Remember, THERE IS NO ASIA/SCI-FI CLASS THIS TUESDAY, 27 NOVEMBER. The next time that our class will meet is TUESDAY, 4 DECEMBER. Therefore, you can have until 5 pm on Monday, 3 December to post your responses to the questions below.I passed out photocopies of all of the readings related to 2046 in class last week, but in case you lost them or missed class, here is where you can find them on the Web (i.e., they are not on OASIS):
1. "Sci-Fi Ascendant" by Mara Hvistendahl, from Seed Magazine. 2006. At:
http://seedmagazine.com/news/2006/09/scifi_ascendant_1.php
2. "U.S. needs lesson from China on technology" by Steven Schwankert, from InfoWorld. 2006. At:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/05/12/78257_HNchineselessons_1.html
3. "Science Fiction, Globalization, and the People's Republic of China" by Lavie Tidhar, from The Science Fact and Science Fiction Concatenation. 2007. At:
http://www.concatenation.org/articles/sf~china.html
4. "Desire and Loss in the Curve of a Back" (review of 2046) by Manohla Dargis, from The New York Times. 5 August 2005. At:
http://movies.nytimes.com/2005/08/05/movies/05wong.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Questions on 2046:
1a. What were your reactions to 2046? What thoughts, feelings, and/or questions did you have about it? What did you think it was about? (You might read Manohla Dargis' review from the NYT and consider whether you agree or disagree with her opinion about the film).
1b. What did you make of the film's science fiction aspects? How do you read 2046 as a sci-fi film?
2. In class, we talked about the lack of a Chinese tradition of sci-fi. Two of the assigned articles discuss how science fiction has been alternately condemned and favored by the Chinese government throughout the 20th century, and how the current state now encourages artists to create sci-fi fantasies. 2046 is a part of this fresh wave of Chinese science fiction. How is this example of millennial Chinese sci-fi different than, or similar to, Western and Japanese science fiction? What do you think accounts for these differences or similarities?
3. The Chinese government is obviously hoping that Chinese sci-fi written today will help guide future technology development in the country. At the same time, both Hvistendahl and Tidhar point out that science fiction is often used to criticize contemporary social norms. Where does 2046 fall on this spectrum: does it provide an interesting imagined future for China, or is it a critique of the nation? Can you interpret 2046 as a political film in any way, and if so, how?
Once again, our next class will be on TUESDAY, 4 DECEMBER.
15 comments:
(1a) 2046 compiled the life of a man unable to escape from his day to day. He moves from woman to woman, but never stays for long. I enjoyed his internal dialogue via his science fiction writing, but the parallels could be confusing at times. The protagonist of his story was a Japanese man. I was wondering if the Japanese man was him or if he was simply exploring what kind of man would fall for the girl next door? I think the story was one of regret. Chow did not take advantage of the only true love he would get and later on he realized that. I agree with Dargis in that the film was a triumph and a powerful story, but I would not have raved as Dargis did so much. The stories transitions were often disagreeable. They would leave the audience in a place confused and unable to settle. At least that is how I felt when watching 2046.
(1b) 2046’s science fiction aspects were odd. They were essentially a science fiction story within a drama. This allowed the story to parallel real emotion with the powerful symbolism of science fiction and technology without risking any misinterpretation. The science fiction was clean symbolism, because it explained meaning blatantly.
(2) The main difference between the new wave of Chinese science fiction, Japan, and the US’s history in science fiction is that it is backwards. All these countries have rich histories of fantasy storytelling, but where China stopped the US and Japan expanded into a modern age. This simply occurred because of the public interest in the subject, the benefits were simply a chance result. In China, however, science fiction was brought in to the country because of its benefits. I think this will cause a dramatic difference between Chinese and other nation’s science fiction. Just from viewing 2046 it seems that Chinese science fiction is more about story telling than spectacle, as it often is in western society. It almost seems like the historical dramas have been rewritten in the future.
(3) You cannot imagine a future without looking at the present and the past. Therefore, it is impossible to draw a fantasy or science fiction story without it becoming a societal criticism. If things aren’t the same in the future, than there must be a better way to do things than is currently being done. I don’t feel that 2046 was much of a political film. It was very character driven and did not delve into the politic in most cases. The only political dialogue that I could draw from the film is the relationship between the landlord and his daughter. The landlord clearly represents and older generation that holds power and his younger daughter strays from his conservative limits. The disagreement and eventual acceptance seems to be in many ways a political critique. I would not classify 2046 as a political film and I do not think that it was Wong Kar-wai’s intention to do so.
