Chinese director Wang Ying's new film "Snowflake Secret Fan" tells the story of very similar old friends that happened in Hunan in the late Qing Dynasty and Shanghai in modern times. This subject matter is relatively unfamiliar to both Westerners and modern Orientals, especially the extremely strong female consciousness and female perspective, which subverts the male-centered characteristics of the traditional screen, and the film subtly integrates traditional culture and The conflict of modernity. But it is precisely because the director wants to express too many themes, and the various elements are only pointed to, without digging deeply, and it is difficult to organically integrate into one, resulting in the audience's lack of depth in the play, and even a feeling of incomprehension or recognition. This film reflects the embarrassing dilemma faced by foreign Chinese directors when shooting traditional oriental culture, as well as the obstacles encountered by women's films in the market.
Although Wang Ying, a director of traditional oriental culture
, has been promoted to the position of Hollywood director, her roots are still Chinese. Every Chinese director tries his best to reflect the elements of traditional Chinese culture in his works, but because he has been away from his homeland and the cultural atmosphere of China for a long time, his works are often criticized by domestic audiences as a product of oriental mysticism. For example, Wang Ying's old work "The Joy Luck Club" was criticized for its strong orientalism. It was regarded as a "Chinese film for foreigners", which strengthened the feudal, backward, ignorant and ignorant of the East in the eyes of Westerners. , mysterious and bizarre figures. The same is true of "China Box", which makes the East extremely mysterious and adds a strong end-of-the-century feeling. The image of the East is as charming and mysterious as the roles played by Gong Li and Maggie Cheung in it. In terms of expressing the cultural conflict between China and the West, the first two parts of Ang Lee's "Family Trilogy" ("Pushing Hands" and "The Wedding Banquet") are generally considered to be better. The cultural conflict between the parent generation and the next generation after they came to the West, the differences between Eastern and Western cultures are naturally revealed in the gradual unfolding of the plot, and both stories end with a relatively calm and complete "harmony but difference", which ultimately reflects the It is still the essence of Chinese culture. In contrast, although Wang Ying's "The Joy Luck Club" also uses the different growth experiences and cultural backgrounds of the old and the young as clues to develop the narrative, the story largely shows the old generation's painful growth experience in China in the past, wars, dolls Kissing, violence and oppression, and even cutting meat as a reference, etc., all reflect the suffering women experienced in the dark history of feudalism, which will make the audience feel that the director did it deliberately, and fell into the East in order to satisfy the West's fantasy and expectations of the East. the trap of ism.
The "Snowflake Secret Fan" also shows the suffering of women in the late Qing Dynasty. The crunch of the bones when the feet are bound, the helpless and strict instructions of the mother, and the custom of the matchmaker to arrange marriages, all of which reflect the feudal family and women in society. extremely low status. Then this performance feels unnatural. Similar to The Joy Luck Club, it deliberately magnifies the suffering of women and the darkness of feudal society. It is true that most of what is written in traditional Chinese history is the history of those in power, that is, the history of men, and the history of women should indeed be taken seriously, but after all, movies are not real history, and if they are deliberately made, they will have a false sense of being unreal. Zhang Yimou's work "High Red Lanterns" also expresses the darkness of a feudal family. The head of the family, "Master", has never been seen from beginning to end. It symbolizes that the ubiquitous patriarchy has deeply penetrated into the feudal family. Gong Li at the end of the film The fourth wife played constantly wanders in the courtyard with red lanterns hanging high, implying that women can never escape the feudal patriarchy. However, "The Secret Fan of Snowflakes" lacks these artistic expressions, and just wants to restore the living environment of women in the late Qing Dynasty. The film also mentioned more than once that "women are born to be sent out", "women don't need to worry about outside affairs", "women hurry up and pray for a son". Most of these lines deliberately remind the audience of the low status of women in feudal history. Status, the audience seems to be reading a history textbook and can only see the surface, but cannot deeply understand the feelings of the characters, and there is less space for independent thinking.
Women's Perspective and Feminine Consciousness
The traditional big screen shows a male-centered perspective and patriarchal ideology. Most of the general films are narrated from a male perspective. The film is full of male gaze and female Most of them are reduced to being peeped and materialized in the movies. And such films are mostly mainstream films that can "safely" enter the market simply because they do not threaten the traditional patriarchal society. However, in recent years, women's films have gradually received more attention and attention, and independent niche films produced from small ones have gradually transformed into mainstream films and even large-scale commercial films. Commercial Film.
Wang Ying's old work "The Joy Luck Club" is characterized by her keen and unique female perspective, and she alone writes sections of history, stories and emotions that belong to women on the screen full of patriarchy. And "Snowflake Secret Fan" also inherits this feature. The main characters in the story are all women, and even men are hard to find. Even the husbands or boyfriends of the four female characters in the story have very few scenes. In terms of plot, footbinding, old friends, and Nvshu are all important elements of women's history. Few movies can use this theme. The long-ignored women's history has been completely restored to the screen, although the way of expression is indeed deliberate. Some, but at least let the audience learn about things that may have been unheard of before, such as "Old Tong" and "Nvshu", which undoubtedly played a considerable role in increasing the importance of women's history. There are many scenes in the film that can be regarded as threats and challenges to patriarchy. For example, Xuehua and Lily, two women in the late Qing Dynasty, can have a close friend of the same sex outside the family, and even have a relationship that is more intimate than friendship. Women can have their own emotional life outside of feudal marriage, which is already a great challenge to feudal patriarchy. The women in the film all learned to write "Nvshu", which is also a resistance to the "square Chinese characters", a text and discourse system that serves men.
