Thursday, July 1, 2010

Yellow Earth by Chen Kaige

Chen Kaige made his debut as a director in the 1984 Chinese film Yellow Earth. The film is set in the early spring of 1939 and centers on the lives of three main characters: Da Shu, Cui Qiao, and Brother Gu. The Chinese Communist Party and the Kuomintang are in the midst of cooperating together in order to fight off the invasion of the Japanese forces.

Gu Qing , a soldier from the CCP, journeys alone with a mission to collect folksongs for propaganda purposes for his department. During his journey, Gu Qing stays with a family in a small rural village miles away and learns the “old” ways of their culture—in exchange introducing to the family his “new” traditional input. Cui Qiao, the daughter of Da Shu, grows closer to Brother Gu and ends up falling in love with him. However, Gu Qing urges for her to stay despite the arranged marriage and promises to return one day. Following through with the marriage, Cui Qiao after decides to leave her family and set off to join the CCP. Gu Qing returns later on to the same home and finds it deserted. The film portrays the clash between old traditions and the rising modernism of China.

Chen Kaige’s film Yellow Earth illustrates to its audience the hardships of one family that struggles to resist change and continue on with their old tradition. Cui Qiao has been arranged to marry an individual her father had chosen for her. The “old” tradition of arranged marriages strips Cui Qiao of her will and identity. This is shown during the film in one scene where Da Shu explains to Cui Qiao of what entails in an arranged marriage and what is expected of Cui Qiao. During this scene however, Cui Qiao is shown standing at the door but her face is not shown. She is masked by darkness which portrays the notion of her not having her own identity. Another aspect in the film is the influence of “new” modernism that Gu Qing places on Cui Qiao. I believe the color red symbolized modernism and the new coming of change throughout the film, and the only family member who was seen to be wearing red was Cui Qiao. She is also the only one among the family who yearns to stray away from old traditions and find change in her life. Her attempt to joining the CCP is a direct reflection upon her red outfit as well as the affect the CCP had against her.

The film ends with a group of villagers performing rain dances in order to save their harvest from drying and prevent a drought from occurring. While China has been developing and changing rapidly, the people of the “old” ways are struggling to survive in this new era. Although the fate of Cui Qiao is not certain, those who sought to keep old tradition were seen to perish.

2 comments:

  1. “Yellow Earth” is the début film of Chen Kaige who is one of the “Fifth Generation” filmmakers of China which is the well-known group in the world, and the movie is considered to be a true masterpiece in history of Chinese film industry in terms of transformation from the tradition style to the new style—in the movie, there is no obvious story line as a plot, but there is unimaginable reality that is depicted desperately and vividly which was never carried out in Chinese movie before.

    As we are able to notice the literal meaning from its title, “Yellow Earth(黄土地)”, the movie shows closely the life of peasantry who resides along the Yellow River in northern Shanxi province in the late 1930s by the realistic description. I think that the director who had gone through Cultural Revolution, being sent to rural area from city and denouncing his father as a Red Guard when he was a youth, put his experiences into the movie as Gu Qing, a cultural worker from the Eight Route Army, who tried to collect folk songs in order to transform the national culture and encourage the Communist force against Japanese.

    When Gu and Cuiqing’s family were having lunch after they worked on the field together, Gu was asking them to sing some indigenous songs and wondering how they remember all the songs. The response from Cuiqing’s father to Gu was that peasants sing either happy or sad, and they remember folk songs because their life is difficult. Through the conversation, I think that even though the “revolutionary” soldier tried to learn and enlighten with ordinary peasants by collecting folk songs, he actually could never understand the “bitter tunes” and realities of people there. As the more he tried to be identified with the local people, the more he stood out to be differentiated by his attitude and gesture—laughing alone and using revolutionary words—during the conversation with the village people. As for Shanxi’s people, songs were simply sung and remembered spontaneously within their daily “bitter” life; however, as for the soldier, folk songs were the object to be “collected” and the means of transformation. The soldier’s job was maintaining the folk songs, and yet what he actually was doing was distorting folk songs. It represents that Chinese Communist Party has been trying to preserve customs and traditions, but they were actually exploiting and taking advantage of the people. No matter what there were wars and political revolutions, the life of ordinary peasants was still going on and existed as hardship and bitterness as if the nature has been there all the time as it is.

