Gone is the One Who Held Me Dearest in the World
Lara Vanderstaay
1. The early
years of the twenty-first century have seen a significant increase in the
number of Chinese women directors working in the mainland Chinese film
industry. Several of these women directed their debut films at this time and
continue to be active in the industry]These women and their older counterparts
are making films that scholars have argued reflect a new kind of female
consciousness
2. Women
directors and writers in China have consistently been at the forefront of
developments in Chinese female consciousness throughout China's recent history.
In the 1920s, actresses and producers, such as Wang Hanlun and Yang Naimei, and
in the 1930s, writers such as Ding Ling, benefitted from ideas about women's
changing roles that originated in the West contemporaneously. Wang, Yang and
Ding challenged social norms in their private lives. They also challenged
Chinese attitudes to women through their film and literary characters, who were
strong, independent women instead of being submissive clichéd female characters.
3. In the
socialist era (1949–1976), women were perceived as having to present themselves
publicly as being exactly the same as men, with no distinguishing female
attitudes or perspectives, in order to succeed in film or literary fields. Some
contemporary scholars such as Shuqin Cui, however, have argued that in fact the
work of women who did conform to these attitudes did illustrate female
perspectives, albeit in a limited way. Some of the work of Dong Kena and of
Wang Ping illustrates that in films such as Dong's A Blade of Grass on the
Kunlun Mountains (1962) and Wang's The Story of Liubao Village (1957) they
tried to present women as agents of their own desire rather than just desired
objects. Dong's strong-minded geologist heroine, Li Wanli, insists on making
her own choices in both her professional and personal lives despite the cost to
her social standing, and Wang's outwardly submissive heroine, Er Meizi, breaks
tradition by insisting on choosing the man whom she will marry.
4. In the post-socialist
era (since 1979), women directors such as Zhang Nuanxin, Huang Shuqin and Peng
Xiaolian and writers such as Zhang Jie began to display new types of female
characters in their work—women who were dissatisfied with their marital
relationships and sought personal happiness elsewhere. Authors such as Zhang
Jie and Zhang Xinxin were regarded as being a crucial part of cultural change
in China which saw the development of new forms of female consciousness in
women's literature. Directors such as Zhang, Huang and Peng also helped to form
the new female consciousness in China through their depictions of women as
active, desiring agents rather than passive desired objects.
5. At the
same time, these directors and writers also had to struggle with the increasing
commercialisation and sexualisation of women and women's bodies, and fought
against this in their work. Peng's Women's Story (1987) has a comedic scene
where one of the female protagonists splits her pants—a scene that Peng claimed
her male colleagues would not have filmed. This scene mocks the sexualisation
of women by emphasising the young woman's embarrassment rather than trying to
scopophilically exploit her body.
6. This
issue of the sexualisation of women is one which continues to affect women
directors and writers in China today. While women who have worked in the state
studio system would seem to be somewhat protected from the need to portray sexy
women in their films to attract a large box office, they have complained of the
difficulty in attracting studio funding to make films reflecting their own
female consciousness. The commercial success of Xu Jinglei's first two films as
director, with their strong female protagonists, could imply that Chinese
society is now more accepting of different types of women. It may be
simplistic, however, to make this assumption given Xu's popularity in China
which would significantly increase the chance of box office success for her
films.
7. This
paper will examine how female consciousness can be seen in the work of one such
director, Ma Xiaoying, through an analysis of the filmic techniques used in her
film Gone is the One Who Held Me Dearest in the World (2001), which was
co-produced by the Beijing Film Studio. The specific filmic techniques which will
be discussed in this paper in terms of their manifestation of female
consciousness are narrative, camera techniques, framing andmise-en-scène.
8. The ideas
behind the concept of 'female consciousness', such as the importance of women
achieving self-awareness and establishing their own identities in opposition to
male expectations of female identity, were developed by eighteenth-century
writers including Mary Wollstonecraft. Female consciousness did not exist as a
concept in Wollstonecraft's time, although her work has been categorised by
contemporary scholars as exhibiting it. Scholar Anna Despotolou argued that
early nineteenth century writer Jane Austen's work also manifested female
consciousness
9. Similarly,
in the early twentieth century, cases of working-class women demanding specific
women's rights were seen by theorists in the latter part of the twentieth
century as exhibiting female consciousness. emale consciousness became an
important theoretical concept for the feminist movement in the 1970s. It began
to be used as a tool for analysing film at this time, and, along with feminist
film theory, is perceived as starting with the publication of Claire Johnston's
Women's Cinema as Counter–Cinema.[ By
the 1980s, scholarship on female consciousness emphasised how its existence
depended on the creation of a specifically female language. During the 1990s,
scholars argued that female consciousness was an apolitical concept, and
research also emphasised the importance of the female narrator to the portrayal
of female consciousness in film. During this time scholars also discussed how
female consciousness in a text could be seen when women and their experiences
were examined, even if they were not the textual focus.
10. This paper
adopts a definition of female consciousness in film that views it as a concept
in which a female perspective is manifested through the technical aspects of
film such as narrative, camera shots, framing and mise-en-scène, with that
perspective emphasising the agency of women rather than objectifying them. This
female perspective incorporates the notions of female identity, agency, women's
rights and experiences as discussed above.
Synopsis of Gone is the One
11. Gone is
the One was co-produced by the Beijing Film Studio and released in China in
December 2001 It is based on the memoirs of Chinese woman writer Zhang Jie and
relates her frequently contentious relationship with her dying mother. In the
film, a writer surnamed He witnesses the death at home of her elderly mother.
The narrative then flashes back to an earlier time. Feeling guilty at not
having spent much time with her mother in recent years, He visits her, and
notices that she is not walking properly and is showing some signs of dementia.
