Topic Seven: American TV Series GREY'S ANATOMY

Discussion Topic Seven (2009/10/26~11/8):

Discussion Topics:
(1) What are the marked traits in this TV series that have helped to attract you, a university student in Taipei, to this show?
(2) In addition to the description of interns struggling to become residents, this show is loaded with images of operation room, which are oftentimes bloody, and depictions of flirting and courting, which are sometimes explicit.  What do these two elements, i.e., blood and love, affect the audience?

An Overall Introduction of the TV series

A detailed introduction to this TV series can be found at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey's_Anatomy

Grey's Anatomy is a popular Ameican medical drama television series.  The show has won two Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards.  It portrays the lives of five surginal interns, who later now became residents.  Their relationship with their mentors, which is very important in the field of medical studies, is also depicted. Since its premier on March 27, 2005 on ABC, this show has stayed the most watched prime time TV series and entered its sixth season, which starts on September 23, 2009.

The show's title derived from a medical textbook entitled Henry Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body. The change from "Gray" to "Grey" echos the surname of the heroine of the show, i.e., Meridith Grey. This linkage highlights the show's focus: A  medical doctor's life as a professional and as an ordinary female.

What's so special about this show in relation to multi-media popular culture is that each episode is characterized with its association with a popular song, which is used mainly in the beginning and the ending of the episode to reinforce the theme or moral of the storyline. In many cases, the episode is named after a song, and this provides more chances for the viewers to immerse into the storyline.

The characters in the show include people of different ethinicities. A color-mixing technique is adopted to create a racially diverse cast that includes African Americans, white people, and Asian Americans.

The first season introduces  five main characters who serve as interns in the fictional Seattle Grace Hospital in Washington State:

1. Meredith Grey
Her mother, Ellis Grey, was a famous surgeon and died as an Alzheimer patient. Her father left the family when she was five years old. He married another woman and had a daughter named Lexie, who becomes an intern later at the same hospital where Meredith serves as a resident. Meredith develps a sense of insecurity that deters her from a stable and steady relationship with her lovers, especially Derek, whose marriage proposal to her is turned down after he got a devorce  with his ex-wife Allison Shephard.)
2. Alex Karev
3. George O'Malley
He failed in the intern test and had to serve as an intern for the second year.In the beginning of the first season, he was attracted to Meredith.  Then he got married with another surgeon, and the marriage ended with  an affair with another of his colleagues, Izzie.
4. Izzie Stevens
She once posed for a magazine as a model to pay her way through medical school.
5. Christina Yang
She is a Korean American who devotes herself to her career. She was in a relationship with the residing surgeon, Dr. Burk, but got left alone at the alter.

Their mentors include:
1. Miranda Bailey ("Nazi") 
She is an African American. She is a general surgeon who serves as the Chief Resident.
2. Richard Webber
 He is an African American who serves as the Chief of Surgery of the surgical program. He once had a relationship with Meredith's mother when she was then working there.
3. Derek Shapherd ("Mr. McDreamy")
He is an attendng physician and develops love relationship with Meredith. After he divorced his wife, he would like to marry Meredith, but she was not ready.
4. Preston Burk
He is an African American.  He is the other attending physician and develops a relationship with Christina--only to desert her at the alter on their wedding day.  After the indcident, he resigned his job at the hospital and sent his mother to say good-bye to Christina.


Discussion Topics:

(1) What are the marked traits in this TV series that have helped to attract you, a university student in Taipei, to this show?

(2) In addition to the description of interns struggling to become residents, this show is loaded with images of operation room, which are oftentimes bloody, and depictions of flirting and courting, which are sometimes explicit. What do these two elements, i.e., blood and love, affect the audience?

Topic Six: Musical Adaptations of Romeo and Juliet

Discussion Topic Six (2009/10/8~10/26):

In the French musical adaptation of Romeo and Juliet (2001),  William Shakespeare's original story plot retained its overall structure but some of its specific features were stressed and emphasized, especially in the psychological exploration of each major character--through touching songs and acting-- and in the personification of the role Death, or Destiny, played in this tragedy--through silent body movements and facial expressions of a female dancer. 

Discussion topics:
(1) By so doing, what special effects did this French musical adaptation attain, in addition to its tremdous popularity worldwide? 
(2) What is your reception of this musical?

Here is the  link to the theme song "Aimer" ("To Love!")

