze in your paper. It seems that your paper is about how the movies use motifs and stylistic elements to show how the female protagonists struggle to achieve their dreams. Your last sentence of the first paragraph should be your thesis, or statement of purpose and argument. It is helpful for readers to see how you plan to argue something in your paper. I think your argument is "female protagonists fight with the world in pursuit of their dreams" but you could just explain a little more of how you see that happening.
In your second paragraph about costumes, I think you did a very nice job both explaining what was important and how it was important to the movie. I had never thought about the color of the scarf or the handmade costume she wore when she tried to commit suicide. I appreciated this detail and I think it adds to the strength of your paper. Very nice.
In the next paragraph, I am not sure what you mean by "pots." I think you are trying to say plots, but I am not sure so let me know if you meant something different and we can talk about it. I am also not sure what "hukou" means, and I would like to know more in your essay about what that means and why Wang Cailing spent money on it.
In the paragraph about struggling for dreams, you could change the first sentence to "Katherine and Wang Cailing both struggled for their dream." While I would assume that is who you are talking about, there are a lot of characters in the movies and it helps the flow of the paper to start a paragraph with a specific subject. I also think you could add more specific examples from the movies in this paragraph. I would like to hear about certain scenes in Mona Lisa Smile showed that Katherine wanted to incorporate European paintings in her syllabus. I think more description would answer the question of why that is important. What did European paintings help the students learn? In my opinion, the answer would be that the students learned to think critically instead of just memorizing facts, but I am interested to hear about what you think as well.
My last suggestion would be to refocus your last paragraph. In the beginning, I thought you were going to talk about the female protagonists but the last paragraph talks about aroma and the analogy to the humble potato. I like what you are saying in this paragraph, and I think you do a really nice job of looking at how the soundtracks and frames are important to the plots of the movies. I would maybe use these details in other paragraphs, perhaps the first one about the yellow scarf and visual images of the movie. Instead, I would use the last paragraph to talk about how all of the things you have mentioned are important to how the movies show the female protagonists and how the movies end.
Very nice job! Please let me know if you have any questions.
Re: Review of Mona Lisa Smile & And the Spring Comes
I’m very happy to receive your feedback. It’s very detailed and useful for me.
As you say, it’s a good idea to explain “how the movies use motifs and stylistic elements to show how the female protagonists struggle to achieve their dreams”, but I don’t know how to summarize the elements I talk about. You know, I mention about costumes, light, plots contrast technique and so on. Could you give me an advice to summary them? Or just use motifs and stylistic elements?
I’m very sorry I wrote “plot” as “pot”. When it comes to “Beijing hukou”, do you still remember Wang Cailing went to Beijing by train twice and asked a man whether he has helped her buy a Beijing hukou under a bridge? Hukou, coming from Bopomofo of 户口，means household registration. If you have Beijing hukou, you are a member of Beijing and you will receive preferential treatment when looking for a job or buying a house in Beijing as well as a privilege for your kids to go to public school. Therefore, Wang Cailing is willing to pay 30 thousand to buy a Beijing hukou in order to achieve her goal. Is there anything has the similar function as hukou? I will very happy if you could share with me.
I’m not able to understand what’s meaning of “While I would assume that is who you are talking about, there are a lot of characters in the movies and it helps the flow of the paper to start a paragraph with a specific subject”. Could you please explain more to me?
I’ll follow your suggestion to add detailed names into “They both struggled for their dreams” and more certain scenes of how Katherine teaches her students. For me, actually I don’t really understand why Katherine teaches her students in such a way. Maybe she just wants to break the traditional teaching method and lets the students feel the painting on the spot instead of looking at the plan in the textbook. What do you think of it?
I’m looking forward to your reply again.
As you say, it’s a good idea to explain “how the movies use motifs and stylistic elements to show how the female protagonists struggle to achieve their dreams”, but I don’t know how to summarize the elements I talk about. You know, I mention about costumes, light, plots contrast technique and so on. Could you give me an advice to summary them? Or just use motifs and stylistic elements?
I’m very sorry I wrote “plot” as “pot”. When it comes to “Beijing hukou”, do you still remember Wang Cailing went to Beijing by train twice and asked a man whether he has helped her buy a Beijing hukou under a bridge? Hukou, coming from Bopomofo of 户口，means household registration. If you have Beijing hukou, you are a member of Beijing and you will receive preferential treatment when looking for a job or buying a house in Beijing as well as a privilege for your kids to go to public school. Therefore, Wang Cailing is willing to pay 30 thousand to buy a Beijing hukou in order to achieve her goal. Is there anything has the similar function as hukou? I will very happy if you could share with me.
