Comparing Pushing Hands 'And The Personals'

862 Words4 Pages
“Pushing hands” revolves around the story of a retired tai chi master who has moved to the United States to live with his son. On the other hand, “the personals” revolves around the story of a lonely woman who decides to put up an advertisement in the personals seeking for a husband. The settings of these two films raise some major differences. Pushing hands involves a large family including Mr. Chu and his son’s family. Despite the fact that Mr. Chu is retired, and he has company as he can interact with his son, his grandson and his daughter-in-law. This removes the aspect of loneliness in the film compared to “the personals” whereby the old woman decides to put up an advertisement in a bid to find a companion. Further, the movie portrays Taipei as a lonely city as we do not see any other people apart from the woman and the prospective men who respond to her advertisement. Additionally, while “The Personals” is shot in Taipei, which is its local city, “Pushing Hands” is shot in the United States. This raises some major differences as the cultures of the…show more content…
Chu lives with younger people. His son’s wife thinks that he is the main reason that she is facing challenges with the writing block. On the other hand, Mr. Chu is a Maoist who believes in the unity of the family and this leads to him wondering how such a woman as Martha could be married to his son. Alex tries his best to keep his family united despite their differences in how they perceived the world and this leads to his suffering from Chinese traditions and the modern American lifestyle. “The personals,” on the other hand, has many generation gaps as the woman interacts with men who have very different characteristics and perceptions of life. For example, she meets a man who was apparently trying to get his father a wife. This is unexpected as it would seem improper for an old man having his son find him a wife but it happens in the

More about Comparing Pushing Hands 'And The Personals'

Open Document