PSY317: weekly movie review

Cry Freedom

Cry Freedom, a movie depicts about the racial prejudice and discrimination that happened in the late 1970s stating the policy that were implemented in South Africa at the particular time. From the movie, we can see how the changes is brought through a lot of difficulties and sacrifices to South Africa. The story revolves around two main characters which are Donald Woods, journalists and Steve Biko, an activist to fight for equal rights for both race. Also, we also can see how Donald Woods undergoes changes in his perspective in the movie in the process of interacting with Steve Biko giving him a deeper understanding of Biko's actions and perspectives towards the condition of South Africa.

Importance of mutual understanding
In the movie, I have learned that never judge a person without putting ourselves on people's shoes. It is important to first to strive to understand people views without having a strong bias and prejudice towards the person which is unfair to them. Donald Woods portrayed this characteristic where he initially also thinks that Steve Biko is an activist promoting black superiority until he was given an opportunity to see Steve Biko in person and understand him deeper. He was able to put away his personal views and attempt to understand Steve Biko actions and views towards the condition of South Africa which in return allowed him to gain a whole new perspective and understand what was the need of the blacks in South Africa, equal rights and treatments for both races. Eventually, although Steve Biko died in the movie, Donald Woods become the successor of his thoughts and strive to tell the whole world on what is happening in South Africa trying to fight for equal rights for the blacks even he might endangered his life.

Efforts and sacrifices needed to overcome racial oppression
In the movie, I have seen the efforts and sacrifices taken to overcome the racial oppression in South Africa. The death and imprisonment of years of the activists highlighted that the issue cannot be just overcome in a day and night miraculously. Efforts and sacrifices had to be made to overcome such racial oppression and persistence in fighting it. In the most crisis moment, persistence, unity and efforts is the vital characteristics to fight against it until the end as the saying goes, in the darkest night there is a light beyond it and ending always comes the last.

Personal remarks from the movie
From the movie, I somehow have the personal connection towards the issue stated in the movie which is similar to the current condition of my country. I once given up hope and efforts to fight against it due to few failures in the past. Instead of being persistent in continuously putting effort to overcome it, I once thought of escaping the current situation by leaving the country. However, after the movie I learned that change is a continuous process which takes time and effort and does not happen in a day and night miraculously. This had further motivates me and thoughts that this is not the end and there can be more efforts to be done to overcome the issue that still exist in my country to allow a better future for the next generation.

PSY317 Weekly Reflection: Mississippi Burning

Mississippi Burning

 Mississippi Burning depicts the real life events of racial prejudice and discrimination that once happened in United States between the black and white people in the 1960s. It was shown in the movie that the racial prejudice and discrimination happened was mostly due to the fact that lack of understanding where assumption and ignorance was the biggest cause of the hatred against each other.

So, what was the cause of racial prejudice and discrimination in the first place? From the movie, there were few viewpoints I have gained. 

In the movie, it was also trying to send a message that racial prejudice and discrimination were not something we born with but something that were taught since young. When the leader of Ku Klux Klan was giving the talk to provoke  the hatred against the black people, the director attempt to show the faces of the younger generations, their reactions and actions where the eventually was just following the examples of the adult there. 

There was a story told by Agent Anderson in the story about the actions of his father on the neighbour which is black. I understood the story in my point of view as that Agent Anderson was trying to convey the message on the cause of racial prejudice and discrimination was nothing but the emotion of envy towards the others.An emotion that occurs when the person lacks of the another's superior quality where it can be achievement, possession of asset and even talents. This emotion leads them to unhappiness and dissatisfaction in their life due to the fact that someone who is not in their social group is superior than them. In order to gain back the integrity and feeling of superior, they began to develop racial prejudice and discrimination to feel good of themselves. 

The another viewpoints I have gained in the movie was the violence used in the movie. Proper legal procedure was not able to detain the clan members of Ku Klux Klan in the movie due to unfair judgements. Agent Anderson had to used his own unique way which included many illegal actions and behaviours including violence to successfully detain the Ku Klux Klan. Although, the Ku Klux Klan was all successfully detained in the movie, it did not solve the racial prejudice and discrimination immediately within Mississippi. The influence and the racial prejudice and discrimination was still there due to the lack of understanding of both races. Violence was just able to solve the surface of the problem but not the core of the problem. I believed that education and mutual understanding is still the essential way to solve racial prejudice and discrimination between races.

Social identity theory was very relatable in the movie where people tends to increase their own self-image by enhancing the status of the group that they belong (Tajfel, 1979). In the process of enhancing their own social identity, social categorization happens in the process where the divide of 'them' and 'us' known as in-group and out-group. In the movie, Ku Klux Klan was the example of a social group of white people who discriminate the other out-group member, black people to show their superiority of abilities and enhance their self image which eventually incur the racial prejudice and discrimination showed in the movie. 

On side note, I viewed racial prejudice and discrimination can only be countered and abolished by creating a mutual beneficial goals or having a mutual enemy to fight against which we can see nowadays in sports where people tend to only belong to the larger social identity group, the nation instead of their own race and ethnicity. 

PSY317 weekly reflection: Eat Drink Man Woman

Eat Drink Man Woman 1994
Eat Drink Man Woman tells a story of family of three daughters and a father on how their proceed to stages of life. The father took the responsibilities to take care of his three daughters from small until grown up take care of their lives ranging from school, food and even laundry of his daughters underwear. As the story proceed, each of his daughter started to proceed to their next stage of life, becoming independent, getting married which means leaving the home and the father. The story continues to proceed until the end where a dramatic exposure from the father which shocked everyone in the family and everyone had found their ideal place to continue in their life.

There are few characters I mainly focused in the movie which is the father, Chu and the second daughter of the family, Jia Chien.