1. A. Wow, where to begin with 2046? I think over all it is a very visually complete film. I really enjoyed how while watching this movie you did not get the feeling of being set in another time period than our current time. I found it very interesting that each of the love interests seem to hold almost the same kind of beauty. They were all very well kept and seemed to be able to take care of themselves with out a male companion, and yet they seemed weak at the thought of not having a companion. I liked how somehow you knew that every love interest he had was going to end disastrously, mainly I feel this to be because he lacked respect for them. I also found it interesting how each of the women played a role in his story, where he would show remorse for his loss of love, but in real life it seemed like he felt it was alright to use and abuse the women of his life without any sign or remorse.
B. I find it hard to place this movie in a Science Fiction category. There are bursts of technology advancements and cyborgs, but only in the telling of a story with in the story. I think if I had to call this movie anything I would call it a tragic love story with accented tones of science fiction. I feel that because the movie was not always in the sci-fi world, or even majority of the time, I would not be able to call it a true science fiction film. I suppose it is because personally I have expectations for what is a science fiction film, and this did not make it. There was too much “real life” and not enough “out-worldly” effects.
2. I think 2046 is very different from what may be expected from a sci-fi. For example, Star Wars is dripping with science fiction and is easily identifiable. But as for 2046 you have to wait until the scenes where we are invited into the novel that is being written before you know there is anything science fiction about this movie. I think these differences come because we do not have the same actual technology advances as China or even Japan. I think writers for Western Science Fiction “feed” off of the ideas given by the advancements and take it a step further, allowing either China or Japan to try and build on that idea to make it an actual product. As Steven Schwankert said in his article, we in America are not as advanced as we would like to think we are. I feel that perhaps China’s definition of sci-fi is maybe slightly more limited than ours just because they are creating what we are imagining. Not saying they do not have an imagination for science fiction, but sometimes when you write about something that appears to be truth it becomes fiction and no long holds the same ideal as it had before.
3. I think this film is more of a critique on real life events. It is how some Japanese filmmakers would make movie that showed the complications between the traditional vs the new generations. I think this is almost the same kind of movie. During the 1960’s I would imagine, like most of the world, there were extreme changes going into effect, and promiscuity is one of those changes. Even in America during that time period films were starting to show how “impure” the current generation was. I feel this film lies on those same lines. It was to demonstrate how much the culture was changing and evolving right before them. Politically I feel the movie was trying to show how individuals were trying to make money anyway they could, if it be by gambling, writing “smut novels,” or by selling themselves. I feel it was an attack at the government and how much it had let their people suffer when they needed them the most. Over all I think it was a movie very artistically done and well created to allow a bit or real life into the hearts of the viewers.
1a. 2046 is amazing, and is one of the few movies that I find myself watching over and over again. Among Wong Kar Wai's movies, I come back most to neglected movies Fallen Angels and more popular Days of Being Wild, but every time I see 2046 I get the general impression that Wong Kar Wai may be one of my favorite directors who uses a style that I feel is distinctly American. I always get the impression that he has far more in common with John Ford than any of his Chinese contemporaries, and produces films that have the distinct bite that I get from the American cinema that I enjoy. The indulgence in lust, the aesthetic, and beautiful complications make 2046 something I can always come back to and get something slightly different out of. British Hong Kong is one of my favorite settings, and Wong Kar Wai one of my favorite directors, so the combination of these things produced something I love. The film is about the collapse of British rule and new governance by the PRC, and the romance experienced by the dangerous estrangement and affinity Hong Kong and China, along with a torrid British imperial history.
1b. The science-fictiony stuff is meant to create the kind of elements of storytelling that we always mention when we talk about techno-orientalism. There is a foreign territory that can only be explained by the use of complicated visual effects seem as a private language developed to describe intimacy and a private source of alienation necessary to discuss love forbidden from consummation.