They discover that her mother has a brain tumour. He's mother decides to have
surgery to remove the tumour. The surgery is successful, but He realises soon
afterwards that her mother has become senile. She is completely dependent on
her daughter and nurse, Xiao Yue. He and her mother try to recapture their
relationship in the time they have left, although He is not aware, after the
surgery, that her mother will die soon. He's mother dies, and her daughter
Shubao arrives home from the United States where she is studying at university.
When Shubao arrives, He does not recognise her, in a scene mirroring an earlier
scene where He arrives at her mother's house and her mother does not recognise
her.
12. Ma
Xiaoying made her directorial debut with Gone is the One. She graduated in directing
from the Central Academy of Drama in 1998, the same year in which she wrote the
script for the film, after she had read the autobiography by Zhang Jie on which
it would be based. Ma Xiaoying also wrote novels and scripts for television
series and television films after she graduated from the Academy.
13. Ma spent
two years trying to buy the film rights for Gone is the One from Zhang Jie,
eventually succeeding at the end of 1999. Chinese scholars argued that Ma's
script and eventual film participated in the then current trend of Chinese
women directors centralising both the figure of the mother and the
mother–daughter relationship
Female consciousness in the narrative of Gone is the One
14. Ma's use
of narrative and the portrayal of characters within that narrative are two of
the major techniques that can be interpreted as a manifestation of female
consciousness inGone is the One. The film's narrative has thematic similarities
with other Chinese women directors' films that focus on mother–daughter
relationships, including Peng Xiaolian'sShanghai Women (2002) and Shanghai
Story (2004) and Hong Kong director Ann Hui'sSong of the Exile (1990). It is
strikingly different from male directors' films with seemingly similar themes,
such as Hou Yong's Jasmine Women (2004). The reasons for this significant
difference are discussed later in this paper. Ma's film is also thematically
similar to films by directors around the world such as Dutch woman director
Marleen Gorris' Antonia's Line (1996), with its narrative emphasis on the lives
of a strong matriarch and her female descendants.
15. The
primary narrative of Gone is the One is He's recollection of her mother's death
and the illness leading up to her death. The narrative structure follows what
David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson called the 'BACD' structure, when a film
starts with an event occurring at a certain time and the rest of the film is
structured through flashbacks to previous times.
16. These
recollections were told in diary form in Zhang's memoirs. The recollections
tell what is overwhelmingly a female story: the only male characters who
fleetingly register in the narrative are He's husband, Dr Luo, a doctor who
performs surgery on He's mother; and a photographer, who appears to deceive
He's mother by taking a Polaroid photograph of her which does not develop
properly. The narrative illustrates the strength of women by emphasising the
courage with which they face difficult decisions such as whether to have
potentially fatal surgery and how they will resolve family conflicts. Chinese
critics have said that the film's narrative retains the 'original flavour' of
Zhang's memoirs including its emphasis on personal relationships and on illustrating
the truth of mother–daughter relationships
17. The female
characters in Gone is the One are all strong characters in their own right. The
main female character, He, illustrates strength in dealing simultaneously with
the stress of her mother's illness, her job and her difficult husband. He's
mother is strong in her determination to have the surgery and her attempts to
recover, partly out of love for her daughter and also from determination not to
disappoint her. Xiao Yue shows her strength in continuing to contend
effectively with both He's mother and with He, particularly when they argue.
18. By
contrast, the male character with the most time on screen, He's husband, is
portrayed as weak and selfish, although He's mother's revelation that he recently
had heart surgery implies that there may be other reasons for his
insensitivity.
19. The female
lead, He, is a complex character. Her actions in looking after her mother
appear filial, but the stereotypical image of the filial daughter is frequently
undermined by scenes in which He is argumentative and impatient with her
mother. Her actions are also prompted by guilt. In a voice-over she recounts
how she had become engrossed in her career and had had little time for her
mother until the day she visited her and discovered how ill she was. This
reflects a common contemporary dilemma, particularly for women, as they are
often the primary carer for elderly relatives.
20. Similarly,
He's mother is also a complicated character. Throughout the film, due to her
increasing senility, she frequently acts more like a child than a mother. She
irritates the hospital staff and alienates her daughter. She is stubborn,
insisting on the surgery after He hesitates. However, when she is lucid, He's
mother expresses her love for her daughter, particularly in a scene not long
before she dies. She dreams that she is standing at the bottom of a deep gorge
and says that she cannot die yet as she has to say goodbye to her daughter.
There is also a scene at the hospital where He's mother tells He that she
cannot die yet as she has to look after He.
21. The other
major female character in the film is Xiao Yue, a young rural woman who is He's
mother's nurse and housekeeper. Unlike He, Xiao Yue does not become impatient
with He's mother, instead accepting that she cannot help her behaviour. In this
way her behaviour is the embodiment of yin, the cosmological concept associated
with women in Chinese culture since the later Han dynasty Those with yin
qualities display what Vivian-Lee Nyitray termed 'devotion and quiet
perseverance' as Xiao Yue does throughout the film. Xiao Yue stays with He's
mother in the hospital and then at He's home after the operation. Because of
her constant close proximity to He's mother, Xiao Yue has had more time to
become aware of her dementia, and knows when her statements are correct and
when they are not. She shares this knowledge with He, in scenes such as near
the beginning of the film when He visits her mother at home and discovers that
she is becoming senile. He's mother says she has received some letters from
He's daughter Shubao in the United States, and walks off to find them,
whereupon Xiao Yue whispers in He's ears that there are no letters. Xiao Yue is
very calm and practical yet approaches events with an innocence lacking in the
sophisticated urban characters surrounding her.
