Cross-Cultural Film Paper Guidelines

Minimum five pages

Due no later than October 27

NOTE: Please consult the main course syllabus for a list of films and when they will be shown in the Courtney. You are expected to write an analysis of one of those films, using the following guidelines. Please note that “The Tank Man” does not count for this assignment. All Core 7 students are required to attend that one. Please pick one of the others for this assignment.

There are many purposes that a film might serve: as pure escapist entertainment, as social commentary, as a teaching tool that provides the viewer a look at how history and culture have shaped people and their values. This assignment gives you the opportunity to examine a film from China. This is a valuable exercise in and of itself, since your opportunities to see Chinese films may be somewhat limited otherwise. Yet its value goes beyond that. By giving you a glimpse of one slice of life in China, even a fictionalized one, your film can help you begin to recognize not only what makes humans in one culture different from those in another but also what universal values or problems are out there. As you watch your chosen film, you should think about what strikes you as familiar but also the people, events or ideas that strike you as unusual by the standards of your own society, culture and time period. Let both the similarities and differences challenge you to think in new ways about “what it means to be human.”

The purpose of the first part of your paper is to provide a review of the film. This review should be no more than 2 pages and written in the third person. Your review should contain a number of basic elements:

· An introductory paragraph that sums up the theme and purpose of the film;

· A brief description of the plot, no more than a couple of paragraphs, highlighting the events of the film that are most important to an understanding of the film’s theme and purpose;

· A character analysis, describing important characters and their purpose in the film’s plot;

· Your summary assessment of the film, its strengths and weaknesses both as art and as learning tool. Your assessment should be rooted in the film’s plot, characters and themes, and not just on personal opinion of whether you found it “interesting” or “boring”. Reference specific aspects of the film that either make it, or prevent it from being, an effective learning tool about China and about what it means to be human. (Please note: subtitles do not constitute a weakness in the film!)

The purpose of the second part of your paper is to analyze the film, its themes and its impact, in light of your work in Core 7 and your status as a member of your society and culture. Some of the questions you should explore are the following:

¨ What do you believe the filmmaker and the writer were trying to accomplish with the film? What messages come across in the film?

¨ What does the film have to teach us about China? Is there anything in the film that either reinforced or contradicted something you have learned in Core 7?

¨ What does the film teach us about what it means to be human? In other words, are there any universal lessons to be drawn from the film?

¨ What are some of the similarities and differences between the society portrayed in the film and your own? In what ways did the film challenge you and your values? In what ways did the film reinforce your values?

If you have any additional insights beyond just what these questions ask you to reflect upon, you are of course welcome to include them in your film analysis.

Please bring any questions you have about this assignment to class with you and we will go over any areas of concern.