Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps

you won't admit you love me.
and so how am i ever to know?
you always tell me
perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

a million times i ask you,
and then i ask you over
again, you only answer
perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

if you can't make your mind up,
we'll never get started.
and i don't wanna wind up
being parted, broken-hearted.
so if you really love me,
say yes.
but if you don't, dear, confess.
and please don't tell me
perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

if you can't make your mind up,
we'll never get started.
and i don't wanna wind up
being parted, broken-hearted.
so if you really love me,
say yes.
but if you don't, dear, confess.
and please don't tell me
perhaps, perhaps, perhaps,
perhaps, perhaps, perhaps,
perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

还有最后一个月。。。。。

Ps：英语版本的歌词是在以下网址搜索到的

http://sleepygirl.pixnet.net/blog/post/4809609

Haomin Cen

Asian Cinema

Professor Lu

Sept. 20th, 2009

                               The Red Lantern

     Raise the Red Lantern is a great film adaptation from Su Tong’s novel Wives and Concubines. The film revolves around the same theme that reveals women’s inferiority and the internal fights among the wives within a wealthy landlord’s family. The most distinct difference between the novel and the film is the change of the dominant symbol from the well to the lantern. The general rule is that the lanterns will be lit on a particular compound where the Master spends the night with the wife. The red lanterns used as props not only bring us a sumptuous visual effect, contrasted by the cold, closed and decadent compound; but also symbolize multi-dimensional significances in the film.

     The most obvious symbolic meaning of the red lanterns is power. The wife whose lanterns in the yard are lit can enjoy foot massage by an old skilled woman. The foot massage seems to be so fantastically comfortable that all wives are eager for it. Also, the wife with lanterns lit in her yard has a priority in ordering her favorite food in the next dinner. Any one of the women in Chen’s household is striving with all the means to grab the Master and make her lanterns on, because that means the Master’s favor on her and more power given in the family. That’s why the one whose lanterns are lit up has such a great sense of superiority over other wives.

     From the general rule of lanterns summarized above, it is not hard to figure out that the lantern represents sexual desire. First and foremost, the red lantern is a sign of the Master’s sexuality. In every evening, all the wives are waiting outside for the Master’s decision on whom he will sleep with that night. The nominated one can have the red lanterns lit in her yards, and that indicates the Master will have sex with her on the night. On the other hand, the red lantern implicitly represents the women’s sexual desire as well. Swallow’s lighting lanterns in her room perfectly exemplifies the point. Swallow thought she would be the fourth mistress, but Songlian takes the place. Swallow sometimes still collaborates with the Master, and also wants to win his favor. She lights lanterns in her room to get her desire psychologically satisfied. Besides, since all the wives and concubines are all committed to having their lanterns lit; in other words, they are longing for an natural outlet for their supressed sexual desire.

     More in-depth, the red lantern signifies the humiliation to the women. All the women in the household are living for the lantern. The red lantern becomes a philandering tool manipulated by the Master: the newly-married concubine can have lanterns lit every day for a short while; the one who is pregnant can keep lanterns on for a long period of time; but the one who makes a severe mistake can no longer have lanterns lit again. Everyone is concerned about the lantern, but it turns out to be the origin of many tragedies: Swallow dies because she is against the rule to privately light lanterns in her room. Songlian’s lanterns are sealed off forever because she has lied that she gets pregnant. Though the second wife, Zhuoyun, suffers great pains due to her ear being cut, she is still delighted because she can keep her lanterns on for a while. It seems to be a ridiculous notion! The lanterns are vividly red when they are lit up and hung along eaves, but it seems as if the woman inside the room is bleeding, and the fresh blood is dropping and flowing out of the door.  

     Ultimately, the red lantern is a symbol of the feudal ethics code. Zhang Yimou deliberately elaborates every single step in lighting and putting out the lanterns, so as to demonstrate how harsh and rigorous the rituals are, which indicates that women in the family are strictly confined by the traditional ethics. Almost at the end of the film, Songlian becomes insane and goes to light up all the lanterns in Meishan’s room. The whole room is full of decadent redness, with the player singing Meishan’s songs. All the servants are totally scared and shouting it is haunted. That is a great scene to exemplify that the red lanterns symbolize the decadent feudal ethics, because the whole room is empty except for the lanterns are on, which means the Meishan is consumed by the red lanterns, or more explicitly, by the feudal ethics.

     The significance of the red lantern in Chinese traditional culture is always celebratory happiness, auspicious symbols and festive decorations. But in the film, Zhang Yimou creatively designs the red lantern to be a representative prop of power, sexuality, humiliation and decadent ethics. Those symbolic meanings are contrary to the lantern’s traditional significance, but they reasonably express the miserable destiny, suppressed desire and unequal status of women in the patriarchal society. The use of the red lantern as a dominant prop is attributed to the thorough exposure of the film’s theme, and its great success in the international film awarding ceremonies.

