The Film

The power of a films' energy is indescribable. It is rapturous, manifests emotion and has the ability to spellbound the viewer. This energy is created through the hard work of dedicated craftsmen who with talent and skill have the ability to capture the very essence of what it means to be human. Audience members have the sense to recognize this simply because they possess the ability to understand and translate what is viewed on the screen to their daily lives. Film can be seen as an extension of dreaming, providing an escape into a different perspective, providing methods of learning and adapting. It is pure creation where the subconscious can conjure any imagery it sees fit. In fact, seeing a particular image on screen might spark a new and different one in the viewers mind. It is as if the viewer is entranced by the directors dream and has the ability to enter different levels of subconsciousness through their own imagination.

Film Discussion: Stray Dog

Much of Akira Kurosawa’s Stray Dog could be more easily understood if the viewer has in the back of their mind the after effects of the atomic bomb on the Japanese citizens. With this in mind, this writer found himself clued into the possibilities of what Kurosawa was trying to say in his message. Just to name one instance, it was very intriguing that the train sounds in the movie sounded very much like the stray rabid dog from the very beginning image. There is also one instance when the sound of a baby crying sounds almost animal like. Whether this was intentional or not, it still adds to the film.

Throughout the film, characters experience a horrible heat wave. The viewer really can feel their pain as they go about their daily lives. Yet again, this writer felt that Kurosawa was trying to give his viewers a chance to really understand a deeper meaning of the film’s structure. It is almost as if this heat was symbolic for the troubling times the Japanese people were going through. However, what this writer found interesting about this is the fact Sato’s children seemed at peace and did not seem affected by it. In fact in relation to this, another instance that stood out was the slow paced sequence in which Detective Murakami, whose gun was stolen (lost), mopes around town, unsure of what to do. The stolen gun represented the displacement among the Japanese people after the atomic bomb devastated their lives. There is a reference made to Yusa, who stole Murakami’s gun, as the stray dog, but it was deeply felt that it was Murakami who in fact was seen as the stray dog. Who is a detective without a gun? Who is a Marine without their rifle? The viewer understands that a gun or rifle for that matter is considered to be family to these types of people, without it, they are nothing.

The film’s climatic ending is a direct correlation with the heat wave metaphor. This of all things mentioned above, is the one thing that made the film an enjoyable experience. There is a moment between the two main detectives on a bridge. Murakami says to Sato, “I have a terrible feeling something will happen”. If the viewer were paying close attention, they would have heard sounds of thunder roar in the distance and spot the darkening clouds; a storm is coming and fast.

The storm has arrived and it has come at a crucial part in the film’s structure. Yusa has shot Sato and left him for dead, then the downpour hits. This symbolized a bolt of tension being released from the characters and quite possibly the viewers themselves. Tension is released as the characters experience the downpour. However, this tension release comes only when Murakami has caught up with Yusa. During their scuffle, Kurosawa chose what felt like child like music. To bring the attention back to the Japanese children mentioned earlier; it was noticed when Yusa was defeated, a group of children emerged in the background. Life is back to normal so to speak. This could explain Yusa’s child-like behavior and his mental breakdown. The children represent the innocence of their society.

The very final scene sums up the experience this writer had while watching the film. Detective Sato explains to Detective Murakami “There will always be another Yusa”, meaning there will always be troubling times in which heroes need to stand up and show their fellow citizens not to be afraid of the troubling times that face them. So in a sense, Yusa is to be representative of the displacement between not only Murakami, but the Japanese society as well.

Dogtooth

Way Far Gone

http://www.roughcustomerfilms.com/

Film Discussion: Signer's Suitcase: On the Road with Roman Signer

Human begins as a testament to who we are will never stop searching for answers that would inevitably lead to the very question that has seemingly evaded us for as long as time has been perceived. How does nature really work? What is nature might be a question that Roman Signer would ask any seemingly supernatural or god like power? For this question has seemingly lead him all over the world to better understand its very own existence.

Signer as a performance artist constantly uses nature as a backdrop in his installations as a way to adapt and see what might become of his disturbances. What is he really searching? Peter Liechti’s Signers Koffer- Unterwegs mit Roman Signer (Signer’s Suitcase: On The Road with Roman Signer) has set out to capture Signer in his very own environment. One has to wonder if this is where Signer is at home. An element in particular that may cause the viewer to realize this fact is his performance installation seemingly out in the middle of nowhere.