I’m not able to understand what’s meaning of “While I would assume that is who you are talking about, there are a lot of characters in the movies and it helps the flow of the paper to start a paragraph with a specific subject”. Could you please explain more to me?
I’ll follow your suggestion to add detailed names into “They both struggled for their dreams” and more certain scenes of how Katherine teaches her students. For me, actually I don’t really understand why Katherine teaches her students in such a way. Maybe she just wants to break the traditional teaching method and lets the students feel the painting on the spot instead of looking at the plan in the textbook. What do you think of it?
I’m looking forward to your reply again.
Re: Review of Mona Lisa Smile & And the Spring Comes
Hi Xuejin,
I really enjoyed reading your essay and wanted to give you a little feedback that I believe would make it even better.
I believe that a little more information could be added to the first paragraph. Here you could mention some of the main points of your paper like the metaphors used and the plot in the two movies and how they come together to express the themes of the movies.
The next two paragraphs do a great job showing the importance of plots and costumes in both of the movies. I think it would be beneficial if you added a little more supporting details from Mona Lisa's Smile. Especially regarding the clothes/costumes in the movie and how they support the theme.
For the 4th paragraph, you mention that only one of the two protagonists achieved their dream indicating that Wang Cailing failed at becoming an opera singer. I think it would be worthwhile to mention that while she did not achieve her dream, she is still able to live a life that she is happy with and has achieved some sort of success. Also I think that you should also talk a little more about the roles that the two protagonists were assigned.
In the 5th paragraph again, I think that adding some more details that support your point would make your arguments even stronger. For example you could describe the contrast between themes and the old-fashioned costumes and how this is important for the message of the movie. Also, taking some scenes from the movie where the camel advertisements show their contrast with the theme would support your claims even more.
Paragraph 6 and 7 do a good job of pulling information from the text to support your claims. For paragraph 6 what is the subject that film intends to intrude? I had a little difficulty understanding what you mean to emphasize with this statement. Also in paragraph 7, does the bright hue of Mona Lisa Smile depict anything important from the movie? If so then it would be worthwhile to mention it here.
For the last paragraph, I think that it is good to mention more points that support you claims (like you did with the tension in the movie and the "aroma" of Mona Lisa Smile) But I also feel that it would be a well-rounded conclusion if you mention the points you previously made and explain how they all relate to one another or how they all support a main theme or point between the two movies.
Your paper is very good and would benefit from a little bit more structure for your points. You tend to mention one aspect of one movie and then jump to the other movie several times but I think that your claims would be received better if you were to combine some of your claims into the same paragraphs. This way it would seem more like you are presenting a case with supporting evidence instead of providing a lot of evidence that goes down several different paths.
These are some of my recommendations to strengthen your paper. What do you think? Feel free to let me know if any of these are confusing or if you disagree. Great Job!
I really enjoyed reading your essay and wanted to give you a little feedback that I believe would make it even better.
I believe that a little more information could be added to the first paragraph. Here you could mention some of the main points of your paper like the metaphors used and the plot in the two movies and how they come together to express the themes of the movies.
The next two paragraphs do a great job showing the importance of plots and costumes in both of the movies. I think it would be beneficial if you added a little more supporting details from Mona Lisa's Smile. Especially regarding the clothes/costumes in the movie and how they support the theme.
For the 4th paragraph, you mention that only one of the two protagonists achieved their dream indicating that Wang Cailing failed at becoming an opera singer. I think it would be worthwhile to mention that while she did not achieve her dream, she is still able to live a life that she is happy with and has achieved some sort of success. Also I think that you should also talk a little more about the roles that the two protagonists were assigned.
In the 5th paragraph again, I think that adding some more details that support your point would make your arguments even stronger. For example you could describe the contrast between themes and the old-fashioned costumes and how this is important for the message of the movie. Also, taking some scenes from the movie where the camel advertisements show their contrast with the theme would support your claims even more.
Paragraph 6 and 7 do a good job of pulling information from the text to support your claims. For paragraph 6 what is the subject that film intends to intrude? I had a little difficulty understanding what you mean to emphasize with this statement. Also in paragraph 7, does the bright hue of Mona Lisa Smile depict anything important from the movie? If so then it would be worthwhile to mention it here.
For the last paragraph, I think that it is good to mention more points that support you claims (like you did with the tension in the movie and the "aroma" of Mona Lisa Smile) But I also feel that it would be a well-rounded conclusion if you mention the points you previously made and explain how they all relate to one another or how they all support a main theme or point between the two movies.
