Chungking Express question

Chungking Express is a Chinese film directed by Hong Kar Wai, it is a film about relationships which all take place in a multi-national urban environment which is highly populated - this greatly impacts the characters choices throughout the film.

Many characters in this film follow the urban stories conflict of not having an identity. Cop #223 and #663 both lack identity as they are referred to by their cop numbers and not their birth names also Fayes uncle continually gets #663's number wrong and when he is corrected he states "I don't really care".  The men in Chungking Expresspossess slightly different characteristics to the men in other urban stories like La Haine and City Of God, the men are very oblivious and cannot help themselves move forward after their old relationships. The women in Chungking Express are alot more proactive and in control of their lives - the women even sometime try to help the men an example for this is Faye with cop #663. During the scene where Faye is cleaning the windows and floor at the food stand, the camera positions itself so that you as a viewer are looking through the glass at #663, Faye cleans the glass over where he is standing as a way of cleansing him from his negative past. Later in this scene she also mops the floor around him in the same context. The police officers are self absorbed and isolated this could be a metaphor the Hong Kong at the end of the twentieth century. 

Film techniques used are often referring to the characters state of mind in the scene, for example cop #633 has a flash back of his old girlfriend and it can be shown that he misses the old relationship because he continually irons her old air hostess uniform. Smudge motion is used during the scene where Faye and #663 are at the food stand, this technique shows that the characters are lacking power and the ability to move forward with their lives, this can be related to the theme of isolation within the highly populated city. 

Towards the end of the movie #633 places all his old girlfriends things in boxes but still keeps the boxes in his house this shows that he still has not changed and the next sequence of things he does all follow this theory. He goes to the California bar to meet Faye and asks for loose change three times in the scene. The referencing of change is very prominent as it literally means physical change, this scene shows that he has changed due to his new clothing but it also shows he has not changed completely due to smudge motion being used. Later in the store scene where he finds his ex girlfriend when asked how he is he replies "still the same" referencing there is no change in his character.The symbolism of a new chapter in the movie is referenced by the sound of an aeroplane, the sound signifies a new journey for a character and is used multiple times throughout the movie. 

Presentation Script

The Auteur theory and how it applies to Quentin Tarantino

Projector: Notes on the Auetuer theory in 1962 Andrew Sarris Book pages 562-564 [16]


Speaker:


"The assumption that underlies all the writing in a movie is that the director is the author of a film, the person who gives it any distinctive quality." Auteurs are described as film makers with a great sense of original style and distinctive work. Quentin Tarantino conforms to this ideology remarkably, his idiosyncratic, quirky style of film is immensely recognised in the industry for being excessively violent and murderous. Tarantinos distorted, unrealistic interpretation on violence has aroused the conclusion that he is indeed an auteur.


Speaker:


It's incredibly easy to distinguish a Quentin Tarantino film, intense violence, over exaggerated special effects, and intense over the top story lines are all factors which each and every film he has directed hold. This all backs up the idea that Quentin Tarantino is an auteur; a highly talented director that implements his own style of film to each film they direct. Tarantino is repeatedly asked the same question as to why his films are so overly violent and he has always replied with the same answer. [10] "violence is the best way to control an audience," Tarantino believes that good violence creates good cinema. During his childhood Tarantino moved to California when he was 4 and this is where he developed his love for films. He stated one of his earliest memories was when his grandmother took him to see a John Wayne movie. [17] His mother has previously said that since he was young he loved story telling but he would also show his creativity in unusual ways. [17]"He wrote me sad mother's day stories. He'd always kill me and tell me how bad he felt about it." This quote could explain and interlink some aspects in Tarantino's films, one of which being violence towards women or involving women.


