Hero is one of those movies that gives the fine hairs on the surfaces of your body a lift when the deeper meaning of it all seems to click into place.Jet Li is the Nameless Servant, one who has tirelessly worked at a chance to assassinate the Qin Emperor for ten years and has perfected a move that can kill at ten paces. All he needs to do is find a way to get within ten paces of the most important man of his time. In exchange for proof of the deaths of other notorious warriors, Nameless is awarded distances increasingly closer to the Emperor until he finds himself within lethal range. With a bound, his plan falls into place, and we are left with a deeper understanding of what it means to be a warrior and to hold the balance of life and death.
To watch the movie is a pleasure. The liberal use of vibrant hues and symbolic mise-en-scene makes Hero an engaging, exciting movie. The colors will change as Nameless’s plan unfolds for the Emperor in order to embody the spirit and emotion of each stage. Vibrant red woods accompany the defeat of Master Broken Sword’s vengeful servant, green accompanies the series of events that conclude with Broken Sword’s epiphany, and white drives the true events of the plan along as a distinction from what was previously just an elaborate lie. Paying attention to the mise-en-scene shows us the heartless politician’s breath condensing on an otherwise warm day as they chant for the execution of the Hero.We notice the honor among the assassins as they show their weapons before battle and the lack of it among the soldiers of the Qin as they annihilate a Zhao village without a warning.
In terms of globalization, Hero takes place in times long past; there is not much room for global themes to show within the actual storyline and plot. However, the movie concludes with the etymology of “Our Land,” as a connection between the China we know today and the China that held with such honor and respect for life long ago. This closing remark suggests that China has not changed from such ideals, although we know from our imported children toys and volatile Chinese drywall that something went wrong somewhere between then and now. Harsh opinions aside, Hero will still go down as a personal favorite and an excellent movie to ponder on those days when you just want to sit down to a calming, thoughtful movie of life, death, and duty.
Amelie is a girl who has been isolated during childhood with her rather eccentric parents. Te death of her mother in a freak accident and the reclusion of her father force her to amuse herself by retreating to her own imagination. She grows and becomes a waitress. She leads a simple and single life. While she has not found satisfaction in a romantic relationship herself, she imagines things like counting how many people are having orgasms in a given moment. Soon, however, Amelie discovers a mission to pursue, namely returning a box of childhood nick-knacks that she found in her apartment to its rightful owner and enjoy his sentiments as he receives it. In the process she gets involved in multiple people's lives and seeks to improve their situation. The didacticism plays in, however, when the "Glass Man" calls her to question as to why she helps others but cannot come to help herself.
Amelie is a masterpiece at the combination of cinematic elements. The pacing is quick and light, and the camera (if fixed on anything for a long period of time) is always on some path of smooth motion changing the frames and manipulating meaning and rhythm. The colors throughout the film are bright and semi-saturated. Amelie can often be seen in red, a color that draws her to the forefront of every scene despite her unsociable personality. Each character is dressed rather ornately in the same color scheme and sometimes even pattern as the place they reside in or or often seen. The fantasy of the story is mostly due to the eccentricity of the characters and the juxtaposition of situations that seem especially strange to us as Americans. Amelie also utilizes the cinematographic effects of sound masterfully. The entire credits scene centers around fun sounds that Amelie makes in an enjoyably childish manner complemented by vibrant reds and greens. Throughout the film we hear what her acute ear does as well, that is predictive and detailed observations. Her silence and smiles contribute to the idea of us appreciating this view of Paris through Amelie's lens.
As a very imaginative cinematographic tale, Amelie portraying what Brigette Roullet calls a "fantasized and phantasmagoric Paris". The film has won praise from crowd and critic alike from around the world as a cinematic masterpiece. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet's approach to and execution of the film are indicative of contemporary French cinema. While some directors continue to "re-articulate the the cinematic heritage of the New Wave and Poetic Realism", Jeunet has shown us the result of a new generation of French cinema that finds its roots in the formative influences from Hollywood on these directors infused with French culture and narrative tradition.
Swades is the story of an Indian man, Mohan Bhargava, who works as a project manager for NASA. Upon reaching a major stepping stone in his current project he decides to find his childhood nanny in India. While in India, he relearns many things about his old country and the problems facing it.
Swades used a lot of techniques made famous through Bollywood films, but in contrast has a strong political and social commentary. The use of music video-esque scenes created transitions and provided good entertainment like most Bollywood films, but the scenes actually provided story line. The coloring of the film is bright and colorful, but not quite as much as most Bollywood films. Overall Swades makes its self more appealing to international audiences by toning down the bollywood stereotypes. Although Swades departs from many of the stereotypes it does not completely abandon them making it able to be successful locally as well.
