The Flowers of War

The positive comments I heard from my Chinese friends and relatives, as well as the negative reviews in the press on Zhang Yimou's movie "The Flowers of War" made me quite intrigued. Having been a fan of Zhang Yimou for as long as he has been in the movie business, I try to see all his films. Indeed his recent movies have been disappointing, most notably "Curse of the Golden Flower" (even the translation of the movie title sounds ludicrous). I remember I was once so fanatically enthralled by his movies that I told my mom that one of my biggest dreams would be to meet Zhang Yimou in person - this was right after I saw "To Live".

Ironically, in recent years, his movies are not only allowed in China, but also celebrated to great fanfare. This is in direct contrast to the days when his movies were deemed too subversive and too critical of China's past. One could not help but wonder if it is because he is now making movies which are largely in synch with the government agenda. "Hero" is the least subtle of all of them, preaching the idea that tyranny and oppression might be necessary for the sake of unity and peace.

"The Flowers of War" is about a story that occurred during the Nanking massacre. The World War II provided the context and background for numerous movies in the west, ranging from epic battle movies with lots of explosions and gunfires ("Pearl Harbor", "Saving Private Ryan", "Flags of My Father"), to rather personal stories with the war as the background ("Atonement", "Au Revoir Les Enfants", "Life is Beautiful"). While there is a a high level of awareness about the holocaust in the west, manifested by the Holocaust Museum in D.C. and the Academy Awards showered on the holocaust movies ("Schindler's List", "The Pianist", etc), what the Japanese armies did in China and especially in Nanking (then capital of China) was relatively unknown to the western audience until the publication of Iris Chang's book "The Rape of Nanking".

Actually there have ALSO been numerous movies made in China about the atrocities of the Japanese armies during World War II, and I can think of at least three which were made specifically about the "Rape of Nanking" - a phrase coined by Iris Chang. They were not cinematic masterpieces, and served mostly an educational role, if not a bit too propaganda-like. Therefore, "The Flowers of War" marks the first time that a movie about this painful episode is shown to the western audience.

Perhaps it explains why Zhang Yimou has tried his best to cater to a western audience. He has not been known for subtlety when he wants to deliver a message (e.g. "Hero"). With this movie, he is clearly trying to inform the audience about the atrocities committed by the Japanese army in Nanking.

Frankly, the story has many flaws, many of which obviously are attributed to the writer, as opposed to the director. The characters were thinly built and ill developed. The moral transformation of the American guy played by Christian Bale in the movie was simultaneously unbelievable and predictable. The credibility of the twists and turns of the events would not stand a closer look by anyone with an average intelligence.

Yet despite all that, Zhang Yimou has managed to appeal to his Chinese audience in a way that perhaps only he knows how. He has not done so well with the western audience. The reviews in China have been much more positive than here in the US. His meticulous attention to details such as how his actresses must speak an authentic Nanking dialect and must learn how to walk in the way that prostitutes back then walked, perhaps can only be rivaled by Steve Jobs with his fanatical emphasis on the details of the Apple products. The title of the film in Chinese "Thirteen Beauties in Nanking" is a clever play on the famous Chinese classic novel "Dream of the Red Mansion", which is utterly lost in translation. The scene in which the prostitutes played the quintessentially romantic song of that era from that region has a huge emotional impact on Chinese people with appreciation for folk operas, which does not translate emotionally to a western audience. In the end, despite his effort to appeal to a western audience with more than half the original dialogues in English, he has won over his Chinese audience, who found his cinematic approach to the subject of Nanking massacre unique, refreshing, poignant and less preachy than previous films.

Of course, as the director who discovered Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi for the world, he does not disappoint with his selection of the leading actress. With Ni Ni, he has made us believe that no one else could have been playing the character of Yu Mo more believably, even if the role is not a believable one to start with.

Zhang Yimou is more of an artist than a storyteller. It helps that he has had a deep appreciation of Chinese history and culture, and access to a wealth of materials for him to make movies. He brings the best element out of his actresses, so that they find to their own surprise how much they embody their fictional characters. That is perhaps where he is better than other directors known more for their style than substance.

Rational Winston

I made an impromptu trip to Shanghai right before Christmas. It was just for a few days. While I was gone, my mom and Michael were home with Winston. It is interesting how kids are different from each other. Even from early babyhood, he has never developed too much emotional attachment for his own good. When I am around, he would not let anyone else but me to put him to bed or feed him meals. But when I am not around, he does not question why I am absent. He would ask, "where is mommy?" My mom would say, "Mommy is in Shanghai right now." Upon hearing that, every time he accidentally mentioned me, he would answer for himself, "mommy is in Shanghai right now."