22. The
narrative of Gone is the One complements other women directors' films which
also examine female 'lineage' in the way that it focuses on the three
generations of women: He's mother, He and He's daughter, Shubao Other women
directors' films such as Marleen Gorris' Antonia's Line (1995 similarly focus
on a solely female family line. Antonia's Linefocuses on a young Dutch woman
who brings up her daughter in a small village in the Netherlands after World
War Two. Throughout the film, Gorris' emphasis is on the ability of women to
endure. Overtly masculine characters are portrayed negatively as being major
disruptions to the female narrative.
23. The
particularly female nature of this portrayal of male–female relations can be
seen by contrasting films by women directors with films by male directors such
as Hou Yong'sJasmine Women (2004), based on the novel Women's Life (Funü
Shenghuo) by the male writer Su Tong. Like many fifth generation male
directors' films, it focuses on women, yet it is a very masculine view of women
whose lives fall apart due to the machinations of the men in their lives. As in
the works of Ma and Gorris, the family in Jasmine Women is female-centred,
examining three women whose stories are told in three separate sections:
grandmother, mother, daughter. Hou claimed his film was 'feminist' in its
depiction of women, however this belief is undermined throughout the film by
the emphasis on the physical attractiveness of the female characters and also
the negative way in which they are presented. The story of Mo, discussed in the
first 'grandmother' segment of the film, is set largely in a film studio and
the upper class world of the 1930s. Mo is frequently seen in expensive qipaos,
and the camera predominantly focuses on her physical beauty at the expense of
her inner thoughts and feelings. The film's scopophilic approach to Mo's
character is particularly seen in shots such as when she is singing and dancing
at her birthday party and when she is about to begin an affair with the film
studio boss. Mo is also presented in the film as the overtly sexual 'whore' of
the Madonna/whore dichotomy by choosing to have an affair and ultimately a
child out of wedlock then commencing a relationship with her mother's partner
and abandoning her child.
24. Mo's
daughter Li, whose story is told in the second 'mother' segment of the film,
has severe schizophrenia, and following her husband's suicide (caused by her jealousy
and refusal to believe his fidelity), abandons her adopted daughter. Hua, Li's
adopted daughter, whose story is told in the final 'daughter' segment of
Jasmine Women, marries at a young age and upon discovering her husband's
infidelity attempts unsuccessfully to end his life. Hua and her husband
divorce, and the pregnant Hua is left to bring up her daughter as a single
mother. At the end of Jasmine Women, Hua is depicted as a strong, capable
character, but she has also been presented as a jealous woman willing to commit
murder. Through the characters of Mo and Hua, Hou implicitly, albeit perhaps
unconsciously, endorses the traditional stance that female sexuality is
dangerous. Mo is ultimately punished for her behaviour by committing suicide in
her old age. Hua is able to decide her fate, insisting on a divorce from her
husband. She appears emotionally fulfilled by her decision, but the film does
not provide her with sexual fulfilment as she is left on her own. The threat
from female sexuality has been absorbed by motherhood. Despite illustrating the
hardship of women's lives and the bonds between women, Jasmine Women ultimately
presents a very negative, male-centred view of women as being emotionally
fragile, in sharp contrast to the images of women seen in films such as Gone is
the One.
25. An
important narrative device which Ma uses in Gone is the One is voice-over,
which can be interpreted, due to the particular way it is used in the film, as
an example of female consciousness. Voice-overs in the film are usually spoken
by He. She narrates the entire film, recounting her mother's illness and death.
In this instance the use of voice-over enables the audience to sympathise with
He's point of view and understand her. He's first voice-over, 'I'm a failure. I
failed my mother,' is heard in the initial pre-credits sequence when her mother
dies. She had understood before her mother's surgery that she might die, but
due to the success of the operation she was not expecting her mother to die so
soon afterwards. This voice-over emphasises He's guilt and also the difficulty
of maintaining the mother-daughter relationship, both of which become important
elements of the film's narrative. He's voice-over also adds depth to the other
characters. The mother whom the audience sees on screen is an old, sickly woman
needing help from others even for simple things such as using the toilet.
However, He's voice-over emphasises that her mother was not always like this.
As a result of He's voice-over, she becomes the character through whom the
audience understands the film's narrative, although there are some scenes in
which she is not involved which she could not have seen. Characters and events
are largely seen from her perspective.
26. Dialogue
between characters is also crucial to the development of the film's narrative
and the expression of characters' feelings and motivations. Dialogue is again
focused on presenting the female perspective as the female characters are given
the most opportunities for communication. He's dialogue with her mother, when
she is considering not allowing her to have the brain surgery due to the
serious risks it involves, expresses her love and concern for her mother.
Telling her mother that she will be her 'eyes' in the event that the operation
results in her becoming blind, emphasises her love and her attempt to be the
filial daughter she has not been in the past. The dialogues between the female
lead, He, and her mother increase understanding of and thus empathy with their
characters. An extended dialogue between He and her mother early in the film
establishes He's mother's gratitude for her daughter's care of her and also her
love for her daughter. Later dialogue illustrates this, when He's mother says
'I can't die. I've got to look after you.' This dialogue follows a scene in
which He is beginning to struggle with the dual realisations that her mother
could die during the surgery, and that she does not want to lose her. He's
dialogues also develop her character, illustrating the strength of her
relationship with her mother in dialogue such as: 'Mum, you gave me life.
That's the best legacy.' The dialogue between He and her mother emphasises the
closeness and specificity of the mother–daughter relationship
27. Xiao Yue
is given important dialogue in a scene with He at the end of the film in which
she tells He facts about her mother's feelings which He has never known. Xiao
Yue reveals that He's mother worried about her daughter endlessly, sensing that
she was unhappy in her second marriage and that she suffered from depression.
