ACROSS4SEAS.COM

Personal Growth Across Cultures: And the Spring Comes and Mona Lisa Smile

Both Gu Changewei’s And the Spring Comes and Mike Newell’s Mona Lisa Smile center of personal growth of characters—especially female characters. However, the result of personal growth in each film differs greatly. And the Spring Comes focuses on characters growing to accept their failures or facing the consequences of not doing so. For example, the ballet dancer Hu fails to accept his inadequacy as a dancer. Rather, he continues to pursue his dream until he overwhelms himself with failure and unacceptance and assaults the girl. He even states that he feels like a “fish bone in other people’s throats.” In contrast, Wang accepts the fact that she has failed in her pursuit of national singing glory. She overcomes this failure by adopting a child and growing into a loving mother. Although she still holds this dream as a fantasy—as evidenced by the daydream she experiences while caring for her child—it no longer consumes her life. She grew to a more attainable, noble pursuit.

A similar theme surfaces in Mona Lisa Smile. The film portrays two major types of characters: liberal women who are in pursuit of careers and conservative women who are in pursuit of husbands. Differing from the personal growth found in And the Spring Comes, the personal growth in Mona Lisa Smile allows women to embrace their success and accept their independence rather than accepting their inadequacy. Some women portrayed in the film, such as Giselle, have already grown to embrace their success and work with Katherine to pursue a career. However, others, namely Betty, actively work to downplay their academic and career abilities to solely strive for marriage as a career. Betty even attempts to use marriage as an excuse to forgo attending classes; to her, she has already accomplished the goal of school by marrying. However, eventually Betty learns to embrace her personal autonomy and success. Her decision to attend Yale Law School and her editorial thanking Katherine show that she has personally developed and grew to go against what society expected of her and embrace what she wants for herself.

An important non-verbal aspect that both films employ is the power of vignettes. The lack of transitions in And the Spring Comes highlights the importance of the snapshot scenes the viewer sees. By not portraying the time in between the vignettes, the film increases the impact of the scenes. Further, this style of cutting informs the viewer of the impact other people have on Wang’s personal growth. By moving swiftly from one scene to another and from one person to another, the film displays only the crucial moments, interactions, and people that led Wang on her journey to acceptance of her failure. It also suggests the temporal nature of her relationships. The characters she interacts with go in and out of her life, almost at will. By having the scenes cut from one point of action to another, the film highlights, this start and stop nature of her relationships.

Vignettes are also important in Mona Lisa Smile, which employs the impact of other people on Katharine in a very similar manner as Gu’s film. Although not as clearly defined with the strong cuts, the movie takes place over a relatively short period. Yet, the people with whom Katharine interact have a great impact on her personal growth. The multiple characters each have unique arcs in the story and each inform Katharine’s personal growth in a unique way. However, like in And the Spring Comes, the characters are temporary fixtures in her life and journey. This allows her to realize that the focus of her life should be on herself, the only permanent fixture in her life. At the end of the film, they are able to help her realize her own personal success and autonomy as she chooses to leave the school. Both movies use these temporal relationships to highlight the personal growth that the characters go through.
 

I really like your reading of vignette employed in these two movies. As you put it, Wang and Katherine are influenced by the surrounding people. So the movies consist of their interaction with more than one person.With so many stories, the producer has to highlight the more important ones. I think you did a good job in analyzing this.
In your essay, you considered Wang as a failure and said “she overcomes this failure by adopting a child...”. I am not sure about that. Indeed, she fails to realize her music dream, but adopting a child does not mean she has gone through that. It seems to be a fate which women can’t get rid of---women have to form a family eventually(have a child at least), let alone a woman like Wang at her age.
And to some extent, Katherine fails as well. She will either leave or follow the syllabus designed by the school. Neither of them is good results for her.
By the way, I don’t know if you have that feeling---although it is a pity that Wang fails her dream, she still inspires the audience. She is independent, never gives in to anything or anybody.
Has “And the spring comes” changed any of your impressions of China?

I agree with your analysis of the growth of characters in both movies. I think you are right that Wang and the ballet dancer grew by failing to reach their respective goals. I think this is an important theme of the two movies. Maybe failing is the wrong word, but characters in both movies grow by fighting through hardships. For example, Betty grows as a character after her husband cheats on her.
I agree with your analysis of the importance of independence and autonomy for the female characters in the two movies. One could argue that that is a main theme for both movies. The goal of Katherine seems to be to teach her conservative students that they can be successful on their own. Wang simply realizes that she can be happy on her own as the couples around her fail in their relationship, specifically her young neighbors.
Lastly, I really like your analysis of the lack of transitions in And the Spring Comes. I never considered that the quick transitions represent the way that people come in and out of their lives, but now that you point that out I totally agree.

I think your essay is very insightful and enlightens me to consider these two films from a new perspective. Personal growth is definitely the pith of these two movies. Especially in the movie Mona Lisa Smile, the students of Kathrine may be in pursuit of different dreams but they all manage to fulfill their goals in the end whether to be an autonomous female or just be good housewife. In the movie And the Spring Comes, however, I don’t think the reason why Hu assaults the girl is that he overwhelms himself with unacceptance and failure but it is because he can’t incorporate himself with the mainstream of that society. Therefore, he chooses to assault the girl to send himself into jail voluntarily where he no longer needs to worry about his identification as a ballet dancer and a homosexual.