Your paper is very good and would benefit from a little bit more structure for your points. You tend to mention one aspect of one movie and then jump to the other movie several times but I think that your claims would be received better if you were to combine some of your claims into the same paragraphs. This way it would seem more like you are presenting a case with supporting evidence instead of providing a lot of evidence that goes down several different paths.
These are some of my recommendations to strengthen your paper. What do you think? Feel free to let me know if any of these are confusing or if you disagree. Great Job!
Re: Review of Mona Lisa Smile & And the Spring Comes
Hi, Zion,
It’s my pleasure to receive your feedback to my passage.
I very agree your suggestion that I need to add the main points to the first paragraph. But since this paragraph acts as a general introduction of the whole passage, do you think the plots are needed to be added here?
Yet, after reviewing my passage, I think it’d better if something more about cloths is supplemented in the second paragraph.
You mention that “I think it would be worthwhile to mention that while she did not achieve her dream, she is still able to live a life that she is happy with and has achieved some sort of success”. So you think Wang Cailing lives a happy life, right? For me, I think it’s just her compromise to life and failure. Although she smiles when playing with her daughter, at the end of the film, the scene that she sings opera on stage reveals she still longs for opera. What’s your thought about this scene?
I say that I should add more details about contrast. What about the contrast between Wang Cailing and her beautiful neighbor? Could you give me some more advice?
The word “subject” in the paragraph 6 has the same mean as “theme”. Am I using it in a wrong way? In my view, this sentence is as a conclusion of the whole paragraph to reveal the function of contrast. Should I need to make what the themes are clear?
I think the bright hue of Mona Lisa Smile makes the film look more romanticized and seems to indicate a happy ending. But I think the most important function of it is forming a contrast with the hue of And the Spring Comes.
When it comes to the way of giving evidence, I was informed by my teacher that there are two ways of giving evidence. The first is all of the same film in a paragraph and then another film. The second is compare both films in different aspects at the same time. The advantage of the second one is make the contrast stronger, because as I told you, our requirement is mainly about the comparison of the films. What do you think of it?
I will be very happy if you are willing to share your thought with me.
It’s my pleasure to receive your feedback to my passage.
I very agree your suggestion that I need to add the main points to the first paragraph. But since this paragraph acts as a general introduction of the whole passage, do you think the plots are needed to be added here?
Yet, after reviewing my passage, I think it’d better if something more about cloths is supplemented in the second paragraph.
You mention that “I think it would be worthwhile to mention that while she did not achieve her dream, she is still able to live a life that she is happy with and has achieved some sort of success”. So you think Wang Cailing lives a happy life, right? For me, I think it’s just her compromise to life and failure. Although she smiles when playing with her daughter, at the end of the film, the scene that she sings opera on stage reveals she still longs for opera. What’s your thought about this scene?
I say that I should add more details about contrast. What about the contrast between Wang Cailing and her beautiful neighbor? Could you give me some more advice?
The word “subject” in the paragraph 6 has the same mean as “theme”. Am I using it in a wrong way? In my view, this sentence is as a conclusion of the whole paragraph to reveal the function of contrast. Should I need to make what the themes are clear?
I think the bright hue of Mona Lisa Smile makes the film look more romanticized and seems to indicate a happy ending. But I think the most important function of it is forming a contrast with the hue of And the Spring Comes.
When it comes to the way of giving evidence, I was informed by my teacher that there are two ways of giving evidence. The first is all of the same film in a paragraph and then another film. The second is compare both films in different aspects at the same time. The advantage of the second one is make the contrast stronger, because as I told you, our requirement is mainly about the comparison of the films. What do you think of it?
I will be very happy if you are willing to share your thought with me.
Re: Review of Mona Lisa Smile & And the Spring Comes
Hi Xuejin,
When I mentioned to summarize how the movie uses motifs and stylistic elements, I thought it might be useful in your introduction paragraph. So, after the part where you say "but they all focus on how female protagonists fight with the world in pursuit of their dreams" that is where you can add more summary. You could say something like, "The struggle for the female to protagonists to pursue their dreams can be seen through the movies use of stylistic elements and through portrayal of motifs.” You really don’t need a lot- just a sentence or few more words to let your reader know what you are going to be talking about.