Poverty, castediscrimination, child marriage, illiteracy, a general disregard for education and apathy to change are all addressed in this film. Cinematography in this film exemplifies the problems that the poor of India deal with. One example is with the man who is leasing from Gita, in which the lighting is really dark.
Here we've got the five shots we produced, posted on youtube. A brief description of each can be found under (more info) on youtube, but for your viewing pleasure we will be explaining these live and in person. Damn we're good!
Amores Perros is a film from Mexican Cinema that incorporates all different levels of Mexican Society in a single movie. The three stories that are interconnected are the stories of: a young man trying to raise money by dog fighting so that he may run away with his brother’s wife, a magazine editor who leaves his wife to live with a model and a homeless man with a strange past who cares for dogs and makes money by murdering by money. The central character of the three stories is this homeless man who is trying to come to grips with the fact that he abandoned his young daughter and wife in order to lead a failed revolution in Mexico. All three of these stories are somewhat connected stories that are all resolved with a fatal car accident. Furthermore, in this Best Feature Film winner at the American Film Institute Film Festival, the three stories are also connected by the central theme of the love for pet dogs who are own by the main characters. The director cleverly shot the scenes with the dogs so that in each story there is a dog that resembles its master. Octavio owns a quiet dog that can fight, the model owns a small prissy dog and the homeless man takes care of a herd of homeless dogs. The film features many quite graphic scenes by the clever use of sound and changing the focus of the camera so that the focus is on something other than the very graphic dog fights makes the film bearable. By diverting the focus to something else and merely relying on sound to help the viewer experience things such as the dog fights, the viewer can experience the yelping of the dogs without suffering by seeing them suffer. The use of many close ups, natural lighting, and a hand held camera makes the viewer feel almost a part of these three interconnected stories. Another element of the film that makes it feel especially real is the choice of using an ensemble cast that is relatively unknown outside of Mexico. Though the actors may be famous to a native audience, for an international viewer, this makes for a film that is all the more realistic. Amores Perros is a very gritty, realistic film that comments extensively on the class issues of Mexico without every being hyper critical. It is a very good film that makes extensive use of camera angles and light to make the viewer feel as though they are experiencing rather than watching a film.
When first handling the DVDs, one can see little difference between Le Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (Amèlie) and The Pianist. Their surfaces both shimmer; then we press play. A world of differences unveils. Suddenly we are compelled to fear or the odd wonder of a fairytale. How can this be? Amèlie and The Pianist, influenced by several European countries, utilize the cinematographic techniques of pace, color scheme, and sounds so as to create different meanings on the same screens.
Amèlie is an imaginative “fable filled with longing (and) a heroine who constantly flirts with failure.”1 Entertaining and lighthearted, the film is reminiscent of a fairytale. The Pianist, on the other hand, chronicles the frantic attempts of Wladyslw Szpilman, a Jewish pianist, to survive in Poland during the rule of the Nazis in World War II. It is seen as a “tour de force of claustrophobia and surreal desperation, and Mr. Polanski (the director) ruthlessly strips his Szpilman down to the bare human minimum. He is neither an especially heroic nor an entirely sympathetic fellow, and by the end he has been reduced to a nearly animal condition -- sick, haggard and terrified.” The two stories develop such vastly different tones from a variety of international influences.
