Bashing capitalism through film

In the preface to the Hawaii International Film Festival 2000 guide, Jeannette Paulson Hereniko, HIFF’s founding director, re-stated the purpose of the event: to promote cultural understanding among diverse peoples. Paulson-Hereniko established the annual event in order to use the medium of film to transport viewers into “another culture, another world”–into a whole other life experience.

In this year’s cinematic showcase, films such as L’ennui, Breaking the Silence, China Gold Rush, Bad Money, and Nowhere to Hide accomplish Ms. Hereniko’s mission statement admirably. Each film conveys a different flavor of life, presumably consistent with its dominant culture. But mixed into this cultural exchange is a pronounced attack upon good, old fashioned American capitalism.

In Breaking the Silence, for example, we see one impoverished Chinese woman’s struggle to raise her hearing-impaired son and cope with life. To many in the Waikiki 2 audience, the film was poignant, moving, heart-warming and somewhat morose. Sobs could be heard throughout the theater. Many probably regarded it as a “wonderful,” touching film. Viewers could relate to the sad plight of one woman’s struggle to live in today’s China.

Although a captivating film visually, I did not appreciate the film. I thought it conveyed a misleading view of China today. It communicated suffering amid capitalism at a time when China, from an economically objective standpoint, is in the best shape in history. Millions of people are prospering in China today. Why not portray the life of an up and comer–of a Chinese citizen who has arrived? Why focus on the negative?

In the film, a rich person is portrayed as lazy and rapacious; he attempts to rape the mother character. A scene of sadness and grief is displayed inside a McDonald’s restaurant, in complete contrast to the happy commercials. Economic hardships are subversively given full play. By implication, astute viewers might rightly wonder whether the director is calling for a return to greater socialism. It is a disturbing film, to be sure.

In China Gold Rush, a contemporary documentary, we see, through various expat interviews and breathtaking shots of skyscrapers, a more uplifting view of China. We see China as a rising dragon, vibrant, dynamic and self-assured in the modern world, yet also secure in its ancient traditions.

Which leaves us wondering: which is the more accurate view of China today? China Gold Rush, the documentary? Or Breaking the Silence, the fictional feature film? As in America, I suspect there is a vast chasm between the intellectuals/artists and the people. Just as Hollywood and the US mainstream Eastern liberal media do not represent Main Street America, Chinese film directors may not accurately represent China.

In Bad Movie: Bad Money, this reviewer’s revised title for the film (originally simply known as Bad Money), we see a nihilistic, foul, anti-capitalist and thoroughly debauched Canadian treatment of modern life. In its theme and comedic content, Bad Movie: Bad Money is essentially no different from American Beauty, an American version of contemporary filth and depravity passed off as “art.” In both cases, we see the same dysfunctional families and characters, each disillusioned with modern life and extremely hostile toward corporate life and capitalism.

“You can’t have morals and money,” says one character. “Our lives hang by a thread,” declares another. So goes the film’s perverted view of First-World existence. Perhaps these left-wing anarchists might wish to move to Bangladesh or Zimbabwe. If so, good riddance! May they take their dirty, subversive films with them and see how many tickets they sell.

Strictly a personal view. Charles Reyes Jr. is a regular columnist of Saipan Tribune. Mr. Reyes may be reached at charlesraves@hotmail.com