SYNOPSICS
Gua sha (2001) is a English,Mandarin movie. Xiaolong Zheng has directed this movie. Tony Ka Fai Leung,Wenli Jiang,Dennis Zhu,Xu Zhu are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2001. Gua sha (2001) is considered one of the best Drama movie in India and around the world.
The painless bruise marks on a child from the traditional Chinese guasha/scraping treatment was mistaken by child protection services as evidence of abuse and neglect, stirring clashes and debates on cultral prejudice and false philanthropy.
Gua sha (2001) Trailers
Gua sha (2001) Reviews
Cultural Differences Threaten to Break Up a Chinese Family
Chinese immigrants struggle to hold onto their American dream after the husband's father (Xu Zhu) comes for a visit from mainland China and gives a simple Chinese Medicine therapy called Gua Sha to his grandson. Da Tong (Tony Leung Ka Fai) is the father who is trying to integrate his Chinese cultural beliefs into his daily American reality, especially when dealing with his boss (Hollis Huston) and best friend, who is too quick to believe the worst about Da Tong's treatment of his son, Dennis. Da Tong's failures show his confusion about the differences between his original Chinese culture and his new American home. Even within his family there is conflict because Grandfather can't speak English and is excluded from many conversations because Mother (Wenli Jiang) wants only English spoken in her home for the benefit of her American born son. Da Tong and his wife are very well educated and understand that their child's best chances for success in America, and for him not to experience the same troubles they've had during the past 8 years, are to speak without an accent. They even go so far as to insist the boy use a fork and knife instead of chopsticks, even when it's obvious they are still eating Chinese style food, served in the normal way: communal dishes for the food and smaller, individual rice bowls for each person. Mother seems a bit inflexible in her insistence on being as American as possible, while Da Tong's cultural leanings are just as strongly Chinese, although not by conscious choice. Da Tong's love for his son is tested severely when Da Tong tries to balance it against respect for his boss. When Da Tong's son hits his boss' son, Da Tong insists on an apology that seems unnecessary and makes Da Tong look stubborn and uncaring. Da Tong gives his boy a light rap on the head when he refuses to apologize and the boy cries to his mother that the reason he hit his playmate was that the other boy called Da Tong stupid, one of many examples of doing the wrong thing to protect your family. The conflict arising from doing the wrong thing out of love or respect for one's family or closest friends continues throughout the movie, and every way Da Tong turns, he finds failure and encounters both obvious and subtle forms of anti-Chinese racism. Even Chinese folklore about the Monkey King, Sun Wu Kong, that Da Tong incorporates into a video game he designed is used to provoke his pride when he's vulnerable and fearing for the loss of his son. Da Tong is misunderstood by everyone, family, friend, and foe, even though he has only the best intentions, and he carries the responsibility quite heavily, making one wrong turn after another. Gua Sha (The Treatment) shows how a person's cultural beliefs are so deeply set within oneself that it is usually impossible to examine why you do most anything, from how you dress and talk to whom you love and respect and how you show it. The invisible nature of one's cultural beliefs also makes it difficult to impossible to explain yourself to others when questioned. Da Tong experiences an excruciatingly painful and difficult struggle while trying to protect his son, an ordeal that forces him to examine the validity of some of the most vital things he thought he knew about his identity, his Chinese culture, and the new American world he'd chosen as his home. The movie showed me how normal it is for people to look for ways that their culture is superior to others' and how the misunderstandings arising from different cultural perspectives can seem very large, but can be nullified with simple, 2-sided explanations when people are willing to listen. It appears this film is not readily available in the USA, but it's the best I've seen at highlighting the differences between American and Chinese culture. Parts of the movie's dialog are only in Chinese and I've yet to find a DVD with English subtitles, although it's easy to get the gist of what's going on during those short passages. The credits are a combination of Chinese and English, holding true to the integration of both worlds. I've noticed some important roles are not credited here on IMDb, such as Judge Horowitz, who was played by Alexander Barton.
Masterpiece on Cultural misunderstandings
Gua Sha is a treatment in traditional oriental medicine in which a wooden board repeatedly slides across the patient's acupuncture/acupressure/massage points. It works in similar principles like that of acupuncture/acupressure/massage. This method would inevitably leave bruise on the skin, and the story begins here, when the visiting grandpa who does not speak any English used this traditional practice to treat the grandson when both son and daughter-in-law were at work. Sadly, in US, this is a story that repeats itself many times in the area where many oriental immigrants lives and all of these are due to simple misunderstanding between cultures.
Another opinion about Guasha
This is really a good movie, it display the different culture between American and oriental. But i have to say Guasha comes from China actually, it belongs to a Traditional Chinese Medicine therapy since the ancient times. Guasha (Chinese: 刮痧; pinyin: guāshā), meaning "scraping Shabruises", is a traditional Chinese medical treatment in which the skin is scraped to produce light bruising. Practitioners believe Guasha releases unhealthy elements from injured areas and stimulates blood flow and healing. Guasha is sometimes referred to as "spooning" or "coining" by English speakers, it has also been given the descriptive French name, tribo effleurage. Guasha was borrowed into Vietnamese from China as cạogió. This term translates roughly "to scrape wind", as in Vietnamese culture "catching a cold" or fever is often referred to as trúnggió, "to catch wind". The origin of this term is the Shang Han Lun, a ~220 CE Chinese Medical text on cold induced disease - like most Asian countries China's medical sciences were a profound influence in Vietnam, especially between the 5th and 7th Centuries CE.[2] Cạogió is an extremely common remedy in Vietnam and for overseas Vietnamese. There are many variants of cạogió. Some methods use oil balm and a coin to apply pressure to the skin. Others use a boiled egg with a coin inserted in the middle of the yolk. The egg is wrapped in a piece of cloth and rubbed over the forehead (in the case of a fever) and other areas of skin. After the rubbing, when the coin is removed from the egg, it will appear black. It is also used in Indonesia, and in Java it is known as "Kerikan" (lit., "scraping technique") or "kerokan", and it is very widely used, as a form of folk medicine, upon members of individual households. It was also used in India for treatment of high fever symptoms . People used metal spoon and water for skin lubrication. There are many Guasha tools on the market, but how to get a nice one? I will recommend you one from Amazon, it is really very nice.
East Asian medicine
Gua Sha, known as kerik in Indonesia, Cao Gio in Vietnam (see Harvey Keitel's The Three Seasons) and khoud lam in Laos is a legitimate and effective therapy. In Asia it is usually done with a coin, Chinese soup spoon, slice of water buffalo horn, or even a slice of ginger. A simple cap with a rounded edge is quite good to use and available in most homes in the West. It was not commonly done with wood, but if smooth and the right edge it could be. There is a teaching text in English called Gua Sha. A Traditional Technique for Modern Practice, and a teaching video: Gua Sha: Step-by-Step, by Arya Nielsen.If an acupuncturist is trained in Classical Chinese medicine, they will do this technique in their practice for pain, and for acute or chronic illness.
So cool
This movie is so great! It's about assimilation into American culture, and not assimilation in an "International" city, like SF or NY or LA or Chicago, but St. Louis, MO (actually shot there). Really great acting, interesting story. But I might be biased bc I went to the premiere. :) If you can locate a copy of this film, definitely watch it.