Posts
Post 1: Kung Fu Hustle and the Working Class
I had never seen a Kung Fu film before taking this class and found it difficult to understand the story and follow everything that was going on at the beginning. After learning more in class and thinking about each different scene in the film, I was able to find different messages throughout. Kung Fu Hustle showed the strength of a community.In Kung Fu Hustle, one of the things that stood out to me was that the area in which the movie takes place. Many of the people in this village, outside of the city, are poorer people who barely scrape by, but many of them are really good at kung fu and know how to defend themselves and their turf. The message I think this sends is that no matter your socioeconomic status, you have a talent and you have something you are able to give back to society. In the barber shop, Sing tries to cheat one of the pig sty alley people and they fight back. Their barber shop may not be the nicest, but it’s their property and they will not get cheated by an outsider. It also demonstrates the ability of people to come together to fight against a common enemy. All of the people who lived in the building owned by the Landlady came out to fight against Sing who was pretending to be a part of the Axe Gang. Each one had a strength that was able to make Sing not want to fight them. Each individual within this community had a strength that they were able to use to protect themselves. No matter how rich or how poor, everyone has an ability to be proud of and something to fight for. They may not have a lot, but they will do whatever they can to protect themselves, others who live there, and their possessions.
Post 2: Infernal Affairs
Infernal Affairs was my favorite movie that we have watched for this class. I enjoy crime tv shows and I think this has similarities to some of the shows that I watched. I think the plot was easier to follow than previous movies we’ve seen. I think one of the scenes that stood out to me the most was when Superintendent Wong handed Chan a watch for his birthday. Though their work infiltrating the triad, they had grown close and learned how to communicate with each other using Morse code. To me this depicted how each character was able to uphold their roles while doing their job, but cared for one another and knew who they were on a more personal level. Another way in which the true identity of Superintendent Wong was shown was when he and Chan were both in the building trying to find a way out. He pretty much saved Chan because he knew they were surrounded and there was no way out. He trusted that Chan would be able to find the mole and bring them to justice. Each character was trying to find out who the mole was in their respective groups. Chan was able to play the role of a gangster while trying to find the mole and relay information back to the police force, while Superintendent Wong was also trying to find the mole in his police force. This movie shows the importance of identity and it also relates back to the idea of imagined communities which we talked about earlier in the semester. Each character had to act a certain way in order to blend in and gather appropriate information to get the outcome they wanted. They acted a certain way depending on who they were surrounded by.
Post 3: TED Talk
One thing I think a lot of people in the United States take for granted is the amount of freedom we are given as citizens. Specifically, we have freedom of speech. After watching the TED talk given by Michael Anti, “Behind the Great Firewall of China.” it became even more clear just how much more freedom we are provided. Social media that we use everyday here in the U.S. such as Facebook and Twitter are not allowed in China. They created their own platforms. These platforms are highly censored and certain topics are not allowed to be posted about. Many things that are censored are topics in reference to politically sensitive events. In the TED talk, he mentioned how people have come up with homonyms to refer to censored topics. In a way, China is copying American social media by creating their own platforms that are similarly styled and have similar purposes, yet are named differently. They are borrowing concepts and turning them into platforms accessible to their citizens. This is not necessarily stealing intellectual property because they have rebranded it and not everything is the same, but it does make it more evident that China could be stealing intellectual property. Recently President Trump alleged that China was stealing intellectual property from American companies doing joint-venture business in China. Due to China’s tight control, they have access to be able to see what people are posting and where as well as may have access to data or information surrounding companies in their country even if they are foreign countries.China’s firewall and censorship is more of a warning to its citizens that they are being watched and that there are things you can and cannot talk about and it will be highly enforced. China’s firewall is also a warning to the rest of the world that they have the power to allow certain information in and out of the country. It sends the message that they will influence what their citizens can and cannot see.
This page has paths:
- ASPA Final Portfolio Julia Tanabe