ACROSS4SEAS.COM

Benjamin McConnell

In the films Mona Lisa’s Smile and And the Spring Comes, they both parallel in that the main characters are two women protagonists just trying to achieve their dreams during a time when that can be extremely challenging. Katherine Watson of Massachusetts wants to teach women about their own self-worth and how they are more than just housewives. Being that this film is set in the 1950’s in itself proves that this would be tough. Wang Tsailing is a singer that is looking to make it big. She wants to be a famous opera singer and given that this is set in present day China makes it somewhat easier than Kathrine’s case.

The topic of empowering woman was ubiquitous in both films. In Mona Lisa’s Smile, the first time I really noticed the main theme of the movie being empowering woman was when Katherine criticized the president of Wellesley’s over her own perspective. The president implied that her perception of the school was something to simply pass time until marriage became a possibility for women and that the value behind the education meant nothing. Another less prominent thing I noticed that embodied the idea of empowering women was when Katherine declined her boyfriend Paul’s proposal. Her rational was because she wasn’t sure she saw a future with him, but I think the underlying reason was because she felt stronger as an independent and she thought her message would come across much clearer if she were not married. She did say at the AR meeting however that she is not married because she does not want to be, yet. In And the Spring comes, Wang Tsailing is shown to be an extremely hard worker who will do almost anything to achieve her dream of becoming a world-renowned opera singer. There were two moments that stuck out to me a lot during this film. The first being when she denied Hu Jiquan’s proposal and when she adopted an orphan and raised it on her own without having a husband to help provide or take care of it. Also, in her pursuit of becoming that sought after famous opera singer title she was looking for, she moved to Beijing and joined the art institute.

One notable thing I noticed about these two films were the positive and negative energies that were given off. In And the Spring Comes, there was no sense or feeling of positivity through most the film. Wang had to deal with multiple different circumstances like being called ‘ugly’ and being used by other because of connections that really brought the mood of the film down. Also, it seemed to have lacked lighting and felt mostly black and white. The only time we seem to feel the happiness in this film was towards the end. On the other hand, Mona Lisa’s Smile, brought a positive energy that felt slightly more cheerful throughout the movie. For example, Katherine had a positive work environment in which she got along well with her students and then eventually she goes off to pursue her dreams.

While I believe both films have many differences and similarities, I think that the underlying message in the both is the same. They both shoot to promote empowerment of women and the progression of civilization, but at the same time recognizes that they are two different cultures.

Dear Benjamin,
Hi!
It is a great honor to communicate with you about these two films. After reading your film review, I have a deeper understanding of the theme for two movies, and I heartily subscribe to your sentiment.

First of all, you started with the protagonists of the two films and introduced their stories in a simple and clear way. They had different lives and experienced different life challenges. Katherine was an excellent and independent woman. She was not afraid of authority, always keeping her rationality, and influenced people around her in her own way. Finally, she had a happy ending. Instead, wang gave in to reality and eventually adopted a child.


Second, I think the design of the film review is very nice. From the prominent and less prominent two aspects of the analysis, let us have a deeper understanding of the film. The plot was prominent, and the technique of the film was less prominent. For instance, in the And the Spring Comes, the color tone was dark, giving the audience a sense of pressure. You also analyzed here in great detail. On the contrary, Mona Lisa Smile was full of energy, like a warm movie.


In the end, you concluded that the central theme of both films was the power of women and the progress of civilization, which I quite agree with. You also mentioned the cultural differences between the two films. This is something that I think needs to be analyzed more deeply. I hope my suggestions will be helpful to you.
Please leave me a message if you have any questions. I am looking forward to your reply!!!

Yours,
Ying Zhou, Xiaoyi Lu

Dear Benjamin,
Thank you for sharing your essay about opinions on the two films and we are honored to have this opportunity to have a culture-cross communication with you.
I think it is a well-organized work with a natural transition and coherence. I think this article has a clear structure, through which we can easily have a sight of your paragraph composition and assignment: the opening paragraph comes straight to the point; the ending paragraph concludes the whole article, meanwhile emphasizing again the theme of empowerment of women. In addition, the leading sentence of each paragraph gives the whole article great credit for we can catch what the paragraph is talking about via the conclusion of the first sentence. Furthermore, your main idea is clear, the women’s empowerment can be seen through the whole passage. And another point that deserves to be mentioned is powerfully persuasive examples. Concerning the topic of empowering women, you give both two concrete examples embodying the main theme to both films, such as in the first half part of paragraph 2, “the first time I really noticed the main theme of the movie being empowering woman was when...” “Another less prominent thing I noticed that embodied the idea of empowering woman was when...”. In the rest of your passage, you analyse two films from the perspective of the positive and negative energies that are given off from the light and environment, which in my opinion is very novel and fresh. However, I am wondering whether it is accurate that you said “the only time we seem to feel the happiness in this film was towards the end.” Perhaps I don’t think the ending of And the Spring Comes is a happy ending because although it seems that Wang realizes her dream of singing in the opera house, it is just an imagination of Wang and hopelessly, she just fulfills her dream through a dream. Embracing a great dream, she can only live in a normal life like most ordinary people. Thus, I think the ending of it is full of somewhat tragic colors.
And I am curious about what your understanding of this point. Looking forward to your reply as soon as possible. If you have any question, please let us know.
Yours,
He Xinyu, Dong Shijia

