Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/The Monkey Kid


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was keep. ✗ plicit  01:38, 19 July 2021 (UTC)

The Monkey Kid

 * – ( View AfD View log )

Non notable film, appears to fail WP:NFILM as nothing was found in a WP:BEFORE except film database sites, videos, and promo material.

PROD removed because "The film was featured at Cannes, should be notable enough.", but a release at a film festival isn't enough to pass notability requirements. Donaldd23 (talk) 00:36, 12 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Film-related deletion discussions. Donaldd23 (talk) 00:36, 12 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of China-related deletion discussions. Donaldd23 (talk) 00:36, 12 July 2021 (UTC)


 * Delete as there is no significant media coverage. Miasma Eternal TALK 00:49, 12 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Funny, suddenly Un Certain Regard at Cannes is not notable anymore?--Filmomusico (talk) 00:54, 12 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Winning at it is notable, which this film did not. Donaldd23 (talk) 01:27, 12 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Well, maybe somebody who knows Korean can find something. I, for one, cannot.--Filmomusico (talk) 05:45, 12 July 2021 (UTC)


 * Comment: I have added two French language references, one of which indicates that, as well as being selected for Cannes in 1995 the film won an award at a festival in Aubervilliers the following year. More recently, there is this Avant Scène Cinéma article by Jean-Philippe Guerand in association with the film's recent re-release on Critique DVD, and this interview, both substantial though they could perhaps both be regarded as promoting the re-release. AllyD (talk) 07:02, 12 July 2021 (UTC)