Thank you for sharing your explanation of a Beijing hukou. With the way you explain it, it makes a lot of sense. If you want to define Beijing hukou in your paper, that would be helpful for American readers like myself, but it is not necessary. In regards to your question, I don’t think there is a similar construct to a hukou in America. In our country, everyone lives in a state, which then is broken up into counties, and every county has different towns. Depending on what town you live in, that is how it is decided what public school you go to. This concept is called a “school district.” If you want to attend a public school outside of your district, you usually have to pay extra taxes to go there. This is just extra information I wanted to share—I would stick with the term hukou in your paper.
In the part where I say “While I would assume that is who you are talking about, there are a lot of characters in the movies and it helps the flow of the paper to start a paragraph with a specific subject” I am talking about where you say “They both struggled for their dream.” I am asking you to be more specific in telling me the names of who struggled. Many of the women were suppressed in Mona Lisa Smile, so I just think you should say: “Katherine and Wang Cailing struggled for their dream” (or better yet “struggled to achieve their dream”). In your next sentence you say that you will follow my suggested and add detailed names. That is all I meant by this sentence as well. So, you already took note of my suggestion!
I think your idea that Katherine teaches her students in such a unique way is exactly right. She wants to break the traditional teaching method where students are just memorizing information, and instead she wants them to form their own opinions about art.
When I mentioned to summarize how the movie uses motifs and stylistic elements, I thought it might be useful in your introduction paragraph. So, after the part where you say "but they all focus on how female protagonists fight with the world in pursuit of their dreams" that is where you can add more summary. You could say something like, "The struggle for the female to protagonists to pursue their dreams can be seen through the movies use of stylistic elements and through portrayal of motifs.” You really don’t need a lot- just a sentence or few more words to let your reader know what you are going to be talking about.
Thank you for sharing your explanation of a Beijing hukou. With the way you explain it, it makes a lot of sense. If you want to define Beijing hukou in your paper, that would be helpful for American readers like myself, but it is not necessary. In regards to your question, I don’t think there is a similar construct to a hukou in America. In our country, everyone lives in a state, which then is broken up into counties, and every county has different towns. Depending on what town you live in, that is how it is decided what public school you go to. This concept is called a “school district.” If you want to attend a public school outside of your district, you usually have to pay extra taxes to go there. This is just extra information I wanted to share—I would stick with the term hukou in your paper.
In the part where I say “While I would assume that is who you are talking about, there are a lot of characters in the movies and it helps the flow of the paper to start a paragraph with a specific subject” I am talking about where you say “They both struggled for their dream.” I am asking you to be more specific in telling me the names of who struggled. Many of the women were suppressed in Mona Lisa Smile, so I just think you should say: “Katherine and Wang Cailing struggled for their dream” (or better yet “struggled to achieve their dream”). In your next sentence you say that you will follow my suggested and add detailed names. That is all I meant by this sentence as well. So, you already took note of my suggestion!
I think your idea that Katherine teaches her students in such a unique way is exactly right. She wants to break the traditional teaching method where students are just memorizing information, and instead she wants them to form their own opinions about art.
Re: Review of Mona Lisa Smile & And the Spring Comes
Hi,Paige
Thanks for your explanation. It’s very clear.
I have a romantic topic to communicate with you, the view of love. The love stories are mentioned in both films and the love of both heroines have failed. What do you think? It there any difference between your country and China about the view of love?
There I have another question to consult you. Although just asked to examine any aspects of two films including culture and strategies, you still use comparison such as sentence “While Katherine serves as a barrier between expectations and individual agency for the Wellesley girls, Ms. Wang has gendered expectations imposed upon her by other characters in And the Spring Comes”. The form you compare is the same as me, comparing both movies in one same aspect. So how do you think of the way putting all aspects of the same film in one section and then another? Since it’s another method of making comparison, I hope you can share your thought with me.
I have watched your self-introduced video, and the feeling is very nice. It seems like I meet with my pen pal. That thought may be crazy but I still have to say it’s magical to have you as my partner. We have our writing class (Border-Crossing Activity is one part of this subject) once a week, but it seems that you have your class in which you talk about out reply every day. What’s the arrangement of yours? I’m curious about it. What about your teacher in this subject? I will be very happy if you could tell me about it.
Thanks for your explanation. It’s very clear.
I have a romantic topic to communicate with you, the view of love. The love stories are mentioned in both films and the love of both heroines have failed. What do you think? It there any difference between your country and China about the view of love?
There I have another question to consult you. Although just asked to examine any aspects of two films including culture and strategies, you still use comparison such as sentence “While Katherine serves as a barrier between expectations and individual agency for the Wellesley girls, Ms. Wang has gendered expectations imposed upon her by other characters in And the Spring Comes”. The form you compare is the same as me, comparing both movies in one same aspect. So how do you think of the way putting all aspects of the same film in one section and then another? Since it’s another method of making comparison, I hope you can share your thought with me.
