33 Movie Notes

[Jingyuan L.]

When Spring Comes, and Mona Lisa Smile are both excellent movies that show the audience the social and self-identity problems in the completely different period and cultures. When Spring Comes is about a woman who lives in a small town in China and has a big dream of being a musician. She has the talent for music and loves singing opera. However, people around her could not understand her. In the movie Mona Lisa Smile, Katherine is a professor who teaches at all-female Wellesley College. At that time, people measured success by how well the student marries. If the student marries someone rich and good-looking, she is a winner. Not like the average person, Katherine encourages students to pursue independent life and critical thinking.

Both movies show women’s empowerment problems. As minority of society, women are not only judged by men but also themselves about their marriage. In both movies, the majority believe that a good marriage is most important thing for a woman. This social value considers women as objects of men instead of individuals. In this situation, people like Wang and Katherine are strange and hard to understand. However, the environments did not limit their dreams, instead, pushed them to try harder. Compared with Wang, Katherine has a better environment for achieving her dream because it is Wellesley college and people are educated there. Although there are different voices, it is good for Katherine’s students to think about what is most important for women. I like how the director ends with Joan’s story. She gives up the opportunity to go to Yale Law School, instead of getting married and taking care of family. I like this part because it shows that no matter what Joan does is what she wants to do. This is what she wants, not what the society tells her to do. The most important improvement for a female is not giving up the family but owning their rights to choose their lives.

Although there are some people that think Wang is ridiculous and living in a dream, I think she is precious and so does Huang and Hu. They are brave, and they tried hard to fight the system and the society, even they did not change anything about it. However, it did not mean that it’s not worth to try. Wang said, “When spring comes, I always expect something happened but nothing ever happened, and I am still expecting.” I love the moment that she says that. It was on the train to Beijing, her dream city. Her face is happy and hopeful, almost like she has never been treated bad in life. At that moment, Wang looks like a 10-year-old girl who looking forward Christmas. The creative artist is the child who survived, and Wang is the one.

Compare with Mona Lisa Smile, When Spring Comes is more touching for me. It is not because I am Chinese. It’s because When Spring Comes shows humanity boldly. She is not a typical beauty, was discriminated, wants to be loved, has been cheated, tried to suicide, does not compromise. But she is bold, brave and respectful.

[Jieyan Z.]

Are children minority of the society?

[Jingyuan L.]

I think they are, how come?