This dialogue emphasises the perceptiveness of He's mother and also Xiao Yue's
sensitivity in realising that He should hear what her mother had said about
her. He was unaware of her mother's intuition. While this dialogue does not
include a discussion of Xiao Yue's feelings, it does elaborate on her
character. As well as illustrating Xiao Yue's sensitivity, the dialogue
emphasises her innocence in telling He her mother's real opinions of her
daughter's marriage and state of mind. The dialogue is representative of Xiao
Yue's trustworthiness in that He's mother had enough faith in her to divulge
her true feelings concerning her daughter. It also adds to the development of
the character of He's mother, even after her death, by showing how despite her
increasing senility and stubbornness, she was frequently concerned about her
daughter.
28. Similarly,
Ma's use of dialogue for He and her mother helps to explain their motivations
and increase audience empathy with them. He's mother's dialogue, spoken in
front of her daughter, when she says she can't die because her daughter needs
her, develops her character from an increasingly senile, demanding old woman,
to a loving mother who recognises when her daughter needs her.
29. These
narrative devices illustrate female consciousness in Gone is the One in a
variety of ways. They give greater depth to the female characters, but not to
the male characters, as the latter are not given these same opportunities
within the narrative. Thus the audience is able to empathise more with the
female characters and to identify with their experiences in the film, whereas
the male characters remain relatively indistinct, and in the case of He's
husband, largely unsympathetic figures. Also, the strong but complex characters
resist female stereotypes such as the Madonna/whore image seen in films such as
Jasmine Women. The characters are much more realistic than the characters in
Jasmine Women as they are imperfect women with flaws. Both women are stubborn
and occasionally selfish. They do not satisfy the Chinese cliché of the 'good
wife and wise mother' (liangqi xianmu) although the film does illustrate that
both He and her mother are close to their respective daughters and consider the
mother–daughter relationship to be very important.
30. Although
He fulfils what her husband sees as her duty to him when she collects his
parents from the train station when they are visiting her family, this dutiful
image is significantly weakened by her unhappiness at doing this on the same
day as her mother is due to have major surgery. The audience views this scene
from He's perspective, viewing the husband's request as selfish and
unreasonable The scene becomes almost comic when He's mother-in-law asks a
series of questions about He's mother, unaware of her health problems and
imminent brain surgery. During this scene the focus is on He's reactions to the
woman's questions as she asks about her mother's health and tries to insist on
paying her a visit. He is obliged to lie and reassure her mother-in-law that
her mother is fine. These narrative devices can also be seen as illustrating
female consciousness as, together with the dialogue analysed earlier, they
emphasise the centrality of the women's stories and depict a uniquely female
situation in the mother–daughter relationship.
31. There are
some exceptions to the narrative focus on women, such as when He is talking to
Dr Luo, her mother's surgeon, about the proposed operation. The lengthy
dialogue in which Dr Luo explains the procedure is illustrative of his
competence as a medical professional but adds very little to the film's
narrative themes and development. The only other two male characters who speak
in the film, He's husband and a photographer who takes a photo of He's mother,
do not say very much. When He's husband speaks, it is usually to disrupt the
female narrative with an insensitive, aggressively masculine presence and thus
his dialogue reinforces negative interpretations of his character. The
photographer is also a negative masculine presence as the Polaroid photograph
he takes of He's mother does not work properly as she is seen staring at it,
confused at the failure of a picture to emerge. This scene suggests that the
photographer has cheated He's mother. Thus another male character is depicted
negatively.
32. These
narrative devices provide details of the characters' thoughts and motivations
which would otherwise have remained unknown to the audience. The use of
voice-over illustrates that He's sharp tones with her mother spring from her
love and concern for her as well as her guilt. He becomes a rich and complex
character rather than a one dimensional, irritating woman. The voice-overs of
both He and her mother also illustrate that they have had a strong and loving
relationship throughout their lives and that their mother–daughter bond will
always remain regardless of the turbulence of their relationship for much of
the film. The voice-overs also remind the audience that the characters are not
clichéd strong women but real women who genuinely feel fear even when they
outwardly appear calm and controlled.
Female consciousness through camera shots in Gone is the One
33. Ma's use
of the camera in Gone is the One is another exemplifier of female consciousness
in the film. The perspective of the camera, style of camera shots used and the
framing of characters before the camera all add to the depiction of female
consciousness in their representation of the female characters.
34. The camera
perspective is aligned with the perspective of the women, predominantly He,
throughout the film. The aforementioned scene where He's husband tells her to
pick up his parents from the train station and she reacts angrily, is an
example. The camera focuses on He's face, moving from a long shot of her
standing in the hospital on her mobile phone, to a close-up of her reaction to her
husband's statements. Her husband is only heard on the phone, never observed by
the camera. Because the audience is shown He's reaction in detail, and nothing
of her husband's reaction, it is easier for them to identify with her
perspective and sympathise with her predicament.
35. The
woman's gaze drives the plot forward. Xiao Yue's observations of He's mother
cause her to contact He to tell her how seriously ill her mother is and He's
gaze at her ill mother causes her to take her to hospital, setting in motion
the events of the film. The camera frequently represents the women's
perspective and never objectifies the female characters, or indeed the male
characters. Even when the camera observes the women from a different
perspective, which is clearly not that of any of the characters, such as in the
scene where He bathes her mother, the camera does not attempt to turn the women
into erotic objects for scopophilic pleasure. Instead the emphasis in this
scene is on showing the strength of the relationship between He and her mother,
further illustrating the main theme of the mother–daughter relationship which
has also been explored through the narrative and dialogue as discussed earlier
in this paper.
