Breathless

A group of French filmmakers criticized films in the film industry. For instance, they started coined the blank and white crime thriller film as film noir. Thence, in the late 1950's and 1960's, the French New Wave is also a term coined by them as well. They revolutionized cinematic conventions by merging the fast cuts of Hollywood with philosophical trends (Parnell, n.d.). One of the critics was Jean-Luc Godard, who filmed Breathless which started the French New Wave movement in 1959.

Before 1950’s and 1960’s, French films were generally literary adaptation which the films were normally made based on books, novels, fictional tales, etc. These films were filmed within the studio system. However, after World War II, filmmakers started making films about the context of troubles of post-World War II which presented as a documentary style. Many French filmmakers made documentaries of Nazi death camps. Other than that, cinema verite which means cinema truth were also made through real documentary with no interruption in the filming (Hayward, 2013). For instance, they filmed a man’s 1 day of his life as a trash man without interrupted.

In the 1951, Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut started writing about philosophy of making movies and film noirs which was published in the Cahiers Du Cinema magazine. Before becoming a critic, Jean-Luc Godard was a director of his significant film, Breathless, which was produced in a low budget but accepted by the public. Therefore, he and his colleagues were absorbed into studio system with budget provided to make new films. However, they didn’t get to practice what they used to do in films anymore, hence, films of French New Wave were getting decreased, and they were then turned to academic and criticism and become critics and theorists, as they unable to get into the French commercial cinema (New Wave Film, n.d.).

Breathless follows the romance between Michel who is a murderer on the run and Patricia who is an American girl set within the urban Paris streets. Michel attempts to persuade Patricia to run away with him to Italy. However, Patricia betrays him by revealing his location to an inspector. 

Personal authorship is important as a branding for directors. Their signature personality, the way of visual, type of theme were shown in each successive film. Besides, they rejected tradition filmmaking which rely on linear tropes of storytelling and dialogues. Godard developed own film that generally rejected by tradition films which caused them did not get funded by studio. Due to the low budget issue, the inconstant composition while shooting a film became his style as well as the jump cuts (Parnell, n.d.). For instance, when Patricia is sitting in the car, the scenes outside the car keep on changing as in they have passed different places. 

Next, they took audiences to look at mise-en-scene, they made visual as the main thing instead of transferring script into a movie. Godard and friends rejected the montage aesthetics and strong editing in making a film. In another words, they favored mise-en-scene as what is within the visual. They believed a film must include emotion and psychological experiences instead of to be just intellectual or rational experiences. The filming techniques included fragmented, discontinuous editing, and long takes (Johnson, 2015). For example, the long takes shot while Michel and Patricia are having conversation on the street, the camera just followed their movement while the scenes behind are changing. Besides, unlike tradition Hollywood films which actors weren't allowed to look directly into cameras, Godard filmed Michel who speaks to audiences and himself through camera while he is driving on the road. 

Additionally, Besides, Godard filmed with available light only and exhibited direct sounds while shooting (Darke, n.d.). For example, while Michel and Patricia are having conversation in the room, we can hear the ambulance siren passes by twice. Next, unlike the film noirs, Godard usually show strong female archetypes. For instance, Patricia who doesn’t depend on men and she comes to France herself. Although she is engaged in a criminal case, she joins Michel stealing car, however, she betrays him as well by revealing his location to an inspector. A strong woman is able to practice choices and make decision herself. In the Breathless, we can see Michel objectifies Patricia as an object, he seduces her and persuade her to leave with him to Italy. Unlike traditional women who were portrayed obedient, couldn't be ambitious, weren't allowed to work and get educated, Patricia has her own job in France as a student and aspiring journalist, she also sells newspaper on the street to feed herself. 

The French New Wave ended in 1969. Studios hired and absorbed French New Wave directors. As they were under studio system, the form of films embedded into the mainstream. However, only Godard who continued to develop his style of making films. There was when French New Wave films slowly ended. 

Bicycle Thieves

          Italian cinema during pre-war period, films were used as propaganda, a form of brainwashing for political benefits, which this set of films were brought from places to places to educate the peoples. The films were generally documentaries and newsreels. However, Italian Neorealism began in Italy after World War II. It is a style of film with promoting only a good image of Italy during the period of fascist government's control. The government restricted that crime and immorality should not be produced, the films content produced should be divorced from reality. Therefore, the films produced were normally melodramas which combine music as in melody and dramatic narration films. Nonetheless, the fall of fascism created the style of film characterized by stories of the working class and postwar poverty. The best-known example is the Bicycle Thieves by De Sica in 1948 (Hayward, 2013). 

          The neorealist movement began during the postwar period as a response to the political turmoil and unstable economic conditions which were affecting the country. The main exponents of the movement are Luchino Visconti, Roberto Rossellini and Vittorio De Sica. These directors took up cameras to tell stories on the lower-classes people and their concerns which the filmmakers projected a slice of their life to reflect on the conditions of social reality. These films regularly show contemporary social realism as in what is it happening now, the present, today and at the current moment. Hence, filmmakers had abolished plot and narration that normally used in films. 

          Other than that, Italian neorealism films encouraged the sense of realism through using the real life people as actors who also known as the everyday actors / social actors. Non-professional actors are preferred as filmmakers believe that they are different from those professional actors who are already well trained. The filmmakers’ faith in non-professional actors will be more likely to establish the real expression without any ‘acting’ elements. Next, natural dialogue and language were used to enhance the realism too. On-location shooting was preferably suggested rather than studio work to establish the grainy kind of visual and realistic look to enhance realism. 

          Besides, Neorealism films were basically produced in documentary style and shot in natural light. Additionally, long takes camera shot which is 1 long shot with 20 seconds and above normally used in the films too. Long takes in a film which audiences are forced to watch at the same scene or location. They started looking at the surrounding of the scene and appreciate that (Hayward, 2013).

          During the postwar in Rome, a poor father is offered a new job but he needs a bicycle for work. His wife pawns the family’s entire bed linen for him to redeem a bicycle that has been pawned however the bicycle is stolen on his first day of work. He brings along his little son to look for the bicycle on the streets of Rome. They go to the street, the crowded market, a church where they could see the scenes of poverty similar to theirs.

