Review: The Fox and the Child

Have you ever dreamed about wandering in a forest everyday or making friends with a fox? Birds, trees and rivers or other nature things, seem to be more and more attractive to modern people. The farther we are away from outdoors, the more dreamful imagination we have toward it. The latest French movie, The Fox and the Child, which was built on beautiful fantasy, will certainly inspire your inner longing for natural lifestyle.
On that miraculous morning, when she was on her way to school, she met her fox. She was so beautiful that she loved her at once. While she was trying to approach the pretty creature, she found her. Their eyes met together. Though she vanished on the path soon, the short but magical glance became the very beginning of their friendship. From then on, the little girl went into the forest everyday, waiting for another unexpected meet with her fox.
The beginning of the movie was actually a real story of the director, Luc Jacquet. He had met a fox when he was a child. He couldn’t forget the meaningful glance with the fox. Therefore, he made the unfinished story into a movie.

A fox befriends a child. Does the plot make you think of a familiar book? Actually, the movie was adapted from a chapter in a French novel, The Little Prince.
“What does that mean tame?”
“It was an act that often neglected.” said the fox. “It means to establish ties.”

“What must I do, to tame you?" asked the little prince.
"You must be very patient," replied the fox. "First you will sit down at a little distance from me-- like that-- in the grass. I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings. But you will sit a little closer to me, every day..." >

The Little Prince, which was written by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, has been a world-famous book for a long time. In The Little Prince, there are many strong hints of lives, which describe friendship, love, loneliness, selfishness..., etc. Similarly, in the movie, it is obvious that the interdependence between the fox and the little girl is a metaphor of the relationships between lovers.
On the other hand, the most successful part of the novel is that it is not only a children’s story but also a book for adults. The Fox and the Child did give me the feelings that it tried to be such a movie, too. In almost the whole movie, there are only two characters, the fox and the girl. The film was also filmed in a ten-year-old girl’s sight. However, though it did try to describe in an easier way, the hints are still too difficult for a child to understand. Because of the smooth and slow plot, some kids may feel a little bit bored. Other than The Little Prince, which is also an interesting book for most of the children, this is the only weaker part of the movie, but its Achilles heels.

Since there aren’t a lot of conversations, music plays an important role in the movie. The well control leads people’s emotions to the plot successfully. You can understand what the fox or the girl is showing easily by not only their expressions but also the music. It seems that the producers did take this part seriously. It even had three editions of theme songs, which are sung in Chinese, English and French.

People always ask something like, “Is this a good movie to see? What is it about?” They are actually silly questions. Some like this movie, some are not. I like this movie, you may not. But I can still tell you the answer. Yes. This is a good movie, which is meaningful and also beautiful. However, I can’t answer the second question. Movies are something that you need to see it by yourselves and then give your own opinions. To me, this movie is about the ties between people. What is your idea?
Go and enjoy the film. You may not like the plot, but the great music and the amazing forest views are also the things that you can’t miss.

The Music and the Clay

When I’m playing the piano, I’ll turn only a little lamp on. In the dim light, something invisible, such as melody, becomes much concreter to me.
Some people play the music, but don’t actually listen to it. I listen to my music and enjoy playing it in different ways.
Music is like the clay. I don’t change the dimension or the weight of it, but the shape. Under my fingers, it can be made into a lovely flower or a hamburger. It depends on the emotions I express. In such a way, I control the music, instead of being limited by the set movement.
Different types of music have its own music clay. Each piece of clay has its own color and touch.
For example, if I want to use a color Simple, but bright. It also takes less time to practice, giving my own style more space. Playing his music is just like playing a piece of soft light clay. I can mold it easily, making more complicated statues.
Mozart’s music is obviously opposite to Bach. Every single music note he composed has his own emotion and style. His music clay has dark deep color and tough touch. It’s hard for me to make it into something detailed statues like rabbit. I can only change the round into a cube. As a result, the best way of playing Mozart’s music clay is appreciating, instead of adding too much my own feelings.
Above all, Chopin’s music is my favorite. It’s more romantic and is often filled with his sorrow. His music clay is also soft, but has the color of violet. Though it’s easier to be molded, its special color does confine my creativity. You may admit that a violet bird is a little bit strange. But I enjoy its soft and emotional melody, just like a sentimental woman.
To me, music is like the clay. I don’t play it well and skillfully, but I do play it in the way I enjoy. In the dim light, I feel like I can see or even touch the melody. And I can express who I am and what I think completely. Some may complain that playing the piano is boring, that’s because they don’t play it in the way of molding the clay.

My Math Teacher

She has a squeaky voice. It helps her a lot while she is scolding us. Her legs are very short, so she always wears a pair of high-heeled shoes. She has dark and potato skin, which makes her look like a witch.
She was my math teacher when I was in 7th grade.
She always keeps a high suspicion to others, such as doubting our honesty even in a little quiz. Once, she asked me to meet her in her office because she believed that I cheated in a test. I tried to explain, but she didn’t listen to me.
After that event, she told us not to use correct pen during the tests to avoid us correct the wrong answers secretly.
One day, when one of my classmates was checking his answers after finished, he found that he had made a big during the calculation. So he canceled the equations by blue pen and rewrote it again. However, our math teacher didn’t give him the points though his answer was right. “You must correct it after seeing someone’s test paper!” she claimed.
During the class, she always spoke as if she was in a bad mood and would be mad at every possible moment. Once, while she was still explaining the solution of the question, some clever students already knew the answer and said it loudly. She didn’t admire them. In stead, she became very angry. “I know it’s 5. I don’t need you to tell me that it’s 5. How can it be possible that I don’t know it’s 5?”
However, it wasn’t the worst situation. She can be much more sarcastic when she scolds us. She have ever said something like “Don’t look at me with your dirty face!”
There was another time that I raised her nerves because of some little homework stuffs. She told me to stand in front of the table and keep.... During the whole disaster, I occasionally raised my eyes and looked into hers. It made her become much angrier.
“What are you starring for?” she asked. I turned my line of sight down to the floor quickly. But she wasn’t satisfied. “Is this a starring contest or something? Is that mean you want to compete against me? Do you really thing you will win?” She stopped for a while and said, “I really want to pull your eyes out.”
She kept scolding and starring at me as if she was going to eat me. Her dark potato skin became much scarier then often. She lifted her voice up, which hurt my ears a lot. At that moment, she really looked like an evil witch or a bad-heated stepmother in fairy tale. This is Ms. Huang, my math teacher.
Luckily, she isn’t my teacher anymore.

