Dark City's movie review

(Dark City, 1998)

German Expressionism is a film style that appeared in the period of 1919 to 1926, in Germany. It was influenced by the Expressionist movement in modern art in early 1900s. Most of the filmmakers brought their filmmaking practice to Hollywood, influencing horror films and film noir by migrating from Germany to USA. Some of the German Expressionists filmmakers are Fritz Lang, Robert Weine, and F.N.Murnau.

The style of German Expressionism can be conclude with the use of oblique camera angles, such as the scene that shows the protagonist's fingerprint with oblique camera angle. Other than that, distorted bodies and shapes are also the style of the German Expressionism, there are many scenes that show distorted bodies and shapes throughout the movie. For instance, when the strangers were tuning, the buildings in the scenes were twisting to change landscape. The effects during tuning and combat battle between the protagonist and the antagonist were one of the ways to present distortion. Another ways for the representation of distortion is the alien's look and movement of the antagonists. Moreover, bizarre and incongruous settings that are usually Gothic in look and framing, there is one scene that one of the family was imprinted by the strangers, the outfit and the environment of that family were changed and it is more to Gothic style. Furthermore, the style of the German Expressionism also consists of the high contrast (low-key) lighting that create dramatic shadows. For an example, the scene when the inspector went to visit his friend which is also an inspector once. The inspector was invited to the room that his friend scribbled on the wall, the room was dark and chiaroscuro lighting were shown by using only a kerosene lamp.

The German Expressionism has many kind of themes, such as revolt, self-analysis, madness and primitive, sexual savagery. The theme of revolt can clearly be seen in many scenes throughout the movie. One of the scene that the protagonist was fighting with the strangers by escaping and looking for the truth that distorted by the strangers shows the act of revolt. Another example was in the scene that the doctor was forced to imprint the memories of the antagonists into the protagonist's mind, but the act of revolt is shown with the doctor inject another syringe that contain everything that the protagonist wanted to know. Another obvious instance is when the time that the protagonist gain the power of tuning which is owned by the antagonists, the act of revolt is already begin.

Another theme of German Expressionism is the self-analysis. Throughout the whole film, we will be aware of that the protagonist is questioning himself about who he is,the one self and where they are, the environment. Another character that also keep on questioning himself was Mr Walenski, he found out that the strangers were imprinting the memories when he was still awake.

Madness is also one of the theme of German Expressionism that is applied in the film. The most representative character for this movie is Mr Walenski, a friend of the inspector. He had a room that is prohibited from his wife and he scribbled the symbol of the strangers all over the wall of that room. Finally, he killed himself by jumping into the train tracks so that he can relief from that world. Other than Mr Walenski, the protagonist is also a character that has madness in it. It can be observed with the scene the protagonist is obsessing with the Shell Beach as he asked everyone he know about how to reach to Shell Beach and at the end of the film the protagonist build up the Shell Beach. Furthermore, the protagonist killed all the strangers in the center of the system by only himself.

In this film, Surrealism is also consisted. The surreal contents that can be seen in the movie is the city is a fact of different eras on earth. As we can see in the movie, the outfits that are wore by the characters in the film is in Gothic style. Moreover, the city as a maze like it is in an experiment. For instance, the purpose of the antagonists imprint the human's memories and tune the city landscape are to learn how to be like a human as they are dying and sharing the same group of mind. Furthermore, chiaroscuro lighting that create dramatic shadows is used in some scenes. For example, when protagonist walked through the alley, toward to the Shell Beach, the shadows are dark enough to create the intense feeling. Another example for this is the scene that one of the antagonist emerges from the dark to ask protagonist when finally the protagonist controlled the city.

In a conclusion, Expressionism was displayed in literature, painting, theater and architecture of Scandinavian and German-speaking countries. It also spread into cinema in terms of narrative, set and mise-en-scene. It is very obvious to see when come into the set design and chiaroscuro lighting. German Expressionism is affected by the Expressionist movement in the modern art in early 1900s and it appeared as a film style during 1919 to 1926. An example that applied German Expressionism into the movie is named 'Dark City'.

