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The Magdalene Sisters (2002)
Are the Magdalene sisters 'Qing Lou' sisters?
The first point that drew my attention to watch this film was because of the Chinese translation of its name. The meaning of the Chinese translation is ' the sisters from a Qing Lou'. I don't know who translated this name in the first place and I don't know why the Magdalene asylum, which is labelled as a religious place to take in women who are morally decadent, got replaced by the brothel from the translator's point of view. Therefore, I would like to bring this question with me throughout the review writing of this film.
First of all, what is this place-- the Magdalene asylum? It is a real place rather than a fictional environment. The magdalene asylum is also known as 'Magdalene Laundries', a for-profit organisation run by Catholics in Ireland. In this place, Catholic nuns are managers because they teach and arrange women there to do laundry works. The nuns are supervisors because they monitor how the women work and make clear about working rules, such as 'no talk while work'. The nuns are teachers as well as part-time hairdressers because they cut the women's hair when they try to educate them. The nuns are game judges because they ask the women to stand nakedly in a row and comment on the women's breasts and pubic hairs. The nuns are actually film promoters because they play a film about nuns to celebrate Jesus' birthday and everyone is there to watch. So what kind of role are the nuns not related at all in the Magdalene laundries? I am certain about one answer that they are not morally decadent people like the women there. Why? Maybe it is because they believe in god, or maybe it is because they have dedicated their life into a sacred career, or maybe it is because they seem not to have any sexual contact with anyone, or you can tell me another reason.
Then I shall compare the Magdalene laundries with a Qing Lou to try to understand the translator's perspective. A brothel in Chines culture, procuresses are managers and teachers because they arrange prostitutes' work and skills. However, they are not supervisors as they don't stay in the same room and watch the prostitutes working. They are not hairdressers neither, maybe it is because a bald prostitute may not make many profits for them. They can be game judges though, and the game could be similar in terms of private parts of female bodies.
In this sense, the Magdalene asylum is a Qing Lou in terms of the women there make profits for the nuns and the nuns are judging the women upon their appearances. However, while I am writing this review I found that maybe there is another interpretation of the Chinese name for this movie, as Qing Lou originally was not regarded as a brothel.
In Chinese culture, one of the original meanings about 'Qing Lou' refers to a place where is elaborately decorated and people with high-social status lived in. Women who lived in Qing Lou were a bunch of people with talents. It seems like 'Qing Lou' starting to be closely connected with brothel was after Tang Dynasty. In relation to this original meaning of 'Qing Lou', the Chinese name of this movie sounds more inappropriate because the women in the Magdalene asylum are not people with privileges.
So who are those women in the Magdalene asylum? They could simply be an ordinary country woman, who were unfortunately raped on her family relative's wedding; They could be a young mother, who decided to give birth to a kid even though the father had already gone; they could be a teenage girl, who flirted with boys; they could be a woman, who seemed behave differently but that did not present any threatening to other people and instead she was enthusiastic in helping other people. These are some examples of the women in the Magdalene asylum. They were put into the religious facility and locked from outside. So why them? and what sent these women to the Magdalene asylum? The answer is they are 'morally decadent'. Even though the country woman did not give the consent to the rape and tried to tell other family members in order to get the justice; even though the young mother tried to take care of the new baby and begged her parents to not send the baby away; even though the teenage girl didn't not actually make love with anyone. So why them? and what sent these women to the Magdalene asylum? my understanding is the societal bias against women. To some people, this answer may be obvious. Why the victims got sanctioned by the social morale? Why a struggling single parent got sanctioned by family honour? why a teenage girl who is in a sex curious period that's determined biologically got sanctioned by religious rules? maybe there are different interpretations including gender bias.
From this perspective, the Chinese name of this movie itself can be regarded as a gender bias, as the women in the Magdalene asylum are not sex workers, neither did they belong to a high social class. I am still trying hard to understand the translator's perspective and came out with this potential explanation-- could the translator try to refer that the women who lived in Qing Lou were a bunch of talented females, however, they had to entertain or serve high-classed people with their talents and gradually even with their bodies. In this understanding, I feel like that there is a sense of pity from outsiders towards the Qing Lou women. This pity also brings me a feeling of hopelessness that the pity is the evidence that high-class people can exploit lower-class people, and it would be the lower-class people who receive the judgement and a sigh of pity. In this way, the gender bias is exacerbated in the class bias.
