Shutter Island (2010): One Movie, Two Different Endings?

Ming Fearon &

Jacqueline Wang

This week we watched the Martin Scorsese movie Shutter Island (2010), which is currently playing in cinemas. (SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you plan on actually watching Shutter Island!) The movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio, with Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, and Michelle Williams making up the supporting cast (Patricia Clarkson, who played Robert Downey Jr.’s wife in Good Night, and Good Luck, also makes an appearance in the film).

The movie is marketed as a horror/mystery film and takes place in 1954. DiCaprio plays a U.S. marshal named Teddy Daniels who is brought to Shutter Island, the home of a mental institution, in order to investigate the disappearance of an inmate named Rachel. She was sent to Shutter Island because she was responsible for drowning her three children in a lake. Daniels, along with his partner, Chuck, tries to understand how Rachel escaped from her cell and where she could possibly have gone, since they are on an island where the only means of escape is through a ferry controlled by the institution.

Shutter Island has a strange effect on Daniels, especially in his dreams. A World War II veteran and widower, Daniels finds himself often succumbing to intense migraines, nausea, and nightmares about his dead wife. As he gets deeper into his investigation of Rachel’s disappearance, he begins to question the true motives of the Shutter Island psychiatric ward. He begins to think that the patients on Shutter Island are being subjected to horrible experiments (many of which involve lobotomizing them) in the same manner that the Nazis subjected their inmates at Dachau. At the same time, he tries to find a man named Andrew Laeddis, who was responsible for the fire that burnt down his apartment building and as a result killed his wife. Daniels also begins to see visions of a little girl who Rachel drowned, and is continually asked by the little girl why he couldn’t save her.

From reading this synopsis, one can assume that the plot of Shutter Island is a relatively straightforward one. However, after seeing it, we both had slightly different interpretations of what may have happened by the movie’s end. The film has a twist ending; the lead psychiatrist, Dr. Cawley, lures Daniels into a lighthouse and informs him that Daniels has in fact been a patient on Shutter Island for two years, and has imagined his own persona and the whole scenario with Laeddis and his wife. Daniels’ partner, Chuck claims to have been Daniels’ psychiatrist for the past two years. Both inform Daniels that his name is not actually Teddy Daniels, but Andrew Laeddis, and that he was responsible for the murder of his wife, who had drowned their three children in the lake (one of which was the little girl he hallucinated who kept imploring him for help).

As a mechanism to cope with the trauma of what he’d done, Daniels had created this fictional scenario, and in an elaborate attempt to break the delusion, the two psychiatrists let Daniels have the run of the island and play out his fantasies, after counseling him for more than nine months. Prior to these nine months, it was mandated that Daniels would have to learn to grip reality or he would be sentenced to a lobotomy because he is dangerous to society and to himself. In a miraculous breakthrough, Daniels acknowledges what he has done and comes to terms with his past and his identity. In the final scene, however, Daniels appears to have relapsed back into his imaginary persona. He greets his psychiatrist as “Chuck” once again, and assures Chuck that they will find a way off of the island. Chuck gives a signal to the other doctors that Daniels is beyond help, and must go through the operation. As men in white coats approach Daniels to take him away, Daniels says to Chuck, “which would be worse? To live as a monster or die as a good man?” He then willingly walks off with the men, presumably to have his operation. Chuck yells “Teddy” after Daniels, who is non-responsive.

After watching this ending, it seemed pretty clear exactly what had happened in the end: Daniels had been cured of his delusions, but would rather die than live with the guilt of what he had done. However, Jackie felt it was possible that more than one ending had just occurred. She agreed that this was the most reasonable explanation, but speculated that it was also possible that Daniels was never actually crazy. The whole scenario could have actually happened, but the psychiatrists had been trying to keep Daniels on the island by convincing him and everyone else that he was insane. His final words could imply that he would rather die as a good man, rather than to live as a monster, calling Chuck and his cohorts the monsters.

