Stairway To Heaven Essay

The conflict in the movie suggests a certain sort of meta-conflict that revolves around the opposition of man vs self, derived from the conflict of man vs society. This may be seen more prominently in how there is a constant tension of how their relationship can be more than friends that bonded together because of cheating spouses, begging the question of how; “They could, but would they?”. Set in Hong Kong in the early 1960s, the context of the story consisted of the changing tides of culture shifting from traditional to a more modern themes. This setting influences the conflict of man vs society, as the modernization of things allows a more innovating changes that cause a more liberal lifestyle that challenges the issue their spouses have …show more content…
In the stairway, they always meet midway, at first it is just that – a meeting. The start of their bond started in the stairway, this may be attributed to the trope of a “stairway to heaven”, but every time they do cross paths both would be going on the opposite of the other. Hence, depicts the tension of as much they meet at a middle ground, there is still the question of whether or not they will go the same way. A possible answer to this would be when Su could not push through with being with Chow even when he invited her to come with him to Singapore. Lastly, the episode of Chow in Seam Reap may be considered as the male protagonists attempt to leave the middle ground and the tensions of his life. The appeal of the Seam Reap is a trope to past and history, how in the midst of modernization there will always be structures of the past that will stand. This scene with Mr. Chow is image of how in the process of modernization and even globalization, there are things in the past that we must let go but does not really disappear. His act of whispering his secrets and covering it up with mud is his attempt to move on from his past. However, the monk-boy as witness is a testament that even without a person knowing their secrets will always be something that people see because it will always influence them. This as part of the middle ground trope, is a depiction of how the process of forgetting is part of progress but not always be an act fully achieved. In the more political context of China and Hong Kong, their integration is a tension filled process because Hong Kong in A citizen of China, but also it is contending with the fact that it is a creation of the world. In this sense, they never really moved out of the middle ground, but it is in the middle ground that they are