University of California Irvine Chinese Cinema Exam Questions 165: 262 The Chinese Cinema Spring 2020 Term Exam 2Please answer three out of four essay ques

University of California Irvine Chinese Cinema Exam Questions 165: 262 The Chinese Cinema Spring 2020 Term Exam 2Please answer three out of four essay questions below.Your answers should each be at least 400 words in length. They should display a grasp of the content of the films in question and an awareness of the issues discussed in class. Please focus on producing good close readings of the films and of your critical interpretations.the questions are in the file 165: 262 The Chinese Cinema
Spring 2020
Term Exam 2
Please answer three out of four essay questions below.
This is a limited open-book exam.
You are allowed to refer ONLY to your class notes and our weekly assigned critical
articles. References to external resources are not needed and not allowed. Access to
the internet during the exam is strictly forbidden. We are looking for your own
ideas, responses, and analysis. Academic cheating or plagiarism will not be
tolerated. It is your responsibility to abide by the rules. Failure to do so will result in
a zero for the exam.
Please set up a 3-hour exam time to complete it. Your answers should each be at
least 400 words in length. They should display a grasp of the content of the films
in question and an awareness of the issues discussed in class. Please focus on
producing good close readings of the films and of your critical interpretations.
Your answers are due by 10pm on Tuesday, April 14, 2020. No extensions.
Please upload your answers (in the format of word document) to the course
dropbox at Sakai.
1. In Wong Kar-wai’s Chungking Express, the waitress, Faye at the Midnight Express,
loves listening to loud music, particularly, “California Dreamin’” by the Mamas and
Papas. Please consider how is the song “California Dreamin’” used throughout the
second part of the film?
In the following conversation, Faye explains to Cop 633 about why she does that:
Cop 633: You like noisy music?
Waitress: Yes. The louder the better. Stops me from thinking.
Cop 633: You don’t like to think? What do you like?
Waitress: Never thought about it.
What does that say about Faye’s personalities? How does Faye’s way of listening to
music reveal about her life and her relationships? How does the usage of music help
describe key questions of urban alienation and (lack of) effective communication in
a postmodern city like Hong Kong?
2. Please discuss Ma Xiaojun’s (nickname Monkey, the protagonist of In the Heat of
the Sun) activities in his father’s room, in other people’s rooms, at school, in public
spaces in Beijing (streets, restaurant, swimming pool, and others)? How do you
agree with the following argument in the critical article by Weijie Song,
“Transgression, Submission, and the Fantasy of Youth Subculture: The Nostalgic
Symptoms of In the Heat of the Sun”:
“In the film and in reality, perhaps the most charming fantasy of the youth
subculture is the action of ‘walking in the city,’ not only physical movement but also
a process of alternative education or enlightenment. It indicates youth, action,
encounter, discovery, friendship, dreams, longing, passion, and love, especially when
the walking is constituted as an ‘imagined memory’ connected with lived
experiences from twenty years before.”
3. Zhang Yimou’s film, To Live, explores the intricate entanglements between the
political and the personal lives in modern China. Whereas events in the political
domain, such as the civil war and the Great Leap Forward movement, greatly
controlled and changed people’s lives, do you think that the personal life is still able
in some respects to find a way to maintain its autonomy, to remain independent of
the political domain? How is personal life in the film portrayed, compared with
political life? To what extent do you agree that the personal life is able to triumph
over the political life in this film? Please find moments in the movie to support your
idea.
4. Food is an important theme in the film, To Live. Choose TWO kinds of food and
briefly discuss the following questions: how are they depicted in the film and what
roles do they each play in terms of building the film plot? What are the symbolic
meanings of these two types of food, consumed or unconsumed, especially when
considering food is one of the fundamental needs to maintain a person’s life?

Purchase answer to see full
attachment