Thursday, July 1, 2010

Yellow Earth

The film Yellow Earth directed by Chen Kaige begins with a still image of nature accomopanied by traditional Chinese music in the background. One ofth e main characters, Grother Gu, a solder form the 8th Route Army comes to the small village of Shanxi to collect folk songs to take back to his army. Brother Gu mentions that he wants to collect these songs to that his army could sing them to remember the suffering that they must go through. Brother Gu stas in the village with a family of three, including a widowed father and his two children HanHan and Cuiqiao. During his stay with the family, Brother Gu integrates his lifestyle with that of the family's by helping the father plough the fields and spending time with the children doing things such as sowing. Eventually Brother Gu leaves and Cuiqiao asks to leave with him to avoid the arranged marriage her father had just informed her about. Brother Gu denies her pleas and tells her that he will return for her. After her marriage, however, Cuiqiao cannot wait any longer and decides to leave on her own. Shortly after Brother Gu returns and he finds to villagers asking the King Dragon for rain. The film concldes with a folk song in which the lyrics support the Party.

Chen Kaige uses many subtle symbols to create connections between different social aspects of China at the time. For example, the color red is a prominent motif that occurs over and over in the movie. Red is the most important color during the marriage ceremony at the beinning of the movie, and also for Cuiqiao's marriage ceremony. Chen Kaige juxtaposes Cuiqiao's marriage ceremony with a ceremonial dance that occurs in Yan'an. Although both celebrations are meant to be happy and festive events, Cuiqiao's marriage is traumatizing for her. In this way, Chen Kaige threads together the urban and the rural parts of China, and at the same time creates a connection between the old and the new. The arranged marriage is a traditional ceremony, while the current situation in Yan'an is the preparationfor the war against the Japanese. Chen Kaige creates this unity between the two, to show that despite the fact that these events are so different, they are still a part of Chinese identity. At the same time, the contrast of these two situations reflect the change that takes place during China at this time.

Also, another way Chen Kaige portrays this change is by showing the transformation of the Shanxi's folk songs from being sad and melancholy to ones that acclaim and support the Party. This portrays the Party's ignorance of the suffering occuring in the rural parts of China. The main purpose tof the fold songs was to express the pain and suffering of the peasants, but the songs were taken from them, and the words were changed to support the Party.

In Particular, Cuiqiao's songs were always about her suffering and her desire to have more freedon and to choose her own destiny. Previously, her father had commented that women should be happy to marry because marriage would provide them with food. However, this was not Cuiqiao's views nor was it what she wanted. Throughout the film, Cuiqiao is constantly amazed at the freedon women have in the south, such as joining the army and being able to love and marry freely. She has this yearnig for change and freedom, which is why she should be associated with the motif of water. In the movie, Cuiqiao was always either getting water from the well, heating up water, or singing by te river. In the end she escapes her village via the Yellow River. Water flows to its own rhythm and it forms its own path, which is what Cuiqiao eventually ends up doing. She forms her own path and decides her own future. Cuiqiao is a way in which transfromation and change is portrayed as one of the main themes of this film.

All in all, Chen Kaige was able to capture the beauty of China's landscape as well as its culture. At the same time he commented on the changeability and the uncertainty of the futre. Chen Kaige emphasizes this point very well in his interview when he says, "The open ending arises from us not being able to - and not wanting to - give audiences a clear anser about what we are trying to express or what the future holds for this child" (Chen 90). The open-ending is crucial for Cuiqiao becasue it symbolizes the risk she takes, and it is also crucial for the Chinese people because it emphasizes the mystery that the future has in store.

1 comment:

  1. I also thought that water was a huge, recurring motif in Yellow Earth. However, it is also often a motif that is difficult to understand. Water can be life-giving. Cui Qiao, as the review points out, was always carrying water, and even her last words to Gu Qing was about how he should look to the Yellow River for water. Water can also be life-taking; it's very possible that Cui Qiao loses her life on the Yellow River.

    Water is also both weak and strong. Cui Qiao, Hanhan, and all the other villagers are tossed around by fate like droplets of water in the air. However, Cui Qiao and Hanhan is also like water that carves out its own path, possibly to find a larger, collective pool of water to join or possibly to collect in forgotten buckets to stagnate.

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