After I returned home, he woke up in the middle of the night asking for Michael, whereas he always asked for me before my trip. It shows how fast he adapted to the change over the few days I was away. Now that my mom has gone back to Beijing, he would say to himself, "Grandma has gone back to Beijing." Yesterday, I asked him, " do you want Grandma?" He said, "yes". "Do you want to go to Beijing to see Grandma?" "No." "Well, in that case, do you still want Grandma?" "No." "Do you want Grandma to come back to 307?" Our house number is 307 so he knows that 307 is home. He said, "yes." He is such a logical boy!

One of my friends said that almost everything about a kid is genetic. I don't know. But it's true that from an early age Winston has been rational. He would get fussy and cry and make unreasonable demands. But he gives up when he realizes that he is going nowhere. That perhaps has negative consequences in that he does not try very hard to learn a new toy. He gives up when something is too hard. Maybe that is typical of a 2.5 year old boy. After all, I was doing nothing at his age.

Older and Dumber

I am sure that many people get the same feeling at times. I feel as if I had been super busy forever, and yet when I think about what I have been busy with, I can't pinpoint to any concrete accomplishments.

Of course, the cold/flu season has a lot to do with this sense of "much ado about nothing" - Winston got sick, and then I got sick. Now that finally everyone is healthy, I am almost bracing for another round of sickness to start again. Well, I will keep my fingers crossed. I do believe that people who are used to a constant state of perfect health are particularly vulnerable in times of sickness. I even remember friends from elementary school who were used to having fevers once in a while, whereas any fever would knock me out completely.

I did end up watching quite a few movies. I watched the latest "Mission Impossible" film starring Tom Cruise and it was fun. I watched the Roman Polanski film "Carnage" based on Yasmina Reza's play. I have the feeling that one is supposed to enjoy the dialogues, because they are funny and make caricatures out of the people who utter those dialogues. I am positive that I would have given it a glowing review had I watched it a few years ago, when I was placing much emphasis on "culture". Those were the days when there was no work outside of work, which means that even entertainment needed to have a certain intellectual challenge. Now that there is even more work outside of work, I have come to understand why some of the best-educated people I know choose to stay away from any type of thinking in their leisure time. Yasmina Reza is a talented writer. Kate Winslet and Jodie Foster acted with such ferocious intensity that made their characters even more real than real, but I would rather escape from reality with my movies.

That is why I greatly enjoyed watching Tom Cruise bounce off skycrapers in "Mission Impossible". That is why I laughed my head off watching "Johnny English Reborn" - a mockery of the James Bond films. And that is also why I had fun watching a truly silly comedy "Sophie's Revenge" starring Ziyi Zhang. I would have imperiously laughed them off as having absolutely no substance a few years ago.

It is interesting how we as people change and evolve, and how we get older and wiser - or shall I say "older and dumber", since I am watching "dumber" movies now than before?

Aftershock

An American friend of mine told me about a Chinese movie available on Netflix "Aftershock", and said that he could not finish it because it was quite tragic. I looked it up and realized that I had heard about it before. It was made by the mainstream Chinese director Feng Xiaogang about the 1976 earthquake in Tangshan, China. In fact, I still vaguely remember it, as it affected Beijing as well. I recall being carried downstairs in the middle of the night. My mom told me that the buildings were shaking so hard that it was almost impossible to walk down the stairs. I suppose that were the tremors any bigger, the buildings would have collapsed and none of us would have survived.

Feng Xiaogang's real-life wife Xu Fan played a mother that lost her husband in the earthquake. She also had to choose between her twins when the rescue workers told her that only one of them could be saved from underneath some rubble. She finally picked the son, a decision that haunted her for the rest of her life. She kept saying to her son that only after you lost something do you understand what loss is like. It sounds simple, but it rings so true.

My mom just left to go back to Beijing after a two-month stay here. This time, I was really sad to see her go. While we have always been close, it has not been without heated arguments between the two of us. However, on this recent visit, we got along fabulously well, partly because we both got to appreciate having each other, and ignoring each other's imperfections. I also see a lot of my mom in myself, ranging from simple habits to personality traits, even though fundamentally we are really different people.

Indeed, we do not need any disasters leading to tragic loss to understand the importance of having something or someone. The movie might have been too stereotypical of a tearjerker, but the message is nonetheless valuable.