Bejing Bicycle

The class structure in the communist state of China is more evident in this movie than I could have imagined. In a government set on the ideals of communism, remaining classes, and common ownership; this country seems to have a wider separation gap then that of democratic countries. The wealthy in China are treated with almost celebrity status, while the poor are hardly acknowledged as citizens in this movie. It's shown in the film by how Guei is treated by the people he comes across on his delivery routes, because everyone he delivers to are in the higher class of society.

The differences shown in this movie between rural and urban people was striking. Guei was adamant about owning his bike and the urban secretary talked down to him and could not believe that he actually new the date that it would be his. Also the maid who dressed up in the woman's clothes and then got fired when she was caught, was trying to act like the urban people, but could never have been accepted by them. It's as if they could do nothing to be treated like everyone else in the city.

The movie shows how cities like Beijing rely on many different modes of transporting goods and services than other countries. The shot in the film that shows this idea best, is the one with the two gentlemen loading a refrigerator on the back of a bicycle, and it almost falls on them. Bicycles, scooters, and small cars are used more in China because they are more affordable than anything else. The government makes opportunities for jobs by using bike messengers to deliver goods, rather than one large delivery company.

The landscape shown of China in this film is something I haven't seen before. Most of the time when I think of China, I imagine rice patties and large cities crowded with people making textiles. This film shows the contemporary side of Beijing with its back allies, and close knit culture shocked neighborhoods. It is hard to think of living in a space occupied by so many people like the home of Jian and his family. They share facilities while the people living in the high rises are treated like kings with lavish apartments and expensive clubs.

Guei is the main character in this movie who shows the true meaning of determination. This is how he survives in an exhausting city while trying to etch out a living. Others like Jian are caught in a consumer society that must also deal with the perpetual cost of city life. This is where they are tied together with the use of the bicycle. Guei must have this bike to survive financially and Jian needs it to compete socially with girls and classmates. The beating of the two men sharing the bike and even the bike itself shows the tragedy that they suffer in the end of the movie. The movie follows this bicycle and how its relationship in Chinese society affects the characters way of life.

Once Were Warriors

This film depicts the Maori and Pakeha cultures in modern day New Zealand. It shows how the values have changed or adapted to the current society in which they are living. Maori are known as the early eastern Polynesian settlers who were the first to inhabit the islands of New Zealand. Pakeha are European settlers living among the Maori and adapting to their ways. Jake Heke, the father of the Heke family in the film, represents the Pakeha as crude, cultureless, and violent people who have little family values. He feels that he was never good enough for his wife’s Maori family and would never be accepted. This drives him to alcoholism and physical abuse of his family and others. Maori did oppress the Pakeha’s living within their culture as a social group. This is based off their strong sense of nationalism for Maori history and is built by antagonism toward the Pakehas.

There is also a very strong representation of domestic violence in this film. This is based on physical, verbal, and sexual abuse that is shown in the Heke family. Due to Jakes insecurities he attempts to physically and psychologically dominate the other family members. You can see the anger and craze in Jakes eyes when he wildly attacks his own wife after she talks back to him during a late night party. His use of alcohol plays a key role in his mood and judgment in the dominant role of his family. He disregards his families well being when he brings home the party from his local bar. This is a very unsafe environment for children to be brought up in.

The Maori culture shown in the movie to gives the male a more authoritative position where as the women appear to be more care givers and handle issues at home. This is represented in the movie by Beth Heke, who doesn’t have a job, but rather takes care of the children and does the cooking and chores around the house. The Maori men are shown as respected and important figures that can be very dominant. This is displayed when their son Boogie is taken away to a boys home after getting in trouble and the leader of the home is a Maori man who teaches him the old ways of their culture. Beth also shows that her culture can give her the strength to resist Jake and leave him at the end of the movie.

The Maori culture is depicted as the salvation of the family in this movie. The Heke’s sons Boogie and Nig learn the ways of Maori and grow into men of their own. The culture takes them from the path of criminal behavior and teaches them how to get respect and deal with the death of their sister.

The contrast between the urban landscapes and the beautiful country side of New Zealand also represent the difference between Maori and Pakeha cultures. The city in which the Heke family lives is very poor looking. The children seem to have no education or interest in going to school. They also run into trouble with the law and are witness to the use of alcohol on a daily bases. Some of their friends are homeless and living in cars under bridges. This shows the gritty reality of Pakeha and what they represent. The countryside shows the Maori way of life. It has lush green hillsides, blue skies, and clear water. This is the natural beauty of New Zealand and where Maori people come from. They still have old buildings in the country, where Grace is taken when she dies, to hold ceremonies for her funeral and lay her to rest. This is where she felt most at home before and where she belongs, because she represnts the modern day Maori who see beauty in the world and good in people.

