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.