The Movie/Cultural Essay

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Yuhang Liu

The two films, And the Spring Comes and Mona Lisa Smile, are discussed women’s empowerment, but the characters' “life need” in the two films are different. From And the Spring Comes, Wang pursues her ideal of singing and strives for her dream all the time. In Mona Lisa Smile, the girls’ dreams are to get married and have children. Marriage has become their life goals. The presentation in the character’s personal values, “礼(li)” of the characters, and movie production differ greatly between the two films.

Women’s Empowerment and personal value are the theme in both films. From Mona Lisa Smile, “no man wanted her; she is at least 30. I guess she never wanted children… No woman chooses to live without a home.” We can appreciate that women in that period the United States society is required to get a marriage, to maintain a good family, to take good care of husband and children. Therefore, the pursuits of self are unessential. Indeed, the women of the time thought it was the way it should be, and they didn't even have the idea to refute it. Until Katherine’s appearance reflects the awakening of women’s consciousness and the pursuit of self-worth. In contrast by Mona Lisa Smile, the characters, such as Wang Cailing, Hu Jinquan, and Huang sibao, in And the Spring Comes, puts their own pursuits and dreams at the first. They would rather sacrifice marriage also want to fulfill their dreams for the struggle, are struggling painfully in the contradiction between dream and reality.

There is no doubt that both of these films have very traditional and old-fashioned Chinese and American ideals. But I also see some differences between the two traditions: for example, in American tradition, juniors and seniors are either married or to get married, and the principal and the school board make “having a good family” and “being a good wife” their goals in training students. School also has the etiquette classes, have set “how as a wife to win the favor of the boss” for her husband, also in order to attend the wedding specially trained students' behavior and so on. However, in the traditional Chinese thoughts expressed by And the Spring Comes, when people have special behaviors, hobbies, and ideas different from the public, they will receive criticism from the public, and the pressure of public is terrible. When the male teacher dancing ballet, the public criticizes him because few men dance ballet, which led him to give up. Therefore, we can contrast that the traditional conservative thoughts in the United States restrict the pressure on women from themselves, while the traditional conservative thoughts in China restrict the pressure on people from the public.

From the shooting of the two films, Mona Lisa Smile’s lens utilizing, color matching, and lighting technology utilizing are better. The shooting technique and quality of And the Spring Comes are rough relatively. From the perspective of the script, the expression of And the Spring Comes is very realistic. The state of the characters and the story, including the ending, Wang has to compromise for life, is realistic, which makes the whole story real and profound. In contrast to Mona Lisa Smile, the whole story is a little messy. The description of the characters’ “scene needs” and “Life need” is not very clear, which leads to some parts of the story are far-fetched.

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Dear Yuhang Liu
Hello, I am glad to read your article and know what you think of these two films. I have some personal opinions below, and I'm very glad that you can continue to read it.
This article points directly to the theme--women’s empowerment and personal value, and accurately analyses the shackles of social pressure to the women at that time, which is thought-provoking.
However, the chapter structure of this paper needs to be adjusted. For example, in the second paragraph, the discussion of And the Spring Comes is not in-depth enough, but just a brush with it. In addition, regarding "life need", I think the comparison between the two heroines will be better than the comparison between Wang in the And the Spring Comes and the student in the Mona Lisa Smile.
At the end of the article, the comparative analysis of the shooting and the script of the two films is precise and to the point.
Looking forward to your reply and your opinions!

Wu & Ji (This review is written by my companion and me.）

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Hi, Yuhang Liu
I’d like to share my views with you about this essay. If there is any wrong with the tense and sentence, please forgive me.
First, I think the light of your essay is its brevity. Many of us have much choice, and we want to balance it. We want to go further and make our point clear. But you can’t have your cake and eat it, I think your essay gives me a new aspect. However, faced with such short sentences, it may be difficult for you to go further statement. So, it is clear that you essay is lack of more details to support your view. It seems like that you give a general sentence and you just give it. You do not have deeper analysis, for example, why you put up with this, and what we can learn from this? If you can pay more attention on this, I think your essay will be more outstanding!
Second, I think you add more connectives to make your essay more logical. Just like the translation between second one and third one.
Third, since my ow grammar is not very good, I need more time to give you an opinion. So I am sorry that I can’t give you advice for the time being and I will read it a few more times later.
I am looking forward to your letter!
Fengjie Cheng

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Dear Yuhang Liu
I'm very glad to have this opportunity to communicate with you. These are some of my points of view, I hope we can help each other, absorb ideas, and continue to improve our film reviews. Please forgive me if I have made any mistakes.
I can clearly see your opinions and thoughts from your article, which gives me a bright feeling. But there are certain details that can be modified, as my partner mentioned. You can make some additions to the article and add some movie plots to it. I believe it will be a better article after constant improvement. I am looking forward to your reply and comments.

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Dear Wu/Ji,

I am so glad to get your reply to my essay! I agree that the discussion of And the Spring Comes is not in-depth enough. I would like to add more examples and analyses on it. Thank you so much!

