Fleeting Happiness

Most people in the world attempt to find happiness in their everyday lives. The wish for happiness drives many of the choices that people make in their lives. In each of the films, different directors attempted to find the happiness and see if it remains for forever or if happiness is a short fleeting moment in one’s life. In Chen Kaige’s Farewell My Concubine, Deiyi’s happiness does not last as the situations change with the times. While in Ozu Yasujiro’s Late Spring, Noriko attempts to prolong her happiness with her father, but eventually she must get married to achieve her own happiness and live her own life. While in Kurosawa Akira’s Ikiru, Watanabe tries to find happiness in his otherwise monotonous life. In Kim Ki-duk’s Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring…, the young monk finds a relationship with a young woman and lives the temple to live with her. Each of these films show how happiness is achieved or later found is fleeting and only appears for a moment.

Farewell My Concubine explores the lives and relationship between two actors in the Peking Opera. Dieyi’s relationship with his co-star and best friend is tested as the political and social climate of China changes as well as personal circumstances. Dieyi ties his happiness to his relationship to Xiaolou, in relation to their roles in the theater as the King and his Concubine. As the film continues Dieyi’s happiness waxes and wanes as different political and social structures change in China. One of the moments when Dieyi’s happiness is lost is when he is told that Xiaolou is getting married to a former prostitute, instead of remaining a bachelor with Dieyi. When Xiaolou gets married, Dieyi replaces him with a wealthy benefactor; he tries to replicate the happiness that he felt with Xiaolou. This attempt at holding happiness by replacing people and objects in his life eventually fails. However, happiness soon appears for Dieyi and Xiaolou continue to perform together, however the happiness soon wanes when Dieyi sings for the Japanese for the release of Xiaolou during the war. For Dieyi, happiness is never a constant with short fleeting moments. To keep even more happy moments from disappearing, at the end of the film, Dieyi performs that final song from the opera that he and Xiaolou are most known for. The final performance about fifty years after their first time shows the emotions, specifically the positive emotions held by both Dieyi and Xiaolou when they play the last moments of the play. In the opera, that they perform, the Concubine decides to kill herself when the King realizes that all is lost. In the final scene of the film, Dieyi as the Concubine takes the sword of the King and ends his life. This final action is used by Dieyi to prolong the feelings of happiness that he gains from his relationship with Xiaolou. As Dieyi dies he takes the happiness that he gained from being with Xiaolou with him and attempts to force the feeling to remain forever.

While in Ozu’s Late Spring, Noriko lives with her father and is happy with the whole situation. Throughout the film, Noriko is portrayed as having a warm and loving relationship with her father as she has yet to marry since she was ill with tuberculosis. The relationship morphed from a father and daughter to more one between a husband and wife and the her father, Shukichi felt guilty for holding Noriko back from getting her own life. During the duration of the film, Noriko is pushed to find a husband and finally live her father’s house. When Noriko is finally set up with a suitor shoe does not want to leave her father for fear that he will be lonely or that she will never see him again. During the film, the happiness that both Shukichi and Noriko share is shown during their last family trip to Kyoto to visit a friend. Noriko attempts to speak to her father, when she tries he is asleep, showing how alone Noriko feels in her decision. The darkness of the room coupled with the space between them, shows how Shukichi is pulling away from Noriko to make the separation easier for both of them. Another point of the film, which shows how happiness have exited the lives of Shukichi and Noriko is after her wedding, when Shukichi returns home to find himself alone. Shukichi then peels an apple and as the peel falls to the floor, it is almost all the happiness that was in the film earlier disappeared with the drop of the peel. This scene stands in contrast to one earlier in the film, of when Shukichi returned home and Noriko was there to greet him and they were both happy. In Late Spring, happiness is shown as the living situation between Shukichi and Noriko, but Shukichi must disrupt that when he feels that he is keeping Noriko from the possibilities of new happiness. Personal happiness must be overthrown to give others the opportunity for their own happiness.