References:

Plot Summary. (n.d.). Retrieved April 16, 2017, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118929/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ql_stry_2

Darsa, A. (2015, March 16). An Introduction to German Expressionist Films. Retrieved April 16, 2017, from https://news.artnet.com/market/art-house-an-introduction-to-german-expressionist-films-32845

  

In the Mood for Love's movie review

(In the Mood for Love, 2000)

Today's movie review is about the film named 'In the Mood for Love'. The film 'In the Mood for Love' has applied the theory of french impressionism cinema. French Impressionism Cinema explores psychological causes, gives narration considerable psychological depth, revealing play of the character's consciousness, concerns mental states, dreams or fantasies. It manipulates plot time and subjectivity by showing flashbacks or memories.

Synopsis:

The story begin with Su Li Zhen and Chow Mo Wen moved into the apartment. They often being alone for meals as their spouses always not at home for a long time. After some times, Su and Chow knew they were cheated by their spouses. Chow and Su cooperate to wrote the martial art serial for the paper. Su's long disappearance for the purpose of writing and was noticed by the neighbors. In order to eliminate distraction, Chow rented a hotel room to write the story. They thought that they will be degraded if they stooped to the level of their spouses. However, as times go, Su and Chow found out they have developed feelings for each other. Chow got a job offered in Singapore and he asked Su to came with him but at last Chow left by himself. Years later, Chow had returned Hong Kong to visit his landlord but discovered they had emigrate to Philippines. He asked the new owner about Su's landlady and got the answer of a woman and his son was living there now. Chow left without realizing Su is the lady living next door.

Introduction to French Impressionist Cinema:

French Impressionist Cinema is popular during 1919 to 1928. French Impressionism triggered off due to lack of interests by mass and the rising production costs. It explores the psychological causes, gives narration considerable psychological depth by revealing play of the character's conciousness, concerns mental states, dreams or fantasies. By showing flashback or memories, French Impressionist Cinema manipulates the time plot and subjectivity. It shows the visual depiction of mental states through the cinematography and editing.

Analysis:

In the term of editing, French Impressionist Cinema apply the use of irises, superimposition, masks to indicate the character's thoughts and feelings. There is one scene that shows Chow's wife was bathing and she was crying in the bathroom.

The aperture of the camera is low in that scene to show the overall feel of sadness.There is a scene that shows Chow had comforted Su to not thinking so much. After that, he also invited Su to help him in thinking about the story that he wrote. At the end, Chow thanked Su for the sesame paste that she made.

The superimposition of visual is applied in that scene in order to present the feel of guilty and shame as the sesame paste that made by Su was actually specially cooked for Chow after she heard that he wanted to have it but she lied that it was just because she have cooked the sesame paste in a big pot and there were still have some.

To show the dizziness or drunkenness, the visual are usually distorted, filtered or vertiginous camera movement is used. The character's experience of particular situation can be shown by using the point of view editing, rhythmic editing.

The camera movements of the French Impressionist Cinema is smooth and brought about by frame mobility. In order to achieve the frame mobility, the camera can be tied to cars, wheels, bobsleds, cables and more. There is a scene  that is showing Chow is walking at the lobby of the hotel. The camera is smooth when the footstep was shot. Another scene that shows a smooth camera movement is Su and Chow met at the alley that sell Wantan noodle.

The jump cut of Su in the hotel show the feeling of hesitation. The jump cuts show that she is walking up and down at the stair and wandering at the lobby outside the hotel room. This gives out the meaning of she was hesitated that is she going to meet Chow at the hotel room that he rented.

The purpose of the slow motion shot in the movie is to show the time is passing. When Su and Chow were in the hotel room writing the novel together, the shots were shot in slow motion. This give out the meaning of the time is passing slow when Su and Chow were together to write the novel.

Romance genre can be seen clearly in the movie. Romance genre often explores some themes such as love at first sight, young or older love, forbidden love or unrequited love. Although romance film does not always have a good or happy ending but still it has serves the audience an escape from their real life. In this movie, the theme that explored is the forbidden love that is immoral as Chow and Su were in love although they had their own marriage. In the end of the movie, it does not have a really happy ending for Su and Chow. Su raised up her child in the apartment they live before and Chow left the apartment after came back from Singapore to visit his own landlord without noticing that Su had moved back into the apartment.

