The Nature and Ends of Violence in Once Upon a Time in China - Movie Review Example

April 16, The Nature and Ends of Violence in Once Upon a Time in China Once upon a time, the East lives, not in perfect paradise, but with its own local troubles, until the West arrives, bringing tools of destruction and its notion of civilization. Hark Tsui’s Once Upon a Time in China contains the elements of this plot. The film narrates the story of well-known martial arts hero Wong Fei-Hung (Jet Lee) in the setting of historical transition from a closed to an open-economy China that Western forces are abusing for its human and natural resources. Analyzing the role of violence in the film helps understand the cultural historical background of China and the conflicts that main characters are experiencing during this time. The role of violence in the film is to establish and to preserve power, on the one hand, and to defend the helpless from power-greedy individuals and groups, on the other hand. The film establishes this role through the construction of the nature and ends of violence by using the elements of storytelling, cinematography, music, and editing, while the effect of these scenes on the audience is to help them realize the positive and negative uses of violence, as they witness how the cultural historical background of China demonstrates the conflict between Chinese and American cultures through the conflicts between autonomy and domination. The film uses violence to how some people use violence to impose their authority and to oppress marginalized people for economic purposes. The storyline has a chronological timeline and plot that revolve around the time of transition in China, from being a closed to being an open-market society that is vulnerable to Western and local exploitation. The timeline simplifies the presentation of the story with a clear ending, middle, and ending. Continuity editing helps the audience understand the causes and effects of violence on the Chinese society. In the film, the British use their guns to show their power over the Chinese. An example is what happened to Wong’s patient who got shot. Wong says that the patient got into the wrong ship because he got confused with the flags, so the British shot him. The low angle shot shows how Wong is in a strong moral position because he helps heal those who are victims of violence. The shot tilts to his bloodied hands, as he says: “The ‘Westernization Movement” is now underway” (Tsui, Once Upon). The scene shows the use violence through weapons in order to show and to preserve power. Another source of violence comes from internal actors, who like the outsiders, desire to use violence to gain economic advantages. The Shaho Gang is a syndicate that extorts from business people. Tsui shows that violence also comes from within the Chinese society because of differences in physical abilities. The wide shot introduces the gang that looks sinister. The mise-en-scene contrasts their aggressive attitude with the passive nature of those around them. Non-gang members are mostly seated and surrounded with hay, signifying rural work. Gang members have swords as weapons and stand aggressively and confidently. The music adds to the sinister mood of the film. The low-angle shot depicts the communication style of the gang. They physically show their power through the leader tapping Foon aggressively on this breast. The low-angle shot is also a wide shot showing how the gang bullies the weak with numbers and weapons. Aside from using violence to impose power and to dominate others, violence can also be used to preserve peace and order. The market brawl scene shows the efforts of the marginalized in fighting violent groups. Tsui uses continuity editing and reaction shots from different people to capture the public reaction to violence. Those in the restaurant, for instance, are shown in a wide shot, where they are interested in watching violence than stopping it. Other market stall owners and customers also watch. Only Wing, who is an idealistic Chinese nationalist who thinks he must protect the Chinese from foreign conquerors, defends Foon. He whistles for his comrades who come to his aid with fighting sticks. The high angle shot of the mise-en-scene contrasts two groups: the one with swords evidently are bloodthirsty, while the one with sticks are more peaceful and only want to help the weak. Tsui further shows high angle and bird’s eye view shots to emphasize the conflict between the groups and the market setting. The rest of the Chinese are not fighting and mere curious spectators, underlining the general apathy of the Chinese against the power struggles in their society. The fight is brother-against-brother or Chinese-against-Chinese. The high angle scene captures the chaotic violence of the gang. The wide long shot includes the property and business that the gang is destroying, including broken ceramic dishes and flying chicken on the market floor. Tsui adds these local elements to demonstrate the basic needs of the Chinese. The scene shows that the gang is not only physically destructive, but also economically harmful. A more specific example is Wong, when, during the restaurant brawl, he stops the fight without killing anyone, even the Shaho Gang. If Wong is violent, he does so to stop further violence. The film constructs his violence through high-angle, wide medium shots of him stopping people from killing one another. He disarms them calmly, instead of selectively killing Shaho Gang members. The scene shows that, even if a person is capable of violence, it does not mean that he should use it to force his will on other people who are weaker than he is. What differentiates Wong’s violence is the good nature and ends of his violence. He uses violence passively and defensively for the purpose of helping the vulnerable or terminating existing senseless violent acts. Wong’s violence is sharply contrasted to “bad violence.” violence for good ends or violence for bad intentions. At the