I have watched your self-introduced video, and the feeling is very nice. It seems like I meet with my pen pal. That thought may be crazy but I still have to say it’s magical to have you as my partner. We have our writing class (Border-Crossing Activity is one part of this subject) once a week, but it seems that you have your class in which you talk about out reply every day. What’s the arrangement of yours? I’m curious about it. What about your teacher in this subject? I will be very happy if you could tell me about it.
Re: Review of Mona Lisa Smile & And the Spring Comes
Hi Xuejin,
Thank you for your comments- they are very kind! It is certainly nice to have this assignment and be able to communicate the ideas of our cultures and discuss how we can both strengthen our writing by incorporating ideas from one another.
I think the topic of love is definitely central to both Mona Lisa Smile and And the Spring Comes. If you want to add the discussion of love to your paper, you could talk about how both films are partially a commentary on love, and how they both approach the idea of romance in different ways. For instance, it seems the Chinese portrayal of love in And the Spring Comes is more realistic than the love in Mona Lisa Smile. The actress who plays Katherine in Mona Lisa Smile is Julia Roberts. Julia Roberts is a famous American actress and commonly regarded as very beautiful. She often plays the heroine in romance movies. I'm not sure who plays Wang Cailing, but it seems that they chose an actress who they could use framing and visual elements to make her appear less attractive than she is in real life. You could discuss how the movie's purposeful efforts to make the actress of Wang Cailing appear undesirable or not pretty at times shows that the movie was interested in commenting on how the lack of external beauty can hinder your goals, but you should never give up on yourself anyway.
I think your idea of comparing the same elements of different movies in one paragraph is a good idea. That is how I like to write papers that are based on comparison because it helps me to focus on what is similar or different in one way, and then move on to the next. For example you could do something like the following outline:
Paragraph 1. compare and contrast the stylistic elements of Mona Lisa Smile and And the Spring Comes
(frames, visual images, costumes/clothes/makeup)
Paragraph 2. themes and motifs
(pursuit of dreams, women's rights, truth)
If you find that your paragraphs are too long when trying to discuss all of the same things, it's quite alright to break them up. In my own paper, I talk about gendered expectations between the two movies, but it takes me more than one paragraph to do so. But yes, I think grouping your topics is a great idea!
In regards to your question about our class, the Border-Crossing Activity is just one assignment we have had this semester. Professor You started off the semester by introducing Western rhetoric concepts like ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos, and we read a few readings on Western Concepts. Then, we moved on to Eastern concepts and readings. I read The Analects and Dao de Jing which were unfamiliar to me but I enjoyed very much. I found the concept of Dao or "the way" very peaceful and for me it shows how Chinese philosophy seems to be concerned with the bigger picture of things like respect and concern for parents. In Western rhetoric, I feel that a lot of what I have learned has been based around learning how to argue/debate/express my point clearly. I have very much enjoyed adding a Chinese perspective to rhetoric.
Thank you for your comments- they are very kind! It is certainly nice to have this assignment and be able to communicate the ideas of our cultures and discuss how we can both strengthen our writing by incorporating ideas from one another.
I think the topic of love is definitely central to both Mona Lisa Smile and And the Spring Comes. If you want to add the discussion of love to your paper, you could talk about how both films are partially a commentary on love, and how they both approach the idea of romance in different ways. For instance, it seems the Chinese portrayal of love in And the Spring Comes is more realistic than the love in Mona Lisa Smile. The actress who plays Katherine in Mona Lisa Smile is Julia Roberts. Julia Roberts is a famous American actress and commonly regarded as very beautiful. She often plays the heroine in romance movies. I'm not sure who plays Wang Cailing, but it seems that they chose an actress who they could use framing and visual elements to make her appear less attractive than she is in real life. You could discuss how the movie's purposeful efforts to make the actress of Wang Cailing appear undesirable or not pretty at times shows that the movie was interested in commenting on how the lack of external beauty can hinder your goals, but you should never give up on yourself anyway.
I think your idea of comparing the same elements of different movies in one paragraph is a good idea. That is how I like to write papers that are based on comparison because it helps me to focus on what is similar or different in one way, and then move on to the next. For example you could do something like the following outline:
Paragraph 1. compare and contrast the stylistic elements of Mona Lisa Smile and And the Spring Comes
(frames, visual images, costumes/clothes/makeup)
Paragraph 2. themes and motifs
(pursuit of dreams, women's rights, truth)
If you find that your paragraphs are too long when trying to discuss all of the same things, it's quite alright to break them up. In my own paper, I talk about gendered expectations between the two movies, but it takes me more than one paragraph to do so. But yes, I think grouping your topics is a great idea!