Love Lessons

In Taiwan society, it is considered inappropriate if teenagers have boyfriends or girlfriends before they are in college. Young boys and girls are warned that falling in love makes a bad impact on their schoolwork. It’s not worth if they don’t get into a good college because of such a reason.
However, this kind of warning actually makes no sense but affects the young in bad way. Students in junior high senior high shouldn’t be forbid falling in love. Otherwise, they should be encouraged to make friends with opposite genders.


Here are the reasons: first, kids’ bodies become full-grown at teen ages. They will be curious to the other genders naturally. In ancient time, most of the boys and girls are even married in our ages. It’s our society that delays the original marriage period. It’s unmoral that we even keep the teenagers from knowing how to love. Plus, their mentalities don’t grow with their bodies. If they don’t have the right notions of love, they may experience sex too early and make the problem worse. We also heard some unbelievable news from TV. Take a female teacher’s story for example. She’s 32 and never has a boyfriend before. She was cheated by her first man. The man asked her to give her whole backlog. She did. However, the man left her right after she gave him the money. Unfortunately, this is not a single example. Something similar keeps happening in Taiwan society. They are all result from the poor knowledge of how to associate with opposite genders.


Second, the things that the parents and teachers are afraid of are actually cause by themselves. Because of the cautions, teenagers have to find ways to against it. They have boyfriends or girlfriends secretly. They get up late in night to make the phone calls or find excuses to meet each others. In such a situation, can they do well at school? When their secret love is discovered, they can’t avoid facing a family storm. Some even break the relationship to parents. Obviously, we can see that parents and teachers’ ban against natural association of young boys and girls is actually the origin of all the bad results. If the adults change their attitude, things will certainly be better. Children can share their feelings in love with their parents. They can discuss and experience it together. If the young get hurt, parents can soothe them and teach them by their own experiences. Thus, teenagers learn how to love in a healthy way.


Therefore, we should encourage young students to befriend the opposite genders not to forbid it. Students shouldn’t only learn Math, Physics or other subjects at school, but love lessons in lives. How can we ban their learning rights? If you are an adult, please use the positive attitude to face the young’s association. If you are a teenager, don’t afraid of falling in love. Go ahead and learn things from all kinds of genders!

Does this really do good to younger students?

According to recent news, Tainan elementary schools are going to cancel all the tests for the students in first and second grade. For the third and the forth grade students, their tests amount are going to be cut down. They only have Chinese and Mathematics two subjects in big exams. ( They also have Science and Social Study originally.)
The educational government declared that it helps elementary students enjoy happier lives. “Fewer tests, less pressure.” they said.
However, does this really do good to younger students?
Being a student, I’m sure that tests are necessary.
After studying, tests can help us recognize the summary of the text, catch the key points and also find out the questions that we still not understand. Tests also push us to study. We learn from tests. With them, students can never study well.

In my opinion, the new policy may leads to two serious problems.
The first one: it gives students more pressure in higher grades.
When kids grow up, they still have to face the pressure of having tests. However, they have less practice and fewer experiences in early ages. Something like the entrance exam doesn’t change. They can’t get rid of some expected stress. Why don’t put the pressure on them gradually but suddenly? Does this really make them relieved? I don’t think so.
The second one: it makes the attitude of parents much more different.
Taiwan’s entrance exam system develops a stressful learning environment. In this kind of situation, parents’ attitude can be really important. In school, you can tell that some students who receive a lot of care from families. They often do above their classmates. Their parents are always worried too much. They check the kids’ homework. They pay and let their children go to cram schools to study more about Chinese, English, Math, etc, and learn more about playing piano, swimming, drawing, etc. Let’s call this kind of parents positive parents.
On the other hand, there are some parents who are always busy with their work. They think that students should study on their own. It doesn’t mean that they don’t love their children. But in fact, they do pay less attention on kids’ schoolwork. As a result, students may find the way to shirk. Sometime, they forget to study. Let’s call this kind of parents negative parents.
Two different kids are given different kind of education. It leads to the Two-Peak Phenomena.
Without the school tests, the phenomenon gets more serious. The grade is invisible. Parents don’t know the situation of their kids’ studying. The positive parents are worried much more and pay to let their kids to learn more. The negative parents will never notice whether their kids are studying or not.
One side of the young students have much more pressure. The other side of students have worrying future.
Does this do good to kids?
While the most stressful entrance exam system is unchanged, such a policy brings no benefit for we students.
What we are going to improve first is the attitude of facing education. If we learn simply because we want to learn more, not for the tests, it brings the true happiness.
This policy makes no use under Taiwan educating system.

First Post

Hello, my name is Carrie. This is my first post.