If you are a person who cares about story integrity and structure, you might be surprised at the way some art forms are presented. If you are someone who is familiar with Eastern culture, perhaps the differences will be smaller. The most well-known difference between Eastern and Western cultures is naturally the most obvious difference between realism and imagery. It is also the most direct difference that can be universally understood.
This difference can be most clearly seen in painting. Eastern painting, especially Chinese painting, emphasizes freehandedness, and when the mood arrives, it doesn’t matter what kind of image is shown in the picture, so what we see in traditional Chinese painting is basically not focused on the shape, but rather the core point of the picture is combined with the intention of the whole picture.
It is needless to say that Western painting emphasizes realism, because the best skill in Western oil painting is the extreme portrayal of a person or an object, and Western painters consider their skill by the authenticity of the object in the canvas they paint with their own brush. The Western painters we know follow this logic, and it has become a tradition.
They focus on the authenticity of the person or object, and they paint the scene with the greatest possible degree of realism. And they are proud of it. The above is a concrete manifestation of the difference between Eastern and Western culture, and when this manifestation slowly spreads to other fields, such as theater, the difference we can see is a bit unintelligible.
Of course, this kind of incomprehension is because when we examine the different forms of theatrical presentation in the East and the West with the eyes of modern theater, we will naturally be confused about one of them. For example, today’s recommendation is a film from the 1960s, “Mad Fox”.
It is a traditional Japanese comedy film, but it is also a traditional oriental dramatic film that is very valuable today. Why do I say that? Because if you look at the film through the eyes of modern film and television, you will find that it is not a film that audiences would expect, it is even a bit unorthodox, and yet it is so unorthodox that if you categorize it in terms of cultural differences between East and West, it is actually an acceptable form of drama.
The Crazy Fox is a fantasy story about a doctor of astronomy in Japan who can predict the sky from a scroll from the Tang dynasty that at one point a white rainbow appears in the Japanese sky. Just halfway through his prediction, the doctor was killed. His unexpected death created a rift within the family. One of the Doctor’s favorite sons was kicked out of the family home, and was eventually rescued by the family.
His life was peaceful, but he was hunted down and killed for saving a white fox, who turned into a woman and lived with him in return. The good times didn’t last long, however, when he learned the truth and the fox left him. Once again, loneliness comes back to haunt this broken man. The first impression that many people have after seeing this film is that the story comes to a screeching halt, which is the main reason why audiences cannot accept it.
But if you understand the cultural differences between East and West, the abrupt ending is like the difference between realism and imagination. There is no essential difference. The essential reason why we find it awkward is that the foundation of modern film and television drama is based on the Western theater culture. As for the Eastern theatrical culture, it is gradually in decline.
We are accustomed to the cultural invasion of Hollywood and the successive baptisms of Western theater, and on this premise, the traditional culture of the East has been gradually declining. In our country, for example, how many young people are still willing to go to see traditional theater?
We are more accustomed to western cultural presentations such as dramas and operas. We are more accustomed to Western cultural expressions such as drama and opera, but we have a contemptuous attitude toward our own traditional theater. This is a serious problem, and the core of the problem is a lack of self-confidence in our own culture. The core of the problem is a lack of self-confidence in our own culture, and we place too much of our aspirations on the tolerance of other cultures.
If you know anything about traditional theater, you’re not going to be very receptive to this film. It is true that the film is incomplete from the logical point of view of the story, but if we look at it from the point of view of emotional conflict, then the film is complete.
The film can be incarnated as “The Butterfly Lovers” in a sense, where two people start out as acquaintances, then go through life and death, then meet again, and finally play up the emotions with a heartbreaking parting. This hierarchical relationship is a good substitute for the integrity of the story that we are concerned with to some extent.
The traditional form of Chinese theater includes the oratorio, which is an extract from a complete play with no beginning and no end, but emphasizes the emotional progression of the characters. This presentation is one of the traditional forms of Eastern theater, and with this concept in mind, the audience will naturally have a better understanding of the film.
Unfortunately, however, this form of presentation has largely disappeared because it does not fit the modern theatrical presentation based on the aesthetics of Western culture. This is a concrete manifestation of the invasion of Western culture. I hope that we can keep more of our own traditions in our future artistic creations, instead of abandoning them completely and going with the flow.
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