Top news of the week: “Kick Away Functional Constituencies Parade” on 28th March (by Cherry, Ann and Ivan)

At 2:30 pm March 28th, a “Kick Away Functional Constituencies Parade” was organized by The Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS). This parade called university students in HK upon to join in and show the Government and the Functional Constituencies their .strong request for abolishing the Functional Constituencies.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn9OF8r_v08 here is a vedio from youtube)

As is known to all, HK is a special administrative region of People’s Republic of China and is governed under all kinds of laws including the most important Basic Law legislated by the National People’s Congress. According to the Basic Law, HK has a Legislative Council (Legco) made up of two main parts, the Geographical Constituencies (GC) and the Functional Constituencies (FC). In the last two elections of Legco, 30 members were directly elected by universal suffrage from GC and 30 were elected from FC. However, as the universal suffrage of Chief Executive in 2017and Legco in 2010 are approaching, HK people get more and more worried since the improvements made by the government intended to pave way for those two major events can hardly be seen.

Since the beginning of this year, HK’s young people, especially those post-80s have been struggling hard to show their request for a more incorruptible, responsible and considerate government. Voice of abolishing the Functional Constituencies which first created in 1984 but later disappointed HK people quite a lot became louder as the pretest of the high-speed railway began. For a long time, pro-democracy supporters have criticized the functional constituency system for giving a minority too much power and influence. The right of corporations and legal entities to vote is also controversial, as it gives some individuals multiple votes. To replace the Functional Constituency system, the Five Constituencies Referendum is a by-election triggered by the resignation of 5 pan-democrats from the Legislative Council who will afterwards stand in the by-election to the Legco. The pan-democrats said the by-election can serve as a de facto referendum on universal suffrage and the abolishment of FC. In the high-speed railway protest incident, the post-80s criticized the collusion between the investors of the project and those related representatives in the Functional Constituencies as it turned out that those who voted for this project were those who can benefited from it too. They also criticized the government of paying no attention to the life of villagers who lived in the construction sites for their whole life.

The “Kick away Functional Constituencies Parade” on March 28th was actually the continuance of a series of actions taken by HK’s young people. In this parade, the university students criticized that the government only looked at the short-term interest of HK instead of the long-term one in developing its economics. They also criticized their own hopeless future as job opportunities were getting fewer and fewer. They also claimed that the wealth gap in HK was getting so serious that poor people should get more attention from the government. And of course their main concern was the monopoly of the commercial sector in the Legco over too many important issues.

As a student from mainland China, I was first shocked by those aggressive young people in HK who were so angry about the government and took on parades frequently. I tended to neglect all those media content about such protests or parades on TV, in newspaper or on the Internet. Even if I saw them, I jumped to a conclusion that those students were too radical. So at that time, I was indeed doing oppositional reading of all related media contents. Maybe that’s because for a long time we mainland students have been implanted a notion that the government should be always doing the right thing and they are the public servants who stand on behalf of interest of China. Or even if we are not so confident in the government, we always lack the intention to show our dissatisfaction in a society that this kind of negative emotion towards the government is not ”preferable”. However, after coming in HK, having talked with lots of local students, being exposed to more and more criticism about the world around us, I gradually learned to see things critically and to speak out my opinion. And to some extent, I also found myself transformed from a counter-hegemonic reader to a negotiated one which I really appreciated.

Week 9 - Janice, karen, Vanessa and Yannie

Top News of the week: The Sarkozy's rumor

Within social networks on the Internet, every one of us enjoys freedom of speech in order to establish interpersonal relationships or spread news in the community. The news of the rumor about the French President Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni, is well spread on Twitter recently. The rumor has never been supported by any proof or even paparazzo pictures, so this “news” did not gain much credibility among Twitterers until a professional journalist of a French website, Baron, repeated the news on twitter. In this case, the story discusses not only about if information on the Internet, which a communication medium is not strictly regulated by laws in most of the countries, is always true and credible, but also different obligations when each person is carrying when performing in distinct “social contracts”.

It is not a surprising phenomenon that Internet users have become skeptical when receiving messages since there are numerous pieces of false news and even fraud circulated on the Internet and among various social networks. Particularly when the news relate to well-known social and political figures, as well as celebrities in the showbiz, people have already been trained to take those “news” as rumors, which are supported with the same or more dramatic forwarded messages but without any verification. Yet, when pieces of information are spread by a professional journalist or an expertise in the media industry, they will immediately gain credibility in the community with no doubts or challenges.

