Session 22—Fri, March 9: Chinese (Beijing) film: House of Flying Daggers (screening and discussion), Fourth session

Topics for this session

❖ Recent cinema from China (Beijing): House of Flying Daggers, fourth session of five

Overall, persistent topics for this film:
❖ Deception's role in romantic narratives
❖ (Confucian) loyalty (zhong) / faithfulness (xin) vs. individual desire (Confucian ren? modern liberties?)

Today:
❖ What is faithfulness? What is love?
❖ Comparisons: How "Chinese" is this film? How "Western" is this film?
❖ Comparisons: Faithfulness in Flying Daggers and Chunhyang.

Screening details

❖ Recent cinema from China (Beijing): House of Flying Daggers, first session of five

Overall, persistent topics for this film:
❖ Deception's role in romantic narratives
❖ (Confucian) loyalty (zhong) / faithfulness (xin) vs. individual desire (Confucian ren? modern liberties?)

Today:
❖ "Layering" (related to deception but that aspect not pursued here)— multiple loyalties, multiple loves
❖ Duty (yi) to the group (so, issues of loyalty, zhong) / faithfulness to a lover (xin) vs. individual desire: seduction in the name of duty, games becoming difficult to control realities

Required—to be completed for today's session

Access through sidebar tab FILM MODULES:

✓ House of Flying Daggers: fourth session questions (scene summaries are optional)

Texts, multimedia notes, links*

nothing yet ...

Other*

nothing yet ...

*THOUGHTS: Reading before class probably helps follow session content, reading afterwards might help consolidate notes, revisiting for tests is recommended. Content might be added before class or anytime up until about 24 hours ahead of a midterm.

*TEXTS, MULTIMEDIA NOTES, LINKS: If I have read from something, shown something or presented audio that is not elsewhere mentioned, I usually include that information here for the curious, sometime after the class (since I often make last-minute decisions about including something). It might take a while and sometimes I forget. You can email me.

*OTHER: When possible I note here names, places, and other details that I have mentioned in a lecture that would otherwise not be accessible in the assigned materials or easily located on your own. As with "TEXTS ..." this is usually sometime after class and, again, I might not be able to get around to doing it.