          The neorealism film: Bicycle Thieves meets all the components mentioned above. It projects a slice of Antonio and his family’s poverty life during the postwar period. It is shown on the first scene where everyone queues and gathers around to fight for a job to maintain their life. When there is a new job offered which needs a bicycle for work, everyone cries out saying they have a bicycle hope to get the job. 

          Next, it shows the social reality which is the poverty, the effects of the war on the economy and the unemployment of the people. When Antonio eventually gets the job, in order to work with a bicycle, his wife, Maria pawns all of their bed linens to redeem his bicycle which has been pawned. The poverty social life is shown at the scene where Antonio redeems his bicycle at the office, we can see a lot of people are queuing up at the back waiting for their turn to pawn and redeem stuffs, as well as the tall shelves full with other people’s bed sheets that have been pawned, even the worker needs to climb up a ladder to stack up the bed linens. 

          Furthermore, the non-professional actors are used in this film too, however, there is only one professional actor in the entire film, the man who is standing at the staircases giving out jobs for the people. 

           Moreover, the real location shooting in this film is shot at the post-war area which creates the grainy visual to emphasize the people’s suffering. That location is when the wife, Maria and a group of women are pulling water from a well. We can see the combination of new and old collapsed buildings in the films and the roads are not well repaired. With the outdoor real life scene location, lastly, this neorealism film is also shot in natural light as well.

           Bicycle Thieve is an impactful and brilliant neorealism film. I like how it ends with the dispirited father and the son walking in the crowd, who have no idea where the bicycle is.

The Maltese Falcon

After World War II, the French started watching a particular type of American crime thriller film. These crime genre films were normally detective and investigation films which very different from the films in 1940s. Hence along with other characteristics, instead of saying film noir is a genre, in fact, it was a movement emerged from 1941-1958. Film noir basically presented as all people are bad, non of the human beings is pure good which attracted filmmakers to reveal this reality world and made into movies (Hayward, 2013). One of the great film noirs, The Maltese Falcon directed by John Huston would be discussed while looking into its characteristics found in a film noir. 

During the war, men joined the army, whereas women were moved into the workforce to maintain and increase the economy of the nation. During this period, women who used to be taking care of household started to meet people and expand their horizons. They started making money, getting wiser, and economically independent. However, when men came back from war, women were already trained. Men became paranoia, suspicious, and questioned themselves on masculine and national identity. Therefore, film noir narrations expressed the sexual independence of women which threatened masculinity yet femme fatale were generally being punished in the films such as: she is killed, becomes insanity or forced to marry and leave the city. The narrative diegesis of film noir was typically a criminality world which fulls of paranoia, lies, and malicious where no one should be trusted and telling lies has been accepted as a human nature. A film noir was commonly central of greed, lust, intention, and afraid of paranoia. The lighting used was chiaroscuro which is high contrast and low key lighting, dark visual and played with lots of distorted lines and shadows to enhance a sense of suspicious. For instance, a huge shadow of the character is projected on a surface behind the character to represent the evil side of him and the lower angle shots to create distorted and evil look of him.

Next, the setting in film noir is generally city-bound, crowded place, suffocating space, and especially rain-washed street which is to present a sense of some criminals have happened. All of these reminiscent of German Expressionism. Besides, the main character or the protagonist in film noirs is normally known as anti-hero, who is tough, flawed, and not being a gentleman. He is not a completely typical hero which can be seen in other films, we are still following his story throughout a film noir though. Blurred moral is one of the characteristics of film noir, it gives meaning of, it is not about doing it right, but it is about my intention to whether do it right. Next, it usually features a narration in the film which something have had already happened. Character's names are purposely picked to resemble his/her characteristics too (Hayward, 2013).

Detective Sam Spade and his partner, Miles Archer, approached by a beautiful but secretive woman, Miss Wonderly who claims to be looking for her missing sister, who is believed with a man named, Floyd Thursby. Both Spade and Archer accept the assignment, Archer agrees to follow Miss Wonderly that night and get her sister back. However, Archer is murdered followed by Thursby. Spade is worried that police will think he kills Archer as he is having an affair with Archer's wife. He realizes that he is entangled in a dangerous situation of crime. Soon, he discovers Miss Wonderly is telling lies and her real name is Brigid O'Shaughnessy. 

In The Maltese Falcon film noir, we can see the principle of contrastive lighting which is chiaroscuro with high contrast and low key lighting is applied in this typical monochrome film to bring a sense of pessimism and suspicion. Beisdes, this film noir plays with lines as well which can be seen on the setting in Miss O'Shaughnessy's apartment such as the windows, curtains, walls, frame, lamps, furniture, etc. Other than that, the shadows and low angle shots of Sam Spade are to enhance his characteristics in the film noir to create a sense of distorted and evil side of him. Sam Spade is the anti-hero in this film, he is neither a pure good nor pure bad character, he is wise, tough, good looking, love money and ets hooked on the femme fatale in the film.

Additionally, Miss Wonderly, Miss LeBlanc, and Miss O'Shaughnessy who are definitely the same person represent the femme fatale in The Maltese Falcon. She tells lies, hides secrets by lying, and most important is to pretend to be an innocent act to achieve her goals and intentions. This is somehow shown in the scene which Miss O'Shaughnessy calls to Spade's office, she gives her location and screams over the phone to signal that she is in trouble. When Spade reaches the location she has provided, she leans against the wall, pretends to be weak and frustrated who needs Spade to hold her to the apartment. At the end, Miss O'Shaughnessy attempts to throw herself at Spade again, hoping he will protect her as she believes Spade loves her, in fact, although Spade can't deny his love for her, nonetheless, Spade insists to turn her to police as he distrusts her murderous and lying nature. The lines shadows of the elevator gates projected on Miss O'Shaughnessy's face who is standing behind it, represents her will be soon set behind the bars.

Time passes, film noir has developed and evolved, it has slowly changed into a genre lately as known as Neo Noir. Some other genres films started absorbing film noir characteristics into their films too, for instance, the cowboy in Western genre films has been portrayed as an anti-hero, he doesn't care for the people and somehow he is being stereotype as well. Due to the technology advancement, since 70's, filmmakers have started making film noirs in a different way, eg: China Town which was shot in colors; Blade Runner in the 80's is a science-fiction film noir; In the 90's the significant film noir, Bound, was although shot in colors, however, the visuals of the film including the costumes and setting are purposely set mono-chromatically. On the other hand, what filmmakers used to do with femme fatale such as the consequences she has to pay for it through death or submission, they don't do it that way anymore. Conversely, femme fatale has started being praised in films of being a 'femme fatale' upon her attitudes and she has empowered by her sexuality. 

