Course:ASIA325/2023/A Critique of Filial Piety, Gendered Imbalance and Modernity in Ann Hui’s Summer Snow

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A Critique of Filial Piety, Gendered Imbalance and Modernity in Ann Hui's Summer Snow

Based upon Ann Hui's 1995 film Summer Snow (Chinese: 女人四十).

Group Members' Contributions

Distribution of Contributions
Contributor(s)
Introduction AP, AZ, SN, SY
Stories behind film production SN
Reception of the film SN
Scholarly Literature Review SY
Comparative Analysis AP
An Alternate Interpretation AZ
Conclusion AP, AZ, SN, SY

Introduction

Ann Hui’s Summer Snow (1995) focuses on the devolution of the patriarch’s mental state and the response of a Hong Kong family. The film follows as his Alzheimer’s worsens, and May emerges as the protagonist in juggling her roles as a mother who cooks and tends to the house, her career as a younger co-worker enters the office, and her relationship with her husband and son. Starring Josephine Siao and Roy Chiao in the lead, the film premiered in Hong Kong on May 4, 1995. The major themes which drive our following analysis are an examination of filial piety, gendered imbalance and marginalization of unpaid and emotional labour, as well as the identity anxiety in the trend of modernization.

Summer Snow, May 4 1995

This Wiki project first details the stories behind the creation of Summer Snow, looking at the research Ann Hui conducted prior to its creation and the inspiration that catalyzed the film. Next, we break down the critical and audience reception of Summer Snow, where overall, audiences were mixed on the film’s execution.

The literature review section highlights themes and motifs that have been analyzed by various scholars. Through the lens of the scholars, Summer Snow offers a poignant and multifaceted portrait of modern Hong Kong society.

For the comparative analysis, we drew Hi, Mom (2021) into direct comparison with Summer Snow. Both films do share similar themes of filial piety, and the main character’s contend with what is in the best interest of their respective parental figure.

Lastly, the alternative interpretation analyzes how the film creates heterogeneous temporalities through the use of language and argues how through getting around patriarchal oppression and anxiety of modernity in a humorous way, Mrs Sun embodies Hong Kong’s hope of carving a new and independent identity in the precarious time.

Stories Behind the Film

The basis for the story of Summer Snow came from a real-life experience that Ann Hui had with a family she met while working on a documentary. Hui was deeply moved by the family's story and felt that it was important to share it with a wider audience. She spent several years researching and developing the story, interviewing families with disabled children and working closely with the scriptwriter, Chan Man-keung, to create a realistic and nuanced portrayal of the challenges faced by families with disabled children.

The production process for Summer Snow was challenging and required a great deal of attention to detail and sensitivity towards the subject matter. Hui worked closely with her crew to create a realistic and authentic portrayal of the struggles and challenges faced by families with disabled children. The film was shot on location in Hong Kong and required careful coordination of logistics and scheduling to ensure that the cast and crew were able to work efficiently and effectively. Despite these challenges, the film was made on a relatively modest budget, with Hui relying on her reputation and experience in the film industry to secure funding and support. The movie had an estimated budget of HKD 20 million (USD 2.5 million).

Due to the subject matter, Hui consulted with medical experts and Alzheimer's organizations to ensure an accurate and respectful portrayal of the disease. Additionally, Hui arranged for the actors to spend time with real Alzheimer's patients to gain a better understanding of the illness and its effects on families. Hui also worked closely with disability rights organizations and advocacy groups to ensure that the film was sensitive towards people with disabilities. Hui consulted with these groups throughout the production process and incorporated their feedback and suggestions into the film's portrayal of disability and mental illness.

One interesting fact about the production of Summer Snow is that Hui chose to use non-professional actors for many of the supporting roles, including the family's neighbours and acquaintances. This decision was a deliberate one, intended to bring a sense of authenticity and realism to the film, and to highlight the everyday struggles faced by families with disabled children.

In behind-the-scenes footage and interviews, the cast and crew shared the emotional impact the film had on them. Siao discussed the challenge of portraying a character with Alzheimer's and drew from her own experiences with her mother's illness to bring authenticity to her performance.