    In the movie, the soldier talked to Cuiqing and her family about the “liberated” life in yan’an where the cradle of Chinese Communist party was, and Cuiqing started dreaming about the utopianism life without gender inequality and gap between the poor and the rich. Even though the soldier gave Cuiqing hope, he could not realize her hope as leaving her behind. After Cuiqing got married forcefully, she tried to escape from her home by herself. However, the director did not show audience whether she successfully crossed the river or failed to go to “dream” land. I want to ask that was the revolution and communism successful or not?

    There is the scene that when the soldier was leaving the village, Cuiqing asked him to take herself with him. The soldier responded that there are rules in army, so he would come back to take her after he gets permission according to the rules. Then, Cuiqing asked him again that if the rules can be changed. I think that “Yellow Earth” was a movie that tried to change the traditional rules in terms of film’s aesthetics and contents in China by using the picture with vast angle and various perspectives, the screen with long and tedious shots, and folk songs with intense and unique expression of poetic means.

    ReplyDelete
  2. “Yellow Earth” is the début film of Chen Kaige who is one of the “Fifth Generation” filmmakers of China which is the well-known group in the world, and the movie is considered to be a true masterpiece in history of Chinese film industry in terms of transformation from the tradition style to the new style—in the movie, there is no obvious story line as a plot, but there is unimaginable reality that is depicted desperately and vividly which was never carried out in Chinese movie before.

    As we are able to notice the literal meaning from its title, “Yellow Earth(黄土地)”, the movie shows closely the life of peasantry who resides along the Yellow River in northern Shanxi province in the late 1930s by the realistic description. I think that the director who had gone through Cultural Revolution, being sent to rural area from city and denouncing his father as a Red Guard when he was a youth, put his experiences into the movie as Gu Qing, a cultural worker from the Eight Route Army, who tried to collect folk songs in order to transform the national culture and encourage the Communist force against Japanese.

    When Gu and Cuiqing’s family were having lunch after they worked on the field together, Gu was asking them to sing some indigenous songs and wondering how they remember all the songs. The response from Cuiqing’s father to Gu was that peasants sing either happy or sad, and they remember folk songs because their life is difficult. Through the conversation, I think that even though the “revolutionary” soldier tried to learn and enlighten with ordinary peasants by collecting folk songs, he actually could never understand the “bitter tunes” and realities of people there. As the more he tried to be identified with the local people, the more he stood out to be differentiated by his attitude and gesture—laughing alone and using revolutionary words—during the conversation with the village people. As for Shanxi’s people, songs were simply sung and remembered spontaneously within their daily “bitter” life; however, as for the soldier, folk songs were the object to be “collected” and the means of transformation. The soldier’s job was maintaining the folk songs, and yet what he actually was doing was distorting folk songs. It represents that Chinese Communist Party has been trying to preserve customs and traditions, but they were actually exploiting and taking advantage of the people. No matter what there were wars and political revolutions, the life of ordinary peasants was still going on and existed as hardship and bitterness as if the nature has been there all the time as it is.

    In the movie, the soldier talked to Cuiqing and her family about the “liberated” life in yan’an where the cradle of Chinese Communist party was, and Cuiqing started dreaming about the utopianism life without gender inequality and gap between the poor and the rich. Even though the soldier gave Cuiqing hope, he could not realize her hope as leaving her behind. After Cuiqing got married forcefully, she tried to escape from her home by herself. However, the director did not show audience whether she successfully crossed the river or failed to go to “dream” land. I want to ask that was the revolution and communism successful or not?

    There is the scene that when the soldier was leaving the village, Cuiqing asked him to take herself with him. The soldier responded that there are rules in army, so he would come back to take her after he gets permission according to the rules. Then, Cuiqing asked him again that if the rules can be changed. I think that “Yellow Earth” was a movie that tried to change the traditional rules in terms of film’s aesthetics and contents in China by using the picture with vast angle and various perspectives, the screen with long and tedious shots, and folk songs with intense and unique expression of poetic means.

    ReplyDelete

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