After Zedong died, his successor (the reform-minded Deng Xiaoping) and other Communist Party leaders were in a bind: How were they to distance themselves and their country from the nightmarish horrors of the Mao era while also weaponizing his legacy for the sake of national cohesion? The answer was what remains the official government policy on the Mao era: Mao was seventy percent right and thirty percent wrong.
From my own experience in China, everyday people (especially younger people who have no memory of him, and definitely the young nationalists—nicknamed "Little Pinks"—revere Mao, including one who told me he wept when thinking about him) may accept the seventy-thirty face-saving narrative, but they focus mainly on the positive aspects of his legacy. The Blue Kite, however, most certainly does not. From 1993 and directed by Fifth Generation-filmmaker Tian Zhuangzhuang, The Blue Kite focuses on a family's struggles during some of the darkest days of the totalitarian Mao era of the 1950s and 60s, especially during the Anti-Rightist Movement and the Cultural Revolution. For doing so, the film was initially banned in China, and Tian was ordered not to make another movie for ten years.
Starting in 1953 (on the day of Stalin's death), the film opens with a wedding celebration of the protagonist's parents (Pu Quanxin as his father and Lü Liping as his mother). Mao Zedong is not a character in this film, and he's hardly mentioned. Yet at the same time, his presence looms large. The newly weds bow to his portrait during their wedding ceremony, but they are soon to embark on a life journey in which the policies of the man they just bowed to will forever change their lives in the worst ways. It will start in small ways, with their family growing disconnected ideologically, but eventually they will grow apart spatially by force, as well.
As we see these events unfold, The Blue Kite becomes increasingly emotional, mostly provoking feelings of sadness due to what is happening to the characters and anger because of why. Eventually, the protagonist of the film is born. His name is Tietou, which translates to "iron head." Tietou is played by several different actors in this coming-of-age drama, namely Yi Tian as an infant, Zhang Wenyao as a child, and Xiaoman Chen as a teenager. All of them are naturals, providing some of the film's best acting.
Tietou is a bit on the mischievous side, though not more than the average boy. His parents, though, at times struggle with him, and they both take their anger out on him. How can they not be angry all the time? Those were trying times. The mother, though, perseveres and would rather not dig up the past. "What's past is past," she says. "No need to think about it anymore." She's in good company: China would still prefer not to talk about the Cultural Revolution. But the memories pile up, whether she wants them to or not. Acquaintances are taken away to labor camps, and soon her son will join an angry mob of teenagers cutting their principal's hair to humiliate her in front of the entire student body. This may be too simplistic to say, but even though she's only in a few scenes, the government propaganda lady who parades through the village and demands perfect loyalty to the Party may be one of cinema's nastiest villains.
It would also be simplistic to say that Tian's filmmaking style is not as direct as a Westerner might expect, nor is it as overtly emotional. True, the characters emote; they cry, they laugh, they argue, they fight. But the film (perhaps because of the realities of making a film of such content, or perhaps because that isn't the filmmakers' style—I'm not sure) is not as preoccupied with such things, but this wouldn't hurt a non-Chinese audience member's appreciation of the movie. Some audience members might be bored by it at times, or they might find it a little long-winded, but the film is essentially a humanist and universal story, one that doesn't need to be as explicitly direct in its politics. This is one of the ways in which it is noteworthy.
Thus, The Blue Kite, written by Mao Xiao, is a beautiful yet painful coming-of-age family drama. Tian and his team create a film that reflects the instability of Tietou's life with the instability of the times in which he lives. This unflattering portrayal of how bad things were is one of the reasons why the film was initially banned in China, but the blacklist against Tian only lasted two years, and he eventually returned to film directing in 2002. Despite the initial ban, The Blue Kite won awards at film festivals in Hawaii and Tokyo, and it was nominated at the Independent Spirit Awards. Kenneth Turan and Roger Ebert both placed it on their top-ten lists for 1994, the year in which films like Pulp Fiction, Hoop Dreams, and Forrest Gump also appeared. The Blue Kite continues to be cited along with Farewell, My Concubine and To Live as one of the greatest Chinese films of the era.
China is different these days. For one, it's an economic powerhouse and a major global power. But some things haven't changed. Films are still heavily censored. Mao is still quite popular, and the current guy (while not as totalitarian) is a bit of a Mao wannabe. The Little Pinks patrol the web (at least what they're able to use if they can penetrate the Great Firewall) to battle any who criticize the government, but they're unlikely to turn their mother in for being disloyal, ending in her execution (which is something that actually happened). It is with sincere wishes when I say that I hope more films like The Blue Kite are made to help remind audiences that while China has a lot to be proud of given how far they've come and how much they've accomplished in such a short amount of time, the past is sometimes not simply past, and a cult of personality can have dire consequences.
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