Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg: Informationen zur Veranstaltung: Film screening: The Postmodern Life of My Aunt (2006) directed by Ann Hui

Zurück zur Übersicht Dienstag, 02.07.2024

Mittwoch
26
JUN

18.00 Uhr

Film screening: The Postmodern Life of My Aunt (2006) directed by Ann Hui

SYNOPSIS

We first meet Ye Rutang (Siqin Gaowa), the eponymous aunt of the title, when she picks up her nephew Kuankuan (Guan Wenshou) at the train station. Rutang is loud and brassy, and probably more than a little annoying to her embarrassed nephew. Kuankuan's stay with his aunt introduces both he and the audience to Rutang's unique existence. She lives alone, disdains her nosy neighbor Mrs. Shui (Shaw Brothers veteran Lisa Lu), owns a flock of birds that she sets free in the apartment daily. She eventually falls in love with and is swindled by an amateur opera singer (Chow) who steals her life savings. Ye is forced to abandon her neighborhood in Shanghai to return to her estranged husband and daughter in Anshan, Liaoning in Northeast China where she faces her painful past - as an intellectual youth during the Cultural Revolution (1966
1976).

SCREENING GUIDE

Postmodern Life is a tragic-comedy adapted from a novel called The Aunt’s Postmodern Life (Yima de houxiandai shenghuo 姨妈的后现代生活) by Yan Yan (燕燕 b.1955), first published in 2006. It is supposed to be based on a real woman, observed by her 12-year-old nephew who spends time staying with his aunt in Shanghai. Yan Yan states in interview, “The tragedies of the intellectuals [...] reflect that they are lost in order to acclimatize to the society” (Zhang 2005: 41). As such, Ye Rutang symbolizes the individual trajectory of an intellectual and how she is at odds with mainstream society and official state discourse. What is so postmodern about Mrs Ye’s life? Does the tragic-comedy reflect the decentring of the subject, random grazing and depthless relationships, lack of a meta-narrative, or a condition of late capitalism? How does this film visually imagine the story about this unlikely heroine?
Director Ann Hui, born in Anshan, where the second half of the movie you will watch is set, is one of the best-known Chinese female directors of the late twentieth and twenty-first century. Her Vietnam trilogy (The Boy from Vietnam/Lai Ke 來客, 1978, a television program; The Story of Woo Viet/Wu Yue de gushi 胡越的故事, 1981; Boat People/Touben nu hai 投奔怒海, 1982), the adaptation of the historical novel Love in a Fallen City/Qingcheng zhi lian傾城之戀 (1984), and Song of the Exile/Ketu jiuhen 客途秋恨(1990) are just a few of the titles that have gained acclaim for Hui, who has been based in Hong Kong for decades.

Adresse

Institut für Sinologie

010.01.05

Voßstraße 2

69115 Heidelberg

Homepage Veranstaltung

https://www.zo.uni-heidelberg.de/sinologie/research/tls

Veranstalter

Institut für Sinologie

Homepage Veranstalter

www.zo.uni-heidelberg.de/sinologie

Kontakt

Institut für Sinologie

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