A Movie Review of “Mona Lisa Smile” and “And the Spring Comes”

[1119644748]

Cheng Jinghan

Mona Lisa Smile is a drama film produced by the American revolution film studio, directed by Mike Newell, the film stars Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst and Julia Stiles. The film was first released in the United States on December 19, 2003. And the Spring Comes is a drama film directed by Gu Changwei, starring Jiang Wenli, Li Guangjie and Jiao Gang, released on April 11, 2008. These two films are of great educational significance in the pursuit of self and ideal.

Mona Lisa Smile tells the story: In 1950s America, Catherine, a UCLA art graduate, chose to teach art history at Wesleyan college, an ancient and traditional girls' school. In the face of America's brightest young women, in the face of old Wesleyan stereotypes, Catherine, full of ideals and passion, boldly challenged the outdated teaching system, giving female students in school and herself, a new perspective on art life and love. And the Spring Comes tells the story of Wang Cail ing, an elderly literary women, who taught music in a small county school in the 1980s. Although her appearance was not attractive, she had a touching voice and was especially fascinated by opera. Unwilling to lead a mediocre life like those around her, she is determined to root in Beijing. After many hardships, she finally bowed to life and shook hands with the world in her own way.

As far as I’m concerned, two movies’ themes are about dream and reality. Although Catherine and Wang Cailing struggle painfully in the process of the contradiction between dream and reality, they all have a positive spirit of pursuing themselves and their ideals.

In Mona Lisa Smile, although the status of women was gradually valued in the 1950s, the feudal ideology of the upper class was still very serious. At the famous Wesleyan University, students' success was defined as their future marriage. Unlike other teachers, Catherine not only challenged school practices and rules, but also encouraged students to explore their own interests and boldly pursue ideals, knowledge and rationality. However, when Catherine was teaching her students, one of the students disagreed with her. This student thought that family is the most important thing and being a mother is the happiest thing. Even in the face of great challenges, Catherine still struggled with the stale reality and backward thoughts. In the end, her struggle undoubtedly awakened some female students like Betty to pursue higher life ideals.

In And the Spring Comes, although Wang Cailing lived in a shabby worker's dormitory and ate instant noodles, she never tired of practicing Italian, played the piano and sang songs that clearly expressed the fullness and firmness of her inner world. Full of ideals and fighting spirit, she was defending her artistic ideals in what she considered the most dignified way. The ironic scenes of the film mainly base Wang's dream of "singing in the Roman opera" on the reality with a great distance from it, which made her confidence and desolation all the more bitter. When Wang Cailing found the personnel department of Beijing conservatory of music to introduce herself, she was rebuffed and desperate to sing in an attempt to prove their strength. Beijing was the refuge of her real life, the only satisfaction to distinguish "mediocrity". Her pride stemmed from her incompetence, her ugly appearance and withdrawn character, so she could only rely on ideals to support self-esteem.

The difference between the two films is the result of two protagonists. Wang Cailing fails. She gave up her dream and chose to make peace with the world in her own way. The scene of Wang singing (fantasy) at the end of the film becomes the highlight of the characters' struggle and insistence on their dignity. However, Catherine succeeds. Catherine persistently influenced his students and led them to find themselves to realize their value. Finally, she won the respect and love of students with her straightforward and enthusiastic teaching style, and was called "Mona Lisa" by female students.

Both films have achieved good performances in terms of the function of music, which enhances the film effect, rendering atmosphere with certain symbolic significance.

In Mona Lisa Smile, the selection of background music and interweaving sublimate the effect of the film. Catherine's first art history lesson began when Betty said to her teacher, "if you don't have anything else to teach, we'd rather teach ourselves." This sentence highlights the atmosphere at the beginning of the background music. When Catherine's ideal is frustrated by reality, the melody makes people feel her helplessness and sadness, alluding to her struggle between ideals and reality.

And the Spring Comes combines the music and the story, promotes the development of the story and depicts the inner contradictions of the characters. Firstly, the music highlights the personality of Wang Cailing and her continuous pursuit of opera art. At the beginning of the film, Wang Cailing's opera "late spring" is playing on the loudspeaker. The director introduces Wang's work and dreams to the audience with "late spring", which defines the theme of the film. Spring is a symbol of hope, and the song implies that the protagonist Wang Cailing is full of hope for her dreams. Secondly, the music depicts Wang Cailing's dissatisfaction with the reality and helplessness. The film reinforces this emotional experience with very sad and somber lyrics, revealing the huge gap between the reality and the ideal of art.

