COMPARE AND CONTRAST TWO FILMS
Both the films what time it is there and pushing hands are very similar in terms of the message they carry across and how they do it. Both films involve people trying to recover from major setbacks in their lives and adapt to a new environment in the process. Both films also provide an inside analysis of just how challenging it can be to fuse one’s cultural beliefs with the cultural beliefs of others in an attempt to coalesce one’s life with that of others in a foreign land. Both films portray strong emotional attachments and a difficulty by the characters to fully accept and come to terms with the various emotional setbacks they have undergone in the course of their lives mostly caused by the untimely loss of a loved one or circumstances beyond the control of the characters.
Pushing hands tells the story of Chu who moves to live with his son and Caucasian wife Martha. Chu can barely speak English and has a tendency of practicing his tai chi and watching Chinese programs at a relatively high volume while Martha is busy writing her novel, the perfect recipe for conflict. Chu finds it difficult to fuse his Confucian ideologies which emphasize highly on family relations with western ideologies which are more inclined towards individualism. This is similar to challenges faced by Shiang Chyi in what time is it there when she moves to France. Chu is confronted by his son about the tense situation between him and Martha and proceeds to reveal just how damaged he was emotionally from the political oppression he received in china and from the loss of his wife. Shiang Chyi in what time is it there also finds solace in meeting a fellow Taiwanese in Paris. The title of the film refers to the martial arts technique of yielding when faced by superior force perhaps alluding to how Chu would have to yield in the face of western culture which proved to be stronger and more forceful than his individual belief.
What time is it there tells the story of Hsiao Kang and how he is coping with the death of his father an how cultural, beliefs affect his healing process. His coping methods are however very different from those adopted by Chu in pushing hands.it also tells the story of Shiang Chyi who moves to Paris but instead of finding joy ends up very sorrowful and lonely to the extent that she even falls ill. She only finds a hint of solace when she meets a fellow Taiwanese with whom she can identify and relate. This is similar to the difficulty experienced by Chu when he moves to live with his son. Hsiao kang lives with his mother who is convinced that the spirit of her dead husband will return to their house. This belief heightens Hsiao kang’s paranoia who is reduced to urinating in plastic bags at night. He is terrified that if he gets up and heads to the toilet at night he might encounter his father’s ghost along the way. This is very different from Chu who seemingly has come to terms with the death of his wife but is still grieving on the inside. Hsiao Kang meets Shiang Cyi on her way to Paris and in opposition to his deep emotions decides to sell her his watch, which bears emotional attachment to his recently deceased father. After selling the watch Hsiao kang develops an insatiable urge to set all the watches he comes across to Paris time perhaps in expression of the emotional void he felt due to the loss of his father and the new emotional attachment he felt towards shiang chyi.
All these three main characters Chu, Hsiao Kang, and Shiang Chyi have an emotional void, which they try to fill in ways, which in certain instances places them on a collision course with the current establishment. All the characters have suffered great losses, be it the loss of a loved one or the loss of a cultural way of life held dear or in Chu’s case both. All these characters display a hint of desperation to fully adapt to their current predicament and get over the losses encountered previously.
The films however differ in the methodology adopted by the characters to fill their emotional void and recover from their previous life experiences. Chu tries to make a full recovery from the oppression he endured and the loss if his wife by establishing strong ties to his son and his son’s new family. He attempts to resuscitate his old family by establishing newer and stronger ties to his son and his wife. Hsiao Kang adopts an entirely different and somewhat strange approach to cope with and recover from the loss of his father. He develops a fetish for watches and selling them and even believes that his father’s spirit is somehow attached to his watch it might even be argued that he is in denial of the fact that his father is really gone forever. His fetish takes a rather strange turn when he sells his father’s watch to shiang chyi and inevitably finds himself tempted to set every clock he comes across to Paris time. Perhaps he is trying to fill the emotional void left by the loss of his father with this new attachment he feels for shiang chyi.
I however dislike how Hsiao Kang’s emotional attachment to his dead father manifests and grows into an obsession for watches and setting them to Paris time. He is obviously very emotionally damaged and in need of immediate intervention if he is ever to make a full recovery from the events that have led to his predicament.