Chu is the father of the three daughters who had lost his beloved life 16 years ago and took the responsibility of taking care of his daughters since young until they are grown up alone. In the movie, we can see that Chu is an old man that had begun to lost the direction and his meaning in life.His daughters are beginning to leave home to pursuit their own dreams and ideal marriage while Chu is growing old nearing to death and lost his sense of taste which influence his career as a chef. In my perspective, Chu is in the Erikson psychosocial stages of development of Integrity vs. Despair. The three daughters will eventually leaves him as they proceed to their next stages of life, the lost of his sensation in taste which caused a crisis in his career and the sudden death of his best friend, Old Wen. These few factors had caused Chu to reflect his own life on his accomplishment and what will he be leaving when he faced death. As the story proceeds on with the incidents, Chu decided to quite his job as a chef and started to make notes on the Chinese cuisine recipes intending to able to pass it on to the next generation. His daughter growing to be mature and moving on to the next stage of life, marriage allows him to start to make consideration for himself which he did not since the day he took the parental responsibilities fully by himself. In the end, Chu was able to find his meaning in life, finding his new true love, Jin Rong and his soon-newborn child. In the end, Chu gained back his sense in taste which i perceived it as a symbol that Chu finally gained back his meaning in life and able to live with integrity.

The another character I focused is Jia Chien, the second daughter of the family. Jia Chien was the first of the three daughters to announced that she is going to leave the home and live outside to gain her independence and freedom of life. She had some resentment on her father, Chu for not allowing her to become chef and instead insist her to go for college and work in business field. Although she was successful in her career following the path that her father insisted, she still have resentment towards him for the control and force that influence her life pathway. As the story proceeds in the movie, Jia Chien eventually saw her father doing medical check-up in the hospital which leads her to think that her father might not be in good health and reminded her the mortality of her father. She began to have doubts to whether leave her home which she always wanted to do so. She was even given a good promotion in her job position by the company which was a good chance and reason to leave home. Eventually, she decided to reject the promotion offered and stay home to take care of her father which showed her love towards her father and she had forgiven her father for the acts in the past. However, surprisingly a shocking news was announced by her father to get married with Jin Rong, a classmate of her sister and Chu was actually in a very good health condition. The expressions showed by Jia Chien when her father announced it was first shock and then tears when her father is leaving the home. Ang Lee did not further explain or describe why were there tears in Jia Chien eyes when she looking at her father leaving the house with his new true love. Several meanings can be derived from Jia Chien tears scene in the movies. In my view, the tears of Jia Chien in the movie signifies two meaning of sadness from the feeling of abandonment and happiness. Jia Chien was willing to give up the good opportunity to leave home for independence and the promotion from her job to take the responsibility to take care of her father, due to her sisters were all unavailable and assumption on her father decline on health. The sudden news that her father, Chu was actually fine and found his new true love shocked her in an extend that her untold efforts and decisions were all in vain, this time her father is the one who will be leaving their home to move on to next stage of life. The happiness part would be where her father is actually in good health and found his true love and meaning in life to continue on and additionally, she is now gained her desired freedom to do whatever things she wanted to live independently.

PSY317 weekly reflection: Strictly Ballroom

Strictly Ballroom(1992)

The movie Strictly Ballroom is mainly about the theme of compliance involved in the dancing competition. Scott the main character started off as the guy who refuse to comply with the group, friends and families expectation on how to dance. Scott was the 'special' one in the group identity which dance using his own created steps. Being different was not perceived as good phenomenon in the movie, everyone did not accept the way he danced and even felt frustration and sadness for Scott's behaviour. For instance, the reaction of the Barry Fife which felt frustrated for Scott's dance and denied his dance by not recognizing his dance, Scott's mother which felt sad and even said she failed as his mother for not guiding him to dance 'appropriately' instead of his own dance steps. In addition, Liz was also angry towards Scott for not dancing normally and following the customs of the original dance. Friends of Scott also avoid to comment on Scott's dance whether was it they liked it as they did not dare to admit the dance was good which is different with the group expected behaviour and answers. Most of the characters in movie tried to ask compliance from Scott to stop dancing differently from the others so that Scott can win the competition. Scott was able to refuse to comply with the request until Barry Fife attempt to gain compliance from Scott by telling a fictional 'truth' about the past of his parents and he should win the trophy of the competition to fulfill his parents expectations and wishes which made Scott eventually comply for the first time in the movie.

Also, in the movie we can see how Scott stand against the peer pressure from his surrounding to conform and comply with the group expectations. Scott first started trying to get affirmations from his friends and families on whether is it the way he dance not good. He focused on the question their thoughts on the dance instead of whether the dance was complying to the group's needs. Scott was trying to gain support for him to resist the conformity pressure on him. Then, Fran appeared in front of Scott which she recognizes the way Scott dance and provide the necessary support to Scott to perform and dance in his free will instead of conforming with his surroundings. They supported each other and provide each other the courage to stand against conformity even in the means of being rejected for being different in the group. Finally, although Scott once comply and conform to the group needs, Scott's father, Doug provide the necessary support and guidance to Scott to once again overcoming the conformity pressure. Eventually, Doug also was the first one to stand up and support Scott and Fran publicly on the recognition of their dance which then the influence slowly came to the audience to show up their true feelings and comments of their dance. To overcome conformity being alone without any support is nearly impossible, we are human after all where we need support and recognition from the others. To stand up against peer pressure on conformity, being alone is stressful but when we have someone that support us, the will and strength to fight against conformity will be strengthen. This is what I learned about overcoming conformity from the movie where to effectively ensure our thoughts and behaviour are not influenced by conformity, we need to be critical in thinking and gain support from someone that understand us.