Conclusion:

French Impressionist Cinema is once popular during the time 1919 to 1928, but later this kind of film gradually fade out as it needs lots of production costs and the audience are lack of interest toward it. French Impressionist Cinema always involve with the romance genre as the overall feeling and tempo that present by French Impressionist Cinema are slow. In the Mood for Love is a good example that can represent French Impressionist Cinema. The movie not only involves all the characteristics of the French Impressionist Cinema, it also contains the style of shooting the shot by the director. If you are careful enough, you will find out that through out the movie, the face of Su's husband and Chow's wife cannot be seen clearly, this is one of the features you can look into it.


References:

Romance Films. (n.d.). Retrieved April 15, 2017, from http://www.filmsite.org/romancefilms.html

Plot Summary. (n.d.). Retrieved April 15, 2017, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118694/plotsummary

ParaNorman's Movie Review

(ParaNorman, 2012)

Today I am going to discuss about another film, which is 'ParaNorman', that is also using the theory of Postmodernism. Postmodernism has the tendency of anti-modernism. It posses the pessimistic skepticism on modernism and constituting critical analysis on gender, structuralism, ideology. It promotes reflective stands from political, social, cultural agendas and resonance.

Synopsis:

The story is about the protagonist, Norman was a boy who talk to the dead. He was bullied by other kids in the school due to his abnormal. When they were rehearsing the school play for the 300th Anniversary of Witch's Execution, he saw the vision of the town's past. On the same day, Norman met his uncle, Mr. Prenderghast who tell him that he needs to be responsible for the town's safety. During the official school play, Norman had another vision of town's past which was people were hunting for the witch in the woods, then he yelled what he saw causing himself grounded by his father. The next day, Mr. Prenderghast's spirit found Norman and told him to read the book before sunset. After Norman promised him, Mr. Prenderghast's spirit gone disappeared. After all the hesitation, Norman finally decided to take the responsibility. Finally, He and his companions overcame all the problems and his family accepted as who he was.(Butler & Fell, 2012)

Analysis:

The theory of Postmodernism is refer to anti-modernism, that has oppose to the universals, meta-narrative, generality, and critical of enlightenment. There is no history progression in postmodernism. There is also no 'Truth, even if there is a 'Truth', but there will be no any 'foundations' for it.

The genre bending is one of the characteristic for Postmodernism. It means bending the classification of film, integrating two or more genre in the film. The bend of genre in the film 'ParaNorman' is very obvious.

The unnatural horror genre is clearly displayed in the film as the protagonist of the film, Norman, would speak with the dead. He could see and talk with the ghost. Normally, the horror genre that falls under the category of unnatural could be having the characteristic of threat to the normalcy or bodily mutilations and mutations. The film has the characteristic of threat to normalcy, the threats that are presented in film were from both the internal and the external forces threatening the civilians. For the internal threat, it could be the residents of the town. When the zombies were appeared in the town, they started to use weapons and other stuffs that was nearby them to attack the zombies. At the end, the town was destroyed by the residents themselves. As for the external threat, it could be the zombies who had back from the death and invaded the town where Norman was living.

Another genre that is also can be found obviously in the film is the teen genre. The teen genre refers to the films that are targeting specific audience, which is the teenager. Most of the teen film's setting will be in the high school or universities, at the mall and sometimes in the house of the characters. The location of the locker is the most common scene for the teen film.(isabella_milne, 2013) There are some scenes that shown the protagonist was bullied by his classmate, Alvin, at the locker of the high school. There are also some scenes was shown that the protagonist was talking with his family in his house. There are also some teen issues involved in the film. When Neil, friend of Norman asked him came out to play, but Norman had an issue of whether to go the graveyard or not. Neil heard him but suggested Norman not to go in order to ensure his safety. Norman thought that Neil did not know what he was dealing so he told Neil to just go back home.
Besides, comedy is also one of the genre that is being shown in the film. Comedies are the films that are designed to draw laughter out of audience. It normally revisit and poke fun of daily social and cultural frustrations. There was a scene that Norman was awakened by his alarm with the sound of zombies roaring, then scared by the models, posters and slippers that is placed in his room. Due to all those things were Norman's collection, when the audience saw Norman was scared by his own collection, it looks funny in the scenes. Another scene was Neil went to Norman's house to ask him if he want to play. At first, Neil was wearing a hockey mask, this scared Norman out. Then, when Neil lifted up the mask, then only Norman felt relieved. Due to the contrast of the mask and Neil, this will makes audience laugh at it.