The possible risk therefore hides in the identity of professionalism. Since professional journalists in the modern world receive a pretty high social status from the public with respect and reliance, reports from them are seldom challenged with further evidence or investigation by the public in order to verify the authenticity and accuracy of the news. It is lucky that the story in this case relates to the Sarkozy’s. To the worst circumstance, it also influences the reputation of the French government and its international image. Yet, if professional reporters utilize their identities and deliberately abet or incite the public to rebel or act against governments or any opposing political parties, social disputes or chaos would likely be aroused. It is ridiculous that the speculation about the President Sarkozy and his wife has not only appeared on Twitter, but also on a tabloid from Europe to Asia. Newspapers, a more credible medium compared with other media like the Internet or TV, unbelievably repeated the same hearsay without proving its accuracy. Hence, the hypothesis above is possible.

To Baron, the news she retwittered (repeated in the Twitter language) could just be a kind of joke and a chit-chat with her friends. Yet, she admitted that this was a lesson teaching every single individual that we should “respect the rules of journalism, wherever you are writing”. Baron’s speech demonstrated that we, as authors or even citizen journalists, should bear the responsibility when enjoying freedom of speech, and as audiences, we should be critical and skeptical enough when receiving messages from any communication platforms. Still, there is more to discuss, what if Baron did not use her real identity of a professional journalist when retwittering the Sarkozy’s rumors? If she had masked herself in another Twitter account that people cannot recognize her journalist identity when posting the speculation, the hearsay would not have gained much credibility and the tabloid mentioned above would never include the “news”.

In England, a similar rumor can become sort of libel and it is bounded by laws which can be applied with equal force to all forms of media, suggested by Mark Stephens, a leading London libel lawyer. Still, there is no such a law in France, so Baron, other Twitterers who helped spread the hearsay and the tabloid cannot be sued anyway. Yet, if there are similar cases over Twitter of which is an international social network, libels from one person of a country against another individual of another nation, could possibly be brought into lawsuits. Controversies on these matters will therefore likely be seen. Before infringement is made upon social stability, harmony and peace, and serious psychological harm is made on humans, some fundamental rules regulating the use of media should be outlined and established.

Relevant links of the news:
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article7069210.ece

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7060972.ece

Media influence on Politics By Ivan Ann Cherry

The issue of high speed railway has been cooled down a little bit. However, government has a ground breaking move at this issue. It is opening a facebook group that allows people to leave their opinion on the wall to express their thoughts about how they think the high speed railway should be. Not just that, government also did an online discussion forum at a morning. It allowed people to phone in and directly ask Ms Eva Cheng, Secretary for Transport and Housing about the problem of budgeting and relocation of the citizens at Choi Yuen village. However, this online discussion forum had been done once only. And it is broadcasted at morning. It has been blamed that it is not enough for doing once. Also, it were conducted at morning is not appropriate because most of the netizens are active in the evening or midnight. So people said that this online discussion forum is just a “PR show” for citizens to build up a positive image of government that she is willing to talk with citizens and updated to follow the trend of internet. However, the show is not well produced. A lot of loopholes are being discovered.

Until here, I have mentioned a lot about how government does toward high speed railway and how government deal with netizens. The skill that government is using is called “E-engagement”. It is very popular recent years in advertising and politics. For example, a lot of fashion brands opened a facebook page for people to join like H&M. When customers ask something about the store like is there any sales in store, staff of H&M will answer them through the message broad in facebook. And company can post videos and photos of their products on social networking applications as I mentioned like facebook. Through this, customers and shop can communicate indirectly by online network.

For politics, I think the politician who uses it wisely is US president Barack Obama. He uses the internet power to please people to vote for him when he was the candidate of president. After he became the president of US, he uses his own website as a broadcasting device. He posts his morning speech on that and let people see it. It is a better way for delivering government message with visual and audio aids as word is less readable than visual and audio. On the other hand, Obama receives people’s voice through blog. It looks like what Hong Kong government did. But it is more effective for US government because they are not doing a PR show only.

