Mabel Cheung is a well-known female film director in
As a woman, Mabel Cheung loved to make films related to women.
She also loved to make movies related to race, social and gender issues. “An
Autumn’s Tale” is one of the most popular films directed in 1987 by Mabel
Cheung. This movie was a love story between a man from mainland China who migrated to New
York and a lady from Hong Kong who studied abroad in New York . Although they
were both from China ,
they had culture and social conflicts due to their different backgrounds.
However, they fell in love because of their understanding towards each other.
Unlike mainstream movies, Mabel addressed stereotypes in a
decent way, which was rare in the Asia mainstream
media in 1980s. At that time, most of the Asians learned about New York from the
mainstream media/ television. However, Mabel presented the least attractive
part of New York
in the movie, which shocked a lot of viewers. For example, she illustrated the
main characters lived in a very old and unsafe neighborhood. Because the house
was next to the subway station, the house would shake and things would fall
down when the train passed by. Although this was an exaggerated example, it did
help the viewers to reshape their ideas of what they thought New York should look like.
However, Mabel also emphasized the American dream in her
film. She illustrated how the main male character changed from a restaurant
waiter who did not speak English to an owner of a seafront restaurant. And, the
director also described how the main female character changed from an
indecisive girl who cared too much about her look to a person who was
independent and dreamed to travel around the world. Camille Deprez, a writer of
“Stacilee Ford, Mabel Cheung Yuen-Ting’s An Autumn’s Tale” said, “Ford subsequently examines how An Autumn’s
Tale explores the myth of the American dream, which is generally associated
with the opportunity to make it through individual effort, and goes beyond
questions of assimilation in favour of a multicultural discourse.” This revealed
the American society and showed how Mabel interpreted and presented her idea of
Americans to her viewers.
In “Beauty and the Beast of
Advertising”, Jean Kilbourne said, “This is the real tragedy, that many women internalize these
stereotypes and learn their “limitations,” thus establishing a self-fulfilling
prophecy.” This quote reminded me of how gender roles changed our lives and how
we viewed things. However, in “An Autumn’s Tale”, Mabel illustrated that
genders were equal. Although women “internalize the stereotypes” given by the
social, the media also did the same to men. In the movie, the main male
character changed his bad habits and the way he dressed for the main female
character. Also, he stopped cursing at people and fulfilled his dream because he
wanted his girl to see his changes. This made me realized that stereotypes and gender
roles in our society influenced both men and women equally. However, mainstream
media was the reason why women were treated unfairly. I love this movie because
this was very unique. It inspired me that everyone could make their own fairy
tales even though in reality. Social norms and culture differences would not be
problems in our lives unless we let them be.
Works Cited:
- Beauty and the Beast of Advertising, by Jean Kilbourne
- Stacilee Ford, Mabel Cheung Yuen-Ting’s An Autumn’s Tale,
by Camille Deprez
- Youtube video about how Mabel Cheung made “An Autumn’s
Tale”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIvamqDk7Vo
(In Chinese)
Youtube video
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Here is the full movie of "An Autumn's Tale" with English subtitles. Enjoy!
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