TRANSNATIONALISM and GENDER
In the previous blog, I have talked about transnational cinema yet this theme still continues to be the topic of discussion this week. Therefore, this blog theme would be transnationalism and gender.
Released in 2004, movie HERO create directed by Zhang Yimou has successfully explored the concept of the Chinese hero. The film has successfully demonstrated the transformation of action, violence into poetry and choreography ballet moves in martial art movie.
​
The first thing that worth notice in this movie was the narrative. It’s easy to see the unusual way of narrative which is “flash back”. Through the way Nameless tell the story in front of the king, we can see that Nameless might not be a reliable narrator. As the story is retold, the outcomes begin to change.
Hero (2004)
Through the story, I come to realize that it’s not always the action that defeats the enemy but it also about the psychology and emotional control.
​
HERO is the engagement of Chinese nationalism and global flow which demonstrate the transnational prospect (Lee 2007). This movie has produced its virtual images, narrative, and ideologies in transnational view that blur the boundary between China and other countries (Zhu 2013). With the story about The King of Qin trying to unify the six kingdoms and put an end to the war.
It’s was a part of history but also show the virtual aura of tianxia that imply the giant mapping that includes everything, everyone and the world order (Zhu 2013).
​
Throughout the movie, we can easily notice the extraordinary color design of this movie which moves our focus from the narrative of sacrifice to the cinematic aesthetic. The main colors used for narration was blue, white, green and red which for different warrior stories. This colors related to larger philosophical meaning with the specific meaning (Elliot 2015). Each color refers to the different perceptions and becomes the movie’s theme.
 |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Reproduced from: Hero 2004
Queen (2014)
Let’s move on to the second movie known as Queen (2014) directed by Vikas Bahl. This film was about this small-town girl who has been rejected by her fiance, therefore have to cancel the wedding one day before it. She then packs her stuff and goes on a holiday.
During her journey, she gets to meet a lot of people, find it hard to adapt to the new culture but then find her identity in this journey. With all the strength that she shows throughout 146 minutes screening, Queen has earned the support and love from the audience.
Reproduced from: Queen 2014
Not like any other movies, Queen was not about this girl who finds true love after one night, it also not a movie about revenge even after she has been abandoned by her fiance right before her wedding day. Queen with many hilarious but heart-warming scenes has brought feminism into Bollywood film industry, raise the issue about the role of women in Indian society (Hole, Jelaca, Kaplan & Petro 2016).
In India, they consider the biggest success of a girl life is to get married. But “Queen” go against that belief and prove that calling off the wedding could also affect the male side (Alam 2017). Therefore, in the movie, while exposed to the new idea and experience new activities, there were a lot of flashback about her in the past. This shows the direct contradiction to illustrate how passive she was back in India, lacking the self-confidence to follow her dream. The movie has successfully liberated the heroine, give her opportunity to fight for herself and to show that women might need men to be complete but not “Queen”.