SONGS

Hello,
I really enjoyed watching your lecture and am curious are there any other movies you recommend that someone new to the genre should see?
Best,
Spencer Phillips

Hello,

I enjoyed your discussion very much! It was intriguing and eye-opening to me. Hou's Assassin focused on a woman being the main character and making her own choices which is different than the other related genres. Do you think Hou wanted to emphasize the Women Knight-Errant? Was that his main goal other than having us experience the sense of real and emotions of the film? Did Hou want to show that women could make their own choices if they took on the role that men usually take like high authority roles? I particularly love how Hou made a change to the genre and emphasizes the real and existence of the film instead of the plot. My last question I have is do you know of why or how Hou thought to catch the audience with the importance of sound, real, existence, and witnessing the passage of time? Again, I enjoyed your lecture truly and my family and I watch various Chinese films! I might watch this one with them and experience a different genre than usual!

Hello!
I enjoyed watching this lecture!
I love the different elements the director adds to the film!
I was wondering if you think that the characters adding their own background noises add any specific elements into the movie? Since, during a fight scene, I get very stressed and do not pay attention to this background music. Another question is does the director add the music to add intensity to the scene's emotion or to connect the characters into their world as they know it?
Overall, an amazing lecture!
Isabel

Hello,
I thoroughly enjoyed your discussion! There were several points made regarding the Assassin taking on a male persona to become successful. Do you think that Hou Hsiao-hsien was making a point regarding the overall strength of women? If women uphold the traits of their male counterparts do they become just as strong? Can women have their own individual strength without needing the "help" of a man's?
Thanks!

To Alyssa Torres -- I'm sure there are lots of ways of strengthening my presentation -- only if I knew them! ? OK, here's an idea I'm toying with. There may be a bit of inherent sexism in how "personal loss" is framed in knight-errant movies. Often that loss is romantic, and a part of that is the narrative tradition pits adventure life against the normative "settle down marry & have kids" life. Sometimes one gets the impression that women characters are introduced to be "love interest" or to represent longing for the "other life" -- still within the confines of patriarchal world. In medieval tales often seeming instances of "feminine agency" -- women making choices for themselves -- are really just women making choices that patriarchy wants them to make. In other words, there is no agency. The movie seems to take an ambiguous instance from the tale (the assassin choosing the mirror polisher as her mate on her own) and makes something more of it. The movie has them head for the frontier, perhaps suggesting exiting the system.

To Tiffany Joyner -- If the assassin were a guy, the movie would kind of lose the generational parallel (the princess and the assassin both sacrifice themselves for the greater good). It may be more generic... unless we explore the relationship between the (now male) assassin and the mirror polisher dude. In terms of the genre, maybe it will be a revision of the sort of brotherhood and bromance you see in the classic martial arts movies by Chang Cheh? Though the knight-errant tradition embodies a kind of libertarianism, sexuality is generally not discussed, and whatever hint we get tends to be normative. Perhaps it's time to make a change?

To Hayley Chambers -- Totally with you about the use of nature sounds. Not sure that the characters are particularly "connected with nature," at least not as such. In a part of my research that I didn't present, I discuss the tradition of comparing women to meteorological phenomena (spelling is hard, and thank you, autocorrect) in Chinese poetry. The film sometimes seems to connect the female characters with fog, clouds, smoke , etc. Is that the statement about how hard it is to "understand woman" (obviously a male-centered perspective)? Or can we look at these ephemeral natural phenomena as a way of connecting time with femininity?

To Ela Gonzalez -- Yes, even now we need better representation of women & LGBTQ personas! We need stories told from their perspectives, with their sensibilities. Recently I heard of the Kung Fu series reboot. The original series was conceived by Bruce Lee, and though he meant for himself to be the star, the job went to a white actor named David Carradine. The reboot features many Asian American actors, with women playing the key roles, including the main character.

One point that I found very interesting within the lecture was Dr. Tsai speaking about the impact of sound within the film as well as the lack of clarity in relation to understanding the plot line. The use of sound was prevalent within the move; however, it was not solely dialogue, rather it was nature sounds. The crickets were always chirping, the leaves were shifting, and the utilization of these sounds promoted the characters' connection to nature, as well as the audience. Overall, this lecture was very informative.

The role of gender in the film was much more significant than one would think. The assassin being a woman portrayed with more masculine qualities and the impact this had on the overall film and on her role as the assassin was interesting and insightful. Which poses the question would the film be as powerful if the assassin was male?

I thought the symposium was very eye opening and relevant to today's era. The film industry mostly explores male archetypes and focuses less on female and LGBTQ personas. By introducing a movie that focuses on the character of a strong, independent woman, it helps spread positivity and encourage filmmakers and audiences alike to broaden their horizon. It is refreshing to see that women are also included and represented.

I would similarly argue that while Hou attempts to revise the martial arts genre, this unique contribution is foregrounding personal loss through his style that gives a lived-in experience. It should be regarded that throughout gender roles of the knights-errant tradition, women actually become an eloquent embodiment of this loss. What are some more recognizable moments of this loss? Do you believe that anything could be added to further strengthen this argument?