Keep per the significant coverage in multiple independent reliable sources.  This is a four-page review of The Monkey Kid. The review notes: "The Monkey Kid, written and directed by Xiao-Yen Wang, is probably one of the best Chinese feature films ever made but few Americans have seen. Released in 1995 by the BeijingSan Francisco Film Group, the film “was an Official Selection at the 1995 Cannes International Film Festival and received the Grand Prize at the 1996 Aubervilliers International Children’s Film Festival, awards for Best Film and Best Director at the 1995 Danube Film Festival, Best Foreign Film at the 1995 Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, the Young Jury Award at the 1996 International Women’s Film Festival at Créteil, and the Critic’s Prize at the Cinestival 97 at Marseille.” Despite its critical acclaim, The Monkey Kid was not available for distribution until December 2010." The review concludes: "The Monkey Kid is not a new film, but educators should not be afraid to use it in the classroom. It is especially helpful for illustrating the many ways in which Mao’s cult of personality dominated this era. It offers a view of the Cultural Revolution that is both compelling and entertaining. I have used the film with great success in both undergraduate and graduate classes on modern China. Students report that more than any other film about the Cultural Revolution, The Monkey Kid stays with them long after its showing in class because of the story line, the acting of the children, and the effective direction. The film always generates much discussion about class divisions, ideological education, and mass mobilization. I highly recommend the film for high school and college audiences."   The book notes: "A low-budget, noncommercial film ($30,000), The Monkey Kid does not have the technical refinement or the authorial complexity of In the Heat of the Sun. ... It is a precocious coming-of-age story where the local bullies are mischievous little boys peeing in Thermos bottles. ... If The Monkey Kid is perhaps a little too sweet (and the music, relying on the Chinese flute 'dizi' gives it a rather exotic, Oriental flavor), then there are other renderings by women of the Cultural Revolution with more of a bite."   The film review notes: "A neat idea gets a vigorous but incomplete workout in 'The Monkey Kid,' a loose portrait of an ankle-biter's everyday life during the depths of the Cultural Revolution that has charm to spare. Though this feather-light indie production by California-based Xiao-yen Wang, based on her own childhood in Peking, has some darker resonances for those willing to dig for them, pic represents a marketing challenge beyond cable and other broadcast outings."   The film reviewer gave the film an A-. The film review notes: "Xiao-Yen Wang's excellent, award-winning, semiautobiographical film, The Monkey Kid, is about this climate as seen through the eyes of Wang Shiwie (Fu Di), a 9-year-old girl determined to be a kid regardless of the historical changes whirling about her. Sparked by Fu Di's performance, The Monkey Kid is a simple, yet essential film about the indomitable human spirit, and a young girl's courage to be herself in spite of a dictatorship gone mad. It should not be missed."   The film review notes: "Variously tender and tough-minded, Xiao-Yen Wang's loosely autobiographical The Monkey Kid traces episodes in the life of a spirited nine-year-old girl growing up in the midst of the Cultural Revolution. Set in a 1970 Beijing of stark, slabby apartments, dingy side streets and doctrinaire schools, it celebrates independence and self-will, depicting how Chairman Mao's regimental reforms impacted on one child and her family."  <li> The film review notes: "The Monkey Kid is an unforgettable tale of a bright, enchanting young girl who grows up during the harsh era of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution. ... Filmed in Beijing from January through March, 1993, with an additional day in August to shoot in the rain, the movie is set in 1970, at a time when China's 'intellectuals' had been sent to the country to 'learn from the peasants.' ... The movie, in Mandarin with English subtitles, is a production of the Beijing-San Francisco Film Group, which produced Wang's 1991 documentary, The Blank Point, which looked at transsexualism as seen through the traditional gaze of Chinese society. The Monkey Kid, Wang's first feature film, moves at a deliciously lazy pace that may seem like anathema to the slam-bash-bang formula of American moviemaking standards." </li> <li>Thompson, Gary. (1996-05-02). "Where just being a kid can be a big challenge" (pages 1 and 2). Philadelphia Daily News. Archived from the original (pages 1 and 2) on 2021-07-12. Retrieved 2021-07-12 – via Newspapers.com. The film review notes: "But 'The Monkey Kid' isn't just a movie about oppression. It's a tender profile of a family, and the bond between mother and daughter that transcends political and social circumstances. 'The Monkey Kid,' shot without government approval on the back streets of Beijing, screens at 7 tonight at the Ritz at the Bourse, as part of the Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema." </li> <li> The article notes: "That 'The Monkey Kid' is the more modest and conventionally structured of the two in no way detracts from its impact as a moving study of a 9-year-old girl who rebels against the crushing effects of the Cultural Revolution by being a bad girl. ... Tacitly encouraged by her mother, Fu Di devises ways of sliding out from under the death grip of the Revolution that will make you want to cheer." </li> <li> The article notes: "The Monkey Kid in Mandarin with English subtitles, is an autobiographical film about 9-year-old Shi-Wei and her older sister, who care for themselves while their parents, branded as intellectuals during the Cultural Revolution, are sent to work in the countryside. Xio-Yen Wang made this film in her native village and smuggled it out of China. She now lives in California and will attend Saturday's screening to answer questions." </li> <li> The article notes: "The American picture, 'The Monkey Kid,' is really a Chinese film, by the Beijing Film Academy-trained Xiao-Yen Wang. Shot in Beijing without approval, it is a realistic portrayal of a child's tomfoolery during the Cultural Revolution, when her parents were sent into the countryside to be 're-educated.'" </li> <li> The book has an entry about the film's director, Wang Xiao-yen. The book notes: "In 1993, without a permit, she returned to Beijing to shoot The Monkey Kid (Hou San'r, completed in 1995), based on her experiences as a mischievous nine-year-old during the Cultural Revolution while her parents had been 'sent down' for 're-education'." </li> <li> The review notes: "By choosing her own path, Shi-Wei manages to escape the drab, dull rhythms of the Cultural Revolution. Comparisons to Truffaut's '400 Blows' are inevitable, but Wang acquits herself admirably with 'The Monkey Kid,' her first feature." </li> <li> The review notes in French: "Chronique émue et sentimentale d'une enfance lointaine, The Monkey Kid est une petite narration, réalisée avec des moyens modestes, en tenant compte des difficultés qu'il y a, aujourd'hui en Chine, à tourner un film dans des décors réels sur une époque que l'on préfère oublier. Parce que les enfants y sont bien photographiés, sans attendrissement ni condescendance, le film dispense un certain charme, mais la légèreté de l'analyse historique (voulue ou obligée ?" From Google Translate: "A moving and sentimental chronicle of a distant childhood, The Monkey Kid is a short narration, produced with modest means, taking into account the difficulties that there are, today in China, to shoot a film in real settings on a time that we prefer to forget. Because the children are well photographed there, without tenderness or condescension, the film dispenses a certain charm, but the lightness of the historical analysis (wanted or obliged?" </li> <li> The article notes: "Xiao-Yen did submit her script for The Monkey Kid to China's film bureau and made some changes at official request, such as eliminating a Mao quotation and inserting one of his poems. However, when it became impossible to obtain official permission,, she and her husband hired children from an acting studio by contacting their parents outside the school. Xiao-Yen confessed that she was pretty scared after she finished shooting. Still, she and her husband managed to edit the film in China, then eluded airport authorities and smuggled the footage out of the country in three suitcases." </li> <li> The article notes: "On the other hand, the decidedly low-budget look in The Monkey Kid makes the actors and the script work harder. Although suffering from a general flatness of tone, the film--whose central character is a ten-year-old girl, Shi Wei, growing up during the Cultural Revolution--has some poignant moments." </li> <li> The article notes that the film's Chinese name is 猴三儿 and discusses the film in detail. </li> </ol>There is sufficient coverage in reliable sources to allow The Monkey Kid to pass Notability, which requires "significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject". Cunard (talk) 08:59, 12 July 2021 (UTC) </li></ul>


 * Keep – Meets WP:NFP / WP:GNG, per a source review. North America1000 11:18, 12 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Keep: The French references which I added earlier plus the various sources documented by above are sufficient for WP:NFO and indicate this to be an article capable of expansion. AllyD (talk) 13:11, 12 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Keep as per the reliable sources coverage listed above that include a four page review and combine for a pass of WP:GNG so that deletion is unnecessary in my view, Atlantic306 (talk) 00:50, 13 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Strong keep more than enough to satisfy NFILM. Anonymous 7481 (talk) 01:30, 13 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Weak keep There are sufficient sources to demonstrate notability. However, we devote a single line to the film's content, making this a stub article. Dimadick (talk) 04:55, 13 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Keep per above. VocalIndia (talk) 07:42, 14 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Comment, I withdraw my nomination based on the above citations. However, I cannot close the discussion as there was a delete vote above. I think an admin will have to do this. Donaldd23 (talk) 22:00, 14 July 2021 (UTC)
 * The Delete comment was before the sources were provided. The majority voted to keep it.--Filmomusico (talk) 20:58, 16 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Agreed, but the rules state that it can't be closed until the week period is over, or if an admin closes it. Donaldd23 (talk) 12:30, 18 July 2021 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. <b style="color:red">Please do not modify it.</b> Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.