the study of transnational cinema (Yojimbo, (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon))

When one mentions about the study of film, it always leads to the aspects of Hollywood films, the study of Asian cinemas is a field with minimal study, but many have yet to know the transnational aspect of these films. Even though Asian cinemas utilizes Asian actors, places in Asia and the history of Asia,  it is always packed with multicultural elements. And yet, the majority of film analysers will always tend to lean against the traditional aspect, the study of Hollywood films, without knowing the true message that lies behind Transnational cinemas, which tend to always be in Asian cinemas.   Transnational cinema encourages a shift away from films with a national branding which ultimately would present a shift in critical thinking. Transnational cinema comprises both globalisation and the counter hegemonic responses of filmmakers from former colonial and third world countries (Rowden E, 2006, p.1). The analysis of mainstream Hollywood movies is that Americanisation tends to be prominent throughout the whole film. However, the study of Transnational cinema is that it forgoes from the traditional elements, the components of Transnational has multicultural and multinational backgrounds.

Yojimbo (Kurosawa A, 1961), is the perfect example of Transnational. Even though the genre of the film is the traditional Japanese samurai, but the film has been typically categorized as “Japanese Western”, the film has utilized many aspects that belong in the convention of Japanese samurai films, the Japanese actors, the history of samurais and the film’s settings. The settings have very similar roots to Hollywood films, using wide open places for duels and utilizing small isolated towns to signify oppression in the past. These settings are very distinct to the genre of “Western Cowboy”, especially the “stand off” scene that happened between two gangs that are staring off each other intimidatingly, the culture of that can be linked to the traditional Western cowboy films, where two cowboys would just stare off each other from a distance waiting for the best opportunity to pull the trigger. While there is no doubt that the director of Yojimbo, Kurosawa is fully utilizing the use of Asian actors, crews and cultural themes, the end production has managed to balance between the use of Transnational cinema, utilizing Japanese history and elements of Hollywood films, but at the same time, without being totally diluted of  the current culture approach.

While discussing about the international co-produced film, Hidden Dragon, Crouching Tiger, it has elements from Transnational cinemas. The production of the film is funded by investors from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and America, despite the film being filmed in different provinces of China and is related to the history of China. The only surprising factor of this film was not celebrated by the audiences of Asia, as many has said that the accents used by the actor’s of the film is aloof from the traditional mandarin accent, thus, causing confusion to Mandarin audiences. However, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is well received on the international scale. Mainly due to the fact that, non-Asian audiences is not familiar with the accent that was used on the film, therefore, to certain audiences, it may be deemed as something natural to them. Additionally, the main actor of the film, Chow, has an American background and it is well resonated with the international audience, causing the film to be more received in the international market rather than just audiences from Asia itself.

 

References

Ezra, E., & Rowden, T. (2006). Transnational Cinema: The Film Reader. London: Routledge

Wu, C 2002, ’Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is Not a Chinese Film’, Spectator, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 65-79

 

Asian Horror

I have never been a huge horror movie buff my whole life, reason because I’ve never been into gore and things that are not appealing to my eyes. As I’m pretty sure almost every child would have a nightmare after watching horror films, thus, avoiding these films are always something I instinctively do. The first ever horror movie I watch was The Conjuring (James Wan, 2013), the movie revolves around the dramatization of the history and horrors that happened in a house in the United States. I’ve never got to really see through the context of the film that was present, no deep analysis was made at that point and the only thing that’s running through my mind was that “the movie is meaningless and it will not get me anywhere”. However, after watching The Maid (Kelvin Tong, 2005), I tend to focus more on the context that was for us viewers to decode, the social issues that were present in the film, instead of just blindly watching things happening on the screen. It really got me to realize that the film is more than just scary creatures and special effects, it is the elements and social circumstances/ issues that were present in the plot that made it intriguing for me.

