Hold "Ideal and Love" and Strive for a Male-dominated Society
Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2020 1:03 am
Cheng Fengjie
We all know that in the past, for women, love and family are the only ones. Based on that unenlightened society, however, the protagonists of And the Spring Comes and Mona Lisa’s Smile held high the banner of freedom to people, showing the charm of women's self-worth promotion. Today, this article is mainly to talk about the differences and similarities of the two films.
And the Spring Comes is directed by Changwei Gu, Wenli Jiang , Yao Zhang, Guangjie Li and other leading roles. The movie tells the story of the contradiction between the dream and reality of Cailing Wang and other artists in small cities in the 1980s. While, Mona Lisa's Smile is produced by the American Revolutionary Film Studio, directed by Mike Newell, Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst and Julia Stiles, which are co-stars. The movie tells the story of 1953 in the United States, when the times are changing, that Catherine, who was full of ideals and enthusiasm, boldly challenged the stale teaching system.
The similarity of the two movies maybe the one theme: the ultimate destination of women is the promotion of self-worth. In these two movies, the two female masters are out of tune with the living environment, and they are stubborn and refuse to submit. Starting from women themselves, their characteristics lie in the rupture of traditional female identity.
However, the two movies also have their differences. Mona Lisa's Smile reflects the theme through teachers' own resistance and education of students' thoughts. In this movie, in the old society with Feudal conservatism, women learned the art of liberation, but they stuck to conservative ideas to assist the husband and bring up children. The keynote of that time just focuses more on how to be a good wife and mother in the future family. How ironic! Full of ideals and enthusiasm, Catherine bravely challenged Wellesley College's stale teaching system and traditional values by encouraging students to go to college and freeing their minds. She has never been to Europe, but the spirit of European liberation carries out her values. She doesn't want to be tied down, be trapped in marriage or do what she dislikes. So it is clearly seen in the movie that Catherine refused her fiance’s proposal and chose to pursue her own career. At the end of the movie, although she did not change people’s minds to a great extent, Catherine still chose to continue his procession of fight and walk with firm confidence. Going to Europe with a dream is a good example. In a sense, she has played an ideological and culture role. While And the Spring Comes mainly reflects the theme through the dedication to love and art, and the gap between the ideal and reality of little people. Faced with the utilitarian and pragmatic society, Wang is unwilling to be confined in a small town. She would rather suffer cruel and indifferent secular relationships than pursue dreams. We can see that both of them in different ages choose to pursue their independent personality and ideal of freedom. Wang finally made concessions to reality. In the process of opposing traditional female roles, Wang, as a female spirit, surpassed the female body and began to yearn for a better life with her children. She continued to return to Beijing and took her children to prepare for a better life. When the dream is shattered, the only answer is to be ordinary. And she accepted her
ordinary.
Another bright light of two movies is that the main figures are round characters instead of flat characters, which means they have complex personalities. In the And the Spring Comes, on the one hand, Wang knew she had such a good voice, and always felt that she was not defeated by life, although only being a small city conservatory of music teaching in the real world. On the other hand, Wang was fat and ugly in the reality, but knew only to put on a proud expression of "I am the only one in the world", and to say often, "I am being moved at the central opera house," where. But in fact, she was asking for a place as an office woman. This is the duality of Wang's character, which is as vivid as ordinary people around us. In the Mona Lisa's Smile, Catherine dares to hate, love and make enlightenment ideas, but she is a little egoistic. She doesn’t know what others really need until she understands the significance of listening and tolerance. If Betty is the only one, the teacher insists that her enlightenment is certainly liberating Ben's life and making Ben's life full of meaning and luster to be herself, which is another new possibility. There is no denying that this is the teacher's enlightening role. However, for Joan’s part, another uncomfortable side of Catherine is clearly seen: Paranoid and stubborn. As Catherine’s student, Joan receives her instructions, learning to think deeply about the real meaning of life. However, Joan finally gained her own view of life and made her own decision to be a housewife instead of being a graduate student of School of Law at Yale University. In other words, Joan realizes she should follow her own heart instead of completely following Catherine’s suggestions. As a teacher, it is certainly that they have the responsibility to enlighten students and guide them out of foolish thoughts, but what should do more is not to respect students? The teacher should give support and recognition to the students after their own thinking and decision, because it is their own life! Fortunately, the teacher finally realized this point. The characters in these two films are so different but they leave an indelible impression on people.
Even so, there are still some aspects in the Mona Lisa's Smile that can be improved. Some deep-seated things have not been exposed thoroughly enough. Take Connie as an example. As a plump and self-abased girl, Connie wins her true love eventually. Her story seems to tell us that an ordinary-looking girl is completely able to pursue her true love as long as she is courageous enough. I don't know how a girl who feels inferior suddenly becomes bold. Is it just for love? Is this transition a bit abrupt? The film Mona Lisa's Smile is initially intended to criticize the discrimination of the women, however, Connie’s love story isn’t actually impacted by a male-dominated world. It is just a fairy tale without any social criticism.
The two movies reflect not only in the isolation from traditional women, but also in the shackle of secular marriage and subordination of women, and the awakening of female self-awareness. I like the heroine Cailing Wang saying about the spring, “Every year the spring comes, my heart is always ready to move, think there will be something to happen; but the spring passed, and nothing happened, and I felt as if I had missed something.” That's true. Life has never promised anyone. After the beginning of spring, the world is flowing, as always, no love and no death.
