23 - Always be ‘Spring’

[Qiulan G.]

It seems that both two movies focus on women, to criticize or to praise.Indeed, 'Mona Lisa smile' is characteristic of feminism. The conflicts between women' marriage and career, love and betrayal, freedom and fetters are shown to us explicitly. Should women just learn to be a good housewife rather than an educated individual? Should women struggle more for their rights or just let it be?Should new thoughts take the place of some old traditions? From the above,we could obviously see 'Mona Lisa Smile' focuses on the feminism.

Whereas, the movie 'And the spring comes' is more of praise for certain good characters than feminism. The director chooses a woman as the leading role but it will make no difference if a man is chosen.That's because what he want to do is to praise one group of people. Wang Cailing once says ' I would rather have one bite of a fresh peach than the whole basket of rotten ones. ’Well, that is what the director appreciates. Those like Wang who are loyal to music always follow their hearts when making choices in love, in life. So I could say ‘And the spring comes’ s motivation for creation differs from ‘Mona Lisa Smile’.

I don't know whether you have noticed that the colors of the scenes in these two movies are so contrary. 'Mona Lisa smile' tends to be brighter while 'And the spring comes' tends to be dim, grey and dark. Do the directors arrange deliberately?

I think they do. Both bright and dim colors correspond to the themes. As I put it, 'Mona Lisa smile' is trying to appeal. An appeal must end up with inspiration, confidence or excitement. Brighter colors are of great help to it. A scene formed by colorful nature, colorful clothes and colorful buildings can absolutely rouse people easily.

'And the spring comes' chooses dim colors ,which is wise as well. Dim, grey and dark colors easily depress others but at the same time calm the audience down, making them think calmly and deep. Nonetheless, a contrast between the dim scenes and Wang's bright inner thoughts can highlight her good characters.

Last but not the least, learning certain background information will help us have a better understanding of other country’s cultures.

Why the producer named the film “Mona Lisa Smile” ?To answer it, we need to know the portrait--Mona Lisa’s hidden symbolic meaning. This masterpiece, painted by Leonardo Da Vinci, the famous artist during the Renaissance, is seen as a symbol of humanism. The Renaissance called for human’s liberation, which, to some extent, corresponds to the movie’s theme --- women’s liberation. The movie aims at appealing to women in the 1950s to free themselves from traditional rigid thoughts .

In “When the Spring comes”, We can’t believe that it is so hard for a nobody to pursue her own dream until we learned it’s in the 1980s ,a transitional period for China. I think this is also the significance of an exchange activity.

These two movies both end up with the season, spring, which means hope .Katherine and Wang are just like the spring, positive and bright, no matter how different they are.

[Qiulan G.]

Hi, Christian
I am terribly sorry for calling you 'Christina' the whole time. I am not even aware of it until my teacher told me. I feel so bad. Please don't be mad at me. I should have been more sensitive or careful. This really taught me a lesson---I should learn more about American culture, especially the name. I am so sorry, Chris.
And I have no idea that what “照顾” means at the very beginning. Eventually, I know you was gonna say 'take care', which is “保重” in Chinese. I am sorry again because I am more used to expressions like "Best wishes", ect. I will work harder in English in the future and pay more attention to the name.
I hope you can still see my apology. Please forgive me.
Take care
Rachel(Qiulan)