Analysis of Stanley Kwan’s Film, Rouge (1998)

The Writing Assignment on Stanley Kwan’s film, Rouge (1998) is due on Friday, April 22 at
11:59 pm（PST）.
Directions and Guidelines
This writing assignment asks you to write a short paper analyzing Stanley Kwan’s film, Rouge (1998), by answering ONE of the five prompt questions below. You must write a three-page (maximum four-page) essay answering ONE of the prompt questions. Your essay should be neatly typed and double-spaced (with one-inch margins and in 12-point font; be sure to number your pages). More important, please structure your essay around a thesis statement, and organize your visual analysis and discussion of two specific scenes from the film into a cohesive argument. Please be sure to include film stills of the scenes that you have chosen to analyze in the body of your text.
Note: Please be sure to choose specific scenes (two or three maximum) from the film that enable you to substantiate your argument. A scene in film contains moving images, sound, music, dialogue, written words, set design, costume design, and more. This writing assignment is not a research paper, but an exercise in close looking at this specific film. It thus requires no research beyond the assigned readings relevant to this particular film.
Please be sure to cite the assigned articles, lectures, and in-class discussion of the film in proper footnotes in Chicago Manual of Style. There are many different styles of footnotes. Please use the Chicago Manual of Style for footnotes and endnotes: you can find instruction and examples at the Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL):
https://owl(dot)purdue(dot)edu/owl/research_and_citation/chicago_manual_17th_edition/cmos_formatting_and_style_guide/books.html
Please note also that we do not accept Web sites as sources (i.e., do not use Google or Wikipedia for this assignment).
Note: Please DO NOT fill your pages with a summary of the plot of the film. Keep in mind that you are asked to provide your own analysis, not write a synopsis. Rest assured that we have seen this film many times, so just mention the plot when it is relevant to your argument. You will get an automatic “F” on your paper if you hand in a paper that is simply a summary of the story narrated in the film. More important, please do not submit a report of the film.
Warning: If you do not follow the above directions and guidelines, you risk failing the writing assignment.
Prompt Questions:
Note: The questions below are intended to provoke your thought process and to help you frame your writing assignment with a focused argument.
1. Drawing from in-class discussion of Stanley Kwan’s film, Rouge, please discuss the visual narrative structure in the film. What are the elements (moving, music, singing, poetry etc.) that create a unified narrative? Define a unified narrative. How does the opening scene foreshadow the pair of lover’s reunion and separation?
Note: The video of Rouge uploaded on Canvas does not provide English subtitles for the song, “Hak To Chau Han” sung at the beginning of the film, but this version found on YouTube has English subtitles for the song:: https://www(dot)youtube(dot)com/watch?v=usvK-1xZC-M
2. How are Fleur’s ghost (as a character in the film) and haunting places represented in Stanley Kwan’s film, Rouge? Do they evoke horror or frighten you in any way? Are Fleur’s life, death and afterlife intended to solicit pity and empathy from you as viewer? Is Rouge a ghost story or more of a love story? Why, or why not?
Note: Please be sure to analyze two or three scenes (moving images, sound, and dialogue) from the film in your analysis.
3. Discuss the parallel pairs of lovers in Stanley Kwan’s film, Rouge. How do these two couples’ relationships (i.e., Ting Yuen and A Chor and Fleur and Chan Chen Pong) mirror (or not mirror) each other. Moreover, how does the story of betrayal between Fleur and Chen Pong remind Ting Yuen and A Chor of their relationship? Does Chen Pong accept Fleur for what she really is (that is her profession, her looks, her social class, etc.)?
What do Ting Yuen and A Chor think of Fleur’s passion and affection for her lover?
What do they think about Fleur and Chen Pong’s relationship? How well does Ting
Yuen know A Chor? Does Ting Yuen accept and love his girlfriend, A Chor, unconditionally for who she is? Would Ting Yuen and A Chor die (i.e., commit suicide) for each other?
4. What does Chan Chen Pong see in Fleur? Does he see her as the ideal Chinese feminine beauty? Please name, through the eyes of Chen Pong, some the gender roles (facets or personas) that he sees Fleur perform and embody. Last, do you think Chen Pong really loves Fleur for what she really is? As a courtesan, Fleur sells dreams and illusions (i.e., dreams, poetry, eroticism, and she plays fluid gender roles); who do you think is the real Fleur, that is, the person/individual that she embodies for herself?
Note: Please be sure to answer to this question with at least two scenes (i.e., moving images and dialogue) from the film.
5. Together with her lover, Fleur (a courtesan) and Chan Chen Pong planned to commit suicide. She waited for her lover in the afterlife (purgatory). Is it possible to trust and to be certain that one’s lover will die with one? Don’t we all die alone? Fleur loved and trusted her lover unconditionally, but he betrayed her. Do you think Fleur was foolish to not only die for him, but also have waited for him for fifty-three years in the afterlife? As viewers, are we supposed to pity Fleur for falling so deeply in love with this wealthy (failed) man? What does Chen Pong want to be when he grows up? Please reflect andanswer these questions both through the lens of A Chor and through your own personal position on Fleur’s passion, sincerity, honesty, and love as a cis woman and as an individual.
Note: Please keep in mind the intersectionality of Fleur’s social class, gender, and profession in 1930’s Hong Kong.