Yuanyuan Hu’s
Sunset Flower Blooming (夕化粧/Yugesho,
2012) is set in the countryside in 1960s China.
A grandmother sits and hums in her walled garden as her granddaughters
play with evening primroses (夕化粧/Yugesho).
The growing shadows let us know that the day is coming to an end – the time at
which the primroses open their small pink buds.
The granddaughters decorate their grandmother’s hair with primroses and one
girl brings her a mirror to show her their handiwork. The girl pauses and looks down at her
grandmother’s feet encased in tiny pointy shoes. She then moves her own bare feet in large,
boxy sandals as if comparing sizes.
This gesture draws attention to the cultural
gap between the two generations of females in this film. The grandmother was born into a time when
foot binding (also known as “lotus feet”) was still a common practice in
China. For centuries it was considered a
symbol of beauty and status for girls to have small feet. Starting between the ages of 4-9, girls’ feet
were broken and bound using (horrific) traditional methods that would force the
ball and heel of each foot close together (learn
more). The practice was banned in
the early decades of the 20th century, but not strongly enforced
until the Communists rose to power in 1949.
Thus the young girls in the film and their mother(s) would not have been
subjected to this cruel tradition.
After this brief, but significant,
moment the grandmother puts down the mirror and takes a primrose from her hair,
twirling it gently with her fingers. Expertly
using graphic matches of the grandmother at varying ages, Hu takes us on a
journey to the past as the grandmother recalls her early childhood and preparations
for marrying someone of status. Although
the sound of children at play bridges over into the past from the film’s “present”,
the way in which the children are depicted in a washed out fashion suggest that
they may have been imaginary friends – or that they were only fleeting friends
who figured only briefly in the grandmother’s life. Despite the beauty of the natural world and
the lovely depiction of the changing seasons, imagery of confinement (closed
behind latticed screens and windows in dark rooms, walled gardens, moths
trapped inside a lantern with a burning flame, and so on) and loneliness remind
us of the lack of choice the grandmother had as a child. Her psychic trauma is depicted through brief, haunting
sequences such as a needle and thread through cloth transforming into a pool of
blood, and a twirling evening primrose turning into blood red flames.
In the end; however, the film does
not present a picture of bitterness and resentment on the part of the central
protagonist. The gentle soundtrack
(music, wind and other natural sounds) and the framing narrative of the
laughter in the garden, suggest that the grandmother has come to terms with the
path of her life. Yuanyuan Hu used
digital computer drawing to give the film a look of watercolour paint on soft
paper. Although it has been realised on
computer, the animation at times has the look of woodblock printing and kirigami (cutouts). It is a hauntingly beautiful tale that
educates about the wrongs done to women in the past with a positive outlook for
future generations of girls in China.
Yuanyuan Hu
(胡 嫄嫄/コ・ユェンユェン, b. 1986) is from Nanjing,
China. She has a master’s degree in
animation from Tokyo University of the Arts.
She continues to live and work in Yokohama. Sunset
Flower Blooming was named to the Jury Selection at the Japan
Media Arts Festival in 2012.
Catherine Munroe Hotes 2014