Action genre is also included in the film too. It contains continuous high energy physical stunts and activities. The chase scenes, fights and escapes can be included as action too. When Neil, Mitch and Courtney found Norman, Norman told them to drive the car away immediately as there were zombies chased after him. Mitch immediately drove his car away, but one of the zombies success to jump up to the car. To get rid of the zombies, they decided to go Town Hall to find out where was the witch being buried. On their way to the Town Hall, they were chased by the traffic police due to the speeding. There was also another scene that described the action genre very well. It was the scene when Norman tried to talk to the witch, but the witch did not welcome him. In order to let Norman quit, the witch used trick like the spikes appeared to block the way of Norman. Norman avoided them and finally went to a closer place to the witch.

Conclusion:

I had do some research on the specific genre, teen film. It targeted specific audience, which is the teenagers, so the film contents are more about what kind of situations might be happened on a teenager. Usually there are some stereotypical characters will always appeared in the scene, such as nerd, cheerleader, jock and so on.

Finally, this film 'ParaNorman' not only bring laughter to us, but also had lead us to think deep about the nature of human. From the scene that Norman's classmate bullied him to the scene that the villagers attacked the zombies violently without thinking what was even happening, we can see that the nature of human by bullying others can be small to bully verbally until big to bully violently. This will be a problem that we need to consider.

References:

Butler, C., & Fell, S. (Directors). (2012). ParaNorman


isabella _milne. (2013, August 11). Codes and conventions of the teen genre. Retrieved February 28, 2017, from SlideShare, https://www.slideshare.net/isabella_milne/codes-and-conventions-of-the-teen-genre

Zombieland's Movie Review 2

(Zombieland, 2009)

I decided to redo my Zombieland's movie review as the movie review that I did last week was not my lecturer expected. Today I would like to discuss about another theory, which is Postmodernism as it is more suitable for the film that I need to study, Zombieland. Postmodernism appears as a theory during the sixties and fully incorporated and applied during the seventies till now. It is a theory that have the tendency to be anti-modernism. It posses pessimistic skepticism on modernism and constituting critical analysis on gender, structuralism, ideology. It promotes reflective stands from political, social, cultural agendas and resonance.

Synopsis:

The story had describe that the whole America had became a zombieland as the mutation of mad cow disease. The protagonist was a student and was going to Columbus from Austin to visit his parents. He had a set of rules in order to let him survive. On his way to Columbus, he met Tallahassee who gave him a ride. The protagonist soon found out Tallahassee had a weakness which is Twinkies. They went to a grocery shop and met Wichita who was along with her sister. Wichita and Little Rock had cheated them by taking away all their weapons and Tallahassee's car. They later met the other two again and undergo some problems later. Finally, Columbus found out what he really wants.

Analysis:

The character of Postmodernism includes prefabrication and simulation.

In postmodernism film, images or parts of scenes were fabricated from the earlier film are selected to placed into the new work. In facts, a new film can be made up with previously fabricated footage. The prefabrication can also be separated into two sections too, intertextuality and bricolage. Intertextuality refers to a relation of two or more texts are referenced from one main text. While bricolage was creating a new form of art from the existing resources by genre bending and hybrid genrre. Intertextuality can be seen when Tallahassee was obsessed with Twinkies which has the same personality as one of the character in the film 'Ghostbuster'.

As for the bricolage, from the film we can found out there are more than one genre is existing, such as action, horror, comedy, romance, sci-fi and road film. For the action genre, previously the action film has too many film that the hero has macho posturing of 'one-man-army' like the character Tallahassee who can wipe out the entire population of zombies in the film, and overwhelming special effects, and insane stunts. By the 1980s, the action film became higher cost, more hyperkinetic and violent to produce. So many of the films have morphed into other genre areas. Since then, many films have started to incorporate the action genre into their respective genres by allowing the action film to morph into other genres. There are other kinds of hero were invented in order to morph into respective genres. Columbus is the modern type of hero that uses brain to fight which his character is nerdy, scrawny, smart and coward. In order to let him survive in the zombieland, he had set a list of strategic rules, by having one of the rules 'double tapping' to make sure the zombie is dead. Wichita is a femme fatale, female hero that used her sexuality and intellect to survive in zombieland. She had cheated Columbus and Tallahassee by taking away their weapons and cars. Little Rock is a small little girl that is cunning. She would use her innocence to cheat people for her own goal, like she had cheated Columbus and Tallahassee with Wichita. There are also some scenes can be counted as action genre, such as the opening of the film, the double tap rule set by Columbus, the kill of the week that Columbus and Tallahassee discussed, the chasing scene and the fight scene appears almost every time they met zombies.

