Weekly Story Appreciation: Not One Less

If There Were 10 Million Fireflies, Should I Say Goodbye?

Meme to meet you,

On Friday, our Media Appreciation class watched a Chinese movie called ‘Not One Less’. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this, because of how old the quality of the movie looked like. I make myself comfortable in my seat as the movie started. There was a cold coca cola I just bought and took a long sip. Might as well get comfy, right?

It started with a man and a small girl walking down a rocky path. The girl's clothes are baggy and a bit dull. Both walked towards a rundown shack, it’s walls filled with dirt and it has big cracks on it. It turns out, the shack was actually a primary school for the children who lives in the village.

This is the part where it got me interested. The small girl walking with the man(who apparently is the mayor of this poor village) was hired to be a substitute teacher for one month. Wei Minzhi, a 13 year-old is going to be a teacher to students 3 years younger than her.

There were many challenges faced by both Wei Minzhi and her students. For Wei, she doesn’t have the ability or education to teach anything to her students. It’s not a surprise she couldn’t teach, she had just graduated from middle school. She was told by the teacher she’s going to replace to copy the texts in the book and not let any students out if they haven’t copy the texts. Which Wei did, by locking the door and stand guard outside the classroom.

In the students’ case, because Wei is not inside the classroom to enforce any rules or teach them anything, it became a free-for-all battle royale. In other words, pure chaos.

The days continued on like this until one of Wei’s student, the resident troublemaker Zhang Huike, went to the city to find a job to pay his family’s debt.

Wei Minzhi, the girl who ran to catch a jeep to keep her student, was very determined to bring the boy back to school. She enlists the help of her remaining 26 students to earn some money to go to the city.

And with the help of math (I’m amused and surprised) in real life situations and problems, they all earned some money for Wei to earn a bus ticket to the city. Which was actually not enough at all and the 13 year-old had to walk to the city after she was thrown out for sneaking into the bus.

After a few grueling days in the city, Wei managed to get into contact with the news station and told them about her reasons she came to the city. The station broadcast her in live T.V, prompting a reaction from Zhang Huike's boss to let the small boy know about his teacher.

In the end, both teacher and student were reunited. Their school were donated a whole supply of coloured chalk and other things, a donation for Zhang Huike to pay his debts and lastly, each student gets to write a character on the board with the coloured chalks.

This movie was absolutely amazing and I would definitely watched it again. It is well- balanced, and I definitely liked the humor bits scattered along the movie.

Source:

Yours truly

Comments on: Education in Rural Areas

The World May Fall Asleep, But My Eyes Will Keep On Staring At Fireflies

Meme to meet you,

In this week's agenda, I'd like to comment on a theme I picked named, 'Education in Rural Areas'. 

The education in rural areas are not as bad as it used to be. In this generation, everyone has access to the internet, or the media. Be it the smartphones, or computers, the young generation could gather knowledge by the click of their fingers in a second.

Even during my high school days, we already have smartphones, using it for entertainment, games, music and education. Our situation is not as bad as it was shown in the media. True, there are some parts of rural areas that doesn’t have internet, however, it is only for the most deep, deep of the areas who has sub par education.

Those who lived in the most deep of rural areas are slowly diminishing day by day. With cars that specialize in going to rocky terrains, such as Hilux, the Ford Ranger or Dmax 4x4, it is now easier to go to these areas.

The world is getting smaller and smaller as we developed more ways to connect to our friends and family who are living far away than us. There is no excuses that you could not have enough study or information when the internet is literally beneath your fingers and a second away!

If you don't have a phone, then use the laptop. If you don't have a laptop, go to the cyber cafe. If you don't want to go to a cyber cafe, go to the library and read a book.

Well, unless you live in the deep, deep part of the rural area.

Source:

Yours truly

A Brief Biography: Yimou Zhang

How Much Does An Eye Compare to 10 Million Fireflies?

Meme to meet you,

Yimou Zhang or, Zhang Yimou is a Chinese film director, producer, writer and actor, and former cinematographer. He was born in 2 April 1950, China. He is counted amongst the Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers, having made his directorial debut in 1987 with Red Sorghum.

Among family and friends, he was nicknamed Lao MouZi, which loosely means ‘old schemer’ or ‘strategist’.

Zhang has won numerous awards and recognitions, with Best Foreign Film nominations for Ju Dou in 1990, Raise the Red Lantern in 1991, and Hero in 2003, Silver Lion and Golden Lion prizes at the Venice Film Festival, Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. 

In 1993, he was a member of the jury at the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival. Zhang directed the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games, which received considerable international acclaim.

One of Zhang's recurrent themes is the resilience of Chinese people in the face of hardship and adversity, a theme which has been explored in such films as To Live (1994) and Not One Less (1999). His films are particularly noted for their rich use of colour, as can be seen in some of his early films, like Raise the Red Lantern, and in his wuxia films like Hero and House of Flying Daggers. His highest budgeted film to date is the 2016 monster film titled The Great Wall, set in Imperial China and starring Matt Damon.

A few of his quotes motivates other aspiring directors, artists and helps them understand better how to bring the audience to enjoy watching art of motion pictures. It also describes the person Yimou Zhang is, in how he observes the situation in China having a big influence in his movie techniques.

The objective of any form of art is not political. I had no political intentions. I am not interested in politics.

The Cultural Revolution was a very special period of Chinese history, unique in the world. It was part of my youth. It happened between when I was 16 and when I was 26. During those 10 years, I witnessed so many terrible and tragic things. For many years, I have wanted to make movies about that period - to discuss the suffering and to talk about fate and human relationships in a world which people couldn't control and which was very hostile. I would like to make not just one but many movies, both autobiographical and drawing on other people's stories. I'll just have to wait.