In Ikiru, Watanabe Kanji is a worn-down office worker who later discovers he has cancer and is dying. For Watanabe, he has had very little happiness in his life and so when he discovers that he is ill, he looks for happiness in a variety of places. First, he explores the nightlife of his city and tries to retain his lost youth, but that only ends sick after a night spent between bars and dance halls. Another instance of trying to attain happiness is when Watanabe tries to explain his condition to his son, only to be rejected by his family. This scene leads to a series of flashbacks showing how Watanabe cannot relate to his son and how the relationship has suffered from his lack of connection to his family. A third instance of searching for happiness appears in Watanabe’s relationship with Toyo, a young woman employed at his office. Watanabe uses Toyo almost as battery, trying to leech her youth and exuberance for life from her. Toyo shows Watanabe that happiness spans from doing something useful for the community rather than searching for personal happiness. Watanabe works to build a park for children and makes others upset with his actions, but the satisfaction of himself and the children keep him motivated. Watanabe’s happiness is achieved and allows him to die in the snow on the playground that he built. The happiness that Watanabe achieves helps him finally die after a long life. The happiness that Watanabe finds is short-lived, but helps to find satisfaction in his actions and his life.

            In Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring…, a young monk lives with a master as he tries to understand the complexities of Buddhism. During the youth of the monk, he meets a young woman and he discovers the joy of love. While he still at the temple, he indulges in his passion and falls in love with the young woman. The young man is happy with the woman and wishes for their relationship to continue. The master warns him that passion will lead to suffering, but he runs away from the temple to be with her. Later in the film, it is discovered that he has murdered the woman when she left him for another man. The happiness that the young man felt was destroyed by his passion and jealousy for the woman. The happiness that young monk felt was fleeting as all moments in this world, according to Buddhism. The young monks belief that his happiness would be ever lasting was misguided since he indulged his worldly desires. Happiness is seen as fleeting since it is nothing in this world is permanent and things are always changing. The push against the nature order of the world would create suffering and happiness will not remain.

            As each of these films has shown, happiness is not ever lasting and will end.  Happiness is created and shared, but must end at some point. In each of these films, there is no traditional ‘happily ever after’ ending as suffering and death mark many of the films. Happiness can compel people to death with the intention of keeping the happiness with them forever, or it wish to have others find happiness can force them to push people away. Understanding that happiness is not ever lasting marks the films as understanding the ever-changing nature of the world and that no one can feel happiness forever. Happiness as fleeting as shows a potential connection to Japanese concept of mujou, which shows that world is transient and constantly changing.  Dieyi tries to recapture the feelings of happiness he felt with Xiaolou by replacing him with other people, while Shukichi sacrifices his and Noriko’s happiness for a greater potential happiness. Watanabe finds he cannot create nor steal happiness, but must foster it through the community. The young man finds out the difficult way that desire and attachment may lead to momentary happiness, but ends in suffering. Each of the films examines happiness in the context of their respective directors and nations. 

Nausicaa Review

Miyazaki Hayao’s Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind or 風の谷のナウシカ (1984) follows many of the conventions that appear in many of his films. This film connects to his other films with the strong female protagonist, the concern for the environment, a strong female antagonist, and the need to save the world through cooperation with the environment. Nausicaa also shows a connection to Greek mythology, especially with the name Nausicaa, which means “ship-burner”.  Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind shares many aspects with Princess Mononoke such as a strong female protagonist, the world on the verge of destruction and the interaction between humans and the environment.