What’s more, both films contain the use of visual elements, which imply the development of the story, enhance the theme of the film, and guide the audience to feel the unique artistic charm of the film.

From the perspective of color, in Mona Lisa Smile, the warm and cold colors are well combined. Catherine listened with rapture as the students discussed their views on the Mona Lisa in class. The dazzling sunlight penetrates the glass and shines all over the classroom. Here the film uses the symbolic method: the brilliant sunshine represents the light of knowledge and independent personality, shining on this group of new women seeking knowledge. It's like Catherine bringing hope to everyone.

Additionally, And the Spring Comes in the camera language is very rich, a variety of shots with each other to create the film atmosphere. The collocation of different lens shows the twists and turns of the Wang's way of pursuing her dream. In the section of Huang Sibao and Wang Cailing taking a train to Beijing, the director uses a long shot to show the train coming quickly from a distance. At the end of the film, Wang Cailing's imaginary self sings in the grand theater. The director takes a long and medium shot to close-up of her face, showing Wang's difficulties in pursuing her dream and the helpless fact that she finally gave in to the real life after all kinds of disillusionment.

In summary, these two films are of great educational significance in the pursuit of self and ideal. So I think you might as well try it if you have time.

[rzp80]

Cheng Jinhan,
This is a well written essay. I enjoyed reading about your take on Katherine and Wang Cailing's pursuit of success. Your essay was clearly laid out with a nice intro to introduce both films. In addition, your essay became really strong in the last two paragraphs when you discussed the non-verbal strategy of background music to relay rhetorical messages. You shared great examples such as the music playing when Katherine feels defeated after Betty dismisses her lecture.
There were very few grammatical errors; the only thing I would note is that verbs are used in present tense when talking about a movie, book, or any fiction piece. You used great, specific vocabulary that developed strong imagery.
Great essay,
Rachel

[3188257245]

After reading this film review, I think these places are done very well. We can have a clear grasp of the theme of your work, and the specific elaboration is very detailed. The story and the theme are well integrated to explanations and your own views. In addition, the description of non-verbal strategies is also well-placed. For example, the music in the two films reflects the mood of the characters, promotes the development of the story. In the color, cold and warm lights are the objects of interpretation. The illustrations about lights different functions in both two films can reflect that the two authors must have done a lot of researches on film shooting skills.
Of course, we also think there are some aspects that can continue to improve. For example, in paragraph 5 of the article, you say Wang Cailing ’s ultimate dream is to sing in the Rome Opera House, while her dream mentioned in the movie should be singing in the Paris Opera House. In addition, at the beginning and the end of the article, you mentioned the profound educational significance of the two films. I agree with this point, but we think you can list more details about the educational significance of the two films. Finally, what I want to say is that the theme analysis of the relationship between the dream and reality can be further in depth. Of course, at this point, I admit I and my partner have not done very well too, so I hope we can all do better in this aspect and interpret the theme in a more novel way.
By Zhou Yang and Li Simin

[1119644748]

Dear Rachel,

Thank you for your response on my paper. It is nice to hear from you. 

You summarized my essay well and highlighted the main points that I wanted to get across.

Thank you for your suggestion that verbs are used in present tense when talking about a movie, book, or any fiction piece. This is the first time I've ever written a film review. When I started writing, I was a little vague about the tenses, struggling to use the past tense or the present tense. Thank you for clearing up my confusion. I will be more rigorous in grammar in the future! There may be a lot of chinglish in my article, I hope you can point it out to me patiently, so that I can deeply understand the way of English expression.

However, I always feel that the theme of this article is too single or not deep enough. It just discusses the embodiment of dreams and reality in two films. I might want to incorporate some cultural comparisons. Maybe I can start with cultural background and social standards. These movies take place at different times and they have different social backgrounds, social standards and views on women and marriage. 

Thank you for your comments and please let me know your views and if you have any other questions. I look forward to your reply.