Histories of the Film’s Reception

Summer Snow has received both critical acclaim and mixed reactions from audiences. While some have praised the film's realism and emotional depth, others have criticized its slow pace and lack of action.

One of the key factors influencing the reception of Summer Snow is its socio-politico-historical context. The film was released in the mid-1990s, a time of significant political and social change in Hong Kong. This era was marked by debates about Hong Kong identity, cultural preservation, and political autonomy. Against this backdrop, the film may have resonated with some viewers as a poignant and authentic representation of Hong Kong's struggles with social and familial values.

Film Award in 45th Berlin International Film Festival

However, the film's portrayal of disability and mental illness may also have been influenced by prevailing attitudes and stereotypes in Hong Kong society. At the time of the film's release, disability and mental illness were not widely discussed or understood, and there may have been limited resources and support for families with disabled children. This lack of awareness and understanding may have contributed to the film's portrayal of disability and mental illness as sources of hardship, rather than as aspects of diversity and human variation.

Despite these divergent opinions, Summer Snow remains a powerful and touching portrayal of love, sacrifice, and resilience in the face of adversity upon its release in 1995. The film's subtle yet powerful storytelling and exploration of the challenges and stigma faced by families with disabled children have been praised by critics, with Josephine Siao's performance as the mother earning her the Best Actress award at the 15th Hong Kong Film Awards. The film won several prestigious awards at international film festivals, including four Golden Horse Awards at the Golden Horse Film Festival, the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and Silver Berlin Bear at the 45th Berlin International Film Festival. The film also won the Grand Prix at the Créteil International Women's Film Festival in 1996, as well as several Golden Bauhinia Awards, Hong Kong Film Awards, and Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards for Best Actress and Best Film in the same year.

Overall, the reception has been largely positive, with critics praising the film's emotional depth and nuanced portrayal of disability and mental illness. The reception of the film highlights the importance of considering the socio-politico-historical context in which a film is released and the impact of prevailing attitudes and stereotypes on its portrayal of sensitive topics such as disability and mental illness. 22Summer Snow remains a powerful and moving film that sheds light on the struggles faced by families with disabled children, and the importance of love, sacrifice, and resilience in the face of adversity.

Scholarly Literature Review

Mr. Sun requesting May to help him in the household, illustrating the social imbalance within typical Hong Kong households

1) In Jo-Chi Wu’s article[1], she analyzes the representation of women in three of Ann Hui’s films - Summer Snow, Goddess of Mercy, The Postmodern Life of My Aunt and utilizes a close analysis method of the films’ narrative structure as well as characterization in broader social and cultural contexts in Hong Kong. Wu argues that women are used as a narrative strategy to explore the social changes within Hong Kong and China, such as being representative of the fear towards modernization.

Wu notes that May, the protagonist, is a middle-aged woman who struggles to balance her own desires for love and companionship with traditional Confucian expectations of managing the family. These philosophical values coupled with a patriarchal worldview limit the agency and autonomy of the women depicted in Hui’s films. Wu remarks that Hui tries to transcend the limitations of the patriarchy by rejecting her title as a ‘woman filmmaker’ (p. 14)[1] through her desire to criticize society by portraying her characters in a truthful light. The way in which the film portrays the relationship between May and Mr. Sun are one of the examples of evidence Wu uses to support her argument. Mr. Sun is a traditional figure who values duty and responsibility over individual desires (in line with the collectivist culture), while May seeks personal fulfillment and connections. Due to this conflict of interest between the two characters, May struggles throughout the film and is obliged to follow the sociocultural norms in lieu of pursing her own dreams, which Wu states embodies the gender inequality that is rampant in Hong Kong and Chinese society.

Wu's article is significant for developing a critical biography of Ann Hui and three of her films since it explores the social and cultural factors that impact women's experiences in Hong Kong society. This approach also provides a framework for investigating how historical settings and societal standards have affected Ann Hui's career as she creates such narratives for her characters. Furthermore, it emphasizes the necessity of female representation and agency in media, not just when they are at their peak, but also when they are struggling, in order to humanize them and allow audiences to empathize.