Rabbit Proof Fence

This is a journey of young girls through the outback of Australia on a mission to reach their mother, who they were savagely taken from by the English appointed ruler of the Aborigine people. This film was based on a book that was adapted from real events of three girls who escaped the Moore River Native Settlement, just north of Perth, and traveled nine weeks to reach their Aboriginal families. Molly, Daisy, and Gracie traveled over 1500miles along the Australian rabbit proof fence while being tracked by a white lawman and a black tracker. They escaped and returned to Jigalong while traveling through some harsh environments with nothing but the clothes on their backs. This is truly a tale of the innocent overcoming the state who were separating aboriginal children from their families.


The Rabbit Proof Fence is actually a real fence built by the Australian government from 1901 to 1907 as a pest exclusion fence. there are three fences, the no.1 which crosses the state from north to south, the no.2 which is west of the first fence and runs parallel, and no.3 which runs east to west and is the smallest of the three. Australia also has a Dingo fence, or dog fence, running east to west in the southeastern part of the country. These fences were built to keep pests out of the western Australia pastoral areas. The country had become over run with rabbits that were originally introduced by a Victorian grazer Thomas Austin in 1859. There were no animals that could eat rabbits, so they flourished and overpopulated the outback. The fence did not stop the rabbits from moving west word and the plaque of rabbits had to be dealt with in other ways. However, this was a major attempt of man trying to control nature.

The effect of the rabbits on the ecology of Australia was devastating. 1/8Th of all mammalian species in the country are now extinct, and the largest contributor has been the rabbits. They are also responsible for the land eroding. They eat the plants which leaves topsoil exposed to sheet, gully, and wind erosion. It takes hundreds of years to regenerate this topsoil.



Well, the fence plays a big part in the movie, and without it the girls would not be able to find their way home through the ruff terrain. Western Australia is Australia's largest state in area, covering almost one third of the mainland. The capitol city is Perth, and it is very isolated from the rest of the large cities in Australia, as it is over 1300miles away from Adelaide. It is the second largest administrative territory in the world. Western Australia contains some of the oldest minerals in the world and are found in the Yilgarn Craton and the Great Western Plateau. The Great Western Plateau occupies most of the state, and the Continent, at roughly four times the size of Texas. Rain rarely falls in this region at about 4-14inches annually. surface water is pretty much non existent aside from a few permanent waterholes. Most of the territory is flat sandy or stony desert with little scrub or tussock grasses. This would be very difficult to live on and most inhabitants need to introduce strong fertilizers for anything to grow in the state.

The main issue depicted in this movie was what is now called the Stolen Generation. The Moore River Native Settlement was a place where Aboriginal orphans who were taken, mostly against their will, to live, go to school, and learn the ways of the English. There is a controversy of this Stolen Generation in Australia still today, as to what degree this really happened, and how many children were taken. The government claimed that it removed these children from their families to protect their interests and provide a better way of life for them. The Aborigines claim that they were taken from happy homes and from all over the country to live in these camps. The movie depicts them as inferior to the white English, and they are being held against their will.

Train Man: Densha Otoko

In one of the most crowded, overpopulated, and largest cities in the world, Tokyo Japan, a lonely computer nerd is set on finding true love. this film was based on a bestseller by Hitori Nakano, and was realised in Japan in 2005 to rave revues. Surprisingly this story was based on the true events of a 23 year old computer geek who came to the rescue of some women on a train who were being harassed by a drunk businessman. The main character known as Train Man is a computer engineer who is into Manga, a form of Japanese anime. He goes unnoticed throughout his daily life in the crowded city of Tokyo. This city is overflowing with people and trains are one of the easiest and most efficient was to get around the busy areas. The streets are lit up with billboards at night and people walking form a blockade for autos. The only form of contact with the outside world that Train Man has is through an Internet chat room with other random lost souls who spend their time a lot of time on the computer. After saving the women on the train this otaku posts his story on bulletin board in a chat room. He begins getting all kinds of advice on how to approach his love interest by random chat room people. The love interest in the film is one of the women he saved on the train who got his address and sent him a thank you gift in the form of Hermes tea cups, therefore the people on the chat board refer to her as Hermes. Train Man uses all sorts of cell phones, text messages, pda's and other forms of technology to his advantage in the movie.

