When We Chase Our Dreams, What About the Reality
Posted: Wed Apr 10, 2019 1:09 am
When We Chase Our Dreams, What About the Reality
叶小析 180124 Xiaoxi Ye
“Van Gogh…… refused to conform his ideals to the popular taste, and refused to compromise his integrity.”said Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts), the heroine in Mona Lisa Smile. It’s such an inspiring feministic manifesto about how to be yourself and accepted by many people. But if you were Cailing Wang(Wenli Jiang) in And The Spring Comes, would it be still easy for you to practice such a kind of thought and even to make people understand it? I suppose not.
Recently, I have watched two films. One is a 2003 American drama film called Mona Lisa Smile directed by Mike Newell, and the other one is a Chinese one whose name is And The Spring Comes filmed by Changwei Gu.
From my perspective, between these two films there is a similarity in their themes —— Independent women remain steadfast in their destinations to overcome the hindrance and chase their own dreams. Both of them believed, or had believed before, that everyone shouldn’t be limited by the social stereotypes on women’s marriage and backgrounds about who they are. I was really moved by their optimism and fearlessness towards their dreams. For instance, in Mona Lisa Smile Katherine Wat-son took “Van Gulf in the box” as a bad example of painting in order to encourage the outstanding female students to chase what they really wanted instead of being what others thought they should be. However in And the Spring Comes, Cailing Wang, who refused to marry someone who didn’t understand her, would like to spend a large amount of money changing her residence into Beijing so she could make a living as a famous opera singer in Beijing, though many people believed her dream just a wildest dream. However, Joan Brandwyn(Julia Stiles), as a student of Katherine, eventually refused to go further study and went back to home. Yu Zhou (Guohua Wu) asked Cailing to become his wife instead of chasing her wildest dream. Unfortunately, both in the 50s in America and in China, it seems that it is obligatory for every single woman to be a full-time housewife instead of taking responsibility for choosing a more colorful future. So actually I think it is a fate that Katherine and Cailing were fighting against.
Both of the films have used “art” to express their themes. In Mona Lisa Smile, varied kinds of paintings are spiritual bridges for Katherine connecting with students. In And The Spring Comes, opera as a metaphor represents the pure dream of Cailing. I reckon why the director would choose “art” as an image of dream is that art is not only emotional and sensitive enough to represent human’s beautiful dreams, but also one of distinctive ways for human to express the feeling and wise thought which represent the human noble spirit. “Art is expressing the author's imaginative, conceptual ideas, or technical skill, intended to be appreciated for their beauty or emotional power.”
However, Katherine successfully gained her students’ acceptance and appreciation for her feminism at the end of Mona Lisa Smile, while in And the Spring Comes Cailing unavoidably became the victim of destiny, who gave up her dream and came back to her common life. In my opinion, the reason why they, though they are very similar in the personality, get different endings is that they are under different circumstances. It is apparent that Katherine Watson is in the upper class whereas Cailing Wang is in the lower class. As a well-educated elite who graduated from University of California Berkeley, there was no doubt that Katherine got more opportunities and platforms to release her “feministic manifesto” than that of Cailing. We had to acknowledge that as a low-class citizen, Cailing needed to devote her whole life gaining a high social status which however Katherine had al-ready been granted naturally in her early age. Because Cailing came from the lower class without any background, she even couldn’t find a proper way to show her professional singing skill to the opera company. In sum, they didn’t share the same status at all, so it would be much more difficult for Cailing to achieve her own dream than for Katherine to spread her feministic theory.
What’s more, the difference in culture backgrounds also provides different endings to the two films. Though I have mentioned that both of the heroines were in a kind of conservative society, actually in the 60s America rose up the Sexual Liberation which was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships. I think it was a kind of trigger for everyone like Katherine Watson to express the feministic theory successfully at last, as the public gradually could accept and even propaganda kinds of radical theories. While looking back to And the Spring Comes, what about the culture where Cailing Wang stayed? During that period, the conservative thought still dominated many places of China, especially the rural area. What's more, it was also a hard period for Chinese Art to come through as Chinese people paid less attention on art than on the business. There were too many artists who received the support from the government instead of making money by themselves. What’s more, people even would think art ridiculous and made fun of the artists such as what Jinquan Hu(Gang Jiao) had experienced. There are many negative effects and eventually the reality failed Cailing.
It is apparent that both of the films are about feminism. And there is no doubt that all of us should take responsibility for saving woman’s equal right. But in my opinion in both films, the conflict is not only about the female’s right and the conservative society, but also more importantly about an eternal topic — the ideality and the reality. When we chase our dreams, what about the reality? I believe that it is not enough if we have only the passion on our dreams. Actually we are unable to afford to ignore the reality. Katherine actually took advantage of the cultural background but Cailing had nothing but her zealousness and the professional skills. Therefore I think it is necessary for us to adjust to the condition first and then take action to achieve our dreams.
From my perspective, Mona Lisa Smile and And The Spring Comes both are the remarkable feminist films. They both show the bright side of how women chase their dreams. However the different cultural aspects between these two heroines cause them to get the different endings. In fact both of them discuss the conflict between the dreams and the reality. And I think favorable conditions could bring the dreams come true.
