THE BLUE KITE
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1994 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: The life of one Chinese family through
fourteen years of political upheaval is chronicaled in this
moving but very downbeat film. It was censored in China, not
too surprisingly. The film lacks focus at times, but many of
the situations are haunting and the film is a moving
indictment of politics out of control in Maoist China.
Rating: low +2 (-4 to +4).
THE BLUE KITE is the fictional autobiography of the first fourteen years of Chen Tietou's life in Mainland China. The story goes from Tietou's parents' marriage in 1953 up through the start of the Cultural Revolution in 1967. Tietou remembers himself as having been a particularly difficult child, but the problems he caused were small next to the family's political troubles. Tietou's family is perfectly loyal to the country and is not particularly political, yet it still torn apart repeatedly and eventually destroyed by the vagaries of a powerful, repressive and capricious political system. Much of what happens in the early parts of this film will remind Americans of McCarthyism. Yet the fact that these are just ordinary people, not celebrities or people in the public eye, reminds the viewer at how much pervasive the drive for political correctness was in China than it ever has been in the United States. The Chens are loyal enough to the government that they feel impelled to bow to the picture of Mao at their wedding and sing patriotic songs. It is very clear these of not political activists. They are good hard-working people who believe in Mao and his policies for China.
Encouraged by a government policy anxious to root out its own problems, Tietou's father is willing to discuss with friends what things needed change. When this Hundred Flowers policy is replaced by a government stance more paranoid, local officials turn viciously on Tietou's family. Repeatedly we see people's loyalty to the government betrayed. The country is so anxious to root out supposed traitors that they give the weapon of political ostracism to anybody who finds it convenient to use it. In one chilling sequence schoolboys are tired of school so they accuse their teacher of being a counter-revolutionary and have her humiliated and dragged away. It takes little to be accused of being disloyal and once accused there is little chance of being vindicated.
The film is 139 minutes long and follows Chen Shujuan, Tietou's mother, through three marriages and many life experiences, mostly ending in misery either because of the system's inadequacies, and its political paranoia.
Some aspects of this film would have played better to a Chinese audience. An important part of this film, presumably, are the political slogans and posters one sees as in the background of many of the scenes. Only occasionally are the signs translated in the subtitles, but the viewer gets the feeling that a lot was missed. Still there is the compensation that we get a view into town life in China that is probably more of interest to Westerners than to Chinese. I would give THE BLUE KITE a low +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mark.leeper@att.com
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