In conclusion, both movies have their advantages. If you are interested in emancipating the mind of women, you may as well take a look.
We all know that in the past, for women, love and family are the only ones. Based on that unenlightened society, however, the protagonists of And the Spring Comes and Mona Lisa’s Smile held high the banner of freedom to people, showing the charm of women's self-worth promotion. Today, this article is mainly to talk about the differences and similarities of the two films.
And the Spring Comes is directed by Changwei Gu, Wenli Jiang , Yao Zhang, Guangjie Li and other leading roles. The movie tells the story of the contradiction between the dream and reality of Cailing Wang and other artists in small cities in the 1980s. While, Mona Lisa's Smile is produced by the American Revolutionary Film Studio, directed by Mike Newell, Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst and Julia Stiles, which are co-stars. The movie tells the story of 1953 in the United States, when the times are changing, that Catherine, who was full of ideals and enthusiasm, boldly challenged the stale teaching system.
The similarity of the two movies maybe the one theme: the ultimate destination of women is the promotion of self-worth. In these two movies, the two female masters are out of tune with the living environment, and they are stubborn and refuse to submit. Starting from women themselves, their characteristics lie in the rupture of traditional female identity.
However, the two movies also have their differences. Mona Lisa's Smile reflects the theme through teachers' own resistance and education of students' thoughts. In this movie, in the old society with Feudal conservatism, women learned the art of liberation, but they stuck to conservative ideas to assist the husband and bring up children. The keynote of that time just focuses more on how to be a good wife and mother in the future family. How ironic! Full of ideals and enthusiasm, Catherine bravely challenged Wellesley College's stale teaching system and traditional values by encouraging students to go to college and freeing their minds. She has never been to Europe, but the spirit of European liberation carries out her values. She doesn't want to be tied down, be trapped in marriage or do what she dislikes. So it is clearly seen in the movie that Catherine refused her fiance’s proposal and chose to pursue her own career. At the end of the movie, although she did not change people’s minds to a great extent, Catherine still chose to continue his procession of fight and walk with firm confidence. Going to Europe with a dream is a good example. In a sense, she has played an ideological and culture role. While And the Spring Comes mainly reflects the theme through the dedication to love and art, and the gap between the ideal and reality of little people. Faced with the utilitarian and pragmatic society, Wang is unwilling to be confined in a small town. She would rather suffer cruel and indifferent secular relationships than pursue dreams. We can see that both of them in different ages choose to pursue their independent personality and ideal of freedom. Wang finally made concessions to reality. In the process of opposing traditional female roles, Wang, as a female spirit, surpassed the female body and began to yearn for a better life with her children. She continued to return to Beijing and took her children to prepare for a better life. When the dream is shattered, the only answer is to be ordinary. And she accepted her
ordinary.
Another bright light of two movies is that the main figures are round characters instead of flat characters, which means they have complex personalities. In the And the Spring Comes, on the one hand, Wang knew she had such a good voice, and always felt that she was not defeated by life, although only being a small city conservatory of music teaching in the real world. On the other hand, Wang was fat and ugly in the reality, but knew only to put on a proud expression of "I am the only one in the world", and to say often, "I am being moved at the central opera house," where. But in fact, she was asking for a place as an office woman. This is the duality of Wang's character, which is as vivid as ordinary people around us. In the Mona Lisa's Smile, Catherine dares to hate, love and make enlightenment ideas, but she is a little egoistic. She doesn’t know what others really need until she understands the significance of listening and tolerance. If Betty is the only one, the teacher insists that her enlightenment is certainly liberating Ben's life and making Ben's life full of meaning and luster to be herself, which is another new possibility. There is no denying that this is the teacher's enlightening role. However, for Joan’s part, another uncomfortable side of Catherine is clearly seen: Paranoid and stubborn. As Catherine’s student, Joan receives her instructions, learning to think deeply about the real meaning of life. However, Joan finally gained her own view of life and made her own decision to be a housewife instead of being a graduate student of School of Law at Yale University. In other words, Joan realizes she should follow her own heart instead of completely following Catherine’s suggestions. As a teacher, it is certainly that they have the responsibility to enlighten students and guide them out of foolish thoughts, but what should do more is not to respect students? The teacher should give support and recognition to the students after their own thinking and decision, because it is their own life! Fortunately, the teacher finally realized this point. The characters in these two films are so different but they leave an indelible impression on people.
Even so, there are still some aspects in the Mona Lisa's Smile that can be improved. Some deep-seated things have not been exposed thoroughly enough. Take Connie as an example. As a plump and self-abased girl, Connie wins her true love eventually. Her story seems to tell us that an ordinary-looking girl is completely able to pursue her true love as long as she is courageous enough. I don't know how a girl who feels inferior suddenly becomes bold. Is it just for love? Is this transition a bit abrupt? The film Mona Lisa's Smile is initially intended to criticize the discrimination of the women, however, Connie’s love story isn’t actually impacted by a male-dominated world. It is just a fairy tale without any social criticism.
The two movies reflect not only in the isolation from traditional women, but also in the shackle of secular marriage and subordination of women, and the awakening of female self-awareness. I like the heroine Cailing Wang saying about the spring, “Every year the spring comes, my heart is always ready to move, think there will be something to happen; but the spring passed, and nothing happened, and I felt as if I had missed something.” That's true. Life has never promised anyone. After the beginning of spring, the world is flowing, as always, no love and no death.
In conclusion, both movies have their advantages. If you are interested in emancipating the mind of women, you may as well take a look.