Haomin Cen

Asian Cinema

Professor Lu

October 15th, 2009

Fragments Reinforce the Coherence in Chungking Express

     Chungking Express, directed by Wong Kar-Wai, genuinely portrays how people in contemporary Hong Kong react to loneliness and depession when they are lost in love. The movie’s success owes to not just the director’s unique filmic techniques in shooting, but also the unconventional way of manipulating its narrative structure. There is not a traditional story line in either the first episode or the second one; and the events are fragmentarily arranged as a plot to explore the characters’ inner world towards love. These fragments in the movie’s narrative are unwittingly cemented together, reinforcing the coherence of Chungking Express’s theme that love is ephemeral, and only those who purely persue true love and are committed to it can maintain a relationship.

     The fragments about localities in the story characterize Hong Kong as a metropolis that is surrounded with a fickle and restless ambience. Besides the two main places: Chungking Mansion and Midnight Express, we can see many other typical Hong Kong urban scenes in the movie. For example: the crowded and narrow commercial streets in Tsimshatsui, the dark alleys in which He Qiwu catches criminals, the bar where people publicly engage in sexual activities and so on. Those localities, together with Chungking Mansion and Midnight Express, fully depict two of the most distinguishing features of Hong Kong society: complexity and fickleness. That is a very crucial background which the stories of our filmic protagonists rest on. Affected under such a circumstance, some people become cold and don’t have any feelings, like the drug woman in blonde wig; some people are fickle on their affection to different lovers, like the ex-girlfriends of the two cops; and some are deeply lost in love and have no idea what is going on in their life. Those fragments of different localities intermingled in the movie frame a necessary background for the plots to develop and for the theme to disclose.

The most striking aspect of the narrative is the manipulation of fragmental events of protagonists’ daily life to incisively present their sorrows in the heart. Let’s take He Qiwu, Cop 233, as an example. That he has a conversation with his ex-girlfriend’s parents on the phone shows how reluctantly he breaks up with her; that he buys the pineapple cans which expire on May 1st tells how eagerly he expects his girl-friend can change her mind; and that he complains the dog is unable to share his pains manifests how depressed he is in the face of the lost love. Those events are superficially disconnected, but they coherently illuminate He Qiwu’s lovesick sufferings. We can find the similar narrative structure in the second episode on Cop 633: he talks to the objects (soap, towel and doll) at home; he abruptly goes back to his apartment at noon (because he remembers his girlfriend ever does so); he mildly gives a massage to Faye’s leg (because he usually does that to his girlfriend), etc. Those events are not conventionally connected to frame a story, but manipulated as plots to show how much he misses his ex-girlfriend. The narrative constructions of the two examples have many parallels: both cops are dumped by their girl-friends, both of them are so reluctant to accept the truth of breaking up, and their emotions are shown by the fragments of the daily life. Those fragments precisely depict the characters’ psychic traumas in losing their lovers, which also vividly exposes that love is so fragile, mutable and ephemeral in contemporary Hong Kong.

     In the second episode, there are many details describing Faye’s commitments to cleaning Cop 633’s apartment. Those fragments shed light on another component of Chungking Express’s theme that only those who purely pursue true love and are committed to it can have a real romance. Faye is a simple-hearted girl, compared to Cop 633’s ex-girlfriend. She steals the key and secretly enters his apartment after she falls in love with Cop 633. Sometimes she does the cleaning; sometimes she replaces the old household goods with the new ones; sometimes she decorates the room; and even sometimes she just enjoys staying in the apartment for fun. Those fragments delineate Faye’s purity on love towards Cop 633, and that’s why she is so dedicated to reforming his apartment. However, Faye doesn’t go to the date with Cop 633, but chooses to fly to California; and one year later, they meet in the Midnight Express again. Inferring from the exciting music in the end, I believe they are eventually together and will start a romance. The one-year waiting is designed as a commitment for Cop 633 needed to make to chasing Faye. The story intends to indicate that Cop 633 can own the true love when he makes the commitment. Those plots aim to illuminates the keys to maintaining a relationship in a changeable society, which are the purity on love in mind and mutual commitments to love in action.  

     The fragmental narrative structure in Chungking Express precisely conveys the movie’s theme and reinforce its coherence. Wong Kar-Wai exerts those fragments not only to discloses people’s frustrations and confusions in their romances, but also to interpret the essence in pursuing true love in the contemporary Hong Kong.