2.The most interesting difference seems to be how boring Chinese sci-fi seems to be portrayed. Science fiction's “bad name” as being a genre for stalled adolescence produces the image that China wishes to pursue by permitting only books similar to Larry Niven's Ringworld series, instead of the social commentaries and critiques that dominate Western science fiction. The context of the critical texts have produced a vehicle for discussing some of the implications of inventions still under development in the West long before they're called into existence by interested creators. The producers responsible for these products have always claimed interest in the social commentaries provided by the works, and then later by the importance of the 'device' that becomes so important to invention. The resultant inventions are usually more interesting as artifacts that represent a society still out of the reaches of that space and sci-fi is a way to imagine that future as based on our current world. Without the space to discuss our society, and whatever shortcomings we seem to imagine surrounding it, we lack the abiity to imagine real futures relevant to us, as well as a medium which reflects the world in which we live. Also, any country that has Larry Niven but not Samuel Delany lacks the counterpoint necessary to discuss science fiction's helpful implications. Sci-fi is not just a playground for technology, but also for social science. The sooner China realizes that, the sooner they can begin reaping the many rewards a culture received from merely permitting eccentric tinkerers and social misfit commentators to exist.
Western sci-fi is about the future, which is a suburb of Tokyo. Japanese sci-fi is about the suburb the West keeps coming to Japan to find. Chinese sci-fi is about things is alternate-future 1950's Sino-American fantasy.
3. 2046 is pure social critique, and you can tell because there's so much passionate almost-sex. One of the main differences between the pornography I remember from England and that made in America is the degree to which censorship focused on a dampening of portrayed emotions, which seemed like it may have merely been a subconscious side-effect of censorship, were there not a deeply perverted Japan available as a counter example to Western norms. 2046 doesn't have enough of a hard-on for gadgets to provide the kind of sci-fi porn experience that the Chinese want to develop, conceiving of sci-fi as a form of filmic prototyping for a nation in search of industrial imagination.
If China can get over its hangups for censorship, the aversion to basic critique, and feel strong enough that it can tolerate the kind of dissent that a monolithic, indifferent American behemoth government can stand by media manipulation, they would feel free to let their weirdos keep being weird for the sake of popular imagination. The problem with this is that China is not America. I'm not even sure that the Chinese popular consciousness is something that people from the West can internalize. This is the kind of thing I think about now when I hear the phrase “failure of imagination.” The Chinese fascination with Ringworld may have far more to do with a Chinese philosophic preoccupation with the deep, political play and what better reflects a stratified society obsessed with avoiding risk than just demonstrating sci-fi objects.
1a. I was surprised by 2046 because I thought it was going to be more sci-fi than set in the present/past. I watched In the Mood for Love in Aesthetics of Cinema and heard that 2046 was the sequel to the film and the trailers I saw pointed it more towards sci-fi. However I loved the film. The cinematography was gorgeous to look at and there were few bland shots. I’m glad it was character driven because that fit the film more than a solid plot. I agree with the critic on some levels, but I don’t think it’s a grand masterpiece and despite my enjoyment of watching the film I can’t see myself sitting down to watch repeated viewings of it.
1b. Like everyone else is saying that the core of the sci-fi is in the book that the main character is writing. It was interesting to start it off in the sci-fi world because I thought that it was going to be how he got to 2046 and why he left the rest of the time and he did, but through the present while he wrote the book. I think there can be different ways to read this film, but for me it was about regret and at times loneliness added with not truly being happy with life and what has happened thus far. All the characters show moments of happiness, but is it real happiness when moments later we see them sulking around more or less.
2. It seems like that the Chinese are using it for more political purposes to help progress their technology further and at the same time critiquing part of the present. I can’t see how politics isn’t related to it in some way when it has been in a flux of being an allowed genre. It also seems like they’re not solely trying to entertain the reader, but also to educated them in some way.
3. If we are to judge the movie on a whole then I’m not sure. It was all over the place, sort of, at times and it is a little difficult to pull things from the film besides it being engaging with characters. From the sci-fi part of the story I can make some guesses so I’ll just throw some stuff out there. The entity of 2046 can be viewed as China itself and that it at one point will be so ideal in every way that people won’t want to leave, but there will be a few who are unsatisfied with it and seek something else. It also seems like that it might be China’s goal to become this vast networks of high-tech cities that have trains funneling through all the place. It’s an attempt to figure this out, but I’m not sure where the answer lands on the actuality.