In The Mood For Love

World War I had a huge influence on French film industry where many film studios were forced to halt and even American films were slowly replacing the French's. However, the young generation of French directors claimed that a film should be an art which is purely itself. They started experimenting with cinema in the ways that posed an alternative to the dominant Hollywood formal principles. They experimented with cinema to show a sense of art of emotion which dominated intimate psychological narrative. Hence, through Wong Kar Wai's film - In The Mood For Love will be discussed with the application of French Impressionism on it.

An Impressionist film's narration shows an interest in psychological depth to reveal a character's consciousness in the film. The interest in psychological depth shows inner action as well other than external physical behavior. Impressionist films commonly play with memories or flashback to manipulate plot time and subjectivity and sometimes show a character's dream, fantasies, and mental states. In order to reveal a character's thoughts and feelings, the Impressionists films usually uses irises, masks and superimposition. Cinematography and editing play important roles in Impressionists films too to show a character's perceptual experience and their optical impressions yet to enhance the narrative treatment of psychological states. Thus, point-of-view shot is generally used, therefore, frame mobility has developed to move as a representation of the character's eyes which cameras are strapped on cars, carousels and locomotives; distorted shots, filtered shots, or vertiginous camera movements are show a drunk or dizzy character in Impressionists films as well. Next, the pace of an experience of how a character feels can be shown through rhythmic editing, for instance, the rhythm increase when the character in involved in a scene of violence or emotional turmoil. Some Impressionists films like to enhance the rhythm through a dance. Therefore, the comparison of cinema to music are useful in accelerating the rhythmic editing.

Two married neighbors, Mr. Chow who is a journalist, and Mrs. Chan who is a secretary, both have rented and moved into a very crowded apartment on the same day. Their friendship has slowly developed and both realize their respective spouses are having an affair with each other. Both of them imagine how their spouses first hooked up and help Mrs. Chan to rehearsal interrogation. They started falling in love with each other, however, they are both bound by the moral stand.

This film explores the psychological cause to review what the character is thinking. For instance, when Mrs. Chan is buying noodle at the stall, without a word is spoken, the dialogues is replaced by her body language and her eyes expressions which reveal her inner loneliness consciousness. With the camera movement in between the crowded stall and the people, the shots seem to be peeping of her daily life, where she is trying to avoid others which makes her even stands out lonely in the street. Other than that, Mr. Chow inner thoughts are shown when he is alone in the office. He lights up a cigarette, with expressionless face, seemingly working hard on his job, however, the cloudy smoke above his head indirectly expresses his inner thoughts which are not clear and his mind is clouded like the smoke.

Besides, this film manipulates plot time where Mrs. Chan is watching the neighbors playing mahjong, the scene is shown in slow motion editing to express a sense of time is passing slowly as Mrs. Chan is not enjoying and having a good time at that moment. Next, the music used in the film are mostly similar to match the visual rhythm. It is to show both protagonists are having a constantly repeating life. They are found usually eating alone, walking alone, and the shots at the narrow hallways and staircases have emotionally enhanced the unspoken desire of both Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan.

Lastly, the ancient place in Angkor Wat is shown magnificently after Mr. Chow has whispered into a stone hollow and filled with mud. It is seemingly showing there are lots of unheard secrets, regrets, and feelings are told here.

This film is somehow shown beautifully throughout the whole film. The atmosphere during the 60's in Hong Kong, the stunning shots and scenes are like paintings which capture the most ordinary moment of life of anyone else, however revealing the hidden beauty and unheard feelings of one.

Dark City

German expressionism is applied to the art movement including painting, literature, theater, architecture and cinema which emerged in Germany during the early twentieth century (Hayward, 2013. p.190). German expressionists conveyed their inner feelings and ideas through the expressionism. United States films were started influenced by German filmmakers in the style of dark, moody and horror genre film when German filmmakers emigrated to Hollywood due to the fascist Nazi government were in power (Morris, 2015). The influence can be seen through the narrative, mise-en-scene, settings and scenes in films. The film 'Dark City' is one of the films which in the relation of German Expressionism.

The art movement and form of modernism German expressionists being criticized as mentality of madness, death and fatality, some others say German expressionism films attempt to escape from real life economic crisis (Hayward, 2013. p.190). However, Hayward believes that the expressionists applied expressionism on cinema by analogy often dealt with certain themes and stories such as revolt, self-analysis, madness, insanity, and primitive sexual savagery. The genre was mainly to establish a narrative that was anti-realism which rejects reality modes as it was believed these topics were influenced by the experiences of World War I (Sloat, n.d.). German expressionists normally utilized with oblique and distorted architecture structure, the use of chiaroscuro which is heavy contrast of light and dark lighting to create shadows and silhouettes, yet application of strange asymmetrical shots are important feature of expressionism films (Hayward, 2012. p. 190.)

The film follows John Murdoch who awakened naked in a bathtub and could not remember anything. Soon, he receives a mysterious caller from Dr. Schreber and finds himself suspected of murder. Murdoch attempts to recall his memories while escaping from the police and a group of 'Stranger' who has similar ability as Murdoch himself which is tuning power. He then discovers the truth of the world which is taken over by the 'Stranger' to study human's mentality and there is no day time yet no single way out from the city. With the help of Dr. Schreber, Murdoch defeats the 'Stranger' and creates day time for the world with his ability.

The main elements in German expressionism, madness, which can be found in Dark City especially on the characters of a group of 'Strangers'. Their eager and obsession in becoming like a human. For instance, Mr Hand as one of the 'Strangers' would take risk at imprinting human's mindset shows how obsess he is to become a human. Additionally, John Murdoch struggles in unable to recall anything and even what is his name. Besides, the inspector Walenski becomes insane after revealing the truth of the world and ends up committing suicide.

