Problematizing Dreams in Peach Blossom Land around it

暗戀桃花源 Problematizing Dreams in Peach Blossom Land around it

Outline o Starting Questions n n o 1. 2. 3. Context I: Taiwanese theatre; From Theatre to Film Context II: cross-strait relationship More Questions; Three Approaches A Formalist Reading: Different Pursuers after Different Dreams An Meta-Theatrical/Filmic Reading National Allegory? –the Extra-Theatrical

Starting Questions o o o What do you think the film is about? How do you set its historical contexts? Please compare and contrast the two theatre groups and their plays. What roles do the directors, one assistant, the janitor and two strange women (one looking for 劉子驥 ) play?

Context (1) Improvisational Theatre (or Improv. ) o o o Improvisational performance Improvisational training Group Improvisational writing (or performance text) Tsai 19

Context (1) Improvisational Theatre (or Improv. ) 2 o Ref. Why is Improvisation important for an actor in theatre? n n n 1. The actor is not driven by the script but by imagination and expressiveness in creating characters 2. Improvisational skills are a resource for the actor 3. Without skills in improvisation the actor is in danger of inflexibility and narrowness. (source: http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Improvisation )

Peach Blossom Land Improvisational Theatre o o “Improvisation in its simplest form is spontaneously living the moment. ” (Lai qtd Tsai 68) ) 開放式即興；規劃式即興 文本 � Tsai 83�

Context (1) From Theatre to Film o o Production Company 龍祥－－原以賣港片為主� 以此片為拓展市場之途徑。 Characters 角色 －－必須擺脫原角色的影響。(以 江太太為例); Cinematography of 杜篤之 －－ (1) Found shooting the whole stage to be a mistake. (2) exposure of backstage and moving curtains up and down e. g. *尋找順子segment (theatre space film space) o

Context (1) Theatre to Film (2) o Cinematography 杜篤之 －－filmic representation of theatre spaces (3) Time/Space Travel – n *“return to the past”: Theatre backdrop film’s n 去桃花源 showing moving backdrops

More Questions o o How do we contextualize the film, then? … 「－ 伯伯� 你不是回大陸去了嗎？」

Peach Blossom Land Three Approaches 1. 2. 3. Formalist Approach (compare/contrast) : Different Pursuits of Ideals (in a Theatre as Life) Context (1): Meta-theatre-film (multiple theatrical context) -- Time Travel Film problematized Context (2): from Mess to Order –Nostalgic or a-political?

Peach Blossom Land The two plays in contrast Style Theme Recurrent Motif 暗 tragic; Ideal and Love Broken; China Taiwan 戀 Romantic Political unrest; Marriage Disorder - Reunion before Death migration --order 桃 花 源 Discontent comic; Poverty, Sexual crude and Impotence and Adultery; Ideal land //祖先 exaggerat Escape Return Vs. ed Marriage/Reality

Peach Blossom Land The two plays in contrast: Plot -- Means interruptions Thesis 暗 上海公園 戀 桃 武陵 花 (impotence 源 // extramarital affair) 桃 Anti-thesis Confusio n (lack of) Solution Constrained in 台北 病房 Missing 雲 seeing her (problem in acting) 桃花源 From frustration and anger to release in childish games. 等 她 來 Family tolerance 回 去 Meeting Life to death; Life or death; go together; Family arguments From Contrast to Mixing and Similarities

Peach Blossom Land 桃花源 (1): Personal Escape A. Personal Level: o Basic survival: 窮山餓水，潑婦刁民, 釣魚魚都串連好 了不一塊兒上網； o Comic Effects – 1. Symbols and Innuendos: Fish; 「小魚乾」 「那個什麼」 2. Actions: the comforter scene, drinking scene; o Rejection & Repetition: 1. Nobody can compare with him at 武陵。 2. Ideal land -- 春花� 白衣女子；袁老闆� 白衣男子 no escape from the bad memories?

