Introduction
Among the best ever produced documentary movie is the “The Gate of Heaven Peace”, which demonstrates a split that existed in the student union, during their struggle for democracy in the then conservative society.
Chai Ling, who is the overall student leader, suggests the clarifying upheavals and shocks through violence would be a lasting healing to the Chinese society members who were blind.
The movie is loosely based on a real life story the infamous and bloody Chinese democracy movement in 1989. The documentary is rich in complexity, clarity, and cultural identity of the Chinese culture.
Thus, this analytical treatise presents a comprehensive review of the film, “The Gate of Heavenly Peace”. The review focuses on the historical focus, plot, and characters in the context of historical and social background.
Comprehensive review
The film is based in the conservative culture of the Chinese. The Tiananmen Square is presented as having a symbolic meaning to the desires and the demand of various students who felt pressed by the restrictive government policies on its citizens.
At the time of the actual events such as protests depicted in the film, the Chinese society had restrictive rules on freedom of speech, association, and the government had the power to make decisions without consulting the public. The images of dissatisfaction were filtered to inspire the students to participate in the unrest.
The film is politically motivated, and portrays a the political discrimination experience of the students together with their families, but eventually triumphs through the Tiananmen Square protests.
As suggested in the actions of the moderate elements, the whole massacre might have been avoided since the extremist elements were determined to catalyze the blood bath. Since the extremists refused to abandon the square, the massacres led to death of very many Chinese.
The director cleverly showed how the hardliners in the government misused the radical elements to cause havoc, but was quick to sympathize with the reformers. The film did not defend the brutality experienced at the time during the series of student protests, but sheds light on the inappropriate actions of the radicals.
The theme of tradition and religion control the lives of characters as depicted in this era. Specifically, the Chinese religious culture is depicted as a unique and traditional society. The government and the radical students are portrayed as imperfect, genuine, viciously brutal, and semi thoughtless.
Despite attempting to quantify historical events into context, the film has little in reversal aspect, but only passes the full blame to the students who had genuine grievances towards the government of the day.
The movie commences with a student protest featuring antagonists and protagonists of tradition as both teams attempt to create a diversion. In addition, the less radical students are traditionally united group who appreciates peace, with strong family bonds and are desperate for opportunity of survival in the strife.
The movie director juxtaposes the script by letting student protesters take seats at the square that is only used for official occasions. The film at one point losses the character of Chai Ling by introducing other characters such as the moderate student that appear, but as distracting cameos.
The movie therefore portrays an impressive character of a man who grows from the helplessness of brutal government oppression into a cunning man who survives through the challenges to beat the odds.
In effectively demonstrating the impact caused by the very life experience of the Chinese students who organized the bloody Chinese democracy movement in 1989, it would be essential to narrate the film’s background from which these youthful characters are set.
The childhood experience of the students is set against a poor environment with their parents working as poorly paid citizens of China servants. This action provokes the students who in turn retaliate by demanding for a freer society.
Various dimensions and elements of the then Chinese culture are identified in the film. These elements include communication, ethics, values and attitudes, customs, and structures of a business establishment. Values and attitudes greatly influence how people think, communicate and behave.
Given that different nations have different cultures and sub-cultures, it is important to understand the cultural features of the Chinese students and their anger towards the government.
In order to attract the attention of the political institution, the Tiananmen Square protest was modeled by the students to ensure that ethical considerations are observed at educational level, executive management level, the government and private stakeholders’ level in line with the etiquette of the Chinese purity beliefs.
The film, “The Gate of Heavenly Peace”, has an intriguing premise: heroism after dejection. In the film, Chai Ling’s story line conveys the poetry and philosophical inclinations of the Chinese culture towards having a purpose in life and fighting to achieve the purpose.
In the end, the underlying fear and destabilizations of the imaginative explorations gives the plot a poetic identity. The film has the urban plot and revolves around a group of students forming a movement which was very successful in opposing the excesses of the Chinese government.
The actions of the student leader affect the other actors directly in this action packed piece. Reflectively, this creates a feeling of imaginative casting.
The director even goes ahead to include slow motion pictures yet the film is a high speed genre. To align to the traditional setting aspects of production design and the society, this film heightens hyper-real palate of emotional expression.
Moreover, this choice of setting was essential in the need for a proper balance of production, aural, sound accordion, and permeates scenes characterized by traditional practices. Subsequently, this balance has facilitated the addition of decadent love and hatred feeling across the film and in the cast.
Conclusion
A movie is a visual medium and normally attempts to portray certain parts of written piece on thoughts of characters not explicitly expressed. The film “The Gate of Heavenly Peace” by Richard Gordon and Carma Hinton displays the frustrations of students in Chinese higher learning institutions and their eventual participation in the bloody Chinese democracy movement in 1989.
The frustrations in China are too much for the students who climaxed their movement for democracy during the unfortunately blood bath at the symbolic Tiananmen Square. Produced in 1955, this movie has attracted criticism and support in equal measure.
The unique cinematography and performances have perfectly fused to express the unique Chinese culture. Although the state of democracy remains a challenge in China, the actions of the students depicted in this film influenced the government to widen the basic human freedoms. The documentary is rich in complexity, clarity, and cultural identity of the Chinese culture.