Tuesday, January 13, 2015
The Story of Qiu Ju
Think about the presentation of Qiu Ju and Meizi in the film. In one paragraph, discuss how both of these women are represented cinematically. In your next paragraph discuss how the countryside and the city are represented cinematically. In your last paragraph, tell me what you learned and what you liked best about the film. Include also any films or filmmakers you would compare it to. I will give extra credit to anyone who watches another film of a fifth generation director and writes one paragraph on their film of choice.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
While Qiu Ju is represented as a strong and directed woman, Meizi is represented as weak and less intelligent in comparison. Throughout the film, we see that Qiu Ju will hardly stop at anything to achieve justice for her husband. Meizi is more passive. She seems more inclined just to help Qiu Ju then to really do anything. Both of these women are meant to foil each other in order to show the weaknesses of each woman. Meizi makes Qiu Ju look all the more capable, she wanders around the city and gets lost, hardly talks, and seems likes she would be more likely to conform to the men around her. Qiu Ju on the other hand, stands up to all of the men around her and makes a fool out of them. This is not something that is customary in Chinese culture. We see Qiu Ju ruin Officer Li’s reputation and make him feel that he is not worthy of his job. She stands up to the chief and eventually gets him arrested for his crimes. These are achievement far beyond what Meizi could have achieved.
ReplyDeleteThe differences between the city and country are also very important in this film and tie in with Meizi and Qiu Ju. While in the city, people manipulate the pair. We see that the bike driver charges them a ridiculous amount for their cab ride and that there is a general sense of disorientation in the characters. The camera is flooded with people who look and act differently than Qiu Ju. Her red coat stands out from the uniforms of officers and the monotonous colors worn by other city goers.
This film taught me about how to develop a story that is based on a small plot. The story is essentially only about a man who is kicked in the private areas and how his wife tries to help him but in the setting of this small village and the larger city, the story really takes off. The bureaucracy of Communist China adds to the story merely because it takes so long for the story to progress because of it. Qiu Ju has to go through every level of government, which is her struggle. I really enjoyed the aspect of the film that showed the levels of government being so terrible. It was almost reminiscent of the US or perhaps even the Buffalo Board of Education??
In 2004, Zhang Yimou released a film called “The House of Flying Daggers”. Mark Cousins discussed its importance in “The Story of Film”. In the film, CGI is used to create some of the combat sequences in the film. This includes the very colorful scene in which Mei deflects daggers and uses her hearing to figure out where bouncing objects are on drums. The transition of Zhang Yimou from traditional film into using CGI in such an interesting and creative way in a fifth generation historical piece is very important in the development of Chinese cinema. Phil hall said that "Quite simply, House of Flying Daggers is a film that sets several new standards for production and entertainment values. It is a wild riot of color, music, passion, action, mystery, pure old-fashioned thrills and even dancing. With an endless supply of imagination and a kinetic force of nature in its amazing star Zhang Ziyi, House of Flying Daggers cuts all other films to shreds."
In The Story of Qui Ju, Qui Ju and Meizi are shown as weak and powerless. Although Qui Ju has some strength for going so far and following through with her case until the end, she is powerless because she cannot make her chief apologize, which is her entire goal throughout the film. Her and Meizi go around the region, traveling to a big city in an attempt to find some authority that can make her chief apologize for hitting her husband in his special area. They are portrayed cinematically as powerless, as they are shown in a lot of medium shots and long shots, making them appear small. In addition to this, when the men are all around them, the two women generally fall to the background while the men occupy the foreground. This film would be fairly easy to analyze through a feminist lens because of just how powerless they are conveyed as, both in the big city when they are caught in a sea of people, as well as in the countryside when they fall second to the men around them.
ReplyDeleteThe countryside and the city are portrayed very differently from each other in The Story of Qui Ju. The outdoor countryside is much more quiet, with more open shots, suggesting space and freedom, while the city is loud and has closed shots, with many people. It is very tight and crowded in the city with a lot of kenesis in each shot, caused by the amount of people, much unlike the countryside where there is open space and landscapes. This difference shows how much more able people in the city are. There is very little in the countryside, but when Qui Ju goes to the city, she is able to speak to many people and make advancements in her case that she was unable to achieve in the countryside.
ReplyDeleteQiu Ju and Meizi are both portrayed as outsiders throughout the film. This is made clear through the costume design. The bright and colorful clothes of them stick out amongst the dark clothing of the city people, even after Qiu Ju buys new clothes in an attempt to fit in. The city and countryside are portrayed in very different ways. The city is portrayed as very busy. In every scene set there, crowds of people fill up the entire shot. As well, the diegetic sound is very loud, and made up mainly of the sounds of the crowded masses speaking and the cars and bikes going by. The countryside scenes are much less busy. Many shots are composed so that the people are dwarfed by the landscape and mostly taken from inside cramped houses full of people. As well, the diegetic sound is very quiet.