Jinghan Cheng&Haiping Shi

[1119644748]

Dear Zhou and Li
We are glad to receive your comments.
First of all, we are very happy about your affirmation of the article's theme, the use of nonverbal strategies and shooting skills. Thank you for your reply. I think we can continue to keep these advantages.

Then, in the fifth paragraph of the article, Wang's ultimate dream is indeed to sing in the Paris Opera House, not the Roman Opera House as we mentioned. This is an oversight on our part. Thank you for pointing it out and we will correct it. In addition, you said that the article could add more details about the educational significance of the two films, which I think is reasonable, and I will discuss with my companion to add appropriately in the future.

Finally, the most important thing is to analyze the relationship between the ideal and the reality at a deeper level. I think this is really lacking in our article, and my partner and I are aware of this problem. We will take a closer look at this in future revisions.
Hope we can make progress together in this respect!
Cheng Jinghan& Shi Haiping

[3188257245]

Hi Jinghan and Haiping,

Because your point of view is that the two films are of great educational significance in the pursuit of self and ideals. And you mentioned in the third paragraph that the themes of the two films are about dreams and reality. Then we think whether you can use a few more sentences to explain more directly and obviously the inspiration to us from the choice made by Catherine and Wang Cailing in the contradiction between dream and reality. You can also show your attitude towards their choice. In addition, we think you can also try in this way: explore whether the choice made by the two women under the social background and values at that time is a great progress. That may make your theme more powerful. 

We look forward to your reply to our suggestions, and we have learned a lot from your articles as well.(～￣▽￣)～

By Zhou Yang and Li Simin

[rzp80]

Dear Jinghan Cheng and Haiping Shi,
I can't believe this is your first essay about a film! You did a great job writing an English-style essay. I study Chinese, and I don't think I could write an essay like this in Chinese.
I saw you mentioned in your reply that you are hoping to make your essay deeper. I re-read your essay in hopes to see if I could help spark some ideas. One thing I noticed is that you mentioned how Wang Cailing's life is based more on ideals than Katherine's life. I thought this is an interesting view. From an American perspective, we would view Katherine and the students' lives as not realistic or "the ideal" because of the extreme wealth and their lavish lifestyle being able to attend college in the 1950's. That being said, I see your point how Wang Cailing's dreams feel unrealistic considering how hard it is to become a singer at this time. Therefore, I wonder if you could include more background into the ability to pursue a dream like this during 1990's China. If you have any questions about life in America in the 1950's I'd be happy to help in any way I can! I also look forward to seeing your cultural insights.
Sincerely,
Rachel

[tjb5856]

I thought it was very interesting how you noted how music plays a role in both films. Both films used it to enhance the atmosphere of a scene. Music in "Mona Lisa's Smile" is used subtly to convey the feelings of characters to the audience. While never outright stated by the characters themselves, the audience is still able to get a sense of what the characters are thinking and feeling during a scene by what music is playing in a scene. In "And the Spring Comes" music is a very important part of the story. Wang's goal is to become a singer in Beijing. The music also is more focused on Wang herself. The song in the beginning tells the audience all of her hopes and dreams, and the music later on in the film conveys Wang's emotions to the audience when her dreams of being a singer get crushed.

[1119644748]

Hi Zhou and Li
Glad to hear from you again. The theme of our article is really to discuss the ideal and reality. Maybe there is a problem in our presentation, which leads to the lack of close connection with the theme. In the following revision, we will explain in more detail the enlightenment of Catherine and Wang's choice in the contradiction between ideal and reality. Our attitude towards their choice is not specific praise or criticism, but whether the ideal is successful or not, their brave spirit of fighting against the reality is praiseworthy. We will revise the article according to your Suggestions to make the topic more prominent. Thank you for your advice.
Cheng Jinghan and Shi Haiping

[1119644748]

Hi Timothy
We are glad to hear from you. I see you are analyzing our article from the perspective of the music in the two films. Mona Lisa Smile uses music to convey the emotions of The characters. And in The Spring Comes, music is an important clue. I think you are quite right in some degree. Thanks for your comments. We hope to see more of your suggestions and look forward to your reply.
Cheng Jinghan and Shi Haiping