Chris Viri
Hist 414
Movie Review

THE BLUE KITE

 This movie primarily dealt with one of the most devastating time periods of Chinese history, starting with the Hundred Flowers Rectification Movement (Shalong dies), and ending during the Cultural Revolution (Step Father dies). Tian used the deaths of the three fathers of the young boy Tiatou; to show what he felt was wrong with the Maoist era. This movie and Tian were banned from China because of it’s attempt to show how harsh and hopeless life may truly have been like for a normal family during this time period, and what seemed to me a negative portrayal of Maoist leadership. Tian also being a sixth generation director was apart of a class who for the first time made movies that criticized the entire party, and the people for participating in its policies, instead of making movies who place the blame on one evil person who created the faults in the communist party.
 I would like to address the question about what was wrong with the Maoist era. When the communists first came to power after the dramatic Civil War in 1949, there was the promise of peace and prosperity for the future of China. Through self-reliance, getting ride of imperial powers, taking power from the bourgeois and placing it into the hands of the poor-peasant masses (bringing them equality), among various other changes Mao instilled hope of a modernized China, that would eventually one day surpass Britain and the much hated U.S.A. and become a world power once again. These promise were symbolized by the Blue Kite, which Shalong made for Tietou. However, as Nielsen wrote as the Blue Kite was flown it would always get caught in a tree, and at the end of the movie the last image is that of the Blue Kite torn apart in a tree. I think this was meant to show that Mao’s, polices like the Hundred Flowers, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution, impinged on this promises and actually helped to suppress them, by killing many Chinese civilians, and starting a new revolution, which killed, imprisoned, or forced many of the intellectuals and people who could help modernize China into labor camps for being anti-revolutionaries. An example of this was when Tietou and his classmates criticized their principal, and rebelled at the school.
 It seemed that the communist party and its leader Mao did not care for its citizens at all. A flaw in the party structure directly influenced each father’s death. The first death of Shaolong, took place during the Hundred Flowers Movement. Shaolong was implicated as an anti-rightist (although I which fell in line with Mao’s demand that five percent of the people in each district was an anti-rightist. Although it was Shaolong’s best friend Uncle Li who told on him and was responsible for Shaolong’s ultimate death by a falling tree at a labor camp, I feel Uncle Li told on him out of fear of being sent to a camp himself. Many people had been executed for being anti-communists, which created fear of being named such among Chinese citizens. The communist government had taken away a young boy’s father who loved him very much, a love that Tietou would never experience again. The party also forced his mother Shujuan from Tietou, and made her work three months in farming, to produce agriculture for China. Once again Shujuan went to do this work because of the fear the party created within its people.
 Tietou’s second father was the very same man who told on Shaolong. Uncle Li, who was an army pilot, who lost his position because he went blind. In class it was mentioned that the communists party could not supply him with the proper medical treatment, but I am not quite sure if this was the case at this time. Uncle Li represented the Great Leap Forward Period. Mao’s policy at the time was to build massive irrigations systems, and force many people into agriculture labor. The food these people produced was then shipped to feed the urban cities, which Mao felt would be the one’s who would modernize China. Mao’s system of farming left much land desolate and unable to produce crops; also not enough grain was produced, which caused a mass famine and the deaths of twenty million people. Uncle Li said, “The Library came number one in the labor competition and I was rewarded for my hard work.” This quote shows that Uncle Li took part in this rigorous laboring of the fields. This was hard work that wore Uncle Li down so much that he couldn’t even play with Tietou. A short time later Uncle Li died because of a liver failure due to malnutrition, caused by the Great Leap Forward.
 Two other examples of the faults with the Great Leap Forward, was when Tietou went begging for food in the street. His begging was due to two facts: one that Tietou had no father who could supply the family with food, and also because of the shortage of food the Great Leap Forward caused. Tietou was not very old, and it leads me to believe that many young kids were in the streets begging during this leap. The second example was when the cadre came and confiscated the commune leaders buns, which she had saved from her hard work. The cadre leader said no one would eat these buns, which is an example of how food was taken from the peasants, and possibly ended up being wasted in the city. It was also an example of the lies the communist told. Such as if a person works harder and produce more then the quota, they would be rewarded with extra rations.
 The third father La Wu, who took part in the earlier revolution, was a victim of Mao’s Cultural Revolution. This started in 1966 and was basically Mao claming war on his people. He wanted the younger Communists to take part in a revolution for themselves, to feel the true experience of what being a communist meant. This lead to the creation of the Red Guards, who in the Blue Kite, were portrayed as a faceless uncontrollable mob, who went around China beating up anti-revolutionaries. La Wu was accused of this and the end of the movie has the Red Guards beating up Tietou, and his mother, taking her and his Third father away from him. (more then likely to be executed) This left Tietou all-alone to become a street punk, gambling and drinking all day in the streets, which can be attributed to him not having a constant father figure his whole life The communist party had taken all these fathers from him, because of the policies they implemented on their citizens.
 Another example of This Maoist era not caring for its people is seen in Auntie. Tietou mother’s sister, who throughout the movie supported the party, as was the case when she got in an argument with Uncle Li about Shujuan going to work in the fields. Auntie disappears in the movie, which suggests she was taken by the Red Guards, or was executed by the very party she gave all her support. Thus even party supporters fell victim to the insane actions of its leader Mao Zeadong.
 Tien, who made this movie in 1993, had seen the return of prostitution, gambling, drinking, and other deviant behavior from the old days to China. Thus China had seemed to come full circle and was still not modernized, meaning the Maoist period had accomplished nothing of great importance.