Sincerely,
Yuhang Liu

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Dear Fengjie,

Thanks for your comments and suggestions! Before College, I like to utilize long, complex sentences, but I found that sometimes short sentences, although simple, can accurately express the meaning. I agree that there are still some details missing from my article, I will add some examples and analyses! Thanks for your advice!

Hope you have a good day and I look forward to getting your reply!

Sincerely,
Yuhang Liu

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Dear Yuhang Liu,

I am very happy to receive your reply, and I can feel that you understand my meaning. I think your essay is very succinct and clear, and that is exactly what I want to learn, because it is so cool with simply words and complete meaning. You know, sometimes, it is not necessarily a long article to fully express one's ideas, and short essay can be very powerful, like Tang and Song poems. And I hope you can continue to give full play to your advantages, I believe you can certainly write better articles.
I am looking forward to your letter!

Sincerely,
Fengjie Cheng

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Women’s Personal Value Pursuit in Feudal Society

The two films, And the Spring Comes and Mona Lisa Smile, are discussed women’s empowerment, but the characters' “life need” in the two films are different. From And the Spring Comes, Wang pursues her ideal of singing and strives for her dream all the time. In Mona Lisa Smile, the girls’ dreams are to get married and have children. Marriage has become their life goals. The presentation in the character’s personal values, “礼(li)” of the characters, and movie production differ greatly between the two films.

Women’s Empowerment and personal value are the themes in both films. From Mona Lisa Smile, “no man wanted her; she is at least 30. I guess she never wanted children… No woman chooses to live without a home.” We can appreciate that women in that period the United States society is required to get a marriage, to maintain a good family, to take good care of husband and children. Therefore, the pursuits of self are unessential. Indeed, the women of the time thought it was the way it should be, and they didn't even have the idea to refute it. Until Katherine’s appearance reflects the awakening of women’s consciousness and the pursuit of self-worth. In contrast by Mona Lisa Smile, the characters, such as Wang Cailing, Hu Jinquan, and Huang sibao, in And the Spring Comes, puts their own pursuits and dreams at the first. In the beginning, she insists without makeup or fall in love. All her life's pursuit is to become a female lead singer in Beijing then perform at the Paris Opera. She tries to buy a Beijing account and left her hometown quickly-trying to give herself a chance to rely on her strength achieving her sing dream. Wang Cailing would rather sacrifice marriage also want to fulfill their dreams for the struggle, are struggling painfully in the contradiction between dream and reality.

There is no doubt that both of these films have very traditional and old-fashioned Chinese and American ideals, and “礼(li)” is a good perspective. “礼” is used as ethics and living standard for feudal society. In the American tradition, juniors and seniors are either married or to get married, and the principal and the school board make “having a good family” and “being a good wife” their goals in training students. School also has the etiquette classes, have set “how as a wife to win the favor of the boss” for her husband, also in order to attend the wedding specially trained student’s behavior and so on. Therefore, a good marriage for a woman has become the woman's ethics and standard of living in American feudal society. However, in the traditional Chinese thoughts expressed by And the Spring Comes, “礼(li)” is reflected in conforming to the public and the trend. When people have special behaviors, hobbies, and ideas different from the public, they will receive criticism from the public. When the male teacher dancing ballet, the public criticizes him because few men dance ballet. When Cailing's female neighbor persuades her several times to give up her singing dream, find a man to marry and have children, we can see that in feudal China at that time, it was "normal life" for women to get married and have children at the right age. Therefore, Cailing's rejection was "abnormal" in their cognition. Wang Cailing and the male ballet teacher deviated from the public life norms of the Chinese feudal society at that time, so they were criticized by the society for morals, leading them to make concessions and reconcile their lives. From the two films, we learned the traditional conservative thoughts of “礼(li)” in the United States and China differently.

From the shooting of the two films, Mona Lisa Smile’s lens utilizing, color matching, and lighting technology utilizing are better. The shooting technique and quality of And the Spring Comes are rough relatively. From the perspective of the script, the expression of And the Spring Comes is very realistic. The state of the characters and the story, including the ending, Wang has to compromise for life, is realistic, which makes the whole story real and profound. In contrast to Mona Lisa Smile, the whole story is a little messy. The description of the characters’ “scene needs” and “Life need” is not very clear, which leads to some parts of the story are far-fetched.

Although the film productions are not so perfect, And the Spring Comes and Mona Lisa Smile are very good works overall, which give me a deeper understanding of the feudal society in China and the United States. Especially, the two films both from the main perspective of women to show the pursuit of dreams and life values. At the same time, from the perspective of the rhetoric of “礼(Li)”, I learned more deeply about the public conformity and trends of feudal society.

Yuhang Liu

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Reflection

This is the first time I participated in a cultural exchange event crossing two countries. I experienced the cultural exchange between China and the United States from the two movies, but this activity gave me a deeper experience.

In this activity, I can feel the efforts of Chinese students to learn English. Their learning is not just about analysing articles, they are also learning English expression, culture and so on. I am also a Chinese student, although I study abroad at an American university, so I feel very special in this activity. This reminds me of my freshman year when I arrived in the United States and first got in touch with American education and culture. At that time, I also tried to narrow these cultural differences. Of course, it still continues now. I am very happy to participate in this activity, I like it very much.

Yuhang Liu