Who Dances without Shackles?

[1017507241]

Hi Natalie,
This is our revised version. Welcome to read and feel free to say anything about this!

And the Spring Comes is a drama directed by Gu Changwei. The film tells the story of Wang Cailing and other young artists struggling in the contradiction between dream and reality in a small county in 1980s. The film is a story of the disillusionment of nobody's dream. The five characters try their best to realize their ambitions, but they have to submit to the reality. On the contrary, the American film Mona Lisa Smile, which created a different image, was directed by Mike Neville. The film tells us about Catherine, who graduated from the Open University of Berkeley, went to Wesley women's school to teach art history. In this school, girls learn to marry a good husband. In order to change this deep-rooted old thought, Catherine fights against it in her own way and spreads new and free thought, which reflects the theme of new things challenging old traditions. In the process of breaking the so-called tradition, women begin to reflect on the status quo and pursue freedom and personality.
These two films describe two “dancers” performing on their life stages with “shackles" to pursue their dreams. While some people do everything for the so-called dream. They were sad, but finally they came back to life. In both films, the so-called “outcast” is mentioned, that is, different from others, contrary to tradition and secular. The difference is that the “outcast” in And the Spring Comes never find the same person no matter where they are, and will always be “outcast”. Having a proud heart cannot resist loneliness of being an “outcast”. But in Mona Lisa Smile, the hero, who is also regarded as "outcast", is brave to fight against the secular world, not willing to be ordinary and mediocre.
“The spring comes. There is real sign of spring, but the wind changes s suddenly. ...When this wind blows, it makes me want to cry, and I know it is only me causing the emotion.” The monologue at the beginning read by Wang Tsailing, the heroine in And the Spring Comes meets the title point, building up the blue tone running through the movie. It seems that dreams of idealists in the movie is like the gleaming spring, accessible but unattainable. In term of shooting colors in the movie, it employs a shade of colors with gray and blue, which brings viewers the sense of humble and despair. For instance, surrounding descriptions such as storms, cold winds and heavy snow, social background delineation like crowed passengers who could only stand in the corner on the old train show us a strong sense of the special period. Moreover, near the end of the movie the classic lines echoes the beginning, integrating the movie and sublimating the character’s psychological activities “Every year when spring comes, it doesn't actually mean anything. But I feel like something big is happening and my heart is constantly ready for something.”
On the other side, Mona Lisa Smile chooses to show the audience female elites’ life from upper class at that time, which brings us a style of classical romance. While Mona Lisa Smile begins to show the characteristics of 1953. The setting, props, wallpaper, headdress and so on all reveal a strong nostalgic atmosphere, which also makes the external form of the film inconsistent with the theme. The cold and warm colors are well combined in this film. The selection and interleaving of background music sublimates the effect of the film. Warm colors create a happy atmosphere and give people a warm, excited and happy feeling. The shots in the movie are centered on characters to emphasize the theme. And the clue throughout the movie Mona Lisa Smile not only matches the identity of the heroine as an art professor but also ingeniously interprets the true suffering from traditional American women then.
Both of the films create the vivid female images with unique characteristics. Either Wang Tsailing or Catherine are struggling to challenge with the conventional opinions about “good women” in their society, which turns to a common but eternal social topic in most parts of the world—feminism, the revolution of women. Eighty years ago, a woman who was invited to Cambridge university to deliver a speech was rejected by the library gatekeeper, because only men could be admitted to the library then, later on she wrote as a pioneer of feminism “The one who can make her become herself. It’s better than nothing.” Her name was Virginia Woolf. For quite a long time, women have effectively been denied a philosophical experience of subject-hood that does not center on the self as object. They are supposed to be hide their talents instead of going outside, and raising children, helping their husbands are their inherent duty. These two movies describe two women who are willing to pursue their dreams and make great efforts to it, arousing our consciousness that she shouldn’t be someone’s wife, mother, sister, daughter instead of being someone.
Although these two dream chasers own totally different endings, which means one never gave up the pursuit, and the other one finally gave in to the reality, they’re both faced with prejudice during their personal growth. For instance, when Wang Cailing applied jobs for CCOM, the teacher even couldn’t give her a chance to show herself for her poor appearance and modest status. Meanwhile, in Mona Lisa Smile，what have to be mentioned is that, the comments on newspapers written by Betty was actually, I think, a media standing for public stereotype at that time initially, and Katherine fought against the stubborn school board for it. However, fortunately, the prejudice on newspaper was removed at the end, which may indicate that social stereotype about women were changing later. These plots in films show that, whether people are judged only by their class, appearance, or job, social stereotype, it once truly hurt one’s dignity. These biases do exist in our daily life everywhere, which we can’t ignore but only fight against directly. Although we couldn’t change the world, we can change ourselves and people around us.
In spite of defects in our society right now, our awareness of remove them have been raised luckily. So long as the direction is right, we could, I believe, wait for the spring approaching and Mona Lisa smiling.

Look forward to hearing from you! Good Luck!
Yours,
Sven Xue.

[1259591469]

Hi Li Lin,

Thank you for your feedback. As a matter of fact, your articles are excellent in our opinion. We all share the same hope that we can make progress together. I am appreciate it that you are agree with our suggestion.

[1259591469]

Hi Li Lin,

Thank you for your feedback. As a matter of fact, your articles are excellent in our opinion. We all share the same hope that we can make progress together. I am appreciate it that you are agree with our suggestion.

Best wishes,
He Weiqi &Song Xinran

[1017507241]

Hi He Weiqi & Song Xinran,
Thanks for your appreciation. Hope to see your next better essay!
Best,
Sven &Li Lin.

[1017507241]

Reflection:
In our interaction with American students, we have learned a lot. We evaluated each other's film reviews and gave corresponding opinions and suggestions. In this process, we find that American students are different from Chinese students. First of all, we are always used to using a large number of clauses in our articles, but the language of American students is relatively simple. However, we find that their articles are very logical, and the connection between paragraphs is very natural and coherent. The whole article also has internal connection. Our article is a bit lengthy, maybe because it covers a lot of content, so it seems a bit messy. I think we should be more logical and list the main points before writing. Secondly, we find that American students' film reviews are more objective and rational, and we will pay more attention to the emotional content. From the perspective of the two American students we interacted with, they all saw the connection between marriage and society of women in the old era and the situation of homosexuals in which era through And the Spring Comes.Through this activity I learned a lot and felt that my mind was opened to new possibilities for writing. From their feedback, I can see the imperfections in my essay which I didn’t discover by myself. They made me reexamine my essay to revise my weakness so that I can do better in my revision version. I think this is a golden opportunity to learn about each others’ culture, thoughts and sides, which broaden our global view and improve our expressing.

Xue Siwen & Li Lin.

[nus241]

Sven Xue,
The changes you made with your new revised essay are apparent and make your meaning much more clear! One thing I really admire in your writing is the way you sum up the main idea of your essay, and connect it to broader life ideas. An example: "Although we couldn’t change the world, we can change ourselves and people around us." This statement connects to the arguments you made in your essay, while also making broader connections. Well done!

Best,
Natalie