Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Blog 2
The film, Scent of Green Papaya, depicts the life of a Vietnamese girl Mui, who becomes a servant for an upper class family. This movie showed the balance of power between men and women in Vietnam. Throughout the film the audience sees how women entirely maintain the house and care for the family. The power men hold was shown in both how Mui and her brother were treated differently and also how the wealth husband treats his wife and mistress. Another important symbol was the ants dieing in candle wax. The large amount of ants that died was symbolic of the huge losses of life throughout the Vietnam War. Another aspect of the film representative of the Vietnam war is the growing number of portraits of lost ancestors. That not only shows how the Vietnamese value family. It also was evident the strain the war put on Vietnamese families as a results of the war.
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The film, Scent of Green Papaya, depicts the life of a Vietnamese girl Mui, who becomes a servant for an upper class family. From the beginning of the film the audience sees the balance of power between men and women in Vietnam. Throughout the film the audience sees how women entirely maintain the house and care for the family. The power men hold was shown in both how Mui and her brother were treated differently and also how the wealth husband treats his wife and mistress. The males’ power was also evident by how the master was able to leave with all of the family’s money three times and come back whenever he pleases. This shows how the women are subjugate to the whims of the men in Vietnamese culture.
ReplyDeleteAnother important symbol was the ants dying in candle wax. The large amount of ants that died was symbolic of the huge losses of life throughout the Vietnam War. Also these ants were killed by the master’s son just for enjoyment. This lack of consideration for death was also shown in Vietnam with all of the senseless killings in the rice paddies. A major reason for the huge numbers of death in Vietnam was all the senseless killing.
Another symbol in this film was the value of nature. The sounds of nature were evident throughout the film. The crickets, birds, wind played an important role in showing how the Vietnamese people relate and value their environment. They live a very simple life that values peace and self reflection. The silence with only nature in the background allows them to connect to nature and evaluate themselves.
The final and possibly most important symbol in this film is the cherry tree. Mui pointed out that regardless of whatever phase the cherry tree was in it remained a cherry tree. This is symbolic of Vietnam; regardless of whether it is in a stage of luscious nature or a state of post war destruction it will always be Vietnam.