Movie/ Culture Essay Revised

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Alvin Dastine

And the Spring Comes and Mona Lisa Smile are both great movies that explore many similar cultural elements even though they analyze two different cultures. Whether Chinese or American, both movies paralleled each other when examining a common theme; learning and understanding one’s worth. The protagonists in both movies struggle with this theme in their own ways but by the end, they both achieve what they set out to do. The main conflict in both movies stem from cultural stigmas and social pressures that plague the women of the past and to some degree today. However, because of the influence of Vincent Van Gogh, a historical artist, the protagonists were able to overcome their conflicts. Van Gogh is mentioned briefly in both films, however, his ideology was a prominent theme throughout both movies. Due to Van Gogh’s ideology of refusing to compromise his integrity, the main protagonists learn to understand their worth.

In And the Spring Comes, we are introduced to Miss. Wang, a professor who is an aspiring opera singer. The movie is very artistic in the use of dark lighting and metaphors said throughout the movie. Many parts of the movie relies on filling in the blanks because some events are not explicitly said. I believe this is for a more stylistic appeal. Rhetorically, East Asian culture believes that metaphors are more persuasive than direct language. An example of this can be seen in the beginning of the movie when the male opera singer says “Revolution knows no era and study knows no age” in referring to why he chose to begin singing in his 30s.

It is important to note that Miss. Wang believes she is unattractive even though she is very talented. Many opera organizations blow her off before she even sings and if she does sing it doesn’t persuade them to let her join. She had a tough time trying to break out into mainstream work and she realizes her dreams are slowly developing into a beautiful nightmare. I use the phrase “beautiful nightmare” because her journey seems to be a sweet dream with optimism and hope that soon becomes dark and unexpected. At one point she even attempts suicide to escape her constant rejection. The movie emphasizes what one would do to achieve their dreams. Van Gogh was only mentioned briefly, however, his impact is shown throughout the movie. Van Gogh failed a lot before he became a renowned artist. Miss. Wang did not allow society to keep her down and refused to compromise her integrity. Even when all the people she was friends with gave up on their dreams, she continued with hers. In the end, it’s up to the viewer to determine if the ending scene is reality or just a dream unfulfilled.

In each movie, both female leads defied expectation in their close minded societies. Mona Lisa Smile was more focused on analyzing art and was less stylistic whereas And the Spring Comes was the art along with its characters. Nonetheless, Mona Lisa Smile still had a great plot and message. Our main protagonist, Miss. Watson, is a progressive professor at Wellesley College who noticed that a lot of her students' highest goal in life was getting married. American culture today is highly influenced by historical events and American cinema loves to recapture these events for the public. Viewers are transported to 1953-54, a few years prior to the 2nd Wave Feminist Movement that aimed to achieve equality for women. At the time the traditional life of a woman was to find fiances, get married, and that was it.

Many students would get married and act like school wasn’t even a factor. Miss. Watson thought that was old fashioned and very alt-right in nature. As a role model, professor, and fellow woman, she wanted to teach women that they don’t have to compromise their integrity for anyone. The scene where she expresses this is when she brings up a “How to be Van Gogh” template in class. Just like in And a Spring Comes, the discussion of Van Gogh was brief but Van Gogh’s morals was a constant theme of the movie. Along the way Miss. Watson also realizes that being a wife is honestly some students’ choice. When she sees that one of her students is comfortable being just a wife rather than a Yale Law student, that’s when Miss. Watson realized her mindset is also flawed. She became a role model for the students and tried to inspire them to dream bigger and achieve more. Even the stubbornness of students began to learn their worth and become forward thinkers.

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Hi Alvin!
I like your essay with the clue of Van Gogh and the content of the essay let me think one of our sayings that "See the whole world from a grain of sand". And one of the highlight points in the essay is the connotation of the ending about And the spring comes, which is up to our thinking way. This open ending's explanation let me have a new understanding of it.
Both above points are outstanding and eye-catching in the whole excellent essay. It's not mean that the rest is not good. The rest part of the essay is also excellent in terms of the integration of content and personal views, as well as the concise and performance of theme. But in my opinion, the cohesion of the essay is somewhat rigid. You can use the clue of Van Gogh to shift the perspective to the Mona Lisa smile. At the same time, the description of the content of the movie And the spring comes can be reduced appropriately and then add some examples to analyze the whole connotation of it.
I really like your eassy, which shows the charm of the two films from a very unique perspective. Thanks! ; )

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Hi, Alvin.
Your essay is excellent, and I like it too. You are very careful so you can discover the existence of Van Gogh in both movies, and this is something I did not notice. It turned out that the two movies also hinted at Van Gogh's ideology of refusing to compromise. Thanks for your essay, so that I can have a better understanding of these two movies, and my understanding of Van Gogh has also increased. In addition, regarding the views of the two movies separately, I think our views are relatively similar. However, in my opinion (according to the method I was usually taught), maybe you can conclude (or reiterate) your point with a more critical conclusion in the end. Your point of view is very clear. In comparison, I feel that my article is still a bit unclear about the points raised in the content. I hope you will give some comments after reading my article. Thanks! Looking forward to your reply. ^_^
Li Yi