Otaku is a Japanese word to describe an obsessed fan of any certain topic or hobby. The word by itself means a fanatic, but it is commonly used with anime or manga to describe a specific kind of fanatic. People in Japan look down on these manga otaku, but according to http://www.trainman-movie.com/otaku.htm proud fanatics around the world claim to be otaku because it is more accepted outside Japan. The main character in the movie is a nerd, and his depiction is very similar to what a nerd would be in this country. they normally dress poorly and are into things like computers, anime, and video games. they are usually pretty smart, but lack social skills needed to get a girlfriend. The instant message support group in the movie helps train man by responding to his questions on bulletin board that acts as an open forum for discussion. The Internet forum supposedly used in the true story is 2ch, and is the largest forum in the world. It is said now to have as much influence as other types of mass media like television or radio.

Well, Train Man uses his Internet friends to woo the girl and they end up falling in love with each other. the story has a very happy ending, but in the last scene it shows an earlier part of the movie where Hermes noticed Train Man before he saved her. This shows some kind of idea that she may have been pursuing him throughout this whole movie rather than the other way around.

Good Bye Lenin

This film takes place in the city of Berlin, Germany, during the fall of the Berlin Wall. The family that it follows lives on the eastern side of Berlin which is controlled by communist Russia. The story follows a small family who are trying to keep their bed ridden mother from getting anymore shocking news because it might cause her some serious heart problems. They do everything in their power to hide the fall of the Berlin wall and the communist control of their city.

The movie was shot in parts of Berlin which show a great deal of box like cheaply built housing. All of the clothes and furniture and cars look as though they came from the 1960’s yet it was in fact 1989. The city looked gloomy and forbidding, like you didn’t want to go outside and no one was having fun anywhere. They also showed how the people were caged in the city and not allowed to leave for fear of defection. The Russians controlled everything that the people in their hostage city could do. They could not even go on walks after dark and had to wait as much as 7 years to buy a car.

Capitalist countries invite free trade and free enterprise where as the communist control of Berlin fought for equality through everyone getting the same amount. There was a dramatic change when capitalism was introduced into Berlin. Everyone rid themselves of old crappy furniture and clothes and got stuff more up to date. People began watching TV from all over the world and corporations like McDonalds and Coca-Cola moved in. Totalitarianism in the movie was show by the complete and unforgiving control of the people of Berlin, by the Russians. The Berlin wall was the key to this control and imprisonment of the citizens of the city. Ostalgia refers to the nostalgia for aspects of regular daily life and culture in the former GDR, which disappeared after the reunification of Berlin. Many of the people that conformed to the socialist way of life for so long in East Berlin felt this nostalgia after the capitalist society quickly erased all of the GDR brands when the wall came down.

Seducing Dr. Lewis

This film takes place on the coast of northern Canada. The area is cold and isolated. The inhabitants of this dried up fishing town may only reach the city by boat, as there are no roads, tracks, or airfields around. The landscape is coastal with rocky cliffs and grassy hills. The town has a walkway system built out of wooden boardwalks going from house to house, in order to smooth out the hills. They are in a very rural area as compared to city life. I did not see any vehicles other than boats in their area. Some residents had TVs and radios, but getting the mail seemed to be one of their most important chores for the day. They were in much need of a doctor as no one new how to treat sickness in the area. They all spoke french in this town and seemed to drink a lot. The film reminded me of a comedy style much like ones popular in France. They had a lot of french anecdotes that show a relationship to more European areas unlike southern Canada, which is more Americanized. The role of the government was to keep the people on well fare and not much else. There was no sheriff or any type of control in the city. When the mayor left to go find work in the city, the next most interested man just took over for his town. The people in this movie had a long tradition of working hard and raising a family in their community. They enjoyed the simple life and wanted to stay in their isolated area away from the troubles of the big city. After the fishing dried up they did nothing for many years, until the shame of not working got the best of them. After a number of wild events they got a factory and saved the town from going extinct.

The Little Girl Who Sold The Sun

This film was directed by Djibril Diop Mambety in the city of Dakar, which is the largest city in Senegal on the west coast of northern Africa. This film depicts a poor crippled girl who begs for money to feed her family including here blind mother. After seeing some other boys selling the newspaper called the sun, she decides that they are harsh and that she can do their job better. She over comes many adversities in order to sell the paper. They do not want to let her do it and many of the boys torment, and attack her for taking their jobs. The girl becomes lucky and a well off man gives her a small fortune for her papers. She distributes the money with kindness to beggars, and her family.

There are some great shots of the city of Dakar that depict this area very well. This is a city with a wide range of lifestyles, from the man breaking rocks, to the people flying in and speaking french. The city lies on the coast overlooking the pacific ocean, while also close to the dry areas of the Sahara Desert. The director displays the setbacks that have griped the people of Dakar in this movie. The French currency out weighs their home currency drastically and many of the population are out of work. This was a well thought out film with overtones of fairy tales, like the girl rising up against the evil boys and giving to the poor. He wanted to show triumph over adversity and the resiliency of the African people.