At the end, I would like to say that I may not be able to figure out the translator's intention and I don't care about the translator's intention. I feel angry not only because the Chinese translation does not reflect the real meaning of the movie but also it represents the bias that this movie fights against. I am thinking maybe it is not that bad for such kind of name may attract more people to watch the movie, for instance, I was also attracted by the name in the first place. Would an ordinary name as ' the Magdalene sisters' attract you?
LavourArcaica (2001)
the innocent rebel
To the left of the father is a Brazilian film produced in 2001 based on a novel of the same name. It is such a film which is interesting, bright in the first half and gloomy in the second half for me.
Without knowing any background information about the film, I got attracted by the first scene of Andre masturbating. The shot looks a bit distorted as the images are stretched. The background blare of a train made me feel that Andre may be immersed in his memories, like a train to our old memories inside. Andre's masturbating is not a powerful exercise in a sense of just releasing the impulsiveness or sensual pleasure. Instead it looks painful and hurting for me, because of his almost crying face with fingers digging into his belly and snatched slowly through the skin before the coming climax. The train's sound came gradually to the foreground and Andre's body became blur, however, I can feel the intensity burst out via the elaborated rhythm of the train's blare. At the end, it was Andre's aimless eyes which tell me this masturbation more likely comes out of a blue memory.
The second point that touched me is the tune of the lust in childhood. The tune is set with green grass, brown leaves, blue sky and the dark soil. The lust is buried in the toes grasping the soil and rubbing the earth. It is such a natural intimacy between a child and nature that, I could not feel there is any shame around the feeling. Young Andre is also bright, curious and adventurous and he was spending time with himself in this wild nature. Even when the most controversy plot revealed it self on the screen, which I think is Andre making love with his sister, the director Luiz has organised the scenes in a skilful manner. Luiz arranged a sequence of parallel shots which alternate with the shots of the brother and the sister making love. These parallel shots talk about how young Andre waited and caught a purely white pigeon. I am not sure does pigeon have specific cultural meaning in Brazil or not, simply from my perceptions about pigeons, they represent loyalty and some sort of spirituality. Thus, when Luiz put young Andre catching a pigeon along side adult Andre finally touched his sister, to whom Andre had been struggling with his feelings, I can understand the bright side of this love.
To the left of the father absolutely has a strong emphasis on the religion, though I am not sure about which religion the film exactly talks about since I grew up non-religiously. The religious culture in Andre's family has made his father an superior and authoritative figure. His father talks about what kind of people the family members should become at dinner table, and his mother never speaks at dinner table even though she seemed to have had such close connections with all family members. The film has used a big portion of its length in talking about Andre's ideological battle with his father's speech and the religious atmosphere infiltrated in the family that, Andre wants to feel and express his passion and freedom which stands in the missing part of his father's speech. For these religious ideologies, interestingly that Luiz did not film any religion related place or symbol. In the contrary, the village where Andre's family lives at seems to be a simple and collective Xanadu. How interesting it is that the simpler place has the stronger morale of religious or traditional conventions.
There were several times that I felt lost in Andre's memories. This is partly because Luiz didn't really depict the outer environment of Andre's household but the internal environment. Therefore, when he suddenly swap into another household, I was confused about whether this is the extended household space or another place. Partly this may also be resulted from Andre's imaginary scenes that did not actually happen, however, Luiz has put those scenes together with the peaceful village life shots. Therefore, I was a bit lost between Andre's world and the reality.
The saddest part for me may be Andre's sister and lover - Anna's experience. She was not insensitive in catching the different love from her brother, although I am still not sure whether the passion and lust were more related with her teenage period or not. She seemed to respond to Andre's cravings and struggles that, she appeared in Andre's hidden place. Then, she confessed in front of the god.
