Under the Hawthorn Tree

Under the Hawthorn Tree by Ai Mi
Under the Hawthorn Tree, by Ai Mi, started off with promise. A young Chinese girl named Jingqui, naive but smart, is sent off into the villages to document life in order to write more accurate history textbooks. Set in China in the 1970's the book is heavily rooted in the cultural revolution. Interest is peaked. A tale is told of a hawthorn tree with flowers dyed red from the blood of soldiers. The backdrop is set with an old folktale of a maiden torn between two loves. I wasn't 100% which way the story would go, but I expected some sort of excitement, really.

The downfall of Under the Hawthorn tree, though, was that it really wasn't all that gripping. Little happens in terms of drama and plot, and though there are moments of great family loyalty, and the love interest, Old Third, is introduced, things move far too slowly for too long to really keep the reader interested. Furthermore, the naive Jingqiu is neither sweetly innocent, nor undergoes a  knowledge revelation, as would warrant character development. Instead, she continually misinterprets signs and things people tell her. This becomes frustrating as she neither seeks to clarify, nor do other characters pick up on her extreme ignorance. While naivety is not a bad quality for a main character, it became increasingly frustrating in this instance as very simple misunderstandings lead to unrealistic conclusions. The novel itself plays on this by seeming to present information in a cryptic way, making the reader assume one thing when the opposite may be true. This tact could class as mystery, but rather comes across as a frustrating repetition of drawn out scenes and little-explained feelings. Is she being coy, or simply unaware of other's affections? Does Old Third lie to her?

What promised itself to be a Romeo and Juliet style romance, fraught with uncertainties and trials, became instead a tale about the mundane life of a young Chinese girl. Though appearances were made by Old Third, and there were glimpses of a budding romance, it came too little too late and Jingqiu's walls came down too unexpectedly for me to invest myself in the romance as much as I would have liked. Jingqiu simply wasn't someone I could connect with. Though her connection with Old Third eventually becomes a sweet one, and there are certainly moments of grand romance, the plodding nature of the novel throughout took away from these moments, and dulled the shine that could have been a sweet young love. The redeeming character was Old Third himself, resolute and kind, but as the story did not focus on him and rather Jingqui, there were certainly narrative lulls.

While the setting, China during the cultural revolution, was both interesting and less common, it provided both interest and problem to those less familiar with the time. Having studied modern Chinese History, there were elements that struck me, but the oddities present in this time did provide some-what of a struggle in terms of ease of reading. There were moments that wording and phrases seemed out of place for the anti-liberal society, though this may be due to translation.

Overall, the story provides a good account of life in China in the 1970's, and the struggles a young girl has to face in the upside down social structure facing the cultural revolution, but in terms of great romantic stories, I found the novel to have only scratched the surface of what could have been a very moving, deep story of love.

Based on the Novel By:

Taking books and transforming them into screenplays is certainly not a new idea, but it's becoming more and more apparent just how many of the major motion pictures of the last two years are adapted from books, short stories and novels.

The range, is drastic. On one end you have the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a story which would take less time to read than to watch as it was adapted into 3 hours of makeup marvel on Brad Pitt's face. On the other end of the spectrum, triologies, series and epics which attempt to pack vast twisting story lines into conventional movie length parameters (although most get around this by either splitting said series into multiple movies and/or extending run times). The point is, whether it's James Bond, Jane Eyre or Harry Potter - literary films have become the norm.

Let's take a look at the Oscars shall we?

Best picture: Les Miserables - oh, what was that? A book. Sure, it is perhaps more famously known for it brilliant and successful adaptation into broadway stage musical, but it too was a book. A very early example of the print-to-screen phenomenon that seems to be taking hold with such force these days.

Other major films in the upcoming or recently released category? Silver Linings,

Life of Pi, Anna Karenina, James Bond - Skyfall (only the latest in a long loved series of films of course), One for the Money, Children's book: The Lorax, The Hunger Games (how could we forget?) - and less recently - the infamous Twilight saga, The Lucky One, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter (yes, this was a book), Alex Cross/Cross, Cloud Atlas (perhaps that one should have stayed in print form, no?), The Hobbit, Jack Reacher, Safe Haven (the latest of Nicholas Sparks' to be turned into a movie), The Host, Carrie (again), Ender's Game (upcoming)... I could go on, but I think you get the point.

While adapted screenplays are clearly not a 'new' invention, it seems these past couple years have seen an insurgence of novels becoming feature films.

There are two major things that might cause this.

One is a lack of creative writing of origianl screenplays, the other, an icrease in popularity of books.

Please, please let it be the second.

Having just watched The Great Gatsby film adaptation from the iconic story by previously mentioned F. Scott Fitzgerald, I couldn't help but be reminded of the art that is print to screen transferance. Gatsby, I have to say, made the switch flawlessly. The nature and setting of the novel - being the lavish parties of Manhattan in the 1920's, lent itself especially well to visual adaptation, and the cinematographers, costume artists, set designers and visual team did an outstanding job - but it was not just the set that pulled you in, it was the characters, the storyline, the dream-like fantasy which Gatsby himself creates. He is a master inventor continually attempting to recreate himself, and thus, his past. It is the heartbeat of the novel, and so too the film. 

this, if nothing else, was captured effortlessly.

But that of course was not all. the bookishness - in the best possible understanding of the word - came through with every expression and movement, from the emphasized visual ques, to the focus on the character of Nick and his writing to the lovely image of daisy herself, dreamlike in the clouds, waving away words of an ever remembered letter. The references back to the original work were many and expertly used - not overdone or overly relying on the fame of the novel previously, but simply drawing on not only the story, but that which it stands for. 

Straying very little if at all from the original plot, Gatsby manages to both stay true to the original work while drawing in a new level of excitement and wonder. The perfect mix, I might suggest, and as such, a huge success.

It is debatable whether or not book adaptations are such a good thing - they have given us such wonders as the Epic Lord of the Rings, and yet vastly disappointed viewers (or at least this viewer) in the case of One Day or Cloud Atlas. I'm glad to say the latest did not do so. 

It is, however, with a careful hand I praise it, lest we get carried away. Adaptations may be brilliant, but let us not forget the works from which the originate, nor forget to pay tribute not only to the writers, but the very works.

In simple terms, some movies are awesome and are so because of the books that came before - so don't ever stop reading.

-Q