In regards to your question about our class, the Border-Crossing Activity is just one assignment we have had this semester. Professor You started off the semester by introducing Western rhetoric concepts like ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos, and we read a few readings on Western Concepts. Then, we moved on to Eastern concepts and readings. I read The Analects and Dao de Jing which were unfamiliar to me but I enjoyed very much. I found the concept of Dao or "the way" very peaceful and for me it shows how Chinese philosophy seems to be concerned with the bigger picture of things like respect and concern for parents. In Western rhetoric, I feel that a lot of what I have learned has been based around learning how to argue/debate/express my point clearly. I have very much enjoyed adding a Chinese perspective to rhetoric.
Re: Review of Mona Lisa Smile & And the Spring Comes
Review of Mona Lisa Smile & And the Spring Comes
I have seen two movies last week. These two movies are from different countries, different environment and even have different themes, but they all focus on how female protagonists fight with the world in pursuit of their dreams. The struggle for the female protagonists to pursue their dreams can be seen through the movies use of stylistic elements and through portrayal of motifs.
On the one hand, all costumes in both films reflect the psychologies of the characters. For instance, when she thought Huang Sibao loved her and they have fallen in love, she painted her lips and put on a yellow silk scarf with her face glowing with health. There's a metaphor for the yellow silk scarf that it symbolizes the firmness and greatness of love, so it’s not hard to know that she’s extremely excited at that time. The moment Huang Sibao shoved her to the ground and said he didn’t love her, she’s desperate for love, jumping off a building with her homemade costume. And in Mona Lisa Smile, women wore noble and elegant dress indicating their status while they were required to wear a bundle of chest straps, indicating their fogyism.
On the other hand, plots in the films are well used to highlight the motifs. Wang Cailing bought ticket for the opera twenty minutes after it began just because of a lower cost. She spent a large sum of money on Beijing hukou as well as went to the theatre for interviews over and over again. For Katherine, she used her rich savings in history art to convince her students that she was quite a competent teacher. Instead of just sitting in the classroom and looking the pictures of art in the textbook, she took her students to appreciate the artwork on the spot. In that case, she taught the students to think critically and break the traditional shackles. Believing that women were able to balance academic and family, she applied to Yale for Joan. All the plots assembled into the process of how two women pursued their dreams.
Katherine and Wang Cailing both struggled for their dreams. However, one achieved her dream but the other didn’t. The social and political implications here are thoroughgoing. Katherine, as an avant-garde intellectual, was able and had ability to choose, whatever job and love. Although she hasn’t been to Europe, the thought of European emancipation was fixed in her mind. Therefore, when required to teach following the syllabus, she made her mind to leave to Europe to experience real liberty and emancipation. Compared with Katherine, Wang Cailing was a miserable woman. Living in such a small city, her art dream was not worth mentioning in that era. Her poverty forced her to make do with in a small school. As you known, Wang Cailing’s ugly face and low education level limited her role, whereas Katherine used her knowledge as a weapon to achieve her dream. As such, both female protagonists were assigned roles.
In Mona Lisa Smile, I think the word “aroma” is able to represent Mona Lisa Smile totally. It not only comes from every delicate picture, but also from the soundtracks, which join in the frame. However, the whole film encompassed the theme of women’s rights for education, liberty and career. Therefore it formed an extremely strong contrast with the theme with the camel cigarette ads interspersed in the film.
In And the Spring Comes, Beibei, who has cheated Wang Cailing’s sympathy as well as her money, has won in the opera competition. After informed of the truth, Wang Cailing was deeply offended by her conduct. In contrast of Beibei’s success, the failure of Wang Cailing’s art dream seemed ridiculous. This is one of many examples in the films of how contrastive techniques affect theme prominence. Although they contrast different aspects, they are all intended to extrude the subject.
Unlike Mona Lisa Smile is known for its bright hue, And the Spring Comes applied a darker hue, which set the tragic tone for the whole film. It seems to be hinting at the tragic fate of the protagonist Wang Cailing and that’s actually the truth. Finally, Wang Cailing compromised to the fate, raised a harelipped kid and made living by selling beef.
In And the Spring Comes, there is no ups and downs, no thrilling, even no suspense. There is only the trivial and struggle of every humble small potato, just like you and me in life. But when it comes to every detail in the movie, every shot in the film is full of tension. Although Wang Cailing did not achieve her dream, she is still able to live a happy life with her daughter and achieve another sort of success.