Primitive sexual savagery element is found in the film on the group of 'Strangers' . The way of their characteristics show they enjoy and find pleasure in killing especially the little child would carve circular lines with knife on the half naked prostitutes' dead bodies. They also sliced off the chief police throat violently when he brings them to Murdoch's cell but Murdoch has already escaped.

Revolt is shown by Murdoch who doesn't remember killing anybody, he revolts against the police as well as the 'Strangers'. He doesn't stop revealing the truth behind the unreality world after he realizes there is no day time and people unable to remember and tell the way to Shell Beach. Dr. Schreber is somehow revolting against the 'Strangers' too as how he helps Murdoch by imprinting in Murdoch with all his childhood memories to defeat the 'Strangers'.

When John Murdoch awakens naked and could not recall memories, he searches for his self identity through the identity card in his wallet, he visits to Uncle Karl trying to recall his childhood memory resemble to the self-analysis which is one of the elements of German expressionism film.

The Gothic architecture structure can be observed through the building in the film. The distorted settings as the buildings and interiors will twist, stretch, expand, reshape during the tuning by the 'Strangers'. Besides, the slanted door and narrow corridor to Shell Beach resemble the unrealistic thematic. Moreover, the rigid movements of 'Strangers'  with long black coat and dark appearance clearly differ themselves from normal human beings.

The film plays with heavy shadows and huge contrast of dark and light which is the chiaroscuro lighting element. The whole film before Murdoch reforms the brightness, the entire city takes place at night time with low-key lighting to evoke the insecurity mood. At the beginning when Murdoch sleeps in the bathtub, the bathroom is totally in a darkness except a bulb swings from one end to another to slowly show the entire environment. When ‘Strangers' come to police station to arrest Murdoch, their shadows appear on the wall to tell audiences the appearance of them.

Dark City is an essential film represents the German expressionism film. The elements of revolt, self-analysis, madness, primitive sexual savagery, chiaroscuro lighting, the mise-en-scene are significantly shown.

The Big Durian Documentary

During the few days of Hari Raya holidays, I watch this documentary agin. Well, before watching this documentary, I never knew there was such a big and serious case happened in Malaysia in 80's. But, I remember my papa did mention to me before about few of Malaysia Sultan killed somebody but the cases were like a needle sinks into the deep deep sea. Nobody knows who did that, nobody knows how the cases ended up. Well, some people say that were just rumors.

This is quite similar to the documentary show which Prebet Adam ran amok with a gun in the Chow Kit area in KL on October 1987. An uncle who is I believe is just an actor, he mentioned in the documentary said that the rumor about the incident was a Sultan of Johor killed Prebet Adam's brother which caused him to run amok, but some said it was absolutely not true. Nevertheless, I can feel the nightmare they had were true and real. Because most of them had gone through the 513 incident in 1969. It was just around 20 years later when Prebet Adam ran amok with gun in KL. Although the all the cast interviewed in the documentary show were actors and actresses, I think they were just expressing the people's thought through their mouth. Throughout the show we can see that it was a big case where many people were scared and even some of them refused to recall and talk about the incident happened.

When this incident happened, there were so many rumors being spread around that brought everyone into a mess situation. Some people said it might be a second 513, many people would get into danger because of racial riots. In the show, some of them recalled during the time, they started to store some food at home to prevent something would happen. Nobody was dare enough to go on the street, with the audio editing, the silent on the empty street really scared me out. I can feel their fear even I wasn't there during the time. Probably 513 incident really brought them a lifetime nightmare which no one else wish to happen again. The lost of food, houses, and family...

Overall, the most impressive in the documentary was the audio editing. I was impressed with how only music instrument could lead audience emotion up and down, especially when the Indian lady was telling the situation on the street the next day after Prebet Adam ran amok in Chow Kit area. As well as with black and white scene (if not mistaken) and the audio, I could really feel the silent on the street and it killed me a little while.

Despite nobody knows what really happened with Prebet Adam to run amok with a gun, but as Malaysian, until today many of us really fear about any racial issue which will cause a serious fight and lead to a flood filled with blood. I am grateful Malaysia and Malaysians are doing well since I was born, I wish it can stay as what it is now, to lead ourselves to a better Malaysia in the future.

Paranorman

According to Susan Hayward, postmodernism it could be defined as a set of critical to question the modernism such as human progress, reason, and science (Hayward, S., 2013. p.284). It questions across arts, architecture, language, political issue, film cinema, literature and so on. Hence, it is said that to deliver the attitude of skepticism about modernist belief towards science, gender, and high art over popular culture. Other than that, she also states that postmodernism is the reflective of mentality. Thus, it is believed by many theorist that postmodernism is the symbol of the death of ideology where the false conscious would be destroyed. Additionally, postmodernism aims to refuse the difference between high and low art forms as both are valuable. Therefore, postmodernism theorists are encouraged to blend and combine different elements and styles and create them into a new outcome. “Postmodern style is often characterized by eclecticism, digression, collage, pastiche, irony, the return of ornament and historical reference, and the appropriation of popular media". (Waugh; 1992. P. 43) Postmodernism can be divided into mainstream mode as pastiche which is presented through imitation of past art work, while oppositional mode is when former art work presented ironically as parody. Both of this modes rely on 4 different and overlapping concepts which are simulation that combines parody and pastiche, prefabrication, bricolage which means genre bending, and lastly is intertextuality meaning how art makes reference to another art work. Thence, I would like to discuss how is the animated film Paranorman related to postmodernism. 

Simulation in postmodernism combines both parody and pastiche. Parody is an art that pays tribute to other art work by mocking the original art work. For example, filmmaker will insert a certain scenes in his film that taken from the other original film as when audiences watch it, they will laugh because what they have watched before in the original film are their expectations. However, when the filmmaker makes fun of the certain particular scenes, it subverts their expectation. On the other hand, pastiche is to pay tribute by honorary. it is probably because the original film is so perfect that other filmmakers will pastiche a particular scene into his own film too. Besides, postmodernism rejects the idea of comparison between the high art and the popular culture. Postmodernists suggest that both of these should be appreciated as an art form without comparing and differentiating which is better than another. "Construction of cultural identities is an active process of Bricolage, of tinkering with debris." (Bateman, A., Bennett, P., 2013. p.81). Prefabrication in a film is to insert particular fabricated scenes or sound from past art work which carry certain meaning. Bricolage refers to genre bending and hybrid genre which have brought to mixing genre in today's films. Thus, many authors agree with that it is getting harder to investigate any genre films today in a single way (Boardwell, D., Thompson, K., 2010. p. 328). For instance, this film we watched in the class combines horror, comedy, action and melodrama. Last but not least, the intertextuality describes that films are related and they act as intertextual references to one another.