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind explores the world about 1000 years in the future, after a time when modern civilization was destroyed after a war, when a Toxic Jungle has engulfed the world. The Toxic Jungle while poisonous to humans also is the habitat of millions of insects, including large ones that can topple cities called the Ohm. Among the remaining human settlements is the Valley of the Wind, which sets on the edge of an ocean. The princess of the Valley of the Wind, Nausicaa, spends her time exploring the Toxic Jungle and finding ways to understand the ever-changing world around her. However, soon after Lord Yupa returns to the valley, an airship crashes in the valley. The airship was carrying princess from a neighboring kingdom and the body of the beings that destroyed the world in the first place. The kingdom known as Tolmekia attempts to use to the being known as the Giant Warrior to kill the Ohm and destroy the Toxic Jungle. While preparing the Giant Warrior, Nausicaa and some of the people of the village are captured and taken to Tolmekia, but before they can arrive the airship that they are in is gunned down by another nation, Pejite. As Nausicaa falls through the Toxic Jungle, she runs into the pilot that shot the airship down. While Nausicaa and the pilot are in the forest, they fall through the forest into an underground cavern. The cavern shows how the Toxic Jungle purifies the planet from the effects of human pollution. As the film, progresses Nausicaa returns to the Valley of the Wind to save the people from a horde of Ohm stampeding toward the valley. In the process, of saving the valley, Nausicaa fulfills an ancient prophecy of an individual who would appear and save the world.

In Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Nausicaa is the resourceful, young princess who attempts to find a cure for her father’s illness and understand the Toxic Jungle. San and Nausicaa both are shown as warrior princess trying to fight for their respective causes. Nausicaa relates to San since they both understand the world around them, which is often depicted as dangerous to normal people, San since she was raised by the gods of the forest and Nausicaa because she has learned the nature of how the plants in the Toxic Jungle function. However, Nausicaa’s connection to the people of her village shows a connection to people over the land. Unlike San, Nausicaa seems to retain a connection to people, similar to Ashitaka. The relation to Ashitaka is shown through the secluded nature of the Valley of the Wind, similar to his village in Princess Mononoke. The Valley of the Wind shows a closer relationship to the earth rather than violence prized by other kingdoms. Nausicaa also shows the connection between humans and nature, when she returns an Ohm baby to the pack before the pack destroys the people of the Valley of the Wind. This action shows how Nausicaa does not want bad feelings between the people and the insects of the Toxic Jungle, but Nausicaa also understands how the Toxic Jungle purifies the Earth that humans ruined. During the film, there is the constant question if Nausicaa is more connected to the earth or to the people, especially when lines like, “The insects have bewitched her…”, which shows the worry that Nausicaa may pick the jungle over her subjects.

Nausicaa also features a character similar to Lady Eboshi of Princess Mononoke. Princess Kushana is the leader of the Tolmekian forces that crash in the Valley of the Wind, she is portrayed a good military leader, but bitter towards the Toxic Jungle and the insects that reside there. It is shown in the film that Kushana has lost limbs to the insects and seeks to destroy them with the Giant Warrior. Princess Kushana is similar to Lady Eboshi since they both seek to destroy life forms that protect the natural world, but more than that, both women represent women in a traditionally male spaces.  Kushana attempts to redeem herself by annihilating the Toxic Jungle, but eventually fails when the Giant Warrior falls apart during the attack on the Ohm.

In Princess Mononoke, the many different animals and kami act as guardians of the forest as they fight the humans that destroy the environment. The Toxic Jungle acts as its own guardian as it kills anyone who enters without a mask, but the added guardians are the insects and the Ohm that live in the jungle. Similar to the kami of Princess Mononoke, the Ohm tend to be docile creatures, but when they are enraged they attack and can destroy civilizations. The poisons of the jungle and the poor treatment transformed the planet into a hostile creature that must protect its self for humans, possibly by killing them.  The jungle and the insects are the result of human errors and thus they rage they show may be representative of how the environment feels. When Nausicaa is under the forest and observes that the forest must purify its self by hiding the new earth underneath the façade of the dangerous and deadly toxins. The new part of the forest may show how the humans cannot see how the new world since they will destroy it again.