Both films encompass how two female protagonists struggled to achieve their dreams. Plots, costumes, comparison technique and all these elements contribute to highlighting the difficulties of the female protagonists in pursuing their dreams. Although the fate and the ending of them were different, they both have tried their best to fight with the world.
I have seen two movies last week. These two movies are from different countries, different environment and even have different themes, but they all focus on how female protagonists fight with the world in pursuit of their dreams. The struggle for the female protagonists to pursue their dreams can be seen through the movies use of stylistic elements and through portrayal of motifs.
On the one hand, all costumes in both films reflect the psychologies of the characters. For instance, when she thought Huang Sibao loved her and they have fallen in love, she painted her lips and put on a yellow silk scarf with her face glowing with health. There's a metaphor for the yellow silk scarf that it symbolizes the firmness and greatness of love, so it’s not hard to know that she’s extremely excited at that time. The moment Huang Sibao shoved her to the ground and said he didn’t love her, she’s desperate for love, jumping off a building with her homemade costume. And in Mona Lisa Smile, women wore noble and elegant dress indicating their status while they were required to wear a bundle of chest straps, indicating their fogyism.
On the other hand, plots in the films are well used to highlight the motifs. Wang Cailing bought ticket for the opera twenty minutes after it began just because of a lower cost. She spent a large sum of money on Beijing hukou as well as went to the theatre for interviews over and over again. For Katherine, she used her rich savings in history art to convince her students that she was quite a competent teacher. Instead of just sitting in the classroom and looking the pictures of art in the textbook, she took her students to appreciate the artwork on the spot. In that case, she taught the students to think critically and break the traditional shackles. Believing that women were able to balance academic and family, she applied to Yale for Joan. All the plots assembled into the process of how two women pursued their dreams.
Katherine and Wang Cailing both struggled for their dreams. However, one achieved her dream but the other didn’t. The social and political implications here are thoroughgoing. Katherine, as an avant-garde intellectual, was able and had ability to choose, whatever job and love. Although she hasn’t been to Europe, the thought of European emancipation was fixed in her mind. Therefore, when required to teach following the syllabus, she made her mind to leave to Europe to experience real liberty and emancipation. Compared with Katherine, Wang Cailing was a miserable woman. Living in such a small city, her art dream was not worth mentioning in that era. Her poverty forced her to make do with in a small school. As you known, Wang Cailing’s ugly face and low education level limited her role, whereas Katherine used her knowledge as a weapon to achieve her dream. As such, both female protagonists were assigned roles.
In Mona Lisa Smile, I think the word “aroma” is able to represent Mona Lisa Smile totally. It not only comes from every delicate picture, but also from the soundtracks, which join in the frame. However, the whole film encompassed the theme of women’s rights for education, liberty and career. Therefore it formed an extremely strong contrast with the theme with the camel cigarette ads interspersed in the film.
In And the Spring Comes, Beibei, who has cheated Wang Cailing’s sympathy as well as her money, has won in the opera competition. After informed of the truth, Wang Cailing was deeply offended by her conduct. In contrast of Beibei’s success, the failure of Wang Cailing’s art dream seemed ridiculous. This is one of many examples in the films of how contrastive techniques affect theme prominence. Although they contrast different aspects, they are all intended to extrude the subject.
Unlike Mona Lisa Smile is known for its bright hue, And the Spring Comes applied a darker hue, which set the tragic tone for the whole film. It seems to be hinting at the tragic fate of the protagonist Wang Cailing and that’s actually the truth. Finally, Wang Cailing compromised to the fate, raised a harelipped kid and made living by selling beef.
In And the Spring Comes, there is no ups and downs, no thrilling, even no suspense. There is only the trivial and struggle of every humble small potato, just like you and me in life. But when it comes to every detail in the movie, every shot in the film is full of tension. Although Wang Cailing did not achieve her dream, she is still able to live a happy life with her daughter and achieve another sort of success.
Both films encompass how two female protagonists struggled to achieve their dreams. Plots, costumes, comparison technique and all these elements contribute to highlighting the difficulties of the female protagonists in pursuing their dreams. Although the fate and the ending of them were different, they both have tried their best to fight with the world.