Peach Blossom Land 桃花源 (2): “No Solution” 1. 「每個人都很祥和� 平靜� 每個人都為別人 著想� 每個景象都是美麗的圖畫� 每個聲音 都像是遙遠地方傳來美麗動聽的樂音」 Childish and non-sexual game; 2. Peaceful togetherness: e. g. apple-eating; 3. Perspectivism. 觀看角度 4. Even more impossible desire to take 春花 and 袁老闆 there. 5. The last scene – stopped by the other group and the janitor

Peach Blossom Land 暗戀 (1): Unrealistic Pursuit 1. 2. Romantic: The Song 〈追尋〉--「你是晴空的 流雲 你是子夜的流星」；芳香；時間靜止； 江’s impractical pursuit -n Belief in their meeting each other some place. n The nurse: 保持現狀� 雲小姐來你反而會更難 過� (e. g. clip 2) n Nurse: 「江先生人真的很好」 ；雲：「我先 生人真的很好。」� (clip 3) n Mrs. 江：serving her husband without understanding him; tries to comfort him at the end.

Peach Blossom Land 暗戀 (2): a Historical Tragedy 3. The ironies of fate: Repetitions ironies n 信。-- many letters; all missed. n 昆明(碰不到面)、上海(碰 面)、台北(這麼小﹐反而 碰不到面) 4. 江’s persistence -n The nurse: cannot remember what her lover looks like after two weeks. n The envelope—intended for his wife n Missing home – 東北

Peach Blossom Land II Meta-Theatre/Film: a Postmodern Collage o The two plays intersect with each other, with each segment (or the interruption in between) undermining the previous segment. o Theme: Time/Space Travel and Nostalgia problematized

Peach Blossom Land II Time/Space Travel & Nostalgia problematized o The two plays n n juxtaposed; Mutual criticism; Interrupting each other at their ‘climax’ or emotional moments; e. g. 「你一定要忘記� 戰爭� 死亡� 你一定要忘記才能重新開始…」 Confused with each other. e. g. 1 -- 老陶’s return e. g. 2 – two plays using the same stage. n

Peach Blossom Land II -B The Other Meta-Theatrical Aspect 暗 Setting; 上海病房 台北病房＋上海公園； Acting 改為台北 戀 Acting (the director’s projection) 桃 Stage 花 Prop 源 Missing one 桃樹逃出來； screen change the script (幹嘛「若 (尋找順子) 有光」? )

The Other Meta. Theatrical Aspect o 桃花源 e. g.

The Other Meta-Theatrical Aspect o 暗戀 e. g.

Peach Blossom Land II –C Meta Aspects: Theatrical Frames Beginning and Ending: Actors and Actresses coming and leaving. o beginning – Ending o -- Who gets to determine our directions in life? -- Life as fictions, but we are not necessarily its writers. -- No easy transition from one historical period to another.

Peach Blossom Land II –C Meta Aspects: Theatrical Frames o o o 2) Marginalized Characters: 1) Characters waiting for their time to act 2) The Assistant

Peach Blossom Land II –C Meta Aspects: Theatrical Frames o o 2) Marginalized Characters: 3) Two strange women One looking for 劉子 驥 The other reading newspaper and waiting The clock

Peach Blossom Land III –I Meta Aspects: Extra-Theatrical Frames from Mess to Order in Apparent Disorder situated in Social Discourses (as another kind of Order) Tsai 75

Peach Blossom Land III –I Meta Aspects: Extra-Theatrical Frames o One Possibility: A New Historicist Reading of the Film in the Context of the Previous Theatrical Productions o How “Dreams” are all historically produced (e. g. using different theatrical languages) and later commodified (turned into commercials—craze for 上海� 李立群’s CF). o “. . . The work of art is the product of a negotiation between a creator or class or creators, equipped with a complex, communally shared repertoire of conventions, and the institutions and practices of society” (Greenblatt 1989: 12)

Peach Blossom Land III-II Political Reading o After all, the film can still be read as an allegory of Taiwan’s national identity in cross -strait relations. o Is nostalgia really problematized?

Peach Blossom Land III-II 桃花源 (2): Political Reading 3. The contrast between signs of “the Chinese” and the “Taiwanese”: 上海 the wife, the Young nurse, the woman attached to her 雲之凡 love at 南陽街. No way out? How about these two women?