Information
| Year: | 1990 |
| Rating: | 6.4(314) |
| Listed in: | Comedy, Drama |
| Directed by: | Shirley Sun |
| "As a student in America, he searched for ancient wisdom. As a teacher in China, he learned to find it within himself." | |
Cast
| Directed by | |
|---|---|
| Shirley Sun | |
| Actors | |
| Hangcheng Dong | as Teacher Cai |
| Xihong Jiang | as Teacher Zhang |
| Qingfu Pan | as Himself |
| Mark Salzman | as Teacher Mark |
| Xudong Sun | as Sinbad |
| Yang Xiru | as Dr. Wang |
| Hu Yun | as Fatty Du |
| Genyuan Zhuang | as Teacher Xu |
| Actresses | |
| Jeanette Lin Tsui | as Teacher Hei |
| Funglin To | as Old Sheep |
| Vivian Wu | as Ming |
| Xiao Ying | as April |
| Lu Zhiquan | as Teacher Li |
Movie info
| Languages: | English |
| Plot: | Mark Salzman always was interested in Kung-Fu and the Chinese culture, claims to have seen every Kung-Fu movie. 1982, with a degree in Chinese literature, he visits a province university in China for two years to teach Chinese teachers the English language. He learns the refinements of correct behavior among Chinese people, makes friends with his pupils, falls in love with the young doctor Ming, learns Uschu (similar Kung-Fu) from the famous teacher Pan... but also learns about political repression, especially when he's forbidden contact with some of his friends. |
View Online
Quotes
|
Mark: Am I ugly to you? With my big nose? Teacher Hei: No. Your face is just... very 3-dimensional. Teacher Hei: When you have a visitor in China, at first you offer him tea and something to eat. Mark: Oh, sorry. Here you are. Teacher Hei: No, thanks. Mark: But you just said you wanted something to eat. Teacher Hei: No, I said you should offer me some. [Mark takes it away] Teacher Hei: What are you doing now? Mark: But you said you didn't want it! Teacher Hei: But you have to leave it here, that's habit. Teacher Hei: You must master each stroke before you go on. Otherwise everything you do will be so-so. Teacher Mark: Tell me about it. Everything I touch turns to so-so. Qingfu Pan: In martial arts, you hit with the eyes. [first lines] Mark: [voiceover] I hate to admit it, but when I graduated from college, I thought I was ready for anything. That is, until I stepped off the train in Hangzhou. Here I was in a country of a billion people, and I didn't know a single one. This place was different than what I'd expected. It wasn't at all like what I'd seen in the Kung Fu movies. No one else I knew stayed up all night to watch that stuff, but I was hooked. [screaming, Kung Fu movie clips with English subtitles] Mark: The hero was always small like me, but he moved like the wind, triumphed over evil, and brought the bad guys to their knees. And - he always got the girl. [last lines] Mark: [voiceover] I tried to memorize exactly how Teacher Hei looked at that moment. I thought of Sinbad, Teacher Pan, and Ming. I couldn't concentrate on the book I was reading. It was America that suddenly felt like some exotic dream and China that was real to me. There is a saying that it's the height of stupidity to look for the donkey that you're already riding on. I had come halfway around the world looking for places that existed mostly in my mind, and while I didn't find what I'd expected, I did find that I was riding on that donkey all along, and that eating bitter lets you taste sweet. |
Comments
No comments yet.