The Pianist shares its French influence with Amèlie, but is also associated with Germany, Poland, and the United Kingdom. Critics praise Amèlie for its “French heart” and ability to “get the smile”3. Most of the praise for The Pianist, on the other hand, is for Adrien Brody’s wonderful acting.2, 4 Having a compilation of national influences seems to impact on the presentation of the film. To start, The Pianist as a story involves many more cultures than Amèlie simply because it is set during World War II when the European countries were trespassing borders. Each country that contributed to the film was somehow involved in the War and was able to represent their own perspective on the ordeal and show a good face. The innocent slaughter of the Polish beckons the audience’s sympathy, and we internally celebrate their fated rebellion against the Germans. The UK and France are praised by the Szpilman family for the decision to enter the war on the side of the Poles. Even the Germans were redeemed when one of their officers helped the pianist, a Jew, to live the last days of the war in hiding that he might see freedom. Such a hybrid of viewpoints may be responsible for the accusation of the The Pianist “occasionally hackneyed,”4 rather than exuding the idiosyncrasy of Amèlie. In The Pianist, one’s national identity became a matter of life or Holocaust death, a theme that The Pianist reveals as unnecessary and absurd namely through the atrocities of “random violence”2 directed at the Jews. The involvement of multiple countries in The Pianist also makes it more universally applicable than Amèlie. Narrated entirely in French, Amèlie and has a storyline that quickly shifts between locales more unique to French culture like cafès, a sizeable adult store, and metros. The Pianist, in contrast, is spoken in English with some interjections of German. While the setting of The Pianist is Poland, we can be more culturally familiar here since any place in desolation may be like what Glasgow slowly morphed into. The striking contrast in pace between Amèlie and The Pianist is strikingly apparent from the very beginning of each film. Critic Elvis Mitcell says the film “has the reflexes of a predatory animal” and “atheletic”1 pacing while critic A.O. Scott feels that The Pianist was “(approached) with a calm, fierce authority.”2 The director of Amèlie, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, intentionally tells the story at a rapid pace, moving quickly between events and maintaining an ever-moving rhythm. The pace is sustained well by camera angles that are constantly moving around and highlighting certain elements of scenes such as words on posters and exaggerated facial expressions with varied paces of zooms. The Pianist, however, has a calmer pace from the very beginning that director Roman Polanski adeptly quickens it at opportune intervals to induce tension. For example, Wladyslw Szpilman is introduced to the story playing a mellow, gorgeous piano piece. Within moments, bombs explode around the city while he is playing his piece. He refuses to stop playing, characterizing how he and his family do not wish to change their own pace at the will of the Germans. A bomb breaches the window, however, and urges him to flee into the dusty streets. The choices of the color palates represented in Amèlie and The Pianist are purposefully distinct. The colors in Amèlie are obtrusively bright, saturated, and warm. Mitchell notes that, “Mr. Jeunet soaks each frame with sepia and greens.” He then draws the conclusion that “the sepia indicates that Amèlie takes place in a dreamscape Paris,” and that “the green gives the picture a trippy atmosphere, as if it had been dunked in absinthe.” The scenes are so highly refined that the presentation of the film may be seen as “sterile”1. Amèlie is almost always clothed in red and in focus, making her the distinct focus of every scene in which all else subconsciously falls the peripheral despite her quiet personality. All of the characters have distinctive color themes that match their demeanor. Their clothing matches the interior of their apartments frightfully well, and the colors chosen for them are appropriate for enhancing their eccentric personalities.
The colors that we find in The Pianist are very earthy and muted, “reconstruct(ing) the look and rhythm of life in the ghetto with care and sobriety.”2 The distinctive colors in Amèlie accent the ideas of the characters having very eccentric personalities that their lifestyles are built around. The muted colors of The Pianist, however, seem to function more as a camoflauge for the people with the scene. This reinforces the audience’s understanding that Szpilman is on the run hiding from the Germans. There are no flamboyant colors. Even the blood of those killed is not of the sanguine that so often enhances the gore of war films. In the scene where the Jews are herded away like cattle in the railroad cars, we see Szpilman walking through disregarded bodies and strewn luggage. There are pillows littered throughout the scene which all happen to be of a red and pink motif. The muted color scheme, however, causes all of these pillows not stand out in this scene, but the objects with the totality of the situation. Likewise, red portions of the German uniform and red dresses are faded in the same manner. Individualism is lost as everything blends together in a mass of chaos and murder. The Germans, Jews, Polish, and Russians are all trapped in the same plight, gunfire and hatred all around.
The sounds presented in both films also play a large role in our interpretation of them. Amèlie features a variety of exotic sounds that we perceive through the attentive and imaginative ears of the character Amèlie. Fantastical sounds draw attention to interesting discoveries. We are introduced to Amèlie’s fascination with sound from the opening credits of the film in which she is doing many childish things, most of which produce an interesting sound that is layered over the music of an accordion. She plays with a glass harmonica, spins a coin on a table, and blows away a ring of red paper. The Pianist features a wide spectrum of sounds. There are lots of gritty noises of feet shuffling over gravel that contribute to tensions in the situations coupled with the melodies of a piano that can be both mournful and uplifting depending on the point at which it is being played in the story. The directors of Amèlie and The Pianist develop very different tones by utilizing different cinematic effects in ways that enhance the story and manipulate the mood of the viewers. The bright colors, fast pace, and exotic sounds of Amèlie contribute to the notion that this story is like a fairy tale. The muted colors, usually slower pace, and variety of sounds in the Pianist contribute to the solemn mood portrayed in the film. So, through different influences and by utilizing cinematic effects differently, the directors were able to enhance the experiences of the stories and lead us into very different mental states. Films are a great deal more than the story. So, we handle the DVD once more and look beyond the shimmering surface to the essence of the art. Many countries have poured their resources into the disk and used the art of cinematography to tell their story. How the techniques are used affect our psychological understanding of the story so then we may fully feel the fear or find a fairytale.