Hong Kong government should learn from others like how retail shops operate their online communication tools and also how to present and be open minded as Obama government. If government really wants to communicate with citizens, they should think and do a research before operating an online forum. Besides, government should learn how to allocate there resources because it used three million to educate civil servants to use facebook. It is ridiculous and government should use the money to help the poor or use it to build a communication system for citizens to raise their voice. It is a waste to use the money in such a stupid way.

Ming Fearon and Jackie Wang, Week 9: News of the Week, “House Approves Health Overhaul, Sending Landmark Bill to Obama”

New York Times link to article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/22/health/policy/22health.html?hp

It’s no secret that the American healthcare system is broken. Unlike most other industrialized countries, healthcare is privatized, making it unaffordable for millions of Americans. When President Obama was running for office, the main issue on his agenda was to implement a universal health care policy. He had an idea to transform the American healthcare system into one more like that of the European Union. This new plan would require almost every American to have to pay for some sort of health insurance, but the costs would be a lot lower for each individual than they are now for those who have healthcare that is not covered by their employers. For instance, Ming’s parents are both dentists, and therefore self-employed: not only do they have to pay for their own healthcare, which costs literally thousands of dollars a month, but they also have to make sure that their employees’ healthcare is subsidized as well. As well as being costly, this system is inefficient. Regardless of having this costly insurance, the co-payments for things as simple as an annual doctor’s check-up are still very high, and some important procedures, such as surgery, could be considered optional or even unnecessary and would therefore not be covered by insurers.
Obama is not the first high-profile politician to try and tackle universal health care. In 1993, President Clinton attempted to implement a similar universal health care plan, and did so with the help of his wife, the current Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton. Needless to say, it did not work, because in 1994, the Republicans took over the House of Representatives and the Senate for the first time in a long time. Politically, Republicans (and those with libertarian values) tend to oppose the idea of universal health care. Therefore, when Obama’s campaign circled around this idea, many people compared it to the Clintons’ idea and insinuated that he would meet the same failure. President Obama has been in office since January 2009 and has since then faced a lot of criticism for not making good on a lot of the promises he made during his campaign, with health care being the main issue. If this bill is successfully made into law, his political clout will skyrocket to unheard of proportions. This is demonstrated by politicians such as Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina stating, “This is the Civil Rights Act of the 21st century.”
Congress passed the bill in a vote of 219 to 212. Much of the opposition was Republican, but thirty-four Democrats also voted against it. Those for it believe that the high cost of privatized health care alienates millions of Americans who simply cannot afford to pay for both health care and the general cost of living. As a result, those for it have taken to saying that health care is not a privilege, but rather a right. The opposed believe that it is not democratic to mandate that each person must have healthcare, and that they should have the right to choose. They complain about the estimated $938 billion cost adding 16 million people to Medicaid (a federal medical assistance program that helps low-income people who cannot afford private healthcare) and subsidizing private low- and middle-income families. However, the bill will provide coverage to approximately 32 million more people, and it will be very beneficial to people who fall into our age category, as parents will be able to extend their health care benefits to their children until the age of 26 (with the previous age generally being limited to 23 at the very most). It will also disallow health care providers from dropping people on the (very paradox) basis that they fall ill. It will also allow small businesses, such as those of Ming’s parents, to get tax credits to help their employees to get insurance. In our opinion, the possibility of universal health care finally being standardized is extremely exciting, particularly because we are entering the age group where we would no longer be covered by our parents’ insurance and will have to think of getting coverage of our own. Like the congress members who were pushing for the bill to be passed, we also believe that health care is a right and not a privilege.

Karen, Kason, Man, Winnie: Week 9 "Theoretical Reflection"

Theoretical Reflection: Minimal Effects Model—“Two-Step Flow of Influence”

Nowadays, with the constant exposure to mass media, we see opinion leaders and spokespersons endorsing for various products and services, from diet plans to fast food restaurants. The minimal effects model and the “two-step flow of influence” model are frequently seen and used in the mass media, especially in advertisements. In this reflection, we have chosen McDonald’s McCafe TV commercial, featuring Moses Chan (陳豪) as an opinion leader in coffee drinking.