Re: Review of Mona Lisa Smile & And the Spring Comes
Participating in the border-crossing activity, my expectations were to share my views of these two films with companions and discuss how to better our passages. Also I expected to have a general communication about our countries’ culture as well as arrangement of our lessons. When it comes to my passage, I thought that Paige and Zion would help me with the general structure and details, and actually they did it. My expectations have been met perfectly. Both Zion and Paige gave suggestion to my structure of my paper, and I benefit a lot from their suggestion. They both urged me to add more details about the plots as well, in which case my readers were able to understand my writing theme as well. We talked about love, assignments, and the origination of Hukou and so on.
The most impressive gain was the view of Paige’s and Zion’s views toward the film And the Spring Comes. I used to think that as they are not Chinese, it might difficulty for them to understand the core of this film and they would ignore some details of it. However, I found something I ignored before in their papers. Such as Paige wrote in her paper, “Moreover, one of her colleague’s offers a solution to help her get rid of her acne and tells her that she ought to get married and find a husband that can make her dumplings. Though her lack of beauty is problematic for some of the characters, the importance of it is contested through the scene where Ms. Wang stuffs her own dumplings while her colleague cries because her husband has left her”, I have never noticed that the function of Wang Cailing’s colleague is to highlight the social pressure to force Wang Cailing to get married and the determination of Wang Cailing to insist on herself.
I’m also very surprising about Zion’s description about cinematography used in And the Spring Comes, because I think it’s hard for us to have professional knowledge about cinematography. All in all I realize that although we speak in different languages and have different culture, our understanding of the emotions shown in the films is the same.
I broke the last paragraph into small sections and inserted them into other paragraphs. Making conclusion as the last paragraph makes my paper more complete. Zion advised me to combine some of my claims into the same paragraphs, but since I see the comparison of two films is the most important assignment and the method I now use is more conspicuous, I didn’t incorporate his advice in my revised dreaft.
The activity is definitely beneficial to me. I learned more methods to appreciate the films and many collocations of phases as well. How to use phases in a more proper way is what we Chinese students have to master.
Reviewing back my paper, I can still find many shortcomings. About the topics, the plots I chose and the way I native. The lengths of two films just add up to be four hours at most, but the precious thought and principle they reveal are infinite.
If I need to use three adjectives to describe the activity, I will choose fresh, significant and interesting. First of all, it’s the first time I have never joined such a project, so it’s fresh and interesting for me. Then I think my peers just like my pen pals. We have seen each other’s video of self-introduction and we kept writing to each other. I know about the different prospects to view the films and gain a lot of knowledge. I’m very grateful that my teachers gave me such a precious opportunity to join in the Border-Crossing Activity. Hope I still have such chance to participate in the future.
The most impressive gain was the view of Paige’s and Zion’s views toward the film And the Spring Comes. I used to think that as they are not Chinese, it might difficulty for them to understand the core of this film and they would ignore some details of it. However, I found something I ignored before in their papers. Such as Paige wrote in her paper, “Moreover, one of her colleague’s offers a solution to help her get rid of her acne and tells her that she ought to get married and find a husband that can make her dumplings. Though her lack of beauty is problematic for some of the characters, the importance of it is contested through the scene where Ms. Wang stuffs her own dumplings while her colleague cries because her husband has left her”, I have never noticed that the function of Wang Cailing’s colleague is to highlight the social pressure to force Wang Cailing to get married and the determination of Wang Cailing to insist on herself.
I’m also very surprising about Zion’s description about cinematography used in And the Spring Comes, because I think it’s hard for us to have professional knowledge about cinematography. All in all I realize that although we speak in different languages and have different culture, our understanding of the emotions shown in the films is the same.
I broke the last paragraph into small sections and inserted them into other paragraphs. Making conclusion as the last paragraph makes my paper more complete. Zion advised me to combine some of my claims into the same paragraphs, but since I see the comparison of two films is the most important assignment and the method I now use is more conspicuous, I didn’t incorporate his advice in my revised dreaft.
The activity is definitely beneficial to me. I learned more methods to appreciate the films and many collocations of phases as well. How to use phases in a more proper way is what we Chinese students have to master.
Reviewing back my paper, I can still find many shortcomings. About the topics, the plots I chose and the way I native. The lengths of two films just add up to be four hours at most, but the precious thought and principle they reveal are infinite.
If I need to use three adjectives to describe the activity, I will choose fresh, significant and interesting. First of all, it’s the first time I have never joined such a project, so it’s fresh and interesting for me. Then I think my peers just like my pen pals. We have seen each other’s video of self-introduction and we kept writing to each other. I know about the different prospects to view the films and gain a lot of knowledge. I’m very grateful that my teachers gave me such a precious opportunity to join in the Border-Crossing Activity. Hope I still have such chance to participate in the future.