Miyazaki explores the possibility of a destruction of human civilization by several days of fire, possibly harking to the possibility of a nuclear disaster. A nuclear disaster would mutate the Earth and force the planet to try to save its self. The Valley of the Wind represents a kingdom attempting to live in harmony with the new environment that has taken over the planet and Nausicaa tries to reconcile humans and the planet that humans destroyed. As the film progresses, Nausicaa learns more and more about the Toxic Jungle and the people who fear it rather than attempt to live it.  The use of the Giant Warrior shows how people would rather live in horror with a potential destructive power rather than face their own past mistakes. The terror that grips people in the film is created by jealousy of others and fear of the unknown, but Nausicaa fights against those feelings.  Finally Nausicaa saves the people of her kingdom and establishes a relationship with the Ohm, which shows how people truly can reconcile with the planet. Miyazaki uses the film to explore the possibility of how humans can shape the world that they reside in, with either violence and anger or compassion and understanding. 

Modernism in Chinese Cinema

In the world of Chinese film, directors explored the interconnected themes of the Westernization and modernism while creating their films. In Chen Kaige’s Yellow Earth, a solider for the Communist forces enters the countryside and attempts to learn the songs of the common people. However, as the he interacts with one family, he influences the daughter, Cuiqiao, by telling her about the liberated women of the Communist parties. While, in Zhang Yimou’s Raise the Red Lantern, Songlian, a liberated young woman, marries a rich man to ward off the request of her mother. Finally in Chen Kaige’s Farewell My Concubine shows the evolution of the relationship between two actors in Peking opera, as they live through the modernization of China in the 20^th century. The films explore the changes and combinations of how modernism and traditional values can be work together or be in conflict with each other. Modernism can also work through several of the social and political changes in China as depicted in the film. Each of these films reacts to the changes in China in relation to the government and social changes that occurred. The three films discussed above each investigate the conflict between the traditional world and the encroaching modernism that was found in China in the early 20^th century. The directors of the films used their personal experiences to try to reconcile the conflict between modernism and the traditional world.  Each of the films explores modernism through the lens of many different characters that each explores modernism on their own.

In Chen Kaige’s Yellow Earth, Gu Qing arrives in a remote village during a wedding. The wedding shows how traditional the village is with the processions of the bride and groom and the first night together. As Gu begins to live with Cuiqiao and her family, he begins to tell Cuiqiao about the girls from the cities that are given more freedom in comparison to the country girls like Cuiqiao. Cuiqiao wishes for the freedom to choose who marries whom they want. As the ideas of the modernism enter Cuiqiao’s mind, she begs Gu to take her back with him to the Communist camp. However, Cuiqiao must resign herself to getting married in the traditional way without any choice in who she is marrying. Cuiqiao’s marriage mirrors generations of women before her and she is forced to submit to her new husband. As the film continues, Cuiqiao carves the modern life that Gu described and she attempts to escape to the Communist camp, possibly drowning in the Yellow River. Cuiqiao’s desire to live a more free modern life leads to her refection of traditional society and her possible death. Cuiqiao’s desire for freedom conflicted with the traditional life she was living and escape or the possibility of death were ways for her to escape the oppression she felt.

In Zhang Yimou’s Raise the Red Lantern, Songlian enters a marriage after relenting to her stepmother’s requests. Songlian, a former university student, enters the house of a rich man as his fourth wife, rejecting the proposition of her stepmother for a possible love match. At the beginning of the film, Songlian rejects the traditional wedding procession, and proceeds to walk to her husband’s home. Songlian establishes herself as the modern woman who has entered this marriage reluctantly in contrast to the other wives. The other wives know Songlian as the educated wife and they view her in an intrigued view. In the marriage, Songlian is treated like a traditional wife would, purely to serve her husband and produce male children, but Songlian’s postion is less than that as she is a mistress. Her husband pushes traditional values on Songlian, and so she cannot leave the house. While Songlian has modern views, she soon descends in to the traditional values to further compete for the affections of her husband. The traditional values of her husband destroy her will until she can no longer function and finally goes insane. Songlian suffocates under the traditional patriarchy and her own modern views are not enough to save her.  Songlian cannot reconcile her modern outlook with the power structure based on traditional values and so she goes insane from the conflict.

