[e-mail] Review of Kan shang qu hen mei

Kan shang qu hen mei (2006)

an allegory for individualism opposing conformity

[25 October 2007]

This film is an allegory for the communist state vs the individual, and for the universal human tale of wanting something then realising its not what it seems. The school is the state, the teachers its agents, and the little boy a free thinking individual who wants to be part of society, but then realises that that particular society has faults that he finds insurmountable. He seeks to set up his own society, of like minded people, hence his relationship with one distinct little girl. The hospital is a place he is drawn to because it is a place where people (psychiatric patients) are treated with the care and consideration he doesn't receive from the teachers at his school, or from his mother, who is another agent of the state (away working for "the ministry" in another city). The hospital, being apparently a psychiatric hospital, is also symbolically a place where people are free to behave differently without being held to account (Note the juxtaposition of the hospital with the regimented troops being made to salute over and over again).