2) J. J. Chang's [2] main point in their article on Summer Snow is that the picture symbolizes a feminist intervention in Hong Kong cinema, questioning established gender roles and spotlighting the problems of women in a patriarchal society. He claims that the representation of the mother and daughter-in-law connection in the film illustrates the contradictions between tradition and modernization in Hong Kong culture, as well as the problems experienced by women who are expected to combine career, family, and cultural expectations.

Chang uses a variety of evidence and analysis to support his claim, drawing on both close readings of the film and broader cultural and social developments in post-handover Hong Kong. He looks at the film's use of flashbacks and its depiction of the Tin Shui Wai housing estate, suggesting that these features reflect Hong Kong's changing cultural and social scene. One such example from the film includes a scene when May runs back and forth from her housing estate to her workplace, both of which reside on opposite spectrums of the traditional and modern.

Additionally, Chang also examines the film's gender and power representations, indicating that the May’s attempts to combine career and family reflect the difficulties encountered by many working women in Hong Kong. He observes that the sympathetic portrayal of the May in the film marks a feminist intervention in Hong Kong cinema, questioning established gender roles and exposing women's problems in a patriarchal culture, similar to the points made by Wu.

3) Esther Cheung[3] analyses topics of filial piety, which is a major value in Chinese culture, as it incorporates Confucianism. Cheung claims that the picture deviates from the more typical Hong Kong melodramas that dominated the business in the 1980s and early 1990s. She believes Summer Snow is part of a new wave of Hong Kong cinema that favours reality and social commentary over romanticism and romance. Cheung analyses the film's themes, narrative structure, and visual style such as camera angles to defend her point. Through these elements, Cheung demonstrates that Summer Snow was generally commended for its realistic depiction of caretakers' struggles, as well as its subtle remark on the changing ideals of contemporary Hong Kong society.

This piece is significant for a critical biography of Ann Hui because it reveals how Hong Kong cinema reflects its cultural and social background. A biographer can acquire insights into the values, attitudes, and concerns of Hong Kong society at various points in time through evaluating films like Summer Snow. These insights can help to place the celebrity's life and activities within Hong Kong's larger cultural milieu.

4) Gina Marchetti's [4]main point on Summer Snow is that the film is relation to feminism-related-action in Hong Kong cinema, questioning established gender roles and spotlighting women's hardships in a patriarchal environment. She claims that the portrayal of Mr. Sun and May's relationship in the film exemplifies the tensions between tradition and modernity in Hong Kong culture as well as the difficulties faced by women trying to juggle job, family, and cultural expectations.

May and her relationship with her mother-in-law

Marchetti draws on both close readings of the film and broader cultural and socioeconomic trends in Hong Kong through a variety of data and analysis. She examines at how gender and power are portrayed in the film, saying that May's attempts to reconcile job and family reflect the difficulties encountered by many modern working women in Hong Kong. She observes that the compassionate portrayal of the mother-in-law in the film marks a feminist intervention in Hong Kong cinema, challenging traditional gender norms and highlighting the issues faced by women in oppressive cultures. Marchetti also looks at the film's choice of the Tin Shui Wai housing estate as a setting, claiming that it represents Hong Kong's altering social and economic landscape after the handover. It is noted that the film illustrates the difficulties faced by working-class families in Hong Kong, particularly those forced to live in overcrowded and poorly maintained public housing.

Overall, the arguments made by all four scholarly articles that were reviewed share many themes and motifs in order to inform audiences of its historical and sociocultural context through close analyses of the film's narrative structures, character formations, landscape, and film techniques.

Comparative Analysis

Hi, Mom (2021) official poster.

Hi, Mom released in 2021, in the middle of the pandemic, was a box-office juggernaut that charmed Chinese mainland and diasporic audiences with its thematic focus on filial piety, and the struggle to be successful in the eyes of one’s parents and society. I argue that withstanding some differences, both Hi, Mom and Summer Snow address themes of filial piety and a core question of, “What does it mean to be a good daughter?”