36. Geeta
Ramanathan, in an examination of feminist aesthetics in film, argued that Agnès
Varda's Vagabond (1985), with its depiction of Mona, a poor, unclean, homeless
woman, 'forces the eye to look at the unpleasant, at the unaesthetic as a way
of impeding access to the pleasurable visual feminine. Similarly, in Gone is
the One, Ma compels the audience to look at He bathing her mother. This image
is much more 'unpleasant' than the typical scopophilic image of the woman
bathing to which the audience is accustomed. The latter image has been
illustrated in recent mainland Chinese films such as Zhang Yimou's House of
Flying Daggers (2004), where the beautiful heroine Mei bathes, observed by the
hero Jin. Unlike Zhang's use of a beautiful young woman, Ma uses an elderly,
bald, obviously ill woman as the focus of her scene. Ma is seemingly making a
critical comment on both the objectification of women's bodies and audience
expectations in films such as Zhang's. Ramanathan argued it was essential for
directors to pay attention to the female body if their films were to 'grant
women narrative authority' and be considered feminist films.]Although Ma's film
was not necessarily intended to be a feminist film, it can be considered to
have what Miki Flockeman termed 'feminist moments' such as this bathing scene
37. Several
specific types of camera shots in Gone is the One epitomise female
consciousness, including close-up shots. The close-up is a stereotypical shot
of classical masculine cinema. Patricia Mellencamp argued that close-ups
functioned as indicators of 'character' for men and 'beauty' for women Gone is
the One, however, uses close-ups (with the exception of Shubao, depicted as an
attractive young woman) on female characters to function as indicators of
character rather than beauty. Ma's close-ups typically demonstrate the
characters' emotions, frequently showing either He's mother as a sickly old
woman or He as an angry middle-aged woman. Ma's use of such a common technique
of classical masculine cinema as the close-up in this way lends support to
Ramanathan's argument that some feminist directors 'work with mainstream
techniques to produce a feminist aesthetic' as scholars have identified in the
work of women directors such as Nelly Kaplan, Dorothy Arzner, Kathryn Bigelow
and Gillian Armstrong. Ma uses the camera to explicate the female perspective.
The camera never illustrates the male characters' points of view and thus, as
Ramanathan argued in her analysis of Nelly Kaplan's A Very Curious Girl (1969),
'retains its authority' as a representative of the female character.
38. Close-up
shots are used in the film on the female characters quite frequently, but
rarely with the male characters. The only scene featuring a sustained close-up
of a male character is when Dr Luo talks to He about her mother's surgery. The
camera stays focused on his emotionless face in close-up as he talks before
reversing to a close-up of He as she listens. Close-up shots of He and her
mother clearly show the emotions which they are not expressing in words and
thus add depth and complexity to their depiction. As seen with the camera
perspective, close-up shots in Gone is the One are not used for scopophilic
purposes when they show either female or male characters. Rather than
exhibiting scopophilic intent, close-ups add to their characters. Close-up
shots of He grieving following her mother's death make the audience sympathise
with her loss rather than subject her to their controlling gaze as an erotic
object, as some scholars argued inevitably happens with female characters in
film. Similarly, close-up shots of He's mother as she looks at her daughter,
particularly in a scene where they talk shortly before her surgery, reflect her
love for her daughter rather than fulfilling any scopophilic aim. The use of
these close-up shots to further develop the characters, particularly the women,
rather than objectify them, further illustrates how camera techniques can be
interpreted as being used in the film to illustrate female consciousness.
Female consciousness through framing in Gone is the One
39. Framing is
also an important indicator of female consciousness in Gone is the One. The
female characters are typically framed in the centre of a shot, allowing them
to be seen more clearly and thus more easily achieve audience empathy and
identification than the male characters. When He is first seen in the same shot
as her husband, she is positioned in the centre of the frame. Her husband, by
contrast, is limited to the far right side of the frame and is thus a lot
harder to see. The narrative of the scene involves a disagreement between the
two. He wants to use her husband's car to drive to her mother's house to see
her but her husband disagrees.] Due to the camera perspective and narrative
techniques which Ma uses throughout the film, as discussed earlier, audience
sympathy is with He and against her husband.
40. When He
and her mother are positioned together in a shot, they are sometimes framed in
equally central positions in front of the camera and sometimes framed with one
person appearing more dominant than the other, in scenes such as when He's
mother is suffering from dementia and needs He's help. When they are framed
equally centrally in a shot, the strength of their relationship, and their
individual strength, is emphasised. Overhead shots are occasionally used in
which the women are framed in front of the camera as powerless people unsure of
how to cope with their increasingly challenging circumstances. These include
scenes in He's mother's hospital room, which emphasise the dominance of the
hospital system and their vulnerability in the face of He's mother's illness.
This kind of framing adds to the representation of female consciousness in the
film by focusing on the female characters, emphasising their primacy over the
male characters. It also emphasises the women's unity and their mutual support
for each other in adversity. This type of female solidarity has been identified
by scholars as 'a manifestation of female consciousness'.
41. Female
consciousness through mise-en-scène in Gone is the One Ma's use of
mise-en-scène throughout Gone is the One offers a sharp contrast with films
directed by men and has strikingly similarities with other films by women
directors such as Li Shaohong and Peng Xiaolian
42. There are
four major settings in the film which are either seen in one sequence for
several minutes, or in several sequences. These settings are the hospital, He's
apartment, He's mother's house and the mountains visited first by He, her
mother and Xiao Yue, and then by He's mother in a dream sequence.
43. The
hospital is typically shown as a cold, sterile environment which does not
tolerate people who deviate from the norm, such as He's mother when she slips
into senility following her surgery. The walls and ceilings are white and the
rooms are relatively empty of personal objects. It is a place of order and
control, in contrast to the environment outside which represents freedom and
choice for He's mother, as seen when she goes outside to have her photograph
taken before her head is shaved in preparation for surgery. Even though this
scene becomes a negative moment in the narrative, when it appears that He's
mother has been cheated by the photographer after the Polaroid photograph does
not reveal any image, He's mother leaving the hospital is still a positive
image of her freedom.
