Edited by author 05-15-2004 03:28 PM
        The Blue Kite is a Chinese film that is intuitively about the sufferings endured by one family in Mao's China through the 1950s and 1960s. The story is told by a young boy named Tietou. Tietou's mother, Shujuan, marries three times, and each husband creates a another section of the film. Shujuan's first husband suffers through the the Rectification Movement(an order to try and rectify the Party membership's work style, in general, and that of the leading cadres, in particular, through studying selected documents, summing up work results, analyzing situations and conducting criticisms and self-criticisms)when he is sent to rectification camp. Her second husband falls victim during the Great Leap Forward (the failed attempt to achieve collectivisim and industrialisation at an unprecedented scale in human history). Shujuan's third and final husband is criticized by the party during the Cultural Revolution(aiming to achieve ideological purity by removing all ‘bourgeois’ influences through education and re-education). In each section, the director demonstrates how the condemnations of party disrupt the family's happiness and drive them further away from their earlier optimism. Each marriage shows how the politics of the revolution altered the family's togetherness in a destructive way. Shujuan clings to Tietou as her one true source of gratification and joy. The bonds between mother and child remain strong, no matter what.
      Even though Shujuan held a strong bond with Tietou, during this time period, family life alway came second to Maoist ideology. At one point an official says to a young female in the army, "I hear you have a boyfriend. Why haven't you reported it? Let me remind you- politics always comes first." The same official calls upon this young girl to “dance” with her commanding officer. The request for a “dance” is refused and the young woman quits her job because of the underlying hint of gender discrimination. She is later put in prison during the Hundred Flowers campaign of 1957. This seems to be a realistic example of one of the errors of the revolution. Some people who were not political enemies were punished because of appearances of their actions or because of demonstrative cadre. She was released during the Cultural Revolution, but towards the end of the film she is seen boarding a train. The viewer is given the suggestion that she is returning to imprisonment.
      Intolerance, uncertainty, lost innocence, oppression and political disorder are a few of the significant elements in The Blue Kite. In the beginning of the film, an image of a soaring blue kite provides a allegorical consistency through the ambivalence of Tietou's life. The viewer is left the final vision of a tattered kite caught between the branches of a barren tree, waving in the breeze. The kite symbolizes resilience in the face of hardship and frustration. The director paints an unforgettable picture of the bonds of humanity and family.