Works Cited
Mitchel, Elvis. New York Times. 12 March, 2009. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9B03EEDD1130F931A35752C1A9679C8B63&scp=1&sq=Amelie%20Review&st=cse
Scott, A.O.. New York Times. 12 March, 2009. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?_r=1&res=9E0DE1DA113CF934A15751C1A9649C8B63&scp=2&sq=The%20Pianist%20Review&st=cse
Higgins, Bill. ‘Amelie Smiles on L.A.. 12 March, 2009. http://www.variety.com/vstory/VR1117854096.html?categoryid=38&cs=1&query=Amelie&query=Amelie
Allen, Keith. The Pianist(2002). 12 March, 2009 http://www.movierapture.com/pianist.htm
** I want to apologize for the horribly dim pictures towards the bottom of the post. The laptop I have does not display movies in true color, so the screen captures I took only look as good as I could tweak them to look without washing out the colors and such. Thanks for squinting!**
The truth is a fickle friend. Some people never want to hear it because they cannot handle the wound that the unaltered truth would cut into their comfortable projection of the world. You can determine the strength of a person’s character by how quickly they will settle for any answer that best suits their peace of mind without regard to its validity. For those that have nothing to hide, the truth is the best tool to have at one’s disposal. For those that have much to hide, the truth is the most dangerous thing they could face. For this reason, defending the truth is always a battle. Unfortunately, the truth is an exceptionally political and subjective concept; when someone has power over human life they become a fount of truth, however biased the water may flow.
In Joint Security Area (2000) and No Man’s Land (2001), the truth plays a major role in the central conflicts. In this paper, I will be arguing how globalization creates the need for half-truths and blatant lies because of the politics involved in allowing the truth. For this paper, globalization will be defined as the translation of cultural, economic, and political values and ideologies from the local to the international. I will be analyzing these two movies in order to show how, through the use of cinematic devices, they both suggest the truth is a political tool and possibly even seen as secondary to human life whenever the status quo is at stake.
In Joint Security Area, Major Sophie Jang, a UN-appointed mediator, is assigned the task of uncovering what really happened during an encounter involving four border soldiers on the North – South Korean border. As she goes from man to man seeking their respective version of the incident, she realizes something is amiss. One man won’t talk at all, another promptly commits suicide, and the third is happy to talk but unable to complete his story when forensic analysis suggests another side of it. As the story unfolds, interestingly enough at the same rate Major Jang is uncovering the information, we learn that four of the men had become close friends and were visiting each other at the North Korean border house at night. This may have been acceptable if North Korea and South Korea weren’t political and time-tested archrivals of one another. The fact that their border patrols were fraternizing, the very representatives of the culture, values, and ideas that each country embodies, was a very serious and politically charged problem. The friends knew this, too. If the truth were uncovered, the consequences for both sides would be dire.
In No Man’s Land, three opposing Serbian and Bosnian soldiers at war find themselves trapped within a trench between opposing sides. They cannot leave the trench in daylight because they would both be shot indiscriminately, since neither side would hesitate in firing at an armed man running toward their line. To complicate matters, a landmine finds itself armed with a biological trigger as the allegedly dead body that was placed atop it regains consciousness and learns that he cannot move without first detonating the claymore underneath him. As the two mobile soldiers agree to set aside any differences to wave white flags to request help, the UN Protection Force is called in to assist. UNPROFOR command would rather its units leave the trench alone, however, and continue protecting aid convoys elsewhere. To further complicate matters, an English news crew shows up after learning of the situation by tuning into the UN’s radio frequency, and demands the UNPROFOR command do something to help the men. With the two soldiers attempting to kill one another whenever the other has his back turned, a conscious landmine unable to move without detonating, a UN Sergeant who genuinely wants to help, a higher UNPROFOR officer who genuinely wants nothing to do with that situation, and mounting global attention courtesy of the English film crew, it should go without saying that the main conflict is complicated and not easily concluded.
