Lan feng zheng

This brilliant film should be seen by anyone who appreciates great movie-making. Covering similar ground as 'Farewell, My Concubine', this time the story of China's political upheavals is told from the point of view of a simple family trying desperately to survive, as told from the point of view of the son. Lu Liping is amazing as the mother. A performance worthy of her contemporary Gong Li. Give me any of these performances over the theatrical machinations of a Meryl Streep or a Glenn Close any day. This is real acting at its finest. One warning: the ending will rip your heart out.

" The stories in the film are real, and they are related with total sincerity. What worries me is that it is precisely a fear of reality and sincerity that has led to the ban on such stories being told." - Tian Zhuangzhuang

The Blue Kite, a beautiful and courageous 1993 film by Tian Zhuangzhuang, describes the ups and downs in the lives of a young Chinese family from the early 1950's through the Cultural Revolution of 1966. The film, which has not been seen in China, deals with the social upheavals caused by the Rectification Movement, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution, three events in recent Chinese history whose effects for good or ill are still being debated. Narrated by their rambunctious young son Tietou ("Iron Horse"), this is a political film about ideological excess, but it is also about the strength of family and the love of a mother for her son. Tietou, played by three different actors (Yi Tian, Zhang Wenyao, and Chen Xiaoman), tells how the swirling tide of political events caused uncertainty and disillusionment among the villagers.

Tietou's mother, Shujuan, brilliantly portrayed by Lu Liping, is a tower of strength who must care for her son while coping with the sudden death of three husbands, indirectly due to the political turmoil. As the film begins, the drafting of citizens for manual labor is shown as part of the party's Rectification Movement, publicized through the mass media as an effort to remove "bourgeois" influences from professional workers. Shujuan's first husband, Shaolong (Pu Quanxin) falls out of favor with the Rectification Committee for his views (and because he has to go to the bathroom at an inopportune time). He is sent to a labor camp where he is accidentally killed by a falling tree. Her second husband, Uncle Li (Xuejian Li), dies of liver disease after confessing his role in reporting Shaolong and sending him to the labor camp. Shujuan then accepts marriage from a quiet intellectual named Lao Wu (Baochang Guo).

During this time (1966-69), high school students, known as the Red Guard or hong wei bing militants, were organized to promote revolutionary enthusiasm and political purity by turning against "outdated" values taught by the teachers in their schools. They soon spread from the classrooms and became roving gangs, closing shops and schools and parading errant professors through the streets. Tian depicts the excesses of the Red Guard in bullying and beating those whom they deemed to lack "political purity". For example, Lao is denounced as reactionary by the Cultural Revolution and is arrested and beaten by Red Guards. Some claim that actual physical violence never occurred during this period. What is certain, however, is that the campaign led to the emergence of factions that believed they had the right to impose their beliefs on others.

The Blue Kite is a powerful and involving film that says much about how ideological self-righteousness can undermine the things that are most precious -- a mother's love for her son, the strength and resilience of the family, and the right to speak our minds without fear of repression. The enduring values represented by the symbol of the blue kite are contrasted with the red banners and their changing political message. When the kite is caught in a tree, Tietou's father promises him, "I can make another for you"; by the end, Tietou makes a similar promise to a small child. And so it goes.

Due to the subject matter, it was impossible to make this a happy movie. The counter-revolutions that followed the ascendancy of the Chinese Communist government were brutal and senseless--destructive just for the sake of being destructive. So naturally, this isn't a "feel good" movie. I liked how honest the movie was in giving a no holds barred look at this period of time--stretching from about 1953 to 1968.

The negatives about the movie really depend on your frame of reference. For the Chinese audience, much of what was occurring on screen would be easy to follow and keeping track of who is who isn't a problem. However, for Western audiences, this can be quite a chore. I had an easier time than most because I am a history teacher and was acquainted with what was occurring--but the average viewer will most likely get lost from time to time. And, unfortunately, MOST Chinese haven't even gotten the chance to view it as it was banned by their government when it premiered in the early 1990s! So, apart from those Chinese people living in Taiwan or elsewhere abroad, the audience may be rather limited. Because of this, I would love to see the movie along with a documentary explaining the time and events--especially because ignorance about this traumatic time is partly due to the Chinese government's attempts in the past to hide the counter-revolution's excesses.

FYI--although NOT made clear in the movie, the scene where the people were out killing sparrows needs some explanation. Chairman Mao ordered EVERYONE across the nation to beat drums and make a huge racket in order to terrify the birds and keep them flying until they exhausted themselves to death. Perhaps billions of these birds were killed in an attempt to increase crop production (aparently the birds were "capitalist reactionaries" or at least enemies of the state). However, the little grain the birds consumed was NOT a real problem but the insects that the birds ate were. So, as a result of the destruction of the birds, bug populations SKYROCKETED and the crops were decimated. That is why several scenes later people are complaining that there were 3 years of famine.

Also, it seemed to me that it was implied that the reason the one lady quit the army (where she was an actress for propaganda plays) was because she was expected to "put out" for officers. She chose to quit instead and shortly afterwards she was sent to a "re-education camp" as punishment for this.

I had to add a review of this movie, mainly because of certain reviewers choosing to criticize the politics instead of the actual film. To all of you budding western Mao-apologists...before you debate the merits of this story and the veracity of its presentation of life, you should consider learning Chinese, going to China, and talking to people. You will learn two things: 1)this period of time was hidden from an entire generation and is only now being discussed, re-examined and virtually condemned by China. 2)The culture of fear, paranoia and brutality among ordinary citizens is very real and its memory, and vestiges of it, still exist in those old enough to remember that era. Understanding this film is key to understanding the century of virtual trauma that China underwent, at the hands of others and then at the hands of its corrupt, megalomaniacal leaders and even its own people. And if one finds the tone a bit dark, remember: at the time of this film, the Tianamen square crackdown (that still is largely unknown in China...none of my college or high school students had ever heard about it...) was only 4 years old. China today is full of hope and looking forward, but still afraid to speak about the past.

Beijing of the 1950s, as seen through the eyes of Tietou, a little boy. As a child, his father gives him a blue kite. The events of the day sweep the family into chaos, including the father, Lin, who becomes entangled in political intrigue with Mao's communists and winds up in a work camp. Hedies soon afterwords by a falling tree.

Tietou's widowed mother marries her dead husband's former colleague, Li, who tries his best to improve his wife and stepsons lives. The Great Leap Forward occurs and the wave of starvation claims Li as a victim.

The third husband is a party member with a relatively luxurious home at the time of the cultural revolution in China and they get caught up in the terrible violence of the Red Guard and I'll just say that no one lives happily ever after. The Blue Kite is a brutally honest look at China's interesting recent history; a sad but true tale.