MovieChat Forums > Yin shi nan nu (1994) Discussion > Deceptive love = theme of the film

Deceptive love = theme of the film



It seems to me that deceptive love was a major theme of this film.

The youngest daughter has a secret romance with her best friend's (ex?)-boyfriend, and conceals that fact from her best friend, and also from her family.

The middle daughter is deceived both by her ex (who is getting married) and by her new beau (who is actually married to an American).

The oldest daughter actually fabricated an entire relationship, complete with breakup and heartbreak.

The oldest daughter is sent anonymous fake love letters by her students.

The oldest daughter, like the youngest, does not tell her family about her romance and wedding.

The father pretends a relationship with Mrs. Liang.

The father carries on a clandestine romance with Mrs. Liang's daughter, which no one knows about.


The father does not show his love for his daughters, except by cooking for them and by criticizing their cooking.


Fortunately, the movie ends with a scene of real, honest love -- finally -- between father and daughter.

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The father's relationship with Liang's daughter only begins during the film. How long it is "clandestine" -- private -- isn't indicated, but it isn't long.

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Disagree. It is clandestine, it is part of the theme of deceptive love. All but one of the other 8 examples occur during the time frame of the movie, so your other point doesn't hold water -- not only that, it being within the timeframe of the movie shows that it is part of the theme of the movie!
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I think those are simply the realities of the day. And none of those events are especially new. What the middle daughter does learn, though, is that "free love" ain't so great when the shoe is on the other foot -- when she is the person being rejected.

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Sorry, your post doesn't make any sense to me.

Anyway, I'm happy to agree to disagree.
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It doesn't make any sense to you because you are viewing the middle daughter as the victim, when in fact -- as the movie makes clear -- she is every bit as responsible for the consequences of her having multiple boyfriends (unknown to each other) as a given boyfriend is responsible for his having more than one girlfriend (unknown to each other).

If you had more than one boyfriend, would you tell each of them about the others? Or would you consider that your private business, and none of theirs? You would consider it none of their business.

But if at the same time you discovered that one of your boyfriends had other girlfriends you didn't know about -- it being his private business -- you'd consider that boyfriend as being deceitful.

In short: check out YOUR double-standards.

And your obsession with deceit in personal relationships.

I also think it obvious you're projecting your own experience onto the film, in order to find deceit where there isn't any. The privacy of individuals about their "love" isn't necessarily deceptive -- whose business is it? -- and does not transform the "love" into being "deceptive love". The middle daughter -- who you insist on seeing as "victim" -- doesn't tell any of her boyfriends that she has other boyfriends/bed partners.

Nor, or course, do they tell her she isn't their only girlfriend/bed partner. It's when she stops by one of her boyfriend's place "needing" to talk that she discovers he can't because one of his other girlfriends is visiting. But she isn't a "victim" there either, because she's all along been doing the same thing. That is, though, where she finds the "free love" shoe on her other foot.

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None of that changes the fact that deceptive love is the theme of the movie -- it happens nine times in two hours. I'm not making any value or moral judgments on the incidents; I'm simply saying it's the theme of the movie.
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Mr Chu takes a phone call during opening food-prep montage: he is helping her prepare fish for her meal with her daughter, which is confirmed when they come over later. In that phone call he asks her, 'If not today, then when will we talk about it?'. And at dinner, he has news to share about something to do with ''two days". I think he proposed and/or asked her when they could tell the family about their relationship; but he never gets the chance to share his news.

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