Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Blog 2
Overall Scent of Green Papaya is very symbolic and can be connected to the Vietnamese experience and lifestyle. The most striking thing about the movie is its lack of dialogue. This is probably a result of Mui being a shy girl and as the film focuses on her life it lacks dialogue many times. This small amount of speech ,however, gives us time to view the lifestyle of the people of Vietnam. During the movie there are allot of scenes that have ties to nature. The camera shows us all the living things around the setting which range from Papayas to lizards. Also its clear that Mui has a great love of nature. In many scenes we see her take a break from her work to admire the plants and animals around her. She even keeps crickets she found as pets in her room. I think this all shows that the people of Vietnam have a very close connection to nature and love it greatly. Also I noticed that in the movie the camera didn't just cut off when a scene ended. Instead it tracked over to a location nearby and gave the audience a view of the gorgeous scenery around the main setting. I think that this unusual camera movement was meant to show that Vietnam is actually a beautiful country of natural wonder. I also noticed that the movie treated women in a much different way than we do today. Most of the women we saw in the movie were either working or cleaning, they clearly did not have as much power as men in the society. This is highlighted when the man of the first household leaves with all the money. The entire time his wife is worried and crying (she thinks that it should be her job to insure that her husband is happy and does not leave the house). Then when he comes back she is not angry at him for taking away their means of living (their money) ,instead she cries out of joy at his return. I personally can't relate to this if I was in her situation I would be furious at the man. He left with no concern for his family for selfish purposes. In the end I think this shows the lack of authority of women in the movie. Also during the movie we see the first family practicing certain religious ceremonies. In particular the grandma spends most of her time around candles and statues. After seeing the movie I think that they were practicing Buddhism which is one of the prominent religions in Vietnam. Finally when I saw the young son pouring wax on the powerless ants it reminded me of the Americans waging war. I thought that the Vietnamese people were similar to the ants because they were peacefully minding their own business before the giant ,that is America, came in and started attacking them with superior weapons and technology. I think that Scent of Green Papaya can be interpreted in many ways but in the end it is a very symbolic film that shows the lives of the Vietnamese people.
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Scent of Green Papaya is a very symbolic film. During the movie there are a lot of scenes that have ties to nature. The camera shows us all the living things around the movies setting, which range from Papayas to lizards. Also its clear that Mui has a great love of nature. In many scenes we see her take a break from her work to admire the plants and animals around her. She even keeps crickets she found as pets in her room. I think this all shows that the people of Vietnam have a very close connection to nature and love it greatly. In essence the Vietnamese are a humble and peaceful people.
ReplyDeleteAlso I noticed that in the movie the camera didn't just cut off when a scene ended. Instead it tracked over to a location nearby and gave the audience a view of the gorgeous scenery around the main setting. I think that this unusual camera movement was meant to show that Vietnam is actually a beautiful country of natural wonder. Many times in popular culture Vietnam is portrayed as a poor and unappealing place. This film shows the beauty of the landscape which often gets overlooked for the images of fire and destruction that many associate with the country, as a result of the war. I believe the filmmakers hoped to showcase the countries natural beauty in their film.
I also noticed that the Vietnamese society, depicted in the movie, treated women in a much different way than we do today. Most of the women we saw in the film were either working or cleaning, they clearly did not have as much standing as men. This is highlighted when the man of the first household leaves with all the money. The entire time his wife is worried and crying. She thinks that it should be her job to insure that her husband is happy and does not leave the house. Then when he comes back she is not angry at him for taking away their means of living ,instead she cries out of joy at his return. I personally can't relate to this if I was in her situation I would be furious at the man. He left with no concern for his family for selfish purposes. In the end I think this shows the lack of authority of women in the movie.
Also during the movie we see Mui's original family practicing certain religious ceremonies. In particular the grandma spends most of her time around candles and statues. After seeing the movie I think that they were practicing Buddhism which is one of the prominent religions in Vietnam. These religious scenes demonstrate how dedicated the Vietnamese were to their practices.
Finally when I saw the young son pouring wax on the powerless ants it reminded me of the Americans waging war. I thought that the Vietnamese people were similar to the ants because they were peacefully minding their own business before the giant ,that is America, came in and started attacking them with superior weapons and technology. I think that Scent of Green Papaya can be interpreted in many ways but in the end it is a very symbolic film that shows the lives of the Vietnamese people.