Another film that explores the relationship between traditional and the modern is Chen Kaige’s Farewell My Concubine. The film explores the relationship of two Peking opera stars as they live through modern Chinese history. The film shows how China modernized and changed through the 20^th century. The relationship between Dieyi and Xiaolou spans several decades as they continue to perform together. The film begins in the Republic period and proceeds forward. As the actors in a traditional art, they weather decades of regime changes, but the Communists finally vilify them publically for their art. The performances remain the same but audiences change with the regime. As the regimes change, their positions in society change from higher class artists to lower class individuals. Finally, when the Communists come in to power, they attempt to change the opera to better fit their values. They also modernize the opera and infuse it with tales of Communists values and reject the former operas of feudal China. The modernization of the opera makes the old opera and the actors who appeared in it become irrelevant to the new art form. Dieyi and Xiaolou become criminals for the many years that they continued performing for the upper classes rather than change the art form. In Farewell My Concubine, modernization creates flux and possibly destruction for those who do not follow it.

In China, the films are constantly changing and many of the films grapple with incorporating the new with the old. Yellow Earth explores the traditional world as the Communism and modernism slowly begin to influence the youth of the countryside, leading to the rebellion against the pressures of the traditional world. While in Raise the Red Lantern, Songlian enters a traditional marriage as the fourth wife and as the educated university student who yearns for the modern world. However, Songlian cracks under the intense pressure of tradition and ceases to function in her new environment. Finally, in Farewell My Concubine, Dieyi and Xiaolou navigate the many regime changes in China, as they perform opera together. The opera represents their relationship in the various turbulent regime changes of China, and modernism finally intrudes when the Communists gain power. Each of the films attempts to reconcile the traditional aspects of life with creeping modernism. Some of the films believe that modernism and tradition are not compatible and only lead to the destruction of lives such as in the cases of Cuiqiao and Songlian. Cuiqiao and Songlian both lost their lives while trying to either escape the oppression of the traditional world or suffocating under its grasp on their lives. While other films, believe that changing the tradition makes it hollow and less meaningful for both the performer and audience. Farewell My Concubine allows for the viewer to observe and create their own opinion of the how modernism affects the characters and if there is even a conflict between the tradition and modernism.  In the Chinese films, the connection between the modern and tradition is explored thoroughly and allows for the viewer to reconcile the relationship. 

First Blossay: Hong Kong Film

In the world of Hong Kong films, filmmakers react to the liminal space that Hong Kong inhabits. In the 1970s, when The Big Boss and Drunken Master were released, the film seemed to be focused on the aspects of traditional life, while attaining traditional values. However, in A Better Tomorrow and Fallen Angels grapple with Hong Kong’s transition into a metropolis, but in contrast to the traditional ideals that punctuated it’s past. The ‘new’ Hong Kong becomes a battle for traditional ideals in a modernizing environment. The conflict between modernism and tradition is evident in each of these films, where characters attempt to understand where they fit in a variety of liminal spaces including Hong Kong. 

In The Big Boss, Bruce Lee’s character, Cheng Chao-an, arrives in Thailand to begin work at an ice factory. He soon finds himself in trouble when he is at odds with the boss of the ice factory and local drug lord. In the  beginning of the film, Cheng wears a necklace around his neck that his mother gave him before her death, promising her that he will not fight. This promise between Cheng and his mother shows how strongly the familial connections in traditional society were, since Cheng refuses to fight even when he is punched in the face. Also the connections that Cheng has with the rest of his extended family show the adopted cultural norms since that call each other brother. During the film, Cheng is promoted  while his friends go missing and the influence of materialism and capitalism is clearly shown. The boss gets Cheng drunk on both alcohol and power, when Cheng is promoted to the  foreman of the factory. However, when Cheng’s family is murdered and Chiao Mei is kidnapped, he understands that he must avenge their deaths and prove his loyalty to Chiao Mei. Cheng must realize that loyalty and family are both important and that he must avenge for both in the end. While not set in Hong Kong, The Big Boss explores the traditions of Hong Kong and China, while placing them in another country. 

