Course:ASIA325/2023/Rebirth, Superstition and Adultery in Ann Hui's The Secret
Research Project Title Create an attractive research project title. The title should include keywords from your thesis statement/argument, and it should NOT be a long and complicated question (an eye-catching and provocative rhetorical question is fine). For instance, a possible format could be: “Keyword A, Keyword B, (or Keyword C): …….” . It is important for you to come up with a thematic idea in the first place because this will help you organize and focalize your writing and analysis in the remaining sections. Ideally, your title should comprise two parts, such as "By Way of Mass Commodities: Love in Comrades, Almost a Love Story." (notice here Comrades, Almost a Love Story is the title of the film under review/discussion). Please follow "Title Case" or "Headline Style" to format your title, which capitalizes the first letter of certain key words. In Title Case (or “Headline Style”), you will need to capitalize the first letter of the following (NOT including prepositions):
- The first words of titles and subtitles
- Nouns, noun phrases, and pronouns
- Verbs and verb phrases
- Adverbs and adjectives
Group Members' Contributions
Introduction M J
Stories behind the film production
Histories of reception
Scholarly literature review
Comparative analysis LD
Alternative interpretation M J
Introduction
“The Secret'' is one of the films created during the early Hong Kong New Wave Movement. This sophisticated piece of work was directed by Ann Hui, who dedicated her life to her passion for filmmaking. Ann Hui’s expertise in film directing contributed to the success of “The Secret'' when it premiered on November 1, 1979. Surrounded by suspenseful atmosphere, the story of “The Secret'' begins with the discovery of two corpses hanging in a tree, who are believed to be Li Yuen (Angie/Chiu Nga-Chi) and her fiancée, Yuen Si-cheuk (Alex/Man Chi-Leung). While Ah Saw (Norman Tsui Siu-Keung) was appointed potential murderer by the police, the neighbour of the victims, Jeng-ming (Sylvia/Chang Ai-Chia), insisted on solving the puzzle herself along with the clues provided by Yuen’s blind grandma (Cheuk-Cheuk Lai). Ming’s investigation finally reveals the love triangle between Mui Siu-kei (Lee Hye-Sook),Yuen, and Si-cheuk that caused Gei to accidentally kill Si-cheuk in her attempt to hurt Yuen. Causing Yuen to kill Gei in a fit of anger, and swapping clothes with Gei as a coverup.
Stories Behind the Film
Dig out the stories behind the film. Include any interesting and peculiar facts about the film’s production process, the historical basis of the film's story, the cast and the crew, the budget and the shooting location. You may want to watch some behind-the-scenes footage or interviews with actors and crew to get a better picture of the production process. Be detailed and avoid making big claims or generalizations. It works best if the anecdote or peculiar facts you mentioned speak to the themes indicated in your title or introduction. No need to copy and paste the existing Wikipedia synopsis of the film's main story.
Histories of the Film’s Reception
Describe the histories of the film’s reception: how did the general public receive and review the film? Did the general audience entertain different or similar attitudes toward the film? Why? Summarize the general public’s divergent or convergent reception of the film and deliberate on why they entertain different or similar attitudes. One way to find out the reason is to investigate the socio-politico-historical background of the story in the film, as well as the historical time when the film was released. Be sensitive to two temporalities and their relationship: the historical setting within each film, and the time of the film’s debut in real life. The tension between these two temporalities will help you explain the film’s reception. Pay attention to the discussions going on in journalistic media and social media, the public’s ratings, and other reviews published in journals or newspapers when the film was released and put on. You also may want to pay particular attention to how the audience in general entertain and perceive the themes of the film -- the themes you already indicated in the title/introduction. Also note that for earlier films, the reception may change or evolve as time goes on. Compare and contrast, for instance, the reception of the film in the 1960s, the 1990s, and today if possible. You also want to pay attention to how the same film might be received differently among different ethnic, linguistic, and cultural groups. For instance, for the same film, English-speaking audience may have different reactions towards it than Cantonese-speaking audience. Note the difference whenever possible and discuss why.
Scholarly Literature Review
Summarize scholarly literature review: include at least 3 English-language peer-reviewed academic articles/book chapters; Chinese scholarship is optional only when you cannot find enough English scholarship via library search engine and Google Scholar search): how scholars have studied this film in the English-speaking world (and this director and his/her works in general, if you cannot find enough scholarly articles/book chapters specifically or only about the film); correctly and succinctly summarize the major ideas in those scholarly studies. Scholarly literature review should preclude journalistic and impressionist writings, or writings published on public knowledge-sharing platforms such as Zhihu or Douban. If there are not enough English-language secondary literature, you can extend the scope to Chinese-language research articles/book chapters. Or you can pay more attention to the research articles or chapters that mentioned the film tangentially or compared the film briefly with other films. If there are too many secondary resources for your group, make sure you only review existing ideas and studies that speak to the themes your group decides to explore in the title/introduction. You can review up to 6 pieces of research articles or chapters.