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuZ4-cdGgQE

Here displays the lyrics for you to sing along

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnPViMJqs0o


A Trip to Verona

On her trip to Italy, my sister Sophia Huang went to Verona to take a look at this legendary but fictional balcony of Juliette's.  Here is the postcard she bought me.  Romeo's family mansion is still standing in ruins but no many people go visit there inspite of its authenticity. It seems that a majority of people care about the love between Romeo and Juliette, instead of just Romeo or just Juliette.

My reception of the musical: Songs and dances help  the characters in the play articulate their thoughts and define their individual positions in the plot.

I. On the psychological exploration of each major character--through touching songs and acting

The actors and actresses recuited into this musical emdody both acting and signing talents, and the dancers' performace presents both modern and classical features.  In addition to these, the songs composed for each actor/actress to be delivered on special occasions serve as magnifiers or probs that disclose the secrets hidden in the depths of individual soul.

The songs that impress me most are

(1) the Nurse's song entitled "And Now She Is in Love," which reveals the Nurse's deep concern for Juliet's happliness and her jealousy toward Juliet's mother,

(2) Lord Capulet's song entitled "Having a Daughter" ("Avoir Une Fille"), which shows the deep and possessive love a father has for his beloved daughter and sbsequently the daughters of other people, and most of all

(3) "All for Love" ("Aimer"), delivered by Romeo, Juliet, and  Brother Laurent at the alter upon the couple's wedding ceremony.

Through the performance of the songs, which involves voices, lyrics, and body language, the inner world of each character was open to the audience. I felt so much touched, especially as a parent, by their abililty to love and to articulate this emotion.

Other songs in the musical also informed me about each character's mental state in relation to his/her family background, e.g., Tybalt and Mercutio, and this understanding helped to clear the path toward understanding the development of the drama.  Against the corrupted background of Verona, each individual still kept a devoted and loving heart to his/her beloved.  However, this very loving heart at the same time was capable of doing extreme harm to its rivals. The heart isa double sword:  It can kill and cure at the same time.  Can a killing heart be cured?  The answer is love, "aimer."

The melody and lyrics of "Aimer" are loaded with aspiration for love and beautiful prospect in love.  (I will transcribe the lyrics with Chinese translation as soon as I find time.  Please wait!)  It appears to me that young hearts would rather stop living for love than living without love, whereas aging hearts stop loving to endure a lifeless life.  This view is much celebrated in the context of  Romeo and Juliet, where hatred filled every cornor of the community and the  resort adopted by the couple to counter this omnipresent hatred was love.

In that context, the couple was channelled to face death and each of them was given the right to choose between "to be" or "not to be."  When Romeo saw Juliet's motionless body, he could just turn away and run for his life.  Likewise, after the wakening, Juliet could ask for understanding from her parents and go on with her life.  However, both of them chose to exchange love with their lives:  For them, that's the only way to fulfill their love in that situation. It's apparent that the value of love was placed higher than that of life. Their choice for life was the path of love.

 Do I personally agree with their choice?  Don't forget that they lived in a fictional world.  In reality, with a passionate heart that still feels and aspires, I would look for a solution--mostlikely, a compromise, and  as an adult with children I have more important concerns. The secrets to break through the mist is  "excahnge" and "choice."

Life is full of transactions of many kinds, and we have to strike a balance. There is a balance scale in life for us to measure exchanges, and the pivot point changes positions in different stages of life.  It depends on the weight you put on the value you are holding at that juncture. It is a choice, and we have to choose wisely, taking into consideration of the voices from the head and the heart. The prerequisite is self-understanding and an open heart.

There is a minor character observing all the events in this musical, i.e., the poet (Juliet's friend), who presumably wrote down the whole story, and there is Romeo's friend Benvolio, who stayed alive through all these ordeals.  They had a big picture of the whole story and they had the chance to experience more of life.  Although these two roles were not on the center stage, they presented an alternative stand in life.   They were there on the background for us to spot.  Do you see them?

There are times when these minor characters would loom into big figures. Before then, get prepared and live a meaningful life. (In other words, let's study hard and learn to think independently with creativity!)

II. On the personification of the role Death, or Destiny, played in this tragedy--through silent body movements and facial expressions of a female dancer.

In this musical full of touching songs, Death (or, Destiny) was the only one character that remained silent yet powerful  all way through.  Personified as a female dancer with minimum draperies, this character "spoke" through her body language and her moves were terrifying and uncountable: to snare Tybalt and Mercucio in her arms to endow them with death, to blow a death breath into Romeo's mouth to end his life,  and to hand Romeo's daggar into Juliet's hand to initiate her suicide.