Roman Signer slept in a tent with two monitors outside of his tent. Inside the tent along with Signer was an audio set up capturing the sounds of him snoring. The sounds of snoring were sent out through the monitors into the middle of nowhere. The snoring could be heard for miles. Shots of some of the wildlife were captured and the audio can be heard in the distance. The installation is clearly a metaphor for human begins as just another species on Earth. Of course we may not realize this because there is so much technology in our world that can cause us to forget that. Roman Signer is simply a reminder of who we really are, just another species in this big world.

This installation can be seen as a genesis behind the meaning of some of his other works. In most of his projects, man is compared against the world. The most simplistic of meanings might lead a viewer to see it as man vs the actual size of the world in which we live in. While, this is clearly evident, most of Signer’s work deals with metaphors beneath metaphors. There are elements that Signer uses in his man vs nature installations such as the ability to try and anger nature or to the very least disrupt it wondering what might become of the changes he is seemingly creating. Another element to his work that stood out was the fact that humans must adapt to sudden changes in nature.

Nature clearly never does what you want; it is a being in itself. One of Signer’s installations that deals with his matter is what I call “The Blocks of Life” which deals with Signer setting what looks like several clay like items on fire. What the viewer sees is that the blocks are contorting into different shapes, never contorting the same. So, Signer and the viewer are left with several different shapes that all have contorted into something else. This clearly must have some meaning in the fact that nature never does what one person wants. Signer very well could have had several people with him making sure the items were burned and shaped the same. The flame of life one could say. No one life is the same and one person cannot shape nature.

Could nature be defined as impervious? Will it never allow us to understand it completely? Signer’s performance installation that deals with the leaking gasoline is also quite compelling to look at further. It is rather quite simplistic from the outside, but I find that this is another case of a metaphor within a metaphor. As a side note, I would recommend looking at Matthew Barney’s work as it deals with metaphors within metaphors and is quite interesting and compelling.

The leaking gasoline as mentioned above is rather simplistic. However, the viewer can take this to mean that Signer is at it again, trying to possibly make a mark on nature and seeing the outcome. Someone could very well could have come along and struck a flame to the gasoline left behind. What would Signer accomplish then? Is the outcome strictly what he’s interested in?

Another element that Signer captures quite remarkably is the ability to experience landscapes driving at a certain speed and listening to certain music. Signer finds that the scenery contours as the drive continues. As the music continues, reaching its crescendo, the scenery becomes much more vibrant, providing Signer with an enjoyable experience. This can be seen as an installation that we all perform each day, but do we really take the time to notice our environments as we are traveling at a certain speed and listening to certain music? Are we subconsciously performing this installation? Signer clearly wants us to.

Signer as an artist deals a lot with experimenting with physics and its affect on nature. He seems transfixed on making changes to fit one needs, making the energy flow a certain direction. With this in mind, does man actually become a character of nature? Are we characters of nature? Nature seemingly writes the scripts and we adapt to its changes. It clearly does what it wants, performing certain tasks.

The installation on the bridge by far was the most compelling to me. Signer gives us details about how several people jumped and committed suicide, leaving behind their shoes as the only reminder that they were there and were met by an icy death. The viewer can only wonder what is going through his mind when it is destroyed. On this note, Signer’s installation with the white table floating reminded me of Jesus walking on water. Signer compared it to the melting of tongue and with that I was left with a metallic taste in my mouth. The table is floating through nature, up to nature’s path of where it leads. The mood of nature conveys night as Signer says. He compares it to the fact that darkness is only an absence of light and the mood of nature conveys either, simply waiting for a new day.

It also seems that Signer is very interested in discovering man’s place in nature. Every object has life. Signer calls it breath of matter. This was quite interesting to listen to. “Every object fills up and then dies. Our mood affects nature. Green is never green”-Roman Signer. With this in mind can we as humans understand that we are a product of own environment. Time is simply floating by and is unstoppable.

"I look at myself as a machine, performing these tasks”- Roman Signer."

MOTHER

Film Discussion: Kim Ki-Duk

What makes us human? The most likely answer one will give is the actions we chose make us who we are. However, a deeper meaning must be found in order to truly understand the question itself. This writer does believe that our actions make us humans, but the driving force behind them is our personal identities. Your identity is your soul; behind every soul is the deeper meaning. This writer believes it’s different for everyone. This is what Ki-duk Kim tried to explore in his Korean film, Shi gan (aka Time).