Ia. 2046 was an amazing movie. At times there was so much going on visually that I got lost in what was going on story wise. No doubt this would be a movie that one would notice something new every time it was watched. I think the woman who entered and exited Chow’s life kept the movie in constant movement. Without them and their influence on him, the ups and downs of his everyday social life and writing wouldn’t have the same intensity. Does Chow believe in love or is it just an illusion that he’ll project so he can write about or is the writing the projection of real love? I wondered if Bai Ling’s “mask” of strength was supposed to mirror the unemotional stereotype of Asians.
Ib. During the flashes into Mr. Wong’s written story brought out future fashion styles and appliances showing the science fiction part of the movie. By showing the difference between Wong’s time with bright colors and then his written story with exotic and straight lines makes the differences vivid and crisp. Though the Asian influence is obvious due to the fact that it took place in China, the Western influence in the written future almost seemed to mock the Asian influence in western cultures futuristic films.
II. Serenity and Star Wars showed obvious science fiction influence immediately. In 2046 it took a while for the viewer to realize that it was a science fiction movie. Though I think that Western science fiction writers use Eastern writers work as a launch pad for their own work, it also works both ways. Each has their own styles and influences, but when they bounce some idea off of the other without purposely doing it. Using the future as a place to predict events or using the future to retell events from the past. However, there is only so many events and so many times things can be retold before having to move on to using the future as a place to predict events.
III. Usually when I think about a social norms and their censorship, I think America. Sex is one of the biggest taboos in America. However, in 2046, the passion in sex seemed more taboo than any other. (Does this yet again represent the harsh and emotionless stereotype that is thrusted on Asians?) Technology wise, China has made a point to be superior, however with all it’s taboo it’ll keep it behind in at least some aspects.
1. 2046 is the story of a man named chow, and how after loosing his one true love he never seems to be satisfied with the life that he has. This causes him to drift though his life with a seemingly uncaring attitude. He moves from relationship to relationship never taking any serious hold on any of them. Eventually, from the prompts of his landlord’s daughter, he begins to write a science fiction novel. He starts writing the novel based on her situation, but then quickly realizes that he is writing it based off of his own life experiences. So naturally the novel and the actual life of chow have many parallels, the one that I found most interesting was the novel characters love for an android with slow reaction times. This parallels Chows growing affection towards the landlord’s daughter, because she never responded when her Japanese boyfriend asked her to come away with him, yet later she cold be heard talking to herself and saying that she would go. 2046 is a great sci-fi film because it shows the process of escapism directly, as chow is writing 2046 he uses that as an escape from his own life which he seems not to value as much.
2. In many countries, especially the United States and Japan, science fiction has always been a strong and powerful literarily force. Through the ages science fiction has been there lending a grand and futuristic vision to every day and historical events. So as this genre has evolved it had become more and more ingrained in that society. But China is different, since it has had a love hate relationship with this genre is has not had a great deal of time to become incorporated into every day life. So as a result the science fiction works that do come out, especially in the new burst of its favor, are more often thought of as artistic works instead of every day sci-fi. 2046 was very much an art film, and it used its sci-fi aspects to separate itself more from the norm thus making it more artistic. This movie used its sci-fi themes help fill in parts of the story, but it did not focus on them for very long. I think this is a result of China love hate relationship with this genre.
3. I don’t think 2046 can be used as a useful tool to help further the advance of technology in the future. Most of this movies technology and science fiction themes are represented on a train, a very small view into this future world. Very few things about this future world are explained so there is little to no technology to aim for. It is the same way with the political undertones in this movie. The only one I can really pick up on is the conflict between the landlord not wanting his daughter to marry a Japanese man. This story mainly focuses on the life of chow and his reactions to his life based on the choices that he has made. The importance is placed on the story itself and not the undertones of the technology aspects that it can afford.
1a) Well when I saw the movie I thought it was about a man who was writing a sci-fi novel and was having various sexual relations with various females throughout the hotel he lived in. I didn't really understand the timeline though; I got lost on when and where he was in the story. And at the beginning of the movie I didn't know that the train/ Sci-Fi story was his novel and not part of his real life. I thought that eventually his life and the man on the train's life would intersect, but then I realized that was never going to happen. The relationships in the story confused me as well. The whole Lulu/Mimi thing I only understood after reading the movie review. Personally I didn't like it because it confused the hell out of me but I know many people who'd love this movie, just not my preference.
1b)The sci-fi aspects were scarce and I don't really see it as a science fiction, yes the time setting is in the future and yes the novel's story is heavily sci-fi but it seemed way too 1960s to convey a futuristic feel. I think that it's more realistic that the normal science fiction movie.
2) well I still don't know as much as I'd like about the whole "peaceful rise" and "Chinese Sci-Fi rise" to completely back up my reasoning but I think that the difference between Chinese sci-fi and western sci-fi is that the west has generally seen sci-fi as a fantasy for young boys and girls, to dream of but would never happen. The west seems extremely full of doubt in that some of the science fiction written could become a possibility. The Chinese believe in it and love it because it encourages the society and scientist to create, imagine, and discover new things that will help the country in a whole, therefore helping with the nation’s peaceful rise.
3) Well I feel that the critique of social norms for China is going down hill I guess. The characters aren't worried about having a family, they have sex with each other and not concern themselves with the way the other is feeling. The racism doesn't go away either it seems. The father getting mad about his daughter dating a Japanese man was surprising to me I guess, I would have thought that it'd all be gone by then but I guess some people never can change.
- Elliot Taesoon Kahng
1a. At first I was a bit confused because a Japanese man and a Chinese man was conversing with each other in their own native language. So I was thinking, “huh…? How are they understanding each other?” I also thought this whole movie would be set in the future, but turned out only to be the writer’s story. At times the movie dragged a little, but overall it was a good movie. Kind of was annoyed though that the writer gave up such a gorgeous neighbor just because he couldn’t settle down with one girl. My favorite scene was when the Japanese man in the future fell for the cyborg and asked her to run off with him. But she would never respond. And then he just gave up. I guess I liked it just because it was so sad and you felt so sympathetic for the guy.
I don’t know what exactly the message in the movie was…it’s been awhile since we watched it, so I only remember bits and pieces. Maybe about…take risks in life, especially when it comes to love, otherwise you’ll regret it later on….?
1b. The only sci-fi thing about the movie was during the story telling. The endless train ride, and cyborgs that fulfill your every needs. The writer would write this future story to kind of vent about his life and question his actions.
2. China’s idea of sci-fi wasn’t the obvious traditional type of sci-fi. But honestly…I liked it kinda. It wasn’t too crazy like American and Japanese sci-fi with robots taking over, flying cars, and lasers shooting out. It was a subtle kind of sci-fi and some what more believable. However I think the movie would have been more interesting to see only or more of the story telling part of the movie.
3. Well sci-fi is definitely good for the society. It helps people expand their imagination. Imagination creates ideas, originality, businesses, products, etc…
As you said before, some of the products today look very similar to sci-fi gadgets from old movies such as star wars. And I’m sure sci-fi movies had a big influence in products designed now. Especially cars these days…some of them look quite futuristic. 2046 seemed more like a critique of the society...how love and china’s culture conflicts at times. I don’t see the film anyway political at all…
[1A!]Personally I thought that 2046 was too long, I thought it was going to end about four different times, only to find that there was still about forty minutes left. It was not one of my favorite movies watched in this class because when you said sci-fi film, I got really excited because we were covering cyberpunk at the time and I thought it might tie in. I went in with expectations and none of them were met. I thought it was about a depressed guy writing a book living in a hotel. At the end of the movie, I really didn’t see much of a plot.
[1B!]The only sci-fi aspects involved in the movie were the transitions to his book. The guy who falls in love with the robot girl gets his heart broken because she’s a robot and will never love him. The robot and the long super-train ride is all I remember about it being considered a sci-fi film.
[2!] Well, they certainly do not focus that heavy on special effects. You can see that as most of the story takes place in a dreary hotel. Technology and money as well have a huge aspect on making sci-fi films. No one would have been that crazy about Star Wars had the broomsticks just been painted green instead of glowing light. I believe they simply have not advanced to the point where they can start making a bunch of sci-fi films.
[3!] If they are hoping that Chinese sci-fi will guide future technology developments, I hate to break it to them that Japan is way ahead in the robot industry. As much as I am trying to remember, I cannot remember any instance in the movie where I thought it was political or a social-critique. I am sorry, but I cannot even try to conjure something up for it.
1.) Before seeing this I also saw In The Mood for love which 2046 is the sequel of. When I heard of 2046 everyone said it was very much a sci-fi film. I myself did not see it that way, I saw it as a continuation of the story from In The Mood for love with a few sci-fi elements with the stories the man is writing.
As with In The Mood for love with this movie I thought there were many parts where I could have ended but instead it seemed to drag on.
2.) I believe it is very different from western or Japanese sci-fi in that it focuses more on the story and adds in some sci-fi elements to enhance it. As with western or Japanese sci-fi is focused mainly on the sci-fi elements and the story is somewhat secondary to special effects ect.
3.) I really didn't see 2046 being a political film. I saw it more of a social commentary focused on people's physical and emotional relationships with others.
1a.). This is actually my second time seeing 2046 and it is definitely a movie that you need to watch more than once to understand. Seeing it the second time around made me realize that the main character (Chow) needed love and stability. He went from woman to woman and was never truly satisfied. The one question I asked myself the first time I saw it and the second was why he just didn’t date that one woman. The woman that is with Mr. Chow in the beginning of the film. It bothered me that they stopped seeing each other. I’m not sure why, especially since he wasn’t nice to her; but it still bothered me.
1b. I wouldn’t consider this movie a sci-fi movie. The only time 2046 had a scientific feel was when they flashed forward to the female robots in the time frame of 2046. Aside from this I would consider this movie a love story. 2046 had more of a futuristic feel than a sci-fi feel.
2. I think 2046 is different because the entire movie wasn’t filmed in a sci-fi way. Instead, there were particular scenes that touched on sci-fi. The Western society shows more sci-fi where as 2046 told a story and incorporated sci-fi scenes into it. I think that Chinese science fiction wants to explore/show the future within their films. 2046 is a prime example of this.
3. I don’t think 2046 can sum up a future for China. I don’t know if it is a critique for the nation, especially since I have never been to China, but 2046 is definitely a love story. The daughter-landlord relationship could be politically interpreted. The daughter was held back from a relationship with a man she loved because of her father. I don’t think of 2046 as a political film, but this is one aspect from it.
1a.) I’m all for movies about journalists swilling liters of booze and bedding down equally inordinate amounts of beautiful women so, on the most basic of levels, 2046 was an ingratiating experience. However, toss in an often lost and usually unnecessary science fiction element and an ending that feels over an hour late and you’ve got a film that leaves you scratching your head and wondering what just happened to the last few hours of your life. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed 2046, it works great as a period piece and its hard-drinking hero and femme fatale-ish characters give it a sharp noir edge. And I’m probably being to hard on this films run time, after sitting through Cashern I shouldn’t bitch so much.
1b.) Lost in translation. Perhaps a more thorough viewing is in order but the first time through I found the sci-fi elements of 2046 to be not much more than an after thought. After reading a synopsis, post facto, the story of a train that travels to a location where the depressed and lonely can retrieve their memories makes sense. This doesn’t play out so well on the screen with interesting pieces of the present tense (or flashbacks?) broken up by elements of the science fiction.
2.) China’s lack of Sci fi production mirrors the countries technological production. Nations like Japan and the U.S. have long been on the forefront of high tech development, leading to an expanded imagination. When people are encouraged to think a step ahead to create something new and inventive they can’t help but think and extra two, three, or even twenty steps ahead, leading to some incredible ideas that translate into a fantastic vision of the future. China has never been a major developer of cutting edge technology the way Japan is and the U.S. was and so has long been deprived of the technological creativity possessed by other nations.
3.) Science Fiction has long been considered as an effective means of expressing political beliefs, from Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 to George Lucas’ Star Wars. This ideal falls into conflict with the rigid censorship that is a trademark of The People’s Republic of China, especially in the nation’s early years. There just aren’t many ways to portray an oppressive, communist regime of the future as a positive and so Chinese sci fi was forced underground. As far as 2046 I find the political aspects to be non-existent. The film centers on the intricacies of human emotions and memories that exist outside the boundaries of any government. In fact, one of the things I enjoyed most about this film was despite the setting it would be almost identical if it were set in either the U.S. or another Western society.