The omnipresence of the father-in-law is apparent. His gravitas and role as a patriarch is established in this shot. He remains seated whilst his family surrounds him as they work to prepare for dinner.

Both films revolve around a core female protagonist. In Summer Snow, it’s May who has to juggle work and caring for her father-in-law. In Hi, Mom, the plot follows Jia Xiaoling's efforts as she tries to change the course of her mother’s life. Despite the differences in context, both characters orient their choices around what they think is best for their parental figure. Take this scene in Summer Snow at 1:22:06. After May confesses that she deeply misses her mother-in-law, she visits the new care facility where her father-in-law is staying. After confronting the strong emotions she had for her mother-in-law, and seeing the poor state of the new facility, she decides to fulfill her duty as a pious daughter. “I want to go home. I want to go home.” Mr. Sun says. To which Mrs. Sun simply nods, accepting the workload that will be involved. Clip 1

In Hi, Mom, Xiaoling finds herself transported to a nostalgized 80s and meets the younger version of her mother. Xiaoling feels she has failed to live up to her mother’s expectations and inherently decides that her own existence isn’t worthy of preservation. She wholly sacrifices her own future existence because she so strongly believes that without her, her mother’s life would be better. Here, fulfilling the ideal of filial piety and showing respect is equated to being successful in an economic sense. Clip 2

May and the mother-in-law are framed here behind the bars of the window as they cook a meal. Implying their entrapment by their roles within the patriarchal family structure.

It’s no coincidence then, that the following events of the film take place on the grounds of a factory — where success is defined in terms of production and value-creation. In contrast, filial piety in Summer Snow comes through as an effort to best offer palliative care for the patriarch. Summer Snow’s focus on the whole family unit’s struggles leads the film to frame May and the rest of the family in the small confines of the apartment and the various elder care facilities. They all remain enclosed by the patriarch's omnipresence in their lives.

Another difference is the gendered angle in Summer Snow which isn’t present in Hi, Mom. Throughout the film, May juggles work, cleaning and cooking at home, and the emotional labor of managing her son’s love troubles and her husband’s anxieties. In a particularly explosive scene, May’s husband tells her that she should quit working and stay at home to best manage the father-in-law. She rises, declares that her work is the best part of her day, and leaves in frustration. Clip 3

This gendered perspective exposes the additional unpaid labor that women are expected to provide in a family, while also being criticized for working. Even for women who are housewives, their housework is not recognized as legitimate. See this scene, as Mr. Sun asks a friend’s wife to take care of his father. Clip 4

Here, the camera frames May and her mother-in-law within the additional frame of the apartment door.

Both films ultimately see the main parental figure die at the end of the film. Mr. Sun suddenly keels over while surrounded by his family in an open green space. Summer Snow Death Scene Xiaoling’s mother dies after an emotional montage where they reflect on the time they’ve spent together. In Summer Snow and Hi, Mom, the tension of how to best respect and care for their respective parents is resolved by their deaths. Yet, the tonal shift before and after the death scene differs in both films. In Summer Snow, there is no explicit thanks given to May for all her work. The father-in-law just suddenly keels over while dressed in white, surrounded by his family and lush greenery. As the family rushes towards him, the shot fades out into a blinding white — signifying an ascension into an afterlife. After Mr. Sun dies, a temporal montage of the various characters going about their lives plays. The shots emphasize a neutral tone that even after death, life continues and you move on. Clip 6

Hi, Mom’s handling of death— with Xiaoling driving out into the horizon carries a darker tone than Summer Snow. The final scene consists of a few shots as Xiaoling and her mother drive together along a mountain road. The camera floats while following the car. Both Xiaoling and her mother are framed in a two-shot in a medium close-up, before the camera pans left, using an editing technique to have the mother disappear behind the car’s A-pillar. Then, we see Xiaoling’s face express a sense of loss and dullness without her mother alive. All in the same shot, the camera simultaneously tracks outwards and upwards behind the car as Xiaoling drives into the overcast horizon. The use of the dull palette, the overcast sky, and Xiaoling’s expression can tell us that she’s still processing the loss of her mother. She hasn’t moved on or processed, unlike the family in Summer Snow. Clip 7