The Maid is a story that revolves around a maid from Philippines who is force to move to Singapore to work as a maid in a home of a wealthy family. The plot progresses as  the maid was shown to go through all kinds of scary and unpleasant circumstances during the month of the Hungry Ghost Festival, where it is known that the dead rises from hell and roams freely for a month. Her paranormal endeavors signifies the real current world issue that goes on for many domestic workers, it articulates social anxieties and can be more critical compared to other genres. Sanjek also suggests that, the horror genre tends to situate the abject and awful in the everyday and that the contemporary horror film has been the primary vehicle for the replication of a family nightmare (2000, p. 115). Such as the The Maid, it articulates the topic of domestic violence and the suffering of cultural differences, it signifies us viewers that, working in overseas as a domestic worker may or may not be as appealing because the struggles shown were real. Throughout the film, I realize the tackling of real issues that exists within the society plays a bigger role in the plot than the elements of horror.

This just shows that a film genre may play a big part of the film as a whole, but is it the agenda behind that shows the real meaning of the film. As Kelvin Tong stated that the film plays a big part by signifying the struggles of domestic laborers.  Ultimately, the film was addressed with the saying “the familiar anthropological narrative of the classic ethnographic monograph to depict their societies as ultimately inhospitable for the long-term resident” (Taylor 2014, p. 122).” In conclusion, this film has made me realized that the plot may seem ridiculous at a point, but is it the social commentary that exists that plays the biggest role of representing the ethnic minorities.

 

References:

Sanjeck, D 2000, ‘Same as it Ever Was: Innovation and Exhaustion in the Horror and Science Fiction Films of the 1990s’, Film Genre 2000: New Critical Essays, edited by Wheeler Winston Dixon, pp. 111-123, State University Press of New York, Albany, NY

Tudor, A 2002, ‘Why horror? The peculiar pleasures of a popular genre’, Horror: The Film Reader, edited by Mark Jancovich, pp. 47-55, Routledge, London

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Asian Cinemas, Transnationalism in Gangster films.

As one speaks about Hollywood’s gangster genre, “The Godfather” would always be the pinnacle of western gangsters films, many gangster films around the world have tried to mimic and pick up the elements that are available in The Godfather. Leading to Japan’s internationally known gangster film, Japan’s HANAH-BI (Takeshi Kitano, 1997) and Hong Kong’s Internal Affair ( Andrew Lau & Alan Mak, 2002) are films that are well known in the film industry globally. The gangster genre is known to be popular throughout the world in the with nations adapting to the genre to create their “customized” versions of gangster films, that includes Japan, where Yakuza films were born and the triad films are born from Hong Kong. When one speaks about gangster films, it almost certainly involves depictions of violence, weapons, sex, drugs and death, but the way each nation represents these elements can be very different based on the traditional culture and modern influences.

Violence is definitely still depicted in both of these films, but it is not the driving force of the narratives. The film HANAH-BI (Takeshi Kitano, 1997), violence is not the focus of the film; rather it’s focal theme is the end goal of violence: death (Taylor-Jones 2013), HANAH-BI starts with the scene where it shows the reaction of Nishi seeing leftover food on his car, at one point, it is expected of him to pull out the gun and pull the trigger as it is very typical of gangster films to start the movie by being surrounded by the elements of violence. To my surprise, it cuts to the scene where the teenagers are cleaning his car instead. This tells us that Nishi is very different from the typical gangster that only solves matters through intimidation and violence, as Nishi follows his own principle and  ‘continues to operate according to his own moral compass rather than social constraints’ (Taylor-Jones 2013, p.209). The elements of violence in the film are generally limited and quick in order to direct the audience’s emphasis on violence away, and to concentrate on the more important themes of death, life, and human emotion or compassion. HANAH-BI was received well by critics but did not find a commercial success overseas due to their focus on cultural influences within Japan.