I argue that the driving force behind the central conflict in both movies is globalization. Globalization in itself is not a negative idea; it is the consequences of the international ties and reputations that are created through globalization that force a country to act within expectations and “professionally.” It is the pressure to remain consistent in the international community, the pressure to remain reliable and ideologically solid to ones allies, and the pressure to set examples so that one is not seen as weak that makes a country neglect or manipulate the truth of individual situations of lesser importance for the motherland. It is globalization that makes the UN command act so coldly, and the Korean soldiers fear the truth so much.
In No Man’s Land, the camera rarely leaves the trench in order to emphasize the limits of the situation, and even when the UN APC pulls up it is only shown from a low angle within the trench. Close ups are used often in order to show the frustration on the men’s faces while they experience their fates unfold. The camera brings you into the trench with the men in order for you to understand the need for action. Joint Security Area employs wipes and flashbacks in order to portray the unfolding of the story as an actual investigation by Major Jang. Dim lighting is used liberally whenever the need for secrecy and privacy is necessary, and bright lighting usually signifies the calming of the storm where the men need only act natural.
When the UNPROFOR command is told that the landmine is not defusable, it makes the easiest decision: lie to the international community, say the bomb was defused, get everyone out of there and leave the poor man to the elements. Just get the pressure off the UN, because it is not acceptable to show weakness; international validity comes foremost to admitting you can’t do everything. The nervous and detached UN official tells everyone, “Good job today” as he trots back to his helicopter and resumes flirting with his dazzling secretary. The scene of his elaborate and pristine office is an effective portrayal of his distance to the worldly situations that he commands. The camera angle is just low enough to exclude his secretary’s head from the frame as she walks in; her bare legs stand in for any personality she may lack while she plants herself atop the UN officer’s work desk in a skirt. How can this man make appropriate decisions when his world is so unlike the actual one outside? As the movie ends, the camera cranes vertically as if to emphasize the manmine’s ascendance to a better place, while still only showing the inside of the trench, the whole of his final world.
As for Joint Security Area, Major Jang is released from her assignment before she could finish it because it slowly became apparent to both the mediators and the opposing sides that the truth would do more harm than good. To let the international community know that two of the border patrols from each side crossed the uncrossable to become friends would do much more harm than just allowing it to fade out of attention. Two men were left dead, soon to be three, just so the world can keep on believing the two countries are legitimate enemies. When the men were huddling together for a picture, the North Korean soldier with the camera told them to huddle even closer until the picture of their Dear Leader was obstructed by the other three friends’s smiling heads. One of the North Korean soldiers even squatted down in his final moments to show one of the South Korean men how to properly shine his shoe. All politics were cast aside to show that their friendship would always be stronger than paltry constructs like nationality. If only the world had known that those four men had once pranced gaily around on one foot and chickenfought with one another, the need for such a flawless reputation may have been trumped by the collective realization that everywhere across the world, people are people. This is at the core of both movies; we should never let our worldly duties interfere with the opportunity to create ties more permanent than any party loyalty could hope to offer.
Works Cited
Elley, Derek. "Joint Security Area." Variety 23 Oct 2000 10 Mar 2009.
In recent years, in Hollywood and throughout the world, movie production companies have began using graphic novels as source material. Graphic novels, better known as comics, are known for having exciting story lines, but with limited dialog. With the advent of personal computers and other advanced technologies used in publishing, artists and writers can more easily create a graphic novel without having to sacrifice a complex and meaningful story. With comics able to clear the stigma of not having a meaningful plot or message, the general public began enjoying films based on the better graphic novels.
The first major attempts at mainstream comic book movies were in the early to mid nineties with movies such as; Batman, The Mask, The Crow and Time Cop. Although these films are well known, they wereoutrageously artificial in presentation, obscuring any moral meaning or purpose the film was trying to portray. There were few films in the comic book genre for several years and not until Spiderman in 2002 was there a well known comic book film produced. What made Spiderman different was the choice to make a more realistic film and use darker themes. Spiderman, I believe, set off the wave of comic book movies since then. Movies during that time period that took on either the more realistic or darker tone tended to be better accepted by the general public, such as; Batman Begins (2005), Sin City (2005), V for Vendetta (2006), and 300(2007). While all of these films are all American productions, other countries have also created film adaptations of comic books.
In Japan, local graphic novels are known as manga. Many adaptations have been made of various manga in Japan and Korea, yet few of the movies gain an audience in United States. This is usually due to the cultural differences in story style and content. The films that do make it to the United States are generally darker in theme and can be appreciated without knowledge of the source material. Old Boy (2003) is one such film.
