The Postmodern Life of My Aunt (Yi ma de hou xian dai sheng huo) (2006)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Veronique K

  
  since wwi, the orient, especially the far east, has become the colonial prey of occiental domination, and frankly such aggression has only been deepened by the progress of globalization(from material level to ideological standard) which is a beauitified utopian term of cultural… More
  since wwi, the orient, especially the far east, has become the colonial prey of occiental domination, and frankly such aggression has only been deepened by the progress of globalization(from material level to ideological standard) which is a beauitified utopian term of cultural assimilation, to diminish the tribal characteristic then create a homogenic mode for people in various ethnicities. despite the orient does possess great exotic fascination over the occient, but merely in a superficial level, which manifests in various highly popularized yellow-face movies with oriental themes like kung-fu, samurai, geisha. (i mislike to mention samurai and geisha becuz it's jap, but to the western mass, what's so different between jap, korean and chinese? just like my compatriots ignorantly dismiss every caucasian as american.) in the international market, asian directors are eager to make period pieces like red cliff, crouching tiger and hidden dragon, the curse of gold flower...etc, but they're campy ridicules to gratify audience's oriental dreams. the term "multiculturalism" arised around the 60s with the raging countercultural phenomenon of beat generaion, worship of zen and orientalism as the apparatus against the conventional anglo-saxon culture, so the point is they just desire to revolt against the orthodox by showing off their fascination over the orient, such as jack kerouac has acclaimed himself as buddhist...such rebel spirit still exists nowadays, just like great many of my hipster flixster pals are fanatic to foreign, non-american movies and some hong-kong old martial movies made by the shaw company to flaunt how cool and unique they're. honestly it leaves me callous because none of those oriental movies has manifested a bit of authenticity but magnify its eccentricity to serve audience's wanders of curiosity as if we're freaks and monsters for demonstrations. "the postmodern life of my aunt" is the only chinese movie i've seen recently, which really contains three-dimensional protagonists and genuine paradox of cultural reflections, it's about the disillusion of a middle-age woman's metropolitan aspiration, how she decays and awakened from a false fancy of intellectual smugness. i feel awkward to elucidate further since the appreciated audience belongs to those who identify themselves as chinese, those with great absorption of its cultural sophistication, or everything might appear un-comprehesible and drab to the outsiders. this movie doesn't sell in taiwan and hong-kong despite the residents are all chinese by blood, the cultural identification has patheticaly disintegrated. letting alone chinese americans or any other dispersed chinese all over the world. (but it's a smashing hit in mainland china.) also none of my flixster pals has seen it or want to see it, perhaps i should feel complacently consoled by this lack of popularity because it means its exclusiveness, and every country should have movies like this as cultural preservations. just like "creature from the black lagoon" is an ultimte american b classic for kids who grew up watching every saturday's monster flicks on tv. to non-american foreigners, it might appear laughably obsolete.