44. In
contrast, He's apartment and her mother's house are warm, comfortable
environments. The home itself is a feminised yin space, and both homes in the
film are emphasised as feminine spaces—no men intrude in He's mother's home and
He's husband's presence at their apartment is minimal and shown in a negative
light as he is invariably rude and uncaring when he is seen in the apartment,
whether he is complaining over a light bulb which is not working or callously
ignoring his wife's grief after her mother's death. He's study is particularly
presented as her own individual space—it is filled with her books and mementos
and is the place where she goes to grieve privately after the death of her
mother.
45. Towards
the end of the film there is a scene in which He, her mother and Xiao Yue visit
the mountains, not long before the death of He's mother. In contrast to the yin
domain of the home, the exterior natural environment is a masculine yang domain
as yin yang theory insists that 'women should go into seclusion and men should
go out and about.'The tall mountains are a phallic image, however the water on
which the women sit in a boat is a feminine yin element.
46. Ma's
positioning of He at the edge of a canyon near the conclusion of the film,
after her mother's death, finds resonance in a number of Western as well as
Indian feminist films which show their female characters 'in open spaces at the
conclusion.' The caves seen surrounding the canyon in this scene and in an
earlier scene involving He, her mother and Xiao Yue are semiotically coded as
feminine, further emphasising the female perspective of the story.
47. Ma's use
of particular settings in the film adds to its depiction of female
consciousness in several ways. The feminised setting of the home is used to
further demonstrate the loving relationship between He and her mother, and
increases audience empathy and identification with those characters. The
hospital, with its contrasting coldness, also adds to audience empathy with the
plight faced by He and her mother. The outside environment, with its
contrasting masculine and feminine elements, also emphasises the strength in
the women's relationships by showing them happy and free of the restrictive
environment of the hospital and the criticism of He's husband.
48. The film
thus depicts the feminised home as a 'haven-like' yin space while at the same
time arguing that the women yearn sometimes to be free of it by venturing in to
the exterior yangworld. his venturing can sometimes have negative consequences
as is illustrated by He's mother being deceived by the photographer, but it is
more commonly a joyful occasion for the women, shown through their attitude in
the scenes set on the water.
49. Costumes
are also important indicators of female consciousness in Gone is the
One.Costumes worn by He, her mother and Xiao Yue are particularly important.
Female lead He constantly wears dark clothes, usually a short sleeved shirt and
trousers. In an early scene, she is fashionably dressed in black at a book
signing. This contrasts sharply with her appearance at the end of the film when
she is grieving the loss of her mother and has not given any thought to her
appearance. She wears dark, shapeless clothing which adds to her air of sadness
and despair. Her clothes are all westernised.
50. He's
mother wears an older style shirt and trousers for much of the film, except
when she wears a hospital gown for her surgery, and pyjamas in a night scene.
When He imagines her mother talking to her after her death, her mother is
wearing a light coloured shirt in contrast to the darker colours she usually
wore during her life.
51. Xiao Yue's
clothing and hairstyle emphasise how different she is compared to the other
characters. Throughout the film she wears traditional Chinese clothing and her
hair is worn in a long plait. Her clothing and hairstyle emphasise her humble,
rural origins and so show that she is quite different from the other women in
the film who are urban, wealthy women.
52. Costumes
used in the film reinforce female consciousness through the way that they
symbolise the emotions and attitudes of characters such as He, He's mother and
Xiao Yue, and do not turn them into scopophilic objects for male pleasure.
Costume changes are particularly important in this depiction. This helps
audience identification with these characters.
53. Discussion
in this paper has shown that female consciousness is manifested in Gone is the
One by Ma's use of several cinematic techniques including narrative, camera
shots andmise-en-scène. Ma's use of these techniques situates her film outside
of 'mainstream narrative' but as Chinese critics have argued, also ensures that
the expression of the 'individual voice' of women is heard throughout the film.
The use of this 'individual voice' ensures that Gone is the One can be clearly
seen as part of a female cinematic tradition of women directors both in China
and internationally.
Endnotes
[1] These films included My Father and I (Wo he baba),
directed by Xu Jinglei in Mandarin with Chinese subtitles, China, 2002 (35
mm/95 min); Gone is the One Who Held Me Dearest in the World (Shijieshang zui
teng wo de na ge ren qu le), directed by Ma Xiaoying in Mandarin with Chinese
and English subtitles, China, 2001 (35 mm/95 min), hereafter called Gone is the
One; Conjugation (Dong ci bian wei), directed by Emily Tang in Mandarin with
Chinese and English subtitles, China, 2001 (35 mm/97 min); and Fish and
Elephant (Jinnian xiatian) directed by Li Yu in Mandarin with Chinese
subtitles, China, 2001 (35 mm/106 min).
[2] Relevant films and directors include Shanghai Women
(Jiazhuang mei ganjue), directed by Peng Xiaolian, in Mandarin with Chinese and
English subtitles, China, 2002 (DVD/94 min); Shanghai Story (Meili Shanghai),
directed by Peng Xiaolian in Mandarin with Chinese subtitles, China, 2004
(DVD/100 min); Baober in Love (Lian'ai zhong de baobei) directed by Li
Shaohong, in Mandarin with Chinese subtitles, China, 2004 (35mm/100 min);Stolen
Life (Sheng si jie), directed by Li Shaohong, in Mandarin with Chinese subtitles,
China, 2005 (DVD/90 min); and On the Other Side of the Bridge (Fenni de wei
xiao), directed by Hu Mei, in English and Mandarin with Chinese subtitles,
China/Austria, 2002 (DVD, 105 min). For analyses of these directors' works see
Cinema and Desire: Feminist Marxism and Cultural Politics in the Work of Dai
Jinhua, ed. Jing Wang and Tani E. Barlow, London: Verso 2002; Shuqin Cui, Women
Through the Lens: Gender and Nation in a Century of Chinese Cinema, Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press, 2002; and Berenice Reynaud, 'Chinese women
directors: Strong voices from the margins,' in Cinemaya, vol. 58 (2003): 33–39.
