Chinese cinema, film homework help

Here is a list of topics for your final
paper. Please concentrate on producing good close readings and analysis of
primary sources. You are encouraged, but not obliged to, draw upon the critical
articles assigned. The essay should have a coherent structure and original
argument supported by specific textual analysis of the film(s). Avoid
unnecessary plot summary and generalization, and the more tightly defined the
topic, the better. The paper is 5 pages long, double-spaced, font 12.

1.
Although they can be categorized into different genres, many of this semester’s
films deal with Chinese nation, national culture, and national consciousness.
Take the film Once Upon a Time in China
III as a case study. Please discuss how China or Chineseness is represented,
contested, or negotiated in this film.

2. Of all the filmic elements, sound and
music are especially powerful in terms of their emotional impact and thematic
construction. Wong Kar-wai’s Chungking
Express is an interesting case in point. Please discuss the effect of
sound/music in place. How does sound/music highlight the meaning projected by
filmic images? In what ways does sound/music help describe personalities and form
cultural identities?

3. This
semester, we discussed a variety of films that seek to describe modern or
post-modern urban experiences, such as Chungking Express (Hong Kong)
and Yi Yi (Taipei). Consider the
disparate city landscapes that were mapped out in one or two of these films.
How did these films articulate various cultural mentality and individual
psychology in specific urban topographies?

4. In Ang
Lee’s Wedding Banquet, how were
traditional Chinese moral and cultural values portrayed in the communities of
overseas Chinese in America? Please consider both positive and negative aspects
of these values as represented by this film.