The Soong Sisters- Movie Reflection

Courtney 

Chinese 101*1

Professor Jinai Sun

November 16, 2012

Movie Reflection

            The movie that the class and myself watched for our last couple days of class was “The Soong Sisters” directed by Mabel Cheung. The Soong sisters are three girls Soong Ai-Ling, Soong Ching-Ling, and Soong May-Ling, who are daughters of Charlie Soong who is a very wealthy man that runs one of the most successful printing businesses. Soong Ai-Ling is the first to get married, and marries K’ung Hsiang –Hsi, who is a wealthy banker and is the richest man in China at the time. Soong Ching-Ling weds Sun Yat-Sen , a fugitive, against her father’s approval. After the Qing Dynasty is overthrown by the Xinhai Revolution, Sun becomes the Republic of China’s first president and later founds the Nationalist Party.

            Soong May-Ling marries Chiang Kai-Shek and they oppose the communist party. There is clearly some disapproval from Soong Ching-Ling about May-Ling’s marriage. The three sisters were then only reunited over their parent’s deathbeds and things of that nature.

            I liked this movie because I was able to learn more about the Chinese culture. It was also interesting to see how the three sister’s lives were all totally different based on who they ended up marrying, but also they were very interconnected with eachother. The story line was very interesting as well. As far as some of my dislikes go, I didn’t enjoy all of the fighting scenes, even though I realize they are realistic and things such as this do really occur.

            Overall, I thought it was an interesting film and it was cool to recognize some of the Chinese language we have already learned in their dialogue in the movie. I will have to rent it hopefully over break to finish the film!