A film Review on And the Spring Comes and Mona Lisa Smiles
Posted: Wed Apr 10, 2019 1:33 am
A film Review on And the Spring Comes and Mona Lisa Smiles
180806 陈心蕊 Xinlei Xhen
After watching And the Spring Comes and Mona Lisa Smiles, some questions resounds around me. What is art? What makes it good or bad? And who decide? What are the standards? What a woman is going to be?
What is art? Looked up in the dictionary, “art” is the making of objects, images, music, etc. that are beautiful or that express feelings. In both movies, we see different people have different understandings of art and take different actions to pursuit the art in their mind. And the Spring Comes, which is directed by Gu Changwei and shown in 2007, shows us a story between three people who are seeking for arts and all fighting for their ambitions for arts, including painting, singing and ballet dancing. In my opinion, the arts in their times are cast into the shade because it is impossible for common people in their district to appreciate them. However, on the other hand, those characters are so confident of their talent and attach too high expectation to it. For example, watching the woman in the office says “Enough, I have known your level about singing the opera.” to Wang Cailing, it is obvious that besides the poor appearance, her ability also gets in the way for her to achieve her dream performing in the stage. From my perspective, Mr. Hu is one of those that are real artists. Ballet dancer Mr. Hu devotes himself to Ballet and teach women to dance. From points of those people in that society, Mr. Hu is womanish and what he is doing is untraditional and abnormal. However, the shoes in prison help him rotate successfully and he still enjoy his dance. May this is art as told.
Another film Mona Lisa Smiles also begins with arts, but I want to concentrate more on the fight to the traditional standards and those girls’ courage. The girls in this university are so educated that they have read the book ahead and remembered everything in the book. It seems nothing to teach them. However, as a matter of fact, something new and important for woman is going to be passed to those hard and good girls. That’s because they are not really work for themselves but for their future family. Maybe you will say there is nothing wrong. Nevertheless, marriage is on the way as soon as they graduate, which means there is no time for them to aspire after engaging in advance studies, like one of the girls in the film nearly gives up her application for faculty of law in order to build a good family in most people’s mind. Fortunately, Miss. Katherine pulls them out of the “right” ingrained concept. Special and untraditional ways adopted and new idea spread by Katherine open a new world for girls who have been told to be the role they are born to fill, and all things a girl has learned are prepared for husband, her children and her family but not really for herself. At the end of the story, the girls harvest memorable memory with Katherine and all of them find the road they should go. From the film, I learn that we girls are supposed to live for ourselves as well as making effort to realize our value.
The two films both describe roles and the society behind them for us vividly. Although two stories happen in different times in diffident countries, they both succeed in touching audiences’ hearts and striking a chord. We are impressed mostly by the great woman Katherine for her attempt to change the girls and teach them to live as a dependent and ideologically independent person. It’s of great pleasure to witness that girls find their way for their futures and begin to make great efforts for themselves. The atmosphere of the society also has a well change in freedom of women. Plots developing along the time show us those characteristic characters that are representatives of people in their times even in modern days, not only Wang Cailing and Mr. Hu, but also Katherine and those girls. Behind the films, it reveals that how they are changed by the society and by some people arise in their life. Either the sorrowful ending or the happy ending presses me to consider more about the ways we treat our future and the attitudes we face ourselves.
As far as I am concerned, traditional opinions and common senses of worth as well as regulations and so-called experiences are restraining our new ideas and protecting us from accepting something better in our life. Art is the thing that is depending on one's point of view, which is also no standard. Let’s try to open our mind to new ideas and to be someone that seeks for truth beyond traditions, beyond definitions and beyond images. There is no standard for how to live but live in your way.
180806 陈心蕊 Xinlei Xhen
After watching And the Spring Comes and Mona Lisa Smiles, some questions resounds around me. What is art? What makes it good or bad? And who decide? What are the standards? What a woman is going to be?
What is art? Looked up in the dictionary, “art” is the making of objects, images, music, etc. that are beautiful or that express feelings. In both movies, we see different people have different understandings of art and take different actions to pursuit the art in their mind. And the Spring Comes, which is directed by Gu Changwei and shown in 2007, shows us a story between three people who are seeking for arts and all fighting for their ambitions for arts, including painting, singing and ballet dancing. In my opinion, the arts in their times are cast into the shade because it is impossible for common people in their district to appreciate them. However, on the other hand, those characters are so confident of their talent and attach too high expectation to it. For example, watching the woman in the office says “Enough, I have known your level about singing the opera.” to Wang Cailing, it is obvious that besides the poor appearance, her ability also gets in the way for her to achieve her dream performing in the stage. From my perspective, Mr. Hu is one of those that are real artists. Ballet dancer Mr. Hu devotes himself to Ballet and teach women to dance. From points of those people in that society, Mr. Hu is womanish and what he is doing is untraditional and abnormal. However, the shoes in prison help him rotate successfully and he still enjoy his dance. May this is art as told.
Another film Mona Lisa Smiles also begins with arts, but I want to concentrate more on the fight to the traditional standards and those girls’ courage. The girls in this university are so educated that they have read the book ahead and remembered everything in the book. It seems nothing to teach them. However, as a matter of fact, something new and important for woman is going to be passed to those hard and good girls. That’s because they are not really work for themselves but for their future family. Maybe you will say there is nothing wrong. Nevertheless, marriage is on the way as soon as they graduate, which means there is no time for them to aspire after engaging in advance studies, like one of the girls in the film nearly gives up her application for faculty of law in order to build a good family in most people’s mind. Fortunately, Miss. Katherine pulls them out of the “right” ingrained concept. Special and untraditional ways adopted and new idea spread by Katherine open a new world for girls who have been told to be the role they are born to fill, and all things a girl has learned are prepared for husband, her children and her family but not really for herself. At the end of the story, the girls harvest memorable memory with Katherine and all of them find the road they should go. From the film, I learn that we girls are supposed to live for ourselves as well as making effort to realize our value.
The two films both describe roles and the society behind them for us vividly. Although two stories happen in different times in diffident countries, they both succeed in touching audiences’ hearts and striking a chord. We are impressed mostly by the great woman Katherine for her attempt to change the girls and teach them to live as a dependent and ideologically independent person. It’s of great pleasure to witness that girls find their way for their futures and begin to make great efforts for themselves. The atmosphere of the society also has a well change in freedom of women. Plots developing along the time show us those characteristic characters that are representatives of people in their times even in modern days, not only Wang Cailing and Mr. Hu, but also Katherine and those girls. Behind the films, it reveals that how they are changed by the society and by some people arise in their life. Either the sorrowful ending or the happy ending presses me to consider more about the ways we treat our future and the attitudes we face ourselves.
As far as I am concerned, traditional opinions and common senses of worth as well as regulations and so-called experiences are restraining our new ideas and protecting us from accepting something better in our life. Art is the thing that is depending on one's point of view, which is also no standard. Let’s try to open our mind to new ideas and to be someone that seeks for truth beyond traditions, beyond definitions and beyond images. There is no standard for how to live but live in your way.