Finally, both films feature an element of female rivalry. In Hi, Mom, Xiaoling’s mom is rivaled with Wang Qi, her more successful foil. Best seen at 6:22, Wang Qi and Ling veil their rivalry beneath a layer of politeness. The camera follows the polite quarrel using shot-reverse-shot editing, as they sling veiled insults at each other. Hi, Mom’s rivalry works to hammer home the theme of success as defined through tradition and economic terms. Here, success is defined by education, by prestige, and hierarchy. Clip 8

Summer Snow’s rivalry is between May and her younger female co-worker at the company. Here, the rivalry, like in Hi, Mom, serves to underline a major theme of the film. The feminine ideals of youth and burdens of aging are reflected in May and the younger co-worker’s interactions. The co-worker is more youthful than she is, and she also carries computer skills that May does not. Here, May stands in for women in the workplace, who are scrutinized in a way that men in the workplace are not. Clip 9

Alternative Interpretation

Released two years before the Hong Kong handover, current scholars widely consider Summer Snow as a socio-realistic film portraying gender inequality and broad public anxiety by zooming into the hardships of an ordinary housewife. Echoing such an approach, Wu suggests in “Woman Lost in Transition” that in the depiction of a dislocated female who is excluded from both tradition and modernity, the film touches upon May’s personal problem as a woman and criticizes the lack of humanism in Hong Kong modernization[1]. However, in a historical context, the film potentially unfolds the chronology of Hong Kong from pre-colonial to post-colonial periods through the struggle between May and people of different generations and backgrounds. Her familial issue speaks not only for women, but the lost and oppressed Hong Kong identity during political entanglement and city transition. I thus argue that by incorporating and reconciling elements of the past and future, May is able to carve a new idealized identity that embodies Hong Kong’s hope of balancing memory and modernity in that precarious time.

Throughout the film, temporal disorientation and separation are created by the alternative use of languages, dividing the timeline into three periods —— the past, present, and future.

Scene 1 & Clip 1

Setting in a Cantonese-speaking society, Mandarin is used for the first time when Isabella introduces the company with advanced software that can handle “thousands of clients and hundreds of deals per month” and let everyone “grow rich together”. In the manager’s repetition of “modernization”, the rapidly growing and popularizing technology carries the working class’s futuristic dream and imagination of becoming millionaires, leaving May’s old fashion working mode behind. As the shot moves back to May, who sticks to tradition like sticking to Cantonese, an ideological gap enforced by her indifference to computerization isolates her from the trend of modernization, trapping her in a present yet realistic Hong Kong which also hesitates to give up its colonial identity and embrace the upcoming post-colonial political change.

Scene 2 & Clip 2

In the following scene, Mandarin appears again, but this time by Mr. Sun giving commands in an air fight. While the lines create an unexpected temporal and spatial confusion when first heard by May on the bed, it later turns out to only be Mr. Sun’s imitation of the scene with his imaginary Squadron on the square outside his home. As the neighbourhood starts to see his queer action as an alien and antipathetic performance creating noise and nonsense, they try to drive him away by throwing items at him, which May has to call “sniper fire” to convince her father-in-law to get back home, or the “air raid shelter”. In the alternating uses of languages and terminologies, the scene reveals a piece of abandoned past that is seen as inopportune by the present Hong Kong community, which tends to forget the war history in the new political wave and temporal intertwinement.

In this way, the use of Mandarin dramatizes and defamiliarizes the two scenes from Hong Kong people’s daily life and symbolizes two periods of isolated time —— an unpredictable future and a forgotten past. Such sense of polarization occupies two main aspects of May’s life, her work and family, leading to an unstable subjectivity that echoes the similar hardships faced by Hong Kong during its own transition.