One of the many themes in this film is self-identity crisis. This is a cycle that only keeps going and going and never really stopping. The crowds of people at the end should clue the audience in to the fact that anyone could suffer from a self identity crisis. In this film, the self-identity crisis theme is explored through plastic surgery. Seh-hee tries save her relationship by under-going plastic surgery to match what she feels her boyfriend wants to see in a woman. Thus, changing her self-identity. Changing your looks makes you a different person one could say.

The opening images to this film depict a woman under going plastic surgery. The in depth look to the surgery through these images is merely an indication of how brutal plastic surgery can be to ones self. Later, the same woman exits the center into the new world, with her new identity. However, one cannot simply show off their new identity to the world. Your body must heal itself as it becomes used to your new look. The woman carries her old photo as she leaves the plastic surgery center.

She then runs into Seh-hee which causes the woman to drop the photo, shattering the glass and frame. This writer believes this was great symbolism to the fact this woman’s life has become shattered and possibly incomplete. This most likely will not become realized until the end of the film. At the end of the film, the audience should realize the woman who came out of the store, is Seh-hee, with her new identity. One can draw the conclusion that Seh-hee was running into her old self. This would explain why the decision was made for her to drop the photo of herself.

In addition to being a controversial filmmaker, Kim Ki-duk has also actively protested the fact that smaller filmmakers in South Korea do not get the deserved publicity. Many people have said that Kim is only trying to take care of himself, but he really represents the smaller filmmaker. The power of film production is held by a few in Korea (Hunt and Wing-Fai, p. 93). Because Kim Ki-Duk recognized the problem of having a few large distributors, Koreans now recognize the need for diversity in film production (Hunt and Wing Fai, p. 88).

Kim Ki-duk is among several Korean filmmakers who have been recognized in Europe. In 2004, Kim was given an award in Venice for 3-Iron (Hunt and Wing-Fai, p.209). Kim Ki-duk entered the film world on 1996 with the feature Crocodiles. This film along with two others of his Wild Animals (1999) and Real Fiction (2000) show young people who are really indifferent to society. Real Fiction is a test film that uses two cameras. The film is a story of how a young artist seeks revenge on a gang of bad guys that in his mind have not been kind to him. The forces of vengeance are demonstrated in Kim's Address Unknown (2001). This is the story of three teens during the Korean War and is set around a U.S. army base. Prostitution is a favorite theme of Kim Ki- duk and is introduced in Bird Cage (1998) and The Isle (1999). Kim thinks of prostitution as something that is common for ladies and gentlemen. The Isle earned international recognition. In this film, a prostitute who is unable to ear or speak has a somewhat controlled involvement with a fisherman. Unfortunately, unkind images over ride the beautiful setting of the film. (Vick, p. 166).

Kim continues his style in Bad Guy (2001). The forces of prostitution are again demonstrated when a college girl rejects a mute bad guy and must face the world as a prostitute. The Coast Guard (2002) does not spare the gory images that are a favorite of Kim. A young person, new to the military, kills an innocent person and then goes crazy over the incident. The images may not be pretty in this film, but it does demonstrate how psychologically damaging life in the military during wartime can be. (Vick p.167).

Kim changed his style in Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter--and Spring (2002). The setting is a beautiful mountain lake and a floating monastery. This film appears to be a ''Buddhist Fable” centering on an older monk teaching a younger one. The film takes Kim's more unpleasant drive and takes it in a new direction. The film appealed to the internationals and the locals because it appeared to be focused on Buddhism. Kim, raised a Christian," made up the rituals in the film."(Vick, p. 167). Was his intent to undermine the Orientals? (Vick, p. 168)

Kim Ki-duk can work at a rapid and crazy rate. He made two films in 2003. These were 3-Iron where a thief assists a woman to leave her abusive husband. The golf club as the film is named helped aid the escape. A teen- age girl attempts in Samaritan Girl to make up for prostitute friend's death by returning client’s money after sleeping with him herself. She has no idea that her father finds and beats them. (Vick. 168).

Kim often receives very mean criticism in Korea. He once decided not to release his films in Korea, but now has reversed that decision. He does have some defenders of his work in his home country. Do his films present a true hatred of women or are they a representation of something more? (Vick, p.168). Kim Ki-duk's view of humans is seen over and over in his productions. His films could easily be seen as nothing but an attempt to shock, but he attempst to share his thoughts with the viewer. His views are not hidden and they become easily obvious. (Vick, p. 166).

References

Asian Cinema: A Field Guide

East Asian Cinemas: Exploring Transnational Connections on Film