Anayi Movie Recaps

Since I am kind of slow in terms of undating my writings, I have been contemplating on whether I should post Hmong movies summaries/recaps.  In the end, I decided to start with the Miao movie, Anayi.  For those of you who may not be familiar or who are confused, I just wanted to clarify that the term "Miao" used in China encompasses the Hmong and does not mean cat, like the derogatory "Meo" term used in Southeast Asia to label the Hmong in the past.  "Miao" in Chinese is equated with rice seedling, hinting to a possible fact that the Miao were the first people to cultivate rice in the world.  Miaozu, or Miao nationality, are divided into three subbranches (Western, Central, and Eastern) based on dialects and the Hmong outside the China mainland are considered to be in the Far Western group, nonethless still part of the Western Miao branch.  With this said, even though Anayi is about the Central Miao, it is nonetheless a Miao/Hmong movie and that is the reason why I decided to summarize it.  (Note: For those who are curious and don't know, the Eastern Miao are the ones in the poster for "A Candlelight Dream.")

This film was made in 2005 and starred Chouchou (also the director, screenwriter, and co-producer--she graduated from Beijing Art Academy) as the leading protagonist Anayi, Cheng Xiaodong as Ahan, and Wang Xuefeng as Abao.  Chouchou is half Miao, half Dong (an ethnic group who lives near the Miao but in lower elevations near rivers and streams, and who belongs to the same language family as the Thai/Lao), Cheng Xiaodong is Dong, and Wang Xuefeng is Miao.


Summary/Recap: (WARNING: Because this is a summary/recap, there is bound to be spoilers.  If you plan on watching this movie and does not wish to be spoiled, don't read on!)

 Anayi is an orphan who lives with her grandmother.  The story begins with Grandma telling a child Anayi the story of Mother Butterfly, the creator of the world.  Anayi then practices embroidery, pricking her finger and crying.  Grandma calms her down, telling her the virtue of perseverence and endurance of pain so that someday she may finish sewing a beautiful outfit to show off to her admirer.

 

 Abao, Anayi's child friend, shows up and Anayi runs off with him to a celebration in the village courtyard.  They chase each other through the crowd of dancers, and Anayi trips and falls.  However, Abao isthere to help her up.  They spend the remaining day splashing water at one another.

 

 

 Many years pass and Anayi grows up into a beautiful maiden who is well versed in songs and skilled in embroidery like her grandmother.  Abao, on the other hand, grows into a fine silversmith who is very fond of Anayi and like her more than a friend.

 Abao happily makes a silver bracelet for Anayi.  On his way to present Anayi with the silver bracelet, he carries a stack of firewood and passes by a group of socializing grandmothers.  They tease him about his courtship with Anayi and wish to see the two wed soon.  Abao blushes and walks away without responding.

 

Abao drops the firewood at Anayi's house, and she offers him a handkerchief as a gratitude.  He takes it contently and hands Anayi the silver bracelet.  The girl is reluctant to take such a precious gift, but Abao insists on it and says that the bracelet is nothing.  He intends on making a chaplet (a xauv) for her in the near future.

 That night, Grandma says to Anayi that she knew Abao had come earlier.  She tells the girl that she has grown up and as a Miao woman, she needs to start finding her sweetheart.  If not, who will she sing her sweet songs for and who will she wear her beautiful clothes for.  Afterward, Grandma hands her jade pendant to her granddaughter.  Anayi asks Grandma about how she and her husband met and Grandma tells the story.  Anayi's grandfather was already engaged to the daughter of Xijiang Village's chief when the two met, but he had fallen in love with Grandma and protested against the engagement.  To win Grandma's heart, Anayi's grandfather spent many days playing the Gupiao violin, which moved Grandma to tears and they soon wed.