For the horror genre, it refers to the film has the purpose of frightening the audience who watch the film. There is some subgenres for the horror which are unnatural, psychological and massacre or slasher flicks. Zombieland hadd used the subgenre of unnatural which included the zombies. Under the category of unnatural the elements in this film is obviously the zombies and the bloody scene which contain not only blood but also gore that go along with the mad cow disease as the external threat in the film. We can see the element of frightening from the scene when the protagonist wanted to go toilet at the gas station, the zombie suddenly rushed out from the toilet. Another scene for the horror genre is that when Columbus woke up and found out that his neighbor, 406 had been zombified after he let her in to his room, the chasing scene then happened.

For the sci-fi genre, it is a genre of a speculative fiction, typically dealing with the imaginatives concept of futuristic science and technology, time travel, parallel universe, etc. Sci-fi genre always has the concept of dystopia, an imaginary placed or state is under unpleasant situation and typically the environment is degraded, which the film has the same concept too. The film also consists of post apocalyptic by the mutation of human into zombie, which means the viral outbreak. It also is a genre that inclined to male skepticism which often describe feminism threatening patriarchy. This we can refer to the scenes where Wichita and Little Rock cheated others in order to survive.

For the comedy genre, it is the film that is designed to bring laughter to the audience. It normally revisit and poke the fun of daily social and cultural frustrations. Sometimes, the political commentary is also embedded in the films as a joke too. This gives some form of escape. The types of comedy genre that used in this film is the black or dark comedy. Black comedy usually are something that is so wrong but you just find it is really funny. We can refer this to the scene that Tallahassee and Columbus just arrived the Pacific Playland to rescue Wichita and Little Rock. When they first arrived, Tallahassee shot the zombies and then later used the car ran over the bodies of the zombies due to make sure that zombies were dead.

For the romance genre, it is the love story or the affair of heart that centers on emotion, passion and the romantic, involvement of affectionate between the main characters. Many romantic films did not have fairy tale, wistful thinking and happy ending, although loves serves a shield to the harshness of the real world. (“Romance films,” 2017) Usually the scenario would be 'the boy meets the girl', such as Columbus first meet Wichita at the grocery shop and he thought she was another marriageable woman to take back to visit his parents. Characters end up in their separate way due to arguments and disagreements, such as Wichita said she and her sister will do everything to survive and the next day she drove the car away without letting Tallahassee and Columbus know. Finally they both reunite, when Columbus went to rescue Wichita at the Pacific Playland and happily ever after like any romance film (94, 2011).

For the road film, normally it has been a staple of American films from the very start. The thing in common for the road films are usually an episodic journey or quest on the open road, to search escape or to engage in a quest for some goals. Road films are usually a testing ground or proving ground for the main characters. (“Road films,” 2017) The road film scene in the film had shown us the bonding between the four main characters was gradually became stronger. The scene when they were heading to the Pacific Playland, they were taking turns to drove the car and during that period they were talking freely to others. Besides, Columbus felt free even though they were still suffering.

The simulation can be separated into two sections which are parody and pastiche. Parody is a new work is born out of previous work with different style, in an attempt to mock. While pastiche is a new work that is born out an imitation of previous work, in an attempt to respect. The movie has applied the parody by having the scene that Wichita, Tallahassee and Bill Murray were playing the roles of the characters in 'Ghostbuster'.

Conclusion:

As a conclusion, the film 'Zombieland' had used the theory of post modernism by having the intertextuality, having the reference of 'Ghostbuster', bricolage, having various kinds of genre in it, including horror, comedy, action, romance, sci-fi and road film, and parody, having the scene that characters played the role of the characters in 'Ghostbuster'.

