Please Vote for Me

Feb. 14. 11(time 11:25)  ~ Hypothesis:

Before researching on Please Vote for Me, to know what the movie is exactly about, I would like to make a hypothesis. From what my teacher has said about this film being a film about elementary students recreating a democratic voting system in their class. So then, this movie must be about how a student learns about being in and as a "political role" as a class president, maybe, and how he or she must do to win his or her peers vote.

(Time: 11: 33) ~ The Research Results:

ChenChen, Xu XiaoFei, and Luo Lei

Please Vote for Me is about three third grade elementary students that is chosen by their teacher as class candidates. Being chosen as candidates, they all have to campaign, and convince their fellow classmates to vote for them as their class monitor.

These three students: Luo Lei, Xu XiaoFei, and ChenChen, goes through the process of learning how to pull up democratic attacks and talents to win their classmate over. Luo Lei, Xu XiaoFei, and ChenChen, all gets their help from their parents and teachers. Since this is the first time that these little 8 years old are doing this, they all face the ups and downs in the process.

Facts About the Film:


Please Vote for Me is not a scripted film, but a documentary. This film was directed by WeiJun Chen, who is a documentary director. WeiJun Chen directed this movie in Evergreen Primary School in Wuhan, China.  Please Vote for Me won the Sterling Feature Award in 2007, and was named as one of the 15 films to be on the Oscar shortlist documentary by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. This film here was aired and release around the world in October 2007, that which includes the UK and US.

Mongolian Ping Pong Review

Beginning to End (A Summary):

So the plot of Mongolian Ping Pong begins with Bilike finding the ping pong flowing in the nearby river. He takes it back with him, not knowing at all what it was though. Bilike also shows this ping pong to his two best friends: Dawa and Ergoutuo, of what he found, but no none of them knows what it was. Bilike wonders what the white ball was and so he asks his grandmother and got the answer that it is a "glowing pearl" that'll bring good luck. Bilike, Dawa and Ergoutuo encounters the problem of getting bullied by some boys who were a bit older then they are. But on a night where they all went to watch a film movie, they all found out that the "glowing pearl" is called a ping pong from the film. Not long after that, when Dawa's familly got a new t.v., while watching and listening to what was coming out of the t.v., they heard the word ping pong again; hearing that the ping pong is their national ball. Hearing that news, Bilike, Dawa, and Ergoutuo sets on the goal of reaching Beijing and sending back the national ball to its rightful owners. As for the results, they didn't reach it, instead they got disciplined from their parents for being gone for so long. As for the ping pong ball it was crushed and dented by Bilike's mother, and so Dawa asks to take care of it. But when Bilike ask for it back, he finds out that the ping pong was traded for a toy; that then broke Bilike and Dawa's friendship and brotherhood. Dawa and Bilike's father brought the two of them together and splits up the ping pong ball in half, giving each one of them the other half. In the end Bilike heads to the city with his sister for his education, but didn't get the chance to reconcile with Dawa. Bilike also in the ends enters a room that seems to be a ping pong room.

My Thoughts:
Before researching and watching Mongolian Ping Pong, I personally assumed that this movie was about a little boy who finds a ping pong near where he lives, and later meet some people from the city, that is recruiting kids for a ping pong tournament. So then the boy gets to actually play ping pong and learn about it. But nope, I was wrong, it's mainly about a boy who finds a ping pong ball and with his friends, they are trying to find out what the white ball was actually.

Ping Pong in Mongolia:

This is Mongolia's mixed doubles

Ping pong in Mongolia and nationally is known as table tennis. Table tennis has been played in Mongolia for almost 50 years. It is now getting popular with the youngsters nowadays. Mongolia was awarded with the bronze metal for having a successful sport by the National Olympic Committee.


Education in Mongolia:
So the Mongolia school system follows the Soviet Union, going with ten years of education for primary, secondary, and university schools. Those who live and are from the country side attends boarding school, that goes up to eighth grade. Therefore if the student wants to go higher in their education, they have to attend aimag centers.

In Mongolia, there are many universities and colleges, but Mongolia's top university is the National University.