Old Boy tells the story of Oh Dae-su (Min-sik Choi), who is locked away in an unknown prison for no apparent reason. After 15 years with his only friend, the television, and the knowledge that he was framed for his wife's murder, he is set free. Oh Dae-su then sets out on a trail of revenge, using the skills and information he discovered in captivity, to find who imprisoned him and why. Old boy was written and directed by Chan-Wook Park, writer and director of Joint Security Area (2000). Old Boy is based on the Japanese manga of the same name, which was written by Garon Tsuchiya in 1997.
300 is the story of the battle of Thermopylae in ancient Greece. Led by Xerxes, the Persian Empire is on the path to control the known world. Xerxes sends his messengers and bribes to Greece to convince the Greek people to surrender without battle, but Leonidas and 300 hundred Spartans must protect the ways of their people and fight. 300 was written and directed by Zack Snyder, director of the Dawn of the Dead (2004). 300 is based on the comic book, written by Frank Miller in 1998, of the same name.
Old Boy is a dark film that uses cinematography to emphasize the themes presented in the film. The movie opens with a heavily backlit character from a close up, low angle, point of view shot. The scene switches to a medium shot of the back lit character, whose face the camera has yet to see, holding a man and his dog by a tie from falling off the side of a building. The scene returns to the original shot and as the character is introduced it cuts to a past point in time. The choice to keep the main characters face hidden from the audience draws attention quickly by adding a sense of mystery early on. The immediate declaration of importance is shown through the camera angles. The low angle in this situation puts the shadowed actor in control, by giving him and overbearing presence in the screen. The high contrast lighting shows the protagonist to be darker than his surroundings.
Old Boy explores loneliness, depression, and revenge. In places such as Japan, where the story was written, or cities in general, crowding has cut many people off from human interaction in meaningful ways. Thus, Old Boy is very relevant on both a global and a regional scale. In the majority of the scenes of Old Boy there is dark lighting, providing a dark tone to the film emphasizing the sadness. Yet in a few scenes the scenes are quite bright showing that when interacting with others or when in youth, happiness is more easily found.
300 is an action film that categorizes that genre very well. Sticking true to a comic book's medium, the film makes heavy usage of coloring and film tinting. Seldom is there a shot without a sepia or blue tint, being the two main filters used. The filters were used to lessen the color palette much as a comic book has a smaller palette of colors to choose from and to set a mood for each scene. Lighting also played an important part in the tone of the film although not all the scenes were dark; they all included a high contrast. The high contrast leads to a "true to the comic" feel then with normal lighting.
300's message is that fighting, dyeing for freedom is noble and necessary. At the end a telescoping high angle shot used with the main character in a Christ pose to glorify the martyrdom. This message can be directed to the war in Iraq and on terror and that the soldiers who die in these wars should also be glorified.This directly reflects that it was an American film that was made during a time in which the American people were unsure about the current wars that were facing them at this time.The goal was to reassure and reinvigorate the American people on the purpose of the wars.
Oddly enough, even though both movies focus on very different topics and messages they both share a very similar shot in their films that represents a similar feeling. This shot is a side view of the main character battling several enemies from left to right in the frame. The audience feels each blow that the main character delivers to his enemies. This is more greatly exemplified in 300 by the zoom lens used to zoom in and out of the action, and in time with the attacks. Old Boy tends to use a more realistic style and therefore pans slowly with the struggle rather than emphasizing individual movements and actions. Both films use this shot to represent the struggles that each character is going through physically and mentally. The pace in which each film uses for this shot says something about their differences in story, origin, and character. Old Boy uses a more frantic, less rhythmic pacing showing the stumbles in the characters progression, as well as reinforcing the unimportance of pure action. 300, conversely, is very rhythmic in its pacing, creating a steady procession forward which corresponds to the story line's progression, as well as Leonidas' character traits.
With both movies taking their stories from comic books, the common man would believe they would be very similar in both execution and story line. This could not be further from the truth. Both films are distinct to the cultures that birthed them and their sources. With the heavy action elements of a classic Hollywood blockbuster 300 can truly be called an American film. The thought provoking dark look on a taboo subject of Old Boy can decidedly be called a hybrid Japanese-Korean film. Both films prove that comic book movies don't require a superhero cliché, and can contrarily thrive without one.
Bibliography
Dargis , Manohla. "The Violence (and the Seafood) Is More Than Raw".New York TimesMarch 25, 2005:
