I saw this last night it touched me very deeply.
If you are an Asian girl growing up from traditional Asian parents in the West this will mean so much to you especially.
I'm a guy by the way but I have seen how things in the film effected family and relatives.
I never got so moved by a film.
I don't think that you have to be a woman or chinese to realize that this is one of the few great films of our day ... if not the greatest.
Everytime I see it, I learn something new about myself and/or the relationships I have with my parents.
Scotish Male here.
Macklin Crew
I caught it on TV and was mesmerised by it.
I agree and very underrated. All 20 something daughters should watch this with their mothers.
This movie captures the intergenerational conflicts that are universal brilliantly. I have lived in Mexico and saw these same issues between the modern daughters (sons as well) and the traditional parents very clearly. I am now in India where the modern world is changing the traditional family structure at an astounding pace. The daughters have a particularly difficult time as they choose education and careers instead of being homemakers and have to make a stand to enable that descision.
Even in the American/European cultures where children are raised to be independent and leave the home rather than staying and extending the family, these conflicts occur. At some point,everyone has to come to terms with their parents and shift from a parent child relationship to a more peer adult relationship. As that transition occurs, we find out that everyone has their feather, the hope of a good life for ones children.
While the setting is asian, it could be any culture or any nationality. These are the same issues that have been considered through the centuries. Fiddler on the Roof leaps to mind as does Romeo and Juliet. In the end, this is a beautifully crafted film, well acted, very pointed at times and yet very touching.
True, some of the men in the film are not portrayed in a very favorable light but the women that had the power in China are the really evil characters. The shift in the concept of women as chattel is one of the key changes that has occurred in western culture over the last 150 years so it is easy to use those old traditional structures to create a really antagonistic feeling in the western viewers. The battle has just begun in many rural areas of the world. I witness it daily and it is hard to watch women fighting for privileges that I just assume.
While some of the male characters are portrayed in a bad light, the scene between June and her father was one of the most touching points in the movie and the one where she comes to terms with her mothers actions and intentions.