Be True To Ourselves

[1259591469]

He Weiqi

The film And the Spring Comes is from China and the other one Mona Lisa 's Smlie is from a foreign country. The dates were similar, one in 2003 and the other in 2008. But they all have a common theme. The film Mona Lisa’s Smile was set in the United States in 1953, as the country was changing and the women's liberation movement was in full swing. It successfully portrays two types of women. One is the image of Katherine, a woman with free and innovative ideas who strives for women's personal future, freedom and happiness. One is the more conservative images of women like Betty who are still bound by feudal ideas. The movie opens with Katherine on a train leaving California, leaving her boyfriend, to go to Wesleyan college for women, where she thought she had advanced ideas, and aspired to be a distinguished professor. However, to her disappointment, the mainstream of college education was different with her own thoughts, the students were not friendly to her, but she still stood her ground and told the students in her way. The education to females is not to marry a good husband, but for her future and being respected by others.

After her husband’s betray and the divortion, Betty learned from Catherine that individuals cannot compromise easily and should search for truth and get rid of the bound bravely, which is applied equally to everyone. Go after what you want. Don't change yourself because of others. Please show the most real and happy smile whenever we want.

The film And the Spring Comes was born in the 1980s in China. China experienced a decade of cultural revolution, and the whole Chinese people were working hard for the great cause of reform and opening up. It has a storyline that shocks the heart of the bumpy life. The image of the five small characters is the most moving.They use their own bumpy life to describe a great ideal and achieve great ambitions of the mentality with their own practical actions. The illusion about "living elsewhere" drives everyone to struggle to jump out of the art of the surrounding world. On the one hand it is full of enthusiasm and love, on the other hand, it also maintains awakeness and indifference.

The picture of the film is very realistic and simple. It seems like the scene and props are talking, and the character's situation is silently expressed. For example, glass cups and instant noodles are Wang Cailing's hand-held props, which is basically Wang Cailing on their own material requirements of the embodiment. She is not petty but she put all the money and energy into her own love of the dream. It's a remarkable film, though it's still a heavy, old topic about ideals and reality. People are always hovering between hope and bread, and the characters in this film seem to be able to live completely self-sufficient, except that the egos they have are hard to match with the town so they are seen as alien, rogue, immoral. For the indifferent and ignorant crowd, the value they exist is simply a post-tea talk or a catharsis used to scold and tout their virtues. And these men and women have a purer and kinder dream than anyone else, although in the end they have been uprooted and no one sings to the Paris Opera but the town has a more crookand and a butcher shop. They did not even reach Beijing to begin to drift on and lost the strength to float.

This film reveals to the audience two questions about the ideals of life and the psychology of human nature, only to cause the audience to think, but it does not explore the root of the causes of the problem, or give a clear attitude to help the audience to solve the puzzle. What should we do when the ideal can't be realized? There is a view that this ideal is to blame for the collapse of society. Nevertheless, in fact, is not objective. The society cannot let everyone with special skills to succeed. Fate and opportunity tend to play a more critical role. In the end of the film, Wang Cailing lived on the ordinary people and she can still be very happy. If the film can do more in the regard that Wang Cailing's singing brings happiness to her and the people around her, it will be more complete.

These two films both tell us that we need be true to ourselves. In the society, inequality exists inevitably. If we don’t love ourselves, then who will love us? We are all products of ourselves, not the products of the system.

[1017507241]

Hi He Weiqi,

The article has a clear and definite point of view, and holds the contrast between the two heroines, that is, a conservative woman and an innovative woman. But there is a little confusion in the composition structure. In the first paragraph, you took turns to write about the basic situation of the two films, and then suddenly turned to describe the smile of Mona Lisa. I don't think the detailed distribution of ink in the two films is proper. You spent too much ink on the film of And the Spring Comes, but didn't pay attention to Mona Lisa smile. Since there are differences and similarities between the two films, I suggest that you can choose several angles to compare their differences or similarities. You can write sentences at the beginning of a paragraph to show your point of view. In addition, there should be some transition sections connecting the preceding and the following to make the cohesion of the article more coherent. Unfortunately, I didn't see your description of some of the techniques used in the movie and you can add some of them appropriately. There are also some small mistakes, such as the disunity of people's names. Just pay attention to them. Hope to see a perfect composition.

Good luck,
Li Lin.

[nus241]

Hello He Weiqi!