Sources:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0955443/bio

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhang_Yimou

Describing: Media

Would you believe your eyes? Or ten million fireflies?

Meme to meet you,

What is media? 

Well, according to wikipedia, media is the collective communication outlets or tools that are used to store and deliver information or data. It is either associated with communication media, or the specialized mass media communication businesses such as print media and the press, photography, advertising, cinema, broadcasting (radio and television) and publishing.

Media throughout History

The beginning of human communication through designed channels, dates back to ancient cave paintings, drawn maps, and writing.

Writing tools through the ages

In the last century, a revolution in telecommunications has greatly altered communication by providing new media for long distance communication. The first transatlantic two-way radio broadcast occurred in 1906 and led to common communication via analog and digital media:

Analog telecommunications include some radio systems, historical telephony systems, and historical television broadcasts.

Digital telecommunications allow for computer-mediated communication, telegraphy, and computer networks.

Modern Technology

Reference:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_(communication)

Weekly Story Appreciation: Surrealism

The ability to make a meme is stronger than 10 million fireflies

Meme to meet you

On friday, we were shown two weird short films, and they were 'Down the Cellar' and 'Food' by Jan Švankmajer. A very interesting (for a lack of a better word) Czech director.

In all my 19 years of living in this living world, I have never watched, seen or hear anything about surrealism in any media, books or even in a conversation. But I might be wrong. Maybe I have seen some form of surrealism and just didn't know the name of it. 

But as I enrolled to MMU and was exposed to many forms of art, I could definitely say that surrealism artworks are not my cup of tea. They never fail to make me comfortable and is too far out from my brain capacity to grasp the hidden meaning behind them and it takes me a long time to figure out the meaning.

These two short films is a testament to that.

From what I could see in 'Down the Cellar', it is a about a journey of a little girl as she travels down the cellar to bring some potatoes and encounter some definitely weird situations along the way.

To be honest, I think the weird encounters she has is actually a manifestation of her fears as she go down the cellar to take some potatoes. She saw strangers she passed by as creepy people who want to harm her. Throughout the short film she tries to escape the darkness and a black cat. When she almost made it out of the cellar , she trips and loses her potatoes and has to go once again into the dark.

In the short film 'Food', I was both amazed and uncomfortable about how the film portrays the human relationship by using food.

 Breakfast

Lunch

 Dinner

In the first act, breakfast, a long line of workers consume breakfast regurgitated by the worker who went before them. 

At lunch, two men, one dressed sharply and one in casual clothes, share a table in a restaurant. After failing to catch the waiter’s attention, they hungrily devour the objects around them. Tablecloths, serviettes and plates are all consumed via the magical process of stop-motion animation. Even their clothes are eaten. Whereas the sharply-dressed fellow eats his ‘lunch’ with more finesse, the poor man gobbles it like an animal. When everything is consumed the wealthy man tricks his companion into eating his knife and fork too, pretending to swallow his, only to produce them again and use them to cannibalise his buddy. The upper-class character physically consuming his working-class counterpart.

Lastly, dinner. It shows different people eating their body parts, which they depend on to live.

Introduction: Jan Svankmajer

Meme to meet you

Jan Svankmajer, a Czech filmmaker and artist whose work spans several media. He is a self-labeled surrealist known for his animations and features, and has been called one of the most distinctive and influential contemporary Czech filmmakers.

Svankmajer was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1934, coincidentally the very same year that the Czech Surrealist Group was formed, an organization with which he is very involved. In his 63 years in what is now the capitalist Czech Republic, he has seen the come and go of six different political regimes and their corresponding, often conflicting ideologies. While his work is noticeably political in content, Svankmajer is quick to point out that he maintains an inherent commentary and perspective which is not tied to any particular school of thought. There is a universality to his films which speaks to people from all cultures and beliefs. 

 "Animators tend to construct a closed world for themselves, like pigeon fanciers or rabbit breeders." Svankmajer stated in an interview, "I never call myself an animated filmmaker because I am interested not in animation techniques or creating a complete illusion, but in bringing life to everyday objects." 

And bring life to everyday objects is exactly what Svankmajer does. One could almost make a dictionary of objects as symbols in Svankmajer's films, something akin to Freud's Interpretation of Dreams. From fish to rolling pins, to keys, stones and wardrobe closets, objects usually trapped in the banality of life take on new meanings as metaphors for emotions and ideas.

References: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_%C5%A0vankmajer

https://www.awn.com/mag/issue2.3/issue2.3pages/2.3jacksonsvankmajer.html

Introduction: A Human named Hazeline

Who would win? Your eyes? Or ten million fireflies?

Hi there, welcome to my weekly journal entry. I have no idea what to do in here but I was told to make a journal about myself? Okay, so let's start with my name.

My name is Nur Hazeline binti Ramde Muhammad. I'm 19 years old and I come from a small lovely town from Sabah.

It's a bland introduction but it's a start, right? Below here is a small mind map containing a bit of information of myself.

I love doing my hobbies, but my passion is drawing. If I don't draw or at least doodle, I will have withdrawal issues. I've been drawing since kindergarten, and it became a part of who I am. Without drawing, I may have not come to MMU at all. And because I love drawing so much, I plan to take degree on animation. Not just because I love drawing, but I also want my art to become alive.

If I can't achieve my ambition to be an animator, I have my second passion to fall back to. I'll become a famous pianist and become a composer. I've been playing the piano since primary school, it takes a lot of practice to play the piano in primary but I managed to get it through. In musical grades, I almost finished mine, a grade 6 with grade 8 the final one.

Knowing that the future is unpredictable, whatever path I'm walking now... whether I become an animator or a pianist, I know it will be something I have passion in and that my family will support me.