center of the story is Wong who has national and personal conflicts. His personal conflict is his attraction with Aunt Yee (Rosamund Kwan), who is the same age as he, but is related to him by title, and so it is taboo for them to be in love. Despite being powerful in martial arts, Wong does not force himself on Yee or any other woman, unlike Shaho Gang who uses their physical strength and skills to violate women and to terrorize businesspeople and extort money from them. The film shows a dualistic approach to human nature because it shows that even violence can be good or bad. Several people demonstrate the misuses and abuses of violence because of their impure ends, mostly economic and political in nature. The Shaho Gang and some foreigners involved in smuggling and human trafficking. The nature of violence for the gang is malevolent because they use it to establish their power over the weak. Gang members use violence to abuse people and to grow fear in their hearts, so that they can abuse the latter physically and financially. When the Shaho Gang is shown in the market place fighting scene, Apart from the Shaho Gang, the foreigners are not free from expressing violence too. These foreigners are as exploitative as the Shaho Gang. Americans, in particular, team up with the Shaho Gang to kidnap women that the former sell as prostitutes. The nature of foreign violence in general is economic and political. They are violent because they see the Chinese as means to financial ends. They also show physical violence to establish that they too have their own authoritarian power and that they want to preserve it through violent means. The irony in the film is that America is often shown as ambassadors of democracy and justice in Hollywood movies, but in Once Upon a Time in China, the dark side of America is exposed. Americans are not always perfect ambassadors of goodness because some of them also want to abuse the locals, as they use them to enrich themselves. When Wong attacks the American base to rescue Aunt Yee and the rest of the kidnapped women and a fighting follows, the Americans show their physical violent side. They use guns, modern tools of violence, to protect their interests. Their weapons are only some of the ways that the film demonstrates the cultural background of the story. The other side of violence is dark with the role of exploiting the weak and defenseless. The film shows that violence is used in different ways and violence scenes help the audience determine the positive and negative uses of violence, as they witness how the cultural historical background of China demonstrates the conflict between Chinese and American cultures and the struggle for autonomy and domination that affects their relationship. Tsui effectively demonstrates cultural clashes. In the restaurant, the camera zooms into the western utensils. The way Americans eat is different from the Chinese who use chopsticks. The mise-en-scene of the meeting between Wong and the foreigners further underlines these cultural differences. Wong and the Chinese actors have traditional Chinese clothing for men, including hats. The Westerners have their own Western clothing and hats too, as well as different hairstyle. Aside from the costumes and props that depict Chineseness and Americanness, the audience can also see differences in communication styles. The foreigners are direct and aggressive in their language and actions, while the Chinese are respectful and do not want to make immediate decisions without consulting others. The scene shows how the West is infiltrating China, not through cultural integration, but cultural domination, since Western symbols and objects are used instead of Chinese counterparts. With sharp cultural differences, the scene indicates the high possibility for conflict. Wong and many of the Chinese want to remain free and autonomous in their beliefs and practices. Some Westernized Chinese and foreigners, on the contrary, want to change China, to the point of enslaving China to support Western interests. The fight scene in the end when Wong and his students save Aunt Yee and the women shows that the Chinese, not the West, are the true heroes of their country. Wong uses violence with ideals of justice and protection of freedom, while Yee Kwan Yan (Shi-Kwan Yen) uses violence for competitiveness against Wong and the Americans use it also for selfish gains. The high-key lighting reveals these differences in violence because people’s actions on each other are evident. Discontinuity editing with shot-reverse shot and parallel editing demonstrates the use of traditional martial arts versus American weapons of destruction. The effect is showing that power comes with responsibility too. Having ammunitions does not give people the right to oppress others. The film shows that traditions are not bad, but social, economic, and political changes cannot be stopped as the West and the East interact. Wong’s triumph suggests that, to survive the arrival of the West, the East must cope through preserving positive ideals and practices and adopting Western influences that do not degrade their cultural identities. The story about China’s transformation continues to present times. The film is only an introduction of how much the West and China is changing one another in different ways and degrees. To say “once upon a time” can be misleading, however, because it overlooks the fact that China is changing up to now. Wong may a legendary martial arts leader, but his power and goodness are not enough to stop global changes from affecting what China represents. Violence, nevertheless, remains a strong force in how China and the rest of the world is built by local and international powerful leaders and organizations. Work Cited Once Upon a Time in China. Dir. Tsui Hark. Perf. Jet Li, Biao Yuen, Rosamund Kwan. Golden Harvest Company, 1991. Film. Work Cited Once Upon a Time in China. Dir. Hark Tsui. Perf. Jet Li, Biao Yuen, Rosamund Kwan. Golden Harvest Company, 1991. Film. Read More