This film is quite interesting to watch as it is not pure horror movie but also contain comedy, let the film not so scary. In the time giving us the element of scary, but also bringing laughter to us. This kind of film is quite popular due to it has a larger segment of customers as it can include the customers who want to watch comedy, the customers who want to watch horror and also the customers who want to watch horror but scare.

References:

Hayward, S. (2012). Cinema studies: The key concepts (4th ed.). New York: Taylor & Francis.

Romance films. (2017). Retrieved February 20, 2017, from film site, http://www.filmsite.org/romancefilms.html

94, suji. (2011, January 17). Typical conventions of romance. Retrieved February 20, 2017, from SlideShare, http://www.slideshare.net/suji94/typical-conventions-of-romance

Road films. (2017). Retrieved February 20, 2017, from film site, http://www.filmsite.org/roadfilms.html

Reitman, I. (Director). (1990). Ghostbusters (1984) - synopsis

Zombieland's movie review

(Zombieland, 2009)

Today, I am going to discuss about the theory that always used in the film, which is the tonal montage. Tonal montage refers to editing decisions made to establish the emotional character of a scene, which may change in the course of the scene. Tone or mood is used as a guideline for interpreting tonal montage, and although the theory begins to sound intellectual, it is no different from editing is akin to music, the playing of the emotional of the different scenes. Emotions change, and so too can the tone of the scene.(Dancyger & Dancyger, 2014) The reason why I discuss this theory is because of I found out this theory apply in Zombieland very frequently and it is kind of interested me.

Synopsis:

The story is about United States had became a Zombieland. The main character was all on his way back to Columbus from Austin. On his way back, he first met a crazy zombie killer who was also a Twinkies lover and took a ride with him. Then the pair met the sisters who had cheated their weapons and cars when they were in a grocery shop. Then they went to Hollywood, Tallahassee directed them to Bill Murray's Mansion. The main character accidentally shot Bill Murray because he thought that he was infected and became a zombie. Later, the main character and Tallahassee went to the Pacific Playland to rescue the sisters. At last, the main character found out that they had became a family like he always wanted to have.

 Analysis:

From the beginning, the main character, who called as Columbus, had narrated his situation and was hoping that he could met his family once more when the United States had became the zombieland. It does not had any strong emotion when Columbus first mentioned his family as he thought that it was because of his parents causing him to have phobia in almost everything. So when he said he wanted to have a marriageable woman to bring back to let his parents know, he rather want the marriageable woman took him back to let her parents know.

When Columbus and Tallahassee was finding for Twinkies in the grocery shop, they met Wichita and Little Rock. Wichita and her little sister had cheated Columbus and Tallahassee and took away all their weapons and Tallahassee's car. Later, the scene became Columbus and Tallahassee were walking down the empty street and talking about the zombie kill of the week.

While Columbus and Tallahassee were talking, Tallahassee found another great car as their transport. Then Columbus went to check the backseat and found out there are plenty of big guns and bullets for it. They drove the car. On the halfway, they saw Tallahassee's car that was taken away by Wichita and Little Rock was stopped there. Later, they met Wichita and Little Rock again and then the car that drove by Columbus was once again took away by Wichita and her little sister.

On the car along the way, Columbus and Tallahassee found out where were Wichita and Little Rock going, Pacific Playland. In the car, Columbus also had asked Wichita about how was the state of Columbus's situation. Wichita said the truth out that the state of Columbus was no more existed. When Columbus heard about the truth where the state his family live was affected by the zombie too, he felt sad and did not know his direction anymore. His first purpose of going to Columbus was to visit his family and now he realized that from now on he had no any family even though he wants to pretend that he still have a family.

At night, Columbus and Wichita saw a car was stopped at the roadside, Wichita told him to drove it to the state of Columbus to find out the situation. Columbus thought about what he really want and finally he knew that it was not that he had no place to go but was where Wichita goes he just wanted to be with her.

The scene that shows Columbus knew that his family was gone, it came with the sorrow background music to lead the audience more to the feeling of the character. Other than that, the scene is kind of like using close up shot to shoot the facial expression of the character to let the audience know that his feeling for that moment was bad.

Tonal montage is all about the editing decisions made to establish the emotion of the character. Music is counted in the area of editing, the sorrow background music that appeared when Columbus knew his family was gone was one of the editing decision that made to establish the character was feeling sad. The camera shot is also counted as the editing, so the close up shot had showed all the facial expression of the character to audience.