Projector: Kill Bill - Go-go Ubari fight scene (3 mins) Youtube Clip


Speaker: Kill Bill is one of Tarantino's most popular films and from watching this short clip you can see Tarantino's distinctive style from the beginning of the clip all the way through to the end. In the clip you see the main character Black Mamba and Go-go jumping in a hyperbolic manor, it is extremely over exaggerated as the characters jump inhumanly far. [15] "Extreme violence is the best way to control a viewers emotions" this extreme violence element of Tarantino's style can be noticed in this particular scene towards the end as Go-go is killed, blood pours from her eyes which would not realistically happen if someone where to be killed this way in another film. This scene features a lot of diegetic sound to add to the realism of the scene, but when over exaggerated violence or character movements are occurring non diegetic sound accompanies the action. For example when Go-go flips and falls into the table you can hear a bowling ball hitting pins over.


Projector: Kill Bill - Animated O-Ren Ishii scene clip (3mins)


Speaker: This particular scene is the first and only time animation is used in Kill Bill, even in animation Tarantino's distinctive style is still prominent. You can notice by how Tarantino romanticises


the violence, you can also notice that he has left his mark on this from the humorous character in the scene, this character is a gang boss of the yakuza called Matsumoto. Tarantino has said in previous interviews [14] that he likes his audiences to laugh at the violence and look at it with a humorous point of view. This particle style of animation or "anime" is significant to Japanese culture which Kill Bill is greatly influenced by, examples of which are the samurai swords and the fact that the final part of the film is set in Japan.


Projector: Kill Bill - Head cutting scene (ending) (2min)


Speaker: This conclusion of the film ends as violently as the film began, again this scene featured hyperbolic character movement and special effects from jumping and over exaggerated gore. This particular scene features many uses of close ups focusing on the face and sword of both O-ren Ishii and The Bride, this represents the iconography of the weapons and violence during the scene. All these factors support my ideology of Quentin Tarantino being an auetuer for his distinctive filming style.


Projector: Item 4 interview second half (2mins)


Speaker: Quentin Tarantino is often criticised on his level of violence in his movies, in this short clip you see him take part in an interview in which the interview is very opposed to the violent aspects of his film Kill Bill [1]. In response to over violent movie claims causing realism violence Tarantino states that [14] he looks at his style of violence in a comedic manor, he enjoys the aspect of film where people can laugh at the violence and not take it as seriously as you would if it was real life violence. He also states that "extreme violence is the best way to control a viewers emotions" [15] he likes to play his audiences and he believes that good violence creates good cinema. [13] Tarantino likes to use his Cannes award for Pulp Fiction as a "big shield" against criticism on his work.


Projector: Item 6 interview 2mins


Speaker:


Racial violence has become an ongoing issue that Tarantino has recently been criticised for due to his most recent film Django Unchained [3] which narrative follows a black liberated slave in the early 1900's. Much controversy was raised due to this film, one factor being the over excessive use of the term "Nigger"[9]. The term was used over 100 times within the film and can be justified due to the time period which the film was set in and that Tarantino wished to stay true to the brutish events that took place nearly 100 years ago. Tarantino acknowledges that some people may find the film hard to watch [7] but he believes he should stay as true as legally possible (due to censorship) to the events.


Projector: Blank





Speaker:


Tarantinos over the top violence is often blamed for real-life acts of violence such as many school shootings across America [8]. He is accused due to the violence in his film indoctrinating people’s minds with violence. Tarantino defends himself by stating that all violence in his films he views as fantasy [5], he likes the concept of violence being humorous and we can see proof of this in films such as Kill Bill v.1.


Projector: Pulp Fiction movie poster "http://thesefantasticworlds.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/movie-poster-pulpfiction.jpg"


Speaker:


Pulp fiction one of Tarantino's earliest films is recognised mostly for kicking off his pattern of successful eccentric violent films, the film won many awards including a Golden globe for best screenplay in 95. A director’s success is required for them to be classed as an auteur. In conclusion Tarantino is an extremely success director and auteur, the many different concepts of violence which he displays in his film technique back up this theory. He notably conforms to the auteur theory this is obvious from his distinctive style of film and in how he controls the direction in which his films travel.