by Hal Erickson
synopsis
Originally released as Chine Ma Douleur, the French/German China, My Sorrow takes place during the Chinese cultural revolution of the mid-1960s. At that time, it was strictly forbidden to express any interest for "Western" culture. Thus, teen-aged Guo Liang Yi is arrested, humiliated in public, and shipped off to a re-education camp when he plays a pop-music record. The pressures of the redoctrination process serves only to make the boy more fiercely independent than ever. Not surprisingly, China, My Sorrow director Dai Sijie was himself obliged to leave China to enjoy full creative freedom.
characteristics
- Fighting The System
- Totalitarian States
- Humiliation
- Government
- Identity
- Teen
- Tradition
- Ridicule
- Demean
- Communism
- Coming-of-age
- Childhood-adventures
- Arrest
- Communist
- Dehumanization
