I have a slightly less distressing reaction towards today's film than what had been articulated in class. In my humble opinion, the documentary is structurally biased towards Mou Sen and his artist friends. Although Mou seemed to lead a financially and materially more stable life than his students, his failure to secure funding was never discussed. The editing was deliberately evasive. Just imagine: things would have turned out so differently if only he had found sponsors.... and although he failed, he tried.... who doesn't fail? who can predict the future?....
On the other hand, the students were all in full spotlight. With so many lengthy close-ups on them, the most immediate effect on spectators is identification. However, were they really the victims? When the rehearsals were taking place, hardly anyone showed interest in engaging with the play intellectually. They felt they were involved in the play, but it was only because they were involved intuitively and emotionally.
The students were victimized not by Mou but by a generational and cultural fault at large - Chinese people don't learn how to think for themselves. The students were victims because they weren't skeptical. In a culture where kids are brought up to be respectful and obedient to their superiors, in such social milieu, young people are easily manipulable.
My last point is on "'muscle' memory," brought up by Chi-hui. "Muscle" memory would be forgiven whereas brainwashing will not. As we know, one form of brainwashing is to repeatedly say something to someone, or have someone repeat something. In the film, right from the beginning, we see the students saying out loud their commitment to the play. That was brainwashing. That was a low technique that Mou used.
On the other hand, the students were all in full spotlight. With so many lengthy close-ups on them, the most immediate effect on spectators is identification. However, were they really the victims? When the rehearsals were taking place, hardly anyone showed interest in engaging with the play intellectually. They felt they were involved in the play, but it was only because they were involved intuitively and emotionally.
The students were victimized not by Mou but by a generational and cultural fault at large - Chinese people don't learn how to think for themselves. The students were victims because they weren't skeptical. In a culture where kids are brought up to be respectful and obedient to their superiors, in such social milieu, young people are easily manipulable.
My last point is on "'muscle' memory," brought up by Chi-hui. "Muscle" memory would be forgiven whereas brainwashing will not. As we know, one form of brainwashing is to repeatedly say something to someone, or have someone repeat something. In the film, right from the beginning, we see the students saying out loud their commitment to the play. That was brainwashing. That was a low technique that Mou used.