Grandma makes embroidery threads and hands Anayi a basket full to carry to the Dong Village.  Carrying the back-basket, Anayi sets out on her journey to deliver the embroidery threads to the Dong girls.  While passing through a forest though, Anayi hears the most beautiful, haunting leaf melody ever and she is left enthralled by the music.

While Anayi leaves to the Dong Village, Abao infuriates his mother when he tells her that he is worried about Anayi (who he feels is burdened because she has to take care of her sickly grandmother).  Concerned about her son who is getting thinner because he is worried about a girl, Abao's mother leaves their house and approaches Grandma.  She talks to Grandma, hoping to engage Anayi and Abao but Grandma politely disagrees.  Grandma says that as guardians, neither she nor Abao's mother knows what Anayi or Abao is thinking or feeling.  Therefore, Grandma cannot force Anayi to marry Abao, which leaves Abao's mother in disappointment.

Anayi hands the Dong girls the embroidery threads and they comment on how beautiful the threads are.  Afterward, she leaves the Dong Village and stops by a stream to rest.  She has just taken a bite of a hard-boiled egg given to her by a little Dong girl when the sky suddenly roars like thunder.  She knows a rainstorm is coming.

 

She rushes home in the storm, but trips on a rock and slips in the same forest that she had heard the daunting melody earlier.  She hits her head and falls unconscious.  However, someone happens to pass by and picks her up.  The rescuer carries Anayi back to the Dong Village.

Anayi wakes up the next morning, finding herself lying inside a wooden shack.  The fire is still burning under a hanging pot but the house is quiet.  She steps outside and finds no one either.  However, music and singing echo from the village courtyard and she suspects that her savior must be among the crowd of singers.  Although she wants to wait for him, she knows that she needs to return home.  In the end, she decides to leave her red paper umbrella behind to show her rescuer that she will return.

Anayi arrives back at her home to a worried-sick Grandma, and the two share a moment of tears. 

 Grandma tells Anayi that when she has the chance, she needs to thank the kind-hearted young man who saved her life.  Then, Grandma provokes Anayi about her thoughts of Abao.  Anayi replies that she only considers him as a brother.  Grandma says that no matter who Anayi chooses, the old woman only hopes that the girl lives happily.  She then hands Anayi a silver jewelry set.  She tells the girl to keep the jewelry and wear it for the Sisters' Festival, a local annual celebration of spring and a time for married women to visit their families and unmarried young ladies to court.

 

 Anayi takes the silver jewelry to Abao to have it clean, polish, and shine.  Abao glady takes on the task and assures Anayi that he will make her silver sparkle.  He also tells her that he is working on carving her a chaplet.  She, however, tells him not to make it because her Grandma has already prepared one for her.  He then offers her to go inside his house for a meal, and she rejects him by stating that she is in a hurry to send embroidery threads to the Dong Village.  She hastily departs, leaving Abao disappointed and sad.

 

Anayi passes a bridge to the Dong Village, hearing the moving leaf tune once more.  She stops to look, knowing that the sound is coming from the boat below.  However, she cannot see the blower's face, only his back as the boat flows down the river.  She returns to her savior's shack, but finds it lock as usual.  Her red paper umbrella, however, is gone and she assures herself that she will get it back someday.



 

Sisters' Festival has arrived, and Anayi rushes to the mountains with the other Miao girls.  While they sing, the girls pick leaves, plants, and flowers to dye glutinous rice in beautiful rainbow colors.  Grandma hands Anayi a basket to put her sticky rice inside, and warns her to be careful of the token she puts inside each rice package.  Garlic is for the suitors she wishes to reject, and a pair of chopsticks is for the special someone whom she wants to spend the rest of her life with. 

 



 

She bathes and dresses in her finest clothes and jewelry, and sets out to the dancing ground.  There, she shimmers in the sun with the other Miao girls as they dance in circles to the beat of the drum.  While the young Miao girls and lads meet and greet, form couples and give each other gifts, Anayi stares into the distance eying to see if that special person came. 