Firstly, the minimal effects model argues that the media impact on the public is “weak and short-lived” and aims to “reinforce existing belief”. Meanwhile, the “two-step flow of influence” model explains that the media uses opinion leaders as a “middleman” to influence the target audience. Because the targeted individual is active, s/he can choose what information and messages to accept and ignore. However, opinion leaders often influence individuals easier compared to “one-step” (media influence target audience directly), possibly because people relate more and feel a stronger credibility towards opinion leaders.

With the trend of drinking coffee becoming many peoples’ habit and hobby, last year, the Tsit Wing International Holdings Limited (Tsit Wing), one of Hong Kong’s leading food and beverages supplier, produced and sponsored a special TV program “Coffee Confidential” (品味咖啡), a show dedicated to coffee. The episodes were hosted by Moses, a famous actor of TVB, introducing the development and culture of drinking coffee. Every episode has different themes. By presenting various cultures of making coffee, the history, rare coffee beans, and the making coffee competition in the show, Tsit Wing aims at exciting people’s curiosity and interests in coffee, hoping the audience would drink coffee more often after they get more knowledge of the coffee culture.

“Drinking coffee is not only an enjoyment, but it also represents one’s attitude of life,” said Moses, sharing his opinion about his favorite drink. This TV program gave him an image of a professional in coffee, which also aroused the interest and attention of the public. Because of hosting this program, Moses’ reputation and social status were suddenly enhanced from an actor to a coffee expert, resulting in being selected as a coffee opinion leader for McDonald’s McCafe.

After the broadcast of “Coffee Confidential”, the “coffee expert” image has been labeled on Moses, later becoming the spokesperson of McCafe. Actually, at the beginning of its establishment, McCafe only made use of some cartoon graphics in its TV commercials, and the main elements of the overall campaign was to sell romantic feelings. Recently, McCafe wants to re-position itself as a professional barista. And that is why it hired Moses as its spokesman. In the latest McCafe TV commercials, Moses was presented in smart-casual wearing to give out a friendly but trustworthy image. “Perfect!” he said after tasting McCafe’s cappuccino at the end of the commercials. This seems to give sense of qualifying McCafe’s coffee by the general-regarded coffee expert, Moses Chan.

In addition, some may not know that the sponsor of “Coffee Confidential” and the supplier of McCafe is actually the same company—Tsit Wing. It is believed that Tsit Wing specially sponsored that TV program in order to establish the coffee professional image of Moses in order to break the path for McCafe to reform its image.

Meanwhile, there are many well-established coffee shops in Hong Kong, like Starbucks, Pacific Coffee, and various small cafes. Comparatively, McCafe is just a new business of McDonald’s in Hong Kong. In the perception of some general publics, McCafe may not be as sophisticated as those famous coffee shops. They may even wonder whether McCafe has the capability to provide good quality coffee. This may be one of the reasons why McCafe is lagged behind from Starbucks and Pacific Coffee in terms of sales, reputation, and so on.

However, Moses, becoming an opinion leader, can influence the purchase decision of the general public. Since he is interpreted as a coffee expert, his insights towards coffee will be regarded as an indicator when the general publics are making their purchase decision. Thus, by acting as an opinion leader for McCafe, Moses aims to reinforce his own expertise in coffee drinking, emphasizing McCafe’s high quality coffee to the target customers. Some people will simply switch their choice or begin to try McCafe because they believe in the credibility of Moses. In this sense, the preference of Moses serves as an indication to distinguish between good or bad coffee.

By this sample, we can see that a credible opinion leader can pose an influential effect to the publics. Of course, it is still up to individuals to choose whether to believe Moses’ choice of “high quality coffee” from McCafe, but by using an opinion leader as a middleman, credibility is definitely reinforced. More importantly, a credible opinion leader can boost the confidence and motivation of the publics towards a product.