Mongolian Ping Pong

~~~~~

Facts:


Mongolian Ping Pong, was filmed in Mongolia. It is filmed in the China's Inner Mongolia, away from the Gobi Desert. It was directed and written by Ning Hao, produced by He Bu and Lu Bin. It was released in Mongolia in February 11, 2005, Berlin in February 15, 2005 and USA in April 25, 2006.



Synopsis:

Mongolian Ping Pong, taken place in Inner Mongolia,  is about three little Mongolian boy Bilike, who finds a  white ball, that his grandma said it to be a "glowing pearl", flowing in the nearby river. Bilike and his two friends, Dawa and Erguotou, tries to find out about this "glowing pearl" if it's actually one. And later finds out that this "glowing pearl" is a ping pong, their national ball. With the ping pong it brings the bond that these three friends have, the ups and downs of finding a solution with the ping pong. This movie twists in the modernity that revolves in the life of Bilike, Dawa and Erguotou. 

Weeping Camel Review

Beginning to End - A Summary :

Weeping Camel starts out with the legend about a deer who borrowed a camels horns and never returned it back. The family camel herders  had a mother camel who's giving birth to a baby calf. The birth of this calf went well, but then the mother camel rejects her young calf. The days after the birth of baby calf, the herders tries to get the calf to get its milk from the mother camel but she still rejects the calf, kicking and pushing the calf away from her breast. It was as if the mother camel will attack the calf if it was near her, thus the herders kept the two camels apart at a distance. And so to milk the calf the herders uses a horn- like  instrument that is used as a cup, and filled it up with the mother calf's milk and fed her young one. The family camel herders were not sure of what was the problem and thus called upon for a sacrificial ritual to help bring the two mother camel and calf together as one. But that ritual did not work as the outcome was still the same, therefore the grandparents in the family orders their grandson along with another village son to go to town  to go and buy batteries and to also ask help from a Morin Khurr violinist. When the Morin Khurr violinist came to their home, he proceeds with the ritual, having both the mother and baby calf camel be near to one another. The Morin Khurr violinist plays the Morin Khurr instrument and along with the tune the wife of the third generation family herders sings a song to the mother camel. After the song was done the mother camel finally allows the calf to get its milk from her.

The Family Camel Herders:

In a typical Mongolian herder family, there are about four generation living under the same roof. In Weeping Camel there are supposly four, but the great grandparents, Jamchur and Chemed, live in their own home next to their child and grandchildren. Thus leaving Anga and Zevel, the grandparents, Dgoo and Ikhee the child and wife, and their children, Ugna and Guntee, to live in one home.

The familly structure is that each married couple live in their own tent and the sons usually gets a share of the herd. The youngest or one of the son will get to inherit the family tent and herds and the other sons forming their own familly around with their own share of the herd. Each married sons work closely with one another in the same herding camp, but those who wishes to leave the same herding camp can do so too.

Camel:

These camels are known as the wild two- humped Bactrian camels. The camels in Mongolia are precious to the land since these camels are what the herding economy depends on and have been domesticated for more than three thousand years. Since camels can carry at least 200 kilograms and work in the harsh winter of the Gobi Desert more than a horse can; thus being the favored domestic animal. Camels also can last longer in such climate weather in the dry Gobi Desert that they can last 9 days without water and 33 days without food. But then again the problem that every herders face with is the access to water. Since most wells are not machined drawn from the earth, it is hand drawn instead, which is a lot of works and these camels do not drink very little; they drink approximately 100-120 liters of water compared to horse, that drinks about 40 to 50 liters.

Not only does these camels help with labor but also their wools are precious to the Mongolian people too. They give about 5 to 8 kilograms of wools per year. Along with that the camels also produce milk, producing about 600 liters a year too, that helps the people produce cheese, butter and drinks.

Morin Khuur:


The Morin Khuur, or the Mongolian Horse Fiddle, is an instrument that has always been in the Mongolian tradition and culture. In the Mongolian language, Morin means horse. Back then horses were the peoples treasure as their transportation support and as a friend.

There were many legend about the creation of this instrument. This instrument is so important that it is place as first in the nation's musical instruments. Many of the Mongolian songs, dances, stories, and rituals uses the Morin Khuur instrument too. The Morin Khuur has also been said to help bring a mother ewe and her baby calf together when the mother ewe rejects the calf of milking, hearing the tune from the Morin Khuur will the mother ewe accepts the calf. And this is seen in the Weeping Camel too, when the mother camel rejects her calf of care and duty and after the Morin Khuur was played to her (the mother camel), she allows her calf to drink milk and be by her again.


Developing Society:


In Weeping Camel, the little son Ugna goes into town with a neighbor boy, Dude. Where the family herders live is more rural, so as Ugna enters the town, he's fascinated by all the modern things, especially the t.v. We can see that there is a really big difference between where Ugna and his family lives to the more developed town that Ugna and Dude enters.

Since almost everyone there were not wearing traditional clothings but were instead in jeans and jackets. The towns people owns stores, and sells imported materials and needs and there are electricity poles and schools.

Weeping Camel

Background Facts:

Weeping Camel was directed and written by renown Byambasuren Davaa and Luigi Falorni. The movie was released in September 6, 2003 and was released internationally in 2004 and won an Oscar award in Best Documentary at the 77th Academey Award.

Synopsis:

 Weeping Camel is a movie that is set in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia, that is mainly revolving around a family of herders and a mother camel who in which rejects her baby camel at a difficult birth. Since the birth of the baby calf the mother camel was unwilling to take care of her calf, thus leads the family herders to initate the solution of doing a ritual, that they need to bring in a violinist who plays the traditional Morin Khurr to bring the mother camel to its proper sense as in the role as a mother. 

This movie pulls in a view of another life in another land that we don't know and should watch and see the life style of this family.