The omnipresent power of death was embodied in these movements, and the psychological effects were powerful.  I think all living creatures possess this instinct of death approaching.  It's a common experience for all to stand vis-a-vis Death, and none of us can outwit him/her for long.

So, let's cherish every living and loving moment in life! 


Discussion topics:

(1) With its emphasis on the exploration of the inner world of major characters through songs and dances, what special effects did this French musical adaptation attain, in addition to its tremdous popularity worldwide?
(2) What is your reception of this musical?  What appeals to you especially in this performance?

Topic Five: Focus shift in Shakespeare in Love

Discussion Topic Five (2009/10/12~10/18):

In the movie Shakepeare in Love, the main focus was not on Romeo and Juliet but on Shakespeare and his lover.  What is the purpose for the director to make this focus shift?  Are there any chances for Shakespeare and Viola to be together?

The 1996 version of Romeo and Juliet is very faithful to the original play by Shakespeare, except that the background is set in our time. By so doing, the story is carried across the time barriers to approach the modern viewers: The viewers experience the old story in the terms of modern days.

In contrast, the 1999 movie adaptation attempts to bring the viewers back to the sixteenth century and observe the cultural/social context which yielded the story. In other words, the movie is an account of how the story of Romeo and Juliet was produced by simulating the cultural background of Shakespeare's time.

By staging Shakespeare's original story in modern days, the 1996 version of Romeo and Juliet highlights (1) teenagers' perception of love vis-a-vis the sophisticated and corrupted world of the adults, (2) the different ways in which justice is carried out by clan/gangs and by society/country, and (3) the lack of communication and affections in child-parent relationship during teenagehood.

Different from the original Romeo and Juliet, which focuses itself on the issue of youthful love against hatred, the 1999 movie adaptation concerns adults' love vis-a-vis cultural/social barrriers.

Through the representiion of sixteenth-century London, the movie foregronds several cultural/social issues specific to Queen Elizabethis time.

The first one is gender issue: Women were banned from the stage and marriages are arranged by parents at that time.

The second one is class divisions, such as the rich vs the poor and the nobleman vs the commoner.

The third one is the exploration and exploitation of the New world, i.e., North America, by setting up plantations in the new colonies.

The fourth one concerns the struggling of playwright/artists from dependents on entertaining show business to independent artists in drama/theatre.

These cultural/social issues are foregrounded in the movie Shakespeare in Love. Finally comes the central question: Could  Shakespeare and Viola go beyond the restraints of all these cultural/social barriers and then stay together?  If not, how was their story going to end?

Discussion Topics:
(1)What is the purpose for the director to make the focus shift from the love between Romeo and Juliet to the marriage choice between Shakespeare and Viola? (2) Does the movie present  any chances for Shakespeare and Viola to be together?

Topic Four: Romeo and Juliet together forever?

Discussion Topic Four (2009.10.5~10.11):

Did Romeo and Juliet have a chance to live a happy life together?

In the fair town of Verona, there were two rival families, the Capulets and the Montagues They tried their best to use every method to destroy each other.

Romeo was the only son of the Montague family and Juliet, the only daughter of the Capulet family. The two met and fell in love with each other. Against the background of hatred and violence, they made the arrangement with the priest and got married secretly in the church.


Unfortunately, Romeo killed Juliet's cousin against his own will to avenge his best friend's death and was banished by the city authority as a result.


During Romeo's absence, Juliet worked out a plan with the priest to avoid the arranged marriage with another man. She drank the potion given by the priest and faked death. It was the plan that when Juliet awoke from her sleep, Romeo would return to the city and took her away secretly.

Unfortunately, the message from the priest never reached Romeo. Instead. Romeo was informed by one of his friends of Juliet's death. Romeo returned to Verona and saw Juliet's body lying motionless. With deep sorrows, he drank the poison he had brought with him and committed suicide.


Shortly, Juliet awoke from her fake death and saw her Romeo losing breath with her own eyes.


With great shock and grief, Juliet killed herself with Romeo's dagger and died next to her love.


Their determination to die together rather than being alive apart awoke their parents from their deep hatred against one another. A hope for reconciliation emerged at the cost of the lives of this young couple.


For several hundreds of years, their determination to keep the sacred promise in love and in marrige have touched upon the hearts of many lovers, young and old.


It is said that this is one of the best tragedies William Shakespeare has ever written.

Discussion topic: 
Was there any possibility for Romeo and Juliet to beat the odds and live a life together?