There is a scene in the film that best reflects the female consciousness of the film. That is the night when Lily went to Xuehua's house, Lily peeped from the gap in the floor to see Xuehua and her man's bed brother. This scene can be said to be a classic scene of the whole film. Lily's voyeur is similar to the scene in Hitchcock's "Psycho" where Norman peeks at Marion's changing clothes through a small hole in the wall, but the voyeur is changed from male to female, although " The peeps in Snowflake Secret Fan are two men and a woman, but this scene still interprets the "female gaze" that is rarely seen in the movie, that is, women become the main body of desire and master the relationship between genders. power. Before Xuehua proposed to be with Lily that night, but was flatly rejected by her husband, it seemed that the power of men was far greater than that of women. After the clinker, Lily was upstairs peeping at every move downstairs. It implies a reversal of power relations at this time. Lily finished peeping, and then made a series of actions to touch her body. Although it was more subtle, this short scene showed that the desire for women was greatly amplified. But she only reacts erotically when she sees the woman she loves having sex with other men. Women can get pleasure from voyeurism, which has long broken the traditional patriarchy's denial of lust between women and traditional gender power. Relationships are all turned upside down here.
What is worth thinking about is that it is also a film from a Chinese director that expresses traditional oriental culture. Ang Lee's "Family Trilogy" is centered on patriarchy. The protagonists in the three films are all "father". The film is also known as the "Father Trilogy", which in essence maintains and consolidates patriarchy. These three works have attracted wide acclaim both internationally and domestically. In contrast, "Snowflake Secret Fan", which challenged and resisted patriarchy, was not supported by domestic audiences, and a considerable number of audiences expressed difficulty in understanding or unable to agree with the story. friendship between Chinese women. Does that mean a purely female film or is it difficult to become a hit and critically acclaimed commercial? It is true that Ang Lee's success is also related to the dramatic tension in the works, and Wang Ying is slightly inferior to Ang Lee in terms of narrative, structure, and character modeling. But in addition to the level of artistic techniques of the film itself, does the difference in ideology also greatly affect the success of the film?
Contrast of traditional and modern
In addition to the differences and contrasts in regional culture and gender power, the contrast between different eras is a theme that is easily overlooked in this film. Various construction scenes of modern Shanghai appear many times in the film, and the construction sites have dyed the city gray. The city is in the process of striding towards modernization and even internationalization, and its original appearance is difficult to recover. Some pictures are reminiscent of Jia Zhangke's "Legend of the Sea", but the latter focuses more on allowing the audience to experience the relationship between cities, characters, history, and cultures, while "The Secret Fan of Snowflakes" ends with the theme: the world is changing rapidly, the only thing that does not The only thing that has changed is the relationship between people. Relatively speaking, "The Sea" raises personal emotions to the common emotions of the entire era and the entire nation, but the reflections they bring to the audience actually have something in common, that is, in the changes of the times, nationality, history, culture, emotion In what position.
In the part of modern Shanghai, Nina saw small embroidered shoes and a fan with Nvshu written in her aunt's art gallery. Everything was covered with modern artistic colors, and under the demonstration of the staff inside, a computer screen appeared on the screen. The software automatically converts the square Chinese characters into Nushu. Modern high-tech has long removed the mystery of "Nu Shu", and it has become a text that everyone can write with a computer. However, the text output by the cold machine can really contain the deep meaning of the ancient women's strokes and strokes. Is the "Nüshu" equivalent? Are things preserved in this way really "traditions", "cultures"? The film shows the dilemma that traditional culture encounters when it encounters modern technology. Although this is not the most important theme of the film, it is also worthy of everyone's reflection.
Another contrast between tradition and modernity is reflected in the ancient "three-inch golden lotus" and the modern "high heels". Lily in the late Qing Dynasty married a good husband's family because of her perfect little feet. The first thing Lily's husband did on the wedding night was to "appreciate" Lily's little feet. Fetishism has created a history of grief among Chinese women for more than a thousand years. However, in modern society, the restraints on women's limbs have not been lifted. There is a scene in the film where Nina takes off her high heels in the office and strokes her sore feet. The restraint of high heels on the feet is not inferior to the binding of feet. However, in order to meet the aesthetic requirements of men for women, in order to become the perfect "viewing object" in the eyes of men, women have to sacrifice their bodies in exchange for men's vision. After hundreds of years, women have not yet gotten rid of their physical constraints, which is even more sad.
Although "The Secret Fan of Snowflakes" cannot be regarded as an excellent and successful film in terms of narrative, structure, artistic techniques, subject matter mining, etc., it still brings many aspects to the audience's thinking. Director Wang Ying's ability to move such a theme to the big screen and turn it into a commercial film that can be screened in China is a bold and successful performance in itself. The ideology and theme of the film are also worthy of recognition. This is a movie made for foreigners and Chinese at the same time, a purely women's movie, an alternative "Hollywood blockbuster".
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