Conclusion:

The summary of my movie review is that tonal montage is used widely in films and television works, as nowadays most of the films and television works are having genre bending. Most of the tonal montage theory was used to represent sorrow scenes with the cope of sad music background and the films and television works will be having sorrow part.

Reference page:

Dancyger, K., & Dancyger, P. K. (2014). The technique of film and video editing: History, theory, and practice (4th ed.). Amsterdam: Focal Press.

Requiem for A Dream's Movie Review

(Requiem for A Dream, 2000)

I have not seen this movie before my lecturer let us watch this movie, named 'Requiem for A Dream'. When the movie had started to play, at first I thought it was an horror movie, but after a few minutes later, I recognized it was not an horror movie but a movie that describes about drug addiction.

Synopsis:
The story starts with Sara Goldfarb's television set was took away by her son, Harry to exchange for money. Harry, Tyrone and Marion were drug addicts, in order to support themselves they decided to enter the drug trade. Meanwhile, Sara got a call that said she had won the prize and was able to get on television. From then on, she was obsessed to lose her weight for the purpose of wearing the red dress. After all the incidents,  they finally meet their own tragic ending.

The scene that I like the most:

There are two related scene that I think it was the most touching part in the movie, but not I like the most. The scene describes that Harry went back to visit Sara and wanted to tell her that he had bought a new television set for her. While he was about to tell Sara about he had bought her a brand new television set, Sara had interrupted him for a few time and this cause Harry felt that his mother was weird that day. After Harry told Sara the purpose of why he came back home, he heard his mother was grinding her teeth. Then Harry started to ask Sara, she told him that after taking the green pill that gave by the doctor the grinding sound will be disappear. Now Harry knew that Sara was addicted to the pills too, he told his mother to stop taking pills and told his mother that taking pills was no good for her. Sara then argued that there is a reason why she was taking the pills and she felt more happy. Harry felt helpless and later he was crying when he was on his way back to the apartment.

When Harry was walking down from the cab, it was a long shot, but when he had completely walked down from the cab, the camera shot move from long shot to close up shot, it is to tell us that Sara had recognized that was Harry. After telling us that Sara recognized him, then the shot become medium close up to show us that how happy Sara was. This scenes said that how happy a mother saw her son come back to visit her.

Then when both of them were in Sara's apartment, most of the shot are medium close up shot to show the facial expression of the actors and often change to medium long shot to show Sara moving back and forth between the dining table and the kitchen. When Harry found out that Sara was on diet by having diet pills, he told her not to take the diet pills as he knew she had addicted to it.

When Harry said that he needed to leave, the camera shot become medium long shot to show the body movement of Harry and Sara. Harry hugged his mother and then left the apartment, while Sara remained standing and putting her arm on a chair. The hand that Sara's arm putting on the chair shows the feeling of Sara. When Harry still in the apartment, Sara's hand was like holding a fist, but when Harry was out of Sara's sight, her hand became powerless. It shows that Sara was still happy when her son visited her, but after her son left she felt lonely again.

The scene then cut to Harry was in a cab going to Manhattan, it was a medium close up shot. At first, he felt sad after visiting his mother due to she did not want to listen his advice that she will still having the diet pills and she said that she was lonely. Then the scene became the shots of having the meanings that he injected drugs into himself, then Harry became emotionless.


The scene that I dislike the most:

The scene that I dislike the most is when Tyrone and his girlfriend were having sexual intercourse. This scene looks like even if the movie does not have this scene will also be indifferent. This scene is actually related to the scene that Tyrone was opening and closing the mirror repeatedly as behind the mirror has the money that Tyrone and Harry saved. While Tyrone was opening and closing the mirror repeatedly, his girlfriend was lying on the bed naked and was calling him. From this scene, we already can know what they wanted to do next.

Besides, the scene i dislike the most is because of the way of presenting this scene. The scene was shot by whirling the camera from above to show both Tyrone and his girlfriend whole body. The whirling camera shot makes me feel dizzy and disgust as the scene keeps whirling.