This is a stimulating film for me as I am curious about the meanings and the religions and the lust, as well as simple like is sensual pursuit lighter than the spiritual pursuit? Hope to connect some other feelings back to this film one day.
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
some thoughts after watching(may like some funny thoughts)
After watching the first one of star wars, interestingly, the most impressive part for me was the collaboration of the princess Padme amidala and gungans. This has to be related with my current situation as a social work student doing placement in the central Australia, which means the social work practices here is largely related with working collaboratively with aboriginal people and communities. The collaboration in the phantom menace has brought me some thoughts in this context.
First of all, there's a general question that how far do we think sci-fi plots are from the reality? As a friend and I was discussing about the third book of the three-body problem, she told me a plot in the book is that human beings had no place to go eventually and were all settled down in a desert area in Australia. Sounds like the place -- the central Australia region, especially Alice Springs where I am currently located. There's no dramatical surprise for me that 'wow, social work can be related with sci-fi fantasies.' As the rooted motivation which spurred me to come to this unique town is the post impacts of colonisation, and the connection between the reality of Alice Springs and sci-fi fictions is encompassed with this conception--colonisation. The point for me is that do people regard themselves as colonisers or indigenous people?
As the social issues here are still severe, indigenous people live in poverty in a rich country, bearing the aggravated environmental consequences, and more despairingly, where to go? the original lifestyle cannot be found back as a result of the massive change of natural resources, forests, waterholes and food etc. From the other side, forcefully fitting into western frameworks is an abandonment of self-identities. Should they? can they? can we?
I agree that the way to go is collaboration between colonisers and indigenous people. The doubts occurred to me is how to collaborative at a community level? as community level is more like a practical level to talk about actions and changes, instead of political ideologies.
For Gungans and Padme represented different cultures on the planet naboo, though this doesn't closely match the colonisation model, but it gives me thoughts about how two very different cultures live together within the same 'planet boarders'. Briefly speaking, it's about creating a sustainable ecosystem, autonomy, support and protection, to incorporate 2 cultures as a whole. when crash happens, all parties have been changed, Do we acknowledge the change? do we incorporate the change so to expand ourselves or?
Babel (2006)
what to grasp in chaos of life?
The framework of Babel displays an interesting theme: different people's life are interrelated and mutually affected. Through presenting four different stories, which seem to be quite far away from each other as Alejandro sets the backgrounds separately in Morocco, Mexico, Japan and America, however they are entangled with each other. Which leads me to think how much of our own life is a result of other people's life or, in other words, is an outcome of other people's actions.
I admire Alejandro's structuring ability to mix diverse materials without letting audiences noticing the sharp turning. While American couple, Morocco family and Mexican nanny's life all turned over within one minute, one hour or one night, Japanese girl's life is a presentation of the traumatic past, the unsatisfying present and the future. But have I noticed these different paces at the beginning? Not at all. This also attributes to fascinating musical works from Gustavo Santaolalla, which builds a smooth mood foundation for us to digest these dramatic life events.
Then let's have a look on the stories. They narrate some tragedies and traumatic events, which is so baffling to me, as there are causes behind causes and is there a person to blame? Maybe or maybe not. What about a family, or a government. To me, it really comes to a dilemma that there's no one or nothing to blame while people struggle. Here, I don't have enough knowledge to talk about the story of the tower of Babel, but try to get a glimpse of a common path of the stories in the film. It could be sensed that there are risk factors beforehand of every storyline. So does this mean people should improve their alertness, like going to another country for travel, then do we need to prepare vigorously knowing the culture or the politics there. In one way, as a person, I don't think most people have this capacity to alert of all the potential danger. Though this kind of risk analysis could help prevent some tragedies like letting children use a gun, working illegally in another country and being as a disabled person in society. Also things like getting shot in a tourist bus is not a thing that we really should be prepared for in a normal circumstance.
In the film, except American family's presented crisis got sorted out, other characters' life are still a mess, though in a process. At least we could find out that family as an important protective factor for Amelia and Chieko. So I came up with the question, but still couldn't find the very satisfying answer, though here it's important for me to say the power of family. There have to be something else, doesn't it?