Chinese immigrants struggle to hold onto their American dream after the husband's father (Xu Zhu comes for a visit from mainland China and gives a si-mp-le Chinese Medicine therapy called Gua Sha to his grandson.
Da Tong (Tony Leung Ka Fai is the father who is trying to integrate his Chinese cultural beliefs into his daily American reality, especially when dealing with his bo(Hollis Huston and best friend, who is too quick to believe the worst about Da Tong's treatment of his son, Dennis. Da Tong's failures show his confusion about the differences between his original Chinese culture and his new American home. Even within his family there is conflict because Grandfather can't speak English and is excluded from many conversations because Mother (Wenli Jiang wants only English spoken in her home for the benefit of her American born son. Da Tong and his wife are very well educated and understand that their child's best chances for succein America, and for him not to experience the same troubles they've had during the past 8 years, are to speak without an accent. They even go so far as to insist the boy use a fork and knife instead of chopsticks, even when it's obvious they are still eating Chinese style food, served in the normal way: communal dishes for the food and smaller, individual rice bowls for each person. Mother seems a bit inflexible in her insistence on being as American as possible, while Da Tong's cultural leanings are just as strongly Chinese, although not by conscious choice.
Da Tong's love for his son is tested severely when Da Tong tries to balance it against respect for his boss. When Da Tong's son hits his boss' son, Da Tong insists on an apology that seems unnecessary and makes Da Tong look stubborn and uncaring. Da Tong gives his boy a light rap on the head when he refuses to apologize and the boy cries to his mother that the reason he hit his playmate was that the other boy called Da Tong stupid, one of many examples of doing the wrong thing to protect your family.
The conflict arising from doing the wrong thing out of love or respect for one's family or closest friends continues throughout the movie, and every way Da Tong turns, he finds failure and encounters both obvious and subtle forms of anti-Chinese racism. Even Chinese folklore about the Monkey King, Sun Wu Kong, that Da Tong incorporates into a video game he designed is used to provoke his pride when he's vulnerable and fearing for the loof his son. Da Tong is misunderstood by everyone, family, friend, and foe, even though he has only the best intentions, and he carries the responsibility quite heavily, ma-ki-ng one wrong turn after another.
Gua Sha (The Treatment shows how a person's cultural beliefs are so deeply set within oneself that it is usually impossible to examine why you do most anything, from how you dreand talk to whom you love and respect and how you show it. The invisible nature of one's cultural beliefs also makes it difficult to impossible to explain yourself to others when questioned. Da Tong experiences an excruciatingly painful and difficult struggle while trying to protect his son, an ordeal that forces him to examine the validity of some of the most vital things he thought he knew about his identity, his Chinese culture, and the new American world he'd chosen as his home.
The movie showed me how normal it is for people to look for ways that their culture is superior to others' and how the misunderstandings arising from different cultural perspectives can seem very large, but can be nullified with si-mp-le, 2-sided explanations when people are willing to listen.
It appears this film is not readily available in the USA, but it's the best I've seen at highlighting the differences between American and Chinese culture. Parts of the movie's dialog are only in Chinese and I've yet to find a DVD with English subtitles, although it's easy to get the gist of what's going on during those short passages. The credits are a combination of Chinese and English, holding true to the integration of both worlds. I've noticed some important roles are not credited here on IMDb, such as Judge Horowitz, who was played by Alexander Barton。
Jane Eyre, is a poor but aspiring, small in body but huge in soul, obscure but self-respecting girl. After we close the covers of the book, after having a long journey of the spirit, Jane Eyre, a marvelous figure, has left us so much to recall and to think:
We remember her goodness: for someone who lost arms and blinded in eyes, for someone who despised her for her ordinariness, and even for someone who had hurt her deeply in the past.
We remember her pursuit of justice. It’s like a companion with the goodness. But still, a virtuous person should promote the goodneon one side and must check the badneon the other side.
We remember her self-respect and the clear situation on equality. In her opinion, everyone is the same at the God’s feet. Though there are differences in status、in property and also in appearance, but all the human being are equal in personality.
We also remember her striving for life, her toughneand her confidence…
When we think of this girl, what she gave us was not a pretty face or a transcendent temperament that make us admire deeply, but a huge charm of her personality.
Actually, she wasn’t pretty, and of course, the ordinary appearance didn’t make others feel good of her, even her own aunt felt disgusted with it. And some others even thought that she was easy to look down on and to tease, so when MiIngram met Jane Eyre, she seemed quite contemptuous, for that she was obviously much more prettier than ‘the plain and ugly governess’. But as the little governehad said: ‘Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulleand heartless? You think wrong!’ This is the idea of equality in Jane Eyre’s mind. God hadn’t given her beauty and wealth, but instead, God gave her a kind mind and a thinking brain. Her idea of equality and self-respect impreus so much and let us feel the power inside her body.
In my mind, though a person’s beauty on the face can make others once feel that one is attractive and charming, if his or her mind isn’t the same beautiful as the appearance, such as beauty cannot last for, when others find that the beauty which had charmed them was only a falsity, it’s not true, they will like the person no more. For a long time, only a person’s great virtue, a noble soul, a beautiful heart can be called as AN EVERLASTING BEAUTY, just as Kahill Gibran has said, that ‘Beauty is a heart enflamed and a soul enchanted’. I can feel that how beauty really is, as we are all fleshly men, so we can’t distinguish whether a man is of nobleneor humbleness, but fleshly men, so we can’t distinguish whether a man is of nobleneor humbleness, but as there are great differences in our souls, and from that, we can know that whether a man is noble or ordinary, and even obscure, that is, whether he is beautiful or not.
Her story makes us thinking about life and we learn much from her experience, at least, that is a fresh new recognition of the real beauty.
Last week, I’ve watch the film named GUA SHA. Actually, GUA SHA has another professional form as skin scraping. But I think it was not correctly enough. GUA SHA is a traditional medical treatment. The main function is to accelerate blood circulation. It has a good effect on hypertension, heatstroke and so on. Once upon a time, our ancestors had told us generation by generation. We all believed its influence.
The story of this film happened in America. The hero, Datong Xu, an Chinese people made a great succeand realized his American dream. He said, he loved America and America is an place filled with opportunities in a victory meeting. But an unfortunate thing came to him. One day, his five-year-old child called Denis got a fever. The grandpa can’t understand the English introductions on the drugs. So he did GUA SHA for Denis. Unexpectedly it became the evidence for child abuse. Datong Xu was accused of child abuse. On the court, one after another witnetestified his bad behavior to his child. He can’t explain clearly about GUA SHA. In the face of so many distorted allegations, he became crazy. Meantime, he was deprived of Denis’s custody. He was forbidden to meet Denis. His father decided to return to China. Everything changed. He lost his harmonious family, his trust friends, his perfect job. He lost everything. He was forced to live in the slum. In the slum, the couple hugged and cried together.
At Christmas, he missed his son very much. Then he pretended as Santa Claus to see his son secretly. The guide didn’t let him in. He climbed the water tube. At that time, police came. He can see Denis. He succeeded at last.
The film reflects the cultural shock in foreign country. Finally the hero overcame the obstacles through his endeavor. It deeply impressed me that the difficulty we must face in the foreign country, because of the distinguished culture. Only more communication we make, leproblems it may appears. It is a long way for us to go. We should put it in mind.
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