In Drunken Master, Jackie Chan’s character, Wong Fei-hung, begins the film as a trickster who plays pranks on the village people. These pranks force him to undergo training from a renown master of kung fu to learn discipline. Wong must focuses on relationships between family and seniority to elders to get a beginning in understanding a more traditional outlook. In the film, Wong must master several forms of kung fu to become a master and these techniques are shown in a traditional book that the master carries with him. On other side, there is the hit man known as Thunderleg who receives his assignments in the ruins of a home.  Thunderleg represents the modernization of Hong Kong through his use of force with little thought of the effects of his actions. He is purely a assassin for the money, he does not figure his conscience into his actions. When Thunderleg and Wong engage in a fight, Thunderleg degrades Wong by berating his father’s style of kung fu during the fight. As Wong is losing the fight, he hides under the family alter in the ruins. This shot in the shows how Wong is almost hiding behind his ancestors from Thunderleg. Also the use of the destroyed house as Thunderleg’s headquarters shows how capitalism will destroy others homes. Wong leaves the fight in shame, having been stripped of his clothes and defeated when he used his father’s kung fu. In the end of the film, Wong must save and avenge his father from Thunderleg using the traditional forms  of kung fu that the master taught him. By the end of the film, Wong understands that the value of tradition and family, but also the uses of shame to help motivate him in the fight against Thunderleg who threatens his family. 

In A Better Tomorrow, Hong Kong films began their transformation from rural villages with kung-fu to the modern skyscrapers of Hong Kong with guns rather than fists. This change of location responds to the view of Hong Kong that would resonate with viewers. This new Hong Kong has accepted capitalism and these new films show how traditional values such as loyalty, family, and shame are accepted and perceived in the new modern environment. A Better Tomorrow explores leadership of a Hong Kong triad and the relationships between families. One of the conflicts is between Ho and Kit, brothers of opposite sides of the law from each other.  In film, after being attacked, Kit’s father tells him to forgive his brother. Kit holds the grudge against his brother for being part of the triad, since he cannot advance in his career and stay in favor in his adopted family, the police force. The conflict between adopted and biological families and loyalty was clearly defined by the relationships. When Shing becomes head of the organization, he is not loyal to Ho, his mentor. Shing’s lack of loyalty forces him to be the  villain in the film, when all the relationships are based on the need for loyalty and familial obligations, adopted or biological. Also Shing’s lack of loyalty to Ho and Mark shows the possible new modern viewpoint counter to the more traditional values that Ho and Mark hold. Kit is also portrayed in a slightly different light since he picks justice and adopted family over his biological family. Finally, when Mark dies he dies a hero’s death since he was wronged and finally got his family and confidence back. The film reflects on the end of traditional values, represented by Mark and his death may even represent how traditional values have been crippled, but will eventually die a valiant hero death in the modern world. 

In the final film, Fallen Angels, the viewer observes various characters traverse Hong Kong at night. The Killer is similar to Thunderleg, kills people with very little consideration for morality, while his partner gets the situations ready and secretly pines for him. As they continue to plan and kill people, another character known as He enters businesses at night and harasses would be customers. The relationships between the characters are all strained with voice overs expressing their true feelings. The lack of communication in the film serves as the response to A Better Tomorrow and the death of traditional values in the modern world. With little values to hold them back the characters, do what they want. As the killer dies at the end of the film, the viewer hears the voice over of him, beginning to say that he wanted to start making his own choices. This sentiment is quickly betrayed by his partner who had killed when he admitted that he wanted to quit.  The film seems to come with belief that keep oneself separate from others helps to minimize the pain felt. 

In each of the films, the viewers explores the relationships between formal and informal families and relationships. The use of family and traditional values were evident in the first two films, but as the films began to explore the modernization of Hong Kong, the relationships in general became more fragmented. As Hong Kong has become more modern, the characters in the films have had less strong connections to others. The use of traditional values have may have died just as Mark did a heroic, but tragic death during modernization.