Review from Stanley Yuen

is a film from director Jia Zhangke who was trying to express his feelings and memories of China in the 80s to the 90s during Dang Xiaoping's reform era. The four main characters were art workers at their twenties who were relatively open minded comparing to the rest of the people in the inland underdeveloped city called FanYeung.

The film was trying to express the impact of the reform era to the city brought by the reform era. The teenagers were trying to follow the foreign new cultures such as styling their hairs, wearing bell-bottom pants, listening to pop music and wish to position themselves as the new era which is outstanding to the traditional working class people. They have lots of expectations to their future which would brought changes to their life, and refuse to face and follow the traditional life they were having.

There are lots of different cultures of China of the era expressed inside the film. From the beginning drama praising chairman Mao, to the CCP's influences to people's life and how the city changes during the revolutionary growth of China. Most of them were remarkable memories of director Jia. By watching the life of the four characters was like living in the era.

also pointed out some of the social problems during the reform. There is a touching theme about a mid-twenty uneducated teenager signing a contract with the coal mine who couldn’t understand the harsh and unacceptable conditions on the paper, but he had no choices but signing it as that was the only way he could earn money to live on and support his family. It also showed that education was not guaranteed for everyone, there is a huge gap in between the educated and uneducated people.

The director named the film because he saw those young characters as a train who was full of hope to the future, and they are running hard from the current platform to the ultimate platform representing their new life in the new era. However, even they were in the train full of hopes, the next platform was too far away for them to reach, it seemed a destination that they could never reached. As they have to face the reality of the life and at certain point they had to give up their longed dream and follow everyone else's path to live at their original life. The ending theme expressing the hopeless character had to finally gave up chasing his dream to the new life and built up his family at PanYeung to live the traditional life as his last generation.

Platform Review

Platform is about young performers (musicians and dancers) in a small town who experiences cultural, social, economic changes of China. The main characters are four friends, and their co-workers, girlfriends who are the members of the Peasant Culture Group. Their job is to move around from town to town by bus and showing their performances in praise of Chairman Mao’s great establishments and to celebrate the revolutionary work.

However, China soon begins to move toward contemporary movement through open door policy, free market, and cultural reforms. The peasant cultural group also needs to follow the development by transforming their music, dance, performance, fashion styles, and privatization of the troupe. Some of members choose to stay in Fenyang where they born and grow up, while some of them leave their hometown to find out better place for better chance.

Even though Fenyang is a very small town, there's a cultural reform movement such as talking about birth control and groups of people walk around the street shouting "One child is enough!." To remain as a member of cultural team, they try to adopt westernized cultures and listen to pop songs, performs westernized dance, and play electric guitars. They change their styles like perm hair, new bellbottom pants and draw eyebrows for someone who they like.

They struggle to get away from the past but finally return to the reality. For them, the gaps between different generations and cultural changes are hard to follow up easily. The most impressive scene is Zhong Pin's dance to music alone in her small room after giving up her dream and love. Her soft, delicate movement is beautiful but somewhat pitiful. Her movement is like farewell to her lover and also farewell to the past - revolutionary movement.

Primary Texts Covered in this Course

Farewell My Concubine (bawang bieji 霸王别姬), a 1993 film directed by Chen Kaige 陈凯歌
To Live (huozhe 活着), a 1994 film directed by Zhang Yimou 张艺谋
Yellow Earth (huang ditu 黃土地), a 1984 film directed by Chen Kaige陈凯歌
Platform (zhantai 站台), a 2000 film directed by Jia Zhangke 贾樟柯
Music from Cui Jian 崔健
Post-Tian’anmen T-shirt Culture
Music from Teresa Teng 邓丽君
Music from Ai Jing 艾敬
Music from Jay Chou 周杰伦
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Wu hu cang long 臥虎藏龍), a 2000 film directed by Ang Lee 李安
Beijing Bicycle (shiqisui de danche 十七岁的单车), a 2001 film directed by Wang Xiaoshuai 王小帅
Selections from Playing for Thrills (Wanr de jiushi xintiao 玩儿的就是心跳), a 1989 novel written by Wang Shuo 王朔
Candy (tang 糖), a 2000 novel written by Mian Mian 棉棉
Hero (yingxiong 英雄), a 2002 film directed by Zhang Yimou 张艺谋
Kung Fu Hustle (gongfu 功夫), a 2004 film directed by Stephen Chow 周星馳