 

 

Then from out of nowhere, Abao calls for Anayi.  He smiles happily at having meet her, but she looks upset.  She reaches into her basket, and hands Abao a rice package.  He cheerfully takes it and leaves. 

 

 

Away from Anayi, Abao anxiously opens the rice package, and is disheartened to find that Anayi has returned the silver bracelet he has given her.  Sadness overwhelms Abao.

 



 

Anayi continues to wait for him, even after the drummers carry their drum away and the dancers left.  Sitting in front of a waterfall, she says that she isn't sure if that young man she is waiting for will even show up, but no matter what, she is willing to wait for him.  Then after a long wait, the haunting leaf melody begins to echo from a distance (YEAH, THE LEADING MAN FINALLY SHOWS UP!) and the young man Anayi has been waiting so patiently for finally appears from behind a rugged bush. 

 



 

She smiles contently as he plays his leaf music, walking up to her and mesmerizing her with his music and charm.

 

 

She hands him her rice basket.  He flips the embroidered cloth over, and finds a pair of chopsticks laying on top of the beautifully colored, glutinous rice.  He understands from the token that she is satisfied with him, and wishes to be with him for the rest of her life.

 



 

He takes her hands and they walk away together.

 

 

That night, Grandma tells Anayi that she dreams about Anayi's grandfather.  The girl is shocked, knowing that such a dream is an inauspicious sign.  She takes the bucket of water used to wash Grandma's feet out to the door and bumps into a nervous Abao's mother who wants to know where her son has gone to.  Anayi doesn't answer her, and instead tells the woman that her grandmother has dreamed of seeing her grandfather.  Abao's mother becomes worried too, and then they both heard a loud cough.

 

 

Anayi and Abao's mother rush to Grandma and see that the old woman has coughed blood.  They help her to bed, and Abao's mother takes Anayi to the side.  She tells the girl that her grandmother is in critical condition and cannot wait any longer.  She needs to go get help from a medicine man name Old Wuga from the Dong Village.  Without a thought, Anayi dashes to the Dong Village.

 

 

While Grandma rest sickly in bed, Anayi runs to find Ahan.  She cries to him and tells him of her grandmother's critical state.  He gives her some herbs to take home first, and assures her that he will go fetch Old Wuga to come help her grandmother. 

 

 

On her trip back, Anayi is in such a rush that she trips and stumbles down (this is the third time she has fallen in this movie), losing Grandma's jade pendant.  She quickly picks the pendant up.

 

 

But she is too late.  By the time Anayi returns home with Ahan's herbs, Grandma has already passed away.  Anayi weeps.  (This part is very sad).

 

 Ahan hurries to Anayi's home, but is pushed away because he has yet to marry her.  Anayi gives her final goodbye kiss to Grandma.

 

 

For many days, Anayi mourns for Grandma, regretting her being late and not being able to save Grandma.  Ahan waits patiently outside, accompanying Anayi through her tough time.

 

 



Ahan's patience gradually wears away as Anayi has locked herself inside her house, unwilling to see anyone.  Unable to tolerate it anymore, Ahan decides to pick a leaf and blow Anayi the tune that made her fall in love with him to see if it will move her and make her show her face to him.

 

 

Anayi, however, is unmoved.  She only stares at her grandmother's loom, hearing it clicking just like when Grandma was still there weaving cloth.  She realizes that Grandma did not finish weaving, and promises to continue Grandma's work for her.

 

 

Two days go by and Ahan doesn't give up.  He continues to play out his heart.  Finally, his persistence wakes Anayi up and she steps outside.

 

 



 She doesn't look happy, but he is glad to finally see her face once more.

 

Ahan brings Anayi a bouquet of rape seed and tiny white flowers.  He tells her not to be too sad because she still has him.  Also, he is going to particiate in a Dong singing competition and he wishes that she comes to support him.