Nevertheless, I shall suggest that May’s way of tackling the relationship also reveals a possibility of reconciling with the complexity of life by carving a resilient identity in the present. While senile dementia creates an intelligential gap between patients and their families, Ann Hui also portrays its potential of enhancing community cohesion. To adapt to life with Mr. Sun, May has to re-orientate herself in relation to his worldview and changing sense of identification[5]. By having her call her husband and son “prisoners of war” and to get Mr. Sun to sleep, the film reflects a sense of humour rather than antagonism in the collision between obsolete and present ideology, which recalls the past that was disregarded by the colonial project and suggests an alternative version of living a life in that turbulent time. When her company’s computers are down, May proves the effectiveness of her traditional working mode but does not carry on working with it. Instead, her choice of resigning and starting a new life shows an aloof attitude towards adaptation and reflects the courage of extricating oneself from the trend of modernization. The pursuit of individuality thus serves as a force resisting social anxiety and change, indicating a new identity that could be shaped by focusing on the present moment. In the intersection of heterogeneous temporalities, May’s struggle represents not only a family or personal issue, but a social phenomenon of Hong Kong's ambiguous subjectivity in the sway between pre-colonial and post-colonial influences and uncertain self-representation. In the process of balancing the relationships between Mr. Sun and her company, May is able to reconcile her distorted social roles by reinventing her identity in a time frame that is both adaptive to the past and resilient to the future, thus proposing a creative way of facing the rapidly developing society and precarious historical situation.

The final shot of May watching the pigeon in the non-diegetic music —— Do not shed tears, spare your grief. Life is over in the twinkling of an eye.

In the end, Mr. Sun’s sudden death symbolizes the inevitable fading of historical events and figures, yet the rest of the family has to move on and continue playing their own roles in the dynamic society. However, when May discovers the pigeons on the roof, which Mr. Sun kept mentioning but she disbelieved, history seems to come back in an unexpected way — continuing to live in people’s memory.

Conclusion

Ann Hui's Summer Snow looks at the decline of the patriarch's mental health and the reactions of a Hong Kong family. Our group generally has a positive review of the film, and we think it can both evoke memories among older Hong Kongers and show the younger generation a positive attitude towards accepting the impossible situations in life. In the characters’ process of reconciling their fates, the audience may recall the small and valuable things in their own lives, reevaluating their familial relationship from a different perspective.

In this Wiki project, we explored the creation of Summer Snow including Hui's research and the film's inspiration. We also examined the critical and audience reception of the movie, with opinions divided on its execution. The literature review section delves into the film's themes and social commentary, including gender roles, family dynamics, urbanization, and the impact of economic changes on the working class. Through these analyses, Summer Snow offers a nuanced portrait of modern Hong Kong society. We also conducted a comparative analysis of Summer Snow and Hi, Mom, highlighting their differing views on filial piety, success and the gender imbalance in emotional and unpaid labour. Lastly, we explored an alternative interpretation of the film's creation of heterogeneous temporalities through language, arguing that May represents Hong Kong's hope for a new and independent identity amid patriarchal oppression and modernity.

References

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  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 吳若綺 and Wu Jo-Chi. "Women Trapped: Ann Hui's Narrative Strategy and Social Critique in Summer Snow, Goddess of Mercy, and the Postmodern Life of My Aunt.".
  2. Chang, Jing Jing (2016). "Ann hui's tin shui wai diptych: The flashback and feminist perception in post-handover Hong Kong". Quarterly Review of FIlm and Video. 33 (8): 722–742.
  3. Cheung, Esther; Marchetti, Gina; See-Kam, Tan (2011). Hong Kong Screenscapes: From the New Wave to the Digital Frontier. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. ISBN 978-988-8053-54-4.
  4. Marchetti, Gina (2020). Feminism, post-feminism, and Hong Kong women filmmakers. Wiley Blackwell. pp. 1–6. ISBN 9781119429128.
  5. Deng, MaoHui. 2022. "Re-Orientating Hesitantly: Approaching the Entangled Temporalities of Cinema, Dementia, and Hong Kong from a Decolonial Viewpoint." In Contemporary Narratives of Ageing, Illness, Care, edited by Katsura Sako and Sarah Falcus. 1st ed., 104-123: Routledge.