2nd Post Outline
Kekexili:
§ 1st Comment
o Tibetan people and Tibetan antelope face the same fate: they both fall victim to the external material world
§ Antelope are killed by the poachers
§ Patrolmen are killed by poachers, and by the lack of equipment needed to achieve their goal of catching the poachers
o Still, the film is not anthropocentric, but ecological
§ The more important message is that nature is the most powerful element in the film
· All the film’s character are at nature’s mercy and fall victim to it
o Liu Dong dies in quicksand
o Skinners succumb to drought and join business
o Tibetan air is too thin for much activity
§ 2nd Comment
o Kekexili’s blurring of the line between good and evil
§ We feel sympathetic toward skinners even though they commit crimes because they are also victims
§ The patrol commits a similar crime for similar reasons when they sell the pelts for money
§ 3rd Comment
o Transnational financing furthers the film’s message, it does not pervert it. Because such financing allows the film to reach a larger audience, it enables greater awareness of Tibet’s problems
Sanxia haoren:
§ 1st Comment
o Water theme
§ Water destroys life efforts with flooding
§ Still need drinking water for nutrition, but it is scarce
§ 2nd Comment
o Tight-rope walker
§ Imagery of difficult balance between life and death
· Example seen in wall falling on Sanming’s friend
· Also seen as landlord’s house, which is his livelihood, is marked for destruction
§ 3rd Comment
o Cigarettes, liquor, tea, candy
§ Represent vices that Chinese people have that help them to do forget their lives’ difficult balancing acts
§ 4th Comment
o The film is left open-ended
o Mocks the uncertainty of the outcome of the Three Gorges Dam Project