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Simply Perfect

i must have seen a different film!!

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

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.

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.

The film The Blue Kite is a typical example of the informal censorship of alternative opinions in our modern liberal societies (especially with regard to the competing bolshevist and Islamic societies). Remember that until the seventies the liberal governments prohibited the travel to China. Films and books in favor of those alternative ideologies are (in general) not strictly forbidden, but nevertheless they are not readily available - except for the products of dissidents. The suppression of the diversity of speech proceeds in two stages: at first, the liberal media (press, TV, which monopolize the news) glorify liberalism and give a distorted view of alternative ideologies. Then, after the public is made prejudiced, there is no commercial market for the distribution of the alternative films etc. It goes without saying that the distributors themselves are not particularly eager to sell those antagonistic views. The Blue Kite shows a dissident perspective of China, and thus is highly acclaimed by the liberal lobby. However, in The Blue Kite the critique of Maoism is too one-sided, and it actually backfires. We see the life of small town folks during the rectification movement, the great leap forward and the cultural revolution. Examples of scenes? One of the main characters is present in a meeting of workers that has to identify subversive colleagues. The chairman strives to reach his quota of subversive elements. So, when our main character visits the lavatory, he is quickly labeled subversive and sent to a labor camp. Another scene: a female soldier refuses to return the advances of high party officials and is subsequently sentenced to a long imprisonment. The film is a string of wrong-doings, which were probably fairly common at the time. But still they are incidents, which could have happened equally well here in the Netherlands. This leaves the viewer with the feeling, that The Blue Kite is actually trying to split hairs. I found the critical Chinese film To Live much more humane and credible. An objective judgment should probably call Maoism a twisted ideology, but admit that there are worse alternatives. It should be remembered that a century ago China had been invaded and ravaged by western imperialist powers, and subsequently Japan continued this terrorist intervention. After WWII there was the civil war with the nationalists, which may perhaps be called a peasants revolution. Although it included a restructuring into collectivity, this can definitely not be called a socialist reform. The Chinese economy was and is based on primitive agriculture, with regularly returning threats of famine. Maoism offered a solution, and erected basis health care and educational provisions. In addition it had to reconcile with the former opposition and handle sabotage. The life expectancy under Maoism was always longer than in the democratic India. In fact the cultural revolution is an intriguing phenomenon. A primary aim was to strengthen the bond between the common people and the intelligentsia. Here in Europe this generated admirable examples of self-sacrifice, like a student movement into the factories and working-class quarters, albeit only on a sectarian scale. In the very poor China it was a waste of scarce expertise and efficient labor division. It is estimated that over three million people were killed during the Cultural Revolution, which nearly transformed into another civil war. On the other hand, the equivalent in Afghanistan would be hundred thousand killed, which is approximately the factual score due to the Afghan revolution led by Nato. Therefore most Chinese people can still appreciate Mao. And frankly speaking, I can not recommend The Blue Kite, except perhaps for its portrayal of Chinese village life. I am still waiting for the release in our society of the load of Chinese films with a sympathetic message about Maoism.

I would like to say to the history professor that whether it is hard to keep track of the people doesn't depend if you're Chinese...there are subtitles... and that Chinese people can see it, because you can buy the DVD of it in China, this one girl in my class did.My professor said that the blue kite represents the boy's hopes and dreams of a future and that China Commi is represented by the tree it gets caught in. We considered why Farewell my Concubine and To Live were not banned yet this was. Because those were pretty racy. But Blue Kite has this ambiguous ending, where you doubt if things are going to be okay, so that makes every thing look really bad. Other movies, even if the commies look awful, at least the movie is on their side and celebrates them.