Paranorman is a stop-motion animated which combines of horror, comedy, action and melodrama genre film produced in 2012 which is written and co-directed by Chris Butler. The story follows the little boy who named as Norman who is portrayed as a character that could constantly see and communicate with various ghosts that wondering around his town but most of everyone doesn't believe in him and he is even emotionally isolated from his family and friends except his best friend, Neil Downe. Nonetheless, with this born supernatural gift, he is the only one in the town who can save everyone's life from the centuries-old curse cursed by a witch. 

Paranorman is definitely a horror animated movie with unnatural sub-genre as it consists ghosts and zombies. The very first hint and signal being mentioned in the film to support that it is a horror genre movie is when Norman requests to his dad to turn up the heating as his grandmother tells him that she is feeling cold in the living room, however, his family refuses to believe him yet trying to convince Norman that his grandmother is dead. Additionally, Norman greets every ghost while on his way to the school when other people see him in the way of talking to himself. 

It is also an action film when the part of chasing between zombies and the characters who are trying to escape from the witch grave. Besides, at the beginning of the film, when Norman is watching a zombie movie on TV, it shows when the lady is nearly attacked by the zombie, a melodramatic music background can be heard to evoke the emotions of how scary the zombie is. 

Furthermore, I have spotted one scene when Norman's best friend, Neil invites him to play hockey, Neil who is standing outside the window wearing the signature hockey mask that is similar to Jason Voorhees's who stared in the horror film Friday the 13th with and hence I believe the director is paying tribute to that film and it is being parodied. 

Snowpiercer

We have watched so many movies in the past, the duration of most is around 1.5 hour. Snowpiercer is a 2 hour long movie, what is it so inspiring that I would like to share is the whole film happens on a train from the beginning till the end. I was kind of worried wouldn't it be a boring story with 2 hour on a train? However, I was proven wrong .

It is a film directed by Bong Joon-ho which is mainly action and science-fiction genre film that happens during the post-apocalyptic. The protagonist- Chris Evans as Curtis, while the cast who impressed me the most and got into one my idol list was the antagonist- Tilda Swinton as Mason. In this film, the action parts when Curtis involves in a series of challenges to fight over the antagonists and the adventure he has with leading a rebellion against the inequality inside the entire one train. 

As we can see, it is a train that never stops moving which holds the last survivors during the ice age where the whole world is frozen, but what impressed me the most is the humanity and the real world relevance shown in the movie. The different classes of the world are being shrunk down into the train as a microcosm. At the beginning, the film shows the audiences distinctly where the survivors from lower class (mentioned as foot), they are starving, dusty, live in a dark, huddled masses and narrow railway car, yet isolated by others from the front section. Then, it comes a plot twist where they started to against the elite (mentioned as head) moving toward the front of the train where it belongs to the 'head' and causes the revolution.

What I expected was the railway cars at the front might be just slightly different from the back. It might be clearer, cleaner, and wider. What fascinated me the most was the HUGE differences where all the upper class enjoys access to attend classes with well-dressed uniform, they have fresh food as in fresh sashimi sushi, grand high-tea with fancy tea cup sets. The worst part is having a nightclub in one of the railway cars where people enjoy alcohol and funky music, as well as a saloon. Other than that, they even have a garden as known as the greenhouse section which serves plant nursery, and aquarium which is built like an underwater world on the train. All of these settings are so well designed to create the enormous comparison and a sense of mood to reflect the elites' characteristics and reveal the environment as prosperous and exaggeration. 

These are insanely showing us the real world ironically represented in this microcosm. Besides, the more fortunate kids get to attend classes and educated, nevertheless, they are being brainwashed by the teacher to be proud of the head of the elite, Mr Wildford and they truly believe those who escape from the train deserve death. I can find it is a bit related to the real world as media is being controlled by government and for some people who lack of media literacy are easily to be influenced by the media and opinion leaders. It is obviously shown that the teacher is the kids' opinion leader.

The lighting makes a big contrast to differentiate between the foot and the head. It is dark, blacks, and dull color in the tail section compared to the front section which is bright and colorful. Besides, the scene of axes fighting happen in the train cars, it shows totally blackout as the lights are off and the train goes through a very long tunnel. The sunlight sneaks through the window and slightly fills on their face with the slow-motion editing and muffled SFX. Next, the friction between steel wheels and steel rails, the echo of them shouting towards the tail for fire, the clear sound effects of lighting up matches plus the totally black screen calmly brighten up by the small matches, followed by the exciting background music and lastly with the people cheering enhance the circumstances and evoke our emotions to the max. Which then they started running and passing the burning torch from the tail to the front. These scenes were absolutely impressed with the contrast of lighting and sound editing. 

Next, the actress Tilda Swinton as Mason. From her accent, the way she speaks, the act of pretending innocence when her life gets dicey, the twist of her emotion in less than a second, the significant teeth and all the little actions she has truly enriched the movie. I was shocked seeing how she leads the film as if she is the soul of the movie. 

Zombieland

This film basically straddles different genre classifications which combines horror, comedy, romance, action, road film, and sci-fi. A typical horror sub-genre can be divided into unnatural, which involves vampires, ghosts, zombies; psychological that probably human's unstable mental and emotional narrative; and massacre or slasher that relies on serial killers or murderers.

Undoubtedly, 'Zombieland' is categorized under unnatural sub-genre.  All of these sub-genre share the same syntax where it probably begins with normalcy, for instance, in the film of 'Zombieland', when the 406 character asks help from Columbus; and slowly there are some irrational forces or chaos happen, it is when the 406 is infected by the bite of a homeless and she eventually turns into a zombie; followed by the internal threat enters the space where conflicts, chasing and killing start, this can be seen when the whole city is overrun by zombies, the four survivors: Columbus, Tallahassee, Wichita, and Little Rock have to escape from the zombies to survive. At the end, it should back to normalcy or victory, which happens at the Pacific Playland, they successfully kill the zombies and continue their journey together as a family without biological relationships.