The descriptive language you used in your essay portrayed a clear understanding of the themes of each of the movies. Your ending thesis; "In the society, inequality exists inevitably. If we don’t love ourselves, then who will love us? We are all products of ourselves, not the products of the system." was especially poignant and brought the similarities of the two films together. I think you gave a strong summary of each of the films, and it was organized very well. For your next version I would recommend looking into how you could combine or contrast some of the themes found in both the films, instead of keeping them as totally separate things. The analysis you did on props in "And the Spring Comes" was incredibly in depth, it would be interesting to see a similar analysis for "Mona Lisa Smile". In terms of grammar and vocabulary, there were a few phrases that you could take another look at. Take a look at the two statements: "a storyline that shocks the heart of the bumpy life" and "but the town has a more crookand and a butcher shop", the wording in these phrases is just a little out of place. For example, are the audience's hearts shocked at the character's bumpy lives? For the other statement, I was wondering what a "crookand" was and if that could be explained in a different way?
Overall, I enjoyed reading your essay! I'm looking forward to seeing how you expand it in your next draft!

Best,
Natalie

[1259591469]

Hi, Li Lin!
Thank you so much for summarizing our article and pointing out our shortbacks.
You suggested that we should we need to pay the same attention to both of the films, which we cannot agree more. Actually, when we were writing the article, we ignored the importance of balancing them. We came out more ideas when analysing And the Spring Comes so we wrote more. We appreciate it very much and we will explore more about Mona Lisa Smile. Also, the analysis of the connection of these two films still need to improve.
Your suggestions help us a lot. Hope to learn more from you!
From,
He Weiqi

[1259591469]

Hi, Natalie!
I am so glad to talk to you about our article and luckily, I have learnt much from you!
Thank you for mentioning the last part of our article which is our favourate! It is cheering to see that you think it concludes the similarities of the two films well. As for your suggestions, we appreciate it that you have pointed out the critical disadvantages of our essay. Combinition and contrast of the two films need to be added in. We should pay more attention to the conherence of every part. When it comes to the statement "a storyline that shocks the heart of the bumpy life" , we wanted to express that the storyline consists of these character's different life. The statement "but the town has a more crookand and a butcher shop" was the wrong expression. Actually I don't remember clearly why we wrote the sentence. Maybe we would like to write"there was a butcher shop". I am sorry for making the mistake.
I enjoy sharing our feelings with you. If you have more ideas about our article, please tell me! Hope to learn more from you!
From,
He Weiqi

[1017507241]

Hi He Weiqi,

This film review is different from the others, and straightforwardly introduces the two films separately. First, the two female figures in Mona Lisa smile are introduced, and the two characters are compared to highlight the artistic effect of the movie. But I think when introducing this story, you can also explain the background of the story, which is more convenient to understand and interpret. Secondly, And the Spring Comes, the character plot in the story is introduced in detail, the color, the tone and background of the entire movie are explained, the character image and theme are deeply analyzed, and the two films have recently been summarized in common. I think they can add a little more summary of the main theme of the two films, and can also add more to the analysis of Mona Lisa smile.

Yours,
Xue Siwen

[dvw5382]

Hello He Weiqi,

I agree with Natalie when she said you should look for a way to combine or contrast the themes for the next draft. I like your writing a lot, but I'd be careful with the word "feudal." While the word does mean "extremely old fashioned," the first thought is towards a feudalism as an economic system. If you mean "old fashioned," I would recommend a word like "archaic" or "antiquated." Also, be consistent with how you spell Katherine. I think in the movie there's a scene where viewers can see her name written on a banner and it's spelled "Katherine." (LOL I actually spelled it Catherine until I saw that scene.)

I love the ideas you had in the second paragraph, but they were also kind of confusing. To improve that paragraph, I think you should contextualize the points you want to make with evidence from the movies.

You had a really cool idea towards the end. It was something like "material requirements" because Cailing eats cheap noodles. It made me think of the old saying "you are what you eat," but I think that saying could provide an interesting frame for analysing And the Spring Comes. What does that sayin, "you are what you eat," mean in the context of a poor musician trying to follow their dreams?

[nus241]

Hello He Weiqi!

Thank you for your response on my post, I enjoyed hearing your reasoning about your statements and hearing your meaning of "a storyline that shocks the heart of the bumpy life" makes the meaning a lot clearer. I am really interested in seeing how you combine and compare the two films. What themes were you thinking on focusing on?

Looking forward to hearing more about your work!

Best,
Natalie

[1259591469]

Hi Xue Siwen,

First of all, thank you for your feedback. I couldn't agree with you more, we should mention more about the background of these two films. Which will help us to deepen understanding. Moreover, our analysis can be more profound. I am really appreciate that your suggestion is very useful to us. Thank you!

Best wishes,
Song Xinran

[1259591469]

Hi Natalie,

First of all, thank you for your feedback. In this review, my partner and I seem to have too much to say. But our layout may not be very clear. So that the whole article looks a little bit messy.
In fact, we focused on two things. One is that the protagonists of both films are women, who pursue freedom and dreams. Another one is that the collision of ideal and reality. What we want to say is that we should pursue our true selves, not to cater to The Times.
Thanks again for your feedback. Look forward to learning more from you

Best wishes,
Song Xinran