[3] These characters include the female lead in Yang's An
Extraordinary Woman (Qi Nüzi), directed by Shi Dongshan, silent with Chinese
intertitles, China, 1928; Miss Sophie in Ding Ling, 'Miss Sophie's Diary,'
(Shafei Nushi de riji) in Ding Ling, ed. Guo Cheng and Chen Zongmin, Taibei:
Haifeng Chubanshe, 1990, pp. 21–79; and the female lead in Wang's Revenge of
the Actress (Nüling fuchou ji), directed by Bu Wancang, silent with Chinese
intertitles, China, 1929.
[4] Cui, Women Through the Lens, pp.179–80.
[5] A Blade of Grass on the Kunlun Mountains (Kunlun shan yi
ke cao) directed by Dong Kena, in Mandarin with Chinese subtitles, China, 1962
(VCD/62 min); The Story of Liubao Village (Liubao de gushi) directed by Wang
Ping, in Mandarin with English and Chinese subtitles, China, 1957 (DVD, 80
min).
[6] See for example Human Woman Demon (Ren gui qing),
directed by Huang Shuqin, in Mandarin with English subtitles, China, 1985
(Videotape, 115 min), Sacrificed Youth (Qingchun ji), directed by Zhang
Nuanxin, in Mandarin with English subtitles, China, 1985 (35mm/100 min);
Women's Story (Nüren de gushi), directed by Peng Xiaolian, in Mandarin with English
subtitles, China, 1987 (Videotape, 96 min); Zhang Jie (trans. Gladys Yang),
'Love must not be forgotten,' (Ai shi bu neng wangji de) in Love Must Not Be
Forgotten, ed. Gladys Yang, Beijing: Chinese Literature Press, 1989, pp. 1–15;
Zhang Jie (trans. Gladys Yang), 'The Ark,' (Fangzhou) in Love Must Not Be
Forgotten, ed. Gladys Yang, Beijing: Chinese Literature Press, 1989, pp.
125–222; and Zhang Xinxin (trans. Donna Jung), 'The dreams of our generation,'
(Women zhe ge nianji de meng) in The Dreams of Our Generation and Selections
from Beijing's People, ed. Edward Gunn, Donna Jung and Patricia Farr, New York:
Cornell East Asia Papers, 1988, pp. 7–65.
[7] Mayfair Yang, 'Introduction,' in Spaces of Their Own:
Women's Public Sphere in Transnational China, ed. Mayfair Yang, Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, pp. 1–31, p. 22.
[8] Chris Berry, 'Interview with Peng Xiaolian,' in Camera
Obscura, vol. 18 (1989):26–31.
[9] Scopophilia is a concept whereby people are turned into
erotic objects and subjected to a controlling gaze by other people. Feminist
scholars have extensively discussed it in relation to the depiction of women in
film.
[10] Mayfair Yang, 'From gender erasure to gender
difference: state feminism, consumer sexuality, and women's public sphere in
China,' in Spaces of Their Own: Women's Public Sphere in Transnational China,
ed. Mayfair Yang, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 35–67, p. 55.
[11] See for example Mary Wollestonecraft, 'A vindication on
the rights of women,' in The Feminist Papers: From Adams to de Beauvoir, ed.
Alice Rossi, Toronto: Bantam, 1973, pp. 40–85; and Anna Despotolou, 'Fanny's
gaze and the construction of feminine space in Mansfield Park,' in The Modern
Language Review, vol. 99, no. 3 (2004):569–84.
[12] Temma Kaplan, 'Female consciousness and collective
action: the case of Barcelona, 1910–1918,' inRethinking the Political: Gender,
Resistance, and the State, ed. Barbara Laslett, Johanna Brenner and Yesim Arat,
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995, pp. 145<–66.
[13] 'Women's Cinema as Counter–Cinema' was first published
as part of Johnston's 1973 work, Claire Johnston,Notes on Women's Cinema,
London: Society for Education in Film and Television, 1973, pp. 24–31,
reprinted as Claire Johnston, 'Women's Cinema as Counter–Cinema,' in Feminist
Film Theory: A Reader, ed. Sue Thornham, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press,
1999, pp. 31–40.
[14] See for example Gisela Breitling, 'Speech, silence and
the discourse of art,' in Feminist Aesthetics, ed. Gisela Ecker, Boston: Beacon
Press, 1985, pp. 162–74; and Lucy Fischer, Shot/Countershot: Film Tradition and
Women's Cinema, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989.
[15] Identity refers to how a character in film sees
themselves and how others see them. Agency relates to desire, and a character
in film who has agency is able to both, in Susan Hayward's terms, 'act upon
their desire and fulfil it'. See Susan Hayward, 'Agency' in Cinema Studies: The
Key Concepts, ed. Susan Hayward, Abingdon: Routledge, 2003, p. 31.
[16] Maria Ruggieri, 'An age old story: an interview with Ma
Xiaoying,' in Far East Film Festival, (2003), online:
http://194.21.179.166/ceducine/datahost/fef2003/english/china2003_ying.htm,
accessed 21 April, 2004.
[17] Shen Zhiyuan, 'Duzi zai xuedili deng hou - Ma Xiaoying
de dianying zenyang paicheng de,' (Waiting in the snowfield - how did Ma
Xiaoying's film complete filming?) in Dianying Gushi (Film Story), vol. 2
(2002): 26–27, p. 26.
[18] Ruggieri, 'An age old story,' paragraph 2.
[19] Zhang Yu, 'Xin daoyan jianli,' (new directors'
biographical notes) in Dangdai Dianying (Contemporary Cinema), vol. 5
(2002):31–32, p. 32.
