Look deeper and you will find that this film is working on a number of different levels.
The first level being the contrast of the personal versus the political (public). As we follow each generation, we see the relationship between the personal lives of these women and how they are impacted by the cultural/political events of the time. While the political events may occasionally seem tacked on, the end result is a subtle analysis of the changing values of Chinese society over the course of fifty turbulent years.
No political or social commentary would be complete without recognition of how such events impact women, especially when they are taken as symbols of social stability itself. The state of women's lives is a direct reflection of the values which are being espoused by the larger society in which they live and breathe. Thus, each generation of women in the film represent, in their character, the norms and standards of their time.
The second level of the film looks at how gender relations have progressed (or regressed) and how gender relations are related to the evolution of a society. The third level of the film takes viewers through the complexities of mother-daughter relationships and how they can never be separated from society at large. Each mother-daughter relationship has its own life and we are shown how values pass (and are altered) from one generation to the next.
The movie begins with a single mother (with a strong, noble, and graceful personality) whose past is not explained to us, though we are led to believe it is unconventional and thereby shameful. Her daughter (Mo) then begins her own unconventional life with a short stint as an actress. The profession of acting is representative of how women of the time were merely viewed as flashy commodities without brains, to be used (or abused). And so we see Mo become entirely swept away by a fantasy life over which she has no control or, more accurately, where control never seems to enter awareness as a real possibility. Therefore, it is unsurprising that until the end of her life, Mo is unable to exercise any real will and is consistently the victim of circumstance and easily overpowered by others.
In the next generation we see a willful daughter (Li) torn between the old China of her mother's generation and the new China of her lover's world during the Communist Revolution. Li is assertive, capable but ultimately confused and unsure of what she wants until she is pushed to the edge. She ultimately succumbs to this unresolved tension which plays out through the development of her mental illness and ultimate disappearance.
In the final chapter of the story, we follow the next daughter (Hua) and her journey to resolve these historical/emotional conflicts. While the first few years of her life were spent happily in a relatively stable family, after her father's suicide and her mother's disappearance, she is raised by her grandmother Mo. This part of the story takes place in the 70s and 80s, a time of great progress for women's rights and causes. Hua is an educated working girl, quite plain and unassuming. She struggles, trying to hold on to the role of a traditional wife, not quite ready for the independence being pushed upon her by society. Her marriage is doomed merely by circumstance and naiveté. She makes the most difficult decision of her life in keeping her child and becoming a single mother. Hua empowers herself by playing games with her soon-to-be ex-husband and learning all she can about pregnancy and motherhood.
The suffering and struggles of previous generations culminate in a rather unrealistic but highly symbolic birthing scene in which Hua gives birth to the next daughter. She decides to move away from the family residence and the camera pans slowly over the shiny new suburbia that China is quickly becoming. The final scene leaves us with Hua finally coming to terms with her past and herself. And so, after much tribulation, a new Woman and a new China is born (hence the title, literally translated as "Jasmine Blossoms").
The script, sometimes long but engaging, is carried quite capably by the principle actors. Sometimes the performances overshadow or distract from the message of the movie but good acting is good acting. Ultimately, this is a film, ambitious and carefully crafted, about the evolution of today's China as embodied in the personal lives of these women who carry within them the collective values of their individual generations.
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