A Comparative Study of the Point of View between Film and Novel in The Flowers of War

This paper compares Jin Ling Shi San Chai, a novel written by the Chinese American writer Yan Geling, and its film adaptation, The Flowers of War, directed by Zhang Yimou, to reveal the internal and external characteristics of each work by looking at the differences of point of view between them, which arose from the process of adaptation. Although there are not many studies on Yan Geling in Korea, there are over 100 studies by Chinese scholars on the novel and film adaptation of Jin Ling Shi San Chai, so many that it is difficult to list them all. This paper attempts to identify the characteristics of the novel by using the theory of narrative to show how the novel embodies its theme. It also investigates how the film embodies the theme of the story to reveal the characteristics of director Zhang Yimou. This study focuses on the fact that Jin Ling Shi San Chai is composed of a first-person observer perspective, narrated by the nephew of the protagonist, Meng Su-Juan. By narrating the story from the nephew’s first-person observer perspective, the author achieves intersubjectivity and freely goes back and forth the realms of subjectivity and objectivity. In this paper, it is analyzed that the intersubjectivity is realized through the point of view shots and voice-over narrations in the film.