[20] Wu Xiaoli and Xu Shengmin, Jiushiniandai Zhongguo
dianying lun (On 1990s Chinese film), Beijing: Wenhua Yishu Chubanshe, 2005, p.
217. Wu and Xu mention Peng Xiaolian's Shanghai Women and Shanghai Story as
well as Mai Lisi's Taekwondo (2003) as examples of the trend among Chinese
women directors in the early years of the twenty-first century to focus on
mothers and the mother–daughter relationship.
[21] Song of the Exile (Ke tu qiu hen), directed by Ann Hui,
in Japanese, Cantonese and English with English subtitles, Hong Kong, 1990
(Videocassette/89 min).
[22] Jasmine Women (Mo li hua kai), directed by Hou Yong, in
Mandarin with Chinese subtitles, China, 2006 (DVD/130 mins).
[23] David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, Film Art: An
Introduction, Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2004, p. 75.
[24] Zheng Dongtian, 'Qite yuan chuanxing,' (Look forward to
original achievements)' in Dangdai Dianying(Contemporary Cinema), vol 5 (2002):
13.
[25] Vivian-Lee Nyitray, 'The real trouble with
Confucianism,' in Love, Sex, and Gender in the World Religions, ed. Joseph
Runzo and Nancy Martin, Oxford: Oneworld, 2000, pp. 181–200, p. 184.
[26] Nyitray, 'The real trouble,' p. 182.
[27] Geeta Ramanathan, Feminist Auteurs: Reading Women's
Films, London: Wallflower, 2006, p. 177.
[28] Antonia's Line (Antonia), directed by Marleen Gorris in
Dutch with English subtitles, The Netherlands, 1995 (Videocassette/93 min).
[29] Su Tong, 'Funü Shenghuo,' (Women's Life) in Mo Li Hua
Kai (Jasmine Women), ed. Hou Yong, Beijing: Zhongyang Bianyi, 2006, pp. 1–38.
[30] The term 'fifth generation' refers to those filmmakers
who studied at the Beijing Film Academy between 1978–82 and began making films
after their graduation in 1982. Famous members of the group include directors
Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige.
[31] Shenzhen Daily, 'Jasmine Blooms in Shenzhen,' 2006,
online: http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/film/167714.htm, accessed 8
July, 2007.
[32] Qipaos (also called cheongsams in Cantonese) are
traditional Chinese style women's silk dresses.
[33] For an analysis of the theme of the mother–daughter
relationship in Gone is the One, see Wang Lingzhen 'Nüxing de jingjie: lishi,
xingbie, he zhuti jiangou - jianlun Ma Xiaoying de "Shijieshang zuiteng wo
de na ge ren qu le,"' (The female cinematic imaginary: history,
subjectivity, and Ma Xiaoying's Gone is the One Who Held Me Dearest in the
World) in Chungwai Literary Monthly, vol. 34, no. 11 (2006): 27–54.
[34] Female lead He asks her husband if he can use his work
car to collect his parents from the station. While he is technically correct in
refusing her request as the car is nominally not supposed to be used for
personal reasons, he appears selfish in refusing to be flexible.
[35] Ramanathan, Feminist Auteurs, p. 11.
[36] Ramanathan, Feminist Auteurs, p. 11.
[37] Miki Flockeman, 'Women, feminism and South African
theatre,' in The Routledge Reader in Gender and Performance, ed. Lizbeth
Goodman with Jane de Gay, London: Routledge, 1998, pp. 218–22, p. 219.
[38] Patricia Mellencamp, A Fine Romance: Five Ages of Film
Feminism, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995, p. 24, quoted in Alison
Butler, Women's Cinema: The Contested Screen, London: Wallflower, 2002, p. 29.
[39] See for example Ramanathan, Feminist Auteurs, Ch. 1,
pp. 10–44; Judith Mayne, Directed by Dorothy Arzner, Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 1994; The Cinema of Kathryn Bigelow: Hollywood Transgressor,
ed. Deborah Jermyn and Sean Redmond, London: Wallflower, 2003; Felicity
Collins, The Films of Gillian Armstrong, Australian Teachers of Media:
Melbourne, 1999.
[40] Ramanathan, Feminist Auteurs, p. 34. A Very Curious
Girl (La fiancée du pirate) directed by Nelly Kaplan, in French, France, 1969
(35mm/107 min).
[41] See for example Laura Mulvey, 'Visual pleasure and
narrative cinema,' in Film and Theory: An Anthology, ed. Robert Stam and Toby
Miller Malden: Blackwell, 2000, pp. 483–94.
[42] See note 34 for the reasons behind He's husband's
reaction.
[43] Kaplan, 'Female consciousness and collective action,'
p. 147.
[44] See Li Shaohong's Baober in Love and Peng's Shanghai
Story, both of which use indoor/outdoor settings to similar effects as in Gone
is the One, particularly in the hospital scenes present in all three films.
[45] Robin R. Wang, 'Dong Zhongshu's transformation of
yin–yang theory and contesting of gender identity,' inPhilosophy East and West,
vol. 55, no. 2 (2006):209–33, p. 212.
[46] David Hall and Roger Ames, 'Sexism, with Chinese
characteristics,' in The Sage and the Second Sex: Confucianism, Ethics and
Gender, ed. Chenyang Li, Chicago: Open Court, 2000, pp. 75–95, p. 85.
[47] Ramanathan, Feminist Auteurs, p. 99.
[48] Tess Do, 'Bargirls and Street Cinderella: Women, sex
and prostitution in Le Hoang's commercial films,' inAsian Studies Review, vol.
30, no. 2 (2006): 175–88, p. 185.
[49] Wu and Xu, Jiushiniandai, p. 218.
Source : intersections.anu.edu.au
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