Moreover, slapstick and parody comedy can be seen in this film. Slapstick generally involves exaggerated physical action to deliver the sense of humor to the audiences. In 'Zombieland', when Columbus acts confidently and gets a bike thinking to save Wichita and Little Rock at the Pacific Playland, he wears smartly to ride on it, however, he falls and the bikes falls on him as the bike seems a little too heavy for him to control. Next, the part when Columbus completely misunderstands Bill Murray is faking as a zombie and accidentally shots him down and causes him death. The dark comedy we can see is when every time Tallahassee double tap on zombie no matter with using his gun, he will shot twice, or drives over the zombies with his car back and forth. The list of rules stated by Columbus to survive and escape from zombies gives the sense of humor as well such as he once said that it is more important to have good cardio than to be good with a shotgun or don't be a hero when it comes to zombies. The parody in 'Zombieland' is when Tallahassee, Bill Murray, and Wichita recreate the scene in 'Ghostbusters' after getting high of smoking shisha just like what Bill Murray used to act in the 'Ghostbusters' years ago.

The genre of romance happens between Columbus and Wichita. Columbus is being portrayed as a coward, behaves cautiously, no social life, although he is smart and keeping himself survive with the list of rules. Nonetheless, when Wichita appears in his life, his courage has increased and even breaks his own rules of "Don't be a hero" in order to save Wichita and Little Rock. Wichita can be shown as a smart girl, independent, single minded, brave to keep her sister and herself alive. This always happens to be a huge contrast between two characters and soon they will fall in love with each other.

This film is absolutely an action film, which the chasing and killing scenes in between the zombies and 4 characters. The chasing scene happens throughout the film especially at the Pacific Playland. Wichita and Little Rock activate all the machines which attract the zombies with the sound and music to the park. The zombies chase after Columbus while on his way to the turbo drop to save Wichita and Litlte Rock. Tallahassee is one of the action hero, the one man army, he is smart, never fear of killing zombies violently, and possesses stronger skills than Columbus. However, Wichita is the femme fatale who achieves her mission in the film using her beauty towards Columbus and the man at the petrol station. In the scene which she bends down her body purposely pretends looking for her ring to attract the man.

A road-film genre I have never heard before telling a film involves travelling on a journey from point A to point B and the characters are mostly stuck in the transportation which either car or feet. At the same time, they will start bonding their relationship on the journey. In "Zombieland", the montage is shown when the driver position is changed from time to time while they are chit-chatting, as well as when they stop by a craft store and smash everything satisfyingly with the classical grand background music.

Although sci-fi genre is not clearly shown through fantastic and fanciful visual in "Zombieland", Columbus once mentioned at the beginning of the film that strain of mad cow disease mutated into mad person disease and turns human beings into zombies that brings an extinction happens in the world.

Except for the dark humor, it's kind of a loose content for me as just watching a group of people escape from the zombies. However, it's fun watching to entertain myself.

Requiem For A Dream

The story line of this film which apparently ordinary. Referential meaning can be seen in this film which happens around 4 drug addicts whose addictions on dieting, wealth, success and fame. However, the way how the director tells us the story has truly impressed me a lot. He enhances this film with the element of costumes and make-up. The oversize clothing, dark circles and pale sick face apply on characters and truly enhance the characteristic of a drug addict. Besides, the first scene of the film is in the house where we can see the setting of the house is sort of simple as this presents the social class of the mother and her son. The things we can see pretty obvious are the TV set and the fridge. These enhance the characteristic of the mother too as she is that kind of typical housewife who stays at home, watches TV, cooks sometimes probably. Most of the time, the director plays with the camera angles and impressive editing from scene to scene which are mostly fast cuts. The film as if brings me into the world of the characters to feel their emotion and illusion. 

One of the method the director arranges the shots is using montage. The fast cuts in the montage shows the act of drugs consumption by the characters. The shots in montage are extreme close up which show the detailed action on every scene. From the scene of syringe, powder dropping on the table to a lighter lights up fire, boiling water, rolled money, the powder is sniffed, the cells flowing in the nerves and the changing size of pupil. The fast cuts as well as the pace of edits seem to establish my feeling of fast beating heart after taking drugs. 

Other than that, the mother character, Sara, who has nothing else left in her life as her husband has passed away and her son, Harry is a drug addicts and runaway from home. The only activity of Sara's daily routine is watching television program to spend her time. However, Harry steals the television from Sara to pawn the television to get enough cash for drugs. This action is apparently normal to Sara as she has locked the TV set with chain. Sara hides herself in the closet watching Harry removes the television through the keyhole. This scene is being split into half which the left is Sara's P.O.V looking at Harry while the right is Harry himself. This editing seems to convey the emotion and the relationship between Harry and Sara. Sara even refuses to send Harry to the police as Harry is the only one she has in her life. Besides, this is also showing us the cause and effect that we might expect throughout the film. The characteristic of Harry who is poor but a drug addict, how would he get more money to overcome the obstacle? He as an active character, he must actively solve the problem, though it is not a good act.

I don't actually find catharsis and completeness after watching this film, instead, I feel I was kind of stress and depressed. It makes my mind wandering around the characters and their characteristics. It seems so real yet so abstract.
Sometimes, we might want to chase for fame, wealth, attention on the path in our life, but when we are overly attached to these, we might fall, to the consequences that we couldn't take anymore.

Thus, sometimes, one shouldn't be blamed for all faults when she is doing something wrong. The action taken might be affected by the environment as well. This can be seen through Sara's character. She becomes obsessed to be appeared on television and causes her taking too much of diet pills in order to lose her weight in shortest time. This might be because of the huge contrast between the reality in her life which is lonely and quiet compared to the television program which is energetic and so much attention from the audiences. 

Additionally, what I can see is that the director also shows the characteristic of a drug addict who happens to be always wandering in his/her illusion. Harry imagines himself making fun of a policeman by throwing his gun in the air; Harry's girlfriend, Marion imagines herself to jab a fork into Arnold's hand; and Sara who imagines the fridge is trying to break from the wall after taking too much of diet pills. However, non of this really happens. In this film, we can see how a drug addict is being portrayed. Their life is generally just wandering in between the reality and their illusion. The editing has really put me into the emotion of theirs where sometimes it is hard to realize am I in the reality of the film or I'm in the character's illusion.