Comparative Analysis
Conduct a comparative analysis: compare the film with another film (be it in Mandarin, Cantonese, or from any other language) that explores a similar theme but by a different director. You should find the second film you want to compare by yourself and confirm with the instructor. Compare the two films and elaborate on their similarities (at least three points) and differences (at least three points) with concrete audiovisual examples (you are encouraged to insert film stills or clips into your comparative analysis). You may pay attention to their different or similar historical contexts of production, different or similar film elements (mise-en-scene, acting, editing, soundtrack, cinematography), settings, characterizations, plots, scenic spectacles, tones, cinematographies, and expressed themes, etc. But you do not have to be comprehensive–only compare the formal aspects or film techniques that speak to the theme you chose to focus on. Let thematic analysis drive your comparison of the formal elements.
Alternative Interpretation
Death as a continuation of life is an underlying theme throughout “The Secret”, while being represented by the multiple homicide incidents and the birth of Yuen’s baby from her dead body, the idea of the continuum of life and death is closely connected to the beliefs of Buddhism, which is an emphasized element in the film—it was portrayed through the depiction of Buddhism funeral rites, such as the offering of cakes and fruits to the dead, all-night vigil, as well as the lighting of incenses and candles; Yuen’s grandma, while being portrayed as a deeply superstitious and religious women, also personates an “all-knowing” person—although unsighted, she is intuitive and sensitive, she was the only person to discover Yuen’s secret pregnancy; she sensed Mrs. Ma’s eavesdropping eventhough Mrs. Ma listened silently; she calmly accepted the recurrence of “Yuen’s ghost” while the neighbours considered their neighbourhood haunted and people possessed; she stuck to her respect for her religion by believing that lighting three incense in front of Yuen’s grave will have Yuen to leave her with peace.
Grandmother’s piousness lead to her resemblance to Buddha’s omniscient that endowed her with the sensibility for the occurrence of death and birth, which is metaphorized through the image of butterfly—butterfly, in the film, can be interpreted as the idea of “rebirth” as they were born as caterpillars then “reborn” into butterflies—the image of butterfly appeared twice in the film, each time landing on Grandma at the timing of the occurrence of homicidal incidents, the exclusive relationship between butterfly and Grandma infers the idea of the representation of Grandma as Buddha.
Scene 1
The first appearance of a butterfly takes place at the beginning of the film, it lands on Grandma’s shoulder as she sat still quietly, frowning with a solemn facial expression, as if carefully observing and attempting to interpret her own feelings, which was immediately followed by the school boy’s reporting of the two bodies. On one hand, although Siu-kei and Si-cheuk came to their deaths, it is considered “rebirth” for Yuen, because she was no longer the person that she was before, and was forced to start a new life due to the murder of Siu-kei. On the other hand, the “rebirth” of Yuen was led to by the unborn child that she carries, which buried the seed for the cycle of life for the first time in the film.
Scene 2
The second appearance of the butterfly takes place at the ending of the film as it lands on Grandma’s head, which occurred right after the birth of Yuen’s baby. In terms of the continuation of life, the birth of Yuen’s child manifests as an extension of her life, which revisits the concept of rebirth from death. In terms of Grandma as the representation of Buddha, the last shots of the film made comparison of her to Buddha to reinforce this idea—followed by the birth of Yuen’s baby, a medium long shot of Grandma draws attention to her statue-like stillness as she sat on the couch, moving her hand only the slightest to repel the butterfly, almost identical to her posture in “Scene 1”. In the meantime, Ah-saw’s mother hands over the baby to Ming, the cycle of life finally continues to develop, because although it was Ming who caused Yuen’s death, it will also be her to continue it by raising Yuen’s child, which points out the interconnection between life and death and where the beginning and ending of the cycle of life meets. In the final shot of the film, the camera focuses on the face of Grandma in a close-up shot, followed by a tracking shot as it moves horizontally to the left into a mirror, leaving Grandma’s face on the right side of the screen, and the back of her head next to the altar. As the camera zooms in gradually on the reflection of the altar in the mirror, it eventually stops to a close-up shot of the statue of Buddha who had both eyes closed, mirroring the blindness of Grandma. This shot makes clear of the parallel between the existence of Grandma and Buddha from multiple aspects. First, the motionlessness of Grandma strongly resembles the features of the Buddha statue. Further, the closed-eyes of the Buddha statue makes a distinctive resemblance to the Grandma blindness. Moreover, the reflection of Grandma in the mirror implies the multiple identities she possesses—as both an ordinary person and a representation of Buddha. Last but not least, the emphasis on the close-eyed Buddha statue in the mirror serves to ground Grandma’s unspoken identity.
Conclusion
Write a conclusion: briefly summarize and state what the general perception of the film was by the audience and the critics alike. Then focus on expressing your group’s personal opinion and either recommend the film (in this case, specify what audience will most likely enjoy it) or not recommend it (in this case, specify the reasons for not recommending it). Include the rationale for your evaluation.
References
</references>