Benjamin McConnell
ASIA 419
April 12, 20
Prof. You

Movie Review Essay

In the films Mona Lisa’s Smile and And the Spring Comes, they both parallel in that the main characters are two women protagonists just trying to achieve their dreams during a time when that can be extremely challenging. Katherine Watson of Massachusetts wants to teach women about their own self-worth and how they are more than just housewives. Being that this film is set in the 1950’s in itself proves that this would be tough. Wang Tsailing is a singer that is looking to make it big. She wants to be a famous opera singer and given that this is set in present day China makes it somewhat easier than Kathrine’s case.
The topic of empowering women was ubiquitous in both films. In Mona Lisa’s Smile, the first time I really noticed the main theme of the movie being empowering women was when Katherine criticized the president of Wellesley’s over her own perspective. The president implied that her perception of the school was something to simply pass time until marriage became a possibility for women and that the value behind the education meant nothing. Another less prominent thing I noticed that embodied the idea of empowering women was when Katherine declined her boyfriend Paul’s proposal. Her rationale was because she wasn’t sure she saw a future with him, but I think the underlying reason was because she felt stronger as an independent and she thought her message would come across much clearer if she were not married. She did say at the AR meeting however that she is not married because she does not want to be, yet. In And the Spring comes, Wang Tsailing is shown to be an extremely hard worker who will do almost anything to achieve her dream of becoming a world-renowned opera singer. There were two moments that stuck out to me a lot during this film. The first being when she denied Hu Jiquan’s proposal and when she adopted an orphan and raised it on her own without having a husband to help provide or take care of it. Also, in her pursuit of becoming that sought after famous opera singer title she was looking for, she moved to Beijing and joined the art institute.
One notable thing I noticed about these two films were the positive and negative energies that were given off. In And the Spring Comes, there was no sense or feeling of positivity through most of the film. Wang had to deal with multiple different circumstances like being called ‘ugly’ and being used by others because of connections that really brought the mood of the film down. Also, it seemed to have lacked lighting and felt mostly black and white. The only time we seem to feel the happiness in this film was towards the end and even that was only brief. The happiness only seemed to last the length of the dream, but she soon awoke to the same reality she faced before. On the other hand, Mona Lisa’s Smile, brought a positive energy that felt slightly more cheerful throughout the movie. For example, Katherine had a positive work environment in which she got along well with her students and then eventually she went off to pursue her dreams.
While I believe both films have many differences and similarities, I think that the underlying message in the both is the same. They both shoot to promote empowerment of women and the progression of civilization, but at the same time recognizes that they are two different cultures.

Benjamin McConnell
ASIA 419
4.29.20
Professor You

Border-Crossing Reflection

1. My expectations for this activity were mixed and honestly my biggest concert was whether or not the Chinese students would have a strong enough understanding of English to comprehend what we were saying. However, it was immediately evident that their comprehension skills were extremely advanced and they had no problems understanding what I was writing.
2. One thing that really struck me was the overwhelmingly depressing mood that came from the films, but it did not seem to phase the Chinese students. They seemed to find light in the dark situations where I could not. This brought a new understanding to the way the films made an impression on me. I also think they were more analytical than I was when it came to individual moods in the films. They seemed to pick up on small changes that I did not always see. The final difference I found was that when the Chinese students composed their paper, they seemed to all have multiple main themes they noticed whereas I only chose to write about one specific topic, empowerment of women.
3. I was given multiple suggestions on my paper and I discussed them with the other students and we narrowed it down to two main things that I should change. The first was that I needed to be more analytical and the second was to change how I described the mood. Specifically, I changed my thought process on how Ms Wang interrupted her dream and how that affected the final mood of the film.
4. I believe this activity changed the way I think and analyze films. I gave me a thought process for digging deeper into the film and thinking more thoroughly about what all is going on that you may not always notice.
7. Thoughtful, analytical, and methodical. I chose these because this was the process I used each time I rewrote my essay and each time I read through someone else’s.
8. I really enjoyed this activity and I wish we could have done this with some of the notes we wrote for the books we read in class. I think that would have really enhanced my analytical skills as well as my writing to back the concepts.