Next, when I was doing research on this film, I realized a short video scene which is quite similar to this film during the part when Marion is fully naked and submerges herself inside a bathtub and shouts underwater. This scene is similar to a scene in a Japanese animated film which is Perfect Blue by Satoshi Kon. Is this kind of pastiche as what Mr. Joe mentioned in the class?

Spirited Away

We were shown the film Spirited Away in the Film Studies class.
It can be said that it is one of my favorite movie from Hayao Miyazaki
This film surprised me no matter how many times I have watched
These are few parts in the film I like

First, Hayao Miyazaki presents Yubaba who has strong maternal instinct towards her little baby although she is a witch who only cares for her business and profit.
She behaves fierce and overbearing towards others in the bathhouse but always shows her soft side while taking care of her baby.
However, when the No Face comes to the bathhouse and finds interests in Chihiro but she doesn't accept the gold he provides like anyone else, Chihiro feeds No Face a medicine that makes him vomits and so causes the bathhouse into a mess where Yubaba loses her profit and she is mad with it.
For that moment, she never realizes her baby isn't the real baby until Haku tells her.
This shows how greedy is she and desires on wealth and power instead of family.
This strongly represents the society nowadays which we are easily get blindfolded with the power of profit and material possessions until we are getting less concern on what are supposed to be more important to us.

Other than that, this can be seen through Chihiro's parents as well. Chihiro's parents take the food presented on the table without asking permission before eating them. They strongly believe nothing matters as money can solve everything. However, they turn into pigs as punishment because of too much food or can be said as too much greedy they have taken. Therefore, Chihiro is forced to work with Yubaba in order to save her parents.

In the bathhouse, which can be presented as today's society. Everyone in the bathhouse must work for Yubaba. Once if someone doesn't work anymore, he or she will turn into a pig. He/she will live a lifeless life, without any goals, keeps eating and sleeping until he/she is fat enough to be killed and served to the customers. It is similar to the social reality as you will be out of step with the society when you no longer work hard to live your life.

Next, I found No Face is similar to most of us as youngsters in today's society. No Face is unable to express himself or tells his thought to Chihiro, but at the same time, he has the power of making a lot of golds to fulfill the greedy of people in the bathhouse to get a sense of respects or attention from others. But deeply inside himself, this character is lonely and attempts to get relationship with others only by fulfilling their greed. He is only able to speak with the frog's voice after he has swallowed the frog into his stomach. Isn't this similar to many of us? The youngsters might have a certain ability or strength in some fields with high IQ and knowledge, however, we are poor at communicating, dealing with people or expressing ourselves.

Additionally, one of the obvious message delivered by Hayao Miyazaki is the polluted environment when the River Spirit comes to the bathhouse and it is dirty and gets stuck with trash. However, the people are scared off and distance themselves away from this dirty customer. Isn't it ridiculous as we human beings pollute the environment ourselves, but when it comes to problems or natural disasters, we distance ourselves away from responsibilities.

Furthermore, I believe the strongest message in this film is to remember the real you as in Chihiro must always remember her real name in order to escape from Yubaba. In the bathhouse, everyone has forgotten their real name. They have become materialists and always pursue for wealth. Many of us might have dreams that wish to be accomplished, however, people are getting less motivated to achieve their goals which affected by the surroundings and slowly forget who they really are. In the film, Lin once mentions she would escape from the bathhouse one day, but her name has been taken away by Yubaba. Same to Kamajii when he gives Chihiro few of train tickets. Perhaps, he has dreams to escape from Yubaba back in those days too?

The best part I like the most is when Chihiro is taking train to meet Zeniba. We can see the neon signs shine brightly all along the way. But it shows such a huge contrast as the scene is so quite and lonely. Every passenger doesn't speak a word, they are like just a soul of themselves.

“I HOPE ONE DAY YOU HAVE THE COURAGE TO RUN AWAY FROM EVERYTHING THAT MAKES YOU MISERABLE.”

TIGA

So today we went to another drama performance at Five Arts Center which was TIGA.

They were given 3 different objects and to produce a performance. Today, we watched 3 monologues which were Bed directed by Fahad Iman, Chair directed by Andy Darrel Gomes, and Knife directed by Arshad Adam, not to forget to mention all these three shows were written by Sharifah Aleysha.

Bed
I like how the director tells the story of a weak woman in her relationship with those subtle performance especially the way she walks on the edge of the bed which represents her status in the relationship, when she covers herself tightly with the blanket in the meaning of having sex. There's one part when she folds the bed and stands on it, does that mean she covers up what she really wanted to tell and what she really feels in the relationship just to maintain it? Not to forget, the classic Chinese song 我等著你回來 "I'm waiting for you to come back" at the beginning of the show surprised and caught my attention. However, I didn't really understand the choice of a CHINESE song until the director explained it is because of the lyrics. Hmmm, why not any other English song? But I do really love the choice of a classic song as if it gives the meaning of the relationship issue happens from the past decades until today? Next, I really love the strength in giving vent to her anger with her boyfriend. She yells, jumps, and fells on the floor. (That's what we (me and my performer friends) used to do on the stage in the past.) However, I would suggest that she may lay on the bed to perform on the floor too as it is a very good chance because audiences are free to move around to watch the performance in order to match with the theme and the object "bed".

Chair
I like how the director plays with the chair which actually represents the actress's past or some kind of memory. When the actress unable to sit properly on the chair during the performance, I guess she can't get through of her past or something she has done and she finds guilty. As she mentions in the performance that she disappoints her mother on what she has done. And I believe she is the one who has already died instead of her mother. However, during the Q&A section, the director did explain he purposely created the space which represented the place in between the heaven and the hell. There's where the actress is waiting for her turn to reincarnate perhaps. I like how the lighting and sound effect is designed to create the space when she has the conversation with her mother in the past or herself in the present. This enhances the space yet help us to switch our mood and emotion together with the actress as well. She played both the mother and daughter well in between without getting us as audiences have second thought of who is she acting at the moment. At the end, when she sits on the chair without getting felt down, it seems to us similarly when we have to accept who we are and to accept what we have done to get through our life. The more struggling we are on a particular problem or issue, the more hurtful we will get as in how the actress keeps falling down from the chair. It hurts her isn't it?  Overall, she performs really well but I find the falling part is a little bit "sengaja". It is somehow seems not that natural.