 

 

Anayi finally feels better, and she shows up to the singing competition with Ahan.  They look on gleefully as a Dong singing master steps up to challenge the Dong women choir.  They test each other on love verses, and the Dong singing master loses.

 

 

The women are hopeful that they have won, but a crystal clear voice responds to their verse.  The beautiful voice turns out to be Ahan (my favorite part) and he boldly answers as well as challenge the women.  In the end, they fail to outsmart him and he is crowned the new young Dong singing master champion.

 

 

Ahan finds Anayi in the crowd and puts his prize sash around her neck.  He tells her to wait for him, and promises to marry her soon.

 

Anayi dresses up for her wedding with the help of Abao's mother and the village women.  Abao's mother tells Anayi that she has grown very pretty.

 

 



 

Having just finished dressing up in her finest embroidery and phoenix silver crown, Anayi suddenly hears that Ahan has lost his voice in a singing competition.  Worried about him, she dashes out to search for her groom.

 

She looks everywhere but cannot find him.  She then waits at the sun and wind bridge, holding onto the sash that he had won during his first singing competition.  After some time, Ahan finally walks onto the bridge.  He notices her in his peripheral view, but decides to ignore her because he can't speak anymore.  He passes her by like a stranger.  Unwilling to accept his estrangement, Anayi gets up and calls after him.  He turns around to glance at her once, then walks away.



 

She rushes after him and gives him a back-hug.  He looks on surprisingly while she smiles as she embraces his back.

 

He opens his mouth, as if wanting to say that he is sorry but she stops him.  His eyes gleam sadly, staring at her with a broken-heart for having lost his voice and let her down.

 

Ahan returns Anayi's embrace, and the two share a heartfelt moment together.

 

At the end, Anayi narrates that she and Ahan are finally able to be together, living happily in Ahan's shack.  He tends to the animals while she teaches the village girls embroidery, songs, and music.

 

 

My Thoughts:

 

 

First of all, I just want to say that I am biased toward movies.  I prefer to watch dramas or multilple-parts movies than single movies.  Unlike dramas or multiple-parts movies, single movies are limited in time and sometimes don't do a sufficient job at explaining everything.  They may rush on some parts while drag on other parts so as a viewer one is left confounded.

 

Overall, I thought this movie was decent.  Its purpose is to showcase the beauty of Miao culture and landscape and I believed that it achieved its goal well (although we have to understand not in its entirety due to time constraint).  We got to experience the Sisters' Festival, stories and embroidery, and a glimpse of Miao daily life.  I only wished that the Miao characters would sing a song as well, but we got to hear the Dong characters sang instead. 

 

I give Chouchou props for taking on so many different roles.  I particularly like her character as an unwavered, strong, and undeceitful Miao woman in both her family and love life (I think Miao/Hmong women should be portrayed like this more in films, and not just helpless damsels in distress or malicious and greedy money seekers).  But sometimes her character just comes out a little too perfect, which we know is not true in the real world.  Additionally, although he didn't end up with Anayi, I wished that the movie had shown us what happen to Abao.  His mother came to look for him, but his importance was cut when we find out that Anayi's grandma was very sick.  Then, no one mentioned Abao for the remaining course of the movie, not even his mother who showed up near the end too.

 

Initially, I thought Cheng Xiaodong's acting was stiff (Wang Xuefeng's Abao was more believable).  It wasn't until after he lost his voice that we really got to see him transition naturally into his Ahan character, and by that time the movie had come to an end.  Nonetheless, I wished the movie had explained how Ahan lost his voice.  First of all, it was kind of strange for a healthy person to all of a sudden lose his voice and secondly, if it was possible to lose one's voice so drastically--what propelled him to sing in such a horrendous manner that he could not speak anymore?  Also, why was he at a singing competition on his wedding day? 

 

Other than the things mentioned above, I found the movie to be entertaining on the basis that I got to see a little about what is Central Miao culture and lifestyle.