Jul 28, 2009

A.T.Y.O.G.P movie- question

1. What is it that makes it so hard to talk to each other?

In the movie "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers", the situation of being quiet has been shown in almost of the scenes which invove Mr Shi and his daughter, Yilan. There are a lot of reasons that can be made to explain why they are not so close.
First, it might be because of the rumour about Mr Shi having affair with other woman has influence Yilan to has a bad perception about her father and meanwhile, her misunderstanding has ruined herself when she chose to have a special relationship with a Russian man while she still in a marriage, which might be inclined by the rumour and she thought it would be a reasonable excuse for her to do so. She knew that her father came to America to visit and to know what actually happened that cause her getting divorced. To avoid talking about her past marriage and why she divorced, she tried to speak less.
Second, from Yilan's personal reason, she said that though she was growing up in a chinese family, she felt more comfortable with english. She said, "I don't talk well in Chinese. ..if you grew up in a language, in which you never learned, to express your feelings, it's easier to learn to talk in a new language. It makes you a new person." Thus, the culture adaptability has become one of the reason why both of the father and daughter hardly spent their time to have a conversation.
Third is because of generation gap. It is obviously shown in the movie where Yilan seems to feel more comfortable to spend her spare time with her friends rather than her father . For example, though she knew that she had spent too little time with her father because she was busy with her work, but she prefered to went out and watch movie with her friend.
This point brings to another reason which is different kind of interest. Yilan has no point to speak out to her father and she was greatly influenced by western way of life like she felt awkward at first when saw a red chinese fan was hanging on her house's door. Besides, for Mr. Shi, he thought that her daughter didn 't has a happy life but Yilan refused by saying that being quiet doesn't mean she not happy.

"A Thousand Years of Good Prayers" - a review


"A Thousand Years of Good Prayers" is a movie directed by Wayne Wang which is actually has been extracted from a short story written by Yiyun Li.

The movie is about a life of a father, Mr Shi and his daughter,Yulan who are not so close to each other. Though they are from a same family, however the way they were acting did not potrays the family relationship between them which suppose to be seen between a father and daughter.

Mr. Shi, a Chinese man who, after the death of his wife, decides to travel to the United States in order to see his estranged daughter for the first time in over a decade. Their time together is awkward at first, seeing each other only at dinner when he cooks for her. Shi spends his days taking in the strange culture, improving his language skills, and making a friend in an Iranian woman. Eventually his persistent attempts to forge a connection with his daughter lead to some buried issues bursting forth between the pair.