McCafe TV Commercials:

McCafe Cappuccino TVC 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSvHZIqfYbs

McCare Cappuccino TVC 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQZOpEleZh0

Week 8: Karen, Janice, Vanessa and Yannie

Analysis of gender stereotypes in mass media

Social inequality is a common phenomenon in many societies. We distinguish our differences among the others by our gender, occupations, races, education levels and etc. We accept that there are differences when we perform in different social roles. Then, how do those stereotypes come into our minds? Apart from learning from significant others like our family members, friends and teachers, the mass media has become a powerful means to introduce us to the roles.

The different gender roles of men and women are always emphasized in the mass media. When we ask about the typical gender roles, we can tell a lot. In most of the communities, men are dominant and superior to women. In the traditional pictures of our minds, men are the bread-winners who go out for work while women are housewives who are responsible to give births, take care of children and finish all housework. Meanwhile, women are the ones who follow men’s orders and advice. Whenever we are asked about role models, we definitely have some common answers in our mind. These role models can be our parents but more often, they are some characters or celebrities in movies or soap operas projected from the mass media.

Traditional stereotypes of men and women are easily found in the mass media. Men are always the symbols of power or authority. In many TV drama series, men are the top management and the final decision makers. Also, heroism is greatly reflected from men’s character. For example, the Superman, Spiderman and Batman are some typical heroes in the western movies and they are all brave and strong with high problem-solving abilities. In contrast, women are weaker who always get into troubles and need men’s help. At the same time, the obedience of women is greatly encouraged and praised in the media. Women are always demonstrated as men’s followers in many movies, soap operas and even advertisements. They have to dress up and look beautiful in order to please men.

The family role of women is also emphasized in the mass media. Looking for a good husband and become a housewife is the life-long career of a woman. Females have been cultivated with a concept that no matter how tough and intelligent you are, marriage should be their ultimate goals. A significant soap opera, “珠光寶氣”, is a story about how a mother prepares her three daughters to marry to rich and powerful families since they were young. Besides TV programs, magazines and newspapers also talk a lot about this. In 2007, the marriage of a celebrity couple, Cathy Chui and a wealthy businessman, Martin Lee, had become the front page news in different local newspapers and cover stories of local magazines.

However, some serotypes of men and women are weakened recently. The role of women is changing. There are more and more programs and articles talking about how women fight for their own dreams and futures. Sometimes women even take over men’s role. They are brave, aggressive and independent. Anson Chan Fang On-sang, the former Chief Secretary for Administration, is a typical example of women with strong characters. Her independent and tough images are praised by the media and influencing the public though she has been retired for several years. In addition, the TV drama series in Hong Kong are more likely to promote and describe the strong side of women. For instance, the main female characters in the popular soap operas, such as “女人唔易做” and “老婆大人”, are the acting roles which contradict the traditional stereotypes. In the western media industry, more and more TV drama series are also led and dominant by female characters, such as “Sex and the City” and “Desperate housewives”.

The most important influence behind this phenomenon is closely related to the society. Because of the economic development and compulsive education provided by the government as well as the influx of western culture and ideas, there are much more opportunities for women to pursue their careers and do whatever they like. With higher social status and stronger financial ability, women no longer need to rely on men in many ways. Nowadays, women become stronger, more aggressive and independent. To media industry, females, especially the housewives, are traditionally a large target segment who spends most of the time watching soap operas at home. Since the social status of women raises, movies, dramas and articles of themes and topics covering women or female issues become very popular. “Sex and the City” is a typical successful story in US and even overseas. The main reason of its success is the resonance aroused among many of the female audiences. Their emotions are easily affected by the ups and downs of the storyline because it is not simply a drama, but can also tell women’s stories or dreams at the same time. Since then, drama describing modern women’s life or showing the strong images of women becomes a “key” to gain more rating points and even becomes one kind of genre. In Hong Kong, such kind of dramas like “女人唔易做” and “巾幗臬雄” have created very successful records in the local history of soap operas too.

We believe that stories describing females as the subject matter will continually retain their popularity in the mass media. However, the images of women would no longer be the traditional ones and are the closer representation of the current women’s roles which can be seen in the reality.