Knife
The monologue performance turns it into a live cooking show is always a good idea to cheer up the audiences' emotion. I can clearly see the actress's style of performing yet this last show was the easiest to understand what the director is trying to tell. I am impressed with the director of getting his actress who wears a tudung to perform and discuss the sex issue. It is because in our society, Malay or Muslim has always less to cover on sex topic and it is quite a strict rule in our country. The contrast he makes help us to think more as why can't a Malay discusses this issue too? She covers the sex issue through making salad, with all subtle dialogues and the props especially the "glove" that represents condom. I probably understand what the director is trying to tell as everyone can have sex but you need to play safe. However, I don't really get the connection with the main object which is "knife", it could just be a dangerous symbol in having sex? And there's only one time she uses knife to cut the vegetable. I find it has less relatable compared to the "bed" and "chair". Next, I think the director may add in more subtle dialogues for audiences to understand the sex topic instead of having the sound she makes purposely. However, the sounds did really cheer up the audiences as well.

Nonetheless, the opinions above are based on my personal thought only. As what the "chair" director says, there's no right or wrong, just how we interpret it individually.

Besides, I took part in a national competition back in those days which the competitions were more likely as the show we watched today. All participants will be given 5 specific stage props and 2 topics to perform on the stage. You will have to choose 1 of the 2 topics, link and relate the props with the topic to perform an approximately 20 minutes drama. You have to play them well, creatively and reasonably. However, the main challenge is we will have only 10 days to come out with a script, lighting, sound effects, props, and costumes. The props were very common such as broom, trolley, basket, iron, etc. Feel free to check it out as this competition still carries out every year.

"National Secondary School Drama DIY Competition 全國中學生戲劇 DIY 觀摩比賽" organized by Noise Performance House.

Traditional Malaysia Art Form

We were assigned to choose a Malaysia tradition art form. For my group, we chose LION DANCE!!

Thanks to the chance given, we had the opportunity to in deeply understand the history of Lion Dance.

I think I can relate the feelings of the authorities and leaders of Lion Dance from the past until today. (If you have read my older post - Performing Arts).

First, I had never thought of Lion Dance had been once involved in the political issue. The issue of not being recognized as part of Malaysia local culture and tradition. The situation when your culture, tradition or kind of practice you will be proud of is being ignored, your contribution in working in it to "protect" and maintain it, will exceed your own expectation.

Next, I really feel touched of knowing and exploring so much information and hidden stories in Lion Dance that have happened throughout decades. The contribution, efforts, hard work of our Chinese immigrants ancestors, the leaders, and the authorities of Lion Dance, just to maintain the reputation, the culture and the practice of Lion Dance in Malaysia.

Sometimes, I believe, the competitions we join are not for the awards. There are many hard works, skills, and time have spent in the rehearsals just to play the perfect one. I would say, the thing we ask for, is the public to see, to realize our hard work, to understand how important is the practice/culture/tradition to us, and to support us because we are really putting efforts in it.

It is sad listening to the old uncle who is our interviewee, saying Lion Dance is truly dying and fading in our Malaysia Chinese society. Perhaps, he is right, the youngsters view the importance of valuable things, instead of the culture, tradition, skills, efforts that have to be passed down from generations to generations. Not to forget to mention, even Malay and Indian friends are playing and learning Lion Dance in Malaysia, how about us Chinese?

You may not have any interest in it, but, never ever judge a tradition. It has included efforts, sweats, tears, bloods, emotions to keep it alive until today. Not to judge, but support it. The people who are still contributing and sacrificing their time in this culture and tradition, are those who deserve some respects and supports.

Last but not least, thanks to my group mates who contributed a lot too in our presentation. It is not easy to play the Lion Dance. So, here's a video of them doing Lion Dance. SALUTE!

Awesome Performances

It had been almost 1 year and a half since I last attended a good theater performance. The last show I have watched was the Ancient Inscription performed at KLPAC in October 2014. 

Last weekend, I have watched another good show from Five Art Center which was the Baling Talks. Thanks to the chance given by Dr Carmen as it is quite difficult for me to attend a drama or theater performance in KL.

I have to confess that, I am less likely to watch historical related drama performance, I'm more into fictional or abstract drama show. The Baling Talks surprised me though.

The Baling Talks directed by Mark Teh, The performers are Anne James, Fahmi Fadzil, Faiq Syazwan Kuhiri and Imri Nasution. The interesting part I like the most was the changes of characters among different performers. Generally, the drama performance I have watched in the past have fix characters, only few performances play with the switching characters, which can be seen in this Baling Talks. I enjoyed the different feeling and acting from different performers with the those characters. Every performer had their own ways of talking, walking, eyes expressions with different characters. However, among those performers and characters, I was more impressed from the performance from Anne James when she acted as Tunku. It did not show any strange or odd feeling as a lady plays the Tunku role. It was pretty awesome and I like the way she 詮釋 (as in define) herself as Tunku. 

Other than that, I like the space they created as in the 壓縮空間 which likely a compacted space from the arrangement of history books on the floor and the photograph hang on the grid. 

Nonetheless, The Baling Talks wasn't the first mobility show (流動環境劇場) I have watched which audiences have to move around from space to space with the performers. However, as compared to The Baling Talks, A LOST Arts Installation Exhibition "帶著時間色彩的眼淚 透蝕我的煙 而偷竊的小孩 並沒有看我雙眼" presented by Crazy Boomers 瘋狂爆炸劇團 in 2010, I would prefer the latter. 

During the A LOST Arts Installation Exhibition, we were brought from space to space as this performance happened in a very old fashioned house in Penang near the quay which it is vertically, it has 3 story and with a rooftop. 

The most impressing was when we were guided to the rooftop, watched performers performed the impressive martial arts dance (肢體). Not to forget to mention one of the performers was AIDA REDZA!

The second most impressing part was there was a spotlight shined in the sudden on the rooftop of the opposite building. Which means I was watching another performer performed on the opposite building. (impressed no more)

Feel so good to write about drama performance review! I really wish to watch more good shows!