Hi Qiulan,
I appreciate your feedback! Although you make good points, I still hold that Wang fails to accomplish the dreams she truly has, and therefore is a failure. I don't really agree that women have to form a family, that it's a fate they cannot escape, and that by doing so they avoid failure. It appears as though Wang is attempting to pursue a societal goal (i.e. creating a family) rather than her actual goal (i.e. singing). In fact, I think her daydreaming at the end about accomplishing her true goal of singing when she is with her child goes to show that she lives a life unaccomplished and has failed.
Katherine does fail at achieving the societal goal, but she succeeds at achieving her individual goal. In deciding whether to leave or follow the syllabus, she chooses to leave as she has already accomplished her personal goal of liberating women and changing the mindset at the college. Although she may have "failed" at the societal goal that was set out for her, she accomplished her true goal that she set out to do.
I do think that Wang is inspirational to an extent. However, I think her conformity may cause her to lose an aspect of her ethos as an inspirational figure.
I don't think I had a strong impression of China, so the movie didn't drastically alter my perception. I do feel however that it did help in informing how I thought of China as a whole.

Hi You,
Thanks for your insight! I feel as though we have similar opinions but are looking at it from different perspectives. You state that you believe Hu assaults the girl because he can't incorporate himself with the mainstream of that society. I agree. However, there was a significant amount of time in which he was not incorporated with the society and yet he still did not assault the girl. What changed? I hold that it was the continuous and long rejection that caused him to be overwhelmed with this society to such an extent that he wanted to escape it. He escaped it by going to jail, as you mention in your last line.

Hi Daniel,
I am sorry for the delayed reply and hope you don't mind it.
To be honest, I haven’t thought about it from the perspective where there was a significant amount of time in which he was not incorporated with the society and yet he still did not assault the girl. In my opinion, maybe the reason that he finally decides to do the vicious deeds to go to jail is because the hopelessness and despair finally come to their zenith and break out. He couldn’t bear it anymore so he decide to escape from the reality like some people may choose to commit a suicide rather than assault the others.

Hi You,
I agree with your point and don't worry about the response time. I do agree that there's a sense of hopelessness and despair, probably caused by his acceptance of his failure to achieve his goals. Since he can't quite cope with this realization, he is led to assault the girl and escape from society.

Personal Growth Across Cultures: And the Spring Comes and Mona Lisa Smile

Both Gu Changewei’s And the Spring Comes and Mike Newell’s Mona Lisa Smile center of personal growth of characters—especially female characters. However, the result of personal growth in each film differs greatly. And the Spring Comes focuses on characters growing to accept their personal failures or facing the consequences of not doing so. For example, the ballet dancer Hu fails to accept his inadequacy as a dancer. Rather, he continues to pursue his dream until he overwhelms himself with failure and unacceptance. His hopelessness and inability to incorporate with society contributes to his decision to assault the girl. He even states that he feels like a “fish bone in other people’s throats.” In contrast, Wang accepts the fact that she has failed in her pursuit of national singing glory. She overcomes this personal failure by adopting a child and growing into a loving mother—therefore, she has compromised failing at her personal goal with succeeding at the societal goal that women should raise a family. Although she still holds this dream as a fantasy—as evidenced by the daydream she experiences while caring for her child—it no longer consumes her life. She grew to a more attainable, noble, and societal pursuit.

A similar theme surfaces in Mona Lisa Smile. The film portrays two major types of characters: liberal women who are in pursuit of careers and conservative women who are in pursuit of husbands. Differing from the personal growth found in And the Spring Comes, the personal growth in Mona Lisa Smile allows women to embrace their success and accept their independence rather than accepting their inadequacy. Some women portrayed in the film, such as Giselle, have already grown to embrace their success and work with Katherine to pursue a career. However, others, namely Betty, actively work to downplay their academic and career abilities to solely strive for marriage as a career. Betty even attempts to use marriage as an excuse to forgo attending classes; to her, she has already accomplished the goal of school by marrying. However, eventually Betty learns to embrace her personal autonomy and success. Her decision to attend Yale Law School and her editorial thanking Katherine show that she has personally developed and grew to go against what society expected of her and embrace what she wants for herself. In effect, she achieves a societal goal while failing at her personal goal to teach, since she must leave the university.

An important non-verbal aspect that both films employ is the power of vignettes. The lack of transitions in And the Spring Comes highlights the importance of the snapshot scenes the viewer sees. By not portraying the time in between the vignettes, the film increases the impact of the scenes. Further, this style of cutting informs the viewer of the impact other people have on Wang’s personal growth. By moving swiftly from one scene to another and from one person to another, the film displays only the crucial moments, interactions, and people that led Wang on her journey to acceptance of her failure. It also suggests the temporal nature of her relationships. The characters she interacts with go in and out of her life, almost at will. By having the scenes cut from one point of action to another, the film highlights, this start and stop nature of her relationships.

Vignettes are also important in Mona Lisa Smile, which employs the impact of other people on Katharine in a very similar manner as Gu’s film. Although not as clearly defined with the strong cuts, the movie takes place over a relatively short period. Yet, the people with whom Katharine interact have a great impact on her personal growth. The multiple characters each have unique arcs in the story and each inform Katharine’s personal growth in a unique way. However, like in And the Spring Comes, the characters are temporary fixtures in her life and journey. This allows her to realize that the focus of her life should be on herself, the only permanent fixture in her life. At the end of the film, they are able to help her realize her own personal success and autonomy as she chooses to leave the school. Both movies use these temporal relationships to highlight the personal growth that the characters go through.