叶小析 180124 Xiaoxi Ye
“Van Gogh…… refused to conform his ideals to the popular taste, and refused to compromise his integrity.”said Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts), the heroine in Mona Lisa Smile. It’s such an inspiring feministic manifesto about how to be yourself and accepted by many people. But if you were Cailing Wang(Wenli Jiang) in And The Spring Comes, would it be still easy for you to practice such a kind of thought and even to make people understand it? I suppose not.
Recently, I have watched two films. One is a 2003 American drama film called Mona Lisa Smile directed by Mike Newell, and the other one is a Chinese one whose name is And The Spring Comes filmed by Changwei Gu.
From my perspective, between these two films there is a similarity in their themes —— Independent women remain steadfast in their destinations to overcome the hindrance and chase their own dreams. Both of them believed, or had believed before, that everyone shouldn’t be limited by the social stereotypes on women’s marriage and backgrounds about who they are. I was really moved by their optimism and fearlessness towards their dreams. For instance, in Mona Lisa Smile Katherine Wat-son took “Van Gulf in the box” as a bad example of painting in order to encourage the outstanding female students to chase what they really wanted instead of being what others thought they should be. However in And the Spring Comes, Cailing Wang, who refused to marry someone who didn’t understand her, would like to spend a large amount of money changing her residence into Beijing so she could make a living as a famous opera singer in Beijing, though many people believed her dream just a wildest dream. However, Joan Brandwyn(Julia Stiles), as a student of Katherine, eventually refused to go further study and went back to home. Yu Zhou (Guohua Wu) asked Cailing to become his wife instead of chasing her wildest dream. Unfortunately, both in the 50s in America and in China, it seems that it is obligatory for every single woman to be a full-time housewife instead of taking responsibility for choosing a more colorful future. So actually I think it is a fate that Katherine and Cailing were fighting against.
Both of the films have used “art” to express their themes. In Mona Lisa Smile, varied kinds of paintings are spiritual bridges for Katherine connecting with students. In And The Spring Comes, opera as a metaphor represents the pure dream of Cailing. I reckon why the director would choose “art” as an image of dream is that art is not only emotional and sensitive enough to represent human’s beautiful dreams, but also one of distinctive ways for human to express the feeling and wise thought which represent the human noble spirit. “Art is expressing the author's imaginative, conceptual ideas, or technical skill, intended to be appreciated for their beauty or emotional power.”
However, Katherine successfully gained her students’ acceptance and appreciation for her feminism at the end of Mona Lisa Smile, while in And the Spring Comes Cailing unavoidably became the victim of destiny, who gave up her dream and came back to her common life. In my opinion, the reason why they, though they are very similar in the personality, get different endings is that they are under different circumstances. It is apparent that Katherine Watson is in the upper class whereas Cailing Wang is in the lower class. As a well-educated elite who graduated from University of California Berkeley, there was no doubt that Katherine got more opportunities and platforms to release her “feministic manifesto” than that of Cailing. We had to acknowledge that as a low-class citizen, Cailing needed to devote her whole life gaining a high social status which however Katherine had al-ready been granted naturally in her early age. Because Cailing came from the lower class without any background, she even couldn’t find a proper way to show her professional singing skill to the opera company. In sum, they didn’t share the same status at all, so it would be much more difficult for Cailing to achieve her own dream than for Katherine to spread her feministic theory.
What’s more, the difference in culture backgrounds also provides different endings to the two films. Though I have mentioned that both of the heroines were in a kind of conservative society, actually in the 60s America rose up the Sexual Liberation which was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships. I think it was a kind of trigger for everyone like Katherine Watson to express the feministic theory successfully at last, as the public gradually could accept and even propaganda kinds of radical theories. While looking back to And the Spring Comes, what about the culture where Cailing Wang stayed? During that period, the conservative thought still dominated many places of China, especially the rural area. What's more, it was also a hard period for Chinese Art to come through as Chinese people paid less attention on art than on the business. There were too many artists who received the support from the government instead of making money by themselves. What’s more, people even would think art ridiculous and made fun of the artists such as what Jinquan Hu(Gang Jiao) had experienced. There are many negative effects and eventually the reality failed Cailing.
It is apparent that both of the films are about feminism. And there is no doubt that all of us should take responsibility for saving woman’s equal right. But in my opinion in both films, the conflict is not only about the female’s right and the conservative society, but also more importantly about an eternal topic — the ideality and the reality. When we chase our dreams, what about the reality? I believe that it is not enough if we have only the passion on our dreams. Actually we are unable to afford to ignore the reality. Katherine actually took advantage of the cultural background but Cailing had nothing but her zealousness and the professional skills. Therefore I think it is necessary for us to adjust to the condition first and then take action to achieve our dreams.
From my perspective, Mona Lisa Smile and And The Spring Comes both are the remarkable feminist films. They both show the bright side of how women chase their dreams. However the different cultural aspects between these two heroines cause them to get the different endings. In fact both of them discuss the conflict between the dreams and the reality. And I think favorable conditions could bring the dreams come true.