Similarly, Internal Affairs has no violent scenes until the one-hour mark, this indicates that elements of violence are not the main focus/driving factor of the movie but rather the focus is on the  tension that is built by the “cat and mouse chase”, two moles being aware of each other’s existence but not their identity. Therefore, I have made the conclusion that the focal point for the film leans towards more to the conflicting of identities. As both Lau and Chan have spent so long pretending to become someone else that their experiences have become reality and find themselves trapped with “no choice but non-stop suffering” (Li, 2004).

In conclusion, both films are categorized as a ‘gangster genre’, but the focal point of both movies are not to the direction of violence rather than the “principles” that were held by the protagonists, are they willing to go all out to the pinnacle and potentially lose themselves or are they more willing to hold on to their principles and the humanity in them?

References:

Taylor-Jones, KE 2013, “Legacy of a Violent Man” in Rising Sun, Divided Land: Japanese and South Korean Filmmakers, Columbia University Press, pp.174-203.

Li, C. (2004). https://www.filmlinc.org/. [online] https://www.filmlinc.org/. Available at: https://lms.rmit.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-8616491-dt-content-rid-20512524_1/courses/COMM1035_1750/InfernalAff2Film%20Comment%281%29.pdf [Accessed 26 Sep. 2017].

Transnationalism & Gender

In recent times, the topic of gender equality has been revolving around the media and people are more aware of this issue. Thus, globalization has lead to the evolvement of equality and feminism in our society. However, in the case of transnational cinema, it deviates from our societal norm and does not necessarily follow the Western culture. In the films, Queen (2014) and Offside (2006), the stereotypes of women being weak and has to rely on male protaganists have been challenged, as the film is about women going through the hardships and challenges in life.

These transnational films has definitely deviated from the societal norm and cinematic style, placing women in protagonist roles and differing them from the usual stereotypes of being stagnant, as women in Bollywood films usually have no meaning outside of their relationship with men and are primarily the symbolism of ‘family, patriarchy, and nation’ (Gupta 2015, p. 107). For example, the film Queen, Rani was shown to defend herself from an attacker, not relying on any male counterparts to save the day, the way the film portraits the female protagonist shows that Rani is the ‘man’ of her own. The empowerment of the character of Rani is set to frame her character, and not to support any male protagonist later on. Later on, Rani was shown to not stick to the usual traditions and was wearing a dress that would usually seem as “breaking the rules” in her strict family tradition. The camera follows her movements as she dances, sings and enjoys herself freely. She was not sexualized, as she was rejecting males by not acknowledging their gazes and functioning as her own character rather than as an ‘erotic object for the male character or the male audience’ (Gupta 2015, p. 119).

Similarly, the female protagonists in Jafar Panahi’s Offside are shown to have the same characteristics with Rani. They were also challenging the ideas of stereotypical cinematic styles and their gender handed down by the patriarchal political situation that exists in Iran, as they were seen breaking the rules attempting to enter a male-only soccer stadium to see the game. The film highlights the inequality and restrictions condemn upon the women population of Iran, in the film we were constantly exposed to the noise of the soccer game but not the sight of the soccer match at all, as Danks suggests that the method was used in Offside for the audience to have a realistic experience of what they are going through (Danks, 2007). The dramatisation of this shows the viewers the hardships of what women go through in Iran, all just to watch a soccer game. As both films are portraying their female protagonist to be somewhat as “rules breaker” and “badasses” as they challenge the traditional gender expectations.

In conclusion, both films view women in a very different light, as it is most likely dependant on the culture and history of the origins of the film. These representations can open audiences’ eyes to the whole issue of gender inequality and the potential to increase equality in the society.

References:

Gupta, S 2015, ‘Kahaani, Gulaab Gang and Queen: Remaking the queens of Bollywood’, South Asian Popular Culture, Vol.13, No.2, pp.107-123.

Danks, A 2007, ‘The Rules of the Game: Jafar Panahi’s Offside’, Directors Suit: Jafar Panahi – Offside, Melbourne: Madman Entertainment, pp.1-14.

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