ONE A:
i liked the movie a lot, it was confusing, and lovely all at the same time. i thought that this movie was about a fantasy romance. i liked the idea and story line, and wish there were a place like 2046 that existed where nothing changed. i was a bit confused but i think it was about a train that went to 2046 every once in a while and people went their to regain their lost untangible memories.
i agree with dargis's opinions on the movie and i liked that it was said that it was a "powerful film" because i agree, the movie to me was very memorable.
ONE B:
the
scifi aspects were strange because it was a love story with twists of sci fi and love with robots and high tech technology but not really too much else to say.
TWO:
The difference is that all these countries have histories of fantasy stories, but China stopped whereas the US and Japan continued onto now a days. This came about because people were interested and wanted to know more and in viewing 2046, Chinese sci fi is more story telling. It is similar to Japanese sci fi because of the graphics used and attention to detail that was used whilst telling a story yet adding some eye candy to capture the viewers attention.
THREE:
I don’t feel that 2046 was much of a political film but it was a bit political just in the way how women were presented in it. There were slaves in a sense and always "put in their place" like they are always being desired throughout the whole film. But then its as if the man decides when and where and if he will fall in love and the woman's feelings are of no consideration. When looking at the absurd idea of the Chinese girl falling in love with the Japanese man, i just realized that Wong Kar Wai's intention was to demonstrate how much the culture was unfolding and evolving in a sense. Up until recent times and even now it is not acceptable to date outside of your race, and especially for the Chinese girl to date a Japanese man. The problem being that, Japan came in and invaded China's land and raped their women without feeling guilty. So, as an Asian I understand why the father reacted the way he did. I think it is in a way both an imagined future for China and a critique of the nation. But it is one of those films that is open to interpretation, thats what i like, you can watch it and its rather subjective yet complex.
1.a. 2046 was a very beautiful, visually excellent film. It was very well-casted, the acting and dialogue was great. I did have a little trouble following the general plot and keeping track of who’s who when I first watched it, but reading this article by Manohla Dargis, which did a great job breaking down and describing the film, I sort of came back/made sense to me; The story is about longing for love and men and women’s desires. It follows a man writing a story to releave his stress while he carriers on releationships with different women in the apartment building he is staying in.
b. To be completely honest, I didn’t see much sci-fi in this movie, or at least I can’t remember it. The story he was writing seemed sci-fi related, and the effects like patterns on the wall moving was a fantasy/sci-fi sort of thing, but other than that, I didn’t see much.
2. 2046 was no so much a sci-fi film, but a romance film with sci-fi aspects. In Western and Japanese sci-fi, they tend to go all out: if they are doing a sci-fi movie, they want futuristic weapons and action, aliens and odd creatures, and anything else that makes for good eye candy. There may be a love story involved, but only in a generic, hero saves princess sort of way. Now that sci-fi has become so accepted, it doesn’t throw viewers off as much to see sci-fi aspects in a film that is more of a deep evaluation of real life and relationships.
3. Once again, to me, 2046 doesn’t show much about the future. I thought a lot of it took place in the past… Anyways, what it does show is a realistic future, if one at all, while most sci-fi movies show us what it is fun the think the future might be, 2046 is very probable.
1. a/b) I LOVED THIS MOVIE. A classic 1950's romance epic wrapped in a sci-fi backdrop. BRILLIANT. The story was about the life and romances of a Japanese man in China. I think it was a powerful film and an excellent blend of classic aesthetics and science fiction. To me this film isn't really as science-fiction as most people would thing. What's so cool about it is that it's a a truly human romance movie taking place in a futuristic setting.
2.) China has just been given the opportunity to create science fiction. While we've been progressing in our style of science fiction since the 1800's, China's style of science fiction has just begun. They have nothing to be influenced by in regaurds to their own style of science fiction. This is what will make Chinese science-fiction so much different from our own. Watching 2046 shows this.
3.) I don't think that this film really tries to show the future of china. I just think that it's an amazing work of art. The science fiction aspects aren't really anything that recent science fiction hasn't touched on. Regaurdless, the classic story told in a futuristic way was what i felt was the innovative aspect of this film.
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