Just to share:

In this movie, the director had used the method of soviet montage. The method of soviet montage is to shoot the shots separately and then combine them in the sequence that you want your audience to know what is the meaning of having those shots. There are some shot that using mouth to open something, cells become bigger, using a lighter, water boiling, water was sucked into the syringe, pupils enlarged, something dropped into a can of water, water was sucked into a cotton, water injected out from the syringe and the cells moving in the veins. All of this shot added together in this sequence let us know that they were injecting drug into themselves.

This method is used frequently in this movie as there are many scenes that show they were having drugs. This method also had used when presenting Sara was having the diet pills and having coffee.

There are also many scenes that are using the method of accelerated montage to accelerate the timeline that used to shoot the scenes. There is a scene that Sara was doing the house chore after she had the diet pill to present that she was too active.
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Spirited Away's Movie Review

(Spirited Away, 2001)

This is my first time to write a movie review due to my academic course. During our class going on, we had been asked to watch a movie named 'Spirited Away'. The movie was directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli in 2001. The movie 'Spirited Away' had won numbers of award, the most famous award that it had won was the Academy Awards or "Oscars" for the Best Animated Feature.

Synopsis:

The story starts with Chihiro Ogino and her parents accidentally discovered an old building due to her father drove the wrong way. While Chihiro's parents were eating at the empty stall, she met Haku who warn her to go back before it is night in front of the bathhouse. When she back to the stall, her parents had transformed into pigs. It was too late for Chihiro to get back and was trapped in the spirit world. Haku found her and let her to get a job in order to survive in the spirit world. She had met Kamaji and Lin who help her to get her job. Chihiro had overcome plenty of troubles while she was working in Yubaba's bathhouse. Finally, she was able to terminate her contract and go back safely with her parents.

The scene that I like the most:

There was a scene that shows about when No-Face wanted to see Chihiro eagerly until he wanted to swallow her down. At that scene, Chihiro sat at the opposite of No-Face when she was asked to meet No-Face and solved the problems that she made by Yubaba.

At first, No-Face just wanted to let Chihiro to have the food and the gold, but Chihiro rejected to receive it as her true wish was to save her parents and back to the real world. Due to the rejection of Chihiro, No-Face started to feel angry and wanted to swallow her down. Chihiro asked No-Face to eat the magic dumpling that given by the famous river god before he wanted to swallow her down. After No-Face ate the magic dumpling, he started to vomit what he had eaten.

The scene that I dislike the most:

When my age was about primary school, I had watched 'Spirited Away' for my very first time. The beginning of the story till Chihiro was running toward the stall where her parents having the food were still acceptable for me, but suddenly the scene cut to her parents had already transformed into pigs! At that moment, I cried as it was terrifying that Chihiro's parents had turned into pigs.

I dislike this scene is not just because of the transformation of Chihiro's parents but also having the thought of why is God so stingy. Human like Chihiro's parents who have no any knowledge about that place just ate some of their food will transform into pigs. The most important thing was they were willing to pay for it, not just fine and dash.

Just to share:

After I watched the movie 'Spirited Away', I found out that there are some messages were giving to the audience.

First of all, greedy can be found throughout the movie. The greedy can be seen clearly the workers of the bathhouse served No-Face with all they had in the bathhouse when they thought that No-Face was a wealth customer. They continuously served No-Face with food, even though they were out of food, they still continuously served him with leftover. They also entertained No-Face to get more gold from him.

Furthermore, pollution is one of the messages that the movie 'Spirited Away' wanted the audience to receive. Pollution can be seen in the scene that they all thought the 'Stink Spirit' had came to the bathhouse. Chihiro accidentally discovered there was something stuck in the body of the spirit and gradually Yubaba found out that he was not a stink spirit but a polluted river spirit. When all of the bathhouse's workers were helping Chihiro to pull the things that stuck in the spirit's body, Chihiro saw there were bicycle, refrigerator, fishing line and many other things pulled out from the spirit's body.

Moreover, over-construction is also been hidden in the movie. We can know there was a river had filled with concrete and had building on it which named Kohaku River. The spirit of the Kohaku River was Haku who had no place to go and finally became Yubaba's apprentice

In conclusion, greedy, pollution and over-construction can be linked together to human's unsatisfied desire. The greedy of human towards wealth lead to over-construction such as human may filled up the river to build buildings over it just like the movie mentioned. Over-construction lead to the pollution of nature due to the wastage that produce by the over-construction.